Darangee Village --> May 14/15

This past weekend I was supposed to go on a "Fishing and Camping" trip, but just before I went to take the bus to Seoul, the organizer called me and cancelled the trip because of some unexpected thing or other.

Naturally, I was kind of pissed and a bit stressed because now I was left with a weekend without anything to do and anywhere to go.

So, I quickly went online, looked through the many travel groups I know and TADAAA! I found a nice trip that still had some spots available.

I paid for the trip, confirmed my payment and reservation, packed my bags and..... took a nap :).

I went to Seoul pretty late, which was nice. I got to spend some time with Abby before leaving for the weekend. I also got to do some laundry and dishes. Got my place in order before going away for 2 days. It's nice to come home to a clean apartment :).

Here are the pictures of my wonderful adventure.

 When I got to Express Bus Terminal it was past 11pm and everything was closed. Since I hadn't eaten any dinner I was starving. The only open food place was McDonalds, and well... I hadn't eaten there in a couple of years. So I decided to splurge :).

 I got the usual Big Mac with fries and a Coke, no ice. :)

 Then I went on the search for the sauna where I was going to spend the night. On the way, I found this beautiful tree. I used to have one on my balcony but it died... :(

 And here's the sauna. It was pretty small, but I slept alright.

In the morning, I caught the Adventure Korea bus for the trip. This was our tour guide. 

 We went on this island called Namhae. It was waaaay down south at the tip of the peninsula.

 We went to a little village on the coast.

 Called Daraengi village.

 It was incredibly beautiful there. And the weather was perfect!

 There were about 45 of us. All foreigners from different countries and different cities within Korea.

 I slept in this house with 7 other tourists. It was very nice.

 The whole village was incredibly well kept. It was clean, no garbage anywhere, and it was beautifully decorated and painted.

 After check-in, we went down to this rock beach.

 Guess who that is? 

 There was a large group of students there.

 They had this raft take people out on the water for 10 minutes or so.

 Some brave people dared to swim in the COLD water.

 Then we started fishing. That orange thing in my hand is a piece of sea urchin used as bait. Between the rocks are a lot of small fish. 

 When they bite, you have to be quick and put them in your little container.

Jessica (a new friend) displays her catch.

 Yay! So exciting :).

 He was the only person on this trip who was not a teacher. He was a doctor doing some research on how your mind understands and processes fear. Very very cool stuff.

 Then we moved on to this muddy field that was full of little eel like fish. 

 See?? They were so cool. 

 And very wiggly.

 Next we practiced some ox plowing. You might ask why. Well, does there have to be a reason? It's on the trip itinerary, so it's gotta be fun.

 And it definitely was fun. See me laughing and smiling??

 I had to run to keep up with that speedy ox.

 The farmer is very happy. He's got all these foreigners doing this work for him :).

 I wasn't prepared to be trampling around in a field. I didn't bring appropriate shoes. 

It was alright. At least I looked stylish plowing that field :).

 And then dinner back at the house. This was a typical Korean meal.

And then we were supposed to make these lanterns, but they were already made. We had to write our wish on it and hopefully it'll come true after we let it fly away.

Lantern in action.

I hope it works!

Followed by a sea snail BBQ. Not the most delicious thing I've eaten.

But potatoes will always be delicious.

New friends.

Breakfast the next day. Korean breakfast, lunch and dinner are pretty much the same thing.

Now in another village, getting ready to go catch fish with our hands.
Jessica accidentally got caught in the net bag. Hm...

Off we go. It's low tide, the water is going out, and there's a big net in the distance.

Lots of foreigners and Koreans are looking for fish to catch.

By the net is the best spot.

This guy was good. I was pretty good too.

Can you see the fish? It was pretty difficult to see. It's on the left between them 2 green blobs.

No fish yet... :(
But we were still happy to be splashing around in the water.

In the end we did catch some fish.

This bag I caught all by myself. There are a bunch of large fish in here, and a bunch of smaller fish. All delicious though.

Heading back to dry land. I didn't want to leave. I wanted to keep looking, but all the fish were gone.

Here we are, with our trophies.

It was a random little stand next to the beach.

Some of the people made candles. I didn't. I really didn't need another useless nick-nack to clutter up my already cluttered and tiny apartment.

Now we're going back to go eat the fish we caught. I was starving. I didn't eat a lot of rice for breakfast.

The restaurant would gut and clean the fish.

We sat outside enjoying the beautiful day. It was so sunny and warm. Just fantastic.

Christy was enjoying her beer.

And I was enjoying my beer.

Then came some of the food.

The fish was ready to be cooked.

MMM!!! Grilled fish.

And we had sashimi too :).

And now going back to Seoul, and then to Sokcho, and then to Geojin (home). We left at 1:30pm, and I got home at 11:30pm. It was a loooong trip back. But totally worth it :).

WWOOFing --> May 4 - 10

For those who don't know what WWOOFing is, well, it's an amazing opportunity to learn how different organic farms work. You go and work and they in turn feed you and give you a place to stay.

I've wanted to do this for a long time, but there never seemed to be a good time. This time I did it :).

I stayed within my province.

The farm name is Bethani, and they focus on a variety of apples and Korean red peppers.

It's in Jeongseong, south west of Gangneung.

Here are some of the pictures.

 This is the beautiful log cabin I stayed in.

