Happy Thanksgiving!

I have a lot to be thankful for! I am thankful for the wonderful family, friends and boyfriend that I have. I am thankful for the opportunities I have had to come to Korea and get to know my Korean culture and heritage. I had a wonderful day today.

Class went alright. We did a lot of speaking activities to practice using some of the grammar we've been learning in the past few days. Towards the end of class though, I think everyone was getting a bit overloaded because we were doing a listening activity and we were supposed to listen to a dialog and repeat what we heard and then all of a sudden no one was really saying anything. It was kind of funny and our teacher said "10 more minutes, fighting!"

After class, I went to Hongdae to meet Bohae (that is Mr. Kwon's wife's cousin's daughter--and Mr. Kwon is my "Chicago Korean father"). She had asked me earlier in the day if I liked spicy food-I replied that I can eat spicy food but I did not like seafood. Luckily I put that bit about not liking seafood in there too, because later she told me the restaurant she had chosen served little baby octopus!! She researched a restaurant and we walked around for maybe 10-15 minutes before we found it. We ordered a lunch set that had bulgogi and kimchi jjigae (stew). Bohae wouldn't let me pay for lunch. Then we were off to the Trick Eye Museum. It is an interactive museum with 3D paintings so you can kind of pose and look like you are in the artwork. It was a lot of fun. Again Bohae paid for the museum. After the museum, we went to a cafe was either modeled after or used as the set from a Korean drama that I loved. The drama is called "Bachelor's Vegetable Store". It was fun going to see the cafe-she looked at my textbook and we chatted in broken English and Korean. She said her family wanted to meet me, so I will be going to her home on Sunday. They also have already invited me to spend the night before I go back to the States and take me to the airport! She was so sweet and it was so nice to make a new friend. She texted me and told me that I should consider her as family.

I got to Hoegi Station and met Mark, then Brian and Brian's language helper--who's English name ALSO happens to be Amy! We went to a BBQ buffet restaurant near campus. The tables are set up like a normal BBQ restaurant with the grill in the middle of the table, but you can go pick the meat that you want (side dishes as well) and you take it back to your table and grill--as much as you want!! It is amazing! And it was only 11,000W! It was really strange not to have turkey and the other typical Thanksgiving fixings, but we managed to keep the gathering and being thankful tradition alive. :)

Upon arriving back to my room I started into my homework when I got a skype call from Amanda. I really haven't talked to Amanda since she left Korea (what? CRAZY! Especially since we 'talked'/hung out several times a week--and then were together 24/7 for 2 weeks---definitely experiencing a bit of Amanda withdrawal...) and we had a long chat. :)

My new friend--sister, Bohae and me at the Trick Eye Museum

Pulling Mr. Piggy

Having a sword fight

In front of the cafe!

My Korean Thanksgiving Dinner

Mark, Amy, Amy, Brian after dinner

Halfway through the week

Today class was not as bad as yesterday. We had our 1st teacher for the whole time because our other teacher is sick. She will be out of class tomorrow too.

After class, I came back and did another load of laundry. I was also able to talk with Emily and Jenny in a group chat. It was great to catch up with them. The three of us spent a lot of time together last year--it is hard to imagine life without them and it is hard to not be the three of us together anymore!

Emily had to leave, but since Jenny is on Seattle time, she is 3 hours behind--I have found that it is actually easier to chat with Jenny being halfway around the world than when she was 3 hours behind me when I was in the US. Anyway, Jenny and I chatted some more and she helped me some with my Korean. I also found a new website to get some Korean lessons for free. It is really helpful and I've already moved through 6 lessons. I wish I had had more time to get through more of them.

I went to the kimbap shop Brian and I went to a few weeks ago. I ordered bulgogi. I had to say, Koreans have perfected the art of take-out/delivery. I have not personally ordered anything delivery, but they move so quickly and it looks very efficient. Not to mention the fact that Korean streets are the biggest mystery to me--so how they even find the places they are going to amazes me. (I thank the smart men who set up the Northwest Ordinance--got to love our gridded townships!!!)

I stopped at the grocery store to get a few things before heading back to my room. I did more studying and now I'm ready for bed. I'm looking forward to meeting my new friend tomorrow! And having a Korean-American Thanksgiving with some American and Korean friends!

