Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

11.12.06

So this post is well, a little late, but anyway it’s finally here.



Thanksgiving arrived here in Sokcho with a bang at the Dongjin Pleasure Palace!

Every since November had started Kelsey and I had been thinking about what we would do for a very American type holiday with a crowd of people who would have no real idea of what the sacred holiday would be. With a little help from Christina, the only other American in our circle of friends we tried to pull off the holiday and give everybody a taste of the Thanksgiving experience.

We decided on a potluck type thing. With the size of my kitchen facilities, well I could host the party but it just wouldn’t work if I had to cook for ten with a rice cooker, one burner gas stove, and a tiny oven.

When we mentioned the idea of a potluck to our British, Australian, Canadian, and Chinese friends we were met with cries of dismay and shouts of, “What the hell do we know about Thanksgiving? What in the name of Christ do you want us to cook?”
We just assured our friends that what ever they brought would be fine and they left us with confused looks and crazy talk about hummus and mushroom soup.

We decided to hold the little party on a Sunday rather than the traditional Thursday because of work commitments so I had to start cooking my stuff on Friday.

I took it upon myself to make a roast chicken, mashed potatoes, pudding, and stuffing and worked hard for two days to get all of my stuff ready.

The chicken and spuds were pretty easy, that kind of stuff is easy to find here, as Koreans love it as much as Americans. It was no problem finding some really nice Yukon Gold potatoes and a huge roasting chicken in the market. The stuffing took some work.

For the stuffing I decided to use my rice cooker. First I cut up two big baguettes and toasted them in the oven. From the market I got some exquisite green onions and fried them in butter with a bunch of mushrooms and pine nuts.

After the bread was done I combined it with my butter rich mixture of onions and mushrooms and through it all in the rice cooker with a can of black olives that I had been saving for a while and let it cook for about an hour. The only thing that really sucked was that a rice cooker has an internal timer, it just stays on long enough for the rice to cook and then just keeps things warm so I constantly had to reset it but it turned out all right.

The chicken and spuds, that was simple. I peeled and boiled a ton of spuds on Friday and cooked and mashed them on Sunday. The chicken I covered with spices and butter and cooked it almost all the way through on Saturday.

The hardest part of the pre-cooking was finding room in my tiny fridge to keep everything. I ended up having to farm stuff out to my various neighbors in the building.

The dinner itself went off without a hitch and was truly a multinational affair with even the Welsh and Scottish members showing up, drunk as usual.
The menu was half traditional and half, well half world cuisine. We had everything from duck to hummus to kimpap and a good time was had by all as we drank and ate through the evening.

Kelly and Suan showed up late after their trip to Seoul bringing the biggest cheesecake I have ever seen and lo and behold, a pumpkin pie made an appearance and was quickly gobbled up, the non-Americans proclaiming it excellent.

Pictures

1. Hard at work in the kitchen, as usual. My precious oven is to the right.

2. Stuart arriving late as usaul, and a little in the bag.

3. Christina, Hong, and Karen

4. Salmon pate and vegetable dip

5. Wojtek, the life of the party as usual

Seafood Fun

Down the road, is a place called Daephoang Port. This is the premier seafood eating destination on the east coast of Korea. Thousands of people come here from all over Korea to stuff their faces with the bounty of the sea.

The port itslef, well it is a port, but not like the stereotypical port that you see in picutres. Instead it is a lagoon gaurded by a breakwater on the edge of the sea with all manner of small fishing boats pulled up to a long narrow street, fronted by tents on the sea side and more substantial resteraunts on the land side. Mostly people dine alfresco, outside, huddled around coal fires and sitting on little plastic chairs, protected from the elements by beach umbrellas. The ambiance is great, people yelling, watching the show, the smells of both cooking and raw fish everywhere, all the old women hustling to get the next customer to come and eat.

1. Clam barbeque the clams, and other seafood are placed on a small grill over a coal fire, when they are done, the shells pop open, a little half of a shell to put hot suace in on the side and away you go!
The oginio (squid) to the left have been stuffed with sausege, onions, carrots, rice, and green onions, then they are lightly fried in an egg batter and cut into rings, called the dish is called sundae.

2. You can pick your fish, alive, out of a tank andwatch it killed right in front of you, it goes from life to the plate in about three minutes.

3. These are kimchi pots that have just been cleaned. In the fall (I took these pictures in late August) the fermented cabbage dish is prepared and put into the pots which are then buried before the ground gets to hard. Most people have special kimchi fridges now to hold their kimchi but the old folks still do things the traditional way, thank god!

4. More fish ready for the table, a few of these have already passed the experiation date. Note to travellers, live fish, and eating it raw, costs much, much more than cooked fish.

5. A live squid, about to be, well, munched on

More Photos

So I literally have taken a thousand pictures since I have been here in Sokcho, my computer is jammed with them! Going through them tonight, preparing to put them in disk, I thought that I would post a few of my favorites that I have not put on my blog as yet.

1-4 I have a twenty minute break for supper around six every night and sometimes I go up on the roof to look around at the city. I took these pictures during such a break, just happened to have thrown my camera into my bag before school that day and took these pics over the twenty minutes of break time. They show mountians beyond my school as the sun is going down.

