We decided to have a little picnic on the beach one night after school. We got a recommendation on where to go, and I packed up the traditional Korean picnic food – kimbap. Kimbap (or Gimbap, depending on how you anglicize the Korean characters) is just the Korean word for seaweed rolls, like a California roll. They typically put ham, fake crab sticks, pickled radish, cucumber, carrot, and rice inside, and then dip in a mixture of soy sauce, red chili paste and vinegar. Minus the ham, and that’s what we attempted! They weren’t rolled to perfection, but they tasted good.

We drove down to the beach with our suits, a little vino, and our kimbap. We got there right as the sun was starting to set behind the big oreum (failed volcano) next to the beach.

Patrick headed into the ocean for a dip.

We headed into the gentle surf and were just about to dip into the slightly cooler-than-comfortable water when a man in a neon-yellow vest came up very slowly and non-chalantly. He looked around a bit, as if trying not to bother, then said something in very fast Korean. We said “English?” and he thought for a minute before trying “Swimming” and holding up his arms in an X.

Enjoying our kimbap on the beach with Sangbangsan behind us.

So no swimming. We don’t really know why, but we’ve heard from some of the other teachers that the squid come in after sunset and can attack humans. Eep. We just enjoyed the sunset and our kimbap on the beach, pretty much all alone. Very peaceful. We’ll have to try getting out again in a little more daylight!

Sun setting behind Sangbangsan – the biggest oreum on this side of the island.