i've been slowly adding pictures--im not sure why they take so long to upload, i even plug my computer into the router...oh well. but ive realized i havent really been writing. not that it's GOOD writing, just havent been keeping in touch.
2 weekends ago Beard, Eungyung, Jaesang and I went to Gampo to the beach.
beard and jaesang
me and eungyung
This is the time of year when all Koreans go on vacation--and im not joking when i say ALL. Beard had Fri, sat, sun, mon, tues off and i had sat sun mon tues wed off--no you see why we wan to teach at the same school next year, same vacation schedule. He left Friday afternoon for gampo on the bike. saturday around 11, EG and JS and i went in JS's car. met beard easily at the beach. we put up the tent and went to the gravel beach. it was packed. we got in for a little while and then chilled on the rocks. ate at a fish restaurant on the beach then went back to the campsite to hang out.
our campsite--the people closed in about an hour after this was taken.
korean camping is much different than camping in the US. in the US you camp in a designated spot and you more or less stay in that spot and try to not be viewed too much by fellow campers. here--everyone crowds in. our back door was literally 3 inches from another tents back door. and we could reach out and touch neighbors on both sides of our sitting area without stretching. another that was different--they keep both doors of hte tents wide open and even COOK in them and then spray them down with mosquito spray before going to bed. beard and i were constantly following EG and JS around closing the screens. we have had too much sleeping with mosquitoes. not that it mattered though--we ended up in a minbok. EG had felt ill and was laying down in the tent with hopes of recovering and was cold. JS said he thought we should geta minbok so he could sleep well for the drive home the next day (2 hr drive). so we got a minbok as their insistance. wast too bad.
next morning as we were eating our chinese food the ajossi came in hollering b/c we were only supposed to use one room and we were all sitting in the big room--that has to be crossed thru to get to the room we were only supposed to use and to get to the bath room from that room. he was nuts. screaming and carrying on.
we hung out for the day on the beach under an umbrella reading and relaxing. and of course participating in my favorite sport--people watching.
beard relaxing
it seems the vast majority of koreans like to swim with several articles of clothing on over their swimsuits. makes me wonder why they bother to wear swimsuits...my absolute favorite was a mother and son team. both had on capris, long sleeve button-front shirts, and floppy hats. both were in intertubes--and this is the clincher-- THEY WERE TIED TOGETHER!! it was glorious. i was too buys gawking to even think about getting out my camera. and by the time i thought about it they had disappeared behind the miriad of umbrellas. second fave--two women in full out hiking gear, including the fingerless gloves, sitting in the water side by side. you cant make these things up! im not sure exactly why they do this--fear of skin cancer, or getting even one shade darker, don't want people to see their bodies? i have no idea.
after the lounging, EG and SJ had to head back to Gumi. SJ did not have the extra days of vacation we had--his vacation is this week. beard adn i packed up the bike and headed into town to find a decent motel. and by decent i mean one that is cheap and has aircon. found one easy enough. deposited our crap and headed up the road to see what we could see. it was a really nice rode to drive on.
up the road from gampo beach
i was starving and we stopped at a restaurant called love story.
looks nice, right?
the place looked great from outside and had super ambiance, however the menu was lacking. i ordered a noodle dish but--noodle dish upsa. fine, veggie sandwich--i should have taken a picture. it led to beard nad i haveing a discussion if korean workers get embarraseed by some of the things their places of employment either make them do or products that they make. ex--when i worked as a waitress, i would feel weird serving certain dishes b/c of the price compared to what was actually given. or that i had to actually enforce the one trip to the salad bar when the person was just coming back for pudding. we came to hte conclusing that most employees here are extremely faithful to their places of employment. beard teaches several company courses and most of his students dont say many negative things about their jobs. For hte most part I have liked all of the jobs I have had so far and I've always found at least one thing that ticks me off or makes me uncomfortable about each one. and im more than happy to say what it is when asked. not so much here.
point being--the dude that served me the horrible excuse for a sandwich probably thought it was the best damn sandwich this side of the han river.
sat on a jetty later one and then crashed.
2 min walk from our motel--gampo harbor
next day, woke up early (what?! on vacation?!) and got on the bike to find a perfect beach.
bike and load
found a few not perfect beaches and drove thru some great small towns along the coast.
finally found the perfect place, found a minbok and that was enough.
fave beach
got in the FREEZING water for a bit. beard found a couple places to jump in--no he will never learn--i sat on the sand and let water wash up over me. the water was really cold and we were both ready to have a beer and read for a bit as the sun started to go down. no marts or supers in our little village so we back a bit to a super we had passed. very small place--bought some beer and water and headed back to the beach.
me on beach--half those beers are beards!
i love reading on the beach. we kept our beer cold in the water--it was like a fridge-and watched kids playing.
sisters playing
pretty sunset
hunger set in and so we headed up to ask the ajumma if there was food available for purchase--nope. hmm.
wandered til we found a fish place. yum, fish. then back to the minbok to watch tv and go to bed. perfect day.
woke up for the sun rise--WHAT!? you? sunrise?! wake up?--took some pictures, and promptly went back to bed. if we would have had to leave the room, it wouldn't have happened.
woke back up around 9 and were on the road again by 945. took the scenic route home. thru gorgeous valleys, up and down mts, tons of orchards. it was great.
at a summit at the entrance of a national park
dragonfly on cairns at summit
stopped for ice cream and then found ICE valley! wowza. it was a mineral spring resort. drank water out of the mt--nothing bad came of it amazingly--gawked at the huge waterfall and were on our way.
beard drinking the mineral water from the hillfound a county park adn sat in the stream to have a beer and cool off.
me enjoying a nice frothy beverage.
and then--back to gumi.
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