Seoul-si, Gyeonngi-do, South Korea

Happy New Years everyone....9h13m left! The clock will strike twelve 17 hours before it does back in Vancouver, when you will all be still sleeping. I'm sick as a dog right now, I think it might be SARS!!
I should not drink alcohol tonight, I should not smoke cigarettes tonight!

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Jeju-si, Jeju-do, South Korea

So here I am in a "PC bang" in jeju city. Thursday and friday were damn cold, the wind was blowing so hard, I had to lean forward to stop from being blown over. There was hail and snow intermittently throughout the day too.

I stayed my first night at the Hani-Il minbak near downtown, the ajummah was very nice, but she kept on talking to me in korean, so I just smiled and nodded. I found a McDonald's that night, thank god, so my christmas dinner consisted of a big mac meal with coke. I couldn't do much else because of the freezing wind, except wander the streets downtown and drink by myself at the Tombstone Pub.

Yeah, and I discovered that the Minbak had no hot water, even though there was a huge yellow sign outside advertising "Hot Water" and I deceided on friday night to move up to a yeogwan with private bathroom and hot water, the Tower Inn, closer to downtown, and only had to fork over 25000won a night compared to the 15000won at the minbak. I will miss that ajummah though :)

Saturday, I signed up for a two day bus tour of the island, west and east coast, lunches included for only 50000won. Saturday we visited, Yongduam rock, shaped like a dragon leaping out of the ocean. Apparently, a dragon was turned to stone for stealing the "elixir of youth" from some ancient korean god, I couldn't help but think that it just looked like some big ugly rock?? no wait, it did look kind of cool with the ocean splashing up against it...
Then on to the Bunjae (bonsai) Artpia. Some Korean farmer spent 30 years growing hundreds of bonsai trees and they are all kept here, it's supposed to teach you about the hardships of life...it was really nice and must've taken an incredible amount of work...
Then we visited a Miniature Theme Park and had lunch. There were miniatures of all of the major tourist landmarks across the world, from Mt. Rushmore and the Whitehouse, the Sydney Opera House and the Taj Mahal...to the Great Pyramids at Giza.
Then Jusangjeollidae, kind of like the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, where magma has been supercooled by the ocean water and forms these towering crystals of rock along the shore.
After that we went to Seogwipo-si (a smaller city on the south coast of Jeju-do island), it was warm and beautiful with palm tress everywhere. I took a boat tour around three small islands off the coast: Beomseom, Munseom and Seopseom. The boat even had scubadivers who took cameras underwater and filmed the coral reefs. From there we went to Chunjiyeon falls, a beautiful waterfall with this very cool pathway with cliffs along either side. There a special eel that's natural habitat is in the river at the bottom of the falls and it can grow up to 20kg and 2m long here!

Sunday was bus tour day 2. A korean family had taken great interest in my well being giving me oranges, taking photos with me and buying me cups of coffee at everystop. In fact I had received so many oranges (Jeju island is famous for its oranges) that my bag was overflowing and I had to start turning people away, how am I ever going to eat all these oranges? So the day started off at a the "Mystery Road" much like Magnetic Hill in New Brunswick, but it was free. Not very cool, probably because I've seen it before. The coolest thing was the Dolhareubangs they had made up like silver aliens! (If you don't know, a Dolhareubang is an ancient statue, found only on Jeju island. They are these little men with hats and smiling faces and are found all over the island, carved from the volcanic basalt rock that the island is made from. Nobody REALLY knows why they are here....it's still debated.)

Then we went to the Songeup-si Folk Village. A traditional Korean village, where the government pays the residents 1000000won a year to live traditionally....it was crappy, the whole tour was in Korean, but I did see a traditional toilet. Get this, they used to crap into pig pens and then the pigs would eat it, no kidding!
Then they tried to get us to buy this 30000won 5 flavour tea, which was good, but not worth it, at least for me! Then it was Illchul land, where I saw Micheon cave, a lava tube caved formed when the island was volcanic. The lava flowed underground hardening only on the outside but staying hot in the middle forming these huge cave tunnels all over the island.

Here's some excerpts from Illchul Land's english brochure:
-(advertising a clay making "spinning wheel experience")
"imitate like the movie 'ghost'"
-(visiting their subtropical garden)
"under the three dimensional landscape, you may be assimilated with the nature and relaxed satisfactorily"
-(on the back page of the brochure)
-"whisper with trees friendly, time in company with family intimately on the lawn field, the space of walking with lover, these will let you prepare the new future of yourself."

