Even Tonsillitis won't keep us away!

Apparently in Korea, there is a place down south where the sea parts and you can walk across the ocean floor. Amazing right? I sure thought so! I found out about this even last year and have been keeping tabs on it, ready to head straight down to Jindo the moment it happened! Well, I found out the dates – and it happened to fall on a weekend. And that weekend, I happened to be free! I was going to the Jindo Sea Parting Festival! Of course, I told everyone about my plans – “I’m going to the Jindo Sea Parting, oh man it’s going to be soooo cooool, want to go?” That was about the time I heard the awful news, “Oh, well I think that is canceled so sorry you can’t go.” At first I was devastated! The sea parting, canceled? Why does every festival have to be canceled? (I know the answer, Foot and Mouth disease. But that doesn’t mean I like the answer!) I sat around my home in a mood of deep depression for a few minutes…..until I realized, Korea and the Foot and Mouth disease can cancel a festival, but they can NOT cancel a Sea Parting! Only God and Moses can do that! So it was set – I was going!

Again, I went around asking for volunteers to join the excursion. Of course Sam was in, that’s a given! By the departure time, we had a total of 7 people leaving from Pohang, then a few other friends meeting us there from other parts of Korea! It was going to fun!

We all arrive at the bus terminal and take the 2 hour bus ride to Busan, eat dinner, and then take the 4 hour bus ride to Gwangju. By the time we arrived, we were pretty exhausted! Though there was much fun to be had everywhere, we decided to take it upon ourselves and do the responsible thing – go to bed!

Just looking for things to feed to people...

The next morning it was time! We were going to see the sea PART! We head straight for the bus terminal after we headed straight to the coffee shop. We got our tickets, and piled on the bus. Luckily we were able to get seats, so we sat down. The bus was full of foreigners – and unfortunately for us, the most annoying ones were the ones sitting behind us. But we made the best of it. We arrived at Jindo in one piece, and headed straight to the “canceled festival”.

 

Sam is enjoying a couple of cocoons before the big part!

The parting!

Of course, there was still a festival going on. Crazy people. We walked around look at food booths. Then we finally choose a food booth to eat at. After stuffing our faces with seafood pancakes, corndogs, cake things, and cocoons, we headed to the sea part! We had already purchased our boots, so strapping them to our legs, we headed out! 

 

The sea parting was, well, a parted sea! There was a path where everyone was walking across to the other island. Lots of people were digging in the dirt looking for clams and seaweed and whatever else they good find, filling up bags full of sea-goodies. Lots of people were walking to the island though. I was surprised by how many foreigners there were! It seems like over half the people there were speaking English! I had forgotten annoying that was! I’m so used to people talking around me, and me not understanding a single word they said. Now I’m stuck in the middle of all the English speakers in Korea., and because I’m cursed with good hearing, forced to listen to their pointless conversations. I wanted to go back where people talk and I can’t understand!

 

We walked and walked, some of our group turning back, while some of our group continued. Finally they blew the whistle, meaning the tide was about to come in, so we headed back. 

Soju + no shoes + many shells = NO PROBLEM!

Now it was time to try and get back to Gwangju! A very difficult task, seeing as how there were only 2 buses left that would go there, and a million people wanting to go! We call a few taxis and that gets us to the bus terminal before everone else – a good head start. Then we stand and wait for the buses to arrive. While standing there, the rest of the crowds start flocking in, and I’m getting scared. There is going to be a mad dash for the bus!

And there was. It was all about who was bigger and badder, or shorter and tinier. If you could push your way to the front, or slide around people and get an advantage….you were on that thing! It was a mess! Luckily me and the 9 others with us were able to get on and get seats! I don’t know how we lucked out like that. Well, maybe I do. We were first in the bus line! Haha. Everyone else was standing around the bus, or sitting on the floor eating ramen noodles. It was a mess.

Finally we arrived back to Gwangju. We were all starving so we went to the biggest and best meat restaurant we could find. Then, stuffed our faces with it! Afterwards half of the group went to bed, while the other half met up with some friends who were in town. The next morning we all met up again, and started the long bus ride back to Pohang.