So it's starting to get a little cold here in Korea. By cold I mean eighty or so at the height of the day. They had all the windows in the office open today and there was a breeze blowing through and even I was getting kind of cold. It's saying something when I get cold. Whoever created this country must have had ice running through their veins. It makes me shudder to think of what winter will be like here. Winters in North Korea must be even more ridiculous. I can only imagine what it's like further north like China or Russia. It must be un-bear-able. See what I did there? You see that? Yep. That's about what you can expect from todays post.
So where was I? Oh, right, Gwangju. After that one long night out I still had another day and change. I had made plans with Mike and Graham to hang out once again, and there was talk of going to a German bar. So we head back to the downtown area and met up at that YMCA. We walked around for a little bit looking for a place to eat and found one. Now the food there was good, but it definitely wasn't 20 bucks a piece good. Looking back on it she stated at the very beginning that it was twenty bucks a piece, but no one really understood her. My Korean is survival Korean, and just isn't good enough to be able to negotiate prices. I really needed something cheap as I only had about 30K won on me. So after the meal, which was delicious, I had substantially less. I think it is important to note here that I have not seen a fork the entire time. I have used a spoon a lot, and that is what they mostly use to eat rice, but no forks. When you eat on a grill like we were doing at this restaurant they usually give you a couple of utensils. They give you a pair of tongs, a pair of scissors, and the usual chopsticks spoon combo. The tongs are for flipping the meat and the scissors are for cutting it up. I was kind of confused my first time eating because I had never been given a pair of scissors with dinner, but usually the nice ladies come over and cut up the beef or pork that is on your grill. So after all this cooking and eating was done, we tried getting some money out for me. All my friends had been paid their housing allowance of 300 dollars and I was supposed to have mine also... theoretically. Problem was that part is paid by your school and not by EPIK so mine hadn't gone through yet. I literally had 8 bucks to my name. I knew it would cost me about 20 bucks to get back to Gamgok, so earlier in the trip I had tucked that money aside. There was no way I was going to come this far on my own only to have to call in favors from someone who as of yet didn't owe me any. So we walked around and took in some sites. Mike went his own way and we met up with Jon who hadn't eaten yet. He knew of a place that sold tacos so we went there and he got a couple. They looked delicious. After that they were going to take me to a place called Coffee and Cat, which I prayed was a coffee shop and not a restaurant. It was. There were cats all over the inside of the shop. You could buy coffee then sit there and play with the various cats who ran around. They had little ramps set up and toys all over the place. There were skinny cats and fat ones and one that looked like a cheetah. The problem was, they didn't sell coffee, so to my dismay we had to leave.
We ended up at this place called Banilla. It was a pretty romantic place to be taken to by two other dudes. They had a bunch of little couches around tables that had these thin curtains. Each table had a rather private feel, and business seemed to be booming. We each got different iced coffee drinks and sat around shooting the breeze. It had started raining outside and we were happy to be in out of it. It's kind of funny how when it rains here people run through it. You would think with as much as it rains that they would be used to it. In New Orleans some people would carry umbrellas, but most were fine with just getting rained on a bit. In fairness the ones I saw who were really concerned about it were the girls, and I think that was mostly because they all seem to wear make up here. So after our coffee we decided we would hit up the German bar early. The guy who runs the German bar was a very friendly, very drunk gentleman named Song. He brews his own weizen beers and damn were they good. I don't even like weizens and these were sitting quite well with me. We met up with a bunch of other EPIK folk from orientation and joked around a bit, then got a little hungry, so we took off to get some breaded pork. The place we went to breaded pork and cheese and fried it, so it turned out deeeeliiiiciouuusss. There was good conversation to be had as I was seated next to Claire, a Canadian who I had not had much interaction with during orientation, but she was fresh out of college and wet behind the ears. It is always fun to meet the bright eyed and bushy tailed teachers who haven't been broken by the system yet. She was all excited about getting to teach kids because she had done a lot of work with summer camp. It reminded me of my swim instruction days and how much I loved doing that.
After dinner everyone decided to go home except for Dani and Joanne, so we went and bought a big bottle of beer, a bottle of soju, and drank over by the YMCA. You are allowed to drink in public here, and it was kind of nice to just sit there and toss a couple back with my good friends. When all the other dudes crapped out because they got too drunk the night before, Joanne the Irish lass and Dani the sober one were able to hang. After a pretty quiet day I caught a bus back to where I was staying and turned in for the night. Now is probably the time to talk about the buses. They function almost like the New Orleans street cars. People pack on until there is no room left to sit and then they stand and hang on little hand holds. At the stop that is yours you press a button and hop off. I hopped off about a block from where I was sleeping. You can buy a pass, or just pay exact fare. I obviously was paying the fare, although I do have a pass for the buses in Seoul. I might just go ahead and get one for Gwangju because I estimate I will be heading there about once a month. On my way home I took a pretty good picture of one of the red crosses that marks where a church should be. The next day was pretty uneventful as I simply woke and caught a bus to the U-place again... but that's where it got hairy.
