We went to Jeju for Buddha's Birthday :-)

On May 25th 2012, we left Ilsan with our friends Sunny and Jingoo to hop a short flight from Gimpo to Jeju. The weather was beautiful - sunny blue skies, warm with just the right amount of wind, and perfect for a 3-day weekend. It was an impromtu trip with hardly any planning on our part, which made it a relief but also a bit of a surprise. It turned out that our hotel was right next to 성산 일출봉 (Sunrise Peak in Seongsan), which is where Jay proposed in early 2008.

We arrived in the afternoon and spent our first day walking around 섭지코지 (Seopji koji), where we saw a lighthouse, a church, 3 rocks that looked like frogs (although we only saw a frog shape in 2 of them), and beautiful views of the ocean. We also saw a group of dolphins that passed close to us when we were at the lighthouse. This is a rare event in this area and it was pure chance that we happened to be looking the right direction at the right time. It was amazing to watch them jump, flip, and dance past us on their way North.

The second day we woke up before 4 AM to hike up 일출봉. We were the first ones to arrive and climbed with no lights. It was spooky in some parts, but also calm and serene. We watched the sunrise (although it was overcast and we saw the light through the clouds), then spent the rest of the day biking. We rented bikes near our hotel and biked South along the Eastern coast. The sun came out and it was beautiful for our whole ride, although Jay’s legs got pretty burned. Note: Sunscreen is important. Even if you’re a man.

On our third and final day, we spent our time exploring the scenic coast of the island with Sunny and Jingoo. We had breakfast at a wonderful little cafe near the World Cup Stadium. The cafe was owned by a Japanese man who seemed to have designed the cafe and nearby house together.

Things go by much quicker in a car than on a bike. We were able to get to the airport on time after driving around the island, but we had to skip a few places we’d hoped to see.

Overall, it was a fantastic journey. One that we are not likely to forget.We don’t know when (or if) we will ever go back to Jeju, but this trip was a great respite from our everyday life in Ilsan.

~ JJ

Photos can be found on Facebook, or here on Smugmug.

Just such a random thing.

"South Korea Stretches Standards for Success"

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/world/asia/23seoul.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1335099604-/b24u0OuH4QepJW/nxYytQ

Whew.

Election day

So Wednesday's election day here - not presidential, but rather the local representatives. And it's a holiday. Yaaaaaaaay, no work!

We mentioned before that Korean elections are a strange mixture of awesome & annoying as all hell, mostly due to things like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULO0nwcYADo&feature=b-mv

[In Seoul (I believe), not filmed by us]

This is the kind of thing we encounter just while walking around.

The older fellow in blue? Their handler/organizer.

The older lady in pink? A random adjumma who decided to get groovy.

The move the main dancer makes at 1:00? Trying to hand out a flyer to passerby. We have to dodge this move a LOT. The whole "Yeah, I'm a foreigner, I obviously can't vote in your elections" thing only works on some people.

During last year's election cycle, we had four different groups representing four different people at a 4-way stop. It was chaos. Each had their own custom van with backdrop, music, dance, and flyers. Oooooh my god.

The Vegetarian Myth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNON5iNf07o

So I'm trying out a new baked tofu recipe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXOxjpufaH0) and am currently just waiting on the oven.
While waiting, I start browsing youtube and come across this interview. An interesting listen. I agree with quite a bit of her vision of where the world is headed, and had two thoughts after watching:

In defense of her argument:
1) Why are all the veg*ns angry at her for talking about this? The book could have just as easily been titled "The Agricultural Myth" or "The Global Civilization Myth" - the main point stands that by producing massives heaps of cheap processed food in one country to try & feed the rest of the world is simply preposterous. It's up to the local communities to do that. Another country can perhaps lead the way in technology & innovation, but the actual production of the food needs to be local. I would imagine most veg*ns agree with that, so I don't understand the flip-out it seems to be causing. She's basically saying "eat local."

On the other hand:
2) Why is she taking out her frustration about the global situation on the people who are most impassioned and involved in trying to actively change it? Most veg*ns, on some level, made the change for environmental reasons. By dropping out of the system, most veg*ns can rationalize that they're doing they're bit to help out. So singling out their lifestyle choice (as opposed to people who buy Monsanto products, or people who eat factory-farmed products) will just create a back-and-forth of attacks (as seen in the youtube comments, and I'm sure she's received quite a bit of backlash elsewhere) from a group of people she could really use on her side.

And finally:
3) A good review on Amazon, with a lot of follow-up discussion.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3M4LC3USB5H3S?ie=UTF8&ref_=cm_cr_rdp_perm

~~

(Also posted this on Facebook, but thought I'd add it here, as well.)

Quick little update

Wow! Been a while.

So, a quick update for y'all:

Jess and I have both re-signed at our respective schools, giving us another year in Korealand. Jess is going strong on her 3rd year, and I, for the first time in my adult life, am staying in the same position for more than 1 year.... I know, right?

Last we posted it was about going vegan. We've been going through the trials & tribulations (man, English is weird) of readjusting our diets.

It can be trying, but we help support each other and both understand that occasionally satisfying any cravings we have is overall better for us than not; we don't expect each other to be 100% perfect. It's better to occasionaly say "Sure, why not?" than "No, never!" and then give in during a moment of weakness & fall off the wagon completely due to a self-indulgent guilt complex.

Basically, I'm trying to follow my new favorite quote:

"Don't let being perfect stop you from being good."

Anyway. Really I just wanted an excuse to post some pictures of the local market. It's called 일산 시장 (Il-san si-chang, lit. "Ilsan market") in Korean. There, we get most of our greens, our tofu, bean-sprouts, potatoes (regular & sweet), 도토리묵 (acorn jelly), mushrooms, bell peppers, fruits, onions, garlic, ginger root, and basically anything that looks good and is in season.

We get any other items we need from Homeplus (great organic veggie section & good bran cereal), E-Mart (the best organic peanut butter, pasta sauce, brown rice & barley), Kims Club (nice foreign food section - miso, olives), Kosa Mart, the local mart next to our apartment (good soy milk "Vegemil" & any emergency cooking item we may need), or one of the two local fruit stands down the street (strawberries, apples, Korean 하라봉 hallabong).... hmmm good stuff.

Either that, or we have to order from iherb.com. Vegan protein powder, nutritional yeast, couscous, quinoa, almond milk, almond butter.... and now I'm hungry.

On another note, we've joined a Toastmasters club & have been enjoying it immensely. We've got a Facebook group here if you're interested in seeing some recent pictures :)

I've got an upcoming speech (my 3rd) for our next meeting this Saturday, so I gotta start thinking about a topic.

So yeah. That's it. Just wanted to pop in say all is well~ Stay strong!

-Jay