Tag Archives: Samyang

Swimming season fades away…but mosquitoes don’t

The nights are getting chillier and the hopes of another warm day for swimming are evaporating.

The days now are more often blue skies and a slight breeze. The fish must be coming in closer to shore because at night the boardwalk is lined with men surf-casting in the few-feet high waves that break near the boardwalk wall. They’re pulling out 10-14″ glistening fish. No idea what kind.

In Colorado, when the weather gets this chilly, the mosquitoes drop off. It’s kind of a deal we have. Warm enough to swim, you get mosquitoes. Too cold to swim, no mosquitoes.

Apparently, that wasn’t in the contract with Jeju mosquitoes. They don’t seem to mind the cool weather. More than once I’ve gotten up in the middle of the night to put on bug spray after my hands and face have been bitten. I used a fan to keep them away in the hot weather, but now that’s a silly tactic since it’s too cold for me. I guess a mosquito net would have been a good investment. But I keep thinking the mosquitoes can’t last much longer. So far, that’s been a steady, but wrong guess.

Neighborhood sounds

Here are some of the sounds I hear from my apartment:

Women pounding their clothes, washing them in the watering hole in front of my apartment. They use a flat wooden paddle, that looks like a weapon. The pounding isn’t a continuous rhythm. Just 5-8 beats, a pause to dip the clothes in the water, turn them or examine them, then a few more beats. Sometimes I hear a couple women pounding in alternating beats, like the “I’ve been working on the railroad” style. Then, it’s the voices of the women. Elderly Korean women are known as being strong, and pretty pushy. So their voices often sound like they’re giving each other a piece of their mind, but I can’t really tell.

The washing pounding sounds a lot like the pounding that Buddhist monks do, as part of their rituals. Out walking, you can tell you’re near a temple, when you hear a sharper sound than the washing pounding. The monk taps on a hollowed gourd, with a rhythm unidentifiable to me, but not Western 4/4 time. On a Sunday morning, a few neighbor ladies were chanting, beating the gourd, and holding what seemed to be an impromptu Buddhist ceremony in the shade of the garden shed, looking out to the garden adjacent to my apartment building.

There’s another sound that I hear often. When I first hear it, it always remind me of the “Call to Prayer” that I first heard regularly in Niger. It was so hot, we slept outside on the patio, and at 5am, the neighborhood mosque’s Iman would come over the loud speakers posted throughout  the neighborhood.

So, when I hear the trucks rolling through my neighborhood with their loudspeaker announcements going, it sounds like the same rhythm. But, I realized, with an entirely different purpose. The announcements are usually recorded (poorly), so you will see a man driving a truck, and hear the recording of his voice maybe?, again and again. He is selling produce or fish. The call sounds like umdumdadumbadadidum, kamsamnida. (Selling something, thanks!)

I’ve heard some trucks are selling dogs for meat, but haven’t seen this myself. I have heard the barking from a few dog farms, when out walking in the hills. People enjoy dog soup here. I’m a speciesist. I can’t even enjoy lamb because of the cuteness factor of the live animal,  I guess.  I have no desire to try dog soup.

Changing the subject, the other sounds are often the wind and rain. Island weather, I guess. Though, I’m next to the water, it’s rare to hear the waves crashing. Samyang Beach is on the side of the island facing mainland Korea so there aren’t big waves here.

I do hear a big ship blowing it’s horn once in awhile, and I wonder, is that a real means of communication these days? What does it mean? “Hey, I’m a really big ship and I’ll be there in an hour.” I hope there’s a more sophisticated communication scheme behind that horn blast.

Crickets and locusts are also pretty constant, at least at this time of year. And it’s pretty common to get a cricket in my apartment. My own personal Jimminy Cricket.

The most striking sound is what’s not heard. There is no background traffic noise here. I’ll hear a car or truck drive by, or several, but there’s no traffic hum. That part is really lovely!

 

 

 

 

Sunday afternoon for students

After swimming at the far beach (two blocks away instead of one), I ran into a couple of my rascally students. They were wet and peering over the edge of the seawall to the water below, excitedly pointing at fish below.  One had a fishing pole, the surfcast style with no reel. He had a green piece of plastic with a bunch of string wrapped around it (fishing line or kite string?). He leaned back and launched his ‘hook’. It was then that I saw a really big rusty nail tied to the end of the string.

“What, do you actually catch fish with that?,” I asked

“Yes!,” he said.

“No!,” his friend said.

“Teacher, Teacher,” the friend said, “My diary tomorrow: ‘I dived in the beach”’ He pointed to the beach beyond. Cool, he’s already composing his diary in English.

Students …everywhere

I do like being part of a community. That means that when I’m out and about, I might just run into one of my students.

