Three months, a near-death experience, and Jeju - at first glance these words are not related, post-reading it should make sense.

3 months is about all the time I have left in Korea. It's mind-boggling how fast the time has flown. There are still so many things I want to do before I leave. Things I want to accomplish and see. One thing I checked off my list about one month ago. Korea has an island that is situated on the very southern most tip. It's called Jeju-island, and it's infamous for being South Korea's very own Hawaii. Since it has been dubbed such, my comrades and I decided to go and check it out for ourselves. We had a 'summer vacation' that spanned for a grand total of 2 days, thanks Avalon. But since we had those 2 days we could leave after work on a Wednesday and spend until Sunday on the "Hawaii-esque" coast of Jeju.

Well, my co-worker and I at least thought we would be leaving Wednesday. Funny story, we almost died, and I am not being facetious. Our plane took off at 7pm and we were supposed to arrive in Jeju-si by 8pm, HOWEVER, on the way there we hit some massive turbulence. We reached the island, it was in plain view from the sky, but apparently the rains were really heavy.

We began our descent to the airport and the plane began to frantically shake far more than the turbulence ever did. People began throwing up the plane was tilting right and left. Then all of the sudden when it seemed like we were going to land, the captain zoomed back up over the clouds. More turbulence, more puke. Everyone was freaking out. Especially the Chinese people that were sitting right in front of us. They weren't panicking though. They were laughing, hysterically. They thought that it was hilarious that their friends were throwing up, and that we were all about to die. As we were taxi-ing, waiting to land, there was yet more turbulence. About 15 minutes later the captain announced that we would not be landing in Jeju-si at all, we would be heading back to Seoul. We couldn't believe it. We were also a bit nervous because we had seen our same plane land in Seoul de-board and then had us board, without refueling.

Luckily, we made it back to Seoul in one piece and with soiled shoes.

The ironic thing was that previous to this excursion I had been listening to a podcast about how to survive a plane crash, reading Malcolm Gladwells new book, The Outliers, which has a chapter about Korean airline pilots crashing more than other, and playing an online computer game that involved airplanes. Very suspicious, a sign perhaps, either way hints I didn't understand until after the fact.

Once we retrieved all of our belongings we had to get a hotel for the night, and get the next red-eye out of Seoul's airport. We got the 7am flight the next day and arrived safely.

Once we got there it was truly beautiful. We had such a great time exploring the different beaches, the lava tubes, climbing a mountain, and seeing waterfalls. One day, my friend Hayley and I went to a small island off of Jeju island. It was called Udo (Cow) Island because it's shape is supposed to resemble that of a cow. We call it the best island in the world (slightly sarcastically) because when we got there we got pushed on a tour bus that only spoke Korean. We didn't understand anything that was really going on around us. We got dropped off at the end of the bus tour on the other side of the island and then had to walk all the way back to where we caught the ferry. We had to get there before 5pm too or else we would miss the ferry that would take us back, and thus have to spend a night on the god forsaken island. We had fun though. We all went out on the town that night in Jeju-city. Kind of similar to Seoul, but on a smaller scale.

Overall, it was quite an experience and a good time was had by all.

a cease-fire...or is it?

It was really surprising to hear that North Korea released the female journalists.
Especially after charging them to years of hard labor. North Korea is such a conundrum. It's hard to wrap your mind around exactly what Kim Jong Il is thinking. Many may or may not know this, but what happened with the female journalists happens to South Koreans more frequently. Understandably, for people in the US we don't really think of or care all that much about it; simply because it just doesn't hit that close to home. However, there was a South Korean man that was captured by North Koreans, and is still being detained, far before the US journalists were arrested. He was arrested at the Gaseong Industrial Complex that the Koreas share on the accusation that he was speaking against the North Korean regime to one of the North Korean workers. Another incident happened last week, a South Korean fishing boat harmlessly and accidentally wandered 10km into North Korean waters and was captured and the people on the boat, arrested.
What I want to say is, this is nothing new, and I feel bad that people are far more aware of it when it only has to do with their own countrymen.
Obviously, the relationship between the Koreas is far more complex than any other countries relation with NK. Families are still separated. Some people desire reunification, while others would rather die than see the day. That still is not the best excuse for the US's blind eye on worlds current and social affairs. In Korea there is no getting away from getting news about all different events happening in other countries. However, general news awareness is very centralized in the US. This is one of the things that makes it interesting to be immersed in the culture and life here because now I am aware of things I, otherwise, would not be.