Last Wednesday, Gianni and I had our last Korean class. We've been doing the classes twice a week for six weeks at the YMCA in the level 1B class. We're moving up to level 2 now, but we probably won't take another class until the fall because of our schedules and taekwondo. The test was pretty easy, if you studied. I didn't get to study as much as I wanted to because I had been stressing out about buying flights home. We actually booked those last Wednesday as well, so it is official. We are coming home for two weeks in the summer! Get ready Boston! I can't wait. Anyway, the test was only a page with maybe 15 questions. There was supposed to be a speaking part as well, but we ran out of time in class. Afterwards, there was a big ceremony where we all got certificates of completion. We had to make awkward speeches in front of everyone in the other classes, and we elected Erin to do our speech. Some of the other groups all spoke. It is cool to see how amazing some of the higher level people are at Korean. I hope I get to be that fluent. I feel like I've made strides throughout this class. After everyone got a certificate, they awarded one person in each class with the Best Student awards, and I won for our class! It's based on participation and homework and things. I was so thrilled. I really do enjoy learning Korean, so I try hard.
Last Thursday, Gianni's friend from college, Lily, arrived in Korea! She's our first visitor here, and we're so happy to have her here. She even brought us some treats from home. Gianni was thrilled to have some of his trader joe's bean dip for the first time in 8 months. She arrived at 9am, so we have to keep her up for the rest of the day to get her through the jet lag. She's been a real trouper when it comes to that. I know when I first got here, I was a mess for about a week, but she seems fine. She came on May 1st, which is actually labor day for EPIK teachers. We are contractually obligated to have it off, even though school isn't cancelled, so we got to go to the airport and pick her up and everything.
We took her back to our little, one-room apartment. Unfortunately, her bed is the couch for the next two weeks, but it's better than the floor I suppose. After taking a short rest at home, we headed out to Seomun Market. It was on her list of things to see in Daegu, and it's actually a pretty unique, Korean experience, so it was a good place to start. Plus, the market is in my stamp book! I got the stamp at the tourist info booth there, and we walked around the market for a few hours looking at all the clothes, food, and random stuff. The Korean word for market is 식장 (seek jang), and the way I remember it is, "you SEE JUNK at the MARKET." Seek jang sounds like see junk. Point is, there is a lot of junk at the market.
The market is right next to a park that is in the Korean version of the stamp book and that a few people have told me to check out. Dalseong Park is a really nice, small park by downtown. It has a local history museum and the saddest zoo on Earth inside of it. Gianni, Lily, and I just keep calling it the sad zoo now. Someone in our Korean class warned us about it, but we had to see it for ourselves. They have a huge range of animals, and I'm sure all those animals aren't meant for the Korean climate. They are in these dirt-floored cages that are way too small for these wild animals. I'm not sure how they even take care of the animals given that you don't even pay to get into the park. Maybe it was a holiday, and you do actually have to pay other days. I'm not sure. All I know was that the condition of some of these animals was appalling. The only bright side is that I heard the zoo is being relocated to a new, better facility. We literally saw two large elephants that stand on a small dirt platform. There was an inside part, but I can't believe they didn't have food outside for them since elephants eat so much. There were also lions, tigers, bears, and zebra. It was just a terrible zoo. The actual park was lovely though. The museum was really small, and there was only one chunk of information in English, but some of the pictures were cool.
After the park, we got a taxi downtown and took Lily to our favorite bingsu place, Bing! Bing! Bing!. Bingsu is shaved ice. We got green tea and strawberry flavored bingsu. The strawberry one was covered in delicious strawberries. It was delicious. After walking around downtown for a bit, we took Lily to fried rice place where they cook it right in front of you. We got the vegetable kind since Lily is a vegetarian, and we also got sea food pa jeon (pancake). We then had a relaxing night in, preparing for our trip for the long weekend starting the next day. Monday was Children's Day in Korea, and Tuesday was Buddha's Birthday, so we had a 4 day weekend. Because of Labor Day and my sick day, I ended up with a 6 day weekend! Wooh!
