Jeju

This past weekend I went to Jeju with Adventure Korea. I went with them last october on their DMZ trip as well. They have a lot of different trips that they offer on weekends throughout the year. Mainly other foreigners go on the trips. Its a really good idea and I would recommend using them.
Anyway, Friday night I went out with Kristina and Abby for galbi and then we went to rnb. Maybe not the best idea considering I had to be at the airport by 7:00 the next morning. Oh well, it was fun and I made it to the airport in time. Our flight was at 8 something, and we got to Jeju at 9 something.
First, we went to Seonyeo and Namuggun, which was like a museum that you go through to see what Korea was like in the 60's and 70's. Not the most exciting thing ever, but it was interesting. There was a random haunted house in there too. Not too sure how that was supposed to fit in.
After that we went to Sangumburi, which is an extinct volcano. They kept talking about seeing lava tubes. I'm not really sure what that even means. I don't think any of us really did. The crater was covered with grass and trees.

Next, we got to go ride horses! That was a little scary cause I don't know much about riding horses, and the guy leading us didn't speak much English. We rode around a little fenced off area. We had sticks that he kept telling us to hit the horses with, but I wasn't about to try that. It was fun when the horses were walking slow, but at the end he had them going faster, which was kinda scary. I'm sad I didn't get any pictures of the horse-riding experience.
After the horses, we went to have traditional Jeju black pork BBQ for lunch. It wasn't actually black. It was good though.
After lunch we took a ferry to Udo Island, which is supposed to be shaped like a cow. I never did see the cow, but it was nice. On the island, we saw a rock shaped like a lion.

That might've been sunrise peak. The view was really nice from there. We also went to a coral sand beach.
We had dinner at a Korean buffet. The food was good, but I wasn't feeling great.
Some of the group went out after we got to the hotel, but I decided to get some sleep. The hotel was really nice. Apparently some of the rooms didn't have beds, which is not unusual in Korea, but our room was like a typical western style hotel room. I had two roommates, one from South Africa, and one from Switzerland. They were both really nice.
Sunday, we got up early and walked around the area our hotel was in. We were right by the beach. There was a really nice view from our room.
When we checked out of the hotel, we went to a place called Happytown to see a Chinese acrobatic show and motorbike show. It was really crazy. They were walking on each other's heads and doing all kinds of crazy stuff. For the motorbike thing, they had this giant ball that they kept sending guys on moterbikes into one at a time. They eventually got 7 in there. I have some videos that I'll try to get posted on facebook soon.
Next we went to a tea farm. That wasn't amazing, but all the green was pretty...
For lunch we went to another Korean buffet. The food was really good. I felt much better so I could enjoy it this time.
After lunch, we went to a black sand beach. There were lots of caves that the Japanese had dug. It was cool to walk around in those.

Next stop was mysterious road. It was soooo weird. It looked like you were going up a hill that you were actually going down. They turned off the bus and we rolled "uphill". We got out and tested water bottles and other things too. There were guides giving tours to Koreans that seemed to be going into a lot of detail explaining things. Would have been nice to have that.
Mysterious road was right by love land, which was our next stop. Love land was soooo weird. It was mostly sexual sculptures and stuff. It was kinda weird for Korea though because they're kind of more conservative.
When we finished there, we stopped at a little place to pick up some souvenirs before heading to the airport. Overall, it was a really fun trip and I'm glad I went:)

It's so weird to be finished teaching, but still be in Korea. I'm trying to make good use of my time. Monday I didn't do much. It was cold and so windy the windows in my apt wouldn't stop rattling. I went to the store, but had no desire to be outside after that. haha:)
Tuesday I made kimchi! I'm so proud of myself:) I found online that they were offering free kimchi making classes at Soodo Cooking Academy, so I decided to sign up. The class was fun. We made 2 types of low sodium healthy kimchi. So now I have lots of kimchi in my refrigerator.

Wednesday I went to a stream in the middle of Seoul. Its called Cheonggyecheon Stream. It's kinda weird because at the stream there's all these plants and lots of nature, and then you look up and see all the big buildings. It was nice though.

