Keith's b-day weekend!!!

Wow, what a busy weekend we had!!! It started friday night when we went to our friend's apartment (Magda who lives above us) for a euchre competition. There were about 10 of our friend's there and many of us, including myself, were learning to play the card game, euchre for the very first time. The soju, cass beer, wine and makali didn't help the situation, or maybe it did....I actually understood the game a lot better by the end of the night and was playing pretty well! Well, it was a fun night ending with kickboxing and tae kwan do practice among me and some other EPIK teachers and me laying in a bed of many Korean thousand won (of which that I didn't win lol).

The next morning, while I slept in and recovered, Keith woke up early..around 7...to play in a last minute frisbee golf tournament. He played near Mount Halla at a university with around 40 other people and ended up getting 4th place, was on tv, and got a free frisbee and lunch. Congrats Keith! He could have kept playing for more rounds, but wanted to come back so that we could celebrate his b-day with the busy plans we had made. We first went to the southern part of the island...Seogwipo (where we had been the previous weekend) because there was a huge tourism festival, teh 15th annual Chilsimni Festival going on all weekend. It was a beautiful day out and we were lucky to see some performances ....women who sang and competeted, as well as kids who danced and sang later that night. They also had many little tents set up with food, including waffles, corndogs, popular Jeju fish, Jeju tea, pork, and other Korean food that is popular on the island. Then there were tents with Korean games, such as tossing as many sandals as you could off your foot into a basket that a woman was wearing, and the ring wheeling (that I have the video of Keith playing in Seoul at the Chuseok festival). There were many arts, crafts, a bonsai tree exhibit, and many tourist gift shops.....with the island people, the Jeju cactus and tangerine chocolate that is oooh-so-good!, and the persimmon- dyed clothing that is seen everywhere on the island. It was a fun little festival to visit, Keith and I did our Christmas shopping, and it was interesting how different this area is from Jeju Si (where we live) because it being a popular tourist area. So many random Koreans would be eager to speak and practice using their English with us and were very excited to know where we were from and happy to hear that we were teaching here and living here on the island. Kids and adults were not shy at all and they spoke many more phrases then the usual...."Hi, how are you?" that I hear near our area. Oh, and Keith bought a few belts, each for $3 (or 3,000won) and I bought a winter hat and a cute Berlin baseball cap for each $3 (3,000 won)....it doesn't make sense the crazy prices you can find at festivals!!!

Near the festival was a secluded huge waterfall that we visited. We took the path down and took a few pictures in front of it. It was funny because we asked a Korean to take our picture and when we did this, all his friends jumped in our picture! And it gets better, then when he took a picture of just Keith and I, there were about 10 other cameras that went off.....I think some of the Koreans may have thought that we were famous or something...maybe it had to do with the old-time jersey that Keith was wearing that day??? Keith tends to get more attention from people when he wears his jerseys because we think they think he is a real athlete....oh the joys of living in a foreign country! ;)

After visiting the festival for a few hours and as it was starting to get dark, we decided to take a bus to the east side of the island where Sunrise Peak was. Sunrise Peak is known as "Seongsan Illchulbong", which is a large volcanic crater that is a UNESCO world heritage site. Many Koreans rush over to this mountain at least once in their lifetime to see the sunrise in the morning as it brings good health for their future.

It took a little over an hour to get there, but we made it there on a 3,000 won ($3) bus ride and stayed in a cute little hotel literally right next to sunrise peak mountain. The hotel only consisted of 3 rooms....but the building winded up to about 5 floors. The first floor was a different business I think, the second floor had two rooms that about 5 Korean ojammas were all sharing. The third floor was the owner of the hotel's room. And our room was at the very top on the fifth floor. We took our shoes off outside of the room and saw that it was a cute little bedroom with a tv (that didn't turn on), a bathroom and many comforters, blankets and pillows that we used to make our own special bed on the floor......it was the first time we winged getting a hotel like this and living like a real traveler!! It was very fun and adventurous!!

