One Month in Korea

Yesterday marked my one month since arriving here in Korea!! Cannot believe it- officially the longest I have ever been away from South Africa before... and yes, I miss South Africa and everyone in it every day. But, I am truly loving Korea and becoming quite settled here in Gumi.

My Apartment Block

My Street

My Walk to work

A little update on my neighbourhood. First is the CU Mart- basically like a 7-11 (although we have that here too). Always handy for a gimbap on the run or any other basics. Then there is my favourite Gimbap restaurant. They serve pretty much everything here- all really tasty and really cheap!

Trusty little CU

Best Gimbap!!:)

Of course, I have been going on about my two favourite coffee places (so far), Cafe Bene and Gusto's. So, here is a little view of two of them. This being the Cafe Bene at the train station and Gusto's right at my school. Both are pretty amazing, I have just had to learn that in Korea, you meet a friend for a meal and in South Africa, for coffee. And, that is just fine :)

Cafe Bene is the one below, Cafe Droptop is another one I still need to try...

Beautiful Gusto's

All coffee mugs here are very well branded, and often with interesting cup sleeves too...

In the last week, I FINALLY got my ARC card, making me an official alien in Korea!! :D I was also able to get a bank account and phone sorted. Thanks to my amazing co-workers, this took a few hours to get sorted (mostly while I was in class)!! New phone of course means I now have no excuse to be photographing (and instagramming) everything I see.

Hippie Soul update: I have found some amazing festivals happening here! Sadly, no tie-dye attire to be worn to said festivals, but am thinking on investing in an awesome onesie to keep up the festive vibes! Next weekend I will be heading of to the beautiful coastal city of Busan! Saturday will be spent exploring the awesomness of Busan (I WILL hold my camera at all times as I have been pretty pathetic on the photo front). Then, Sunday morning, we will head down to the beach for the Holi Hai Colour Fest! So, now the FOMO of missing the colour fest in Cape Town will be appeased!! Soooo excited!!

Gumi Glory update: Gumi, aka Little South Africa is amazing! Yes, it is smaller than most cities, but the sense of community here is awesome! It also helps (in my mind) that there is only one foreigner bar in Gumi, Corona, so you always meet up with everyone here. On Friday, I met up with a South African, Liske (turns out she randomly met up with my big boss Alastair on a ski trip in Austria so he put us in contact...SMALL WORLD). So, met up with Liske and some other EPIK teachers living in Gumi... about 90% of them were Saffas (LOVE it). Met some really awesome South Africans who really made me feel right at home ;)

So, my Friday night was spent pretty much like the average person back home: surrounded by South Africans, drinking Savanas and partying hard... Only difference: I'm in Gumi, so add Soju to the mix...oh, and Korea does not have a last close. The bar closes when you are ready for it to close!! So, we ended up partying till 6am (pretty stoked that in my "old" age, I can still party like a 18 year old)... things escalated at one point when a decision was made that we should DEFINITELY go to Daegu!! So easy as the train is right at Corona and only costs like $3 do get to Daegu (which has proper dance clubs, so it felt like a great idea). This is the reason why the trains stop running between 2am and 6.30am. It is merely to protect people from getting eager for adventure, and subsequently passing out on the train and finding themselves in another city...

Just a bunch of Saffas drinking Savanas...as you do :)

So instead, we all went our separate ways and I found my way to my lovely and warm bed just as the sun was rising.

I then spent Saturday remembering that I am not 18 anymore and that if I do chose to party till 6am, I will feel it later on... Totally worth it though! At Corona, there is no OFFICIAL Dj, only a laptop that pretty much anyone can change the song. So, thanks to Goldie's love (and mine to be honest) of Thrift shop...we maaaay have played it about six times that night! Alternating (or at least trying to) with Taylor Swift's "Trouble". Best part of the night (if you ask me at least) was this one girl pretty much break dancing to Scream and Shout, only to pause, cup her face and add a "Hello Kitty" to her dance move. Maybe it was a "had to be there moment", but I loved it!

Other "win" of the weekend: went on a shopping adventure to Home Plus on Saturday- love that place! Finally bought a router so now I have wifi!! This meant I could rearrange my entire apartment so am very happy with the Feng Shui of it now ;) I also found some awesome specials, like banana's!! So, I will probably be living on banana's for the next while (you have to take your fruit intake where you can).

Guess what I will be living on for the next while!!

Awesome Hangover food!! And yes, the fat kid in me at EVERYTHING

Anyhoo, only a few more days until the Holi  Hai awesomeness!! Cannot wait! :D