Parent's Visit- Host Family

We spent one day with my host family the second week of their trip... and I think that was enough! Don't get me wrong, we all had fun, it was just very tiring!

We started off the day with breakfast at their house, in Bongseong-dong. They gave us many presents, like plates, Gwangju guide books, and a DVD set. Very sweet, but we thought it would be challenging to pack 5 of each thing in our luggages!

On our way to the first stop, which ended up being a random garden in the mountains, we picked up our translator for the day. None of us really knew what was happening when this lady jumped in our van (rented for the day from the church) and started chatting with us. It ended up being nice to have a translator along with us, since my host dad and sister have limited English abilities. But wow, she was a talker!

At the garden, we heard a lot about Ying and Yang and Buddhism, and took many pictures, very Korean-esque. I'm not sure why we went there, but it was pretty and quiet, something that can be hard to find in Gwangju.

Our next stop was Damyang Bamboo Park, making it now 5 times that I've been there. It looks the same everyday- a lot of bamboo! We did get to visit a handicraft shop. The man specialized in making- get this- bamboo crafts! Woohoo! Actually, he was very talented and had many nice things for sale in his store. Our translator, Ms. Oh, surprised mom with a nice green flower pin, woven out of bamboo. Here's mom and dad, listening to Ms. Oh.



I was getting hungry at this point, but I declined a snack, thinking we were getting some bibimbap soon. Well, an hour and a half later, we made it to the middle of nowhere (otherwise known as Gochang) to a barley festival.

Wait, what?!

Yes, a barley festival. I'm not sure why, but my host family thought it would be fun. That's one word to describe it!

After tasting the bibimbap, made with local barley, we started to take a relaxing walk through the barely fields. It quickly got interrupted by a group of young men from the TV channel, Arirang. They were interested in interviewing Dad and me about our feelings on the barley festival. We did two takes, then spent about 15 minutes casually walking through the fields of barley while they filmed. Between Ms. Oh, Mr. Mun, and Mom, we had so many pictures taken- I really felt like a star!



After we were done walking through the barley, it was Mom's turn to be interviewed. For hers, she put on some traditional Korean clothes at one of the vendor's stalls. She actually really liked it, so for the rest of the trip, we were on the hunt for anything as cute as this one:





We entertained ourselves for the rest of the afternoon by making naturally dyed handkerchiefs and rice cakes (ddeok), and getting free samples from vendors, like juice, lotion, soap, and face masks. By the time we were finished, we were all exhausted, but had made so many crazy memories with my host family!

Gwangju International Day

Gwangju International Fest also took place in October. It seemed like everyone who was in town that weekend, October 9th, was there! It was a great time.

It seemed to be a few things combined- an international festival, a food fair, and concerts/performances, all at the Kim Dae Jung Convention Center in Gwangju. Kenny and I went for a few reasons, primarily because The Deserts were playing again, and to get some non-Korean food, which we'd both been craving. We also had amazing weather, which made it such an enjoyable day.

There were many booths set up outside the convention center, all with different foods from around the world. The booths were Greece, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Nepal, North America, Philippines, Russia, Japan, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka, just to name a few. There must have been 20 different booths and they all had amazing food. Kenny and I had a great time eating our way down the row.



Inside the convention center were many different food booths promoting various things- beer, pumpkin ramen noodles, ice cream, etc. The highlight inside was the baking contest. Middle and High School students competed for prizes, similar to a 4-H show. However, these students took it to the extreme! I was so surprised to see all the sugar, chocolate, and bread sculptures that kids younger than me had created!







Finally, the Deserts gave a performance with a new sound. I'm not too sure how happy they were with their performance.



It was such a great time, I'm so happy we went!

Haeundae Sand Festival (해운대해수욕장)

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to go to the Haeundae Sand Festival. 해운대해수욕장 (Haeundae Beach) is the most famous beach in the country. It's located in Busan, and is about 1.5 km long.

Haeundae Beach is incredibly popular during the hot summer months, and is known for it's numerous beach umbrellas.



I spent the weekend with my friend Neil, who visits Gwangju quite often. He's got an amazing apartment (albeit small) at Minam Station, in central Busan. It was good to see him. This is a view from his helipad atop the 27th story early Saturday morning:



We went out for lunch the day of the sand festival at a local burger joint, Burts Breeze, very close to the beach. It's been about 9 months since I'd had a good burger, and this one came loaded! It was impossibly huge to take a bite of.



