New bikes/ new friends

This is the bike that I just bought last week. I'm extremely excited because I haven't had a bike since middle school. Our friend just left the island so she sold it to me for a great price. The bike will be perfect for our new location, since we will be very close to the beautiful Olle trails, nature (away from the city), and to many bike paths.

Since foreigners are always coming and going on this island, there are constant farewell parties and things for sale. We also just bought a toaster oven and Foreman style grill for really cheap (like $10 each). And these items seem to be specialties here. Our neighbors are also donating their Christmas tree and decorations to us when they leave next month.


But with the fun parties and for-sale items, comes the time that we have to say goodbye to good people. It can be difficult to constantly say bye to a new friend that we have only just started to get to know. Some people here try not to attach because of this. We just have to hope that our paths will meet again one day in the future. This is actually likely though, since everyone here loves to travel and is constantly living in new countries overseas. For example, we have a friend who will be living in Argentina, another friend in Australia, one in New Zealand, one in Peru and one in Spain! This will be wonderful for staying connected, for possible future jobs and for having someone to visit when we travel or live in a new country.

How would you like always meeting new people, but also always saying bye to people? It's an interesting concept. Some positives but also negatives to the situation.


Below is a picture of Jeju friends at our friend, Sarah's b-day dinner. We met new people here and also were saying bye to friends that night who are leaving the island. For example, the other picture shows our friend Sachin, who is also from Chicago. He just left and had a big farewell celebration at the popular bar, Island Stone. He made sure to take a picture with everyone who came so that he'll always remember them.