Week 3 Part 2 (Caught up--at last!)

Thursday turned out to be much more of an adventure than I was planning on. Class was no problem. Then lunch was the same as usual. After lunch, it was time to go to our weekly Taekwondo class. My classmate Rebekah (from Canada) and I decided to be healthy and walk instead of taking the shuttle bus. Instead of walking to the class no problem, we somehow ended up across town, nowhere near the Taekwondo school. I don't know how it happened, but I do know that we were horribly lost and horribly late to class. Luckily, we were able to catch a bus back to SNU campus, then another bus to the school. On our little adventure, I did find a sign that says Columbus! No idea what the rest of the sign says, so I hope its something good :)

Luckily nobody was upset that we were pretty late to class. One of the higher level students helped us explain and apologize to the master, and everything was fine after that.

After Taekwondo class, we went to get some bingsu since it was so hot. I'm really going to miss bingsu back in the USA. After the refreshing bingsu, I went to Itaewon to look around. It is an area known for having a lot of foreigners, and I definitely noticed more of them when I was there. I mostly just walked around, looking at the different shops. There were dozens of antique shops (at least I'm pretty sure that's what they were), as well as many small clothing boutiques, bars, and other restaurants. It was so hot that I must have forgotten to take pictures of Itaewon. Steep inclines were all over the place, with narrow roads and even more narrow alleys. I wasn't impressed with Itaewon, which might have been why I didn't take pictures. It had a very grungy, unclean feeling to it. I would say that it's the first place in Seoul that I've been to that I wouldn't jump at the chance to return to.

I did end up bargaining for a few souvenirs while I was there. Again, the people are much more willing to bargain when I speak to them in Korean. It also helped that at one point, I only had a few thousand won left in my wallet that the lady could see. She wanted more, but I actually didn't have more there in my wallet. Then she acted upset when I wasn't going to buy anything, so she gave me the deal I was asking for. I can't help it if she's asking for more money than I have in my pocket at the moment! Pro-tip for bargaining: never keep all of your cash in one place. Then, only pull out our wallet after you agree on a price (unless you're like me and have to show an empty wallet as part of the strategy!).

Itaewon wasn't all bad, but it was too touristy for me to enjoy compared with all of the other places in Seoul.

Next comes Friday, and you know what that means: field trip! I really enjoyed the activity this Friday: samulnori. I know that we already had the opportunity to try it in a small class, but I think it's a lot of fun, and loved learning more. This class was more structured than the other class. It was held at a huge cultural arts center, and the instructor helped us attain good technique instead of only focusing on having fun and connecting to the music. He always told us to smile more and to move with the music.

I got really nervous because I broke a hole in the head of the drum while I was playing, but actually it's a big honor to do that. It means that I was playing with the best spirit and making a good sound, or so I was told. Pretty sure whoever played it before me did most of the work wearing out the drum head (not sure my one-push up arm strength is quite enough to break a drum).

Next, we went to the samulnori museum. It was mostly filled with traditional Korean drums of all shapes and sizes. They are always elaborate and decorative. I can tell there is just as much art in the making of the drums as there is in playing them.

After the museum, we all went to a traditional bibimbap restaurant for lunch, which meant sitting on the floor and eating at one of those really low to the ground tables. It was delicious, but very filling!

After lunch, I went with Carina to Myeongdong and Namdaemun since they are big attractions in Seoul, and I hadn't been to either one. Myeongdong is the cosmetic district. It has every kind of cosmetic store or product you could dream about, and then some. People were everywhere, and salespeople were literally pulling people into stores. They gave out a lot of free samples, but I didn't want to look inside every store, so I didn't take the samples. I thought it was fun to walk around, but I didn't like how pushy all of the sales people were.

While we were there, we went to the Migliore mall, which I've read is pretty well known in Myeongdong. A few days prior, my necklace had tragically gotten caught on my T-shirt and in my hair at the same time and broke as I was untangling it. Since then, I had been looking without much luck for a replacement chain. We found a store in the Migliore mall that had every kind of necklace imaginable, and the owner was super helpful. She looked through every single necklace in her store until she found a chain that I liked and that would work for the charm from my broken necklace. I'm thankful that she was so interested in helping me, and luckily we found one that worked!

Next up was Namdaemun Market. It is probably the best place to buy souvenirs in Seoul. They have everything you could want in at least five different stores. Everything is reasonably priced, but the shopkeepers are still willing to bargain. Again, I got to practice my bargaining skills :) Carina helped me out sometimes with the numbers. I think we made a pretty good team. She always laughed at me because I would get the price for something, then look deep in thought about if I should buy it, but I was really trying to figure out what number the shopkeeper told me, then figure out my counter-offer. It was so much fun, and the street food that we tried was so delicious!

