Boseong Workshop & Suncheon Bay

This past week, the EPIK teachers in Gwangju were required to attend a workshop in lovely Boseong (보성). Located about 2 hours south of Gwangju in Jeollanam-do province, Boseong is best known for the lush green tea fields which line it's mountainsides. While, due to planning issues, we did not get a chance to experience the tea fields (I'll have to go back for that I suppose!) we did get to spend some quality time on the beach (in the rain, while the tide was out... so perhaps that's better phrased as 'in the mud') chasing crabs, footballs and other sea creatures.

Unsure what you're looking at? So was I. When the tide goes out, all the crab action on the beach creates little balls of sand and salt. All the little crabs are pretty cute too :).

A number of us also had the opportunity to check out the lovely Suncheon Bay (순천만) area. The bay itself is an wetland ecological park encompassing 5.4㎢ of reed beds and 21.6㎢ of mudflats. While that might not seem exciting at first, the sheer number of crabs and mudfish contained within even one square meter makes the biomass of the whole park mind-boggling. The stunning views of the wetland from atop a nearby mountain don't harm the park's appeal either!

Apparently crabs like ice cream too! 

Spot the crabs!

I call this one "where's Cralbo"

All of these reeds were growing out of silt/water.

Mudfish, sea slugs and crabs! What more could you want?

These critters were adorable - I think I have about 30 photos of mudfish alone! They're pretty incredible though, fish with arms! Who'd've thunk it?

Day 1 in Taichung

Could not have asked for a better start to my stay in Taichung - we spent the entirety of yesterday doing my favourite thing, eating!

Started off the day with a Taiwanese take on the traditional western brunch (complete with an awesome apple-kiwi smoothie -yum!)

The food got rapidly more Taiwanese from there as Cathy took us to visit the Taichung day market. 

Everyone was just so friendly and warm and they all kept giving Laura (a fellow Taichung SayTaiwan guest from Colombia)and I delicious things to try! There were lots of red bean patties, sweet fruits such as Dragon's Eyes, melon based jelly drinks, dumplings and more! We also stopped off at a small temple and a table loaded with offerings and burning incense in honour of Ghost Month this month.

 

From there is was off to the Taichung City Seaport Art Centre, where we met up with another host family and guest Mohamed from Tunisia, and headed toward the Taichung Harbour for even more delicious foods - including salmon and tuna candy, miniature snails (sooo yummy), red bean balls, deep fried taro dumplings and a spicy crab and squid medley :).

After stuffing ourselves full we raced off toward the Gao-Mei ecological protection wetlands to wade into the ocean, watch some miniature crabs and catch the sunset. (Laura and I also managed to chow down on some more grilled squid so that, by the time we made it to the welcome BBQ that one of the other host families was hosting we were stuffed to the brim!)Such a satisfying day! Gonna try and catch another half hour of sleep before starting the next one :).