A Day Off at Dolmeori Beach

          So Korea has given you a Wednesday off from school.  To be fair, this day has been given to all foreigners.  The only question is, what will you do with it?  Honestly, until about 12:00pm on Wednesday, June 6th, I hadn't really considered my options.  Maybe I should have considered a big hike.  Maybe I should have traveled to a different city.  Maybe I shouldn't have stayed out on the town in Hampyeong of all places until 3:00am last night.  Well, that should tell you all you need to know about why I might have been a little slow and indecisive on Wednesday morning.

          After a few hours of watching LeBron and the Miami Heat vs. the Boston Celtics, courtesy of 2 fantastically entertaining Korean commentators (in which Dwayne Wade becomes "Dah-way-nuh Way-ee-duh" and Rajon Rondo becomes "Londoooooooooooo th-reee pooooooo iiiiiiin ttttttt  sssssuh!"), it was time to finally make a decision about my day.  Luckily, several similarly slow-operating foreigners (try saying that 5 times fast!) hadn't made much of a decision either.  So, around 2:00pm, we hatched a plan.  We would drive out to Dolmeori Beach (돌머리 해변), grill some food, and just generally relax.  So we packed the car and made the 10-minute trek, Rob and Joan in the front (Rob from England, Joan from Scotland, lovely couple now living in Hampyeong, profile to come) and Erik and myself in the back, like the two children who, after Mom and Dad seemingly bought all the food and drink, packed the car, and thought of everything, were just itching to get to the beach and run around.  Here is a picture of Rob and Joan, out at the beach, with their hot new wheels:

          Sure, it's a little small.  But it gets the job done.  And we can take it to the beach.  

That's what she said.

To no one's surprise, I did indeed take some cutesy, close-up flower photos, because why not?  I get the sense Mama Bear back in the States would love to peep these, and they're pretty photogenic after all.

          It felt really nice to drive about 10 minutes, unpack the car for another 10, and get psyched for a huge lunch just 50 meters from the seashore--lthough you're never too far from the ocean when you live in Korea, I seriously doubt that my next home here will be within sea salt smelling distance.  Although there were some other families, there, we staked out a nice spot to lay down the blanket and chairs, break out the cooler of Corona and Hoegaarden, and assemble the grill.  Sounds like a typical afternoon at home with the boys in Madison, but it's more of a luxury in this country this far.

The scene.

Rob and Joan had been so kind as to do some solid shopping beforehand, and we were treated to an absolute feast that included all of what you see here, as well as some later mystery meats.  Australian beef (because we've eaten enough Korean beef at this point), and a Russian Roulette assortment of sausages, some nice and mild, some...regrettable.

Wanna know something that's not regrettable?

Aforementioned mystery meat.  Ribs, baby, ribs.  Just like Pops used to slow cook in the oven.  Only in Korea.  Rob and Joan really knew how to spoil us boys on this fine day.

I'm a pretty happy camper at this point.  This is the kind of day I could have only dreamed of a few months ago in the snow and cold of Korean winter.  Note the tide starting to slowly work its way out.  This will become ever more apparent in later pictures.

View from our feast.

As the tide washes out, many people rush to the water's edge to check out the scene--some folks, just out of pure interest for the wonders of our world's oceans, but most, I'd imagine, quite literally, to find dinner or snacks.  The muddy spots near the water are full of crabs and other shellfish, and that's ever more apparent with each rippling wave and its sediments of fresh seaweed and fragmented shells.  I'm not sure if I felt hungry enough for it at this point.

We decided to take a little hike along the shore, and stumbled upon a futuristic, if awkwardly-designed lighthouse (is it really though?) building on the rocky coast.  Making their way around these piles of solidified rocks near the water were literally thousands of tiny, prehistoric-looking, millipede-esque creatures.  The real challenge became crossing from rock to rock without finding one in your sandal.  

