Udo Island

Udo (Cow Island) is a small island off the east coast of Jeju Island. It is reached via a 15 minute ferry ride from Seongsan.
Dad and I went there for the day and rented mountain bikes ($5 for 3 hours) to explore the island. It was actually a really beautiful island, and because we went midweek in October, there were almost no tourists.
As you can see in the first picture, the beaches are quite pristine, with really nice clear blue water.
In the second picture you can see the little houses with their distinct blue and orange roofs. Those rock walls were all over the island. As we cycled around the island, we also saw many haenyeo. These are women who spend most of the day in the ocean diving (holding their breath, no airtanks) and catching shellfish.

Pepero Day

Yesterday, November 11, was Remembrance Day in Canada - a day to remember those who died fighting for Canada during the World Wars. In South Korea, November 11th, is Pepero Day - a day to buy a lot of overrated candy and give it to your teachers.
Pepero comes in different forms, but basically it is a long cookie-stick coated in chocolate. It is also sold in Japan, where it is known as Pocky (it tastes like crap there, too). It is made by Lotte, which is a huge Korean-Japanese company.
Anyways, in what has to be one of the most brilliant marketing coups ever, they have somehow got the entire country to buy into this "holiday". The date was chosen because 11/11 looks like 5 sticks of Pepero.
The picture above is some of the stuff the kids gave to me (I'm not sure what the I love NY has to do with anything, but that was one of the boxes I received). I have no idea what I'll do with it all, I'll probably just throw it out, but I appreciate the gesture.
On one of the packages there was a description in English of the day:
"pepero day which is so special to declare true heart for someone is loved by a lot of people"

Smackdown in Daejeon

I had to go downtown yesterday morning to make a money transfer to my Canadian account (long story). Anyways, after I finished I went to the bus stop to catch the bus home.
While I was waiting, I saw a little old lady walking in my direction carrying an empty cardboard box. She was hunched over like many old Asian women, usually from working in a rice field all their lives. If she stood up straight she would probably only have been about 4'6", but because she was hunched over she only stood about 3 feet tall (I'm not exaggerating here - she was tiny). Then an average-sized man in his 50s or his 60s came up toward her while screaming at her. When he reached her, he grabbed the box and they started struggling over it - yes, fighting over an EMPTY, cardboard box.
The whole time she was just screaming at him, and she had a very healthy set of lungs on her. Well, I guess she must have pushed the right button, because even though she was about half his size, he clocked her right in the head. It was a solid hit. But she still wouldn't let go of the box.
There were several Koreans who had stopped to just stand there and stare, but didn't do anything about it. So I walked over and started yelling at the guy, and got between him and the woman. I didn't want to get in a fight with him, because if the cops came, being the foreigner, I'd be the one that got hauled off to jail. Fortunately, he was smart enough to realize that it would be wise for him to leave, and so he started walking away.
However, the woman continued screaming at him, and was still doing so 5 or 10 minutes later when the bus came. She didn't look homeless, but there was obviously something not right in her head.

Earthquake!!!!!!

We had an earthquake yesterday morning. I was on the computer when suddenly my apartment started shaking. I had just turned on the boiler to heat the water for my shower and a few seconds later the earthquake hit.
At first I thought the boiler had exploded. It only lasted about 2 seconds and there was no damage to my apartment. However one of my students told me that at his school some of the windows had exploded and glass had fallen on some of the students, but I don't think anyone was injured. Apparently the epicentre was in Buyeo, which is about 50 km away. I don't know how high it was on the Richter Scale.

Seongsan

Seongsan is a tiny little town on the east coast of Jeju Island. It's famous throughout Korea for Seongsan Ilchulbong, which is an extinct volcano right on the coast. Because the volcano is the easternmost point on Jeju, it's the first place to see the sunrise, and so it's very popular for Koreans to travel there to witness the sun come up. Although we stayed here 2 nights, I didn't feel compelled to get my ass out of bed to watch the sun come up.
It's a 20 minute hike to the top from the town, and from there you can look into the crater. We saw a couple of rabbits living it, and apparently there are deer and badgers also, although I didn't see any.
The first picture I took near the volcano, looking north at Udo Island. The second picture was from the hotel.

Harubang

Harubang ("stone grandfathers") are made from volcanic rock and are found throughout Jeju Island. They are famous throughout Korea as being the island's most important symbol. I don't know if anyone knows their original purpose, but now they're used because they attract tourists.
You always see them with their hands on their bellies, one a little higher than the other. Normally they're closer in size to a person, but we saw this monster in Seogwipo, in the south of the island. Dad looks like he wants to kick someone's ass, probably mine.

Hallasan

Dad's in South Korea now, so I took him down to Jeju Island in the far south of the country. South Koreans think of Jeju as their version of Hawaii. I've been to Hawaii and I think they're deluding themselves, but it's still a very beautiful island.
The tallest mountain in South Korea, Hallasan, is located on the island. I climbed Fuji twice while I was in Japan, so I figured I better give this one a shot, too. Hallasan is only 1,950m, however, just over half Fuji's 3,776m. It's a little higher than Golden Ears in Maple Ridge, which is just over 1,700m.
I caught a bus from Jeju City at 6am up the east side of the mountain to the start of the Seongpanak trail, which is just under 10km one way. I started hiking about 6:45 am, and reached the summit just under 4 hours later around 10:30. I was the fourth person to arrive at the top that day, and the first foreigner (Go Canada!) On the way back down I met a few Germans and some Japanese, but the great majority of hikers were Korean.
The trail was quite nice, and much more gradual than the trail up Fuji. The weather cooperated for the most part, however it was hazy so I was unable to see the sea.
The first picture is obviously of the trail, while the second is of the crater. During the rainy season the crater fills up quite a bit, and so there's a pretty big lake then, but because the rainy season ended a few months ago, all that remained was the little pond visible in the lower right.
The third picture is looking north toward the sea, with the haze obscuring the view.

Geumsan Ginseng Festival

Two weekends ago I took a bus to Geumsan, which is about 45 minutes south of Daejeon. The area around Geumsan is where most of the Korean ginseng is grown, so they were having a festival to celebrate its importance. There were hundreds of booths selling ginseng in every imaginable form including deep-fried ginseng.
They had an area set up for the kids where they had this huge inflatable head of a traditional Korean dancer. You can see the elastics coming out of his ears (similar to those used in bungee-jumping). The kids would attach them to their waists, and then see how far they could run.