제주도 Jeju Island

Jeju-do (Jeju Island) is known for a lot of things, but the things I've most commonly heard about are 바람 wind, 돌하루방 rocks, 흑돼지 black pig meat, 한라산 Halla Mountain, and 경치 the scenery (including the little yellow flowers that are called 'rape' in English).  I was lucky enough to experience all of things and much, much more in the short time I spent on the island.
There are a lot of fake "grandfather rocks" including the one in my photo but there are about 50 real ones.  They are large volcanic rocks carved to look like grandpas!! They're really cute and I loved taking pictures of them.

On the way down, I made the trip part time on a bus (5 hours - not fun) and part on a ferry (4 more not-so-fun hours).  The ferry was interesting because it was basically a huge boat divided into rooms full of about 30 middle-aged Korean people heading to the island to go hiking on the Olle trails (which go all the way around the island) and to climb Halla Mountain.  There were no chairs, only a heated floor to sit on.  There was a little girl sitting near me who came and played with me and was poking the rabbits on my socks, and then a little baby whose grandfather was offering her beer.  (The baby said no, by the way, and the mom was really proud.) Upon arriving, I trekked around the city of Jeju and got a snack, then headed on the bus to my first hotel in Seongsaneup.  Its name was Phoenix Island, and it was gorgeous there.  In the morning there were several horses with carriages clopping by the window and the bathroom had a jacuzzi!  I gave myself a facial and had a little spa night, which was nice.  I had a good seafood pizza for dinner.  One of the cool things I noticed about Jeju-do was that pretty much everywhere you go, people are drying seaweed.  Including randomly on the sidewalk!

The first day I woke up, got dressed and went to U-do (U Island) via ferry (which was packed with annoying little high school kids - no offense, little brother Danny) and biked around the entire island!  The man at the bike rental place said it would take a girl who exercises about 2 hours to go all the way around, but I only took an hour and 15 minutes.  Clearly this man underestimated my power.  (Heehee.)  The scenery was beautiful and there were a lot of places where you could ride horses.  There was also a lot of that little yellow flower called rape (which allows many people to make some very tasteless jokes) and a ton of rock walls.

I took a ton of pictures, and even met a friendly little puppy who came up and licked me!  I couldn't pet him, though, because I could pretty much see fleas hopping around on him.

After biking for a long time I was feeling a little peaky out so I had some 회국수 (raw fish with veggies and noodles) which was spicy and delicious.  They bring it out to you and you mix it up yourself on the plate with a plastic glove and your hand!

There was a little girl there telling her mom that I was from England, and when I corrected her in Korean the little girl just about peed herself.  After having a final look around the island I took the ferry back to Jeju-do.  I took a bus down south after that and I was able to see something called the 성상일출봉 (Seongsan Ilchulbong) which is basically a giant beautiful crater made by a volcanic explosion a really really long time ago.  You climb all the way to the top and can look across the whole thing.  It is full of grass and trees and apparently becomes a pond during the summer rainy season, and looks like a bowl full of snow during the winter.  It was beautiful!

That night after returning home I had a really good set dinner (I'll be writing a whole other blog post about that!) and then watched Korean TV.  There was a comedy show where they had a Japanese competitive eating girl (she weighed maybe 100 pounds) and she ate not fifty, not one hundred, but and astonishing 150 pieces of nigiri sushi.  It was one of the most horrifying things I've had the privilege to see.  She didn't even chew!!!
The next morning I woke up early, packed up, and hopped on a bus to go to 서귀포, or Seogwipo.  The bus went through a nice little town called 중문 (Jungmun) which reminded me a ton of Florida; it was almost unreal.  I dropped off my bags at the new (more conveniently-located) hotel, then went to 한라산 Halla Mountain to do some hiking!

On the way to the mountain I passed by the protestors attempting to slow or most hopefully stop the construction of a Korean-American naval base in southern Jeju-do.  It was interesting because there were about 20 police with riot shields for about 15 people sitting and singing together.  There was no violence, though.  In the bay you could see several aircraft carrier ships.

