Work has been pretty stressful during April. I’m still dealing with a completely new set of classes and we had to do phone teaching on top if that. It wasn’t meant to take long but I think it took me over 5 hours because I had to call many of the kids about 5 times on different days to get hold of them. They are cute on the phone, but no one likes doing extra work :s I’m not really enjoying my younger classes but at least my older classes aren’t too bad.
We were recently asked to re-sign for another year, but we said no. They were willing to give us a month off and a raise, but really the job isn’t worth it. I think about 6 out of 7 of the foreign teachers are all leaving at roughly the same time, so that’s going to be interesting for the company! Our current (vague) plans are to go home for 4 or 5 months and work on creative projects, then head back to Seoul.
Anyway, we were definitely looking forward to a little break. We planned to go to Busan for our long weekend with Pete and Jess (fellow NZers) from Seoul and we had a great time! We were lucky to have both Buddha’s Birthday and Children’s day off, so we had a 4 day weekend.
On Friday we walked through the 5:18 park (near our work and apartment) so we could look at all the Buddha’s Birthday lanterns. So pretty!
Buddha’s Birthday lanterns in Gwangju
Buddha’s Birthday lanterns in Gwangju
On Saturday we packed and got to the bus terminal around midday. We arrived in Busan in the afternoon and headed straight to Gwangalli beach which was really beautiful. We walked around then bought some drinks and sat enjoying the sunset while we waited for Pete and Jess. I really fell in love with the relaxed beach-y vibe. It started to get darker and colder so we ventured inland and explored a little more. We found an unused amusement park and a great Gelato place. We were also keeping an eye out for places to stay. It started getting quite late so we ended up looking for motels more urgently. We kept being told everything in the area was booked so we were getting quite afraid! Eventually we met up with Pete and Jess who were on a very delayed bus! We’re lucky there was no traffic coming from Gwangju. We took a subway far up into the city and eventually found a motel with the help of a nice Korean man who took us around. Whew!!
We found cute little dogs in a cafe
Gwangalli
Gwangalli panorama
We took a taxi back down to Gwangalli and looked for somewhere to eat (around 11pm). The only places serving food were bars, so we ended up at Fuzzy Navel; a bar serving Mexican food with a great view of the beach. We also had far too many pitchers of Long Island Iced Teas. Long story short I ended up remembering nothing of the rest of the night, and was extremely sick that night and all the next day. The others had a great time having soju shots with some random Koreans in a food tent near our motel!
Drinks and mexican food at Gwangalli
The next day was a bit of a disaster because Rob and I couldn’t get out of bed until 6pm! We headed out to Gwangalli again for dinner – yummy burgers and wedges (with aioli!) at Thursday Party. Afterwards we walked along the beach, let off some fireworks and sparklers and ate gelato.
Mmm burgers, wedges and aioli!
Diamond bridge
Fireworks fun
On Monday we all headed to Haeundae beach for some sun, sand and food. Haeundae was very busy and had a great vibe; very summery. After a bit of sun we went searching for something to eat, but there were queues and long waits everywhere, so we had to cancel our orders of burgers and chips so Pete and Jess could catch their bus! Rob and I went to an Indian place after walking around for a bit. It was delicious! Much better than the places in Gwangju 😦 We will definitely be going back for that curry (and the beach). We took a subway a few stops up and checked out the art museum and the biggest department store in the world. It was just a massive Shinsegae so we had seen all the shops before, but it was still fun seeing how big it was. I bought some essentials from M.A.C and Uniqlo, and then we headed to the boutique food section on the ground floor. So many amazing cakes! I got a massive 3 layered red velvet cake and bought some brie and crackers. So good.
Haeundae beach
Haeundae beach
Art Museum
Many food stands like this at Shinsegae – so tempting!
We headed back to the motel to nap and relax, and then had galbi (korean bbq beef ribs). We watched The Lorax on the massive TV in our motel, then we managed to download Game of Thrones which we watched before bed.
Tuesday we decided just to head straight to the terminal instead of doing any more sightseeing. I’m glad we did because the buses were getting quite booked out. We got back to Gwangju and relaxed for the evening 🙂 It definitely felt nice being home after 4 days, especially because Busan was a little smelly and noisy. It’s nice being in quiet little Gwangju sometimes.
Carly In Korea 