February 2017

Bus Journey Puking

It was finally time to pick up my Alien Registration Card that would allow me to travel outside of Korea, use the hospitals in Korea and get a bank card. This was a big day. I had planned the route and was pretty sure I knew the buses I needed to get to the Immigration Office. My co-teacher didn’t offer to help me so I planned to go it alone. Remembering a fellow EPIK teacher in the area, I messaged her and we arranged to go together after school.

After a stressful afternoon at school, I left the school ready to meet the other native teacher. I was feeling horrible; I brought some doughnuts to cheer myself up also hoping a doughnut would settle my stomach which felt a bit strange. Doughnuts settle stomachs right?

Once on the bus, I chatted to my companion, heard about her experiences in her schools and how she was managing with her move to Korea. She was in Korea on her own so I was happy to be able to offer to go together. As the bus rumbled on, we were thrown about around corners and heated up to within an each of our lives when we sat for hours at traffic lights. Not surprisingly, I started to feel worse and worse. I knew it wouldn’t be long before I was sick over everyone in the rammed, sweaty tin-can bus. She noticed I’d gone a bit quiet and asked me if I was ok. I couldn’t really answer but I think my pale, sweaty face said it all. Eventually, the bus lurched forward again and it was too much. I murmured that I needed to get off at the next stop and as it pulled up; I pushed my way through the bodies and jumped off the bus. I threw the doughnuts out of the bakery bag and puked into it. It was not gentle. My friend, I think she became a friend right then, anyone you puke in front of has to I think, rushed off to the shop. I was thankful for the space. I puked some more and wiped my wet face that was dripping with sweat.

A Korean man walked by and asked me where I was from. Perfect timing. I half-smiled and looked back down to the floor. Not the time to engage me in conversation I’m afraid! He kept looking back as he walked away and I think he was worried about me and wanted to see I was ok. Korean’s really are so caring. As my friend returned, I was trying to hide my puke bag in the bush next to me. There are no public bins in Korea so getting rid of a crisp packet is difficult, let alone a bag of sick. My friend handed me a bottle of water and some gum which I was so grateful for.

I don’t know how but we managed to continue our journey and make it to the Immigration office with 2 minutes to spare before they closed. This involved a last minute sprint which, needless to say, I could have done without. Picking up the card was so easy, it took 2 minutes each and we both felt great that we’d collected them and made it there ourselves especially in the circumstances. On the way out, I had another session in the toilet and I wondered just how I would make it home. Amazingly, I managed somehow.

On return to my house, my boyfriend was waiting for me. After a long hug and another small sick moment, we decided the wisest thing to do would be to settle down in bed and order pizza. I, in no way fancied pizza, but I can never turndown bad food especially if I’ve lost half my lunch under an hour ago. Getting me into bed and cosy, my boyfriend then popped out to the pizza place just down the road. This place boasted that it only used ‘real imsil cheese’. Sounds great! Whatever that is!?

When the pizza came it smelt amazing and I automatically felt 1000 times better. Whatever imsil cheese is, I love it! I wolfed my way through the juicy Hawaiian pizza and sluiced down a lot of coke, the best thing for an upset stomach Mum always said. I’m not sure what it was at lunch that made me so ill but I know that if in doubt, eat pizza, drink coke and get the hell to bed!

Jjimjilbang – Let’s Get Naked!

The Jjimjilbang was a culture shock through and through, and I loved every moment! Upon entering this large office-block type building, we were greeted by a receptionist who took our 8,000 won, handed us three tiny towels and some mustard yellow baggy shorts and oversized t-shirt. This could only be a good sign…right? After engaging in a brief Korean conversation and leaving none the wiser, we headed in the direction the reception pointed. We worked out that the number on our receipt was our locker number and we put our shoes in the first set of lockers we came across. These were tiny and obviously for shoes. One hurdle down.

Moving on, we got our first eyeful of nudity. Walking into the dressing rooms, women were going about their business in the nude. Drying their hair, bent over, putting lotion on their bodies, bent over, brushing their hair, bent over, who’d have thought there were so many reasons to bend down? There was even a TV so if you got bored of getting dressed, you could just flop down and catch up with the latest news in the buff. Standard. I was feeling ready to get stuck in myself.

