"Fishing" Trip at Bangjukpo Beach!

I stayed over night out at the beach on Dolsan island this weekend. Their were about 9 people who stayed over night, and maybe 15 people who came throughout the day. It was a little bit colder than average, especially with that ocean breeze rolling in, but it felt great to be outside all day. We fished off a fishing pier during the early afternoon..... Well, wait let me rewind a bit. Megan decided fishing wasn't going to be her thing, so my friend Ed and I went out to Emart, bought our fishing rods, some cheap-o bait, and got our McD's lunch (Big Mac!). We then started our short quest for fireworks, while also heading out towards Dolsan, Banjukpo beach to be specific. This beach is about 20km from my house, out in rural Dolsand island, on the way to Hyangiram temple. In fact you could see the temple from the beach, especially the path light up at night.


The place we stayed in the red one with "Spanish" looking arches.

We arrived out at the beach at about noon. Rich, our friend from New Zealand made us feel like totally chumps, but helped us get the line on our rod nonetheless, thankfully. This lead to Ed and my fishing, which lasted all of about 30 casts, maybe one or two hours. We fished, chatted, and generally hung out for a while. A few more people arrived, and we decided to check into the beach/cliffside minbok (kind of a Korean small hostel / B&B type place). THe price was kind of high, 50,000 Won per room, but we bit the bullet since the view was awesome. After that we unwisely switched to fishing from the shaded side of the cove, which was absolutely miserable. I personally made only one cast at the time, and mostly hung out and tipped a few back. Finally some wise guys decided we should switch back to the other side of the cove, and eat dinner. At this time we went to the beach side mart and bought about 30,000 of roman candles and bottle rockets (whistlers with report to be exact). Ed and I also did a short jaunt on a ocean side cliff walking path, which was awesome, hopefully he will have some pictures. We eventually made it over their and had a great dinner of samgyubal (Korea grilled pork), Mondu, and a bunch of other GREAT food. It was a lot of fun. We hung out their, and did a few of our fireworks, much to the chagrin of the locals out fishing. We had music playing from the car, I'm sure the locals had never seen anything like it. It felt a lot like being back in Minnesota, good friends, relaxing and having a lot of fun.


Once the sun went down around 7:30PM, two pretty cool things happened. First, a camoflauge jeep showed up full of about 10 soldiers. I thought they'd been called about the fireworks, but they could've cared less. They were actually there for the rotating duty to watch out for spy activity off the cove. It was pretty cool, we talked to them for a bit and they said a beach fire was all good, and out of their jurisdiction. Secondly, all of these mysterious lights popped up along the tidal river from this beach. We thought it was more soldiers checking out... whatever. It was rather a bunch of older woman, shining the light back and forth, over and over again, with a small net in hand. We couldn't spot what they were trying to catch. Ed and I watched for a while, when finally the woman we were observing scooped her net and put something in. We kindly asked in the simplest Korean, (Mua ah yo) what is that, she shined her light and said (Jang-uh Seki) I knew Seki meant animal baby, and we later learned the other word to be eel, pretty interesting, and fun to watch. You just don't see as much stuff like that back at home. Just before sundown the beach was full of the older ladies pulling out the sea weed, which we saw hanging to dry later that night also. Those are some of the things that make living here interesting, and a small reminder of the culture I am surrounded by each day.



At about 11PM or so, we moved over to the beach to start the bonfire. Wood is a bit harder to come by here then it was back in the North woods. We had to "borrow" someones old scrape wood (or so we thought) to get the bonfire going. This was also the time we went crazy and lit off the bottle rockets and roman candles. After the wood adventure, we were relaxing for a while when a group of Koreans came and visited us. I used my Korean (although we had to fluent speakers with) to ask where they were from and what they do, etc, which was a lot of fun. Then, one of their friends was thrown into the ocean, nice guys, huh? They didn't turn down the Soju we offered them, of course. Eventually the sleepy bug hit, and my goal of staying up and watching the sunrise at the Hyangiram temple came crashing down at about 3AM. The minbok offered Korean style bed (a blanket on the floor) and an empty room. We slept 4 people deep sardine style, and I'd guess my roomies didn't like my snoring one bit.


