4DX

I just went to see the second Hunger Games movie in “4D”! I’d never heard of a 4D movie before, I guess they must be more popular in Seoul than in my hometown. It wasn’t 3D, but there were extra effects. The chairs moved and there was mist and wind and at a couple points it even smelled like bad perfume (I think it was supposed to smell like a forest). There were also extra lights in the back of the theater to stimulate lightning/etc.

It was pretty cool, and the movie was awesome, but I don’t think I was an over-all fan. I get motion sick and the movement wasn’t that bad that it made me sick, but it did make me a bit dizzy. I think I prefer just sitting normally and watching a movie. I have an active enough imagination as it is! XD

It was definitely a fun experience though! 

Some fall foliage shots and part of 경복궁 with Seoul in the background.

Daelim Museum

I have so much free time now that my  Korean class is over! I’ve been looking for fun ways to spend the day. My friend gave me a ticket she had from a photography showing in 종로 so I went to check it out.

It was a New York photographer. He focused a lot on New York youth and indie culture. Lots of nudes. His work was really fantastic, but it was weird because it was supposed to be my culture… but it really isn’t. I’ve lived in suburban Ohio for all of my life and have no connection to NYC youth culture, though I am familiar with the way it is portrayed in media. So looking around, I was comparing it to NYC youth culture that I’ve been exposed to in other mediums and also wondering what the Koreans’ reaction to the photographs were. It’s something familiar but disconnected to me. I wonder if some people would feel more connected to the work because being from Seoul they are a part of big-city youth culture, of if they would feel less connected because of the differences between American and Korean culture. I’m sure it depends on the person, but I really wished that I could read minds while I was there!

Also, there was a tour guide showing people around at one point and I kind of hovered in the back to listen to what she was saying and I was proud of myself for how much of her Korean I could understand! I didn't get the whole idea she was talking about, but I understood most of it! Though, she kept saying "lion" and I was really confused because the work has nothing to do with lions and every picture she went to she talked about "lion." Finally I realized she was talking about the photographer, whose name is Ryan! XD

Anyway, I'm definitely planning on visiting the area again because there were a lot of different museums. It was actually located right across the street from 경복궁. Also, the scenery in and around 경복궁 is gorgeous right now in this fall weather!

Another Dog Cafe!

So I went to another dog cafe a while ago with my Korean tutor and another American friend but forgot to post the pictures. This one was called a puppy cafe, so they only had smaller dogs. Unlike the last one I went to, I don't think this one was rescue dogs. 

All dressed up for halloween!

The puppies were so cute! Several of them kept falling asleep in people's laps.

My roommate and I made a Korean Apartment Tour! Click to be linked to the video on youtube!

(I apologize for my awkwardness and our poor video editing.)

Italian Food in Korea!

The other night, my friends at I went to Angelo's located in Sinchon quite close to Yonsei University. It was really delicious and prices were comparable to most Italian places in the US.

Free appetizers! 

My delicious aglio pasta.

And free green tea after the meal! 

Cat Cafe

So my roommate and I wanted to go to a sheep cafe that we had heard about, but we got there and were a little disappointed because the sheep were actually in a separate area from the cafe, and you didn't even get to pet them or anything so we decided to go to a cat cafe instead!

Niether of us liked the cat cafe as much as the dog cafe. The cats didn't want to play and they were only interested in people if they had cat food. But a few of the cats were chill and we could just go up and sit next to them and pet them while they napped.

This cat had the funniest sleeping positions.

I think this cafe was more expensive than the first dog cafe we went to, so I definitely preferred the dog cafe. But the kitties were still so cute!!

Field Trip (Day Two)

Second day of the field trip we woke up early, had a quick breakfast (they offered cereal and toast for those of us who can't stomach kimchi and rice in the morning! It was so wonderful!), and then headed off to Dosan Seowan, which is a traditional Confucian school.

This is my roommate and me! You can see in the background on the plateau with the trees is a memorial.

Lecture hall!

Dorm room!

After the school, we got back on the bus and went to an apple orchard where we got to pick and eat some apples!

Me, my friend Felix, and my roommate Caitlin.

Fruit is pretty expensive in Seoul, so I think everyone was most excited for the apple picking! The trees were a lot smaller than I am used to in America, but I'm guessing it's probably because the orchards are younger? Not sure. But it was a great time! After that it was a 5 hours bus ride back to Seoul! Lucky me, I slept the whole way! ^.^

Field Trip (Day One)

the Office of International Affairs at our school offered an awesome field trip for us this weekend! We went to the southeastern part of the Korean peninsula. We went to Buseok Temple, Museom Village, Dosan Seowon, and an apple orchard!

