Blogs from Jeollanam-do, South Korea, Asia - page 2

6th Apr: Up at five and out the house by half past. Onto the bus to Seoul by about ten to six. Got to the Express Bus Terminal and the bus left there around 7:30. The traffic was heaving as usual, but we didn't get stuck in any major traffic jams. Had a rest stop at Cheonan. We got to Nonsan around 11 ish. Of course the bus driver got lost once we got off the motorway. We dropped some people at the festival area and the rest of us stayed on the bus and headed to a farm about a 15 minute drive away to pick some strawberries. The weather was crappy, it was misty and raining. It had been raining when I'd got up and hadn't let up eventhough we'd driven three hours south. ... read more

Wednesday, November 21, 2012 Wednesdays are usually a good time for me. There are only three classes and I'm done by lunch. This day was much like the rest except that I had to fill in a double class of after school students, which was brought to my attention in the morning. So, without adequate time to get a lesson planned for 80 minutes I did what my coteacher recommended and put on a movie. Overall the school day was pretty good. We even had a decent lunch, bibimbap. For those that have never had it it's basically a bowl of rice topped with various vegetables and an egg. You mix the bowl together and and load on as much red pepper sauce as you like. It's the pinnacle of school lunches. I don't eat it ... read more

While starting my post about my vacation in Indonesia, I realized that I never got around to posting an entry about the Yeosu Expo, which would be a grave error because it was absolutely amazing! We had a three-day weekend, thanks to Buddha’s Birthday, so I headed down to Yeosu (southern edge of Korea) for an international expo. The theme was “The Living Ocean and Coast”. We left Friday night (BIG debacle because a couple of us had to miss 10 minutes of our last class and even though we found people to cover for us, it still went over poorly). We took the slow train down (about 5 hours) because it costs half as much, which means it costs $25 to cross their entire country the LONG way. Takes about as long as it took ... read more

We had been avoiding the Expo for the past two months. Our first visit left a bitter taste in our mouths and reports from the Expo haven't been very good. Recently they've dropped the enterance fees because of low attendance. I read somewhere that they had hoped to get 100,000 people a day to visit this small town at the end of the mainland but reports are that they've been actually getting around 20,000 to 30,000 a day. The city is obviously trying to make it's money back by slashing the prices and this mixed with a strong desire to eat something that wasn't Korean food is what led us to going last Friday. Since Friday was also the last day of school before the summer break my school was allowed to go to the expo ... read more

What could be more Seinfeld than a blog about nothing? Especially given the, er, "relaxed" day I have had today in Wando. And this blog is being hand-typed too to make sure it's short (they breathe sighs of relief). Although I got outa bed at 9.30am, thinking I might be doing something/anything local this turned into an all day digital housekeeping/web-research kinda day to sort of plan the days ahead - which is necessary sometimes, despite my semi-chaotic travel "plans". Wjich need to be adjusted to fit realities, such as not going to Jeju Island on Friday/Sat., cos the hotels will be chocka with weekenders (remember Daejeon and finding a room at 8pm on a Sat. night and how much easier it was on Sunday - the same principle should apply here). This does mean 3 ... read more