Woohoo, Changwon Bike Party! Last weekend was the May bike party. We rode from City 7 up to the train station, then down through Masan, ending at the harbor. But the party didn't stop there -- after dinner, we got onto a NoraeBoat! It's like a noraebang (Korean karaoke room), but on a boat. Our party boat went around the harbor as the sun set, and it was beautiful, crazy fun.
Changwon bikers safely riding through Masan's busiest neighborhood. It was a bit stressful sharing the road with huge buses and lots of cars, but we made it!
Bike selfie. I know this is dangerous. I'm sorry.
It might not be clear from the photos, but the theme was "Stoplight", which meant that everyone had to wear green, yellow, or red. I wore my favorite green bike shirt: Infinity MPG, a Threadless classic. I also donned the yellow shades I got at Color Me Rad and red shorts. Short pants: finally! Summer is practically here -- it's been almost uncomfortably warm this past week.
But thanks to the weather, many more people are showing up to Bike Party rides, and it makes me very happy to see attendance so strong. The organizer, Coby, is a good friend of mine, and I'm so proud on his behalf of how a small idea he had two years ago has grown into such an amazing community-building event. Here are some photos I took!
바이크파티 친구! (Bike Party friends!)
Down by Masan Harbor!
This lady is a kind of traditional Korean entertainer that reminds me of a court jester -- their outfits are bizarre, they dance and sing and act ridiculously, and then they try to sell you candy or something. This lady danced to retro Korean pop music and dragged a few of us into the performance with her; it was very amusing and very awkward.
On the noraeboat! I am not the biggest fan of Korean-style karaoke, but it's always fun to do it with a large group of friendly expats. Especially when you're on a boat! That just adds to the fun!
Masan harbor near sunset. It was gorgeous.
Bora and me, with the Machang Bridge in the background. I wasn't willing to try a Titanic-esque pose.
Coby and me on the noraeboat!
Noraeboat Party!!! Complete with wigs, hats, Hite, super-enthusiastic foreigners, and Koreans who look like they'd rather be anywhere else.
May Bike Party! (photo courtesy Bike Party)
Changwon Bike Party is probably my favorite thing about my city. It's always sure to be fun, it's a great way to meet new people, and it also gives me an excuse not to stay at home and watch TV all weekend!
Making the bike party a priority was one of the best decisions I made this past year, and it's sad to think that there will only be two more left for me. All the more reason to make the most of them, though!
And when I'm back in California, I'm going to get a bike and join the East Bay Bike Party. I'm already excited about it!
Changwon Bike Party! HUGE turnout this month! Photo by Coby
Another awesome Changwon Bike Party today! The theme for March was St. Patrick's Day, so there was lots of green to be found. I'm lucky I brought my Threadless bike shirt to Korea! That plus green pants, green socks, and a super green, eco-friendly public transportation initiative by the Environmental Capital, Changwon!!! ... makes for a fun day. Haha. Huzzah, Nubija!
This bike party had a massive, record-breaking turnout of over fifty people, and we totally clogged the bike lanes and infuriated our city's bus drivers. After about seventeen kilometers, we all ended up at Changwon's one-and-only Irish pub, O'Brien's. There, we listened to Irish music (folk music and U2 included), drank green beer, and made new friends, all in celebration of... something, not sure what.
Our fearless Bike Party leader, Coby.
So that was tons of fun. Today was nothing but fine weather, delicious food, and great company. I can't wait for next month's Bike Party! Find us on Facebook if you're in the area!
Saturday was a day full of biking. I was looking forward to my third Changwon Bike Party ride, this one being Christmas-themed. To my surprise, there was also a small cohort of Koreans doing their own Santa-themed bike ride on the same day. In years past, Changwon City has organized a huge Santa-themed bike ride, drawing hundreds and even thousands of participants in an amazing red and white parade. This year, funding for the event was cut. What a shame for a city that prides itself on its excellent bike share program. In any case, these hardcore cyclists were not to be deterred; though only a small group of about two dozen, they had their own unofficial Santa ride around town, and Coby and I joined in on the fun.
