From Jeju to Uppsala: A Junior Year Abroad: Jeju City

Saturday Night

Once we got back to the dorm I immediately took a three hour nap. I was exhausted from all of the climbing, speed boating and eating. I woke up at 8PM so the night was still young. All of the students decided that it would be fun to go to a noraebang (노래방) which is Korean Karaoke lounge. Karaoke in Asia works much differently than it does in America. Rather than going to a bar and getting blackout drunk to muster up the courage to stumble onto the stage and sing a slurred version of “Take on Me” to a group of strangers, Korean karaoke is done in small rooms which you rent out with a group of friends. This style of karaoke sounded awesome to me. I always like to sing horribly during weekend nights out. My friends may be less fond of my belting faux-falsetto, but it makes me happy.

We took two taxis down to downtown to go to karaoke. We met Kim so she acted as our guide taking us to the noraebang and communicating with her roommate Mini to meet up with us. We were greeted by the same scenes of vibrant night life on the streets of Jeju City that we had seen the previous night. We were led by Kim to the noreabang which was in a cool subterranean setting and we were given a room that fit all ten of us. The room looked like an entertainment room on crack. At the head the room was a large LCD TV draped with large speakers. Facing the TV are three couches, a number of microphones on a table, tambourines, and this crazy look console which was filled with Korean lettering and had about fifty different buttons on it and a catalog that is about a thousand pages long filled with songs. The vast majority of the songs are in Korean or Japanese however there are still about fifty pages dedicate music in English. Everyone immediately starts putting in their song that they want creating a long playlist of songs that had to be sung. I looked around the catalog to fine the most party killing songs I could find. I think The Door’s “The End” takes the cake with Radiohead’s “2 + 2 = 5” coming in a close second.

Once the playlist had started anyone who wanted to sing just picked up a microphone and sang. There was very little pressure and it was extremely fun just goofing off singing various popular songs. The easiest genre of course was rap, Ethan and I did a wonderful cover of 50 Cent’s “In Da Club”. During the songs the screen would project the lyrics but also show random scenes from what appeared to be short music videos that had no connection to the music playing. My favorite was a harrowing tale of two soldiers as they slogged through the winter battlefield and the eventual tragic demise of one of the soldiers, all of which set to the song “My Humps” by the Black Eyed Peas. Seeing a soldier scream with horror and singing “my lovely lady lumps” is a very odd juxtaposition. Holly has an extensive knowledge of Korean Pop and Japanese Pop and she did a great version of Japanese song. I was very impressed at both her ability to sing and her ability to sing in a foreign language. Mini and Kim also did a Korean song, standing up at the front of the room and singing together. It was a really fun experience; the way that the noreabang are set up fosters a comforting feeling and gives people a public space to just to get lose with their friends. After we were done singing our hearts out we went to a local pub across the street and just hung out in our exhausted state. It was a long and massively fun day.

Sunday

On the seventh day we rested.

A note about the chronology of the posts

These posts have been in chronological order but so far have documented the first week from 6/24 to 7/1. I am lagging a bit in posting but I plan to try and get the second week down by the end of this week, although it is looking like it might be a bit hectic with the schedule. Tomorrow the delegation from Sonoma State University is meeting the the mayor of Jeju City and on Thursday we have both an exam, a dinner and a presentation to go to. Friday we go to the beach and we leave Saturday. It is going to be a busy and fast week.

Tuesday

On Tuesday I got up at like 630ish again. Went to the FamilyMart (a convenience store) up the street and grabbed some of the iced coffee shot things that I had wondrously discovered on Monday. Went to class at 9 and got out at 12. We had lunch in the student cafeteria-like restaurant where I again ate mysterious dishes which I knew nothing of their contents. Professor McCuan said told Ethan and I that he was going to have dinner with the dean and president of Jeju National University, as it is Korean tradition for the host of any institution who is having guests to meet with them in the first 48 hours. That left Ethan and I on our own for dinner, we stupidly didn’t create a plan to meet up with Erica and Holly after lunch. We figured we would keep it simple and just go to the cafeteria anyways. I took it easy, tried to get the internet set up and walked around a bit. The cafeteria was closed so we went up the street to this restaurant just off campus. We looked in and saw that there were pictures of the food so we knew we could eat there. We walked in and the hostess rattles of something in Korean. We just kind of stare stupidly other patrons start looking at us, then they all laughed at our blank faces. She then gestured to a table, with the bulk of the surface of the table being taken up by a massive iron skillet. We looked at the pictures and decided on the pork strips, a specialty on Jeju Island. The hostess came over to take our order and we awkwardly point at the picture of the pork on the wall, one of the patrons says “pork?” we nod yes and show on our hands that we want an order for two. Next thing I know she is firing up the grill and bringing us plate upon plate of side dishes filling our table space up to the breaking point. The last thing she brings out are these savory looking slabs of raw pork, tongs and scissors. She greases up the skillet using a chunk of pork fat and then we were left on our own to cook it. Luckily we ran into Ko who gave us a brief rundown on how to cook the meat and how to eat it. What you do is cut up the pork into chunks and then put them on a piece of lettuce adding desired side dishes and then rolling up the whole package to make a delicious carb-free wrap. Towards the end of the meal the hostess came to our table again and asked us a question, a ROTC student next to our table saw that we were struggling to communicate and offered to translate with perfect English, he helped us order rice and soup which was tremendously because otherwise we would have just starred stupidly. The total cost of the meal was like $6.50 which was a bargain considering how good the food was and the portion size. We went back to the dorm and called it a night.