Here are some pictures from the sand festival and my captions below:


Ajuma's practicing safe sun.


Lot's of Koreans don't have swimming suits, so they just wear their clothes.


We didn't realize how cold the water was until we got our feet wet!


Pretty impressive! This was at the main entrance to the beach.


These sand sculptures were pretty big and it was neat to see them still sculpting them. Wonder how long they last...

For more pictures, check out: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=2208360&id=59501140

World DJ Fest- Part 2

Here's a picture from Alli from this weekend. From left to right, Emily, Abe, Margaret, Michael, Mike, Alli, Alex, Miguel, and Brian down in front. I still can't believe how much fun we all had!

4th World DJ Fest

This past Saturday, I went up to Seoul with Michael and Miguel to see the 4th World DJ Festival. We got on the bus around 11:20, and made it there by 4. After getting off the subway at the World Cup Staduim, we kind of got lost on the walk to the park along the Han river, but made it eventually just by following a mass of people!

I was glad we had purchased our tickets in advance. There were so many people in line waiting to get in! Our friend, Leah, was already inside and she told us that we weren't allowed to bring in any outside containers, so while we were waiting in line to get in, we were also drinking some Hite and whiskey. Here's Michael, Miguel, and I waiting to get in:



I was so glad we had gotten there early. It was great to be at the concert while it was still light out. I almost immediately lost Michael and Miguel, but that was okay :) I walked around drinking with Leah. We explored a lot of the vendor's stalls, took some silly pictures, played some bongo drums, and drank some more. Here we are at the Jagermeister stage, prior to getting face paint:



Here's what the venue looked like when it was still light out:



We had a lot of fun once the sun went down also. This was the main stage again. I'm not sure who was playing at the time, but everyone on the main stage was very talented!



Here's another of the stage. There must have easily been 10,000 people in the park. Good thing there were 5 stages!



The rest of our ticket group, Alli, Alex, Brian, and Emily, came later on in the evening. They also rode up with some friends from Gwangju, Mike and Abe. We looked for our Incheon friends, Evan, Carmen, and Joe, and eventually found them. It was a great time once we were all together. Things got pretty crazy pretty quickly. I stopped drinking around 11, I wouldn't have made it all night had I kept on drinking with the rest of them! That ended up being just fine though. By the time we left at 4:30 am, I was feeling good, just tired, while the rest of them were pretty hungover and tired I think!

Before we got back on the subway at the World Cup, we stopped at the Home Plus. I almost had a breakdown when deciding what early-morning snack to get. There were so many food choices that I hadn't seen in about 9 months, and I didn't know what to choose! In the end, I got something that I could have easily gotten in Gwangju- I didn't want to make the wrong decision! And, 5 am was just too early to be thinking straight!

It was a really long night, but it was so much fun. Everyone had a blast! I'm not sure if I'll go again next year, it may just have to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

World DJ Fest- Less than 1 week away!

Saturday is World DJ Fest in Seoul. It's gonna be a great weekend. My friends and I got tickets in advance. We'll be going up Saturday, staying at the concert (right on the Han) and staying up all night; the concert ends at 6:30 am Sunday morning. We'll take an early bus back to Gwangju then on Sunday. Here are some pictures of the concert in years past:

This years line up:

Mun Family Picnic/Photonics

Last weekend I met my host family for lunch. I figured this would last 1, maybe 2 hours. Was I wrong!

After picking up their son, we drove about 45 minutes southeast of Gwangju to 화순. The park we went to was very nice and we had great weather (finally, a not cloudy/rainy day!!). For lunch we had 샌드위치,(sandwich triangles), 김밥 (kimbap rolls), 김치 (kimchi), and 오렌지 (oranges). My host mom is a great cook, and everything was so fresh.

We took around a small lake afterwards, and had fun skipping stones. I, of course, was horrible. I'll blame that on the fact that we were trying to skip from a ledge down at an angle!



