One Day til Jeju!

Sunday: I went to 신아산 "Shina Mountain" with my host family. It was Parent's Day, so I gave them a basket of flowers. We went hiking in the mountain-it was really pretty. We stopped for snacks twice and then made it to the top. It is 630 meters high! After we made it to the top, we had a picnic lunch of kimbap, and "kimchi kimbap" (which was rice and vegetables rolled in a white radish kimchi), fruit and nuts. We made our descent and stopped at two Buddhist temples on the way. We went for cold noodle soup when we were all finished; I'm still not sure how I feel about that soup. It is strange to have shaved ice with noodles...

My friends returned from their templestay and we traded stories and events from our time apart. 

Monday: I didn't have anything til 3:00! Our cooking class was canceled so we could switch and have music class instead. We practiced our songs several times with Director Kim. After dinner, we decided to go for a Baskin Robin's run! Emily, Songhee (Emily's roommate), Maren, Narae (Maren's roommate), Jenny and I went and had a nice girls ice cream date. :) 

Emily and I went for a short run on campus even though it was rainy. After our run, we had movie night in my room. 

Today: Buddha's Birthday = no class! :) Happy Birthday Buddha! Maren, Emily, Jenny and I went to Issac's for lunch...it had been way too long since I last had Issac's Toast! We sat outside and ate. Sungmin picked us up and we also got Tim to go to see a movie! This time we went to see an American film (it had Korean subtitles); we saw "Source Code". It was actually pretty good-at least I enjoyed it. Emily and I shared a cheese popcorn and iced tea combo again. 

This evening, I'm packing and preparing for our adventure to Jeju Island. Unfortunately, the weather does not look too promising. It will be in the low 60's and rainy/windy for the three days we are there. However, I am still looking forward to visiting this island! :) I'm sure there will be lots to share when I return! :)

Glad to be back Saturday

Back at Inje after a night away...it's always nice to come 'home'.

Friday: 
A little bit more about the job...on Tuesday JiWon asked if I would be willing to take this position for a month and I said yes right away. We planned to meet sometime on Friday to discuss the details and work out a schedule. In the morning, I first had to meet with a member from my ET group, Hans, to discuss our "Membership Training" trip later that afternoon. Hans was nice enough to go and grab JiWon for me; we discussed the job a little more and he called his class senior, the guy in charge of the job and he wanted to meet with me right away in the afternoon. We went for lunch and talked a little and then decided to meet with the students. I will be teaching a one hour long class four times a week. I'm kind of sad we didn't start this sooner; a month doesn't seem like a very long time! We will focus on conversation and speaking skills. 

After meeting with the students, I returned to ET for a few hours before having to head out to Jiri Mountain. We stopped at HomePlus and bought a lot of meat, snacks and drinks. Then we were off! Unfortunately the weather was rainy, but it didn't dampen our spirits too much. We finally arrived and settled in and started cooking. We stayed in a traditional house that has underground heating (ondol)-the floors got very warm by late evening (we slept on the floor)! It was fun sitting around a campfire/grill eating and talking with my Korean friends. They did not use very much English, but I tried my best to listen and pick up as much Korean as I could. 

Little traditional house we stayed in

Starting up the grill; to the right behind Hans (seated) is the 'fireplace' to heat the floors

Me with most of my ET group!

Today: We had ramen for breakfast and then we were off to a temple on/near Jiri Mountain. It was really beautiful. We had mandu and ate them by a really clear stream. We went into the temple and then headed back to Inje. We stopped at Yonji Park for a little and finally returned to campus. I went for a nice long run, cleaned up and had dinner with some friends on campus. Tim, Ben, and I went for ice cream and I bought flowers for my Host Family for tomorrow-it's Parent's Day. Tonight Tim, Ben and I are going to watch a movie. It's crazy because all of the other IIIHR members are in Gyeongju doing a TempleStay and most of the Inje students are at home for Parent's Day...it's very quiet here! We didn't end up watching the whole movie because we were so tired. When I was going up the stairs to my room I heard Ben yelling, "Amy! Amy! Come quick!" So I went back down and found Ben with a HUGE centipede or millipede. We grabbed Curious Bob to help us take care of it...but first we decided to put it in a box to show Tim and scared him. Bob later swept the "monster" down the stairs and the doorman stomped on it. :(

Bumsik and me by the stream

Mandu snack!

Hanging out!

Jump! Sungmin, Bumsik and me

Monster of English Town!!

