Heart and Seoul

An Empire State of Mind

2011-01-09T05:55:00.000+09:00

I know it's been a really long time since I've posted, and I still have a lot to catch you up on! I'm home now in New York; I'm on a different continent, in a different time zone, and even in a whole new year! I haven't deserted my blog though, and I fully intend on finishing it up, but it took me awhile to navigate back to this page since I've been home because of how much I miss Seoul. Reading through these posts takes me right back to Korea, with all of my abroad friends, frolicking through the bustling streets of Sinchon. I've been trying not to think too much about my experiences in Korea because of how much I miss it, but instead I've realized that I should be doing just the opposite! So I'm back to tell you about my adventures in Taiwan, our last few nights in Sinchon, and wheeling over 100 lbs of luggage down the street to the airport bus stop. Enjoy, and welcome back!

A Very American Thanksgiving- In Korea!

2010-12-10T22:47:00.003+09:00

For Thanksgiving the whole group got together and we had our own version of a very American Thanksgiving here in Korea! We all chipped in to rent an apartment to have our dinner at. We needed the use of a fully stocked kitchen to cook everything, and SK Global House isn't the most festive of locations. The apartment belonged to an older Korean couple who went to the States to visit their daughter for the holiday.

Jim and Rosie did almost all of the cooking. They made delicious stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and many other things. With the money that we all contributed, we bought many "American" items like dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, etc. from the American base, as well as an American grocery store that's in Itaewon. Also, we ordered our turkey from the American Base. I even made a cheesecake, which despite the doubts of some particular family members, came out great!

I went with my friend Steve to pick up the turkey and the pumpkin pies at the U.S. Army base in Itaewon, Yongsan Garrison. It was very cool seeing the base. We had to show our alien registration cards and get checked in. We ordered the food from the hotel that's on the base. It was a very nice hotel, very Western looking, with a beautiful lobby and restaurant inside. It was nice not to be the minority for a little while; we were surrounded by fellow Americans.

When the turkey came it out it was a lot smaller than Steve and I were expecting, we were a little nervous at first, but it ended up being the perfect amount for everybody. We were 14 people total and we did an excellent job of demolishing all the food, no leftovers for us! As we ate we all went around and said what were thankful for. I said I was thankful for my amazing family encouraging me and affording me this excellent opportunity.

Later on in the evening we watched the movie "It's a Wonderful Life". We all stayed the night since the apartment was still ours until the next day. The next morning we made scrambled eggs, pancakes, and banana bread, continuing with the American theme. Around 11:30 we snapped into gear because realized we had to be out of the apartment by noon and we still had a lot of cleaning to do. We got it all done though, and after a million dishes (the apartment did not have a dishwasher!), many remade beds, and a thorough vacuuming, we checked out of "Hotel Nice-Korean-Couple".

It was a lot of fun spending Thanksgiving with all of my study abroad friends, and it was so much fun organizing our own little American holiday. I definitely missed Thanksgiving with the family though, and it made me a bit more excited to go home.

Our delicious Thanksgiving dinner made by Rosie and Jim

Jim carving the turkey

So Long, Gyeongju

2010-12-10T22:16:00.004+09:00

It was our last day in Gyeongju and Andrew and I decided to rent bicycles to get around town. This way we could finish up seeing everything we had wanted to without having to worry about the less-than-accurate bus schedule. Kara had gotten up early and headed back to Seoul already because she had to tutor later in the day.

Andrew and I grabbed breakfast and then headed into town. We once again returned to the park with the burial mounds, but this time we actually bought tickets so that we could go inside one of them. The park was beautiful. It was so peaceful, and as I've previously mentioned the colorful leaves were just amazing. Being in a city for so long made me forget how much I enjoy the foliage.

Entering the park, so beautiful!

The mound was very neat. We walked inside and it was set up like a museum, there were a few artifacts and exhibits that we could read about, and of course, the actual burial of one of the kings. We left the park and headed towards the tourist complex to rent bikes.

We set off for a different part of town that we had not yet been to. Our first stop was the Poseokjeong, which is a small park and garden featuring rocks placed in the shape of an abalone. The Poseokjeong is also part of a small waterway and it's said the be the place of an ancient Shilla villa. After walking around the park we decided to bike around the village. We "off-roaded" a bit and biked down a cement path through some farmland. It was a lot of fun and a very relaxing way to spend our last day. We headed through some of the villages a bit and it really surprised me how rural some of these homes still were. It's astounding that Seoul, a city so huge, complex, and developed is only a few hours from this part of the country that seems to be years behind.

The Poseokjeong, shaped like an abalone

The village was very pretty and it was nice to be out of the city for awhile. We stumbled on a huge Buddha sculpture and decided to take a closer look at it. It appeared to be simply part of somebody's backyard, but as we cautiously approached, nobody stopped us. This Buddha was so big that we couldn't help but want to climb up on it. The only thing I could think of was that it'd be cool to sit in Buddha's lap! So quickly, Andrew climbed up and I snapped a few pictures, and then I climbed up and he did the same. Mission accomplished.

Big Buddha and me!

Tired, a little stinky, and very hungry, we headed back to town to get lunch, grab our things, and get going. We had a delicious lunch of soybean porridge. I had mine with brown sugar and rice cake and Andrew had his with noodles. We said goodbye to our hosts at Sa Rang Chae and then walked to the bus station. Unfortunately, the earliest bus available wasn't until 6pm, but we didn't mind waiting. The bad news was that the normal 4 hour trip turned into a 6 hour trip because of all the traffic heading into the city. It was a bummer getting back into Seoul so late, but stopping for some midnight Korean BBQ before heading back to SK Global House definitely put Andrew and me in a better mood!

Saying goodbye to our wonderful hosts at Sa Rang Chae

Day 2 in Gyeongju

2010-12-10T20:49:00.000+09:00

The next day in Gyeongju we woke up and had some breakfast in the kitchen/common room which was adjacent to our "family room". We helped ourselves to eggs and toast and we got to meet some of the other guests that were staying at Sa Rang Chae. There were other people from different parts of Korea, the States, and from Europe.

The Bulguksa Temple is one of the most well-known temples in Korea and it was only a short bus ride from our hostel so we knew we had to see it. South Korea has ranked it number one on the list of most historic and scenic sites in Korea, and it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The temple was beautiful! The sun was shining and it was warm out, we had a great time just walking around the park, through the different parts of the temple, and taking lots of pictures. We were lucky to get to see the amazing fall foliage because in Seoul the leaves were already gone.

Loving the fall foliage at the Bulguksa Temple

In front of the Seokgatap, a beautiful 13-century old pagoda inside the temple

Another famous site is the Seokguram Grotto. This was only a few miles away from the temple and we took a shuttle up to the top of the mountain where the grotto was located. Unfortunately, the opening was blocked by plexi-glass, but the stone carved Buddha inside was beautiful. We took pictures and then headed back towards the shuttle.

The view from the top of the mountain where the grotto was.

When we got back into the main part of the city, we had lunch at a delicious "juk" restaurant. Juk is the Korean word for the famous porridge that is served here in the winter time. My all-time favorite Korean food is "hobakjuk" which is pumpkin porridge.

We headed back towards the guesthouse but stopped first at a park that was filled with mound burials of the old kings. We walked around the area for bit enjoying the scenery and taking in the friendliness of the historic town; we realized that we had just missed a pumpkin carving contest! There were beautifully carved pumpkins all over the park. Located in the same area is the Cheomseongdae, which is the oldest surviving astrological observatory in East Asia. Although not as big as I was expecting, it was still really neat.

In front of the Cheomseongdae Observatory

That night back at the hostel we ordered McDonald's for dinner. We hated being "such Americans" but we were too tired to head back out and in Korea you can get anything delivered! Chinese was our first choice, but they stopped delivering at 8. I gotta say though, a burger and fries was not a bad way to end the evening.

Going to Gyeongju, Day 1

2010-11-30T10:45:00.000+09:00

Two weekends ago I went to Gyeongju with Andrew and Kara. Gyeongju is a city located near the southeastern coast. It is most well-known for being the capital of the Silla Kingdom which ruled Korea between the 7th and 9th centuries. We left on Friday afternoon by bus from Seoul and arrived that evening around 5pm. Kara made us reservations at an awesome guesthouse called Sa Rang Chae.

The guesthouse was really nice. It was run by a cute older couple and they were really helpful the whole time with directions and tips. The guesthouse was made up of a few Korean style rooms connected in a rectangle shape so that there was a small courtyard in the middle with a little garden, picnic tables, and a fire pit. We had reserved the "family room" which was the biggest room they had and it had a private bathroom. The rooms were Korean style which meant we slept on the heated floors, also there was a couch and a TV.

The first night we walked into town where most of the famous tourist sights were. There was a big park with many huge, grassy mounds which are the tombs of all the Silla kings. Also in the park is the Cheomseongdae observatory which was built by the Sillas; also it's one of the most famous astronomical observatories because it's the oldest one still standing in East Asia. We walked around the park and the tourist complex for a bit before looking for the restaurant we wanted to eat at.

