Gwangju Bound

As promised to you 3 or 4 weeks ago, last weekend Shayne and I finally made the trek out to Jeollanamdo (a province in Korea's south-western corner), to Korea's most famous student protest city: Gwangju. Being that Gwangju is 5-6 hours away and that the things we wanted to see were far apart, we decided to rent a car for the weekend. Rent one we did and on Saturday morning we were on our way.

The great thing about road-tripping in Korea is the ample amenities provided on the highways. Every 30 kilometres or so, there's a rest stop. They have these in Canada too, except that they're little more than a place to rest and an outhouse. In Korea, on the other hand, they're full-service: gas station, gift shops, well-maintained washrooms, and a plethora of food options. We decided to skip the deep-fried hotdogs and giant dumplings, though, and went with a simple bowl of udon, which you can witness Shayne enjoying yourself above (Shayne's note: Why eat just one noodle at a time when you can stuff your face instead?).

After experiencing only one traffic jam in Deagu, we made it to Gwangju in good time and in relatively one piece. I say "relatively" because we took what we thought was the right exit into the city center, only to find a dead-end construction site and no way out except to go back up the exit with hazards blinking and our tails between our legs. I suppose we should have guessed by the pylons lined up along the exit, but it's not entirely our fault due to the highway worker who waved us on instead of indicating that we might want to turn back onto the highway. Then again, I'm sure that plenty of foreign couples in rent-a-cars have business on a exit closed for construction. Douchebag.

Anyways. We were pretty impressed by the city itself. Most Korean cities look fairly similar, but Gwangju has an almost European feel. By that I mean that it has a nice riverfront with nice bridges and fountains, and the downtown city streets are filled with art. Here's a few shots to help you visualize...

This piece is entitled "man coming out of shower". Note his confused expression as he discovers a strange naked man squatting on his bathroom floor.

This one's called "Pensive girl standing in tree house". She seems to be ignoring Mr. Feathers, who's just there for a visit and maybe some birdseed.

Okay, now this one is deep. It's called "Crazy monster man". I'm not quite sure how this thing survives, considering it has no brains in any of its four heads, and virtually no internal organs.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my insightful commentary on Gwangju's many and diverse statuary. I think I should go into Art History or write a book or something...I seem to have a knack for these things.

After wandering through the downtown core, we made it to the small riverside that runs through the city. There's really not much to say about it other than it was a pleasant walk, so I'll add more pics...

One of the coolest bridges along the river. This one is for pedestrians only and is the coolest suspension bridge I've ever seen (Shayne's note - That's cool that you find it so cool).

Further down the river we tried out a simpler version of the pedestrian bridge: stepping stones. They really go for variety in Gwangju.

We also decided to take in Gwangju's National Museum. To be honest, the exhibits were a little ho-hum, but it's housed in a beautiful building:

The next day we took in some sights outside of the city. The first stop was the May 18th Memorial Cemetery. I guess I should give some background information here, as I'd never heard of the "1980 Massacre" until I arrived in Korea.

After a coup in December '79, there were student protests all over Korea in the spring of 1980. In response, General Chun Doo-Hwan declared martial law, and on May 18th soldiers brutally murdered dozens of student protesters (with bayonets, no less) in Gwangju. Thousands of citizens soon joined the students and formed civil militias (looting weapons from police stations and armories), eventually forcing the army out of the city. This event sowed the seeds of democratic change in Korea, leading to the severing of military control over the presidency.

Here I am at the entrance to the Memorial Cemetery. Most of those killed during the 1980 Massacre have been re-buried here, and all those who participated in the uprising may be buried here when they die.

The above two photos are of a relief depicting the events of May 1980.

The cemetery itself.

Me looking at the photos of those who died.

I took a photo of this grave because the girl was only 15 when she died in the fighting.

What was remarkable about this place was that even though it was incredibly somber (especially the memorial hall with photos of all who died), there was a certain element of celebration for the successes that came out of the tragedy. I think the city of Gwangju is really proud of its citizens for standing up for justice and democracy. It definitely shows with the care that went into this memorial.