Turbulent Tuesday

Today class was extremely difficult for me. In book work, I can do it and 'understand' what I am supposed to do. In speaking and actually understanding what the use of it is, I have no idea. I've also begun to realize that I am NOT a verbal learning and most of the class is done verbally. I prefer to see things written--I cannot visualize things easily in my head, especially Korean, especially when it is done very quickly. I really struggled today. I think I also discovered that I may need to brush up on my ENGLISH grammar/sentence structures a bit to help understand the explanations in my Korean textbook...

After my challenging class, I rushed to the little bakery to get a small cake for Jihye and to the stationary store to get her a little card. I realized I forgot my camera in my room, so I stopped to grab it on the way. As it turns out, I made it to the station where we were meeting with plenty of time and I actually waited for about 15-20 minutes for Jihye, Megan and Jean to arrive. Megan was also a participant with me at Inje. Jean also did the Inje program, however it was in 2004 I think--so she hadn't met Jihye before. We arrived at the location of the ceremony and then Jihye told me Erica (I met her when Ginger came to Seoul), her husband and son were at the subway station. So, I went to go get them--otherwise it would have been difficult for them the find the building. The ceremony was pretty shore. The founder of Inje University was at the ceremony which really surprised Jihye because he is in his 80's and has been kind of ill. I met him last year when I was at Inje. After the ceremony, there was a small reception with some food. We had a small snack there and then went to find a BBQ place Jihye had looked up. Unfortunately when we arrived, they said that they were not open yet and would not be serving dinner for another hour and a half. Jihye tried pulling the "they're foreigners" card, but it did not move the owner enough. We found another BBQ place nearby and had a nice dinner. Jane had to leave and Erica and her family decided they should take off too-they are leaving for the US tomorrow morning for Thanksgiving.

Megan, Jihye and I went to a Mister Donut for 'coffee' (when I use the term coffee, I am using it quite loosely, basically meaning any hot beverage--but typically hot chocolate for me) and to chat. It was really great catching up with them. Jihye had to catch her train and since Megan said she would see her off, I figured it would be best to head back home and do some studying.

Back row (except for the people on the outside) are award receivers; front row is VIPs (middle is Inje Founder, his wife is next to him; the man on the right is the current President of the university) Jihye is second from the right in the back row

Jihye's supporters! EJ being held by Brian, Erica, Megan, Jihye, Amy and Jean

At dinner-EJ wanted to show me stuff on "his" phone

Mini reunion! Jihye, Megan and me

Happy Monday

Class was kind of funny-it seemed like everyone was really dragging. It was so strange to be back in class--we hadn't been there since Wednesday. Our teachers asked us what we did over the weekend and almost everyone's response was "I slept all day Saturday". (Obviously I did not fall into that category!)

After class I came back to my room and did my laundry, homework and chatted with Joe before going out to meet my friend Min Kyung (endearingly called MK for short--I met MK in 2009 from the GOAL trip and have kept in touch with her since then). MK and I met up near City Hall; she works near there but lives in Inchon. We went to a "very Korean restaurant" she ordered "soodaebu" (soondae is actually intestine--and the stuffed with other various ingredients including noodles or  kimchi) and I played it safe with "chamchi jjigae" tuna stew--it' was like kimchi stew but also with tuna in it. MK actually loves soondae. We finished dinner and went to a coffee shop she really likes. She payed for our drinks and I got a little carrot cake for us to split (the cake almost cost as much as the 2 drinks!!). We had a nice chat and then walked back to the subway station and parted ways.

Soccer Sunday

I had a nice relaxing morning. I slept in til around 9 maybe. I did some homework and just relaxed. I cooked some mandu and chatted with friends. Then, it was off to find yet another new soccer field. This one was located on top of Yongsan Market which is on top of Yongsan Station. The "market" is huge-it is mostly known as the electronics market-there are every kind of electronics available to purchase, ranging from cameras to air conditioner units to toasters to electronic dictionaries. There is also a chain department store there-but it has about 7 different 'zones' and half of them have the same movie theater chain in them. So, I had quite the task finding the right 'zone' to find the soccer field. I went up to the top of about 2 different sections before I found it.