5. Still on the roof but this is the view twoards the sea. I have talked about the bridge to nowhere before. This is the huge, mamouth bridge that goes over a lagoon and deadends in the ocean not a quarter of a mile away, it is just visible in the distance, see it, the big orange thing? Hard to miss!

some school pics

Just a few random pictures of school taken at various times

1. My basic diary class, my oldest students, aged fourteen and fifteen
2. My soju buddy Matthew a few days before he left in the teachers room
3. Little shytes stole my camera!
4. My TOIEC class, basic reading and vocabulary, ages twelve to thirteen
5. My favorite student, In-ho. In-ho is very quiet and I think he has some problems at home, maybe he acts out a little, reminds me of me, but man is he smart. Makes his own crosswords in english in his spare time

Today

Today............

11.28.06



The last few days have been filled with a never ending rain. Not just a lite drizzle but a constant, steady downpour with wind, fog, everything. For the last few days even the bases of the mountains, just a few miles away from my apartment, have been obscured by fog the consistancy of clouds that have fallen from the peaks and settled into the valleyes that surrond the town.

When I went to work today the rain had almost stopped but their was no sun, no blue sky, just a steel grey covering the town, the mountains, the sea.

So the day went and dragged, one class, two, three, then four, and finally, after the fourth, a break. It was time for me to run downstairs and catch the bus to go to the other branch. As I put on my coat and backpack I was so happy to finally be getting away from the students, even if it was only for a moment, and go outside into the moist air.

As I went through the door of my school and turned left to go down the three flights of stairs to the street I happened to look up and through the huge picture window that brings light into the halls of the building and I stopped short, stunned by what I saw.

There, in front of me, was the gift that all the rain, wind, and gloom in Sokcho had given us. Just behind my school, framed by apartment blocks, is Chundae-san mountain. Its not really a mountain, just a big hill, about 800 meters, but it is big, and there, from the crown almost to its base, was pretty, fluffy, white snow.

The entire mountian, almost down to the bottom was covered with it. This brilliant white carpet with the black shafts of trees sticking through the snow cover was like a white mat, covering the slopes of the hill.

Sorak-san, early winter

Sorak-San in winter

25.11.06

There is a story about Sokcho, a very old legend really that says after there have been three snowfalls on the mountains that the next one will fall on the sea. Don’t know if I believe it myself but it has snowed twice already on the high peaks, so we must be due for a little white stuff in town proper pretty quick.

Today started out pretty blah after spending the previous evening drinking beer and eating chicken at the local Hof after work.

Hof-Noun

A Korean drinking establishment that serves beer, soju, and snacks, usually chicken based

Anyway, after having a few with Karen, Kirsty, and Helen as we demolished a few plates of salt and pepper chicken getting up early was not that big a priority!

Finally rolled out of bed around eleven because of a phone call and try as I might could not get back to sleep so I rang up Wojtek and we decided to hike into the park and get some good pictures of the snow that has been falling on the high peaks for the better part of the last week.

After meeting him downtown we caught the number seven and headed into the park. We must have had the same idea as about a million other people because the road into the main entrance was backed up about five miles and we got the bus driver to let us out long before the entrance gate, we figured we would make better time heading in on foot

Our first views of the park were just amazing. Over the river, to our left, we could see a huge peak, one of the largest in the park, framed by two others that were almost all white down to about the thousand-meter line. You could see where the snow was clinging to rocks and trees and they shone through in their darkness against the white of the fresh powder.

In front of us where the two twin peaks that one sees just past the Buddhist gate that is the entrance to the park. The back peak, the taller one, is a shear triangle and it too was completely covered with snow, while the one in front, only a hundred meters shorter only had a light dusting.

To the far left of them is a narrow valley, really just a cleft between the ridges of the mountains, and that to was covered with a new snowfield that looked completely smooth, covering its rock strewn face with a velvety blanket of fresh, white, snow.

When we reached the entrance we decided, since the vast majority of trails were closed, to hike up to the waterfall.

This isn’t much of a hike, and to be honest, there is not much scenery to look at. The tree cover is too strong to see the mountains, and well, with the leaves all down; it just wasn’t a nice hike. When we finally reached the falls we were slightly impressed by the amount of water cascading down the lip into an emerald green pool at the bottom but it just wasn’t a great time and we headed back quickly, stopping only to grab some homemade wine and eat some potato pancakes before heading back into town.

Pictures

1. Snow on the peaks, the ones on the left are just a little shorter, yet the snow line has not reached them yet

2. The waterfall at the end of the trail

3. I took this just as I was leaving the park, right when the clouds were starting to come down for another night of snowfall

4. Almost the same picture as number three but from a little farther away

5. And one more

A Walk Around the Lake

A Walk Around the Lake



23.11.06



I am so sorry to everyone reading this that I have not been blogging with the regularity that I was earlier in the year but man I have been busy. With this trip to Bohol that I am going on this Christmas, booking airfares and hotels, work, a social life, well, busy, busy, busy! I am cooking for nine, a little Thanksgiving dinner at my apartment this Sunday, but I will try to get out four or five entries next week, I have about a thousand pictures and an equal number of stories that I want to tell!

