In Seogwipo

We have been doing so much here I can hardly remember it all. On Friday morning we took the train to the domestic airline terminal and then a flight to Jeju Island, then a bus to the town of Seogwipo to the KAL Hotel where we are staying and finally met up with Elizabeth. It was so great to see her! We went for a walk, which got longer and longer and saw some of the city and some waterfalls and lots of shops. We got some dinner and headed back to our hotel and had no trouble falling asleep.

Jeju Island is small and volcanic. It is covered with rock walls made out of lava rock and the roadsides are abloom with canola (rapeseed), whose vivid yellow blossoms make everthing look cheery. It's major product is tangerines and there are citrus trees everywhere. It is an interesting mix of new and old and has huge signs in Korean everywhere. The island is very pretty and from what we have seen, Seogwipo is the prettiest part. Our hotel room has a view of the ocean and smaller islands. It is a port city with fishing boats close to shore. It is also a major tourist destination so there is no lack of attractions. In the last two days we have seen many, but by no means even a small fraction of them all. There is a museum of almost everything. There are also taxis everywhere that are inexpensive and we have ridden in a lot in a few days.

On Saturday we went to the Teddy Bear Museum, which is what it sounds like, complete with dioramas of important historical events done completely with Teddy Bears. Next we headed to a huge botanical garden, with rooms for different climates and a huge tower in the middle you could climb up and see over the whole area. We ate lunch at a restaurant that serves duck that you cook at your table and then eat with many condiments, all rolled up in lettuce leaves. After lunch we went to a jjimjibang, a spa/sauna place popular in Korea. There are pools of varying temperatures and additives and whirlpools and showers and sauna and many people-all completely nude. We were brave and did the full cultural immersion, despite being the whitest people there. Luckily, they do segregate by sex so the rooms were full of Korean women of every age getting extremely clean. In the evening we went the host families apartment for dinner. It was nice to meet them and see where they live.

Today Elizabeth's host mom picked us up and played tour guide. We went to Miniature world, a curious place with famous buildings from all over the world done in scales that varied. Next we went to Spirited Garden, which bills itself as the most beautiful garden in the world. It is largely bonsai plants, more than I have ever seen. In the afternoon we went to a Korean folk village. It was very interesting and had historical representations of houses from long ago from different parts of Jeju. It was huge and we could only see part of it as we were running out of time. It was also very cold and windy today and it was all outside. This evening the host parents took us to dinner where we had pork and eel, cooked at the table and served with the usual many, many side dishes, followed by ice cold noodle soup with hard boiled eggs.

Tomorrow we go to Elizabeth's school and watch her teach. My head is already spinning from all we have seen and done. More to come.