I am not known to be the most enduring hiker; I chose the half hour up and half hour down climb because the next smallest was 2 and a half hours up and 2 hours down and after that was 5 hours up.  Nope, definitely not for me.  I reached the top of the little peak of Hallasan and was able to get a really nice view.  You could even see the snow on the peak of the really big mountain!  It was really cool.  After that, I tried to go see a waterfall back in Jungmun, but the park was closed.  So much for that.
Upon returning to the hotel, I got to do something that I would never get the chance to do in Ohio - visit a Korean bath house (you'd think I'd have been able to go there more, you know, living in Korea and all, but no one will ever go with me!  *ahem, Hee-kyong*).  I'll spare you the nitty-gritty details but basically it's divided by gender and there are no clothes allowed, so needless to say I was pushing the envelope when it comes to my personal comfort, but after a little while it was less awkward and it was really nice and relaxing.  There are three pools: one hot, one cold, and one hot sea water with green tea in it (so awesome).  There is also a hot sauna room and several open-backed shower stalls so that you can scrub off and everything before getting in the water with everyone.  I spent about an hour there and then went to go have dinner.
Dinner was something I've been wanting to try ever since I heard about it - black pig meat.  It's said that the pigs on Jeju island turned black after eating human - er - refuse?  But as a failed pre-med major I know that can't be true, so I still really wanted to eat it.  It was delicious!!  There were a lot of good side dishes, and I wrapped it up in lettuce and devoured everything.  I slept well because the bath house was so relaxing and the food was so tasty.

In the morning I got up extra early once again to head back in the direction of Jungmun.  Today was supposed to be the return journey and was also the day that I did all of the things I had been holding off on.  The first place I visited was the 천제연 폭포 (Cheonjeyeon Waterfall) which actually consisted of three places where there were supposed to be waterfalls, but really only two were running at the time.  I was also able to hop the fence and climb up into the old aqueduct/irrigation line and take a picture in a little cave.  Which, in hindsight, was probably not quite legal, and also I got covered in spiderwebs.

After visiting the falls, I went to my dream destination - THE TEDDY BEAR MUSEUM!  I just love Teddy bears.  They're so amazing and cute.  I even got one there!  They have teddy bears from all the way back when it was first invented, and a teddy bear wearing Louis Vuitton, and teddy bears acting out famous portraits and everything!  I was enthralled the entire time.  It was a great experience.

The last place I visited before boarding the train back to Seoul was the Jeju Love Land.  It was pretty traumatic, although at times funny, and I don't regret going.  You can research what it is if you want, but I'll just leave my description at telling you that I spent over half the time covering my eyes, looking between my fingers, exclaiming "AUGH," and running.  By far the funniest thing about the museum, though, was that 80% of the occupants were middle-aged women wearing hiking gear.

After leaving Love Land I finally made it back to Jeju-si where I boarded the 13 hour ferry that would take me back home.  I got to sleep in a bunk this time and, although it was hot and stinky and the pillow was a pleather-covered block of foam, I was much more comfortable than when I was sleeping on the floor of the ferry on the way there.
And so, my Jeju-do trip ended.  It was beautiful and fun, and I had a fantastic time.
If you want to see more pictures than what I included then check out my album on facebook by clicking [here].

Miss you guys!
Look for some more practical posts coming up soon!

Love,
Janet

Oh, right, I have a blog!

HELLO!!!!!!

I have returned.

I've been incredibly busy and running around lately and you will totally understand by the time I finish this blog post.

I am writing this in a bit of a hurried fashion as I only have one hour until my first class by the way so bear with me for any typos!

Apparently the last time I posted was the day before Valentine's Day. Wow. Well, now that it's April 3rd, I shall catch you up.

At the end of February I was able to have a few really cool experiences.

First of all (and this will develop later) I've been getting into a lot of clubs for free through people I've been getting to know, so that's been really cool. The club music in Korea is an interesting topic - there are hip hop clubs and also regular clubs that usually play house or edge toward the verge of mashup house/techno/hip hop and the preference of club depends on what kind of music you're feeling that night. A lot of Koreans tend toward house and techno these days because hip hop was kind of the cool thing when they were in middle and high school, but the hip hop clubs remain popular these days. The DJ scene is booming as well and if you want to get famous you've gotta spin at the big clubs, and the big clubs all demand house/techno, so if you want to make it really big you'd better like that style. Otherwise you'll be stuck at smaller venues in less popular places.

The biggest area to go clubbing is called Gangnam (or like Sinsa, Chungdahm; they're the same area) and people all like the clubs Ellui, Answer, Eden, etc. Recently apparently there's a club opening called Shampoo so that's pretty hilarious and I'm tempted to go there just to say I danced in Shampoo, hahaha. Anyways, more on the clubbing thing will come later.

