Sunrise from my apartment. So I've got insomnia. It sucks. I wake up at random hours and can't fall back asleep. At least today I got to watch the sunrise. So for those of you in the US and Canada, (and maybe Belize), here is a sneak peak at Sunday.
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Lauran's visit finally came to an end, and I was none too pleased to send her back on the plane to the States. Her time here was some of the best that I've spent on this island. We did a ton of the touristy stuff. From seeing the sunrise at Songsan Ilchubong, riding bikes around Udo, exploring the 'worlds longest lava tube system', Hallim park and it's bonsai, tropical, stone and water gardens, plus two additional caves, a couple days at the beach, a little surfing, some falls, Donnaeko, Yongmori, Hwasun cliff jumping, Sonaksan, Japanese Hangars, the Africa Museum, the Peace Museum and more. It was definitely a great time for me, even though she got the typical cold/flu that strikes foreigners around week 2/3. It was so bad for her that she had to postpone her flight home one week. I know you're probably thinking that that must have been great for both of us; getting to spend more time together, but she was basically bedridden and miserable. We got a few good days before she left, but I felt bad she got so sick. Of all that we did together, I think Sunrise Peak and Udo were my favorites. They were both just gorgeous areas, and we had a great time together. Even my friends enjoyed having her here, probably more than they enjoy having me here. She was not shy at all at the Norebang (Private Karaoke Room) with our friends and co-teachers as she rocked out to not just Michael Jackson, but the New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet boys. Lauran was even adventurous/ridiculous enough to try the fish jerky. We went out to eat a good bit, and I think she got a pretty good taste for the Korean culture. She might have even liked my favorite spicy galbi restaurant. It was really tough watching her leave, and knowing that we're going back to video calls, texts and just regular phone calls depending on her internet situation. I'd love to have her here full-time, but it's just not possible now. I wish she could come back soon, but she was lucky enough to be offered a job in St. John, USVI for 1-2 years doing archaeology. A pretty impressive opportunity, and hopefully I'll be able to join her there in January or February for an indefinite amount of time. As I'm writing this, I'm still in recovery mode from this weekend. Thursday saw some big surf, but it was all blown out and choppy. Really not worth the paddle. Or the 5am wake up for that matter... Friday morning was the opposite. at 5:45am when we got out there, there were no waves breaking on the beach, but the point was going off. Beautiful barreling 3 footers, forming almost in a horseshoe shape. It was a little nerve racking surfing almost directly towards the point, but it was probably my best surf session so far, despite the dangers of stepping off the board onto rocks only a couple feet below the surface. In other news, we finally had the boys camping night that has been in the works for a couple weeks. Paul, Bryan and I all headed out to Hwasun beach to camp in a small cave there Saturday morning into Sunday afternoon. Saturday started out drizzling and ugly, but soon developed into a really nice evening. We lit a fire, and Bryan even caught a 'fish'... Blind? Mentally Challenged? Yes, but who are we talking about? We didn't end up eating the thing, even after Bryan cooked it because, well, it really looked disgusting. It's eyes were all cataract (I don't know if that's a correct phrase or not), it was slow, and couldn't even swim away from a finless man with a pocket knife and a wetsuit that was just a little too tight on him... We tried to give the cooked fish to a hungry dog that was hanging around our campsite, and he wouldn't even it. All he did was lick up the corn-butter on the pan. And that stuff was gross. That night we stayed up drinking, eating, talking and tending to the smokiest fire in the world. The next morning, we woke up, laid in the sun to warm up from the chilly cave, and then cooked up some bacon, potatoes, onions, 'burgers' and dogs. Not a terrible breakfast by any means. After breakfast we decided to go for a little swim. The water here isn't hot, but it isn't freezing either, so we could swim for a little while, but then we'd have to get out and warm ourselves up on some lava rocks. The water was unbelievably clear on Sunday. Visibility was well over 20ft down. We could even see that there really aren't too many rocks at our jumping spot. We saw a few fish, some crabs, jellies, and Bryan got a 'Sea Hare' to squirt bright purple liquid. After a little swimming, we jumped off a lower spot on the cliff since the tide was down 5-6 feet, and then swam back to camp. We cleaned up, making sure to take out an extra bag of trash since people before us didn't seem to care too much about litter and headed out. Oh, and Bryan ate about 3 handfuls of gimchi (spicy fermented cabbage) for 5,000w (less than $5) thinking it was a great bet because he loves the stuff so much. Well, his mouth might love it, but that's the only part of him that seems to. Maybe he'll be able to make it away from home-base tomorrow for work, or not... Still don't really have time to post about all the recent adventures, but I thought I'd throw in a couple small updates and rebut my previous blog. So, there's been a lot of stuff going on recently, and I've been to some pretty interesting spots that I'll be blogging about soon enough. As for now, I wanted to list some of the quirks I find interesting about Korean culture. I know I can't really sum-up an entire culture by what I've seen on one island, but that's basically what I'm going to do because that's been my experience so far. |
MuggsJust a little journal about my life. Click 'Comments' or the Titles if you'd like to add anything. The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences.
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