Potato in Seoul - Jeju Island: Day 4

Our final day on Jeju Island was better than we could have hoped for

DAY 4

Day 4 of our Jeju trip went exactly not as planned. It was way better than we had planned. We had another late starts, knowing it was our last day, but despite the cloudy skies, we wanted to go somewhere. Marley told us about Sewha Beach/세화해변, which is a popular beach spot, so we decided to go for it. We hopped back on that city bus and took the trip to the beach.

To get to the beach, you have to first walk through a super movie-set-like small town. There were little, old people all over the place: selling fish, vegetables, chattering away with each other as they sold and bought food and other things. Run-down, abandoned buildings mixed in with older apartment complexes, and small houses that looked no bigger than the standard American bedroom abounded.

What I loved about that little town though was that you could smell the ocean from wherever you were walking in that town. The ocean breeze followed us around as we made our way through the town heading towards the beach.

Potato in Seoul - Jeju Island: Day 3

More rain, more fun

DAY 3

Day three of our Jeju Island trip was predominantly spent hiking. Gedas was the rise-and-shine-let's-get-going-at-6AM guy who stirred up a ruckus getting ready while trying to convince us it was a great idea to get up before the sun to go hiking. Needless to say, it didn't work. Convinced he had to leave no later than 8AM to be able to hike all the way to the top of the mountain, Gedas ended up going by himself to hike. The other four of us decided to take a more leisurely hike up the same mountain but not go all the way up.

We took a bus from the Jeju City bus terminal to Mt. Hallasan National Park/한라산국립공원. This mountain is a popular hike because of the giant lake at the top of the mountain. The main mountain is also surrounded by small, parasitic volcanoes, which is a fun fact. The park is situated in almost the exact middle of the island, and it took us around one hour by bus to get there. The park had two entrances, and we didn't know which bus stop to get off of. Of course, we picked the wrong one and ended up walking for about 35 minutes just to get to the actual park entrance.

Potato in Seoul - Jeju Island: Day 1

The sudden snowstorm this past weekend inspired me to write about a time when snow was a distant memory and summer was about to enter full-swing. 

During my summer in South Korea, I took a week-long trip to Jeju Island (제주도) off the southern coast with three friends, two from CAU and one from home. It's a popular vacation spot and tourist destination full of beaches, mountains, and a peaceful atmosphere that's a great escape from the business of Seoul. (Though, personally, going to a busy city is a better escape for me than a quiet island.)

PREPARATION
A few weeks before we were planning on going, my (Parisian model) friend Andy (from CAU) and I spent around six hours using four different computers trying to buy our plane tickets, which was such a hassle. Funny how buying airplane tickets can sometimes be the most difficult part of the trip. However, in the end, the tickets (round-trip) only cost us $40 for each person! So, you could say those six hours paid off in the end. After that, it was just the waiting game: finishing our classes and taking final exams and saying goodbye to friends who were leaving right after the semester ended.

Our third group member, Jenni, actually flew in only a few days before we left for Jeju Island. Incidentally, she saw most of Jeju Island before she ever saw much of Seoul. However, I did make sure to introduce her to my favorite boba place (which has since closed ㅠㅠ) before we jetted off to Jeju.

Potato in Seoul - Studying in Korea

CAU Library

My entire reason for going to Korea was to study. Technically speaking. It took up 4 of the 6 of the months I was there. I studied at a university in the southern region of Seoul called Chung-Ang University, or CAU (중앙대학교). Located in the Heukseok area (off of the Heukseok station/흑석역), it's essentially the Korean version of a college town. Despite being part of Seoul itself, Heukseok is pretty self-contained. All the popular makeup chains have stores located there, there's some local shops, and there's an abundance of restaurants. There are several convenient stores, and a Daiso, which is a discount retailer similar to a dollar store here in the US.

Yook-sam Naengmyeon: a lunch-time hot spot as shown by the line

The CAU campus is pretty average looking, to be honest. It's definitely prettier than my home university, but seeing that CAU is built entirely up hill, the administration is pretty limited in terms of what it can do for beautification. The school is made up of three sections: front, center, and back gate. The dorm was at the back gate, literally all the way in the back. It was at the top of the giant hill. Just guess where all my classes were. Front gate. Of course, right? It took me about 15 minutes to walk to the giant 102 building for classes from the dormitory. I could make it in ten if I was rushing, aka I slept in a little too long, but honestly, running to class wasn't necessarily an option unless you wanted to risk breaking a bone by rolling your way down to class instead of walking.

308 is the dorm. 102 is where most of my classes were

The stairs of death at front gate