We headed to some bigger lockers where my friend explained that she thought this was where we changed into the mustard shorts and t-shirt, which after putting on we both agreed were unnecessarily reminiscent of prison clothes. This, I thought, is how it would feel to be incarcerated. It was a purely female environment, everyone just hanging about and all wearing the same horrendous uniform. Why these clothes were necessary I couldn’t fathom? All I knew was that I felt particularly uncomfortable wearing these clothes, especially without a bra or knickers. To add insult to injury as we walked up stairs, it became a unisex area. Surprise! As some young guys walked by and stared at my friend and I (foreigners in the Jjimjilbang), I realised how terrible these clothes were and how naked I felt despite them.

I was somewhat distracted though the ‘sleeping pods’ my friend pointed out to me. Essentially these were small tunnels or alcoves cut into the walls and tiled. How anyone could sleep on the hard tiles was beyond me and why would you want to? I could only hope they provided a mat. We continued to walk into a large open space with a slightly risen stage on one side, a line of broken massage chairs on the other side and a huge expanse of empty space in the middle. On the stage, a girl was curled up on the hard floor with just a little padded pillow under her head. Mats weren’t in fact provided for sleeping then! I believe the whole hall was for sleeping but oddly sleeping on the floor here didn’t quite make it onto my Korean ‘to do’ list!

We sauntered over to the small café and ordered ramen and a tea – which of course turned out to be something totally different – an ice-cold type of blackcurrant squash drink which was actually really nice. We sat on the floor by the tables and ate our large, hot bowl of perfect ramen, not too spicy and for 3,000 won, I was very happy.

We then moved onto the spas. I assumed this was where the nakedness began but it turned out I was preempting that. We had to do the saunas in the unisex section first. So wearing our prison outfits we entered a room with hot pink crystals on the floor and a towering ceiling that seemed to move to a point as if it were a chimney. We sat down on the burning crystals and tried to relax. Relax in our prison clothes. After a while, we began to overheat so we left and headed for the next room. This room had crystals in the walls and huge chunks of purple amethyst glinting out of the ceiling. The floor was tiled and warm and we had a little pad to put our head on. We lay down and enjoyed the surroundings. A couple of girls were playing music on their phone…this didn’t help my relaxation but luckily I was too on edge about the upcoming nakedness to really care. Having said that as we left the sauna to go down to the spas, I did feel at ease and happy so perhaps the saunas worked better than I thought!

The moment arrived. We took off our prison clothes and exposed our bodies. We headed, naked, to the spa room and entered. A few pairs of eyes darted in our direction as they realized we weren’t Korean. Waygook’s in the Jjimjilbang! We had a quick shower and jumped in the first pool we saw to cover the nakedness. This one was a green-tea-infused pool which I found out by surprise when the large sack of green tea which popped up between my legs as I sat down. ‘What’s that?’, I yelped as I felt and saw this dark, heavy item bouncing between my thighs. Giggling, my friend explained about the infusion. The water was a dark green colour and smelt like the drink. It was like a hot bath and having only had a shower available since arriving in Korea, it felt amazing.

The woman sat next to me hastily left, I’m sure it was because she was too hot and not because of me! The pools were situated in a circle and there were walls between them to sit on. Women were dotted around the pools in a haphazard way that I liked. It looked kind of arty. In the corner of the room there were a few lines of mirrors with chairs and large buckets along them. Women sat here and rubbed each other with mits to exfoliate and carefully wash each other. It looked like a dressing room after a strip show but somehow more glamorous. Behind that was another area with beds, I didn’t even question this at this point!

We moved on and my friend showed me the way to the outside pools. It was very cold outside so we practically ran into the hot tub! We jumped straight in and again, it felt incredible. I loved having the steam rising from the water into the cold night and just sitting their chatting and relaxing. I got up at one point to get my drink, you can carry the flask around with you, and my friend said the steam was pouring off my boiling body into the cold air. The only thing to do was to grab the bowl from the side and pour freezing cold water over ourselves. We only did this once!

We then moved indoors and tried out some of the other pools. One had jet streams that were so strong it felt like it tore half the skin from my back off. The jets were also at questionable heights and so they came into unwanted contact with some more sensitive body parts!

We then decided to check out the bed area. Body rubs and massages! We opted for a full body rub for 20,000 won. We weren’t sure who we asked for these until we saw a small glass room towards the back of the bed area full of naked ladies. Could they be the masseuses? They clocked us looking their way, grinned and came out, totally naked. We paid and they ushered us to a table, far away from each other but close enough that we could still make faces of shock, pain and disbelief! I saw my friend’s masseuse start to put on some flimsy lingerie, her age was perhaps edging 65 and I’m not sure the lingerie was going to be all that supportive. As she started to lean over my friend and rub her body hard, I mentally wished my friend luck! I looked at my masseuse from my vulnerable position on the bed and noted that she was also putting lingerie on her bottom half…not so much with the top half for mine though. I got the breast experience!

