Death-defying

...a late night journey in a Seoul taxi.

It was Sassy T, L-G, and myself. We hailed a taxi from Hongdae to the Yeonsinnae/Gusan area. First, the driver took the highway, which means longer cab ride, which means more expensive cab ride. Second, the guy had trouble staying in his lane. He had trouble not hitting other cars. He had trouble not hitting the curb. He had trouble going over 50 km/hour. He had trouble figuring out where we were going. He had trouble just driving. We had trouble keeping ourselves calm in the backseat. We couldn't figure out if he was drunk or just blind. It almost seems funny now, but it was terrifying at the time. Sassy T gave him a 10 when he tried to charge us more. She was firm. I was worried he'd come after us but he u-turned illegally and left. On the walk home, I was sure every cab was him coming back. Suddenly there were tons of taxis around us. They looked like sharks, with their light on top of the car, hunting. They would slow down next to us (to see if we wanted a ride) and then take off. Aniyo, taxi-man, we don't want a ride!

I am safe and sound back in my apartment, nursing a carton of strawberry milk, trying not to think of Soju-happy blind taxi drivers.

Hey

I've been here three months today. Wow. I still have a lot to learn and a lot to DO and, as many people have told me, a lot to figure out. Well, I've given myself an extention so by November 14th I will know what I want to do with my life; go me!

I came home with a rosemary plant tonight; it was abandoned by the side of our house. I'm pretty sure it's dead. But it smells good and I have a vague hope that I can revive it.

I think I'm going to take a rock climbing class and go to Japan. Let's see how everything works out.

I was observed today and it was nerve-wracking. It's one of my (I don't want to say bad, but I do have a lot of trouble with them) trouble classes, but overall, things went okay, despite the fact that I sped through the first part of the lesson because I was nervous that I was being observed. I'm also going to be observed Wednesday and Thursday. We have new teachers; it's weird not to be the newbies anymore. But it's cool! But it's sad. Because people are leaving and, well, that's always sad.

Adventures in Teaching

Today was Thursday and I have a class that I'm starting to dread. It wasn't too bad the first week of school, but as the "trouble makers" have started to filter in, it's gotten worse. They are constantly speaking in Korean, touching each other (poking, hitting, etc), talking, making noises with the table. I've tried different approaches with this class but haven't had much luck. I know that I have to constantly keep them busy because any down time equals behavior getting out of hand.

Today was awesome. We reviewed body parts and how many of each body part we have. Then I gave descriptions of a "person" with three eyes, two ears, etc and had two students draw their interpretation on the board. Then I gave everyone a sheet of colored paper, had them draw their own character/robot/monster/alien and write about it. It was fantastic. Everyone really got into it and wrote and drew fantastic pictures. I think the class had a good time and I had a good time seeing what everyone came up with.

Sweet.

Day Three

...and fire chicken. Before I tell you about my fantastic day three of vaca (it was my favorite), I have to tell you about dinner yesterday. Sassy T (sorry, she already has the nickname and it works for blogging purposes) invited a bunch of people out to what she called "hell's fire chicken." I imagined chicken so hot my mouth would burn for days after. What she meant was rotisserie chicken that was cooked with flames shooting up. It really did look hellish. However the taste was the opposite. It was very tasty (oh, good, I'm starting to talk like my students. Next I'll tell you how 'yummy' everything was. Well, it was). The best part of dinner was the experience rather than the dinner itself. We walked in, and unsure of where to sit, we stood around awkwardly. A gentleman came over, found us a table, cleared it off and chatted a bit before going back to his table and joining his party. He didn't even work there! He just wanted to help us.

Then, as we were leaving and went up to pay and split the bill, the cashier reduced our tab so we all just had to pay 5,000 won each. The bill was 34,000 won but she brought it down to 30,000 so it would be easier to split. It was very kind of her. Korean hospitality made it a great night out.