Sizzling pork

Wednesday

After class on Wednesday, we all decided to walk down to the bus stop at the foot of campus and try to figure out which bus to take down into Jeju City, or just hop on any bus and see where we would end up. All of the bus maps in Jeju are in Korean so we really couldn’t plan anything even if we wanted to. Luckily one bus had a sign on it that said “Jeju City – City Hall” written in English, we knew that was the downtown area so we hopped on not really knowing where we were going to end up. The interior of the bus was like a hybrid between a long distance bus and a normal city bus. The interior had sort of frilly curtains draping the windows and had seats that were actually seats rather than the plastic chairs that are designed to be incredibly easy to wash off bodily fluids from. As we approached the city the bus stops started to be announced in not only Korean but English and Chinese, whichh was a welcome relief. We decided to get off around city hall which is the downtown area of Jeju City.

When we got off the bus we walked down the main drag ducking down side streets we found interesting. It was nice to walk around with a group of people who also are completely oblivious to the language and can only guess what certain things are. Every new storefront is like a mini-mystery that we get to solve. It is more stimulating than just simply having a guide explain every little detail. We walked through a small market area which was either winding down or starting up. There were numerous stands set up usually with elderly women manning them. Due to some odd tax laws women in Jeju are traditionally the ones dealing with certain businesses. We kept walking and we stumbled upon an elementary school which is markedly bigger then elementary schools in the states. As we walked I pointed out that the Korean Airline Hotel which is one of the bigger buildings dominating Jeju City’s skyline, had what appeared to be a sky bar on the top floor. We figured the view from the top would be incredibly even in the fog so we all decided to go up and check it out. We reached the top and walked down a hallway where there were beautiful banquet rooms which gave incredibly views of Jeju City. We reached the end of the hallway and were greeted with these brightly glowing stairs leading up to the sky lounge. The effect was heavenly, I felt as though I was walking up the pearly gates. The skylounge was completely empty; it was like 4PM on a Wednesday which is not exactly peak business hours for a ritzy sky bar. The view from the table was incredible. But the best view was from the male urinals, which were facing a panoramic view of the sea. Pretty much the best view I have ever had while peeing.

After we left the sky bar we wandered through some parks. The parks are incredibly green with lots of tree cover. The park seemed to be populated by older Koreans going for walks and enjoying the park. We walked past a group of men who were yelling excitedly and surrounding a table as they were playing a game. We thought about investigating further but they were giving us some mean looks so we just kept on our merry way. We decided to try and find a Indian restaurant called the “Baghdad Café” that Ethan had read about online. Using Google Maps and wifi we were able to decipher the narrow streets and find the restaurant. It was a nice change of pace at the Baghdad Café, everyone spoke English and we were given forks. The food was amazing. The restaurant seemed to be a favorite of the islands Muslim population. While we were eating there was a group of about 15-20 who came in ate and left all in a span of about 45 minutes. Apparently they like the restaurant because they serve food Hallah. It was easy to lose yourself in the restaurant; it truly felt as though we were back in America. Everyone was speaking English we were using forks and there was a diverse group of people inside of the restaurant. But once we left we were back in Korea back to fun miscommunications and unknown foods.

This stuff is exactly the same as Red Bull but only 80 cents

Inside of the bus

Professor McCuan, Ethan and Holly trying to figure out where to head

A statue by the bus stop.

I took a bunch of photos of the streets, I think it conveys the feeling of the city the best.

Ducks mourning their fallen brethren

View from our table on top of the Korean Airlines Hotel

Best urinals ever.

It feels good peeing with this view. I felt like Scarface.

Walking up to the pearly gates

Outdoor gym in the park. Getting tons of use, in America it would probably be tagged up with MS13 tags and used as a sleeping area for drug addicts. But it works here as an outdoor curves.

Thinking statue in the park. There were lots of statues scattered around the park.

Aww you guys!

Interesting use of the second-person narrative. Very post-modern.

Passengers running to the waiting bus

A small house with a garden in the middle of the city. This was a common sight, an incredibly old village looking building surrounded by modern buildings. I think Jeju City just grew around them but the occupants didn't want to change their habits and move.