The Ultimate Guide to Boseong, South Korea: Sleep It!

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To read the Ultimate Boseong Guide post about lodging, please click HERE to be redirected!

Thanks, and happy travels!

~Nomadic Madda

The Ultimate Guide to Boseong, South Korea: Find It!

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To read the Ultimate Boseong Guide post on access and transport, please click HERE to be redirected!

Thanks, and happy travels!

~Nomadic Madda

City Highlights: Waxing in Gwangju

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No Excuses Just Travel has recently relocated to http://www.noexcusesjusttravel.org.  

To read about waxing services in Gwangju, please click HERE to be redirected!

Thanks, and happy travels!

~Nomadic Madda

Winter Vacation 2016: Kurokawa, Japan (Part III)

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To read about our trip to Kurokawa, Japan during winter vacation, please click HERE to be redirected!

Thanks, and happy travels!

~Nomadic Madda

Winter Vacation 2016: Yufuin, Japan

The next morning, we pulled ourselves together and headed for brunch at Yoshizuka Unagiya (博多名代 吉塚うなぎ屋), which specializes in unagi (eel) dishes.  It was incredibly well seasoned and full of classically Japanese flavors.  The restaurant opens at 11AM, and while we couldn’t get a reservation, we were told that if we came and waited right when they opened, we could get a table.  When we arrived at 10:50, they were already open and had many tables seated!  We were able to get one right away at 11AM.

Eel and miso soup for breakfast. Really tasty!

Our bus to Yufuin left at 12:30, so we ended up timing things perfectly.  We had pre-purchased bus passes to use that allowed us to pre-reserve seats for all of our trips.  I highly recommend getting them, as they allow you to hop on and off the inner city buses as well all throughout the Northern Kyushu area!

What had been an overcast morning turned into a steady drizzle by the time we boarded out bus.  It made for a rather pretty ride though, creating rolling waves of mist and fog between mountain peaks.  I love the glimpses of traditional Japanese villages nestled into the crooks of mountains as well.

On the bus to Yufuin!

Winter Vacation 2016: Fukuoka, Japan

With winter camp finished, winter vacation periods for foreign English teachers have begun!  For the first part of my trip, I made a trip back to Japan.  Last year my friend Rory and I went to the Kansai region of Japan to visit the old capital city of Kyoto and the food mecca Osaka.  This year, J and I made a trip to the Kyushu island region where we experienced Japanese onsen (hot spring) culture.

Even though it was only 4 days, our trip took us to three different cities and dipped into three different prefectures: Fukuoka City in Fukuoka Prefecture, Yufuin in Oita Prefecture, and Kurokawa Onsen in Kumamoto Prefecture.

Our first stop in Fukuoka City reminded me so much of why I love Japan.  There’s something about the analog-esque feel of this country that I really love, from the bus stations to the cars on the streets to the local fashion.  You can frequently spot western influences throughout, though they seem as if they’ve been taken from 1970’s North America and England and have since grown into something uniquely Japanese.

After arriving at the airport, I quickly grabbed a (highly-anticipated) hot royal milk tea from the convenience store before we hopped our bus into the city.  Once downtown near Tenjin (天神), it was a short eight minute walk to our hotel where we were right on time for check-in.

On a local bus, heading downtown from the airport.

English Camps in Korea & How To Develop A Successful One

The idea of coursework during summer and winter vacations is quite foreign to most westerners--as is a school year that starts in March!  Unlike the west, schools in Korea begin their school year on or around March 1st.  Students are then in school until the end of July, taking their summer vacation throughout the month of August.  The second semester spans from the end of August until Christmas, and the students have a long winter break for all of January.  Weirdly enough, they come back for the first week of February for graduation, but then go on break again (for Lunar New Year) until the new school year begins in March.

However, students aren't free to relax, go on vacation, or even really get much of a break during these "vacation" periods because they are required to attend "camps".  Camps (and for us native English teachers, English camps, specifically) are additional special courses that students must enroll in during their summer and winter vacation times.

This is similar to how kindergarten started out as completely optional in the USA--wait.  Did you even know kindergarten was optional in the USA?  In fact, even today only 16 states mandate kindergarten enrollment!  Today, kindergarten is seen as such a norm and necessity we don't even question the idea of enrolling our children in it.  Parents don't want their children to be "left behind" their classmates academically and socially upon entering 1st grade, so the idea not enrolling them isn't even given a second thought.

This is essentially the mentality behind Korean summer and winter courses, as well as the hagwon  (학원: Korean private school/academy) obsession pushed upon Korean students today.  Parents, and many times even the students themselves, are so obsessed with getting that extra leg-up against their peers that they're willing to sacrifice nearly any and all free time.  Of course (just like kindergarten enrollment in the States), when everyone does it, it eventually becomes expected.  To not attend winter or summer camp would be seen as quite strange or lazy.

