August 16th
Well I did it! The saunas aren't that bad, if it isn't for the Asian women staring at my naked body. Even my Korean friend couldn't help but let her eyes go down as we were casually talking. Tres comique. We also got massaged right after being sunburned. I was in such pain, and the lady kept rubbing my back as if she didn't hear me scream!!! The facial was pretty nice though...
We spent 4 days in Jejudo, a wonderful island south of Korean. It was nice to forget all about the school. We needed the vacation! I loved it all - the beaches, the food, the people, the mountains, everything really.
We actually rented a red convertible Volks. Oh the stories with that car!! One in particular is when we drove through the moutains and found a spot advertized as the greatest view ever. We thought it must be worth seeing it so we went there.
3 girls in a red volks, me standing up at the back of the car, Marvin Gaye playing loud. We got there, glanced at the view (truly nothing to see), took pictures and left. All this probably lasted 5 minutes and the whole time all those Koreans were staring at us, like we'd just appeared from nowhere and left the same way. It was hilarious, but like any story, you kinda had to be there ;)
The cab drivers are like tour guides in Jejudo and they really love to take time to tell you all about it! They are the nicest, quite the opposite of Seoul.
On our way to Udo (paradise island about half an hour boat ride from Jejudo) we saw this woman hanging out some fish on a line by the sea. She was dressed as if it was winter, anyway, pretty impressive. The cab driver was more than happy to stop for us to take a picture while he was having a smoke.
We ate really well too. A LOT of seafood of course. And remember the BBQ grill at your table? Well instead of Kalbi, we had seafood on it. So delicious. On our last night we had sashimi but the portions were ridiculously enormous! When we thought we were done, they brought more food, saying that it was now the main course. Ooooh!! To be fair, it cost 80 000 won for the three of us so of course they couldn't be too cheap. Was amazing!
One funny thing I noticed about Koreans hanging at the beach is that they are almost fully dressed! Some of them actually looked quite shocked to see three girls in bikini... but of course it could have been the Occidental factor!
Anyway, someone told me that it has to do with weight. As it turns out, a lot of Koreans are quite superficial when it comes to looks and most Korean women think that they're too fat (haha they're sooooo thin compared to Americans!) Whatsmore, they assume that no man likes fat women. So they try to hide their body, especially at the beach.
Men do it too, but from what I understood, they do it because they don't want to get sunburned.
I should actually have put a t-shirt on because I spent the whole time swimming and snorkeling so, naturally, by back was sunburned!!!! I was in paiiiiiiiin!!
Anyway, for those in Seoul wondering how to get to Jejudo, simply get a flight from Gimpo airport with either Asiana or Korean Air. It's expensive during the August 4 days holiday (about 230$) but cheaper for the rest of the year. The flight lasts an hour and believe me, it's totally worth seeing! You'll also notice touns of singular statues on the island - it's not clear what they mean exactly but it's part of Jejudo's history!
