Reflection: After 1 Month

Seoul Tower

After living here for one month, I’m finally missing American food for the first time. I want a philly cheese steak sub from Penn Station! I think I’m kind of used to living here, and might even experience a little culture shock when I come back to the States. Here people sell 번데기 (beondegi) aka SILK WORM pupae, you can smell the it from pretty far away; I can’t stand it.

Credits to eltieke from blogspot for this pic

The weather is finally getting a little nicer, no more winter coat needed. I feel like I’m starting college all over again, in that I don’t know and need to learn how to manage my time and money better. Been shopping too much, I have to control myself.  School is pretty much the same, easy, and midterms are coming up this month, mid-late April.

Seoul Tower

The tower

Me and my Seoul

It’s Sunday night around 7 PM when we decided to go to Namsan/Seoul Tower since it was a clear night. It was a spur of the moment decision but it worked out well, great night! Instead of paying 6,000 won to take this cable car up, we decided to walk.

Cable car up to the tower

The long stairs were tiring but worth it…very awesome view on the way up. I definitely recommend seeing it at night, much prettier.

Halfway up...

A little further up...

The city!

Random...but pretty.

At the top...N for Namsan Tower (also called the Seoul Tower)

Everlasting locks. Couples and friends put locks on this fence hoping that their relationships will last forever.

Closer look

Even closer...a note attached to one lock. Little did I realize when I took the picture that this was written just this past Christmas and it was their 2 year anniversary. I just took it randomly.

Cute bench and us of course.

Pose #2

Bear shop

Different pose!

Random...we match well right?!

On the way down...Seoul Tower!

...now with me...kind of blurry.

Then we went to get a late night dinner…around 11 PM. It was the conclusion to an awesome night!

New Haircut!

New haircut!

"laonzena" Hair Salon

Before (w/long hair)...

After...short w/more bangs.

Getting this haircut took us all day…but it was worth it. Shout out to Cyndy (in red above) and guy from Youtube for showing us the salon. Shampoo, massage, haircut, and style for 20,000 won ($17.58). It’s kind of a drastic change, I haven’t had my hair this short in ages. What do you think…like? Or dislike? Along the way, we passed by the Digital Media City and saw some cool things:

Snail made of common things.

Ant made of ants

Dragonflies made out of spatulas

Big heart

Jimmy Carter in the House

Jimmy Carter Sign

Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States of America, came to Korea University two days ago (March 23rd). I think he gave a speech, but I didn’t get to see it since I didn’t know about it until it had already started. It was pretty cool, the campus was very lively.

A Korean version of the same sign:

In Korean

Street Food

Eating a "Cruncy Pita Bread with Cinnamon Sugar Filling" in 명동

There’s lots of street food around, they’re usually sold in stalls in any busy area. I have yet to try all the street foods but I plan to!

Me eating ddeokbukki in Dongdaemun

This is what the street food stalls look like. Loved the ddeokbukki I had, cost around 3,000 won ($2.65)

Fish sticks

No I didn’t eat both, Linh had one and I had one. It was alright, but the sauce was a little too sweet for me. Fish sticks were also 3,000 won for two. FIY: There’s a street food part II, so get ready ‘cuz it’s coming!

Traditional Korean Village

Group 8 in traditional Korean clothing

The school breaks all the exchange students into groups and there are Korean students in each group as well, we all go to outings to get to know Korean culture better. So today we went to a traditional Korean village and also tried on some traditional Korean clothes [hanbok], see pictures below:

Main gate of the village

These are the rooms inside one of the houses.

I think this is part of the kitchen.

This is definitely part of the kitchen.

Linh and I and some other people from the group.

The WHOLE group with the exception of the person taking the picture of course.

It cost 3,000 won ($2.65) each to rent the hanbok. After the village, we went to eat sam gyae tang, a chicken ginseng rice porridge kind of thing. It was pretty good, and there was ginseng wine to go with it. It tasted different, even Koreans don’t like the taste of it, but it’s good for your health.

Arch of forever young(?)

On the way there, apparently if we walk through this, we won’t get old. The samgyaetang (below) cost 13,000 won ($11.47).

Sam-gyae-tang (삼계탕)

The gang at samgyaetang dinner.

From left to right: Hyung-suk, Yun-Jung, In-Jun

Alice in Wonderland

With our 3D glasses anxiously waiting for the show to start!

Here in Korea, many people reserve tickets for movies, with assigned seating. So, if you want to watch a movie and can’t read Korean, you have to options: 1. going to the theater and buying tickets ahead of time or 2. ask a Korean friend to reserve tickets for you. At six on Friday we meet at a restaurant just around the corner from where we live, a BBQ buffet!

BBQ Buffet! (8750 Won approx. $7.72)

It was much more delicious than the picture makes it out to be; an unlimited amount of beef, pork, and vegetables for only $7.72. And purple rice!

Purple Rice

After dinner, we took the subway to Wangsimni to see Alice in Wonderland 3D!

CJ CGV Movie Theater

Oh they had green tea flavored popcorn at the theater, didn’t look appetizing so I didn’t get any.

It snowed last night!

Snow (this isn't actually one of my pictures, I got it from Google).

So it’s March 18, and last night it snowed quite a bit. I asked my Korean language teacher if it was normal for there to be snow in March but she said this year was the first time in her life that she has seen snow in March. I wish Spring would come!

Lunch with Professor Chong

At "The Cafe Bean"

Our teacher for Korean History, Chong Da-Ham, took us to lunch yesterday. The class is taught in English and has both International and Korean students. It was a nice lunch, we talked about everything from Korean culture, to president Obama, to driving in Ohio.

삼청동(Samcheong-dong) Excursion

삼청동 수제비 (Samcheong-dong Sujebi) Restaurant

Last Thursday we went on a mission to find this restaurant (above) because two classmates found out about it from their Lonely Planet book and wanted to try it. So we got off at the subway station we were supposed to but didn’t know where to walk to find this place, so I asked some police officers on the road. It was the most hilarious interaction: I asked them where this road was in Korean, but then they replied in English because I guess they heard us speaking English and saw someone non-Asian with us. Then they waved bye to us with huge smiles, which Koreans don’t do since they usually bow; I think it was the highlight of their day. This place is famous for sujebi, big dough flakes in a non-spicy soup with sliced vegetables, seaweed and potato. They were even interviewed on TV for this dish. This is what their sujebi looks like:

수제비(Sujebi)

It was really good, I can understand why they’re famous for it. After dinner, we walked around the area, and ended up by this really cool river:

Fountain/waterfall thing

A memorial about the era of Japanese domination in Korea(?)

Tribute to 66 countries that helped in the Korean War

Vietnam was one of them.

People I went with!

Pens stand on the street, I bought one.