Final Days

Here it comes.. my final days in Seoul. I'm sad to leave this wonderful city and its people, but I'm looking forward to coming home at the same time. It feels so surreal that suddenly we're all leaving.

I already said goodbye to Carina last night, and now she's off to Germany to start working her new job. Today, Saturday, I went down to Pyeongtaek to see the 2015 World Taekwondo Hanmadang competition. I didn't really know what to expect since my previous exposure to Taekwondo competitions has been extrememly limited. I was going to go by myself, then a friend was going to come, but it ended up just being me. My host mom was a little bit worried, but the subway system is so convenient and easy to use that I made it to the tournament with no problems.

On my way to the tournament, I stopped by the National Science Museum. To be perfectly honest, it is a nice museum, but I thought that it was a little bit boring. Nothing really was in English, but that was fine with me; I don't necessarily expect things to be in English everywhere I go. The disappointment was that I didn't need translations for any of the signs because I already knew what all of them were about. In the entire two-story museum, I didn't really encounter any science that I was unfamiliar with.

Even though I was disappointed with the museum, it was still neat to look around. I saw their 3D printing lab, space exploration center, robotics/AI area, genetics research, natural science, and even a biosphere (I think I can call it that) that had two chambers: one with rodents and one with plants. They were recycling air for each other so that the environment could be closed and self-sustaining. It made me feel pretty good not needing translations to understand all of the displays since I am studying a science-y field in college and spent quite a bit of time in the science classroom in high school. I guess I should thank all of my past teachers for doing such a good job ^^

After the museum, I continued on to the tournament. Pyeongtaek is about 90 minutes from where I live in Seoul, so I got a nice rest on the way. I thought I was going to be late to see my friend Caleb compete, but the tournament was running super behind, so everything went smoothly. The tournament itself was exciting. The team spirit was intense, and all of the groups kept cheering for their teammates (sometimes I think they were also just cheering just because they could). Then when one of the current competitors did something really cool, everyone went crazy. It was insanity, but I'm thankful that it was air conditioned insanity. I watched the ROK Third Corp perform. They were really good, but Caleb says that the Kukkiwon demo team performance was better.

Then I saw Caleb compete. He had been training for a few weeks in Korea, and I could tell he worked really hard. He placed second overall in his divisions! I was trying to find him after he competed, but there were so many people that it was really tricky. Eventually I was waiting by the awards, when one of the awards workers was asking me if I knew Caleb and where he was. We both ended up looking all over the place, and eventually we found him.

While there were other foreigners at the competition, I was one of the only obviously foreign spectators. I got the feeling that many people weren't from a big city like Seoul because I can't count on one hand the number of times someone walked up to be and poked me a few times, or gave my hair a tug. I would turn around and whoever it was, sometimes young kids but often adults, was just staring awkwardly, so that was kind of amusing.

Soon it was time for me to go back to Seoul and meet up with more friends because everyone was leaving so soon. We met up and went to a multi bang, which is a room where you can go and watch movies or play Wii or even do karaoke. It was my first and only multi bang experience, but it was fun. We played Just Dance and then a few other random games. I was really tired from waking up early to go to Pyeongtaek, so I went home after the multi bang.

Sunday I slept in a little bit, but I had to wake up and get on a video conference with a student from the Honors Program at UC doing a report about honors students abroad. After that, I ate breakfast and then took a little bit of a lazy afternoon trying to figure out what to do. I decided to go back to the Animation Center and check it out. Daria came too, since she didn't have to leave until later that evening.

The Animation Center turned out to be not much different opened than when it was closed. The only difference was that then there were families and children looking around, too. Then Daria and I went to get some dinner, and after we had bubble tea (my last in Korea) and went to the Myeongdong Cathedral. It's a beautiful building with some kind of catholic school attached. Even though it was in Korea, the architecture could have easily fit into parts of Europe.

After I said goodbye to Daria, I met up with Sang to go hiking. While I was waiting for him to get to the subway stop, I saw someone walking by with a UC t shirt on. I tried to ask him about it, but he didn't know very much English or that he was wearing a college shirt. It was a little bit awkward, but now I'm really curious to know where he got the Bearcats shirt.