It's the view from my window.

  This is my bedroom. Windows all around.

 They had a little stream with a water wheel. Very pretty.

 And a nice wood swing where I hung out on my day off.

 First dinner together with everyone on the farm. 

It was a dish with 5 different cooked fish in a SUPER spicy sauce.
Very tasty!

 And these were the people on the farm. 

The guy with the hat is the owner. 

In front of him is his wife, and in front of her is their youngest (3rd) daughter. The other 4 people are some neighbours who also work together on the farm.

 This moth came by my window. It was HUGE!!

 So pretty.

 Kind of creepy though.

Making the holes, planting the tree, watering the tree. Next... 

First day outdoor lunch. My clothes were sooooo dirty. 

And this is what we did for the first 2 days. 

We planted apple trees.
We planted somewhere between 300 and 400 trees. 

This was my job. Watering the trees. 

Lunch. Everyone brought something and we shared. 

It was so nice to eat outside. 

Break time. 

Cute dog that followed everyone. 

The daughter (Erica) liked to draw eyebrows on the dog. Funny stuff. 

In the back of the truck. Left: Erica, Right: Neighbour. 

Doggy perching and sightseeing. 

Another dinner. Korean pancake and fried veg. YUM. 

 They had cows. Really cute cows!!

Awwww, so cute :) 

Feeding the cows. Yay :) 

 And chickens. Lots of chickens.

 They also had LOADS of goats. 

Unfortunately, they didn't milk the cows or the goats. 

They were all just for meat.

 And the hay/straw storage.
I was already visualizing the house I could build with these.

 Super cute dog!! It would always go insane when I walked by. 

Not because it wanted me to pet it, but because it wanted to chew on my limbs.

Left: 2nd daughter and Righ: 3rd daughter (Erica)

  

They also had a little pond. It was full of frog eggs. 

Froggy :) 

 And on the last day we planted the Korean red peppers. 

We worked both in a few green houses and outside.

They put these plastic sheets on the ground to prevent weeds from growing. Then, with this nifty tool, you make a hole in the ground, drop a seedling inside, and lift. The seedling gets berried and you just have to pat it down with your foot.
Very fast! 

Left overs.

I want to eat you puppy!! MOAHAHAHA

Isolation

After spending so much time alone, and having conversations only in my head, it was pretty difficult to have real conversations with new people.

There were lots of things I was thinking about, lots of things I wanted to share, but when I wanted to verbalize my thoughts... it just didn't work. I couldn't get my ideas across.

I didn't make sens. It sounded like I was mumbling...

Terrible.

I've forgotten how to have a conversation and interact with new people.

So, I've signed myself up for a trip for every weekend from now until the end of June.

I'm going to force myself to talk to new people and get out of my head and out into the world :).

Food

This morning I had an urge to check out the foreign food options that are mainly available to purchase online, here in Korea.

There are 2 websites that I frequently visit: NiceDeli and EZshopKorea.

I drool, and I crave, and I plan to buy all these things, which I ultimately don't buy because many are ridiculously overpriced.

But, once in a while, my need for familiar flavours overrules my need to save, and I splurge.

This month might be one of those splurging months. I would love some sour cream and salami and pickles and tortillas and red radishes and OOOOOH!!! so many wonderful and delicious things to enjoy.

Looking forward to putting my order in.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy your plenty wherever you are.

I hope you realize the INCREDIBLE variety of amazing food you have, not at a specialty store that takes 4 hours of travel to get to, but just around the corner.

Don't forget how lucky you are to have all that abundance!

Cirque Du Solei

This past Sunday I went to Seoul and saw Cirque Du Solei perform Varekai.

WOW!!!!

Let me say it again...

WOW!!!

I've always wanted to go, just never had the money for it, nor the opportunity. Last week my friend Bernard suggested a few of us from the area go, but no one seemed to be really interested. Except me!

So, he went online and bought tickets that day. We got pretty good seats too!!

I didn't really know what to expect. I was expecting to be wowed, that's for sure. I've heard a lot of good things about this show and so yes, I had high expectations.

2 years ago I went to see Blue Man Group in Seoul, and similarly, I had pretty high expectations. They failed to deliver.

So, I was worried I would be disappointed a second time.

BUT!!!

Nope!!

I was blown away (that's what she said! hehehe)!!

The music was fantastic! The costumes were fantastic! The tights wearing hunky and fit guys were fantastic! The acrobatics were fantastic!

But what really impressed me the most, was the support that the performers showed for each other. They were always there to watch each others backs, to make sure they didn't fall, to make sure that if they did fall there was someone there to catch them and keep them safe. It was so beautiful to watch!!


** The title “Varekai” means “Wherever” in Romani, a Gypsy language. The production “pays tribute to the nomadic soul, to the spirit and art of the circus tradition, and to the infinite passion of those whose quest takes them along the path that leads to Varekai,” according to its Web site.

“Varekai” is based on the Greek myth of Icarus - with a twist. In the original, Icarus flies too close to the sun, melting his wings of feathers and wax, and falls to his death.

The Cirque du Soleil version has Icarus making a soft landing in a magical forest filled with odd, otherworldly creatures. One of these is a supple enchantress who helps him overcome his fears and serves as his guide to the strange new world. **

If - poem by Rudyard Kipling

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!