Happy as a Clam

Dear all mothers and fathers,
Remember when your children would always say on Mother's Day or Father's Day, "but why can't there be a Kid's day?" And then you answered, "because everyday is kid's day." Well, well, well, you neglected to tell us that basically every other country does in fact have a day designated to giving money, food, toys, etc to kids. Beware, I'm bringing this holiday home with me!

May 5th was Children's Day here in Korea. And it's a legit holiday. It's not like they say, the second Sunday of May is a "holiday." What good is that? It's a Sunday, you don't have to go to work anyway. No, Children's Day is always May 5th in Korea and it's always a day that everybody has off of work (most people), kids or no kids.

Apparently, the "kid" age is from 0-12 and these kids get some sort of gift or money on Children's Day. Many of my students got bikes or money. And if you're an older kid,you would spend the day with your family anyway either going to the movie theater or going to the beach or park or Emart. It was nice to see everyone out and about with their families.

It's an interesting thing. I'm so used to a Monday to Friday work week that I just assume that it's the same around the world. But from what I've observed and talking with a couple of people from different companies, I've come to understand that many working Koreans will work 6 days a week or even 7 days a week with like 12 hour shifts. It seems most companies do not guarantee a Saturday and Sunday weekend..I mean, even the kids go to school every other Saturday and a good number of kids also go to extra schooling on Sundays. SOOO, you can understand having this one day off for Children's Day was a big deal for most people.

Well, seeing that I am childless and away from my family who would have surely showered me in gifts on this day, I decided to go with Elizabeth's school on a picnic. What better way to spend Children's Day than with a bunch of little children? The school took their kindergartners and a few older students, along with all the kiddie's parents to an island off the coast of Gunsan. We got to this island, Sunyu Do, via an hour long ferry ride. It was such a perfect day to experience another "first."

The weather was wonderful and the ride to the island was surprisingly smooth. We got to the island and our group of about 85 hopped into these little golf cart type vehicles and toured the island. Our driver, who was one of the fathers, was especially adventurous. He was quick to ditch the rest of the carts and cross bridges that maybe we shouldn't have crossed? Well, we survived and took many many pictures. I'll show you a few pictures but I took so many and I put a bunch up on my facebook. Here's the link. Click here.

After our adventures of touring the islands in the cart (One in which involved witnessing a small whale that was unfortunately beached and very very dead :( , we made our way to the beach area. The tide was out, so our next activity fell right into place.

We went clamming. This was my first time clamming. There were no instructions, apparently, everyone knew what to do. However, I did not, but this is how the process works. First, you must have the right tools. These are: sandals, a small shovel, a bucket, a bag of salt, good hand eye coordination, and patience. Second, you must scrape the wet sand about a half inch. Third, you must pour a little salt in the clam hole. (Note: you must not pour salt in the bazillion air holes that you will probably think are clam holes and will find out an hour later that you've been staring at an air hole for the past 5 minutes in great anticipation.) Fourth, you must resist the temptation to grab the little clam on it's first appearance from it's hole. Fifth, you must grab the clam by it's shell and pull when it shoots itself out of the sand on it's second appearance. Sixth and final step, you must not drop it but you must put it in the bucket with the other clams.

(Why salt you ask? Well, I was told that you pour salt in the clam hole so that the clam thinks the tide has come in and thus it will catapult itself out of the sand to feed...instead they become our feed..muwhaha)

I did not get the memo about bringing salt or a small shovel. So, I found an ajumma who was clearly an experienced clammer and she let me and a 10 year old girl follow her and pluck out the clams. I was so excited when I uprooted that first clam, but then Elizabeth informed me that it didn't count since I was simply following this expert clammer around. So, although, as you can see in the picture that I was happy with this first clam, I knew I must catch my own clam before the tide came in.
Elizabeth was gracious enough to let me use her tools and I went huntin'. Unfortunately, a long while later, the ajumma who had been observing us got someone to translate to Elizabeth and I that we had been pouring salt in air holes. She said we needed to look for oval holes. So, we did, and finally we were so close to catching one..there was small crowd of people around us and an old man was telling us that the clam was about to come up and then....the tide washed it away. Elizabeth had already caught a couple on her own, so she went in and I decided to get a good distance from the water and try one more time. Finally, after pouring salt in numerous holes, a little clam revealed himself to me and I snatched that shellfish like there was no tomorrow. I shouted, "Elizabeth!" She was nowhere to be seen. There was only a cute little family who was clamming close to me, they politely clapped for me and then took my picture for me. It was quite the experience.


I gave my clam to someone else. Ever since my last lively seafood dinner, I've decided to take a temporary rest from trying new seafoods.

After the clamming escapade and lunch, we were able to rent some bikes. One of the girls had never rode a bike, so we rented one of those tandum bikes. So, I guess another first was accomplished this day. I was the "driver" for this girl who had never rode a bike. It was way harder than it looked. Maybe it was because the girl didn't really have the balance concept or maybe she was kickin' her feet up and not peddling at all whatsoever, but going uphill was basically impossible. Turning was pretty difficult too, there were a few times I almost lost her.

The day ended with only a few minor mishaps. One, two little girls crawled into the cart and drove it into the a pile of cement. Two, a boy named Dave was temporarily missing but soon found trying to drive a boat that was on shore, and a slight mishap in the moving cart that involved one teacher falling out (but tucking and rolling quite nicely and thus avoiding major injury).

After getting back to the apt, I decided to walk over to Elizabeth's to get some of her pictures. I've noticed several times on the walk from my apartment to her apartment there is a Golden Retriever that is always tied up on someone's porch. So, I decided that it would be a perfect Children's Day if I ended it by petting a Golden Retriever. The owner spotted me from his house and I politely bowed, smiled and kept petting the dog I decided to name "Cami." Here's she is:


The rest of the week was fairly uneventful, and on the weekend I was hit pretty hard with a sore throat and stuffy nose. With the help of my friend Nyquil I slept the weekend away! It was pretty relaxing, but I still feel a little under weather. It could be this sudden burst of humidity that makes living life slightly uncomfortable and smelly. I am not looking forward to the rainy season, but I am looking forward to another holiday this week, Buddha's Bday! Hope all is well, and Congrats to all those ONU graduates! Oh I forgot to add I was able to watch all my ONU friends graduate through the livestream Olivet had on their website...it was very very difficult to stay awake, but was way worth it! Love you girls!

I'll leave you with a picture of me and this adorable child. Happy Children's Day!