My good friend from the US really loves the Korean tv show 무한도전 (infinite challenge). The show is having elections for a new host so I went with her to the Mbc building to cast our votes. Apparently, not many foreigners come because everyone with a camera was rushing to take our picture or video us. We even had two interviews afterwards. If we end up on the show I’ll post a link! But we did end up in a news article!

Theater!

My roommate and I went to the theater again! We went to see the musical Bonnie and Clyde. I've never seen the musical before, but I saw the American movie before going so I knew the general plot. My roommate loves the kpop band SHINee and one of the members (Key) was playing Clyde so that was the big reason we chose to see this show so neither of us were sure how it was going to be but we were blown away!It was fantastic! The set was absolutely amazing! It looked simple at first, but it had so many moving parts and they utilized the entire stage! It was quite impressive. They even had not one, but TWO cars they took on and off set! The singing and acting were also brilliant. Just like wicked, it was all in Korean, but nothing was awkward about it. If I could I'd see a show every week.

Sinchon

The area where I live (part of an area with lots of colleges) is really fun! It's not too loud, but it seems like there's always something going on. Especially on the weekends when I walk through the main area of "Sinchon" there's been lots of street performers lately!

Bubbles!

Traditional Korean "flower dance."

Comedian/mime

More traditional Korean dance and acting featuring a dragon.

JeonJu

These pictures are from when my friend and I went to JeonJu a few weeks ago. We took a day trip. It was about a three hour bus ride (no big deal for me, since I am an excellent sleeper) and only about 20,000 won each way. There were cheaper buses… But they kept just giving us the expensive ones. I think maybe the expensive ones ran more frequently or something.

We got to JeonJu and we went to a really pretty park, walked around the city, ate bibimbap, andante went to the JeonJu hanok village. It was a fun relaxing trip. We didn't have much of a set schedule so we spent a lot of time just wandering around, which was fun. It’s a lot like Seoul but smaller and less crowded. There were some busy, noisy places, but also quiet places too. It was a fun day!

The flowers in the pond were all dead, but they're supposed to be really pretty in bloom!

 

 

Boracay, Philippines

So before the semester started a couple months ago, my roommate and I took a trip to the Philippines! It was cool to get away to the beach in the middle of the summer! The weather was absolutely beautiful and so was the water! My roommate said that the area was not quite as developed as most resort areas, but I can't say anything about that because this was my first time in a tropical place! We stayed at a small, but nice, hotel. They had free breakfast everyday and were super nice and friendly and had an adorable little dog that ran around the place. It was only a couple minute walk to the beach, which was beautiful! The only thing I would complain about was the lack of shade (I burn so easily!) and the locals who sold stuff along the beach. Of course I want to give to the local economy while I'm there, but walking along the streets I couldn't look at anything without being pressured and was even approached when I was just sitting on the beach trying to relax. But, people have to make a living so I understand. It was a wonderful vacation and I would love to go back again!

           
Look! It's a bitty sand crab!


Beautiful sunsets!


Look at that clear water!


Another sunset.


Typical transportation in Boracay. There were taxis like this (bikes with sidecars) everywhere for people to ride in! Even the locals all seemed to use this transportation.


View from the balcony of our hotel room.

Cherry Blossoms

Last month was Cherry Blossom season in Seoul so I went with my boyfriend to Yeoido, where they have beautiful Cherry Blossoms! It was really crowded with people and we went after class so it got dark shortly after we arrived, but it was still beautiful!

 
After it got dark, there were colored lights on the ground that turned on and make the cherry blossoms look like they were different colors!  It was very pretty!

A picture Sanghyuk took of me with cherry blossoms in my hair.

Sick in Korea

No, I'm not sick, thankfully, but my roommate has been sick quite a few times and I went with her to the hospital when she had bronchitis so for my first post in a long time, I thought I'd write a little about being sick here!

All year the worst I've really had is a cold, and in the US when I have a cold I don't usually do anything for it. I'll drink tea and take my vitamins, but that's about it. Can't cure a cold after all (well, technically I've heard that you can, but the chances of dying from the cure are too high too bother). However, every time my boyfriend gets a cold he goes to the hospital and gets medicine for it. This is usually 9-12 small packets with 5 pills in each and he's supposed to take all the pills in the packet three times a day. To me, this sounds absolutely insane, but in Korea it's common. When I had a cold my teachers kept asking me if I went to the hospital and when I replied no, they insisted that I should go. It was a really interesting experience.

Now for my roommate, her story is interesting as well.

She had an awful cough and was thinking she probably had bronchitis or a respiratory infection. So we went to Yonsei Severance hospital and went to the international clinic where most people speak English.
They were very fast. We went right in the morning so we didn’t have to wait long at all. Unfortunately, our insurance provider was listed on both Yonsei and the insurance’s website as having direct payment with each other, but we were told that we had to get a form from our insurance provider two days prior saying that they would cover the medical expenses in order for Yonsei to accept our insurance. ㅠㅠ Pretty sure that’s not what direct payment means. So my roommate is just sent the bill to the insurance company and had them pay her back for what they would have covered.

My roommate said that the doctor checked her blood pressure, asked her symptoms, and then listened to her breaking through a stethoscope to make sure that she didn’t have pneumonia, but never actually looked down her throat or anything. I don’t know much about medicinal practices but it annoyed my roommate that the doctor only diagnosed her based on what my roommate verbally told the doctor. She compared it to a drug-distributing webMD.  

They gave her four types of pills. An antihistamine, an allergy medication (which my roommate knows doesn't have any affect on her), codeine, and ibuprofen. We laughed about that for awhile because in the US you only get codeine if you’re in serious pain, like broke your back pain. My roommate was supposed to take two or three codeine pills a day, but after only one she was knocked out for about 14 hours, so I don't think it's even physically possible for her to take the recommended dosage. It’s a highly controlled opiate. In addition, Korea outlaws Nyquil for it’s codeine content but you can just go to the hospital and tell them you have a sore throat and they’ll give you a week’s worth of codeine!?!? Oh Korea. Sometimes I do not understand.

Looking at drugs even that you can get at the pharmacy like ibuprofen, the dosage is  much higher than it is in the US! And the Halls cough drops are in the candy section everywhere. In my opinion, it seems like the pharmacists and doctors over-medicate here. But like I said, I've been blessed with good health and don’t have a lot of experience with hospitals or medications so maybe I’m just under-medicated.