Tongyeong, City by the Sea (or my almost Korean Home)

So I will start with this story, because I think it encapsulates what Korea can be like sometimes (especially in a work environment). When I first got my job in South Korea I got a position at a all girls Middle school in a city called Tongyeong. Naturally I wanted to know everything I could about my future home and did all the necessary research. There's wasn't that much other than the normal tourist info about the city. I only found one informational video by another teacher and she basically just showed off her apartment. Still, I'd lived in a smallish town my whole life and I wanted to be somewhere near the ocean so I accepted this job and began mentally preparing for it.

One week before my departure my recruiter called me and told me the position I was supposed to fill was already filled. Apparently someone had got there wire's crossed somewhere along the line and the schools request for a teacher was false. But! Good news! They found me another position, this time at a high school in Yansang. I was obviously not in a position to reject the new position (even though teaching at high school sounded a bit scary). So I was still off to Korea. Thank goodness too cause I'd already bought my ticket!

I finally arrived in Korea and everything seemed to be running smoothly for my orientation. I got there early, I was wearing the right kind of outfit. I met another Canadian right off the bat (and from Vancouver too!). It all seemed too good to be true. Then the orientation started. Co-teachers began to arrive, mingle, introduce themselves to people. I wait for someone to introduce themselves to me, but nobody showed up, no co-teacher appeared.

Finally the actual orientation started and this when I really started to worry because the school board officials seemed worried too. They all spoke on their phones in hushed voices in Korean as I sat there fiddling and watching. I wondered if they'd made a mistake and there was no school available for me. I wondered if they would just send me on the next flight home without a second thought. I couldn't help feeling a tiny bit relived at this point, to go home, the soft comfort of familiarity, but - oh! No, some new development had taken place. The guy who hired me finally explained that the high school I was supposed to go to had kept there previous teacher and not informed the school board.

Finally, luck was on my side. They found a school in need of a new English teacher. I was so relived. It was also in Changwon and I was so tired at this point I didin't want to go to yet another city.  So that is how I ended up living in Changwon and not Tongyeong.

Well when you put in all the effort to learn about a place or a city you want to visit it! And I finally got visit Tongyeong.

It was a pretty cool city, right by the water and surrounded by islands. The first thing we saw when we got there was a naval base and Sebyeonggwan Hall. The museum we'd wanted to see was closed, unfortunately, but there was still lots of cool buildings to look through and many of them had workshops for arts and crafts set up. My favourite was the blind making (called daebal in Korean). There were three ladies just sitting and making these bamboo blinds which are traditional to that region. Apparently Tongyeong has a lot of arts and crafts, I'm not sure if that is traditional or they've just marketed it that way for tourists. Either way they are neat. They do the blind weaving, abalone inlays and beautiful furniture with inlays, I also saw some interesting metal work there.

After the museum it was time to see the famous turtle boats. You see models of these boats everywhere in Korea. I'd already seen one in Seoul at the war memorial, but the one in Tongyeong is special because it's actually on the water and you can walk around in side it. It turned out there were actually 4 different boats, three of them in the style of the turtle boat and the fourth a different style.

I should briefly explain what a turtle boat is, since I'm sure you are all wondering. Basically it's a naval ship from back in the day. They covered it with spikes so if the enemy tried to land they'd get stabbed. Apparently, they also covered the ship with hay so you couldn't see the spikes. The ships sort of look like giant turtles due to their shape and the pattern of the top part of the ship (hexagons with spikes in the middle). The top is curved like a shell as well and a sort of oval shape. They used these boats to defend themselves against the Japanese countless times. They are also famous because a famous Korean naval commander, Yi Sun-sin. I don't really know a lot about him so I don't want to write a huge amount, but basically he was able to use a small amount of boats against the Japanese and defeat them using his genius strategies (he was actually considered a tactical genius in naval battles and one of the best naval commanders in history). He also ressurrected the turtle boat and used it which is why it's so famous in Korea (there are also many statues of Yi Sun-sin and Tongyeong has a mock battle every year to celebrate one of Yi Sun Sin's greatest victories (Hansan Naval Battle). 