A quick look in a tide pool reveals (forgive me, for I don't have a name for anything I'm looking at in this picture) a hairy plant with some sort of powerful mouth.  When bristled with a finger, or agitated by some other shellfish, these hairs fold up and the plant shrinks to about half its size.  Didn't have the presence of mind to rattle it and take an "after" photo.

This is a pretty solid view from the "lighthouse" at Dolmeori.  Looking straight north, more or less, you see a couple nice pagodas with solid views, some dolmens (hence Dolmeori, possibly?), and a cool little tide pool fenced in by two man-made, rock retaining walls.  Ideally, kids swim and flop around in there, and it's kept at a moderate depth by a pump that pushes saltwater back out to sea, but the idea still seems a little strange.  Anyway, the sun begins to set on a nice day thus far.

Looking out into the vast ocean.  Vast might not be the word, as only about 5-10km away lies 

Shinan-gun, the next "county" to the southwest of Hampyeong.  Made of mostly islands, Shinan obstructs any endless, open-water view from most beaches in Hampyeong.  Pretty cool views though, nonetheless!

One more look near our picnic spot.  As you can see the tide is really starting to wash out quickly.  Mud flats begin to appear, and the seafood buffet really starts to make its presence known.

One brave older lady has gone out with her bucket, agitating small rocks and bubbling spots in the mud in hopes of digging up some small crabs--maybe for a soup, maybe for a pet, maybe just for kicks.  I'm gonna go with the soup idea.  The tide has washed away quickly, leaving mostly awkward, green puddles of algae and shells as far as the eye can see.  This tidewater literally seems to wash all the way out as far as the eye can see, leaving the area almost exclusively mud for a good portion of the day.  

Shellfish cling to a root in the mud.

Digging for more crabs.

This little guy found his way onto the walkway out to sea, and was dying to flop back into a tide pool.  With a little push and much verbal encouragement, he finally did it, despite his oversized claws.  Clown.

The sun sets on a great day out at Dolmeori Beach.

          The opportunity to relax or generally do anything on a day off is not lost on a single Korean.  We are so lucky to have the opportunity to simply drive to a local beach and relax, eat nice food and hike around.  The majority of my Thursday and Friday students, when asked about their day off, attested to helping their parents farm (specifically picking onions, for which Hampyeong must be famous in some way--there are literally thousands of bags of them throughout the county, and they even act, most often in fact, as roadside barriers).  My point is that, on days like this, foreigners get to have all the fun, while most Koreans are happy enough to relax.  The majority of them, at least in this part of Korea, do not have this luxury.  It's a thankful opportunity to tend to fields for 14 hours of sunlight, and get the whole family together to do so.  

          I can only say that I'm thankful to have the time and the freedom to do such things, and a good group of foreigners here to enjoy them with.  That's all from Dolmeori Beach.  Thanks for reading!

          All the best,

          Sam 

A Fresh Take

          Yes, folks.  The blog is back, for better and worse.  I’m not entirely sure what has accounted for the lapse in posting, but I’m pretty sure just as much has happened in the last 5 months as had happened in the previous 5.  According to my last post, Christmas in Korea was a hit, winter camp was just around the corner, and I was fully prepped for my three weeks of vacation in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.  Making 2 separate trips, I did indeed do 9 days in Thailand followed by another 12 in Cambodia in Vietnam.  I was even afforded the chance to meet up with a friend from University, one of my best buddies in Madison, the one and only Joe Noteboom.  Vacation went off without a hitch, more or less, and you can certainly peep all you’d like about those travels on my Facebook Page.  

          That being said, it’s time to tell you more about my life in the last 5 months.  This time around, I can promise, there will not be so much empty praising and admiring of all things new and exciting, all foods delicious and disgusting, of all travels worthwhile and satisfying.  Life in Korea has been more up and down than I could have ever lead on in my first semester, an era that I can appropriately call my personal “Honeymoon Stage” with the Republic of Korea.  Each new travel was breathtakingly exciting, each food spicier, slimier, fresher and more exotic than the previous, and each day at school more and more exhilarating.