We had dinner at a restaurant that was recommended in Andrew's guidebook. The area is known for ssambap and so that's what we decided to try. Ssampbap refers to rice wrapped in lettuce along with many other items that are served as side dishes, these are called banchan. The side dishes we received included fish, soybean paste, soup, sesame noodles, pickled vegetables, kimchi, a leg of some unknown creature, and a few other items. I was not impressed with the dinner and although it was nice to experience the area's specialty, I just wanted some meat!

Our table at dinner; many, many side dishes!

After dinner we walked through town to Anapji Pond, a gorgeous pond and park that was built by the Sillas. The pond and the pagodas were beautifully preserved and it was especially nice to see everything lit up at night. It was quite cold at this point so we did a quick walk-through and then headed back to our hostel to get cozy with some tea.

Andrew, Kara, and me in front of the pond at the Anapji Park.

The reflections in the water were my favorite part.

Historical pagodas from the Silla Kingdom.

Seoul Lantern Festival

2010-11-16T15:29:00.001+09:00

Last weekend I went to the Seoul Lantern Festival with my friend Kara. It was a beautiful festival along the Cheonggye Stream consisting of over 27,000 lanterns from 24 different nations! There were large life-size lanterns in the middle of the stream and then many other smaller ones along the sides of the stream. The festival opened just in time for the G20 and it was absolutely packed. Kara and I went around 9pm in order to avoid the large crowds from the opening ceremony, but it was still so crowded it was hard to get really close to the water.

The view from the end of the stream where the opening ceremony was held. Yes, that's a Bennigan's in the background.

Is that Bambi?

I've previously written about the Cheonggye Stream, it's a beautiful man-made stream that was part of a big restoration project that got Korea's current president, Lee Myung-bak elected. The festival was one of the many "Hi Seoul" events, which were basically a series of projects and events to spruce up the city for the G20.

It's never to early to get in the holiday spirit!

Some of the lanterns were really amazing. They were all beautiful, but the life-size ones were just amazing. It was hard to get good pictures because it was nighttime, but I was able to get a few shots. My favorite lantern was a rotating globe and standing on top of the globe were miniature models of all the G20 leaders holding their respective flags. Very impressive.

A shot of the G20 world leaders!

Lady Liberty made it all the way to Seoul!

Also there were some cute projects for the kids to do at the festival. One of them was making lanterns out of a cardboard cut-out. The kids were decorating them and writing messages inside of them (not that I could read what they were writing). They were then given a candle to put inside of it and then set them free on the stream. It reminded me something we would do on the lake at camp; also I felt an overwhelming desire to go over to the crafts table and start helping the kids like a camp counselor!

Korean kids are too cute, look how sassy she is!

Bye Bye Busan

2010-11-15T23:50:00.003+09:00

It was our second and last day in Busan. It was a short trip, but we all had to get back for class on Monday (yes, we do actually go to class sometimes). We left out motel and then walked along the Gwangalli beach for a bit. We hadn't seen it in the daytime. The ocean was beautiful and the temperatures were much warmer than Seoul.

We grabbed a quick breakfast at a coffee shop and then headed for the subway. We were going to check out the famous hot springs in a northern part of the city. There are many spas you can go to with water from the springs, but we decided just to check out the water from the springs that was right in the middle of town. When Busan hosted the APEC meeting in 2005 they built a little foot bath with water from the hot springs. It was really neat! We took off our shoes and sat with our feet in the pool; the water was extremely hot but it felt good. There were many older Koreans sitting there and like usual, they didn't hesitate to stare at us.

Felix taking a picture of Rosie and me at the springs.

Nothing like starting your day off with a little foot soak!

We then continued toward the base of Mt. Geumjeong, a mountain located in the northern area of the city. We took a cable car up to the top and the view on the way up was spectacular; we could see the entire city of Busan. At the top of the mountain is Geumgang Park, which is a famous tourist destination of Busan. Koreans love to hike and so there are many different hiking trails at the top of the mountain. We were most interested in seeing the Geumjeongsanseong, which is an old fortress in the park. It was built in the 18th century to protect Korea from both Chinese and Japanese invasions.

A shot of the cable car from the top of the mountain. In the background you can see how big the city of Busan is!

While hiking through the park on our way to the fortress, we encountered a bizarre, yet fun group of Koreans hanging out at the restaurant that was at the top of mountain. There were all sorts of families and adults, including many kids and older Koreans. It kind of had a "family-reunion" feel to it, although we think that it was just a big group of locals enjoying a Sunday afternoon. Those that weren't eating or socializing were playing a game on a volleyball court that was a volleyball-tennis-soccer variation. They were really intense about it and we realized quickly that they were playing for money.

Rosie and me at the top of the mountain in Geumgang Park.

The scenario by the restaurant was so intriguing. We couldn't help but stop watch them play for a bit. In no time many of the locals came up to talk to us. Very few of them spoke English, but they asked us to join the game and even offered us food. Rosie and Felix headed in to join the game. It was so funny watching them try to learn the rules to the game; from what I could understand you could kick, bump, or head to ball back over the net. At one point Rosie even "scored" and all these old Korean men rushed over to her and started hugging her and yelling something that I couldn't understand. It was pretty funny!

Rosie scored!

I was sitting at a table watching them play but also talking with these cute little Korean kids; sitting with the kids is much more up my alley than playing the game. The kids were so adorable I just wanted to take them home with me!

When the game was over a group of older women brought out trays and trays of Korean food. They literally pulled us over to the table and just started feeding us. I mean, literally, these women were so aggressive, they were shoving kimchi into my mouth! I wasn't complaining though, they were really nice people and I think that they were just so excited by our presence. Also they were pouring shots of Soju (Korean vodka) and Makoli (Korean rice wine) and were insisting that we drink with them.

Andrew trying to understand the wonderful and old Koreans as they merrily force-fed us.

Displaying hospitality in any kind of situation is deeply ingrained in the Korean culture. So although these Koreans were extremely aggressive in feeding us and making us drink, it was their way of welcoming us to their get-together. We stayed for awhile longer and then kept heading towards the fortress.

The remains of the fortress were beautiful, most of it had been knocked down, but the main gate remained almost completely in tact.

The entrance to the fortress.

It was slowly beginning to get dark so we headed back towards the cable car and took it back down to the base. Andrew and I were taking the KTX back to Seoul, but the others were taking the bus and had to head to the bus station.

Andrew and I took the subway back to Busan Station and purchased our KTX tickets and then went looking for somewhere to get dinner. Across from the station is Busan's China Town, although very small, we managed to find a yummy Chinese restaurant for dinner. Afterwards we wandered around some more but then headed back to the station for our 8:40pm train. now. All in all, it was a great trip. We didn't do as much as I had wanted, but it's hard with such a big group. After a quite speedy 2 and half hours, we were at Seoul Station. Arriving back in Seoul is always nice because now it feels like home to me.

A Trip to Busan

2010-11-06T20:43:00.001+09:00

This past weekend I traveled to Busan with Andrew, Steve, Rosie, and Felix. Busan is a port city located on the southeastern coast of Korea and it's the second largest city in the country. Andrew and I took the KTX train from Seoul Station to Busan and I'm really glad we did that instead of taking the bus. The KTX is Korea's high-speed express train. This thing moves! We got to Busan in about 2 hours and 30 minutes, while the bus was a 5 hour ride. The TV monitor on the train told us that we were going 289 km/h, which is about 180 mph!

We got to Busan in no time; the sun was shining and it was really warm out. We knew the rest of the group wouldn't be arriving for a few more hours so we decided to check out the "world's biggest department store" while we waited. We hopped on the Busan subway, which was a far smaller and simpler system than Seoul's. The Shinsegae department store was beautiful, it is indeed certified by the Guiness Book of World Records as the world's largest department store, the Macy's in Herald Square takes second place.

Andrew and I had a lot of fun exploring the place. There was so much to see on each floor, it was quite overwhelming. There was an ice skating rink, day spa, and even a driving range. Once we got word that the group's bus had arrived in Busan, we headed over to the famous fish market to meet them.

The Jagalchi Fish Market in Busan is the Korea's largest fish market and it was definitely worth seeing. The place was huge! There were floors and floors of aquariums and vendors and perhaps the coolest thing was seeing the live octopus. The famous attraction at the fish market is eating "live octopus" at the upstairs restaurants. The octopus isn't actually still living, but since it's freshly killed, it still moves around the plate. When Andrew and I had arrived at the market the group had already tried the live octopus. It was a bummer that they didn't wait for us but what can you do.

One of the vendors at Jagalchi Fish Market. All the fish you can imagine!

After the fish market we took a cab to the entrance of the Taejongdae Cliffs. These cliffs overlook the Korea Straight, which is the water body in between South Korea and Japan. It is said that on a very clear day you can even see the coast of Japan from the cliffs, however I could not see anything. We took a tram up to the top and then descended many stairs to get out onto the cliffs. The sight was beautiful! We could see the Taejongdae lighthouse and an amazing view of the ocean as the sun was setting.

