purple mountains & green tea fields

My parents are in K-land! So exciting. They landed in Seoul mid-May and are here for a month! It's been really wonderful having them here, and I'm lucky enough to have Fridays off, so I've been able to see them more than I may have otherwise. 

Here are some photos from the weekend of their arrival. Some of my parents' old friends had scheduled a reunion of sorts in the southern province of Jeollanamdo, so that's where they were headed first thing Saturday morning after their late Friday night flight in. Gwangju, Suncheon, and Jangheung (where one of their friends lives on a farm and was having a big birthday party) was on their itinerary, with no mention of seeing their only daughter right away or anything.... those busy bees! Haha. In the end I decided to head down to Boseong to see Taylor and convinced them to meet us at the green tea festival which was going on that weekend.

Saturday morning, we joined a group of Jeonnam TaLK scholars on a hike up to Illimsan, a beautiful set of mountains/hills covered in royal azaleas. It was a longer hike than anticipated (seems to be the trend), but the views were pretty breathtaking. These types of "purple mountains" are apparently sort of common in SoKo.

Always leading the pack

!!! Tay's new BFF. Teehee.

The view! The sky was very hazy although the day seemed clear. 

Sunscreen nose

This guy brings up those yellow iceboxes full of ice cream bars everyday! The hike up is a workout even without the extra weight, so I am in awe. He had the calves to prove it - they were the size of an average face each, I swear.

Flexing those muscles

Jennifer on top of the world!

Sarah and Anna being cute

Hahaha fierce.

Two pairs of adorable ajumma/ajushi couples having a picnic lunch in the brush

We continued onwards to slowly make our descent, the entire hike taking us about four hours. There was some super steep terrain, and because the trails were so dry and dusty, it was very easy to slip or fall. Caution was heeded.

Flower girl

Once we were off the mountain, we walked some ways in a small village town, where we came across this expansive private property (which we didn't realize was private and that we were trespassing on). Not something you see very often here, even in rural Korea.

Post-hike, we joined my parents and their friend for lunch in town and then drove to the tea fields to check out the festival. Unfortunately, the festival meant that the fields were completely taken over by visitors. There were too many people and the tea brush was sparse. I'm glad I got to see the fields when they were deep green, lush, and peaceful (you can see the photos I took then here); my parents weren't so lucky. We took some photos (well, Uncle Gun took a whole bunch actually - people I've never met taking turns posing with my parents), and then we made our way out.

There were multiple cameras at this point

Those ladies on their phones couldn't put them down even for a quick snapshot apparently lol

Mom and pops!

Mom, dad, and Uncle Gun (family friend)

The Chung family! :)

The Chung family, plus one haha

Us and Uncle Gun (yes that's his Korean name, romanized) - this man is in his mid fifties! Them asian genes!

Precious

Oh hai

YUM. But really, I love this stuff. And so does Taylor, because he's such a worldly guy now lol.

Next up, another eventful weekend in Seoul: getting miserably lost in the search of Mullae Art Village, and then Sunday lunch up north for my grandma's 80th birthday.