This being our first  fourth of July in Korea, we decided to go to the Freedom Fest at Camp Humphries.

There were food vendors & kiddie carnival rides just inside the main gate – along with a stage for entertainers & the ever-popular military static display. 

But Pyeongtaek, having decided “Hey – if you’re throwing a party, so are we“, set-up their own food tents & their own little stage just on the outside of the main gate. 

The installation commander opened-up the base for the locals to attend the party on our side of the fence - which is a pretty big deal considering where we are & the state of things today. (Although apparently they do it every year.)

But there they were – by the hundreds – walking right onto post, although this pic is of them walking out back towards the ville.

The Korean security guards that normally man the gate (yes, you read that right – Korean’s guard the entrance to a US military base….I’ll give you a moment…No, I don’t get it either) were hastily trying to check every ID, every bag, every stroller, etc.

It was amazing to see how many Koreans wanted on base. What was also interesting was the obvious lack of recriprication – I don’t think I saw any Americans heading out to the Korean side.

We walked through the crowds & meandered around the US side of the celebration. It was your typical small-town summer festival – nothing we haven’t seen before with the exception that most signs were written in both English & Hangul.

So we decided to head back out & try the Korean side. Eric was chompin’ at the bit to eat some real Korean food…and we decided to give this booth a try.

So here’s a question for you…

What is missing from all this vibrantly graphic signage?….

…Ok, besides the obvious lack of English.

(…I’ll give you another minute…)

The price!

Numbers look just the same over here as they do back home, but nowhere did it say how much any of the food was. We had taken out just over 40,000 won before we came as well as some American money, so we thought we were good.

Besides, the smell of this roasting pig was enough to make us risk it. Yum! Yum!

So enter dilemmas number two & three…

Two: How do you order?…

Three: Where do you order?….

It’s amazing how much you depend on observation when you don’t speak the language. We looked around for other Americans to ask what to do, but we didn’t see any.

Ok, so look around some more…hmm…everyone seems to be sitting at little tables under the tent. Alright, but how did they get their food?

Stand around a bit more….ah!….Look! That woman must be a waitress because she just brought a couple of plates over to a table & left.

Ok, ok…so it’s a sit-down kinda thing. So do we just sit anywhere?…

…Guess so – let’s find a spot.

Having successfully navigated the first three obstacles & feeling pretty proud of ourselves – I might add, we were hit smack-dab with number four as our waitress finally came around to drop off a menu.

Know what you want yet?….

Yeah, so we sat there for a moment laughing, trying to figure out how we were going to get past this one.

I whipped out the little go-anywhere, picture-translator the lovely nurse at the Passport Health clinic gave me back in Texas. You point to a picture of what you want or need. It covers everything from eating out to hotels & transportation.

Ok, we’re set…so when the waitress comes back around I’ll point at the chicken - you point at the seafood.

As we kept waiting, I whipped out my Korean-English dictionary. Maybe if we could see the symbols for chicken we could figure out which one’s chicken.

Eric found it…he’s good that way.

When our waitress finally made it through the rush of people back to us, she took one look at us, nodded, smiled, said “Engrish” & took off again….

So a few minutes later another waitress came up trying to remember the words in English for all the different food they were selling. In her broken English she got out, “ahh…BBQ Pork…ahh….fried squid…”

So yeah, that’s what we ordered…

Eric got his seafood fix (I held my nose to the smell as he sweated through the spicyness of it) while I dined on lovely, beautifully-cooked & juicy roast pork which would’ve been awesome if it actually had BBQ sauce on it.

I knew it wouldn’t…but still…man, it would’ve been good.

Mental note: Next year bring a bottle of BBQ sauce….

And more won! Turns out our little sit-down meal was 46,000 won…we just had enough since Eric forgot he already had a couple thousand in his wallet.