These are pictures from a walk Claire and I took on one of the nicest days of Spring thus far. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom so of course we took full advantage of the situation. Unfortunately, I chose not to shower that morning so I look pretty nasty- don't judge me. I'm sorry I haven't been writing a lot on these posts, I just haven't found the motivation. Also. You should click on the photos to look through them, the preview cuts off part of the picture unfortunately.
last week was the Fire festival, Jeju's foremost festival (this was actually written somewhere lolz). It is a festival to symbolize the coming of spring, i.e. during the olden days people would burn their fields to get all the mice and animals out and start over for the Spring. How this morphed into a festival where they literally set an entire oreum (volcanic hill) on fire is beyond me. Anyways, me and my island friends attended, ate those curly potatoes, hiked the oreum before it was set on fire, watched a horse show, and ate pajun and makgeoli (and not in that order). We tried to take pictures but as you can tell from above...it was rather difficult. During the month of February I shared an apartment with a number of other people from Fulbright. We lived in the Hongdae neighborhood of Seoul attending Korean classes and partaking in the amazing culture and food that is plentiful in Seoul (i.e. foreign food!!!!!!) I didn't take a whole lot of photos of our apartment, but on Galentines Day (February 13th) we organized a party of sorts and I ended up getting the camera out to celebrate the occasion. I'm so happy to be back on my island but I will cherish my memories from my month spent in Seoul. Special shout out to Courtney Leah Hill who shared a very small room and an even smaller bed with me. <3 Aka it is the year of the lamb, and seeing as I was born in 1991, it's my year!
These pictures were taken after winter break when I had the chance to head back to Sapgyo and see my "original" korean family. I always love getting to see Annabelle, and I have also come to really appreciate any opportunity I get to spend with Shelly. I always lament not knowing Shelly earlier. This time around we went to an ice festival where they had made all these cool ice sculptures. There was no snow in the surrounding area but they had made due. Annabelle is in here third year of Highschool which means her life is basically hell. All she does is study. All day. Every day. Currently her dream is to become an air traffic controller (or something related to that or airports). She already knows what College she would like to go to, now she just needs get in. She is hoping to get in via track 2 (a process similar to the US) thereby avoiding taking the seunung. However, she won't find out until October if she got in via track 2 and seeing as the Seuneung is the first week of November she will have to continue to study until that time. Shelly is in college in Pohang, which, ironically enough, was the city I listed as my number one choice for this year. Shelly had told me previously she attended a school "near Busan" but I hadn't realized it was in Pohang! I am hoping to schedule a visit whereby I can see my friends from Fulbright who live in Pohang and also visit Shelly. Fingers Crossed! |
Author안녕! I'm Emmy and this is my blog detailing my life in Korea with Fulbright mainly through pictures. Feel free to contact me on my about page. TTFN Archives
June 2016
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