The other room, just to get an idea.

The next day we had another good brunch at the fishing pier. No one caught any fish that day, and only a flounder and a rock fish the first day, so we had to enjoy some chicken, eggs, bacon, and some other treats instead. I headed back to Yeosu at about 12:30PM, marking the end of the 24 adventure. In the end it was a lot of fun, being able to bond with my friends, and enjoy the outdoors.

Anyways, that's my story. Now that I see how long this ended up being I will probably copy it on to the blog. It was obviously the biggest adventure and most fun I've had in a while!! I have hit 8 months today, that means only 1/3 of the time here is left until I come home!

Hanrahans in Yeosu!

After several months of anticipation to have my parents come visit I’m sad to say it has already come to an end. We sent Mom, Dad, and Tim home on an 8:45 am flight this morning and while the goodbye was short and sweet, the aftermath is really making me homesick.


It was a really busy but fun week with the family. After finally getting my hair highlighted up in Seoul Dave and I met my parents and brother at the airport. They were of course the last people to walk through the gate, but they made it nonetheless. We took the bus to the hotel, dropped off our stuff and then quickly went to eat subway (I don’t think my family knew exactly why their first meal of the week was subway, but by the end of the trip they figured it out, haha). My dad spotted a jazz club and we attempted to go there, and to much of Dave and my surprise, it was a legitimate live jazz club. We stayed for a couple of rounds and then headed back to the hotel. While I was in the cab I noticed I had lost my wallet. After crying a little, the cabby dropped us off where we needed to be and luckily didn’t kick us out on account of having no money. I lost the train tickets along with my wallet, so the next morning we had to purchase more train tickets. But we made it to Yeosu in the afternoon, everyone together with only a wallet lost in the shuffle. When we got into town we took the family to Kimbap Nara and they ate their first “Korean” meal. I could tell my brother has been practicing with the chopsticks, but NOT mom and dad, haha. We took them on a scenic drive of Yeosu, stopped at e-mart for some grocery shopping and got McDonald’s for dinner. Everyone was exhausted, including Dave and I so we made it a short night.


The next day while Dave and I worked, Hyegeong, Sara, and Won kindly took my family to Nagan, a traditional folk village. They stopped at a flower festival as well where my brother got hit on by a drag queen, haha. That night we relaxed, had some cake (it was my birthday) and had a couple of drinks. The next day we took advantage of the beautiful weather we have been having and went to Odongdo, Dolsan Park, Jinnamgwan, and the open market, all before we had to work. The weather all week long was amazing! No rain, and mid 60’s the entire time we were in Yeosu. My family was pretty impressed with the open market, it’s not every day you get to see fresh fish chilling in the alley, and a pig’s head dangling from the ceiling. Good thing we ate beforehand. After school, Dave and I took them out for a Korean style barbecue. I think they all liked the food very much, but the spices got to my dad the next morning. After dinner we drove through the industrial complex where I think everyone fell asleep in the car at one point in time (besides Dave). We came home and chilled the rest of the night.


