Where we go from here

Ok: I had several good thoughts about Korea today. To be honest, I haven't had that many since we have been home. I was a bit premature thinking that last Sunday would be close to the end of our jet lag. The whole week has been a kind of rough. Both of us have been in strange sleeping and eating patterns. We have been awake at 3 am eating cheerios and watching infomercials. Then trying to function during the day.
Also surprising: I miss Korean food. That has been an unexpected development. I thought I would want pizza and tacos, but I just want rice and banchan. We have eaten it twice this week. What has Korea done to me?

Oh, jahjangmyeon...so delish.
 (fried black bean paste and noodles topped with cucumber slices)

Now that I am feeling more myself, and I am happily home munching my jajang noodle dish, I can think more rationally about my feelings about the trip, and where we go from here. Specifically regarding our language endeavors. That was really the main reason we decided to take the trip. Joe and I have reached a crossroads in our language learning. Two years in. We have the basics. Now we have to decide if we can get to that next level of communication. It is a big step.
But I think we can do it.

"Do you want to go back?"

Sunday evening. I think the worst of our jet lag is over. We managed to stay awake all day on Saturday, (after being awake most of Friday night) although towards the end of the day we thought we might have to prop open our eyelids with little toothpicks. But we made it and have felt pretty good all day today.
So, we have been talking and sharing our stories with our friends, and trying to get our minds around this crazy trip. And this particular question--"Do you want to go back?"--keeps being asked of us. Quite interesting. I think people feel this is a good indication of whether I enjoyed the trip. I don't know if it is.
It was a good trip. Also intense. That word keeps popping up in my mind. It was a good trip, but intense. And exhausting.  It was good, bad, funny, frustrating, insightful and ridiculous. Definitely the most out of my comfort zone I have ever been. And Joe should win some kind of man of the year award for traveling with his wife and mother. :)
I don't regret it, at all. I am very glad we did it. It was a great experience.
But do I want to go back? Our clothes are barely out of the dryer. I have not even passed out all of my gifts. Must I think about this now?
My immediate response to this question is no. I came, I saw, I ate the seafood. The trip has not unlocked some hidden wanderlust in me. Nor has it removed the part of me that enjoys the routine of home.
But perhaps this is still the rice and kimchee talking. Once the bread gets back in my system, and we settle back into our routine of home, the memories of this trip will come back to me.

I will be right there!

Wait, whose camera is that?

Mom is totally taking our food while we are distracted

So, will I go back? Who knows? I never thought I would go the first time. But I went, and I have the pictures to prove it. I think I will enjoy them for awhile.

Back where we began

Landed in Charlotte about 7 pm Thursday night. We were greeted with the lovely summer-in-the-South heat and humidity. We dropped off mom about 11 pm last night, and got back to our home a little after midnight. 

But we made it home! To our overgrown yard and two lonely cats! When we get through with yard work and laundry, one last entry to sum up everything. Meantime, my cat Bailey won't leave my side.

 

Goodbye Korea, hello jet lag

Here we go again! Time for my poor body to have no idea what time it is.

We spend most of our last morning walking around Seoul in the rain, using our last hours here to make sure we have gotten everything we wanted to. (As of this writing, there are no plans on returning, so it is now or never.) We stop in one more cafe for one last cafe latte and wait for the rain to subside before venturing back to the hotel.

An American, in Korea, at a French cafe

The family has arrived to take us to the airport, so we pile into the vehicle and take off. At the airport early, we have time for lunch (a last Korean meal: banchan, I have made my peace with you; mandu (Korean dumplings), I think I will miss you most!) and then get the surreal chance to see a friend from America who is arriving for a stay in Korea the day we are leaving. We meet up with him and have a chance to spend an hour or so laughing and comparing thoughts about our trips.

Just like old times...but in Korea

Finally we must go through security and I am sad for my mom-in-law as she says goodbye to her brother and sister. It has been 10 years since she has seen them last, who knows when she will see them again. I cannot imagine going that long without seeing my sister.

The family sees us off

Our plane leaves Wednesday at 6:10 pm. We eat, then settle in and try to sleep as much as possible. It is fitful plane sleep and a short 9 ½ hours later we land in Seattle. Local time is 12:40 pm, still Wednesday. We arrive before we left. The three of us depart the plane and like in a trance, collect luggage, go through customs, get a shuttle and get to our hotel. Our bodies are screaming for sleep but Joe and I take a shuttle to a nearby mall and try to walk around for a few hours. It is only 3:00.

We eat (first stateside meal: a yummy bowl of Vietnamese pho) and spend some time walking around before finally getting back to the hotel and falling deliriously into bed. We are asleep by 8 pm, (perhaps a mistake) and now it is 12:48 am and I am wide awake.

I will conclude this entry from the Seattle airport the next morning. Joe and I ended up being awake for most of the night. Oh, reentry into our lives is gonna be fun! 

We begin the descent

Last day of the tour. We wake early and get on the bus by 7:40. The weather is cloudy and foggy. As are we. 

Nice view from our room, but a foggy morning

 After a bit of a drive, we arrive at Seongsan Ilchubang, an extinct volcano. They give us one hour and we begin the climb.

So many people--can you find Mom?

The steps are at a pretty steep incline and it is crowded. We huff and puff and make our way to the top. The view from the top is nice, but again, it is foggy.

 At the top it is also windy, which nicely dries out our sweaty shirts. We begin the descent. We get back with about 15 minutes to spare before it is back on the bus and away we go.
Next a folk village. We tour around a bit and it is time for another sales pitch. This is some kind of miracle tea. (I have to say I expected to enjoy folk villages more. Maybe we went to the wrong ones.)

