"The world comes to Jeju and Jeju goes to the world!"

Dear Jeju Island,

You win the award of being the best looking place in Korea. Congrats!

What can I say? It's Friday and I'm just trying to throw this second to last blog together. Mienhamnida (Im sorry.) However, I do have quite an exciting blog planned for you with numerous pictures, so buckle up!

They say it's Korea's "Hawaii," but I knew that just simply couldn't be since Jeju Island is at the same latitude as let's say Kansas. Mrs. Ko really wanted me to go to Jeju Island before I left. I told her I didn't really have the time nor did I have Lizar to go with. So, I pretty much ruled it out. BUT I got a call from Mrs. Ko on Thursday that she and Mrs. Nam along with two of Mrs. Nam's friends were going to Jeju Island Monday through Wednesday. So after begging my director to give me one extra vacation day and working one extra day to make up for the other day, I was granted the opportunity to take one last adventure outside of Gunsan.

Jeju is an island that sits under the mainland and is surrounded by the South Sea and the Pacific Ocean. So Monday morning, Mrs. Nam picked me up, we met up with the rest of the gang and set off on a 3 hour car ride towards the end of the peninsula to catch the ferry.

Here we are on one of our pit stop:

We boarded the ferry with such excitement. Little did we know what would lay ahead in the next two hours.

Everything started out fine. We even were able to go out on the deck and take some pics

As we were wandering around the ferry... And we definitely wandered quite a bit since Mrs. Nam can not sit still...I was noticing all the people who were eating ice cream, funyuns, chips, and various other snacks. Suddenly, the boat started to increase speed and suddenly, the waters got significantly rougher. In the beginning, I thought, "this is going to be interesting. I bet at least one person is going to get seasick. After I heard the first Korean lose their funyuns about a half hour into the journey, I decided I would count the number of seasick Koreans. After 15, I lost count. As I was plugging my ears and humming "rock a bye baby" to drown out the horrific sounds around me, I noticed those who did not have their head in a puke bag were eating ice cream. HOW could they be eating at such a time as this???? I thought maybe I would experience another first, however, I endured and did not need the puke bag next to me. Unfortunately, Mrs. Ko was not so lucky. Mrs. Nam on the other hand, I'm pretty sure she would have been fine snacking on some live octopus.


After that memorable ferry ride, we arrived on the beautiful island of Jeju. On our way to our condo, we stopped at this small traditional village.

The mascots of Jeju:

Traditional village:

The Condo was super nice. We slept on the floor of course, but it was quite comfy. Our area was so beautiful. It was right on the coast, so in the morning I decided to take my running outdoors. I ran and ran and ran and didn't want to stop, watching the sunrise and running on the coast is really going to make running around White Oaks very drab.

After this beautiful run, we got ready, and ate this Korean/American breakfast. It was funny. Here I sat with eggs, pancakes, fruit and cereal and everybody else around me sat there with rice, seaweed soup, kimchi, and this Korean style salad (similar to coleslaw).

Our first stop was this walking trail along the coast. It was really beautiful.

Mrs. Nam bought me this fruit that I had no idea what it was, but it was really good..however, I was the only one who thought so. Apparently, it's a cactus' fruit.

After that, we went to this international convention center or something like that. Inside was a duty free shop, so Mrs. Nam bought some Red Ginseng and Prada sunglasses (Baller!!!!) After Mrs Nam dropped some Won, we headed to this waterfall.

Here I saw this lady and her homemade hat. Every time I need a laugh, I will look at this picture. I encourage you to do the same.

Break for Lunch! In Jeju, one of their specialties is this pork that comes from a black pig. It was really good, but pork is pork if you ask me.

After our feast of famous Jeju pork, we went to the world's longest lava tube! What's a lava tube you ask? Well, it's simply a tube made from lava many years ago!

We then intended to go for another hike up some mountain. However, we got distracted during transit to this mountain. This sea wall/pier type thing distracted us.

All around the island I saw these little man made mini rock towers. Mrs. Ko told me when you add a rock to the pile you make a wish. So, here I am making my wish. All the ladies encouraged me to make my wish to "marry rich."
We finally made it to the mountain, but we ran out of daylight, therefore we didn't get to "hike" it. And by "hike" I mean walk on a nice paved trail.

