Visits and Exploring

My first weekend in Gwangju City is half over already. I spent the past week doing NOTHING! and for those of you that know me well, I can't stand doing nothing. I always have to be doing something productive. Ok, maybe not productive, but something anyway. Unlike some people I know (Kristen), I can't spend an entire day on the internet or watching TV shows! So since Kristen was being bored at school and I was being bored in the apartment, I spent my time doing a few things. Looking up churches on the internet, finding places to visit all over Korea as well as in Gwangju itself, walking around and checking out shops, almost getting hit by cars, and finding somewhere to run. There is no place I can find where I can run. It's rather depressing considering running is how I release stress. You might be thinking, um Tara, just go down the sidewalks. Not that hard. Well, actually it is hard. Every three feet there's another intersection to cross and a lot of them you have to wait awhile. I did manage to find the National Museum which you cross this rather long highway to get there so running there and back, plus around the parking lot should work ok until I can find an actual park.
Thursday Uncle Ron came to visit for a few hours. We went out for lunch and then out for drinks. It was rather amusing since he came and then asked where's a good place to eat and Kristen and I went...uh... we actually haven't looked around much in the city. So Uncle Ron had to show us around OUR city! haha. He found the main food area so now we know where to go. We had a pork BBQ which you cook the meat yourself, put it in a leaf of lettuce then put in sauces, bean sprouts, greens, Kimchi, or whatever else you want. Then you fold it over and stuff the whole thing in your mouth and try not to gag on it! It was awesome!
Today (Saturday) Laura and Amanda, both from Caledonia, who we met on this trip came to visit us from Hwasan and we explored the downtown area near the bus terminal. Last night when picking up Laura we had major difficulties getting to the terminal. We were told to take bus 51...bus 51 did NOT get us there! we ended up who knows where and had to take a taxi back which cost us 7,400 won ($7 CND). Then we took a taxi back to our house and it only cost 4,800 won... we were really out there. Today though we looked up on trusty ol google maps and figured out what bus to take so now we know! We even met an American Korean man who took us everywhere we needed to go since we had no idea how to get there! So now I'm feeling a little more knowledgeable about this city! What I learned though is that the department stores are insane! You can go up about 10 flights of escalators for one store. Which also means you can't buy everything on one level. I found guitars too. The cheapest I could find was 100,000 Won ($100), but I'm going to check out side stores first before I buy one from the big department stores. I would also love a key board, but that would be not cheap so I'll survive with a guitar. I can't wait to find one. I need something to play in my tons of spare time!
Lets see, what else... oh yeah. Korean Chips are disgusting. There were these deals on in the grocery store, three bags for 800 won (80 cents) so being the good dutch girl, I bought them. ew. that's all I have to say. I also got cereal half price plus it came with a free spoon! AND our grocery store is basically like COSTCO. They give out free samples! Which includes fruits...it's awesome. I should just eat my dinners there. Ok, so since there was nothing TOO interesting in here, I'm going to end this post and update it when I have something to write that you actually want to hear about :)