Jeju: Day 2: Tea Farm

Date: 12/26/2010

After the Acrobatic Show, we went to O'Sulloc's Tea Farm.  I don't really understand how a Korean tea farm has such a Irish sounding name, but *shrug* oh well.

We got out of the bus and it was snowing like mad!  But we huddled around the giant tea pot and cup at the entrance and took a group photo:

Say Kimchi!  

Then we had an hour to goof off around the Museum and farm.

Sarah in the tea field.  

It basically stopped snowing directly after we took the group photo (our lucky, right?), but everyone was scattered so nothing we could do.  A group of us walked up the road to take some photos of a cool looking tree.  The snow was beautiful on it because it fell only one direction so half the tree was white the other half was green....

Sarah and I <3 pretty tree.

Then we went into the tea musuem, which presented the history of tea in the Asian culture.  It was neat, but a lot of reading and I didn't really feel like reading.  You could buy some tea grown at the farm--but everything was SUPER expensive.  Sarah and I got a little bored so we reverted to our natural state--Children.

We played Hide 'n' Seek in the Bamboo:

And started another snow ball fight.  What can we say?  Sarah and I love snow.  And in our minds snow = fun = play time!

And we weren't the only ones who thought so.  See the young girl in the photo?  Her brother is standing right outside the frame.  Sarah and I both have really bad aim and "accidentally" lobbed a snowball at him.  He didn't really mind, though.  In fact, after we ran down the mountain, he followed up, ended up cornering me in some shrubs, and threw a couple snow balls at me.  Which prompted me to run after him like a crazy...err...waygook (foreigner)--which, for some Koreans, that might be redundant.  Crazy = Foreigner.

It was great.  The tea farm wasn't really a high light, but the snowball fight at the farm definitely was on my top 5 of Jeju Vacation List.

Jeju: Day 2: Morning

Date: 12/26/2010

After my morning wake up call, I got up and got dressed.  I had the attitude, "I'm in Jeju, let's go exploring."  The sun was coming up, or at least the sky was getting lighter, and I could see the ocean from my window.  So I decided I was going to go check out the beach.  Or...the "beach."

I bundled up and proceeded to make my way down the side of the hill that our hotel was perched on. It wasn't exactly an easy descent.

Hotel way up top....Ocean behind me...

My "beach"  

Jeju has a whole bunch of these rock walls.  They basically line all of the roads and pastures and everything.  Some are just big rocks like these above, while others are real walls (but the rocks are just stacked on each other, not cemented--at least, it doesn't look like it.)

Obviously, I stole this picture...but this is what I mean by them not being cemented.  

Anyway, I climb my way down to the beach and am confronted with a really pretty view.

What I was walking over...had to be careful--I really didn't want to get wet.

The view...very pretty.  There's a (probably) fishing boat way out in the horizon.

Hello!

Jeju: Internet

Date: 12/25-6/2010

I have heard that South  Korea is one of the most internet connected places in the world.  So, because it was Christmas over my Jeju trip, I decided to take my computer.  Some people thought this was stupid (I had one fellow Adventure Korea traveler do some snotty, "Really?") comment, but I have a general policy of ignoring ignoramuses.  But I had planned to Skype my family after dinner/kareoke on Christmas Day.  I would have been midnight for me, but only 10 am for my family in America--which is when they generally start opening presents.

Long story shortened: I could not get my computer to connect to the internet at the hotel.  They had a wifi system (the housekeeper told me they had a famous Mongolian artists last summer so they had internet set up--my response: "of course...famous Mongolian artists...").  But I could not get my computer to connect--which was very upsetting.

Granted, in the past 5 hours Sarah and I had split 2 bottles of wine.  We weren't drunk, but we were pretty relaxed.  So when I couldn't get internet, it was a very easy slide into being very not happy.   I sniffled a lot, and my mascara ran.  But then I remember, I have a CELL PHONE!  Surely I can call them.

That led me to go to the "party room" and ask if any of the foreigners were American--which it turned out quiet a few were and they were able to help me figure out how to call home.

Which, in retrospect, might have been a mistake.  My family, who is forever giving me hell about not carrying my cell phone, didn't have they're phones on them.  Which, I understand because I said Skype--not phone.  But, that left me even more sad...and it left me talking to voice mails.

This was the mistake--I left a message. Being a little tipsy.  And being sad.  So I'm talking into the phone, "Hello *Sniffle sniffle* Merry Ch-*voice break*istmas!  I'm doing *sniffle sniffle* good.  I really *hiccup* miss you.  Can't get *sniffle* internet on Jeju.  I'm having a really *sniffle sniffle* good time--had Turke*voice break*y for dinner.  Talk *Sob sob* to you later.  Miss *sob!* you!"  "

Not exactly the most upbeat Christmas message.

But it resulted in an unexpected Day After Christmas walk up call.

5.45 am:

RING RING!   RING RING!

Me: "What the?....Errg....."Hello?"

Phone: (Shouting)"Maggie?  Mah-ggie?!"

Me:  Whispering (My roommates were still asleep...and hello, EARLY!) "What?  Dad?"

Dad: "Hello!?  Maggie?" Louder shouts " Can you hear me?"

Me (getting up and walking into the hallway) "Dad!" (I start sobbing again) "Dad!  I can hear you!"

Dad: "Maggie?  You there?  Hold on, let me get Mom.... MARTYY!!!!!  How are you?"

