Suseong Pogyeom Festival

This weekend is the Suseong Heat festival. Susesong lake is not far from our house, so despite temps in the mid 90's we decided to go.

We thought parking would be a problem, but thanks to an unwritten rule that you can park just about anywhere in Korea, it wasn't. We parked on a side road. The main road is a six lane thoroughfare, and four lanes were closed off for the festival.

The first thing we encountered was a soju tent with a long line full of parents eager to take the edge off before taking their kids into the water area. After the soju tent were a giant slide, a shallow pool, a super soaker fighting zone, and a maze of ice. People walked on the ice maze with their bare feet! We saw a trio of westerners participate in a water wrestling match against some Koreans—we rooted for them and they won. I also got a bowl of “ice punch,” which was mixed inside of an enormous ice cube. We walked past the marketplace—in a style typical of Korea, there were a couple of dozen products being sold at maybe 100 tents. We would pass a toy tent with battery operated dogs and lightsabers, then four tents later was another toy tent with the same products. We did enjoy some kind of treat that consisted of a bowl of shaved ice with sweet beans, juice, fruit, cereal, and candy on top. Bobby is never one to resist meat on a stick, so he got some of that as well. We stopped at the fourth paddle boat booth we passed to rent a paddleboat—the first three times we were given the opportunity to paddleboat, we said no, but by the fourth we were convinced. We were actually out on the lake while the sun was setting.

By dinnertime, we had finished our circuit and were right next to Deurangil, the restaurant road. There are over 100 restaurants on this little stretch. This time we went into a sushi place and were heartily pleased to discover it was a conveyer belt restaurant! We'll definitely be back. Also on my list is a honeycomb shaped honey store with a picture of a smiling man covered in bees on the front. I think luxury honey would be right up my alley, but it was closed by the time we got to it.

The soju tent at the festival entrance.

Water wrestling.  Go team America (I think they were American)!

The super soaker battleground.  The commando on the platform was one of several who wandered the festival and randomly squirted people.  I got squirted, Bobby didn't.

The massive ice punch bowl.

Ice maze!  Wild.

This was actually across the road from the festival, but I thought it was cool.  It appears to be a public swimming fountain.

Me with Korean ice treat, name forgotten.

Suseong Lake at sunset.

We're on a boat, ya'll!

Apsan in Summer

* Yes, this post is a repeat.  There was an HTML hurricane, and half of the story was irretrievably lost (well, irretrievable to me since I know squat about HTML).  I also now know how to use the new blogger, so I'm going to post this again.

Monsoon season has turned Apsan mountain into a veritable rainforest overnight. Many of the paths I used to take are overgrown, there are bugs everywhere, and the riverbeds are full to bursting. I thought I would take some pictures yesterday, but it was just too wet! We hit a crossing early on that Maya wouldn't brave, and I thought that was a good sign that it may be too dangerous. Today we've enjoyed almost 24 hours with no rain, and the difference was substantial. So, camera in tow, I headed out.

I am the only person on the mountain in shorts and a tank top, probably for good reason. I got scratched and bitten to no end, but hey, at least I was cool! Koreans hike in fancy hiking clothes, complete with poles for leverage.

The path next to the river has several shrines, medicinal pools, and rock piles. I am completely lost when it comes to Korean buddhism, so I'll just have to talk about what I see.

A sacred pool, I think.  Notice the plaque.

Mr. Pan says that small piles of stones are "prayers," so maybe these are really big prayers.

There's often a broom and dustpan in the shrine.  They are all well tended.

I wonder if it's okay to bring Maya, but Buddhists believe that animals are reincarnated humans, so I hope its okay.

Fail!  This sign, which I believe says, "Daegu Bank asks you to please not smoke in the park" or something like that, is clearly facing the foliage.

There are often candles burning.  The dipper is for drinking the water, and there's more writing underneath the rock.  I see candles burning all over the river, not just in the shrines.

Old person's playground.  Public parks in Korea have exercise equipment, not play equipment.  The only people using this equipment are the elderly.  I guess all the other Koreans are just naturally svelte.