Sang and I tried to go hiking, but it didn't last very long. By the time we met, it was close to evening. We intended to go up and see the old city wall, but the mosquitoes emerged since the hiking trail has a lot of trees around, so we decided to abandon the hiking idea. It didn't turn out to be a complete waste, though, because we did see an old Japanese internment camp. Then the entrance to the hike started out in a temple. It was a beautiful temple with a nice map painted on the wall of the hiking trail, so we at least got to see where we would have gone. I'll just have to add that hike to my to-do list when I return to Seoul someday.

Monday I slept in more than I was planning. Thankfully, my host mom turned on the air conditioner that night, so again we all slept in the main living room on the floor. I slept very well, and was thankful for the extra time. After breakfast (my last Korean-style breakfast), my host mom helped me try on traditional Korean Hanboks so that I could get my picture in them. I tried on two different styles, a summer style and a winter style. They don't look like they would be too bad to wear, but they are actually super uncomfortable because of the way that they tie at the top.

One of my host mom's previous guests brought her a kimono-like dress from Japan (I forget what it's called--same style but lighter weight). She had me wear that one, too, for a photo op. I thought it was much more comfortable, except the matching sandals wouldn't fit on my feet.

My host mom then took me to Gwangmyeong Caves. At least... she almost took me. After a slightly awkward hour long ride there with my host mom, one of her friends, and her friend's son (10 years old--we talked about lizards kind of), the enterance line to get into the parking lot was very long. We waited for around 30 minutes before my host mom decided she wanted to go back. I wasn't about to spend my last day in Seoul almost going to a cave, so I took a bus the rest of the way there.

The cave was very commercial. There were so many people visiting because it's vacation time for the schools. The line to buy an entry ticket was so long and not very shaded, but a nice ajuma let me stand under her umbrella. Inside, the cave was cool. A wonderful temperature. It was actually an old mine that had been adapted into....something. I'm not sure how to describe the cave because you just go in and walk through a path that takes you through all of these different themed caves. They had a light tunnel, aquarium, botanical garden, wine shop, gold, Lord of the Rings, and deep exploration area all in the same cave. It wasn't what I had in mind when I thought I was going to a cave, but it was still a fun afternoon. I enjoyed seeing where Korean people go to visit on their vacations, not just where other tourists go (I didn't see any other foreigners there despite the high number of visitors).

As I arrived home that day, I saw about 7 firetrucks outside of the apartment building next to mine. I don't know what happened exactly, but it smelled like there had been a fire (I couldn't see anything unusual besides the firetrucks). I asked my host mom,  but she said her guess was as good as mine. I ate one last dinner with my host family that night. I'm not quite sure what we ate (as usual), but it was delicious so I didn't mind.

After dinner, I went out to meet Sang and Lucille for one last bingsu in Seoul. I'm going to miss bingsu, but if my career as an engineer doesn't work out..I'll just open up a bingsu cafe somewhere. Maybe with a few cats ^^

It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, especially because the entire weekend had been so full of them. I think it would have been easier if we had all arrived and left on the same day like we used to when we went to camp as children, but I guess this is the way the real world works. Now I have a bunch of good reasons to go to Europe and come back to Asia, so I try not to be too sad about leaving. I'm looking forward to returning to the more quiet, less commercial life in Ohio, but I'm definitely going to miss Korea.

Now I'm spending my last night in Seoul, and it's probably time to stop procrastinating my packing since I'm leaving for the airport in less than five hours..

Exams and Graduation

Looking at the weather forecast Wednesday was really depressing. The forecast called for nothing but thunderstorms for the next week, right up until I have to leave Seoul. The weather forecast has been notoriously unreliable here, but I still couldn't help but worry that it would actually storm for the next week. When I left Wednesday morning, the weather was beautiful, but within five minutes, it was pouring. Luckily, I had my umbrella, but that didn't keep my feet dry!

Again Wednesday, we had to meet in a different classroom because of some meeting conflict. When I got to class, I ended up hanging my socks on the air conditioner to try to get them to dry faster. This was our last day of actual class, so we were all a little sad. This was also our last class with our favorite teacher. Carina brought in brownies for us to share. There were definitely heavy feet leaving class that day.