(To get there, go out exit 3 of City Hall Station on Line #1)
Wednesday night was my goodbye dinner/Amy's welcome dinner with the teachers. We went to a really nice Korean resaurant. I tried eel and jelly fish. Yum.
Today I went to Olympic Park. It took quite a while to get there, but it was cool. Nice place to walk around. Its really big. I was there a long time and still didn't see everything.



(Olympic Park Station on line #5, exit 3)

Ahhh! I can't believe I haven't posted since Japan! Ooops. I finished teaching last Friday. It was such a hard week for me saying goodbye to the kids:( I have a new roommate now too. She got here last thursday night. Her name is Amy. She's really nice. She observed classes all last week, and then she had her first full day of teaching today. I did get to go on a fun field trip last Wednesday to some traditional Korean place. All the kids were dressed in their hanbok. When we got there, they gave me and Joe hanbok to wear too. It wasn't like the hanbok I'd worn before. It was wedding hanbok. The sleeves were so long, I had no hands. Anyway, we played traditional games, made traditional toys and candy, then drank tea. It was fun.
Thursday was kinda hard. I had my last classes with my Tuesday/Thursday kids. I cried with some of the girls in my last class before they left. I've gotten really close to them. There's one boy in that class too. When I got home, I had an email from him saying he had cried a lot at home:( Friday was even harder. I said goodbye to all the morning kindergarten kids and a lot of them cried, especially the girls. I was crying again too:( It's so hard to think that I'm probably never going to see these kids again. I wish I could bring some of them back to America with me.
Anyway, Friday night Amy and I went and met Abby at R&B. We had dinner there and later met up with Joe and ended up at noraebang. It was a fun night. Saturday, Abby and I went to Myeong-dong. We went to Forever 21 and California Pizza Kitchen. Abby and I also explored the Hyehwa area. I'd been there once before and thought it looked cool, but it had been night time. We went during the day. Its like an artsy area. There are a few universities around there. We ate at an American diner called Platters. The burgers were pretty good, but the milkshakes were very disappointing. We walked to one of the universities, but we didnt find much exciting there. It has gotten cold here really fast. Its like it skipped fall and went straight to winter:( Today, my first weekday off, it was really hard to make myself leave the house. Its soooo windy. I'm trying to plan some fun things to do for my time off. Tomorrow I have kimchi-making class, so that should be interesting. I've made a list of some other places I would like to go too. I'll be going to Jeju this weekend with Adventure Korea. Not too much longer before I'll be coming home!