Catching Up

Wednesday: Kindergarten was canceled today, so it was nice to have a little bit more time to get ready in the morning. In our conversation class, we practiced our speeches that we have to give to the president and founder of Inje University in a few weeks. Then, Jihye invited a former IIIHR participant to come and talk with us because she married an Inje student and now lives in Korea. In our movie class, we watched "Joint Security Area (JSA)". It was another movie about the Korean border, but I really liked it (even though it was also sad). We also had birthday cake for Yangyang's birthday during class. In the evening we went to the Makgoli place to celebrate her birthday.


Thursday: No class today!! It was Children's Day, which is a National Holiday in Korea! :) Jenny wanted to show us a famous Mandu restaurant in Pusan, so Tim, Maren, Em, and I went to Pusan with her for the day. The Mandu soup was sooo good!! After we ate, we went to a Yongdusan Park that has the "Pusan Tower". There were a lot of activities and things going on in the park for Children's Day, so we walked around and looked at everything. Then we went to Gwangwali Beach. Afterward, we went to Tom and Tom's for....Honey Butter Toast!! :) We grabbed a quick dinner (I had kimchi fried rice) and headed back to Inje for another birthday party. At night, I had a girls night with Maren, Emily and Jenny. :)

Emily, Maren, and me before leaving to Pusan

Mandu "cloud" soup! Yum!

Yongdusan Park!

Gwangwali Beach with the bridge in the background

Today: I met with my friend JiWon and his class senior to discuss the job I got! I will be working with a group of Biomedical Engineers to help them with their speaking skills. After we had lunch with the class senior, we went over to the lab and I got to meet and talk a little bit with the students I will be working with. They all seem very eager to learn and nice.

I am going to Jiri Mountain with my English Town group for "Membership Training". We will spend one night and come back tomorrow! Signing off for the day!

Terribly Long Tuesday

Yesterday: I was able to talk to my Mom after almost 2 weeks! I was also able to talk to my "언니" (unni= big sister) Erin back in Wisconsin. :) The weather was so gorgeous!! I sat outside to do some studying. My friend 정관 came to help me with some Korean. Then, off to cooking class. Today we made "김치 만두국" (kimchi mandu guk= kimchi dumpling soup). We made the dough, the filling, AND the broth (made from little fish stock!) from scratch!! It was a long process. Our teacher said that there is kind of a myth/joke that how well your dumplings look determines or means how beautiful your children will be! 

After cooking class, Emily and I went for a quick run on campus. We headed to dinner and had our three judges determine this week's winner...me! Emily, Ben, Jenny, and I had a taste for ice cream...so we went to Lotteria (Korean McDonald's) and got cones there. Later in the evening, we went out for Ki Chul's birthday. We also went to 노래방 (noraebang= karaoke). It was a lot of fun!

Em and me with our mandu babies!

Happy Birthday Ki!!

Noraebang!

Today: Our conversation class was alright. We mostly reviewed sentence markers. Our language class practiced talking about what we did over our long break. In the evening, my ET group met and discussed a Membership Training trip we are taking this weekend.  

The Weekend

Saturday: Emily and I had lunch on campus and then did some shopping for Jenny's birthday. We also looked at birthday cakes for her. We went for a run in the afternoon. In the evening, we went to a club event in Pusan. One of our dorm managers helped organize the event and he wanted us to come and support him.

Today: I worked on some homework in the morning and then went to church. After church I met up with 정관 (Jeong Kwan) to go to a Korean wedding.  정관 didn't know where the wedding was...so we took a few different buses and ended up taking a taxi to the place and being about 10 minutes late. A Korean wedding is so different from the weddings back home. This particular one took place in a large room, but the back part was just kind of a foyer and people attending the wedding were just standing around and talking while the 'ceremony' was taking place. It also was very quick; we were 10 minutes late and we only saw about 10 minutes and then it was over! Then the bride and groom change into traditional Korean clothes and take some traditional pictures. We were given coupons to a buffet so we went to eat-there was so much food!! 정관 said that we were supposed to be able to congratulate the couple, but we did not see them in the buffet restaurant.


In the evening, we went out to a BBQ place for Jenny's birthday dinner. Afterward, we had a cake from Tous Les Jours on campus. It was yummy! :)

Jeong Kwan's friend and husband!

Traditional pictures

1st plate of several from the reception buffet

Me with the beautiful birthday girl!

The cute cake we bought Jenny!

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! :)