I woke up to ominous wind whistles coming from our balcony door. As I lazily walked to the it I began to notice plam trees bending and swaying in the wind outside. A quick head poke out the door informed me that today was going to be a very cold day. This fact put a slight damper on our plans to explore the island more extensively. Namely, I had been entertaining the idea of paragliding, but the strong winds would obviously prevent that from happening.
The main reason we stayed at this particular hotel was because it served as the venue for the ISLCT conference. Therefore, we decided to go check out the conference rooms so we could wrap our head around the magnitude of the event, check in, get our name tags, ect. During the registration process we were handed lunch coupons. Niiiiiiiice! Other than my stockpile of oranges I had (accidentally) purchased the previous day, Matt and I had not tried Korean cuisine.
We soon found the restaurant up the street and discovered that communication with the waitress was difficult. She didn't speak English and the menus didn't have many pictures. In a moment of desperation I asked "Nihongo ga hanashimasu ka?" Which means "Can you speak Japanese?" in Japanese. She very enthusiastically said yes and from that point we were able to convey our needs and questions more effectively. Whew...I never would have thought that I would have to use Japanese to bridge the gap between English and Korean.
After going back to the hotel and eating I remembered "Oh ya, I have a presentation tomorrow!" So I did some powerpoint revisions and Matt let me practice my speech in front of him. At that point everything seemed to be in order, spirits were high, and it was time to check out the hotel casino.
I wish I could say that I gambled all night, had a wild time, and won a lot of money. The truth is that the casino was quite desolate, the minimums were high, and both Matt and I gambled away our allotted $50 in less than 30 minutes...dang it! Well, at least we got a 'free' beer out of it, right? I think it was God's way of telling me to go to bed and get some rest. After all, the next day would be a big day.
-Seth
Cultural note: Matching on Honeymoon Island
Jeju island is a very popular destination for Korean honeymooners. It has many quirky, exciting things for newly weds to do. However, I didn't get the memo about couples wearing matching clothing. Everywhere we went we saw couples wearing the exact same sweaters, vests, hats, ect. It took me a while to get wise to it, but once I did I started trying to snap photos of them for the blog. Actually, it seems like a pretty fun thing to do on a honeymoon. Kudos to them.
The main reason we stayed at this particular hotel was because it served as the venue for the ISLCT conference. Therefore, we decided to go check out the conference rooms so we could wrap our head around the magnitude of the event, check in, get our name tags, ect. During the registration process we were handed lunch coupons. Niiiiiiiice! Other than my stockpile of oranges I had (accidentally) purchased the previous day, Matt and I had not tried Korean cuisine.
We soon found the restaurant up the street and discovered that communication with the waitress was difficult. She didn't speak English and the menus didn't have many pictures. In a moment of desperation I asked "Nihongo ga hanashimasu ka?" Which means "Can you speak Japanese?" in Japanese. She very enthusiastically said yes and from that point we were able to convey our needs and questions more effectively. Whew...I never would have thought that I would have to use Japanese to bridge the gap between English and Korean.
Matt ordered the seafood boil as it was one of the only things we deemed "safe" to eat. Although he did have some difficulty getting meat out of the crab and prawns.
I ordered rice served in an extremely hot stone bowl called "bibimbap." If you truly know me, you know that the name 'bibimbap' is all the convincing I need to order it. The bowl was so hot that even after eating out of it for 15 minutes, I was still unable to touch it without burning my hand.
My impression of Korean food is that it is both very hot and cold. Wait! Let me finish. It is cold because their chopsticks are made of metal, much their food is served in metal containers, and their appetizers (daikon radishes, dehydrated baby fish, greens, bean roots) were all chilled. All these components gave an overall impression of a cold eating environment. However, in the same breath Korean food is all about heat. Almost every item is coated in a thick red pepper sauce called 'gochjang'. Even my bibimbap came with a bowl of gochjang which I added for some desired spiciness. I found that i enjoyed the hot-hot combos the most.
After lunch we walked around in an attempt to see some sights. We eventually found our way to the botanical gardens.
The gardens were fairly standard, but did feature some interesting displays. One example is the cactus room which had a cool and colorful picture comprised of red and yellow cacti (upper and lower right). In fact, Jeju has embraced the cactus and turned it into a popular souvenir.
Jeju cactus chocolate is perhaps the most beloved cactus related item sold on the island.
But wait, there's more. They also use cactus as the main ingredient in tea, dye, caramel, and taffy. Coming from the New Mexican desert, this whole concept blew me away. Why hasn't New Mexico capitalized on its cactus in a similar way?! Maybe it's a cultural phenomenon. Maybe it's too weird to really catch on in the U.S. I don't know, I'm an engineer not an anthropologist.
From the botanical gardens we could see a huge bridge in the distance. Naturally we walked over it and found a trail to some waterfalls.
The waterfall was stunning. With that said, I found humor in the "no lifeguard on duty" sign. I figured that it goes without saying, but I guess you never know...
After going back to the hotel and eating I remembered "Oh ya, I have a presentation tomorrow!" So I did some powerpoint revisions and Matt let me practice my speech in front of him. At that point everything seemed to be in order, spirits were high, and it was time to check out the hotel casino.
I wish I could say that I gambled all night, had a wild time, and won a lot of money. The truth is that the casino was quite desolate, the minimums were high, and both Matt and I gambled away our allotted $50 in less than 30 minutes...dang it! Well, at least we got a 'free' beer out of it, right? I think it was God's way of telling me to go to bed and get some rest. After all, the next day would be a big day.
-Seth
Cultural note: Matching on Honeymoon Island
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