The Green Tea Fields of Boseong

Almost a year into our stay here and we still have a handful of things left to do on our Korean bucket list. Last weekend we decided to knock one out by taking a trip out to a little town nestled in the mountains called Boseong.


Boseong is home to the largest and most popular green tea farms in all of Korea. There are lots of different farms in the Boseong area but the most famous and tourist friendly one is called Daehan Dawon. Daehan Dawon was established in 1957 and has about 5.8 million tea plants.

It's definitely a place to escape the big city and enjoy the sights and smells of nature. It had rained the day before our trip and smell of the wet soil and clean air was so refreshing. There are great, big trees everywhere that were planted back in the late fifties to make a "shelterbelt" for the tea plants and it was so nice to meander through the trees around the fields. With the number and variety of trees, it's going to be absolutely stunning in the fall.

At first, we went the wrong way. Up this path:

We walked a little while, found some wild strawberries, and then realized we were probably going the wrong way when we didn't see the iconic rows of tea plants and went down. The silliest part was, we learned to read Korean and some of the few words we know in Korean are the words for green tea. I'm just so used to never understanding signs here that we didn't even bother to stop and read the path markers! Oh, well. The accidental path was actually really gorgeous and we found the strawberries so that was cool. Getting lost is usually quite fun, really!

After that, we read some signs and found the tea pretty quickly. Man, was it a sight to see!

We visited early in the morning to beat the June heat and the crowds. I'm so glad I forced myself to get up early on a Saturday. Not only was the weather perfect but we got to get some great photos without people photo bombing us. By noon, the place was pretty crowded and we started to make our way home. 

Of course, we had to stop by the shop before we left and they had a bunch of souvenirs for sale (a lot of it made in Thailand or China). We bought a big bag of whole tea leaves from the farm itself for 5,000 won (about $5) and a couple green tea milk shakes for the walk back through the trees to the road.  

Field Trip: Traditional Korean Dyeing

We took three buses filled with 4-6 year old Korean kids to the mountainous countryside on the outskirts of Gwangyang for a field trip. At first, it sounds a bit crazy but in reality, it was one of the most chill field trips we've been on since the kids were actually doing something and not just running around like maniacs.

First we all sat and listened to a woman explain (in Korean) what sorts of natural materials they use to make different colors. She would get out a length of cloth and then ask the students to guess what was used to make it. Well, at least that's what I think was happening.

Then they handed out white handkerchiefs for us all to dye. We wrapped rubber bands around them in different patterns just like tie dyeing.

After we tied rubber bands around them, we headed outside to some plastic tubs filled with different color dyes. There was yellow, red, purple, and green. My group squatted around a tub filled with dye and told to wait. Then the kids got bored and started throwing grass in it and I told them to stop and be patient. Obviously, this is hard for a five year old because when I looked away, one of the kids spit his gum in it!

Finally we were given the go ahead to dye. The kids were a little apprehensive at first but I just shoved mine in and they soon followed suit. We had to let it soak so we got to play in the colored water for a while. I was strict about splashing since it would obviously stain clothing. I saw some other kids later with big colored splashes on their clothes. I'm sure their parents weren't happy about that!

After we soaked them in the dye, we dipped them in some clear liquid. Then we wrung them out and hung them up to dry while we went to eat lunch under some of the most grand, beautiful trees I've seen in Korea.

After lunch, we collected our dyed and dried handkerchiefs and bused back to Wonderland. Easy, peasy! :)

Sometimes, I think the key to being a good kindergarten teacher in Korea, is making a total fool of yourself. The above picture is just a tiny snippet into the crazy things I do to make the kids laugh! :)

The McDonald's Voyage

We've made a rule. If we want McDonald's, we have to walk there and it's really far away. Like, 2.2 miles one way according to Google maps. It usually takes us over three hours to walk, eat, and walk back.

We don't go very often but when we do, we get to see all kinds of new things in Suncheon. McDonald's is in the "old downtown" and we live and mostly stay in the "new downtown". There are some great things on the other side of town and we often get lost trying to find our way, which is good for making new discoveries.

We always try to remember which way to go for the next time we decide to urban hike at night to eat fast food but it never works. It's simultaneously exhausting and exhilarating because it feels like we are truly exploring--one of the greatest pleasures in life.

