You should see to believe there actually is a place like that exists not so far from Seoul, the biggest and still expanding capital city of this country. Thanks to my aunt who owns a little property amid of an endless rice paddy, barnyards and cattle sheds, we already had fairly pleasant holiday afternoon together with relatives and Emily, a friend from the US. Then, rather spontaneously, my sister, Emily and I decided to hit the road to an island where one of my cousin is the pastor of the only church therein. So our journey of the lunar new year of 2007 began.
* Photos from the trip.
http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow/557748251wjGYlj?&track_pagetag=/page/album/goodtimes/friendsfun&track_action=/Owner/ActionsBox/Slideshow
The holiday excursion was actually planned long before the holiday began, but it conveniently had been forgotten like many other occassions in the hussle-bussle of the city life. Even with pressures from the friend who I invited long ago and some relatives wished my schedule to emcompass the invitation to their home, I absolutely didn't have any idea how I would fit everything together to make everybody happy until early Saturday morning, the very starting date of the holiday. After spending the very morning and some afternoon time at the aunt's barnyard in a suburban town from Seoul - of course, there, we paid our regular visit to the nearby endless field of rice paddy to run around like manics and cattle sheds to wet ourselves with their drooling saliva, then completing the dirty task with smooching our cheeks to village dogs that probably had never been bathed in their entire lives. If wish to add slight spice to that, I hug everybody and start to be touchy-touchy particlarly to young nephews and nieces who usually react hysterically before I clean myself up. (yes, I am sadistic in this sense!)
So Sis, Emily, and I completed our first mission of the holiday. Then, it was time to take off for an excursion. Although, three days weren't certainly enough to satisfy our long-endured desire to go around the unknown, it was still better to try than just sit around. We set the direction to an island on the west coast of the peninsula where one of my cousin's husband is the pastor of the only church therein. It only took us around 1.5 hr driving from the aunt's home, a piece of cake!
Last time I visited the island was the summer of 2006, the only thing I found on the island was full of stacked trashes and files of bodies completely covered the entire beach. But this time, the nature performed its miracle and the beaches were all recovered from damage from last summer and glowed with reflection from its white sand and sparking blue ocean. There were still some people walking thereon, but very few compared to half year ago. Wonderful!
Since my cus and her husband are busy for preparing for Sun's summon, we decided to stay at a close-by hotel, which turned out to be a quite comfy. There, we encountered with unexpected pleasant companies from Ireland and Scotland; Joe, Diarmuid and Euan. The young visitors from Europe who seem to have a full of curiosity and strong urge to know more of the unknown inspired us in many ways, since we now have resided for some time in this country and slowly find ourselves in rather a pragmatic position. Lengthy conversations/debates on politics, economy, cultures, etc of nations across the whole world went on for many hours with some occasional interruption while making comments how sceneries we were in were breathtakingly fantastic or when we all gone completely insane riding 4-wheel sand vehicle enabling us to drive faster than 30-40Km/hr on the blindly bright sand beach where nobody was around. Beautiful!
Everything went just fine until the 4-wheel vehicle my sis on was rolled over and landed on one of her shoulder and left cheek bone. Her nostrils and mouth full of yellow sand, she still smiled and said she's fine and back on her vehicle.
Like everything else in life, our excursion headed to an end after enjoying moments of escalating joy. On the way home, we still were cheerfully chatting ceaselessly, hided how sorry we all were, and felt some kind of reluctancy about returning to the city and the routine. Now being almost an expert thereof, luckily I felt mostly recharged and all freshed up.