These first pictures are of Buseok Temple. It's a Buddhist temple with quite a story behind it. I'm sure I won't do a great job telling it but the way our tour guide told us was that the story goes roughly like this: It was built by a monk who had spent a lot of time in China and warned the King of Korea that China was planning an attack on Korea. Because he had to leave China so quickly, he did not get a chance to say goodbye to a Chinese woman who had fallen in love with him, so she tried to follow him to Korea but died and was reincarnated into a dragon. As a dragon she protected the monk and facilitated the building of this temple.

After the temple, we went to Museom Village, which is a fully-functioning traditional village. People still live there in traditional style houses (with modern luxuries, of course.) 

We had some free time to walk around the village and me and three other exchange students were walking around and were approached by one of the villagers. We followed him to one of the traditional houses where he had built a sort of green-house. That's where these last two pictures are from. The flowers were gorgeous, and one of the women there told us that the man (who apparently was in his 70s! We thought he had to be in his 50s!) had built the house himself specially for growing the flowers. All the people we ran into in the village were so nice and friendly!

My friend Yukari and I on the beach! There is a very small river next to the village. You can barely see in the background that there is an old bridge goes across the river. It's only about 30cm wide with no railing. You have to cross carefully on foot one at a time. (Not very scary though, because the water was very shallow, it wouldn't be a big deal to fall in.)

After dinner there was a show of some traditional music and dancing. This one was by far the most impressive! I took quite a few pictures, but they don't convey well how impressive the dance was. These guys danced while playing their instruments, and they also wore hats with ribbon on them that they moved in different ways to compliment the dancing. The guys looked pretty young too, one of them looked like he was only in middle school or high school! And they were so talented! It was very impressive!

After the show, we went back down to the beach and lit flying lanterns! It was really fun and so pretty since we had so many going up at the same time! After that there was also a bonfire. 

After the bonfire, we had an hour ride to our hotel. The hotel was really great. We stayed 4-6 people to a room, but each room had a bathroom, a big living/kitchen area, and two bedrooms. It was traditional ondol (floor) heating so we just put down sleeping mats and slept on the floor. It was pretty hard sleeping on the floor but the heating made it sooooo cozy! I think we all slept pretty well.

The only disappointing thing was that our foreigner welcome/friendship club also came on the trip. There are a few really nice people in the club, but most of them are rather stand-offish to the foreigners (with the exception of a some of the foreigners who get drunk with them all the time.) I've been trying really hard to make Korean friends, so I was excited that one of the Korean girls from the club was assigned to room with me and two other foreign girls. Unfortunately the Korean girl never introduced herself nor gave me the chance to introduce myself. She dropped her stuff and left as soon as we got into the room and then when she came back it was only to make a quick phone call to one of the other Korean girls and then she took her stuff and told us she'd spend the night somewhere else. I wondered if this was considered normal behavior in Korean culture, so I messaged one of my Korean friends and asked and she said no, that this girl's behavior was unbelievably rude. So that was disappointing.

With the exception of that one incident though, the first day of the field trip was amazing! I also got to meet a ton of new (foreign) friends! It was awesome!

Balloons

It was my American friend's birthday on friday so we bought a bunch of cheap balloons because we were having people over for her birthday.  They were all weirdly shaped and so hard to blow up!

This was supposed to look like an apple. Definitely not as advertised. XD

Bought a new pair of glasses from Look Optical in Sinchon (just down the street from where I live). I’ve been wanting a pair because sometimes I don’t feel like wearing my contacts but my old glasses are a different prescription so it makes me dizzy to switch back and forth. So these have the same prescription as my contacts! ^.^

The frames were 12,500 won and the prescription lenses were 40,00 won. So total it was only 52,500 won, which a lot less than prescription glasses in the US usually are. I'm so pleased with my purchase!

Also, the service was good at Look Optical. I approached a guy and started speaking in Korean, but he just switched to English, so it’s definitely a place someone who doesn’t speak Korean could go. They also offer vision tests or you can just buy the frames if you don’t need a prescription. 

Dog Cafe

One thing that's most prominent here in Korea than in the US is the existence of dog cafes and cat cafes. (There's even a sheep cafe that my friends and I want to visit!) Last night my friends and I went to a dog cafe in Hongdae!!

The dogs were all really well-behaved and sweet! Most of them looked like rescue dogs. There were a couple who you could tell had had puppies and were probably rescued from a puppy mill and the great dane looked like he was recovering from being starved. He was terrified of everyone except the guys who worked there until he warmed up to us. 

I was also impressed with the guys who worked there. I walked in at was at first like "wow, this would be a sucky job, cleaning up after all the dogs." But the dogs loved the guys and the guys just let the dogs jump on them and would hold the small dogs when they wanted to be held. The great dane was also trained to jump up and put his paws on the guy's shoulders and the golden retriever was trained to take the orders. So cute!

