Chungcheongbuk-do Part Two

Click Here for Part One

I woke up early, before any of my roommates, walked outside into the blinding reflection of sun scorched gravel, and was greeted by a reminder of bad decisions from a night before. Off to the side of our cabin lay two aluminum beer cans punctured at the bottom. The night before I played the role of American drinking ambassador, and attempted to teach my Korean friend and co-worker how to shotgun a beer. After the deed was complete, my drinking buddy put a hand to his belly and, through a frown, muttered "pull." "Pull," of course, is the Korean pronunciation of the word "full."

We came upon our pension late the night before, and because of the darkness, I was not aware that where we slept overlooked a lake. So much of our sightseeing in Korea has been spent at overcrowded festivals, so it is nice to experience places in "The Land of the Morning Calm" that resemble Korea's exonym.

At around 9:00am we all boarded the bus and drove around the perimeter of the lake to one of the few restaurants around. Breakfasts in Korea aren't that different from other meals- usually consisting of soup, rice, and other side dishes.

Out the side of the restaurant I spied a dog chained to his dog house, so of course I had to joke, "there is our breakfast." Most of the time no one laughs or they just ignore me.

Breakfast was a variation of "Kongnamulgook bap" which is a beansprout soup. Most people, including myself, add white rice (that is what is inside the small metal bowl on the left) to the soup. It is supposed to be great for curing hangovers, and I agree with the assessment. During the meal, I sat across from the bus driver, who gulped down his breakfast in record time. Unbeknownst to him, he also taught me a useful way to use my eating utensils. Normally, when I needed to use my spoon instead of chopsticks, I would lay my sticks down across a bowl or rest the tips on a piece of tissue. Here, I saw him hold the chopsticks in the crook of his hand, way down at the base of the thumb and palm leading to his index finger. With the tips of the fingers on the same hand, he handled his spoon. Brilliant.

A view of the inside of the restaurant we ate breakfast in.

There are only five male teachers at my school, so we all roomed together along with the bus driver. Two of our crew chose sleep over breakfast (the only two out of everyone), so we brought them back a couple of servings. The restaurant charged the equivalent of about five bucks for the packaging, which we all agreed was excessive, but I guess they can get away with it given the sparse competition.

We had an hour or so after breakfast until the time we were supposed to leave so I decided to hike the trail behind our cabin. No one else wanted to go, saying that it was too hot, so I went by myself. I think they were all just hung over.

It felt good to get some exercise and sweat out some of the alcohol from the night before. Cicadas violently rattled and buzzed along the way, and I saw plenty of green dragonflies and grasshoppers, but I wasn't able to get the perfect picture of the lake I was hoping for. Densely packed skinny pines blocked my view at every potential lookout.

On the way down, I began to worry that I was late. I didn't bring my watch with me, an kept hiking up to find the perfect viewpoint that never materialized. Finally, I gave up and started back at as a fast a pace as I could muster. I had a couple of slips along the way, mostly because I kept taking pictures, and had to remind myself not to do anything stupid like tumble and die and never see what my first child looked like.

I did make it back in time, and when I walked back into the cabin I was drenched in sweat. The boys looked at me like I was a freak, because for whatever reason, Koreans just don't sweat that much. Maybe their bodies are more adapted to the humidity or something. I cooled off in front of the air conditioner despite protests from my roommates that I would catch a cold. We barely made it to the bus on time because one of the teachers took forever primping in front of the mirror. He was only wearing a hat for godsake, but I guess he had to make sure that his triangular sideburns looked just so. After an hour or so on the bus we stopped at this rest stop and took a group picture in front of this outcropping of rocks.

 

 

 

There was a shopping center inside, and I found this map of the resort around the lake.

At the rest stop, someone purchased these strawberry frozen yogurts for each of us.

Our destination was this historical site in Jecheon. I don't know too much about it, other than everything inside was moved or re-built at this current location to make room for a dam built in 1983.

There was a traditional Korean "hanoak," or house, which my Vice Principal told me mirrored exactly how Koreans lived only 50 years ago. Seemed centuries old to me based on all of the modern technological necessities I see on a daily basis. This here is a wood fire stove, the pot in the middle is used to steam rice.

Out back stood some of the jars Koreans use to "cook" their famous fermented foods like pepper and bean paste. This method is still widely used today and you find these jars everywhere.

While most of the crowd congregated to chat, took a short hike up to an outcropping of pagodas inside of a recreated fortress wall and took pictures of the surrounding area.

Afterward, I walked back down to one of the main pagodas, where most of the teachers were conversing in small groups. A random family of tourists were present also and their two daughters were intrigued by the strange, sweaty foreign man sitting among the crowd. I waved and introduced myself and they hit shyly behind their father's back.

There were also some ancient tombs inside the compound.

This was just too interesting not to photograph.

Finally, we visited our last restaurant of the trip. Everyone was pretty worn out by this time, and ready to go home.

Next to where I sat, there was this stuffed and encaged wild suckling pig. Weird.

We ate this variation of bibimbap, which is a mixed rice. I added lots of spicy pepper paste to mine As everyone says when they see me eating spicy food, I am a true Korean.