Seoul Update

Saturday: We had a taxi take us to Gupo Station and from Gupo we took a KTX train to Seoul Station. Emily was a sweetheart and got everyone a kimbap for the ride! Upon arrival to Seoul, we went and checked in to our guesthouse. We had a group of 7 at the time; 3 guys and 4 ladies so we decided it would be best to have dinner together and then split up for shopping. We went to Ewha Women's University area to shop and the guys went to Dongdaemun. On the way back to our guesthouse, we saw a cute little muffin shop in the subway station and all got muffins to try! 

Emily, Maren, and me in the taxi...the adventure begins!

Tim, Ben, and Emily on the KTX (high speed train)

Maren, Kim, Emily, Ben, Tim, and Seung Bae in front of Seoul Station...we have arrived!

My little muffin!

Sunday: Em and I had done a little research to find English Easter services in Seoul, but also near our area. The one I picked was very close, but when we arrived we were a little late so we asked some workers there about the English mass...the information we had was 4 years out of date and they did not have an Easter English mass! :( We met up with our friends in Insadong, which is a traditional artsy area. We had lunch and walked around there. Then, we were off to Namdaemun, which is a traditional market. After Namdaemun, we went to Myeongdong. Myeongdong is a "hip" young area with...lots of shopping. :)

Parade in Insadong

Lettuce growing in an alley in Insadong...made me think of my Mom!

Lunch in Insadong

Namdaemun

Monday: Emily, Maren and I went to meet Hwa Sun in Itaewon. On the way, I bought a Happy Birthday balloon for JaeBin and a little bear cookie-cake. The taco restaurant Hwa Sun wanted to take us to was closed!! :( So we found a Japanese restaurant instead. We went to Hwa Sun's home and she cut up strawberries and oranges...so delicious! She also had a Strawberry Cake from Paris Baguette! We went to go pick up JaeBin from the bus stop and then played with him and hung out there for part of the afternoon. Finally, we headed out to meet up with Ben and have dinner. We went to Cheonggyecheon/downtown area. I couldn't find the area I was looking for so we settled on a small restaurant that had food we could read off of the menu. Except, once we got our food it was really bad...the meat in Emily's dish still had the hair of the animal on it...it was pretty gross. After dinner, we went to get ice cream to clean out the bad taste/feeling in our mouths and stomachs...We did a little shopping and headed back to our guesthouse. Emily and I decided to go to Tom and Tom's, a coffee shop and get Honey Butter Toast, which is basically the best food invention ever. It is a huge piece of white bread toast with butter, honey, and a giant mound of whipped cream with more honey and cinnamon drizzled on top!

Hwa Sun Unni and me at lunch in Itaewon

Hwa Sun, Maren and me with fruit and a delicious cake at Hwa Sun's home

Jaebin...love, love, LOVE this kid!

Unsuspecting victims at a low quality restaurant

Cheonggyecheon!

Em and me with Honey Butter Toast!!!!

Tuesday: It was a rainy day, so the group wanted to go to Jjimjilbang (the sauna), but Emily and I didn't want to spend an afternoon in a sauna...so we went to the National Museum of Korea. We had lunch in their cafeteria and walked around for awhile. Afterward, we went to Gangnam area to go to COEX Mall, the largest underground mall in the world. We had an early dinner there-so many restaurants to chose from! After dinner, we decided to go on a night bus tour. It was a little bit of a disappointment; the guide listed a lot of places we were going to see, but we actually did not. It was more about the bridges over the Han River than anything else. It was still pretty and nice to see a lot of Seoul and the river at night. 

Giant artwork!

Jumpin' around!

Front gate of Gyeongbokgung

Inside the King Sejong Museum

We made some paper cranes!

Namsan Tower!