Since Thursday was our final exam, we all planned to just go study after class. I didn't feel like studying, and it wasn't raining, so I went to Gyeongbuk Palace before it was too late. This is the main palace in Seoul, but it wasn't my favorite. I thought it was really big, but the palace we were at on Tuesday was more beautiful in terms of scenery and landscape. This palace had the same building style, but it was bigger and set on a much more sprawling piece of land. I'm glad that I went, but I think the palace yesterday was my favorite palace in Seoul.

After the palace, I realized I really did need to go back and study, so that's what I did. Not too much of an exciting day. On my way home for the night, however, I stopped at a little open street festival and listened to a jazz band for a few minutes.

Thursday was exam day! We were all nervous because nobody knew what to expect. We got to school and were all ready to take our exam when another group of people showed up, thinking they were using our classroom today. It ended up being a miscommunication as to which days we needed to meet in another classroom, so we kind of got evicted. I recommended that we cancel the exam and all get A's in the class, but surprisingly the teacher did not adopt my idea. Instead, we took our exam in a classroom on the second floor of the building.

The exam turned out to be much easier than I was expecting, not that that's a bad thing. I was especially nervous for the listening section because sometimes native Korean speaker speak too quickly for me to hear and understand, but this listening exam was very do-able.

After the exam, I went on my first official Korean hike up Gwanaksan, the mountain right beside SNU campus. I went with a few of my classmates: Lucille, Sang, Paul, Rebekah, and Sarah. Although it was hot and humid outside, the hike wasn't too uncomfortable. It was a shaded path that ran along a mountain stream much of the way, so we would frequently get a refreshing breeze. The view from the top of the mountain was incredible. It was a little hazy because of the humidity, but still a spectacular view.

I also had a rare opportunity for this photo op, so how could I pass that up?

There is a temple at the top of the mountain that we also visited. Again, it's an active temple. We were the only visitors at that time, but we ran into a monk who gave us freshly brewed iced tea. It was very refreshing! They say that if you go up to the temple at lunch time, the monks will give you a free lunch, but we were too late for that.

It was starting to get late, so we headed back down the mountain. Hiking down is definitely the most difficult part. I though going up to the top would be worse, but it was 100% going down the mountain that was bad. It probably didn't help that I slipped and fell a few times, but I didn't get hurt, so it's all okay.

On the way down, some of us stopped at a small waterfall and used our waterproof phone cases to explore underwater photography. I'm not sure which way is up in this picture, but I think it looks pretty cool.

By the time we got to the bottom, we were all exhausted. I went home for dinner. My host mom had already eaten with her son, but her mother came over so we ate together. She didn't know any English, so I couldn't talk to her much, but she seemed very nice. Always smiling.

Friday was our graduation day at SNU. I wasn't expecting a big graduation because to me it was a summer course for college, but at the program, they treated it like we were all graduationg from our current level. First we met with our classes and all wrote notes to each other. Then Jasmine from D class gave a speech in Korean about her experiences with the program. Next the program administrator (I think) came in and gave a speech. I really don't know what his speech was about, but that's okay. After all of the speeches, Jasmine and Spencer sang a traditional Korean song. They did a really nice job, and they were wearing hanboks to add to the traditional effect.

Our Taekwondo performance came next. We hadn't practiced in a week, so I was kind of unsure about how everyone would do. I think in the end we had fun and our audience was impressed, so that's what matters. I have a video if anyone's interested in seeing it, but I haven't tried to figure out why my videos won't post on here successfully.

After the demonstration, we each got our certificates of completion and grade reports. I also got an award for perfect attendance and excellence. I found it funny that some of the teachers told me that they were very proud of me because they thought after the first few days that I was going to struggle a lot, but I ended up doing really well. I'm just glad it turned out that way instead of the opposite!

We all made plans to go hang out Friday night, but before that I went to see my Korean friend one last time. She was leaving for vacation that night, so this was our last chance to meet. We went to the Express Bus Terminal to walk around and shop a little bit, but mostly we just talked. I wish I had gotten to spend more time with her, but I'm sure that we'll meet again one day, either when I return to Korea or when she comes to visit America.

