Waeguk Saram

This is a birds eye view of Gwangju, South Korea from Mudeungsan National Park. For a very long time I thought that Gwangju was a very ugly city. I believed that I would always be surrounded by old buildings, plain apartment buildings and a constant supply of buses, cars and of course taxis. I have been here a month and I never had the chance to explore the city more. It was a nice walk. I AM EXPLORING!!!

Happy late Chuseok! This holiday is closest to an American Thanksgiving. Every Korean leaves to visit their families in other cities throughout South Korea. The families visit their ancestors and eat traditional foods such as songpyeon. It's a crescent shaped rice cake filled with things such as sesame seeds, black beans, mung beans, cinnamon, pine nut, walnut, chestnut, jujube, and honey. My school is not very logical in its ways. For the second time, I was told that I was going to teach Kindergartners how to make songpyeon. Again, I have never made this type of Korean food before so why does it make sense that I should teach a little four year old how to make it? It turns out to be a very simple recipe. It turns out that I never had to teach them. The funny result of this event is that the kitchen was filled with all the songpyeon that were made by the kindergartners. Koreans do not like to waste food. What do you do with all of these crescent shaped rice cakes? There is a rule that you should not eat any food eaten by anyone under 10 year old. You don't know where those little fingers have been. The teachers gave the gifts out to every class to eat. They gave some to the teachers. We did not want to want to eat them. They were given to every class to eat. The elementary kids eagerly ate them ALL! Ew...what is boogers were steamed in them?

I HAD A GREAT WEEK!!! What did I do...? Not too much. I know. I am not too exciting. I spent to much money and I have been too busy trying to figure out how to be a teacher at this school. The only freedom I had experienced since I arrived in Korea was as a rest stop on a bus to a seminar. Haha. I decided to not spend any money for a trip...yet.  So, I made a plan. I am planning to go somewhere EVERY other WEEKEND! Hopefully, I can finish lesson plans for the next week before the weekend comes back around.

Anyways...

I got haircut at a salon across from my apartment. The stylist kept talking on her phone. Was a customer late? Was she talking to someone in her family? No. It was an invitation to see the foreigner get her haircut done. This lady came with her three young teenagers to watch the foreigner. Awkward. The haircut was 6,000 won. Its about five dollars. THAT IS THE CHEAPEST HAIRCUT I HAVE EVER HAD! Wow. I will give them business for that price.

I also visited my happy place. I went to Coffee & Cat. It's a cat cafe in downtown Gwangju. I was surrounded by 17 different cats all doing their own thing. Half of them were sleeping. I was fascinated that this place was so popular. I want to find the cat and dog cafe. There are cat and dogs. I admit that there was a smell....I SAW KITTENS!!! XD

Good bye for now. I promise to have more adventures.... :(