Since my time here is coming to an end which will be much appreciated, and possibly much despised I was wondering what I should write about or take pictures of. I've captured a good essence of the island itself, and some of the people, but my loyal readers (both of you) what should I do now? Is there anything you want to see pictures of, or any stories about life in a self-governing province of Korea that you'd like to get a glimpse of? Please leave some comments and let me know what you'd like. I had a pretty boring weekend of not eating much and losing my wallet, so there's nothing to talk about there. Any ideas you have are more than welcome. If you'd prefer not to post here, just send it to my email. Thanks!
0 Comments
No words can describe how incredible my weekend was. But I'll try nonetheless. Friday was Cheusok, Korean Thanksgiving. It's not as big as TG in the States, but it is heavily marketed in stores as they break out large boxes of packaged goods including liquor, spam and oil, pears, grapes and the list goes on and on. Our Hagwon only gave us Friday off, while the public schools all had between 2-5 days vacation. I was a little upset about our lack of vacation, but I think I made up for it very well. Friday morning started out with a bang; literally. Bryan was knocking on my door before 9am, wanting to do a little snorkeling. I was resistant at first, just because I was groggy, but he finally talked me into it. We drove down to this spot in Bomok, 2 towns east where I ride my bike. It's kind of a peninsula that reaches out towards Seopsom, one of the islands where I dive. We geared up, and went in near the little boat launch area. The water was stirred close to shore, but the farther we go, the clearer it became. Visibility was 20m plus, and the snorkeling was amazing. We were diving down to reefs, looking under overhangs and finding tons of fish. There were more of these minnow-sized amazing neon blue fish than I'd ever seen before. Schools and schools of sardines and other small fish continuously surrounded us and moved on. There was so much to see, that we kept our swim going about 400-500m, all the way to the island, where we met up with Tanja and some of Big Blue 33's divers for the day. Bryan and I walked around the island a little bit just to relax, snuck a little fresh water from the dive crew, and then headed back. Seogwipo and been getting rain for a few days at this point, and Friday was one of the first sunny and crystal clear days in awhile. I'd been to Eongtto Falls once previously, and it had not been falling. On a hunch, I decided to head out there. I ran into Rob, Marian and Brett, who decided to join Bryan and myself on the trip. After a short 10 minute drive up the mountain and west, we arrived at the parking lot which was full of cars. This had to be a good sign. And it was. Eongtto was falling with a good force. We climbed around taking pictures, and even made it into the cave where we encountered a couple bats. After we'd taken enough pictures, we scrambled over the fence, across the rocks and to the edge of the pool at the base of the falls. It was such a nice day that we really had no choice. We had to swim. The swim was incredibly relaxing, and so inviting, that a Korean man decided to jump in and join as. We even had our own cameraman. There was some man from a Korean website that was taking picture of foreigners enjoying Jeju. He hit the jackpot when he ran into us and must have taken 100 pictures. After Eongtto, I headed home, showered, cleaned up, made dinner and prepared for the next adventure; climbing Halla-san (the tallest mountain in Korea) at 2am, to get to the top by 6, in order to watch the sunrise.
Hiking the volcano at night is highly frowned upon, and not allowed at all by Koreans. I knew that a few of my friends had already made the ascent, so I figured we'd give it a try. Justin (who was maybe even more into the idea than I was), Rob, Marian and myself, after much debate, decided to leave our building by 1:45am. We arrived at Songpannak, the longest trail around 2:15 and started the trek. <CLICK ON THE TINY 'READ MORE' BELOW TO CONTINUE> |
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.
|