I caught a bus out of Gwangju, but had a little time to spare before the bus. I went to the food court with my 35 dollars that I had left. Chinese food is different over here in Korea than it is in America. In the states its all fried chicken, rice or noodles. Over here its more about the meat (or lack there of) and the sauce... and the noodles or rice. Even the traditional Chinese dishes are served with Korean sides though. Kimchi is like french fries... it comes with everything. I got kimchi on the side of my Chinese dish. I had Jajomyong (sp?). It is a noodle dish with a brown sauce that has sauteed onions and a little bit of meat in it. I had that dish my first day in Cheongju when me and Jae boom (my main co teacher) ate Chinese while getting my ARC. It was delicious this time also. My first time eating it, I ate the noodles too quickly and splattered the brown sauce all over my dress shirt. This time I ate the noodles too quickly and splattered the sauce all over my pants and t-shirt. I was kind of in a rush though, so don't blame me. I ate quickly and got to the bus on time. It was the right bus this time, and it was to the city Cheongju. Yes the same Cheongju where I had been lost about two weeks ago. This time I was certain I could make it on my own. Oh how foolish I was. I got a ticket and it cost me about 20K. That price is a little steep for a trip to Cheongju, but I was shown why when I got on the bus. Normally it is two seats on both sides of the aisle. This bus had two seats on one side and one seat on the other. I was seated next to a Korean naval officer, but there was so much room we didn't even have to exchange body language pleasantries over who got the armrest (it would have been me, not because I'm a jerk, but because I was about twice his size, ya know, logistics). This bus was also an express to Cheongju. We got there in about two hours. This was a good portion of my five hour bus trip that was made in two hours. I think it is an understatement to say I was excited. When I got to Cheongju however I noticed something unsettling. Like all bus trips I have taken, other than the one to Dong Seoul, I was not dropped off at where I would be departing from. I had to find another terminal. Luckily after a little bit of phone navigation I ended up at the non-urban bus terminal. I approached the counter and said "Gamgok." Apparently to the attendant that meant "Dong Seoul" so she issued me a ticket and did away with me. Luckily for me I can read Hangul and saw "Dong Seoul" on the ticket. There was a part of me that was thinking "perhaps Gamgok is so small that it's just a stop on the way to Dong Seoul." At about that moment I got a text from Justin asking "How was your trip to Gwangju?" I used that opportunity to run my little theory about stopping on the way to Dong Seoul by him. He said "No. Have a Google Translate comversation with one of them if you have to. Go to another attendant." So I walked down the row of ticket issuers and found one that made eye contact. I handed her my phone which had my city highlighted on the navigation screen. "Gamgok" I said. She took the phone. She looked at me... looked at the phone... looked at me... looked at the phone. Then she slid a little sign in front of the window which didn't take a genius to figure out it meant "Go to the next line." She handed my phone back to her boss and said something I didn't understand. Her boss looked at the phone, then got on her computer... looked at the phone... then her computer. Then her boss handed the phone back to her and said something. The lady at the counter moved the sign and said "Kamgok." She printed me a ticket and had to write in the time of departure with a pencil, and the gate it departed from. The good news is that it gave me time to charge my phone. The bad news is that it was about five thirty and the bus didn't leave till just after seven. I sat and waited. In buying my last ticket I had spent all but a couple thousand won, so I was pretty broke. I knew I had food back at my apartment I could cook and eat, but that meant getting to my apartment. I got on the bus when it arrived and tried to sleep a bit. I didn't have much luck because... well... I was on a bus. Also it didn't help that I was sitting next to the lovey dovey couple that kept laughing and being playful. Several times I thought I was almost asleep when I would hear a picture being taken then a pouty female voice followed by a ridiculing male voice. Eventually we reached our destination. The bus driver told one of the kids getting off something in Korean and they turned around to make sure I knew it was my stop. I gave them the thumbs up while thinking to myself "You are effin' nuts if you think that I don't know to get off right here. There is no effin' WAY I came this far to miss my stop!" but what I actually said was "Kumsamnidaaaaa! Annyongi gesayo!" So I arrived home. Tired. Broke. Hungry. It was nice to be home though. I cooked myself a little bit to eat and then crashed out hardcore.
As for your K-pop fix. Here is a song that might make me undergo a lobotomy just to get it out of my head.
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