1st Monday Class

We went to breakfast with a smallish group. Again, not too much looked appetizing to me this morning. After breakfast, I was planning on taking a shower and hiding out in Emily's room because the engineer was coming to fix our toilet and I wasn't sure what to say to him. However, just before I hopped in, he knocked on the door. It took about a half hour to fix whatever was wrong. The water was really cold in our shower, so I went to the communal showers; luckily there was hot water! After my shower, I went up to hang out with Emily and painted my nails with my new nail polish. Then we headed down for lunch. After lunch, Ben and I thought we would watch a movie because our group didn't have anything until 2:30. However it took forever to download-and then it wasn't the right format and didn't work anyway. Tim came down while it was downloading and we just talked and watched youtube until it was time to meet up for our cooking class. We walked about 5-10 minutes to a cooking institute. We made a type of cheon. The ingredients were pork, tofu, garlic, and onion. We mashed up everything and then made the mixture into little flat discs. We then dipped the discs in egg and fried them. They were okay-it was a LOT of work!! When class finished, we walked back to school and took a short break. I went up to Emily's room to hang out before dinner. Then Maren and Jenny joined us. We had dinner and Jenny said she was going to a guitar recital for her previous roommate. The Sweds, Ki, Tim, Maren and I went with Jenny. It was okay; it was just really slow and quiet...nice relaxing "go to sleep" music. We stayed until the intermission and came back. Emily came to our room and we did a little bit of studying. Tomorrow will be a busy learning-filled day!

Ingredients for the dish we are making

Ki, Top Chef with flair

Not so sure how mine turned out

Sunday...Soccer!

This morning a small group of us went to breakfast. (It wasn't very good-too much seafood!) After breakfast Emily and I went to the Catholic church I found last week. I called Maren (with my newly acquired cell phone!) to meet up with Tim, Ben and her for lunch. We went to Kong's Riceball. It is kind of like a Korean fast food restaurant...kimbap is meat, vegetables, and rice rolled up in seaweed, but the riceballs are rice and a filling in a ball with small seaweed strips on the outside. It was really cheap and tasty! Everyone wanted to buy some groceries or other school/dorm supplies so we walked over to the Home Plus (like a Meijer or Walmart). Tim, Ben and I split the cost of a 3,000W soccer ball! Right away Ben was ready to play. Tim and I made him wait an hour.

Around 2:30 Tim, Ben and I met up to walk over to the soccer fields. The main field was being played on so we went to check out the small futsal type field. That was also being used, but there was a basketball court that was only being half used. So we started to just pass and shoot. Ben noticed our Swedish friends Magnus and Joakim watching the main field from the stands above us. We got their attention and asked them if they wanted to play with us. Of course they did! They went to go change and while we were waiting, we asked the three guys sharing the court with us if they wanted to play 3 v 3. They agreed and we played until Magnus and Joakim came back; they brought Ji a big soccer guy with them. Also around this time the 3 guys had one more of their friend join. We split into 5 v 5 then. A little bit later one of the dorm captains came to play too and another friend of the original 3 guys joined also. Then we had 6 v 6. It was a lot of fun playing even though I was the only girl. The only bad thing was Tim kind of rolled/sprained his ankle and is in a lot of pain.

We stopped playing around 5 and all the Inje students agreed to meet up for dinner at 6. We had a huge group walk over to dinner together. When we were getting into the Bio Tech dorm, I was talking to Emily and all of a sudden she kind of stumbles...and then she looked really dazed/confused like someone knocked her in the head. She kept trying to walk, but was falling against the wall and then she just fell over. It was scary watching her pass out-Joakim ran to get her some water from the cafeteria and dorm captain guy ran back to English Town dorms to see about calling an ambulance possibly. Ji helped Emily up and then Jenny and I helped walk her back to her room. We tried to get food for her from the cafeteria, but they wouldn't let us take anything out. After we ate, we stopped at Family Mart (convenience store) to get some yogurt, bread and Korean 'Sprite' for her. Jenny and I talked with her a little and then brought up our homework and we worked in Emily's room to stay with her. Maren and Emily's roommate came in shortly after and we had a big study group together. Now I am exhausted and ready for bed!
 PS: Jenny went out with some school friends and she came back with a cheese stick for me! It was the BEST thing ever!! Cheese is really expensive and hard to find, which is reeeeally depressing for me. 

So excited for Cheese!

Riceball! Yum!

