Visit to Marado, the southernmost point of South Korea, with our wonderfully kind friends Stacy and Tim! A twenty-minute ferry ride or so away from Moseulpo gets you to a small, charming island with an interesting, shell-shaped church, a pavilion with a world map carved into the stone (where Stacy and I stopped and took pictures on South America!), and of course, lots of jajangmyeon. It's definitely a touristy place, but the view back towards Jeju with all of the oreums is beautiful all by itself.
Cleaning, packing, and of course eating 천헤향 (my favorite type of orange!) at our friend Jeram's family's orange grove! The chickens running around were especially fun to see. It was amazing to see how much love and care goes into these incredibly delicious, juicy Jeju oranges! Very, very thankful for those!
Picnic/Korean barbecue outside at our friend Jeram and his mother Naomi's house, along with 신부님 (my pastor), our upstairs neighbor Shelly, and our church/school friends Nathan and Muyoung! Jeram and Naomi are incredibly kind, wonderful hosts, and eating outside in spring weather and with a few of Dansan is lovely. ^^ As one of the only foreigners attending, I'm so thankful for the love and acceptance that is constantly shown to us at my church.
Ben's seen a few more Jeju sunrises than most due to working on US time, but views of Halla like this are worth it.
Ben gearing up to hike Geomun Oreum over Chuseok! This particular oreum is carefully protected, so you have to make a reservation to hike it with a guide. It was refreshing to see a hiking trail with much less trash than we're (sadly) used to seeing along other Jeju trails, and there were some interesting remnants of the Japanese occupation, cold air vents and exposed lava tubes, and misty views. Towards the end of the hike and tour (which was all in Korean, so we mostly missed out on the meanings other than a friend's kind translations here and there), the guide gave us an option to go back with him or take a bit of a longer, hour-long route back alone... of course, Ben and our friends Josh and Mindy immediately go sprinting off... and so we all finished the last part of the trail in about 25 minutes. ^^'
What better to do on Chuseok than rescue some fish? We went down to watch dolphins and big waves crashing on the lava rocks on the southwest coast and noticed some pools of water on the top of some higher-up rock formations, left from big waves splashing up onto them. A few fish must have gotten launched up with the water, and rather than leave them to have their mini-pools slowly evaporate, we got creative with finding some trash and scooped them up to put them back in the ocean... not without getting soaked by some big waves! Thankful for spontaneous adventures. ^_~
One of our favorite parts of the year is hanging out at Hamdeok Beach for the weekend during the Jeju Furey volleyball tournament! Though the tournament was cancelled this year and the pick-up games that were going to happen were very... sparsely attended, we still braved the wind and the rain for a few games! We're very thankful for volleyball and fun people to play it with!
One of our favorite adventures this year was post-Furey when we explored the northeast side of the island, particularly lovely Woljeong-ri! Tons of cool restaurants, cafes, and spots to stay popping up here, along with Taco Massim, the most legit Mexican food we've had on the island (complete with John Denver record playing in the background... nostalgic.) Thankful for these gorgeous and hip sights!
Gorgeous shorelines, where we also found... pumpkins? Strangely appropriate for October.
Sweet murals!
And... beehive coffee house?
See what we mean about the cute places? Hopefully we'll be back again to enjoy Woljeong-ri!
Finally, thankful for being able to celebrate Thanksgiving, at school today for dinner and at church! I hadn't realized before I moved here that though Koreans don't celebrate Thanksgiving, the Korean church was. Here was my delicious Thanksgiving meal at church, complete with pumpkin soup, japchae, kimchi, and ddeok (rice cake)!
Finally, we're very thankful for our friends and family back in the States and across the world! Thank you for making our lives brighter. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