Our last stop of the very fun filled day was the Lotte Hotel. This hotel is one of the most prestigious hotels in Korea. And it was soooo nice. As we walked in Mrs. Ko told me to act like I belonged here. I'm not sure how well I blended since I was wearing my comfy "hikin" clothes and a bright red hat I found in Busan for 2 dollars. Mrs. Nam on the other handed waltzed in that hotel like she owned it. She walked into the Louis Vuitton store, made the lady show her a few purses that cost more than my monthly salary and then walked right out of there like Louis Vuitton isn't good enough for her. Atta girl, Mrs. Nam.

In the back of the hotel was this "camping zone." It was so interesting. There were permanent campers and then a few tree houses. I've never seen anything like that. Must be what the rich folk think "camping" is.

At the Lotte Hotel they had this Volcano light show. However, from where we were standing we didn't see much. The people who were eating the 75 dollar buffet, however, had perfect seats.

The next morning, I woke up and headed the other direction for my morning run. This run was not as nice and I ran into quite the distraction on the way:

It was still very nice though. I can't get over the scenery:

We only had a few hours until we had to board that ferry. I can't describe how much I was dreading getting back on that thing. So, in the time that we did have. We visited two places. The first place was where a famous drama was filmed. I'm not sure of the drama, but apparently the Chinese love it. There were many many Chinese tourists. It also had a nice lighthouse. It was pretty windy...I would upload pictures, but frankly, it's getting really tiring uploading all these pictures. You can go to my facebook to check it out.

The second spot was this other famous landmark. I'm not really sure why it's famous, but it was really crawling with tourists. We took some pics, got a few souvenirs, ate some lunch down the road and then prepared to get back on the ferry.

We invested in some seasickness medicine and I'm so happy we did. We "cheered" and then we

downed it. Right when I put the bottle to my lips, I hear Mrs. Ko say, "One shaaaaaat!" (One shot!) Haha..classic...I pretty much spit my seasickness medicine everywhere!

While we were waiting to board the ferry, we carefully observed the people getting off the ferry. Mrs. Nam kept asking everyone, "How was it? Were you seasick?" Mrs. Nam is no ordinary Korean. Most Koreans never talk to strangers, but Mrs. Nam would approach pretty much anyone with confidence. There were countless "Mrs. Nam" moments on this trip. After spending all this time with her, I can tell why she has so many good friends, she is just one of those people who everybody loves. I want to be just like Mrs. Nam when I grow up.

Anyhow, we got on the ferry, sat in our seats for about 2 minutes before Mrs. Nam had his following her somewhere else. She led us down to the seats on the 1st level. How to beat seasickness: Liquid Medicine and Business Class! I think that medicine was "drowsy" because we were all knocked out for a majority of the trip back to the mainland.

We reached the peninsula, no problem. Mrs. Nam asked someone on the second, economy class level how the ride was and their response was something along the lines of, "I was so seasick I thought I was going to die." PHEW...I am sooooo happy I was not up there with the common folk.Here's the thing with Koreans, just when you think the trip is over and you have "home" on your mind, they take you to one last sightseeing place. This place was Boseung Valley. This is where they grow Green Tea. It was extremely awesome and beautiful and kind of unexpected to see this type of scene in Korea. There was lots of enormous Japanese Cedar trees and the green tea fields were beautiful. We ate green tea cookies, ate green tea ice cream, and drank some green tea. I think it was one of my favorite parts of the vacation...maybe that's because green tea is one of my favorite flavors.

We rolled into Gunsan around 9:00 PM on Wednesday and I was out by 9:30 p.m. It was so fun, but so exhausting! Korean style vacations are probably the most exhausting things I've ever experienced.

Since the trip, I've been trying to wrap things up here. Seems like there's so much to do, so many people to see, so many Korean things to buy, and so much Korean food to eat one last time. The goodbyes are going to be hard. I'm having to say goodbye to this student tonight. She's been one of the few who have stuck with me the whole year. She's incredible and I will miss her greatly!
Well, I'm sorry this took so long to get posted! Only one more blogpost. Last Sunday I celebrated my one year anniversary with Korea. Now, I've officially been in Korea for more than a year! It's been such an incredible and self defining year. But you'll hear more about my deeper thoughts in my next and last blogpost. See you soon America!