Love is... Your Smell...

Love is... Your Smell...
Mom says that "you are better
handsome then Bred Pitt" even
papa smelled of sweat.

Copied from my journal...

May 31, 2009 Sokcho Beach 7:45 AM

I woke up at 6:00 and took a long shower. The smell in the pension* is unpleasant, I needed to leave. I headed to the beach and read on a rock close to the wear we had the fire last night, hear the Army base, where we heard training gunfire. A coupe of guards on duty watched us from the top of the hill, behind the barbed wire, but probably though we were just dumb for building a beach fire with a storm coming, lightening flashing in the sky, the low rumble of thunder and number of Mississippis decreasing between. Mike and Dave got the fire big and hot using driftwood. We had just enough time to drink a bottle of wine, three bottles of beer, a can of makolli**, a few smores (with real north American graham crackers and marshmallows) and set off a few sad roman candles before the rain became to insistent that we seek the shelter of the pension. Some waited a little too long and found themselves quite wet when they finally gave into the storm. We spend the rest of the night playing drinking games*** and Scene It, both of which I lost, leaving me drunk and cranky. I fell asleep first.
Sally wanted to go swimming at some and point, late in the night and Bryan must have gone with her because he climbed into bed actually wanting to cuddle, his skin was cold. Think Sarah went as well. I did not cuddle with her.
The owners of our pension, occupying the two rooms on the main floor, must dislike us. We had to have been loud. Yesterday they wanted extra money, claiming that we only paid for seven people instead of for nine people. Sarah called her Korean friend, who then sorted things out. It is good to have connections.
Being in the Korea, land of late nights, I didn’t expect the beach to be very busy, but I am surprised at the number of people. When I first arrived there was a family, they looked like they were playing in the waves, after watching them for a while, I realized they were collecting seaweed. They looked like they were having fun.
Yesterday morning was far from this sunny calm day. They wind was strong and the sky was grey. Sarah and I were the first two u. We arrived late the night before probably didn’t get to bed until three or later. The clock said 12:00 ish when I woke up in the morning. I was shocked I had slept so late, Sarah and I went out in search of breakfast food; during the excursion Sarah informed me that it was in fact only about 9:15. The clock was wrong.
We found eggs and mild. Once people were actually up, we left on excursion number two: Dave, Sally, Mike, and I. As we left the pension, the man owner asked “Odi gueseyo?” (Where are you going?). “Food”. “Menu?” he asked. “Supermarket?” We replied. He grabbed his keys and led us to his car, a Chairman. He drove us to E-Mart. We collected 112,000 won worth of food and booze. I also bought a new shirtdress. E-Mart is quickly becoming my favourite place to shop. It is like Target or Zellers but in Korea so obviously better. I already have three shirtdresses, on regular dress, a skirt, and one shirt (Kiss me or Bite me Honey). About a week ago, I discovered that they have clothes that fit me.
We took a taxi back to the pension and made pancakes, bacon, and eggs. In waves, we only had one grill. Sarah brought Starbucks coffee. We spend the afternoon on the beach. Sarah, Amber, Mike and Dave went swimming, sort of. The rest of us, less adventurous, decided to stay warm and dry. We ate samgupsal for supper I hope that I can eat seafood today. I want raw fish damnit.

May 31, 2009 Sokcho Beach 4:35 PM

Feeling anxious about time lines and checkouts, I head back to the pension to see if anybody (Sarah) was up yet. Nobody was. I didn’t know if the checkout was at 10:00 or 11:00. I didn’t know if I should be waking people up or not. I waited until Sarah got up and then I started doing the dished and started coffee. Sarah made eggs while I cut up the watermelon. It was my bad idea to buy a whole melon instead of a half melon. They are smaller than at home, typically, and I figured the nine of us would have no problem. (Problem. Later we had to improvise a way to carry the rest of the watermelon to the beach. I ended up cutting off the tops of two juice bottles and filling them with mater melon piece. It worked all right.) Slowly, everybody stared getting up from their floor beds. After breakfast, we did our best to pack everything and clean up, more or less. The amount of garbage we generated was amazing. Also the amount of alcohol consumed. After cleaning and sweeping copious amounts of sand out the pension, we headed to the beach. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach. The sun was warm but the wind was chilly.
After beachy shenanigans, I finally got my seafood wish fulfilled. Seafood Stew: claims, crabs, octopus, all sorts of shellfish in a tasty but not too spicy broth, along with an assortment of veggies. It was not raw fish, but I am ok with that. Next beach adventure will include raw fish, a lot of raw fish. We are waiting our bus to take us back to Seoul. So good-bye east coast.

Back in Seoul...

Tired and sunburned dispite the not warm weather. I always forget that even if the sun is not hot, it will still burn me. This weekend was for Amber’s birthday. It was mostly a surprise for her. She knew something was happening but she didn’t know where or who was involved. It was a super fun weekend for everybody.

*A pension is just a big hotel room that is big and has a kitchen. Sometimes a pension is a separate building, like a little cottage. This pension was right on the beach and very nice. Everything is Korean style, so they give enough blankets and floor mats for everybody to sleep on the floor.

**Makolli is a carbonated rice wine. Very popular in Korea.

***King’s Cup, which is actually kind of fun. However, I got the kings cup at the end, which was, by then, a mixture of beer, wine, and makolli. I refused to drink it until someone brought me a bottle water to chase it down.