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! :-)

Pools and Parties

On Friday Sungah's friend Sandra came to visit from Germany. She went to Conserve the year after I graduated, so I don't know her too well, but we've been having a lot of fun since she got here. We met up with more of Sungah's friends, usually going to bars or noraebangs. We also went to this all-night shopping mall that opens at 9 PM and closes at 6 AM. The clothes there are pretty cheap, so I bought myself quite a few things (way cheaper than in Boston!)

On Sunday we wanted to go swimming, so Sungah's parents paid for us to get a room at Hotel Shilla (named after the first unified Korean kingdom; I wrote an 11 page report about it for World History 175). The hotel was really nice. Indoor pool, outdoor pool, fitness center, sculpture garden, nature trails, high scale restaurants, etc etc. I was scared to even touch anything. We spent most of the day at the pool tanning. I burnt a little but not too badly. That night we went out to meet Sungah's boyfriend and some of his guy friends at a bar. That's how most of our nights have been, but meeting friends and going out has actually been the most beneficial to my learning, believe it or not. Since they're all having fun and I want to have fun too, I work really hard to keep up with the conversations and understand what's going on. I've noticed that my listening comprehension has greatly increased. I can understand the subject matter of pretty much every conversation, now I just have to work on catching all of the details. Unfortunately I feel like my speaking has stayed about the same, but that's the most difficult part of the language process so I'm sure it will take a lot more time.

Today we are meeting friends again and going out. We seem to meet new people every day. I've already given up trying to remember all of their names, although I did finally make a Korean name (김태히) Taehee Kim. Sungah's friends said that sounded the most similar to my real name. I'll probably still use my English name in Korean class though. It sounds prettier. They pronounce it like tu-ree-shya :-)

Kimchi!

Sorry it's been awhile, I just haven't been up to that much. I've been meeting a lot of Sungah's friends and going out with them. It's really helping my Korean but it's also rather lonely because I can't keep up with their conversations. Last night I met some friends from BU that are also studying Korean here, so we went out to a bar and then noraebang. They seemed really uncomfortable at the noraebang, but I remember feeling like that when I first started.

I've been trying to do some studying, but my textbook is very difficult and I'm usually exhausted enough from just trying to converse. Tomorrow Sungah's friend from Conserve, Sandra, is coming to stay with us for a week, so I'll have a chance to be lazy and speak English with someone. I'll still have Sungah's family and friends to speak Korean with.

Today Sungah's grandma taught me how to make kimchi (see the picture.) It's a lot more complex than I expected. First we had to buy all the ingredients, which took quite awhile because grandmother was really picky about getting the best quality and the lowest price. The bartering she did and the tone she used would have been considered very rude in Wisconsin, but the supermarket workers seemed complacent with her. When we went back home she taught me how to cut up the cabbage. We sprinkled it with salt and soaked it in a big tub of water. She showed me how to grind the onions and cut the green onions. When the ingredients were all ready we mixed them together in a big bowl. To my surprise, the mix also included pears and sugar. I'd never tasted anything sweet in kimchi before; the spicy pepper must cover it. Lastly we rinsed the cabbage in three separate buckets of water and then tore it up and added it to the mix. It turned out pretty well, but still a little too spicy for my Midwest-bred tastebuds. :-)

There's one goal I can cross off my list!

Insadong, Everland, Korean Folk Village, etc

I haven't gotten any comments on this blog yet, so I'm not even sure if anyone is reading it. I guess I'll keep writing just for my own memories anyways.

Three days ago I spent the day at Insadong Market with Sungah and her mom. It was really crowded because it was the Korean Memorial Weekend. I bought a shirt and a pencil case with hangul on it (the Korean alphabet) which was really cool because every other piece of clothing here is only in English. We saw some traditional demonstrations, such as King's Candy (honey pulled so thin that it becomes hard and stringy) and making dd'ok (rice cakes) with a sledge hammer and a grinding bowl. That night I met up with some more of Sungah's friends and we went to a bar. I ate some dried squid with them, but I wouldn't touch the part that still had legs on it...too weird.