Most native English teachers (NETs) are asked to teach two weeks of camp in the winter, and two in the summer.  Some schools condense it into one, and others have even extended it into three or four.  It all depends on the needs of the school and the teacher's mandated vacation time, which is why teachers at different schools will have different breaks and camp requirements.  As contracted public school teachers in Jeollanamdo, our contracts entitle us to 24 paid vacation days in winter and 8 in summer.   This means that for the long winter break of January and February, any days that are not in my 24 approved days I must be in school as I'm being paid for them.  Most schools will have teachers "desk warm" during that time (no classes to teach, just required to be present in the office), though the school has the right to utilize us for camp classes during those days if they so desire.

City Highlights: Shopping in Gwangju

While my switch from apparel design and production to linguistics and the ESL world may have seemed abrupt, I certainly haven't left the world of fashion entirely!  Shopping is still one of my favorite aspects of travel, and I love discovering the unique aesthetics and styles of each city and country I travel through.
Korea has been inching its way into the fashion spotlight over the last few years, especially in terms of street style.  While foreigners often think of Japan as being a more experimental and fashion-forward center of Asian street style, after traveling the two countries that doesn't seem to be the case.  Japanese subcultures and their extreme fashion are certainly more "out there" than Korean fashion, but when you look at the average Japanese street crowd, you'll find a lot of black, grey, and navy and the same dull business suits and skirts shuffling past.
Korea, on the other hand, has become extremely experimental.  Still conformist in the sense that trends are followed with a herd-like mentality, but the fashions that catch on here seem to be far more expressive and flamboyant.  For example, a current trend this past fall/winter 2015 has been cropped pants.  For Korean men, this is exhibited in the form of a very slim, tailored pant that ends short, just above the ankle, and is paired with either (often contrasting) socks or bare skin.  A more casual alternative is a cuffed skinny jean, achieving the same look.

A photo posted by @wanshiki on Oct 18, 2014 at 8:18pm PDT	A photo posted by Kyunghun Kim (@halopeoplekr) on Nov 2, 2015 at 3:16am PST
Three young Korean men showing the cropped pant look, featuring cuffed denim, bare ankles, sneakers, socks, and boots.	Five young Korean men showing the biggest trends for this fall: slim, tailored, cropped pants; wool overcoats in a variety of colors; sweaters layered over collared shirts, and bare ankles peeking out over leather dress shoes.

For women, the cropped pant trend manifests itself in the form of culottes, where the comes in a wider variety of patterns and colors. Koreans aren't afraid to incorporate these trends into their work wardrobes, and many professionals can be seen with fun pops of color, patterns, and on-trend tailoring influencing even the most conservative of business dress.

A photo posted by SOL-SOL Street (@solsolstreet) on Oct 26, 2015 at 12:29am PDT	A photo posted by Korea Street Fashion (@realstreet1) on Oct 20, 2015 at 7:32pm PDT
A woman at Seoul Fashion Week shows off her boldly patterned culottes (cropped, wide-leg pants) and a chunky knit sweater.	A young professional shows how bold fashion has pushed business wear in Korea. Note the unique cut to her button down shirt; loud, printed skirt; and bold accessory choices.

With Koreans quickly embracing fashion as a form of self-expression and stepping out of the old shadows of conformity, shopping in Korea is more exciting than ever.  While there are a plethora of resources and shopping guides available for Seoul and Busan, I didn't see too much out there for some of the other larger cities in Korea.  After living in Jeollanamdo for the last year and a half, I've become a frequent visitor (and shopper) in the downtown Chungjangro (충장로) area of Gwangju (광주).  I recently went and visited my 12 favorite shops in the area, which I have marked out on the map below:

Cosmetic Procedures & Dermatology in Korea Part III: The Results

ATTENTION: 

This post contains before and after images of the procedures I had done.  They are not graphic, but are cropped, close-up, and high-definition images of skin and hair, including some near the bikini area.

So was it worth it?!  For those of you who have been following my skin care and cosmetic journey, you're likely already aware of the procedures I had done two months ago.  For those who aren't you can catch up on my first post detailing my search for a clinic, and my second post detailing what the actual procedures and process were like.

So let's get into it!  At the end of November, I scheduled a variety of appointments at Dr. Han & Woo's Skin Clinic with Dr. Geun-soo Lee.  He performed the following:

• Broken red blood vessel removal with the Starlux laser
• Botox injections in the forehead
• Laser hair removal on my underarms and bikini with the Candela laser

And down in the aesthetics center I had a facial for the removal of milia.  Dr. Lee only works in the laser center, so even though he did my consultation and I booked my facial through him, I was directed to a professional in that area for the actual service.  Anyway!  My results were as follows:

Red Blood Vessel Removal
Area: Face
Equipment used: Starlux laser
Happy?: Yes, very!

Before and after, from left to right.

This was really effective for me!  I initially wanted to spot treat some really obvious areas (two of which you can see just below my curve of my nostril, and then off to the left on my cheek), but Dr. Lee treated the inner area of my nose as well.  I didn't even realize this was all from blood vessels, but the treatment with the Starlux laser was definitely effective!  I hardly even need my green tinted primer anymore.  My cheeks still have a bit of general red, but that's something to be treated with a mini-Fraxel session or IPL on another day.  My only complaint about this is that this area on the bridge of my nose is still red and there's one tiny spot near my eye that we missed, but my nose might not be broken blood vessels and may therefore need a different kind of treatment, like my cheek.