Coast of South Korea

One of my co-workers Casey invited me, along with Toriann and Megan, to an event her recruiting agency was holding; a trip down to Jinhae, in the southern coast of South Korea. It was an all day event, with the main goal to see cherry blossoms. However, since it has been a long winter here in Korea, there were not many cherry blossoms actually in bloom. This did not stop us from having a great day, meeting new people and seeing new sights of Korea.

We set out at 5:40 in the morning to walk to the bus before the 6:20 am departure time. It was early, but we figured we had a few hours on the bus to sleep. The first two hours on the bus were extremely quiet, as everyone on the bus was sleeping. We stopped at a rest stop around 9 and the Koreans leading the tour woke us all up and after the stop made us a play a get to know each other game. We had to walk around the bus and get to know new people and tell them about ourselves. Having this occur at 9 in the morning when I had to get up at 5:00 was not the most appealing event to me, but I participated regardless. It was a good opportunity to meet a few new people and truthfully those people who I really didn’t want to get know any better. It also woke us all up. The four of us girls were sitting in the back of the bus and met three other guys who were also friends and sitting in the back of the bus. We quickly realized we got along well and ended up being the loud kids in the back of the bus for the remainder of the day.

Our first stop was to the Korean Naval base, it is opened to the public only during the time of the Cherry Blossom festival. While at the naval base we toured the famous Turtle boat. It was a boat used over 400 years ago to help defeat the Japanese’s attempt to invade Korea. Koreans are extremely proud of this boat. We met one of the navy men and he gave a very prideful and expansive explanation of how the boat defeated the Japanese. After exploring the naval base we headed back to the bus and went to downtown Jinhae to take part in festival. The town holds a festival every year in order to honor the famous Korean naval hero, Admiral Yi Sun-shin, who helped defeat the Japanese invasion of Korea over 400 years ago. This festival consists of streets in the downtown being closed off and more booths than there is even time to see. There was more seafood than I could imagine, and prepared in ways the that I couldn’t even imagine to be good. There was dried, flatten squid and stuffed fish heads amongst a few of them. I chose to eat the chicken on a stick, which was delicious. Another delicacy in Korea is cooked larvae. One of the guys on our bus bought a cup full to share with anyone who wanted one. I chose NOT to have one!!! Casey and Megan both did and I was very proud of them! They said the worst part was biting it and actually knowing it was a bug you were eating. After exploring the many streets of booths, we headed to the beach to see more of the coast.

We took a quick hour stop and strolled out a large dock overlooking the water and rocks. I forgot how much I enjoy seeing water. Living in Seoul all you see all day is buildings. This is quite the contrast to Seattle, where I could enjoy water, mountains, and the city life of buildings. After the coast we got back on the bus for our 5 hour bus ride back to Seoul. When we first got on the bus our tour leaders mentioned that Nori Bong would be taking place later in the evening. Nori Bong is what we call karaoke. I thought they were kidding, because how can you sing on a bus. I had failed to see the large tv in front of the bus, which turned into the place where the lyrics were shown. Turns out getting a group of young adults to sing on a bus isn’t really that hard of task, especially when you include free Soju. Soju is Korea’s famous alcohol, which happens to be incredibly strong. It was quite the bus ride back to Seoul. I can only imagine what our bus looked like to the other buses on the road, a group of 40 white young adults singing and dancing. When we arrived back in Seoul, Casey and I decided to hang out with our new friends from the back of the bus. They have this tradition where they go the batting cage when it is a warm evening and hits some baseballs. At first Casey and I were a little apprehensive about this because the ball was coming out of the machine faster than I remember it coming out from back home, but in the end I tried. I ended up loving it and actually did a fairly good job. Casey and I decided this should become a new tradition of ours as well. Next we headed to my favorite bar in our neighborhood because they have pretzels from Costco! You can’t find pretzels anywhere else in this city, and I love my pretzels and they are free =)
Despite the lack of Cherry Blossoms, it was a great day meeting new friends and seeing a new part of South Korea.