Fading into Grey

I am home. And it's so good to be here, back with family and friends! One of my firsts was to say hello to the Atlantic Ocean, in all its wild and wind-swept beauty. I'd forgotten how cold and bleak Nova Scotia can be in November. There is no snow on the ground yet, and the landscape appears so sad and lonely to me. I already feel like these overcast, wintry skies and the damp, bone-chilling cold are getting under my skin. We haven't had a sunny day yet since I've arrived! But my mother says grey is a beautiful color, and that I need to teach myself to fall in love with its variable shades. So I'm taking her advice to heart, and attempting to seek out some beauty in the season. Hello from Nova Scotia, in shades of grey...

Oceanminded

More snaps of my sunset, seaside adventure last night... this is Gujora Beach, not too far from where I live... so pretty!

Upon the Discovery of a Dead Seagull

I was treading mildly down the beach

When whom should I happen upon to meet

All wave-washed up upon the sand

But you, my finely feathered friend!

On many shores, we two have met

And many countries we have seen

But this time, over your sorry life

A tide-like ebb and flow have been.

I must say, I never really liked

your peace-disturbing schemes

You picnic-stealing pirate,

With those awful piercing screams!

Your voracious appetite

Often made my stomach sore

To watch you scarf back bits of rubbish

With a greedy eye for more.

Yet lying here upon the sand

Your heart no longer beats,

And I cannot help but find

A little tenderness in me.

So I draw my heart around yours

With a spindly piece of wood

And wonder how it came to be

Death found you where you stood.

Did you chew on something far too big

That in your throat did catch?

Or perhaps get tangled up

In some idle fishing nets?

Although I do not often tend to scare

sun-bathers with my screech

Nor steal food from unsuspecting

children on the beach-

You and I, at least, have this one affinity

If we could chose, in life and death,

We'd do both by the sea!

So farewell my fine and feathered friend,

As wave upon frothy wave

Creeps in to carry you up and out

To your cold and watery grave.

(Okay, so maybe it's more than a little strange that a dead seagull I found today inspired me to write this silly poem, but I thought its existence, as pathetic as a seagull's life is, should be celebrated somehow... I once wrote a poem called "A Day in the Life of a Trash Can," so surely this one can be considered a step up from that?! Haha...)

Fresh Air Friends

I love days like this... spent mainly in the Great Outdoors! Making the most of the milder, finally-feels-like-Spring weather, a small crew of us caught a $1 bus ride to the bottom of Geoje-do, to a sweet spot called Mangsan. I had been there once before, in Autumn, and was keen to get back... it is about a half-day hike, following the ridge along a small range of mountains, with most of it along the coast, so there are some stellar views! We packed a picnic, and one of the guys brought a camping stove and some marinated meat and veggies, which you wrap up in lettuce leaves and eat (a Korean specialty called bulgogi.) Food really does taste amazing outside in the fresh air, especially after you've worked up an appetite for it! Of course, that was before we got told off (in Korean, haha) for using our camping stove in the park. I guess it was a no-fire zone! Oh well, the meat was cooked, and we had already finished eating most of it by that point. The hike finished up at pretty Myeongsa, a sandy beach with shells littering the water's edge. After chillin' there for awhile, we managed to miss the bus home... even though a valiant attempt was made to run after it and flag it down! Hitchhiking seems easy enough on the island, though, and we soon found a ride with a bunch of Korean Samsung workers, in their faded grey-blue uniforms, on a private Samsung bus. A few of them attempted conversation with us, using their cellphone translators to communicate. The fresh sea air, warm food and time spend with new friends and old... made for an all-around awesome Saturday!

Haeundae Beach

A gaggle of girls on a free Saturday

A cityside beach known as Haeundae

Cool sea breezes, but sun at its best

Space to roam free or curl up and rest

Coffee to warm up noses and toes

Convos to lighten the corners of souls

This light and this wind

is a simple heart's pleasure

Even birds know the secret-

together is treasure!

-Fun photos and terrible poetry, gleaned from yesterday's morning meanderings at Haeundae Beach in Busan. Girlz day out. ;0)

Hakdong Pebble Beach

Spent most of a Saturday afternoon following the coastal road on foot that winds its way from sandy Gujora Beach, to Hakdong Beach, which is strewn with smooth, rounded pebbles. Ate some bibimbap at a local restaurant. Bibimbap is a rice dish mixed with a variety of veggies, some chilli pepper paste, and other sauces, and is usually topped with some meat or an egg. It's a pretty common meal here. This restaurant specialized in raw fish, due to it's seaside proximity, so my meal was... fresh. I ate most of it... Korean-style, sitting crosslegged on a floor cushion, holding chopsticks. The day turned rather grey and overcast towards the end, and because of either misinterpreting the bus schedule or missing the last bus home, we sat on a bench at a bus stop in the increasingly cold autumn air, until well after dark. Eventually, we ended up hitching a ride off a lovely Korean woman, who didn't speak a word of English, but played Norah Jones in her car. I found myself winding my way home through dark mountains and twinkling lights, rather exhausted from all the fresh air, exercise, and warm food, with Norah crooning sweet and mellow lullabies in my ears.

Hakdong Pebble Beach, Geoje-do, South Korea

A Fond Farewell

And so it begins. Another adventure, a new country, people, and culture, in a city with a sea-bound coast. I will be flying out of Halifax before dawn tomorrow morning, arriving in South Korea on Monday, where I have a contract to teach English for one year. My thoughts and feelings at present resemble a freshly-churned Dairy Queen Blizzard, but with all the flavors combined! (I have, on occasion, actually ordered all the DQ toppings, in an indecisive moment.) So here you have it; heightened nerves, overwhelming excitement, ready to embrace change while not quite ready to let go of home, feeling prepared one minute, and very inadequate the next... all these emotions, like the flavors of peanut butter, blueberry and mint... they don't sit together very well, as you an imagine, leaving a fairly sizeable knot in my stomach for the past three days! Yet overall, this pervading sweetness: a deepening sense that in moving with these tides, I am in "los manos de Dios." I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds my hand. What could be sweeter than that?!!