On our latest McDonald's trek we took some pictures to document the experience. I don't have a lot of experience with night photography (none, really!) but I think a few of them turned out pretty good. I hope you enjoy!

lanterns up to celebrate Buddha's birthday

a thumbs up statue! just what every city needs

small temple

look at that teeny fire hydrant!

play ground called "sik-holz" ....looks like some foreigners might have written that

some people were setting up for a little festival along the river and we walked through this marvel

the roses are exploding everywhere right now

an empty lot FULL of red poppies, it was so beautiful

lights off the Suncheon river

a bad ass motorcycle and a timid little kitty sticker

happy truck is happy

Korean BBQ

My favorite Korean food is definitely barbeque. The best part is, you cook the meat yourself on a grill built into the table. It's fun and you get to cook it exactly like you like it! It's great for me because I like my meat cooked well, with some black on it. Of course, this always causes the wait staff to think that we're just silly foreigners who don't know how to cook and they come over and "fix" it for us. :)

After the meat is almost done cooking, you use scissors to cut it up. It's super efficient and way easier than knives and forks. The restaurant we went to mixes egg and chopped kimchi to sort of bake on the sides of the grill. It's delicious!

We also got sides, kimchi soup, and beer. Everything you need for a good night out in Korea! :)

Here you have (starting top left and going clockwise) pickled radish, kimchi, some kind of oily/spice/sesame seed mixture, garlic, Korean red sauce (YUM! Suncheon is known for its good red sauce), and I can't remember what the powder stuff is.
 

the best kimchi soup in Suncheon

We also ordered kimchi soup because this restaurant has the most delicious kimchi soup I have had in Korea. It's spicy and kind of almost creamy, like tomato soup. It's amazing.
 

It's hardly a night out to barbeque if you don't have some beer. The little glass is for mixing beer and soju but we didn't drink any soju that night since it was a school night. Can you imagine being hungover while trying to teach this lot? No, thank you! 

A big thanks to our friends Rachel and Jonathan for introducing us to this restaurant. It's one of our faves in Suncheon!

Our Side of Suncheon

Like almost every city in Korea, Suncheon has a Bongwa mountain. Back in the day, it would be the lookout mountain for invaders and would have signal fires and stuff. Today, it's just a place to hike and take in the scenery.

Suncheon is divided into the "old downtown" and the "new downtown" by our Bongwa mountain. We didn't hike all the way to the top but we did get to see some great views of our side of Suncheon, "new downtown." Most of those tall rectangular buildings are apartments. It's amazing how many people can live here in such a small space and it's all due to those monsters.

On the way down, I spotting these purple beauties and couldn't resist taking a couple photos. Korea has tons of great flowers blooming now.

Also, this very big, very scary bug.

Lat but not least, here is Spencer hula hooping with a very large and heavy black hula hoop. I couldn't do it. It was too heavy!

Cycling to Suncheon Bay

Spring is here and the weather has been gorgeous. There are sunny blue skies, fresh breezes, and flowers blooming everywhere. We are loving every minute of it and trying to fully enjoy it before the horribly hot, sticky summer arrives.

A couple weekends ago we took our bikes out to Suncheon Bay. We heard it was a nice, easy ride and good for a day trip. We've been to Suncheon Bay once before but we've heard the reeds are always changing and so it's cool to go at different times of the year to see the changes in the environment.

The bike ride down was easy and relaxing. It took us about an hour but we stopped a few times to take pictures. They are currently doing some construction (installing a monorail) and going through the construction zones was a bit rocky. Most of the time, we had a nice path like the one below.

 
Most of the land along the river was left wild and we saw some cool birds and men fishing under big umbrellas.

The path got a little nicer and then we were there.

We got in half price since we live in Suncheon. Score! :)

I'm no sure if they stepped up their game since the Yeosu Expo just opened or it's like this every year in the spring, but the flowers were amazing!

California poppies! :) a little taste of home

Spencer with the fountain

water garden in a pot

The first thing we did was eat lunch in this super cool little hut.

Then we were off to go hike the little mountain to the look out point. We walked through the mud fields of reeds on raised wooden walkways with all the other people out enjoying the beautiful day. There were groups of screaming kids, a tour group of elderly people, young couples, old couples...just about anyone and everyone, really.

You have two options when hiking up to the lookout point:

Here's both trail heads:

We chose the mediation path which is more of a big ramp up the side of the mountain. On the way up we spotted a traditional Korean graveyard.

The view from the top is great and I wish we could have stayed a bit later in the day. I think it would be an excellent place to watch the sunset. However, we still had to bike home and wanted to do so in daylight.

Here's a panorama picture I took using the Photosynth app on my iPod touch.

Happy Anniversary Lover

Happy Anniversary to us. This year has been glorious.