The place we went to was called Sunyne. It was kind of hard to find, but now that we know where it is, we'll probably be going again. XD 

Happy Hangul Day!

Today is a holiday in Korea! It's the celebration of the creation of the hangul alphabet!

ㅁㄴㅇㄹㅎㅂㅈㄷㄱㅅㅋㅌㅊㅍ
ㅛㅕㅑㅐㅔㅒㅖㅗㅓㅏㅣㅠㅜㅡ

Cultural Differences

So I’m sure that I’ll have more to add to this list, but here’s a list of some of the cultural differences that I’ve noticed here so far. These are all things that I have noticed repeatedly and constantly, not one-time occurrences.

Sidewalk Etiquette:
1. People walk slow. Now, part of this is that I’m a really fast walker. My school in the US is HUGE and I’m used to having to literally sprint between classes to make it to my classroom in the allotted 15 minutes. I get really impatient walking behind people here.

2. People take up the entire sidewalk. Especially the couples. I don’t know if the couples or the giant groups of at least 6 or more Koreans. If I walk with more than one person, I’m aware of my surrounding and will get in a single file line so people can pass us. No one does that here. And on top of that, it’s the people who spread themselves out to take up the entire sidewalk that usually walk the slowest. ㅠㅠ

3. “Excuse me”s and “sorry”s are rare. I think this is a difference between me being from a small town and Seoul being a huge metropolitan area. You’re going to bump into people and people are going to bump into you, so no one really apologizes for it. Some people won’t even move out of the way if you’re on a collision course, they’ll just barrel right into you.

4. At the slightest hint of rain everyone pulls out their umbrellas. I usually only use my umbrella if it’s really coming down. Today I was out walking around and it was barely sprinkling, I maybe felt a drop or two here and there but not anything most Americans would justify pulling out their umbrella for, but almost everyone on the street had their umbrellas open. (Which, is annoying for a fast walker like me because these take up even more space on the sidewalk so it’s harder to dart around the slow people.)

Interacting with Koreans:
5. If you don’t look Korean, people will speak to you in English (and usually be amazed if you use Korean). I used to get upset about this because I’m here in Korea to study Korean and my goal is to become fluent, something I can’t do if everyone refuses to speak to me in Korean. To me, I viewed it as racist and discriminatory, like people are assuming that because I’m white I only speak English. I find it very annoying when people assume that I can’t speak Korean. However, I’ve had several Korean and Chinese friends tell me that it is considered polite to speak to a foreigner in English, so I’m more forgiving now.

6. If you don’t look Korean, people will stare at you. It happens. It made me uncomfortable the first day, but it literally happens so much that I barely notice it anymore. Recently I’ve gotten the courage to stare back at people, or smile and wave at them. They usually always smile and wave back when you do so.

7. No foreigner/minority protection laws. People and business are allowed to discriminate against you. This doesn’t happen a lot, but it does happen and when it does, there’s really nothing you can do about it. (Ex: #1 There are times when I walk into the store and the person working will greet the Koreans, but won’t greet me. This has happened when I walked in after Koreans and saw them greet the Koreans but just stare at me. This has happened when i walked in and saw them stare at me and then a few minutes later greet Koreans walking in. It’s not accidental, it’s definitely purposeful because I’m not Korean.  Ex: #2 many of the clubs at my university do not allow foreigners to join, even if the foreigners can speak Korean. These are both very minute examples that I could brush off, but they still hurt.)

8. At my university - and I want to stress this because I’m sure it’s not like this at all Korean universities, just at the one I attend - Koreans don’t want to be friends with foreign students. Even in the Korean and International Student Club at my school, the Koreans aren’t really interested in being friends with anyone who’s not Korean. In class and at events, the Korean students will segregate themselves from the international students whenever possible. Maybe the Korean students get uncomfortable because of speaking English with the International students, but as I said, I speak Korean. In fact, I am a Korean major, and they still won’t talk to me in Korean. Many of them I try to get to talk to me in Korean and they always switch back to English. And it’s not because I’m not good enough in Korean. I have a Korean friend who does not speak English well and we speak exclusively in Korean together. My Korean is at a comfortable conversation level and many Koreans still refuse to speak to me in Korean or English. In my school’s club, it seems like many of the Korean students want to party with the International students and get drunk with them so that they can hook up with them and then afterwards never talk to them and never have a relationship with them (DISCLAIMER: not everyone’s like this, but a much more significant portion than I expected.)

