Amanda Takes Off...

Jeonju for Lunar New Year

Lunar New Year was yesterday. Because Koreans traditionally have to travel to their ancestral homes, the gov't makes the holiday three days long to account for travel time. Thus, we had a five day weekend, starting Wednesday.

Wednesday I cleaned my house. As in I actually swept, vacuumed, and mopped the whole house.

Shortly after I finished, my recruiters-turned-friends-who-helped-me-
fight-at-the-Labor-Board-and-put-me-up-when-I-was-homeless called me. A married couple, they're like us. A South African white female, A. (who is slowly and unintentionally teaching me Afrikaans), and CH, a Korean male.

A. called me. "Where are you?"

"Home."

"Why?"

"Where should I be?" I asked. I knew I'd told her Good Man would be visiting his grandmother.

"Here!" she declared.

My mind raced. They have recently moved way down south to the ancient capital, Jeonju. It's in the Jeollas, and I love the Jeollas. Did I agree to go down there for Seollal? No...

A shower, a hastily packed bag, and an hour's subway ride later, I was at the East Bus Terminal. Before I met Good Man, I'd never taken a long distance bus in Korea. Since meeting Good Man, I've never had to buy a ticket or navigate the terminal myself. The terminal is quite large and it was packed because of New Year. When I couldn't find my city or province on the first floor, I headed up to the second. Assa! Found it!

I bought my ticket with five minutes to spare and luckily found my bus very easily.

Three hours later, I was in Jeonju.

A great little trip. In this case, photos really do tell the story. Head over to the gallery.