Daecheon Beach

Today was a beach day! After working on some online and Korean homework on Saturday, it was time to have a day in the sun. What better way then to go to the beach? Daecheon is a coastal town on the Western side of Korea. It is on the Yellow Sea. The area is world famous for its Mud Festival. It is about an hour from school, so it is a perfect day trip.


I was joined by Amanda for this expedition. To get to Daecheon, we took the train. Daecheon is not connected to the Seoul Subway line, so we took a lovely Korail train. Korea has a great railway system that has been around since the economic development in the 1970's under the leadership of President Park. His sole goal was to make Korea economically independent. Part of that included creating a nationwide form of transportation.





Today, you can reach almost any corner of Korea by train and if you can't get there by train, you can travel there by bus. When I first came to Korea, I was shocked by the expansive and precise nature of Korea's transportation. Coming from the Midwest, it was hard for me to believe that I could travel around a city, county, and country by public transportation. Now I can't really picture another way here in Korea. Public transportation is incredibly convenient and cheap. Our trip to the beach was about 60 miles one way and cost us about $5 each way. I can travel to Seoul, which is about 60 miles as well by subway for about $3 one way. I love how I never have to worry about the current gas price (which in Korea is around $6 a gallon) or maintaining a vehicle. The only setback is having to plan according to the schedule of the public transportation. Going to the movies or Emart (Korean Walmart) is a well thought out expedition.



Once we arrived at Daecheon, we took a bus to the beach. It was a great day for the beach, nice upper 70's and sunny. The water was still too cold for swimming, but the warm breeze was an indication that summer is just around the corner. We spent the afternoon collecting seashells and walking along the beach. It was the perfect way to relax before the insanity of the final weeks of classes commences.


While the beach was great, I do have some sad news to report: My camera is no more. While eating lunch, my camera randomly decided to turn on, denting the lens. It puttered out right then and there, leaving me with no way to continue to document experiences here in Korea. The moment my camera decided to cease to exist,I felt this sense of emptiness. If I see something amazing, how can I capture the image? Our quest for a new camera began.

Our mission to find a new camera led us to the local Emart. When we arrived, we searched for the electronics department. Walking past the cosmetic, clothing, and household departments, we found the electronics. In the glass display sat over 50 different cameras, most of them being Samsung. My only goal was to find a camera that takes decent pictures and will not cost me a fortune. I didn't want to invest a huge amount of money in a camera when I'm desperate for anything that takes a picture.

It was quite a challenge to determine the megapixel and overall quality of the different cameras, seeing that all of the descriptions were in Korean. I would only recognize a word here and there "High quality.....excellent feature....." The electronics salesman tried to explain as best he could, and he did a great job trying to answer my questions in broken Korean. I was able to ask questions and he was able to answer them in a mix of broken Korean and English. It was quite a sight! Eventually, I decided to purchase a reasonable Samsung camera. It was almost half the price of my previous camera and has three times the megapixel quality. Oh technology, I felt like such a caveman as I showed the salesman my previous camera to see if they had a camera that takes AA batteries. He almost laughed but politely said "No cameras take these anymore."

I need to catch up with my technology I tell you, especially here in Korea where everyone is constantly upgrading their phones, MP3s, and who knows what else. Korea is the most technologically advanced society as a whole. When I first got here, about half the people I saw had phones with webcams. Now, I can't find any Koreans without one! It is quite a sight on the subway seeing ten different people talking to screens!

I purchased the camera and a pocket translator (which was quite an adventure to make sure all the features I wanted in a translator were included). My Camera uses the same charger as my phone and can be charged by a laptop (Samsung will give Apple a run for their money I tell you!) so I will be able to use it both here and in the States.