One week later...

 Hello.

What a week. I'd say that that was all I could say but I think it would make for a very boring blog post if that really was all I could say. Plus, I can say more than 'that is all I can say'.

I started my travels (with Amy and Ekta) on Friday evening, with a bus journey from Sunchang to Gwangju, followed by a later bus from Gwangju to Daegu, where we spent the night. I stayed in my first ever love motel! We had checked out another one but it was a 'pay by the hour' kind of place and we thought that it wasn't quite suited to our needs. The man in charge of our motel assumed that I wanted to share the room with a lady who was stood behind us in the queue.

No thanks. Just me.

 

Welcome to the boudoir.

The next morning, we took a bus from Daegu to Andong, where the Andong Mask Festival was taking place. It was very big and we got to see a Lion Dance. They're shaggier than the Chinese dragon costumes, and cuter I think. Someone misheard as going to see a line dance, which would have been fun but I think I'm on the wrong continent for that.

 Cheeky lions.

We spent two days in Andong and here are some things that happened:

• A man asked if I wanted to hold his beetles, and when I asked if they would bite he said 'sure'. No thanks.
• The same man asked if I wanted to hold his tarantula, and when I asked if it would bite he said 'sure, it has venom'. Again, no thanks.
• We climbed the cliffs you can see to your right. Both the advised path and the unadvised path. That's enough on that.
• Amy spoke to some chickens in chicken. They spoke back in chicken. A dog watched the whole thing and looked pretty confused.
• I got 'married' to my neighbour Ekta and dressed up in some traditional Korean gear. See below:

For the next leg of my trip, I went to Jinju while Amy and Ekta made their way to Seoul.  Here, some fellow 9th Generation TaLKers and I managed to attend the floating lantern festival and see its opening ceremony. We saw the most amazing fireworks display from on top of the fortress on the Nam River. They just kept on getting bigger and bigger until they were filling the entire sky.  'OH MY GOD!' was gasped many a time.

The accommodation in Jinju for Monday night was an ondol room. Ondol is the underfloor heating which is found throughout Korea, and seven of us shared the floor and some 'cushy' blankets for the evening. I say that seven of us shared the room, but there was a creepy centipede in the tub, a cricket in the main room (which Florina heard moving in the night) and a spider/mosquito hybrid lurking on the bathroom door, meaning that I got to do an action film-esque kicking of the door to get out. No way was I touching that door handle with Mr Spindly having hidden away from me somewhere again.

Finally, me and my fellow scholars retired to Jeonju for Tuesday night where Anna, Dom and I went out for dinner and just ended up having pudding. Lots of pudding. We had a waffle each, a chocbingsu, some more chocolates and a smoothie to top it all off. Oh, we had a cookie too. Then we went on the swings. It makes sense to do physical activity when you've just eaten BEHEMOTH AMOUNTS of chocolate... right?

 Chocbingsu + Complimentary Cookie

Don't worry I wasn't sick.

On Thursday I went on the school trip to a couple of Gwangju museums. It was a nice day spent with both teachers and students. In one of the museums, there was a big drum, detailed on the plaque next to it as 'A big drum'. Inspiring.

Later on this morning, I'll be catching a bus to Seoul for ANOTHER (four) round(s) of fireworks, partying and a trip to the DMZ on Sunday. AND I STILL HAVEN'T PACKED!

Gamsahapnida for reading!

Busy Bee.


P.S. This is a picture of me on a cow with a funny face which I couldn't put into context anywhere else.