Island Hopping!

Bioluminescence- the production of light by living organisms.
I had to look that up for my own personal benefit and thought perhaps you might enjoy the definition as well!

The Korean sights here are so interesting, they aren't majestic and awe inspiring like the rockies, nor are they vivid and brilliant like the sunsets over the Great Salt Lake, everything is muted greens and greys, fine mists, and soft curves. I think the scenery greatly compliments the emotionless, quiet lifestyle the Koreans (asians) live. So it's nice for me to finally be able to appreciate the beauty around me. the soft mountainous islands that spotted the horizon and the mists that trail their fingers lovingly through the mountains tree covered hairlines are finally beginning to grow on me. 

This weekend I discovered a rare Korean gem: island hopping. It just so happens that roughly 45 minutes from where I live there is a port city called Tongyeong. In Tongyeong you can catch a ferry that will take you to any number of islands, all varying in size, shape, and population. The one we chose was called Bijindong and boasted a population of 5. I went with some other foreign english teacher friends of mine and we all decided to camp on the beach. We arrived in Tongyeong in a convoy of bus riders and car drivers and hopped onto the ferry. The ferry clearly stated: Maximum capacity 75, we had rougly a 100 people on the ferry. As you entered the boat there was another sign clearly displayed that said, "Head Careful" I took that to mean: be careful with your head as you may someday bang it against something hard; because let's be honest here, there was no way that sign meant watch your head. Anyway, all us waegooks (Korean for foreigners) promptly installed ourselves on the top deck in a small room, we plunked our gear down on the floor and we all migrated onto the deck. I quickly found myself experiencing the wind whipping through my hair, pulling at loose tendrils and setting loose quite a few more, the loud conversation of happy people drifting through my ears, The smell of brine and boat exhaust filling my lungs. As I stood for longer the uneven rise and fall of the boat began to creat an old sensation within the bowels of my stomach; which promptly had me sitting with my back in a corner of the room, breathing deeply and evenly through my nose and out my mouth, praying to the sea gods that I didn't vomit up the delicious seaweed and rice triangle I had for breakfast. Thank you motion sickness! After 30 minutes or so the boat happily spit us out onto a makeshift floating dock and we surveyed our location. We were going to be camping on a stretch of beach that connected two islands. White sand beach and a small store that sold merely Ramen, Beer, and Water (the three things that i'm convinced Koreans live on) where before me. I was elated! What an experience! There were a few more waegooks around but not that many, and there were a few older Ajummas and Ajushis (women and men) staring blankly at the white faces but nothing over-crowded or underappreciated. We set up camp and I decided (more for lack of actual equipment than choice) that I wanted to sleep under the stars. So I watched while everyone unpacked. We wiled the day away playing frisbee and soccer, swimming, and barbequeing, we wiled the evening away singing disney and journey songs, and then around 10 I decided I wanted to go for a night swim. I careened into the small surf and swam a few paces, until I could just barely touch, I began treading water, calling out to my friends to join me when I noticed it. I was glowing electric blue. Everytime I kicked my legs or swirled my arms an electric blue glow was emitted. Bioluminescence! Someone knew a little about this phenomena and informed me that it was algae in the water that was causing the blue, apparently when you move the algae it glows. Who knew?! I was just fascinated by this, I swam to and fro, swimming wildly and then slowly seeing the different effects my movements had on the algae, what I decided I liked best was when I swam slowly, very slowly, the algae would twinkle like stars and take on the shape of small blue pearls that crept up my arms and body, softly caressing my curves. It was beautiful. I can't imagine a better time either, great friends, beautiful starry night, and twinkling blue pearly waves. Well I finally went to bed exhausted after a day of sun and sand...only to be eaten alive by some horrid sand bug all night long. Never again will I sleep on the beach without at least a screened tent to keep the bugs in the sand and me off the sand. The next day dawned nice and drizzly. A brilliant 6am light misting rain awoke me and I scrambled to find shelter, which I found right as the rain ended. *sigh* Thankfully I had the rest of the day to nap in the sun and play in the surf!!
 
We hopped onto a ferry right as the torrential rains began and boy were we glad!! Although I was personally majorily displeased with the rains choice of start times as it meant that I was forced to experience the ferry at full tilt rain ocean mode which was nearly catastrophic in terms of me vomiting but I DID manage to hang onto my PB&J.  Barely. When we got back into Tongyeong we got in the car and began driving, only to get stuck in the worst traffic jam i've ever seen. It took us 4 hours to drive 45 minutes. I just kept thinking "I could walk faster." Which indeed I should have done in order to score some delicious ice cream cones...but being the optimists that we were we kept thinking: It'll clear up and then we can get some ice cream.

The lesson in all this? Always stop for ice cream.

Anyeong!