After the memorial we headed further into Jeollanamdo to a famous green tea plantation in Boseong. At first the trip was easy, given the frequency of English signage at every junction. Then, just after a sign indicated that the plantation was only 7 km away, the English signage ended and many, many intersections followed. Luckily for us we learned how to read Korean and we know the Korean word for "tea", otherwise we would've been hooped. Anyways, we made it there (eventually), along with about 10,000 other Korean day-trippers.

Here we are half-way up the hillside overlooking row after row of terraced tea bushes. They really are green.

After sweating it on the tea hills, we headed for some lunch. Befitting such a place, everything they offered included green tea in some form. We ordered bibimbap with green tea rice and jajangmyun (black "Chinese" noodles) with green tea noodles:

The bibimbap was okay, and the jajangmyun tasted like Chef Boyardee ravioli. But this meal was more about the experience.

Well, that was our trip to Gwangju. We made it back to Ulsan without incident and encountering (again) only one traffic jam...although this one was far longer and more frustrating. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the condensed version of Gwangju and area sans the six hours either way it took to get there.

Until next time,
Jo

Teachers Kick Ass

Greetings

Last Wednesday marked what is arguably the most important day on the Korean calendar, Teacher's Day. Who doesn't love a day that celebrates the hardest working people on the peninsula? I waited months for this day knowing that it would bring with it a wealth of presents for Jo and I to bask in.

That's right Teacher's Day is all about students giving gifts to their teachers. At one point Jo and I were considering buying a money counter incase the gifts amounted to too much for little old us to take care of.

Alas, our dreams of retiring early were not meant to be. It seems that over the years certain bad apple parents have ruined this holy day by using it as a chance to bribe teachers into giving their children good grades (the horror, the horror).

In response many schools have cracked down on Teacher's Day and even gone as far as banning all gifts. Our school didn't ban gifts but the celebration was definitely toned down from the old glory days.

But, while we might not be driving around in our new convertible or admiring how crisp David Hasselhof looks on our new Plasma TV, our students didn't forget about us entirely.

But enough of my ramblings let's get to the gifts shall we.

This one was a bit of a surprise for two reasons. First, it's a gift of breath mints. What is that supposed to signify? Hmmm, I suppose I'll be brushing my teeth more often.

And second, they are made by Amway. That's right, there's a Korean Amway. Those guys really are everywhere.

Here's a matching notepad set for Jo and I. The Dolls look a little creepy but it was a pretty practical gift that we now use to record all of our deep thoughts (insert your own joke here).


One of my favorite students gave me this lovely bouquet of flowers. It might be the first time I've ever been given flowers. The best part was when I pretended to eat one of them and told him that that's what we do with flowers back in Canada. He walked back to his desk mumbling something about Canada and barbarians.

I think I've gotten socks on every Korean holiday. Not much to say about these other than that one of you should be expecting them for Christmas this year.

One student gave me a bottle of iced tea. I'm pretty sure that she forgot it was teacher's day and just gave me something out of her lunch box. That being said she's only 8 so it stands as a good gift.

Hmmm another surprising gift. A brother and sister duo gave me this lovely package of facemasks. I was a bit taken aback by the package and simply thanked them as I dreamed about racing home after work and applying an acorn scented facemask. Awww, goodtimes.

In Korea, a high percentage of cocoa seems to be a sign of high quality with candy bars. This 99 percent bar was probably quite pricey. They are imported from Japan and whenever a student brings one in they are a cause for commotion as everybody wants to sample the delicacy.

Unfortunately you bakers in the audience can probably see where this is going. After a certain point high percentages of cocoa taste pretty nasty. By the time it hits 90 percent or above you're basically eating dirt. I think I'll just sell this one on the monkeybar black-market during recess.

You might be wondering where Jo's gifts are. Well, sadly Jo teaches mostly teenagers and we all know how much they love to buy gifts for their teachers. That seems to be the same no matter where you are in the world.

But she did get this lovely gift.

My personal favorite was the part where she says " Thanks to I'm good at the english". It really was a sweet gift and one of the few things we'll be keeping when we leave.