The boats were really neat looking inside too. The wood work was beautiful and simple. They looked very sturdy and strong. You could see all sorts of different chambers and the first boat had lots of weapons in it. The other boats had fewer weapons and the last boat, which was the larger one had food storage in it's hull as well as clothes you could try on. The backs of the boats were really beautiful too they had giant things sticking out of their sterns, but I'm not sure what they were called.

After the boats we had a kimbap called chungmu kimbap which is native to the area. It was delicious. It came with a soy bean soup and radishes. So yummy. There were mixed reactions to it in our group. Personally,  I loved the spicy, salty flavour and the little rice and seaweed wraps. Also they had one of my favourite kinds of radish kimchi. For some reason I find it overwhelming to eat a lot of it, but I still think it's delicious.

After lunch we wandered up to the art village which is a special part of Tongyeong artists have painted all over the buildings and other things. It's like an out door, free gallery with many interest, beautiful and thought provoking pieces. On the way up the hill to the village we walked along a street lined with shops selling another Tongyeong speciality, honey bread. This is basically a little ball with a honey sauce, sesame seeds and some kind of paste-y filling. I had several samples because the girls kept shoving them at us (and who's going to say know to free bread samples, not me!). Finally I caved and decide to buy a cute looking yellow bread. It had a sweet citrusy flavour and I think sesame paste on the inside. It was also a pretty yellow colour which I liked.

Finally, we went through the live fish market, up a hill and made it to the art village which was really really neat. Basically they have artists free reign to paint all over the walls of this village. It had all sorts of paintings from the fun, to the pretty and whimsical to the political. It was definitely my favourite part of Tongyeong. The high light for me was the secret garden paintings. Someone painted all over an abandon house re-imagining what it would have looked like when it was inhabited. It was magic. I wrote a bunch about it on facebook with the pictures so check it out there!

After we finished with the art village, which was surprisingly quick we went and walked through a tunnel. It was supposed to be an underwater tunnel, but I'm entirely sure if it actually went underwater. We all thought it would be much cooler than it actually was. It was pretty boring actually. Other than being an interesting architectural achievement it was pretty much just a regular old tunnel. It was super busy though, it seemed like the locals like to take walks there or use it as a short cut possibly? (Korean's are really big on walking).

After the tunnel we decide to go to the top of mount Mireuksan. Unfortunately we hadn't thought about the weather. As soon as we got going up the gondola we realized we were heading straight for a giant cloud enclosing the top of the mountain. When we got off it was damp and chilly, with a bit of a breeze, still we ventured up to the observation deck and admired the pure whiteness surrounding us. We were pretty tired at this point and it didn't look like the weather was going to let up so we decided to head back. I wish I hadn't been so tired by this point or I'd have stayed longer and explored the mountain, but as you can guess from the amount of things I've already mentioned we'd spent a lot of time running our already. 

We headed back to the bus terminal and managed to get there just in time for a bus to Changwon. Then we headed back to Changwon, it was fairly short trip and we all agreed we should grab some dinner when we got back. We ended up going for Dak Galbi which is basically a giant chicken, veggie and rice cake stir fry with gochujong (korean chili paste) and some other things (to make it more tasty). Basically they bring out this huge pan with all the raw ingreidents and you cook it at the table then eat it while it's still sizzling hot. After, there's usually lots of sauce left so you can order some fried rice and they will come and make it for you at the table (usually, although some places make it in the kitchen). It is a filling meal and we managed to get a table at one of the best dak galbi restaurants in Sangnamdong (downtown). We all drank beer and soju with it which was the perfect way to end a long day.  

Oh the foods you will eat (Korean food part one, the intro)

I know I've probably mentioned in a couple posts that I like Korean food. You know, maybe.

