Adventures in Jeju: It's like being 16 all over again

I have the next few days off of work, and I found a really incredible deal on some plane tickets, so I'm spending the next three days on Jeju Island. Jeju is part of Korea, off of the southeastern coast. It is a semi-tropical island, and is often called "Korea's Hawaii". We'll have to see if it actually lives up to those claims.

The adventure started in Seoul this afternoon. I went to work this morning and taught my classes like normal. I stuck around and dealt with some ridiculousness on the work front, then I left early to go to the airport. There is a bus that goes from close to my apartment to the airport. There are two airports in Seoul. The big one (Incheon) I've flown in and out of before. The small one (Gimpo) was unknown to me, but that's where I was headed this afternoon. The bus took a full 45 minutes longer to get there than the schedule said, so all of my cushion time and then some was gone. I was so afraid that I was going to miss my flight.

Instead, from the time I stood up from my seat in the bus to the time I sat down in front of my gate was somewhere around 15 minutes. It was pretty crazy. I went to the check-in counter, got my ticket, went through security and found my gate. It was all really painless and quick. I still had the great pleasure of waiting in front of the gate for 45 minutes.

The flight itself was relatively uneventful. There was a little bit of turbulence, but nothing too major. It was a little different from any other flight I've been on before. Jeju Island is THE premier honeymoon spot in Korea. There are quite a few people who come here for vacation. In fact, it might be the biggest tourist trap Korea has. The flight attendants made an announcement about all of the newlyweds on the plane, and we all clapped for them. Then, there was a drawing for a prize based on a series of numbers on our tickets. Crazy. I've never been on an airplane that gave away boxes of chocolate.

Jeju is significantly smaller and less crowded than Seoul. There isn't a subway here, and everyone agrees that the buses are unreliable at best. There are two basic options for getting yourself around on Jeju. You can rent a taxi and driver for about $85 per day, and he will take you wherever you want to go and wait for you until you are done. The second option is to rent a car.

I have an international drivers license, and I really really really miss driving. Plus, I didn't want to try to muddle through that much language barrier my entire time here. So, I rented a car. One of my Korean friends helped me find a good deal, so I bit the bullet.

When I got to the airport, it was easy enough to find the place where I needed to wait for the shuttle bus to come take me to the rental place. When the correct company bus pulled up, I got on. Well, I tried to get on. The driver couldn't believe that a foreigner was actually going to try to rent a car. I had to show him my confirmation and everything to get him to let me on the bus. After I got on the bus, he called ahead with the Foreigner Alert.

The Foreigner Alert must have worked, because there were several people waiting for me when I arrived. They had forms in English for me to fill out, and a whole line of people to make sure I didn't get lost walking from the office to the parking lot. It was almost kinda cute ;) They showed me how to work the car -- such vital things as how to turn the key in the ignition and where the brake and gas pedal were, then tried to send me on my way.

I had asked for a GPS to come with the car, because there was NO way I was going to survive this trip if I had to read maps. They gave me a GPS, but it was all in Korean. Now, I can read Korean pretty well. I know basic direction words and phrases. I can muddle my way through. But somehow, the thought of hurling down the road at 80 kl/hour while trying to deal with traffic, a different set of road rules AND a foreign language didn't sound like such a good idea. Thankfully, they had an English language GPS in the office, so they switched it out for me, and I was off.

It was a little strange to be driving at first. It took me a few wrong turns to figure out how to read my GPS. By the time I figured out the GPS, I'd gotten a feel for the car and was feeling pretty confident. I've ridden in enough taxis in Seoul to know the basic differences in rules of the road, so that wasn't such a huge deal. Trying to adjust to speed limits in kilometers rather than miles will take some work though. I'm going to have to fight speeding, because when I see 80 on a sign, it's a VERY different 80 than it is in America.

I was feeling pretty confident. It didn't matter that it was dark, I had no clue where I was going, and I was driving a car in a foreign country. I could do this! One of the things I liked most about driving in America was being able to listen to music and just be by myself in the car with the music. I even put together a special playlist in anticipation of this trip.

The only problem was the driving was more taxing than I thought it would be. When I was 16, and first started driving, my parents had a "no music" policy. I hated that policy. I didn't understand why it was there. There was no possible way that music could interfere with my driving. Or so I thought until I tried to turn on the music tonight. Mom, Dad, if you're reading this, I have to confess. You were right. I understand now why I wasn't allowed to listen to the radio when I was 16. You'll be happy to know that I voluntarily turned the radio off after about 30 seconds. Maybe tomorrow, when it's daylight and I've had a bit more practice, I'll try the music again.

For now, I'm at my guesthouse listening to an assortment of sounds in the common room. It's relatively late, and I think I might head back up to my room and go to bed. Because what else would I do at 10:00 at night when I find myself on a semi-tropical island by myself!

Hopefully I'll have more adventures and pictures to share in the next few days!