On Friday, I decided to call in sick to school. I have been having terrible allergies, but I think they turned in to a cold. I haven't been getting enough sleep, especially since on Thursday and Friday I woke up an hour before my alarm went off and had a sneezing fit. Lily and I had a low-key day while Gianni was at school. We went to the bus station and bought our tickets to Gunsan. Gunsan is the city where the ferry terminal is. We spent the weekend on an island on the west coast called Seonyu Island (Seonyudo). Gianni got to leave early from school and met us at Kim Pasa (a Korean fast-food restaurant) where we were having lunch. We packed our things and headed to the bus station to meet Maria and Matthew for our 4 hour bus ride to Gunsan. When we got to Gunsan, we spent a little while looking around for a motel to sleep for the night. There were plenty of motels around the bus terminal, and they were all around 50,000 won per night, but we had to get two rooms. They were all love motels, which are very common in Korea. They are basically rooms (some of them are very fancy or even themed) for people to have sex. Prostitution is very common in Korea, although they won't admit it. It's not like prostitutes walk around soliciting outside, but there are "business clubs" and places marked with double barber poles, and those are places you can get girls. You can also go to special noraebangs and hire a girl to come hang out with your group, and then go to the motel next door with her. Anyway, we ended up at one of these motels, but people also stay at them for normal reasons, like us. You just wouldn't do an extended stay at one. The hotel manager gave us little toiletries kits when we checked in complete with condoms and lube! It also had a face mask that Lily and I tried. It makes your face really smooth, but you look like you belong in a horror movie while you have it on. After settling in to the motel, we found a kimbap place to grab some quick dinner. We played a few games of cards in the motel since Maria and Matthew brought like 5 decks with them.
The next morning, we got up a little early and grabbed Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. We stocked up on donuts for breakfast for the rest of the weekend also. Our motel was convenient because it was next to the bus terminal, but it was also right next to a grocery store, so we went in there and bought some snacks, fruit, and PBJ for lunch for the weekend. That way, the only food we needed to buy on the island was dinner. We were told by several sources that the food is a bit pricey on Seonyudo. We took taxis to the ferry terminal for around $10. I had asked my coteacher to reserve ferry tickets for me because of all the problems I had trying to book tickets to Ulleongdo previously. So we picked up the reservation and were all set to go. Random side note: they ask for your ID number on the ticket, and they need to see it as your board. It was kind of strange that they kept asking for it. Not sure what that was all about. The ferry to the island was only about an hour, but I guess I must have been hungry or something. Toward the end, when I woke up from a nap, I was really nauseous, but I made it to shore alright. When we arrived, I met up with my coteacher's friend's husband. I guess they own a hostel on the island, so I had booked a room with them. He picked us and some other guests up at the ferry terminal and drove us to the hostel. Basically the only cars on the islands are these big vans that bring people to their guest houses. It's incredible. They drive down these really narrow pathways that have steep drops down to the beach and no railings! And people are walking and biking along them also! Maria was sitting on the end seat and felt a little unsafe for a minute. We are all staying in one room. In Korea, ondol rooms are where most Koreans stay on vacation. Ondol rooms are rooms with ondol floor heating where you sleep on the floor on sleeping mats. They basically only have bathrooms and one open room. Our room also had a small kitchen though. After eating some PB&J for lunch, we rented bikes downstairs from our room for 8,000 won for the day. What a deal! Seonyudo is actually one island that is connected to another two islands by bridges. We decided to just go out and ride our bikes wherever we wanted. We followed one path all the way along one side of the island, stopping to take pictures and look for cool seashells on the beach. I hadn't really been to a
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| Our really awesome seashell collection |
Korean beach before, and this island had some AMAZING seashells. We collected a whole bunch to bring home. After our bike ride and a little rest, we wanted to try to climb up Mangjubong hill. They call it a hill, but it is basically a cliff face. Gianni and Lily made it up a little bit, but when we got to the ropes that you have to use to rock climb your way up the mountain, they backed out. Maria, Matthew, and I made it all the way to the top though. It is less hiking and more mountain climbing. We were pulling ourselves up on ropes and tree roots. It was a spectacular view of all the islands in the vicinity though. Simply beautiful. The way back down was a little treacherous, especially when we had to dodge people climbing up. But in the end, we made it safe and sound. Maria asked a local where would be good to eat dinner, and we decided to go in that direction. We ended up at a place owned by a really sweet lady. I think they were providing dinner for a large, business group or something because there was a whole room set up with food, waiting for people
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| raw fish bibimbap |
to arrive. We sat in our own private room, and the owner actually held my hand and pulled me over to look at the food and show me some options. The business people were eating very expensive, large meals, so we opted for the raw fish bibimbap for 12,000 won a bowl. Hway is raw fish in Korean, and there are whole restaurants dedicated to it. There were a lot of Hway restaurants and seafood restaurants on the island for obvious reasons. After our delicious dinner, we played games, read, and relaxed at the room the rest of the night. Unfortunately, we realized we were really stupid and forgot to put on sunscreen. All of us had bright, red faces!