Making Gimbap

My blog looks a little silly with only one cooking entry, particularly since I love to cook and do it often. I have had some successes and more failures with trying to merge Korean and American cuisine. One of my more fun experiments have been with gimbap rolls.

Gimbap rolls are somewhat like sushi without the raw fish. The Korean versions are bits of beef, kimchi, cucumbers, egg, and other stuff rolled in rice and seaweed (there are often two types of kimchi in them). They turn out pretty tasty and are less than a dollar, so many of us foreigners like to have them for lunch.

I have tried making gimbap rolls with pretty much everything I have in the fridge. One of my favorites has salami, pepperoni, pastrami, provolone cheese, lettuce, and carrots in it.

The first and most essential ingredient is sticky rice.  It comes in abundance here and is a natural adhesive.  I also have some seaweed wrappers.  I cut all of my filler ingredients into strips.

I roll everything up with the help of my handy bamboo mat.

If the roll starts to fall apart, I wet it.  If I have enough rice in the roll, it's not a problem.

Slice it up and voila!  One of mine self destructed.  Bobby likes to dunk his in soy sauce, regardless of ingredients.

Loki sez what up?

Mixing it up

Okay, I was feeling a little punchy yesterday, and Bobby and I decided to be unabashedly American for once. I feel a little entitled, having been a resident of Daegu for 8 months now. It's my house (literally, as you'll see in a minute) and I need to carve own little space in it once and awhile.

So we went to My House (see!), which is a restaurant right across the road from us. It styles itself as a western restaurant and has a fantastic buffet. Well, we sat down and the waitress revealed that they were offering steak specials. Bobby, a huge fan of steak, was excited about this. I am not a fan of steak, and as previously mentioned, I love the buffet. So we ORDERED TWO DIFFERENT THINGS!! The utter shock! The waitress was a pro and didn't miss a beat. But we weren't done being weird Americans. I then went to the buffet, made myself a bowl of naeng myon (fantastic, by the way), and proceeded to EAT BEFORE BOBBY RECEIVED HIS MEAL!!! We couldn't help but notice that a few people were looking at us, which is never unusual when you are an obvious foreigner. Well, I got maybe halfway through my bowl before the waiter came up and nervously said, “please, sir, why aren't you eating? Please, you can have the salad bar!” Bobby was not interested, but I prodded him towards it anyways to ease the situation and perform my wifely duty of forcing vegetable matter upon my carnivorous husband. (I'm such a tyrant).

I think as Korea opens its doors to more foreigners, wider ranges of behavior will become normal. I can't help but buck at the conformity sometimes, being so used to the magnificent smorgasbord of appearances, behaviors, and even languages that is America. That would be the thing I miss the most about my home.

When in the course of human events

Happy Independence Day! We had a fantastic day. I manned the library booth at our 4th of July Extravanganza, a festival involving games, bands, prizes, and a fantastic dance group called Korean Breakers. Google it, they're awesome. I signed several kids up for summer reading and gave away galleys, which is a very easy way to make people happy. Galleys come free to me, and people are thrilled to get free books with no strings attached. When we could hear each other, I got to talk to community members about books. I love my job!

We had a high turnout because it (somewhat miraculously) didn't rain. We are in the midst of monsoon season, which means it rains every day. From what I've seen, it rains for an hour or two and is muggy for the rest of the day. There's a permanent fog over the city. The rain is pretty intense, coming in heavy sheets that obscure even our neighboring buildings. I have been warned that swarms of mosquitoes accompany monsoon season, so I'm enjoying our relatively mosquito-free current conditions.

We watched the fireworks from the roof of our building while Bobby grilled steaks. It was a fitting end to a memorable day.

My Return

I am way too jet lagged to write a comprehensive story at the moment, but I wanted to mention that the Seoul airport has little signs that say, "have a nice trip!" on the bottoms of all of the luggage baskets that you put through security. The Korean Airlines staff put a sticker on the seat in front of me telling me that I slept through the drink cart, but they would bring me something when I woke up. Mr. Pan picked me up at the airport, and Mr. Yu called when I got home to make sure I was in. There are many things I love about Korea, and I feel very welcome right now.