First Weekend at Inje

Today was a long day! (but good!) We had breakfast and then Jenny, Maren, Emily, Ben, Seung Bae, Tim and I went to Pusan! We did a little shopping around Seomyun; an underground shopping area. I bought a pair of flats and I was so excited I put them on right away and we started walking away from the store and it felt like there was something in my shoe. So I took it off and felt in the shoe-there was a staple in the shoe! Jenny and I went back to talk to the shopkeeper and show him the staple. He gave me a new pair AND gave me 1,000W back! :D 

We walked around some and then grabbed lunch. I had ddeok mandu guk (mandu-dumplings- and rice cake). It was so good! :) Then we did some more shopping! The girls split up from the guys for a bit and then we met up to go to Nampodong (outside shops). A few of us got hu ddeok (anyone remember what that is?! ;) I'm testing your Korean foods now!!). Unfortunately it was a little more expensive than the ones near school. However, they DID give you a little cup as a holder so the honey doesn't drip all over you (like it did to me-all over my coat and pants!). We wanted to come back so we could have dinner at the cafeteria (we don't get lunch on Sundays) and save some money. It took a looong time to get back and the cafeteria was kind of closed because we got there at 6:35-40. They weren't serving food anymore, but they did have a few servings of stuff left. It wasn't enough for everyone so some of us had cereal instead (I took the cereal). After dinner, Jenny, Emily, Tim and I went to the Home Plus Express (grocery store) near campus to buy some snacks. On the way we spotted a DVD rental store so we rented "Inception". We'll be watching that in a few minutes. I have TONS of pictures and I need to upload them. Hopefully there will be enough downtime tomorrow!

P.S. It's hard to believe I've been here for a week already! I feel like I've known everyone in our group for such a long time. I am also so thankful my roommate is the SWEETEST person! She is so nice, patient, and helpful. :) 

Jenny, me and Ben on the bus!

Seung Bae, Emily and Maren

Pretty girls. And Tim.

MICHIGAN!

Ddeok Mandu Guk. So yummy!!

Awesome!!

"Inception" Movie Night! Jenny, Emily, Maren and me.

Orientations X2

This morning we had another orientation! It was for the IIIHR (Inje International Institute for/of Human Resources) program and we were able to meet the Chairman/Director of the program. He was very nice and invited us to stay in his home in Incheon if we ever wanted to visit Seoul. After the orientation we had a short break and then went to lunch-it was pork cutlet, which sounds "Western", but it is a very popular/common dish here. It was so strange to eat with a fork and knife again!! After lunch we had our writing class. The professor only speaks Korean (or says he does-so that we have to really try to pick up Korean) and we had to write all the Korean we knew for him to gauge which class we should be in. I am going to be in the beginners class-we got a big packet of homework!!! Writing in Korean takes a lot of practice! I worked on my homework when I got back from class and then Jenny (roommate) and I went to hang out with Maren and Emily before dinner. We had dinner and then ANOTHER orientation for the English Town program. The English Town program is a way for the Koreans to learn English from (mostly) native English speakers. So we are split into pairs or individuals and will be supporting a Korean student that will be running the class/discussion group. It will be interesting and a great way to meet more students. We had to introduce ourselves in front of all the students so that was a little scary. After that orientation a few of us wanted to have a movie night, but it was a huge challenge and we were not successful. We had two Swedish exchange/international students come into the lounge where we were and stayed to play card games with us. Now it is time for bed!!! 

Our whole group! (Plus Jihye the coordinator, the Director, and a teacher)

Seung Bae and I forgot how to use a fork and knife! We are so confused!

Haha...Ben and Jenny trying to figure out the TV

Still working. It was kind of funny, except we didn't get to watch a movie.

Second day of Class

Yesterday: 
Our movie teacher is going to be interesting! He is really funny and at the same time very wise. We had an introduction for our class to get to know him a little and about the course. Then we went out to dinner for sam gyp sal (pork-kind of like bacon) sooo yummy. After dinner some of us decided to go workout. Maren, Ben, Emily, Jung-Yoon (Jenny-roommate) and I went over to the gym, but unfortunately it was closed for the night!! So we ran a lap around campus instead. By the way, I LOVE my roommate!! :)

The whole group eating samgypsal

Samgypsal cooking

Maren, me, and Emily at the restaurant

Today:

