Jeju: Part I (The Hike)

I spent the past weekend playing frisbee, partying, and exploring Jeju Island. Jeju is a relatively large island located south of South Korea and northeast of Shanghai. It is a common honeymoon destination for Korean couples and, for some reason, the local government has also decided to sponsor an international frisbee tournament there. Bizarre... Anyways, I'm going to break my Jeju blogging up into three sections. This first section will be about my exploration of the island on Friday, The second section will focus on the frisbee tournament and the last part will be about the Rubik Cube party.

About 15 Shanghai frisbee players arrived together in Jeju early Friday afternoon. Our first impressions of Jeju were overwhelmingly positive. I had been told horror stories about the windy/rainy spring conditions in Jeju, but found the island surprisingly clear, sunny, and calm. It was gorgeous! After passing through customs in the airport, we hopped on a bus to our subsidized hotel rooms (thank you Jeju government - China, get on the ball!) Sun Beachy hotel was everything I hoped for (a bed) and more (buffet breakfast) and it had great views of the water to top things off. Side note: pictures will follow as soon as I can snag Kevin's memory card...

Our next stop on the island was a small Korean restaurant. Ordering food was damn near impossible due to our utter incompetence using the Korean language. In the end, we dragged the waitress outside and pointed at pictures of food on the wall. Sad state of affairs... In an odd way, this experience helped me get a better picture of my Chinese skills. In China, I am constantly aware of my language deficiencies. It is always apparent what I am NOT able to say as I fumble through conversations. But, here in Korea for the first time I felt what it was like to be completely useless in another language. It helps me see how far I've come in Chinese and how much I CAN say.

After lunch, Hugh and I wandered down to the water where we bought delicious oranges and explored the bridges and rocky beaches. I stopped ot read on a rock for 20 minutes or so as Hugh went boulder-hopping away. After finishing my chapter, I packed up my book and set off in search of Hugh. I followed the bends of the shoreline for over an hour exploring caves, scaring mountain goats, being scared by pheasants, and yelling for Hugh. I was always confident that I'd find him around the next bend, but around sundown I gave up hope and headed back. It didn't make any sense though - one side of the shore was ocean and the other was a cliff. Where could he have gone? Ah, some mysteries will never be solved. Anyways, the path was beautiful and I enjoyed myself immensely. If Jeju were a cab driver, I'd give it 4 stars.

- Jon