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| catching razor clams |
The next day, we rented bikes again. We stopped on the beach because we saw a bunch of families digging in the sand and wanted to see what they were looking for. Turns out, they were looking for razor clams. Someone was digging in the sand and when they found a small hole, they would put salt in it to force the clams out of the holes. Then, they pulled the clam out and put it in a bag. One family let Maria try it! This time, we headed back towards the ferry terminal and rode up a steep hill to get to one of the bridges connecting Seonyudo
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| beautiful views from every angle |
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| 칼국수 |
For 7,000 won each, we got a big bowl of soup called 칼국수 to share. The broth was seafood and almost a little creamy. Inside were thick noodles and clams. It was very tasty. We decided just to stop for lunch and eat dinner at the room because we were already far from the room and didn't want to go all the way there and back again. After lunch, we went back up the big hill but this time turned right down the hill to follow a path around another island. My favorite part of our trip was probably the really cool, wooden walking path built on the rock face of this island. There were some stunning views. At the end
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| the cliff walkway |
The next day was our last day on the island. We woke up a little later and packed our things and cleaned the room. We didn't have much planned, so we took our stuff and headed for the ferry. On the way, we stopped at something marked as "tomb" up a hill near our room. It was a Korean-style building with a table and offerings inside. I think it's a place where Koreans can make offerings to their ancestors or something of that nature. They make offerings like that for Buddhist holidays. We had an interaction with a cute little boy and his family. We didn't think we could open the doors of the building, but this boy just charged right up and opened them. He also kept saying, "hello!" It was adorable. We walked the rest of the way back to the ferry with a few stops to take photos. The islands were so scenic in some places that it's hard not to take pictures. We tried to change our ticket for the ferry because we had later tickets, but we were ready to head back to Gunsan and get home. The woman at the terminal didn't speak English though, so we were struggling. We managed to get a hold of a volunteer fire-fighter and coffee truck operator nearby who spoke great English and helped us. While we waited for our earlier ferry, we played some bananagrams and got lunch. We had the same seafood soup from the previous day. On the ride back, Gianni and I passed out for the whole ride. Next thing I knew, we were already back in Gunsan. Getting a taxi from the ferry terminal to the bus terminal was harder than I ever though. There were no taxis coming down that way. The security guard at the ferry parking lot saw us struggling and asked, in English, if we needed help. He actually spoke pretty good English. He was very concerned about how much the taxi would cost, but as we were talking a taxi came up. There was another group of foreigners looking for one, and some of them were Korean-American, we think. They spoke fluent Korean anyway. They were joking with us and laughing because the security guard was sticking up for us with the taxi guy. Telling him we had been waiting a long time and convincing him to let us take 5 in the taxi, even though 4 people is typically the maximum. He was a really great guy. So we all piled into the one taxi, and even though the meter in the cab said 11,000 won when we got back to the station, we didn't have exact change. We gave him 20,000, which he just took without giving us change. Whatever, we thought he might charge us double given that two taxis would have cost that much. We got our bus tickets back to Daegu and got on the bus without issue. We were all happy to be heading home and to get one more day off. We had a fairly active long-weekend, and I think we all wanted one day to relax and recuperate. Unfortunately, a lot of people must have been traveling for the holiday, and we hit a whole pile of traffic coming home. We were delayed by about an hour coming back because of it, so the ride took 5 hours instead of 4. Also, I'm not sure why this was allowed to happen, but it actually made me really mad. The bus wasn't crowded at all, and then it made a stop in another city and suddenly there were so many people on the bus that people were standing and sitting in the aisles! How can this possibly be allowed to happen, especially after the ferry accident and the Seoul train accident have brought up the serious safety issues in Korea. The Korean government thinks that the problem will be solved if they cancel all school trips indefinitely instead of imposing stricter safety regulations and enforcing them. It's so backwards to me. I can't understand it. Anyway, we made it back safely.
