Day 5 in South Korea: Seaside Adventures, Watermelon Seeds, and the Moon Reflected 5 Times

I'm not writing a Korean sentence for this day right now, but I'll think on it and provide one for my non-English speaking readers soon. ^^

After Hongdae (which I plan to revisit someday in a less crappy and frustrating way, with the same amazing food), I packed up the next morning and started out on our field trip day. At first I was really lost, but one of our Japanese classmates named Ken helped me find where the buses were and after checking in with our trip director (who I grew to like very much after this, by the way!), I boarded the bus. I found Sandra, Ayame, Akari, and of course Ken on the bus waiting. I was really happy to see their faces and very glad that Sandra was still willing to associate with me after the night before. I was very excited to realize that I wouldn't have classes that day, but a little disappointed that our teacher wasn't coming. However, I worked up my spirits and had courage-I would set my expectations very, very low for this trip. With a very quiet and humble heart, I thanked God for each little thing around me, including but not limited to our hilarious tour bus-

 plus my friends, music on my tablet, a tour guide who wanted to make sure no one got lost (thank goodness!), no rain, the chance to ride a bus, and no Korean classes. After we started off on our way to the beach, I started taking pictures. Imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when we left the city and entered the countryside! I'm serious-here I am always trying to escape the countryside in the U.S. but now I am going crazy over the Korean countryside! I was so tired of being in the fast, hustle bustle of Seoul that the site of the country made my heart sing. Here was somewhere I could navigate-here was somewhere I could understand.
And guess what?
I navigated and understood. :)

Just as we were going through the city. The pinkish color is the tint of the windows. Beautiful, isn't it?

Mountains, guys!

The countryside had lots of beautiful rivers.

And farmland...

And towns...

And mountains!

I made this picture extra-large here because I found it so breathtaking. I believe clicking on the images should make them bigger for you, anyway, so you can see them better (and admire my horrible photography skills)

The first rest-stop we visited, I was shocked to find that the workers smiled back at me when I smiled at them. The rest stop was so crowded-filled with parents and kids and big bustling families of people, many of whom were on their way to the seaside. Now I was getting it-after meeting so many people, I was finally getting that warm 'family' feeling that I missed about my family back home. I loved to look into the cars as we passed and imagine where the people were going and why. In fact, I loved everything. When we arrived in Gangneung I started smiling really big-the sun was finally shining, the mountains were around us, and I was in Gangneung. Yes, I did not research my field trip before going there! But I think it's good that I didn't, because I let myself go. I didn't worry about the time or the destination, and I was so pleasantly surprised. I've been wanting to go to Gangneung since I heard this song-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8iomK0oN8

My yummy lunch. It was a little too spicy for me, actually, and it was hilarious how my Japanese friends reacted-they kept trying to get me to not eat all of it because it was taking me so long and I must have looked really pained. This was not the first of my hilarious eating stories. Gosh I felt like such a viking!

I knew the lyrics were about going to the seaside and the memories. The song already had meaning to me, because it was like my anthem for several months. Whenever I felt depressed? Sweetpea. Whenever I was dreaming of better horizons? Sweetpea. Whenever I felt happy? Sweetpea. Whenever I was lonely? Definitely Sweetpea. I listened to Sweetpea (and Deli Spice) like he was water, and in return, his songs are very close to my heart (his nickname is the same as my nickname, by the way). I always dreamed that if I got the opportunity, Gangneung would be a place in Korea I would visit. But I never researched it for this trip, never thought about it because I figured I would be stranded in Seoul, so to speak. Hard to imagine for Seoul-lovers, I suppose, but for me, South Korea wasn't just about going to Seoul-it was about seeing everything I could see. The daily life of Koreans; the way they live, the food they eat, the way they speak. I was more interested in the details than the whole in the first place, and while I was trying to hard to swallow the whole I forgot the beautiful details.

Myself and Sandra

They look like they are having such fun!

These were the interesting umbrellas/mats that you could pay to sit under for the day.

So Gangneung, Gyeongpo, all is a memory of details. When we arrived, we stepped from the bus to find it was boiling. Seriously, I thought I would die on the short walk that we were taking. At first I thought the lake was the seaside (wowowowow, their ocean looks weird here...is that an inlet?), then I realized we were being walked to the beach. We crossed the road in a huge group, tromped past cars and families and cute babies and handsome men walking back from the showers at the beach, passed storefronts and showers and some kind of festival event, and finally arrived upon the sweltering shores of what I soon found out was the Pacific Ocean! So maybe I was a little lost! But that's okay, because whether or not I realized it was the Pacific Ocean I was (finally) dipping my toes into, I still enjoyed it. The beach was unbearably hot, even under the umbrellas, so after standing at the water's edge for a while, taking videos and watching people play in the water and wondering why on earth Korean beaches have no wind, my friends and I all tromped back across the sandy beach to the little storefronts. Our tour guide let us know that watermelon would be served at 3 PM on the beach and warned us that the coffee here was horribly expensive, but tea and juice was good, so we headed to a cafe.

