Taean

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Hello again!

So about a month ago Jonathan and I were taken to a national park on the coast of our province, Chungnam-do by Suk and Mi wa (Jonathan’s co teacher and old co- teacher, who we are now referring to as our Korean family). We had a jam packed day of fun stuff. We left at the ungodly hour of 6 am in order to beat the rush to this marine national park. The park was hosting a flower festival and it was all the rage. We got there at 8 and it was pretty busy. There were line ups to see flower exhibitions. I felt like we were at an amusement park. We quickly learned that all the cool flower displays were outside and as usual waiting in lines is for suckers. I think people see a line and assume that whatever people are waiting for must be great. At least that is what I initially think.

After the flower festival we headed to a wonderful beach and watched all these people try and catch some kind of seafood I have never seen before. They would dig in the sand and then what looked like a twig would shoot up out of the sand and then quickly retreat. Then they would pour salt in the hole and the creature would be drawn back to the surface and caught.

Then Mi Wa wanted to visit a school that she had worked for 20 years ago. The school had been closed for 10 years. Once we got there we peered in and the gate partitions were fairly spread apart so I hoped in and once I was through I realized that the “lock” on the gate was only for show and that the gate was being held together by a rope, so we untied the rope and we all went in. I have a really weird obsession with rundown abandoned buildings - not sure why but I love them, so this was so much fun for me. The gardens were overgrown but they looked surprisingly good for not having any attention. The school had a lot of broken glass and some floors were caved in. Jonathan and I discussed the possibility of this situation in Canada and agreed that a school would be torn down immediately because the board would be so scared something would happen and they would be liable. Shame, eh? ahaha

At the school Mi Wa showed us where she stayed because back then all the teachers lived on the school property. Not many Koreans had cars in the early 80’s. It is so difficult to remember that Korea is a fairly newly developed country and I am shocked every time I am reminded. Her old room and the lodging in general for all the teachers looked like a playhouse for children. My imagination went wild thinking about what a community it must have been as Mi Wa told us about the experience.

Later, we stopped by a beautiful temple right on the coast on top of a rock. During high tide you have to take a boat to get there. It was very picturesque. I love that Buddhist temples are always in the most wonderful natural paradises. It makes visiting them that much more exciting..

And after all this, if you can believe it, we then headed to a provincial park for some delicious Korean food. When we finished we took a bunch of fun photos with all the totem poles. There is a Korean word for them but I can never remember it. I was kind of surprised when I first came here to see these totem poles. I do love them. It’s amazing how much expression can be carved into wood.

We got home around 6 and boy did I sleep well that night. It was an amazing amount of action for one day.

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