Memorable Memorial Day

Thursday was Memorial Day here in Korea, so all the teachers (and most other people) had the day off. Ilani organized a trip to Namhae so that we could kayak. She had used this guy before last year, and another group used him for a festival earlier in May. The company is Famous Julio's Kayaking, although Julio is a Korean guy. We left Jinju at 10 am in 2 vans and drove about an hour to Namhae. The drive is really nice for half of it because you're on the coastline. Then we got into a little town that had garlic everywhere because there was a garlic festival over the weekend. When we got there, we decided to go to lunch first. We went to this little cafe that made hamburgers. They were good, but it took a long time to make them for the whole group (which was about 15 people or so). They also had an egg and spicy sauce on them.

Garlic drying on a mat on the street

After lunch we walked back, I sunscreened again, and we walked down to the shore to get some instructions and suit up. He only had 1 single person kayak and Brandon requested that. Then he asked if anyone wanted to paddle board and Dallas and Amanda decided to do that instead of kayak. We had 2 groups of people - 2 hour and 3 hour kayakers. I was in the 3 hour group, so I got paired in a tandem kayak with a guy name Mohammad. He's a researcher in mechanical engineering at the university. He was really nice and pretty laid back, so he was a decent kayak partner. I also used Dallas's waterproof camera bag for my phone, so I was the picture taker for the group once we got out in the water.

Koreans are experts when it comes to picnics etc. So while the 3 hour group finished up, they ate fried chicken.

The kayakers - thanks for the pictures Mina!

The 2 hour group struggled a bit and ended up staying in the bay. Our group went out of the harbor and into the ocean. We had the option of getting out on a pebble beach, but everyone in our group thought it was a better idea to stay in the boats and go a bit further. It was a beautiful day and the scenery was lovely, although you can't really tell from the pictures since they were taken through plastic :)

Mohammad after he cut his finger while we were getting out of the harbor (see the lighthouse).

Me and Mohammad are in the yellow kayak and Brandon is in the orange one. This is right after we got in and we're sitting in the harbor.

All the kayakers heading out

Me! I wore one of Dallas's hats to avoid head sunburn. It worked!

Dallas tried standing in the ocean part and fell in and at some point lost his sunglasses, and I got a bruise on my shin because I couldn't find out how to adjust the foot platforms until after an hour and a half. Mohammad also cut his finger somehow. Other than that there were no casualties. The hardest part was coming back into the harbor. For the last 100 meters or so, it was choppy and it felt like we were paddling and moving nowhere. But we made it in. Once everyone got back, we got some ice cream, some people got changed, and we hopped in the vans to go home.

Amanda taking a rest and throwing up the peace sign after we made it out of the harbor and waited for our guide, who ended up leaving us to help the 2 hour group.

Amanda resting again once we got to our destination (of sorts).

Brandon in the ocean

Dallas took a nap on his board and Brandon dribbled water on him to wake him up. I would have pushed him in.

Knee boarding

Standing up in the harbor. See the other boat? Some random Koreans joined our group.

The view from the front of my boat.

Dallas fell asleep on the van ride home. So did a bunch of other people, but I didn't take their pictures because I was sitting in the back seat so it was just the backs of their heads.

Once we got back to Jinju, I wanted to go home and change pants. Amanda wanted to change too and we decided to meet up after to get some dinner. While I was changing, she called, saying she had to go meet another friend and give her some stuff (she's leaving next week and sold some of her stuff), but that she would meet me later. So Dallas and I decided to go to a raw beef bibimbap place. It's a Jinju specialty and I hadn't tried it yet, but it was on my list. It was actually pretty good.

Here's our dinner. The soup is also made from beef blood - it was pretty good.

The stuff that sort of looks like tomato paste is the raw beef. Not sure what that jelly stuff is, but I tried a bite. Didn't really like it that much, but I tried it!

After dinner, we walked home through some back roads and got Popsicles. Then Dallas went home and I met up with Amanda. We got some beers at the grocery store and sat on a hill in the park and talked for awhile. It was really nice to get to talk to her for awhile before she left. After sitting for a little over an hour, we decided to go home because we were both exhausted and I had to work the next day. I went home and basically passed out. I wasn't ever sore from the kayaking, but it definitely made me tired