October 12, 2009

  • Don't Bite a Bug!

    Believe me, don’t bite a bug. I know from whence I speak. They bite back!

    This past weekend, October 10-11, I was on a tour of some of the islands in the far south central tip of Korea. It was a five hour trip to our destination city, Tongyeong, so I had packed a picnic lunch for the noon break. I found a nice little park at the rest stop, with a nice little bench where I could sit and look at the mountains with their changing leaves.

    Did you know that Korea is a land of reforestation? It wasn’t too many years ago that there were no trees on the mountains: fire wood had been a major source for heating and cooking for centuries, guerilla terrorists were often burned out when they hid in the hills, and forest fires and centuries of warfare had almost denuded the country of trees. Now the country is lush and green; the trees are young, but growing. I want to know more about how they accomplished this. It truly is amazing. Dr. Adams, our tour guide, pointed out some places where trees had been planted uniformly in rows and the mountain sides looked striped or cornrowed. But that must have been in the early years planting new forests. Now they mostly look quite natural.

    Back to biting the bug: I am eating my cheese--make that precious cheese since it’s so hard to come by--sandwich, looking out at the country side, when something just doesn’t feel right. I know I didn’t put raisins in my sandwich, but it sure feels like it. Then the “raisin” starts to move around, frantically. Then I feel like I’m eating glass. Yep, I’ve bitten into a bee who has retaliated by biting my tongue and the soft area under my tongue. IT HURT! I told a few people on the trip so someone would know what was going on if my tongue swelled up and I couldn’t talk and I turned blue and I passed out and . . . . All these scenarious ran through my head. None of those things happened, of course, but IT HURT! I bought a popsicle at the rest stop, but when I licked it, it tasted like plastic. Could a bee sting affect my taste buds too? The more I licked, the more it tasted like plastic. Finally, a little girl and her mother noticed I was licking plastic and showed me how to break off the end of the popsicle and squeeze the real popsicle out of the plastic. Of course, I had to wait for it to melt a little--so I kept licking the plastic and holding it on my sore tongue--because IT HURT!

    I nursed my sore tongue for the rest of the day while we explored the shrine of Admiral Yi Sun-shin, one of the great naval strategists and heroes of all time. Check out his Turtle boats on the internet. In 1592 he defeated the Japanese who had him greatly outnumbered using these boats and knowledge of the islands and tides and currents and military strategy. We also visitied his headquarters on Hansan-Do, a beautiful island where he could overlook the bay and train his troops and plan his maneuvers. The training ground for his archers is truly amazing!

    My tongue was just about better by the time we stopped for a Korean style dinner of bar-b-qued pork and about twenty side dishes. Bar-b-que here means you cook sliced meat on a charcoal grill at your table, pick it off as it gets to the degree of doneness you like, wrap it in a lettuce or sesame leaf, put a little sauce or kim chi on it, roll it up like a taco and eat it--along with the twenty side dishes. It was delicious. Everything was perfect, except for sitting on the floor. I really have trouble doing that comfortably. And my getting up to standing postion after an hour of sitting is not a pretty sight I’m sure.

    Sunday, I’d forgotten all about my tongue. We took a ferry ride through some of the Hallyeo Waterway with it’s rocky little islands protruding from azure water. It reminded my of Capri. I kept waiting for the Korean guide, who was entertaining all who spoke Korean--I could tell because they all laughed and clapped-- to break into an operatic baritone any moment.

    Our destination was Oe-Do, a tiny island owned by the late Changho Lee and his wife Hosook Choi. This couple turned this rocky island into a beautiful botanical garden filled with plants and sculpture. Following the path through the gardens takes about an hour and a half and is worth every step of the way.

    Back on shore, our lunch is again Korean style, sitting on the floor with even more side dishes. The meat and fish are already cooked for us, so no labor is involved, just sit back, eat, enjoy, and try to guess what it is you’re eating. One vegetable that I have really come to enjoy is kind of like brownish sticks cooked tender in sesame oil and soy sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds. It’s good either hot or cold. One of my fellow travelers told me it is what we call Kudzu in the U.S. I’ll have to check on that.

    Our last stop is the site of a Korean War United Nation Prisoner of War camp. It was huge, holding about 170, 000 Chinese, North Korean, and South Korean sympathizers with all the problems that would percolate with so many ethnic and ideological differences. At one time, the military commander, General Dodd, an American, was captured and held hostage by rioting prisoners. They’ve done a good job with this outdoor museum with dioramas, film, replicas, and a few of the shells of the original buildings. I kept looking for Hawkeye Pierce to come walking around a quanset hut, head down and mumbling about the inaneities of war. Another thing I need to learn more about: the Korean War.

    Last on the agenda is the five hour bus ride home. It was a beautiful October weekend. The smell and feel of fall is in the air. The rice fields are ripe and golden. Where the rice has been harvested, the fields are brown with rice stalks heaped in small bundles, drying in the fields. Along the roadside you can see rice, light brown and drying, spread out on tarps. On other tarps are red peppers drying, getting ready for their part in the making of kim chi.

    When I think of Korea, I will think of that golden yellow intermixed with the blue roofs that predominate in the rural countryside with touches of the red pepper and orange persimmons still hanging on leafless trees. I will think of green hillsides quite recently planted and now splashing with yellows and oranges and reds as the leaves begin to change. I will think of sunsets and morning mists.

    But I will also remember what it feels like to bite a bug!