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Published: June 23rd 2010
This weekend was one for the memory books! But first, Saturday.
Saturday we went to Haeundae beach for the Sand Festival where they had all kinds of activities involving sand, the highlight of which was sand sculptures. It's amazing what people can carve in the sand! They had 3 professionals from Korea and USA and they carved a real sand castle, the Eiffel Tower, Christ the Redeemer, Statue of Liberty and many other things that were simply amazing! We saw one artist hard at work on his piece when we arrived and when we left later on he was still working and STILL not finished! Now that's dedication, considering we were told that the sculptures get taken down every day and re-done the next day!
Let me just tell you about the beach phenomenon in Korea because it's like nothing I have ever seen! First of all, people don't go to the beach to tan. White skin reigns here and with all the money they spend of skin whitening cream, it would just be silly to sit out in the sun! So they all have big beach umbrellas with them. And I know beach umbrellas are seen at beach
Car-bowing people
They stand on every street corner with the round number of their candidate and bow to all the cars as they pass by!back home, but not like this. EVERY SINGLE person has an umbrella (except, of course, the crazy foreigners!). And for whatever reason, they never wear swim suits! Don't worry, they don't swim nude, they swim with allll their clothes on! And then run around in the sand and bury each other, resulting in a big group of sand-covered monsters! It seems so illogical and uncomfortable to swim in jeans and then wear wet jeans around covered in sand...but they don't seem to mind! We also saw some ajjumas (grandmas) walking around on the beach with clear plastic bags over their shoes and socks so they wouldn't have to get sand int heir shoes or take them off! The beach is one of the best places to people watch in Korea, that's for sure!
As we enjoyed the beach, Mike was off playing in a volleyball tournament against all of the other elementary school in Yangsan. Since Mike's school has zero male teachers aside from his co-teacher, they teamed up with another school in a similar situation. Hoping to make some impact and win the tournament, they were sadly disappointed.. mostly due to a dictator principal (from the other school)
that would only play in the setter position even though he was horrible at it. In Korea, you must (MUST!) respect anyone older or in a higher position than you. So when the principal announced that he wanted to be setter, even though the team would have been better with another setter, no one could say anything because he was a PRINCIPAL! Sometimes the respect thing goes a little too far...
Sunday we woke up to a perfect day and were ready for our adventure of the day! We were going paragliding!! Apparently paragliding is relatively popular in Korea and many people do this on weekend leisurely. We had heard about a Korean man who takes foreigners for rides and so 4 of us went with him to a mountain just north of Yangsan, near Ulsan for our ride.
When we arrived, we were a little worried because there appeared to be no wind. Mr Lee said we might have to wait a while before we could jump. Luckily however, his buddy called him from the top of the mountain saying the conditions were perfect so off we went on the ride up the mountain. This road
we drove up was the craziest road I have ever been on! It took over 30 minutes to drive to the peak because the road was so windy and bumpy. As we get out of the car at the top, the nerves start to settle in. I'm a little bit scared on heights so seeing people jumping off the top of the mountain, was not the most comforting sight! At the top the wind was perfect and before I knew it, Mr Lee had strapped the gear on me and I was getting some instructions from Janet, who had jumped a few times before. Basically it was simple - when Mr Lee says run, you run, then you sit back and relax while he steers the chute around in the air. Piece of cake!
After watching a few people take off, I felt ready to go and so off we went! They lift the parachute a bit to catch the wind, then you run to the edge of the mountain and hope that the chute catches you from there - which it always did! It all happened so fast, I don't remember much but the ride was amazing! It
was so exhilarating being so high up in the air (1000-1300m I think) and seeing for miles around! My ride lasted close to 30 minutes and the whole time we just went up and down and around and round in circles! Before I knew it, it was time to land! Because the winds were so perfect, we were able to land at the same spot we took off from (rather than landing at the base of the mountain). Our first landing attempt was foiled by some other jumpers who wouldn't get out of the way, but on the second try we landed perfectly in the field behind the take-off zone. By the end of the ride mt stomach was a little upset so I was glad to be on firm ground and sit down for a while on a seat that was not twirling and going up and down! Basically it was like being on a roller coaster for 30 minutes! However, it was such a great experience and I would definitely do it again!
After lunch (kimbap) a few others took their turn in the air and then finally it was Mike's turn! I will let him
Cheer leader in all his whistle-blowing glory
What a tiring job that must be! Seriously. Dancing and cheering for 3.5 hours non-stop! write about his experience!
My experience was also great... I was lucky enough to have a really clean take off... a little nervous watching everyone else, but not so nervous once I was strapped in. Its pretty much a quick command "RUN" and the next thing you know you are flying in the air, it was a really awesome feeling. I was also lucky enough to be in the latter part of the group, so the winds had gotten stronger and I get to go a little higher and further around some of the other peaks then those before me. At first it was a little sketchy, as Mr Lee was giving me instructions to shift my weight and help level out the glider... since no one else spoke of these things, I was a little weary of why we were having a harder time. Once we leveled out, I had a great time... we bombed around going up and down the sides of mountains and over the valleys... it was such a gorgeous view. We attempted to come in a few times to land, however the field was a little busy, so we opted to hang around in
the sky for a bit longer... and then BAM! he decided he wanted to land in about a second... he wheels us around and heads straight for the finally empty landing pad... Aside from some minor strangling of the neck from the parachute ropes... the landing was as smooth as possible! Would I do it again? OF COURSE!
After a long day spent on top of that mountain, we finally rode the crazy road back down (Mike being volunteered to drive some random Korean's jeep down the mountain to the parking spot) and returned to Yangsan just in time for a rooktop BBQ at Sarah and james' apartment! They are lucky enough to have a flat roof on their building (we are not so lucky) and so we brought burgs and cooked them up and enjoyed the beautiful weather and sunset from atop their building! A perfectly relaxing way to spend a Sunday evening!
June 11 marked the beginning of the World Cup in South Africa and Korea has turned into soccer-mania! In an unprecedented announcement, many evening private schools are closing early on game nights so that everyone can watch the games!! One of our friends
works in a high school where students stay until 11pm every night studying and the principal told them that if they scored a certain average on the exams, he would play the game for them to give them a study break - that's HUGE!
Saturday night we went to Yangsan stadium where they showed the game on the jumbo-tron! The stadium was packed with people, a sea of red, everyone cheering for Korea as they played Greece. Luckily Korea won 2-0 and everyone was happy! Even a little sprinkling of rain couldn't dampen anyone's spirits that night! We went all out getting red Korea soccer shirts and the red devil horns every wears and learned the cheer "Dae-han-min-guk" which literally means "the great Han people" aka Korea the Great! Next they play Argentina which may be more of a challenge for them. However everyone here has the utmost belief in their team and is confident that Argentina will pose no problems for this great team. As an interesting side note, the North Korean team has been ordered by their leader (whom they worship as greater than a god) to be undefeatable. Yes, that's right, he said "You will be
undefeatable. You cannot lose." (this to the worst-ranked team entering the competition) Uh-oh, they lost to Brazil yesterday...I wonder what will happen now!
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