Loitering at 7/11 and the Mall (I feel like I am 14 again)

We had so much fun exploring the city on Wednesday we decided to take the 500 down even farther on Thursday. We really wanted to see the actual ocean; we had been on Jeju Island for 3 days without ever seeing the ocean.  Again we really only knew the general direction of the ocean and we had no idea of any of the districts or landmarks of Jeju City. We took the 500 down the main drag going past the bus stop where we had gotten off the day before. Once the bus turned off the main drag we figured it was time to get off. We walked down the waterfront and just admired the view of the vast emptiness of the ocean. We reached the end of the path and were greeted by a variety of different seafood restaurants and stores which had aquariums filled with living seafood. We all gathered around the different tanks marveling at the freakish looking creatures from the depths of the ocean. We found some outdoor tables outside of a 7/11 right next to the strip of seafood stores and decided to hang out and have a few snacks while enjoying in the sun that we had not seen since getting to Jeju.

The path along the waterway

There was this creepy abandoned carnival right on the water front

Statues on the waterfront

Buffer of cement before the shops on the waterfront

Rusted up punch o meter. These machines remind me of Final Fantasy VII.

The SSU Crew inspect the local maritime food

Shops along the pier-like end of the waterfront.

SNAILS!

7-11, our familiar convenience store. No Slurpee's though... 

Our view from the 7-11

These souvenirs are everywhere, they look like they have licked a few too many toads.

The "white trash" selection at the local thrift store

After we got our fill of trail mix and vitamin D we moseyed back to where we had gotten off the bus. We walked through an outdoor mall like alley there were a few dingy little shops with shop keepers in them watching small tube TVs or just napping. When we emerged back onto the bustling street where we had gotten off Professor McCuan noticed stairs leading underneath the street, just like stairs leading to a subway. He suggested that it might be the underground mall which he had heard about a few days before. Of course we were all excited about going to a mall that was literally underneath the street so we hopped on down the less than glamorous staircase. When we walked onto the landing we were instantly mesmerized by what we saw. The mall is not like an American mall where you have a number of large stores which carry a wide variety of things; rather this mall had a hundreds of small stores that could barely fit any merchandise at all. Most of the stores were about the size of a standard dorm room, and the mall was designed so that you would walk down this hall and look into these tiny stores.  When we were standing in the center of the mall looking down to the other end I originally thought there had to be mirrors somewhere to explain the depth of the mall. It was very interesting walking through the mall, although we had to be very careful to stick together as a group as to not get lost. The vast majority of the stores were for women’s clothes probably at a 5:1 ratio, so I rarely explored any of the stores further then a casual glance.

Our grand entrance to the underground mall

This picture does the mall no justice, you could look as and as far as you could see would be more mall. It was insane.

Each sign is a new store

ICE BURGER! Probably going to be one of my life's regrets that I did not buy this.

Once we arrived at the opposite end of the mall we decided it was time to leave the cave of consumerism and to return to the surface.  Right as we exited the mall we saw another alley filled with small storefronts, however this market was selling various types of fresh seafood, a stark change from the underground mall. The crowd at the fish market was much older as were the storekeepers. It was immediately clear that the style of the underground mall was taken from the style of the traditional market, small storefronts with small selections. The street was littered with different types of fish, squids, mushrooms, oranges, and a variety of cooked food that was sitting in open containers on the street. All of the shop keepers were elderly women and would smile as they caught me staring at their exotic foods; a few were catching a quick nap while waiting for customers. We didn’t linger over any one store for too long slightly fearful of the samples that the storekeeper would hand us. I am an adventurous eater but I wasn’t feeling eating raw fish from street vendors.

The beginning the fish market 

Open bowls of deliciousness

Waiting for customers

Decapitating fish

The market was expansive this is just one side of the market

Shoppers looking for the best deal on seafood

Buying the specialty dish

Shrimp?

Outside of the fish market, citrus is huge here. 

Outside of the main fish market, I get the impression that these women could not make rent and were forced to have a unsanctioned market on a side street.

Moped drivers will kill you. They ride on the side walks and rev up when they want you to move over. Often times they are doing it just to decrease delivery time for hot burgers. 

Another side alley thrift store. I want to go back to get a Korean T-Shirt or a T-Shirt with horribly mistranslated English phrases on it, those seem to be popular. 

The market was a prime example of the amount of different sensory stimuli that I have felt as I have traveled around Jeju. The blended smell of the different fishes, various foods and the cars passing by was truly unique and is something that cannot be easily replicated. The smells on top of the sounds of mopeds whizzing through the alley at unsafe speeds, horns honking, the sound of knives cutting through fish and the chatter of hundreds of people chattering in a foreign language paired with the visual scenery of brightly lit signs, crooked buildings on crooked streets, tiny markets with storekeepers preparing the fish right in front of the storefront, and the people who grew up and lived in a different culture going about their daily business. Everything is different. It is an amazing feeling; it feels to me like I am a child again rediscovering the world around me. It is the fun “honeymoon” period of staying in a foreign country, and I am enjoying it immensely

After the fish market we headed back to the same restaurant that Ethan and I had gone to on Tuesday, lucky for us the same ROTC student who spoke English was there and acted as our defacto waiter. I asked him about the kimchee soup, the same style as the boiling magma soup from Monday, he warned that it may be too spicy for me so of course I took that as a challenge. Everyone else got the delicious grilled pork and we all stuffed our faces with deliciousness and went to bed with our stomachs happy.

More shots of Jeju City

Looks different with sun, eh?

These trees are dope

Student Union at Jeju National University

Another building at Jeju National University

Our dorm in the setting sun

From Delicious Korean Food to Delicious Indian Food

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. 

Marriage castle.

Bagdad Cafe, an Indian restaurant. In Korea. 

So good.

Arcade's are big here. I need to spend some more time exploring them these next few weeks.

A bar named after the exotic land of "Kansas".