Jeju Adventures

Oooh man. So this is pretty much the first moment I've had in the past few days to do some typing. I'm sure my loyal followers have just been dying, so let me ease your pain.

It has been a busy busy busy week! And you know me, I love that shit. Down time is no friend of mine. Anyway, last Friday was Field Day at school and it was really fun. I loved being outside in the sun, actually running around and doing real outdoor activities rather than playing "outside" on the roof. It was kind of strange though because the kids didn't seem all that into the sport aspect of it. When I worked at camps and we had those kinds of things, the kids were all about it. I think, sadly, these kids just don't know the spirit of athletic competition because most of the focus here is on academics and things like piano and violin lessons. The teachers all did a tug-of-war competition and the kids were just kind of like, meh. Campers used to go nuts when counselors competed against each other. Oh well. Also, the Fun Police (aka my co-teacher) was out in full force, making sure the kids did not have too much fun. All the other classes were running around like crazy people and my class was sitting on their mat. When we could finally blow some bubbles, they were confined to a small space and given strict instructions not to wander...or blow bubbles in their friends faces, which I did repeatedly. My co-teacher is nice and we get along, but she is really strict and not fun and it's frustrating. I know she's afraid the kids are going to get hurt, but they're kids. Again, I had a great time because I love doing that kind of thing (I wish we could have it every week!) but it would have been better for the kids if she would chill the fuck out.

Anyway, whatever. She's lame, so I'm the fun one and the kids know what's up.

After that, I was off to Jeju!!! That turned out to be fucking FANTASTIC. Seriously, it was everything I expected and much much more. Jeju is an island down at the bottom of Korea and it was amazing. It was sooooo beautiful, the weather was perfect, I met some great people and everything was just fantastic. Two tiny blips...I got a bad stomachache Saturday night so I had to go home early and not out with everyone, and my poor friend fell down some stairs and broke a bone in her foot. So that was a not so great ending. Even though, now, I have a fellow member in the "I broke my foot in a foreign country, on stairs, and not drunk" club. So hooray us.

However, the first part of the weekend was just ridiculously amazing. I had my doubts after the night long bus ride with no sleep, but I napped on the ferry ride over and then things starting being awesome. We rented scooters on U-Do, which translates into "Cow Island," but I never saw any cows. I was a little nervous about the scooter because the last time I drove a scooter (in Italy) I ran it into a wall. I am pretty bad with getting my hands to do two separate things, so I was afraid I would run into something, or someone, or run myself into the ocean. Luckily, I did none of things (except the one time I hit my friend, but I was going super slow, so it doesn't count) and I ended up having the best time on that thing. I also am pretty much a professional scooter driver now. Thinking of taking up a second job delivering food around the area on one (sike). U-Do was incredibly beautiful and I think probably my favorite part of the trip.

After that we hiked up to Crater Mountain, which was up A LOT of steps but worth it.It's one of the new natural wonders of the world. I'm not sure it was that spectacular, but I haven't seen the rest of them either so who knows. We checked into the hotel after that and I have never been so glad to take a shower. I also found out it would be my first experience with mats on the floor style bedding. It actually turned out to be pretty comfortable, so no complaints. We roomed with two other girls, one from South Africa and one from Wales and they turned about to be fantastic Soju drinking buddies. Soju is the official liquor of Korea and it's pretty potent. I don't mind the taste, when mixed with Cider (Sprite), and it gets the job done. We had really good Korean BBQ for dinner, with special Jeju black pig, which we were told was once fed with human feces. Yummy! Not anymore though, so we were told. Either way, it was totally delicious and my fatty roommates and i made some enemies because we were supposed to have a table of 6, but we were only 4 and people that came late didn't get any meat because we ate it all. Ooops! That is what you get for being late. Then it was hardcore Soju time and even though our "live band from Seoul" turned out to be a bust (one man acoustic guitar show), we still had a great time.

Oddly enough, I was pretty ok the next morning and had another great day of awesome sightseeing. I'm going to try and keep it short, because really only the pictures do the trip a little bit of justice (see fb), but each place we went was breathtakingly beautiful and awesome in it's own way. Don't ask me the names of any of these places because I never remember, sorry! The first place was a lagoon type place and we swam in some freezing cold water. Then we wandered down a beautiful ocean view path, saw "penis rock," walked through a movie set and then it was off to another spectacular view with volcanic rock shooting out of the ocean. Again, no idea the name of the place or the rocks, but they looked like tubes and were cool. Then we headed to a waterfall and another freezing cold lagoon, this time with an awesome bridge and cool fountains. For lunch we had some yummy Korean food and then it was to the beach. We only got about an hour of beach time, which was another sad part of the trip, but I enjoyed it anyway. Beach time is my favorite time and I need some more of it in my life soon! Then we went to a Buddhist temple to say Happy Birthday to Buddha and I got my fill of paper lanterns. I am in love with those things! I also drank so "healing water" that was dripping from a cave and I'm pretty sure that is what gave me the stomacheache. I wanted it to get rid of my cough, but I just picked up a new ailment instead. Dammit. Anyway, last stop of the trip was Loveland, which is probably the most ridiculous place I've ever been in my life. And that is counting LA. It's supposedly where Koreans used to go on honeymoons to "learn" how to have sex (apparently they are a little prude prior to marriage). It's a bunch of crazy statues and sculptures in these just ridiculous sexual positions. And lots and lots of penis sculptures. There's also a porn shop, and I video to watch (I didn't have time for that) and some interactive things you can do. It was interesting and funny, but I would have rather been on the beach for longer, haha. Oh well, least I can say I've been.

After the healing water, I didn't really have a stomach for dinner (mexican) so I went home afterwards and had an early night. I was super sad to go home but I knew I would be grumpy pants all night because I was not only filthy and tired, but also sick. So I spared everyone from that and went to bed. I was kind of glad the next day because after our two stops, it was a two hour ferry ride and a seven hour bus ride that included an accident, so I'm glad I was rested. The first stop was lava cave that was really interesting (and freezing) and the second was a maze that was not interesting. On the ferry ride back we watched the Korean version of American Idol. That show is on pretty much all the time, I'm assuming. I see it everywhere I go and once, in a bar, it was on the entire 4 hours we were there. Not sure what that was about.

Anyway, there was really bad traffic on the bus ride home and the bus driver rear ended another car, which then hit the car in front of it. No one was hurt, thankfully, and there was little damage to the cars. The most entertaining part was the Korean police officers that parked on the opposite side of the interstate and then just wandered across three lanes of busy traffic just blowing their whistles. Also entertaining, when we called our trip leader (on the other bus) and he's just like, oh ok, you guys are fine and will be on your way soon. This trip leader was one of the most ridiculous people I've ever met (he described Crater Mountain as "one of UNESCO's most fucking awesome coolest places in the world"), but he was right. He led us to some cool shit too, so I'm not complaining.

So that was my weekend. Again, awesome. This week has been flying by and tomorrow (Friday) we have a school cookout. A lot of people are being lame and not coming, but screw them. Me and my soju are going to have a great time! Then I'm going dancing. Can't wait!

Dream big people!