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Here are the pictures to accompany the previous blogs about my 5 weeks in Korea!
http://picasaweb.google.com/lewisnelson/KoreaNovDec2007

It’s finally down to my last week and a half in Seoul. I’ve had such a great time here but I really do miss the family. One day I’ll come back with the whole family and show them everything I’ve been able to see. I spent most of the week relaxing, studying, and staying around the Yonsei University/ Sinchon area. On Thursday night, Chris and I did venture out to the Yongsan Electronics Market. My mom asked me to buy here $100 worth of Korean movies and I had also heard that Nintendo DS games were cheap (my niece wanted some for Christmas). I had no clue just how large this market would be, but I should not have been surprised. The Yongsan electronics market is a about four large buildings, all about the size of a Smithsonian museum full of electronics vendors. There are also more vendors working out of carts on the streets and all of the alleys and cross streets sell electronics as well. We are talking about computers, computer components, software, DVD’s, video games, cameras, mp3 players, etc etc etc.

Our first stop was the game market. Most of the markets here tend to be separated by item. The game market was an indoor aisle about 75 meters long. I had heard that they had a special card for the Nintendo DS that they could load tons of games onto. My first stop I asked about DS games and he pulled out the magical card. For $200, I could buy the two game cards of 2GB each holding over 75 games. It was such a good deal that I bought both and decided to buy myself a DS too. The games are interchangeable using a computer so I’ll load 2GB worth of games suitable for my niece as her Christmas present (I’m sure she will not be reading this blog before Christmas).

We them made our way to the movies. I went right to work negotiating a fair price of five movies for 11 dollars (10,000 won actually) and bought 40. I thought I was done, but another guy offered me a great deal and I ended up buying $110 worth of movies and Korean dramas from him. In all, I ended up with about 100 DVDs for 121 dollars.

Friday night I hopped on a train and headed south to Changwon, near Busan on the southeastern coast of Korea. There I met Sang-gyeong and her brother and we had a late meal of steamed chicken before heading to their house. I talked with their mom (my great aunt) for about an hour and a half. She spends a lot of time doing Chinese character calligraphy and I thought she would be the perfect person to help me with something I’ve wanted to do for quite some time. Since I started learning Korean, I wanted to have a good Korean name. My mom’s family name is Song, but some time ago, my great grandfather had actually given my father a Korean name. Korean names are almost always based on a Chinese character (Hanja). My grandfather named my dad Bang Gu-Mi. Korean names are almost always three syllables with the first syllable being the family name or surname and the second and third being their ‘first’ name. So I decided I would definitely keep the family name my great-grandfather made “Bang.” My mom gave me the middle name Lee with in Korean is actually pronounced as a hard E sound ‘ee’ so I wanted that to be the first syllable of my ‘first’ name. So I asked my great aunt to help me with the final syllable. Both she and Sang-gyoeng thought about it for a bit and after some thought decided that Jong would be best as Bangijong is a good sounding Korean name. In English, I will write it as Lee-jong Bong or Bong Lee-jong. It means “One who does good onto others.”

Saturday morning, Sang-gyeong, her father and I drove up to Gyeongju (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyeongju), the ancient capital of the Shila Dynasty from 57 – 935 AD. Gyeongju is just north of Busan on the Sea of Japan (which Koreans call the “East Sea”) and is often referred to as the “Museum Without Walls.” It contains relics of the Shila Dynasty including the royal tombs, palaces and Buddhist shrines. We visited five of the city’s main attractions. We started downtown and visited the Royal Tombs where Shila kings were laid to rest under large mounds. In other parts of Korea, royalty were buried under tombs made of wood or dirt. Grave robbers would occasionally enter these tombs to steal the jewelry that was often buried along with the corpse. In Gyeongju, the tombs were covered with a concrete covering making grave-robbing nearly impossible. One of these tombs was excavated by the Korean government in the 1960s or 70s and has been turned into a small museum of Shila artifacts and the royal tomb is displayed behind protective glass. Afterwards, we moved east and visited Anapji Pond, a manmade pond created in the 600’s for a small resort-like palace. We spent a little bit of time at the National Museum of Gyeongju and then took a break for lunch. We sampled a famous dessert of Gyeongju called Chal-Bori Bang which is simply bread with sweet bean paste between them. Then we drove further east to one of the most famous sites in Gyeongju, the Seokguram Grotto. This is a large Buddha statue built into the mountain side facing east. It is very well preserved as can be seen by the pictures on Wikipedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seokguram . The Seokguram grotto is part of the large Shila temple called Bulguksa (or literally, “Buddhist Land Temple”) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulguksa. We finished our day at Bulguksa which is too magnificent to describe. Please view the previous links and see the photo album section of the pictures I took.