Day Three of vacation was a trip to Udo, a small island off of Seongsan. The female divers who are now up in their 70s and still dive without breathing appartus dive off the island, but they weren't out when we went. Instead we rented scooters and an atv and puttered around the island taking it all in. What a fantastic way to travel. I was on the atv behind Sean until the last 10 minutes of our trip where I got to ride a scooter! To be quite frank, I drove like an 80 year old woman. I was thinking 'bike' and I was definitely not on a bike. I was exhilerated going 20 miles, oops, sorry, km per hour (so even more slowly than you imagined). But by the last 2 minutes or so, I was so revved up and a lot more comfortable that I was zooming along at a whopping 30 km per hour (please don't tell me the equivilant; don't shatter my dream). Anyway, it was terrific fun.

I took loads of pictures and bumpy video that makes me slightly ill looking at it now from the back of the atv. Crutches took off his shirt part way through, but kept the vest on. It made me giggle. It was a cross between Abu and a ringmaster. I couldn't decide. But he was a great driver. That is, he knew what he was doing (I think). After my initial nervousness at getting on something like that, I pulled out my camera and happily took pictures and enjoyed the wind in my hair and the magnificent scenery of the island. Plus I got a cheap thrill when we revved the engine and passed our friends on scooters.

We took the ferry back and proceeded to climb Ilchulbong Peak (aka "Sunrise Peak"), a crater. For whatever reason, it was harder this day  that it had been the previous evening. I kept stopping to take pictures so I was the last to the top. It was gorgeous. It was only a little disappointing that we couldn't walk around more. Also, I don't know what I imagined a crater to look like, maybe a little more rocky, but this was green and while beautiful, I don't know that you would necessarily know that it was a crater unless you were told. I have pictures; you tell me.

We took the ferry to the island

It was rocky

and green

with fantastic hills that reminded me of Scotland

and funny signs that remind me of "Mind your head" in England.

Unfortunately, I did not heed the muddy slope...

and fell

But for this view it was worth it, don't you think?

the road took us around the island

our caravan

the clouds and the grass

the ocean and the rocks

the beach

a lady drying seaweed

racing past volcanic walls and houses with blue roofs

I went a little camera crazy on the atv

the Jeju group!

at the rocks

and that was our trip to Udo Island

*****************

Ilchulbong Peak

views of the city from above

do you see the sky? it's breath-taking

at the top

it's a crater

crazy face at the top (with my shirt!)

Ok, I saved the beach for last because I miss it already. It's hard to imagine that the sun was so bright and the air was so clean and the waves were so huge when you're sitting in your tiny apartment in Seoul. So, stay tuned for the next and final (I know, thank goodness, right?) installment of Jeju Vacation of Awesomeness.

Vacation! Day Two

Day Two: Manjuggal Lava Tubes

It was a gloomy, rainy day so we nixed the beach idea and went to the lava tubes. My guidebook said it was like Indiana Jones. Well, my guidebook lied. It was like any natural underground cavern you've been to. Still, it was pretty neat to walk through. However in the picture they showed an underground lake but we weren't allowed to go that far. I was bummed when our trail just stopped because I had been really excited about the lake. Alas.

For more information on lava tubes and what they are and how they are created, please go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava_tube There's a picture of the Manjuggal Lava Tubes (where I was) third down.

After the tubes, we made our way to the maze but by then it started to pour so we found a taxi back to the bus stop where we waited, wet and tired in a leaky bus shelter. We tried to keep each other entertained. Tex sang, I danced. The rain was nice. It reminded me of home. But after awhile, when everything is wet and your shoes squish and you wonder if the bus will ever come, you want nothing more than to get out of the rain.

We took the bus to Ilchulbong where we went to climb the crater. No one was around so we set up the path. It went like this. CM would say let's just go up these steps and see what's there. We'd do that, gasp, take pictures, wonder if we should go back down because it was grey and starting to get dark, then I'd say let's just go up here and see what's there before we head down. It went on like this until we got about halfway up and then it really was dark and they saw spiders and I saw caves, so we decided to head back down. My fun fact of the night was that volcanic rock absorbs water better so that's why the steps weren't slippery.

Please note: No high heels. They have to mention this because in Korea women wear high heels everywhere. Seriously. There were still women at the cave in heels. And climbing the crater. Everywhere.