The next day I left early with Sungah's dad, mom, and little brother and drove about an hour and a half to Everland, the Korean Disneyworld. My travel book described it simply as "an expensive amusement park" and that seemed about right. I've never been a big fan of amusement parks, the rides make me sick and the costumes freak me out, but Sungah's little brother loved it. I posted a lot of pictures on Facebook for those who are curious.

Afterwards we went to Minsokchon, a traditional Korean folk village. I'd read about that in my textbooks, and it was fun to see a lot of the history I'd heard about or seen in movies. Plus they had a lot of live demonstrations and "try it yourself" things, such as old games like seesaws and swinging (except we did both standing up.) I went horseback riding, and the guy leading my horse thought it would be funny to make the horse run really fast. I almost fell off a few times - it was pretty scary.

Then we went back to Everland to see the fireworks/ light show. It was really impressive and they even acted out a little play, but I couldn't really understand it. There was a lot of fire and explosions and fancy pyrotechnics.

Yesterday, Sunday, I went with Sungah and her friends for brunch and then to a swimming pool. They were all pretty lively so I had a good time. We went to a public bath and sauna, which is much hotter than in the states. Plus everyone goes naked there, which is not something I'm used to seeing at a public swimming pool. Afterwards we went to a bar where I learned some more drinking games, and then of course we finished the night at the noraebang where I sang horribly as usual. :-)

Apgujeong

Yesterday was a day of sightseeing and doing traditional Seoul activities. We went to Apgujeong again, the young and hip shopping district of Seoul. Sungah bought some clothes and I went to a big hair salon to get a straight perm.

I really liked how my perm turned out; it'll be so nice not having to worry about poofy hair when it gets humid. The entire process took about 2 1/2 hours, and it was rather difficult with the language barrier and all. Sungah helped at first, but there's a lot of stuff that can be said with just hand gestures too. I wasn't sure what was going on the whole time though. I understood the putting chemicals in my hair and letting it sit, and then washing my hair and straightening it. But after that my stylist put some sort of weird soapy mixture in my hair and wrapped it in toiletpaper. Then I got it washed, dried, and straightened again. The stylist told me that caucasian hair is a lot finer and thinner than asian hair so he had to be really careful not to damage it. I think it turned out fine though. And the entire process, which would have cost probably over $100 in America, came out to roughly 23 bucks. Good deal, no?

After that we met up with some of Sungah's guy friends at the noraebang (karaoke room). One of them lived in Australia for awhile, so he wanted to talk to me in English. I'm getting pretty good at picking things up though, so I could understand most of what they said to each other. We sang a lot of the standard noraebang songs. They were all really good, and I couldn't keep a pitch at all. Really embarrassing... But as long as I tried they were happy. My textbook taught me that it's more disrespectful to not sing than to sing poorly.

We soon left and took the bus across the Han River to some part of Seoul I've never been to before. We met another friend of Sungah's (a girl this time) and got some food. I thought I'd already tried pretty much every kind of Korean food, but they still had more surprises. This was some sort of deep fried meat in spicey sauce and a different kind of meat that we dipped in salt powder. I'm not much of a meat eater, and it was especially difficult eating this because I had no idea what animal it's from, or where on the animal. They said one was some sort of finger... Needless to say, I didn't have much of an appetite at that meal.

Then we went to a billiard room, but their pool is completely different. It took me awhile to learn, especially because Sungah's friend explained the whole thing to me in Korean. Each player gets a ball, and then there are two same colored balls on the table. The objective is to hit both balls on the table with your ball. Needless to say, it required a lot of angles and positioning. I failed miserably. :-( There was this other guy there who kept trying to translate into English for me, but he only knew simple words like "left", "right", and "good job" which I already know in Korean anyways. Then he tried to give me his phone number as a "Korea present." He was kind of odd.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I also visited a middle school and elem school. They looked just like the scary movies! I kept expecting a ghost to jump down the long hallway... The elementary students were really cute. They were all cleaning with little mops and brooms when we came in.

