Jeoji Oreum

On the island of Jeju there are over a hundred oreums, or parasitic volcanos, that surround the base of Hallasan, the large dormant volcano located in the middle of the island. Many of these oreums are opened throughout the year and are laid with hiking trails.

Today I climbed Jeoji oreum, my dorm's namesake. This oreum is a little different because the middle contains a giant crater where the top must have blown off when it erupted at some point in history. The crater is now filled in with dense foliage and there is a set of around 1000 stairs from the top of the oreum to about halfway down into the crater.

Many other groups of people and couples were hiking Jeoji today. Most of the women were covered from head to toe in swish pants and windbreakers, with hats, sunglasses, and gloves. I wore a tank and shorts and even then the heat was uncomfortable.

I didn't see much wildlife on the oreum, which is fine with me. There were some large blue butterflies and what looked like moths. No surprises there. Yesterday on my run I came across some wild dogs (/farm dogs?) and farther along was a baby deer carcass, which was a little gross.

My goal during these five months is to climb many different oreums and eventually I want to climb giant Hallasan.

Farms at the base of the oreum

Other side of the crater, across the oreum

View from the top, facing Eastward. You can see Hallasan in the distance

View of the ocean and farms,  facing North-West

There are another couple of oreums in the distance. The big one in the center is also visible from my room at school.

View across the crater

Arrived!

I've arrived on Jeju Island and the school where I will be spending the next 5 months in the Gap Year Program, NLCS Jeju. The trip over took more than a day from NYC to Jeju, and I was awake for more than two days straight, but I am here.

I have been assigned to live in Jeoji House, one of the dorms on campus. Some of the other dorms include Sarah, Mulchat, and Noro, which are all oreums found on Jeju Island. It turns out that Jeoji  is the closest oreum to the school.

My room is nice and large, and it contains a small kitchenette, bathroom, and large bedroom with a wall of windows. It's on the fourth floor and the view is unbeatable. On a clear day I can see the ocean, and there are several visible oreums in the distance.

The rest of the school is also very nice. Since it is only in its fourth year, everything is new and clean and up to date. The main school building is a large and confusing maze, but it's full of computers, student artwork, practice rooms, and science laboratories.

Unfortunately there is no track, which is so unbelievable to me. The only outdoor sports area here is a large turf field in front of my dorm that can only accommodate soccer and maybe hockey games. Since this is a Brittish school, rugby is a really big deal, but they can't even play rugby on the turf since the ground underneath is too hard and unforgiving and the turf would leave friction burns when the players tackle each other.

Surrounding the school are a couple western restaurants and a very small convenience store, but that's it. We are in the middle of nowhere. I've been here five days already and I have yet to try any Korean food. I think tonight I'll get some Korean instant noodles or something to at least pretend I'm in Korea. Unfortunately I haven't had enough time to go into town (40 minutes away by car, infinitely far away by bus), but once I have a full free day off that'll be my go-to plan of escape.

Besides the area directly around the school, everything else is unfinished and under construction. All of the roads are covered in orange traffic cones and there aren't very many traffic lights. In fact, to get to the school there is a six-way intersection that has absolutely no traffic lights or stop signs or any kind of direction that indicates right of way. You just kind of have to go for it and avoid getting in the way of buses.

I've done some running in the area since there are a lot of sidewalks. It's bad for my legs to run on roads all the time, but the sidewalks here are so poorly maintained that vegetation has sprouted up in between the bricks and in some areas it's almost like running on grass. The house mistress in my dorm says that since South Korea, and especially Jeju Island has so recently acquired money and first world status they will show off that money by spending it in development, but as many up and coming countries do, they fail to maintain what they've built. Apparently once a year the government will send someone around to take care of the sidewalks, but until then I'll have some cushion while I run.