The intermediate Korean Conversation class was okay. I feel like I'm kind of in the middle of the pack. After class, I went over to the dollar store with a few other participants so we could get some school supplies. We had lunch as a group and then our Korean Culture class. This teacher has pretty good English; he lived in the US for 10 years. We mostly talked about pronunciation the difference between 방, 빵, and 팡 (the differences are very subtle to the untrained ear and difficult for the untrained vocal chords!!); there are more a few more cases like that too though. Anyway, he made us all practice saying them aloud and his remarks were "nice try", "not so good" "it's okay...". We had a shorter class and did not really start in on culture because more exchange students will be joining us next week. He is also going to be our Intermediate Reading teacher as well. After class, a small group of us played cards in the student lounge on the 2nd floor (which is the main entrance level) because we are not allowed on the floor or in the room of the opposite gender. It was a lot of fun. Now I'm just resting/hanging out until dinner. My roommate, Jung-Yoon (Jenny) will be able to join us after her class.

Later: Dinner was sooo good! Japchae (noodles and vegetables) AND mandu (dumplings)!!! After dinner, we all took a short break. Then Maren, her roommate 'Sarah' (haha), Jenny, Ben, Tim and I played games in the lounge. We tried to come up with some games, but it is hard without a lot of different materials. We played a guessing game of famous people, but it was difficult because of the cultural barrier of knowing "famous people". 

Cut throat game of speed...this looks like maybe Ki's Game or ERS

Dinner!! The best so far!

Invented game night... :/

1st Day of Class

Today was the first day of school. A small group of us met up to go to breakfast together at the cafeteria. They were serving small egg omelets (about an inch in diameter), squid or octopus in a spicy red sauce, kimchi, a tofu kelp soup, and rice. I was not very adventurous and stuck to the rice, eggs, and had a little kimchi-what a way to start the day! Our whole group met at 10:45 because we had class at 11. However, we all thought it was in a different room so we walked into a class, found out it was an English class, called Jihye (program coordinator), and then walked back to English Town (where the dorms are and also a discussion room where most of our classes will be held). Today's class was basic Korean reading, but we learned/practiced the characters and sounds of the letters. Jihye cut class short today since it was the first day and we went to the Bio Tech Dorm for lunch (there is not a cafeteria in English Town dorms). Lunch was fish, squid, kimchi, soup, rice, and clementines. I stuck to the soup, rice and clementines. A small group of us went to get 'hu ddeok', which is kind of like a donut-fried dough, but inside it is honey, cinnamon, and nuts. It was sooo tasty and it was very cheap! It was 500 won which is aaaabout 50 cents, but actually a little less. 

Now we have a short break until our Korean Movie class which starts at 4. Normally it is earlier, but I think because today is the first day, this professor is going to cut it short as well.

Breakfast! (lunch wasn't worthy of a picture)

Left to right: me, Seung Bae, Ben, and Tim (who never seems to look directly into a camera. Ever.) We are enjoying hu ddeok!

One Day til Classes Start!

We had an extra day off before school started because today is a Korean holiday. I went with a group of 5 other participants to explore Pusan, the biggest city near us (Pusan is the 2nd largest city in Korea with 3 million people). Luckily, Colin, our group "oppa" (what a girl calls an older brother) has been teaching in Korea for the past 6 months and knew enough Korean to decently navigate us to Pusan-we had to take a bus to a subway station, and then the subway into Pusan. When we got to Pusan we first searched for lunch. I got kimchi fried rice-it was really yummy; not too spicy. Then we took a city bus tour to kind of see the city easily. We took the Taejongdae Course, which gave us a nice ride along the coast and onto a peninsula. We could get off and on the bus as often as we wanted so we stopped at Taejongdae Resort Park. It was a nice area, but soooo hilly!! We walked around and enjoyed the fresh air, the great view of the ocean, and the trees. We grabbed the bus and headed back into town. We walked around a shopping area and then found a place for dinner. I had kimbap, which is rice, meat, and vegetables rolled in seaweed. Then we took the subway back to Gupo Station and a bus back to Inje. 

I am so tired from all the walking! Tomorrow is our first day of classes. I'm nervous, but excited too! 

Ben, Maren, and Emily on the subway to Pusan

A little scary ordering off the menu-no pictures!!

Kimchi Fried Rice!

Our group on the city bus tour

At the Taewon Pebble Yard at the park

View down to the pebble park

View of the water-so beautiful!

View of Pusan-Jagalchi Fish Market is in the bottom right hand corner