The view of the Taejongdae Cliffs before getting all the way down.

Steve and me on our way down to the cliffs.

Rosie and me as the sun is setting, in the background is the Taejongdae Lighthouse.

After sunset it got quite dark so we left the cliffs and walked around to the other side of the area. We took a look at some of the memorials that were on the other side of the cliffs and then walked back down to the base. We jumped on a bus and then met up with Andrew who had decided to do some other stuff around the city.

We were tired and hungry so we decided to look for a motel or a hostel before it got any later. The group found this sketchy (sketchy is an understatement!) motel outside of Gwangalli (a well-known tourist district in Busan) and decided to take a look. All the rooms were Korean style, which meant that it was merely a floor with some blankets; no beds, no furniture. The man flipped on the light to show us the room and cockroaches scattered into the holes in the floor! No way was I staying there!

We then headed into Gwangalli, which is where the Gwangalli beach is located and a part of the city where a lot of tourists stay. The beach was beautiful and the area was a lot nice than where we had previously been looking. We had no problem finding a motel here. The one the group chose was still sketchy and gross, but it was fine for just one night.

We headed out to the beach and walked through the sand for awhile. It was so beautiful, even in the dark. We had an awesome view of the Gwangan Bridge which was all lit up with different colored lights. We bought some drinks (once again, enjoying the ability to drink legally!) and then headed to the other side of the beach to pick out our fish for dinner! One of the main attractions of Busan is picking out a fish at a fish market and then having a restaurant skin and bone it for you and then eating it for dinner!

The view of the Gwangan Bridge from the beach.

At the end of the beach was a huge multi-floored building. The bottom floor was made up of 20 or 30 different fish vendors, all loud and feisty Korean women trying to sell their fish. We bargained for a good price from this one vendor and picked out three different fish. One of them was a flounder, but we're not sure what they other two were. We paid about 40,000 won for the three fish and then the lady killed them right there in front of us! She then put them in a basket and we followed her as she led us upstairs to a restaurant on the 5th floor. Each vendor works for a different restaurant that is in the fish market complex, so depending on who you buy your fish from is the restaurant that you eat at.

The woman that we bought our fish from, she's holding our first selection!

She was just about to kill one of our fish. Notice my head peaking in on the right, I was trying to get a better look!

The restaurant seated us Korean style, on the floor, and we ate some delicious scallion pancake and salad. After what seemed like years, our fish was finally served to us on a big platter, all boned and cut up into small pieces. We had lettuce wraps, rice, sauce, and a bunch of other Korean sides. The fish was delicious. It was like a sushi-lettuce wrap combination. Although I enjoyed it, I much prefer traditional sushi. Our waiter also brought us a soup which had the rest of the fish in it, including the skeleton and the head.

Steve, me and Andrew with our fish. The vendor had just brought us upstairs to the restaurant.

The end product, one of three platters full of raw fish!

After dinner we ventured over to a carnival that was on the beach. We had a lot of fun watching Felix and Rosie "bullride" and we ended the night riding a big pirate ship ride. As I'm sure you all can picture, the pirate ship ride is basically a huge boat that swings back and forth. We were so high up that on the "up" swing that we had a fantastic view of the city! Exhausted, Andrew and I headed back to the motel shortly after that, we wanted to get up early the next day to see the rest of the city.

Felix and me at the carnival, behind us the epic pirate ship ride.

Lunch With Some Awesome Koreans

2010-11-03T23:56:00.000+09:00

Today after my Sports Medicine class, two people from my group, and a girl from last project's group, asked if I would like to join them for lunch today! It was really great being invited because as I've mentioned before I'm the only Caucasian in the class. It meant a lot to me to be included and we had a really wonderful time.

We went to the upstairs cafeteria in the Student Union, it's typically less crowded than the downstairs one. There's about 4 different food stations, 2 Korean ones, an Italian one, and then a Chinese-fusion food station. I ordered a meal from the Korean station that I've had before. My classmates insisted on treating me to lunch which was incredibly kind.

I had a Korean "lunchbox". It's a metal box with rice, mini hotdogs, seaweed topping, fried egg, and kimchi. It also comes with sardines which I always ask the Korean ladies working there to make mine without. The servers don't speak English so it's quite comical watching me try to communicate "no sardines please". I usually make a fishy face and pretend to swim and then I make an 'X' with my arms, which is the Korean symbol for 'no'. Of course, I could ask someone around me to translate for me, but this is way more fun. And although the ladies don't smile, I know they're laughing inside.

Lunch was fantastic. I ate with Sungha and Oohyun who are my current group mates and Haedeun who was in my group for the last project. We had a great time talking about funny American habits and what it's been like for me adjusting to the Korean culture. Probably the funniest moment was when they asked me if it's true that Americans from the west coast and the east coast talk at different speeds. Definitely a random question, but it's interesting to hear what they've been told about Americans. I explained that it's a silly, but common stereotype that people from the west coast speak really slow, in a relaxed tone and that people from the east coast speak very fast with more of a type A nature. They especially laughed when I tried to impersonate a west-coaster!

It was a great experience to not just be included, but to have the opportunity to get to know my Korean classmates much better. As of now my social interactions have always been with fellow exchange students and sometimes some Korean friends from Mentors Club, so having lunch with my classmates was was a really cool change of pace.

A Very Korean Halloween

2010-11-02T16:14:00.000+09:00

This past Thursday was the Mentors Club annual Halloween party. Halloween is not really that popular in Korea, but Mentors Club hosts a Halloween party every year to celebrate with the Westerners. This year it was held at Club Mass in Gangnam, which was a really cool club. I went as Madonna and Andrew was a vampire, also Kia made herself a really awesome jellyfish costume. The subway ride there was definitely interesting, everybody was staring at us more than usual!

The club was absolutely packed. Although we all purchased tickets beforehand, we still had to wait in a long line to get in. It was cool because the party was only Yonsei University exchange students. It was fun to hang out with people who live in my dorm, but whom I otherwise don't really see throughout the day.

I danced with my friends for awhile but eventually it just wasn't fun anymore because of how crowded the place was. The line to the bar was so long, and and although we had free drink passes, it still wasn't worth waiting in. Eventually Andrew and I decided to head back to Sinchon, the party went until 5am, but by 3 we were wiped out. We stopped on the way back to SK Global House for some yummy Korean BBQ.

All in all, it was okay night. The party was fun for a little while and it's really nice that Mentorsclub puts together a Halloween party for the exchange students. I definitely missed the good old American Halloween with lots of candy and everyone wearing costumes, but this Halloween in Korea is definitely something that I'll never forget.

Kia, me and Ariane. Notice Kia's cool jellyfish costume!

Andrew and me at the Halloween party.

I guess it's called Club Mass for a reason. Masses of people!

A Midnight Snack

2010-10-27T17:07:00.001+09:00

Once in awhile you just need a midnight snack! I was finishing up a powerpoint last night for my Sports Medicine class and afterwards I went to Andrew's room to hang out and plan our upcoming trip to Busan. Around midnight we both gave each other the "I need some nosh" look. Midterms were finally over and after barely leaving SK Global House for the past 4 days, we were feeling a little stir-crazy.

We decided to venture into Sinchon for something to eat. We bundled up, which was an entirely new experience for us since being in Korea. It was still 70 degrees just two days ago, and last night it was only 36 degrees! Well that's Seoul weather for you. It's hard to imagine Seoul being anything but hot and humid. Walking outside with our wool coats, scarves, and gloves, felt really good though. To me, it was the familiarity of upstate New York weather. You could even feel the refreshing coldness in the air, I just love that wintery smell!

Between the quiet of the night and the cold temperatures, Sinchon was so peaceful! Of course the only things open were Korean BBQ restaurants and coffee and waffle shops. That was okay though, we found a delicious K-BBQ restaurant that we haven't tried before and it hit the spot. Surprisingly, the place was actually busy at that hour, it seems that New York isn't the only city that never sleeps.

We headed back, and although it was late and we both had class the next morning, I'm still glad we went. For the first time in awhile I slept really well last night. And of course it was nice waking up to the heated floors. So bring on the cold weather, Seoul!

A Day Out With Professor Chun (Again!)

2010-10-26T16:23:00.001+09:00

This past Saturday Professor Chun arranged for our Religion and Culture class to go tour the Korean Folk Village outside of Seoul. The weather was beautiful that day and we all had so much fun. We met around 9am in the lobby of SK Global House and walked together to the bus stop. We took 2 buses to get there, one to Gangnam and then the other to the village, and it took about 90 minutes to get there. I enjoyed the ride though because I took a nice nap on the way!

The village was beautiful. It's essentially a museum-like park set up like a traditional Korean folk village. You can walk around, go into most of the buildings and houses, and there's even a small market and food court. Also there's demonstrations and activities for the kids, as well as a horse show that we caught the tail end of (no pun intended).

Yes, that man is riding upside-down!