Well I do. I love it.

Korea has some of the most delicious, unique food I've ever eaten. They love two popular flavours sweet and spicy, those flavours often go together. Although it is not only sweet and spicy foods here, they have many kinds of food you could never experience outside Korea. An array of different kinds of soup and fish, a billion side dishes. My favourite are the ones that have green leafy veggies and lots of sesame oil on them. Yummy.

Of course there's also kimchi, which is most westerners image as only be pickled cabbage. It's not. There are actually different types of pickled vegetables, not all called kimchi, but some them are. My favourites are the radish kimchi and the sweet pickled radish. Radish kimchi is super crunchy and juicy. It's not sliced like you'd imagine, but the radishes are cut in half with the tops left on in most cases and pickled with left over kimchi sauce. Or they are cut into fairly large cubes. Either way they are delicious.

Another thing that you probably already know about Korea food is the BBQ. There are different kinds of BBQ meals like bbq'd pork slices called samgyeopsal and then bulgogi the Korean classic. Both are delicious as they look. Usually when you eat Korean bbq they give you lots of side dishes, soup (there is soup and side dishes with every Korean meal traditionally) and various leafy greens to make wraps with for the meat. Seriously, the leafy greens are the way to go. So delicious. You gotta put some garlic and a Korean bean paste called doenjang in them and maybe a little kimchi. It is seriously so tasty.

The last thing that most people know about Korean food is the street food. It's very popular here. Any market you go to is gonna have dumplings (called mandu in Korean and my personal favourite), tteokbokki which is basically rice cakes (not actually cake, there's more like a chewy noodle made out of rice flour) and fish cakes (again not actually cakes) in a steaming hot, spicy and sweet red sauce. Koreans at work were worried this dish would be too spicy for me, but I handled it fine. The last really popular street food is fish cake soup. It has fish cakes on sticks that boil in broth. you eat the cake off the stick and drink the broth. It sounds kind of strange, but it's really good, I wasn't a huge fan of it the first time I had it but, since trying it again I've come to love it.

Moving on the some lesser known Korean foods... there is duk galbi which is a chicken dish cooked at the table. I've posted a few pictures of it. Actually, I've probably posts a few pictures of most of the dishes I've mentioned. It is spicy and has a variety of veggies, rice cakes and chicken in it. Most good places make it at the table in a large flat pan so you know it's freshly made. After eating all the chicken and veggies they will bring you steamed rice and seaweed to sop up all the yummy sauce left in the bottom of the pan. Be warned though, this dish is spicy and can mess up your clothes cause if it's too hot then the sauce splatters.

I feel like I could easily dedicate a whole blog to Korean food, but I think I will only high light one more dish for today. There are still many many things I haven't even mentioned and many more that I haven't tried. Korea actually has a lot of regional cuisines, which Koreans are fairly proud of. This past weekend three of my friends and I went to Jinju, a city about an hours drive from Changwon to see a castle. According to my Korean friends we had to try this special bibimbap (a mixed rice dish, it's very pretty and fresh) with thinly sliced raw beef on top and a yummy soup with it., The meal did not disappoint. It had the yummy red chili sauce that is also a little sweet and a bunch of veggies, carrots, mushrooms, bean sprouts... and on top of it all in a neat little mound was pile of thinly sliced, small slivers of beef. The soup with the meal was also pretty good. It had some blood cubes in it which didn't really taste like anything to me and liver which I actually don't like that much.

All in all Korean food is good. Really good. Don't be fooled into thinking it is just BBQ and rice dishes. I mean I didn't even talk about bean paste soup, Korean pizza, the fried chicken, soondubu jjigae, Korean Chinese food (yes, it's different, yes, it's good), kimbap (rolls that look like sushi rolls, but taste nothing like them) and many other things. I think this post will have to be part of a series? This can be Korean food part one, the intro. So look forward to Korean food part two, jiggae, kimbap and regional cuisine.