Culture

Sitting in Tongyeong’s harbor are 4 boats that are pretty hard to miss. Turtle Ships!

Turtle Ships are infamous throughout Korea because they helped fend off the Japanese at the end of the 1500’s with their great design paired with great leadership. They’re called Turtle Ships because their roofs are round and look a bit like the back of a turtle.  In Tongyeong’s harbor sit 4 different interpretations of the Turtle Ships (since there are very few accounts on the design, we don’t know precisely how these ships looked).

We were able to walk through 3 of the 4 ships and I will say, Turtle Ships are awesome.

Here’s why:

1. Dragons-

Do you ever just ride the bus or drive not knowing where you are going? I love doing that… if I had a car here I would do it all the time, but in Korea I am limited to the bus XD thankfully, Korea has an amazing public transport system so you can just hop on with your t-money card and go pretty much anyplace! Korea has so many places to explore~

Nikko is stunning!  I’m so glad I spent one of my days in Japan there.  I never would have considered it, and I might not even had known about it if it hadn’t been for my friend’s recommendation. After doing a search for images of Nikko, I was sold.

Nikko looked like the lush,green, and quiet zen forest full of UNESCO wonders I wanted to explore, and it totally was.

Even though Nikko can be seen as a day trip from Tokyo (the train ride took less than 2 hours), I went the night before so the whole day would be open to explore all the temples.

Even after living in Korea for a year and a half, I still have these wonderful moments where all I can say is “I Love Korea”.  I’ve been out exploring some of Korea’s islands the past few days which provided quite a few of these moments, so here are some of my favorites:

1. Defunct Carnival Rides:

Down near SangJu Beach in Namehae we found two old carnival rides sitting on a lot.  And for some unexplainable reason the famous ride “Supertagadisco” had some very famous faces.

Happy 추석(Chuseok), or Happy Thanksgiving!

The next few days in Korea are a time to honor family, eat traditional foods such as 잡채 (japchae) and rice cakes, and if you’re my students- look traditionally adorable.

This also means a fantastic 5 day break!

With so much free time, my friend Sam and I are going to go wander around some of Korea’s islands.  We both wanted to go somewhere new so the plan is to go to Namhae and maybe Tongyeong, or somewhere else if all the buses are booked. I’m really excited to get out into the country a bit, and see some new parts of Korea I have yet to experience.

I am not one to frequent coffee shops, but this past weekend I found myself in a Starbucks.  While there I can happily report that our Corporate Overseers have since announced the impending Arrival of Fall to Korea.

Now there isn’t any of the infamous “Pumpkin Spice” aroma in the air, but there is a nice Salted Caramel flavor, that here in Korea is being called “Sweet and Salty”.

Now I don’t know if I just didn’t stalk Starbucks enough my first year here, or if Korea is finally catching on to the flavors of fall, but either way it’s quite tasty.
Now if only I could get some good apple cider.

From Busan with Autumnal Love,
Jenna