I decided to call it a day and traveled via S. Korea’s high speed train (KTX) back to Seoul. Sunday I spent with my friends starting with a great Samgyoksal lunch and shopping in Itaewon (the large area near Yongsan Garrison that is full of foreigners) topped off with a great Italian dinner.

My last few days in Korea I spent with my family in Amsa and doing some last minute shopping. It’s amazing how much I have accumulated in such a short time. I had to buy another large suitcase just to fit it all! It’s currently 5am in Korea and my flight leaves in 4 hours. I’m staying at the Dragon Hill Lodge at Yongsan Garrison and decided to stay up most of the night in an attempt to combat jet-lag when I get home (it is 2pm in Texas right now!). After I hit the plane, I’m sure I will be out until we land in Dallas. It’s been such a fun and exciting 5 weeks and to top it all off, I think I actually learned a lot of Korean!!! However, I think the most important part of this trip was that I was able to forget the past few years of Army life concentrating so hard on the middle east and Iraq. It’s time to let that go and concentrate on my actual job… Korea.

My mom left on Monday this week and that means I’ve lost my Korean help while visiting family. But that’s ok, I’m not going to shy away. Monday after class, I made my way to downtown Seoul’s Myongdong area to see my mom off. We met at the Lotte Hotel where I thought we were going to catch dinner along with my mom’s uncle and aunt from Masan that took us to Jeju Island. They drove up to spend a few days in Seoul. Instead, as soon as I showed up, my mom told me that she was just going to go straight to Incheon. So it was me and my great uncle and aunt from Masan alone for dinner. It also meant, nothing but Korean!!! I love them to death though so I had no problem hanging out with them alone for the night. We wandered the alleys of Seoul a little looking for a place to eat. This may sound strange to Americans (wandering alleys for food), but in Seoul, the alleys are just as lively as the streets. In many parts of the city (and most cities in Korea it seems), random alleys will be full of restaurants and is often the best food in the area. They are called Mokja Gilmok or literally “Let’s Eat Alleyways.” We decided to eat beef ribs. When ordering meat in Korea, it’s not simply a meal from a menu that comes on a plate. Most of the time there is a pit in the middle of the table that is either gas powered or a hole that they will place hot coals into. I personally like the coals better and that is what we got. Then you order the meat by portions, literally “2 people’s worth.” Well, between the three of us, we ate 5 people’s worth and about four bottles of Soju. I have mentioned Soju in the past, but it’s worth mentioning again. Koreans love to drink Soju. It’s so different than in the states, but it’s a common tradition here to serve each other shot glass sized portions and to drink it throughout the meal. Soju is also infamous to US soldiers as the quickest way to get drunk. What tends to happen is that while eating, the Soju just flows freely and before one knows it, they are nice and drunk. For some reason, Soju doesn’t work as quickly on me and maybe it’s because I outweigh the typical Korean male by about 75 pounds. So two to three bottles of Soju during a meal is barely a buzz but has much more effect on my hosts. After dinner, we made our way to the Lotte Hotel for tea. The best part of this long night with my family is that I had to rely on Korean the entire time. It was probably one of the best nights of practice that I had ever had and when I got back to my room that night, I really thought that I turned a corner in my language skills.

