Adventure Time Korea: Fishing in Boryeong

In October, the hagwon I work for gave us the opportunity to go fishing as a group in Boryeong. We signed up to wake up at 4 in the morning and take a two hour bus ride to Boryeong. The information about what we were doing was skimp at best. We were told a day, a time, the word fishing, and we would be eating the fish raw. Most of us signed up to go because... well... you move to Korea to experience life right?

We boarded the bus at 5 (maybe) in the morning, Unfortunately, our bus driver got lost on the way to our harbor and the 2 hour bus ride was extended to 4 hours (not an exaggeration). But we did make it to the boat. We loaded onto this small boat with a friendly captain and the sun had finally come out for the day, things were looking up.

A little back story, I used to go fishing every New Year's Day with my grandfather when I was young. We would take the boat out and everything we caught we would fry up later. This fishing was nothing like that.... absolutely nothing like that. There were no fishing poles, we had something I don't know the word for. It looks like the thing you let string out for a kite with.... if anyone knows the word feel free to inform my ignorance. There were weights attached to the end as well as hooks. We put on gloves and were told not to let the string cut or take off our fingers (not sure if this was a joke but it didn't feel funny). We had to put live bait on our hooks, too. (I am not sure the impression of me that this blog portrays. Maybe because I am always climbing places and seem up to most things, you may think I am the outdoors type..... wrong, very wrong. I do things because it is more fun that not doing them. But I detest bugs and the like and having to put live fish on this bait.... it was a no a big no from me). I made everyone else bait my hook for me. Then we had to.... well catch fish because that's what you do when you are fishing. I was the first to catch a fish (what what) but had little success after that. Also, I was scared every time I caught a fish, screaming and screaming to get it away from me. Between all of us we caught a decent amount of fish. We caught a few other things too, a baby shark and tiny octopus.

Then we were asked if we were hungry. We said yes, assuming it meant we would dock somewhere and a meal would be prepared for us. Once again wrong, the thought was wrong. The boat captain took out a rusty knife, cleaned it and started slicing up the fish we caught on the middle of the boat.  He served it to us on the little cutting board he was using, bones and all. Now this is a western thing, where we don't really eat fish with bones in it. I have had to get over that here. While I wasn't a fan(read traumatized) of watching him slice the fish alive, it tasted pretty good fresh. We dipped it in a little spicy sauce, which gave it some flavor. Next he sliced up the shark. I never, ever thought I would try shark, this is not something I ever set out to eat or was like a goal to try one day. But fresh shark is really delicious. I felt terrible because usually I don't catch my animals and watch them die.... so I was in a moral dilemma. However, I got past it and ate because if I didn't then it died for nothing.

Next we decided to stop for a full lunch. The captain took us to his house on this tiny island. The island seemed a little scary. Like a bad horror movie where they take people to kill them. And there was this creepy looking house that I swear was haunted. We were told it would be an hour before the food was ready. We decided to take a walk.... this is where things started going downhill for me. While walking we saw dead wasps all along the road. But they were like giant mutant wasps. They were no joke the size of my fist. All of them were dead but with so many dead ones there was bound to be a live one. As we walked I was really scared of the wasps. That's when it happened... I felt the back of my head because I thought I felt something hit it. There was something in my hair. I started screaming and having a tantrum in the middle of this deserted road thinking there was a wasp in my hair. My friends had stopped and said there was something in my hair. Fear... massive amounts of fear. (Quick back story, earlier on the boat, the captain had tried to throw a small dead fish bait over the side but it hit me in the head before bouncing off and into the water... or so I had thought. ) When I finally stopped screaming and pulling out my hair, with tears running down my eyes, my friend (thanks Cassie) pulls something from my hair... it was the dead fish from the boat. I had a dead fish in my hair for maybe an hour or two. It was funny after the fact... but I thought a giant mutant wasp was going to sting my head and kill me... and that's not funny. An old Korean lady had watched the whole thing and probably thought I was possessed by the devil or something.

We had a spectacular meal prepared by the captains wife and had some coffee afterward. When we were going back on the boat to get back to our bus the temperature dropped drastically. Then it started to pour on us. We got back on the bus for a 3 hour bus ride soaking wet and freezing. That bus ride was hell. But we made it home and no one got sick. But the dead fish in the hair incident has never been forgotten and I am scarred for life.