we have about 1 day left in korea before we pack it up and head out on a new adventure.

jason and jennie came for a whirlwind visit where we spent 8 days together eating and eating.

and on august 24th, ben and i will leave for hong kong. after a week, we’ll fly to kunming and slowly make our way to beijing (where we took our first trip together 6 years ago). beijing to new delhi and a few weeks for india. india to vietnam. vietnam to cambodia. cambodia to singapore, where we’ll end our journey and head home. our plan is to be back in wisconsin before thanksgiving.

there are so many things i’d like to write about my time here, and maybe i will some day. but right now, we’ve got an apartment to clean, last minute things to pack and ship home, and some goodbyes to be said.

it’s been a good 2 years.

now i’m ready for what’s next.

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it’s finally beginning to feel like spring!

now i feel like i can do anything! oh, the empowerment!

and i like them both.

and even though it rained almost our entire time on jeju island, we had a great trip! we walked along some beautiful beaches and cliffs, hiked up hallasan in the pouring rain, ate some delicious food and spent time being lazy in our beautiful hotel on the beach (which we got an amazing deal on).

the canola flowers were blooming. my mom informed me that before the canola flowers bloom, you can pick the stems and leaves and cook them and eat them. i don’t know if this is true…

we hiked up hallasan, the largest mountain in korea. it rained cold, hard rain almost the entire 5 hour hike. but we were ready for it and enjoyed almost every minute. because hallasan is volcanic, there were lots of rolling green slopes towards the top with some beautiful vegetation. mountains on the peninsula don’t look anything like it.

because we went in the (slightly) off season, there weren’t too many tourists and there were no crowds. it made our stay even more pleasant.

and even though the weather back in seoul wasn’t quite as warm as i hoped it would be on our return, it feels like spring is right around the corner.

this morning, ben and i will be leaving to go on one last getaway before the end of winter and the beginning of the new school year. we’ll be heading south to jeju island where the canola flowers should be blooming.

we’re hoping to spend the next 4 days hiking mt. hallasan, exploring lava tubes, eating tons of hallabong (a special citrus fruit that grows only on jeju) and clementines, scootering around the island, and maybe even horseback riding, if we’re lucky.

and if we’re really lucky, it’ll be warm and spring-like when we return to seoul!

i feel better already.

i think i have a case of the winter madness. will be spending the rest of the morning watching the bbc miniseries, ‘emma,’ in bed.

a lot.