I had my camera out this time and snapped some photos while riding. Dangerous, I know. This one of Coby and some Santas was taken at a red light, though.
It was fun getting to know the members of the cycling club, called 전차데이 (Jeoncha Day, and jeoncha is a Gyeongnam dialect abbreviation of 자전거, or bicycle). They were very friendly and excited to get to know the two foreigners in their midst. They even treated us to lunch at a 오리탕 (duck soup) restaurant and then coffee at Starbucks afterward! Amazing Korean hospitality, right there. They of course invited us to their next ride. 전차데이 rides once a month, just like Changwon Bike Party. They also do more epic rides, like a tour around Jeju Island (it takes about three days) last spring. One lady was very eager to show me photos of every ride over the past year; she turned to be a kind of amateur competitor in long-distance cycling. I was impressed.
Changwon Bike Party Santa Ride! I don't have a Santa outfit, so I went with a red and green scheme with my Christmas bow tie. We're in the Changwon rotary, with its giant Christmas lights tree behind us. Photo courtesy Coby Z.
In the afternoon, it was time for the foreigner redux, Changwon Bike Party! Us 외국인 being decidedly less spirited, nobody came dressed as Santa besides our fearless leader Coby. Fortunately, some of the 전차데이 folks decided to join us for our afternoon ride, so we still had Santas in our lineup! The Changwon Bike Party route took us to the 창원의집 (House of Changwon), one of the very few cultural establishments in this city. It is the old residence of a Korean scholar that is now open to the public. It was my first time visiting the 창원의집, so I took plenty of photos. It was nothing too special, though, I must admit.
별 and me in front of the House of Changwon (창원의짐). Taken by Coby Z.
We then rode down to Changwon FC stadium, home to our city's soccer team. I actually had no idea that this stadium existed, even though it's very close to the university and the educational training center where I worked part-time last spring. Finally, we made our way back to the city center, called it a day, and moved on to evening festivities. Two of Coby's friends were visiting from Japan; they were crash-coursing Korea for about twenty-four hours, so it was fun introducing them to a bit of the culture. This included warming up in a cafe while getting covers of the same three Christmas songs blasted in our ears, dinner of 춘천닭갈비, which was spicy and delicious, and then 노래방, or karaoke! I'll be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of 노래방 usually, but if you're with the right people, it can be a darn good time.
Ended the night with 노래방 (noraebang, or karaoke room)! Coby and 별 have this Korean rap song down like nobody's business.
When the group headed to a Thursday Party bar for 3차 (the third event of the evening), I went home to get some rest, since Sunday was to be a day of grad school and grant applications. This was a great way to close out my weekend, though. Even though I haven't left my city in a month, I'm glad staying in town hasn't turned out to be a huge bore!
Ever since I heard of the Changwon Bike Party, I've been itching to take part. I needed two things, though: first, to get a Nubija pass so that I can use the city's public bike rental system, and second, to not be out of town so much. The Bike Party takes place once a month, and I've missed out because I'm so rarely home on weekends.
Fortunately, the October Bike Party was last Friday, and I was in town for it. I also got my Nubija pass a few months ago (and have been using the heck out of it already), so I was ready to go. After taekgyeon class ended at 10:40pm, I made my way to the nearest bike station as fast as I could, and, still sweaty from my workout, proceeded to bike the eight kilometers (five miles) downtown. It took me over half an hour, so by the time I neared the meeting place, I figured that the group would already have left. Fortunately, the organizer, Coby, had posted a map of the night's route online, so I used that to estimate where the group might be.
Cycling at midnight: cold, but fun. Photo courtesy Coby Z.
A bit anxious, I set off in pursuit. Soon, I was relieved to see a group of blinking red single taillights in the distance, which couldn't have been anything but a group of about a dozen cyclists headed toward the river. It took me about ten minutes to catch up to them.