Wednesday: Finally a mostly clear day! We decided to go and tour some palaces. We had one guy from our guesthouse join us. His name is Jeff and he's from the Chicago area; currently he is studying/living in Japan and his visa was about to expire so he came to Korea for a few days. We bought the Palace Combo-4 palaces and a shrine for a discounted price! First we toured Changdeokgung. After walking around for awhile, we went for lunch at a kimbap type of restaurant. We returned to Changdeokgung for our tour of the "Secret Garden" which was within the grounds of that palace. After the tour, we went to Changgyeonggung; these two palaces are right next to each other-they are actually attached. Then we thought we would go and see Jongmyo Shrine-there are ancestral tablets there, but by the time we got there, it had closed for the day. We were meeting Ki (one of our program members) in Myeongdong for dinner, so we headed over there a little early. The guys and ladies split to walk around. When we met up, we walked to the restaurant, but unfortunately there wasn't enough room for our group of 9! We went to another kimbap type of restaurant for dinner. We went to another place to sit and talk for awhile after dinner. 

The whole group in front of Changdeokgung

Inside palace grounds

 Thursday: Our last day in Seoul! We woke up to blue skies and sunshine. :) Our palace combo tickets were good for up to a month, so we returned to our palace touring. Only Maren, Kim, Yangyang, and I went to Gyeongbokgung. Tim had left to go spend time with some friends of his, but he met up with us. After we walked around a bit at Gyeongbok, we had lunch in a little cafe in an artsy area. We continued on to Insadong; Maren and Yangyang needed to get some souvenirs. Kim, Tim and I went to Cheonggyecheon and then on to Myeongdong. We met up with Emily (she was meeting a friend there in the afternoon) and she and I walked around a little. Then, it was time for dinner! Ki had called ahead and made reservations at the same BBQ restaurant we went to the night before. It was really good-they gave us so much food! After dinner, on to Namsan Tower! The other nights had been cloudy or rainy, but this night was perfect! We took a little cable car elevator up to the main cable car that takes tourists up to the top of Namsan.  It was windy and chilly, but so beautiful! After Namsan, Emily and I went to the Tom and Tom's near our guesthouse to get one last piece of Honey Butter Toast to celebrate the ending of our trip!

Look familiar?!? 7th time here!

Em and me in Myeongdong!

At the top of Namsan overlooking Seoul

Today: We met Tim at the free bus for tourists at 8 AM this morning. The bus stopped twice and we arrived in Pusan around 1. We took the subway and city bus back to Inje. It was soo nice to come back! It felt like we had been gone for ages! I unpacked and settled in and then Emily and I went for a run.

Finally Friday!

Once again we had Jihye teach our music class. We learned another new song today...it seemed very old. After we finished singing, Jihye told us that we had two assignments. The first was to write a 2 page essay about our experiences here; they are going to publish that in the Inje University magazine to inform future participants and their families about the program. The second was to write a short introduction about ourselves because in a few weeks we are going to meet with the president of the university, the founder of the university and other sponsors. We will have to speak to them in Korean!

Writing class went alright. Sometimes our professor laughs at us...and it is really funny to hear him chuckle. He was going to give us an exam next week, but we had to tell him that we weren't going to be there! He seemed very surprised. After class, Emily and I went for a run even though it was raining. 

My friends and I went out to dinner because the cafeteria menu did not look so good. They ordered BBQ. In the evening, I helped one of my ET students with a presentation. 

I am looking forward to my trip to Seoul! I might not update for a few days! Have a blessed Easter and I will fill in everyone with the details when I return! :)

Two Days til Seoul Thursday

Conversation class went well today. I don't know if it was just the topics today or if I really am making more progress, but I was able to understand almost all of the dialogues we read through today! That was pretty exciting. 

Culture class was alright. We went really into depth about the names used for all the different relations; cousins twice, three times, four times etc. removed on both your father's side and mother's side...it was kind of interesting, but I'm not sure how practical it will be.

Emily and I went for a fairly long run after class. We had dinner with one of our professors. He wanted us to meet his "Freshman Experience Class". Inje University provides a class for freshman to take that will help introduce them to college life and give them opportunities to have different experiences. Our professor bought pizza's and chicken. It was fun talking with them; it was a little bit difficult because a lot of them were quite shy and not confident in their English. They did warm up a little bit towards the end of our dinner. We ate in one of the classrooms in the biomedical engineering building. (Our movie professor is a biomedical engineering professor at Inje.) Emily and I met our roommates at Baskin Robbins for ice cream...yum! :) Then Emily and I went to Home Plus for a few groceries. 