A Walk Around the Lake


Outside of my window there is a lake, a saltwater lagoon really, that dominates my view. I wake up every morning and throw my drapes back and gaze upon the gray surface that usually has a crowd of ducks and geese upon it and is, almost everyday know, a slate of ruffling whitecaps.

So I have been looking at this lake for almost three months, at the bike path that winds around it, the people taking their morning strolls, and believe it or not, I have never, not once, been to it. Sure I have been saying that I will “go around the lake”, almost everyday, but I just have never had the time to do it, to enjoy a little piece of serenity that is smack in the middle of Sokcho.

Sunday was the big day. After going out and having a few drinks on Saturday night I really did not feel much like going on a grand hike or doing anything really constructive, after I woke up at the crack of noon, o.k. maybe it was a little later, and then, as I stood naked in the window, showing my all to my neighbors, I decided that the best cure for my raging headache was to finally, after all this time, walk around the lake.

I threw on a pair of cargos and my ever filthy and faithful B.S.U. hoody, and away I went, down the elevator and out the revolving door of the Dungeon and into a crisp, clear, fall day.

With the sun shining bright against a clear, cobalt blue, fall sky I headed first east, towards the sea, and then, when I hit the Family Mart, past the last gingko trees, I headed left, to the path that winds its way around the lake.

The lake itself is called Yoengan Lake, and it is, for you Bemidji residents out there, about half the size of Lake Irvine. Unlike almost any other body of water that I have seen in Korea, I have never seen people fishing, swimming, or doing any other type of water sports other than windsurfing on it. It just seems to basically sit there in all of its glory, a blue gray oval surrounded by hills and trees.

The total circumference, according to the signs on the bike path is about ten kilometers and I set out with the goal of speed walking the entire thing in two hours. Not really a daunting goal considering how fast I walk, but a good way to get the heart rate up a little bit.

Going along the path I first passed what must have been an old age home by the shear numbers of elderly Koreans out and about in wheelchairs and pajamas, some with I.V. stands connected to their shriveled veins.

This finally answered a question that I had been asking myself for quite some time now. You see, almost every night an ambulance or two goes screaming by my apartment building, their sirens and lights rending the night’s silence with the screech of alarms and chaos. I always thought that they were heading towards route seven, the main road, to some tragic accident filled with broken bodies and blood, but know I realized that they were just heading off to rush another aged member of society to the hospital. Another mystery of Korea solved!

After passing by the old folks home, keeping the lake to the right, I continued on through a growing quiet. It was amazing, here I was, not really far from the main drag yet the only sounds I could hear were the occasional yells of kids playing, birds, and sometimes, the pitter patter of a runner as they came up behind me, or the gentle hum of bike tires as couples enjoyed the day by riding around the lake. All around me were fallen leaves, browns and reds, carpeting the path and small rode that winds around the lake, and occasionally, ever so quietly a magpie would appear, suddenly, quietly, on the path or just off into the edge of the brush, eating their daily worms.

Off in the distance I could see a huge rock formation that looked like a tiger lying down. This is where the gods of old Korea came and sat after they were tired of Sorak-san and just wanted to soak up a nice view, at least that is what the sign says.

According to my co-workers, the Korean ones, the rocks serve a much more sinister purpose than a quaint place for gods to chill out. Because they are about five stories tall and easy to get to in the dark of night, they are the prime spot for suicides in Sokcho, (a little known fact, Korea has the highest rate of suicide in the OEDC), and people are regularly found splattered on the rocks, maybe the ambulances are not going to the olds folks home after all.

Past the rocks I came to the local country club, brown and drab at this time of year but still filled with golfers. A fairly nice looking course, it is the one nine holer in the city limits, and neatest of all, they have woman caddies!

This golf course is actually quite considerate as well. Along the part of the path that parallels what I think is the eighth hole, there is a net above the trail that is there to catch the occasional wayward shot, sparing those walking below from a plunking!

Passing the golf course I came to a bridge over a dirty stream that came down from the mountains and happened on a pretty neat site. There in the water were hundreds, maybe thousands of crap, right in the inlet. Why there? Maybe to get at the fresh water before the salt of the sea diluted it farther in the lake? Who knows, but it was cool to see this huge mass of fish moving and shimmering in the water, pushing each other out of the way, jumping, the dull brown bodies interspersed with a few that were orange, white, and one huge red monster!

The other side of the lake was far duller, no trees, a few grave mounds on small hills overlooking the scenery, pretty much nothing but some building sites and small villas for the city folk to rent, that’s about it.

I finished my walk early; I made it around in an hour and a half. After walking along the sea wall on the other side of the outlet of the lake, I headed home to rest my head and have some soup!

Pictures

1. The "stress relief walk". You find these all over Korea, by walking over the differant textured stones you can relieve stress. To answer your questions, yes it does work, at least for me.

2. The "suicide rock"

3. Another view of the "suicide rock" from the other side of the lake.

4. Almost a full shot of the lake. Just in front of the building at the far left is the Pacific Ocean. My building is the one on the far right.

5. The bike path.