Myeongsashimni Beach (or Wando Beach)

Yesterday all the teachers who met during orientation plus those that are already here from our company met up at Wando Beach this weekend. Wando beach is located at the very southern tip of South Korea on the eastern side. The county of Wando is made up of tons of islands, most of which are connected by bridges. The beach itself is known as the best beach in Korea and I agree completely! My first impression was that is was absolutely gorgeous! It was even more beautiful by the fact that Korean beach season is only really the month of July and beginning of August so we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. There were about 50 of us or so who made the trip from our various cities and towns we live in. For Kristen, Amanda, Laura, and I it took about 2 hours 10 minutes for the bus ride down from Gwangju. The bus ride there was $14 and splitting a taxi to get to the beach was $2.50 each. We spent the same amount on the way back and other than food that was all we spent money on! A lot of the teachers who have been here for a year or more had their own tents that they pitched on the beach. A few people combined in on a motel, but the rest of us toughed it out and slept under the stars. A few people slept right on the beach, but our many encounters with crabs during the day made us decide that we were going to sleep on these tables that are meant for Koreans to eat meals on, but since they're basically like those wooden tables you pitch a tent on when backpacking, we just slept on it. All we had were our clothes, a backpack for a pillow, and a thin sheet. That didn't matter though because it was warm enough out. Thankfully, the weather cooperated and it didn't rain!
I couldn't tell you which sea we were actually swimming in. I think it was the Korean Strait, but it could've been technically the sea of Japan. Either way, it was the ocean and it was amazing. Naturally, a road trip wouldn't be a road trip without getting yelled at by Koreans for breaking the rules (not like we knew what they were anyway). Kristen and I decided to swim to the buoy's out along the shore line. While there Kristen kicked something like a metal grate or what not which we're not sure what it was. The beach patrol guy on a seadoo whose job is to tear up the beach line on a seadoo while telling people what they are doing wrong came up to us and in his limited English got the point across. "No" and "dangerous". Needless to say he drove beside us the whole way back to shore to make sure we went. We weren't the only one's who got in trouble though. Pretty soon people getting in trouble just asked for a seadoo ride which he was more than happy to give!
The washrooms along the beach have these outdoor foot wash things that apparently you're supposed to wash your feet under before going into the washroom to keep the sand out. Who knew? Unfortunately Kristen, Amanda, Laura, and I were the unlucky recipients of the cleaning lady the next morning who came while we were getting dressed and reamed us out for making a mess. 50 people were there the night before so you can imagine the sand that was in there and she thought we did it all! She didn't speak a word of English, but she sure got her point across!
For dinner we tried Korean pizza which is basically an omelet with octopus and onion in it. It was surprisingly good (the ocotpus was really small! I thought it was ham at first. Oops). We also had deep fried chicken which is like KFC, but 100x better! I won't mention what our breakfast was since they don't have breakfast restaurants and the only thing with food open was a 7/11. Real healthy let me tell you!
Being at Wando for the weekend was amazing. It was so nice to finally be able to smell fresh air again! I know I go to the countryside for school, but it's still next to the city. Wando is WAY out there and far from the concentrated pollution of the cities. When we came back I just wished that I could be back where the air is fresh and you don't gag every other breath! It is actually like that in Gwangju a lot of the time. I can't stand the smells so I'm really glad I'm only here at night.
I posted pictures of my school from one angle (I'll get more eventually) and my apartment in the previous post so check those out as well!