Dinner with most of our group and six Inje freshman!

Just Another Wednesday

Kindergarten was fun this morning. We took the kids outside and taught them "Duck, Duck, Goose". It was funny because sometimes the boys ran around the circle twice just because they wanted to run more. Class was okay too. Lunch was something different, so that is always a good thing! For our movie class, our professor chose a kind of strange movie. It was a Chinese movie, but he said the story could be related to things that happened in Korea. After the movie, Director Kim and Jihye came to give us our hanboks! We tried them on and took some pictures! :) Dinner wasn't great, so Emily and I went off campus to get some snacky foods. Now I am just studying my verbs!

Emily and me in our new hanboks!

Too Tired for a Good Title Tuesday

Emily and I left for breakfast this morning, but stopped by our classroom to drop off our books. Our teacher was already in there and she had brought toast! She had homemade strawberry jam and cream cheese-yum. Class itself was just okay. We spent the whole time talking about the different particles to use in sentences (used to show subject and objects in a sentence). 

Then, it was on to Taekwondo! When our instructor walked in, he was wearing a suit! He started talking in Korean and we finally found out that we were having our 'midterm exam'! We were giving a lot of time to stretch and practice our three kicks. We did our test in groups of three; we know "ahp chagi" (front kick), "yeop chagi" (side kick) and "dollyo chagi" (turning kick-like a roundhouse). I passed my Taekwondo midterm!


After language class, Emily and I went for a run off campus. Tim, Emily and I went to HomePlus and then to A Twosome Place to study after dinner. Colin (another IIIHR program member) was there studying so he joined us; he's been in Korea teaching English for 6 months, so he know's a lot about Korean and helped us. Ben and Kim stopped by to study a little bit later. Ben was meeting some of our Inje (Korean) friends for chicken, so Emily and I decided to join them for a little bit. 

Yang Yang, Emily, and me with our "ahp chagi" maybe?

Monday...nothing new

It was kind of overcast and cool in the morning, but by afternoon it had warmed up a bit and the sun came out. Emily and I went outside to study and 정관 helped us with our Korean. Then off to cooking class. Today we made 칠절판 "chil (seven) cheon pal". It is a traditional dish for important celebrations; usually there are nine 'sides' that are made; today we made seven. The seven sides included mushroom, carrot, cucumber, egg yolk, egg white, pork and 'cheon' (rice powder and water made into a dough and fried). Everything tasted pretty good, but it was hard to make the eggs and the dough into circles. At dinner we had Magnus and Joakim taste our dishes. At first, Joakim said he couldn't vote because they tasted too similar, but we said he had to vote. Ji was gone again, so we had almost everyone else at the table vote...Emily's dish won again this week! 

After dinner, Emily and I had planned on running, but it was too cold! Instead, we went to A Twosome Place (coffee shop chain) to study. Tim and Jenny joined us. The "Happy Money" we earn for being good students can be used at A Twosome Place, so I bought a coffee drink and a dessert; if I hadn't had the coupons I wouldn't buy anything there because it is so expensive! My total came to 10,300 won!! (Around $10 for just a drink and dessert!!) We studied for a few hours there. Now it is definitely time for bed!

My completed plated "칠절판"!

Emily and me with our dishes!

Studying hard with my 'coffee drink' and blueberry dessert!

No Soccer!

I went to church this morning. I forgot it was Palm Sunday! Instead of having palm leaves, we got pine branches. After church, I met up with Jenny, Tim and Emily for lunch at Buffalo Chicken. We decided to cancel soccer because of midterms coming up; all of the Inje students are busy, busy, busy studying. I think a lot of people were also recovering from playing yesterday as well. So, Emily and I went for a run around campus twice. I went outside to study, but it had cooled off a lot. It is getting quite chilly again and is dipping back into the mid 50's later this week. Emily, Tim and I went for a walk after dinner.

Full Moon Walk! 