To begin, she poured a bowl of hot water all over my body without warning. It was just the right temperature and I was surprised to hear myself groan a little bit. Cringe. Then the mitt came out and she began to rub my body, hard, fast and without mercy. I noted all the grey balls of my skin that flicked off to lay on the floor and bed around me. This has got to be doing wonders I thought, gritting my teeth through the discomfort. It didn’t so much hurt as felt extremely weird and uncomfortable. That’s even without thinking about the fact that I had my leg up in the air and a topless Korean lady was rubbing rather personal areas with a rough mitt. After being tossed around from side to back, to side, to front, my masseuse began to say something to me. I looked up. Wrong thing to do. I was confronted with lingerie and had to move my nose quickly so that it didn’t come directly into contact with her. She moved on and I was pleased I had a little more personal space again. It ended with another douse of perfect hot water and a very quick massage which was appreciated despite the slight pain inflicted.

She indicated that the activity was over. I was very grateful as it had been quite the experience and I hopped off the bed – only just avoiding slipping straight off onto the floor – and over to my friend. Our looks of bewilderment were probably pretty obvious and we ran off to the showers comparing experiences. At one point, my friend had looked so shocked, I had found it very hard not to laugh on the table so I wanted to hear all about her full body rub too!

After a quick shower and drying ourselves off under a red lamp like turkeys, we decided to wrap up this Jjimjilbang experience. I think I would go back and now I feel so much more prepared. What I loved about it was the lack of judgement and the normality of the nakedness. We’re all women, we all have bodies and it’s about time, we embraced this openness in the UK. It was so refreshing to feel comfortable in my own skin among women in a spa. I think I felt more comfortable being naked there than I do sometimes on a beach in a bikini – of course, this could also have something to do with the lack of men! All in all, a successful Wednesday night activity. Let’s get naked!

All Night Long – New Year’s Eve

Time in Korea seemed to speed by and before we knew it, New Year was approaching. In England this would be planned months before. Overpriced tickets to a pub or bar would have been purchased and much perusing ASOS or H&M would have happened to ensure I had the correct outfit to bring in 2017. As it was, settling into life in South Korea took up all our attention and we forgot to arrange anything until a week or so before.

A couple we met at orientation who were based in Daejeon were up for doing something together for the occasion and we floated the idea of a weekend in Busan, back to where orientation was and where it had all begun. We’d found online that they had a Sunrise festival on the famous Haeundae beach as well as midnight fireworks in town. Perfect! The boys being boys felt that it would be a total waste of money to book accommodation for the night as we’d have to be up early for sunrise and stay out late for the fireworks and clubbing. Therefore, it would be more sensible to stay out all night with no sleep. Oh would it now?

Objections aside it made sense on some level and I braced myself for a long night of revelling until sunrise. Telling myself I wasn’t dead yet and that 29 year olds don’t need that much sleep anyway, we refused to book accommodation. This came as a surprise to some of my other friends who helped me come up with a plan of attack to last the whole night without getting too drunk or falling asleep. 1 drink per hour and sleep on the bus there!

The day came but unfortunately as we waited for our bus to Busan, our friends cancelled due to illness. We knew others who were also heading to Busan for the same reason so we did not let this stop us and we messaged to meet up with them on arrival. I tried to sleep on the 3-4 hour bus ride to Busan planned, but sadly sleep wouldn’t appear.

On arrival, we managed to sneak in a quick pre-drink and some shoddy bar chicken before we headed up the hill to where the fireworks were being held, Yongdusan Park. The top of the hill was suitably crowded with a well-behaved Korean audience (ignoring pushing, shoving and lack of respect for personal space). There was a temple structure at the top with a huge bell located in the middle that had large spotlights focused upon it. More lights swiveled around the edges of the temples, pointed out into the crowd and up into the sky. I expected more from them around 12 midnight.

There was a show that was an odd mixture of brass-band music, pop and ballads, some in English, some in Korean. I can’t quite decide how I felt about the pre-New Year entertainment but I don’t think it’s anything more than a vague bemusement.

Nonetheless, it served a purpose and led us up to midnight. The standard countdown was shown on a screen that I could just see if I strained my neck over the crowd. On the stroke of midnight though, things vastly improved. Confetti burst out of previously hidden places and twinkled and sparkled around us as the spotlights started their dance highlighting the audience and then the lighting up the stars in the sky. The music was on point and we even snuck a kiss at midnight, a little win as public shows of affection aren’t really approved of in Korea.