I got this letter from one of my favorite students Young Do (pronounced -dough). It really was touching and reminded me of how good this job can be some days. I might not be cut out to be a teacher for the rest of my life but the profession definitely has its moments.

Well folks, we saved the best for last. Jo's adult class presented her with gifts for both of us. They are definitely the most "Korean" presents that we received on Teacher's Day.

Wait for it....wait....wait....wait....Here ya' go.

Awww, the classic Korean couple T-shirt. In this case, with matching Mickey Mouse's covered in glitter. Don't we look hot.

Happy belated Teacher's Day everyone.

Cheers

Shayne

It's Tongdo Fantastic!

Last weekend, in an act of totally unanticipated generosity, our boss, Mrs. An, took us to a nearby amusement park about an hour outside of Ulsan. Given that we document just about anything outside of our normal routine on this site, here's a quick overview and review of our day at Tongdo Fantasia.

Hmmm....remind you of somewhere? As you can tell from the above photo, Korean amusement parks definitely have a western feel. I think I would have preferred a make-believe Korean temple, but I suppose a fairytale castle will have to do.


And what amusement park would be complete without their very own costumed characters roaming about? These ones are definitely the cutest ones we've ever come across - if it's one thing the Koreans do well, it's cute.


For those of you who know Shayne well, it'll come as no shock that the above ride was one of our first stops. This is the biggest coaster the park had to offer (out of 2, if you don't count the kiddy-coasters), and it was surprisingly good. It had 5 corkscrew rotations, 2 loop d' loops, and a drop through a narrow cave opening that had even Shayne ducking his head. Now if it can scare Shayne, you know it's a good ride.

We considered taking this "coaster" for a spin, but decided to save our workouts for the gym. I mean, who's ever heard of a coaster you have to peddle yourself?

Shayne and Mrs. An on one of the tamer thrill rides.

After all the excitement, we decided to kick it down a notch and indulge Shayne in a long-time dream...to paddle a duck boat. As you can imagine, Shayne's fairly easy to please.

Us covering up our anxiety with smiles, and hoping the 9 year old girl in the other boat doesn't drop our new camera into the lake.

Mrs. An had enough excitement after one trip around the lake, so she jumped out to take a picture and let Shayne paddle to his heart's content.

Next we checked out the local house of horrors - always good for a laugh if not for a scream. This one did not disappoint.

Spooky.

After all that we were getting pretty tired and decided to call it a day. Well, to be honest I was getting tired - Shayne was hankering for another few laps in the duck boats, but I wasn't having any of it. I run a tight ship.


On the way out we did get to enjoy one more (and totally random) diversion: a Michael Jackson impersonator. Poor guy - he seems more into his performance than his onlookers. I guess the Koreans don't appreciate 80's throwbacks as much one would have thought...or not thought...does anyone think about these things?

Anyways, overall I'd have to give Tongdo Fantasia a 7 out of 10, as far as Korean theme parks go - mainly because it had a decent rollercoaster. So, if you ever find yourself in Yansang with nothing to do, check it out. ;-)

Until next time,
Jo

Canada? What is this Canada you speak of?

Greetings

Our boss added another banner to the front of the school so I thought I would share it with you. However, this banner is slightly different than the others and has since become my favourite.

(Thanks to my own little Vanna for holding the banner up)

How cool is that? Not only am I the star of the new "Let's Learn How to Cook Campaign" but I was also digitally edited so I appear to be holding a flower in my hand. The wonders of technology never cease to amaze me.

Our boss has changed the schedule so that every Friday is now a "special day" and one of these days is a cooking class. Jo and I get to teach the Korean children how to make Korean/western food. The best part about this setup is that we have had to master cooking certain Korean foods in order to teach the children how to make them. I look forward to making all of you a spicy bowl of Dok-bogi upon my return.

One downside to the new banner is that somehow I was caught wearing the same red sweater that I was wearing in the other two banners. It's slightly embarrassing and I think that the locals believe my small wardrobe to be an indicator of mass poverty in Canada. In fact, the last I heard the Ulsan Lions' club was starting a fundraiser to collect old sweaters to send to Canada. It seems that my limited closet has started an international incident. On the plus side, many of you reading this shall receive your new sweaters in the mail any day now.