Tuesday night, in the absence of my mom, I decided to hang out with my two co-workers. We made our way to the Sinchon train station area where Chris and Jesse had found a great little restaurant. For about an hour and a half, we ate Samgyoksal (the three layer flesh pork) and Daenamoo Sul (Bamboo alcohol). The three of ate about 7 person’s worth of meat and about 5 to 6 bottles of the alcohol which was a little weaker than Soju but so much tastier! We were quite toasted after dinner and so we decided to try our luck at a Korean club. I made it through the entry without a problem but as soon as my friends tried, they were met by a bouncer who kindly told them, “Sorry, Koreans only.” No problem, we made our way across the street to a bar. We ordered a ‘set’ that included 5 beers and some side-dishes and then encountered another Korean social aspect that I had not yet experienced. We were joined by a girl wearing lingerie who just sat with us and talked to us. At first I was a little leery and was afraid that we had just met an infamous “juicy girl.” These are girls that prey on foreigners at bars near the military bases. They work for the bar and convince people to buy them drinks at much higher prices that they slowly sip while the GIs try to get more out of them that just good company. But this girl was not like that. She didn’t ask us to buy anything and instead served a different purpose… just get us to stay at the bar longer! Well, she was fun to talk to for all three of us and we chalked it up as speaking practice. My weeks with the family paid off and I quickly realized that I have never spoken Korean as well as I do now. The girl sat on the other side of the bar from us so I was not too worried about the lingerie thing and there was no real ‘flirting’ going on, just conversation that quickly became a US vs. Korea type conversation comparing customs and pop culture. It was actually quite enjoyable! But before long, it was very late (2:30am) and we still had class in the morning. So the three of us made our way to a taxi and had about 5 hours of sleep.

Wednesday after class, despite feeling the previous night’s alcohol, I made my way to Apdujong to meet my cousin Sang-gyeong and my grandfather. Sang-gyeong spent some time in the states studying at Georgetown and Boston University and had previously met Holly and the kids. We also saw each other down south the first weekend I was here. My grandfather is her great uncle and so she was happy to join me while she was in Seoul for a job interview. We went to his office and had tea and caught up a little. Then we had dinner nearby. I still get a little nervous when talking to older Koreans because there is such a cultural aspect of respecting one’s elders. The language changes and customs change when compared to younger people. I let Sang-gyeong do most of the talking (she also speaks English very well). After dinner, Sang-gyeong and I walked around Namdaemoon Market and Myongdong in downtown Seoul. We didn’t really buy anything but I did learn another Korean word or two from her.

On Saturday, Chris, Jesse and I made our way down to the Camp Humphreys area by train (about an hour south of Seoul). Camp Humphreys is home to most of the people in my job field, but I only knew two people there; both former co-workers at the 101st Airborne and now married to each other (Brandon Cook and Tracy Hansen). We met Brandon at his apartment (which was actually much nicer than I had expected) and walked the streets of the “Vill” (the common name to the Korean shopping areas just outside of the military bases outside of Seoul). We did a little shopping (I think I bought some DVDs and that’s it) and then made our way to a bar that used to be famous amongst the Korean linguists called “The Wall.” I guess it was past its glory days. We met up with Tracy there and then had some outstanding Chinese food. We spent the rest of the night at a bar called Shooters just hanging out playing pool and darts. It was amazing to me how we could be in Korea but pretty much live just like in America. I didn’t have to speak Korean once and I didn’t eat Korean food once. It was a good experience because if I did happen to stay in the military, it’s very likely I’ll end up here sometime.

We made our way to the train station and had about 30 minutes to spare. Jesse thought we would enjoy seeing a darker side of Korean society so we walked what Jesse liked to call the “Barbie Doll” street. Literally across the street from the train station was a large area of about 2 x 5 blocks of bright pink lights and large window-front buildings. In the window fronts were young Korean girls ready to service any takers. I knew why Jesse referred to them as Barbie dolls because they looked like dolls sitting in a clear plastic box on the shopping mart shelf. But we were not there to sample the goods. I was actually kind of sad to know that these types of places exist in Korea, so open and inviting and in the middle of the city. But I guess that’s just a part of life.

