A Korean co-worker from school brought us out to her family cottage on Jang Bong Island a few weekends ago. I had been feeling tired and sort of regretting that I had said I would come. However, as soon as we were on the ferry out to the island - surrounded by crisp ocean air and seagulls eating right out of your hand - I knew I had made a good choice.

A few weeks ago, a group of us headed down south for the Jindo Sea Parting Festival. It's a crazy natural phenomenon; a few times a year, the sea separates and leaves a path of almost three kilometers. We all bought some of those stylish rain boats and made the trek. We had a bit of a late start so the path started to close up before we could make it to the nearby island, Modo. However, it was still quite the experience.

There were lots of other activities going on for the festival. We got our portrait done, held some cute jindo puppies, and did a little painting.

You can read more about the sea parting here.

I'm so behind on posting photos, so let's wrap up the Thailand posts!

Our second (and last, unfortunately) stop in Thailand was Koh Samet. It's one of the closest islands to Bangkok so it was a perfect location for our short trip. It was hot hot hot (even the water!), but we had a lot of fun. We drank banana shakes, went para-sailing, stayed in the ocean for hours, got burned despite our best efforts, took afternoon naps to escape the heat and ate lots of fresh mangos.

The floating markets of Damneon Saduak are definitely a tourist trap but still manage somehow to be quite pleasant. While we didn't buy any kitsch Thai souvenirs, we definitely liked people watching and marveling over all the food some of these women carted around in their boats.

I'm momentarily hijacking the Thailand posts to bring you these azalea festival photos. Because it's my blog. And my birthday. Wa-bam! (Also, I'm always telling my students not to start sentences with "and" or "but". Clearly I'm a good example).

So last night, a group of us headed out to Bucheon (a nearby city) to check out the azaleas. I went with no expectations and was absolutely flabbergasted. Have you ever seen anything so beautiful? The azaleas even make the cherry blossoms seem a bit passé.

On a different note, my students are the best. They made me a flower crown (magnolia blossoms taped on to a leaf a student brought from home), a flower ring (which they ordered Mike to give to me on bended knee. He obviously complied) and threw random bits of flowers into the air and blew into noisemakers to wish me a happy birthday!

What magnificent creatures! Their rough skin, their huge toenails, their spotted trunks and ears, their beautiful eyes and eyelashes... elephants are really something else.

(Kudos to Mike for that unbelievable last photo!)

Mike's family came to visit us here in Asia at the beginning of April. We spent a day in Korea before we zipped over to Thailand for a short trip. Here are a few photos from the Grand Palace in Bangkok. Pretty spectacular!

We melted the entire time we were in Bangkok. Thankfully, our hotel had a pool! ^_^

Coming up next: elephants!