Jeju Part 2: Ice Movies and Museums

Hello All!

Welcome to part 2 day 2 of my Jeju trip update! The goal is to get ths3s out and done consecutively, so hede goes.

Our wake-up call was at 7am, but the ladies in our room were all up between 6-6:30. We were td breakfast was ths most important (expensive) meal of the day by Jae, and it started at 7. That meant we had to be up before that. I mean really. It's free food. Why would anyone miss out on that? Anywayzzzz... we were up and ready to eat ze foooooood. It was a pretty good breakfast. But then again we were staying at a pretty posh hotel, so it better be good. And it was a buffet. Score. Breakfast had western and Korean food. I stuck with western. I love Korean food, but I take my breakfast very seriously. I grew up in the west, so a western breakfast it is! Anyway, me, Tania, Gretchen, and Caitlyn had our breakfast together as roommies and chatted. Of course, we wanted to sit outside, but it was raining. Woe was our being.

After breakfast I bought that umbrella and we piled onto the bus to go to the first location, which was the Trick Eye Ice museum. Anyone who knows me knows I love museums, these were no exceptions. The first floor housed the Ice Museum, which was cool all on it's own. I froze my skinny lil' ass off, but I managed to get a few pictures in of the amazing sculptures. I was wearing shorts,  so I refused to go down the ice slide. Another time, Jeju. Another time.

Then we went upstairs to watch a short 4D 360 movie. There were three playing: Ninjas, Poseidon, and The Room. The last one was a horror move. Can you guess which one I saw? I saw The Room. Yep. Horror movies are pretty funny in large groups, but it definitely would have been scary if I were by myself. But I just laughed and reached out to all the 3D monstrosities begging for my death. Good times. After the movie, Tania, Gretchen and I went to the Trick-eye museum. I will not explain this one. Just check out the photo gallery. All I can say is that it was really cool.

And so after the Trick-eye museum,  I bought some gifts for the teachers at my school and then go myself a drink at the café before we piled on the bus once more. The bus took us to a buffet for lunch. Lunch was meh, but it was lunch, so i ate because I was hungry. I think we were spoiled by our two previous meals. But anyway, right across the way from the buffet place was our next desitnation, the world theme park! It was a neat place with smaller scale versions of famous buildings around the world. The only places we weren't interested in were those from the U.S. 'Cuz most of us didn't care or had already seen these places. I am part of the latter.

Anyway, the them park was fun because it was an excuse to take a ton of pictures. And they started playing familiar music and we started singing and dancing a bit to it. Yes. In public. Jae, Mr. Yang, and Mr. Bae were all laughing at us. But it was fun! I think that's why we had so much fun.

About half-way through the theme park, Andrea and I ended up photobombing some high school boys and it was awesome. They were so surprised that we were behind them and in the photo. later, they asked us to take a picture with them as well. I guess we became a part of the theme park. We also took pictures with some high school girls in front of the mini-Eiffel tower and with this jazz band statue. It was like we were famous or something. But we're not.

After the theme park we went to visit a waterfall. We were getting tired, so the goal was get to the waterfall, take selfies, take a group pic, and take a picture of the waterfall before heading back to the bus. We did that, but had about 30 minutes left over so we chilled in a cafe. After the waterfall, we went to an Estuary. but we weren't about that life, so we chilled at a burger place and played with a dog for about an hour. We were almost late for the bus because we got the meeting time wrong. But hey, it happens.

After that, we finally had dinner at an awesome buffet and I managed to stuff my face way more than usual. I was on a mission. At dinner, the Director of the Jeonnam office came to chill with us and gave a speech and paid for extra soju and mecju. We all took shots with him and I managed to get a selfie with him. He was a nice man.

After stuffing our faces with food and drinks, we all headed back to the hotel. Some people went out. Some people stayed in. I chose to stay in because I'm an old lady at heart and I was tired.

And that was day 2 in Jeju. Stay tuned for day 3.

Cheers!

Jeju Part 1: Maze, Mount Doom, and Pigs

Hello everyone! Doesn't Tania own that wave?