We got back to Seoul around 11pm and for the rest of the weekend, I was entranced by yet another Korean phenomenon, the TV drama. While I was in Jeju, I went to a beautiful site that had a church overlooking the shore. The church was built as part of the set for a drama called “All-in.” I didn’t know anything about the drama and had anticipated that it referred to some sort of church boarding house or something. While in Seoul, my relative happened to have the entire drama on DVD and gave it to me as a gift. I watched the entire 24 hour drama in two days. It was not about a church boarding house though, it was actually a very correct American usage of the term “All-in.” It was a drama mainly about gambling. It combined a love story, Korean gangs, corporate corruption and greed, Korean gambling houses, Las Vegas casinos and finally Jeju Island casinos. It was outstanding. They even featured the hotel that I stayed in while at Jeju and shows many of the exact places I had been while I visited. Needless to say, I was happy to finish the drama on Monday night and resume normal life.

Sorry I haven’t written my weekly updates; I guess my first two weekends were so full of excitement that it was easy to write about. The last three weeks have been a little low key, most likely because my mom went back to states two weeks ago! Week one I knew very little Korean (at least I remembered very little Korean) and got to travel down south with my mother to meet both sides of the family. Week two, the Korean improved a bit and I spent that weekend at Jeju Island. Week three was a little more relaxing.

My mom spent her three weeks in Korea staying with her uncle and aunt in Seoul. They are on my grandmother’s side (the Bae family) and are about the same age as my mom. They have two daughters and a son that are about my age (we actually stayed with them the one other time I came to Korea back in 1983 when I was in kindergarten). During the week, we did a few small things such as shopping at Dongdaemun Market (Seoul was once a walled city with four large ‘gates,’ one in each direction. Dongdaemun is literally “East Big Gate.” At Dongdaemun and Lamdaemun (“South Big Gate”) there are large markets selling all kinds of goods. At Dongdaemun, they are famous for clothing and fashion. There we did a little bit of shopping coming away with new winter coats (mine was only $30). Afterwards, I had my first taste of a great Korean meal called Sam-Gae-Tang. This is basically starts as a large bowl of broth and they then place a chicken in it. I don’t mean pieces of chicken, I mean a whole chicken with they then use sharp scissors to slide it into chunks, bone and all. There’s a process to eating this meal. First, you eat the chicken, carefully removing the now cooked meat, dipping it into a salt and pepper mix, then eating it with a bit of red bean paste and sliced onions. It is delicious. After the chicken is gone, you fill the broth with noodles which also cook at your table and finish off the soup. I loved it; especially since it was a bit chilly outside! That was Tuesday.

Wednesday I met my mom and her aunt at the King Sejong Cultural Center downtown. The cultural center is a fine arts center specializing in traditional Korean performances, but we didn’t attend any. Instead, we met at the coffee shop and met up with the son of one of my mom’s friends in Virginia. Actually, my mom’s friend in Virginia is a high school classmate that spent many years in Canada before coming down to Virginia (at my mom’s urging). Their son is a month or two younger than I am and came to Korea about a year and a half ago to work in the banking industry. My mom is very interested in hooking him up with her cousin (who is my age). We had a great dinner of Samgyubsal (Literally “three layer flesh” but it is just large pieces of pork that is grilled at your table).

I met up with my mom and her aunt again for Thanksgiving. We met at my grandfather’s office in Apdujong, an upscale section of Seoul located south of the Han River well known for its plastic surgery offices. My grandfather game me a large book that contained the history of the Song family, but most of it is written in a very high level writing called Han-moon that mixes Korean writing (Hangul) with Chinese characters (Han-ja). Maybe one day I’ll be able to read it! We went to lunch near his office and had what the menu called “Traditional Korean Meal.” It was a lot of food to say the least but very tasty. Afterwards, we left my grandfather and went to Lotte World, a large mall, museum, and amusement park (indoor and outdoor) in Seoul. We spent a few hours at the Korean Folk Museum. This place was amazing and displayed not only the art and utensils used during Korea’s vast history, but also had large life-like scale models of Korean folk-life. This was by far the most amazing museum I have seen with over an acre of scenes from Korean folk life. See the photo albums section and look for “Korean Folk Museum.” After the museum, we made our way to Yongsan Garrison, the home of the 8th US Army and headquarters for all US military troops stationed in Korea. My mom’s uncle met us at the subway station and together I brought them onto base to the Dragon Hill Lodge (the large resort like hotel that serves US government and military personnel and their families) for a American style Thanksgiving Dinner. For my great uncle and aunt, it was their first turkey dinner (I meat that is very rare in Korea). They seemed to enjoy it.

