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.
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