We walked around with Professor Chun and he explained a bit about eastern culture and religion at each stop we made. It felt like we had our own personal tour guide! We then all ate lunch at the market. I had a potato pancake (it made me very excited for Hanukkah time!) and some soup, and as a class we shared some rice cake that Professor Chun bought. At the market place we got to meet Professor Chun's reverend from his church back home in Kansas City. His reverend is visiting South Korea with his family for the week and they decided to come to the folk village and meet our class.

One of the performances we caught was actually a national contest between grade schools. Students were competing in the "Traditional Korean Mask Competition" where each school's team would perform a folk dance incorporating the traditional masks. It was very interesting to watch and the kids were very cute. It reminded me of when I would compete in chorus and band against other schools in the area.

Korean grade school students getting ready to perform their folk routine.

We continued to walk around and see things like traditional servants' quarters, the government house, a rich man's estate, a silk farm, etc. Before we left we sat down in one of the tea houses and we all shared a cup of traditional medicinal tea and some candied ginger. The tea had a very strange taste but it was really fun sharing the tea with the class and "experiencing culture", as Professor Chun says. We headed back in the late afternoon, and after walking around for most of the day, we all enjoyed a nap on the bus ride back.

Sharing some tea with Professor Chun and the class, very Korean of us.

Unsuccessfully trying to make friends with a donkey. At least I tried.

And another one bites the dust...

2010-10-25T11:47:00.002+09:00

Well my roommate Joe moved out last week. That's the second roommate I've had thus far. Maybe it's me? But in this case it was just a matter of polar opposite schedules. Joe liked to stay up all night, and I mean all night, to about 4 or 5 in the morning if I was lucky! She had been thinking about getting an apartment for awhile now so it made sense for her to go now. Especially since it's midterms week and I need my sleep!

Sometimes I miss having a roommate, but it's nice to have two closets again and to have the room to myself. And truthfully, I'm really not in my room much so it's not that big of a deal.

Yesterday marked the halfway point for my semester here in Seoul. I can't believe it! It seriously feels like last week that I got off the airplane, greeted by a sea of Asians in this big city, lost, confused, and blonde! At this point I definitely feel more at home though. I have my schedule memorized, I am finally able to pronounce all of my professors' names, and I can communicate with a cab driver to get back to SK Global House. I even have the Seoul subway system down, now that's impressive!

The Seoul subway system. Sinchon is located at stop 240 on the green line, #2. That's in the middle, left hand side.

Bye For Now, Jeju

2010-10-24T17:31:00.000+09:00

Well the day had finally come and it was time for us to leave our beloved Jeju. Even after being there for only 4 days I had already felt a connection to the place and the people. It's funny really, because when I first got to Seoul and began the semester getting to know Sinchon, it certainly took more than 4 days, even a bit more than 4 weeks to really feel a connection to my new surroundings. Yet Jeju was different and we loved every part of being there. In fact, that became one of our favorite sayings of the week along with "Charge it". The Jeju tourist organization has signs and billboards all around the island that say We love having you here! and so every time Andrew and I saw one these signs we looked at each other and said, "We love being here!"

We got up and had breakfast and packed up all of our stuff. We said goodbye to Sylvia and Peter, which like saying goodbye to Ilene, was really sad. Sylvia took out her camera and asked to get a picture of Andrew and me because she said she likes to take a photograph of all of her guests. Of course, we asked if we could get a picture with her as well. We then left and headed for the airport shuttle stop which was right around the corner from the inn.

Sylvia and me before leaving Tae Gong Gak. Behind us are countless messages, pictures, and letters that guests have left Sylvia and Peter.

The flight was short and smooth and perhaps the most funny and exciting part was the passenger sitting next me. To my right was a Korean man, probably in his 50s. I'm not sure if it was actually his first time on a plane, or if he was just trying to be funny, but as the plane was taking off he put is hands up in the air and shouted "Whhaaaahooo" as we ascended. He then looked at me and just started giggling, I couldn't help but laugh as well. It was quite funny and certainly a memorable moment.

A shot from the flight back to Seoul from Jeju. The distance was so short that we could see the ground or the ocean for almost the entirety of flight.

We got back to campus around 2pm and I had class at 3. We were certainly not on vacation anymore! While in Jeju Andrew and I talked a lot about if we would actually return to Jeju at some point down the road. I'd like to think that I would come back at some point; it would be really special to someday show my kids all the things I experienced while I was here.

Jeju Island Day 4

2010-10-21T17:11:00.004+09:00

It was our last full day and we were determined to make the most of it. As Bree told us, we just had to "Charge it!". Andrew and I had hit up basically every big Jeju sight except for Mt. Hallasan, the Manjanggul lave tubes, and Seongsan Ilchubong, commonly referred to as Sunrise Peak. Mt. Hallasan, the statuesque volcano that lies in the middle of Jeju, was far too much of an undertaking for the hiking abilities of Andrew and me. Bree and her friends had climbed Mt. Halla and said it was an "easy" 4 to 6 hour hike, but Andrew and I took one look at each other and said, "Uh-uh, no way", we'll admire it from a distance.

We really wanted to see the famous underground lava tubes though, and we were desperate to climb Sunrise Peak. We headed out early after having a nice breakfast at Tae Gong Gak and then Sylvia showed us how to take the bus to the lava tubes. The sky was looking really gray, and considering we had had perfect, sunny weather the whole time, we weren't too bummed. We'd rather be underground or hiking when it rained, rather than on the beach or at the waterfalls. Sylvia even gave us rain ponchos with our directions, it felt like Sylvia was our mother and she was getting us all ready to get on the bus for school!

The bus ride was a bit long, almost 90 minutes, but it was fine because we were passing through the rain. We found the lava tubes right away and without wasting any time bought our tickets and headed on down. The Manjanggul lava tubes are an extensive system of underground tubes that lava rushed through during the last eruption. This particular site is considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and South Korea takes a lot of pride in it and has preserved the area so well that over 8km are open for the public to walk through. Unfortunately, we had missed the English tour but it was alright because we wanted to hustle through. It was chilly down there and we were anxious to get to Sunrise peak. The tubes were really cool though and I'm glad we had kept them on our list. It reminded me of Howe Caverns, except that they were way bigger and far more dramatic. It was hard to get good pictures because it was so dark, but we did manage to get a few good shots.

Oh you know, just hanging out in a lava tube, the usual.

After the lava tubes, we got back onto the bus and headed to the town of Seongsan-ri where Sunrise Peak is located. Sunrise Peak is a volcanic crater that lies slightly off the east coast of Jeju. In fact, the crater is the most eastern part of the island, which is why it's called Sunrise Peak, because it's the first part the island that the sun hits each morning. There is one side of the crater that you can climb up but unfortunately you cannot go into the crater, once at the top the center is blocked off. The hike going up was not bad at all, only about 20 minutes, and most of the way up there were stairs carved into the path. As expected the view was amazing. You could see the ocean for miles as well as a panoramic view of Jeju.

Here is Sunrise Peak, we climbed the crater from the left side but we were not able to go down into the grassy middle.

I made it to the top! To the left is the middle of the crater and to the right is the small town of Seongsan-ri, which lies on the eastern coast of Jeju Island.

We headed back down the path and then did a little shopping at the base of the crater. There were many souvenir shops and food vendors. We were exhausted so we got back on the bus shortly after and headed back to the inn. We asked Sylvia and Peter for dinner recommendations again and they suggested a popular Chinese restaurant nearby. Unfortunately, it had already closed, we were starving so we settled upon an interesting looking Korean restaurant in the same area. Andrew ordered kimchi stew and I ordered a scallion pancake and when our food came we were stunned! Both orders looked like they could feed a small army. There was so much food and if we had known how big our meal was going to be we would've just shared something. The food was pretty good though, but not nearly as delicious as the night before.

Afterwards we stopped at a little cafe around the corner that Sylvia thought we might really like. She said a lot of foreigners go there and I'm glad we went. I had a delicious hot chocolate and it was nice to be around other people speaking English for a little bit; for the first time in awhile I don't think Andrew and I were the minorities, there were many other Americans there. The cafe had a lot of books, most of them in English, and we had fun reading some of them to each other. The funniest one I picked up was a dictionary on popular English phrases. It was fun to read about how they defined phrases like "You gotta be kidding me" and "Fish outta water". We didn't want to end our last night in Jeju so soon, but we were exhausted and we had to catch the airport shuttle at 9 am the next morning, so we headed on back to Tae Gong Gak (that rhymes!).

Jeju Island Day 3

2010-10-21T00:05:00.002+09:00

It was day 3 of our trip which meant it was time for Andrew and me to leave the Island Guesthouse and travel to another part of the island, Seogwipo. In Seogwipo, we'd be staying at the Tae Gong Gak Inn. This inn and guesthouse was recommended to me by a fellow HWS student, Amy, who had stayed there last spring while she was studying abroad in Seoul, also at Yonsei University.

