11 April 2026
Experiencing college life
Gungdong Rodeo
I have now seen all of Daejeon. The one location that had eluded me before now was the Changnam National Univeristy Rodeo street, called Gungdong Rodeo. Fun fact, lots and lots of shopping / eating streets in Korea are referred to as a 'Rodeo', and I am wondering if it is to do with Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. I am guessing Gungdong Rodeo is a fair bit cheaper than Rodeo Drive, with many places too cheap even for me, I feel a bit concerned when a meal is less than $5 Australian.
The streets strangely on Saturday were filled with University students (not strange) proudly wearing their University uniforms (strange). Do they make you wear a uniform to University here or are they just all dorks?
Anyway, after finding the most expensive place around that would still let me in as a solo dining dork, I headed back over a bridge and walked past a very large store, Traders, which my research tells me is Korean Costco, but perhaps does not require a membership fee. They specialise in selling Kimchi by the trailer load.
The University really looked enormous from what I could see walking past, here is the gate which is of very little interest.
Another nice pollution fuelled sunset.
This is not the actual rodeo, but there are a few crossing streets of interest in the vicinity of the rodeo itself.
I nearly died by scooter. Strangely they are petrol powered here, where every car and bus are battery powered these days. Maybe Taiwan has a patent on battery powered scooters with their gogoro brand.
Behold, Gungdong Rodeo, where meals are too cheap.
A lot of food around here is Japanese and Chinese, I went with Japanese and had ramen. It was ok, nothing special.
I then decided to try my hand at a dark shot of a drain. 1/10th of a second handheld.
And then finally, the aforementioned traders. An impressive behemoth of bulk buy wholesale goods. I did not go in.
Tomorrow is a hiking day, on a Sunday, in a national park. There will be a lot of other people.