The Village Bikes

We've bought bikes! Yay! They're pretty cheap but already they're proving to be worthwhile purchases. Straight after buying them yesterday, we rode down to the river that runs through the middle of the city. There're a fair amount of cycle paths about, which is handy as the roads are terrifying and full of crazy drivers. But the path running alongside the river is perfect for riding. A lot of it is freshly laid and nice and smooth. Anyway, we decided to ride around a bit with the vague idea of exploring somewhere new and maybe visiting the May 18th memorial park (May 18th is the date of a huge public uprising which is pretty legendary. Look it up!). So we headed off along the path. The map we have is a little sketchy on detail, not helped by the fact that most streets don't have any names at all, and anything that does have a name is obviously in Korean. So we took what we thought was the correct exit ramp and went up into a ludicrous traffic jam with 3 Korean policemen attempting to direct cars with random whistle blowing and arm waving. We decided it was walking time so dismounted and ducked off the busy road onto a much smaller street which turned out to be the start of a huge market.

Now, although being in Gwangju is very different to being somewhere like... Birmingham, it's not much like a lot of Asia (or so I'm told) as it is very developed, the streets are pretty clean, everywhere doesn't smell of sewage and it's not really a poor country. Particularly where we live, in MaeGok Dong. But this market was like plunging into a different world. Everything seemed very crammed in, the smells of different herbs, spices, vegetables and caged animals mixed everywhere and we got stared at more than anywhere we've been yet. It was ace! Loads of older Korean women were saying hello and waving at us, which is kind of unusual. It tends to just be the kids that get excited, the adults tend to ignore us or stare silently! I was a little overawed and pushing my bike so didn't take many pictures, damn me. But we will be returning sans bikes at some point so will soon be able to display the aceness to the world. We wandered through looking at endless stalls (by stalls I mean women sitting on the floor with food laid out on blankets and in baskets) of veg, fish and caged chickens for a while until we reached a busy road. We then decided it was time we got back to looking for the Memorial Park so hopped back on our bikes and headed up the hill. After a few minutes we started to get a little puzzled by the road signs as they all seemed to be directing us to things that should be a long way away and not to things that should be quite close. Eventually it dawned on us that we had somehow managed to ride the totally opposite direction down the river so were nowhere near the Memorial Park. Oops. It was a huge amount of fun anyway and I'm looking forward to doing lots more of bike related exploration in the future. Also anyone that comes to visit us can use our lovely bikes to get around (as long as they're very careful with them. Becky is insisting that we name them, so by the time we have visitors they will be like children. But less noisy and demanding. And easier to use for transportation)!

Today we are somewhat hungover as we had an unplanned, but very comical, night out last night. We got a little carried away in drinking games and got peer pressured into going to Speakeasy, so headed out with everyone else at about 12.30. We only ended up staying in Speakeasy for a couple of hours cos the music was a bit rubbish, so Nicole suggested we relocate to a Nori-Bang (karaoke room). This was our first experience of Korean karaoke and was kinda weird but fun. We had our own room with a bank of TV screens and lists of thankfully English tunes to choose from. For some totally unknown reason I ended up doing a lot of singing. Apologies to all who attended. It's a weird experience, as you're allowed to take in your own drink and food and stay pretty much as long as you want. I think the room was hired by time periods, but I'm not sure how long those periods were. We stayed for 3 of them anyway and left at around 6am, all sung out. I found out later that we were actually in a Nori-Bang with 'extras' in the form of... um, nice young ladies to keep you company. For money. Interesting! This may explain why I was approached by a friendly Korean girl on my way back from the toilet to our room. I didn't understand a word she said of course, so maybe she was just asking me the time or something. But I'd rather believe that I've had my first ever proposition by a lady of the night! Fun times.

Other exciting news - as well as Liz, Ellie and Amy having booked tickets to come abuse our hospitality at Christmas, Vicky and Dom are supposed to be booking their tickets tomorrow. Also our parents and my cousin Mark are getting their visiting plans in order, Nick and Nat are entertaining the possibility of working out here in the midst of their traveling extravaganza and Katy and Andrew are contemplating a visit as well I understand! Highly pleasing all round. Anyone else who wishes to join us is more than welcome! Specifically Ann-Marie and TJ would be nice.

Ooh, finally, this is a picture of one of my favourite students, Billy (almost all our students are given English names by the teachers here, often very strange names. In my classes I have a Lion, a Hunter and an unfortunate boy named Louise. Also I have a Steve who was known as Rose at his previous Hogwan). I have a one on one lesson with him twice a week, and he's very good fun. I have taught him to play shove ha'penny, and he brings me ice cream. Anyway, I told him I was going to put him on the internet and make him famous, so... here he is.