         10 months into Korea, it’s not to say any of these things have changed as much as it would be accurate to note that, on some days more or less than others, it can be a struggle to always keep things completely in perspective.  I have my routine, and have my sleepy little town of Hampyeong relatively figured out after 10 months.  I’ve tried every food I possibly can.  I’ve learned as much Korean as a busy teacher immersed in a new culture can learn; this I sincerely believe.  New traits and tendencies I notice as I go about my day lead me to believe I am only becoming more and more Korean by the day.  This is all good and well.

         Yet (and this is more about what I’d like to get into in this next round of blogging, as I wind down in my first contract year), I’m always hungry for more of the above.  Henceforth, this blog will be more dedicated to the details of Korean life—not so much the broad, sweeping statements and generalizations about food, travel, language, and culture, but rather the intimate things you might find yourself noticing after a long enough time in a small enough space in which you find patterns of lifestyle.  That’s what I’m here to share with you for the near future: the detailed ways in which Koreans eat, travel, speak, learn, interact, and generally live, and the according impact all of this has had on my experience and my outlook, both with regard to Korea and the rest of the world.  I know that my life has been forever changed in the last 10 months, in ways of which I am both conscious and unconscious.  This is my attempt to clarify what I mean by all of that. 

  

Christmas Festivities, Part 2

     Because I don't have much time before I leave on vacation, I'll throw out a few quick posts about what I've been up to for the last few weeks.  Short of winter vacation (which is deserving of its own series of posts, as the kids did some brilliant things in a span of 2 weeks), here's a recap on my life leading up to vacation, more or less:

The 5th grade boys at Wolya Elementary were thoroughly ready for some Christmas movies and Christmas hats.

And they love climbing on each other, wrestling for "who gets to wear the hat?" and posing for pictures.

The photos of cute kids in Santa hats keep on rolling--here's Harry, a 3rd grader from Singwang Elementary, my Tuesday school.  Though we only got through 10 minutes of "Shrek the Halls," they were getting spirited.

5th grader Michael, actually looking into the camera for a picture.  This guy is a great success story this semester--dude would barely look at me, much less speak to me or answer my questions for the first month or so of the semester.  Now, his hand goes up every time and he's so anxious to answer and speak!  Good things happening for this young man.

Awesome, awesome 5th graders.  Carl on the left, Tae Hee on the right.  Tae Hee made me an awesome "thank you, Teacher" letter that she wrote to me at English camp, and you'll get to see that in all its translated glory at a later date.

Post-Christmas party picture with the 3rd graders of Sonbul Elementary, my Wednesday school.  In their case, we were able to watch the entirety of "Shrek the Halls," as well as some Justin Bieber videos, all while eating lots of snacks and getting way too hopped up on Fanta at 9:30 a.m.

Cutest, nicest 5th grader of the whole bunch, Kim I-Sul.  She's my best friend after classes, as she's always coming by the room to speak a little English and run around and play games with me.  She likes to wear my scarf, and suggested I wear it for a picture.

Here are some nice evening Christmas decorations outside one of the many churches in Hampyeong.  I didn't walk inside or get to any Christmas services, but these lights were always great to walk by each night as I stepped off the bus and walked to my apartment.

On Christmas Eve, I was lucky enough to be given a tour of Chosun University, in the southeast corner of Gwangju, by my good friend Kim Jia.  And this campus is BEAUTIFUL.  Not only does it offer great views of the city, but it offers some spectacular buildings and hiking landscape--its no longer a surprise to me to see so many fit, young people after taking a hike around this campus--up and down, up and down, up and down.

Here is the main administrative building.  Stunning.

An awesome view of Gwangju, from the southeastern side of the city, from a great little picnic spot on campus.  Much thanks to Jia for the great tour.

