It's always so hard for me to write a new post. I do have free time, but after all of the day's activities I'm usually too exhausted to rethink what I did and to attach photos. I do end up putting nearly all of the photos on Facebook, though -_-;;
Well, the trip to Jeju Island was fun, but tiring. We were part of a tour group so we had to wake up early (the first day I woke up at 6:30am!) and ride a bus full of middle-aged women, along with a tour guide yelling into the megaphone. The best part of the trip was when we walked along the beach for 45 minutes and we also got to go on a bumpy boat ride. We ended up going to a bunch of museums and shopping places since "ahjumas" tend to love to shop. We were stuck in rooms for up to half an hour at times while a salesperson tried to sell us roots, horse bone powder, and other things. And of course the ahjumas were whipping out their wallets to buy anything and everything. I wish we had seen waterfalls up close (we saw one from afar on the boat ride), hiked up Mt. Halla (our bus took us to 600 m.), and that we had gone on Mysterious Road. There is this road in Jejudo where it seems to defy gravity. Cars or anything else that go down seem to be going up. I really wanted to see this "phenomenon". There is also a park called Loveland where couples go, but there are a lot of statues in erotic positions. There is even a rocking car with moaning noises coming from inside. So weird, especially in a country where people are really conservative about sex.
However, it was fun to hang out with my cousins and their friends. We went to dinner, and afterwards bought tons of snacks and beer to play card games. Chris and I taught them how to play casino blackjack and Circle of Death, and we also played hwa-tu, a Japanese card game using small red cards.
We actually left Seoul on the 11th. During that weekend, we went down to Yesan to see my aunt, cousins, and their friends. Sunday, the 12th, was the 5th annual Cherry Blossom Marathon and we ran it! There was the half, 10K, and the 5K - we did the 5K. Chris was first among our group and finished in 32 minutes or so. I was third with 40:33. I guess that's decent for not diligently jogging as I usually do back home. Chris and I were really pumped after participating in the 5K, and we look forward to doing more in the future. I'm sure Andover has one in the summer; it may be early fall, though.
After Yesan, Chris and I went to Gongju for three days, Buyeo for three, and Jeonju for three. In Jeonju, we stayed at Seunggwangje, a traditional guesthouse in the Hanok Village. The owner is the grandson of the last king of Korea; he's lobbying to partially restore the monarchy to get recognizance. Good luck to that... Jeonju was really fun. It's about three hours south of Seoul and is somewhat of a quiet city. Jeonju is known for their take on bibimbap, but I thought it was just okay - definitely overrated. I think mine just had too many bean sprouts and the vegetables to rice ratio was really off. My friend, Lisa, also lives there; she teaches high school Chemistry. She's going to come back home in July, but after she goes to England, Ireland, Germany, and France! Since we knew someone there, Lisa was able to take us out and we were able to meet a lot of her friends because it just so happened that girls from her sorority came down to Jeonju from different cities in Korea.
Now, we are in Gyeongju, a city that is close to the East Sea (or, the Sea of Japan). We have been here since Sunday night. It was a long 4-hour bus ride from Jeonju. -_- Right after we put our things in the room, we went out to eat. Gyeongju's an even quieter city than Jeonju. It's funny to say "quiet" because all of these cities are actually pretty big - Gyeongju's population is over 200,000 but it's all so spread out that it just seems like a big countryside until you get to the downtown area. Even there, it's nothing like Seoul; there are colleges nearby, but the streets always seem deserted. We didn't do much on Monday because it was pouring. We did walk around for awhile because we wanted to make the most of our stay but we ended up coming back because we were wet from sharing an umbrella.
On Tuesday, we went to Tumuli Park, which is basically a park full of dead people. We wanted to go inside one of the tombs, but there was such a long line. Lately, everywhere we've gone, all of the places are crawling with elementary-age children. They're all taking field trips and it seems like the entire schools are coming along! There are just so many kids everywhere. It gets so loud, and Chris gets so annoyed when one of them yell out "hi!" to Chris for the millionth time. We left the park and walked to another one that has the famous observatory built during the 600s! We did a lot of walking, as usual, and went to Anapji Pond, the National Museum of Gyeongju, and took the long route back. I was so tired by then, but Chris wanted to go see another temple so I went home first.
Today, we woke up at 8:30 to get out earlier. We took the bus to Bulguksa, one of Korea's most visited, if not the most visited, temples. After walking around, we took a 2.2 km uphill hike to go to Seokgulam Grotto. This grotto has a statue of Buddha that is most revered in Asia, and a glass wall separates viewers from it because it being exposed to the elements for so long has damages it. Though when we saw it, it still looked pretty good. We saw why this statue is so famous because the chamber around it was all white stone and carved too. It was really nice to look at, but again, those zombie children were coming so we had to escape.
Now, we're back in our room and have been resting for an hour and a half. I've been reading Anywhere but Here by Mona Simpson. I was lounging in the common room a few days ago, and I saw this book so I took it to read. I'm flying through it - on page 283 already. During my stay here I've read Revolutionary Road, Neverwhere, one of the Calvin & Hobbes Anthology books, Pride & Prejudice, Nine Stories, and now this book. Pretty good considering we usually have a busy itinerary.
All right, Chris is really hungry, and I guess I am too. We want to go find a galbi place which really won't be a challenge to find. We had fried chicken (again) last night. I can't get enough, and hey the last time I ate it was the last week in Seoul...
