my vacation

I am going to start this blog with telling you all something really cute that my Grandmother told my father.
If you read my last blog I said that I was learning how to surf. I obviously told my parents all about it. So, my father then tells my Grandmother one day on the phone. She is so cute.. when he tells her that I am learning how to surf, this is what she said. "With all the stuff she does on the computer, doesn't she know how to use the internet?" hahhah I love it. My Grams is an awesome 92 year old lady! :)

Well, I am just recently back from my vacation. I went to Jeju island for 4 days. If you are ever in Korea, please make time to go there. My vacation was perfectly beautiful. Just imagine an Island that has 4 distinct seasons, but the summer one is very tropical. There are palm trees everywhere, and the water is very blue, even turquoise in places, and every warm! The beaches were so nice.

Our first day there consisted of getting on a boat (cheapest way to travel there, only 38000 won) . We got there a little late, but in plenty of time for departure. The boat was leaving at 7, and we got there at 6:45 to board, but already had our tickets in hand. Soooo... since we were there "late", apparently there was no room for us in the area where we had purchased our tickets (the room that fit 212 people). We were upgraded!!! woooo!! We got to sleep in a room with 21 people. (Bryony counted). We got there, and as the boat left the dock I took some photos and then went back to our room, did some crossword puzzles a friend gave to me, then started to feel a little dizzy. I am known for getting sea sick, so I went right to sleep. All the lights were still on, and people we were teaching my friend Rick how to play "go stop", a Korean card game were loud. I didn't care.. I put my sweater over my head and conked out. I ended up sleeping the majority of the 11 hour trek. It was great, and everyone was so amazed that I could sleep in a state like that.

We arrive in Jeju at 6am. We can't get into our hotel room until 2pm, so first we go to the this botanical garden. It was beautiful. They had so much there.. they had plants, the had birds, they had a cave and they had a folk village. We got some great shots! Also, about the plants.. I always wanted to see how a pineapple grew.. oh.. I got to see one! Anddddd did you know for a kiwi plant to grow they need a male and a female plant?
After the botanical garden we went to the beach close to our hotel.. I slept in the sun for an hour or so then swam in the waves. I loved it. The water was so blue and so warm, and the waves were nice. We ended up meeting some other foreign people there and exchanged numbers for later that week. After growing tired of swimming we headed back to the beach and ordered chicken and it was sent right to our umbrella on the tent. It tasted lovely!

We then went to our hotel room. We hung out there for a little while... but let me tell you the best part. We get to our hotel and there are no beds. None. Can you imagine? We were given a mat for the floor, a pillow and a blanket each. After that 11 hour ferry boat ride I really wanted a bed haha. Oh well.. you make due with what you can right?
We went out to our BBQ area after our friend Elena made Kinchi chige (that is definitely spelt wrong.. but tastes AMAZING). It is a korean soup made with kinchi, onions, and spam with rice. The BBQ she made us was with this Korean green onion salad and pork. It was soooo good. There was a big screen in the BBQ area and they were playing the movie Alvin and the Chipmunks.. I didn't think I would have to sit through that movie ever again after seeing it with Bridget and hating it.. haha it drove us nuts.. so we just drank the beer and soju we brought and had nice conversations while we tried to ignore the film.
The next morning we woke up early to meet our driver for 9am. Once we met up with the driver we went to a million places.. I am going to try to remember them all for you. First we went to Mini land. It is a park that had miniatures of famous places from around the world. I got to see the great wall of china, the taj mahal, the white house, some building in Germany... lots more... but nothing from Canada. I half expected to see at least the CN tower. They even had a little section on dinosaurs, but nothing from Canada haha.
After that we went to a green tea museum and saw tea farms, it was small, and run by the major tea place in Korea, but pretty and nice to see.
After that we went to an art sculpture place and walked around in the sun and saw sculptures. It was nice, but sooooooo hot. But worth it.
We then went for lunch (and my timing might be wrong.. lunch might have been before the art place... oh well..)
Lunch was lovely... I had a sea food soup. I am warming up to sea food. In my soup there were so many different types of shell fish. Oyster, shrimp, crab... and another that I can't remember. There were also peppers and some other veggies. Then a side of rice to eat with the soup.
After that we went to the beach for an hour (we had a tight schedule with our driver and other fellow travellers... so that was cut down on for that day.. :( I was sad... but the day was still fun).
After the beach we drove to two different waterfalls and were able to see the falls. They were very beautiful, not very big, but very beautiful. Especially the second one since it was right beside the sea and emptied out into it. What I didn't like about it was we had to pay a fee to get in. We had to pay to see nature... oh well.. it was nice to have seen it.. even among all the other travellers who were trying to get their photo taken at the same time.. they were very busy spots.

