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Published: August 24th 2008
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What a great weekend with my co-workers! We climbed into one of the school buses and headed North East...or South East (not sure!) past the city of Pohang and ended up in this tiny town with lots of these little hotels and old homes. The place we stayed was way too funny! They had fake palm trees that lit up at night, one was green, one was orange and one was red! There was also a light up cherry blossom tree that went from red to purple, green and blue and back again! We were in awe of the tacky awesomeness because it was actually pretty cool! The lower deck had all these bench swings and the one was wide enough to literally rest your whole body without having to bend your knees. Needless to say we hung out there most of the night.
When we got there we prepared the lunch that consisted of cheese, crackers, fruit, hummus, chips, salsa and of course kimchi (which I'm growing fond of!). It was delicious and then we headed down to the beach to test the water! It was very rough and while Mike and I were trying to get Irene to just
walk in a bit a wave hit us. I lost my balance a little stepped onto the ledge that was made up of stones, sunk and lost my balance crashing into the water just in time for another wave to hit me and fill my nose and mouth with delicious salt water! Everyone got a laugh though so it was worth it! It was strange because the beach was quite rocky and the entry to the water was sandy then turned into about 2 feet of stones which like I said you sink in and it dropped about 2 feet in depth and than it rose again about a meter more in and is all sand! It was so hard to stand up after riding a wave because you had to practically go from your knees to your feet before another giant wave came crashing down!
Claire and I had bought a baseball bat, ball and football to bring and we had a great time tossing the ball around in the water and trying to catch popflys. Needless to say I drank A LOT of water trying to catch the ball and not paying attention to the tidal wave that
had crept up behind me! I'm also now dealing with a jammed pinkie as a toss from Tash just clipped it. After playing in the ocean for about 2 hours we were all exhausted, battered and bruised from a beating curtesy of Mother Nature and with great effort escaped the sea's valiant efforts to keep us from leaving it's warm waters! I say this because just as I was knocked off balance and had difficulty finding my footing while being berated with wave after wave so did everyone else when they tried to get out! I felt better seeing that! I however had a much easier time having gone in and out a few times! Practice may not have made it perfect but it made it easier!
We walked home slowly with sand chaffing our feet and still spitting salt water. We showered and began the process of cooking dinner. The shrimp I made (ok just the marinade because I don't believe one can MAKE shrimp!) was a huge hit which made me happy but left me with only 2 for myself as the rest was devoured in record time! If shrimp eating was in the Olympics a Korean/Canadian joint
effort would win hands down! We also had veggies, potatoes and steak. All was delicious and went very quickly. Along with all the delicious food there was obviously alcohol but surprisingly no Soju, damn! We had some Costco cheesecake for dessert and that was a HUGE smile maker!
A while after dinner we began roasting marshmallows over an open...coal?! It was our only option but they were also a big hit with the Koreans who haven't had much marshmallow exposure throughout their lifetime. Anne was the most diligent of them all and perfected the golden brown marshmallow. While I perfected actually getting mine to catch on fire. It took patience but boy it was worth it! I also would suggest dipping a marshmallow in red wine and roasting it, it's quite delicious!
Eventually it started raining again and we all headed inside to get ready for bed but not before we watched the thrilling 9th inning of the Korea/Cuba gold medal baseball game! It was so exciting to see Korea win the gold medal...although I'm used to seeing it as they do quite well at the summer Olympics and you can't turn on the TV without seeing someone win something!
So I guess it was exciting to watch them doing it while with a bunch of Koreans!
Sleep didn't come easily as the room was VERY hot (under the floor heaters) and someone...I won't say who as I don't like to be mean, was snoring so bad it sounded like a tornado ripping through a trailer park full of chainsaws that were all cutting down metal trees while dying cows watched from the sidelines. Mike, Tash, Mickey and I were a little frustrated to say the least...even little Daniel was being startled by the noise. I eventually went out and joined a few of my co-workers who were playing a game out on the deck. They introduced me to a game called Rummikins...or something like that! It's a numbers game so I immediately said that I wouldn't do well but turns out I'm not that bad and I caught on quickly...Yay me! After Claire and I taught them how to play Cheat which turned out to be a blast because one would forget what we were on so we'd lie and tell them they were on the number after the one they were actually on. When playing cheat you may as
well CHEAT! After the game we went in to go to bed and I again ended up sitting staring at Tash who was staring at me both with AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH looks on our faces! A night where the baby sleeps soundly and Tash can't because of the noise!
I did manage to fall asleep after 4 and wake up just after 6. I went outside to a beautiful morning and walked down to the beach with Mike, Tash, Mickey and Irene to take some pictures. The water was even rougher and it was obvious it had stirred up some marine life overnight as we found clams and a starfish and other shell creatures that weren't very lucky. We did get the starfish back into the water but who knows if it got washed to shore again...I prefer to think it's alive and well! We returned to find everyone else still sound asleep and the tornado still reeking havoc on the citizens of our room. So we grabbed half a watermelon, some cheese, some crackers and ate breakfast as we chatted about the enjoyable time we were all having. Everyone else finally began to stir around 8 or 9 and preparations were
made for our brunch or as the Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings call it "second breakfast" which turned out to be bulgogi which is a beef dish! Normally this isn't something that I would be all that happy to eat in the morning but it didn't really feel like morning because morning usually follows sleep and since I barely got any of that I was ready for a non breakfast like breakfast! Crazy logic but logical nonetheless! Bulgogi is something we sometimes get for lunch and it is one of my favs so I enjoyed it! We than packed up and headed for home.
Mickey leaves tomorrow and I am really not looking forward to saying goodbye as she has been my travel buddy and partner in crime for the past 4 months. Life is going to feel incredibly weird with her gone. I suppose it's preparing me for when I have to say good bye to Mike, Tash and Claire when they head home and to Seoul in February. C'est la vie!
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