The Whale Saga

I found this blog on my iPad and realized I never posted it! Sorry friends :)

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It's no secret that I love whales and dolphins. An obsession is an okay word to use as well. I feel such a peace and awe each time I see them. From Sea World to the Iceland they have proven to display Gods great creativity. 

However I have always had to work for my special moments with them. My first memorable experience was at Sea World when I was in 8th grade. My family and I went to the famous Shamu show and right before the show started a couple of workers were walking through the crowd. They picked a cute little girl to be a part of the show and I was so jealous. Why couldn't I be a cute little girl and be a part of the show? I did get my special moment with Shamu after the show. A worker asked if my brother and I would like a picture with Shamu. Yes, I would! That day I got my picture taken with my favorite animal and I was smiling from ear to ear. 

While on a mission trip in Mexico I woke up at 5am every morning to walk the beach in search of dolphins with a large group. By Thursday no one woke up to go with me, so I had to wake up the youth pastor and beg for him to take me to the beach. Our little group of five headed to the beach and there they were. Jumping and enjoying the early morning sun and low tide. I ran around the beach praising God for dolphins and for teaching me patience. 

In Iceland I went whale watching and we had to wait most of the trip before a group of dolphins started to swim along side the ship. I was so excited I forgot to take any pictures. Again, it was a glorious sight. 

This adventure was no different. We did our little research for the whale watching boat and picked our morning. We woke up extra early so we could get to the coast on time. We got on a bus near city hall and rode it to the end. The bus driver made us get off at the end and we decided to walk the rest of the way because we saw a sign for the whale museum. So we started walking and walking and walking. In the morning heat we walked through a factory filled area, it was not the best scenery in Ulsan. 

After about a half an hour of walking we start to wonder if we would ever make it (along with angry thoughts about why information was never correct in English here). A taxi finally drove by and we jumped in quickly showing him where we wanted to go on Meredith's phone. He drove about us about fifteen minutes in the direction we were walking and dropped us off at the whale museum five minutes before the boat was going to leave. Just our luck. 

Wrong.

We found out that there wasn't a 9:30 boat that left on Saturdays and the 1:00 boat was already full. We both were furious. Meredith even said "I give up. I won't come back again". That broke my heart because I still wanted to try. Instead we went to the whale museum and aquarium for the morning. It was nice and I got to see dolphins, but it wasn't what we wanted.

I decided to post on the foreigners page about our misfortune and that the English information needed to be updated. A lot of people wanted more information so they could go, which I couldn't give since it didn't work out for me. A Korean man saw the post and said he would contact the boat and tell them they need English options. A few weeks ago a special night is planned for foreigners to go on the boat for an evening on October 5th, the day I fly to Norway. Ha I'd like to think that Meredith and I had a little part in bringing that about. At least the company knows the foreigners want to be a part of their adventure. 

Thankfully our saga doesn't end there. 

I told my sad sad story to my friends at church and asked if anyone would like to come with me. I got a surprising amount of "yes" and then I asked my coteacher to help make a reservation for me and my friends. 

On the eve before our adventure I got a few text messages in Korean. My heart dropped because the last time I got multiple text messages in Korean my movie was canceled. After an hour they sent me a translation of their first few texts and I read the horrible news: my trip was canceled. However we could go in the morning instead. They called me before I could finish texting back and I tried to explain I needed to ask my friends first.. They didn't understand so after five minutes I just said "okay. We come. Yes". I then had to call everyone and beg for them to wake up early. 

Thankfully I have great friends and they were all up for the morning trip and I even convinced Meredith to join! We met at a coffee shop and walked to the bus stop we needed only to watch it and Meredith drive by. We quickly ran to a different street and caught a different bus to the whale museum. 

We got there in plenty of time (since we were finally on the right bus). We got a nice spot by the railing to look for whales and right away one of my friends was asked to do an interview about our experience (we had been on for only ten minutes). The camera man loved our group, all day he kept coming back to film us talking with each other. 

I felt such a peace because I was finally on the boat breathing fresh sea air surrounded by my friends. 

We didn't see any whales. The water was very rough which I'm betting kept the whales and dolphins in another location for the day. 

I wasn't sad about not seeing whales, I still had a great time and once again the dolphins taught me about perseverance and patience. That wasn't my day to see the whales but I will continue trying even when I get back to America. (Washington here I come!) 

Bless friends.