Every day here is an adventure- it's the little things that make it so wonderful.
This post is purely pictures from my daily life in Jeju. Every day here is an adventure- it's the little things that make it so wonderful.
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The weekend after Fall conference, I hopped on a plane (again) to re-unite with the fabulous Tiffany and Kevin. This time, we headed to Busan for the Fireworks Festival at Gwanganli Beach. While Haeundae is the more famous of Busan's beaches, Gwanganli has a very scenic bridge that makes for a perfect firework launching apparatus. The first night (Friday) Tiffany and I picked out the cheapest cleanest hotel we could find and boy was it nasty. The Pillow was literally made up of cut up straws (where there would normally be pillows). The one perk? It was a love hotel so it came fully stocked with all toiletries which is not always included in regular korean hotels. The next day, Saturday, we got brunch at an "American" place called Brunsweek. I had the best Eggs Benedict with Salmon since coming to Korea- which is to say, the only eggs Benedict with salmon since coming to Korea. Afterwards, we wandered around, debating the pros and cons of where to watch the fireworks from. We eventually decided we wanted the Korean experience and thus opted to sit amongst the masses. We sat down at about four for a show that started at nine o'clock. Talk about a wait. Luckily the people around us had adorable children and we had a set of Korean cards to keep us entertained. When the fireworks finally started- with musical accompaniment- it was magical. I ended up putting my camera down after the first few minutes to enjoy the show but Kev and Tiff got some really good pictures so maybe I'll link you to their blogs later. We rounded off the evening by meeting up with some other ETAs who were in Busan. Our last day together, Sunday, we all (the 3 + the other ETAs) all went for brunch at Brunsweek again (this time I got a bagel and a mimosa!) and then we went shopping at Sinsaegae. I really hate shopping with other people- almost as much as I hate spending money- but we got through it hahaha. Oh and I got some really cute snaps of puppy that I couldn't help but capture. Everyone needs to acknowledge how cute my dog is. In the middle of October, all the ETA's gathered in Gyeongju for Fall Conference. We saw historical sites (Gyeongju is one of the old capitals of Korea), talked about our lives and teaching, and ate lots of delicious quasi-american food. It was so lovely catching up with all my friends, most of whom I had not seen since leaving Jungwon. I didn't take as many pictures as I would've liked to, but I hope the ones provided show just how beautiful it was. Fall was really in full swing on the mainland and seeing the leaves while it was still sunny and warm is something I absolutely love about autumn. Anddddd I'm back! Thanks to all my lovely friends and family who went so long without photo evidence that I was alive. One of the perks of having the most desirable placement of Fulbright is that people want to visit. A few weeks ago my friends Erin and David came and visited me over their three day weekend. The first day they spent on the other side of the island with some of the other fulbrighters but I met up with them saturday morning to hike hallasan. Mt Halla (do volcano's get called Mt.??) is the volcano at the center of the island and although I pass it all the time this is first time I have attempted to go up it. We must've picked the perfect time because all the fall colors were gorgeous. In Seogwipo it doesn't really fall like fall or winter because a lot of the trees stay green but up there it was perfect fall viewing time. Korean actually has a word for viewing leaves in the fall and I think that's really sweet. We ended up not making it to the top because we started so late in the morning but it was a lovely hike nonetheless. That night we went out for some really good samgyupsal and called it a day. We met up the next morning to odeolgae (the single rock) and do some light trekking. They were supposed to head home Sunday early afternoon but we got news early Saturday that a typhoon was coming and they might get stuck on the island. This seemed like good news (how can you argue with a typhoon?) but it turned out to be rather stressful and made saturday sort of sad as they scrambled to figure out plans. However with the typhoon approaching (in wind only, the real part of the typhoon was headed towards Japan) we got some pretty epic pictures on David's new selfie stick. It was so nice to see friends and hangout. I hope to return the favor and visit Mokpo, where Erin and David live, but we shall see. |
Author안녕! I'm Emmy and this is my blog detailing my life in Korea with Fulbright mainly through pictures. Feel free to contact me on my about page. TTFN Archives
June 2016
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