No More Hibernating... It's Spring!

Spring time is definitely my favorite season in Korea.  I just endured the one of the coldest winters I have ever had. Coming from Oregon, I am used to a little bit of a chill. The snow and ice was nice the first time but then it stayed longer than I wanted it to. Everything I did, indoors and outdoors, I had to bundle up just to keep warm. This is the only time that I wished I owned a Snuggie, I would have worn that everywhere I went. Hmm… maybe I will need to invest next year? haha  

Some reasons spring time is my favorite in Korea is because of:

1      .    The sun is out and the weather is nice. It still has a bit of a chill in the air but I can now shed off a few of my layers and bring out my summer dresses and sunglasses.

2     .  In the winter time everyone hibernates… Being a person who loves to be on the go and be around people, hibernation is not an option. Now that the weather is nice again, people are out and about and there are more things to do. This nice weather is only going to last a little bit longer until it gets so humid I can’t function, so I better enjoy the great outdoors while it lasts.  

3    .  Korea in the springtime is beautiful. I have never seen such vibrant and beautiful colors like the flowers here. I have always been fascinated by the beauty of flowers and their vibrant colors. Each flower is just so wonderfully made and their colors are so beautiful that cannot be manmade. My best friend Mandy and I would always text each other pictures of sunsets (her favorite) and flowers, thanking God for his beautiful creation.

So now that you understand the love I have for spring, let me tell you some of the opportunities I had to explore more of Korea during the past few weeks.

I love field trips and my school knows how to do a field trip right. We took a field trip to Suncheon Garden Expo. Suncheon Garden Expo, just opened this spring and was absolutely gorgeous. On our way to the expo I was telling the teachers about how much I love field trips. I told him that, “I love field trips, even more than the kids.” He looked at me and laughed and told me I was a bad teacher. Huh? Me, a bad teacher? I then realized what I said and how he received it but what I was actually meaning to say is that I love field trips probably more than the kids love field trips because I am a big kid. He perceived it as me saying I love field trips more than children. Haha I didn’t know how to clear up what I was trying to say so I just turned red and left it at that. Oh, the joys of not knowing the language.

One of the reasons I love field trip days is because the kids actually want to hang out with me and talk to me. I spent the morning with the 6^th graders and then in the afternoon with the 3^rd graders. It was fun spending time with them and being a kid again. :D

One of the questions I asked many of my friends that have lived in Korea for a year or so was what they recommended me seeing while I was here in Korea. Every person told me that I must go to the Jindo Miracle Sea Parting Festival. Once a year in Jindo, the tide is low that you can cross to the other Island by walking in the water. So the time finally was here and without a doubt I can say that was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. I would recommend it to anyone who visits Korea and will be planning on doing it again next year.

My friend and I went with a tour group that took about 90 foreigners to this festival. Because the tide did not go down until 5:30pm we toured around Jindo in the afternoon waiting till the sea parting. 

One of our stops in Jindo was a little garden. It had this beautiful pond with lily pads. 

We also went to a Jindo dog show.

 Here is the Island before the sea parted. 

This was probably the busiest festival I have ever been to. Here are the people waiting for the sea to part.

I didn't want to sit and wait, so I dragged my friend to come with me into the water to wait. We were one of the first ones to be out there but then quickly got replaced by others who were smarter than us and bought the thigh rain boots.

I had to stop and wait quite a bit because as you can tell my boots were not helping me very much. 

My friend Lisa found the starfish. She yelled at me and I ran over splish splashing cause I was so excited! Korea starfishes are absolutely stunning. The colors are just so incredible!

The water eventually got pretty low. Here you see an ajumma digging for clams. This is what most of the Koreans came here to do, clamming and seaweed hunting.

The period of time that you can cross the water was pretty quick. We had about an hour to cross and because I had to stop and wait for the water to go down I did not make it to the other island. I was pretty close though but decided to turn around once I reached the flags. I am glad I did too because on the way back to land the water started raising and my boots got soaked.

Here are all the people making their way back to land. 

This festival is my new favorite so far. I mean, how many times am I going to be able to walk through water like Moses? Haha Such a great experience!