9. Being approached by drunk (much) older men to go drink with them (and presumably more). This has never ever happened to me in the US. I’m sure it happens in clubs and bars at the US, which I have never been too. But here’s a fun thing: I’ve never been to clubs or bars here in Korea either! There’s a park by my house where when my friends and I try to sit there to relax or people watch, we will always get approached by old men. We even had one man try to tell my roommate and I that “고추 주세요” meant “go away.” This was after I told him I spoke Korean. (So you know, that means “give me pepper.” But 고추 can also refer to penis… so I think he was trying to get us to say “give me the D” in Korean. Not cool, man.)

So those are just a few things that I’ve noticed since being here. I’m sure I’ll think of more to post later! Also, I do not mean for this post to be extremely negative. I have had some negative experiences Korea, but I still love it here. I feel like I’m always posting very positive things, which is why I kind of shifted the focus on this post. I do want other people considering coming to study in Korea to have a realistic view of what to expect. ^.^

Fun with Korean!

The Korean word for "fireworks" is 불꽃 (bool-goat), which literally means Fire Flower. So cute!

Holiday~

So Thursday Oct 3rd we got off classes for Foundation Day! One of my friends from OSU and I were paired with a Korean conversation partner together so on Thursday the three of us went to Insadong together. Insadong is a famous area in Seoul known for it's traditional crafts. It was a super cute area and had lots of different shops. We mostly spent our time at the "Alive" museum, which uses trick art.

Look! We're in a picture on a camera in a picture!

I'm drowning in a giant mug of beer!

The three of us!

Friday we still had school, but today we met up again to go see fireworks together! We went to Yeoido, which is right on the Han River. They did 4 sets of fireworks. They had teams from US, Japan, France, and Korea putting in charge of the sets. Of course Korea did the last one and that was the longest with the most fireworks! It was pretty impressive, but there were so many people! There was a steady stream of people walking right in front of us during the show, which was pretty obnoxious. Next time I see fireworks in Seoul I'm definitely arriving hours beforehand to claim a better spot. XD

Happy Foundation Day!

Roomies

So my roommate and I have completely opposite personalities. I’m very silly and she’s very serious. But we get along really well and generally bring out the best in each other. These three pictures pretty much sum up our relationship.

Nice Sogang Story

So I was thinking yesterday about the day that my friends and I were trying to sign up for clubs at Sogang. I only told the story about the Drama Club that wouldn’t let me join, but I didn’t tell about my friend who wanted to join the Taekwondo club.

Sogang has one building where most of the clubs are located. We were walking around there trying to find where the Taekwondo people were located but the room number provided for us didn’t make sense with this building. I went up to a random Korean guy walking by and asked if he knew where it was and he didn’t, so he actually whips out his phone and calls the Taekwondo people for us and finds out that they allow foreigners, where and when their first meeting is. The first meeting was in the gym and we didn’t know where that was so then he walks us all the way to the gym - totally the opposite way that he was previously heading. It was super nice.

I just wanted to share this story so that other people who may be considering going to Sogang will know that a lot of people there are actually very helpful and not closed to foreigners.

Weekend FunTimes

So after going to Hanok village this weekend, we went out for food! We went to eat pork and drink makkoli, which is a traditional type of beer if I understand correctly. I didn't try the makkoli because I hadn't been feeling well, and most of the people at our table didn't feel like drinking. We assumed it would be ok, since there was such a huge group of us, there were 5 of us at this table for 8 who didn't want to drink so we just told them to only bring us one bottle of makkoli and the three would drink it. However, one of the guys in the program was a bit insistent that we should drink. I know that it's a part of the culture, but this is a club for international students, and many of the students come from cultures where drinking is not as common and there are students, like my roommate, who can't drink due to medical issues. I had been warned that drinking culture was intense in Korea, but I was very surprised to find that intenseness from people accustomed to dealing with foreigners. Especially because some of my Korean friends said that no on outside of a professional setting (like going out with your co-workers and boss) should be very pushy about it. Unfortunately, I have found that unlike myself, many exchange students come here to party, not to study and learn about other cultures. 

Anyway, I would like to try makkoli while I am here, when I am not feeling sick.

This is the pork. It was pretty good, except that it had a lot of fat on it. My roommate and I were a bit picky about eating because we're not accustomed to eating so much fat. 

Soup and side dishes!

After dinner, I went to 이대, an area near Ewha Women's University with some friends. We got tea and cakes! We were still hungry so we also got some street food and later some real French crepes! We saw this crepe place and decided to check it out and the guy working there was legitimately French and had moved to Korea about a year before. I don't have any pictures of the crepes because my ipod stopped working and we ate them very quickly!

The delicious cakes!

And this is my new German friend! 1. He's super tall! As you can see, I am only his height when standing on a foot-tall step. 2. His name is Felix. Which I'm pretty sure is the coolest name I've ever heard of a real person having.