Jeju Island Day 1

I got to go to Jeju Island for a work conference.  It's a really pretty tourist destination and used to be one of the main honeymooning spots in all of South Korea.  Now couples seem to go outside of the country more, but it still has a huge "couples" vibe to it.  I went with my coworker Choon and we walked to the conference center through a series of waterfalls and a beautiful bridge.

Just as a quick aside so that it's apparent that I did something work-related on this trip.  Here's a picture of a circuit recloser. These help reset faults on the power lines.  ...Now back to fun...

We went to another set of cliff sides formed by volcanic cooling I think?  The whole island was a volcano and was distinctly beautiful.  Most things that are so deadly are also beautiful (at least in spy movies).

Towards the night time, I went to the beach.  It was extremely cold water, but tolerable.  The sand had an interesting texture and color that were completely foreign to me.  The overcast day ensured that I didn't get burnt and it didn't rain the whole time I was at Jeju Island.

I finished the night off with some food (black pork belly). It was pretty good.

(N)Everland

I went to a Korean theme park the weekend of the Fourth of July.  I've been out of the country for two Independence Days in a row and that has kind of been wearing on me?  Last year I was in Montreal (French speaking) for a conference on Signal Processing applications and this year...Korea.  It's weird that it's such a fun holiday in the United States, but of course, absolutely nothing in other countries.  I missed to two Independence Days as well in Romania while I was on my mission, but I was around enough Americans for it not to matter so much.

Back to the theme park.  Due to an overcast day, an early start on the day, and insignificant rainfall, the park was pretty deserted (relatively speaking).  They had themed sections for Europe, Asia, Africa, and American and picked the things they thought were representative of each area (to varying degrees of success).  There was a mayflower themed ride with employees dressed as vikings?  So close...but not quite.

Then deeper in the American section they had a bunch of 50-60's style nostalgia and rock and roll imagery.  It was pretty fun, and the rides were actually pretty great.

I was pretty excited for the European portion of the park.  There's a lot of potential there for misrepresentation of various nations (Dutch shoes, gypsies, German beer culture, David Hasselhoff, etc.).  The section did not disappoint and had a really intense wooden roller coaster that was actually quite harrowing.  I was technically too tall to ride the ride...so for safety, I did a lot of ducking a raising and lowering of my arms through tunnels.  It was worth it!

Lastly, there was a safari zone for Africa that had a ride through a miniature zoo.  I got freakishly close to a giraffe, and I don't generally like animals (or people) that are taller than me.  These penguins seemed nice despite their nomenclature.

Pleased to Meat You, Hope You Guess My Name...

I neglected to mention food in a previous post and thought I would rectify that.  I went to see a high school friend (also in Seoul) in one of the Seoul suburbs and eat at a local meat bar.  It's the same style of grilling up your own meat in the center of the table, but you have a buffet of raw meat to select from.  It's more expensive, but they had pork, beef, and I think I even saw duck.  Meat and I are good friends after I long ago accepted a dare to be a vegetarian for six weeks.  I managed and even enjoyed a no meat diet, but eating meat again after that break felt like coming home...or something like that.

Hot and Cold

I went to a jimjilbang (찜질방), a public bath house and sauna. It was awesome at the cost of mild awkwardness. You pay like $10 and then walk into a locker room. You take off your shoes and put them in a locker and then get some prison type clothes. My shoes didn't quite fit because they are large, and I had to do some wrangling.

Once done with cleaning up downstairs, you put on your prison clothes and move to the common sauna and activities areas upstairs for both genders together.  They had restaurants, massage areas, ping pong tables, hot rooms, cold rooms, nap areas and you can pay a little more and stay in a hostel on the top floor for the night.  It was really cool.  We worked our way up to the 86C hot sauna from 50 to 60C (on a bed of salt).  It was pretty intense.  I went with my Korean friend, 준일 or Joe, and got schooled in ping pong.  We got ice cream after the hottest sauna.

There's also a really cold room for cooling off.  It was pretty chill.  It seems to be a big everyday cultural experience here in Korea.  Maybe a barber shop in America could be comparable to the experience.

