12/13/12

Class seemed a bit pointless to met. The first 3/4 was just writing farewell notes to everyone else. The last 1/4 we practiced speaking in "low" Korean--the very informal/intimate language. You can only use it to someone younger than you or between friends, otherwise it could be quite rude.

After class, I ran to meet Bohae and her parents. We went to get fried rice for lunch--they ordered extra cheese for our pizza fried rice! :) Then we went to my dorm and the got my big suitcase and duffel bag. They had a little bit of time left, so we went to get coffee at the shop right under my dorm. They left and I went to check out the altar I had seen on Tuesday. This is where the kings would do a 'rite of Heaven' to ask for a bountiful harvest. Much of it had been destroyed by the Japanese during occupation.

I went to the SeMA (Seoul Museum of Art) because there was a photography contest of photographs of Seoul that sounded interesting. The museum is where the old Supreme Court building was; unfortunately do to structural issues, only the main entrance remains and the rest is a new building. There was a special exhibit on Tim Burton, but that cost extra and I wasn't too interested. I also did not have a whole lot of time left til I needed to meet Brian. I enjoyed looking at all the photos.

I hopped on the subway to meet Brian. We walked to the Holt office (Holt is an adoption agency in Korea, I think it was the first and is certainly the largest) to meet Brian's friends. We the moved to Hongdae for dinner. It was a special dinner for the volunteers of Holt. Brian was invited because one of the men in charge is a close family friend do to the close interactions he's had over the years with the Ties Program that Brian's mom works for. Apparently there was another Holt party going on, for the "First Trip Home" group--which gives adoptees the opportunity to study at Kyunghee University but also requires them to work at a school and teach English at the same time. Brian had several friends at that party and thought we were all going to the same one, but it wasn't. Anyway, we went to a Beef BBQ place-it was really good. This was quite the party, rounds and rounds of meat continued to be ordered and we ate for almost 3 hours! They also ordered a cold noodle soup at the end. After dinner, we went to a place for drinks, but I didn't order anything. Brian and I met up with the First Trip Home group and went for Soju Cocktails. As it turns out, I knew most of them from seeing them at Kyungee University. I just enjoyed being with a group of adoptees and being able to speak English--everyone except for one (Germany) was American to boot, so it was even better (Taylor and Brian were in the class I was in when I started in level 1; Lena-the German was also in a level 1 class and David was a level 1; a new First Trip Home participant was Nic and Thomas has been living and working in Korea for awhile). We talked about our different accents or words we use because of where we came from and shared many laughs. I went with the group from Kyunghee back to school via subway and taxi.
 

Bohye's parents

The Altar thing

Seoul Museum of Art

One photograph that I literally laughed out loud when I saw it.

Full belly equals happy Brian