We woke up, had breakfast and then headed out. We went to go tour a historical, but still functioning, Buddhist temple that was only a few miles from the Island Guesthouse. Ilene suggested it to us because she said it was really beautiful and had a great view of Insong-ri. It was really cool to see a temple that had many ancient features but was still currently being used by the Buddhists in the area. We walked around the temple and even hiked up part of the mountain that it was carved into, Mt. Sanbang, where there was a "fountain of youth". Andrew took a drink from it, but I wasn't risking a parasite or some other fluke illness!

Andrew and me at the Mt. Sanbang Buddhist temple

We returned to the guesthouse shortly after and packed up our stuff. It was sad saying goodbye to Ilene, she was such a big help and we liked spending time with her so much. Naturally, she wrote out detailed instructions for us how to get to Seogwipo by bus and after we hugged and snapped some pictures we left. The bus ride to Seogwipo was really easy. We transferred once and while we were waiting for our next bus we ran into to an E-mart for a healthy lunch consisting of chocolate donuts and sliced pineapple! We found Tae Gong Gak without any problems and checked into our room right away. Sylvia and Peter, the owners, were so sweet and they were so excited to meet us! It felt like they had been waiting for us to arrive all day. Our room was beautiful, for the price of a hostel, it was incredibly clean and roomy and the best part was that we had an excellent view of Seogwipo Harbor.

The goal was to head back out immediately because there was so much more to see, but Andrew fell asleep after just "trying out the bed" and I couldn't help but want a nap either. We did go out soon afterwards though and Peter and Sylvia showed us exactly where everything was. Seogwipo is known for the two most famous waterfalls of Jeju, Cheonjiyeon and Jongbang. With detailed directions from Sylvia and Peter (they actually showed us pictures on a computer monitor of how to get there!) we easily found our way to the first one, Jongbang. The Jongbang waterfall is said to be the only waterfall in Asia that falls directly into the ocean. We bought our tickets and hiked down a small path, and then all of a sudden there it was right there in front of us; it was absolutely breathtaking! We were so close to it, and there were tons of other people around, most likely from all different parts of the world, admiring the falls and posing for pictures. We took plenty of pictures but then left right away because Peter recommended we check out the Saeyeon Bridge before sunset.

Having another "Am I really here?" moment at Jongbang waterfall.

We walked over to Seogwipo Harbor and we hustled in order to make the sunset. We made it though and it was fantastic. We walked across the Saeyeon Bridge as the sun was setting and we had a terrific view. The Saeyon Bridge is a pedestrian bridge that connects Seogwipo Harbor to Saesom Island. Saesom Island, meaning "bird island", is a beautiful little island that has a small nature path, as well as a path through the lava rock formations, which allow you to get a bit farther out into the ocean. While walking Saesom, we met a cool guy from Sweden whose name I unfortunately can't remember. It was fun to talk to him for a bit and share stories; he's just traveling around the world while he's "still young" he says. He offered to take a picture of Andrew and me, and we returned the favor.

Andrew and me on Saesom Island, compliments of the cool Swedish guy.

The beautiful Sayeon Bridge just as the sun was setting; to the right is Seogwipo Harbor.

After we left Saesom it was dark and Sylvia and Peter told us that was the perfect time to see the Cheonjiyeon Waterfall. It was only a short walk away from the heart of Seogwipo harbor and we even made friends on the way! We met a couple, probably a few years older than Andrew and me, who were also looking for the waterfalls. The girl is from Canada and she's been teaching English in Seoul for almost 2 years. She was traveling with a guy who is studying in Seoul but he's only been here for a few months. Andrew and I believe they are an item, but the verdict's still out. We pointed them in the right direction of the waterfalls and then kept bumping into them, turns out they were staying at our inn so we even had breakfast with them the next morning! They even offered to give us a ride to the airport since they had rented a car, which was extremely nice of them, but our flights were at two different times. Note, I respectfully declined the offer since the second they mentioned "rental car" Andrew couldn't stop fuming.

Cheonjiyeon Waterfall was located in a beautiful manmade park that was all lit up. The sight of the falls with the lights on it was just gorgeous. I noticed that at every waterfall we'd been to there were two sets of people, those that just stared in awe, and those that were busy taking pictures, snapping a hundred shots a minute. I believe Andrew and I belonged to the first group, but then transitioned into the second. For the first few minutes we couldn't help but just stare and marvel in the falls' beauty, it was such an amazing sight and it felt so good to finally be seeing all the cool things that we had been planning for and reading about for so long.

Admiring the amazing scenery, Cheonjiyeon Waterfall.

We were starving at this point so we were happy when Sylvia recommended a delicious multi-course Korean restaurant nearby. In fact, a couple of Sylvia's friends happened to be at the inn visiting Sylvia and they offered to show Andrew and me right where the restaurant was! It was quite a hoot getting a personal tour from these two ladies; they were both really sweet but spoke very little English. They did show us around the area a bit on the way to dinner and we got a very nice tour in Korean! At one point one of the ladies even picked a purple flower from a garden on the side of the street and put it in my ear, so tropical island like!

The area that the restaurant was located in is called "Lee Jung Seop Street". The surrounding streets were lined with the interesting artwork of Lee Jung Seop, a famous old Korean artist. The restaurant was really great; our server was so friendly and he even knew the two ladies that had shown us to the restaurant, so when we got there it felt like one big party! We ordered the multi-course meal (in Korea they refer to that as a "set") for two and it began with a delicious pumpkin rice porridge, and included beef tartare, a scallion pancake, Korean noodles, kiwi salad, stuffed shrimp, spring rolls, fish, and two beef patties. The food was absolutely delicious, by far the best Korean food that I've had yet. Perhaps the funniest part of the evening was that every time our waiter approached our table with another course, he would yell "Yooohooo" in a very high-pitched voice. It was hysterical, if only every waiter did that!

In the spirit of capturing every detail of Jeju, Andrew and I were taking pictures of each course we got and at one point our waiter saw this, took the camera, and began photographing the food for us! It was so funny and we both couldn't stop laughing afterwards. But the pictures did come out great and just looking at them makes me crave that Jeju food. Our last course was a yummy citrus dessert drink, and then we headed back to the inn, quite exhausted but extremely satisfied.

Just arrived at the restaurant with the help of Sylvia's two wonderful friends. Notice the flower that they attached to my ear.

Our awesome waiter helping to peel the skin off the delicious Jeju fish. Yooohoooo!

Jeju Island Day 2

2010-10-16T23:15:00.013+09:00

I usually don't dream about food unless it's Cinnamon Toast Crunch or pancakes of course, but when I woke up on the second day of our trip to Jeju, I thought I was dreaming about warm, homemade bread. But I wasn't! Andrew and I went into the kitchen and Ilene was slicing a loaf of fresh bread that she had just taken out of the bread maker. Talk about Korean hospitality!

We made breakfast for ourselves with the ingredients that were set out for the guests' use; bread, eggs, milk, jam, coffee, and tea. I had a delicious egg sandwich and Andrew made a fried egg. We knew we wanted to head out early so we got ready fast and then spoke to Ilene about our plans. She recommended a beautiful beach for us to go to that would be far less crowded than Jungmun beach, which is where we went the night before. She wrote out the bus numbers for us to take, as well as the name of the beach, Hypeojae, so that we could just show the bus driver our slip of paper and not worry about memorizing the Korean. Without even planning it, we ended up going to the same beach as one of our housemates, Ginger Puffer, and yes, that is her real name. Like Bree, Ginger's from California and teaching at the international school in Incheon.

The beach was beautiful! There was plenty of white sand and seashells, and we got to walk around the lava rock that remains from Mt. Halla's last eruption in the year 1007. Mt. Halla, or Hallasan, is a large, inactive volcano in the middle of Jeju island; in fact, the volcano's eruption is what actually formed the island. The volcano is visible from virtually any part of Jeju, but typically the summit is covered by clouds or fog.

Sitting on some lava rock, enjoying Hypeojae beach.

And so it begins, my strange obsession with adorable Korean families.

We were reminded immediately by the wind and temperatures in the low 70s that it was certainly not summer anymore! We didn't let that stop us though, we walked through the sand, got in the water (to my knees at least!) and laid out on our towels. I even managed to get a little sunburned! It was incredibly relaxing and the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. We only stayed a few hours because there was so much more to do!

Our next stop was the O'sulloc Tea House Museum. We were pleasantly surprised when we got there, it ended up being far more beautiful than Andrew and I were expecting. It was a small, but beautifully architected building, with a cafe, observatory room, nature walk, paths through the tea plantation, and even samples and demonstrations. We were starving at this point so we went straight to the cafe. We shared a piece of green tea cake roll and some green tea ice cream. Both items were delicious! We then walked around the museum and went up to the observatory; we were shocked to see that the green tea fields stretched as far as the eye could see, but it makes sense though, since green tea is a Korean favorite.

O'sulloc brings a whole new meaning to fresh! Here museum workers are packaging the green tea that Andrew and I bought.

