Guest blogger

DB Visits V & N
I rolled into town from Beijing, after a one week China trip, to visit V & N, 2 of the best English teachers in the Yangsan residential area of Korea. My English speaking skills had regressed after a week in China and I found myself telling V that they had “a no very much apartment” and asking N, “Do we have to go far and far to the Kim Chee Festival?” But my English interpretation and listening skills were enhanced as I was able to determine that “Stoll is Los” means that “the store is to the north” and that “low lain,frying” means that “it is not raining those are insects hitting the windshield”.

It was great to see N & V in their new digs in the north end of Gwangju. I got into Seoul Saturday afternoon and they met me downtown in time to watch the Gwangju Kia Tigers win the Korean Baseball World Series with a dramatic 9th inning, game 7 walk-off homer. We watched the game in a small diner while having some Korean food (imagine that!?).
We then met Anne, Amanda and Billy, some teacher friends, downtown Gwangju after a KTX train ride at up to 200 mph from Seoul. We toured some of the night clubs in Old-Gwangju and drank some varieties of the local cocktail called soju (kind of a weak vodka).

Sunday morning, Vann made some ham, garlic & eggs, garnished with some Korean pepper paste and N got a variety of pastries from the local bakery and we fueled up. We then cabbed it down to the World Cup Stadium to partake of the Gwangju Kim Chee Festival. We sampled all kinds of Kim Chee and its accessories, including kim (seaweed), SamPong (honey-filled rice balls), dried squid and other scary stuff. There were hundreds of vendors and many, many, more, very much kinds of Kim Chee. We met some local Koreans and V & N practiced their conversational Korean. It was the best Kim Chee Festival EVER!!

(DB sorry about the late post - V only just sent to this to me and only b/c he saw that I was halfway through a post about the kimchi festival...duh)