Descending into the cave.

A very popular attraction.

A cavern in the tubes.

Cool rocks. Actually it was about 20 degrees cooler in the tubes. The walls were smooth and damp. Yes, I felt them. Wouldn't you?

So cool. Ceiling.

You can see the different levels of where the lava flowed.

In front of a rare rock formation: a lava pillar.

My shirt from The Running Store in VA. I was/am on a mission to take this shirt to the coolest places. Instead of the traveling gnome, it's the traveling shirt.

A pathway lit up.

We walked on the ground for most of the tube but at the end there was a path.

Our bus took us to Seongsan. We weren't sure about Ilchulbong until bam! (yeah, I said it) there it was. And it was spectacular.

Seongsan from Ilchulbong Peak

A wet view of the city

Pretty soon it was night

and we made our way back down...

Summer Vacation!

Finally! My awesomesummervacation/Jeju post. Everyone has been asking about my trip and it's hard to explain such awesome-ness so I'm going to blog about it and include pictures and hope that explains it much better.

Day One - Arrived in Jeju City. First thought: Palm trees!

The flight is about an hour long. You go up, you come down, that's pretty much it. We decided to tackle Loveland first. Finding a bus to take us there was a bit of a challenge but we did and it dropped us off in what felt like the middle of nowhere. And that was bus service the rest of our trip. It takes a long time to get places because every bus is a local bus and stops about every 50 yards (that's what it felt like, ok?) and once you're 'there' you usually have to walk a little to be exactly where you want to go. If you decide to go to Loveland, go at night. It was interesting, but not as exciting (for lack of a better word) as I thought it would be. Here are the G-rated pictures.

Aw. Hearts at the beginning.

I don't understand the pig but he was cute so I took his picture.

This is my favorite picture of my entire trip.

These pictures don't do Loveland justice but it's a little embarrassing to put the pictures up where your family reads your blog. Instead I'm going to post them on facebook (where more of my family has access. Score). After Loveland we headed to Seogwipo (on the south point of the island) where we were staying. After a bit of confusion, we found our hostel: Jeju Hiking Inn.

The owner was a friendly guy who told us all about the area and how to get around. It was five minutes from the waterfalls, had a rooftop where we could go hang out, and it was cheap.

The number, in case you need a place to stay.

Up the street.

Down the street.

Our room. We had our own bathroom, fridge, a/c, and flat screen tv (it only played CNN; I'm not complaining). It was pretty nice considering we spent about $13/night.

And then there was our view from our room.

It was pretty nice.

Our first meal. Korea is all about the side dishes. This wasn't the main meal; this was all the side dishes that you get before your meal to eat then or with your meal. It was amazing. They covered the entire table!

More pictures of Seogwipo, the city where we stayed. It is right on the coast and everyday we had a view of the bridge and the water. There were boats lined up in the harbor. It wasn't what I imagined only because I came to Jeju Island imagining Hawaii. "It's Korea's Hawaii" I was told. But, "It's Korea with a makeover," is more apt. It's Korea with trees and ocean and colorful blue, green, and orange rooftops. And I didn't find this out that first day, but it's lush. Lush and luscious and it isn't until you say those words standing in a jungle that you realize that they sound exactly like what they are. Say it. Lush.

The light is so bright and gorgeous.

These little old men statues made out of volcanic rocks are all over the island. No one knows why.

We went to the waterfalls near our hostel.

They were fascinated by something. A snail I think. There were little creatures along the path to the waterfalls. We even saw a crab! It was so cute and looked like it was dancing because it walked sideways. To the right, to the right, to the right, to the right, to the left, to the left, to the left, to the left....

These were my travel mates: CM, KS, Tex, and Crutches. Yeah, he was on crutches the entire trip. I sort of felt bad for him because he had to lug around his crutches and sometimes we had to leave him behind, but on the other hand, I was super impressed by how well he kept up and how much he did.

At the falls. We are awesome, I know.

Seogwipo.

The bridge lights up and changes colors at night.

Summer vacation rocked!

/End day one. Stay tuned for Day Two.