We then went back to our apartment and started cooking again. We made curry rice that night.. it was wonderful! We ate that again outside in our BBQ area... I thank Elena for all the Korean cooking she did for us!! mmmm However, since we had such a busy day I was so tired and went right to sleep that night.
The next day was similar to the one previous with the amount of things we saw. We met the driver at 9:30 and went to love land first. This place was sooo funny. Huge statues everywhere of people doing it. hhaha It was basically a huge stag shop or our pleasures with statues everywhere. It was funny to see... I will have to post the link for pictures once I can get them off of my friends.
After that we went to a folk village and learned about old Korean life. The one thing I remember very well was the toilet. It was near the front of the village, very open with a pig pen beside it. The pig who lived there ate the waste that was put there from the toilet. It was very interesting to hear about that. They also had very interesting houses to keep cool from the heat... made from the lava rocks that the Island has with a thatched roof. The roof has to be replaced every year from all the wind on the Island and it takes a few months to make.
After that we went for lunch and had Korean food. It was BBQ pork that you wrapped in sesame leaves. It was BBQ with mushrooms and onions and had lots of side veggie dishes. There were also a side of a Korean potato pancake made with green tea... that was my favourite!
After that we went to a cave and walked around there... it was interesting and very cold which was nice since the weather was soooo hot.
We then went to sunrise peak... we wanted to hike the mountain, but it was really much too hot. We instead walked around the bottom by the sea. We even got to see a woman diver! She never dived in the water while we were there, but she collected sea weed along the side. This was my favourite experience of the whole trip. It was just beautiful and I had a I love life, I love Korea and life is amazing, the world is an amazing beautiful place moment on the rocks with my friend Bryony. I didn't want to leave... I seriously can't wait for you to see photos of that place.
After that we went to the Women Divers museum. In Jeju the women fish for the community (this is dying down, but still very prevalent on the Island... these women used to travel as far as Russia to fish). The museum was my second favourite. I learned so much about these women and have so much respect for them. They fish for the communities. There are 3 classes of divers.. the lower class are the ones that stay near the coast, but the higher class go into the sea. These women hold their breath for two minutes and dive down to the sea and collect shell fish mostly. When the Japanese invaded Jeju, they even fought with the men to protect their Island. These woman are just amazing!
After the museum we went to a maze park and walked around trying to find our way to the middle. It was pretty cool. We got lost a few times, but we found our way! It was a really neat place, and the hedges were really tall and big..
We then rushed to the ferry dock and took our friends Hannah and Elena there since they had a boat booked for that day and we had one more day.
It was really sad to see them leave.. but we continued with our trip and continued to have lots of fun. We went to our new hotel room... and guess what.. they had two really big beds!!!!!! :) I was soooooooo happy!!! We then decided to drink some of our beers and have a night out. Once the beer was drank we went to an area of town that our travel guide book said would be good... we found this Mexican restaurant the guide book said was good, and man was it ever! We had CHEESE!! I miss cheese!!! We shared quesidillas, fajitas and burritos... andddd drank two glasses of wine each... it was perfect.
From there we found this bar that some locals told us was fun, and free to get into! haha They were playing some dance music and we danced the night away for a while. At some point of the night a Korean band got on stage and played some music. They were a rock band and did a cute side step while they played their instruments!
We decided later is was time to move on so we walked down the main stretch.. while we were there more foreigners talked to us and we randomly met our friend Rob from the beach our first day. He took us to a bar called "Led Zeppelin". It was a good time and there were a lot of Canadians there.
From there we decided drunkenly we wanted to go to sunrise peak and watch the sun come up... so we get in a cab that Rob haled for us not realizing he thought we were going home to the first hotel we stayed at and asked to bring us to the beach where we met. We should have asked the cabby where he was driving!!! We just thought Rob knew where we were going!!! booo... so we ended up 20 000 won later on the wrong side of the Island!! Plus this area didn't have a very good view of the sunrise... oh well.. we slept under the stars for a little while then found another cab to take us across the Island again to our new hotel with beds!!!!!! :)
We got there around 7am and fell asleep until 10:30ish when we decided to spend the rest of our time on Jeju in the sun on the beach. We arrived at our beach and there was some sort of festival happening there and some guys video taped my friend.. she had to walk out of the water, call them over and give them this present that was advertising some event. It was pretty funny.
The beach was lovely, but really windy and blew all this sand in my hair... oh well.. it was worth it.. even though it was stuck in my hair until I got back to Busan to my house.
The ferry on the way home was much better... it was HUGE actually. They had a bar on it and everything. I never attempted any alcohol, but ordered a juice and played a card game with my friends and headed off to bed. I again slept the majority of the 11 hour ride without getting sea sick! Go me! Plus, we were late again this time and didn't have to seep in a big room. We slept in a room with only 10 people!! :)

After getting back to my home I slept until noon. A much needed sleep. After getting up for my day and having a much needed shower I went to the beach near my house to make the most of my last day on vacation. I spent a few hours in the sun then went to the 9th Busan international rock festival with my friends. It was great. They had lots of bands and it was on this beach about an hour away. They had the stand set up with sprinklers all around it since the weather was really hot... I tried my best to hide from those haha.. water and sand equal mud.. and I didn't want any mud haha.
It was kinda weird to be there... the media took tons of pictures of us since we were obviously foriegn... it got kinda annoying to get followed around. We went closer to the band stand after meeting this famousish band called super kids and danced. A group of wet, muddy, funny friendly Korean guys pulled me to the center of their dance circle and wouldn't let me leave.. ahhaha they wanted to watch me dance.. so I tried to flee.. since all of you who know me KNOW I am a terrible dancer! When they still wouldn't let me leave I grabbed Bryony and Stephanie too and we danced while the media filmed us and took pictures of us! haha I might be on the Internet somewhere! Or even TV.. haha I will let you know if I am!
We then decided to go home after the Australian band played since we start intensives next month yuck! But this has been a great vacation and it will have to keep me going for a long while yet! No more time off for a while!

Well folks.. that was my last few days.. a lot to say, and I never really explained anything.. e-mail me if you want to know more! :) I would love to tell you more stories of my time in Jeju!! I seriously want to move there!

Wish me luck with intensives tomorrow!