OK, so I've been meaning to post this for a really long time now, but finally (I think), here it is:
This blog is deeply committed to the avoidance of slush, sentimentality and most things romantic. One of my pet hates is crowing about relationships on the internet, but, just this once, I'm going to do it. So yes, I do have a girlfriend. Her name is Linda and she's from the USA. Here she is, looking charming as usual:
Linda came to visit for a couple of weeks at the end of June. We spent the first weekend in Seoul and Suwon, but didn't really do all that much except watch the England vs USA "soccer" game. In the end, a draw was probably the best for all concerned.
I was working during her visit, so talking to Linda became my lesson for the week. This actually wasn't the horrific experience that I thought it might be. My students were actually pretty kind with their questions. Particular highlights included "How did he propose?" (Linda's response: "He didn't"), "Have you seen his six-pack?" (Linda's response: outright laughter) and "Have you had plastic surgery on your nose?" (Linda's response: confused look).
After this, I remembered I had a camera, so here are some photos and words about what we got up to during the rest of the trip.
Dano Festival
The Dano Festival is a festival of all Eastern Asian culture that takes place in Gangneung each year. Linda and I were invited by the teachers at Geomun Elementary School, and spent a nice afternoon watching puppet shows, traditional drumming and trying out some traditional Korean printing. We also sampled some makkoli made at the festival (I will learn to do this for myself) and ate rice cakes, as well as touring the endless market stalls selling all manner of Korean curiosities, and some good old fashioned Korean tat as well.
Us in front of the festival gate. As usual I am failing to smile at all here.
A stick throwing game traditionally (if I head a won for every time I heard "Korean traditional" over the course of the afternoon I'd be able to afford a half size tin of Coca-cola) played by ladies in the Korean royal court back in the day. Final scores, Alex 2, Linda 0. The nice lady in the Korean traditional (sigh) dress even gave me a tube of toothpaste for my efforts.
After the festival tour, we retired to the seaside for a raw-fish meal. I'd had one before and not been too impressed, but this turned out to be excellent. The sheer range of seafood we started with was amazing, and included crab, shrimp and seemingly hundreds of other things of which I do not know the names. The fish itself is slightly lacking in flavour compared to say, tuna, but once you've dunked it in chilli sauce/wasabi soy, it's all about the texture, which is just chewy enough without being a pain. The fact that the meal is finished off with a spicy fish stew makes this a really great meal, and is definitely vying, with about 7 other things, for the title of my favourite Korean food.
Our (Korean traditional) "starter"
Gyeongpo Dae, Gyeongpo Beach and the Live Club
On Saturday we headed down to Gyeongpo Dae and Gyeongpo Beach. Bad planning on my part left us very little time to do anything before having dinner with one of my co-teachers, but we just had time to have a wander around and take a few photos:
Sittin' on the Dock of the Dae.
Korean Traditional Artwork
Some flowers.
Sad me.
Unamused Linda.
After that we met Mr Ham, one of my elementary school co-teachers, for dinner. As it turned out, we were gatecrashing his elementary school class reunion (they do it every month, so it wasn't quite as bad as that makes it sound). No-one really spoke much English, which made it rather awkward (as most things Korean seem to be), especially as Mr Ham had to look after us all night, but we still had a good time getting around rather a lot of duck for the second time in less than a week (Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm).
After that it was off to the "Live Club". I was quite excited. I don't get to see much live music here, so the thought of a nice acoustic set accompanied by a few quiet beers sounded pretty good. What I didn't figure on was the live music being provided by ourselves. This of course, meant I had to sing, and with a distinct lack of "Mack the Knife" in the choices, left me in a bit of a bind. In the end I went with what I know, and attempted "Easy Like Sunday Morning". Now, sometimes I can be OK at singing (needs citation), but I need to be drunk. In the case of singing in front of a bunch of Korean strangers, I need to be reeling drunk. I was only a bit tipsy here, so what followed was the most horrific, nervous, stuttering performance of the song ever heard. I can only apologise to the towering prophet that is Lionel Richie for sh*tting so completely on his work. At one stage both the club hostess and one of the group joined me onstage to try to help out, but this just made me even more nervous. I also realised what a freaking long song it is (Karaoke tip: never pick anything with a guitar solo) giving me even more time to die on stage. Eventually, deliverance came, the song ended and I sat down to consider my future karaoke career.
"I wanna be hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh..."
The crowd goes wild. And tries not to look. And especially not to listen.
I did get drunk enough afterwards though.
OK, I'm calling time on this blog post for the evening. More tomorrow I think as I'm determined to get all the photos online. I'm off to read Franny and Zooey by J.D.Salinger, drink a little pomegranate tea and fall asleep. That really makes me sound like an arse, doesn't it?
A
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