Damyang Bamboo Forest and smiling until my cheeks hurt

Saturday was really, really, really fun. So fun that my cheeks were hurting from smiling and laughing so much.

On Saturday morning Megan and I met up with new friends to check out Damyang- a county (so says wikipedia- lets just call it a town) located 30-40 minutes outside of Gwangju. The actual town is pretty quaint but has most of Gwangju's tourists attractions. We went to the most popular attraction- the Bamboo Forest- and also walked along the Metasequoia Road.

Before heading to Damyang, we all met outside of a building near Chonnam University. This would normally be really uneventful except that they had this gorgeous flower display happening. It was a pretty start to the day.

Side note: Chonnam University is a national university located in Gwangju. I live around 30-40 minutes away by bus. It has an student population around 37,000 and has a really sweet area with bars and restaurants that I go to now and then with friends.

Surprise! Random flower display made the day a little bit brighter.

Megan and I were meeting up with two boys we had met a few weeks back. What's really entertaining and wonderful about our friendship is that they speak next to no English. Megan speaks pretty fluent Korean and can translate a lot but I have to rely on body language and intuition to understand what's going on. While I'm getting a lot better at Korean and can make out some of what they're saying, it's mainly a jumbled mess of translating and motioning to one another...yet for some reason we all like hanging out and seem to get along well.

After a quick photo-shoot with the flower display, we drove to Damyang and ate a quick lunch of spicy noodles before heading into the Bamboo Forest. We had to pay a small fee to enter (2000 won each) and received a ticket. The best part of this ticket (which is absolutely going into the scrapbook) is that it says: 3 Adults-6000 won, 1 Foreigner- 2000 won. In Korean it really just says "Foreigner." Awesome.

Walking around was relaxing and fun. We talked, people watched (more like people stared at me and I pretended not to notice), and enjoyed the pretty bamboo. We wandered around the forest for close to an hour before coming out into a park. There was a small pond, temple, and just really gorgeous trees in every shade of orange and red. While I love living in my small city, it was really refreshing to be back in nature. It made me feel revitalized and I just wanted to skip/dance all over the place.

Entering the Bamboo Forest with coffee in hand.

3 Adults and a Foreigner....Normal. 

The boys enjoying a Korean snack (that tastes like glorified cardboard to me) before we entered the forest.

A path in the Bamboo Forest.

Taking lots of selfies. Lots and lots of selfies with bamboo.

Small waterfall surrounded by Panda bears.

Temple in the park at the end of the Bamboo Forest.

Having fun playing in the leaves in the park at the end of the forest.

After enjoying a quick snack of Green Tea Ice Cream (perfect for a cold November day), we drove over to the Metasequoia-lined Road. The road is semi-famous because it was featured in a romantic drama. I believe its been voted as one of the prettiest roads in Korea (who knew there was a list). After paying another entry fee (only 1000 won), we walked along the road and enjoyed the gorgeous leaves. While this might seem boring, it was really fun. People were taking wedding pictures, there were couples everywhere with Selfie Sticks (if you don't know what that is you need to look it up), and kids were running around in the leaves. We just sat around and enjoyed the views. Megan and I also might have felt a bit too revitalized by the outdoors and started playing an impromptu game of baseball...using a stick and some pinecones. The boys joined in later.

Metasequioa Lined Road and the perfect picture. 

Playing some baseball. We're super cool and we don't care who knows it.

After Damyang we went back to the Chonnam University area, grabbed dinner, played some pool, and walked around exploring the University. I feel like I keep repeating myself with this but it was a really great day.

Peace!