Here is Jia walking down the steps toward the city.  There are groves of pines like these everywhere on this campus--for being a "private" university, it's big!  Somewhere in the ballpark of 25,000.  Chosun even has its own English magazine that students author and print every month!  

December 23rd, in Gwangju.  Christmas weekend.  Wasn't sure if I'd shown all of you this yet, but this is a giant wire/light combination shaped into a Christmas tree close to downtown Gwangju.  I had the pleasure of standing under this and just admiring the lights and feeling much closer to home for at least an hour each day that weekend.

Friday night called for one of the few things I know how to do to celebrate Christmas in a totally foreign country--drink beer and be with friends.  Here are me and Monti at our favorite watering hole downtown, German Bar.

And here, later in the evening, are Monti and Erik at another favorite watering hole with lots of good beats and beautiful Korean women: Mix.

Great to have some snow on the ground for Christmas Eve morning.

Zach and I were happy enough to buy some Christmas doughnuts.  It was a weird weekend in that we knew we weren't doing much real celebrating that paralleled home, but the simple things like finding snowman and Christmas tree doughnuts at Dunkin' Donuts made it that much easier.

My Christmas present to myself.

Christmas Eve in downtown Gwangju.

We made the trek to the bus terminal, in hopes of checking out Ashley's for Christmas Eve dinner.  Ashley's is more or less a western-style buffet with lots of familiar food and free wine all night for about $20.  We were so excited, we nearly forgot that there was a 2-hour wait anticipated.  So while at the terminal, looking for our next best option, we caught a free concert of some dancers.

Here's the crew on Christmas Eve.  From left to right: Sokhom, Aaron, Zach, Monti, Fraser, and Erik.  Though we didn't drink all those beers, they made it easier to choose--you can literally point out any familiar beer and expect it to come out.  That's all I really wanted on Christmas Eve, just to drink and hang out with good friends drinking good beers.

Christmas card material for the Gray family.

My new favorite beer from another country, and my choice of 2-carbon beverage for the evening.  Leffe Brown hails from Belgium, and it's damn good.

Met up with Jia, her sister, and a friend at German Bar once again for some Christmas Eve camaraderie.

...And started one hell of a snowball fight at night's end.  Around 2:00 a.m., we left German Bar to see that Gwangju had been pelted with at least 2-3 additional inches of snow.  We were so giddy that we started a great multi-national snowball fight in downtown Gwangju with some Korean and Pakistani guys, while the girls just looked on as if we were idiots.  And we were.  We were little kids again, hiding behind cars, throwing snowballs, making snow angels, all that good stuff.  Honestly, those 15 minutes will go down as some of the top 15 minutes of my entire year in Korea.  For the first and only time, it really began to feel like Christmas at home.

Ecstatic to have a white Christmas.

The best part of the whole weekend, short of the snowball fight?  The fact that, at 11:00 a.m. the next morning, Christmas day, there was no wait at Ashley's at the bus terminal--while folks were mostly probably in church, we were having some familiar food and sipping champagne.  Here's another postcard shot from the Gray brothers.  Good company with whom to close out the Christmas weekend.

     And then it was back to Hampyeong for a series of great Skype conversations with family from home.  I wish I'd taken some screenshots of that on my computer, but that's what ultimately made me feel like home--or ultimately made me feel like I couldn't be farther from home, I'm not sure which.  Winter camps started the next day, so there wasn't much time to dwell on the idea of Christmas here in Korea.  And those next 3 weeks of camp proved to be the most exhausting, but most rewarding 3 weeks (maybe) of my entire teaching experience thus far.  But that's for another time.

     Anyway, I should always take this time to note that this will be the end of all blogging for at least a few weeks.  I'm leaving for vacation starting today, staying in Seoul for a few days and nights, before flying to Bangkok and spending 8 days in Phuket, Thailand, island hopping, hiking, relaxing, and really just about anything but teaching and being cold in Korea.  It'll be great to get away, and I promise lots of good pictures and stories when I return.  You'll hear all about it in due time.  

