Too Much Food.

Over the past few days I've been spending a relaxing time on campus reveling in my temporary access to a full kitchen by baking a ton, eating a massive ton, and socializing with friends. 

On Saturday night we threw a dinner party. It was simple enough - we just made pasta. But the addition of good friends and booze made it a fun night. 

Also over the weekend I tried my hand at making Japanese wagashi using this recipe. It was really simple to make and they taste great warmed up with tea.

I also made some banana bread using this simple but extremely delicious recipe. And due to the lack of canned pumpkin in Korea, I adapted my favorite pumpkin bread recipe for sweet potatoes. My British friends told me the concept of eating something savory like pumpkin or sweet potato in a dessert disgusts them, but after trying the bread they had to rethink their views on gourd-based sweets.

Sweet potato bread

And FINALLY, a chance to be extremely fashionable in our fleece Korean pajamas. HOTTAYZ -

Jeoji House Dinner

This past weekend my house, Jeoji, threw its first ever formal dinner party. We spent Saturday setting up and decorating the atrium for the meal by dragging in tables and chairs and covering tables in black and yellow paper. Everything came together looking very nice.

When we arrived downstairs for the dinner there were invitation place cards at each seat. Unfortunately some of the students think my name is Kristine..... It's alright.

The meal was provided by the dining services, but it was admittedly better than the cafeteria fare. We had three courses, with the main course being chicken. I overate. 

The staff on duty during the dinner party -- Looking dapper ;)

Night Out in Jeju City

As it was Anna's birthday, we all went into town on Friday night to celebrate. It's kind of hard to go into the city since it's so far away, so going out is kind of a treat. We taxied into town and first stopped off at Wa Bar, a western style bar that has good beer. Next we went to our usual haunt, Island Stone, which has two for one shots on Fridays. We followed this up by a night of dancing and a final stop at Loteria for burgers. Mmmmm.

Lots of cheesy group photos. Feel like I'm back at uni --

Return to O'sulloc Tea Plantation

O'sulloc green tea plantation is a five minute bike ride from school, so it's easy to travel there when we have a bit of free time. We had a small meal at the cafe and then did the touristy thing and posed for a bunch of pictures in front of the giant, teacup-shaped bush. The weather was relatively warm and it was a pleasant outing. 

Jeoji Oreum and Beach Day with the House

Today the whole of Jeoji House took a trip to our namesake oreum and the Hyeopjae Beach. Once again the weather was wonderful -- clear and sunny, without a cloud in the sky. There was a slight cool breeze playing around us when we reached the top of the oreum for lunch and a rest.

The beach was also very nice, albeit windier. I went swimming in my clothes since I managed not to bring a bathing suit, but a lot of the students ended up doing the same. We had a recklessly fun time just running around through the water and sand. I felt so free, being off campus. It was nice to bond with some of the girls in the house outside of a boarding/ academic context.

To see more, go to our house blog.

Olle Trail #6

Today with the hiking club I went up the cliffs at the start of olle trail #6 on the Southern coast of the island. It was a pleasant day for hiking: the weather was warm with a cool breeze, and the day was clear and cloudless. We could see the outline of Mt. Halla very clearly from where we were situated. 

Only thing was that the trail we were on was quickly deemed the "Land of the Spiders." There were massive tons of the large, multicolored spiders that are often seen along the olle trails. I've never seen so many spiders in my life.

Unexpectedly, it was the girls who had no issue with the spiders. Instead, it was the boys who screamed bloody murder every time they saw one from a distance of 10 feet. Not gonna lie, it was pretty funny, but thank goodness no one came in contact with a spider or else we'd have a panic attack on our hands, I swear.

Birthday Weekend

I just celebrated my birthday this past Saturday and I had a lot of help from my friends here to make it AwEsOmEeEeEe! I got to go into town on Thursday and go shopping for a dress and makeup. We went to the underground shopping mall, but unfortunately it wasn't very big and they mostly sold sweaters and pants, so no luck there finding a dress. I did end up getting a lot of make up though. Then we went to an Indian restaurant for lunch and I gorged on lentil curry, naan, and rice. Wow it was delicious. I can't wait to go back there.

The next day my friend loaned me a dress and we went out on the town to celebrate my 23rd. Unfortunately Saturday I had to work, but I got the chance to go out for fried chicken and later in the night I did Scottish dancing with the year 9 students. I'd upload a video of it but it's too embarrassing how bad we were... Anyway, it was definitely one of the highlights of my birthday and a lot of fun.

On Saturday night, the girls in my dorm gathered together for registration and we also had birthday cake. As per the British style, I made a wish not when I blew out the candle, but when I cut the first slice of cake. The girls then surprised me with a big birthday card they made. It was so nice, I thought I would die of happiness :)

Birthday messages on the house white board!