I can undestand what they were trying to say...but it's funny, c'mon...
So from there we went to Sinyang-dae (a black coral beach) to view the Seongsan Ilchulbong (Sunrise Peak) which is a huge volcanic crater off the coast .
From there we went to see where the Haenyeo dive, these are females who dive in the ocean with no gear to depths of 20m to collect shellfish from the ocean floor. The Korean family that had adopted me, invited me to eat, along with another man from the tour who spoke english fairly well. They fed me Soju and then I ate steamed octopus and steamed....SEA SLUG!!!! ugh! It looks soft and when it's alive but it's really like hard beef jerky covered in mucous that tastes like fish!!! Nasty! Yeah, and they have all these tanks everywhere with the animals swimming around so you can see them grab your dinner and chop it up.

Okay...I'm back in Jeju city now, I might find this place called the Playhouse, apparently where all the expats go. I've seen only five foreigners so far, four of them were from Germany and spoke mosty..well German, and this Australian man who met me at the airport and wanted me to come have coffee with him...I escaped!

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Gangneung-si, Gangwon-do, South Korea

As my ninth week comes to a close, I decided to send out another email updating everyone on my experiences here.

First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. As Christmas has never been my favorite holiday it's not that big of a deal living in a country where it's virtually non-existent. It'll pass by like any other December 25th...into oblivion...
New Year's this year will be had in Seoul, a city of 11 million people. I don't know exactly what's happening but I'll fill you all in on the details later. Hopefully, this'll be my first good new years...you know with no break-ups, girlfriends sleeping with their exboyfriends, getting my face messed up and breaking stoves or getting left behind in the middle of nowhere in burnaby at 11pm....ahhh!! who am i kidding...new years sucks!

I went to Seoul again two weeks ago and made my way to city hall, in search of an english speaking travel agent at Joy Travel. After numerous (failed) attempts to ask for directions I found my self alone and in the midst of a huge protest. Riot police were waiting up and down every street around City Hall square. There was a stage with some guy yelling and chanting and people with banners. I don't know what it was for? Anyways, I found the Westin something hotel, spoke to the concierge and she directed me to the Grand Lotte Hotel where there was a travel agent who was open on Sats and Suns and spoke some english (though broken).
So I called a friend, Jean-Paul, (from Ste-Anne, who was finishing up his year in Seoul), he met me and we went out for drinks and then back to his apartment, to polish off some more big bottles of korean beer and then to his friends house in the bitter korean cold (-12ish) for a big fish dinner and good conversation. We talked about UFO landings, aliens and Korea in general...then off to a bar for more drinks.
I slept at Jean-Pauls on the linoleum floor and awoke to a throbbing headache...9am the next day. Jean and I went around Seoul. I also managed to book my ticket to Jejudo island leaving Christmas day. We went to Insa-dong, then the Young-sam electronics mart...where I found that I could purchase Matrix 3, lord of the rings, kill bill etc...on DVD, pirated of course for around 10 bucks. It was so damn cold, I couldn't do any of the tourist things I wanted to that weekend but whatever....I still have lots of time in the summer.

Last weekend, I went out and partied at Liverpool and Bar Bumpin, and somehow made my way home at 5am...pics for you to see at:

Sat night I ate out...Bulgogi (korean marinated beef rib) and then made some jello soju shooters (korea's national liquor made from fermented sweet potatoes)...mmmm

It really is getting so cold here. Nothing I've ever felt before in my life. I swear we hit a whooping high of -1C today...and it easily drops below -10C at night. I can't keep my hands exposed for more than a few seconds before I lose all feeling in them.

And yes I will be celebrating Christmas on the sub-tropical extinct volcanic island of Jejudo off Korea's southern coast. Palm trees, tangerine fields and lava tube caves await me!!

One thing I have noticed is Korea's basis on sufficiency....and let me clarify sufficiency, not Efficiency. It's quite a contrast to the western-style of over-consumption and consumerism...here people buy and use only what they need...it's really great to see... But I really feel like I am beginning to really understand and fit into this culture. It's still hard because it's so based on etiquette, something I'm not used to as a westerner. I don't think any of us are. I must always remember to bow and be courteous...I bow all the time, to say hello and goodbye and thank you and i have to adjust the depth of my bow to the degree of respect I am giving. It's very strange to hear my students insult each other by saying "I disrespect your grandfather!" and the ultimate burn "I disrespect your grandmother!" Trust me I've heard it and these kids take offense....

Dating is not up to western standards but is slowly changing. People go to the bars in single sex groups to drink. Rarely, will you see a group of girls and guys going out together. They sit at separate tables and drink until they are tanked...let me say that again TANKED!!! It's customary for the table to ask the bartender (for a small fee) to ask a girl at another table if she would like to join the guys. If she says yes, then there you go, if no...well that's the end of it. It's all about respect but seems very "elementary school dance" to me.

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