Then I went to meet up with my school friends at the SNU station area. We went to dinner at a Korean barbeque place. I ended up grilling for everyone at my table because they didn't know how to do it, so I'm proud that it all ended up delicious!

Next, we went to a nori bang. It was a lot of fun, and we ended up staying for a few hours. After a few hours, about half of the group left for one reason or another, but there were still about eight of us left, so it was still fun. Eventually people started getting hungry, so we left the nori bang for dinner, then on the way out we tried a little batting cage thing. I almost hit one out the the thirteen tries, so I think in the future I'll leave the baseball stuff to my brother ^^

It was a good end to not only the week but also the language program altogether. Carina leaves Saturday kinda early, so I saw her for the last time tonight. At this point, it still feels unreal that I'm going to be leaving this country in only a few days. I can count down the days on my fingers, but I'm not sure that I want to.

Start of Week Five

Just like that, we're already on week five of school. It feels like not too long ago I couldn't even read any Hangul, and now I'm preparing for my final exam.

Monday at school we learned the final unit from our textbook. After school, I met one last time with my SNU language partner. I helped her review an English essay before we studied Korean, and it was a very well written essay. Then we spent a much more grueling time reviewing for my exam. She says that she's proud of how much progress I've made since the first day we met, and I still think that she's been incredibly helpful in that progress.

That night, I went to the famous Nanta show in Myeongdong. It's an interesting concept: fusion between percussion ensemble, cooking, and comedy. The show doesn't rely on language, so even people who don't know any Korean won't have problems enjoying the show. I loved it, and it's definitely something I recommend to everyone who visits Seoul.

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After the show, I went to visit the sheep cafe in Seoul, also known as the Thanks Nature cafe. The actual cafe is inside, but the two resident sheep hang out in a gated area across from the front door. The sheep were really fluffy, but they kept baaing at me, so I was scared to touch them (the cafe had a warning about biting).

Tuesday for class we had to meet in a classroom in a different building because another group had reserved our normal classroom or something. After class, I went with Lucille and students from high level classes to lunch at the same restaurant we went to after the tea ceremony last week. This time I got a carbonera pasta, which was delicious.

Then I was planning to go to Bukchon Hannok Village, and Eva and Sarah decided to come along, too. We had a little bit of trouble finding the village, so first we ended up at Changdeokgung palace. The palace was so beautiful. I really enjoyed the landscaping. It wasn't a huge palace, but I think the smaller size made the palace more cozy/quaint feeling.

We also saw one of the infamous matching couples of Seoul walking around the palace. Apparently it's popular here for couples to dress exactly alike, including shirt, pants, socks, accessories, and shoes. I had never seen one up close before, but it was definitely weird to see. I'm not sure I understand that trend very well..

After the palace, we eventually found the hannok village. It was nice to walk around and take a look, but there wasn't really anything to do besides that. Pretty soon after, I left to go meet Daria and Carina at Namsam Tower. I was going to ride the cable car to the top to get the nice view, but I couldn't find the cable car station. While I was searching for it, I found a hiking path that led to the top, so I followed several groups of people up to the top. This path was entirely manmade, so I'm not sure if I'd really consider it hiking, but the stairs were nonetheless a challenge to climb. On my way up, I met a lady who works for the US government stationed in Seoul, and she told me that the best way to appreciate the view from the top is to walk up, like we were doing.

At the top, I met with Carina and Daria. We walked around and I took pictures of everything. Some nice random guy even showed us the perfect photo place. It was really humid, so there was a nice haze of ther the buildings. As a result, photography was difficult, but I still tried my best!

We also got to see the famous Namsan lock wall, where couple will go to attach a lock to a chain or something, which is supposed to make their love last forever. Naturally at such a romantic space, there were too many kissing couples. I wanted pictures of the scenery from that lookout point, however, so I braved the PDA and I think the pictures were worth it.

I would say it's been a good start to the week, but the time we all have left is starting to tick down more and more quickly.