April is half over?!?

 Friday:
The weather was pretty nice! It was partly sunny, but it was warm and actually a little humid. 

Music class was nice...Director Kim wasn't there, so Jihye retaught us the song from last week. We had class for about 30 minutes! :) After class, we ordered our hanboks. This is the one I chose; it is a very contemporary style!
http://www.assimall.co.kr/home/assimall/mall.php?cat=0202&q=view&uid=1541

Emily and I went for another run. I am back to my non-running mood. We followed our route from Thursday except we did not go into the cafes. The writing class went alright, but I felt sooo sleepy! Maren, Emily and I went to Tous Les Jours and Coffee House after class. (Of course I bought more 'cloud bread'!!) Maren wanted to go for a mountain hike, so we explored the mountain behind BioTech Dorm. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the top (we did stop to take a lot of pictures along the way). It was almost more difficult coming down the mountain than going up-it was steep and a little slick. We went to a Makgoli restaurant and also ordered kimchi cheon. Then we went to Lotteria for ice cream. Emily returned from her evening in Pusan with MiHye, her host 'family'. She had kimbap for me-it was delicious!! 

Mountain Hiking with Maren

Tim pouring Makgoli

Yummy Kimchi Cheon

 Today:
SOCCER!! We had a group of 12 (still the only girl-even though we had some girls sign up on the whiteboard in the foyer of ET-none of them showed up!) and played on part of half of the regular field. Around 12:20, another group of guys walked onto the field and told us they had signed up for the next time slot. We decided to ask them if they wanted to play against us; they agreed so we were able to use the "whole" half of the field. We ended up playing for about an hour and finally they scored a goal. We called it quits then. Tim and I were going to go into town to find something for lunch, but walked past the 'teacher's lounge' cafeteria. It was still open so we were able to use our meal tickets. At first we just had some ramen soup and thought it was kind of strange that was all they were serving. Then we noticed the other person in the cafeteria had a little box on his tray and also noticed a stack of boxes where we picked up our soup. I grabbed boxes for us-inside was rice, seaweed, kimchi, radish, egg and ham! It was pretty good. 

We had a small group decide to go to the Gaya Culture Festival going on in Gimhae not too far from campus. We watched some dancing and then walked around to look at all the different booths set up. Then some of the group returned to ET and the rest of us went to the Super Home Plus for dinner. Emily and I split 'ddeok mandu guk". (Mandu soup with rice cakes) Emily, Tim and I were going to see a Korean movie with Jenny so we left and walked around Yeonji Park (right next to Home Plus and the movie theater). We went to see a Korean movie called "Strange Meeting for Marriage" or "위험한상견레". There were no English subtitles, so it was a little bit different watching a movie and not being able to absolutely follow the dialogue. It was really funny though. 

Performers at Gaya Festival

Area around Gaya Festival

Emily and Tim on exercise machines in Yeonji Park

At the movies! Cheese Popcorn and Iced Tea Combo!!

Long Thursday!

This morning I went to an ATM and was able to finally withdraw money! Our conversation class went well. We had a quiz on verbs today. The culture class was alright. We covered the traditional marriage customs. Again, it was a little difficult to get through; our professor stopped the video every 30-40 seconds and would write the Korean and then find the Chinese characters as well. After class, Emily and I went for a long run! We wanted to find two different cafe/restaurants we had each noticed a month ago when we went to the Membership Training. My guess was we ran about 1.5 miles up hill. We went into the one I saw first; it was called "Choco" something...they had cakes, chocolate, gelato, coffee, and other pastries. Emily and I felt a little awkward because the cafe was kind of upscale and we were all sweaty and kind of grungy from our run. Then we went to see the place she noticed "Cafe Dahlia". That cafe was also upscale and really cute. We ran back to campus and then I ran a little more on campus; I felt in the mood for running and I didn't want to stop. It was so strange because normally I don't really enjoy running...

