Summer Vacation in Korea!

Yep, the holidays are here, and while Kate and I are meant to be at school every day anyway, we have taken some time off and have been given some additional leave as well so we can get out and make the most of the gloriously hot weather that we are having here at the moment.
So we kicked off our summer fun with a trip to Pohang (yes, another trip to Pohang. we like Pohang ok?) for the International Fireworks Competition. yep, kate and I both love fireworks, and it seems that Korea does too. massive pyrotechnic displays were scheduled for both friday and saturday nights, at various spots around Pohang. The international competition itself was on saturday night down at the mouth of the main river in the city, which meant that the backdrop for the night's entertainment was the massive steelworks / uber industrial monstrosity on the opposite bank. The company which owns the steelworks also organised the fireworks festival, probably as some kind of PR exercise or something, but to be honest, watching fireworks while a big ugly factory spews smoke in the immediate background just seemed a bit shameless, especially since the factory was lit up like a filthy christmas tree. It was as if the company was trying to say, 'Hey, we may produce acid rain and we may well be the reason you cannot drink the water in this town, or swim at the beach, but hey, LOOK! sparkly fireworks! Ooh, shiny! Now everything is OK!'. Despite the motivations or messages behind the night, the competition was pretty damn amazing. It was a showdown between Japan, Poland, Canada and South Korea (random mix, I know) although South Korea excluded themselves from judging, which was probably a good thing (either they win, and the other countries say korea cheated, or they lose and the whole crowd loses face). Japan won in the end, but all countries used some new fireworks that we had never seen before, which was pretty cool.
The next week Kate and I had our summer camps with our respective schools. Pretty low key event, not many kids showed up, and we just winged our way through the week.

Last weekend however, was anything but low key. We went up to Jisan, just south of Seoul, where the Jisan Valley Rock Festival was being held at a big ski resort. Obviously there was no snow at this time of year, and there was even a big pool area that was set up where people would normally line up for the chair lifts. But we weren't just there for the pool. There was some pretty good music on offer too. Muse was the headline act, and the main reason I went there in the first place. Other acts that raised eyebrows were The Pet Shop Boys, Massive Attack and Third Eye Blind (another random mix right there). There were a bunch of other acts, both korean and otherwise, but most were worth listening to. The high points were seeing Muse live, and also being in Kate's first mosh pit with her, right up the very front of the crush (even though it was the Pet Shop Boys who were playing at the time). The low point was trying not to listen to a Beach Boys cover band, desecrating California Girls at around midnight, while we were trying to get some sleep. Oh yeah, did I mention we were at the festival for four days and three nights? that was a LONG festival. I wouldn't have been able to keep up the party pace for any longer than that, and we were glad to get back to our comfy bed here in juk byeon the other day. Just a side note, our little tent that we bought a while ago, and mentioned in a recent post, is no longer with us. The festival took it's tole on the poor little thing, and now it has been put to rest.

In other news, we are spending this whole week clam diving at the local beach. A few old ladies I met down at the beach one afternoon showed me how to find the little buggers under the sand, and we have been harvesting them ever since. so far we have probably hauled about 10kgs of the things home, and cooked at least half of them. Tonight Kate made clam chowder, and it was as if the answer to all life's problems had been neatly scooped into a bowl. Sorry, no pictures since we entered a feeding frenzy as soon as the meal was served.
ahh, summer days.... till next time :)

//Brendan