Forts and Fortnights

This past weekend I walked part of the Bugaksan Mountain Fortress wall with some friends.  I took some pictures first from a distance...which ended up being a good idea because large portions of the wall do not permit photography.  The wall runs really close to the South Korean House of Blue Tiles.  The Blue House is pretty similar to the White House but didn't get blown up in the movie Independence Day. It's just the executive branch residence equivalent.  We had to show a passport and not be assassins to be able to walk along the wall.  Apparently there was an assassination attempt from close to the Blue House a while back.  The wall is huge and goes probably close to 18 km built in 1397.  We only walked about 2 km of the way.

It was also apparently the hottest day of the year in Seoul or something like that.  No sweat off my back...well there was, but it wasn't as hot as Columbia or Arizona.  Here's a picture going down the fortress wall:

We ended up close to the City Hall and the House of Blue Tiles and went to explore a nearby park and fountain area.  There was a statue of King Sejong who oversaw the creation of the Korean written language and a museum about him.  I got to dress up in imperial clothes and tried to avoid taking a picture that would actually cost me money.

We didn't really know what poses to do so we just did dance moves from Psy's latest music video.  I also made it through my first blog entry in a while that didn't discuss food.

All I got left is my bones...

Well, summer is in Seoul, and that means that a number of my coworkers and friends are leaving for home or different things.  I went home for two weeks to see family and friends and take a break where I hadn't had that opportunity since around Thanksgiving of last year.  A lot of really great things happened while I was home!  It makes me regret signing a six month contract at Yonsei in Korean (harder to negotiate when you don't understand the exact terms of said contract).

My office mates and I went out to eat pork bone stew, gamjatang ( 감자탕) because one of our coworkers, Yizhuo from China was leaving.  My French/Moroccan  office mate, Erwan, left for home while I was gone. My fellow USC student, Patrick, will leave next week!  Koreans refer to gamjatang more as "drinking food" or what you eat when you're getting tipsy.  It's a pretty hardy stew and had a lot of pork bones (spine, rib, neck, etc), sesame or perrilla leaves, onions, pepper and spices, and rice cakes in a heavy broth.  I imagine it soothes hangovers quite well.  They cook the stew on your table.

You just kind of nibble on the bones and pick meat off with chop sticks and spoons.  Then you eat the stew and some ramen-type noodles you can cook in with it.

After that, even though we were mostly full, we went to get ice flakes or patbingsu (milk that is the consistency of snow with sweet red beans and rice cakes mixed in).  They're pretty delicious.  They have a lot of different variations on the dessert across Asia. 

Cats!

I got to go to a cat cafe my last weekend in Seoul!  It was in the big student district, Hongdae, between 3-10 colleges.  Many of you know that I enjoy cats.  They seem to enjoy me or at least enjoy the prospect of food which I might facilitate.  You really can never tell with cats, but I have always liked that even their best intentions seem to have a slightly evil tinge to them.  I went with a couple of friends (mostly cat appreciators).

You go to the cafe and pay a fee to get in and then get a "free" drink to help spend your time with the cats.  Some places also provide you with some food to give the cats to attract them to you.  I have enough cat magnetism (also known as loneliness) to attract them without such.  The tables had indented cupholders to keep cats from knocking over any liquids to the floor, as they are prone to do.  One cat did manage to forcefully tip a drink while I was there, so the system isn't exactly perfect.  I barely managed to sit down before getting a friendly (or evil) hop-on in my lap region.

They had cute little munchkin cats with tiny legs and all sorts of variety.  The workers would go around tormenting some of the cats with play toys, but most of the cats seemed very calm.  I made one friend in particular who repeatedly sought me out.

The set-up of the cafe was really a cat's paradise and had places to climb and high vantage points from which to pounce.  One cat was a particular climber and liked jumping from the shelves to a more human vantage point from which to survey his feline enemies.

This one got my vote for cutest due to its munchkin legs, but the one cat won the friendliest superlative for continually seeking me out wherever I did move.

It was a fun excursion and definitely worth a visit.