May, June and July have been exciting months in Korea. Spring and summer were and are
beautiful. Flowers and green were
happily welcomed as we said goodbye to the brown and mundane of winter. Luke and I wowed the Koreans with our
flower knowledge and we enjoyed learning about the new perennial flowers and
crops that grow in this region. Since
we live out in the boonies, I have become enchanted by rice paddies.
There is a special planting machine
that spits out the little sprouts of green in the flooded fields surrounding
our school and we have watched as the plants have matured. Farmers wear wide-brimmed hats and walk
thigh-deep in the muck to tend to their crops. I find the mass expanses of rice paddies mesmerizing. I have been able to enjoy them so much
because we drive past them all the time on our scooter(!). We bought a scooter in May to help us
from feeling trapped in our small town and it has been a Godsend! It’s red, 125cc and perfect to get us
around the Korean countryside. In
fact, we took a LONG ride this past weekend to the Boryeong Mud Festival, but
more on that later…
OH MY WORD! We
found a Mexican restaurant!!! As you may know, we have had some troubles with
finding foods that we like and we finally found the PERFECT place! Unfortunately
it’s a few towns away in Daejeon, but that hasn’t stopped us from eating there 4
times in the past couple months. Susana and Jacobo are from Mexico and they
have a restaurant called Takorea…and it’s delicious. In fact, we are going back this weekend for their taco
festival. Simple pleasures in life J
Actual work:
We finished with Basic Program, the lowest students we’ll have
all year and now we’re on to the highest students. The Advanced Intensive students are 14 year old, 8th
graders who have varying levels of English: 1 student yesterday said a total of
10 words during her entry interview and another spoke so smoothly I could have
closed my eyes and believed I was speaking to a native speaker. I am teaching a 4-lesson unit on poetry
and Luke is teaching biology. I
enjoy this unit because the kids surprise me with their creativity. Here is an example clerihew poem we
wrote together:
Justin Bieber dances like a PRO.
He is famous and handsome OH!
This Canadian is also rich and
YOUNG.
When he sings ‘Baby’, girls
scream at the top of their LUNGS.
Since our last post, we have done a bit of traveling around
the country. In the beginning of
June, we took the KTX train (a train that went ~200mph!!) to Busan, a beach town on the
south-eastern tip of Korea. We ate
some western food, ran into a friend from Bethel and spent a nice day relaxing
on the beach. It was fun to
finally spend time outside and enjoy the warm weather.
Over Luke’s birthday weekend in June, we flew to Jeju-do,
Korea’s beloved island, the “Hawaii of Asia” as they call it. While I don’t think we would agree with
that statement because of the lack of white, sandy beaches, we had a fun
weekend regardless exploring a new place.
Andrew and Daphne came along for the festivities and the four of us
rented a car to get around. What a
wonderful idea that was, but even more wonderful was the English GPS that we
had! Aside from a few strange
remarks she kept repeating (“you are now approaching the danger zone”) it was
so helpful! We practically drove around the entire island in 2 days and saw so
many cool things thanks to our great direction giver. J
We visited Jeongbang
waterfall, took pictures at Oedolgae Rock, Jungmun Saekdal Beach and a place on
the coast with some crazy lava rocks called Jungmun Daepo. The boys tried some unbelievably fresh
seafood from haenyo, women divers who are popular in Jeju.
They stay underwater for up to 2
minutes without oxygen and retrieve muscles, sea cucumbers, octopi, conch
shells and other assorted, unidentifiable ocean “delicacies”. $20 bought them a small variety and an
unforgettable experience. The haenyo ladies sliced the live creatures right in
front of us and quickly rinsed with what we hope was fresh water. All in all, I’m glad I was on the other
side of the camera!
On Luke’s actual birthday, we woke up early and headed to
the Kim Nyoung Maze Park in our multi-colored rain ponchos and then wandered in
the Manjanggul cave, an underground passageway made by lava.
A spot in the maze for pictures :) |
We also experienced the mysterious
road. We were told that cars roll
upwards on this road so understandably, we were a little skeptical. Well not only does your car really roll
up a hill, but Koreans by the dozens walk backwards down the hill…? Truly mysterious I tell ya! We stopped
to take pictures of the black sand beach and Seongsan Ilchulbong Mountain. We collected sea glass by the water and
we ate at Outback Steakhouse for Luke’s bday dinner! He got a really awkward Korean birthday song and dance by a
group of 5 nervous servers and then we drove back to our hotel. We woke up early the next morning,
caught our flight and were back at work in the office that afternoon.
Ok, now the Boryeong Mud Festival! On Saturday, we were on
our scooters by 7:30am…started on our 4 hour journey to Boryeong, a coastal
city on the western side of Korea.
We drove along back roads and highways and found a few spots we’d like
to return to and explore sometime soon.
It was a long ride, but it felt nice to be moving and going
somewhere. Once in Boryeong, 4
hours were spent lounging under a beach umbrella, eating western fair food,
taking periodic dips in the ocean to cool down, and painting ourselves with
“special” Boryeong mud that supposed to be good for your skin.
Luke and I got fried – I guess we may
have to invest in the 50++whitening sunscreen they sell here. About 20 minutes into our return
journey, I burned my right calf on the muffler and now I have a pretty nasty
wound.
I hope it heals in time for
our trip to Vietnam in August. I
am looking forward to the $5 foot massages and I want to be able to fully enjoy
them!
One of the Koreans is teaching us Hangul bit by bit and it’s
fun to read some street signs…even if it does take a few moments to make out
the words. The bus stop signs say 버스
which is translated to Buh-se. I
guess it’s about time we did something useful with all our free time!
As always, we miss you all and thank you for reading. Sorry
it’s taken us so long to update!!
Rachel & Luke
I guess the salad dressing cap wasn't on all the way... :) |