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, 8^th 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... :)