Multi-colored Noodle Soup

It sounds deep, right? We're not a melting pot of homogeneous goop, we're a multi-colored noodle soup (with salad as the appetizer), each noodle with its own distinct color and flavor, beautifully intertwining to make the delicious soupy goodness that we call life. Yes, it sounds deep.

But at the time that I was eating my multi-colored soup with my cousins in Jeju City today, all I was thinking was, COOL! Yummy noodles and they're different colors yayyyyy... I so happy... and hungry...

My eldest and 3rd eldest cousin (2nd eldest is in Seoul) invited me to come eat food with them, and when have I ever turned down food? And it only took me TWO WHOLE HOURS to get there on the bus. But it was worth it.

Disclaimer: This part makes me sound like a complete weirdo. Which I am so it's about time you knew anyway.
On the bus I saw three Caucasian folks, the first ones I'd seen in weeks! I really wanted to ask if they were also from the US, but I didn't really know how to start a conversation with them... "Uh, hey, I noticed you guys are white... where ya from?" They weren't really talking to each other either, which meant I couldn't say, "I heard you guys speaking English," etc. Almost two months ago, there were three people speaking French on the bus, so I was admittedly very excited to ask them in French--who knew it would come in handy after coming back from Paris--"Excusez-moi, d'où venez-vous?" ("Excuse me, where are you from?") Turned out they were from Paris visiting Jeju Island on vacation and we had a nice little conversation. I was sort of hoping for a similar friendly exchange with the people on the bus today, but they got off before I could work up to sparking a conversation. I'm really insecure about my Korean-speaking (shameful, I know!) so it would have been nice to speak English with someone other than my mom, but oh well.

Anyway, when I finally got to Jeju City and met up with my cousins, we went to a shabu-shabu (Japanese hot-pot) restaurant, but they had their own twist. It was a prix fixe menu where they give you the traditional vegetable and meat-of-your-choice soup, followed by a multi-colored noodle soup (see above), and it ends with a delicious "healthy rice porridge." Needless to say, I ate a lot.

Might not look like much, but this rice porridge was amazing.

Then, even though our tummies were full to bursting with shabu-shabu, my cousins felt we had to go to Caffe 빠빠라기 (Bbabbaragi) which is well-known for its patbingsu (팥빙수). Luckily, the wait was pretty long (when do you ever hear someone say that?!) so we had some time to make room for said patbingsu.

My cousins! ^-^

After that, it was time to go back home. My aunt and uncle gave me a ride, and when they dropped me off, they also brought... tangerines! My favorite! (This aunt and uncle own a tangerine farm--post to come about that.)

All in all, a good day. Yes, I know basically all I did was eat. Like I said, a good day.

Oh and also all my links are from Wikipedia today.