One year in Gwang-ju, South Korea

July 23rd marks the one year anniversary of us arriving in South Korea. It's the first time we have been here and for Neil, the first time he's been in Asia. This day flew by like any other day, in fact, we had forgotten about this date. It was a Thursday and nothing significant happened. Here's a list of things I've liked and disliked in the one year I've been here: 

The Good...

- cheap taxi fares! coming from Vancouver where it'll cost me $7+tips to get from downtown to chinatown, it's unbelievably cheap here. For a 15 minute ride, it'll cost me around $5. And most of time going from the supermarket to my apartment is only $3. 

- keyless locks! In my first and third apartment, we got keyless/pinpad locks and they are amazing! No more forgetting my keys :) Some even come with an intercom so you can see who is at the door. 

- cheap kimbap and street food! You can easily get a kimbap that fills you up for $2 here and hurricane potatoes is only $1! All those times I've pad $5 for them at night market - I feel so ripped off! In the colder months, they even sell a cup of corn with cheese and peas for $2. Mmmm There's also this rice burger that's filled with tuna, kimchi, tuna and cheese that I like to get for only $2.50. I love cheap and delicious eats! 

- food home delivery! Most things here are available for delivery, including McDonald's. The website to order McDonald's is super easy and we've done it a couple of times :) Some other popular dishes to order for home delivery is fried chicken, sweet and sour pork, pork hock withe lettuce and sliced pork, black bean noodles, dumplings, pizza and burgers. We're limited to an app called Yogiyo because it's easy to use and I don't need to order over the phone. If I could order via phone, the choices would be even better! 

- korean makeup and free samples! There are always sales everywhere I look. The number of Korean brand makeup is also endless. I've tried only a couple so far such as Innisfree, The Faceshop, Tony Moly, Etude House, and Skinfood. There's so much more....Oh and every time you buy something, there's always so many free samples. These are great for quick weekend getaways and to give away. I love it! 

The Not So Good...

- terrible driving! people are constantly talking on their phone while driving, and I've seen instances where children sit with no seat belts on. Also, I've been toddlers held in the laps of adults in the passenger seat. Not only is it bad inside the car, but cars will drive reckless and fast. They don't always obey traffic lights. Many instances where cars are halfway into the intersection and decide to change their minds amid sounds of honking. I've had close calls with drivers and I love glaring at bad drivers and mouth "wtf" to them. But seriously, be extra vilgilant on the roads as a pedestrian! 

- expensive fruits and foreign goods! let me reiterate, fruits are expensive here. I haven't had many since coming here because I've been too cheap to splurge. And I can't eat it fast enough since Neil doesn't like it that much. I understand why it needs to priced where it is but I don't like it! Some things like canned beans, bbq sauce and other things are not easily found in local supermarkets so we always have to trek to the larger ones. Right now, I can't even find cauliflower! 

- air quality and humidity! I didn't realize how good I had it back in Vancouver. I miss the crisp, sweet air that you can bottle up and drink! The air quality here sucks. In the summer time, the humidity makes me feel like I've been roasted alive any time I step outside. There is no movement in the air, it's so stale. We don't have an A/C unit in our apartment so our two fans are working overtime. 

- late start = late hours! Our working hours are from 1:00pm to 10:00pm every weekday. I'm not motivated enough to head out during the day and then come back and prepare for work. In fact, it's because it takes so long for me unwind after work and dinner that I don't go to bed til 2am every night so I just sleep in. Sighs. It's a vicious cycle and makes me feel very unproductive. 

The Strange...

- sweet breads! First thing we noticed was how the bread here are mainly sweet. Sure there's some savoury ones, but they have a hint of sweetness. 

- large statues in front of most buildings! (art?) This could just be my observations but outside every building, there is a weird statue of some sorts. I think Gwangju is trying to be more artsy? It's weird. 

- obsession with 'honey butter' fad! Almost any snack these days can be found with 'honey butter' flavour! From chips, to milk to cookies. This has to stop somewhere right? I loved the original chips from Calbee but enough is enough. 

Overall, in the one year we've been here, we've learned to finally adjust our lifestyle to meet our needs and work. It's taken us about 6 months to get the hang of teaching. Now, it's time to incorporate other hobbies into our lives. We're here for another 10 months and hopefully this time around, we'll get to go out and do more things and enjoy these next months in South Korea!

Jeonju Day Trip

After a brief trip to Jeonju with Neil's parents in November, I really wanted to come back! Since we have a few days off for the new year, we made a point to go back there for their fresh bibimbap. I googled to find any place that's super famous and Gogung came up and that was it. After arriving in Jeonju, we hailed a cab to bring us to the restaurant. Probably waited a few minutes before we were seated. 

I chose the normal metal bowl and Neil got the stone bowl one. The colours were amazing and so vibrant. I love that it doesn't need to have onions in it and it's still okay. I love the texture of the dish that there's crunchy and soft in the same bite. Neil really enjoyed his dish. He liked that it wasn't spicy like most Korean food are. 

Bibimbap in Jeonju - CHECK!

Next we went back to the Hanok Village and walked around to get some snacks. I got some deep fried squid. I had hoped that since it's a Friday that it won't be busy but it was still super packed. After getting my snack, I was too full for anything else so we decided to walk around. I saw PNB and it was not packed like the other one! They're suppose to be famous for their chocolate pies. Neil wasn't interested but I got one chocolate and one white to see what it's all about. It was quite large so it was very fulling. I actually didn't try it until I got home since I was already full. It's pretty good but I would not line up for an hour for it. 

When we got back to the bus terminal, we found out the next bus to Gwangju isn't until 7:20pm and it was currently 5:00pm. We got approached by a taxi driver who offered to take us to Gwangju for 50,000 won if he can find two more people. In the end he could only find one more person and asked us to pay for 70,000 and we can leave right away. In the end we took that offer because we'll get back home quicker and we'll be more comfortable if it's just the two of us in the back. The driver was nice and it took us only an hour to get back compared to an hour and a half. He also dropped us off a lot closer to our home than the bus would have. It cost us a lot more to take this taxi but in the end it's worth it.  

Neil's Parent's Visit

In the middle of November, Neil's lovely parents paid us a visit. They stayed with us the entire time they were here. It was a shame we didn't have much time to show them around or take them anywhere nice since we had to work. They had to do a lot of solo activities and enjoy our Netflix at home. 

They arrived at U-square on Friday night and we picked them up. Unfortunately the taxis here don't seem to have a lot of trunk space so we had to take two separate taxis home. They had just come from Australia and we were suddenly hit with a cold snap, so it was unfortunately very cold when they were here. 

We had two weekends with them and for the first one we went to Damyang to check out the Bamboo forest and museum. It was nice but I feel like that place really didn't have much to do. Ahh but Neil was super fascinated by the multiple penis totem poles that was randomly there and I was reined to take pictures for him. After we got back from Damyang, we took them to Ashley's at U-Square for some all-you-can drink wine and buffet.

The other weekend we went to Jeonju to check out their Hanok village. Basically it's an area of restored ancient style homes, buildings and restaurants. There's a lot of people there and we had a quick bite before heading home. Because we headed so late we didn't have much time to try their famous bibimbap. Next time.

While they were here, we took them to a samgulpsal restaurant (pork belly restaurant), The First Alleyway for brunch and boardgames (I won Settlers of Catan twice!), and Chocolat Village for their yummy chocolate cake. We also ate at home where we had fried chicken delivered and I made my thai coconut soup and they really seemed to enjoy congee. 

It was great having them here and they gave me a very valuable advice: find a big stick to hit Neil with when he's being a brat or pull his ears. Yup!