On October 5th, 1592, the invading Japanese army attacked Jinju Fortress with 30,000 soldiers. General Kim Si-Min was set to defend the fortress with an army totaling only 3,800 people. Of these 3,800, many were civilians. After six days of combat, Jinju Fortress remained under Korean control and the Japanese army was forced to retreat. The battle was recorded as "The Great Victory in Jinju" and it is one of the most important battles of the Imjin War.
Each year, Jinju holds a lantern festival in commemoration of this victory. The river, along with the confines of the fortress walls, are adorned with lanterns of all shapes and sizes. Wobbly footbridges span the river's surface and for 1,000 won, festival goers are able to (slowly) cross the water for a closeup look at some of the lanterns.
Jinju Fortress sprawls the rivers edge and winds its way up into the hills. After the sun set, we made our way inside. I'll let the pictures do the talking for me.
The river
paper cranes
topical
the original John Wayne
the first joke ever told
this guy took all of my money
Kim Si-Min
some guy who followed us around
On the other side of the river was a bamboo forest where it must have been mating season.
Five weeks into the semester and we are afforded a long weekend on the account of Korean Thanksgiving, or Chuseok as it's properly called. While there are some similarities between American Thanksgiving and Chuseok, (them being family time and LOTS of food), there were no pilgrims or Indians or 25 pound stuffed turkeys with pumpkin pie chasers. That's not to say that there weren't plenty of other delicious eats to be had.
Proof
This spread was first offered as a tribute to the family's ancestors before being prepared and passed around the table.
I guess I forgot to mention that we were staying with Caroline's friend, Yuri, and her family so let me back up.
Our wonderful hosts
That's Yuri (on the right) and her boyfriend Jun-Yeong (on the left, duh). Jun-Yeong drove us around all weekend and I felt bad for not being able to say much to him, (he spoke very little English and I speak VERY little Korean), but we were able to share a nice moment over a plate of chicken when he recited every position on the baseball field in perfect English. Jun-Yeong is a fan of the Kia Tigers and later that night they defeated the Lotte Giants and advanced to a playoff game.
After eating (way more) than our fill on Sunday, we ventured out into the country on Monday afternoon. Our first stop was Damyang where we strolled through a bamboo forest.
All of that hiking burned right through the massive amounts of calories we had consumed a day earlier, but lucky for us there were dozens of noodle shops along the river on the outside of the forest. This particular region is known for its guksu, which is a type of buckwheat noodle. I ordered the spicy noodles and was not at all disappointed.
cold, spicy and delicious
Satiated, we made our way further out into the countryside where we hiked around an old garden from the Silla Kingdom.
This is going to be the most exciting entry I've written to date. A few topics that will be covered include and are probably limited to:
Pizza in Korea
A Rock and Roll Show
A dancing cook
and
another Korean hot dog adventure
Saddle up and prepare to experience Korea vicariously through text and images.
I'll start with our first (and to this date, only) encounter with Korean pizza. Just around the corner from me is a cozy little place called Pizza Flower. One Sunday night Caroline and I decided to give it a shot. Twenty minutes and seven dollars later we were sitting on the floor of my apartment. Nothing stood between us and the pizza and the cameras were rolling.
Just in case curiosity has got the best of you, I'll describe what you've just seen. You were looking at a Bulgogi Pizza, or a pizza with Korean-style barbecued beef on top. What you probably don't know, and what we also were lucky enough to find out, is that the pizza was also covered with other bits of randomness including corn and maybe onions. Corn seems to be a condiment here.
I hope you're all geared up for the first bite because it's happening right now:
Good not great. Similar if not identical to a standard frozen pizza. Nothing about it tasted Korean to me so I decided to improvise.
Buckle up:
Kimchi strikes again! This stuff is fantastic. Add it to anything that tastes of mediocrity and sit back as it instantly drums up some flavor.
The next topic that I'd like to cover is music here on the peninsula. I'm not sure why, but KPop reigns supreme. KPop is loud, dancy, technoey, (what?), rap/pop music. I'm about to offend the entire country but I'd like to be honest about my feelings towards this musical genre.
I think it's pretty terrible. Every single song sounds exactly the same. The male singers look like they've never heard of sandwiches. The girls look fake. The musical groups have more members than the entire Wu Tang Clan. It's as cookie cutter as it gets but the everyone here loves it and I mean everyone; from kids to teenagers to adults; I've even caught some older men listening to WonderGirls while devouring chicken and knocking back shots of soju.
I'd pretty much given up on seeing live music while living over here but then we stumbled into a bar called Urban. We couldn't believe our eyes or our ears. On the stage were about 6 or 7 young Korean rock and rollers. In front of the stage were about 15 or 20 young people flailing around uncontrollably. We had struck gold.
