I have spent the past four days in Gyeongju, the former capital city of the Silla kingdom, attending Fulbright’s biannual conference. It was nice to see people and get some fresh ideas, but it was actually tiring, what with all the travel and meetings. I am sooooo glad to be home and eating good food again, too! All the meals we had in Gyeongju tasted disgusting to me, for some reason. Guess I’m spoiled at home.
On Saturday, I spent the morning traveling to Gyeongju and showed up just in time for lunch. I traveled with Erin, the elementary ETA who lives relatively near to me, and it was a good chance to talk to her and get to know her a bit better, though we went our separate ways once at the conference. We spent the afternoon in meetings and had a lakeside dinner on Fulbright. We stayed at a motel a little outside the city in the tourist district beside a lake and it was nice enough, I suppose. Very 1970s, but relatively clean. I roomed with Robin and Irene and Bianca. Our original fourth roommate, Amy, never showed up, so we let Bianca sleep there when she was ill the first night (from boozin’, of course!) and she never left. Now that was an interesting night…just like the good ole days, drinking in front of GS Mart. It was a little frustrating to take care of someone, though. She was not in good shape at all, and interrupted my norebang session!
The second day was reserved for sightseeing, again on Fulbright. It was nice of them to arrange this, but I was too tired to enjoy it. I actually hate being on a timed schedule like that, especially in such a large group. You have no flexibility and you always end up waiting for someone. They did wait for me one time, so that was nice, but it wasn’t the type of sightseeing I prefer.
That night, we had a free evening and I ended up watching Dirty Dancing (in English!) and going out to pizza with a bunch of peeps. We had some intense dinner convo—it was a good time to hear about everyone’s Korean experiences.
Monday was reserved for the bulk of the conference—presentations and discussion groups. It was tedious at times, but overall a good experience. It was surprising, in retrospect, how little time was spent in actual conference. Just a little over a day…I thought Fulbright would be working us harder, since they spent so much on the conference! I’m not complaining, though.
Monday night was really fun. We had dinner again at the lakeside restaurant and then some of us rented swan-shaped paddle boats and played on the water for awhile, racing against and tackling other boats. It was a good time. There must have been 25 or so ETAs on the water at one time! As we were docking, there was a band playing at a bar to no one. We ended up staying there, dancing and singing. It was really fun, but not too crazy…just the way I like it!
Tuesday was a lazy day spent mostly in transit. I slept in, bought some special Gyeongju red bean pastries (which I think are gross but are evidently a trademark of the city and make good presents), and said goodbye again. Erin and I left around 1, this time accompanied by Amy, another elementary ETA who was going to travel to North Korea with Erin. On the way back, we stopped at Homever, a Koreanish Target, where I bought some more food for the family. I had sooo much stuff on the way home! I could barely carry it all. I finally got back to Hongsan a little after eight and had to walk home with all of it in the dark. It was really a pain. I don’t know how well I would have made it if my host father hadn’t picked me up halfway home. I have no idea if he had heard I was struggling home or was just out, but I was supremely grateful nonetheless. And man, it was good to be home!