Japan: Part 2

Ok, so when we came out of the yen store, we ran into a couple who wanted to sell us their tickets for Puroland. We were a little scared, but they seemed nice and said their friend had cancelled on them and the tickets were cheaper, so we went ahead and bought them. The let us in, so everything worked out fine. haha:) Puroland was really cool. We got to see Hello Kitty's house, where we got to get in Hello Kitty's bathtub, sleep in her bed, and actually meet Hello Kitty herself! We had lunch in a food machine restaurant. It was like cafeteria style, but all the food rotates around and you choose what you want. I think I got the Hello Kitty kids meal. It was yummy:)
After Hello Kitty Land, we went to Harajyuku to go shopping and see all the crazy dressed up people. Then we went to Shibuya. We stopped to have dinner, which was...interesting. We tried ordering 8 chicken shish kebabs and edamame. It took them forever to bring our food. They brought the edamame and then they bring us a plate with one kebab. We waited for a while to see if there would be more. Finally, we asked them if there was more. I dont think they had planned on bringing us anything else. They brought us a plate of kebabs made from various chicken parts including heart and liver. yum. haha:) We left the restaurant to explore Shibuya a little more. Most of the shopping was closing. We listened to a band playing out on the street for a while, then got free hugs from the free hug people. They also sang happy birthday to Abby. We like fake birthdays. We barely made it home by midnight, when the subway closes. We made plans for our last day and went to bed.
Sunday, we woke up at 7:30. We got ready and checked out of our hostel. We left our stuff there so we could have more adventures before going to the airport. We went to a temple and did some souvenir shopping in Asakusa. Then we took the subway to Ueno, where we did a little more shopping. We went to eat lunch at one place, but after looking over the menu, we realized we had ended up at a Korean restaurant. We like Korean food and everything, but we wanted Japanese food, so we moved on to another restaurant. The food was much better and faster than our experience the night before, but we still ended up leaving later than planned. We were in a bit of a rush to get to the airport. We had to take the subway back to Asakusa, go to the hostel to pick up our stuff, go back to the subway, and take the hour and 20 minute ride to the airport. My flight left an hour before Abby's and Kristina's. I got there about 30 minutes before my flight was supposed to leave. I missed my flight. I was really scared I was going to be stuck there til the next day. I was supposed to fly back United Airlines and they didn't have any more flights out til the next day. Luckily, I had flown there on a different airline, so I could get another flight an hour after Abby and Kristina's. Several people showed up who were supposed to be on the same plane as me and they weren't able to get a flight til the next day. It wouldn't have been a huge deal I guess since I had Monday off, but I was glad to get that flight. So once again, Abby and Kristina were waiting for me at the airport with an even bigger and better Babo sign;) I felt bad because they both had to work the next day. I told them they didnt have to wait for me, but they're good friends:) We barely made it on the last bus to Bucheon. It didn't take too long since there wasn't much traffic. I got home and fell into bed. I'm so glad I had Monday off to recover!

Japan!!

This past weekend was Chusok, so our school had Friday and Monday off. I went with Kristina and Abby to Tokyo for the weekend. We left EARLY Friday morning, took a cab to the airport. Kristina and Abby were on a different plane so I was a little scared about finding them in Tokyo, but they were waiting for me at my gate with a sign and everything:) Our next challenge was to figure out how to get from the airport to our hostel. The Japan subway and train system is soooo confusing and expensive. The money was hard to get used to too. They have coins that go up to 500 yen, which is like $5. It made you feel like you weren't spending as much money as you really were. We finally got on the subway. On the map, the airport looked like it was really close to Asakusa, where our hostel was, but turned out there were lots of stops that weren't even on the map. We were so confused! We asked some Japanese girls, who tried to tell us we were on the wrong train, but then they went and got their english teacher. She told us we were on the right one and where we should transfer. It took us about an hour and a half to get to Asakusa. Once we got there, we luckily ran into some people staying in the same hostel who led us there. I don't think we could have found it from the website directions. We got checked in and dropped off our stuff, then headed out again. First, we took the subway to Shinjuku. There was lots of shopping there. I dont think any of us really bought anything there. We more just looked around. We found a Hello Kitty store that had a Hello Kitty popcorn vending machine inside. You can't just pass on an opportunity like that! Video is posted on facebook:) Next, we took the subway to Ginza, which had several themed restaurants. There was a vampire one and an Alice in Wonderland one. We chose Alice in Wonderland. It was soooo cute. They were decorated for Halloween too, which was a little much. The waitresses were dressed as Alice, the cheshire cat, mad hatter, vampires, etc. I got pasta made to look like the cheshire cat, Kristina got pizza shaped like the queen of hearts, and i think abby's was a mouse or some kind of creature. We got tweedle dee and tweedle dum icecream to share too. It was not a cheap meal, but definitely worth it! After dinner, we headed back to the hostel. We decided to wake up at 7:30 to get to Puroland when it opened at 10:00. We overslept a little (8:00-my fault!). It was a little confusing trying to figure out how to get there. We had to take the subway and the train. It took us a while to get there. I think we got there around 11:00. We also found a Daiso store, which is like a dollar store. We have it in Korea too. We went in to see what kind of Hello Kitty stuff we could get really cheap before paying a lot for it in Puroland. I bought quite a few souvenirs at the dollar store. Ok, sorry to end at such a weird spot, but I'm at school and this is taking longer than I thought. I'll try to finish this later today! Sayonara!