Celebrating with a little Seoul

Not a lot has happened over the past two weeks. Last weekend (November 7), ECC planned a foreign teacher's retreat to a few different spots in Korea.  It was a nice gesture and the day went pretty good.  We ended up going to see a temple in Songgwangsa, a traditional Korean folk village, and Suncheon Bay.  We had a big crew going to it was just another opportunity to spend time outside of ECC with each other.  The temple was like any other temple I've seen over the past six months (which, today, is my sixth month anniversary.  Congrats me!).  It was a pretty big area.  We had just arrived when the fog was just beginning to lift and the sun was shining through the trees.  It made for some pretty nice pictures which you can see below.  

 

A lonely, tall tree

 

The traditional Korean village was very interesting.  The entire city was encompassed by a fortress wall.  Inside, we saw houses made with stone, mud, and straw roofs.  Villagers were everywhere selling Korean souvenirs because it is apparently a pretty big tourist attraction.  There was a giant swing (which I'm not sure what it was used for) that we all HAD to take pictures on.  In one part of the village, there were models of traditional Korean warriors and they showed how some of the citizens were punished (see below, first picture).  The village was pretty cool.  They had a museum with all kinds of fake (or really old) artifacts.  Overall, the village was really cool to see, but I probably won't go to another one, as I'm predicting they're all the same.

A not-so-fun punishment

 

Taking a picture with the big swing.

The village from atop the fortress wall.

Next, we traveled to Suncheon Bay.  It was SO crowded.  Everyone and their dog was visiting this place.  It was a giant eco-park that traveled into the ocean.  It was really pretty to see.  We had to hike up this huge mountain (which I later regretted because I wasn't expected such a big hike).  All across the land, you could see water, some type of plants (reeds I'm guessing).  Below are some pictures of the park and bay.

 

The park

 The bay

This past weekend, we celebrated Katelyn's 24th birthday in Seoul.  A lot of the other foreign teachers went up on Thursday night because we had a three-day weekend.  But Katelyn and I stayed back in Gwangju for a night, ran some errands early Friday morning, then headed up to meet Brad in his area.  Sam and Stephanie met up with us too in Meyongdong which is the big shopping area in Seoul.  Katleyn's only birthday plans was to shop at Forever 21 and that we did.  We later went to Brad's apartment, began drinking a bit, then headed to a bar called 4 degrees Celsius. The beer holders were excellent as they frosted themselves and kept our beers cold.  We later went to a few other bars but called it an early night because the next day we were going back into the city.

After eating delicious bagel sandwiches and donuts at Dunk N' Donuts, we got dressed and went into a Seoul.  Seoul is bigger than I remember.  It reminded me of my love for big cities and how while Gwangju has 1.7 million people, it's still not big enough.  Being in Seoul makes me want to move to a bigger city.  Anyways, we got into Insa-dong where we found out hostel.  We dropped of our bags then went and ate Mexican food. No lie.  It was my first taste of TRUE Mexican food in six months.  It was heaven on a plate!  I had a burrito, some soft shell tacos, and a quesidilla.  I was a force to be reckoned with.  After dinner, we went to this bar down the street.  It was an awesome time!  Katelyn deserved an awesome birthday and I think she got it-- also known as beer and a tequila-shot-filled night.  The night started out with me, Katelyn, her cousin, Julia, Sam, Stephanie, and Brad.  Later, though, almost all of the other foreign teachers from our school showed up.  It got pretty crazy, pretty drunk, and pretty wild!  I ended having a dance-off with a Korean girl. And this dance-off was not to American music, but yes, to Korean pop songs.  I stood my ground and it was definitely and unfortunately, video taped. :(  A few other people ended up having a few too many drinks, so they went home and the rest of us continued our bar tour around Seoul.  We eventually called it a night at around 3:30 am.

 The next day, we went out to Insa-dong and did some shopping.  I bought a few things for my family for Christmas which was nice.  We also went to Subway where I had a Dr. Pepper.  This was also the first time I had Subway and a Dr. Pepper in six months.  So, basically, this was the best trip ever.  We were all pretty tired from the night before, so we left for Gwangju at 4:30.

When we got back to Gwangju, Katleyn and I went to see 2012 at the theaters.  This was my birthday present to her :)  The movie was really good, so if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it!  There is always something appealing about watching people in despair and the end of the world. 

Other than that, not much else has been going on.  ECC has been giving Katelyn and I hell about living together because they made a mistake by hiring another girl.  They actually had the retarded idea to ask if I'd move out of Katelyn's apartment in three months only to move back in to the apartment I'm living in now.  It's absurd.  Oh well-- it is all working out and Katelyn and I will be living together in a little over a week.  

Well, when something else happens worth blogging about, you'll be the first to know!  Thanks for reading!  Now back to my new addiction: green tea.  I never thought I'd say that.