I spent the weekend in the Amsa district of Seoul, south of the Han River in the eastern part of the city. This is where my great uncle and aunt live. Friday night was a large meal and a lot of relaxing. Saturday though was different. We hopped in the car and drove into the center of Seoul to see Gyeongbokgung. This is the largest of the five main palaces built by during the Joseon Dynasty which lasted from 1392 until the Japanese colonial era of 1910. Here it was clear to see the beauty of Korean architecture and contrast of the modern city (Gyeongbokgung is located just north of central Seoul and just south of Chongwadae (the Blue House and home of the Korean President). However, one of the most beautiful aspects of the palace is that looking north and northwest, it has great views of Bukak Mountain, one of the 8 mountains of Seoul. Afterwards, we drove to the top of Bukak mountain to see the view and then back down to a traditional Chinese medicine market. We had more samgyoksal (the pork) for lunch and then my mom bought a bunch of “bo-yak” or health medicine literally. I have about 10 pounds of it sitting in my suitcase right now to bring to her because her luggage was overweight going home.

Saturday night, my mom and I met up with two of her cousins from the Song side of the family. Although I was not even close to hungry, I was forced to eat even more meat while they caught up on life. The meal was fantastic though and I had met one of the two cousins previously and really enjoyed their company. We joined that cousin at a coffee shop where her mother also joined us. My mom was very close with her and was so happy to see her again. We had a cup of tea, a piece of tiramisu and then my mom and I made our way back into the heart of Seoul to Dongdaemun Market.

It was now 11:30 pm. South Korea used to have a thriving, obvious black market. It was not hidden. I never really witnessed this. In the past few years, Seoul has cleaned up quite a bit. My friends were actually surprised that they could not find the same level of counterfeit goods and ‘knock off’ items. Well, my mom was quick to find out how to get them and the answer was simple… go back after midnight when the cops no longer come snooping around. Dongdaemun Market is busy during they day; at night, one can hardly move amongst the crowd of street shoppers. There are two immense buildings at Dongdaemun (by immense I mean half a mile long and four stories high) filled with indoor shops selling mostly clothes. Then there is the area between the stadiums (baseball and soccer stadiums built for the 1988 Seoul Olympics) that sells purses, more clothes, watches, etc. We had one goal for the night… my sister wanted a ‘knock off’ purse. After an hour of fighting the crowd and negotiating prices, we were successful (and even bought a few ‘extras’)

After a long night, I was more than happy to spend most of Sunday relaxing at my family’s house eating great Korean food. I did venture out with my ‘aunt’ that is the same age as me and bought a new camera. Maybe you’ll be able to tell the difference in the pictures after this week!

After an exciting first week in Korea, week two started out a little slowly. On Monday, I fought my way through class all day and afterwards had a beer and a coffee with Jesse, one of the guys I came here with from Texas. On Tuesday, my phone card had run out of minutes, so I made the 30 minute subway ride and 30 minute walk to Yongsan Garrision PX in Seoul (the US Army base) to buy a phone card. I had plans to have dinner with my mom, but it was already late and by the time I got to where she was in Seoul, it would easily be 7pm. Then it would probably be 11pm before I got back to Yonsei. Being tired, I decided to stay in the area and then be back in my room early. Since I was close, I decided to take a quick stroll through Itaewan, which is basically the part of Seoul where foreigners and American soldiers go to hang out. It has a main street with very common stores such as Starbucks, McDonald’s, Outback, etc. There is also a descending slope of Korean merchants selling everything from custom tailored suits, fake purses, suitcases and clothes to dried fish, chicken on a stick, and Soju. It was near the end of my walk through this market that I ended up in an undesirable place. I knew I was in the wrong part of the town when doors started opening and middle-aged Korean women wearing tight t-shirts, high heels, fish-laced stockings and a pound of make-up began asking me to come in and hang out with them. I kept my Korean short and sweet and hoped they were targeting foreigners and would just leave a local Korean alone (or at least somebody that they believed was a local Korean). I made my way down that hill and hopped in a taxi, hit up Starbucks on the way home, and made it back to my room by 8:30 to do a little studying and sleep. All in all, uneventful, but an experience at the least.

