Time is flying by and I honestly feel super unprepared! This past week I took a vacation to Hilton Head Island with my mom, which was super beautiful, but also accounted for time spent away from completing my TEFL course. Almost every day the skies were super blue, and I took a few photos so that I could look back whenever I feel homesick and miss blue skies in Korea.

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We drove down about 13 hours each way, and I was kind of reminded of how just traveling to a different state can feel like being in a different country. Especially by looking at the billboards all the way down I-95. While in Hilton Head, I briefly visited the Hilton Head Coastal Discovery Museum and learned about conservatory efforts in the marshlands around there. I also learned about the Gullah people for the first time! I was kind of astonished that I had never learned about this group of African Americans on Daufuskie Island before. While at the museum, I bought a book of animal folklore passed down through the Gullah people. I love this book because on one side it has the English translation, and on the other side it is written in the Gullah language. The English part is digestible enough for a non-native speaker. I can’t wait to bring it to my classroom in Korea and show my students writings from a different cultural group in America. Even American students often don’t get to read works written by non-white Americans, so hopefully this book will be something I can bring back to my classroom in America. If anyone is interested, a link to the book is here.

I also bought some local peach tea from South Carolina for my future boss in Korea. I’m planning to get my host family some local Raspberry Moscato from a farm near me in addition to some American board games. I also bought a cute glass alligator wine stopper from South Carolina to go with the wine.