Anyway, I wanted to let you all know what the future holds for us as everyone's always asking when we'll be coming back. Jo and I finish our contract here on the 29th of June and right after that we'll be leaving for China. Then after three weeks of exploring the land of Kung Pow Chicken and Panda's we'll be off to Hong Kong, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia (plus Borneo), and Singapore. Good times indeed.

And after all that we'll be landing in Canada sometime in the middle of August. We're both really excited about that even though it's surprising how fast this year's gone. There's so much we're going to miss about Korea.

And on that note of beautiful tranquility I will leave you with this moment of Zen.

(random picture of Malaysia...not to be intended as me bragging...well maybe a little)

Cheers

Shayne

Who put this kimchi in my burger?

Greetings

A couple posts back we provided a glimpse into a Korean McDonalds and now it's time for Shayne and Jo to look at a homegrown fast food joint, Lotteria.

Well, actually, according to Wikipedia "the company first established itself on February 1972 in Japan but currently Lotteria in South Korea is more popular than it is in Japan".

So "tomatoes, tomatoes". We'll consider it a Korean establishment as most Koreans seem to.

You might recognize our friend Soon Tae (from both of the Seoul blogs) and think "gee, their friend from Seoul visited them". But you'd be wrong. We took these photos when we were in Seoul and are only now getting around to posting them. Anyway, on with the show.

Lotteria is the most popular fast food restaurant in Korea beating even the impenetrable McDonalds.

It did this by introducing lines of Koreanized fast foods such as Kimchi Burgers and Rice patties.

Here ya go...a nice shot of the menu.

If you zoom in you can see such items as :

• the herb porkcutlet
• the squid burger
• the teri burger (Jo's note: ???)
  
• the rice bulgogi burger
• and of course, everyone's favorite, the classic Mega Big Paprika

This was actually our first time visiting a Lotteria and did it in part to be adventurous but also to document the trip for you, our beloved readers (all two of you).

That being said we were pretty excited and went a little crazy with the ordering.



A shot of Jo and Soon Tae pondering their options.

Jo went with the Bulgogi Burger (to compare it to the one she tried at McDonalds) and I went with the Mega Big Paprika. We also ordered a few other things to truly experience the pleasure of Lotteria.


The food looks normal enough at this stage.


A shot of my Mega Big Paprika. It was big enough, but unfortunately I don't remember what paprika tastes like well enough to fully know if the burger lived up to its name or not. It could have been closer to a Big Fennel or a Big Tarragon for all I know. Overall I'd give it 4 dried squids out of a possible 5.


Next up was Jo's bulgogi burger. I think that there must be something about bulgogi that just doesn't translate well to fast food. It looks about as good as it tasted. Overall, another big let down. Jo gives it 2.5 dried squids. (Jo's note: it was much better than the McDonalds variety...in that it tasted like beef.)


Ah, who doesn't love a good squid ring? These were actually pretty tame but they were definitely delicious. (Jo's note: they tasted exactly like Cap'n Highliner) I was hoping they would come with the heads still attached or even alive...but no such luck. 4 Dried Squids.

I don't actually remember what Soon Tae was eating, but this is a great photo so I had to include it.

But dear readers, we saved the best for last. The next photo really captures what Lotteria is all about.

A strange hybrid of Korean and American goodness all rolled into one.


Yes, don't adjust your monitors. You are seeing that image correctly. That's a kimchi-filled patty on a rice bun. Really, there's no bun. There's just rice pounded together to form what looks like a bun. It's quirky but it's original. And ya gotta' love that.

It actually tasted really good too and we ate it on top of our own meals. Which either speaks to how good it was or how big of pigs we are. I'll leave that for you to decide. 5 dried Squids.

Bravo Lotteria, Bravo.

Well... there you have it. A little taste of Korean/Japanese fastfood goodness.

Cheers

Shayne