Jeju-do Day 3

On the third day, we went to a place called sunrise peak. We didn't go for the sunrise because it was far away and we would have had to get up really REALLY early. It was still a nice little climb and good view from the top. It was on the Eastern side of the island. Then we traveled to the Western side of the island to a beach to see the sun set. At the beach, we found little fish that blended in with the sand. Grace was determined to catch one and, after I tried to help for a little while, I was too. Finally, through dumb luck, we caught one. I should say, I stepped on one that tried to swim past me as Grace and I chased it. But, we caught it and had a lot of fun chasing fish together. I would like to note that, although I am a big guy, when I stepped on the fish it wasn't killed and probably only harmed in the fact that it was distressed from being stuck/caught. After we changed clothes, we headed to Dragon Head Rock. As you can see from the picture... it got it's name because the rock looks like the head of a dragon. On the walk back to the bus stop we crossed a very colorfully lit bridge. For dinner we had some more famous Jeju-do food. We ended up "crossing" the island that day. We started in the South and went to the North then to the East and then the West and ended up back at the North (Jeju-si/Jeju city).

Jeju-do Day 2

The first hotel we stayed in was on the southern side of the island, so, we decided to explore that area. Our first stop was the teddy bear museum. It was very cute and had a lot of different teddy bears. They had old bears and bears with a theme and bear depicting events and movies. They had the worlds smallest teddy bears and a really big teddy bear. Grace liked it so much that she opened up a fruit stand with one of the bears (not really).
After the teddy bear museum, we walked down to one of Jeju-do's many beaches. The path had these special walkways that have rocks that are designed to massage your feet as you walk... in reality... you're walking on rocks... and that kinda hurts. But, we made it down to the beach and it was very pretty. The blue sky, the clear water, the warm sand, and, of course, amazing Grace... it was really nice and gave me a lot to think about. After relaxing on the beach and freezing in the ocean for a little while, we had a buffet lunch and walked to, what we thought were, famous, rectangular, volcanic, rock formations. Along the way, we stopped at the Lotte Hotel and took pictures of their windmills.
After the "rock formations", we walked around the area some more and eventually ended up back on the beach. From there we continued our waterfall hunt and were more successful than the other day. We saw three waterfalls that day and a place where a forth should have been if there was more water/rain. However, one of the waterfalls was closed by the time we got there and we snuck in after most of the people had gone home.

After our small amount of trespassing, we headed back and had dinner. Another famous dish on Jeju-do is a seafood stew. It was very interesting to see your food more around in pain as it boils and cooks in front of you. It was pretty good, though. It was another beautiful and fun day.

Jeju-do day 1

To get to Jeju island, from Incheon, by boat... took 13 1/2 hours. It really didn't seem that long, though, since we left at 19:00. So, most of the time we were sleeping. We met a nice guy that helped us get settled on the boat. We had dinner and later that night they had fireworks and dancing.

We arrived at Jeju-do around 8:30 on Saturday. After a slight moment of confusion, we made our way to Mt. Halla/Hanla. It is a dead volcano in the center of the island. We had all our stuff with us so the climb was... tiring... to say the least. Although, the higher up we got the cloudier it got and the cooler it got. Grace and I met her roommate and Eric at the top, they took a different path up. After having a little ramen, we rushed down the mountain to try and get to the bus before it left. I think we set a new record for the mountain's decent but we still wouldn't have made it back to the bus stop before the bus arrived if it wasn't for a little hitch hiking we did once we were at the base of the mountain. As it turned out, the bus was running late so we had time to sit and relax a little.

After the bus arrived we headed for our hotel and checked in. We explored the near by area a little. Jeju-do is famous for the "grandpa" statues that are all around the island. We went looking for a waterfall that we could hear but didn't find. The sunset was pretty and Grace was beautiful as always. Before we headed back to the hotel we had dinner. One of the famous foods on Jeju-do is the black pig. It really didn't taste that special or different from normal grilled pork but, we were on Jeju-do, might as well try what the place is known for.