In the evening, Emily, Jenny, Tim and I went to a classical concert with Magnus, Joakim and one of their professors. It was at the same performing arts center I went to for the piano concert on Saturday. It was broken up into a few different types of performances-piano, violin, cello, flute and even a male and a female 'opera'. Afterward, we noticed one of our professors and stopped to say hello. He offered to take 3 of our group of 6 back to campus, so Emily, Jenny and I went back with him and his daughter. On the way, we stopped at Lotteria for ice cream. :)

Saw this banner at the performing arts center and thought of my Mom!

Hello, Thursday Morning, where did you go Wednesday?

Well, it's already 12:30am and I'm not quite sure how that happened!

This morning Emily and I went to Tous Les Jours for some breakfast. We had gift certificates to use. We had to buy 5,000W worth of bakery because of the certificates, but everything I got was so good! The best was a blueberry 'bread' with cream on the inside...heavenly! We also stopped at the 'dollar store' to buy some notebooks. We took the Kindergarteners outside to play tag. We tried teaching them, but they didn't really understand the rules. Next on to conversation class. We had another quiz today. 

For our movie class, we watched the movie called "Sunny". It was about a young Korean woman looking for her husband in Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. It was kind of interesting... Before dinner, we met up to discuss and plan our trip to Seoul (less than 2 weeks away!!). After dinner, I tried to withdraw money from an ATM; I had one of my Korean friends come with me, but I think he got confused and was telling me I had a domestic card instead of an international card so I couldn't take out any money. The machines kept reading error. I waited with Tim and Ben for Jenny's ET group to finish and then we went to Home Plus to get groceries and try the ATM there. Then I studied in the computer lab with some friends. The next thing I heard was our curfew announcement signaling it was 11! I still have some studying to do, so that's all for today!

Terrible Tuesdays

Emily and I headed over to breakfast this morning, but on the way, we ran into our professor. She stopped us and told us she had made waffles so we didn't need to go eat at BioTech! The waffles were really good! She made one with whole wheat and walnuts and the other with bleached flour. She also brought Hershey's chocolate syrup to put on the waffles as well...best breakfast in Korea! :) The class was a little difficult; again she moved through the material really quickly and didn't really stop to make sure we actually learned what we covered. Later a few of us were discussing this and are coming to the conclusion that maybe this is just a teaching style of Koreans; the teacher covers/introduces as much material as possible in a class period and it is the students' responsibility to actually learn and understand it.

After conversation class, it was off to Taekwondo. It wasn't so bad today. We jumped and kicked a lot-we learned a new 'kick. It's called "na rae" I think, in Korean and it is translated into something about flying. Lunch was actually good today too! There were new dishes-BioTech was starting to get a little repetitious in their meals. We had curry, mini egg rolls, and cucumber kimchi. The language class was okay. When I got back from class, I did a little bit of studying with Rosetta Stone. 

My ET group got a new member. We introduced ourselves to him and didn't really do much else in class. I had some snacks with some of the ET members after class was finished. Then I went for a walk around campus with Emily and Jenny.

Monday Fun

I got to sleep in today and it was WONDERFUL! I think maybe now I am finally all caught up on my sleep. I studied a little on my own and then went to lunch with a small group. After lunch, Emily and I studied outside for a short time. It was partly sunny, breezy and cool, but it was still nice to be outside. Our friends 인석 (Inseok) and 정관(Jeong Kwan) helped us study some. Then on to cooking class! Today we made a dish called 비빔국수 (bibimguksu). It is rice noodles with soy sauce, pork, mushroom, garlic and green onion. Anyone noticing a pattern in the ingredients? ;) It was pretty tasty. 

Emily and I went for a run around campus. At dinner, we were missing Ji, our 3rd judge. We had Jenny substitute for him. Jenny and Joakim voted for mine and Magnus voted for Emily's dish. However, after they voted, we saw Ji and he tasted the dishes. He voted for Emily's. We decided that because he was an official judge, Jenny's vote would not stand so Emily won this week's competition!

In the evening, I studied and helped one of my ET member's with an English assignment. 

Emily and me with our finished products!