     Thanks, as always, for reading.  Hope everyone is safe, sound, and happy wherever they are, and I hope all of my fellow teachers in Korea are enjoying their vacations!  See you in a few weeks!  Lots of love, and all the best,

-Sam

Christmas Festivities, Part 1

     After a day of fun in the snow with the kids of Sonbul Seo Elementary, it was time for a great weekend.  This one, the weekend just prior to Christmas, was among my favorite yet in Korea.  With the snow, Korean people really seem to slow down as much as they panic, and I think most foreigners in particular were just really excited to have some snow on the ground.  Though there was considerably less snow in Haenam, where our friends Zach and Monti live, Erik and I decided to come down for a night of food and drink.  What you'll see first are some snapshots from the night.  

This was a brand new concept that blew my mind.  What you see in the middle is really lean, delicious cuts of beef there were delicious...and you can also catch the familiar look of garlic frying on the side, to the lower right, but what exactly is all that yellow stuff?  As it turns out, this restaurant in Haenam specializes in mixing things up a bit--on the left, you see egg that is to be fried for a lettuce wrap, and at the top of the grill, you see cheese that is also melting and will be combined with everything else.  Korean barbecue is delicious on its own, but add egg and cheese and...well, damn.

Here is the finished product: beneath all of this, we have our usual layer of various lettuce leaves, while you see a nice cut of steak topped with red pepper paste, garlic, egg and cheese, and a tangy salad-like mixture of greens for garnish.  Wrap it all together and WOW.

After dinner, we decided to check out a soju room.  This is where, more or less, you sit in a room designed for anywhere between 1-6 people and drink soju/beer and eat chicken and other good snacks. They have a sliding glass door that closes you off from other rooms, so it feels a little intimate and still doesn't feel like the right drinking concept for many of us.  But we're free to make plenty of noise and have plenty of ridiculous conversations.  Here are Erik and Monti thoroughly enjoying.

Ah, and this was an interesting guy!  Monti opens his apartment to others looking to "couch surf," which many of you have no doubt heard of in passing--couch surfers, more or less, travel the world and check a main website which details those people willing to host said travelers for free on their couches or other facilities across the world.  So, if anyone ever stops through Haenam, South Korea, Monti's couch is an adequate spot for just about anyone to spend the night.  This particular weekend, we were blessed with the presence of Remi, a 30-something-year-old Frenchman who came to Korea for an apparently epic crane migration in Suncheon.  He was awesome to go out and have some beers with, and talk to about just about anything--beers, France, women, the world, etc.

And here are some other dudes from the general Haenam crew.  On the left is David, a big, jolly, bearded dude from Canada's East Coast, and William, a hardcore leftist Texan.  Also, Hampyeong's very own Erik Gray.  This is taken at Haenam's Wa Bar, which is a big pub that feels very similar to home and carries an adequate beer selection on bar with bars from home--familiar beers from all around the world.

And then it was time, on Saturday, to make the trek to Mokpo (about a 40-minute bus ride from Hampyeong and about an hour bus ride from Haenam) for the big pre-Christmas party.  By 5:00 p.m., it was time to put on the Santa hats and start drinking.  Moe's is Mokpo's little bar where many foreigners hang out, and it tends to host just about every foreigner event.  This was no exception.

This is Marie, a delightful girl from California, who is one of the more energetic, positive and kind people I've had the pleasure of meeting in Korea.  She lives and teaches in Mokpo, and was one of only a few folks actually dressed in the full Santa swag.  

And here's my oldest friend in Korea--Gina, who, as I've said time and time again, is the reason I pretty much came to Korea.  She's an old friend from home; I've known her since I was about 8, and she made one hell of an argument about why I should come teach here.  Great to catch up with her a bit.

And here are our lovely bartenders, who claim to be sisters--Lindsay and Jinny are what I believe they call themselves.

