Let me give you guys an example. For months I have been asking them to fix the locks on my classroom. The best they did was to buy me a bike lock, which the students promptly stole.
Well, it looks like finally last night they actually fixed my locks. How did I find out? I got here this morning, tried to get into my classroom and couldn't. I was hoping (foolishly) that my co-teacher would have the keys. Nope. He doesn't have keys either. So, right now we're waiting around and hoping like hell that the guy who fixed the door will show up to school before my first class. Luckily I don't have a class in the first block (right now), otherwise I'd be out in the hallway with 35 hyperactive 14 year olds.
They also just told me that we have a department meeting...in 3 hours. This is probably the most notice I've had on anything here :)
Moving on...last night I started packing for my camping trip this weekend and I'm pretty happy with my backpack! I have a big blanket strapped to the bottom and the tent shoved into a side mesh pocket with still enough room inside for a couple pairs of underwear, couple pairs of socks, an extra T-shirt, a hoodie, a camera and enough room for food. It's also really comfortable to wear even with all that weight in it...can't wait to try it out for real tomorrow! I still have to get a sleeping bag, but I spent enough on the backpack and the tent this week, I'll wait a week or two with that...
And now...the fourth and final installment of Jeju. (I know...for a while it was looking like the Rocky series...will it ever end???)...
So, on Saturday I woke up in Moseulpo in my little hostel and headed straight for the Marado ferry (Marado Island is the southernmost point in Korea)...I got there more than an hour before the ferry was supposed to sail only to find out that because of fog it had been cancelled. Because these boats book up quickly I would have had to wait until 11 o'clock to take the boat over and would have had to come back with the 12:30 (the only one with space on it)...I figured it's not worth waiting around (it was still before 8 a.m.) for that long just to be on the island for an hour. It'll give me something to do the next time I'm on Jeju!
After that, I started making my way up the island's west coast and I figured I'd just stop along whatever beautiful beach I saw.
Self-portrait while waiting for the bus in Moseulpo:
I had seen a few pictures of Hyeopjae Beach, so I made that my first stop and wow...it didn't disappoint. It was beautiful white sand, puffy white clouds, blue sky, and a gorgeous teal green sea with a perfect little island just a little ways off in the distance...I made camp there and just chilled and took pictures (only have this one right now, but I'll get to the rest soon!) for a few hours.
I also made a little time-lapse video of the beach...check it out (btw I love it that I can leave my camera on the tripod for 10 minutes and nobody steals it)...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tamasv/5744814113/in/photostream
I moved on from Hyeopjae once I realized that I accidentally burned myself pretty badly in the sun...thankfully (this is a week later now) my arms didn't peel and my nose and forehead only peeled a tiny bit for a day or two, so it could have been a lot worse, but I really should invest in some sunscreen haha. On the bright side, I have a killer tan now haha.
After that, I went to Gwanji beach a little farther up the coast, but by then the weather was starting to suck (it had clouded over and was looking like it was about to rain any minute) so I headed back to Jeju city.
While there, the weather kept getting worse and as soon as I felt the first raindrops I decided to bail. I figured there's no point in spending a rainy night in Jeju just to have to wake up at 7 a.m. to make my 9 a.m. flight back home. So I went to the airport and in no time (and for absolutely NO CHARGE) they changed my flight on the spot and put me on a 9 p.m. plane that night. Just awesome! Gotta love that sort of customer service.
At the airport I ran into my final bit of racism...they had a separate lineup for "Foreigners" (it was actually marked as such), even though I'm a resident of Korea and it was a domestic line-up. I didn't really like the look of that, so I tried to go in the normal people lineup, but as soon as they saw my white face, they directed me to the segregated lineup. I figured that at least the people in that lineup would speak English, but nope...not a word...they just want to separate us outsiders. Oh well.
The flight back was pleasant and I managed to find my way to the nearby bus station (thanks to some friends who gave me a few pointers). However...interestingly enough...they shut down the bus station, apparently to save money, well before the last bus leaves. So you have to walk quite a ways away from the actual main terminal and find a little shack (no bigger than a couple of phone booths put together) in the corner of a parkade where they sell tickets. Thankfully my uber-limited Korean reading skillz came in handy again...I found signs that said "BOSU" in their alphabet - Konglish for "bus" - and followed them until I found the shack...I got back to Masan around midnight and managed to catch a bus back to where I live, so the whole thing was pretty dang cheap/painless! Also, it was nice to find out that buses run that late :) The whole Jeju trip, including gifts for people here and back home, food, motels, transportation, plane tickets, etc was around 300k won (or less than $300)...really can't complain considering it was an amazing 4-day semitropical vacation :) I'll definitely be back!
Okay...that's it for me, I have to do some work. This weekend I'm off to Wando and sadly won't take my real camera just the little G9, but still hoping to have some decent pics and maybe a video or two!
Have a great weekend, everyone!
T
LOL Tamas you are lucky you do not have a beer belly. I alway got the old buddha rub when i was in china. They would not even bat an eye got to get the good luck even if i am a whitey. lol. Racism is pretty universal but i guess they are just more open in stating the fact you are different. Life i guess.
ReplyDeleteHahaha that's hilarious! I've heard of a lot of white girls who have had their boobs played with by random strangers and even of some guys who have had their crotches grabbed by strangers (and TONS of stories about being checked out at the urinals). To be honest, the racism only ever bothers me momentarily. And, to be completely fair to Korea, for every instance in which I have felt negatively discriminated because of the colour of my skin, I have had 50 positive experiences because I'm a young white guy. All in all, I'm loving it. The racism thing is more just interesting than anything...being a middle-class white dude from Europe and North America, it's a unique experience!
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