There is a small Korean island located between South Korea and Japan, known as Jeju. After two weeks in the big cities of Busan and Seoul, I had planned a more pastoral experience on Jeju and had rented a car to explore from two different AirBnbs on the East and West sides of the island. Unfortunately, upon arrival at Jeju Airport from Seoul, I was unable to take possession of the rental car without an international driver’s license. This piece of paper is a bureaucratic requirement, apparently facilitated by a request to a US governing authority, along with a US driver’s license.
South Korea, along with Japan, appears to be one of the few countries that require this. My US driver’s license, which has always been accepted in the other countries where I have rented cars (many), doesn’t work in South Korea. However, I can use my US driver’s license to obtain an international driver’s license. I got the impression, for the first time, that there were likely other things about South Korea I would find annoying as I became more familiar with how things actually work. That’s actually a fun part of learning about a foreign country, a sort of rite of passage beyond “rose colored glasses.”
It took a bit of adjustment to recalibrate over the next two weeks, from being able to wander anywhere to being taxi-dependent. Unlike Busan and Seoul, the distances on Jeju are too far to walk efficiently, and public transportation is not as convenient as in those major cities. Mavel and I had intended for it to be a more adventurous destination, but it turned out to be a meditative, relaxing, and work-focused one instead. We still made time for exploration (after work priorities) and hired taxis to reach the destinations that seemed best, using tourist maps and pamphlets we collected at the airport.
In the mornings, I did calesthenics and sprinting in the front yard of my Airbnb using a borrowed yoga mat. Groceries were purchased at the 7-11 convenience stores on the way back home from other places. After a year of high-stress work, it felt like the universe was forcing me to downshift, into the speed I much prefer. That in itself was jarring, and the transition to not feeling like I needed to accomplish, visit, or do anything was uncomfortable.
All change feels uncomfortable if it is meaningful, and growth will always necessitate some form of change. When we find ourselves in uncomfortable situations, we should discover how we might grow.
Mavel and I visited many interesting places on Jeju. We walked to the top of a hill with a vast scenic overlook, through the forest canopy, then took a bus to a quirky cafe with a menu of only three items for breakfast. I hired a taxi driver for a day who took us to the more popular places we were obligated to visit: temples, waterfalls, and a museum where we learned about the Haenyeo, local female divers renowned for their distinctive diving techniques and semi-matriarchal society.
That was all great, but my favorite memories of Jeju will be the everyday happenings. Finding a walking stick insect in the front yard, a praying mantis in the middle of the road, and eating local mandarin oranges grown on the island, trying small peanut butter treats from a local gift shop. Memorizing the 5-track playlist played on loop, over the course of the 5 days I spent working at the local coffee shop chain, Holly’s Coffee (that turned out to be the ideal work cafe).
