Trip Report, Day 3, Part 1: Exploring the conference area

Hello, readers!  You'll be glad to know that today I am feeling much better.  I still have a tickle in my throat, a cough, and a runny nose, but the general sickly feeling that had me feeling so down yesterday is generally gone.  Last night I sweat myself out under the covers and was feeling better by the end of the evening.  This morning was the first morning I woke up with the sun instead of hours before it, so that was excellent as well.  Weather-wise, the temperature has been lovely.  The day began mostly clear, but it's been somewhat overcast since.

I attended the conference's morning sessions today, and have spent the afternoon doing work on my presentation, since now my laptop is operational.  I have managed to put Blogger and Google back into English, and, as a result, my previous posts have been better formatted.  My meal luck ran out today, as I am now mostly tired of the breakfast offered by my hotel (it doesn't really change from day to day, and under-seasoned rice porridge is about the most exotic thing they have), and our lunch choices were tuna sandwich, ham and cheese sandwich, and veggie sandwich for vegetarians.  However, since the weather was good and I was feeling better, I decided to walk around the conference location.  The conference is located next to Jusangjeollidae, a "natural monument" featuring columnar joints.  Columnar joints are coastal cliffs that are composed of many hexagonal or square columns of volcanic rock.  The patterns were formed many years ago by cooling lava.

Near the natural monument is a nice park with many sculptures including the Dol hareubang, which are famous statues native to Jeju.  Wikipedia gives the impression that there is not much known about the origin of these statues, but in the 1700's they started showing up, and now have become a mascot of sorts for the island.  Other than the obvious reasons, Jeju's popularity as a honeymoon destination has made these a symbol of fertility in modern times, although it's unknown if this was their original meaning.

Much of the design of this park was centered around the volcanic rock that the island is made of.  It was a pleasant walk in an excellent climate.

I will probably post again tonight after our banquet, which features a Korean fusion performance "that will surely be the climax of the M&C2017 experience".