Chuseok Party at Tibet Scenery Guest House

The weekend before last was Chuseok and my friend Nopy invited me to a fantastic party at the Tibet Scenery Guest House.  The guesthouse has only been open for a few months, but is becoming quite popular in the Jeju backpacking circles (of which I know surprisingly very little about).  The owners lived in Tibet for some time and brought back the  feel of Tibet as well as some memorabilia.  There's Tibetan prayer flags all over and Tibetan script "om mani padme hum"  There's even a foot pedal Rickshaw.

The headliner band was the Four Poor Guys (loosely translated).  They put on a great show for the guests and visitors. After they played a few songs, they invited anyone in the audience to come out and sing.   The highlight was the woman in the pictures who sang some traditional Korean songs.  She must have been a serious amateur or professional because her renditions were stirring and everyone who knew the words sang along.  They even got me to go up and play a couple of tunes on the guitar.

The Tibet Scenery Guesthouse is in Daepyeong, on the southwest side of the island.  The phone number is 070.4234.5836 and here's a map.

http://cafe.naver.com/tibetscenery

Jeju Weekly: On a coastal climb, an unexpected accompaniment

Here's my newest contribution to The Jeju Weekly

On a coastal climb, an unexpected accompaniment
Daniel Kojetin recounts meeting a music-playing monk on the cliffs around Oedolgae

http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1797

콩국수 Kong Guk Su

It's officially summertime and it's time to eat some summery foods!  One of my favorites is Kong Guk Su.  This is a cold noodle dish.  The Kong (콩) part of the name means beans.  It's a ground bean base with some cucumbers and sesame seeds.  Put the ice cubes in and enjoy a cool and refreshing meal for those hot summer days!

Korean Wellbeing Cooking Class

I've been taking about it for a long time, but I finally got around to taking a Korean cooking class!  I ended up taking the class through the continuing education department at Jeju National University.  The class is going pretty well, and actually now is almost over.  I think there's only two more weeks actually after tonight.  The class I'm taking is kind of a class for never-evers, and we're really learning pretty basic dishes.  I really love Korean food and am learning how actually pretty simple it is to cook.  Sometimes it can be pretty labor intensive, in cutting vegetables into very small strips for Japchae, or Kimbap (California Roll).  It can also be relatively easy, such as Pa Jun (Vegetable and Seafood Pancake).  All in all it's going well.  I'm taking a break for a couple of weeks, but I'll be back next week to learn some Doenjang Jjigae and Sun Du Bu, two of my favorite soups!

My teacher and myself

Pa Jun, seafood and veggie pancake

Kimbap!

Olle Route #7 Oedolgae to Wolpyeong (올래 7 코스 외돌개 -> 월평)

Olle trails are the system of hiking trails that circle all around Jeju Island.  Whenever I talk to people who've hiked Jeju Olle trails, it's inevitable that Route #7 comes up in the conversation.  I don't have any official statistics, but it seems to me that #7 is the most popular Olle trail in all of Jeju.  

The trail starts at Oedolgae Rock. This sea stack is a must see for all tourists that come to Jeju.  The parking lot is always packed with tour busses, and on this day, they were particularly full of students from a visiting high school from Daejeon.  The cliffs around Oedolgae are stunning and the water nearby is fantastic for snorkeling in the summertime.  

Some of the Olle trails really bring you to the countryside of Jeju.  You can walk for hours without even seeing another person.   On the other hand, Olle trail number seven is particularly crowded, so I found that one of the surprising pleasantries was the surprisingly large amount of vendors and food available on the way.  I stopped for some amazing seafood fried rice along the way.  It was great!

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The construction has begun on the controversial new naval base that you pass towards the end of the trail.  Jeju has some conflicts with promoting its image as an eco-friendly and peace island and the current construction of a massive US naval base.  The protests are on-going.

The picture below isn't a sign telling how far away famous cities are.  Can you guess what it says?

In the end, Olle Route 7 was a fantastic walk and I met some wonderful people on the way.  Most people just do the first half of it, but the die-hard people who are willing to finish it are well rewarded with a less crowded trail, wonderful views and a highly recommended experience.

Seobi and Amy's Wedding Photos

Two of my best Korean friends, their nicknames are Seobi and Amy, asked me to take their wedding photos for them!  They are getting married on the first weekend in June so they they hired a professional photographer and studio to get the shots.  Basically, he just set up the poses and a few of us followed them around snapping pics.  I was quite nervous because my good camera lens got dropped one too many times this winter.  I ordered a new lens, specifically for this photo shoot, but it didn't come in time (and still hasn't come) due to the tsunami in Japan.  In the end, I was stuck with the kit lens which did a fine job. I've tried to do a little soft focus effect.  What do you think?

Revelation

We've been bouldering.  Darren found a new secret spot.

Coffee and Guitar

Since I've been back in Jeju this year, the coffee and guitar mornings has been back in full force.  Scott and I try to get together once or twice a week for a cup of coffee and some country music.  He's got the perfect south facing, second floor Korean home with a flat-top concrete porch.  It's tough to describe, but I'll try to get a good picture in one of these days.  The porch is the perfect sun-deck, it is free from virtually all of Jeju's notorious wind and gets some strong sun all morning long which provides for shorts-weather as early as February.  Scott first picked up the guitar on Jeju and is soon becoming a master.  It's really fun to jam together, because there's absolutely no worries about how good or bad it sounds, it's just pure fun.  Our current favorites tend to usually be some Townes Van Zandt or Old Crow Medicine Show. One day we'll convince someone to pick up the fiddle and join us in the mornings...

New Apartment

5th year in Korea, 5th apartment.

I can't believe that I'm starting my fifth year in Korea.  It's really amazing how fast time flies, but I suppose it means that I'm having fun.  So this is my new place in the Faculty Apartments at Jeju National University.  It's quite small, not much bigger than my first apartment...well, maybe a little bigger....I miss that dryer though.  You see, there's two amazingly useful appliances that are missing in most Korean houses: a clothes dryer and an oven.  I've been thinking about getting an oven, but I just wonder how much I'll actually use it.  Maybe I'll finally get out of my tightwad mode and at least splurge on a microwave this year!

Oh and here's a picture for my parents...for the last 2 years they've been asking for a picture of my car...  Hopefully I'll sell it soon, but unfortunately it's too cold and convenient right now to get rid of!

Back to School

I've been back in Jeju almost a month, but I haven't posted a thing yet!  Things have really been quite hectic and busy since I've been back and it seems like I've hardly had any time to relax by myself.  Since I've been back, I've moved to a new place, had my motorcycle breakdown (fixed now), hung out with friends, and finally, preparing for the new semester.

School has been going great!  This week is the start of the second week of classes and I've already given the first round of tests. Hmm...maybe that's a little excessive?  Anyways, the Korean school year is opposite of the American school year.  High school ends in the winter and university starts in the spring.  The first of March is the beginning of the school year for everyone. This is my third year teaching at Jeju National University and every year, the new freshmen seem more and more eager to learn.  I really enjoy feeding off of their energy and am excited for this school year.