And this photo marks the beginning of the 2011 "Running of the Santas" Christmas hash run.  Now, I should explain: a "hash run" is a tradition that began among foreigners here in Jeollonam-do province, specifically on weekends of holidays and special gatherings.  A "hash run" consists of participants dressing up in some ridiculous or festive outfits (Halloween costumes, Santa hats and suits, robots, zombies, they've tried many things), running around the city of said "hash run," and drinking before, during, and after the run.  Typically, in warmer weather, booze will be hidden across the city as part of the fun festivities--and it is the participants' job to drink until it's all gone, and until the race is complete. There are signs, as you can see, written on the ground in flour, including crosses (indicating that the correct route is one of 4 directions), arrows (indicating a correct direction), and abbreviations like "BN," which means "Beer Is Near."  Koreans laugh and take picures, we laugh and take pictures AND drink a bit, and everyone is happy.  This run was my first, and the first for many foreigners, and we accordingly drank a bit more than our colleagues.  All in good fun.  Cold night, though!

Here are hashers Gabe, Gina, Britney, Marie, and Hayley all sitting down for drinks.  As I said, usually, the drinks are served outside (bottles of beer, for instance, hidden in bushes), but on such a cold night, the pit stops for alcohol all included nice, warm pubs.

Me and Marie enjoying the night thus far.

Friends Mackenzie, Marie, and Monti enjoying the festivities.

Here's one of our last stops on the run, a noraebang (NO-RAY-BAHNG, literally "singing room"), or more or less a karaoke hall, where all 30-40 hash runners were able to engage in some Christmas carols on top of our delicious 2-carbon beverages.  Here, as you can see on the screen, are foreigners rocking out to Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline."

And offering a hearty "cheers" to yet another successful hash run in Mokpo.

Readers, I don't believe you've yet met Dan Glucksnis, so here is your introduction.  He's straight out of Reading, Pennsylvania (close to home for much of my family), but went to school at Northern Michigan University (in my neck of the woods), so we talk about all things Northwoods and hockey.  He lives in Yeongam, not far from Mokpo.  Happy to see Dan and his beard this night.

The one thing you must make sure of, after each hash run, is that you've saved enough energy for the rest of the night's festivities!  After this particular hash run, there was a big party at Moe's, and many more foreigners filled the joint.  These two beautiful faces belong to Nathan and Rachel, my two favorite North Carolina natives.  Although I've only seen them in Mokpo on these party nights since orientation, it's a treat to spend some time with such good people.

Here's the scene--just a lot of cool foreigners in great Christmas gear drinking beer, dancing it up a bit, and having a damn good time.

Mokpo foreigners Shari and Sarah got a hold of a Moe's patron and did not let him go.  Made for an awesome picture.

The next morning at E-Mart (more or less a Korean all-purpose store like Wal-Mart), Monti found a bottle of Manischewitz, a favorite Christmas (ney, Hanukkah) treat for many of us back home.  Who woulda thought?

A quick look at the (limited) Christmas gear in my apartment.  Here is a tree I bought at E-Mart for roughly $3.  It came with cheap ornaments, in a box, with fold-down branches.  Cheap, but effective.

Some tinsel and holly I used to decorate my bookshelf.  Again, cheap but effective.

A Christmas stocking that hangs over my night stand.  For merely $1.  

     With that concludes this post on pre-Christmas festivities.  I must say, as I always am, I was absolutely blown away by the 48 hours of camaraderie I was able to experience, far away from home as I am.  Can't thank everyone enough for making my holidays a little bit easier to get through.  Another great weekend was over, but it meant a great Christmas weekend just down the road.

Thanks for reading!  The countdown to my Thailand trip is at 6 days, and I've been staying busy doing some day trips around Korea to pass the time before my flight.  Hoping to have my blog completely up to date by the time I leave.  Lots of love, and all the best.

-Sam