THe Hotel's "Volcanic" Good-Bye

The hotel's "volcanic" good-bye!

See you in NJ

After a boat ride around a cave-filled island, we walked along a beach - the most beautiful one on the island. We searched for shells and came upon the temporary "restaurants" that the women divers set up at the end of the day - selling their fresh abolone and serving guests right out of their baskets and pails.

Day 5

A new day on Jeju Island!

We meandered through the fields of mandarin oranges - ending up at the largest Buddhist temple in Asia! 16,000 little Buddhas lined the walls of the temple and colorful lanterns filled the ceilings throughout the main structure. The dragon is an important part of the Korean culture - as well as the fish, the turtle and the duck. This particular temple also incorporated elephants throughout its landscape.

Next, we headed to Cheonnjiyeon Falls - one of the few waterfalls on the island. Due to the porous volcanic rock, most water just gets absorbed and never lasts on the surface long enough to cascade as a waterfall. Flowers are in full bloom, ducks are swimming along the river and the climate is much more tropical than Seoul.

Korean Folk Village

Getting around Jeju

This is the "Dragon Rock" made of volcanic rock --like everything on the island. We took a good hike up the mountainside to see it, also allowing us to get up close to another treasure of Jeju-- their horses. The juxtaposition of the ocean and the mountains is still breathtaking. At this point, we also saw the amazing women divers. These beyond believable women, not so young, don wet suit pants, grab hold of a buoy, a basin shaped net, aspear, and a knife, and swim out to sea to catch abalone. They can be out in the water for eight hours a day before coming in and setting up mini-restaurants and wholesale booths with their bounty. Watching them surface and dive again was truly mesmerizing.

Day 4

Today began another adventure right from the start. We took a taxi, by ourselves, from Lotte Hotel to Gimpo Airport. Gimpo handles most of the domestic Korean flights as we headed to Jeju Island. Now usually, taking a taxi ride by yourself is no big deal. Doing it in another country with another language that you can not decipher means you must have great trust and you must be able to figure out how to negotiate. We did it! Of course, then we managed to check into the airport, drink a Dunkin Donuts coffee, go through security and find our gate. Everything is a story-- so when you go to a gate and it posts the flight number, you sit and wait. Then the flight number disappears. What is one to do when communication is a real challenge? Point. Often. Everywhere. Fortunately, one of the airline employees actually was able to point us to the right gate. Phew. Not sure what we would have done if we missed the flight. Oh but wait, we are not on the plane yet. The gate had a plane at it already (not ours), so we just stood there hoping for the best. Then they called for boarding and we looked at each other a bit quizzically. Off we went, down the stairs, and out the door onto the tarmac. Yes. We took a bus to the plane out on the tarmac. All is well, and the flight was great. We are really glad we made it here.

Peter, our new guide, met us after luggage gathering. He took us straight to a Korean History Museum where we were able to look at a topographical map of Jeju, the volcanic island. Much information about volcanic rocks and the modernization of this incredible island. It was the perfect start to give us context for the visit.

End of Day 3

We finished our Day 3 on Seoul's Insa Don - a street similar to those found in Soho. We visited a few art gallery show openings, artisan shops and tasted Korean pastries. Many of the stores sold the supplies necessary for creating calligraphy - a paint brush sculpture greets visitors at the head of the street.

Stepping Back in Time

Gyeongbokgung Palace

The changing of the royal guards greeted us as we entered the palace gates on Wednesday. The largest of five palaces in Seoul, Gyeongbokgung Palace is extensive - even though only 35% remains of the original compound. The ancient structures are framed by tall buildings AND the mountains - providing a modern context, as well as a link to the past with nature ever present in the vistas. As seen in one of our photos - we could not resist taking a step back in time ourselves.

Day 3

It's really a shame that we even we need hotels because we spend so little time staying still. We are so grateful that we are really out and about soaking in as much as possible.

Today started with another formal introduction to the educational system of Korea. We met with President Kwangia Rhee of Seoul Women's University. As a member of its first graduating class and now multi-termed president, she has put the university on the educational map, even though, at 8000 students, it is one of the smallest of the region. With a mission that includes leadership, service learning, and character development. we immediately felt at ease and excited at the prospects of building a relationship with the school. A huge surprise of the day was finding out that they run the premier primary school-- visited by educational leaders of the world. At the entrance to the school stands a huge rock with the Korean symbols for faith, hope, and love as they are the guideposts for the school. We literally had to step into pink booties to maintain the cleanliness of the floors as they have radiant heating so the children and teachers wear either slippers or socks around during the day. There are so many details to share and so many similarities with our PS. What an affirmation!

Getting Closer to Seoul

So far, we've cumulatively been in transit for 24 hours since we left Summit-- either on a plane or in a car. Three of those hours today were riding along the coast and the highway back from the northeast to the more central Seoul. We left the sunny clear skies of Mt.Sorak to a rainy satellite of Seoul and the famous Korean Folk Village. Dating back to Joseon Dynasty, the village of over 260 buildings is a testament to the former President of Korea who wanted to make sure that the culture and history of the nation is not forgetton as the world changes. We walked through looking at the various types of architecture from the time period, seeing the incredibly advanced technology (can you say radiant heat flooring?!), and trying to identify the many plants and trees. Both of us remain awed at the art form it is to grow rice. It is actually hard to describe the feeling and energy of this place and the amazing respect that the Koreans have for their history and for sharing it with the world.

Start of Day 2

Rise and Shine! We left the park, headed east towards the water-- a brief fifteen minute ride-- where we walked through the local fishmarket and got a real flavor of the life in this area. The proximity of the mountains to the fish market, almost as if casting a shadow on them, is something neither of have ever seen before. The fresh fish to the dried to the small fishing boats pulled up on the shore filled the air with the definite smell of the seafarer's life.

Day 1

Mount Sorak National Park took our breath away--our only regret is that we could not spend more time hiking through it. If we come back...

Day 1 Photo

Day 1 South Korea

Sue and Liz landed in Seoul, South Korea on Monday. We immediately drove to Wonju Girls' High School - our sister school in Wonju, South Korea. As we approached the school, we spotted a banner flying over the road welcoming Kent Place School to Wonju! The Principal of the High School greeted us with many other teachers and escorted us to a formal welcoming ceremony and a gift-giving exchange. We had a tour of the school - from a PE class (Badmitten) to an English Class (they were transcribing lyrics to an American song) - we even met a world champion archer (15 years old) who gave us a demonstration on the rooftop archery range. We had a traditional Korean feast for lunch. After all of our good-byes and plans for starting the student and teacher exchange as soon as possible, we headed north to Mount Sorak National Park. The breath-taking scenery included multiple mountain ranges and a beautiful shoreline along the East Sea (Sea of Japan on maps.) After taking a cable car up the mountain and climbing to the top, we finished our first day in South Korea excited AND exhausted!