Then, we went to meet Daria at a cafe. I ordered some kind of beverage, but had no idea what it was. It turned out to be a strawberry juice slushy thing, so I don't think I did a bad job. It could have turned out a lot worse!

After that, I stopped by Seoul National Forest for a few minutes before heading home. I think the pictures do a better job of explaining the forest than I do, but it was basically a huge community park.

Saturday, I woke up at 3:30 am to go to the Noryangjin Fish Market to watch the live fish auctions. It was super exciting because in Columbus, there isn't exactly a fresh, live fish market. Carina came with me, and she couldn't believe I had never been to a fish market before. My biggest surprise was the fact that so many of the fish were still alive, or being butchered right in front of us. I know it's a live fish market, so I should expect the fish to be mostly alive, but it was still shocking and very fun to walk around and see.

After the fish market adventure, I went home for a brief nap before Tom's birthday party. Then, I helped get ready by frying some dango (a kind of sweet dumpling). It was a real challenge for me to cook in the Korean kitchen because I was supposed to flip everything with chopsticks. Oil plus chopsticks doesn't make the best friction, so that was an adventure.

During the party, about 16 of Tom's friends came over (all 12 year old boys). They ate and played and ran around like crazy. It was fun to see. Twelve year old boys are the same no matter what country you're in. Carina came to the party as well, and we sat together talking all afternoon. It was a pretty exhausting day after the fish market, so after Carina left and the party was over, we all just laid around the house relaxing for a while.

Sunday, Carina, Daria, and I went to Jeonju Hanok Village for the day. There is a free shuttle but for foreigners, which is very convenient since it is a three hour bus ride away from Seoul.

The village was very peaceful and fun. The biggest drawback was that it was incredibly hot, sunny, and humid all day. Staying cool was a challenge, and eventually I think I just got used to the feeling of possibly melting a little bit every step I took. We spent some time walking around. There was a small hill to climb that allowed us to get a great view of the entire village. We got to see a 600 year old tree and Gyeonggi Palace. Inside of the palace, they had the Royal Portrait Museum, where they kept the preserved portraits of some of the emperors of Korea. Unfortunately, photography inside the museum was prohibited. All over Jeonju, we saw girls dressed up in Hanboks walking around, taking pictures. I guess it's a very popular traditional thing to do, especially with all of the traditional scenery available. Kudos to those girls because I don't think a Hanbok looks like it was made for summer.

After the palace, Daria and Carina ended up sitting at a cafe while I went around by myself to finish exploring. I found my way to the music hall, which was having a free traditional singing performance. Then I visited the wine museum (no free samples), where I got to see the steps of making wine in traditional Korea (it might have been soju---sometimes translations are a little off).

Before we left, I got some street food for dinner. I got a grilled chicken stick with spicy sauce on it. I picked the middle spice level, but it ended up being so spicy that I cried. Naturally, I went back and got another one. I also got one of the famous choco pies, and I also got my very first coconut to drink out of. It was all so delicious, even if the chicken made me breath fire. Despite the heat, I had a wonderful time at Jeonju :)

Week 3, Part 1

As I recall, last Monday was a pretty mundane day at school. I'm enjoying the classes, and I think that they're very helpful in teaching us how to survive in this city. We're learning skills like how to order food at a restaurant, barter with a street vendor, or purchase an item at a store. While I think that these are all great skills to learn, and I have been using them quite a bit here in Seoul, I am a little bit frustrated that we haven't been learning more conversational skills. It almost feels like once I get back to the USA, I'll have trouble speaking in Korean with people because the things that I'm learning don't translate into conversations with friends. On the other hand, all of the Korean I'm learning is really coming in handy while I'm here. I've noticed that street vendors are far more likely to bargain with me when I speak Korean to them, and it's nice to be able to order my food without having to point and nod and hope I get the right item. Now, I'm just faced with the struggle of being able to read the menu, but generally having no idea what I'm actually ordering. Luckily, everything here is delicious, so it's not really a huge problem.

After class on Monday, I went back to the Kukkiwon Taekwondo arena. This time, I was able to find the Taekwondo museum and took a look around. I couldn't read anything besides the word Taekwondo, so I can only guess that the museum was talking about the history of Kukkiwon and competitive taekwondo.

I also ended up back at the official Kukkiwon arena. Again, the demo team was practicing, but this time, there were many other spectators. They were all taking pictures, so I assumed it was okay if I did the same. The practice looked pretty intense, but all of the athletes appeared to be having fun. I have some awesome videos I want to post, but Blogger is giving me problems getting them uploaded. I guess this picture will have to work instead.

