Gaturday adventures on the cheap...
As I write this, the smell of strawberry nail polish remover lingers on my hands, don't ask why I thought that was necessary to tell you about but I feel strawberry smelling liquid solvents is a good metaphor for the cool and crazy things that exist and occur in South Korea.But before I go onto the wacky adventures of Miss Von Dee, here's an update on my week; my last class I have everyday is one class I really do not look forward to, my students are extremely bright but this also means they don't want to learn, they talk too much when I'm talking (in Korean may I add) and generally lack respect for the "new english" teacher. They are the only class I find very difficult which is ironic as they are the most advanced class I teach and when they do listen they pick it up very quickly and thats my lesson done within 10 minutes with nothing left to do then to sit and ponder ways to spice up the lesson and keep them engaged for the next 30 (which seems impossible at the moment). There was a day last week when I'm pretty sure I pissed off my boss (which may I add is not actually my fault), the school needs to have system in place in order to be more organised, the constant change in the kindergarten timetable and combination of lack of training (plopping me in several teachers classes for like a week is not training). This puts me in difficult situations which affects my performance and of course reflects on what sort of teacher I am, which at the moment looks like a shitty, unprepared teacher with no time keeping skills.
My week could have gone a lot worse if it wasn't for my friend Katie who sent me a package full of home comforts and treats, she was more than willing to help me and post me out stuff I needed, she didn't even mind picking up a bar of cadburys chocolate for my Ggaturi sister! Katie if you are reading this I want to say thank you again, I cant say enough just how much I appreciate the generosity and kindness of this girl. She did amazing with getting everything I needed so speedily, this girl just knows me too well I swear (I guess in the whole 6 years she's known me she has being paying attention to me) she really is a super mum!
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| Stuff thats too expensive to buy in Korea or hard to get hold of, as well as cute pirate themed gift from Katies son. |
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| The Ggaturi Sis enjoying her Dairy Milk sent from London, courtesy of my good friend Katie. |
Friday the 15th May was National Teachers Day in Korea, which usually involves students giving gifts and flowers to teachers. I was invited by the principal along with the other teachers to go out for the meal on Thursday evening, most of the time I was just sitting there as I have yet to understand Korean, but I did get a few conversations thrown my way. We enjoyed some delicious food and some Korean beer which was nice, all courtesy of the school.
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| Handmade Rose pen, a gift from one of my students and Korean Rice Cakes from my boss. |
The Gaturday adventures (finally!) which I'm sure most of you came here to read, the day always starts by meeting my Korean sister Chloe, she suggested we rented bikes from the subway station as it was free and they were a lot nicer! We hopped onto our bikes and drove around Samgu like we just escaped a local asylum. We managed to cycle all the way to downtown, which if you know is like 10 minutes from my apartment, to put some perspective on the distance we rode, I live 1 hour and half away from Samgu by bus, so the distance we cycled was pretty far, but I guess time passes by so much quicker when you're taking in views, concentrating on ways to stop your ass hurting from the worst bike seat I have ever sat on and listening to Oasis, Bruno Mars and Korean artists resonate from Chloe's phone, all of course whilst we were howling at the top of our lungs because it was our jam!
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| A really bad picture of me, but this is us on our bikes near downtown! |
But this is where the madness only started to begin, you know how people say bad things always happen in three's.. well replace 'bad' with 'down right fucked up'. These events all occurred within a space of about 10 minutes apart from each other. So we are cycling on this cycle path that runs along a river, which I was told actually connects to everywhere in South Korea, not just Gwangju, these bike paths are all interlinked to each other. If I had the stamina and not a seat that was like a brick on my arse I may have quite possibly considered cycling to Yosu (maybe a 6 hour cycle?) but I really lack that stamina and I would be dead because I would have probably ran myself into traffic just to end the torment that this particular bicycle seat was causing me, (I cant help but feel violated, even as we speak, my butt feels like i sat on top of a traffic cone.) As I was saying...
...event number 1: You get two lanes just like on a road, some reason today there were shit loads of pigeons just co-existing on this bike path for miles, I have no idea why, they weren't there last Gaturday, we were zooming along and I spot two pigeons in my lane which I was quickly approaching and they weren't moving, I swerved and stopped thinking one pigeon was injured, neither were, I shit you not one was lying there all comfy and this other pigeon was standing on top of its back walking on it like some crazy pigeon masseuse. I later found out from Chloe they were engaging in sexual activities and I had miss the part where they were grinding up on each other. Why they chose to do it on the bike path is beyond me but it makes you wonder what sort of fucked up pigeon sex these pigeons were engaging in :/.
Event 2: So after recovering from almost running over two horny pigeons we were cycling along side these statues and lanterns in the river and gazing at their beauty, now if you know me well and know anything about Asian culture in general, you will know tattoos are viewed very differently here and not very common. So it was no surprise I stuck out like a sore thumb when cycling around, it is also pretty clear to see I am a foreigner which also makes me stand out along with my tattoos and my height. I was cycling as you do and I cycled past this tall hut full of old Korean men and they were shouting stuff in English, like "OK" "BEAUTIFUL!" It was so funny and rather sweet but totally bizarre, I guess no matter where I go men are men and they like to shout at women. What can I say I draw attention to myself I have to live with it, but times like this you can't help but laugh.
Event number 3: We were getting closer to down town and along this bike path that stretched on for miles there are many bridges, (very low may I add,) I had to do some weird crouching under these bridges (What are these bridges for ants??) I hear strange Korean hip hop-esque music echoing louder and louder and I saw a group of Koreans, but not just any group of Koreans, these were Korean OAP's dressed in funky coloured hiking gear all congregated together doing some weird OAP style hip hop dancing, It was the most bizarre and the most hilarious thing I had ever seen, words can not describe the amusement that was bestowed on me, I just wish I had filmed it.
After these strange occurrences we decided to head back for some more mouth watering and refreshing Korean dessert that I have come to adore and I probably would never have discovered it without Chloe. It literally is like a party in your mouth and today she recommended we try a new variety which was not any less delicious than the last. I highly recommend trying these desserts when you can get a chance, I feel my life has taken a new turn since I found these saliva inducing treats and it always tastes better when you share it with someone.
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| Nom nom nom! Probably my favourite Korean Dessert. |
That was Gaturday for another week, I'm looking forward to another adventure, this stuff is great because money is low, I am very grateful to have met such a kind and generous friend, who I find to always have such a good time with and many adventures are still to come and can only get better when I actually have regular income!
I bid you farewell for this week thank you if you read all of this!!!
I shall leave you with this thought... After all the crazy occurrences today, I was left wondering one thing... Is it still called dogging if it's pigeons instead of people?
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