Today we had about 10 people show up. At one point, there was a black man (not sure if he was African, or where exactly from) watching and Stefano invited him to join us. I got hit in the face with the ball-I thought my lips would be swollen, but by the time we were done playing, they felt back to normal. Jes also got hit in the face; he was more unfortunate than me and got a bloody nose. I also managed to score a goal this week too! :)

After soccer, I walked from Yongsan to Sogang for church. It took a little over an hour to get there, but it was pretty easy to get there. Church was good--I am really going to miss the priest when I leave.

It's Saturday!

This morning I woke up and thought, "Oh my gosh! School! I don't remember doing my homework!" What a terrible first thought to have, and then as I gained awareness, I thought again "...no...today is...Saturday! It's Saturday! No school!" Ah, nice!

I had an interesting morning; I helped one of my friends from Inje University by checking his grammar in his presentation/powerpoint so, unfortunately that took me almost an hour to do. I also received an email from my "Chicago Korean father", Mr. Kwon. He told me his wife's cousin's daughter is the same age as me and lives just outside of Seoul. He wanted me to meet her so I could have a new friend and he gave me her phone number. I also skyped with my Mom for a little bit. Then I was off adventuring. I had found a museum about King Sejong that was not too far from my campus. It also said it was free on the weekend. I found it, but it was not free-it was 2,000W and it was not a very good museum. :( Everything was in Korean, but even if I was able to read Korean, it would not have been very interesting. The only thing I really learned was that the Korean characters on a keyboard are consonants on the left and vowels on the right. (There was a room full of probably 50-75 typewriters of all sorts and as I was looking at one with Korean characters on it, I realized that.) So, that museum was a bust. I walked to a subway station nearby and as I was walking found a market--after walking through and seeing some of the meats there...I think I want to become vegetarian for awhile. I saw pigs heads, pigs jaws, leg bones, cow tail bones, chicken heads, chicken feet, whole chickens (with the head cut off, but neck...muscle? still attached), chicken or duck beaks, intestine and a whole lot of stuff I'm not sure what it all was. In addition to meet, they were also selling kitchen utensils, fruits, clothing etc.

After that nice cultural shock, I got on the subway and headed to downtown again. When I got just past City Hall, I remembered seeing some photos from the Korean War last night, it had been rainy and cold, so I didn't want to stand and look at all of them, knowing I'd be back in the area soon, I put it off and was able to see them today. The pictures were quite moving to me and made me hate war so much.

Last night I realized I had been quite close to Namdaemun Market, so I wanted to go there today before meeting my friend Jessica. I walked past Namdaemun Gate and was sad to see it still under construction. It's been 3 years and I'm not sure if they have made much progress restoring it. How sad. I walked through the market a little and then headed on to Myeongdong to meet Jessica. Jessica is an adoptee from the Netherlands I met in 2009. We did some shopping and then walked around to find dinner. As we were walking, I heard someone say "hey" and tap me on the shoulder kind of. Who should I see but "Hiruhomi", a Japanese classmate! He works a part-time job in Myeongdong. It was funny running into him. Jessica and I finally picked a BBQ place but both ordered stews. I had a good time chatting and catching up with her. We made plans to study Korean together in the next few weeks. Then we walked to the subway because she had to head back to her apartment. I stayed around the area poking around. I went past City Hall and listened to part of a concert going on. I also went into City Hall--they just built a new building and it opened in the beginning of October. It was really cool because they have an entire 'green' wall inside--it is all plants! I exited the building and was headed back to the subway station when I spotted those golden arches. You know what that means? Chocolate dipped ice cream cone for 700W. Yes, please. (yes, even though it was freezing outside!) Best 700W I've spent in a long time!

As I was walking back towards the subway, I heard some music along Cheonggyecheon--I recognized it as the band "Coldplay" and it sounded very much like them--I wondered if maybe a cafe was playing it or what, so I went to check it out. As it turns out, it was a group of 3 young men playing guitar and maybe a keyboard of some sort and singing on the street. They were really, really good. I stood and listened to a few songs before I got too cold to stand there anymore. I started walking to the subway and when I got to the station, I must have not been paying close enough attention because I ended up on the wrong side and didn't realize until I was in the car and we were headed to the next station. I was upset at myself and more upset because most of the stations on this line/in this area had the platforms of the trains on opposite sides--some stations have the platforms in the middle and the trains on the outsides, but these would all be trains on the inside and platforms on the outside--so I had to pay for a fare twice because of that mistake. Also, because it was getting to be around 9 or later, they kept condensing trains and I had to get off twice and wait for the next subway to arrive--it took me quite a long time to get home.

