Last Post

Sorry it's been so long! I've spent the last week catching up with friends, getting over my jetlag (it took me about three days to adjust), and trying to survive the heatwave in Boston.

I had a fun stay at Haemin's house. She lived in a town about an hour out of Seoul, so it was nice seeing new scenery and enjoying the quiet. I was only there two days. On the first morning I went for an hour hike with Haemin's mom and her friend on some nearby mountains. It was tougher than I expected and had a lot of dangerous uphills and downhills. But overall it was nice getting some fresh air, and mountain hiking isn't something I can readily do in Boston.

That night I went with Haemin to see Nanta (see above picture.) It's the longest running musical in Korea, targeted specifically to foreigners. The show revolves around four chefs and their boss in the kitchen of a restaurant. They did a lot of dancing and drumming (even with real knives.) They even used real food and fire. There wasn't much talking, and what little there was was generally in English, since it's becoming the new universal language practically. They brought up people from the audience, and I got to go participate in a mandu (potstickers) race. Unfortunateky my team lost, but I still won a prize. :-)

On Sunday I went with Haemin and her mom to church. Well, it would make more sense to call it a megachurch. Sermons went every half hour, and each time the church filled up to over 1000 people. It reminded me of a Baptist church because of all the singing and clapping, but Haemin said they're Presbyterian. Since the church was so huge, everything had to be filmed and shown on large TV's so everyone could see. I was kind of grateful for this because it meant they also used subtitles and I could follow along a little. But overall the sermon was way above my level, so I watched more than listened.

Later that afternoon Haemin's mom treated me to my last bowl of patpingsoo, a shaved ice dessert. Then Haemin and I went to meet her blind friend and have a short English lesson. Her friend was too shy to try speaking English with us, but she would listen and understand if we spoke English to her. So we played some word games and things like that to pass the time. That night we watched 21, a movie filmed here at BU, so it made me even more excited to get back and see everything.

I left early the next morning, and luckily all of my flights were on time and everything went pretty smoothly. Alexa and I had a bit of trouble finding the bus station and navigating New York City, but we made it just in time. I arrived in Boston at 1 AM, but Jake was waiting for me at the bus station so I made it home safe and sound.

And now, to conclude this blog and my trip, I suppose I should go over my three goals and see how I did. I definitely improved in my Korean. I don't think my grammar or writing improved much, but I saw a big improvement in my listening comprehension (understanding most of what was said in basic conversations between native speakers). My quickness in response increased dramatically; I could respond to something without having to first translate in my head. I could also form more complex sentences, although I still stuck to the simpler grammar patterns. As for tutoring, well I didn't do any "official" tutoring, but I spoke a lot of English with Sungah's little brother, her friends that wanted to practice, and Sophia's cousins. And as you know from my previous post, I learned how to make kimchi firsthand.

Well, thanks for reading and I hope you all keep me informed about your own travels.
안녕!

Last night!

Well it's my last night here in Korea. I'd like to catch you up on everything that I've done the past few days at my friend Haemin's house, but it's getting late and I have an early flight. So I'll make sure to write a conclusion blog when I get back and let you all know I'm safe.

I have to admit that I'm very excited to go back! It will be weird not speaking Korean and seeing it everywhere, but to be honest I feel like I could use a little language break for awhile. :-)

I hope the flight isn't too horrible. I have about 24 hours of travel ahead of me, including my 4 hour layover in Tokyo and then my bus ride back to Boston (arriving at 1 AM). Hope to see you all soon!

Catching up

Well, the rain finally stopped but now it's become much too hot to go outside during the day. And Sophia has a really early curfew, so we can't really go out at night either. So I've been watching a lot of TV and YouTube (and studying of course.) :-) My plane back to Seoul leaves tomorrow and then I'm spending the weekend with another friend from high school, Haemin. And then on Monday I'm flying back to the states!

Some exciting events from the past week include a traditional ancestor ceremony dinner at Sophia's uncle's house. I spoke a lot of Korean with her relatives, ate a lot of good food, and learned how to do the traditional bow. I didn't take a picture because I thought it would be rude, but I've attached an online picture of what the ancestor table looked like. It's covered with partially cut or emptied food, and at the end sits the pictures of a great grandfather and grandmother. Everyone has to bow to the pictures before and after the dinner. At the end of the night, the men of the family take a little bit of food from all of the offerings on the table and mix them together in a bowl. Then they throw the bowl outside. Later they throw out the rest of the food too. To me it seemed like a waste of a lot of good food, but that's tradition I guess. I also found it interesting that one of the offerings was orange Fanta. Maybe they thought the ancestors would like it now even if they didn't have it during their lifetimes.

Earlier that day I'd gone sightseeing with Sophia's family again. This was the last day of the rainy season, so there were still thunderstorms, but we were able to see a giant lava tunnel cave (made my molten lava flowing underground.) We also went to a giant waterfall, did some rock climbing on an old volcanic rock, and other such sightseeing. I have a lot of pictures on Facebook if you're curious. (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001425&l=df4e6&id=1606470007) That link should be available to everyone.

