Ahhh what a day! Today we went to one of the teachers’ wedding! Well not one actually, since this is a really small school they don’t mind having couples come and teach. So the Special Ed and an Admin Officer got hitched today, it was great!
To start from the very beginning.. two of the other staff members came and picked me up from my apartment at 930am and then we were off to Donghae, which is a coastal town a little south of Sokcho (its on the East coast). I’ll put up the pictures tomorrow as I really couldn’t be bothered at the moment.
So off we went on the two hour drive to Donghae, which was quite scenic actually! (oh my good I’ve just noticed that my skin is drying out!). I got to know the others a lot better - there was the Chief of the Cafeteria, who I call Nuna (older sister) and also a Kindy teacher. They’re both of the ‘younger’ crowd at the school so we get on pretty well! The Kindy teacher told me that at first she thought me to be intimidating and that’s why she didn’t talk to be much.. but now it’s different and she can see me as a different person. So I reintroduced myself as this ‘different person’.
Anyway, we got there and it was held at the Hilton Donghae. The place was done up really nicely and the wedding was to start at noon. I asked how long the wedding goes for and I couldn’t believe the answer until I saw it happen. It all finished in just under 20mins. The whole ceremony!!! All the guests went up to the restaurant and had a fine meal and then it was time to go. We left at around 2pm, after eating from an awesome buffet. Since we were at the seaside the Vice Principle (whom I was hitching a ride home with) suggested that we go to have a look-see at the sea. The market was unbelievable! They had live fish everywhere and main strip where all the freshest stuff was caught and kept in these buckets full of cascading water. WARNING, one of the pictures is a little disturbing to the average sea-creature-loving person.. I’ll give ample warning when posting it though.
Well anyway, the deal is that you pick the fish, squid, sea-slugs, eel, stingray, or whatever you want and they put it in a bag for you and you take it to the end of the main strip where you ask them to clean it and fillet it into whatever cut you want. They usually do it for a dollar or two. One of the teachers I was with got seven squid and three or four sea-slugs. The fish monger told us that if we came the day before it’d be $10 for two squid, but since the ship came in today; we can now get seven squid for the same price. They cleaned it and cut it up into nice and small pieces and then put them into a sealed Styrofoam container for us to take back.
Then began the long journey home. When we were nearly there the vice principle invited me to his place to see what our ‘catch’ tasted like. I, of course, said yes. So off we went to his place right next to the school (all the teacher live RIGHT next to the school in government housing because its such a remote location) and we downed a lot of Soju. One thing I didn’t think about though was how Korean men were going to cook seafood. Over here the men know next to nothing about cooking and that’s how they like it. Well, I should have figured it out myself.. they weren’t. “But Shiv, if you cook it you lose the real taste of the cuttlefish”. So it was that we sat there for the next couple of hours getting drunk and eating raw squid and sea-slug. It wasn’t too bad though (I just hope I feel the same way in the morning).
And that bring me home by taxi pretty drunk at 630pm. Yaay. I made some chicken curry last night so I finished that off and came to listen to some music. Now though, its time for bed. Good night all, I hope you’re all taking care of yourselves over there!
To start from the very beginning.. two of the other staff members came and picked me up from my apartment at 930am and then we were off to Donghae, which is a coastal town a little south of Sokcho (its on the East coast). I’ll put up the pictures tomorrow as I really couldn’t be bothered at the moment.
So off we went on the two hour drive to Donghae, which was quite scenic actually! (oh my good I’ve just noticed that my skin is drying out!). I got to know the others a lot better - there was the Chief of the Cafeteria, who I call Nuna (older sister) and also a Kindy teacher. They’re both of the ‘younger’ crowd at the school so we get on pretty well! The Kindy teacher told me that at first she thought me to be intimidating and that’s why she didn’t talk to be much.. but now it’s different and she can see me as a different person. So I reintroduced myself as this ‘different person’.
Anyway, we got there and it was held at the Hilton Donghae. The place was done up really nicely and the wedding was to start at noon. I asked how long the wedding goes for and I couldn’t believe the answer until I saw it happen. It all finished in just under 20mins. The whole ceremony!!! All the guests went up to the restaurant and had a fine meal and then it was time to go. We left at around 2pm, after eating from an awesome buffet. Since we were at the seaside the Vice Principle (whom I was hitching a ride home with) suggested that we go to have a look-see at the sea. The market was unbelievable! They had live fish everywhere and main strip where all the freshest stuff was caught and kept in these buckets full of cascading water. WARNING, one of the pictures is a little disturbing to the average sea-creature-loving person.. I’ll give ample warning when posting it though.
Well anyway, the deal is that you pick the fish, squid, sea-slugs, eel, stingray, or whatever you want and they put it in a bag for you and you take it to the end of the main strip where you ask them to clean it and fillet it into whatever cut you want. They usually do it for a dollar or two. One of the teachers I was with got seven squid and three or four sea-slugs. The fish monger told us that if we came the day before it’d be $10 for two squid, but since the ship came in today; we can now get seven squid for the same price. They cleaned it and cut it up into nice and small pieces and then put them into a sealed Styrofoam container for us to take back.
Then began the long journey home. When we were nearly there the vice principle invited me to his place to see what our ‘catch’ tasted like. I, of course, said yes. So off we went to his place right next to the school (all the teacher live RIGHT next to the school in government housing because its such a remote location) and we downed a lot of Soju. One thing I didn’t think about though was how Korean men were going to cook seafood. Over here the men know next to nothing about cooking and that’s how they like it. Well, I should have figured it out myself.. they weren’t. “But Shiv, if you cook it you lose the real taste of the cuttlefish”. So it was that we sat there for the next couple of hours getting drunk and eating raw squid and sea-slug. It wasn’t too bad though (I just hope I feel the same way in the morning).
And that bring me home by taxi pretty drunk at 630pm. Yaay. I made some chicken curry last night so I finished that off and came to listen to some music. Now though, its time for bed. Good night all, I hope you’re all taking care of yourselves over there!
EDIT: Ok pics are up..
Principle with the Beautiful bride:
Cake Cutting weapon of choice:
The Bride (Special Ed teacher) and the Groom (admin) whom I call Hyoung (meaning brother):
They had BUBBLES!! :D
Principle was put in place of the Priest..
One of three Mr Gwon's with his gorgeous daughter:
The Bride and Groom Bow to their parents and the others' parents:
Goodbye!
My new life ambition: NEVER let him live this down!!!
Parents, but the Grooms father has passed away so another member of the family stepped in:
I found this so cute.. the way he was feeding her with chopsticks was adorable!! Oh this is at the Hilton buffet lunch!
Dried stingray anyone?
Everything is fresssshhh!
WARNING! If you fell in love with flipper, then DO NOT open this.. you wont like it.
So you pick out whatever you want from this wide selection at the waterfront:
And then you take it here to get cleaned up:
Expert precision ("Ink? What ink??"):
Preparing for another night out in the sea! See those lights, they're super bright and attract the squid up into the nets!
1 comment:
ohhh that dolphin thing is just wrong ay
tho im liking the fresh squid idea! ..i'd seriously eat Everything ay
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