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!