While I was waiting for her bus, two college students approached me and commented on Rupert. Of course, they wanted to know his name and how old he was and all that jazz. Rupert gets more questions about him that I do about me! Who's the foreigner here? I was also informed he looked like a girl, haha.
We hung out and talked for hours. I mean, wow, a conversation with a full English vocabulary without slowing it down to a pace a turtle amputee. I hadn't had one of those since... okay, let's not speak of that. I just hope my English ability survives the year. I can feel the sarcasm withering inside of me already.
But the next day was, embarrassingly enough, the first time I'd do "tourist" stuff in my area. I will say I spent the winter hibernating and in Cambodia, but that's only half an excuse. Alex wanted coffee, so I figured it would be a decent time to walk all the way across town to Tiffany's. I poked my head in and flustered the lady behind the counter, who said the coffee machine would take 30 minutes to warm up. As we were short in time, I dejectedly realized we'd have to go to the bakery. This bakery... concocts some of the most disgusting sweets I have every had the displeasure of tasting... However, on the way back, we ran across another bakery... I've been in Dogye for 6 months and still haven't found all the bakeries/coffee shops... this does not say good things for my powers of observation. The place actually had fantastic zucchini bread and the lady was thrilled to have two random foreigners show up.
...honestly, if you have low self esteem, come to Korea. You'll leave a narcissist.
We first went to the Hwanseongul [cave], which is apparently one of the largest caves in Korea and Asia. It was formed out of limestone and water and was actually quite massive. And creepy. And facilitated the discussion of 'imagine surviving a nuclear fall out in here - you'd have to eat cave crickets.' I believe the sign was lying; the cave crickets ran away from the masses of Korean tourists long ago. The cave was really cool and lived up to its reputation as excessively large and endless. I think by the end everyone was trudging along praying for a glimpse of light. Oh, and Alex was run over by little old ladies several times, haha. And we were asked if we were Canadians (probably because of what happened next).
So, we just missed the bus and had to wait for the next one. We weren't alone. There was a solo white guy and a loud group of beer-touting Americans. Alex and I cringed at them and scooted away. Unfortunately, when we got on the bus all the Koreans had left two open seats... near the loud, beer-touting Americans. While everyone else was quiet on the bus they were having a merry conversation and one girl said, 'Koreans aren't as dumb as we think they are...' What in the world? You're on a bus FULL of Koreans, some of whom probably understand a least part of your bold declaration. Alex and I sunk down a little lower and popped off the bus at Samcheok.
The foreigners happily popped off too and disappeared. We made a bee-line for the info booth with a guy that had a nice sized name tag that declared him an English speaker. That was a new one for me. Usually I just grab the closest Korean and point and use my broken Korean to make a request... it'd be so much easier if they all ran around with foreigner-friendly tags. It would take out the guesswork. But, surprise, surprise, the foreigners were going the way we were and we ended up splitting a cab ride with them because the bus left at 5 pm and the park closed at 5 pm. Good job Korea.
The park in question is called Haeshindang Park or The Penis Park. And its pretty much what it sounds like. Its a beautiful park full of flowers, a sparkling shore line... and penises of all shapes and sizes and materials. The story behind the park is that there used to be a small fishing village on the property. A young man and his financee went out to sea. He left her on some rocks/a small island and went to fish. a storm rolled in and she drowned a virgin. After that her vengeful ghost scared away all the fish. A drunk man staggered to the water, dropped his pants, and proceeded to pee in the ocean. Suddenly the fish returned and the villagers realized that the dead virgin wanted, well, penis. So they made statues and it grew into a park.
I enjoyed the pumpkin latte, the ocean smell/sound/sight, and the freshwater fish in the basement of the fishing museum. And of course, couldn't resist throwing out some innuendos about our situation. By the time we hit the bus station, guess who showed up again? Yup, AGAIN. Alex made nice small talk; I sat and stared at the spit wad on the ground... it was more interesting. So we load up again and I run into my new coordinator. I've met him before and don't really have an opinion but he doesn't fall in the 'party hardy' crowd. I could see similar thoughts going through his head. I'm pretty sure he listened to Alex and I talk the whole way back to Samcheok.
But he was nice enough to not only direct us to a restaurant but order us food too. By the time we got back to Dogye, we were wiped out. Unfortunately, we didn't get to do the railbike because of time and energy constraints.
Nice weekend... then back to school and rain. I was so tired from Saturday I missed going to church on Sunday. Could've done better on that one.
Plans for Seoul, Busan, and Daejeon next month. Busy, busy not-hibernating months :D