Andrew and me on the observatory floor; that's a lot of soon-to-be green tea!

Smells like tea!

After walking through the fields we decided to head back since we wanted to go back to Jungmun to have dinner at the Lotte Hotel. We took a cab back to the guesthouse to get ready for dinner. After showering Andrew and I both came to the conclusion that the sun is still extremely strong in September and that perhaps sunscreen would've been a good idea (we were looking a bit lobster-ish, more so me than him). I was so excited to go to Lotte for dinner! Lotte is a huge Korean company that owns supermarkets, amusements parks, department stores, and hotels. The Lotte Resort at Jeju is a staple of the island, and by far the classiest hotel there, so naturally I was dying to check it out! I wore a pink silk blouse that I had bought while shopping with my friend Rachel (she bought the same one) before we both left for abroad. When we bought it we knew we'd wear it to something special while studying abroad in our respective locations, Seoul and Copenhagen.

Andrew and I had 8pm reservations for Lotte's Volcano Buffet and Lightshow. We arrived a little early to walk around the lobby and check it out. The place was beautiful, and like the Hyatt, it reminded me very much of being at Disney World. Everybody we encountered was incredibly nice, and it was just so nice to finally be there. We headed outside to the buffet and were absolutely stunned. Everything from the beautiful swimming pools, the hotel's "volcano" structure, the sushi bar, and the tables and tables of food, was just amazing. We were seated right away and perhaps the most surprising, but nice thing was that we were surrounded by so many families! We had forgotten for a bit that it was still the week of Chuseok, and often this is the only vacation time each year that Korean families get.

The entrance to the Lotte Hotel

View of the Volcano Buffet from the lobby terrace.

Andrew and I ate a ton! Everything was so delicious we just couldn't help ourselves. I'm sure that the Korean families at the table next to us began to stare after plate six, but that didn't stop us. Some of the highlights were the sushi, roasted duck, filet mignon, rice cake filled with red bean paste, blueberry cream tart, and green tea gelato. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it! At 8:30 it was time for the Volcano Lightshow, the event that the buffet and hotel are known for. The volcano went dark and then all of sudden a flash of light appeared and it began! There were flames, streaks of light, flashes of water, and even holographics! I wish I could do a better job explaining it, but it's just something you have to see in person. Although it only lasted about 15 minutes, it was an incredible show and it certainly made the whole night worth it. When the lightshow was over, a group of Korean drummers performed, and although they were quite talented, nothing could compare to the lightshow. We continued to stuff ourselves, and when we couldn't possibly eat another bite, we walked around the patio and pools some more and then headed back to the guesthouse.

Volcano lightshow, pictures just don't do it justice.

Andrew and I still going strong, not quite stuffed yet!

Jeju Island Day 1

2010-10-14T20:23:00.002+09:00

I know I'm a few weeks late in writing about my trip to Jeju, but I wanted to wait until I had enough time to sit down and relax and write about every detail, rather than rushing through a post. Today seems like the perfect day! It's a beautiful Thursday afternoon; I've finished class for today; I have no classes tomorrow; I submitted 2 big assignments last night; and now I'm just sitting in the Caribou Coffee shop in SK Global House ready to write!

My trip to Jeju Island was incredible, I went with my friend Andrew and we had such an amazing time! Jeju is a small island off the southern coast of South Korea and it is considered the "vacation hot-spot" of Korea, it's where many honeymooners go and some even call it the "Hawaii of South Korea". Andrew and I left on Thursday, September 23rd, which was still part of our fall break for Chuseok. We took the subway express line to Gimpo Airport, which is a smaller airport than Incheon airport, it's similar to New York's Laguardia Airport. We arrived and checked in without a problem. I'm pretty sure Andrew and I were the only Caucasions on the plane, and we were both assigned to the exit seat aisle. Of course we made plenty of jokes how they would put the white kids in charge of saving everybody, but the flight was smooth and quick, only about a 50 minute trip.

When we got off the plane we could feel it already, warm ocean air! We grabbed our bags from baggage claim and then our next step was getting to our first guesthouse. Andrew had his heart set on renting a car for the trip. We looked into and it would've been extremely affordable, about $200 for the 4 days including insurance! The only problem is neither of us had filed for an international license, so instead we headed towards the bus terminal. Andrew was bummed and so was I, it would've been nice to be able to travel by ourselves and not have to wait for the island buses. I let it roll off my back, but Andrew procedded to sulk like a puppy dog everytime we passed a rental car. It was funny at first, but by the third day I told him to GROW UP.

The bus system was slow, but easy. We took a bus from Jeju airport, which is located at the northern coast of the island, to Insong-ri in the southeastern part of the island, which is where our first guesthouse, Island Guesthouse, is located. It was about an 80 minute ride with one transfer, and many stops. We got off the bus and followed the convenient directions sent to us by the guesthouse manager, Ilene. We were greeted immediately by Ilene when we arrived. From what I learned, she doesn't own the guesthouse, but she does run it and lives upstairs.

Ilene and me at the Island Guesthouse

The Island Guesthouse was beautiful. It was eccentrically decorated and the house had this wonderful tropical feel to it. We put our stuff down when we arrived and were anxious to head back out and explore! We wanted to head to the beach before sunset and walk around the Jungmun Tourist Complex. This area was located about 15 minutes away from the guesthouse and it is where the Jungmun beach is located, which is one of Jeju's most popular beaches; also it's where the big resorts are, like the Hyatt and the Lotte Hotels. Ilene wrote out awesome directions for us. She drew us a map how to get to the bus stop and wrote us a note for us to show the bus driver so that he knew where to drop us off. After just two days Ilene felt like a mom to us!

We got to the complex just before sunset and we walked down to the water and along the beach. After being in the city for a month already it felt great to walk with my feet in the sand and listen to the waves. We were lucky enough to catch the sunset and then we headed down the beach towards the Hyatt. The Jeju Hyatt is a beautifully architected resort that overlooks the beach on a hill and it was all lit up since the sun had already set. We couldn't help but be a little bit curious so we decided to check it out. The lobby was beautiful, there was a fish pond in the lobby and a cafe and bar with a nice jazz singer. We sat outside on the terrace that overlooked the beach and ordered a couple of drinks and a small margharita pizza to share. I had a pina colada, since it was the most "islandy" drink I could think of and perhaps the best part about it was that it was a non virgin!

Me and Andrew at the Jungmun Tourist Complex, before heading down to the beach. The bridge in the background is called the Seonimgyo Bridge, or the Seven Nymphs Bridge, because there are 7 nymphs carved into either side in white.

We made it to the beach in time for the sunset! The building in the background on the right is the Jeju Hyatt.

While we were sitting on the terrace at the Hyatt, we could see a bunch of children congregating inside at the cafe with some chefs. We asked our waitress and she explained that every night there's an activity for the kids who are staying at the hotel and tonight they were learning how to make rice cake! It was so very Disney-like.

We finished our drinks and decided to head back up to the bus stop because the last bus stopped running at 9:30 pm. We caught the bus and headed back to the guesthouse, completely exhausted. When we got there the other people who were staying at the guesthouse were there also! It was so much fun meeting them. It was a big group of girls and a few guys who were not much older than Andrew and I. They were mostly Americans who were teaching at an international school in Incheon for the next few years. It was so much fun talking with them before we went to bed, but it was a little strange sharing a big room with a bunch of people we had just met. It felt kind of like the first few nights of sleep away camp, when we're all a little bit shy and nervous but we know we're going to have fun anyways.

The group of teachers had been in Jeju for the whole week so they offered a lot of good advice about what sights were worth seeing and which one's weren't so great. I enjoyed talking to Bree the most. Bree is from California and she's a bit of a tom-boy with this deep, raspy voice. She was so enthusiastic about meeting Andrew and I and she wanted to hear all about our plans for Jeju and the other stuff we were planning on doing over the semester. We expressed some hesitation about traveling all the way across the island to see a particular crater that we were thinking about and her response was "Just charge it! Charge it!!". Me and Andrew started laughing; she sounded so funny but we weren't sure if she was referring to charging a credit card or something like that. The more she said it we realized she meant "charge like a rhino", in other words, just do everything and don't hold back. So that became our philosophy for the trip, JUST CHARGE IT!

Life without limbs

2010-10-13T17:22:00.003+09:00

Yesterday morning I awoke to a text message from a classmate telling me that my Sports Medicine class would be held in the chapel instead of our normal classroom. I thought this was strange, and for a moment I even thought that perhaps somebody was just playing a trick on me! But the more I thought about it I realized I was just being paranoid, so I got ready for class and then headed towards the chapel. Before I reached the chapel however, my phone rang and it was my Sports Medicine professor, Justin. He asked if I knew where class was meeting today and when I told him the chapel he corrected me and said to come to the auditorium. When I got there it was packed with students! I spotted a few of my classmates and sat down with them on the second floor. I realized quickly that a church service was just ending, and that's why my classmate had said "come to chapel". I arrived during the transition between the church service to a university-wide presentation by a man named Nick Vujicic.