Here's a quick glance at the Chef, as I've named him, dancing around to a rendition of the most popular KPop song in the world; Gungnam Style. We're still debating whether or not this guy was actually a chef who had just finished his shift or if wearing a chef's apron is hip with the country's alternative youth. Either way this guy was great. We danced around with him and his crew for a while. I even introduced some college kids to the Charleston and the Twist. I hope it catches on.
I'd rather not leave this post on a sour note but I can't be held responsible for my culinary exploits. Dancing around like idiots strikes up your appetite. There were some hot dogs on the horizon, Korean hot dogs. After my first experience I still haven't learned my lesson and decided it was a good idea to try something else. The dog I selected looked pretty decent. It resembled a giant corn dog and it looked something like this:
We've been in Daegu for 3 weeks now but sometimes it feels more like 3 days. The work week passes by so quickly that we hardly have (make) the time to plan out our weekends. Luckily the city has plenty to offer and the public transit system makes it easy to wake up on Saturday morning and find an adventure.
Our first outing was a walk through Duryu Park. The park is gigantic and beautiful. As soon as you enter you forget about the massive city that lies beyond the trees. The only maps we could find were in Korean so we decided to wander around and hope for the best. Here is a glimpse at what we found.
Keumyong-sa
View from the front porch swing
After checking out the temple grounds we continued down the trail until we came to a large pond where people were feeding a massive school of fish. These fish were terribly ugly and extremely desperate for potato chip crumbs and other scraps of food.
We were feeding these pathetic saps from a footbridge that connected to a tiny island which seemed to house another small temple, but the gate was locked so I snapped a quick photo and then we went to find some food.
Hidden Temple
Duryu Park was a nice time and we've already set our sights on going back. A teacher at my school gave us some info regarding a small mountain that people climb in the center of the park. When you reach the top you'll find a small restaurant serving chicken and beer. Sounds pretty nice.
Speaking of mountains our second outing took us to the top of Mt Apsan. The hike was only about two miles but here in Korea, hiking trails seem to go straight up. It wasn't until we had almost reached the top that the trail began to meander nice and slowly around the mountain's edge. It was hot and we were hungry, (which seems to be becoming a common theme among this blog), but the view quickly struck this from our minds.
For the first week or so Caroline and I have had to rely on PC cafes in order to make contact with one another. On our second night in Daegu we were able to meet at an Emart. (Emarts are giant department stores and they exist all over the city. Think Wal-Mart but with higher priced options as well). We picked the one that looked like middle ground and both made our way there. The plan was for each of us to just circle the building until our paths crossed. (No cell phones. Once you leave the PC Cafe you're basically just hoping for the best). All goes swimmingly and we soon realize that our apartments are only about 2 miles apart.
The next night we decide to meet in my neighborhood for dinner. There is a BBQ place on my street with outdoor seating, (probably a rarity here where everything is so crammed together). We walk over and fumble our way through ordering food. The food is good and cheap and I'm lucky enough to try some Beondegi. Beondegi is boiled silkworm larvae. It's then tossed in chili and garlic and served cold. I found it quite tasty and I've been looking for it ever since.
Bugolgi
Beondegi
Just in case you think I'm fibbing, here's some photographic proof to my claims:
After dinner, we set out to explore a supermarket. I have about 6 or 7 markets in my neighborhood but I only visit two. My favorite is the 007 Mart, or the Bond Mark as I've affectionately named it. The other market is called Power Mart. Power Mart has more options and is more organized than the Bond Mart. Shopping in South Korea is the only time I find myself feeling completely lost. The larger markets are way too overwhelming and the smaller ones are difficult because I can't read Korean. It becomes a guessing game and so far I've done alright, (that's not saying much though, I've been sticking to rice, noodles and other things that I can easily identify).
Caroline's new friend
$10!!! Disgust...
What's even more rotten than the price of peanut butter? The bread situation here in Korean would make it almost impossible to eat the peanut butter anyway. I've only seen white bread being enjoyed as a snack or dessert here. They sell slices of it in places like the PC Cafe and the 7-11. I've even witnessed half loaves of bread (not sliced) sitting in the center of a table while hungry diners tear through it with forks (not chopsticks).
Bread may be a treat here in Korea but pastries of all kinds can be found in the cafes and bakeries. We've even seen a gourmet doughnut shop while wandering around downtown. I have two bakeries on my block, each one offering everything from traditional Korean rice cakes to loaves of white bread. This leads me to my next experiment: The Korean Hot Dog Craze! By craze I mean I've seen hot dogs in the craziest places and I am making it my goal to try each and every one of them.
First up, the hot dog danish, courtesy of Paris Baguette.
