Jindo

This weekend Aaron and I went down to Jindo, south of our city, for what's known as the 'Jindo sea parting festival'. It sounded too amazing to be true. Before I went, I had read about thousands of people flocking to this small community to walk down a path that clears in the middle of the sea three times a year. The tide goes out in such a way that right smack in the middle of this normally deep sea, there is a path that allows you walk all the way to the nearest island about 3KM away.

It was awesome!! The first part of our experience involved buying these bright green boots that went all the way to my thighs (and also conveniently matched my shirt). Then we ate some food, walked along the beach and waited until 4:30 when we could start walking. The tide was officially out all the way at 5:00, so there was some water on the path when we started the walk, but for the most part it was pretty clear. There was a marching band of sorts leading the way and along the way, some of the thousands of people we were sharing this experience with, were scooping various sea creatures out of the water and directing us where to go. There were a few places where a couple of steps in the wrong direction lead to deep water (I hapenned to take one of those steps, that's why my pants are wet in some pics, oops!). We saw some excited children find starfish and one man pulled out a large octopus/squid looking thing, it was intense. The whole experience was pretty surreal, I'm glad I have the pics to show, unfortunately my boots were not in good enough shape to keep as a souvenir!

Spring in Korea....lovely!

I can't count the number of beautiful things I seem to see on a daily basis in this country. Aside from the gorgeous, charming, intelligent kids, I spend my days with, nature seems to take my breath away here these days. A few weeks ago I went to a Butterfly festival in a nearby city Hampyeong. Aside from being cornered into an awkward Conglish interview, the festival was beautiful! The butterflies did not disappoint, and the flower displays were stunning. There were even tiger lillies which brought back memories of my days as a prairie girl!

Busan and Buddha's Birthday!

Busan is probably my favorite city in Korea. If I didn't have a great job at a school I love, I would move there in a heartbeat. It's a port city and it's big, but right smack in the middle of it is a long, beautiful beach that you can get to by subway....definitely my kind of city! We spent the weekend there, it was full of great food, sunny beach time and a little bit of shopping! It was a much needed weekend away.

Aaron and I went to the Beomsa Temple for Buddha's birthday, but unfortunately it was on the last day of our weekend, so we were pretty exhausted, it was still great to be there though. The temple was beautiful, even more so with all of the colored lanterns everywhere for the celebration, definitely somewhere I want to go back to when I have more time.

Boseong

Boseong is less than two hours away from where I am in Gwangju, Korea. However, somehow, I still managed to get violently ill on the bus ride there....violently! It was not pleasant but seeing the green tea fields when we got there made it totally worth it. They were beautiful. All the bushes were landscaped to the hillside, and there were also various other trees growing among then, it was so nice. I'm glad we got some pics of us among the bushes, we almost got caught by the "Green tea field police"! It's always nice to get away from the city on the weekend, especially to a place with cleaner air. I was with Catie, who has since left Korea, I miss her tons. I always think it will get easier to see people leave here, but it really doesn't, especially when it's someone amazing.

Catie and Jim's going away

I can't believe I've been here for a year...time flies when you're having fun I suppose! Catie and Jim came basically at the same as I did last year, so they've been a huge part of my experience, I can't believe they're leaving. I've never been in a situation where I've had to say bye to so many people in such a short time. It's a strange situation to be in here. Most people you meet here are from other cities, provinces or countries, but in such a small community, you become close so quickly, and you share so much in such a short time, so when someone leaves (especially someone you were close to), it's really strange to think that you might never see them again. Such is not the case with these two (I hope!)...but it was still hard!

However, it was a stylish send-off! We started off with a house party which was awesome, some rooftop fire spining with Angie and Jim, of course there were fireworks....and then we ended the night on a Korean note with lots of loud, off-key, but energetic norae-bonging! It was a fabulous night, definitely a tribute to two fabulous people!