Ajummas, dancing and miracles...
It has been another interesting week here in Mokpo. New timetable, new books, new students and the Moses Miracle of Jindo. Yes that last one does sound a little odd I have to admit. I will tell you all about it but first let me fill you in on the background.
Spring has firmly taken root in Korea and in no place more so than the minds of its resident ESL teachers. We have got a bit of a collective travel bug. And it is not just the Mokpoians amongst us I hasten to add- we had visitors over last weekend from Chungju. These were people we had met in Seoul and met up with again in Pusan. It was strange having all these foreign faces in our fair city. And they wanted to do stuff and in giving them ideas we realised how little we had done ourselves. So a friend and me started on sorting this out on Saturday when we went on a boat cruise around the edge of Mokpo. I thought that it would be a nice relaxing thing to do and it was a lovely day. Should have known that it was going to be an odd affair when the police were on the jetty collecting our tickets- and not in the slightest bit impressed that we both wrote our names in Korean script. We got onto the boat and settled down with a good view. Then the ajummas started piling on. I am not sure what I have told you about this breed of folk but ajummas are basically older or married women and it is a term of respect for ones that own their own business. In my day to day life the ajummas that I usually see are the ones that work the food stalls scattered all over the streets of Mokpo- they would generally be pensioners back home (I guess). I must get some photos for you all- they are a quite incredible race, with their perms and baggy trousers and they would beat anyone in the world at a 'pushing in front of you in the supermarket queue' competition. They are pretty scary at the best of times. But now we know what they do for fun. They come to Mokpo, pile onto a boat, get absolutely shitfaced on soju, sing, dance and generally harass the foreigners on board for an hour and a half before going home again! It was crazy! We got up for a polite dance but were held captive for nearly the whole trip. If either of us tried to get away we were grabbed by the nearest dancer and pulled back into the fold. And they were not fussy about where they grabbed either- I got pulled back at one stage by a hand clamped onto my right boob! They took my camera off me and took loads of photos of them with us. They taught us the proper dance (waving hips from side to side and pointing hands in the air- very easy and a universal call to ajummas to dance but more on that later) and forced soju down our throats. And pulled us and fought over who was going to dance with us- at one point I had an ajumma on each arm and they were pulling in opposite directions!
We felt like we had been kidnapped and had the sneaky suspicion that one of them was creeping out to issue ransom demands to our families! But in the end a drunken old man came over and gave us both a can of lemonade and we seized our chance and legged it! It was actually a lot of fun- and we did appreciate seeing, in the last five minutes of the cruise, passed out ajummas all over the deck.
We finally made it back onto dry land and went to the restaurant on the beach and watched the sunset. And then went to the pub and I got home around 7 the following morning- so I saw the sun come up again too. But it was in the pub that we found out about the Moses thing. Turned out that there was another group of foreigners in Mokpo for the weekend- enroute to Jindo for the Moses Miracle- they had bumped into some of our friends earlier who had invited them to the bar that night. But I didn't know this when they walked into the bar and I just couldn't stop staring at all these new foreign faces. Over all there must have been around 40 of us and we were all thrilled to have new people to meet. And they told us about Jindo and we decided to go the next day too.
Got up around midday and went and hired a car for the day with five other people (yes, six of us in a small car- very comfy) and off we went to Jindo. Jindo is an island which is connected to the mainland with a bridge. At a certain time of the year the sea between Jindo and another island about 2.5km away parts and you are able to walk between the two on a strip of land uncovered by the water. It has been doing this for years but only really came to International notice when a French Ambassador saw it in 1975 and compared it to Moses and the parting of the Red Sea.
Now there is a festival there every year and lot of people walk between the two islands, though most people seem to be taking the opportunity to gather shellfish. We bought some yellow waders there- they came to above my knees and were thin enough for me to feel every shell and stone that I trod on. But it was really cool. We had left it a little late so didn't make it all the way to the other island before being turned back by the police as the tide was changing- those police really do get everywhere! We got a lift back to the shore in a fishing boat which was really cool! We got back to the shore and joined the festival. There was some music being played through the loudspeakers and I decided to have a quick ajumma dance by myself but by the time I had raised my fingers a swarm of them had come over for a dance- you would have thought that I had learnt! I just legged it as quick as I could!
After all that exercise it was time for a feed and, predictably enough, sea food was pretty prominent on the menu in all the food tents. Now, it was be technically incorrect to describe what Tim ate as 'live' octopus because surely it was dead after being cut up. But it wasn't cooked. It was killed just moments before it was delivered to the table. It continued wiggling and squirming on his plate for much longer than I could bear to look at it anyway! But he seemed satisfied and that is the main thing I guess. Inevitably, as it was dark and we had no map, we got lost on the way home but had much fun getting back to Mokpo - the four of us in the back had had to promise not to complain about the cramped conditions as we were too mingy to hire another car for the day- going down every dark alley and driveway and through tunnels until we saw the bright lights of our big city and came home. We went up Yudal San (the local 'mountain') watched some pissed locals have a fight then went home. All in all it was a great weekend.
And this weekend I am going to the subtropical island of Jeju- the wettest place in Korea so that should be cool. Next weekend we are planning to go back on the cruise boat and get our revenge on the ajummas by taking some friends and our own soju!! But I will leave you there as people are waiting for me in the pub!
