Jeju Island

Jeju is often referred to as the Hawaii of Korea – but what’s all this snow?? On Tuesday evening I took the bus from the ferry terminal to JejuCity and the snow on the pine trees lining the narrow, winding mountain road reminded me of back home. In JejuCity, I met Min Hui, an English teacher who studied TESOL at Selkirk Collegeseveral years back. Shana had recommended I contact her and she invited me to stay at her house that night :)

Jeju is also famous for three things: women, wind, and rocks. And sure enough, on my first day, I went for a drive with three women, through the blustering wind to visit rocks :) Min Hui and two friends took me to eat boribap (like bibimbap, but with barley). Then we had tea in a self-serve coffee shop where the owner comes a few times during the day to brew coffee and refill supplies. We watched the waves crash against the rocky shore as the wind hurl snowflakes against the island. Before I caught the bus to Seoguipo to meet my farm stay family, we visited the dragon rock and the temple where the three founding fathers of Jeju are said to have emerged from three holes in a meadow there.