Advertisement
Published: October 10th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Well, tonight is our last night in Jeju-do. It's been such an amazing week and I am sad we have to leave so soon. To finish up the week we had an amazing lunch, actually every meal has been amazing and extremely filling as you can see in the pictures. My uncle then wanted to show us Mt. Hallasan, the highest peak in South Korea. The rest of the family wasn't up for it so just Liz and I went but we too were a bit tired so we asked to do a light hike and we didn't want to go all the way to the top (which would have been an 8 hour journey). Well a light hike to my uncle is still strenuous, he's very energetic and eager to show us Americans all there is to know about Jeju-do. So we basically ran halfway up the mountain through a gorgeous red pine forest to one of the most beautiful scenic views I have ever seen. It was absolutely breath taking (as I was out of breath) and I can only imagine what it must be like at the top, which I'll attempt next time. We then returned home to
find our great uncle (grandmother's brother) had arrived to visit with his wife and family. We had met him yesterday in his home in Jeju City but he wanted to come and see my grandmother since she was unable to travel to see him.
After a short visit our great uncle and his family left and the rest of us went off to meet an old friend of my parents for dinner. Liz asked my mom if it was going to be another raw fish dinner like our first night in Jeju-do but to our relief she said no it was beef which thrilled us! However, the first round of beef brought to us was raw and I'm not talking about raw steak or other known cuts of meat. This was raw brain, tendons, liver, and tripe....um can I have the raw fish instead? All joking aside there was some raw strips of steak that was actually pretty amazing. It was tossed in a sesame sauce and when wrapped in lettuce was absolutely delicious. As for the other body parts not sure I'll ever be that adventurous. Thankfully, that was just the appetizer and afterwards slices of steak were brought
for us to cook at the table. Maekju (beer) and soju was toasted as we filled our bellies with laughs and lots of great food.
I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to see where my mother grew up and hear stories about her life here and how she met my father. I've always admired the courage it must have taken for my mother to leave her family and live in a country in which she couldn't speak the language but I guess the love she had for my father surpassed anything and everything including language barriers. After only 4 months my father proposed to my mother and 2 months later they were married and off to America, neither one able to speak to the other. I know it's crazy but it's also amazing. When I ask my dad how he knew he wanted to marry my mother when they couldn't speak to each other, his answer is simply "I just knew". I guess there is such thing as love at first sight, at least for my parents there was and who have now been married for the past 28 years. Unfortunately, my father wasn't able to come
on this trip with us but he and my mother plan to return to Jeju-do for their 30th anniversary to renew their vows.
I will never forget this place or the people I have met and hope to return many more times. But now it's time for round two of Seoul!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0417s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb