Jeju Island - Days 1 and 2

Despite all the craziness required of moving back to the states, we managed to sneak in one last trip here in Korea, and spent a relaxing week on Jeju Island. I've heard it referred to as the "Hawaii of Korea", but since I've never been to Hawaii, I'll just share our adventures as best as I can and leave the comparing up to you.

We stayed on the east coast of the island, near Seongsan, which had a number of the attractions we wanted to see. If yoiu look at this map, our hotel was near where the blue and green roads intersect.

We headed to Gimpo Airport and flew on Jeju Air - the seats were ridiculously cheap when I booked them (around 35,000 won, one way) and we enjoyed the brief one hour flight over.

We realized part way through our travels that we had obviously forgotten a key traveling accessory - our face masks to prevent germs from getting to us (mainly due to the fear of MERS right now). Despite that, we managed to stay healthy and enjoy our trip.

We rented a car through rentalcars.com and ended up with a cute little Kia for the week, that JUST fit us and our luggage. The best part of this was the Jeju GPS, which had an English option and allowed you to input a destination's phone number to plan the route. This was the easiest trip ever - especially since we've been to Korea - and it was nice to have the freedom to go where we wanted to.

Before we checked into out hotel, we stopped along the way to visit Dolharbang Park so we could learn about Jeju's famous Stone Grandfather statues, take a bunch of pictures, and stretch our legs a bit.

The Dolharbang (돌하르방) are statues carved from the volcanic rock found on Jeju and they are considered to be very inportant guardians. They can be found in all manner of sizes all over the island, but have the same key features - a man with rounded eyes, large nose, thin lips, a hat, and two hands (usually placed on his stomach).

They are believed to provide both comfort and ward of danger. They can also be made for very specific purposes, such as this fertility dolharbang:

We took lots of photos and then headed back to our car.

He found penguins!

We stayed at the Jeju Lux Hotel for the week - a boutique hotel with unique rooms and very friendly service. Since we were not staying at the more touristy section of the island, this was way more affordable and just what we needed to rest our head. They even had a laundry service, which made packing easier, as well.

The hallways had some pretty interesting quotes in English on the walls.

And we ended up not needing Michael's travel cot, as they already had an extra mattress in the room for him. He was thrilled!  :)

The next day we braved the rainy sky and headed north to the Manjanggul Lava Tube.

We descended into the cave, leaving humid warmth, and immediately felt the cool dampness of the 7.4 km lava tube.

It was hard to take pictures, but here are a few attempts:

This is known as turtle rock and is famous due to its strong resemblance to the shape of Jeju Island, complete with Mt. Halla in the center.

At the end of the open portion of the tube is a large 7.6 meter lava column (the largest in the world).

After we trekked back to the opening of the cave, wiped off the condensation from our fogged up glasses (a first for Michael!), and stopped for a quick lunch at the nearby restaurant, we headed just a few meters down the road to a maze park. The roads were lined with beautiful flowers throughout our trip, but I especially loved the blooming hydrangeas.

Our visit to Kimnyong Maze Park was brief but fun.

I made the "mistake" of letting a certain small guy navigate our way through the maze...

So we ended up waving at Rob a number of times from afar...since he found the way out waaaay before us.

But we did eventually find our way to the bell at the end of the maze.

That afternoon we opted to go visit the Jeju Folklore and Natural History Museum - we of course found more dolharbangs.

There were numerous outdoor statues and rock examples:

And some great exhibits inside about the history and development of the island.

There was also a marine life exhibit, since a good deal of the island's income come from the sea. The skeleton of a whale was impressive.

Along our travels we picked up a few Jeju souvenirs and "must haves": Jeju chocolates (with orange, cactus, green tea, and berry flavors), a small dohlarbang, and delicious, fresh hallabongs (Jeju tangerines).

Coming soon - Jeju, Day 3...and Days 4 and 5...

What will we miss about Korea? Part 2

The 2nd set of movers came and went, and now we start the weeks of paper plates and minimal wardrobe choices. We'll be living out of suitcases for the next two months - yikes!

In the last post I wrote all about what we would miss when we move back to the states. This post is the flip side of things - what we won't miss and what we are looking forward to.

What we will NOT miss:
-crazy drivers and a complete lack of roadside courtesy...I may have adapted to this...hope I don't get a ticket when we move back!
-smog/yellow dust - blech.
-being too far away for a visit to family - Skype is great, but in person is better.
-relying on sign language at times for simple requests and conversations. I DO wish I had been able to have a more involved conversation with our building's cleaning ajumma. She was always so nice and happy to see Michael.

Random things we look forward to back stateside:
-seeing and hugging family!
-being in the same time zone (and day) as most of our friends...although the two days of birthday was pretty awesome.
-cream in my coffee at a restaurant - I am not a fan of the ever popular Americano (black coffee)
-ground turkey (since there's a poultry embargo in Korea due to bird flu in the US...did you know?)
-shoe shopping in a store - Women's size 11 is not a size you will find in Korea...
-a larger sized oven that fits more than one thing in it at a time, so I can more easily cook a large meal...like a turkey and green bean casserole!
-NY bagels, fresh that morning.
-being able to spend a few hours in a book store like Barnes and Noble (this is mainly so Rob can sit and read graphic novels till his heart's content).
-getting our stuff back. We will effectively be living out of suitcases for 2 months...that's going to be something we will definitely be happy to say goodbye to!

Things that will take a bit of time for us to adjust to:
-not having to say thank you in Korean (kamsa hamnida!)
-not having to greet anyone in Korean (annyeong haseyo!)
-thinking in US dollars versus Korean won
-having to pay tax and tipping - if an item says it is 1,000 won here, that is how much it is. And you do not tip in Korean restaurants or other establishments.
-hearing English all around us
-driving everywhere instead of walking or using public transportation
-shaking hands instead of bowing (I anticipate more colds in our future)

My friend Amy wrote an article for Korea Ye that covers the last section a bit - 
PCSing Back to the US from Korea: You Can’t Go Home Again

We are off on our last adventure to Jeju Island. I'll write that up afterwards, but then the Korea blog will be done.