Nick Vujicic has no arms and no legs. He is limbless! He developed a program called "Life Without Limbs" and travels around the world giving presentations and motivational speeches. Many other classes were present for his speech, along with many faculty members, and the auditorium was almost full. The audience seemed to enjoy it for the most part but I was bothered by a lot of what he said, or rather how he said it.

Nick's tiny body stood on a table as he spoke and a translator accompanied him. He spoke about how he was born this way and how he's met many other limbless people who have ended up that way through injury, disease, or even from a brutal attack. He explained how he's thankful for how much he as and he accredits God and Christ to his success and motivation in life. Nick is extremely religious and he incorporates much of his views on Christianity and Jesus Christ into his speech. At times he went so far that I almost felt as if he was preaching to the audience, rather than speaking to us. This was the first time that the University's Christian influence was really apparent to me.

The part that I disagreed with most was when he literally was shouting to the audience about how we all live our life in sin unless we believe in the power of Christ. Now, I totally realize and respect the fact that this is a popular Christian notion, but I believe his speech could've still been heartfelt and powerful without all the Christianity references. I wish that he had gone more into detail about some of the amazing experiences that he said he's had, like traveling around the world and even learning how to surf and golf.

Here is a picture I took from the presentation, Nick is the one on the table. Remember, you can click on a picture to get a bigger view.

A Day Out with Mindy

2010-10-10T21:20:00.013+09:00

My friend Andrew's mom, Mindy, is visiting this week and yesterday Andrew invited me to go out with them for the day. We had a really nice time and it was fun getting to know Mindy. Mindy is staying at the Courtyard Marriott in Seoul and I met them at the hotel yesterday morning. The hotel was very nice, it was much fancier than a typical Courtyard Marriott and it was on top of a large mall and an E-mart. The best part of all was that Andrew surprised me with a watch that his mom had brought with her for me. Andrew's dad works for a watch company, Armitron, and Andrew has this one particular watch from his dad's company that I really like. The one Mindy brought for me is the same one, just in different colors. Also, Armitron is the official watch of the New York Yankees! Here is a picture of my awesome watch:

Mindy wanted to take the City Tour of Seoul, which is basically a coach bus that you buy a ticket for and it travels in a loop to about 20 different sights around Seoul. You can get off at any stop that looks interesting to you and then just get back the next city tour bus that comes. Also, with the headset in your seat you can hear about the facts and history of each stop. We traveled around on the bus for about 30 minutes and we decided to get off at the Namsan Seoul Tower stop. The N Seoul Tower is one of the many things on my "Korea to-do" list so I was happy to be able to go. Also, we lucked out with the weather being sunny and beautiful so we had a perfectly clear view of the entire city.

The N Seoul Tower is not the tallest tower in Seoul, but it's still a staple of the Seoul skyline standing at 1,574 ft. above sea-level. Mindy bought tickets for all of us and we stood in a short line and then took the elevator up. The view was breathtaking! The observation floor is cylindrical so we had a 360 degree view of Seoul. It was amazing! The coolest part of the view is that the windows were all labeled with major cities around the world at the approximate position of where they would be located. Here is a picture of the bottom portion of the tower, and what the view looked like from the observation floor.

Afterwards, we jumped back onto the next city tour bus and we looked at some more sights in passing. We thought about stopping at one of the many palaces but by this time it was almost 4 and they all closed at 5. We got off at the Namdaemun stop because Mindy wanted to see one of the famous markets. Neither Andrew nor I had been to Namdaemun yet so I'm glad we went. Namdaemun is one of the most famous traditional, open-air markets in Seoul. Literally meaning "south gate", it's located very close to the historical south gate of Seoul. The market was awesome, but very overwhelming! Many, many street blocks are filled with thousands of vendors selling everything from live squid to Korean souvenirs to lingerie! It's literally one-stop shopping for the people of Seoul. Here's a few pictures of Namdaemun market.

Mindy reminds me of Grandma Rhoda in many ways. At 57, she was way ahead of Andrew and me everywhere we went and she was determined to make the most of every minute of the day! We were definitely hungry by the time we got to Namdaemun so Mindy thought it was time for a little nosh. We shared a scallion pancake and some potato tempura from a street vendor which hit just the right spot! We zipped through the market pretty fast but I definitely plan on returning to do some gift shopping and such. I did buy one thing though, Mindy and I both bought Korea swimcaps. Nothing like showing a little Korea pride when I train for another triathlon this summer!

Afterwards we decided to grab some dinner and so we thought we'd try this noodle and dumpling place that was recommended in Mindy's travel guide. The restaurant was located in Myeongdong, the shopping district, and it's very famous for it's noodles. I have to say though, it was nothing like what I was expecting. It was this tiny, hole-in-the-wall place, and we had to wait in line to be seated for about 15 minutes. The food was very good though, only 4 different options, all of which were the same price, 7,000 won, which is about 6 bucks and change. I ordered the soup and Mindy and Andrew ordered both the dumplings and the soup to share. Each portion was huge! My bowl of soup was bigger than my head and I barely made a dent in it. It was a chicken broth with the restaurant's famous noodles and a couple of dumplings mixed in with some ground chicken. Even though the restaurant had take-out service, they refused to give me a to-go container to take the rest of my soup back to the dorm. I could've heated it up and had it for lunch today! Andrew and I even looked up on his phone how to say in Korean "Please wrap it up, we are poor college students" but they still said no. I was very upset, but oh well, Korea is not exactly known for their customer service. Mindy treated to dinner which was very nice of her.

We strolled through the hustling and bustling Myeongdong for a bit before heading back. We walked by a street vendor selling these huge creampuffs and she was filling them right in front of us! Of course we couldn't resist, so we shared one for dessert and it was delicious. We looked around some more and then got on the train. It was so much fun spending the day with Mindy and Andrew, it was nice to be around a mom for a bit, but really it just made me miss my wonderful Mom even more.

E-mart

2010-10-07T21:40:00.006+09:00

Today I needed to do a little grocery shopping and since we always go to Grand Mart I thought I'd try something new. E-mart is the biggest retailer in South Korea and it is known around here as a "mega-store". It's kind of like a Walmart Supercenter, in that it carries everything from clothes to electronics to groceries. I went to the one in Yongsan, and in my opinion, it's much nicer than Walmart. Everywhere you turn there is an E-mart employee ready to help you, and if they don't speak English then they go and find someone who does. Also, they were giving away many free samples which made shopping on an empty stomach much more enjoyable.

My friends and I have been cooking a lot more because we've quickly realized that eating out for multiple meals a day is not only unhealthy, but also a big waste of money. We haven't been that adventurous with our cooking yet, but we're working on it. The types of things we've been making are basically sandwiches for lunch, scrambled eggs and egg sandwiches for breakfast, and usually fried rice with some meat or vegetables in it for dinner. We've also made some different types of stir-frys and we're going to try pasta this week. We'd like to make more but the kitchen in our dorm does not have any ovens, just stovetops. We were told that Koreans don't use ovens that often to prepare meals and that's why we don't have any. So we've been getting creative with the microwave and stove! If you know any simple recipes that we could throw together, let me know!

E-mart is much bigger than Grand Mart, which I think I've mentioned is our local grocery/department store in Sinchon. E-mart had a much bigger variety of everything, including a huge bakery, a fish market, and a large produce section. Apples, cereal, and cheese were on my list, and I didn't deviate from my list because E-mart was a bit of a hike from Sinchon and I didn't want to have to carry many bags. I also got some dish soap because with all of the residents of SK Global House sharing one big kitchen, the pots and pans have been getting a little grody. All of the items I got were a little bit cheaper than at Grand Mart, but not by much. Produce is incredibly expensive here because all the rain during the monsoon season has been bad for the crops. I bought a bag of 7 small to medium-sized apples and it cost me 6,900 won, which is about $6. I even saw a watermelon on sale for 35,000 won, which is over 30 bucks! The cheese and cereal are both considered "Western" items so they too were expensive. The pack of cheese I bought (individual slices just like American cheese, but they don't call it that here!) was 4,980 won, which is about $4.50. Lastly, the cereal almost killed me. Most Koreans really don't eat cereal here, or any "breakfast item" for that matter, so how anyone can wake up and have a big bowl of ramen and squid soup is beyond me! So, after unsuccessfully trying to make my beloved Cinnamon Toast Crunch last more than a week, I needed to buy some cereal. I bought a mid-priced box of Post cranberry and granola flakes which cost 6,950 won, which is a little over 6 bucks.

So it wasn't the cheapest grocery store trip, but all necessary items for an American college student living in Seoul! It was fun checking out a different grocery store and a different part of the city, but I always forget that once I leave Sinchon, I'm no longer surrounded by as many international students and therefore people definitely look at me more. As I mentioned in my last post, it really doesn't bother me as much as it did before. Also it's occurred to me that when I pass newborns and little babies in the stores and on the subway, I could possibly be one of the first Caucasians that they've ever seen. I know that's a strange thought, but being a foreigner (and an obvious one at that) in such a big city, these are the types of things that go through my mind.

