What a weekend!

Wow. Where to begin?

I suppose I should start with Friday, and going to the bike shop to put a down payment on a motorcycle. I went with Christa. See, what we're going to do is this... I'm buying her bike and she's getting a new bigger one. But the thing is that I'm really buying the bigger one and then we are trading. The final payment will be made this coming Friday, which is very exciting.

Then, Friday night, I waited around my apartment for my friend Nina to arrive from Suncheon. We decided not to go out and sat around and chatted until we both fell asleep. The next morning, we were up bright and early to get ready for our ferry to Waydaldo - and the beach! While I putzed around and drank coffee, Nina made sandwiches and packed up the zucchini bread that she'd brought with her (and the chips and dip too - making me want her to visit more often). There was a bunch of us going to Waydaldo (aka Love Island) and some of the crazier people were planning to camp out over there.

Nina and I walked to the ferry terminal (a 5-minute walk), past a bunch of fish markets where pick-up trucks full of ice were being loaded up with the morning's catch. It was smelly. And it really makes me wonder at the quantity of fish (both live and dead) that is taken from the sea every day, just in Mokpo. Outside of every restaurant, there are huge aquariums absolutely crowded with all manner of sea creature, and most are slowly dying. Ergo, the fishing boats go out and fish, the live fish end up in front of restaurants where they die in big aquariums, the other fish are packed in ice and driven around the city in a pick-up truck until they turn green. And the next day, the whole process starts again. I just wonder how sustainable the fisheries industry is here.

Anyway...we got to the ferry (there was one group that went on the 10:30 ferry and one group on the 12:30 ferry. All in all, there were 15 people in our group out on the island that day) and had a great cruise out to the island. We ride right past my apartment building and it's fun for me to see the islands that I see from my window right up close.

Waydaldo is a small island, and the beach is small, but somewhat cleaner than Shinan Beach (near my place). Also, there are gazebos and picnic tables, where, armed with mosquito nets, tents, backpacks and towels, we quickly established the colony of New Canada.


At one point, I wandered over to some rocks with Jen and Paddy and decided that it was the perfect spot to sit and read (look closely at the picture and you'll see me in a bikini...). It occured to me that, although this beach is not of tropical paradise beach quality, living in Mokpo is going to ruin me for choosing a vacation destination. Like, why would I go to a country to "sit on the beach and relax" when I can take a $7 ferry to an island and sit on a beach and relax all I want? I know that you all feel my pain and empathize with the difficulties of my life. Ahem.

A group of us, given that the weather was iffy and rainy, decided to head back to Mokpo on the last ferry out- according to the signs, the ferry left at either 5:13pm or 5:30pm. The boat actually didn't show up until 6:30pm which was fine, but for next time... should we wait for the boat or just go there at 6:20???

Nina, Monique and I headed back to my place where we were joined by JP and then headed out for mushroom shabu shabu. From there, we went to the famous P-Club, where we were joined by Christa for some deep conversation. Exhausted by the day of sun, we headed home after a few drinks and before we all ended up sleeping on the table.

Sunday morning, Nina and I relaxed and watched TV (I have a few English-subtitled-in-Korean channels and International CNN) until she decided to head back to Suncheon in the early afternoon. I was pretty tired, but had people coming over later in the afternoon to make kimbap... so no rest for the wicked.

Around 4:00, JP, Jen, Alex and Jongwon arrived at my place, followed closely by Mrs Myeong (kindergarten teacher) and Ms Cheong (secretary) - they are also my ping-pong buddies and my Tuesday night badminton partners. Mrs Myeong might be meeting my family in August when she goes to the USA and Canada too. Mrs Myeong's son, Hanbin, also joined us. My job had been making the rice, which unfortunately had too much water in it, so it was more like "ddeok" - rice cakes - and I was laughed at.... Anyway, the two ladies had brought over tons of veggies and food - seaweed wraps, sesame oil, leeks, carrots, cucumbers, spinach, eggs, pickled radish, bean sprouts, red pepper powder, garlic.... and we soon set to rinsing the veggies and getting JP, who was the handiest with a knife, to cut them all. We each took turns putting down a piece of seaweed ("kim") then spreading rice ("bap") on it, then adding veggies or tuna or (in Jongwon's case) a ton of mayonnaise, before rolling it up in a small bamboo mat thing and squeezing it, then brushing it with sesame oil and cutting it into pieces. Each kimbap roll disappeared as soon as it was made, we were so hungry. When everyone was kimbapped out, we ate a really good soup of garlic, red pepper powder, onions and bean sprouts. Now that we know how to make it, we will be able to have regular kimbap parties.... I just need to work on my water to rice ratio with my rice cooker thing.

Satiated, everyone started drifting out one-by-one, until finally, I had just an hour to myself to unwind from a glorious glorious weekend.

In other news, my students have figured out where I live. On Friday evening, there were four students at my door and on Saturday morning, a different group was there, ringing the doorbell. This must not continue.

FOR PHOTOS: Monique's blog has pics of Wayaldo. Click here.
If you are on Facebook, quite a few pics have been uploaded there.
I took tons of pictures of the kimbap making but I still don't have my cord for my computer, so I still can't upload anything.

MOM, AL- DO YOU HAVE MY CAMERA CORD IN CANADA????