Everland

Everland is a big amusement park in Korea. They say it's just like Disney World/Land. Grace and I went on Saturday (the 9th). It was kind of a long bus ride to get there. Once there it kind of seemed like Disney Land. Grace wanted to go on the roller coasters right away so we waited in line at a little roller coaster and then gave up for a bigger coaster. Turns out, two of the three big roller coasters were closed for maintenance. Feeling defeated, we got dippin' dots (ice cream) and got in line for the Hurricane. It was a pendulum ride that also spun in circles as you swung. While in line, Grace got board and started drawing on me after seeing a girl go by that had a bunch of tattoos. After the Hurricane we got some food.

Then we took the Human Sky to Zootopia (see what I mean about seeming like Disney Land). The Zoo was nice. They had a bunch of different animals but it was no Milwaukee County Zoo (I miss that zoo). After the zoo and a couple of zoo related rides, rafting and a safari, we had dinner and waited to see a parade. We saw a little of the parade and then went to the one big, working roller coaster. It was an hour and a half wait and we wanted to see the fire works in a little less than an hour. So, we got out of line and went over to the ferrous wheel. We were hoping to be on the ferrous wheel during the fireworks but they were running on Korean time (in Korea, if something is listed at 9 then it will happen between 9 and 9:30... ish...). So, we saw the fireworks as we were walking back from the ferrous wheel to the roller coaster. The park closed at 10:00 so we couldn't get on the roller coaster. I felt bad since Grace gave up going on the roller coaster so I could ride the ferrous wheel with her and the fireworks weren't even on time. I think she enjoyed the ferrous wheel, though.

Full House on Children's Day

May fifth was Children's day and that is a holiday in Korea so we didn't have classes. Of course, it was on a Tuesday and I didn't have any classes anyway, but, I did get to spend time with Grace and that's always nice. So, there was a show, Korean drama, called Full House. It's not just a Korean version of the American show, Full House. This show, and a couple of others, were filmed on a small chain of islands by Incheon. Grace had seen the show and wanted to go see the house... I wanted to spend time with Grace and going to a little island with her sounded great. So, we went.

We started by taking a bus to Suwon Station. There we got on a train that took us to Incheon. Once in Incheon we tried to find a bus that would take us to the ferry, with no luck. We took a bus that the bus driver of the bus we thought would take us to the ferry told us to take. It took us to a little fishing area about an hour away. Once there, we asked a couple of National Guard guys if they could help us. Now, we were thinking of them telling us where to go or calling a taxi but they ended up driving us to the dock.

Once at the dock, things started to get easier. We got on the ferry and went to the island. Once there we waited for a bus and took it till the Full House stop. Then we walked to a bike rental place and got two bikes. I thought it would be cute to get a tandem bike but we went with two separate bikes, a smarter idea. We biked for a little while and found a "pension" (hotel/motel) that was pretty and we took pictures there. Then continued on till we got to the Full House house. It was pretty and had a nice ocean (gulf, since it's on the West side of Korea) view. More importantly, Grace was happy.

After we left the Full House house, we biked to a different Korean drama house but Grace hadn't seen it, Sad Story (or something like that). Then we took the bikes back to the rental place. On the way we passed a place where you could ride a horse and Grace said, "HI" to the horse. She's a little shy around animals so I was proud of her. After returning the bikes we walked to another island (over a bridge) and saw some sculptures. On the way back we hitch hiked to the dock. I told Grace I did want her to ever do that without me (I worry). It was two girls that picked us up... but still... you know. Once we got on the ferry and across to the mainland we had to try and find a way to the airport, where the subway starts. Since we were driven there by the nation guard, we didn't know where the bus was. We walked for a ways but we were both really tired. Once we found a bus stop that listed us going to the airport. The bus driver said it didn't go to where we wanted to go. So, we didn't take that one and looked for another. Finally an older couple helped us out and we ended up taking the same bus that we could've taken before. They dropped us off at an airport shuttle bus stop. From there we took the shuttle bus to the airport terminals and then the subway to a couple of different lines and transfers until we made it back to Suwon and Ajou. It was a good day.

