SHRIMPAPALOOZA

Mmmmmm shrimp.  What's better than regular shrimp?  JUMBO SHRIMP!  And what could be better than just jumbo shrimp?  A JUMBO SHRIMP FESTIVAL!  Fall is shrimp season in Korea and to celebrate, a couple of cities throw jumbo shrimp festivals (대하 축제).  Food-centric festivals in Korea are always a good time.  There are restaurants and stalls selling the spotlight food, as well as drink booths, games, and activities relating to said food.  At the jumbo shrimp festival in Hongseong, there was even a shrimp catching contest.  We got there too late for that tho.  Because of the trains and buses we had to take, our journey from Yeosu ended up taking almost six hours.  In the end it was worth it, tho.

Along the street were a ton of restaurants all selling daeha (jumbo shrimp).  Most of the menus were the same.  You order by the kilo or you order a set that came with grilled shrimp, fried shrimp, and either steamed crab or crab soup.  At our restaurant we ordered a kilo of shrimp (대하구이) and a two person serving of crab soup (꽃게탕).  The owner gave us some fried shrimp (대하튀김) for free!  Score!

Delicious gut-busting shrimp.

For two people, this was a lot of food.  It took us about two and a half hours to get through all of it.  two and a half delicious hours.  I think the festival would have been more enjoyable if we hadn't gotten there so late, but with how far Hongseong is from Yeosu, there wasn't much we could do.  Before we went back to Yeosu, we ordered a couple of kilos of daeha to be delivered to our house.  When they arrived, we had a bbq down by the waterfront with some friends.  Because really, there is no such thing as too much jumbo shrimp.  Add a little lemon butter, and oh boy.  My mouth is watering just from typing this.

Shrimp AND samgyeopsal?  Getting crazy here.

We had our bbq at Ocean Park.  The weather was perfect and the bridges were in all their light-up glory.  Even the passing boats were decked out in color changing LED because, well, Korea.

Dolsan Bridge 1, Dolsan Bridge 2, and a Turtle Ship harbor cruise

Festival Info

Hongseong Jumbo Shrimp Festival

Period: September 13th-November 26th 2013

Location: Hongseong Namdang Harbor

Travel Info: Take a train to Gwangcheon (광천) instead of Hongseong.  You'll be closer to the festival grounds.  From there, take a bus to the grounds at Namdang-ri (남당-리).  You'll know when you're there.

Website: Hongseong Jumbo Shrimp Festival

Anmyeon-do Jumbo Shrimp Festival

Period:  September 27th-October 27th 2013

Location: Anmyeon-do Baeksajang Port

Travel Info: Take a bus to Taean (태안) and then a bus to Anmyeon-do (안면도)

The Anmyeon-do festival seems to be the bigger of the two.

kamsa hamnida

I don't think I've ever been this tired. the 12 hr flight to Incheon was killer. The food however was bomb. Bi-Bim-Bap for dinner. Basically veggies that you mix in with some rice and add chili paste to taste. And breakfast (served at 2am...thanks asiana airlines) was rice and kimchi.

Enough about airline food.

I'M HERE!!!!!

This is awesome. I'm in a city where 90% of the people don't speak any english whatsoever and I am part of a 200 person minority. My only means of communication are pointing, hand gestures and body language. Just figuring out how to get on this computer at the PC-bang (internet cafe) was an ordeal. I have such a respect for bilingual people.

I feel like I haven't been here long enough for culture shock, although I am going through "Holy shit I can't read any of these signs or order food for myself" shock as well as "people stare at me as I walk down the street" shock. To be honest, I think I'm just too tired for culture shock right now. I got minimal sleep on my red eye to Incheon. What sleep I did get didn't last long and wasn't very restful. You can only sleep so well sitting in a coach airplane seat. I would love nothing more to pass out in my sauna of an apartment (its about 300 degrees with 9,000% humidity) but I want to try to suck it up so that I can at least try to get on a normal sleep cycle. Its 5:22 here now, 4:22am this morning back home.

Korea is like nothing I've ever experienced before. Yeosu is a city built on mountains and hills that overlook the water. My co-teacher brought me to the school today and showed me the view of the Dolsan Bridge. I almost peed. Then we did the tour de Yeosu. We went EVERYWHERE. I opened a bank account, went to E-mart to do grocery shopping, went to smart step to get slippers for school, went to the doctor to get certified that I don't have swine flu, and then lunch.

Lunch.

lunch consisted of tempura shrimp and sushi. With All the fixins. Kimchi, white kimchi, raddishes, seasoned raddishes, little onion things, soy beans (edamame style), miso soup (although not called miso soup), and kimbap aka rice wrapped with seaweed. On top of that, it came with about 20 pieces of sushi. I was in heaven. Sitting on the floor eating sushi with metal chopsticks.

After that I went back to my apartment to unpack. I have a pretty sick little place. HUGE TV, AC, deck thing where I do my laundry, kitchen. its real nice. I decided that I was dying of thirst so i went to the mini-stop on the corner to get a drink. Oh did I mention, they have an awesome booze selection at mini-stop. And if I don't care for that then I can just go to the bar that is RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO MY APARTMENT. Hell yes. No booz for jet lag tho. I got some electrolyte drink called Capari Sweat....or something like that. There is definitely sweat in the name.

I can't get my internet to work so I had to search my neighborhood for a PC-bang. This place is real intense. Korean gaming kids EVERYWHERE. I guess its a pay by the minute thing. After it took about 10 minutes for the guy that works here and I to understand what we were trying to convey...it was pretty easy. I get a card and put in the password on the card. The computer keeps track and I get charged when I leave. I'm pretty much in the middle of a Korean techno rave. All I can hear are the sounds of video games, techno, and all i can see are the blacklights and flashing lights.

Alright, time to mozy back to my apartment and rehydrate before I pass out.