Once the exhilaration died down, we made our way towards the exit to walk down the hill. It was rammed and we found ourselves stuck behind a TV van because of the impatient crowd. This is when the fireworks started. I’d totally forgotten there was supposed to be any! We could see most of them from behind the TV van and they were a pretty sight that was appreciated. Having said that, they weren’t anything particularly special and we began the walk down.

We met our friends in a small craft beer bar and the frivolities started off slowly. As we tried to find the next drinking hole, we realised that the area that had been so busy was now deserted. This was no longer the part of Busan to try and pull an all-nighter in! We decided to head to the Haeundae area so we didn’t have to worry about getting there when we were well and truly on our merry road to drunkenness. Unlike London, Busan does not extend public transport running times on New Year’s Eve so we had to get a particularly long taxi ride across Busan to the beach. Some of our friends who had booked accommodation decided to call it a night at this point and we departed, some of them promising to meet us at the beach for sunrise. We then began our desperate hunt for a bar that was still open. Who would have thought that would be so difficult on New Year’s Eve!?

Finally, we found a foreigner bar called ‘Thursday Party’ that was alive and kicking. Once we realised they did Long Island’s for 5,000 won, we decided to place ourselves there for the foreseeable. The night involved a rather long game of Beerpong, which it seems I am terrible at, and random conversations with some rather forward Koreans as well as a Pilipino Airline Pilot. Sadly this bar did finally wrap up around 4 or 5am. We still had hours to kill before the sunrise at 7.26am. We wandered on, the hunt for a bar revived. We found what looked to be a club from the outside; we entered past the unoccupied ticket booth and pushed the plain black door to see what was behind. We found ourselves in the middle of what seemed to be a rather lavish private party. There were girls on tables, girls in corners with guys and a lot of champagne and full bottles of liquor being swigged from. We were welcomed in and offered sips from the bottles. As we danced unsure of what we’d walked into, an uneasy feeling found us. We decided to leave. We weren’t sure who the people were and why they were so rich but we sought solace in our faithful McDonalds.

A few Egg McMuffins later, we headed to the beach for the finale. There was a stage and some music playing and we planted ourselves along the shoreline. Just a sprinkling of a crowd had started to gather. We stood and waited and as the sky began to lighten. The crowd around us started to grow. People were sending lanterns off into the air and had red balloons firmly in hand ready to release.

As the clock edged towards 7.26am, the sun began to rise and light up the sky and sea. Seagulls landed on the calm ocean and some swimmers braved the water for a closer look. Then the ships in the sea started to squirt huge beams of coloured water out into the sea and three helicopters from the military flew over with coloured smoke billowing from their tails. The birds squawked and erupted into the horizon, the balloons on the beach were let go and as they flew off into the ether. My group and I could only stand and stare open mouthed. Only in Korea could a natural beauty be so overshadowed by special effects and entertainment. Having said that, it really was a spectacle and as our tiredness began to creep up on us, I realised this was probably the most unique New Year I’d ever had.

We began to turn away from the sea to find a taxi. We were approached by a reporter for a major Korean news channel who wanted to interview us about our New Year’s Resolutions. In need of sleep yet still wanting to do it, I volunteered. Sadly my tired and alcohol-warmed brain wasn’t as quick as my enthusiasm and I came out with some rubbish about making the most of opportunities this year. My friend struggled similarly as she claimed this year she wanted to ‘focus more on what was going on’ – always a good one!

Heavy-eyed and ready to drop, we got a taxi to the bus stop and slept all the way back to Gwangju on the 9am bus. I’d done it, I’d pulled an all-nighter and I went home happy and thinking of only of sleep.

A Simple Eel Dinner

Our first Sunday night in Gwangju. We wanted dinner. We wanted something simple and cheap. Five minutes down the road, we spotted a Korean restaurant. We entered and were briskly welcomed by staff who automatically plonked down some water and a few sides of pickles. Looking at the menu on the wall, we realised we had no idea what to order. Luckily a drunk Korean guy stepped up to help us.

Introducing himself to us and asking lots of personal questions about us, he finally turned to food. What would we like? ‘God only knows’ we thought looking at the scribbly Korean characters on the wall. I slowly tried to read the first and shortest word on the menu. Wrong thing to do. He picked up on the word I was trying to read which was incidentally ‘Changa’ in romanized format. ‘Yes!’ he shouted excitedly, ‘yes, good choice!’ He went on to order us two of them, plus sides and finally two rice each.

