Notes from Jeju

don't we look excited??
mount halla surrounded by the mist
taking a rest- these stairs lined much of the 10 kilometer (round trip) trail
filling water bottles at the spring
cooling my feet off in a spring- hopefully not the same one i drank from :)

Friday, July 25, 2008- 10:22 PM- Jeju Island, South Korea

Friday, July 25, 2008- 8:22 AM- Mississippi, USA

I believe that I have truly accomplished something today. I climbed the tallest mountain in South Korea, Mount Halla. That was really all our day amounted to, that and a definite lack of appetite and an eagerness to be home. Since leaving Seoul, most of the Americans have become homesick and quite ready for all things American. I remarked today about how much we have come to learn of one another’s families because we often reminisce about the food and, in turn, the people back home. Through this, we have gotten to know one another well. It will be sad in a certain way to lose this closeness and dependence that we have come to have on each other. Being away from family and even the mere place of home has not been easy; I couldn’t have made it alone. It has only been through the encouragement of my friends that my days have been as enjoyable and memorable as they were. We’ve become our own little family as well. We call it John and Kate plus 8, like the tv show. Many of us watch it, but it just so happens that the American students can exactly comprise it. Trey’s real name is John, my nickname Kate, which leaves us with exactly 5 girls and 3 more boys to be the children. Pretty silly I know, but it is fitting. I really always act as the mother, handing out medicine for the nausea and aches that Korean food inevitably causes. Speaking of that, I barely ate today. I just lose my appetite when I sit down for a meal, and afterwards am not even hungry. Tonight at the beginning of dinner, after hearing some shrieks from the front table, I turned around to see a live octopus boiling in a pot on the table (mostly all Korean food is cooked right in front of you on your table). That did it for me; I seriously did not touch food after that. We even had to order Sprite because so many thought they were going to throw up. Sadly, I think we offended the Koreans. This troubles me because I have seen them in our country; and, while they didn’t rejoice over our food, I don’t think we received any reactions like ours were tonight. I normally wouldn’t consider myself a picky eater, I just speculate that we are at the point in our trip where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. If we don’t eat, we won’t die. We’ll just find a convenience store as always, and buy chocolate bars and candy. We’ve discovered all the kinds we like. While I think I’ve only gained weight on this trip, I’m hoping that today brought about the opposite. I literally climbed a mountain. It wasn’t easy by any means and took every bit of motivation I could muster. The first half was as if we were in a rainforest- very misty and green. In the second half, we were actually walking in a cloud. The wind was whipping and we were soaking wet from the amount of humidity. It was even quite cold. The trip down was just as tough, and the whole journey has brought about a sore body.