Trip Report, Day 2: Hiccups

Hi, everyone.  This is the second full day of the conference and there were some minor hiccups.  The good news is that I was able to borrow a converter from someone, so I can use my laptop.  The bad news is two-fold: first, I have come down with a cold apparently.  Being around thousands of people from many countries probably put me in contact with someone with a cold, so I can only hope for a swift recovery.  Second, it's been totally pouring all day, so, unless the dinner provided by the conference is unsatisfactory, I will likely not explore tonight and just get some rest.

About three hours after writing the first paragraph the typhoon disappeared, and the city cleared up.  However, feeling sick like I am, I am just going to stay in the hotel room and watch NatGeo Wild, which is mostly about animals fighting each other.  When Korean baseball isn't on it is a good substitute.

Lunch and dinner today were phenomenal, especially for a conference.  If anyone has been to a conference you know the catered lunches are probably basic cold cut sandwiches from Jimmy John's or Panera Bread.  Dinners are hit or miss, but a "light dinner" often implies cheese cubes and crackers.  Followed by cookies for dessert.  Here, dinner was roasted veggies and all you can eat sashimi and nigiri, along with some other delicious offerings.  I'm not going to lie and say I can taste the difference between low grade and higher grade sashimi, but a quick look at where Jeju is in the world gives the impression that the fish was fresh at the very least.

Lunch was a magnificent wooden box billed as Korean-Japanese traditional food (and the "Western Option", aka a ham and swiss).  It might be quicker to list what wasn't in it, but it contained barbecue beef, teriyaki beef, abalone with mushroom, egg cake, tempura shrimp, tempura chicken, a barbecue chicken wing, chicken and cabbage salad, a mung bean, a date, a small potato thing, kimchi, pickled squid, smoked salmon, rice, fruit, bok choy, rice ball, and probably something else I forgot.  The abalone was a little odd, but I generally enjoyed everything.

Another topic of discussion is what I'm going to do when the conference is over.  Thursday, the conference ends at about 2 pm, and I'm not really bound to anything after my presentation at 8:30, so I was thinking about going back to Seogwipo to spend the afternoon being a tourist.  Friday, I am completely free.  The mountain, Mt Halla, is beautiful, and apparently the hike required to get to the top and back is only about 5-6 hours, and the majority of the hike is lined with a boardwalk, meaning I could do it just fine in regular gym shoes.  There's also an aquarium, Hanwha Aqua Planet, that online is called East Asia's best aquarium.  I don't know if that's true, but it sounds like it could be fun.  Also on the island are Jeju Loveland (Google on a PRIVATE computer) and the Jeju Lightning Museum.  Please Google and let me know what you think.  Edit: I learned that the person who did the Mt Halla hike actually did not hike to the top.  The hike to the top is approximately a 6 mile hike one-way, and the trailhead elevation isn't listed anywhere.

Thanks for reading!