Take care H
Spring has firmly taken root in Korea and in no place more so than the minds of its resident ESL teachers. We have got a bit of a collective travel bug. And it is not just the Mokpoians amongst us I hasten to add- we had visitors over last weekend from Chungju. These were people we had met in Seoul and met up with again in Pusan. It was strange having all these foreign faces in our fair city. And they wanted to do stuff and in giving them ideas we realised how little we had done ourselves. So a friend and me started on sorting this out on Saturday when we went on a boat cruise around the edge of Mokpo. I thought that it would be a nice relaxing thing to do and it was a lovely day. Should have known that it was going to be an odd affair when the police were on the jetty collecting our tickets- and not in the slightest bit impressed that we both wrote our names in Korean script. We got onto the boat and settled down with a good view. Then the ajummas started piling on. I am not sure what I have told you about this breed of folk but ajummas are basically older or married women and it is a term of respect for ones that own their own business. In my day to day life the ajummas that I usually see are the ones that work the food stalls scattered all over the streets of Mokpo- they would generally be pensioners back home (I guess). I must get some photos for you all- they are a quite incredible race, with their perms and baggy trousers and they would beat anyone in the world at a 'pushing in front of you in the supermarket queue' competition. They are pretty scary at the best of times. But now we know what they do for fun. They come to Mokpo, pile onto a boat, get absolutely shitfaced on soju, sing, dance and generally harass the foreigners on board for an hour and a half before going home again! It was crazy! We got up for a polite dance but were held captive for nearly the whole trip. If either of us tried to get away we were grabbed by the nearest dancer and pulled back into the fold. And they were not fussy about where they grabbed either- I got pulled back at one stage by a hand clamped onto my right boob! They took my camera off me and took loads of photos of them with us. They taught us the proper dance (waving hips from side to side and pointing hands in the air- very easy and a universal call to ajummas to dance but more on that later) and forced soju down our throats. And pulled us and fought over who was going to dance with us- at one point I had an ajumma on each arm and they were pulling in opposite directions!
We felt like we had been kidnapped and had the sneaky suspicion that one of them was creeping out to issue ransom demands to our families! But in the end a drunken old man came over and gave us both a can of lemonade and we seized our chance and legged it! It was actually a lot of fun- and we did appreciate seeing, in the last five minutes of the cruise, passed out ajummas all over the deck.
We finally made it back onto dry land and went to the restaurant on the beach and watched the sunset. And then went to the pub and I got home around 7 the following morning- so I saw the sun come up again too. But it was in the pub that we found out about the Moses thing. Turned out that there was another group of foreigners in Mokpo for the weekend- enroute to Jindo for the Moses Miracle- they had bumped into some of our friends earlier who had invited them to the bar that night. But I didn't know this when they walked into the bar and I just couldn't stop staring at all these new foreign faces. Over all there must have been around 40 of us and we were all thrilled to have new people to meet. And they told us about Jindo and we decided to go the next day too.
Got up around midday and went and hired a car for the day with five other people (yes, six of us in a small car- very comfy) and off we went to Jindo. Jindo is an island which is connected to the mainland with a bridge. At a certain time of the year the sea between Jindo and another island about 2.5km away parts and you are able to walk between the two on a strip of land uncovered by the water. It has been doing this for years but only really came to International notice when a French Ambassador saw it in 1975 and compared it to Moses and the parting of the Red Sea.
Now there is a festival there every year and lot of people walk between the two islands, though most people seem to be taking the opportunity to gather shellfish. We bought some yellow waders there- they came to above my knees and were thin enough for me to feel every shell and stone that I trod on. But it was really cool. We had left it a little late so didn't make it all the way to the other island before being turned back by the police as the tide was changing- those police really do get everywhere! We got a lift back to the shore in a fishing boat which was really cool! We got back to the shore and joined the festival. There was some music being played through the loudspeakers and I decided to have a quick ajumma dance by myself but by the time I had raised my fingers a swarm of them had come over for a dance- you would have thought that I had learnt! I just legged it as quick as I could!
After all that exercise it was time for a feed and, predictably enough, sea food was pretty prominent on the menu in all the food tents. Now, it was be technically incorrect to describe what Tim ate as 'live' octopus because surely it was dead after being cut up. But it wasn't cooked. It was killed just moments before it was delivered to the table. It continued wiggling and squirming on his plate for much longer than I could bear to look at it anyway! But he seemed satisfied and that is the main thing I guess. Inevitably, as it was dark and we had no map, we got lost on the way home but had much fun getting back to Mokpo - the four of us in the back had had to promise not to complain about the cramped conditions as we were too mingy to hire another car for the day- going down every dark alley and driveway and through tunnels until we saw the bright lights of our big city and came home. We went up Yudal San (the local 'mountain') watched some pissed locals have a fight then went home. All in all it was a great weekend.
And this weekend I am going to the subtropical island of Jeju- the wettest place in Korea so that should be cool. Next weekend we are planning to go back on the cruise boat and get our revenge on the ajummas by taking some friends and our own soju!! But I will leave you there as people are waiting for me in the pub!
Take care H
posted by Helen @ 5:02 PM
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