On to our last lunch of the tour. Pork barbecue. It is tasty. I haven't mentioned this before but I think every restaurant that we have been to has these little machines which dispense about a dixie cup's worth of creamy, sugary coffee, which everyone has for dessert. Yum!

Now we are winding down and some of our group has left already to catch planes back to the mainland. We tour a little historical 'theme park' (memory lane for everyone over 40) of how everyday life in Korea used to be. The dioramas and mannequins are amusing. 

Our plane leaves at 4 pm for Seoul, and before we know it we are back at our Seoul hotel. Last night in the city! It is raining unfortunately, but we have dinner at a street cart, watching people hurry past us with umbrellas while we munch our tteokbokki. Dinner, for the three of us, for roughly $7. Can't beat that. Afterward, some last minute souvenir shopping wraps up the evening.

Take your pick!

I can't believe it is almost over. I feel like we have been here for much longer than two weeks. It has been very easy to forget about home here, and just concentrate on the next tour, the next subway, the next meal. 

Everything else seems (and really is, I suppose) so far away. But it is time to go home.

{FYI: We have taken over 700 pictures...don't worry, no one but my mom and dad will be forced to look at all of them....get ready Mom and Dad! ;)}

Go big or go home

I am sitting in the hotel room, having a nice stiff drink after a long, long day. I earned it.
We set out this morning at 8, we are on a full tour bus now, no longer just the six of us. There are about 40 of us. The weather is delightfully perfect. Sunny, but with a cool breeze.
Our first stop is along the coast. Lava has formed these black, hexagonal shaped rock columns, and the water is a lovely turquoise color.
Next a tangerine farm/bed and breakfast/ginseng biolab. Yes, all in one. (No, I don't know why.) We end up in what appears to be a sales pitch on the benefits of ginseng and how it will help you live forever. (A downside of guided tours: you are at the mercy of the guides.) They are growing ginseng in labs, very futuristic.
Then another boat tour. It is relaxing, there are so many little islands, some basically just rocks jutting up out of the ocean all around Korea.
Lunch is served, then on to Yongduam Mountain. It is an area of volcanic lava rock formations and is quite amazing. Here is where it gets interesting.
We are walking along admiring the scene, with our original tour group, and we come across some ladies cutting up sea cucumbers, octopus, conch and sea squirt (yes, that is the name of it and it is the orangey looking one on the plate.) They are selling it, and before we know what has happened, the couple with us has bought a plate full. They invite us to join them.

Fresher than fresh

Now, I just watched these ladies sitting on this rock, hacking up these things and rinsing them off. The only thing cooked was the octopus. I am handed a pair of chopsticks and a cup of gochujang (essentially Korean ketchup) and told to dig in. I don't think they thought I would. But, well, this is why I came here. I dig in.
First, the cucumber (btw, not so much vegetable as sea slug). It is chewy, verging on crunchy. But I get it down. No taste really. Then the squirt. It is gnarly looking, but it too has not much taste. It looks worse than it is. Slimy. I drown it in gochujang. The octopus, by contrast, is really good. The conch is tough, and probably the hardest to eat.

Mandy vs. the Sea squirt

But I do it! I am sitting on a rock off the coast of Korea in the middle of the ocean eating something that 5 minutes ago was swimming around in the water.

Who needs chairs, a table or a restaurant?

The food consumed, we move on. Another downside of the guided tour: having to be on a time schedule. We  hustle to make it back to the bus.

So happy we found the way out!

The next mountain is Songaksan, and we walk up the mountain and look down over the cliffs of insanity (hee!). More volcanic activity has created these great formations. Joe tries to climb down the side of the mountain where very rustic steps have been carved out and I try not to have a heart attack.

And dinner. I thought, naively, having eaten what I just ate would be the last great hurdle in my Korean food quest. Until I sit down to dinner and come face to face with my supper. Which is looking back at me. In the soup pot, live clams. Moving. I can't look.

Low country boil, South Korean style

They turn the heat on under the pot and the bubbling soup does its work to cook all of the seafood in the dish. I don't, just can't, eat the clams, but I do eat the squid, prawn, and abalone, which are good. Joe eats the clam and says it was delicious. So there you go.
When I get home, I am going to eat pizza every day for a week.

On to Jeju

Ok, this tour is definitely not for the faint of heart. I am tired, cranky and I don't know where I am.

However, it is funny to note that the Halmony with our group is keeping up better than the rest of us. And she walks with a cane!

We wake up and get moving to enjoy our Korean breakfast. It is a buffet and I am in line when a man behind me asks, 'do you eat Korean food?' and I understand him and say yes. What he doesn't ask is if I want to eat Korean food...

Joe has no problems with Korean breakfast!

We eat and get a move on. Our first stop is a former POW camp, and museum about the Korean War. It is very interesting to get some background information from Joe's mom about her family and how they were affected by war. The museum is a bit graphic, but I think this is so much a part of everyone's history they are all familiar with it.

After that it is over we hit a rest stop and again, these are such nice places! Clean and lots of food choices. I grab coffee and a doughnut filled with red bean paste, and all is right with the world.

We are heading towards Gimpo airport to catch our flight to Jeju Island. Time for one last meal with our tour guide on the mainland.

Our tour group

The flight is less than one hour and we are on the somewhat tropical island of Jeju. This is a big honeymoon spot. It is so pretty. From the airport we are whisked away to 'Circus World' where there is an acrobat show and then to Camelia Hill, a nature walk with so many different kinds of plants my mom-in-law loses her mind. The weather is practically perfect.

Dinner is served early tonight, and we get to the hotel before we have lost the will to go on. Our hotel is by the ocean, so we are able to sit out on our balcony and enjoy the view and sound of the waves. This is the kind of touring I like.