Pay Day!!!

That's right, after six weeks in Korea we're finally making some money!! Its been a bit tight around here lately since we had to wait so long before our first pay check, but we've made do with plenty of budget adventures and meals (and one not so budget adventure... more to come on that). We're celebrating our first payday tonight by going to the make-it-yourself spring roll restaurant, our favorite place to eat so far in South Korea.

Everyone says the first month is the hardest and we hope that's true. We're feeling more settled into the teaching life here and our network of friends continues to grow. Regrettably, yesterday we lost one of our first friends we made here as his year long contract ended, but he will hopefully be rejoining us in Korea in a few months. It's one of the strange parts of life here. Most everyone you meet and get to know has a sort of ticking clock on them until you may never see them again. "How long have you been in Korea?" is often one of the first questions when getting to know someone, and it's strange to think of how different our group of friends will be in four, or eight months as people come and go. But of course the upside to people constantly leaving is fresh people are constantly arriving as well, and we're always meeting new people.

This last weekend was Chusok, Korea's equivalent of Thanksgiving Day, and we had a really relaxing five day weekend (largely due to us not having enough money to do much more than relax). We spent one of the days with two of our friends from South Africa, hiking on Apson mountain, one of the many mountains surrounding Daegu. It's not an incredibly tall mountain (really I've seen bigger hills in Duluth, but don't tell that to any Koreans) but it's very hiker friendly, with lots of wide cleared walking paths and an assortment of temples and springs scattered along the way. And! I almost forgot the best part of any Korean hike, exercise machines lining the sides of many trails. That's right... if hiking isn't enough exercise for you, hop on one of these strange workout machines and embarrass yourself in front of hundreds of hikers.

Now on to the not so budget stuff! Two weekends back we took a trip to Jeju Island, the main vacation destination of South Korea. Jeju is an hour long plane ride away, and has a beautifully green landscape with 360 small volcanoes ranging across it. Our travel book touted it as "a combination of Hawaii, the Caribbean and Disney Land," which sounded like quite the place. On further investigation, it doesn't really seem like it's any of those things, but we did have a really good time (and to be fair, we didn't go to the south end which is the most touristy area. We've already decided that further research is required and a return journey is scheduled sometime next summer).

Highlight #1 of our trip (not only because it was the first thing we did on Jeju, but because it was delicious) was discovering El Paso, a surprisingly good Mexican restaurant that had all the right flavors and some very bad margaritas. It was so good we went twice. It's strange the things you crave in a foreign country, and it turns out Mexican food is one of them.

We spent our first night in Seongsan, a small village on the Eastern coast of the island. The main draw of the village is its location beneath Ilchulbong, one of the most famous of the volcanos on Jeju. It is famous for being on the very edge of the island, with its cliffs falling into the ocean below. It draws Koreans from all over the country (and many locals who climb it regularly) to take the 20 minute hike to the peak at the wee hours of the morning and watch the sun rise over the Ocean. Unfortunately, when we hiked it to watch the sunrise, it was a cloudy day and we didn't get much of a view of the sun. But it was still a great experience to share with the 50 some other people who climbed it that morning.

We spent most of the rest of the day on Udo Island, (which means cow island. not sure why) a short ferry ride away from Seongsan. It poured rain on us the entire day, but we toughed it out and enjoyed the scenic views, the lighthouses, the small town atmosphere and the incredibly small hummingbirds. Then we took the bus back to Jeju city, made a stop at a black sand beach with a mural featuring a naked boy enjoying various beach activities and the slogan FUN FUN! and made our second stop at El Paso. Then the next morning we finished our whirlwind trip by flying back into Daegu at 11am in time to get to work by noon (one of us didn't think ahead to pack work clothes and didn't make it by noon... hint... his name rhymes with Regan).

Now that we're not scrounging for money, we're looking forward to doing a variety of things that have interested us but we haven't been able to afford. First on the list is a trip to Cost Co, the best place to get cheap American things in Korea. Also, this weekend we're hosting a potluck dinner, checking out a beer festival, heading down to Busan for an international film festival and i have my first practice with the ultimate frisbee team i just joined. Should be fun!

Thank you to everyone who has been checking in on our lives! Also thanks to everyone who has gotten Skype to talk to us. It's really refreshing to talk to people from back home and hear about what's going on in your lives. Keep in touch and keep the care packages coming!

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