I was also lucky enough to attend the World Cup Semifinals match of Korea vs. Kuwait. It was amazing because everyone in the stadium had this sort of nationalistic brotherhood holding them together and rallying the crowd and everything. Some guys sitting near my section were strangers at the beginning of the game and by the second Korean goal were screaming and hugging each other and jumping up and down while holding onto one another. It was a pretty funny sight. In the end Korea one 2-0 and one of the veteran members on the team got the match ball, which was I guess pretty cool for him since it had been a while since his last time being the most important player in the game. Oh and he also received a check for 3,000,000원 which is about $2,850 or something crazy like that. Soccer players are lucky!

I've been meeting people recently that I haven't seen in 3 years! One of them is Eungyeong a.k.a. Jenna, who goes to Ehwa Women's University, and then we have Jeongmin and Dongrim who actually both go to Yonsei with me. I met them when I was a senior in high school because they came to a big global water crisis symposium that Hathaway Brown hosted. It's amazing that we've been able to stay in contact. With Jenna I went for buddaejjigae and then coffee and this REALLY cute cafe called Krema (which I want to go to all the time now but it's super expensive). Jeongmin and I went to a place called Butterfingers Pancakes in Chungdahm, which was a godsend because I had been craving American breakfast for the longest time, and they have the perfect most American breakfast-y food I've had in Korea. It was sweet, sweet indulgence. Dongrim and I just met on Yonsei campus and had food together and followed that up with Caribou coffee. She's so sweet, and right before we parted ways she asked me if I was looking for a tutoring job.

And boy oh boy do I need a tutoring job. I had been starting to worry about money because I was in grave danger. I did not realize how quickly the money Wesleyan had given me would disappear, especially considering that I do eat at least 2 meals a day. I guess I should have foreseen it, even despite having cut out many cafe trips from my life to save cash. On top of that I wanted to travel around Korea, so I needed to set aside money for that, too.

Luckily she directed me to a woman who is soon moving to Texas and wants me to teach her children, an 8 year old girl and a 9 year old boy how to be American kids. They know close to zero english and will be attending public school in America next year. I am so scared for them. This is by far the most pressured I have felt about a tutoring job, but I really need to help these kids. The boy really likes science and biology, so I'll have a great time talking to him, but when I asked the mother what her daughter likes, she could only think of princesses. ...Somehow I will persevere. In any case, I will be starting in one week, and luckily this will solve any of my potential financial worries.

I think that the most life-changing experience I've had so far in Korea is attending the Big Bang Big Show. I am sort of kidding, but not really. I have never really had celebrity crushes, but when the 5 members of my favorite K-Pop group came out on stage together, I completely fangirled out and I think I almost passed out. Now I understand those girls that used to faint and cry at Elvis and Beatles concerts. It was a great experience, and they sang all of my favorite songs. I won't blab any more because I'm sure about 75% of my small audience does not care about Big Bang. And also I know a small percentage will be judging me when they google them. Oh well. Love is love. (Teehee.)

A great thing that happened just recently in March is my joining of a group called SKY Events. SKY stands for Social Korea Youth, and what the group does is work with clubs to plan parties that bring people together from all sorts of backgrounds. The people working there are all really nice and fun people. Just last weekend we had our MT (Membership Training) which is when everyone hops on a subway to a small town outside of Seoul, rents a cabin, and spends a night hanging out, talking, drinking, grilling, and just getting to know each other and having fun. I had a really great time and although at first I felt awkward and shy around the other members, I feel a lot better now and really like the team I'm working with. I hope to join the Marketing team because I think I would be best at that. I guess I'll find out what I'll be doing soon!

Oh man, I almost forgot one of the most important things ever to write about!!! To those of you who had not yet seen me screaming about it all over facebook, one of my best friends from Wesleyan, Hee-kyong, is my roommate this semester! YEAAAAHHHHH!! I was really really excited when we found out we'd be living together. She's a great roommate and although some people thought we would hate each other by the end of the year, it's not happening yet! Although we do have until June 21st. Just kidding! It'll still be great then. Last semester my roommate was pleasant to live with but it's just a lot more comfortable being with Heeks and being able to reminisce and talk about life, laugh over old stories, and gossip about our friends at Wesleyan (whom we miss dearly, of course).

My brain is slowly starting to occasionally say things in Korean before I think the English, and the other night I had a dream in Konglish. It's a little bit scary. My friends always tell me I'm good at Korean and English, but a pro at Konglish. I don't know how I feel about that. I guess my family has a lot of re-assimilation work to do when I come back in the summer.

