Midweek Update

I’m reading three books at once right now. That way I have a good excuse not to finish any of them.

This weekend was very relaxed. On Saturday I went to a Buddhist temple underneath a mountain, Sangbangsan. It was quite spectacular but you’re just going to have to believe me on this one because my camera ran out of batteries as soon as I got off the bus. Here’s a photo courtesy of google:

Sangbangsan is on the western side of the island and unlike the knobby mountains which surround the central volcano Hallasan, Sangbangsan is more like a monolith, a giant rock whose sharp profile makes it impossible to ascend unless you’re a person with a lot of skills.

You can get about a quarter of the way up, however, via a staircase which goes from the lower temple buildings to a lovely cave with a Buddha statue carved inside. There are steps for prayer and meditation. I sat outside and read for an hour, which is as close as I’m probably going to get to finding some inner peace.

Near Sangbangsan is a quasi-amusement park area, with one of the more random collections of attractions I’ll probably ever see: a swinging Viking ship, a carousel, and a batting cage. Jeju sometimes feels like a silly place.

I am a proud contributor to this, by the way. While at the gift shop at Sangbangsan, I bought a large turtle rock for my two turtles to bask on under the UV light. So far, it has been a success.

The next day, we went to an island called Gapado, also west of Seogwipo, to walk along one of the Olle trails, which are a series of nature paths all around Jeju and the surrounding islands. Gapado island itself is not very impressive; it’s extremely small and flat, providing no real spectacle of nature on its own. But the views of Jeju from the island are what makes it worth the trip. You have great views of the western side of Jeju, including Sangbangsan, the Oreums and towns the line the coast, and far back behind the haze, the looming volcano which dominates the island.

The trail on Gapado was very short, moving along the rocky shore before cutting through the middle of the island and returning to the docking area where the ferry comes in. The highlight of the journey was the show put on by the local grasshoppers. It was apparently mating season when we went there; no matter how good a time we foreigners were having, I can assure you that the grasshoppers were having a better one.

They also have the capability to mate and hop around at the same time, and I was treated to the indignity of grasshoppers having sex on my shoe.

The first two days of the teaching week so far have been wonderful. At least 90 percent of this swell of good feeling has to do with the fact that test prep is finally over, at least for the foreign teachers. I am back to teaching children about Solidarity and Healthy Eating, among other topics. One of my students has been in the hospital for 2 weeks, and I had the class all write get well cards (mostly in English). The girls worked hard on theirs and took the entire 50 minute class period to make some truly beautiful art work and let the student, Elena, know that they cared. The two boys in the class spent about 5 minutes on their cards and spent the rest of the time staring into space. I hope I wasn’t that insenstitive when I was 8. Actually, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t. At the very least, I liked to draw.

There’s a conference going on at the Jeju Hyatt about Korean/Russian foreign relations. Like the books, this gives me yet more things to sleep through in the morning. If it doesn’t make it into the blog, you’ll know why.

Within this sentence lies word no. 666 of this blog post. How demonic! Speaking of which, Halloween is fast approaching, and there’s a pumpkin carving event on Sunday. I think I’m going to carve out a very particular animal, one with a very important and special tooth. Can you guess what animal I’m referring to?? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not a giraffe.