Rain rain go away

My second day here and it's still raining. Maybe we're still in the rainy season? Yesterday Sungah and I went to a mall, saw lots of Hello Kitty shops and merchandise with misspelled or misworded English. (I saw something about "fuming flowers in spring.") We hung out with some of her guy friends that night, and they took me to a bar for some soju (Korean liquor) and beer. They taught me some the drinking customs, such as pouring with two hands for someone older and one hand for younger. We also played some drinking games, like this game where you peel the ridge of the soju cap back and whoever flicks it off first makes the person next to them take a shot. There's also a number on the bottom of the soju cap, so one person sees it and the others have to guess while the first person says "higher" or "lower." Whoever guesses it first has to take a shot.

Turns out I'm 21 here...pretty sweet. I'm not exactly sure how the Korean age system works, but it starts counting when the baby is conceived, so the baby is born at 1 year old. Then at every new year everyone becomes a year older, regardless of their birthday. I was born in Dec 1988, so I was 1 when I was born and then a month later when 1989 started I turned 2. That's why now I'm 21.

I'm not feeling as much of a culture shock here as I did last time I came. I now know what to expect with manners, food, etc. Although there still are some surprises. For instance, we've been eating watermelon a lot, and everyone here eats the seeds. I feel kind of rude spitting them out onto the plate when no one else does, so I've been trying to eat them, but it feels really weird. The other food customs are kind of what I expected, a bowl of rice and different banchan (side dishes) to eat with it. There aren't certain foods for certain meals like we have in America (such as cereal for breakfast.) They seem to eat the same types of food for every meal.

Today I'm going to get a straight perm for my hair (it's really cheap here!) and Sungah's going to give me a tour of the local elementary and middle schools. Once I get more pictures I'll start uploading, but if you're curious I still have my pics from last time up on Facebook.

안녕!

I'm here!

Well, here I am finally. The flight wasn't too bad. I sat next to a Japanese girl who didn't know any English so I couldn't hold a conversation with anyone, but I had an aisle seat so it wasn't so bad. I watched Vantage Point, 27 Dresses, and 10,000 BC to pass the time. I was able to sleep for an hour or two thanks to some sleeping pills, but overall it felt like an all-nighter. I'm not sure why, but everytime the plane hit turbulence everyone would go "ooh..." Maybe it's a Japanese thing?

The Tokyo airport was fun. Now can I say I've been to Japan? It was rainy and cloudy so I couldn't see any of the landscape, but from what I saw it looked just like America. I resisted the Hi-chew, plus I didn't feel like exchanging any money. I took some pictures of Sake and grammatically incorrect signs, but otherwise nothing exciting to do. On the plane to Seoul I watched "The Notebook" in Korean. Still just as sad... :-(

I didn't have any problems with immigration or customs, thank god. In fact, this was the first trip I've had in awhile where my flights were all on time and problem free. Maybe airport hassle is just a domestic problem? Meeting Sungah was a little difficult because she'd died her hair blonde so I didn't recognize her at first. But everything worked out, and I found that I could understand quite a bit of what they said to me, if they spoke slowly and repeated things.

Seoul looked pretty much how I remembered it. A lot of four lane double highways and narrow sidestreets crowded with people. I was really exhausted when we got back, so I went to bed almost right away. Unfortunately the time difference plus the unfamiliarity of the bed (which according to Korean custom has only one very flat pillow) made it difficult for me to sleep. I woke up at 5:30 AM hungry for "dinner" according to my circadian rhythm. It will take a few days to turn my schedule around.

I just ate a really good Korean breakfast made by Sungah's grandma. Lots of food! :-) Now we're going to get coffee and tour the city some.

Peace.