Now we just had to wait. Sides just kept coming. More and more and more. Salads, pickles, fish cakes, cabbage, kimchi, weird balls of stuff…what was the actual main we thought?! Whilst waiting the waiter stalked our way with a colander of live fish flapping about under his hand. I froze thinking he was heading at me with them. Luckily, he shot past me to the table behind me who had a hot bbq grill ready and waiting. With aplomb he threw the live fish into the pan and the whole restaurant heard the sizzle! Again, we thought, ‘what is our main’?

Finally, it came out. Two long grey lengths of fish were laid down on the burning hot stone grill in front of us. The silver skin simmered as the long gutted fish lay there cooking. Eel. Who would have thought on entering that this would be our simple Sunday night meal? The eel was cooked and then chopped into manageable chunks and lettuce leaves were brought over. In typical Korean style, which we didn’t know too well at the time, we added the eel to a lettuce leaf we held in our hand, added pepper sauce and other sides and then ate it all in one. It was yummy. Not something I would have predicted. The drunk guy wouldn’t leave us alone once the Eel came. ‘How is it?’, ‘Mmm?’, ‘Give me your number’ – which my boyfriend did. He even drop called him to check it was the real number. Luckily, the English phone number didn’t work in Korea. Score!

We left the restaurant full and pretty surprised. We were 60 dollars worse off and wondering if we would have food poisoning on our first day of school. Even so, we were happily bemused, knowing we’d left with a story to tell. Until we saw the other Eel’s in the tank out the front. Long, black fish squirming about like blood-sucking leeches. My stomach turned slightly as we walked away praying for the day we had data and google translate on our phones.

Boseong Green Tea Fields

I had heard so much about these fields and really wanted to go. Other foreign teachers had been and returned with great pictures and remarks about the place but for a while we just hadn’t found time to go. Finally, this changed and we were headed to Boseong with a group of friends who also hadn’t yet got around to it.

The bus from U Square Bus Terminal took about an hour and a half. Most trips out of Gwangju seem to take a similar time which is odd. Once we arrived in Boseong we realised we didn’t know actually where the fields were. I’d kind of assumed it would be obvious on arrival. One of our friends said we needed to ask for Daehan Dawon when we got into the taxi. We split two taxis and on plonking ourselves in, realised the friend who knew where we were going was in the taxi in front and we couldn’t remember where we were supposed to ask for.

‘Follow the cab in front’, we directed with urgency! The taxi driver got it somehow, I think he understood a certain level of English and probably also knew that we’d want to head to the Tea Fields as I’m not really sure what else there is for tourists in Boseong!

When we got there we bought entry to the fields for a minimal fee and wandered into the forested area. As we turned around the bend, the tea fields towered up above us in terraces on the side of a tall hill. They were magnificent. The greenery shone in the sun and the terraces layered up to an impressive height.

We followed the path up and stopped at the various lookout points that allowed us to look over the fields. Although it was November it was still warm and in shorts, the hike up to the top was somewhat less painful than it could have been. Once at the top, the view was outstanding, not just down at the terraces but also the view for miles around.

As well as the fields, the park also includes a small bamboo forest and a Yew Tree forest as well as waterfall – which was pretty small but we went to see all of these anyway.

We’d heard a lot about the green tea icecream and tried it before lunch. This was really good, it was sweeter than I expected and tasted a little like pistachio icecream but you could definitely get that green tea taste. The restaurant on site was Korean in style and sold, you guessed it, green tea-infused food. Amongst our group we opted for, green tea bimimbap, green tea noodles and a hot and spicy soup (devoid of green tea – I think but who can be sure!) The hot and spicy soup totally blew my socks off, they did not lie. It was a nice day out in the sun to see a pretty impressive sight.

We went back again a few months later, but this time to see their Light Festival which was in the evening.

It was definitely busier this time and there were so many food stalls and pop-restaurants which made the food choice wider.

The light festival was really impressive and included a dragon’s head, a light tunnel, light hearts and so much more.

There don’t seem to be taxi ranks at Boseong Tea Fields so it’s important to get the number of the taxi that brings you there. Getting a taxi back from the light festival was difficult and we nearly missed the last bus back to Gwangju because we’d forgotten to do this.

As a day out or early evening entertainment for the Light Festival, Boseong was good fun and had impressive views. There isn’t a huge amount to do there but we were content on the way back both times we went. A little less content the first time when we went during the day as we were ‘lucky’ enough to have a Korean singer on our bus who screeched/sung loudly all the way home. Perfect!