I wanted to follow up on my previous post about the CLS alumni seminar in Gwangju to spotlight my favorite excursion of the week: our visit to the 88.9 Gwangju FM community radio station. Gwangju FM has no particular theme, but they dedicate part of their schedule each week to programming related to the Gwangju international community. When our group of twenty-five showed up, the staff divided us into five groups and gave us two hours each to produce a one-hour broadcast on a topic of our choice.

The task seemed impossible when the guide explained it to me (at work, we routinely spend weeks choreographing what amounts to a brief slideshow presentation), but the time pressure worked to our group’s advantage: all we could really do was create a list of discussion questions and songs to provide forward motion, then improvise from there. We ended up having a spirited discussion about media literacy and news consumption. (Email me if the link breaks and I will upload an MP3 instead.)

After our group disbanded in Gwangju, I got to spend a few days in Naju, my “second hometown” where I taught English for two years as a Fulbright grantee. I tried a new (to me) gomtang place called 나주곰탕사매기, which has a cool aquarium, a garden, and even birds! A few pics below.

Here is their garden:

The garden at gomtang samaegi (나주곰탕사매기).

And here is the soup:

The soup at gomtang samaegi (나주곰탕사매기).