Hot Love... Like... 39°C Hot

Let me take you back to a day when health was not a concern and temperature was only talked about with the weather. Let me take you back to Wednesday (two days ago). I had woken up a little early, because of which, I felt a little tired. After a nice warm shower, however, I was feeling pretty good. I had to give a presentation that day but I was ready for it and had plenty of time to refresh myself with the material before the class, at 18:00 (6:00 pm). So, I re-read the articles and then went to have lunch around 13:30 (1:30 pm). As I was leaving I noticed that I felt a little achy but thought it was just because I had been sitting and reading for awhile. I did recognize that most people in the dorm had been or are sick so I decided to take it easy and get a very simple lunch (nothing really spicy or too exotic). After lunch I was feeling a little worse and, upon my return to the dorm, I took a nap. That is to say, I tried to take a nap. By this time everyone else was up and making noise and wanting things. For the two hours that I was trying to sleep I probably slept for fifteen minutes. When I got up I felt horrible but I had to give this presentation in my film class. So, I took my stuff and went to class early so I could read the material one last time before presenting.

(Arbitrary paragraph change) My group was presenting first so I got it out of the way before I really started to feel bad. After the class my friends told me it was good but I seemed to be going slowly (because I was sick). For the rest of the class I just got worse. I had the chills and developed a slight cough and just felt achy all over. Now, a friend of mine, Anh, and I developed a "tradition" of going out for pizza after that class. The real tradition is more like, "one of us tells the other that they can't go out for pizza after the class." So, this time I was determined to go. I'm not going to let a little illness keep me down. After class, Anh, Grace, and I walked to Pizza School. There was a lot of debate about my ability to get there and back alright but ultimately we went. I thought that eating might make me feel better... not so much. I could not finish one pizza and I felt really cold (for those of you that don't know, those two things never happen to me).

After eating we started to walk back and Grace insisted that I go back to her apartment with her since it was much closer than the dorm. Isn't she sweet? Wait, I mean, "Isn't she sweet!" I tried to argue with her about it for a little bit but my mind had stopped working and my desire to lay down was too great. She has a really weird pillow that reminds me of a car armrest (leather-ish, kinda hard, gray...) so she made me a pillow out of clothes. She kept me under the covers and put a cool, wet towel on my head. If you hadn't guessed yet, this is the "Love" part of the title. I had some fever medicine. She even heated up so milk so I could have warm milk before going to bed. Sadly, despite her hard work, I was getting worse. She went out after midnight and got a thermometer. My temperature was 39°C (also part of the title). For those of you that are like me and see °C as witchcraft and sorcery... you take °C * 1.8 + 32 = °F. So, 39 * 1.8 + 32 = 102.2 ... I clearly was not well.

So, early Thursday morning Grace takes a very out of it me to the hospital. Now, this is a very hard thing to do since I'm loopy and weigh more than twice as much as she does but you have to remember... we're in Korea. Everything is written in Korean and, for the most part, the people in the hospital do not know English. Oh, and since I hadn't planned on staying at Grace's I didn't have my glasses with me... so I feel really bad, my heads loopy, and I can't see. Well, I could see Grace's face... which was nice. Grace ran around the hospital to try and find where she needed to take me. When we got there they gave me some medicine intravenously and then gave me some pills to take orally for the next few days. After Grace took me back to her apartment I slept for a long time... and snored for most of it. So Grace and her roommate didn't get a lot of sleep (I'm really sorry about that). I seemed to stop snoring once they were both awake (isn't that just like me). Most of Thursday I spent sleeping and Grace would wake me up for food and medicine and to take my temperature. She was a great doctor (not nurse... I know nurses do great things too but Grace deserves higher pay and more prestige). Mom, you would've been pleased. By the time I left Grace's apartment and headed back to the dorm I was feeling pretty close to normal.

Today, I got up and felt a little warm but I hadn't taken any medicine yet so that was to be expected. I'm sure I will start to feel worse at night but I really think I'm getting better and that I'm getting better faster thanks to Grace's care. Thank you, Grace. I love you. OH YEAH!!! It's May 1st... and that means that Grace and I have been going out for a month. ^__^