Hi. I am Chris Tarling, Karissa's mom, and I am her guest writer on her blog. I have been in Jeju for a week now, visiting Karissa and seeing all the sites on the island as well as watching her teach her English classes and meeting all the wonderful friends she has made here. Here are a few of my favorite pictures and things that happened while I was in Jeju.
Karissa met me with this sign at the airport: "Are you my mom?" It was a wonderful reunion!
Korean traditional pork barbeque with last years co-teachers.
Green Tea Museum, we ate green tea ice cream, of course.
My "Babysitter" Emma shows me around the first day. We visited one of many temples on the island, and a very kind monk offered to take our picture.
These Harubang (stone grandfathers) stand guard at all the bridges and other places all over the island. The original ones were carved around 175o, only 45 of those remain, I plan to visit one of those tomorrow. These are modern Harubang.
A beautiful sunny day but cold! Karissa's co teacher, Byeong-Su Kim, took us on a tour of the island all day on Saturday. This is one of his favorite spots. You can see why!
We went to a park with 3 waterfalls, here is one of them. Very picturesque.
Karissa and Byeong-Su
One of the stone homes in the folk village. People are still living in this neighborhood in tradional style homes, amid mini marts and souvineers as well as cars and portable garages. Notice the stone fences. These are everywhere, all over the island and are made of lava rock.
Me with Byeong-Su at the botanical gardens, he tried to think of places a "mom" might like. He was a very good tour guide.
The walking bridge that connects the waterfall park to the botancial gardens.
Many Harubang at the Stone Museum
Gwakji Beach with me bundled up and a stone statue of a haenyeo, traditional women divers who still freely dive (no tanks) to harvest abalone, seafood and seaweed. We saw a few going into the water on our walk. (see below)
I had to take pictures of this beautiful girl on this beautiful beach! What a combination.
Can you do this?
Showing off my 5 shirts that kept me warm on a very cold windy beach!
It's Cherry Blossom time all around Jeju! So beautiful, almost every street seems to be lined with these gorgeous trees which bloomed on about my 5th day here!
Cherry Blossom lined street in front of the school.
Cherry Blossom Festival
Me in the Canola field, just like in Australia!
School lunches....Bi-Bim-Bap, seaweed soup, tomatoes (I skipped the kim-chi)
The principal and 3 other administrators took us out to dinner with Karissa's 2 co teachers. We had traditional Korean barbeque grilled at your table. It tasted like my famous flank steak recipe. Most of the conversation was in Korean but it was very nice of them to do this.
Sitting on the floor, cross legged, in our private room. Many side dishes were also served. I sat on the end so I could stretch my legs occassionally, and they brought me a fork at one point!In two days we are off for a week end in Seoul, then I fly home again. It has been wonderful to be here with Karissa and to meet all her friends and co-workers. An experience I will never forget, and it will help me get through this next year, until she comes home again. Thanks Karissa, for being such a great host, and just for being you! I love you.
xoxxoxo Mom
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