Nami Island: Escaping Reality

On Monday, May 1st, myself and 56 other teachers from the teaching program we are a part of in South Korea, went to Nami Island for the day. Nami Island is northeast of Seoul, making the constant city feel miles away once taking the ferry over to the island. It is known for being a “fairytale and song village", having various cultural events, concerts, exhibitions, and more for children and families to enjoy.

Our adventure started at 7:30am, grabbing snacks and coffees for the day. Once all together, we took group photos before starting our travels. We were additionally provided bright green windbreakers, spelling out our group just in case it was not obvious enough that we were not from South Korea. We loaded up the bus after our director sent us off with a nice speech on how he is thankful for us and hope we enjoy our day off. The bus ride took about two hours to get up to the place where we would be taking a ferry to get onto Nami Island. I snacked on a bagel and coffee (my second one of the morning- oops!) while enjoying conversation with a teacher friend. It is so nice to be able to talk about not only just teaching but also the balances with being the native English teacher in a school full of Koreans- something my friends in the states just could not imagine.

Walking onto the ferry, the view of the water and other boats zooming past felt as though we were in a different world. We walked onto Nami Island about 10 minutes later and it was as if we were transformed into a new world. It was very lush and green and just a complete 180 degrees from what I am used to seeing all the time. Again, we took more group pictures and followed Kevin, our tour guide. He helped us to get to the activity the program has paid for us to do- stamp making! We were asked to have our Korean name ready as we were going to carve our name into this stamp. After practicing how to write it multiple times, there was this knife that I had to layer the same design into a small pillar-like stone. Once I got the okay from the teachers of this craft, I pressed into the ink and was able to see my Korean name stamped onto my paper. A very cool thing I can bring to school or use in labeling my things. While doing this, I met some other women who came into the program at a different time than I did and was able to get their take on teaching and receive some advice or tips on some classroom management styles.

Lunch time. We ate Bibimbap, a traditional Korean meal made up of shredded carrots, bean sprouts, egg, seaweed, and mushrooms with rice added into it. We also had a seafood pajeon, Korean pancake, as well as the sides of kimchi, pickled cucumbers, and pickled radishes. It was delicious!

We had about three hours to roam around the island and see all the beauty that it held. I brought my camera to take pictures and edit later. I am trying to get better at taking nice photos and learn how to edit to enhance the picture best. The nature on the island did not need much editing as it was so beautiful. My friend Lara and I took many pictures to update our Instagram/ social media as well. While walking around together, it felt as though there was no end to the island as we kept finding more and more things hidden from the “main” area. They had this pedal bike up high so that you could see more of the island from a different view. It was only 3000 won each so we had to do it! After hours of walking around, it became time to meet back for the next ferry out. At that point, all of us were exhausted and were ready to get back on the bus to head home.

Our two hour drive back turned into about 4 hours due to traffic in the city. By the time we got home it was around 7 PM and man was it a long day. All of us teachers were in the same consensus of just going to bed because we did in fact have to get up for the next day of teaching. It was a fun day for sure and I definitely have Nami Island in mind for when I would like an escape from the city life and concrete jungle.