On Tuesday I finally got to go to the beach! I'd gotten another straight perm the day before so I couldn't go swimming at get my hair wet, but I splashed around in the shallows and found a few seashells. Hopefully Sophia and I can go again today and do some swimming! On Tuesday we hung out with Sophia's older cousin and his friend. He took us to this place called "Mystery Road." Even though the road goes uphill, your car will still roll uphill if you put it in neutral. Bottles also rolled uphill, and water drained uphill too. It was pretty cool. We also went and saw some old dynasty government buildings, but it was really hot outside so we didn't stay too long. That night we went to a lit-up suspension bridge and saw another dragonhead volcanic rock formation (they seem to have a lot of them here, but I thought this one looked more like a chicken.) We also went to Love Land, a sculpture park of lovers from around the world.

Today I'll have to pack and write my thank you note. Sophia and I are planning to go out tonight to celebrate my last night here, if her parents let us. I can't wait to be back in the states and not have curfew again!

Wednesday

Still rainy...

Sophia's mom woke me up early yesterday morning so we could go jogging on a nearby nature trail. She ended up walking, but I did some jogging. Hardly anyone jogs here, it's really different than Boston. There are quite a few power-walking ajummas, but that's about it. For those who don't know, ajumma is a kind of stereotypical name for middle-aged Korean women with permed hair that think they own the world basically. They do a lot of things that would be very rude in America, like elbow you out of their way, but people tend to ignore it here. Anyways, after about 20 minutes on the trail it started raining and a big thunderstorm started. Luckily we made it into the car before getting too wet.

When the storm died down a little, I went to a Jaeju Minsok Folk Museum with Sophia's mom and her aunt (Sophia was in Seoul for a flute lesson.) It was pretty interesting, but Sophia's mom is very impatient and kept trying to hurry me through it. Then we went to pick up Sophia at the airport, went grocery shopping, ate dinner back at home, and watched TV like usual. I've become quite familiar with most of the Korean programs, especially the dating shows and reality shows since they use Korean subtitles and it's easier to follow along.

I'm still working my way through Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in Korean. Just finished the second chapter. :-) I feel like I'm learning a lot more useful vocabulary than what's in my textbook.

P.S. That's a picture of me by volcanic rock.

장마

It's still 장마 here so it's been raining practically every day. When the weather is nice Sophia and I are going to go to the beach. Everywhere we go here is so close to the ocean, but most of the shoreline is developed. At the center of the island is Halla Mountain, the largest peak in South Korea. You can see it from almost every spot on the island. Sophia's dad said he will take me hiking there later, although I'm not sure if I want to do the 2 hour hike to the top... :-/

Complementing the dreariness of the rainy season, I woke up with a cold this morning. Not too bad, but enough to be a pain. Maybe it was too much singing; we've been going to noraebangs practically every night. The spicy food is also starting to hurt my digestion a little, but I don't eat much so I think I'll be fine. The news said that the Korean president just signed a contract purchasing beef from countries with Mad Cow Disease, so there have been a lot of protests by the City Hall and I think there's going to be a boycott soon. I'm not much of a meat eater anyways so I don't mind avoiding beef.

Until later...

My Little Island Paradise

I made it safely to Jaeju Island on Monday. The weather was really rainy and windy my first two days here so Sophia and I didn't do much. I went to her acupuncture appointment with her (which sounds very painful by the way) and we met up with one of her friends for drinks and noraebang. They have a lot of different flavored sojus here that taste a lot better than the straight liquor, so we tried strawberry and grape. They tasted just like cocktails.

Yesterday Sophia's parents took us on a sightseeing trip around the island. First we went to a crater mountain island (formed by a vocanic explosion under the ocean) called Seongsan Ilchulbong. We climbed steps all the way to the top, seeing a lot of the historic "guard stones" along the way. Then we went out for some lunch, cooked fish and rice. Afterwards we went to the Jaejudo Minsokchon (traditional Korean folk village.) With Sophia as translator I was able to learn a lot more about what things were and what they meant. We ate some traditional cactus taffy, which was suprisingly really good and sweet even though there was no sugar added.

For dinner we ate pork that we roast ourselves on our table. Sophia's parents wanted to drink with me, but it was kind of awkward on my end. They said in Korea it's custom to drink with your parents because then they can take care of you if you get too drunk.

Today the sun's finally shining but we don't have any plans yet. I'm hoping to go to the beach sometime soon.

Well, it's almost my last day here in Seungah's house. On Monday I'll be flying to Jaejudo. Hopefully the weather will be nice!

Sandra left yesterday. It was fun getting to know her, hopefully I can meet up with her if I ever travel to Germany. While she was here we did a lot of shopping. We went to some big cheap malls so I spent a lot of money too. But it's all so much cheaper here than the states! Anyways, now I'm trying to be more careful with my money. This is just a very expensive city.

I feel like my listening skills are still greatly improving. My speaking feels about the same. I have a few standard phrases that come in handy a lot (such as "okay", "where are we going?", "thank you for the meal", etc, etc.) I met up with my BU friends a few days ago, we all had a good time. I went to a house music club last night and had a really great time. It's my favorite kind of music, and I can't go in America, so I'm glad I got the chance.

Today I bought a copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in Korean. I'm moving through it slowly but it's much more fun than my textbook! :-)