Gradually, I figured out that nearly the whole faculty body was coming (well, 70+ out of 90+ teachers), that the trip would involve a lot of drinking, and that we’d have an overnight stay on the eastern coast of Korea where the raw seafood is very popular. The big day finally arrived. I was told that since the students were just finishing their final exam reviews, I didn’t need to teach my regular Friday classes and I could just wait for the bus loading time. I was told I’d be sharing a room with three ladies from the “Student Rights” department office, one of whom has been faithfully taking my teacher English class since it started.
First there was the several hours-long bus ride to overcome. That was slightly awkward since in the past I really hadn’t conversed much with my co-workers. But I ended up sitting by the new Chinese teacher, who actually speaks passable English (and she sits across the desk from me), so we had a good time with light chatter. The bus was the typical Noraebang-style charter bus (we had two reserved for this trip), with two seats on each side of the aisle, toilet paper rolls along the luggage rack above us every half dozen seats (to be used as napkins or paper towels), cupholders and mesh pouches on the seat backs in front of us, and colorfully-patterned curtains on the windows.
Each seat row on either side of the aisle was given a ziplock bag of “car snacks.” This included mint candy, chocolate, waffle cookies, crème-filled wafer tubes, saltines, and a big, warm, wrapped chunk of freshly-made glutinous rice cake. A supervisor was selected by an administrator to be the “Bacchus” of the trip, giving him the first drink of soju, and sending him with soju, kimchi, and meat down the length of the bus, doling out servings to everyone. My seatmate and I don’t particularly like soju or excessive drinking, so I followed her lead and just took a little. People got kinda happy on the trip though! Keep in mind this is the point, and they’re off duty, and I won’t be naming names. :)
On the way, we stopped at several rest stops. These are evidently a big deal, since vendors set up their wares there, they have mini shopping centers and restaurants, and dozens of buses and cars stop at them to let their passengers rest up. The countryside was beautiful along the way! I was pretty tired though, just having come off the end of the semester, and I didn’t know how much sleep I could expect on the trip, so I did my best to nod off on the way.
Arriving at the hotel, we briefly admired the seaside from a distance, and promptly went to unload our small overnight luggage in the room. It was an older-furnished room, with blankets and mats for beds instead of the western-style beds that the Korean teachers had been hoping for. But the view from our window looked straight out over the eastern coast, so we couldn’t complain too much. The hotel itself was situated atop a high hill above the bustling little seaside town below, and to the north along the coast, there was a temple and lookout point pavilion that we decided to explore before dinner.
The teachers in my room were wise enough to have a little impromptu ice-breaker session before we set out to explore. We practiced writing and saying each other’s names, explained the meanings of our names, checked the age hierarchy (I think I was the second-youngest of the four, but they all seemed pretty dismissive of age protocol and settled for being friends for the weekend), and they explained that the bedding colors were in the old traditional pattern of honeymoons since the hotel used to be popular for that, and they gave me a rundown of the history of Korean family names and why so many of them have the same name.
Korean name history is interesting enough that I think it’s worth a little rabbit trail here, though I’ve forgotten some of the details they told me in the month that’s lapsed. What essentially happened (though I forget what dynasty, maybe Joseon?), is that the citizenry decided en masse to purchase their way into the royal and noble lineages. This was made possible by the government. Before, slaves didn’t have family names, and various clans had all kinds of varied names. Family names like Lee, Kim, Park, Choi, Kang, Song, and a few others were names of royalty and nobility. So people could buy what essentially amounted to “Patents of nobility” to say that their family was in the line of such-and-such noble ancestor, and important distinction in a Confucian society. And the names stuck, which is why there are only a few commonly-used names with only a few exceptions you come across occasionally. Sort of interesting!
After the name exchange, we set out walking for the temple on the hill. I stumbled across a small museum of the site on the way, so we explored there for a while, they translated the meanings, and said they were glad I came along, since it helped make them be more culturally appreciative, since they would have missed the museum if I hadn’t seen it and stopped them. It had pottery fragments, roof-end tiles, 500-year-old cloth discovered in a sealed stone container, old metal implements and mirrors, and various calligraphy and paintings. The weather was overcast, but pleasant, and the temperature was cool, being a little high up and on the breezy coast. They showed me the overlook, explaining that this was a very famous point. It was beautiful—so picturesque, and I could see why scholar-poets (literati) would come to a place like this in older times to get inspiration.
The temple behind us farther up the hill had been burned in an accidental fire a few years ago, so it was still undergoing some final restoration. It was a good walk though, and the temple grounds were green and full of flowers. There were also stone lanterns, a phoenix bird fountain, and several lion, dragon, and elephant statues. The temple housed a many-faced, many-armed gilded idol, and the ceiling fluttered with paper offerings and good luck charms. We stopped for a few photo shoots on the way.
