Beach Break

Growing up, family trips were part of my annual school break activity that my family always did. Living a couple of hours away from the sea, I've spent a good couple of summers just hanging out in a cottage by the beach with family and friends, spending our day playing in the sand, soaking up the sunshine and swimming in the sea. No worries. No stress. Just enjoying the summer days before school starts again. Life feels so much simpler on those days. 

This day felt a little bit like those old summer days. After we left Bosoeng Plantation, we just happened to found this quite beach around the area and decided to took a pit stop there. Took blankets with us and laid one on the shaded area on the beach and we just sat there snuggling under the other blanket to keep us warm. Noah has been driving for hours and didn't get much sleep, so after a couple of minutes he dozed off for his much needed rest. Hannah and I did more talking while looking at the calm sea. Nothing much was really going on around us. Saw ahjummas and ahjussiss bending down, working on something on the beach, three women walking back and forth with their dogs, and group of older people having a picnic a couple of meters away from where we were sitting. It's not necessarily an interesting beach, but it's a perfect place to just relax, chill and let your mind wanders. Plus having great companies really makes a difference. 

We talked for about two hours without realizing it. About our lives in South Korea, our faith, our future, our past experiences. Time flew when you are enjoying each other's company, really. After Noah woke up, we took a stroll on the beach, stretched our bodies and left for lunch. It was a fine relaxing late morning at the beach. 

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Bosoeng Green Tea Field

After a three hours or so road trip from Seoul, we pulled up at Boseong Green Tea Plantation's (보성녹차밭 대한다원) parking lot around 9.30am. The place was quite. Nobody was in sight. Hannah, Noah, and I made our way to the plantation. What I remember the most about that morning was the cool breezy morning air, warm sunlight, and birds chirping. Being able to clearly hear the sounds of nature is just something that you can only experience outside the hustle bustle of the city. And that morning was exactly that, a peaceful morning listening to the sounds of nature. 

Noah bought warm cups of tea for three of us and we slowly made our way up the hill while talking amongst each other. I remembered we were talking about how the air is really different here. Fresher. And we were a little bit disappointed because in some parts of the plantation, the tea leaves weren't in full bloom yet, so the field wasn't all green and there were bald spots here and there. Even so, the view was still nice. We spent some of our time just in silence, taking in our surroundings while snapping away with our phones and cameras. When we got to the top of the hill, we sat on the benches to enjoy the view and to catch our breaths. We stayed there for a while. Just talking and enjoying each other's company. When a big group of people came up to the resting area and we saw other people were starting to make their way up, we decided it's time for us to go and that was the end our peaceful morning. 

p.s: May is the month you want to go visit the plantation to see the full bloom of the tea leaves. They also have Green Tea Festival during that time of year.

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