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Blogs from Gwangju, South Korea, Asia
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October 15th 2011
I used a three-day holiday weekend at the beginning of October to take a trip to the city of Gwangju with 3 friends. Gwangju is about 3 hours southwest of Daegu. Originally we had wanted to go to Jin Island (Jindo), but we decided if the weather were bad we’d have little to do. We decided to go to Gwangju instead because it seemed close to the beach and near a lot of islands. We’d never been to that area of Korea, so this was our chance. We left Saturday morning and arrived in the early afternoon. We dropped our bags off at the hostel and then set off to sightsee around the city. Gwangju is advertised as being artsy. It did seem artsier than Daegu. There is a huge art gallery (which we didn’t go ... read more
January 16th 2011
I have returned to South Korea. This time, I will be residing in the sixth largest city: Gwangju. Two weeks in, I have seen the pedestrian downtown, walked most of Sangmu, visited some local attractions, and have signed up for yoga classes. I flew out of Atlanta on New Year’s Day (a day that saw Michigan—and other Big Ten teams—get embarrassed) headed to Seoul, with stopovers in Phoenix and Los Angeles. After leaving my house 36 hours earlier, I pulled up to the Gwangju Bus Terminal where my new boss, her sister, and a new work colleague waited for me. Following quick greetings, we were on our way. I went grocery shopping, settled into my new apartment, and slept the rest of the afternoon. That night, I was invited out to dinner with the English teachers ... read more
July 15th 2010
I arrived in Seoul late on the night of the 21st, as was becoming my habit. My first impression of Seoul was similar to my first impressions in other rich Asian cities, as it was sense of amazement at both the efficiency and size of the public transit system. I was able to take a train from the island airport that after twenty minutes connected with Seoul's subway system. As you can see from the picture below it has thirteen lines and can be both overwhelming and confusing at first. I was tired and disoriented at the time so I decided to ask a local for help in deciphering the colourful and confusing subway map. I received some friendly advice but in the end it was also wrong advice, which sent me in the opposite direction ... read more
March 27th 2010
So I'm now a month into life in the ROK and so far I'm really enjoying it. Despite many frustrations of not knowing where things are, difficulties with simple things like finding a meal and household items I'm slowly getting a grasp on things. I can now read Korean somewhat, although I need to work on my vowels, and therefore I've become much more comfortable finding food on menus written only in Korean and finding my way around when only a few of the street signs have English translations. Still pretty lost but starting to figure things out. Next missions include finding Homeplus to check out microwaves, and finding my way to the jimjilbang in Cheomdan and the Ethnic Cafe downtown when my cousin Russ comes to visit me in just a few weeks, as well ... read more
March 6th 2010
So I've been in South Korea for a week now and finally have a little bit of time to write about my adventures so far. I arrived in Seoul at 3:30am last Saturday morning, because of the time change, I did not get a Friday last week. Being greatly sleep-deprived due to an approximately 11 year old boy kicking my seat for 13 hours I went through immigration only to find out the flight attendants had neglected to give most of the foreigners on the plane the correct entry documents, always fun :-) Once I made it through there and got my bags (nothing was lost or damaged...excellent!) I eventually found my way to the bus stop and after much staring and walking in circles figured out the ticket desk opened at 5:40 am and my ... read more
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December 7th 2009
After spending a few weekends in Yangsan, we were feeling a strong need to get out and see something new, so we decided to check out Gwangju, the 4th largest city in Korea, with 1.4 million people in Jeollanam province on the West side of Korea. We randomly ran into two friends, Eric and Moiz on the bus, who just happened to be heading in the same direction! We decided to stick together since none of us had the faintest idea where to go once we got to Gwangju at 10pm. After wandering around for a bit, we came across this small, old motel that had ondol rooms. Now, Moiz and Eric had done the ondol thing before, but this was a first for Mike and I, and overall it was kinda cool! Essentially, its a ... read more
June 22nd 2009
I had been looking so forward to this trip and even more so cause I would have a couple of good travel companions for the trip! Tea picking in Boseong in spring, what a treat! 7am and we were on our way to the Incheon bus terminal soon to be on rout to Gwanju. The buses in Korea as I have mentions so often are fantastic but the half way stops (AKA Engen 1 stop type spots) are even more incredible, in fact I think astounding is a better word! After two hours on the bus we pulled off the road at the 1 stop and you have 15 minutes to have a loo and snack break a big challenging when 500 buses carrying 40+ passengers all stop at the same time. We were nervous cause ... read more
April 30th 2009
Although this week many not hold as many pleasures as last weeked, I have managed to wrangle up some tales of fun and entertainment for you. I will start by mentioning that I am currently on vacation from work, and have the next 7 days to do as I please. However, I also have about $50, so the 'doings as I pleases' will be cheap :) It seems that Youngdo wanted to change up the way they give us vacation, as we used to only get two weeks a year; one in August and one in December. I think they wanted to spread them out a little more. Also, the law changed a few years ago, and they had to also fit in an additional 5 days of vacation for us. I wasn't planning on going ... read more
April 6th 2009
So let's see if I can keep it updated this time around. I guess I better get up to speed. I left Denver on Sunday (March 9) in the AM. I made the big mistake of going out to the Ogden with my dad for my last night. Our intentions were good, just grab some food and I'd pick up my last paycheck. Ended up pretty much closing the bar down and getting a bit too hammered. Instead of going back to my folks' house and finish packing, I passed out on their sofa only to be awakened by my mother about one hour before we had to leave for the airport. I frantically packed my shit, almost forgot my passport, and headed off to the airport. After dragging ass through DIA I was finally Korea ... read more
December 13th 2008
Well just as my entry title says, I hopped on a bus today and went to Gwangju. That's a large city kind of north-east of where I'm at. It definitely seems like a bigger town than Mokpo and it should because it is. There's the 7 story electronics mall which was fairly awesome. I'll have to go back when I have more money haha. Gwangju has a much larger downtown area than Mokpo for sure. I went with my new friend Bob and we explored a bunch of Gwangju, looking but not finding the underground western stores. They're literally underneath the ground near a subway entrance I'm led to believe. I guess if I find them I could get deli meat like turkey and other western delights that Mokpo is missing. It's roughly an hour bus ... read more