The rest of the night was great! Although it was very cold, the adventure and good company more than made up for it. I chatted with some expat friends I knew and also made new friends, both Korean and non-Korean! I was really excited to meet the Koreans, actually, since I actually don't know too many who are my age. We talked as we biked, easily done since the wide and well-paved roads in the factory-dominated part of the city are conducive for simultaneous cycling and conversation. When we passed through the busier downtown area, we all rang our cute bicycle bells and shouted, "Woohoo! Bike Partyyy!" and Koreans stared at us or gave us high-fives. The group stopped twice at convenience stores for drinks and ended the night around 1:30 by going to a bar. (I headed home instead, arriving around 2am, since I needed to get at least some sleep before catching an early morning train to Seoul.)
In short, Bike Party is great, and I'm already looking forward to the next one.
P.S. As it turns out, Changwon Bike Party has its origins in the Bay Area, my home in California. The organizer took the idea from the San Jose Bike Party, which he attended regularly while he was studying there for a few years (while I was in college on the East Coast, I might add -- boy, did I miss out!). Just one more reason to appreciate this new monthly hobby I've found!
Tonight, I went to a party held on the rooftop of the apartment building of a few friends. It was their goodbye party, and they invited a good seventy people out to join them for drinks, food, and some great company.
Britta and me. She's going backpacking for several months and might not return to Korea afterward... Have a great trip!
Although I've lived in Changwon for about a year now, I still rarely venture downtown in the evenings, and I know only a handful of fellow expats. Tonight, with so many gathered together on the rooftop, I was almost overwhelmed; I don't think I've ever seen more foreigners in one place in this city. What's more, most of them were strangers. But I made some new friends and reconnected with people I hadn't seen in a while, so it was all good.
The view from the roof, fifteen stories up.
My social life in this city is a bit awkward. Since I live up in the norther part of the city, where there are much fewer expats compared to downtown, I don't see people often. Also, last year I spent many weekends out of town visiting my Fulbright friends in other cities. So when I tell "Changwoners" about my lack of experience in the city -- for example, that I've never been to the local Irish pub, O'Briens -- it is always met with mild shock: "Wait, so what do you do for fun?" Haha. Anyway, I did take this opportunity to get out of my isolated bubble, and it was a great evening overall. (I was there for six hours...)
Britta and Thomas; when it got darker, some people lit sparklers!
On a tangential note, I finally got a Nubija pass! Nubija is Changwon's awesome bike share program. I saved money on transportation tonight by biking downtown to the party and back. Yes, it took about two hours round trip, but it was also good exercise, and the buses aren't really that much faster... Actually, biking along the 창원대로 at night is quite fun.
One thing I've found is generally the case here in Korea: folks are helpful and well-meaning but won't often give you all of the information you desire. When it comes to directions, laundry, or hey, even important information about your placement school and city, I've had to figure things out for myself.
I've written before about how cultural workshops are always hit-or-miss here at Orientation. Yesterday's workshop, cultural introductions to the ETAs' respective placement regions, was a miss. The reason why was obvious: in all of Southern Gyeongsang Province (경상남도) last year, there was only one ETA. Basically, nobody had ever been before, no one knew anything about any of the cities in it, and thus there was no information for Rachel (in Gimhae), Ryan (in Jinju), or me (in Changwon). The presentation I attended could have been titled, "Cool Stuff to do in Daegu and Busan (Sucks For You If You're Somewhere Else)".
That being the case, yesterday afternoon and evening I decided to do some sleuthing of my own. Thanks to Google and Naver (네이버, Korea's preferred search engine), I found out a lot about my city, and I'm proudly disseminating that information now.
Panorama of Changwon, from Wikipedia.
Changwon means "Bright Land". All Korean cities can be written with hanja, or Chinese characters, so I can tell my parents that 今年我住在昌原. 昌 means "sunlight", and 原 means "source or origin", so when I looked it up, I thought at first that my city was called the source of sunlight. It's rather poetic.