Me: "I'm....*sniffle sniffle....sob sob* good.  Merry Christmas."

Dad: "MARTY! ....  FINE, I"LL TALK TO MAGGIE ALL BY MYSELF!  That's good.  We got your messages."

Me: (weakly whispering) "Oh.  Sorry about those.  I'd had a little bit of wine *cross between a sniffle, hiccup, and laughter* "

Dad: "You doing okay?  Having fun?"

And then the conversation proceeded like normal.  There were some more tears when Mom got on the phone.  But looking back, I know next year I'll be telling that story over the Christmas table.

Jeju: Horseback Riding & Sunrise Peak

Date: 12/25

After Trick Art Museum we went horseback riding.  This was the only part of the 3 day trip that was disappointing.  I had read in some travel guides that you could ride a horse on the beach.  This is one of the things on my "To Do" list for LIFE so I was really excited.

The "ride" was maybe 7 minutes total.  We went up, did a photo shot, and came down, looped the carrol twice and were done.  I understand that there were 40 of us, but really, it was sad.  But!  There was a really cool/hot Korea who was on horseback--and let me tell you--that's how I passed the 30-odd minutes of waiting after riding on the horses--watching him!

Hot Korean + Pretty Horse + Actual horseback riding skill =  Merry Christmas Maggie!

We piled back on the bus and head over to Sunrise Peak (or Seongsan Illchubong in Korean).  This was an impressive piece of geography.  Basically Jeju is a bunch of peaks of volcanos, and this volcano just happened to have exploded and left a giant crater at the top.   I just looked up the Korean for Sunrise peak and saw that the technical word for Sunrise Peak is a tuff cone--just in case anyone was interested!

These statues dot the Jeju landscape.  They are called Hollabong (which, I think, ironically is also a type of orange that is native of Jeju).  As you can see, the left statue has his left hand higher--which means scholar.  The right statue has his right hand higher--which means he is a warrior hollabong.  You always see these guys in pairs so that the scholar and warrior balance each other out.  

Jeju: Trick Art Museum

Date: 12/25

We only spent an hour or so at the Trick Art Museum, but it was a place to take pictures so there are sooo many from this place.  It was a lot of fun!

Jeju: Lunch and Snow Fight!

Date: 12/25

On Christmas Day, we get to Jeju and head over to the Black Pork Barbecue restaurant as soon as we land.  It was some might-y good food!

Cook it on the table--I love it!

Yummy yummy!

See, Lisa and I like it so much we made a heart!  Our first of many Korean-inspired photographs!

Sarah and I get done fairly quickly and she pops up like her pants are on fire: "Let's make a snow angel!"  Always one for some fun in the snow, I agree and we head outside to go find an undisturbed patch of snow.  We find it behind the restaraunt.

Sarah's First Snow Angel. 

 Seakjin (Adventure Korea owner, and really cool Korean man) comes out of the restrooms and sees us starting a snow fight.  He waves his hands and says he has something really cool to show us.  We shrug, drop the snow, and follow him.  He showed us the flower that only blooms in the winter.  Look how pretty!

Then, back to our snow fight!

We got a few people to join in with us.  Saekjin and Angelina mostly--other people came out and looked at us like we were being "juvinelle."  And, to some extent we were, but really, we were having fun!  

Snow down the back!  Down the BACK!  AHH!

Next we had on to the Trick Art Musuem, which is going to get a posting all of it's own because it was pretty awesome!

Jeju: The Flight

Date: 12/25

We wake up early on Christmas Day and head to the Gimpo Airport in Seoul to meet up with the Adventure Korea group outside of Starbucks.  Very smart decision on Adventure Korea's part to meet outside a coffee shop--Lord knows I needed!

Us waiting for the subway...It was very easy to get a Korean to take a photo of us--it might have been the santa hats.

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Sarah was the morning person--she spent most of the subway ride singing Christmas carols and not-so-successfully-trying-not-to-dance.  Katrina eventually got out some change and started chucking them at her.

We arrive at the airport and grab a seat in the "green" area outside Starbucks.  A green mat, some potted plants, and a picnic table.  In the middle of the airport--of course!  Katrina asked me if I liked playing the sliding game.  I asked, "what's the sliding game?" 

I should have seen that one coming as she slides me right off the seat....

Eventually most of the people arrive, we pass out tickets and head to wait for our 9.55 am plane.  In the down time, we take some goofy photos.  I mean, it IS CHRISTMAS!  Of course it's time for goofy photos.

So this picture is here for 2 reasons.  One, my santa hat.  Two: Behind me is airport security.  I basically had just put back on my belongings and my hat happened to stand up straight.  This prompted about 5 people to pull out their cameras and snap a photo of me.  Then an airport security lady comes over, crosses her hands and says, "No photos!  Security!" We all immediantely put our camera's away.  And then we slowly walk away--slightly mystified when the security lady was satisified by our putting the camera away.  We all looked at each other went, "She's not going to delete the photo?"  At home, you take a photo by security and it gets ERASED.  I guess not so much here--or maybe it was just the fact we are a bunch of foreigners in santa hats....

Three friends (R to L: Scott, Katrina, and Angela) wear the same shirts on trips they do together.  This one says "Assa!" Which means "Yes!" in Korean.  THink about a 5 year old boy pumping his fist and saying, "aSSAH!"  LIsa and I jump into the photo --me with a butt shot and Lisa with a very, pretty, "I'm here too!"