Summer break recap
Apologies for the lack of updates over the summer! I haven’t spent much time at home or online this summer, but now I’m getting settled back into a routine with my new semester so I better post a few pictures from my jam-packed summer before it’s too late. My summer took me to Mongolia, Japan twice, all over the Korean countryside, and to Greece where I got engaged!
To start off the summer, I went to Mongolia with my grad school colleagues to present a research paper I wrote last semester. After the conference, we explored Ulaanbaatar and spent some time in the Mongolian forest-steppe, riding horses, staying in gers (yurts), and eating Mongolian food. I thought I might have to be the token English-speaker on the trip for some touristy functions (hotels, taxis, etc.), but to my surprise, Korean was widely spoken in Mongolia and I didn’t use any English outside of the conference. Ulaanbaatar is full of Korean convenience stores, Korean gas stations, Korean restaurants, and other Korean companies that I didn’t think existed outside of Korea, and most tourists we came across were Korean tourists, not Russian or Chinese like I would’ve guessed.
After the Mongolia trip, my summer was dominated by bike trips around Korea and Japan. The weather was brutally hot and humid, but I had to take advantage of the time away from school to fill out my bike passport and knock off some other bike trails on my list. The first major bike trail I did was the entire East coast of Korea, from the DMZ down to Pohang. This trail was harder than expected with some very steep hills and long stretches with no food options outside of the occasional convenience store. It was an absolutely beautiful ride though! As always, I met a few other Korean cyclists who were braving the heat and shared some beverages or chats with them in shady rest spots.
My next bucket-list bike trip was the Shimanami Kaido cycling road in the islands near Hiroshima, Japan. The Olmsted Scholar currently in Japan told me about this trail and I’ve since heard about it from some Korean cyclists as an unforgettable bike journey, so I made the easy trip to Hiroshima, rented a bike there, and had the ride of a lifetime! It was quite easy riding, and I took it nice and slow to savor the experience, try different foods, visit all the temples and landmarks along the way, and stay in a traditional ryokan midway through. The riding logistics couldn’t be easier here either. There were countless bike rest stops, vending machines, bespoke bike approaches to the bridges, and one-way bike rentals to simplify the journey. I can’t recommend this bike trail highly enough, even for inexperienced bike tourers or people who don’t know any Japanese. I think I’ll return one day to ride this trail again, maybe when I have kids old enough to ride bikes…
When I got back from the Shimanami Kaido trip, I finally did the Seoul to Busan bike ride that I was putting off until the summer. I took my touring bike instead of my Brompton on this trip for the better gearing for the infamous mountains in the middle of the trip and I’m glad I did! This cross-country ride was not the most beautiful ride I’ve done in Korea, but the length and difficulty made the finish line the most rewarding of them all.
I now have just two short bike trips left to get the “Grand Slam” medal and complete my bike passport. I intend on finishing both trips in October when I don’t have class and while the fall leaves are changing….let’s hope I can squeeze them in around all my school obligations!
Now for the most exciting news…before classes started up again in September, I got engaged to Yoomin in Greece! It was the perfect end to the summer and an unforgettable trip with her. She had to return to Washington DC but will thankfully be returning to Seoul again for work very soon :)
Finally, my family (minus my brother who was watching their dogs) visited me from Philadelphia! I was so excited for them to come to show them what I’m up to and to show them some of my favorite places. I introduced them to some of my favorite Korean foods, showed them around Seoul, and we spent a few days out on the East Coast in Sokcho, one of my favorite areas in Korea. We spent some time at the beach there, hiking in Seoraksan National Park, and seeing some beautiful Buddhist temples on the coast. Their time here flew by so fast but we made some great memories together. I cannot visit home during my time here, so it was such a joy having home visit me instead!
Whew, what a summer! I’m eternally grateful for being given this opportunity to immerse myself in Korea before returning to normal military service next summer, so I’m taking full advantage of the limited time I have here. I have more fun planned this fall during the semester and will take a few more trips in Asia during my final break in winter. Until then, I’m back on the school grind trying to keep up and finally start contributing more to my Korean lectures in school. I can tell I’ve improved quite a bit since I started graduate school, but of course I’m still not where I want to be. It’s tough balancing the school work with studying Korean more formally, but I’m doing the best I can.
Till next time!
-Sean