Last but not least I'll talk briefly about my classes. I have mixed feelings on them this semester. My Korean class is great because my Monday/Wednesday/Friday professor is none other but Kimchi sunsaengnim, the one I had last semester! She was my favorite, and I'm really happy I get to have her. The Tues/Thurs professor is funny, and she's a lot nicer than the one I had last semester. I am also lucky enough to be back in the same class as Laura, Joelle, Randy, and Julia this semester, and Hee-kyong is in the same class, too! I actually started the semester in a different class, but I switched right at the beginning because I didn't like the professors and the students were wild and too noisy. I'm learning better in this class.

My other (taught-in-English) classes are Korean Cinema, Pre-Modern Korean History and its Historical Sites, and Korean Language and Culture. Cinema is taught by a floaty existential woman who rarely talks about cinema and mostly talks about the old times in Korea and her parents and culture/interpersonal relations. We have to watch the movies outside of class and do reports every week. I'm not sure how I feel about it. My history class is GREAT because the professor is a really sweet PhD student who really wants us to get passionate about the subject. We go on one field trip every 5 weeks. Just last week was our trip to Anguk, which is a place with a lot of historical significance. We walked around for 3 hours visiting a temple, an old girls' school, different art displays, the main temple of 천도교 (sorry I don't know the English), and the constitution building. We visited the area where the leaders of the Enlightenment Movement used to live and meet, too. It was really fun and the professor is one of my favorites. My culture class is fun mainly because the professor has a Korean/Russian accent that makes her sound positively evil. However, I really like the class and she shows us videos every Thursday that keep things interesting. There aren't a lot of requirements for the class either, so I can focus on my Korean studies.

Anyways, that's all I can think of for now. If I remember anything else I'll post later.

OH by the way, I'm leaving tonight for the beautiful island paradise of Jeju-do. It'll be ballerrrr! I'll make a whole big post about that when I return!

Miss y'all bunches!

Love,

Janet

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

돌아왔어!

Greetings from Seoul! I have returned!

Now that I'm back I'm really missing that nice weather that America was enjoying. It's freezing here!

Lately I've been just hanging around and acclimating. Despite my family's efforts to re-assimilate me into American culture my Korean actually improved over break (I started implementing new vocab and a new grammar form!) and my friends from my church commented that they were scared I would come back not knowing any Korean at all. 아싸!

Anyways, today I spent most of my day writing letters. I had gone to Hongdae to have lunch (냉면/naengmyeon) and dessert (a tiny waffle with ice cream!) and then I went to the stationary store, called a 문방구/munbanggu to get some letter paper and stickers. Yesterday I went to a different stationary store and bought a hilarious notebook, about a bajillion cute pens, and a new pencil case. I'm almost all ready for the new semester! Just gotta get a new backpack first.

Being back in Korea is like slipping back into a pair of shoes you've already broken in. It's such a relief that it's not like putting on a pair of new shoes again. Going to America was like putting on some sneakers I've had for the past four years - you're so used to them you almost don't want to look at them after having worn shiny new nikes for 5 months, but once they're on they're just so comfy!

Sorry I like weird analogies.

In Korea, Valentine's Day has evolved such that on the 14th of February, girls are expected to give the men in their lives candy. It's a time where cute boys have to hide in fear because of the many prospective women showering them with obsessive attention and gifts, as Valentine's Day here is kind of like a day where any revealing of feelings or bold moves forward are encouraged. And so for me, this meant no candy at all *sniffle*.

However! On March 14th is White Day, the counterpart to Valentine's day, the day on which I will receive the candy that I so rightfully deserve! (Just kidding, but seriously, I want candy hahah.) My Korean professor at Wesleyan told me that in the old days in Korea, when Ewha Women's University had gates that did not allow males inside, every year on White Day the boys used to crowd right outside the gates waiting for the girls' classes to end waving candy and cards and gifts in the air like a crazy man mob, hoping to win the girls' hearts with commercialized fluff.

April 14th is called Black Day, or what I like to call ForeverAlone Day, because that is the day that all single people get together and eat black bean noodles (called 자짱면/jajjangmyeon) and talk about how single they are. What a coincidence that it's Stephanie's birthday! (Stephanie is my little sister, for you readers who did not know.)

Anyways, just thought I'd write briefly to say I'm doing well and enjoying the Seoul atmosphere again. Miss you all bunches!

Love,

Janet