I'm sure many of you scoffed at the prospect of me writing my next post in a more timely fashion than my past few entries and it seems I have given you good reason to do so. My plan to post every two or three days or so has been, as of yet, a mere dream. I apologize to all my readers, both stalwart and casual. Though I don't aim to make any promises, I urge you to not give up hope. I still may manage to establish some kind of regularity for this thing in the future.

The Korean humidity that I have heard so much about before this has begun its descent onto the urban confines of Gwangju Metropolitan City. It's still rather bearable but from what I understand it's still the beginning. I'm pretty thankful for the six sticks of Old Spice that I toted over here with me at the beginning of this trip. I imagine such foresight will pay considerable dividends in the future.

I've been having some pretty good times with my class which, I forgot to mention, is called Princeton Class. I couldn't help but smile at my fortune early on when the one guy from Jersey scored the class with the namesake of the Ivy League school that no one from that state actually attends. However, as much as I've been enjoying my class, they have also seen the sterner side of Liam Teacher. It's a regrettable affair when I have to act that way with the kids but I do it cuz I care.

As per usual, the highlight of my activity here in the Orient took place on the weekend. On Friday a few of us accompanied one of the directors to the grocery store to purchase some essentials for the planned white water rafting trip that the school would be hosting the next day. After being used for some heavy lifting and transportation labor, the director took us out for some Bunda jjigae. Now, bunda jjigae is technically considered Korean cuisine but in all reality it's pretty much just hotdog and spam soup made with ramen noodles. Of course, ramen here holds a much more reputable place in the Korean eye but I couldn't help but think that this kind of soup could have just as easily originated in a college dorm one late night as opposed to blossoming as a common dish of the South Korean nation. Keeping with Korean tradition, we complimented our meal with some maekju- beer -, but in a very conservative manner. Fully aware of the physically demanding day that lay before us, we saw it in our best interest to make it a quiet night. After an enjoyable meal, the night ended with the purchase of a few supersoakers to be unleashed on the unsuspecting bodies of those in our rafting company and we went our separate ways.

The next day began with a two hour drive out of Gwangju in a rather comfortable coach bus, occupied mostly with the activity, or inactivity, of sleep. Upon our arrival we were a bit discomfited by our welcome from the notably austere directors at the rafting site. We were very rapidly beset by a fusillade of whistles directing us to stand in four lines as we were given our standard issue life jackets, helmets and oars.Though we were assured that the activity of the day was rafting, it entered the minds of not a few of us that maybe we had wandered a little too far north, maybe beyond the stiffly guarded DMZ. For the most part, those oars of ours were probably not a far cry from what those armed hooligans up north were equipped with. The day continued in its oddly regimented manner as we got ready to launch our inflated aquatic vessels. Our raft director had the members of our crew wade into the water before boarding the raft. We assumed it was for the purpose of acclimating us to the river water. Initially, this was not much of a problem. However, this peculiar exercise of arbitrary authority became less agreeable when he had us link arms and dip up and down in the water as he chanted "1-down! 2- up!" as though he was conditioning us for a greater ordeal than a lazy trek down a meandering river. Looks of confusion began to be exchanged when we realized that the other crews of rafts we came with were getting set to make for open water while we, at that point, were lying on our backs in the water, floating away, accommodating yet another demand from our fascist facilitator. When we did actually start our trip downriver, the orders rang even more loudly in our ears. Much like galley slaves, we were urged on by the piercing shouts of our unelected "captain" who would, apparently, be accompanying us for the duration of the trip. In between his pacing shouts of "one, two", our progress was slowed by the regular demand for us to to stop and get back into rhythm or to bounce back and forth on the raft to release us from the hold of a random rock. Knowing that our commander knew very little English, the murmurs of discontent that passed among the surly crew became particularly audible and the idea of mutiny, even if in jest, was passed around freely. Luckily, for both parties, as the river opened up a little bit, we were permitted to abandon ship and take the rapids individually. Thought a little painful, this was a much more enjoyable way to take to the river than to subject ourselves to the constant reprimands and remonstrances of our skipper.

By the time we had reached our destination downriver we were in considerably better spirits if not a little worse for wear. At this point our opinion of our unbending instructors softened a little bit when they flipped a pair of the rafts and lined them up so as to construct something of a pontoon bridge that led to nowhere. Naturally, as I discovered that their purpose was for one of us step up and jump off the end of this bridge, I was ready and willing. From there, we were able to let, coax and coerce a number of other people to attempt the same thing and so began one of the more light-hearted and spirited parts of the day.

Having had our fill of leaping aimlessly into a river for one day, we headed back to our point of origin where we were able to hit the showers and change into dry clothes. From there, the bus took us to a nearby restaurant where we ate in classic traditional Korean style. The food was neither good or bad but it was nice to take a break and feed our appetites that hadn't seen the likes of food since before we had embarked on our watery adventure.

The trip back was pretty quiet and relaxing. The majority of those with us were taxed from the days activities and had no taste for any kind of rambunctions ridiculousness. When we made it back, my comrades Chris and Terry decided to spend our evening at WOW Bar, decided to go out to meet up with a Korean friend of ours that Chris had introduced us to awhile back. With no real knowledge of the area that we had met her in, we let Sarah, our Korean friend, take us to a place where we could try a dish that she called "potato soup". When I heard about something called potato soup I was completely on board. As it turned out, the soup was really more of a spare rib soup with the occasional potato here and there. I will admit, the soup was probably one of my favorite dishes so far in Korea, but in my opinion, "potato soup" was a very misleading title for such cuisine.

From potato soup we made it back to our neighborhood and headed to WOW Bar, which is a local bar for us that has balcony seating, allowing us to have a few beers and enjoy what proved to be a nice Korean summer night. By the end of the night, we had a few more companions sitting at our table and another well spent night under our belts. While we were there we partook in what is known as fruit soju, which is pretty much just a daquiri of any fruit you want, mixed with soju. I admit, this is favorite of mine despite its fruity disposition. However, they way I look at it, while fruity drinks with an atypically low quantity of alcohol in them may be bit out of character for me, if you think about it, it's really just a spiked fruit smoothy. While smoothies themselves don't have much in the way of a backbone, when you spike them with alcohol that's actually kinda edgy. Besides, once we drink enough of it, we add more soju ourselves to give it some more pep.

Sunday was somewhat uneventful but we made use of a recent discovery that Chris and I made in our apartment- our roof access. Atop our oddly constructed and colored apartment, we have a sizeable rooftop where can bring my grill up and barbecue some sausages which, in Korea, come in green, red and and regular. Though we haven't done terribly much up there beyond a few Sunday barbecues, there is an incredible degree of potential for future events. I am extremely eager to test them out.

I have spent about an hour and a half here at my desk at school writing this and I still haven't eaten dinner, not to mention I've been told that I have to decorate my room for parent-teacher conferences that will be happening this Saturday, so I'm going to end this post with traditional promise of future posts.

Have a good one, folks!