Springtime Island

It's finally warming up here in South Korea and people are out and about enjoying the weather and the blooming of all the trees and flowers. A few weekends ago Lainy (one of my Korean co-teachers and my boss) took Ryan and I to an island about an hour long ferry ride away. April marks the time of year when throughout Korea the cherry blossoms are a true sight to behold. Everywhere you go white and pink flowers greet you with their beauty. The flowers have since turned to the green in which they will remain until the change of seasons in a few months.

We drove around the island and took in the sights, including a huge island in the close distance that looked like a pelican. We stopped and had a korean style picnic that Lainy's friend Jenny brought along for us. I hadn't thought about picnics being any different from home until she began to unpack our feast which included rice and seaweed, hard boiled eggs, some other rice thing she made, kimchi tuna, cucumbers and whole tomatoes. We shared our lunch with some other island visitors in which we offered and traded our goods with theirs, even allowing us a few sips of a korean favorite: macoli, or rice wine. Many foreigners don't like it, but I happen to like it very much.