I guess monks have a sense of humor. The restroom was translated, "restroom for untieing worries," and it was accompanied by a little sign, in case people had trouble understanding.
Returning from the hill, we walked all the way down to the beach, and enjoyed the sand and surf for the remaining time before dinner. The clouds were stormy-looking but beautiful! A small, red lighthouse (more of a signal light than an actual house) rested atop a long jetty in the distance. From the beach, the restaurant for shared dinner was only a short walk away.
…What a dinner. The first course consisted of numerous seafood-themed banchan (side dishes). Whole shrimp, coffee-flavored sugar jelly, sushi, kimchis, potato salad, lettuce salad—it was an amazing food spread. I tried some of the sushi (sashimi on a small pat of rice), and was pretty proud of myself for eating the raw fish, but Mr. Kim said, “Oh no. That’s just sushi. What we call raw fish is something else.” Then the second course was served—raw squid tentacles. Mmm… it’s amazing how much more palatable a thing can become when it’s buried in a lettuce-leaf wrap and covered in lots of spicy sauce. I actually enjoyed this course though, the most of the whole meal. Next up: raw squid soup! It was a spicy red sauce with vinegar and crunchy cabbage and other unidentifiable vegetables, cold in temperature, and mixed in with ore of the chewy, uncooked tentacles. The fourth course was the main event. It was actual raw fish. They had been scaled, skinned, and deboned, and then sliced into translucent, jelly-like slabs. Mr. Kim suggested, “Just think of it as a kind of jelly. Don’t think about it as raw fish too much.” Mustering my courage as much as I could, I ate probably a dozen slices of raw fish during the meal, also smothered in hot sauce and mostly buried in lettuce, but I did it! Some of the fish were red drum, fat cod, and plaice (according to the translations on the tags that were stuck in the food). The fifth course was a hot (temperature, not flavor) fish soup, full of bones, bean sprouts, and not much meat, so I picked at the remnants of the raw squid and mostly avoided the second soup.
Drinking took place throughout, and many a complexion turned rather the deepest shade of red I’d seen on a person before. I sipped as called upon by toasts, but only had a small amount in all of soju, beer, and the whiskey/soju/beef/champagne cocktail they mixed up. Enough to loosen up my nervousness at least. I did my best to remember how to hold a glass to drink and receive alcohol, and where to turn my head away while drinking, though I’m sure I slipped up a few times.
Following dinner, the teachers migrated out to the beach to set off Roman candles. That was fun, though one teacher said it was prohibited. That didn’t seem to be stopping anyone. One of the school administrators got carried and dumped into the ocean. It was a good time, heh. Unfortunately, one person lost their cell phone in the sand, and I never did hear if they found it again. After the beach fireworks, people split off into small social groups (I wasn’t included in the English teacher’s group, despite my efforts, but whatever), and I ended up going to a Noraebang (singing room, aka, karaoke bar) for my first time ever! One that the principal, the VPs, and several wives and administrators were using. Just a little intimidating. But I managed to sing a few songs over the course of the evening (I Believe I Can Fly, You Are My Sunshine, Yellow Submarine, My Heart Will Go On, and Part of Your World). It was a rocky start, but I did pretty well later on, and they all thanked me for singing, saying “Your voice! Like an angel from heaven!” Vast exaggeration, but it made me smile, haha. I escaped at an opportune time, and returned for a midnight bedtime.
My roommates and I woke up early the next morning, hoping to catch the sunrise off the eastern coast. It ended up being far too overcast for a good sunrise view, but we made the most of it, and it was still pretty even though muted. Breakfast included kimchi, a mild bean sprout soup, white rice, dried fish, and a few other sides. I ate some rice and had some soup—that was about it. Just not to the point where I can eat a Korean breakfast, I guess.
After packing up, we got back on the buses for a trip to another nearby temple atop a high mountain. We had to switch to other tour buses for the road up, and I have to say, Tennessee hairpin curves don’t scare me as much as this huge tour bus hurtling recklessly along narrow roads with a flood-rushing granite gorge looming below us just nearby. It was pretty exciting. The temple itself was one that had been made famous by a monk/philosopher/poet who had been a political activist during the Japanese occupation years in the early 1900s. We stopped for some lotus leaf tea at a small shop there, before returning back down the mountain. I did manage to do a little shopping before we left, since they had some beautiful tea-related handicrafts, utensils, and pottery. I loved the linen waterlily placemats they had, but they were beyond my price range. Maybe if I ever get into sewing back home one of these years…
I slept quite a bit on the trip back, but I enjoyed it much more than I had anticipated, and made some new friends among the teachers. They weren’t the friends I was expecting, but maybe that’s just as good if not better. I had the rest of the weekend off, and summer camp was to begin the next Monday!
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