On Wednesday we had a Korean style picnic lunch out at Shindock beach. We turned this into a candid photo shoot taking silly and fun pictures on the beach. It was a lot of fun, and got some great pics. My mom also successfully attempted a cartwheel on the beach (she does this every once in a while to make sure she can still complete it, haha). While we were driving back there were a couple of times we had to get out of the car while Dave drove over the speed bumps in order to not bottom out our car, but besides that the little Elantra survived the Hanrahan’s, haha. This was the day the fam came to school. Our boss and his wife gave them a warm greeting and they had tea and potatoes ready for them to eat. While Dave and I were preparing for class, my mom and dad talked with our boss and my Maric (our boss’s 2nd oldest son) took my brother to look at a comic book store. It was great having the family in school, all of the kids were amazed and excited to see them. Some of them were even nervous and scared. I made up some questionnaires that the kids used to interview my family, it turned out to be pretty fun. I think my mom, dad, and brother were really excited and happy they could get a chance to see the school and the kids. My boss also took my family aside and basically said “teach my son how to play jazz.” Well his son only plays violin, and my dad doesn’t play violin. My dad taught him a jazz scale and they listened to Max (boss’s oldest son) play violin. Exactly what my parents wanted to do, haha jk. They missed one of my classes that I actually had a special lesson prepared for my family because my boss wanted them to hear his son play the violin. I think this little lack of communication situation gave my family just a little taste of how this school and Kologic (Korean logic) can get very daunting and annoying. After having dinner at the Hagwon, my family took a cab home and waited for Dave and I to finish the rest of our teaching.



Thursday I didn’t have to work! Unfortunately Dave did, but I think it was nice for him to just get out of the house alone for a couple of hours, haha. I took this opportunity to hike the mountain with everyone. It’s the mountain Dave and I hike frequently, and even though it was foggy and rainy early in the day, it cleared up while we were hiking. The flowers have just started to bloom so it made for some beautiful scenery. After the hike my mom and I went to Lotte mart and then the open market closer to our house to pick up a few more things. That night we all had dinner at Hye-gyong’s sister’s apartment. Hye-gyong, Jeff, Sara, Hana, Jahn-oak (Hye-gyong’s sister), Won (Hye-gyong’s brother), Hye-oak (Won’s wife), Jay-yeong (Hyegyong’s neice), Hyun-sa (Hyge-gyong’s niece), and my family. It was incredibly nice of Hyegeong’s family to do since technically I am not a part of their family. They are such a generous and supportive family, thank you! We had a traditional pork dinner sitting on the floor, which I must admit my family did pretty well at. It was delicious and much appreciated; what a cool experience for my family. We visited awhile with them and then set off for home. We played scattegories at home while having a couple of drinks (luckily my dad brought some good whiskey from home). Then we hit the town and went to a soju room where my parents had their first and last taste of soju, haha. After that we were ready for the noribong! This was probably the most fun night of all, everyone was singing and having a great time. We didn’t get home till 3:30 am!



Friday both Dave and I had off of work! We were a little sick from the night before, but nothing that a little McDonald’s can’t soak up. We took everyone to Hyangiram (a temple on the south side of Dolsan island). It was very beautiful outside, and at the top of the mountain we took some great pictures. We also went to view the turtle ships and drove through the famous Marae tunnel that Koreans built by hand while enslaved by Japan. That night we went out to dinner with Jen and took the parents to Ellui, the bar where most foreigners hang out. There they got to see the fire show and meet a couple of our friends. I took my brother home early and we got some Mondu from the nicest foodstand lady in town. My parents stayed out for a bit longer with Dave and they also got Mondu (or according to Sue – Mongu) later that night.
The last day we got kimbap nara one more time and headed to Gwangyoung for a soccer game. It was really fun because it gave them a chance to just sit and watch Koreans, haha. They were able to experience the storm of “Hi, how are you?” and the other fun things that go along with this culture. We headed home and after a whole week of no rain, it started to rain. Mom and Dad walked and got a pizza (all on their own) for us and we just visited and watched a movie. The next morning we headed our early to say goodbye and put them on a plane home.


I don’t think I have been as homesick as I have been these past several hours after saying goodbye. It meant so much for me to have my family travel all the way out here to see me. Dave and I both had a great time visiting, and had a lot of fun sharing our Korean life with people from back home. It was the best birthday gift I could ever ask for. I am so lucky to have such a great family! Thank you so much Mom, Dad, and Tim, we love you!

p.s. Only three more weeks until the next set of visitors come! And only 4 more months left of Korea! Time is really going by too fast.

Here are the pictures part one!

Part Two!