To Pohang

Monday morning greeted us with heavy fog and a puppy; neither of which were conducive to a boat-ride in the bay.

Instead, Sister was intent on getting a Subway breakfast sandwich: a real treat after 7 months of depravity, so we headed again for Koreatown. At around 10am, the large majority of stores and even coffeeshops, were closed. The one we found open didn’t have any coffee brewed: two phenomena that you’d be unlikely to find in America. Sister explained that it was a common occurrence for a coffeeshop to run out of coffee and that most brewed for you on a per-order basis.

We left the parents to surprisingly american soundtrack of the coffeeshop and headed for Subway. Along the way we entered the catacomb-ish underground of a shopping center — a haven to lots of Konglish.

The subway turned out to be incredibly Americanized. Being the only fast-food option in my small hometown, my trained eye would bet that even the pictures on the wall were the same generic italian stock photos.

We were back to the apartment and headed to the bus station after that. An hour and 15 minutes would bring us to the rural city of Pohang — Sister’s home-city.

Describing Pohang is rural is a bit of an overstatement. We came into the backside of the city to Sister’s home district of Idong (pronunced E-dong). There wasn’t a subway to be found, so we took split taxis again to her school.

Turns out her school was also her place of residence: a third floor apartment in the corner.

After settling in, Sister and Mother assembled the various gifts we would be giving to fellow teachers, administrators, and of course: the kids.

A two minutes walk got us lunch at a Shabu Vietnamese restaurant.

Look closely — shabu consists of a central boiler to cook beef with any of the addition stir-ins you see laid out. A rice paper…frisbee is then soaked in some hot water, and the cooked contents are dropped in and wrapped up for eating.

It’s a lot of work for eating something that looks a lot like meat in a condom.

We made it back just in time for school to start. Yes, start at 3:45pm. Korean students go to school all day, and many come after school for more english.

The ages ranged from 5ish to 11ish, and none seemed to be interested in conversation. There were a few hellos, and an abundance of mystical child energy; something seemingly found all around the world.

Naturally, the family wanted to pose with our new friends.

Our gifts were delivered. I was on Blow-pop duty.

The school consisted of 2 floors, about 3 classrooms on each. It was a little sparse as you can see, but we found the trappings of any elementary school.

In the afternoon, we were to visit the fabled Korean grocery experience: e-mart. We detoured over the hill to a Korean temple seemingly of buddist denomination.

E-mart turned out to be a very Target like experience. Two floors of goods with plenty of food and thankfully samples.

For dinner we would be having fabled Korean Barbeque from Sister’s favorite local place.

This would be our first taste of Soju as well: a Korean rice liquor which is in fact added to beer, or had in shots.

Platters of pork and beef arrived for us to be cooked tableside on our own charcoal pits. The sleek metal tube carried away any smoke.

It came with all of the Korean fixin’s as you can see. I wanted to sample the meat on its own merit though. It was very good: tender, fresh and flavorful. Though a little lean in most places.

A local friend of Sister’s arrived to join the party. He had grown up in Pohang, and is currently employed at the steel factory you’ll see later near the beach.

Lot’s of beer and Soju later, it was time for bed.