Another cool thing about going to E-mart was that the subway line to get there, line 1, uses a Korail train, or a "KTX". The KTX is a newer model train that travels at a much higher speed than the conventional trains. I tried to read about it at the subway station while waiting for the train, but much of the sign was in Korean. An interesting fact about the KTX is that the train is designed to look like a shark. I was not at the top of the platform, so I couldn't actually see it, but here's a picture I found that resembles the picture on the KTX info board I was reading from:

Myeongdong

2010-10-06T23:13:00.008+09:00

This afternoon after I got out of class, I decided to venture out of Sinchon for a bit and explore Myeondong. Having a roommate again is great, but I was really craving some alone time. Myeondong is one of Seoul's biggest shopping centers. Namdaemun and Dongdaemun are Seoul's biggest open-air markets, but Myeondong makes up Seoul's biggest commercial area. It's many many street blocks filled with food and clothing vendors and the shops on these streets are mainly clothing and cosmetics. It is also the location of many popular Western stores. I saw a Gap, Forever 21, Ralph Lauren, and there was even a Lacoste and Louis Vuitton store.

Honestly, today was the first day I set out with the intentions to do a little bit of shopping for me. Up until this point I hadn't had a chance to do much clothing shopping and I've mostly been shopping for all my wonderful friends and relatives. But I wanted to see Myeongdong and also check out the Forever 21, which is one of my favorite stores at home. Everyone talked about how huge and wonderful it is, and I gotta say, when I went in I wasn't that impressed! It was a nice store, and it was by no means small, but the Forever 21 in good ole' Smallbany is probably 3 times as big! Who woulda thunk?

I did enjoy shopping there though, I felt like I was back home at Crossgates, except for the fact that I was maybe one of 4 white people in the whole store. That's okay though, I've gotten used to standing out. Now I just smile back at people when they stare, especially the small children. I did manage to find 2 things though and if you know me, you know that I probably didn't pay full price for them either! I found a skirt and a top, both on the sale rack! I was very pleased and I think Grandma Rhoda would've been quite proud.

I wanted to stay a little bit longer but I had made plans with my friend Kara to make fried rice together for dinner so I decided to head back to Sinchon. The Myeongdong subway station was extremely crowded so it took me a little while to reach the platform; I definitely plan on coming back to Myeongdong soon though. Also, this weekend I'm hoping to check out the other markets for a little gift shopping! And yes, I am taking gift requests/suggestions, so don't be shy and speak up!

Samsung Library

2010-10-05T11:43:00.010+09:00

Yesterday was the first day that I spent some time in Yonsei University's Samsung Library, which gets its name because it was partly funded by Samsung. I've been to the library before, but not the media complex. Professor Chun, who teaches my Religion and Culture 1 class is out of town this week at a conference in Germany, so he scheduled our class to watch a movie which we'll discuss when he gets back. We were told to report to the 2nd floor of the Samsung Library where a media specialist will set up the movie for us. She directed our class to a separate room down the hall and I was quite stunned! It was basically a mini-movie theater! There were a bunch of them down this hallway and it was quite fascinating to see. The class watched the movie in this theater, comfy seats and all, the only thing that was missing was the popcorn!

The movie itself was interesting. It was a Korean film called "The Way Home" and it was the first Korean movie that I've seen since I've been here. It was subtitled of course, but after a few minutes I got used it. The film was about a young boy from Seoul, maybe 7 or 8, whose mother brings him to live at his Grandmother's house in the country, while she looks for a job. The boy is rude and ungrateful and treats his grandmother horribly, but eventually he begins to learn compassion as he realizes how his actions affect their daily lives.

But more about the beautiful library! The Central Library, which is YU's original library, is also very nice, but not nearly as amazing as the Samsung Library. The two libraries are connected, and the link I posted below gives you get a "virtual tour" of the library complex. The new library is state-of-the-art in every way, from the high-speed glass elevators, to the touchscreen monitors, even the rooftop cafe. The elevators are almost completely made of glass, as is the wall facing the outside; standing in the elevator you can see the outside all the way up and down, and you can also see each floor you pass. Very cool!
In order to use most of the facilities in the library, you must first register and make a reservation using the touchscreen monitors in the lobby. Although I've heard it's very easy to do, I haven't mastered this part yet.

My Sports Medicine group members showed me the rooftop cafe last week when we were finishing up our project. Also, that happens to be the exact location I was in when I first received a facebook friend request from Grandma Judy! I got so excited, it's a good thing I didn't fall off the roof! The cafe is very nice; coffee and waffles (the Koreans' favorite), and bagels and specialty drinks, in a beautiful glass enclosed room as well as tables and chairs outside on the roof, giving you a great view of campus. Everyday I wish I could put all of you guys in my suitcase so you could see all the wonderful things I'm experiencing! Outside view of the Samsung Library:

Take a look at this!
http://library.yonsei.ac.kr/main/sub.do?menuCode=0019

Heart and Seoul gets a makeover, and I get pancakes

2010-10-04T00:30:00.010+09:00

Happy half birthday to me! I was in the mood today to spiff something up and since I'm not allowed to decorate the walls in my room, I thought I'd play with the design templates on my blog. So here's the new Heart and Seoul!

Today Andrew and I went to Gangnam. Gangnam is one of the more modern districts of Seoul, many more skyscrapers than Sinchon, and more western style chain restaurants and stores. Also the Ritz Carlton of Seoul is located in Gangnam. When we got out of the subway station, we both said "Ahh, this feels like New York". We came here once before a few weeks ago for a Mentors Club party that was held at a bar on the 23rd floor of the building, so we had an awesome view of the this part of the city at night. But we wanted to see it during the day, so we jumped on the subway around 2pm and explored.

Some highlights of our afternoon were walking through the Ritz Carlton, going to Artbox, and eating at Paris Baguette. Andrew located the Ritz Carlton right away; he told me has a "natural ability to sniff out luxury hotels". Something tells me he's not kidding. We walked through the lobby and looked around. Needless to say, it was beautiful. Also, they were in the process of building a marble fountain outside the lobby, which I'm sure will be really nice once it's finished.

Artbox is a Korean stationary store that has many shops all over Seoul. It's really not just stationary though, it's much, much more. They sell so many "Asian-style" gadgets (a.k.a. bright colors, hello kitty, strange quotes) that you could just look around that store for hours. Korean students are completely obsessed with school supplies. Even university students have matching pens, notebooks, binders, pencil cases, all themed of course. And in Korea, you're never too old for Hello Kitty, or any cartoon character for that matter! Artbox also had a candy section, but Andrew and I resisted because filling up those bags of candy and paying by the weight is a rip off everywhere, even in Korea. We still had fun looking around though and I will definitely be returning for some gift shopping!

We ended up getting a late lunch at Paris Baguette. PB is a coffee shop/bakery cafe all over Seoul, but the one in Gangnam is especially big. They have a "brunch all-day" menu and a large outside sitting area along with all of their usual cakes and baked goods. It was the first place I've seen so far that had PANCAKES on the menu and so because after all it is my half birthday, I treated myself! Waiting for my buzzer to go off felt like the longest 10 minutes in the world. But when they were done it was worth the wait; they had banana slices and maple syrup on top and in between each pancake. Delicious!

On our way back to Sinchon we stopped at Grand Mart, which is our home grocery store, and Andrew and I bought some items to make ourselves fried rice for dinner. He bought pork and I bought chicken, and we both shared some onions, broccoli, eggs, and garlic. The fried rice was delicious and although I still hate to cook, perhaps if you ask nicely, I will make some of my fried rice medley for you when I get home.

A very cute and Asian Artbox sign:

Joe tries Mexican food!

2010-10-01T11:17:00.005+09:00

Happy October 1st everyone! I can't believe it's October already, it's so weird to me that I've been here since August. Time sure does fly, and now that I think about it, it feels like camp time! At camp we would always joke about how a day feels like a week, but a week feels like a day. Today is Friday and normally I don't have classes on Fridays anyways, but today is a University holiday so everyone has the day off.

Last night Joe and I went out together because she wanted me to try "patbingsu" which is her favorite Korean dessert. I thought that for dinner I would have Joe try something that was my favorite. She's never had Mexican food before so I brought her to this yummy, little Mexican restaurant in Sinchon. We both ordered steak quesadillas and they were delicious! Below is a picture of Jo trying her first Mexican dish! She really enjoyed it, especially because it had MEAT in it!

We then walked a few blocks down to Red Mango, which is a cafe in Sinchon known for it's frozen yogurt and patbingsu. Patbingsu is a traditional Korean dessert which is made up of ice chips, topped with frozen yogurt or ice cream, and then different kinds of fruit, red bean, rice cake or cereal. We both ordered smalls, which were huge, and I had vanilla frozen yogurt, blueberries, strawberries, corn flakes, and peaches. Also, they give you a small cup of sweetened condensed milk to pour over the ice chips once you ate everything on top. It was delicious!