Big, awesome Jeoji birthday card <3 <3 <3

Overall, a pleasant weekend :)

Typhoon winds and heavy rain are hitting tonight and into tomorrow. It's supposed to pour all day long and then get sunny later in the week. Two weeks until half term, woohoo!

Hwasun Beach and Sanbangsan Temple (화순금모래해변 & 산방산)

This past Thursday was a prime example of things not always going exactly how you think they're going to go, but still working out for the best. We went to Hwasun beach thinking that we'd kayak, but quickly learned that the weather was too windy and the water too rough to paddle out on the sea. Instead Anna suggested we take a walk along the closest Olle trail, and so we found ourselves trudging along the beach, scrambling over rocks, climbing countless stairs, and pulling ourselves up a steep gradient using a rope.

Once we reached the start of what looked like an actual trail through the woods, we encountered a Korean man and his family. In English the man told us, "You can't go that way. There's a big spider on the path." And we stood there thinking, this must be one massive spider to turn away a big Korean guy and his family. Although I was wary, Anna was undeterred. The two of us scouted a little father into the brush, leaving Oli and Reesha behind. We quickly came across the spider, which was brightly colored and hanging out on a web crossing the footpath, so Anna took a stick and moved the spider out of the way. No big deal. 

I've noticed that many of the Korean people I meet while hiking Ole trails are incredibly well outfitted with all the right brightly colored hiking gear, but when it comes to getting their hands dirty they're fairly inexperienced with the outdoors. 

Anna and I reached a viewing platform at the top of the cliff, but since Reesha and Oli didn't follow us, we had to turn around and go back the way we came, making a detour around the cliff, we reconnected with the olle trail on the other side and continued our hike through a rolling field and then along the coastline.

From our perch on another seaside cliff, we looked out and saw gorgeous hidden beaches lining the coastline.

Some of the cove beaches were closed to the public, but we found one that we could walk onto. Nobody kicked us off at any rate... We sunbathed and swam for a couple hours. The sea was so warm and the rocks on either side of us kept away the worst of the wind and waves. 

We moved on, walking along the beach, continuing towards distant Sanbangsan. The beach was riddled with interesting rock formations and caves. The rocks looked almost like plastic, the were so odd. It was like lava flow trapped in time. 

Apparently at some point we had separated from the olle trail, which was above us, and we were below on the beach. We could see stairs leading up to a viewing platform, but had to get up to them somehow. I know it's terrible, but we ended up scrambling up a giant sand dune in order to reconnect to the trail. After our haphazard ascent, we reached a viewing platform where we could look out on the beach we had just crossed, and we could even see our original starting point, Hwasun Beach (next to the industrial park in the photo below).

 

The olle trail eventually led us to the base of Sanbangsan, which is a huge, very steep oreum that is visible even from my room at NLCS Jeju. Since the sides are so steep, it's impossible to climb to the top of this oreum without ropes and equipment, but there is a Buddhist temple set into the south side with stairs leading someways up the mountain and ending in a grotto.

As soon as we stepped foot onto the temple grounds, we were suddenly assaulted by a group of Korean men, who were keen to show us around. One in particular was especially enthusiastic, waving his arms around pointing at things and speaking to us very loudly in Korean. We were a bit annoyed by this and managed to escape his attention eventually. We climbed up many stairs...

And more stairs...

Forever stairs...

Beautiful photo by Row of the inside of the temple

...Until we reached the very top of the temple, which was basically a big Buddah set into a cave in the side of the mountain. In fact, I learned recently that Sanbangsan means Mountain Room Mountain, named for the grotto room called Sanbanggul.

At the top, we came across the Very Enthusiastic Korean Man once more, and he convinced Oli to go up to the Buddah and pray. It was a hot day, so we took a rest on the benches near the grotto and were approached by yet another Korean man with a ponytail. So excited to see foreigners, he immediately dialed up his wife, a Korean teacher, and handed his cellphone over to me. I chatted with his wife on the phone for several minutes, and she told me about her husband being in Jeju on vacation while she was back at their home on the mainland.

On our way back down the mountain we quickly made our way past Enthusiastic Korean Man, and encountered a new person: Short Korean Man, who was so impressed by Anna's height that he struck up a mainly Korean conversation with her. The two of them took a picture together and we moved on.

At the ticket booth at the base of the mountain we ran into the other half of our group, who had left later in the day after having a lie-in. They had just arrived by taxi and hadn't yet seen the temple, so we made plans to meet up again in an hour, and we went for a quick lunch as the other group climbed the many stairs.

Then, WHO DID WE SEE AT LUNCH???? Why it was Very Enthusiastic Korean Man and his friends. As soon as we walked into the restaurant they called out to us loudly in old man Korean, with a lot of deep loud voices and saliva flying everywhere. They had already had a bit to drink. By this point we accepted that this was our fate -- too many chance encounters to call it anything else -- and sat down at the table next to them.

