Friday felt like such a long day. I really should've slept more. However, the kids were enjoying the new games, English Pong and Rock/Paper/Scissors Race, so I was happy. Overall the day went pretty well, even received some candies from the kids which I keep forgetting I have.
After work, I came straight home so that I could eat and pack since the tour bus was picking up a group of us at a nearby subway station. I was more concerned about making my way to the station since I seem to have a hit or miss ratio about using public transportation still. I left about and hour and a half before the pick up time in case I ran into any hiccups. If I did, I was just going to take a cab.
Made the stop about 40 minutes early dragging my heels. I was looking forward to sleeping on the bus since it was about a 4.5 hour drive to the southeast coast. I was sitting next to someone that made it really difficult to get comfortable but it wasn't intentional and he seemed like a pretty good guy. But trying to sleep on my hand or hug the right arm of the seat took a toll on my body.
We arrived in Jindo at 4:45am where we would get out water boots and torches so that we could walk out onto the land that became exposed as the tide moved out to sea. This apparently only happens once a year over the course of a few days. On a good low tide, there is enough land exposed that will allow you to walk to a neighboring island. Downfall is that it was still so cold and the tide just never really went down as low as the staff was hoping. We did walk out a short distance into the sea sporting our tiki torches in hand, water never really passing mid-high shin. It's the first sunrise I've seen in Korea and although we didn't get that far out, I got a few pretty good pictures. I felt like an angry villager with my torch and crowd following mentality that was on its way to do away with the neighborhood vampire/monster - at least that's how it appeared at first glance. LOL.
I met a few new people on this tour so definitely met the expectations that I had set out with. After we came back in from walking to the sea me and the people I met decided to grab something to eat and a coffee (mostly to warm up). The booths that were open were supposed to represent different countries around the world and while I appreciate the thought, they were very much unlike the foods from these places. Something that I know I just have to adapt to here. The other booths didn't open until 10am so we decided to go back to the bus to sleep since we couldn't check into our rooms until after 2pm.
Again, napping on the bus was a bit of a challenge as people kept getting on and off, with the door opening and closing allowing the cold air to come in. Plus some people decided it was ok to talk loudly while the majority of people tried to sleep. Finally, around 10am we decided to just give up trying to sleep and go check out all the booths. There were many booths with seaweeds and different types of seafoods, some alcoholic choices, some crafts/knick knacks, a lot of information booths (in Korean), and food. I had a caricature done which was funny considering the last time I had one done was when I visited last time.
Then it was time to watch the variety show that they had arranged. There was a group of Russian dancers performing different types of dances, acrobats, a magician, and some hip hop dancers. At the end of the show they asked for foreign volunteers to come on stage for a makkoeli drinking contest. All of the local town people just sat back watching "the foreigners" perform tasks for their entertainment. At times it was entertaining to watch but sometimes it makes me feel that foreigners will get a bad rap because of the drunken/party-like lifestyle that they see, so other times I was embarrassed to not be one of the locals. This was followed up by a talent show put on by the foreigners - most of which were pretty drunk at this time. I wish I had practiced a hula to perform for this since the locals were so easily wowed at everything the foreigners did.
Finally, it was time to check in. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then grabbed our belongings. We were staying in a hostel - Korean style which means the room had nothing but quilted mats, blankets, and some bean pillows. Luckily, I got my own room so I used all of the extra mats and comforters and stacked them together. The floor was still a pretty harsh place to sleep for my aging body. But the solitude and not being stuck with some drunken roommate was still worth it.
The next events that were scheduled was the Korean wrestling. They had professionals wrestle first and then invited the foreigners to spar against each other. In was held on a large round patch of sand and they had a cloth wrapped around their waste and leg in which they had to grip. This helped to aid the wrestlers to pin the other. I had been looking forward to the color fest party where we would get to throw colored powders on each other. It was a little non-climactic though because there were too many people who were drunken and decided to start early. Then others joined. No one really waited for the actual "go ahead" signal. And then these people were just throwing their empty bags onto the sand. If it were my city, I probably would've been quite annoyed with the "foreigners".
They did entertain us with a few songs performed by a female kpop group (don't ask me the name though). There were so many times this weekend that I felt like a caged
wrestling
color fest
jesus parade/flash mob
dancing
2nd sea walk
food
sleep
breakfast,
to see the Jindo puppies
race/bet
dog tricks/show
lady for volunteering
sleep
cell phone out of data
navigate systems without a phone
made it home
very tired
.....I never posted this and I'm going to leave it unfinished as so much has changed in the last 9 months....
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