This past weekend, we returned to Namhae to visit our friends Mark and Clare, and Bob, Reba, and Eddie.
It was a short trip, but a fun one nonetheless.
Namhae is a smaller town than Gwangju, but offers a lot in terms of sights to see, and beautiful landscapes, and ocean views....
Too bad it was raining.
That didn't stop us from having fun though. On Saturday, we ate at this great Ribs place which happened to be below Eddie's apartment. We got big plates of ribs covered in teriyaki sauce and sesame seeds, plus 2 big plates of fries as "service" (for free).
Everyone was pretty tired Saturday night though, so we all went to bed after playing a few rounds of cards.
Sunday, however, was a nice day....
Too bad it was raining early.
We decided instead of hiking a mountain that we would go to Clare's new school and play kickball on the soccer field. Since there were only 4 of us, we made 4 teams of 1. We kept score on our fingers, and I think the final score was 11-8-5-3.
After kickball, we went to "Sunrise Village", where people can see lots of local arts and crafts, and talk to the owner of the place.
We were feeling pretty hungry now, and the delicious Korean Corn Dogs didn't fill us up all the way, so we went to eat at a little korean restaurant, and we were in for a big surprise.
The son of the owner is one of Mark's students. His mom prepared all the fixings for us. Fried fish, Kim-chi, Tofu soup, bean sprouts, seaweed, rice, and some hot rice water. The fish had a lot of bones in it, so it took me a while to eat it. The woman was standing over us like a prison guard to make sure we could eat every last bit. She treated me like I was 3 years old, and cut up my food, put it on a spoon, and then I was able to eat. She did the same to Clare, and then Mark and Sarah felt the humility of Koreans thinking we don't know how to eat their food. She was what you may call a "Crazy Ah-Jee-Mah". We vowed to never eat there again.
Then, after our lunch-time experience,we went to the very touristy place called "German Village". The idea behind German village is that Koreans who have passports for Germany and Korea can come back to this island and build a home to live in. The houses are German-style, and look nothing like tiled roof homes which were very commonplace here. And in fact, a lot of Koreans drive out to this place and say "Wow!!!! These houses look so normal!"
Our friends Bob and Reba actually got a place there, and it has a nice view of the ocean. They say that they wake up at 6 am everyday just to watch the sunrise. I would too if Sarah and I lived there.
After seeing them at their wonderful home, we took the last bus possible back to Gwangyang, and then caught a bus from there to Gwangju. We were very tired, but had a nice weekend with our friends.
Even in the rain, people can make it shine. Thanks Mark, Clare, Bob, Reba, and Eddie, for making our weekend fun.
Hope everyone is well!
- The Harkins
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