So for all those back home - please be patient with us as we make the transition back. Living in Korea has changed us and we hope you've enjoyed following along on the adventure.

안녕히 계세요 (annyeonghi-gyeseyo) Goodbye; Stay in peace.

What will we miss about Korea? Part 1

Well, no matter how much I can try to deny it, we're leaving Korea soon. 

It finally became reality when this happened:

A bit hard to say it's not happening when most of your stuff gets packed up in the blink of an eye. As a result, I started thinking about all of the things we will miss about living here and all of the things we have to look forward to. This is Part 1 of the list - what we'll miss about Korea. There may or may not be tears happening as I type.

Oh, man...I don't know if this list will ever end. I'll try to keep it to the major points...in no particular order:

Korean food - not every delicacy was our cup of tea, but the bulgogi, dakkgalbi, jjajangmyeon, awesome fried chicken, beef and leaf, yummy street foods, and all those side dishes at restaurants...yeah, gonna miss those. I bought a Korean cook book, so I anticipate some attempts at recreation in my future. I now understand a bunch of our friends who do the same after living here.

Public transportation - subway, train, taxi, bus - so many great and easy options. My T-card may get its very own scrapbook page in honor of its awesomeness.

Music - I've enjoyed both traditional Korean music and K-Pop while here. Having taken my samulnori class, I have a greater appreciation for the older styles and their performances. I'm also going to miss the events and opportunities offered by the KTO.

Korean architecture - the traditional buildings and colors are just so beautiful.

Ondol flooring = warm tootsies all winter long! And I didn't have to wear socks! Pure bliss.

Art everywhere - at every hotel, every subway station, in the tunnel under the railroad...so nice to look around and find beauty in a HUGE city.

Friends - with each move, we've made new friends and have been sad to part company when we've moved to the next location. The many friends I've made in Korea have all been so supportive and like a family while here; in the absence of your actual family, your community quickly becomes one. My Korean family is from all over the world: the US, Korea, Poland, Lithuania...and this is going to be a pretty tough "See ya later."

Museums and festivals - sooooooo many wonderful exhibits and experiences - so much history. Definitely going to miss those, as well as the great venues for the 8th Army Band's performances. I see some road trips and exploring of the US in our future...

Strawberries (and other fresh fruits and veggies) - the winter strawberries here are grown in greenhouses and are lovingly referred to as "crackberries"...yes, they are that good. I've loved being able to head out to a neighborhood produce truck or local store for the fresh produce when I could. It's a Farmer's Market on the go - with great prices and oh, so good food.

picture courtesy of my friend, Suzanne

A sense of sharing and caring - while there are negatives in any society today (just turn on the news for a quick refresher - or don't...just trust me there), we will absolutely miss the kindness of Korea's people and the sense of sharing (meals, time, work). While we are obviously foreigners and communication was taxing at times, we have always been treated kindly and offered help when it was needed. One of the other writer's for Korea Ye! wrote a piece about sharing here - it's a good read: Korea Has Taught Me To Share

Safety - the sense of safety in a huge city. This is a big one that many will not understand, especially since Korea has some interesting neighbors to the North and that's what most think of when they hear "Korea". One of the things that we kind of dread about going back to the states is the constant worry about being safe - from people, from guns, from predators...it's been very nice to not worry about it all of the time. Now don't get me wrong - there are guns and unhappy people in Korea, but it's harder to have access to them and the swift justice system here deters stealing and other negatives pretty well. Here are two fun videos that dealt with the topic:
Honesty Test in Korea
Losing a Wallet Experiment in Korea

Okay, I'll stop there - before I start listing every little thing possible - there really is sooo much we've loved about living here. The next post will be about the opposite - what we are looking forward to back in the US.

We have had an amazing experience and are so glad we were brave enough to go on the adventure.

A Musical Weekend - AFSC Choir and 8th Army Band Concert

A few weeks back, the Bruns Family had a very musical weekend, and it felt good to stretch those music muscles a bit. 

While my oboe did not get any exercise this time around, my vocal cords managed to hold their own. As part of my activities with the American Forces' Spouses' Club, I was the Music Club leader this year and one of our final events was singing a bunch of Broadway tunes during the end of the year gala. Seven wonderful ladies joined me for the fun and worked super hard to make it happen. It was a pure pleasure working with all of them; it brought me back to my earlier days of teaching choir and show choir in NY and GA.

Rob and I also had fun singing a tune together - "The Song That Goes Like This" from Spamalot. We managed to get a few laughs from the crowd (he is such a diva).  :)

A few favorites were sung - "Seasons of Love"; "Hard Knock Life"; "So Long, Farewell". I know a number of former students may start humming to themselves right about now...you're welcome.  ;)

photo courtesy of Lisa Bond Photography

And we had a nice dinner to top it all off.

Later that weekend, Rob conducted the 8th Army Band at one of the concerts in its Spring Series. It was an outdoor venue, on the top of Namsan by N Seoul Tower - a good time to bring the munchkin with me to enjoy the tunes...

...and the view.

photo courtesy of my friend, Angelle

There were a number of featured soloist pieces - "Tuba Tiger Rag" and "Persuasion":

Here's a bit of the tuba piece:

The brass band (Spartan Brass) and brass quintets (Alliance Brass) pumped up the crowd.

There were some local dancers...

...and this is what happens when you bring a 5 year old to an hour+ concert...

It was a good concert and a good weekend with great music making.

And silly selfies on the bus.