Then I went back to another cat cafe. My phone was running low on battery, so I didn't get as many pictures as last time, but here are the few I got!

Tuesday, we ended class early to learn about the traditional Korean tea ceremony. Two of our classmates dressed up in the traditional Hanbok to demonstrate the tea ceremony. After, we all got to enjoy some tea and assorted cookie snacks. I was very surprised that the cookies were deep fried; of all of the places for me to encounter deep fried food, a traditional Korean tea house was not my first guess. The ceremony is very tedious and has many specific steps. If a mistake is made, it is disrespectful and I guess the tea doesn't brew properly (looks like my method of microwaving the tea leaves and water at the same time isn't quite right....).

After the tea ceremony, I had a quick lunch with some classmates, then headed off to see one of the few remaining temples in Seoul. FIrst, I stopped at the COEX mall to have a better look around. Last time I was there, I didn't really get to see anything besides the aquarium. It reminded me a lot of the shopping malls in the US, except this one was just a lot bigger. Then, I went to the Bonguensa Temple. I didn't know what to expect because I've never been to a Buddhist temple before, but I was surprised to see that the temple is still an active temple used by the people of Korea. The temple is located at the base of a mountain, which provides a majestic setting for all of the temple buildings, shrines, and Buddha statues. While the temple itself is in the middle of the big city, inside it feels like it is miles away from the bustling city life (or I guess I should say kilometers since that's the measurement they use here). A path leads back into the mountain from the temple, and I ended up taking that hike, although it was a little bit unintentional.

After visiting the temple, I went to the Seonjeongneung tombs. It was really peaceful there, and of course I got to see two of the tombs from Joseon dynasty. The burial site is huge, and while the tombs themselves aren't huge, they are built on top of large hills that make them appear much larger than they otherwise would.

Later, I met one of my classmates at a cafe, where we studied for our quiz the next day. We have quizzes every day or every other day, so it's always necessary to be studying the vocabulary for that unit.

Wednesday was a very tired, slow day. We were all struggling to make it through class, which was unfortunate because we went over a bunch of new grammar in those four hours. After a quick, uneventful lunch, I met with my language partner. She was very patient in helping me review the grammar that we had learned. She even taught me the grammar that we briefly went over at the end of the day that I didn't understand at all. We both had to laugh because I was reading a sentence out of my book in Korean, and I just had to stop because I didn't have any idea what was going on. I am so grateful to have her help because otherwise I'm not sure I would be understanding everything as well as I am now. She is patient and always ready to help me with what I need to practice, even when I ask her to help me with basic skills like reading the vocabulary words.

After we studied, we spent a while talking about the cultural differences between American people and Korean people. Korean people are very kind and friendly, but they often appear more cold by American standards. They do not make eye contact when walking down the street or standing in an elevator. Unless people already know each other, they don't speak when they pass on the sidewalks, and just stand quietly in an elevator, often facing away from the other occupants. Whenever I need to ask a Korean person for help, however, they are always willing to try their best to offer assistance, even with the prominent language barrier. When I am at a cafe, I see Korean people there with friends or family, and they are so lively and loud with their company. Americans, at least where I live, on the other hand, will often say hello as they pass on the streets, or at least provide some sort of acknowledgement to each other. Then, depending on who you ask for help, some people are more friendly, while others are in too big of a hurry to stop and help.

I think that there are pros and cons about each cultural style. It's much easier to approach someone in America when you don't know them, but on the other hand, here in Korea, I never have to worry about people trying to talk to me. We all just mind our own business. Although I am frequently the only obvious foreigner, nobody stares or wants pictures like they did while I was in China. The Korean culture in that regard is very different than the American culture that I've observed.

I've also noticed that in Korea, there are always many people passing out flyers by the subways. They never try to give me, or any other obvious foreigner, the papers. My Chinese, Korean, and Korean American friends are always having to dodge the flyers and salespeople, but I, along with my Russian, German, and American friends are always left alone. We've actually started a "Perks of being an obvious foreigner in Seoul." So far, it includes 1) not being bombarded with sales people and advertisements in the subways and 2) never having to bother taking out your passport to prove that you're a foreigner.

After I finished meeting with my language partner, I was very tired, so I went back home. I went with my host mother to take Tom to his academy. Academy is extra school that Korean children go to until they graduate high school. I have never met or heard of a child here not attending academy. The school system seems so taxing, and I hope that the kids actually have time to enjoy themselves between all of the school and studying and academy!

Since this post is getting pretty long, I'm going to go ahead and end it here. Usually I like to end on more of an interesting note, but I've probably said enough as it is. The next few days are coming soon!

PS, here's a picture of me with my brother Batman at the wax museum. I forgot to put it up in the last post. Enjoy :P