Chuseok

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Well, I just survived my first 5 day vacation in Incheon. There was drinking and there was exploring. More drinking than exploring. But really eating a meal here daily is an exploration is itself. I still have to scour the city looking for edible food. Breakfast/lunch is usually taken care of...there are very yummy bakeries here although all their goodies are meat-filled. I've pretty much succumbed to eating seafood in order to survive and not be difficult. Anybody in my company is just as tortured as I am trying to find a place to eat, so eventually I feel bad, break down and agree to eat seafood.

I went to an island, Ganghwa-do I think is the name...we drove there via my new friend Peter, who is married and lives here. We drove to the beach, which is not the beach you're imagining. There is sand, some...probably created and placed there by humans but there is sand. Then there is a vast mile of mud before you reach the water. So I waded through this mud thinking I was going to get to water that I could dive into or something but NOPE, it just became muddy water that came up to my knees. So I waded around knee deep in mud which was still amusing. I kept telling myself that maybe this is good for my feet or something, like a mud pedicure. Very squishy between the toes.

We stayed at a "pension" that night, where basically you get this empty room and everybody piles onto the floor. Very practically, it's like one big slumber party. We got a rooftop room so it was sweet, we were supposed to BBQ but somehow ended up eating raw fish downstairs. I would agree that it was pretty good actually, definitely edible, and maybe I'd even opt to go to one of those places again. You get a million side dishes, some tasty, some not, and then you get these thin slices of raw fish which you wrap up in lettuce along with a slice of garlic dipped in hot sauce. We continued to drink throughout the night, bashed the US (due to the upcoming election) for about an hour. Then I just passed right out on my little mat. I think people BBQed but I fell asleep and woke up with 8 mosquito bites all over my feet and one on my chin. Attractive.

The next day, we took a ferry to a different island and climbed a 90 degree hill up to this temple, which was very pretty. Tons of Koreans praying and monks. Proceeded to another mud beach where I tanned in my bikini on the sand. The Koreans thought I was crazy because they're all sitting under a canopy thing carrying their umbrellas and hiding from the sun, meanwhile I'm in full tanning mode. I was the only person on the sand and the only person in a bikini. I didn't care, I totally miss beach life.

I haven't been home too much, I'm at my neighbour's place ALL the time. I hang out with his friends and I do what they do, basically and I usually drag Victoria along. I don't know what happened to the rest of the 100 people I came with...I see them now and again at the bars but that's it.

Back to school tomorrow...let's see how badly my lesson plan on food fails.

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Comments

[Katy]

YAY
You posted again! I love reading your adventures! Sounds fun - I'd lose soooo much weight if I was there - all seafood? yuck! I'd probably love the meat filled pastry! eek!