Monday, July 14, 2008

Jeju Trip (Day 1)

I have a college buddy, Jeff, who decided to take a break from his lucrative yet workaholic life in the realestate world to teach English on Jeju Island. I arranged to take my first trip to Jeju and to meet him during my stay. For some reason Jeff never responded to my last few emails, so I wasn't sure if I'd see him in Jeju.

The night before the trip I went to bed later than I wanted so I only got 3 hours of sleep before heading to the airport. It's a 1 hour flight from Seoul. I arrived in Jeju around 9:30am, sleepy and looking for some strong coffee. I took a bus to the center of Jeju City and began walking around in search of coffee. It was sprinkling rain a little. I found my coffee and then headed toward Jungmun Beach (중문 해수욕장). Jungmun Beach is a popular tourist beach with waves big enough for surfing.

By the time I got the the area, it started raining heavily. Even with an umbrella, my pants below my knees and socks were soaked with rain water. Fortunately I picked up a brochure from the airport for a Gecko's Pub that was recently built in the area. I hopped into a cab and made my way there.


Once inside the bar I changed my socks but decided to leave my pants on to air dry. I ordered a beer and entertained myself with free pool as the rain continued to pour.


The bar was virtually empty at 2pm. I drank for about an hour when Jeff called. He and some coworkers drove out to meet me. We ordered some food and some more drinks. By 6pm or so we headed back to Jeff's two bedroom beach house.


This is a picture of the kitchen.


This is a picture of the dining room side of the main room.


This is a picture of the living room side of the main room.


The back porch is huge and has a space on the end for a hot tub which should be installed before too long. It's a perfect place for a barbeque.


After returning from having lunch and drinks together, we watched a little tv and relaxed before heading to Jeju City for some evening entertainment. We started with Chuncheon Talkgalbi (춘천딹갈비) for dinner and then made our way to two bars where westerners like to hang out.

It turned out to be a late night. I excused myself from the drinking at around 3am so I could get some sleep at a nearby motel. Unfortunately for me, I woke up the next morning with a hangover and was completely unfit for climbing Hala Mountain (한라산), the huge volcano in the center of the island. Climbing it was one of my main goals for going to Jeju. So I was disappointed. In retrospect, it was nice to see an old college buddy and catch up. Hala Mountain isn't going anywhere.

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7 Comments:

At September 23, 2008 at 5:45 PM, Blogger Charles Montgomery said...

Ed,

My name is Roger Wellor (I found you on the Korean Blogger site) and I’m doing a study of the successes and failures of Korean International Tourism Marketing. I have a brief survey online that I invite you to take. It is designed to be answered by Korean/US bloggers and to give a slight outline of how these cross-cultural thinkers evaluate Korea’s International Marketing.

Sorry to do this in comments, but I didn't see an email link...

Your email will not be used for anything other than this survey (in fact it is not a required field in the survey) and if you have any questions, I can be contacted here at rwellor@spunangel.com.

Here is the link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=C1BZDkamZB1C03Q_2ftJTkVw_3d_3d

thank you,

Roger

 
At January 16, 2009 at 9:01 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi. My name is Back Eun Sil and I am a student of Sookmyung Women University. First of all I appreciate your consideration for Korea. I would like to introduce Korean culture more, so would like to I send you an e-mail about that. My e-mail address is adqz86@hanmail.net
I will wait your e-mail. Thank you very much. :)

http://wzdfactory.com/gallery/detail/297

 
At February 25, 2009 at 5:11 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Ed,
that feels like years that you last posted something...how´re you doin'?

I am fine, still in Karlsruhe, but am done with my studies for 3 months already. Still waiting for my grade, though.

Right now I am working at university in the department I completed my thesis in. The plan is to find some internship/job in Scandinavia for a year or two...I´ll see what happens.

What are you up to? Still in Korea?
Hugs from Germany, hope you are well!

Antje

 
At February 25, 2009 at 5:18 PM, Blogger Ed Provencher said...

I completely lost interest in blogging. I felt like it was too much work. Maybe I'll start again in the future. I'm still in Korea. I'll be doing a 3 month backpacking trip beginning on March 2. I'll stay in Korea for most of it, but I'll go to Japan for maybe a week or so.

 
At July 9, 2009 at 8:53 AM, Anonymous Kim said...

Hi Ed,

Not sure if you'll get this, but just in case you receive email alerts... Sorry to do this in a comment, but I didn't see an email address for you anywhere on the site. I'm a former native English teacher (lived and worked in Korea for two years) who is now a Master's student at the University of Glasgow. The reason that I'm writing to you is I'm hoping you would be willing to complete a questionnaire that forms part of the research I am conducting for my MSc Information Management & Preservation dissertation.

My dissertation will examine the role of blogs in helping to form and shape a sense of community identity amongst expats living in South Korea. This is being done in order to determine the archival value of these blogs and examine if, and how, they should be preserved. I see from your last comment that you have 'completely lost interest in blogging' and this is among the issues I'm examining - what happens to blogs when their authors stop updating, why do bloggers stop blogging etc.

Basically, I believe that today’s archives are rife with personal diaries and papers which allow us a glimpse into the past. But, what of the archives of the future? How many people today actually keep a pen and paper journal or write letters home? More and more native English teachers living in Korea have replaced diaries and letters home with blogs. Furthermore, due to the nature of the native English teacher community in Korea, much of the information about this community can only be found on the Internet on sites such as blogs (like yours). Therefore, a failure to preserve blogs may create a black hole of information for future generations of archives users.

You can read more about my project as well as fill out my questionnaire by visiting http://2009msc.wordpress.com I’d really appreciate it if you could find the time to complete the questionnaire.

Thank you,
Kim.

 
At July 20, 2009 at 12:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi I'm the owner of webpage www.nowseoul.com I have something to tell you so please e-mail me to let me know your email address my mail address is [kwonsoonb@naver.com]

 
At September 13, 2009 at 8:16 PM, Anonymous Learn Korean said...

Hi Ed, great blog. Is there any way to get in touch with you via email? You can reach me at affiliates@koreanclass101.com.

Thx.

Kim

 

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