Weekend Update

Thursday:
Classes went alright. Culture class was interesting, but difficult to understand everything. We have around 10 Chinese exchange students in this class and they sit through class and talk to each other, play games on their cell phones, have their cell phones ringing, and anything else except pay attention and learn. It is really frustrating because it makes it more difficult for me to hear the professor and understand him with all the extra background noise. 

After dinner, I went down to the computer lab to meet with one of my ET members. I took some of my study materials and other people joined later, so we had a big study session. 

Emily and me in the rain with a cherry blossom tree

Umbrellas in the hallway

Friday:
Music class went alright. We sang our two songs about a half a dozen times...but we also learned a new song. It's funny because it is originally a Chinese song I guess and our teacher asked YangYang (our Chinese student) if she knew the song and she responded "yes, but it is kind of old". We had another fumigation today, so we had to leave the dorms from 12-3. Emily, Tim and I went to Tous Les Jours and bought some pastries with our "Happy Money". 

At 4:00, we went to some spring "cheon" festival. They had some burners set up and we made the rice cake 'pancakes' and decorated them with edible flowers. They were okay. The festival people also had a tea ceremony and they made and served green tea to us.

Frying pans and materials

Flower Cheon!

Almost the whole group! (Minus Emily, Colin, and Seung Bae)

Saturday: 
Emily and I went for a nice run off campus in the morning. It was such a nice day! The sun was shining, there was only s slight breeze and it was pretty warm. I was so sad because Emily and a bunch of friends were going to a park and maybe doing a little bit of shopping. I wanted to go with them but I also had plans with my host family too. At 2:00, my host dad picked me up and I went to their house. We made kimchi/pork mandu!! :) My host mom steamed them and we ate them as a snack after making them. It was a lot of work; we made sooo many!! They were really yummy though-well worth the effort. My little host brother asked me to read to him. At first, he picked English books. Then he pulled out a Korean book. I 'read' it-tried to read it. I could tell he was just sitting there not really listening to me though, ha, ha. THEN he pulled out a Japanese book (his dad is a Japanese professor here) and his dad laughed and told him  I couldn't read Japanese. Around 4:30, my host dad, mom and I left to go to a concert. The daughter babysat the son. Before the concert, we stopped at a really beautiful park. While we were walking around, I was wondering if it was the park my friends had gone to earlier. Then all of a sudden I saw someone that looked like Inseok (a friend) and then another familiar looking face and another...and then they waved and yelled my name! It was so funny running into all of them at the park!! After we went our own ways, my host dad called my mom and said the concert we were going to started at 5:00 instead of 5:30, so we had to run back to the performing arts center. I was still unsure of what kind of concert I was attending-when we got into the auditorium, I saw a piano. It was a Japanese pianist performing. He was really good!

Kimchi, pork and tofu filling

Rolling out the dough

Mandu!!

Finished product! (This is not even all of them!)

The park was so pretty!

Running into Emily and my friends at the park!

Piano

Sunday:
I went to church; while I was there, I saw someone that looked like Ji Won...I finally decided it was him. After communion, I caught his eye and he waved. When church was over, he talked a little bit about church; he was with other Inje students and they are part of a Catholic student group. I met up with Tim, Emily, Maren, Magnus and Joakim for lunch at Buffalo Chicken. We went to this restaurant for our first meal with IIIHR. Emily and I split a chicken salad and the "chicken plate" which had chicken, rice, egg drop soup, and a salad with cucumber, carrots and cabbage...so delicious! I had been waiting for 2:31 Sunday afternoon since Tuesday when I received my cleats in the mail!!! Finally it was time to lace up and go to the fields! We were even able to get into the little futsal field!! We had a group of 15 Inje students, so we broke up into teams of 5 and played til the first 3 goals. I didn't make any goals today, but I played pretty well-especially since all of the guys are all really good. We played for two hours. I forgot to mention that the weather today was absolutely gorgeous! The sun was shining and I think it hit around 64 degrees. This evening, I did some studying on my own...memorizing those verbs! I am always trying to expand my vocabulary.

Emily and me!

One slice of Domino's Pizza from Pyeong Uk!

Soccer friends!

Most of my team

Yea, I definitely just made a move past that guy!

The lone girl playing