I've been so horrible with posting things, it's all bad. I even got the blog app on my phone to post on the way to and from work, but it just slips my mind these days...

I will make no promises.

MOVING ON.

Some provinces gather all their TaLK scholars for a group culture trip. Well, at least I know Jeonnam does. I think the others do too. But I'm not there, so I don't know for sure. Unless that group visit to a temple was actually a culture trip for another group. That would actually be pretty cool. But not the whole "no meat" thing. I tried it. Not easy and definitely not fun.

Okay, back to the topic. Jeonnam's culture trip was to Jeju-do, an island province off the southern coast of Jeonnam. Yes. I said it. Island. I know what you're thinking. BEACH!!!! Who doesn't love the beach? No one. Everyone loves the beach. Dan, if you're reading this, I know you just said some smart-ass remark. And I know it was a good one. Be sure to comment. I wanna know what you said. Anyways, we were set to go to Jeju, which means tank tops and shorts! And a bathing suit! Good times.

Unfortunately, we found out it was going to rain the second day there. The fudge? We only had 3 days and on the morning of the second day it was going to rain? Blasphemy! But it's okay. It was still going to be pleasantly warm. I made sure I packed well, I figured I'd buy an umbrella in Jeju because they're so cheap. On Thursday, we all met at the airport and I saw all the scholars from the previous generation who decided to go too. There were 22 people in our generation, but I'm not sure about the others. It was nice seeing people from other parts of Jeonnam again. I haven't seen some of them since orientation.

The flight to Jeju was only 30 minutes, which was plenty of time to get in a short nap. From there, we went straight to the first location, which was a maze garden. It was pretty cool. It took a while to find out way, and I kept losing the crew, but in the end everyone made it out safely. I must say though, I didn't like them spiders. And there were signs that told people not to kiss in the maze. I guess that's been a really big problem. People making out in a maze.

Gretchen and Saya are such bad kids. Breaking the rules. Lol.  Anyway, Our time at the maze was about an hour, but it was pretty fun. It's funny that Jae, our coordinator, told us to get lost, but to be back in an hour. Excuse me, sir. if I am to get lost, I will do it properly. And as such, I will not be able to come back in an hour. But I did. So everything was okay. I also had some cactus ice cream there. It was pretty good. It tasted like frozen yogurt. IU had a lot of ice cream on that trip. Good times.

After the maze, we went to a mountain to hike. It was a hard hike. The venue was gorgeous, lush green grass and trees on the top, but it was definitely a work-out. Saya, Erica, Andrea and I adopted the walk for a bit, rest for a second strategy. if we took any significantly long breaks, we wouldn't have made it up the mountain. You know how some people say feel the burn? My legs were feeling it all the way to Monday. No lie. But we had a mission. Make it to the top to take selfies and group pics. We achieved that goal. The view was gorgeous too.

So in the end I didn't die, and we took our sweet time down the mountain and grabbed a few more awesome pics. It was a good time all around, minus the burning pain in my legs that tell me I'm out of shape, of course. I should go hiking more often. I like it... when it doesn't hurt. Anyway, that was our time on the mountain. We made it guys. We survived.

After that we went to dinner and had SAMGYUPSAAAAALLLLLL!!!!! I love that stuff. Really, it's awesome. I don't eat pork in the states, but the way it's cooked here is all good in my book. Samgyupsal is from the same part of a pig as bacon, but because it's thicker and cooked a little (really, only a little) differently, it tastes completely different, and so I eat it. For those of you worried about me and my inability to eat pork, fret not. Korean cuisine suits my palette. Anyway, Jeju is special in it's "black" pork, because the pigs are island pigs and raised differently. It was delicious.

I managed to eat way more than normal, but I owe it to Jeju samgyupsal and that killer hike. My legs haven't been so healthy since high school. Thank you, Mount Doom. Anyway, after dinner we all finally checked into out hotel, where I was unceremoniously voted Key guard and given the key card to our room. Not that it was a big deal. I just didn't want it. But I am grateful my peers see me as responsible. After eating a few snacks and chatting away, we all got ready for bed and hit the hay, we were going to need it for the next day.