The kids had a lot of fun:


I figued after lunch, I'd go back home, but my host family already had tickets for the 2010 World Photonics Expo in Gwangju. I'd had some friends go in weeks previous, and they really enjoyed. I didn't know what to expect, but I certainly didn't think it would be as cool as it was.

First, the expo grounds are huge! There were 9 tents set up in an area the size your state fair grounds. The tents aren't permantent, and neither are the displays. Everything was wonderfully set up and at times I forgot I was in a tent and not in a childrens museum.

Second, the exhibits were pretty cool. There was some strange stuff that I couldn't figure out why it was there, like two air force planes and a piece of a real space ship. We had lots of fun playing around with the interactive exhibits.



Lastly, it was very crowded! Because it was Saturday, everyone came with their children. We had to stand in line for a while to get into the spaceship tent. I know the event is very long so I'm curious to know how many people total will have gone by the time it is over.


More pictures here:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=59501140#!/album.php?aid=2231601&id=59501140

Weekend of Holiday Spirit

This weekend, as usual, was very busy. We've had light snow flurries all week now, and it is beautiful! There's only about 2 inches, and it melts quite a bit in the day. But first thing in the morning it's very pretty.

Friday night I was going to meet Emily, Ann, Allison, and Shabata for Vietnamese food in Sangmu. I was going to take a taxi because of the weather, unfortunately, so was everyone else! I couldn't get a taxi for the life of me! The busses were traveling slow, and it took about an hour to get there! I was pretty frustrated by the time I got there, cause I hate being late. Everyone else was behind schedule though, and it turned out I was the first on there!

After dinner, Ann, Emily, and I met some Korean pilots downtown. 12 of them to be exact. They invited us to join them, and of course we thought it was going to be very awkard. Luckily, they were good at English (one had spent 4 years at a base in Colorado Springs!!) and we were able to joke around with them. It sounds like it could have been uncomfortable, but when we left 2 hours later, the three of us had nothing but positive things to say about them and had lots of new stories and things to laugh about together.

Saturday morning, we had our "End of the school year" festival at school. Originally, it was going to be cancelled because of Swine Flu, but luckily they were able to throw it together at the last minute. Overall, it was great. Since the school is only 1st graders this year, they knew most of the kids that performed and really cheered for them. There were flutes, poetry readers, drummers, a rock band, lots of skits, dancers, and groups that danced to the latest Kpop songs (my favorite). Some of the boys even dressed up as girls- they had lots of support from the crowd!



The pictures of the performances turned out okay, but the lighting proved difficult. I did take a lot of video, which have been fun to watch again, I'm just not sure exactly on how to post those. I'll try to work on that.

Later, I met Mihey (my co from Suwan), and we went to visit Hyunju (my co at Seongdeok) for dinner. I can't believe it worked out that I was paired with both and that they are best friends! They're both wonderful women, I'm so lucky to have them. Hyunju lives on the 20th floor in a beautiful apartment with her husband and her precious 3 year old. We had a great Vietnamese dinner. Seems like I've been having a lot of it recently!



Hyunju also wanted me to wear her wedding Hanbok after dinner. We took some group pictures in front of the Christmas tree. Here we are:



A popular Christmas party as you may or may not know is the Ugly Sweater Party. Well, there aren't many ugly sweaters here, but there are lots of sweatshirts! Emily hosted the Ugly Sweatshirt Party this weekend, and we had a great time laughing at everyones bad English sayings and funny designs. I had made awards at work earlier in the week. The 5 categories were Fugliest, The sweatshirt you would actually wear, Worst English saying, Best overall, and Most holiday spirit. Vann nominated me for Fugliest, he said "It's so bad, I can't even look at you!" I didn't really think it was that bad, but 9 people voted for me, so I ended up winning. Kenny won both Best Overall and Most Holiday Spirit because he stripped down to boxers with a 10,000 won bill on them and the presidents face just happened to be right on the front!



Here are the winners of the awards!



So it was a very good weekend, but I can't wait for school to be OVER for 2 months in just 4 short days. Only 6 days until Manila!

Gwangju Kimchi Festival

Here is the link for the Kimchi Festival. On this website, there is information about past festivals, how to make kimchi, event details, and all sorts of random bits about kimchi!

http://www.kimchi.gwangju.kr/eng/main.html

I'm pretty excited for this, to say the least!