Foundation Day Holiday Weekend

It is yet again a long-weekend in South Korea – Foundation day, which I’ve been told is celebrated by raising the Korean flag all over town. My students didn’t seem too excited about the holiday and none of the staff at school was doing anything special either. Most of the other foreigners were taking advantage of the three day weekend to travel. Most of them headed to Seoul and some to Busan for one last beach weekend. Milton and I decided that a weekend at home would do us some good and so we stayed local.

Friday we went for a walk to the waterfront to see what the action was down there. There were lots of people out and there seemed to be some sort of fishing derby going on. We hiked up this tiny mountain, more of a rocky hill, to sit in the sun and read for a bit. We came across a group of hikers who insisted we join them for a bit of a picnic. We find Koreans to be most generous on holidays. They shared what they were eating and drinking. We were happy to have taught the grade 5 lesson “Do you want some more” in which the food examples included a few Korean dishes. Milton and I learned what Songpyon is – a traditional Korean rice dish always served at thanksgiving. Songpyeon isn’t grains of rice, it’s hard to describe, but it’s like rice pasta that is stuffed with more rice. Picture big perogies – a sticky, thick rice pasta-ish outside with grainy, dry stuffing inside. The outside can be white, green, or pink --- I don’t know what makes it a different colour because they all taste the same! So they handed us this food, and we said: “oh songpyon, kamsa hamnida.” (Songpyon, Thank you) They cheered and cheered because we knew what it was and how to say it in Korean! They were also quite drunk, which is pretty much a normal state of being for Koreans. Then they gave us some of what they were drinking which was some kind of super strong fruity wine…we think! They headed of on their way to continue the hike and if none of them fell off the side of the mountain it’s a miracle!

I know what you are thinking Mom and Dad. I can hear you from here…Don’t take food from strangers! But they pretty much force it on you and as disgusting as the food may be, you have to at least pretend to enjoy it and take a few bites. I only had a bite and a sip to please them and as soon as they were out of site I threw it away.

Saturday was our beach day. Milton and I set off to find Jindo beach which is on an island about an hour from Mokpo. We took the bus and it wasn’t the best ride for me. Taking the bus in Korea is never a smooth ride. With 70% of the country being mountains, the roads wind all over the place: up, down, around and through tunnels. Mom, Em and Liss, if you want to add Gravol my Christmas package it would be much appreciated ;) When we got to Jindo we discovered we had to take another bus from the centre of the island where the bus terminal is, out the beach. I had barely recovered from the first bus ride and now had to get on another! It was about a 30 min bus ride from there and the second but ride was pretty cool actually because it was through smaller country roads and we could see people harvesting rice. The bus swerved from one side of the road to the other trying to avoid the blankets of rice that were in the sun drying. We managed to get a few shots from the bus.

Finding our stop was difficult because we had no idea where we were going. What we had seen on the internet and on the map of Jindo was a large beach and we figured we know it when we saw it. No such luck! And when the bus had done the entire route and was about to start on the return route the driver signalled us to get off. With our handy little phrase book we managed to communicate that we were looking for the beach. The people on the bus heading back into town laughed at us crazy waegooks (foreigners) because it is way too late in the year to be heading to the beach in their minds. Meanwhile it’s still sunny and 25 degrees so we laughed back at them! The bus driver took us to where we needed to get off and Milton and I headed to the beach. We were the only ones on the beach of course, but this made the day at the beach that much nicer! When we got back into Mokpo Saturday night, we ended our day with a traditional Korean BBQ dinner of pork ribs. There is a nice restaurant right beside our apartment and for $7 you get a plate of pork that you grill in front of you and unlimited refills on the side dishes of veggies, and Korean pancakes and in true Korean style you sit on the floor and eat with chopsticks. I wanted to take pictures but when I suggested it Milton didn’t feel like it, and when I suggested it again he didn’t want to because the meat was gone and he didn’t think you’d be able to get a good idea of what the whole meal looked like. So blame it on Milton…no photos. I’m sure there will be plenty of photo opportunities like that again since that is the only type of restaurant there is in Korea!

Now it’s Sunday and we are enjoying our last day of the weekend exactly how we wanted: quiet and lazy. I’m writing my blog, and Milton is listening to the Montreal Canadian game on the internet and playing video games – he found a site where you can play old school Nintendo games online. It is a cloudy/rainy day out do we don’t feel guilty about staying in all day and we have plans to spend the afternoon cooking and trying new recipes. It’s so nice to have so much free time in Korea and so few responsibilities!