Blogs from Jeju, South Korea, Asia - page 5

Dear Blog Readers, The school semester is over and the rest-bite for the students lasts all but a couple of weeks before they’re back in school for English Summer Camp. I learnt a lot from my Winter Camp so I tried to give the students a bit more structure and made them prepare a folder to take home with them. They also were given daily spelling and dictation tests and their worksheets were marked daily so they had a sense of achievement by the end of the camp. The first week was a murder mystery where the students progressively discovered I’d been brutally bludgeoned to death with an English textbook by my co-teacher. The second week was a Space camp with some experiments and activities which they seemed to enjoy. I particularly liked the natural disasters ... read more

"Oooooh Jeju. It is the Hawaii of Korea. Very beautiful. I went there on my honeymoon. Beaches, very nice. You will love." Koreans love their Jeju-do, an island off the south tip of Korea. They all practically drool over it even though most of the Koreans I spoke to had either never been there or went many years ago. Yet, I've been to Hawaii and I had a sneaking suspicion that a Korean island wasn't really the equivalent. We booked a 3 day trip with Adventure Korea with an itinerary that seemed unbelievably busy. 460,000 won for flight, food, accomodation, and a bus to take us around the island. I'm not one for tours because they bring to mind overweight tourists in ugly shirts, stampeding over each other to get the money shot and then getting ... read more

Who could imagine a life so familiar half way around the world? Almost 2 full days of traveling, I made it to my destination, Jeju Island, South Korea, to find coffee shops and bakeries on every corner. South Korea is not the world's 11th leading economy for nothing, as I've quickly come to find. Expecting India round II, I was initially confused at the lack of smell and poverty, as well as the general cleanliness. After a few weeks here, I sometimes forget I'm even in a foreign country. Sure, I still have to point and guess at menus and restaurants, and the grocery store remains an adventure where I hope the "soybean oil" I purchased is not really dish detergent, but in general, I get by. I already have an apartment, the most high-tech one ... read more

Third day on Jeju-do (Jeju Island) and loving every minute of it! This is where my mother grew up, a volcanic island about 53 miles off the tip of the Korean peninsula and where it all started for my family. My grandfather, Hyun Gee Won, was originally from North Korea before it split from the South and during the Japanese occupation of Korea he was forced to join and fight for the Japanese military. On August 15, 1945 after 35 years of occupation, Japan surrendered to the allied forces and my grandfather was able to return home. However, he was aware of the problems stirring between the North and South and decided to head to Jeju-do. My grandfather worked as a police officer and one day he noticed a picture of a woman outside of a ... read more

Sunday On Sunday we got up, and at about 9:25 went to the GS to heat up pizza, buy some water, and get directions to Moseulpo port. We walked there pretty fast because we knew that the boat left at 10:00. We got there just before ten and were told the boat had already left. So we walked to where there was another boat and asked if it was going to Marado. It was, but we didn't have tickets. So we got in the police's car because they wanted to drive us to the ticket booth. It was 15,500 for the Marado Express ferry + park fee. The ferry left at 10 and we got there 25 minutes later. We ended up renting a golf cart for 30,000, a total ripoff. We were looking for the ... read more