We went to bed pretty early and woke up around 6am to hike the mountain in time for Sunrise Peak! I was a little disappointed to see that on my one day off of working out I had to walk up such a steep mountain!!! lol :) We were still half-asleep but getting to the top was sooo worth it....we could see a beautiful view of the city, lakes and ocean around us, and the huge crater at the top. The mountain had all these cool rock formations on the side of it also. When we reached the top, we hung out for about 15 minutes as we waited, along with the many other Korean visitors, for the sun to rise. Unfortunately, we did not notice when the sun did rise because the sun was blocked by the many clouds that morning. However, it was pretty to see the pinkish yellow colors swirling into the clouds. And when we finally made our way back down, at about 7:30, right as we reached the bottom, the clouds moved away so that the sun shined so brightly! Although we were at the bottom, it was still a beautiful spot for the sunrise and I took many great pictures of the amazing scenic area.

After the many pictures, Keith and I got our things from the hotel and grabbed the first cab we saw to head to the nearby port where we took a 10 minute ferry to Udo island. We spent the morning in Udo, rented a scooter and rode along the pathway around the entire island about two times. The first time we stayed near the edge of the island to see the pretty beaches, rocks, ocean, stone walls, peaks, restaurants and hotels that were for tourists. Then we went along some paths in the middle of the island to see the small Korean-style houses, the farming fields, a school and other buildings/ businesses that made up the small villages. The island was very small and very peaceful, since there were hardly any people in sight. The scooter ride was probably the best part of the weekend for Keith and I. Nothing better than holding on tight to Keith and he drove us at our own speed around the island, stopping several times to see the scenary and to take pics. He was good and we got used to riding it and are looking forward to renting scooters again on Jeju island (and possibly after the winter buying one). They are smooth to ride and not as difficult as motorcycles, plus are quick and convenient for transportation. However, we heard that gas is quite expensive, so we're fine with just taking buses and walking/ cabs for transportation right now.

After the scooter ride, we bought a bus tour pass and took the bus to a small mountain where Udo's sunrise peak was. We ate a corndog and some sweet potato chips, along with some coffee, while watching the Koreans hike up the hill and watching some go on horseback rides. Then we hiked up the hill to the top, where we saw a beautiful view of Jeju...the many small mountains on Jeju and the Sunrise Peak mountain/cliff that we had visited early that morning. Afterwards, we hopped back on the bus and went to the other side of the hill we had just climbed. There we saw a black sand beach with lots of rocks, rock formations that built the cliff/small mountain, and we peeked into a small cave. You have to climb huge rocks to get into this cave, and some of our EPIK friends actually saw a concert in the cave the previous weekend. They only have this concert once a year. Unfortunately Keith had morning class so we couldn't make it, but it was neat to visit it this time and to hang out for a little bit on the beach. It was nice weather, but a little windy and there were many cockroaches near the rocks, which I wasn't too excited about. lol But the scenary was amazingly beautiful. Look at the pictures!!

After checking out the beach, cave and the cliff, we hopped back on the bus which took us around the rest of the island and back to where the ferries take off. We then headed back to Jeju Island and took an hour bus ride back to our apartment. We got back at around 3:00, took a nap, finished doing our laundry and cleaning our apt. and then got ready for Keith's b-day dinner at The Plate in Sin Jeju (the next city over) where we met about 10 of our friends. The Plate is a delicious restaurant that has many types of western food, including buritos, fajitas, hamburgers, TaiPad, spaghetti, chicken fingers, etc. One friend brought Keith a bottle of wine, and everyone else suggested going to Tom Tom's afterwards for Cake, Icecream and coffee. They all treated Keith to a apple crisp waffle-type cake, along with icecream. What a treat for him! That was so thoughtful of them. We have definitely made a lot of good friends here and it's so nice that for each person's birthday, we take time to get together, celebrate and make it special. We are always going out or having dinners for people's birthdays. It's a great way to feel at home, especially when you can't be with family and friends from home.

We got back around 9ish and were definitely ready for sleep .....although my mind was racing of all the crazy Halloween festivities going on at my school adn the cultural festival this week and also thinking if I would (after treating myself to lots of goodies this weekend) now still fit into the halloween skirt my teacher had sewed for me to where with my witch hat for my classes. We'll see!! :o