map the seoul

We went right to the hotel, where according to our schedule we would have a 2-hour presentation followed by lunch. We found out that the presentation was being pushed to the afternoon, but lunch wasn't ready yet, and our rooms weren't ready yet, so it was more like 2 hours of purgatory in the hotel lobby with 49 other foreigners. I just wanted a nap.
We eventually ate lunch and got our room assignments, then got to haul ourselves and our luggage up a giant hill to get to our room which was in a house at the top. It was seriously a long walk up a 30-degree incline. And I couldn't even nap when I got to my room, we had to drop off our stuff and go right back down to the main hotel lobby for the presentation.
After the presentation, we were finally able to go out and see some sights. We walked through a museum, then took a cable car to an observation deck on top of a mountain with panoramic views of the island.
We went back to the hotel for dinner then free time. I opted to shower and pass out after 2 days with almost no sleep.
The next morning we had a 6am wake-up time to be on another boat by 8am for the pinnacle of the trip - a visit to Dokdo. Dokdo is a tiny island which is the subject of an ongoing territory dispute between Korea and Japan. Korea says the island is theirs, and Japan says the island is theirs, but currently there is a constant Korean military presence on the island, and the only way to get there is by going to Korea first and departing from there.
It was another 2 hour ferry ride to get to Dokdo. I guess because of legal restrictions the ferry is only allowed to dock there for 30 minutes, so it was basically a rush to go around and take pictures before the horn signaled for everyone to get back on the boat.
Koreans are really proud of their claim over Dokdo, and it's quite difficult to actually get to the island, so not many people are able to visit - there were many Koreans on the trip with us who arrived decked out with Korean flag items, and it was cool to see and be a part of their excitement over stepping foot onto Dokdo.
After the ferry ride back to Ulleungdo and lunch, we did a few "trekking" activities - a hike up to Bongnae Falls, a waterfall which provides drinking water for the islanders, then another hike up to an observation deck at the top of a mountain.
Then it was back to the hotel again for dinner and free time. I wanted to walk along the coast, so I bought an iced coffee and headed for the ocean. Turned out there were no sandy beaches anywhere on the island, and the coastline was blocked by a main road with no shoulder to walk along, so it was back up the mountain and to bed for me.
For our last day on Ulleungdo we all loaded onto buses which took us on a drive around the whole island, stopping at a few sites along the way so we could get out and take pictures. The bus driver was also like a tour guide, so we would drive past something and he'd say what it was called and why it was an important site, but obviously his narration was entirely in Korean. One of the leaders of our trip was supposed to then be translating for us, but he was not great at it, so the translation we got was like, "The thing we just passed was called Noodle Rock..... I don't know why it's called that." Another girl was like, "It's as though he's on his own personal tour of the island, and he's just choosing to let us in on something every once in a while." It was honestly really funny, as long as you didn't actually care about learning anything.
The scenic drive took up most of the day, then it was back to the port to catch our 4pm ferry back to the mainland, then the 4-hour bus ride back to Suwon, then another hour on a train and a bus to get to my apartment. I felt like I should have been arriving back in the United States after a trip that long. It was windy and rainy for the ferry ride back, so the boat was rocking pretty intensely. It was perfect napping conditions for me, but there were so many people getting sick. I was woken up and very nearly vomited on by an older woman who chose my seat to slump over while she struggled to open a sick bag. That would have been a real trip-ruiner.
This is definitely an abbreviated trip report, because I don't want to complain too much about a free trip that I was given the opportunity to go on. I'll just say... I've learned that tour groups are not an ideal way to travel for me. The schedule - or lack thereof - was ridiculous, and you have to do what they tell you to do when they tell you to do it and eat what they've ordered for you. Does not work for an independent traveler. Ulleungdo was really pretty, though, and it was amazing to be able to see Dokdo. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to make it out to that part of the world, so I'm glad I was able to go.

Hey y'all. I haven't updated in a while because I've done literally nothing the entire month of September. After the Jeju-do trip and concerts in August, I spent every weekend this month doing things that are free. Like sleeping in and marathoning episodes of Friends.

Day 3.
I had breakfast at the guesthouse and checked out to head over to Jusungolli cliffs (주상절리). The rain let up shortly after I arrived and it cleared up to be a beautiful day.

The month of August is summer break here in Korea, so I used some of my vacation time to travel down to Jeju Island - the land of rocks, wind, and women.

Update on the cats: They're enormous. The above photo was taken shortly before Junsu broke that tier off the cat tree. Now all that's left is a sad cat tree base.
Last Monday was the first day of summer break, so all of the teachers went on a hiking trip. It rained all day. We walked around this lake and got soaked, then went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. It was a fish restaurant. I was given an entire fish on a plate, which is pretty much my worst nightmare. I basically moved the fish around my plate until everyone was done eating.
Thursday and Friday I had English camp with some of my students. My camp was supposed to be Wall-E themed and we were going to watch the movie and talk about it, but the students ended up having so much fun doing the other activities I had planned that we didn't have time for the movie. I had them make paper Wall-E dolls, they designed their own robots and made those, we played Wall-E themed bingo, and we made dirt. That was funny because they were like, "This looks gross." Then they ended up loving it.