It is pretty interesting how often the Koreans think I am a Korean. For starters, I’m about three inches taller and 50 pounds heavier than the average male here. I also have about two inches less hair. But I guess there is no mistaking the fact that I still seem to fit in here. While walking with my to friends I came here with (Jesse and Chris) who are both very white, even if they talk to somebody in Korean, they will respond to me. When I get into a taxi with them, I usually get the same response. However, Jesse is actually a much better Korean speaker than I am so I usually let him do the talking! When they are not with me, I usually just get it out of the way by telling them I’m actually an American, but my mom is Korean and I’m here for a little while to learn Korean. Then I’m always met with the same compliment, “Wow, you’re Korean is so good!” It’s not.

Wednesday after class, Jesse and I hopped into a taxi and made our way to the King Sejong cultural center to meet my mom and grandfather. Also there was my grandfather’s younger brother, my great uncle. We had coffee and then made our way to an underground restaurant for dinner. Underground restaurant may sound cool, but in reality, it is literally just a restaurant that is located underground. Seoul seems to have three dimensions, ground level where millions of Koreans walk, underground level where there is not only subways, but massive marketplaces and mile long passages, and finally the above ground levels where a small gift shop at the ground may have a PC bang (internet and gaming cafe), restaurant, barber shop, bar, and a night club all in the same building.

Anyways, we had our dinner and my grandfather had to leave a bit early. A few minutes later, my great-uncle’s daughter arrives. I guess that she and my mom had been very close as cousins growing up. We decided to take our little part to a No-rae-bang, or literally, “Song Room”. This is a small room with just your group, a table, some chairs, and a karaoke machine. I’ll let my mom demonstrate. We started drinking a few beers and a Soju at the restaurant and followed that up with more Soju and more beers while singing Korean and English songs for about two hours. It was actually more fun than I thought considering the company was my mom, her cousin, and her uncle. But Jesse was there as well and if any of you know him and want to see a video of him ripping out some Jerry Lee Lewis, I have it. After a late night out, we made our way back home and after a few hours of sleep, it was back to Korean class.

Thursday after class, I made my way to Sinchon (which should be spelled Shin-chon to be pronounced correctly) to meet a friend from the states, Brandon Cook. Brandon and his wife Tracy are here in Korea while she finished her last few months in the Army at Camp Humphreys. I haven’t seen Brandon since last February, so it was great to get together. We hopped on the subway and made our way to the far eastern part of Seoul to Myong-Il, where my mom is staying with her uncle and aunt (one of many). We had a great home-cooked meal, a few beers, then took a cab to Myong-dong to walk around a bit. We didn’t buy anything though and ended up back at Seoul train station around 10pm so Brandon could get back down to Pyongtaek (about 40 miles south of Seoul).