Ah, and I forgot to mention, this cousin's daughter of Mrs. Kwon, I will be meeting her on Thursday. Her name is Bohae. I am looking forward to making another Korean friend and I hope I will be brave enough to practice speaking Korean with her!

Beautiful red leaves in a park

Giant FAIL of a museum! Grr

The market--if you look carefully, you can see the lady in the red on the right side of the picture; below her arm are cow hooves + part of the leg. Ew, ew, ew!! They were also selling cow tailbones there too

One of the many photos on display

Namdaemun Gate under construction

Namdaemun Market breaking out the Christmas decorations!

Westin Chosin Hotel all set for Christmas

Inside City Hall--those are REAL plants!

Friday, Nov 16

I think I forgot to mention that Mt. Seorak National Park is located on the North Eastern side of South Korea. It is close to the East Sea--and many Koreans go there on New Year's Eve to watch the sunrise on the new year for good luck.

I woke up and was able to snap a few pictures of the sunrise--or the sun after it was partly up. We had a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel and then loaded the buses and went to an area called "Jeongdongjin" Beach. There was a nice overlook on a bluff. We also went to "Sun Cruise Hotel" which is a hotel shaped and decorated like a cruise ship. There, we were able to go to the 9th floor for an observation deck to have a nice view of the area.

We loaded the buses again and were off back to Seoul. We stopped for lunch. It was a tofu stew with little shrimpies in it--I just ate my rice and the side dishes. The highlight of the stop was not the lunch, but the 2 dogs chained up outside the restaurant. There was also a little puppy walking around too. :) It made me miss my Toby-baby though!

When we arrived back at Kyunghee University, it was drizzling. I walked back and tried to decide what to do for the evening. I picked going to downtown Seoul to find a cafe to have dinner. I wandered around and finally picked a chain, Holly's Coffee for a bulgogi sandwich and a white hot chocolate. It was funny because they were playing Christmas music--but my favorite style--Bing Crosby era. Anyway, after I ate and finished my drink, I wandered back to my dorm and headed to bed--what a long day!

Sunrise over the EAST Sea

Waves crashing

At the very edge!

The girls in my class

Boat Hotel

Best part of our lunch stop was these furry faces!

And then it got better cause this puppy showed up!!

Back in Seoul

Gyeongbok Palace lit up at night

The new City Hall in the background

Thursday, Nov 15

We had to be to school a half an hour earlier than normal to load the buses and such for our field trip. I wasn't exactly sure where we were supposed to meet, but luckily I ran into another classmate and she walked with me to where we were meeting. We loaded the buses, sitting with our class and we were off. I slept once we got outside of Seoul and we drove for about 2 hours before stopping at a rest area. Then we had about another 40 minute ride until we arrived at the restaurant for lunch. It was a mushroom stew-I'm not a huge fan of mushrooms and there were maybe 3 or 4 different kinds of mushrooms in it. It was okay, but I mostly ate the side dishes. After lunch we loaded back up and then had a short ride to the hiking location.

We walked with our class, but the only problem I had was that everyone was very slow. I was walking half of my normal speed and they were still far behind me. Some of the students really struggled with the climb (however, it was not a very intense climb) and when I was coming back down, I ran into two of them who had stopped and not gone up to the ending location. Anyway, most of the class met up at the ending spot, where there is a big boulder on top of another rock and you can try to push it--it rocks a little (no pun intended), but I don't think it can actually be knocked off. Then we hiked down and when we got to the parking lot we had to wait about 25 minutes for our bus. It was so cold! The sun was setting and we were up in the mountains!

After we got on the bus, we had a short drive to dinner, which was bulgogi stew. It was alright. Then off to our hotel. We were placed in rooms with our classmates. The hotel was more like a suite/apartment. It had a small kitchen and 2 bedrooms-one room had a bed and one room just had blankets to put on the floor (Korean style; Koreans traditionally slept right on the floor-no beds). We had an hour to relax and settle in, and then we met with the whole group for games. After the games, we were given snacks and then reminded of the rules and sent off to our rooms. Around 10:30 they did a room check and I hung out with my classmates in the other girls room before ducking out to go to bed. 

