sorry i haven’t written lately. its a mixture of having been busy with my mom here and the fact that mike took the usb so my pictures have been piling up on my camera
so while i’m leaving seoul today, you’ll see the last couple bits over the next few weeks.
see you soon la (and boston!)
xo,
s
seriously korea. what’s up with:
the fact the phone etiquette here requires that when you call someone, you should always ask if its a convenient time to speak.
BUT………..
you are calling someone you don’t know very well. and you call the FOUR times in a row within the span of FIVE minutes. so i FINALLY pick up the fourth time and you ask if its a convenient time.
WTF. of course its not a convenient time. you just called four times and i didn’t pick up until the 4th time. if it was convenient, wouldn’t i have picked up the first time? when someone calls that many times, of course i’m gonna figure its an emergency and pick up eventually. and when its not an emergency… i’m really fuckin annoyed.
ok korea. the important etiquette you should pick up is not “is it a convenient time to speak” but rather ” don’t fuckin call 4 times in a row about something that isn’t a emergency to someone you don’t know very well. just call them once, maybe twice and then WAIT for them to call you back.”
ok. i am done ranting now.
love, s
a day in the life of open house. a project that i am participating in here in korea!
friday, 13th august
the workshop began with a group of teenagers (volunteers). they finally built a “chaise bordelaise” and painted the sign for the rabbit house and the view point.
also the neighbor who is coming almost every day finished the shelf he is working on since a while. (and by the way he built 2 small stools)
after, still a lot of people came: a mother with 4 kids from the kindergarden that built toys with them, the gardener, the 2 regular boys (planing top secret things in the real estate and jumping from stone to stone on the “stonehenge”), an other set of 5 (motivated!) volunteers who sprayed the construction vests and did a big part of the farmers laboratory insulation (and had a lot of fun!).
also a mother came because her daughter planted a while ago during the mobile planting station. now she was wondering what it is about, so she came to have a look (and make some toys).
awesome. book society in hongdae
some places we ate at mike’s last week here!
ladies and gentleman. michael has officially left the country.
boo.
just 20 minutes off the eastern coast of jeju island is another delightful one called udo island. it’s about 18km in circumference. mike and i packed up our tent from our first night it jeju and took a taxi to the port.
we had briefly comtemplated what we should do with our bags while visiting the island. this was actually something we dealt with the most of the trip. when you are traveling to a new part of the island everyday, w/o reservations and w/o a car, one needs to become a little more creative with their bags. we just figured we’d take a gamble and hope that there was someplace to store it at the port. interestingly enough, our super nice taxi driver was more concerned than we were:
taxi guy: so where are you guys going to up your stuff while you sightsee?
us: oh. we’re just hoping there are lockers or something at the ferry terminal
taxi guy: not there aren’t. but you should just ask the ticketing people if they can hold it for you in their office while you go to the island and pick it up afterwards.
us: ok thanks!
(short pause)
taxi driver: what are you doing afterwards?
us: we’re going to ilchubang (sunrise crater on the way to ferry) and then going to the south of the island on the bus.
taxi driver: hmmm…. why don’t i drop it off at this really good restaurant i know right in front of ilchubang where they can keep it for you. then i’ll drop you off at the ferry terminal. after you see the island you can go to the restaurant to eat, see ilchuban, grab your stuff and go south.
us: um. wow. ok. thanks!
(this is all in korean)
after dropping our stuff off at this restaurant, our wonderful taxi driver took us to the ferry terminal. 
the small indoor portion of the boat was interesting. (short side note: in korea, traditionally much of the activity happens on the floor. you eat at a table on the floor, you sleep on large thick mats on the floor, you hang out there. usually this all happens in one room without much furniture. this has a lot to do with why koreans do not where shoes in the house. you want to keep it as clean as possible when you are constantly sitting on the floor) so the inside: its basically a large sitting area on the ground with small bordered off pathways to take and leave your shoes in. everyone was comfortable resting and waiting to get to udo island. 
after we arrived, we noticed there were some stands where you could rent a scooter, golf cart, bicycle or atv. the bikes were the most affordable but our limited time + ultra hot humid weather convinced us to go with an atv. we had driven one when we were in santorini, greece two years ago and felt pretty comfortable on them. so we were off on a road that travels around the edges of the island and udo was really quite beautiful:
we then started to see some random things from the road. random mermaid: 
next to these swings
and up the road.. someone building an ark?! 
we parked our atv near the ark and walked down to the water on a path and found a small family outift serving live sora and munoh (octopus). the sora was kept in a bucket
the live octopus was kept in nature fridge
yum!
udo was one of the highlights of jeju. if we had known we could camp here and realized its awesomeness before, we probably would have camped here for a night. 
afterwards, we ate at that restaurant, climbed ilchuban and then picked up our luggage and headed to the bus stop. thanks mr taxi driver!
our second trip to noryangjin fish market. couldn’t get enough of the crab!
fish market redux. fond farewell as mike’s sojourn in korea ends
jeju had some amazing beaches. the first night we arrived, we decided to camp on a small beach on the east coast of jeju, sinyang beach we had been worried about not being able to find a place to camp as we were in jeju at the peak of korean vacation traveling. however, we find this beach magically deserted with only one other family camping there. it was a delightfully peaceful and tranquil way to start our vacation. 
right on the beach there was also a circus tentlike structure that was serving beer and anju (snacks to eat while drinking). we hung out and had a beer but soon retreated from the unforgiving mosquitos. 
the next day, after going to udo island (which deserves it own post) and some other sights, we head off on the bus to the south of jeju island to the 2nd largest town there, called seogwipo. here we stayed at hotel but went out to see the jungbang waterfalls (정방폭포) that comes down a cliff basically at the foot of the ocean. 
this part of the island is less beachy and more rocky. we also climbed around on some rocks in hopes to escape civilization for a brief second in time…
then we headed towards the west coast to the hwasun gold sand beach (화선 금모래해변) where we didn’t find much gold sand but we did find hundreds of korean families vacationing on the beach. quite entertaining was the ravine of flowing water where people sat on tables sitting in this small creek so that they could keep their feet cool while dining. 
also interesting here was that EVERYONE was going into the water with all their clothes on. i mean shorts + long sleeve shirts+ jackets… it was quite strange and we didn’t know quite to make of it. all the kids would get to the beach and PUT ON more clothes to go into the water… their form of sunblock perhaps?
it become a little much and we jetted off to the west coast to set up camp at Hyeobjae Beach near Hallim Park. the most awesome thing about camping in korea on the beach. its totally unregulated and you can pretty much pitch your tent whereever you want. i mean there are designated sections for camping where many people where but as more people streamed in through the night, people would just set up camp wherever they wanted. here’s our tent: 
the beach was packed when we got there in the late afternoon
i thought it would settle down into the night but i had underestimated the koreans. they put on some big lights and people kept swimming until about 10 at night. the beach was packed with people swimming, watching a movie they were projecting or my favorite, sitting in small circles of friends around a small propane stove grilling meat, drinking soju + beer and having a great time. 
lastly, we headed back to the north, northeast coast of jeju to gimnyeong beach for our last full day. this is a beautiful beach in a quiet small town in jeju. there was a larger beach with lots of people, but just a short distance away, there was a small manmade bay that wasn’t too crowded. we were able to find a minbak around here and this beach and the surrounding coast throughout the town were quite lovely
local hangout
the next morning, we woke up early so that we could go for one last swim before heading back to the airport. the bay was deliciously empty and we had the ocean to ourselves. what a wonderful way to end our trip! 
more delicious foods of jeju island!
