I went to Jeju Island ("do" means island in Korean) last weekend! We had Monday off of school, so 6 of us from school hopped an hour-long flight to the sub-tropical island just south of Korea. This island has the highest peak in South Korea, Mt. Halla, which is a volcano (inactive). The island is the top holiday destination in Korea, and it's called "Korea's Hawaii".
We rented a car, but it was a bit of a problem since Thomas just got his Korean license. They didn't want to rent a car who had a Korean license for under a year (even though he's had his Canadian license for 10 years!) After a lot of hopping around from one car rental place to another, we finally got one and drove to our condo. The place we stayed was a pension (or timeshare) on the top of some hills. It overlooked the ocean and beautiful mountains. We didn't even pay anything to stay there since it was owned by a friend of Angie. It was Korean-style, meaning it only had one bed and mats for the floor (fine by me!).
Even though the weather wasn't exactly hot (in the 70's all weekend), it was still really nice. We went to the beach and the guys went for a swim in the ocean (crazy) while Kristen, Angie and I laid in the sun. The second day we went to a different beach, which had a really low tide, making it the biggest beach I've ever seen. There were lots of little shallow pools of warm water in the sand where we found a ton of hermit crabs. We stayed at that beach for a long time, playing around in the sand and just lying there. Again, the guys swam in the cold ocean, while I was wearing cropped pants and a t-shirt. And sure enough, I was thrown into the water fully clothed. Actually, I didn't put up much of a fight. It was hilarious.
In addition to going to the beach, during the days we saw some waterfalls, toured some caves and botanical gardens. There At night we played badminton and drinking games and sat out side. It was soooo nice. All in all, I had a fantastic weekend.