Like today, when I went to the small beach in town, I was surprised to see dozens of kids in red shirts & red life jackets. Out swimming, I heard, Hi teacher (and my name!). It took me awhile to identify my wet students in the crowd. But then, got to splash and practice swimming with them and 38 of their church group friends.

Being an English speaker in Korea makes you the envy of most. Add to that, some basic swimming skill, and wow, you’re amazing!

 

Two of these kids are my students

Typhoon Muifa passes by

Having been raised in a mountain desert, I have no clue for what to do during a typhoon.

Local wisdom is …stay home! If the windows rattle too much, tape them to prevent them from breaking.

On Sunday, August 7th, Typhoon Mufia passed near Jeju. With heavy rains starting early in the morning and continuing until after 11 pm, there wasn’t much to do that day.

The rains and wind were so heavy, it made it seem silly to make that trip to empty the compost just outside our building. So, I didn’t until midnight.

“Living at the beach’ seems a lot less desirable on a day like this. When the wind and rain get going, you have to wonder if this is your last day on the planet. And if it is, should I be doing something more important than learning a Korean song, and taking another nap?Meh, can’t think of anything!

Several students said their homes had pretty severe water damage and flooding. (I didn’t understand at first, because in Korean there’s no ‘f’ sound so it’s tai-poon mui-pa).

Typhoon Muifa did cause a lot of damage in Asia as a whole, and 22 deaths in China.

At times like this, you do notice that you’re alive and that’s not guaranteed to be the case every day!

 

Bathing naked with the neighbors

Yeo-Tang (Women's Bathing Area)

A few days ago, I found a gem of a place right in front of my apartment. My friend and I literally stumbled onto it. We were trying to find our way in the dark, to get out to a quieter area of the rock wall. We headed to one passageway, and discovered nearly too late that it was the men’s bathing area. A woman directed us instead to the passageway marked “여탕”. We thought she was showing us a way to get out to the further sections, so were surprised when we walked into an outdoor bathing area for women.

Old women, little girls, women of all ages use this bathing area to wash themselves, each other and clothes. The place is so ingeniously designed. Rock and concrete form courses for the spring water to flow through, as it gradually mixes with the sea beyond the wall. Flat paths and a couple more levels form an array of places to stand, wash, set things and sit.

The water is cold! At low tide, about five inches of water is all you have to wash your body and your hair. To wash your hair, women take an interesting stance. Lean forward, dip your hair and head in (for an instant head freeze!) Do it, then the view is looking back thru your legs to the far wall and the water heading out to the sea.

A streetlight above provides light until late at night. The first night, we sang the song we were learning, Moon River (in English) while women around us bathed.  It’s such a cool option to be able to bathe outdoors.

Today, on the way home from swimming, I stopped in and bathed. An elderly woman was bathing, and a young woman was washing a few clothes and helping her 5-year old daughter bathe and wash her hair.

Somehow, I didn't notice the women's bathing area (left) at the watering hole across from my apt (center, gold color)

Seongeup Folk Village

A couple buses, an hour and about $3 each delivered my friend and I to Seonguep Folk Village on a Saturday afternoon.

The Korean government subsidizes residents to maintain the traditional way of life and share it with visitors. So, we were able to see woven shoes, jujube tea being made, rope making and the black pigs being raised in the traditional way.

We were able to talk to the residents. Ok, no not really. They spoke Korean and we nodded our heads a lot. Still, it was really cool. I would definitely recommend it!

Swimming in the sea

It’s beach season here so at least a few times a week, and sometimes even a couple times a day, I take a swim in the ocean.

This is a complete luxury that I don’t take for granted!

An easy 12-minute walk from my apartment is the smaller beach that has fewer people and gets deep quicker, so is a bit better for swimming.

It feels like magic to swim in the ocean. Even when I only swim for 20 minutes I fit in an array of liberating movement. I can dog paddle, seriously swimming freestyle or breaststroke, or float on my back and let the small waves move me purposelessly here and there. I’ll do porpoise dives half-way across the width of the beach, then decide to do a few handstands. Follow up with a couple front flips, and a backflip or two. Ahhh. Bliss

Therapeutic benefits of black sand?

Over the past few weeks the beach season has officially started. Umbrellas, wind surfers, a tented restaurant serving beer, soju and some food is now in action.

On Saturday morning, for the first time, I saw the older women (known here as ajjumas) burying themselves in the sand. It was an interesting sight to see this more traditional practice happening, while just behind is a hotel, and in front the school kids walked in a pack searching for trash to pick up before they were allowed to play.

