Last day of the Chuseok holidays. Of course it flew by and this is going to be a long week. My school gave us Wednesday off so that we could have 6 days in a row off, but that means that we have to work this Saturday.

Since I arrived to Korea too late to make any travel plans for outside of the country we had to find something to do within these borders. Emiel came up with the idea of going to one of the Korean islands, Deok Jeok Do, not too far from Seoul. We took the subway as far as it would go, then a taxi to the ferry. The ferry was only an hour trip and not expensive at all.
by Mandie1183


by Mandie1183

We really didn't have any plans as to where we were going to stay or how we were to get around. When we arrived a Korean man approached us and kept saying something which we didnt' understand at all, so we just ignored him. We soon realized that he was asking us if we had a place to stay (there were two New Zealanders getting into his van) There was another man with him and he told us about the hotel and that it was pretty decent and he'd give us a ride to the other side of the island, we could take a look and then decide if we wanted to stay there.


by Mandie1183


by Mandie1183

The place was called "the Beach Love Hotel". Pretty funny? Yes. But the price was low and the owners were so nice we decided not to look anywhere else. They brought in another mattress for us and we were set. We quickly realized that pretty much everyone staying on the island (other than the people who lived there) were English speaking foreigners.


by Mandie1183 (This picture makes me laugh...I really did like what we were eatting!)

It was nice that we could meet some other people in the same situation,but it got tiring quickly. Its all the same questions "Where are you from?" "How long have you been in Korea?" "You're teaching English?" "What do you think of this, or that or blah blah blah". There's no way around it. Its the small talk of waygooks. Its not that I don't like meeting new people, but I just don't want it to be fake. I guess the thing with going to a country that you dont speak the language is that there are only so many people that you can become friends with (because of the language barriers)so I find that people that I normally wouldn't hang out with back home suddenly become possible friends. I can see how this can be a positive thing, but at the same time, I don't want to change my personality in anyway to accommidate them. Hum, I don't know if this is coming out coherently. Maybe I'll get back to this point later.

Anyways, back to the island. It was beautiful! The weather was really nice. It was hot during the day and cooled off at night. The beach had nice, soft sand and the water was clean. Since it was the holidays not all the places were open, but we were able to find some good meals and ate in excellent company. Luckily Emiel's Korean friend Yuri came and didnt mind translating for us. Thursday night we ate at a place with the low tables and had to sit on the floor. The food was delicious (I'm trying my best to get used to spicy food.)We stayed there for like 4 hours talking with people we met there. Our group kept getting bigger and bigger. We eventually headed to the beach where there were fireworks, bonfires and singing (well it was really one guy singing about strange things like his "Soju girl" before going crazy and running out into the water like a madman.)


by Mandie1183 (I found this precious kitten on the side of the road and named it Deok Jeok.)

Friday night, after another long meal we went to a noraebang (its basically karaoke except your group gets their own room with couches, tables and multiple screens) Nobody sounds good- its just too echo-y, but it was a lot of fun! We got pretty silly.
by Mandie1183 As we were leaving a drunk, dirty agishe said something to me in Korean (I was told he thought I was beautiful [what a compliment!]) and then he proceeded to touch my chest. The strange thing is that the drunks here don't scare me. They're more or less harmless. There hasn't been one time since I arrived where I felt unsafe.

It was such a good, relaxing and interesting weekend. I'm really hoping to see a lot of South Korea. I'll most likely get more chances to travel around this country, than others since I dont have a lot of vacation time. Its relatively cheap and only takes 3 hours by train to the farthest point.

Since I dont have a camera yet I have to rely on friends to send me pictures from the trip. Thanks Mandie!