beach

It's been getting pretty hot here in Daejeon, topping out at about 90 degrees a couple days this week. The girlfriend and I thought it best to head to the beach today, so we did.


We drove to Daecheon beach. Despite its name's close proximity to Daejeon, it's still a 2 hour car ride away geographically. We arrived at about 11am and settled in at a relatively empty part of the beach. The temperature was quickly rising, so we were swimming in the Yellow Sea shortly after our arrival.

The water was a bit chilly as we first dipped our feet in. After pausing to remove my shirt and sunglasses, I showed Mi-Hyun my technique for getting into chilly water, which is to sprint as fast as I can and dive in before my mind has a chance to stop my body. She thought that was pretty funny, as did some other Koreans who were nearby.

As mentioned, it was only getting warmer, and the beach quickly filled out. There were a lot of other foreigners there. I always find it weird to see other foreigners here. Mi-Hyun tells me that I take more notice of foreigners than any Korean person does. Whenever we are out somewhere I'm always nudging her and saying, "Hey, look at those foreigners." Then I eye them suspiciously for a while. I've become the racist elderly Korean that I've bemoaned time and time again on this blog.

Of course, there were loads of Koreans as well, mostly high school and university students. Young Korean men at the beach are an odd bunch. If there's a group of them, the group will single out one of their own, tackle him, carry him to the water, and throw him in. Then the guy they just threw gets up and chases after them as the group scatters. 30 seconds later, they target another one of their own, tackle him, carry him to the water, and throw him in. This repeats itself for, seriously, 45 minutes. They are all soaking wet, so getting thrown back into the water isn't some terrible shock. I think they enjoy pretending that it is. And as they are doing this there are packs of gorgeous Korean girls walking around nearby, and I just think to myself you guys are so lame.


Just behind the beach is a street full of restaurants and shops. About 50% of the street is restaurants, all of which have the exact same menu: shellfish. See, there are these women divers who go out into the water and collect clams and oysters and whatever else is out there. They then sell their catch to these restaurants. So as a result, every restaurant is the same. You sit at a grill, they bring out a heaping plate of freshly caught clams, you put them on the fire, the clams roast to death and then you eat them.

Since the restaurants are identical, the proprietors of them have to use tactics to attract people to their particular spot. Now, perhaps you're thinking such tactics could include an ice slushy machine or something out front, which would work well on a hot day. Or maybe beer on tap. Well, you'd be wrong. Each place uses the same tactic, which is to stand out front and verbally assault every passerby in hopes of harassing them enough to attract their business.

My Korean skills aren't strong enough to decipher exactly what they say, but Mi-Hyun tells me they say things like they serve the biggest portions, or their restaurant is nice and cool inside. The thing is they badger you so relentlessly as you walk past them that I can't possibly see how this strategy can be good for business. It's even worse for me because I'm a foreigner. I had a guy today break out a bullhorn and start yelling "HELLO HELLO HELLO!" as we walked past him. If that guy thinks that shit is gonna get me in his restaurant he is out of his gourd. In fact, the restaurant we wound up eating at was the first one that didn't yell at us.

The food was alright.