As it turns out, Changwon is not simply located in Southern Gyeongsang Province (慶尚南道 in hanja), but it is also the capital city of the province. It is the 9th most populous city in Korea (after Seoul, Incheon, Busan, Daegu, Daejeon, Gwangju, Ulsan, and Suwon), but probably only recently jumped into the top ten. I say this because today's Changwon was created when three smaller cities, Changwon, Jinhae, and Masan, merged in 2010, thereby tripling its population. The number is now a little under 1.1 million (compare to Philadelphia's 1.5 million in the city proper or Fremont's approximate 215,000).
After Wikipedia, I found Changwon's English website and plumbed its depths for photos and interesting random facts.
The Junam Wetlands, north of the city. Because we're in the south, this wildlife area becomes a huge destination for migratory birds in the winter. I can't wait to see them!
As a coastal city, it's famous for seafood. Local specialties include anglerfish (아구찜, agujjim), pufferfish, and Korean sushi, none of which I've ever tried but probably will. I might even try live octopus... Aside from seafood, I've heard that watermelons (수박... go figure?) and persimmons (감) are a regional favorite. Hooray! I wonder if Korean permissions are anything like Taiwanese persimmons...
NUBIJA bike terminal
Changwon calls itself "The Environmental Capital". One awesome perk is that it boasts the first public bike-rental program in Korea, called NUBIJA (which stands for Nearby Useful Bike, Interesting Joyful Attraction, I kid you not; but it's also a portmanteau of 누비다, nubida "to go here and there" and 자전거, jajeongeo "bicycle"). For a little less than $20 a year, you can check out any one of over 4,000 bikes from among 230 bike terminals in the city and ride it around for two hours. I like this a lot. I'm not an avid biker, but aside from being a fantastic carbon emissions-reducing initiative, it also seems like it'd be a fun way to see the city and local parks like the Junam Wetlands when I'm on my own or have friends visiting.
And here is a cute and ridiculous video that promotes the NUBIJA program.
I'm stoked that I'm moving to a city that's striving to be an example of eco-friendliness in Korea. On the other hand, Changwon is also a heavily industrial city. The original Changwon (pre-unification) was Korea's first planned city, re-envisioned in the 1970's to be the economic powerhouse of southern Korea (but it seems as if Busan has already taken that title?). So instead of beautiful beaches all along the coast, it's mostly ports, shipyards, and factories for companies like LG, Hyundai, and Samsung. The municipal organization is really interesting: the 대로, or Great Road, is a huge boulevard that stays perfectly straight for twelve kilometers. This road also acts as a boundary between the southern, factory-filled half of the city and the northern, residential-and-everything-else half. Take a look at this screenshot from Google maps:
The district of Changwon called Uichang, which was the original Changwon before it incorporated Masan and Jimhae. See all the blue roofs? Those are factories. The 대로 is highlighted in yellow. My schools is way up north, on top of a small hill.
So Changwon is more of a port city than a beach town. Still, the coast means milder, more temperate weather, at least compared to Seoul or Daegu. I'll still see all four seasons, and maybe even a typhoon or two.
What else? If I take the KTX, Korea's high-speed rail, I'm only 150 minutes away from Seoul. There are some universities downtown, which means I might have a chance to take Korean classes. As for a Hana Center where I can volunteer with North Korean defectors, I will probably have to travel to Busan in order to do that. Those are only found in larger cities. Lastly, some of Changwon's sister cities in the US include Houston, TX, Jacksonville, FL, and Jersey City, NJ.
I'll be reading up more on my city as time permits. I chanced upon the city's official WordPress blog, which is pretty cool and written in intelligible English. The posts alternate between random plugs for restaurants or kinds of foods to announcements on the latest renewable energy plan being put into action. Changwon seems to be very proud of itself as a quickly-developing city. The promotional video on their website says it all: "Changwon wants to become the best city in the world." Well, more power to them!
Anyway, that's enough for now. But you'll likely be hearing more about my city and my school in the weeks and months to come. The more I find out, the more excited I get about where I'm going!