Walking up Samyang’s Oreum – Temples, Nature and Views

This symbol signifies Buddhism

A hefty elevation climb, but a short distance from my home is an oreum. Oreums are little volcanic burps under the surface that dot the island. These little hills generally have walking paths and at the top, a Buddhist temple or two.

So, it’s a lovely Sunday morning walk to head up to the top, about a 25 minute walk from my apartment.

Even though this is ‘tourist season’ and it was a Sunday, there were very few people. (Nothing like the crowds I got used to on paths in Busan, or even in Boulder!)

Buddhists generally put their temples in a natural setting to enhance the peace of mind of those who visit. As I walked up, listening to birds singing, seeing butterflies and moths flit in and out of the shade, I felt more peaceful with every step. A monk once explained that temples are positioned so they have a good view, so the temple itself can feel that same good feeling that we do when we enjoy a beautiful view.

On this oreum, there are actually three Buddhist temples. They differ in some ways, but share: lovely setting, and colorfully painted eaves, detailed pictures on walls, and beautiful sculptures.

As I approached, I could hear the bop,         bop,         bop,      bop,   bop,  bop, bop, bop,bop,bop  banging of the little percussion instrument the monks use.

I wandered around the grounds of one temple. Unlike a busload of about 20 tourists that showed up, I didn’t go inside this time. Instead, I took a few turns at the exercise park on the edge of the grounds: lifting weights, stretching my arms by twisting a big wheel back and forth, and another arm flexibility exerciser that involves reaching up with alternative arms, pulling a cable up and down. These outdoor exercise parks are sprinkled about in towns and parks. A really cool idea!

 

Damp

It’s monsoon season here, which means that every day or two it dumps rain like crazy! When there’s that much moisture in the air (understatement!), inside my apartment I can’t detect anything dry anymore.

When I walk on the floor, my feet are sticky/wet on the floor.

When I move papers, there’s no crisp shuffling. Instead they bend wanly, nearly sticking to each other.

And the potato chips I bought two days ago, are more like a cold french fry than a crisp!

Funny sensations for a girl from the near-desert-dry of Colorado!

Saunas…scrubbing, splashing and soaking naked

In our small town, there is a large sauna. You pay 4000W (less than $4) for entry and a few towels. Bring your own shampoo, soap, plastic bucket to hold them, and a scrubbie. (We didn’t know to bring them so were loaned these items. Apparently, this would be like going swimming but not bringing a swimming suit. We were the only ones this didn’t occur to.)

Walk into the first room where you take off and leave your shoes in a small locker. Grab the key bracelet and proceed to the locker room. Here, take off all your clothes, lock your locker and bring one of the little towels. Wearing only the key bracelet, head to the women-only sauna area with your toiletries (I was going to say ‘cleaning supplies)’.

You can rinse off at the standing showers first, but most of your pre-bath cleaning is done at the sit-down area. Here you sit on a plastic stool. Spray it off before you plop down. Then use soap and scrubbie and the showerhead at each station to clean yourself off. Shampoo your hair there too. If you’re with a friend, it’s common to scrub each other’s back. While this sounds odd, it feel pretty natural to do so here.

Then take your pick of temperatures, sizes of pools: very hot, mildly hot, cool, with whirpool seats, or the small ‘swimming’ area. This is long enough to swim 10-15 strokes of breaststroke and deep enough (almost 3′) to make it pleasant for swimming or walking. Take a turn in the steam room, where you can rest your head on a wooden block that has a head-size niche in it. Or head to the dry sauna. Repeat.

Soak quietly near the old ladies, or frolic in the largest area with the little girls. (The girls were the same ages as our students. We wondered, would be strange if they were? I think the answer is, that it wouldn’t be strange to them, so really, no!)

When you’re ready to leave, stop at the scrubbing stations again and wash or rinse off, then head into the dressing room, where combs and hair dryers are available for common use.

Feel great! The community sauna was born of necessity here since most Korean homes don’t have tubs. But, more than that, it’s a lovely part of Korean culture.

Sunday Afternoon at the Swimming Hole


In addition to the beach…(which sounds very greedy!)there’s a wonderul spot just in front of my apartment building. It’s a combination harbor, washing area and swimming hole.
On Friday night after work and food, we swam there at midnight. The cool fresh water from the small mountain (called an Orem) meets the sea here, so it feels very refreshing.Late at night, people stop by and wade around or stick their toes in. From early in the morning to the early evening, kids and parents splash around. Squirt guns, inner tubes, shivering kids, lifejackets, moms sitting together in the shade, and bicycles leaning on the wall.

In the morning on Sunday, the tide was in so it was deep enough for a dad and his two sons to dive into the water. Later that day, there was no water at all at that spot! Timing! The cool thing is that since the water changes levels so drastically all day long, it’s like water world with different activities depending on the time of the day (kinda!)