We were really lucky that the weather held out for us for most of the weekend. The second day was a little cloudy, but we didn't get wet. It was a bit colder than we anticipated on the island, but when we were hiking, walking, or biking, it was fine. What I really liked about this vacation was that it felt like a true Korean vacation. There were very few people on the island, and most of the people were Koreans. I think we saw less than 5 other English-speakers there. It was a really authentic experience, and I nice relief from city living. Also, everyone was super friendly on the island. Most people didn't speak English, but they tried their best, and even people visiting the island, like us, were really friendly. We got a lot of "hellos" in passing.
Monday was Buddha's birthday. We got a very late start. Gianni and I are strapped for cash this month because we bought our flights home, so we were doing some banking and making some calls, and we ended up leaving the house at around 3pm. There was supposed to be an Herb Medicine Festival in Daegu this weekend, but it was cancelled because the country is in mourning over the ferry accident. Instead, we went to E-World. Gianni and I had been meaning to go for a long time. E-World is the amusement park in Daegu, and it's not actually that far from our house. The tickets were 33,000 won, and they included the park and rides as well as a trip up Daegu Tower. We were stupid and should have waiting an hour. We got there around 4pm, and at 5pm, the half-price night tickets are sold. Ugh! Oh well. The park is meant to be a Korean take on a Western amusement park. The music on the way up to the park was almost surreal. You walk along a path up a hill, and there are outdoor escalators, which was weird. Then, the music playing was children's songs, like "If You're Happy and You Know it." It was really strange. There were a lot of people there, but the lines weren't long at all. I think the longest line we waiting in was 20 minutes or so. We went on all the big roller coasters. Gianni sat one of them out because it had too many loops. It is a small amusement park, but some of the rides were fun. After walking around the park and checking out the rides, we went back down to take the cable car (the "sky way") up to the base of Daegu Tower. It was a really nice ride and the sun was setting at the time. Lily, Gianni, and I went up the tower. Gianni and I had gone before, but the E-World lights weren't on then, so we got some cool pictures of E-World from above. We stopped for dinner at the food court in the tower, and we got the most authentic, American pizza we've ever had in Daegu. Gianni and I had Gorgonzola and almond white pizza and carbonara set. Super tasty! We headed home after that and stopped at a dessert cafe for some tiramisu bingsu! Again, super tasty!
Gianni got a super long weekend because it was his school's foundation day yesterday, so he got one more day off than I did. He and Lily went to Gyeongju for the day, and then we did quiz night with Maria and Matthew. We didn't win anything, and we ended up in like 6th place. There were some really good teams. Anyway, I will let Gianni talk about Gyeongju with Lily.
Today, Lily is in Andong. Hopefully, she's having a fantastic time. A few of my classes got cancelled today for school picture day, so I'm trying to catch up on some work. It's been an awesome time with Lily so far, and we're all really excited to go Seoul this weekend. Gianni and I haven't been back there to sight see since Chuseok last year, so it'll be nice to see the things we missed last time.
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