Friday after class, I got begin a great trip. I met my mom in Sinchon and we took the subway to Kimpo Airport. Seoul has a great new international airport at Incheon, but Kimpo (also spelled Gimpo) is the original int’l airport that is mainly used for domestic flights now. Regardless, we flew down to Busan, which is located at the SE edge of Korea and is one of the world’s busiest port cities. We met up with my mom’s cousin and her husband who own the tea shop in Masan (see week one). They treated us for the entire weekend to include airfare, hotels, and meals. They are truly a pair of the nicest people I’ve met in life. We spent the night in Busan at Jagalchi (also spelled Zagalchi), see website, the largest fish market in Korea. Here you literally walk the streets or the large indoor market to choose the live fish or shell-fish that you want to eat. They will then kill it, cut it, and prepare it for you. You basically end up eating fish that was alive ten minutes earlier. Eating fish this fresh is a delicacy in South Korea that people will pay a lot of money for it seems. Being a good guest, I tried sea cucumber (which looked like snot, but had no real taste, it was just like chewing hard rubber), two types of raw fish, abalone (which also had no real taste, but was very rubber like), and a fish stew that featured the actual fish head. Yum. I’ll try to post pics soon so check out the albums. After raw fish a few beers and two bottles of SoJu, I thought we were done for the night. It was already 9pm and we had a 10am flight to Jeju Island the next morning. Instead, we made our way back toward our hotel and went to a Pojangmacha. Literally translated it means “Wrapped Horse Car.” It dates back to the Korean war when people followed the troops in horse pulled carts covered in plastic or tarp to feed people. Nowadays, they pretty much refer to any non-permanent structure selling food on the street that can be as simple as a tarp between two street signs, two chairs, and a lady serving kimchee and rice to a large, semi-permanent one that seats about 25 people like the one we went to in Busan. We went there for one main reason, my hosts wanted me to try ‘chicken feet.’ Their daughter, who is actually a college student in Northern Virginia near my grandma and mom supposedly likes it and they wanted to see if I did too. But we didn’t start with it of course. No, we started with oysters… lots of oysters. They slipped a chunk of a type of coal or something that I had never seen before but put out a lot of heat in the middle of our table. On top of that, a small grill that we threw all of the oysters onto. When the water inside boiled, you could easily pull the meat out with chopsticks. This was surprisingly tasty. Then the chicken feet came out. They looked like, well… chicken feet, only redder and more meaty looking. Traditionally this meal is very spicy. They asked them to make it a little less spicy for me, but it was still too much for me. I had about three of them and topped it off with more SoJu and beer. By now I was pretty much drunk and would pay for that dearly the next day. But it did allow me to speak more Korean outside of the classroom than I had at any point earlier. Finally, a short walk on the beach to our hotel, a Korean song while sitting on a rock, and then bed time..1:00am. The next thing I remembered was my alarm. It was 6am and our hosts insisted we get up early to walk around the small peninsula near our hotel. Our hotel was great, the Westin Chosin, where President G.W. Bush stayed in 2003. The walk was also well worth it. We watched the sun rise while taking about a half mile walk around the peninsula. We followed that up with buffet breakfast (where I could only stomach a cup of coffee, a scoop of scrambled eggs, and a croissant) before heading to the airport.

Jeju Island. The small island off the south coast of Korea is called by some (here) “Korea’s answer to Hawaii.” I’ve never been to Hawaii and I can’t make that comparison, but Jeju is definitely worth the trip. Despite a slight hangover and having to use the restroom every 30 minutes (beer does that to me), we made our rounds from Jeju City (where the airport is) to about the south side of the island where we spent the first night. Jeju is home to Hallasan – Halla Mountain – which is the huge. At 6,397 feet, it is South Korea’s tallest mountain. It dominates the center of the island, but it is by no means the only mountain worth seeing. The effects of a volcano forming an island creates some of the most beautiful scenery imaginable. We visited a smaller volcano with a very large, forested crater called Sangumbori Crater. From there we worked our way through the island doing a few traditionally “Jeju” things like horseback-riding and seeing a traditional village. Then we arrived at a beautiful spot called Sung-San. It is a UNESCO world heritage sight and very beautiful. There we saw the infamous Jeju Women Divers. These females are usually the head of their household and earn their income by diving (without equipment) for shell fish and pearls. They were famous for their pearls until the supply dwindled and now they are a rare catch. From there we worked our way down the coast and saw more beautiful sites and the location where a Korean drama called “All-In” was filmed. Finally, after a long day of working through my headache to enjoy some of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen, we settled in for the night after another meal of… raw fish.

Sunday was more of the same as we worked our way along the southern coastline. I can not even mention all of the stuff we saw but it included a tea museum, a waterfall, a large bonsai tree farm, and beautiful coastline (see pictures below). It was a whirlwind tour of the island and we didn’t get to see half of it! We had a famous Jeju meal for lunch: huk-tway-gee or black-pig. We ended the day with a Chinese daredevil/acrobatics show including 7 guys on motorcycles riding inside a steel sphere. Very cool stuff. We got to our new hotel at Jeju City and finished things off with another traditional Jeju meal: horse. Yep, five courses of horse to be exact. It was unbelievably good, leaner than beef and more tasty than venison. After a bottle of red wine at the hotel, I took my last night’s rest in Jeju.