I wanted to swim, too. T.T

Once people found out that there was free watermelon, it got really crowded. This was before then, obviously. :)

Liveguard/beach workers in background and teachers from Hanyang University in forground.

Munch-munch. Yummy watermelon.

The Saudi Arabian students were taking great interest in burying each other. :P

Outside the cafe. I thought this was cool because 1. it's a soju ad and 2. it features the eldest son from I Summon You Gold! actor Yeon Jeong-Hun.

Inside the cafe.

Akari & Ayame

Cute hot air balloons.

The lake

The walk back.

Beautiful Ayame!

Our Japanese group approaching.

You can't tell from this image, but the combined pink tint of the windows and humidity made this sun look blood red. It was gorgeous. The humidity and dust in the air in South Korea made the sunsets there a deep orange or red color. Not to be missed!

I have only one bad thing to say about this trip-this is a horrible picture and this was really bad corn. =P Not bad as in rancid or anything like that, but Korean corn is what we grow as feed corn here. It is starchy and lacks flavor. Here in the United States, the corn we eat is sweet. That was the one thing I found a little disappointing about this corn. However, the starch made it filling!

I got a green tea latte at first and sat around trying to get my wifi to work. After a while, I chose to entertain Sandra by naming the song and artist of everything that came on the radio.

 Girl's Day 'Female President' was one of the songs. I now love this song. XD

 Kang Seung Yoon's 'It Rains' was another song that came on the radio.

And 2ne1's 'Do You Love Me?' played often while I was in Korea. :)

If I couldn't name the song, Sandra looked it up. We took pictures in the cafe and talked a little about different music, how hot it was, what everyone thought about the beach and the cafe. We talked together as much as we could with our limited Korean skills.

Then, since a few of us wanted watermelon, we walked back to the beach. It had seeds, so it was really flavorful, and memories of summer here at home came back to me! Once 'free food!' was announced, so many people on the beach wanted to try some! Thankfully, our tour guides brought a lot, and the Koreans are a very sharing people. :) Everyone was happy with their watermelon. Okay, one was not so happy, since he tried to spit his seeds out and they stuck to his bare chest, arm, and shoulder, but he provided humor for us all and laughed at himself so I think  we were happy in the end. :P
After that, it was back to the cafe for us-we weren't staying out in the hot weather-and I drank an entire glass of amazing Korean grape juice. I don't know what they put in the juice there but it's deliciously good. Then we decided to go walking along the storefronts to maybe do some shopping. I stopped in a souvenir shop and bought my siblings two beach balls-Hello Kitty for Lillian and the South Korean flag for Simon. Then I bought myself a bag of Korean mints called 'Anytime'. They taste like Hall's Vitamin C drops but flavored mint (however, 'Anytime' was around long before Hall's started using their design/recipe, so Anytime has other flavors, and don't taste like cough drops). After that, we went in a few more stores and walked back to the bus, where it was hot inside until the air conditioning cooled it off. While waiting for the Russian students, we sat in the bus and listened to music for a while, but we were so hot and lazy and tired that we didn't party like we should have in the party bus. :P Instead, Sandra and I changed seats so we could stretch out our legs and sleep, and that's what most of us did. I kept watching out the windows, though-I was too sad to leave. I wanted to soak it all up-the sun setting, the hillsides, the sidewalks, the people, the buildings...I watched everything. I felt sad, but the good kind of sad-the kind that is stubborn, hopeful, and says 'I'm coming back'. I got to watch the sunset and then I remember sleeping for a while until we stopped at another rest-stop. Then we were on our way back to the dorms. I think the bus driver let us off at about 9 PM and bless his soul, he let us off in front of our dorms! 
Myself and the Russian students got the chance to talk while we walked back, and then once at my dorm, I did a little research about Gangneung and Gyeongpodae and discovered that there is a very beautiful saying about the place that goes like this, according to Wikipedia-
It is said that one can see the moon five times when at Gyeongpodae. One sees the moon once in the sky, once reflected in the lake, once reflected in the sea, once reflected in the drinking glass, and once more in the eyes of a lover.

Now isn't that romantic? So dreamy. I can just see the two lovers in their hanboks at Gyeongpodae years ago, bathed in moonlight, looking into each other's eyes...*sigh*

I also came back to my dorm to find that Kang Seung Yoon, one of my favorite Superstar K contestants down through the years, had come out with a music video!
And guess what the music video portrays?
You got it. Summer fun. :)

Thanks for reading my long and rambling post about this beautiful day.

-Argentia