fun in the sun ^^

since last wednesday was children's day, and i therefore had a three day break from school, i decided to go to jeju-do with my friends andre and coleen. [for those of you who don't know, jeju-do is a small island off the southern coast of korea.]

jeju day 1: thursday~~public transportation SUCKS.

we arrived in jeju city fairly early thursday morning. [i would not recommend staying in jeju city, we spent most of our time on the southern part of the island near seogwipo~~but yeha guesthouse, where we stayed, was pretty nice.]

since that day was cloudy and drizzly, we decided to hit up some museums and parks that the weather wouldn't really effect. first, we went to hallim park which is a botanical garden. it was pretty cool; the highlight was the bird that screamed "hello" in korean.

and this is when we learned that the public transportation system in jeju absolutely sucks. our taxi driver had promised to wait for us while we were at the park. [that's what allllll of the other taxi drivers were doing...] so, when we left the park, we were shocked to learn that he was nowhere in sight. in fact, he was close to ONE HOUR away [we called him]. luckily, another taxi driver [who was waiting] offered to call his company to send another cab.

our next stop was the chocolate museum/factory. or, more accurately "museum of random trinkets and knick-knacks that some pathetic person has hoarded for way too long". seriously. also, the fudge that they let us sample had entirely too much cocoa powder and not enough evaporated milk.

our final destination for the day was the soingook miniatures theme park, which featured miniature statues of many of the world's most famous landmarks. it was pretty cool.

but, once again, the jeju public transportation system failed us. first of all the public buses. the bus driver seemed to have no idea where we were going, or where we should get off of his bus. also, apparently the bus system is one way. because we were unable to catch a return bus. instead, the workers at the theme park told us to ride home with them in their work van. it was...interesting. to say the least.

at soingook theme park~~omygosh I LOVE SMURFS!!

jeju day 2: friday~~dolphins juseyo!

friday morning, we caught the bus to mount halla, korea's tallest mountian which also happens to be a dormant volcano. we had planned to hike to the summit, because the view is supposed to be spectacular. unbeknowst to us, it was a four hour hike--one way. sooo yeah. we didn't exactly make it very far. to be exact, we hiked 3.2 km. [out of the approximate 4 million it would have taken us to reach the top.]

that afternoon, we decided to go to pacific land. it's supposed to be a large aquarium with penguins and a dolphin show. coleen called the place before we left, just to make sure it would still be open. unfortunately, the guy could only speak korean. so when coleen asked me if i knew how to ask him "what time is the dolphin show?" i replied "dolphins juseyo". which is absolutely not right, because it means "give me a dolphin, please". also, "dolphin" is not a word in korean, but in my defense, i was put on the spot. aigoo.

unfortunately, by the time we got off of the bus at the pacific land stop, the park was already closed. however, we did take that opportunity to go to the beach, which was absolutely beautiful.

that night, we went to what was quite possibly the most ghetto noraebang ever. but, it did give me a 99 [out of 100] for my rendition of "heartbreaker" by g-dragon. which i sang in korean. heckyess.

jeju day 3: saturday~~possibly drunk ahjussi taxi drivers are freaking scary.

our last day in jeju, we decided to go to doma park for horseback riding.

and, once again, we were reminded just how much the public transportation situation in jeju absolutely SUCKS.

our ahjussi [a korean term for an older man] taxi driver was possibly drunk [according to andre] and definitely drove like a crazed maniac. also, he drove us around to sketchville, jeju in an effort to drive up our fare. also, he yelled at us a lot for no apparent reason, and when we finally got to the park, he followed us out of the cab and up to the ticket counter to scream at us some more. it was pretty scary, and i was fairly certain that he was either going to kidnap us or attack us.

the park was pretty fun after the scary cabbie left. we saw a horse show, and then we got to ride the horses. my horse, apart from being the prettiest one, was also the most homicidal. at one point, i literally thought i was going to fall off and die. the guy who was supposed to be leading my horse [he was also on horseback] decided that it would be fun to gallop instead of trotting at a leisurely, safe pace. bad idea. i barely escaped with my life.

also, part of "boys before flowers", my absolute favorite kdrama, was filmed here. awesome.

ji hoo~~i LOVE him.