No Shoe Left Behind: Where in the World is Laura Sandiego?

SHE IS IN GEOCHANG, KOREA!
What's that? You want to know more about this magical land? Well, here you go....

EMBLEM OF GEOCHANG

Geochang is located in Gyeongsangnam Province (See above).

Location of Geochang in its province.

Geochang is 3 1/2 hours south of Seoul (the largest city) and one hour from Daegu (the third largest city).

RANDOM FACT FOR THE DAY:
Geochang is a county, not a city. Why? Because to be classified as a city, it must have at least 150,000 residents. Geochang only has 70,000 residents.

NOW FOR YOUR KOREAN LESSON FOR THE DAY:
Si (city)
Gun (county)
Gu (district)
Eup (town)
Myeon (township)
Dong (neighborhood)
Ri (village)

Geochang is VERY small. It makes my hometown of Amite, Louisiana look like New York City. But it is very beautiful. It is in a valley, surrounded by ten mountain ranges, which includes Deogyusan national park. The apples and watermelons of Geochang, I'm told, are famous throughout the entire country.

One of my students recently informed me that his parents are apple farmers in the area, and I am looking forward to delicious homegrown apples this fall!

There is not much to do in Geochang. There's bowling, billards, beer and soju consumption, norebang (karaoke), hiking, and a tiny cinema. Thankfully, there is a great group of foreigners in the area, which has made for interesting times. Yeah, interesting times. We'll just leave it at that.

In fact there is a lot to be said for small town life. My second day in town (county?), I walked into Dunkin Donuts with my new coworker Sarah, and we were IMMEDIATELY greeted by two complete strangers (Shout out to Tim and Graham!).

This would not have happened in one of the big cities. When I was living in Suji, foreigners who did not know one another usually acknowledged each other, but it was by using the awkward-slight-eye-contact-nod. But that was in an area with hundreds of foreigners. Here, we have less than fifty. So when two newbies walk into Dunkin Donuts, it's a big deal.

We sat and chatted with our new friends...Then they told two friends....Then they told two friends....And it turned into an entire afternoon, evening, and early morning of chatting, eating, drinking, bowling, and partying with the Geochang Waygooks (foreigners).

A few days later, a Korean professor (who we had never met) stopped by our office to chat and said, "I heard you meet other foreigners at Dunkin' Donuts." How on earth he heard that I will never know. Ah small town gossip...

Here are a few pics of the County known as Geochang.