They poured us drinks and we toasted many times and ate seafood pajeon (Korean chive pancakes). Just as they were about to leave, Ponytail Korean man saw us at the restaurant and came in. He told the other men about our previous encounter up on mountain near the temple, and explained to them about me chatting to his wife on the cellphone. Of course then we had to toast to THAT too. But we were all laughing and having a good time, even though I speak 10 words of Korean and they spoke even less English.

After lunch we met up with the other half of our group, who had finished their hike up to the temple. We walked along the beach, and sat briefly to appreciate the view of Sanbangsan from afar:

After a beer at the cafe, You and I, we called it a day and headed back to NLCS, recounting our unexpected encounters and discoveries along the way. 

[Some photos courtesy of Row, Anna, and Reesha]

At the school it poured all through the morning and I was feeling pretty pessimistic when I met up with the group to go on our morning hike. As we walked out to the bus it was a torrential down pour and I figured I'd be soaked through within the first 2 minutes of hiking.

Driving south, the rain increased in intensity, but the bus driver still hurtled the bus forward through the deluge. Jeju drivers are crazy.

Then suddenly, nothing. No rain, dry roads, sun peeking through the clouds. I guess this is what island weather is well known for. We left behind the wall of rain and spent the rest of the morning sweating in the glaring sun and trudging through humid, thick air.

The view from the olle trail we walked today was gorgeous. We were right up on the coast, and the whole walking path was a raised wooden platform with good footing. The downside was that there were many tourists on this part of the olle trail.

Nearing the end of our walk, we went down some stairs and onto a boulder beach with tide pools and sand lice scurrying around. The kids clambered over the rocks for about half an hour and the sun continued to get hotter and hotter as it approached noon, so we made our way back up the stairs and to the bus. The way back to campus was uneventful, but I knew we were nearing the school when we reentered what I'm calling the "bad weather bubble," because we hit the wall of rain and from thereon it continued to pour the whole way back.

Rain cloud overtaking campus early this morning

Daily Grind

It's thundering outside and heavy rain clouds are brushing over the oreum visible from my room. The ocean looks misty and distant. It's raining and we're supposed to go hiking in 40 minutes. 

This past week was more of the same thing. We're finally settling into our roles and getting used to the routine. Starting the week after next, I will be teaching a grade 7 science class twice a week on "The Weather," and so I've been prepping for that and observing the classes I'm going to teach.

I've also been helping out around the house, especially with House Competition things. This week was soccer (football), and our house team, both boys and girls, made an incredibly strong showing. The competition is set to continue this Monday, and all the teams will finish facing off.

My favorite day of the week is definitely Thursday, my day off. We had big plans to go into Jeju City this past Thursday and do some shopping then take a cab to a black sand beach. Well that would've been nice if we hadn't taken so long to figure out how to navigate the city. We ended up walking around a whole lot, and then finished up our time out at a korean restaurant. I had bibimbap:

Stoneware bowl full of rice, cut up veggies, and an egg. Bowl comes to the table piping hot. You stir everything together and eat it with a spoon. The heat from the bowl slowly browns the rice on the outside into crispy goodness.

First Week of School

WOOHOOO. We've made it through the first week of school and like all first weeks it's been the longest of my life. It's hard to believe that the students arrived only last Sunday -- It feels like I've been here forever.

Everything has been running smoothly. I'm getting used to cafeteria food, exploring the local running routes, and continuing to get to know the girls in the house.

On a typical day I've been waking up around 7:30, going for breakfast and then a run or zumba, followed by lunch. Work starts in the early afternoon. I'm in the bio department every day and I'll be taking over a couple grade 7 science classes on weather. I'm teaching one boys class and one girls class, since they split up the classes based on gender here.

Following my time prepping or in the classroom, I head to afternoon activities. During the week I'm booked in cross country running, ceramics and cycling club.

So far this week I only had the chance to go to cycling club. It's my first time really getting to cycle off road, and on Friday we went out in the pouring rain, which was still fun. We got soaked within the first two minutes and then spent the rest of the half hour exploring the winding roads behind the school.

In the evenings after dinner I'm in house, tutoring the seventh grade girls and going around helping the tutor on duty put the girls to bed. The students in the house are lively with vibrant and varying personalities. I'm still learning names, though, it it'll probably take me until half term to get everyone sorted out.

Thursday is my day off, and it's dedicated to working out, going to the beach or into town, and getting some much-needed rest. We also have Friday nights off, and this week a few of us went into Jeju City for samgyupsal, or Korean BBQ, where we were given meat to cook at a grill built right into the table.

Monday afternoons are for house competitions, and the sum total of the house competition rankings contributes to the overall house competition prize, which Jeoji house has won both years running. So far we're in third this year, but I'm sure the soccer competition on Monday will make up some lost points.

Views from my Flat

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.