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. 

Hanok Village

So this weekend my school hosted a field trip to Hanok village! Hanok village has traditional houses and it was set up with lots of different traditional games and activities. I saw archery, spinning tops, and masks, but we specifically went to experience a traditional tea ceremony, wear traditional Korean cloths, called Hanbok, and watch a Taekwondo performance.

Our school club has a guy who's good at photography and he takes so many pictures! I don't even know when he takes them, I just get on facebook and there's all these pictures of me I don't remember posing for. XD

Me in a hanbok! There were several different styles, I chose this one because this type was worn by royalty~!

On the left is my friend Yukari, from Japan and on the right is my roommate Caitlin.

Our school group posing with the Taekwondo people.

Food Post!

So, my mom's tired of seeing pictures of food on my facebook, but for people like my lovely grandmother who does not have a facebook (but she might not be reading this, because I don't know if her computer is fixed yet...), I figured I'd post some food pictures.

 My first meal in Korea! This is called 떡만두국 (dduk mandu guk), or in English Rice Cake Dumpling Soup. It's great for me because it's not spicy. The 떡, or rice cake, isn't like a Quaker Rice cake. It's thick and before it's cooked it's really hard but once it gets cooked it becomes soft and takes some of the flavor of whatever it's cooked in. The dumplings have some sort of meat and vegetable in them. And then I had rice on the side.

 This is 팥빙수 (pat bingsoo). Pat means red bean and the bingsoo part is like ice cream. It's shaved ice mixed with sweetened condensed milk. This was topped with mochi too! It was delicious!!

 Breakfast at Paris Baguette. They have tons of breads and pastries. I love their cinnamon rolls!

 Caitlin and I went out for Mexican food! It was actually pretty good, but kind of expensive. We went to On the Border, which is a foreign chain, so if we were to go to a more local chain I'm sure it would be more reasonably priced. Also, the cheese was made out of velveeta. Is that Mexican?

 The picture far away is of 떡볶이 (dduk bokki) and the one closer is Udon. The dduk is the rice cake again, but sliced differently and cooked in a more traditional spicy sauce. The Udon had a light broth with thick noodles, fish cake, seaweed, and shrimp tempura. Really delicious!

More 떡볶이 (dduk bokki)! This is a specific dduk bokki restaurant that Caitlin and I have been to about 3 times because we love it! You get one big pot and you tell them what you want in it. We usually get 불고기 (bolgogi), which is thinly sliced meat, 라면, Ramyun or Ramen noodles, and Cheese. Last time we went we got hard boiled eggs too. It's really really delicious and not too spicy for me!

We got pizza at a restaurant called Pizza Hand, which is near our school. Our vegan friend got a personal veggie pizza without cheese, and then we got a "hawaiian pizza," but it didn't have any ham on it. Only pineapple. The other one is a potato bacon pizza. It was delicious! I've heard a lot of foreigners say that pizza in Korea is gross, but I really like it! I think I like it better than American pizza.

Last but not least, traditional Korean BBQ! You grill the meat at the table then cut it up and eat it right off the grill, or fill a lettuce leaf with meat and kimchi and other side dishes. It was pretty good, but there is a lot of fat on korean meat, especially since we got pork. But I solved that by just cooking to a crisp. :P This was also my first time to try soju, a type of korean alcohol! It tastes like straight up rubbing alcohol! But the taste doesn't really linger so that's good.

Sight-seeing

A club at my school offered a field trip for the exchange students to 경북궁, or Kyeongbokgung/Kyeongbok palace. It was built in 1395, but most of it destroyed by Japanese, and then reconstructed in 1865. The royal family lived there and entertained there. I was absolutely amazed by how huge it is! And it's only about 1/4 the size that it was originally, I believe.

Look at the pretty mountains in the background!

One thing that kind of blew my mind is that it is in Seoul. You can see mountains in one direction and city buildings in the other. And like I said, Kyeongbokgung is huge, it's amazing that it's inside of Seoul. Kind of gives perspective on how big Seoul is. 

I believe this is a throne room or something?

The Empress's quarters. 

This is a picture of my group. I'm in the white in the middle, my roommate Caitlin is right next to me. This picture was taken outside of the place where Empress Myeongseon/Queen Min was killed in 1895 by Japanese. She was very politically active and was considered by the Japanese to be an obstacle in their goal of overseas expansion. 

My favorite place in the palace!

Me! ^.^

The First Time's Always the Worst

Racism exists everywhere, I know this, and I've experienced small instances of racism in the United States, and a lot of small instances here in Korea. Usually these instances are easy to ignore and justify. For example, when I go into a store and the cashier doesn't greet me, but then I hear him or her greet every single Korean that walks in after me. I can understand that maybe they were intimidated to see a foreigner and nervous as to whether they should greet me in English or Korean. People who come up to me and start speaking English, I can understand that they might want to practice their English and as a white person, I am more likely to speak English than an Asian-looking person.

However, today was the first time I have ever been the target of blatant racism. I'm sure that this guy did not mean to be racist at all, he thought he was being practical and I can understand the practical side of it, but that didn't make it hurt less.

Sogang University had sheets with the different clubs listed on them and the room number of where to find these clubs which they offered to the international students. They're all in the same building, so two of my American friends and me went to this building to look into joining a club or two. My friend really wanted to join the Taekwondo club, which we couldn't find in this building, and I was interested in joining the Drama Club. I participated in Drama club at my high school for four years and really loved it. I have a lot of experience working backstage and doing advertising and management for my high school drama club, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to get back into doing something I love and also meet Korean friends and improve my Korean language abilities in the process.

I found the room for the drama club and there was a guy inside so I knocked on the door. I greeted him in Korean and confirmed he was with the drama club and told him I'd like to join (completely in Korean). He told me (completely in Korean) than they didn't accept foreign students because it can be difficult speaking a foreign language. I don't know if he meant that he didn't think my Korean was good enough, or if he meant that I couldn't participate because they didn't do plays in English... either way it's basically saying the same thing.

As I walked away, I thought I should have asked about working backstage or costuming or set-building, but I had been too shocked and upset to be turned down because I'm foreign. First of all, surely the language doesn't matter if I'm not on stage. Second of all, I clearly speak and understand some Korean, so even if they required me to act I could memorize Korean lines about as easily as English lines. I've spent the last two years in college memorizing Korean conversation lines and new Korean vocabulary every day. But it's not my personality to argue with people, so i didn't argue with him. Especially because as I was standing there - putting myself in the vulnerable position, speaking in my second language - I felt like he was judging me and being turned down made me feel like he judged me unfavorably. While I know this is probably not the case, it was still a very difficult position and now I feel afraid to approach any of the other clubs to see if they might accept me.

Just K-pop Fangirling, ignore...

G-Dragon - Coup D'etat

I really wanted to talk about this mv for a minute. I’ve never watched a music video that hit me as strongly as this one. Usually I’ll watch a video once or twice and be like “oh yeah, I really like this!” or “ehhh.” GD’s Coup D’etat was different for me. First watch, it made me really uncomfortable, which I suspect it was supposed to. It gives me a sort of 1984 George Orwell vibe. I sat for a moment thinking after the video was over, trying to process what I watched. I’m sure lots of people have a million different interpretations of it, so I’m not going to try to interpret it here, but I just wanted to post a link to the video because I really enjoyed it and thought it was extremely artistic and thought-provoking.