New Theme!

Ok, so I want to give a quick description of my new theme! Of course it is now winter (not really for us) and soon it will be Christmas. My blog theme is reflecting the new things that I've learned about Koreans and winter.

First off, Korean buildings have no central heating. I'm also pretty sure that they don't have insulation either.

Secondly, Koreans live by two temperatures. Super hot or super cold. They hate super cold, so inevitably (thanks to portable heaters) you'll experience the super hot.

Thirdly, Korean winter fashion is... interesting. They usually just wear thin coats with layers and layers of sweaters underneath. And otherwise freak out if you wear short sleeved shirts. They don't really wear mittens, but they do have nifty earmuffs with mp3-players inside

Fourth-ly and finally, the hats. The hats are awwwwesome. And that is what has inspired my new theme. Koreans LOVE cutsey hats. Particularly the animal-themed hat. My male student has the very same hat as the old man in this picture, and this is the 'cool kid' of my class. My friends often joke about what kind of Korean men these boys would end up like if it wasn't for the 2 years of conscription they all have to take.

PS- I will be buying one of these hats for myself. LOL!

Up, Down, All Around, and Sick as a Dog

So it's been awhile since I've posted up an update and I do apologize. I've been sick for about a solid month and it has zapped the energy out of me. So most of my weekends have been me feeling miserable, singing a large amount of K-pop to myself, gift shopping, letter writing and on one special Halloween me being extra sick after I drank 2 glasses of wine.
My little black dress will never be the same...

So this weekend I finally had some energy and went on an adventure with my partner in crime, Liz.

Oh finally... freedom from my smelly bedroom!

So this post is the tale of this Saturday and another mini-adventure I had in the city.

Majanggul

'Gul' means cave in Korean, so the name literally means Majang Cave. Majanggul is actually not a cave, it is a system of lava tubes that are some of the largest in the world. (For those of you who don't know and will be too embarassed to ask, lava tubes are the tunnels formed from where lava once flowed.) And walkin through them you can quickly tell that they aren't exagerating about the size. Sections of the tube are approximately 23m wide and over 30m high. So while it is too dark to see much of the tube formations, it still is an enjoyable 1km walk.




Actually Jeju has tons of lava tube systems, but this one is an actual UNESCO world heritage site and... well huge! The tube runs for kms and kms but only 1km is open, and quite frankly that's enough for me. As awesome (and I mean that as in awe-inspiring-some) as it is, 1km is suffiscient. It's dark and one can only spend so much time wondering how Korean girls can walk in high heels in this place, or spend time looking into the deep dark (Hence why I only used my own photo once for this post, cus my camera usually only took photos of what appeared to be my friend in front of a black abyss).

Gimnyeong Maze

Woot! Hedge Maze! Who doesn't love those? I mean honestly! Well actually this maze is on the way to the tubes, and since the tubes were free and the hedge was only 2$, we figured we'd spend some money on this. Apparently this hedge maze was created by an old foreigner, Fred, who built (grew?) this as part as his retirement project. Some people play golf, some build (grow? seriously I don't know!!) hedges! Why not? The purpose of the maze is to make it to the middle and climb up the stairs to ring the bell. So Liz and I went our seperate ways and raced to the center.

Highlights of this maze include: somehow giving myself motion sickness while going through the maze (Yes... my own motions made me sick. It was all the bushes!), the random Korean boys who caught me off guard and said Hi (and then proceeded to giggle like a little school girl with his friend) to me while I looked at them blankly, me cheating, and finally KICKING LIZ's BUTT!

Thank you! Thank you!
Don't worry, she looked at the map too, I just cheated faster than she did.

Samseonghyeol

Finally the activity I did while I was sick. This is a famous place within Jeju-si that my Korean friend John (that's his English name obviously) took me to. It's a very famous shrine within Jeju and quite frankly it was quite a priviledge to be able to see it. What follows is the legend that surrounds this shrine:

Go, Bu and Yang were 3 demigods that rose from the earth at the Samseonghyeol shrine. One day, while they were hunting, they met 3 maidens who had wased up on the shore with grains and animals. They married the maidens, started up agriculture and each man began their own tribe. They are credited with populating the island with the tribes that the three men began. Even today, it is not uncommon to see a Jeju'ian with one of those demigod names as their last name. Actually a couple of my students have Bu as a last name [Boo So Young being the cutest name].

So twice a year, descendants come to the shrine and conduct a ceremony to worship their ancestors. The place itself is really quite nice and relaxing. The truth is, Jeju-si is one of the more ugly cities in this world (doesn't beat Waterloo though) and Samseonghyeol is one of the few beautiful parks. It has traditional Korean buildings, 3 shrines, a miniature museum about the shrine, and of course the actual spot where the 3 demigods emerged from the earth. The entire place actually made me the most relaxed I've felt in a long time!


So there you have it! I'll try to update more often, now that I'm finally well and over this horrid illness!