Weekend Adventures

Hello all!

So this weekend was a really good one. Went out Friday night with some of my fellow teachers and randomly met this nice Korean fellow who recognized my tattoo from the station. I guess he saw me there at some point and remembered me. I felt quite flattered. Anyway, we invited him and his friends to join us and we ended up partying with them until the wee hours of the morning. It was extremely fun. I felt like I had a little glimpse of real Korean culture, not just dancing on the outskirts. I'm hoping I will see them again soon, they were really nice and a lot of fun.

On Sunday we went to the beach. That was an adventure, as I'm quickly discovering most things are in Korea. Nothing is quite what you'd expect it to be. From chips to beaches.

The day began with a stop at the tourist information centre at the subway station in Suwon to ask for directions to the beach. They told us there is a beach, but you can't swim there because it's too muddy. We asked "Are there any other beaches where we can swim?" "No." So we got some half-assed directions and found the right bus and hopped on. The lady had told us this would be a direct bus to the beach. So we happily rode along the country rodes admiring the rice paddies and hills. And then all of a sudden the bus stops and everyone gets out. Apparently the last stop is not at the beach at all, but in the middle of the town... So we somehow made ourselves understood (I think it involved making a swimming motion with our arms. Very sophisticated) and got pointed to another bus. It was this tiny bus that looked like it would fall apart at any minute and the driver was like an aging hippy version of David Suzuki. Oh wait...David Suzuki is an aging hippy... Anyway, we finally got to the beach, or what we assumed was the beach. We saw sand. And people sitting on it. But not really any water. Just...mud. Miles of it, it seemed. The lady at tourist booth was right about that anyway.

But, not to be disheartened, we found some rocks close to the water to sit on for a few hours and took some pictures and just chatted. And then noticed that the tide was quickly coming in. And what had been miles of mud was kinda turning into a proper beach. So we got a swim in after all, though the water was very murky from the mud and very salty. Though that might just be the prairie girl in me talking, being used to swimming in lakes I'm sure all salt water would taste especially salty. It's been a long time since I swam in the sea.

After our swim we were laying on the beach for a while, and then decided to go for supper. We stopped at the bathrooms on our way and noticed that the road we had come over on (did I mention this beach was on an island?) was now under the water. The tide that had covered the mud has also covered the road. And we didn't know how long it would take to go back out, or if it would at all that day. So we resigned ourselves to our fate and thought it would be a good story to tell if we ended up having to sleep on the beach. And it might get us a day off work on Monday too! So we went for supper. Seafood of course. The usual grill in the middle of the table but this time they brought us a basket of assorted shells and some prawns. It was amazing! Cooking fresh seafood over an open fire. Oysters, mussles, scallops, snails. I've never had anything so delicious. I ate one of the oysters raw, and it was so amazing. Seafood fresh from the ocean really can't be beat.

After supper we decided to go see if the road had re-appeared yet, and luckily for us, it had. So we caught the same bus with David Suzuki as our driver and made our way home, tired and salty and happy. Though I was really looking forward to sleeping on the beach.

The picture is of the Korean friends we made on Friday. Adorable aren't they?