Just a sampling of the many pictures I took on our fieldtrip!!

Campus

Campus

Seorak National Park

Beautiful mountains

Classmates in front of the giant Buddha statue

Most of my classmates at the finish

Climbed up to join my bear friend

Winter is here Wednesday

Brr, what a chilly day!

I had a nice morning chat with my Mom and Grandpa before heading off to class. Classes went well, we got a lot of homework and a few last minute updates about our field trip tomorrow! (Will return Friday evening)

I came back and chatted with Jenny for a little. She is so great. I was asking about some motion sickness medicine my teacher suggested I get, and I asked if she knew how much it cost. She said she didn't know and then stopped chatting. A few minutes later she said, "I've been googling the average price and it should be between 1-3,000W". I know I had asked how much it was, but I wasn't expecting her to go look for a price if she didn't know it! And, when I did find and buy some, mine was 1,500W.

Then, I was off exploring. I found the science museum. It was kind of fun-but I think it would have been more interesting if I could have read things and had someone to go along with to do some of the activities together. After the museum I walked around the area--and I found myself back along Cheongyecheon--so I walked to Dongdaemun and did a little bit of shopping-finally bought a new dress!

I made my way back to campus and got japchae again--I was really craving the taste I was expecting not the one that I got yesterday. So, I went to a Kimbap shop. It was pretty good-on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the perfect taste I'm looking for, I would give it an 8. I'll have to keep looking. After dinner, I packed and listened to some Korean lessons online and it really helped me understand better what we've been doing in class the last 2 days.

Ahhh!! T-REX!!

Love this skyline

Changgyeong Palace

All this food for 5,000W (this japchae didn't have carrots like I was expecting and a lot of mushrooms)

My new dress

Second Tuesday of the Month...

Well, first, I want to wish Joe a happy birthday! :)

Class went alright. We had a 'substitute teacher' in for the 2nd teacher today. We had a male teacher and he was very loud and enthusiastic. It made the time go by much faster I think. We started chapter 16--we are just flying through this textbook!

After class, I was able to talk with Joe so that was nice. :) I was going to go to Seoul's Flea Market, but it is closed every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month. Of COURSE it was the day I planned on going! But luckily I did my homework and found this out before I went! So, I looked up other museums or places to go--most closed around 5 or so, which felt like a bit of a waste because I was leaving around 3 and couldn't get to them until closer to 4. I found one that stayed open til 6--I wasn't really sure what it was a museum for, but I thought I could at least check it out. As it turns out, it's quite near Bukchon, which is traditional Korean "village" area with homes 600 years old (it's where royalty and the rich lived back in the day-though I'm sure it probably continues somewhat today too). I wandered around for a bit but couldn't find the museum. I backtracked and took another street and found a tourism booth-stopped in there and got a map of the area and figured out how to get to the museum-it was not quite on the main street, so that's why I didn't see it at first. Well, I went into the "museum" it was more just a room in a basement and it was full of masks and other sculptures. No one was there so I didn't pay the 2,000W entrance fee, but I was in the room for maybe 30 seconds before deciding if someone did appear, it was not worth 2,000W so after a brief look around, I headed back outside. I noticed on my tourist map some sights around Bukchon that sounded interesting, so I followed the walking tour a bit. I came to a part of the road that overlooked "Samcheongdong" a street that is famous for small art galleries, cafes and boutiques. I took a steep staircase down to street level and walked around there a bit. From there, it is not too far from Insadong, (see Friday for Insadong notes) so I walked to Insadong. Then I hopped on the subway and headed back. I went to dinner at a restaurant right next to my dorm. I had seen an 'advertisement'/picture of japchae (a noodle dish that I love) from this restaurant and had been thinking about it for a few days. It was pretty good, except I think it was a Chinese restaurant so the japchae was a bit different than "Korean style"--it was a little bit spicy. 

I returned to my room and did some homework and also talked with Jung Yoon (Jenny-my old roommate) for a little. I can't believe it's already 10pm! Time for bed!

One of the houses in Bukchon

Looking down the street

Sunlight and Fall colors

What I love about Seoul: the mix of old and new--Seoul Tower in the background

Start of the sunset and overlooking Samcheongdong and Gyeongbok Palace

Mountain behind Gyeongbok Palace