Jeju

During COVID, the book club I attend read The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See. It is a multilayered story about haenyo, women who dive in the ocean for sea life – mollusks, seaweed, abalone, and more – their livelihood. They dive without oxygen, holding their breaths for up to two minutes at a time, at depths up to 20 meters (65 feet), often in frigid waters.
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​I was captivated by the story, but paid little attention to the setting, an island 50 miles off the southern tip of South Korea. Jeju... (pronounced jay joo), a name I'd never encountered and promptly forgot as soon as I read the final page. I certainly never expected to come across it again.  And yet, here I am, in Jeju – 6800 miles from, and 14 hours ahead of, our home in Conway, Arkansas U.S.A!

I know. I'm surprised, too, although not flabbergasted. I am married to a man who thrives on adventure, even in retirement. Not the Amazon jungle kind of adventure, but the "let's move to a different country and teach school" kind of adventure, which we've done more than once... Singapore American School, Cairo American College and the Anglo American School of Moscow. Our initial move from Arkansas to Barrow (now Utqiagvik) Alaska might not have been to another country, but it was to a landscape and culture the "polar" (excuse the pun) opposite of what we had always known.
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In the years since Drew's official retirement, he's continued dipping into the adventurous educator lifestyle by filling interim positions as head of international schools in  Tivat, Montenegro and Palto Alto, California. So the offer to serve a year as interim high school principal at Branksome Hall Asia in JeJu, was an adventure he was eager to experience. 
​I must say I admire him for being a risk taker, a person who says yes more often than no, opening doors which could easily remain closed.

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As for me, I go "to and fro," as one of my British friends terms it, during Drew's interim jobs. I'm now in Jeju until the first week in November, when I'll return to our home in Arkansas.  While here, I become an explorer, a curious learner. With a map and reliable navigation system, I've visited (sometimes with Drew) the Haeyno Museum, Stone Park, Osulloc Tea Fields and Museum, Spirited Garden, JeJu Museum of Contemporary Art, Yeomiji Botanic Garden and the Starbucks down the street.

Osulloc Tea Fields

Next week, The Island of Sea Women, comes full circle – and to life – for me. A group of haeyno will visit with students at Branksome Hall, and I've been invited to tag along!  I will hear their heroic stories of diving and of being part of a vital community of women whose history stretches across the centuries on an island named...Jeju. ​