우리 부산에서 만날까요?

This past week (Fri-Wed) was my break from midterms so I grabbed my usual traveling buddies and went to Gyeongju and south to Busan. Gyeongju is the ancient capital of the Silla period, so it was great for sightseeing, especially since we just finished studying Silla literature in my online class. Pauline and I were in Gyeongju for 2 nights, but there was nothing to do for fun at night. We ran into a group of Germans who asked us what there was to do, and somehow we all ended up going to a Norebang together. Here's to making random friends. Sunday we took a bus to Busan, the 2nd largest city in S.Korea, where Jenni met us. The weekend was full of beach visits, shopping, a temple visit, and a stroll in the country's largest fish market (poor Jenni is vegetarian and strolled down a street where they were chopping off heads). I met a penpal that I made online that lives in Busan, and she took me out for what has been the best meal I've had in Korea (except the one Saera's mom cooked for us during the last holiday). One highlight was the empty Norebang we strolled into. We were the only customers, so the lady that ran the place was really nice to us, and kept giving us more time to sing than we paid for. Nothing tops the fact that she joined us for one last song: "Mama Mia."






I'm sitting in my dorm sipping my 26th cup of tea in the past 20 hours. It's the only thing that seems to ward off the head cold that is trying to chase me. Someone in our hostel insisted on leaving the window open, so I think that's why I'm getting sick. Although, it could be a combination of that and laying on the beach on a cold day. It was worth it though, and I found some medicine and Orange Juice, so I'll be good.

It was a short week, and I only have one class tomorrow! I have plans to meet a Japanese girl for a little post-midterm relaxation, and a Kimchi festival. It will be nice to stay in Seoul. Maybe I'll go salsa dancing - it's been at least 4 weeks since I've been. Of course you know I found some great places to dance, it's what I do.

I love it here, and sometimes I feel like a Korean, even though there's no escaping the fact that I don't look like I belong. I'm using my Korean more and I'm more confident, I'm even picking up some habits. I've been facing the question: as an International Relations student, is it necessary to give up my identity to understand anothers'? I think not. It's difficult but necessary to find grounds to share my culture, while still immersing myself in another. Asian countries have conflicts because of the past, and their memories and self-identities. Each country in North East Asia tends to have their own views of the others. If you ask any Korean why it is important for Korea to keep possession of Dokdo Island, you might get into a heated one-sided conversation against the possibility of Japanese imperialism flaring up again. Even with these ideological blockades, there still exists great economic interdependence and political connectedness. However, when it comes to getting business done, there is a lot of sharing and cooperation and success in Asia, and still a preservation of each distinct (with similarities) culture. It's not balanced, but there's an order that can't be denied. Korea has a blend of old and new that is envied by many countries. My roommate says that Chinese struggle to keep their identity and culture preserved while still becoming more global, but realizes Korea has done a good job at doing just that. I'm also learning that the purpose of traveling, or just living life, is not to lose or find myself. Traveling opens opportunities to be who I am, mature where I'm planted, and understand people better through their perspectives.

I apologize if any of the above is confusing or has errors, this cold has me a little foggy-headed. (Praying against that though.) Also I had a few good distractions, chats with my future roommate that's in Russia, and Amy, my past floor-mate that's now here at Ewha (she chose my blog title, it means "Shall we meet in Busan?") ㅋㅋ

I'm going to go continue studying my shopping vocabulary for my Korean test tomorrow. I should also learn how I did on the midterm soon ^^ Hope all is well at home, I think of you all often.

Weekend East

This past weekend my travels to the east coast were anything but smooth, but I had an amazing time. Three exchange students and I traveled to Seoraksan National Park,in the northeast of the country. Transportation was the biggest hurdle. No matter where we were going we always happened to miss the bus by five minutes.

Osaek, is known for its hot springs, and our motel had one. Actually it's a glorified public bath with the natural water from the springs pumped into it. It was definitely a new experience bathing with a bunch of other ladies. Talk about getting out of my comfort zone! After we checked into our 40,000 Won motel, which had mats to sleep on, a heated floor and a bathroom with old tile with a semi-functional western-style toilet, we left to go to the beach! A pen-pal of mine told me that the East Sea has the best beach, so I was really excited to go, even if it's the middle of Autumn. We figured out we had to take bus #9 we got to the stop about 5 minutes late. Luckily a persistent taxi driver offered us a ride to Naksan for 10,000won, so since it's usually about 20,000 we took the ride. The beach was beautiful, and even though it was cold three of us decided to just give in and swim. We definitely played the foreigner card on this move. It wasn't long before we realized the jacket-clad Koreans on the beach had their eyes on us for being so crazy. As I walked to the bathrooms to change a large group of older people stopped me for a short conversation on how the water was. They were fun. I love people. We sat on the beach in our sweatshirts and jeans for a while taking pictures and joking around. I think I left all of my cares there.

Saturday a few park rangers at Osaek came to us to give us some information, and take our photos for some reason. They convinced us to visit a temple and waterfalls in Osaek before traveling to the main part of the part in the north. The hiking was very easy, maybe too easy. The leaves were beautiful colors and the mountains were amazing. In the more popular part of the park the leaves were mostly green still, so I'm really thankful we went there first. I'm not very good at describing so I'll just include a few more pictures.

The weekend was great, even though a few times our girl-fight instinct almost came through. Two of the girls are vegetarians so the whole weekend was a fight to find a pizza hut...which we successfully did! It's definitely not your familiar pan-pizza here, there's actually no real difference between pizza places for those of you interested, except the crazy toppings like potatoes and shrimp. I'm hungry now.

I just returned from my first Midterm Exam! PHEW. it's over. Yesterday reminded me of Waynesburg and normal college days. I wore sweat pants all day for the first time, and relaxed around the dorm studying and visiting people. Haddie, my roommate from freshman year, mailed me stuff to make s'mores (necessary because no one here heard of them) so we had a mini party in the kitchenette on the 2nd floor. I showed them how to make s'mores in the microwave, then we got adventurous and used the toaster oven. It soon turned into Asian marshmallows when instead of a stick, someone picked their marshmallow up with a chopstick.
I stayed up late and then studied 3 more hours today...minus a few times I checked facebook and uploaded pictures. The test turned out to be three short answers and an essay on studying comparative politics. I just hope I did alright. Next exam is for Korean language. dun.dun.dun. OH! Just remembered, I have a dinner appointment with my tutor! Food and study help is always good.

Thanks for reading, annyeong!

little get-aways make my days

I’m here to study, but more-so I came to Korea to experience as much as possible. These past two weeks I have been better at skipping my afternoon naps to find something around Seoul to do. Mondays and Wednesdays I am finished with my classes after my Korean language class. Last week a few girls and I went for a bike ride along the Han River after lunch. We rented a bike that looked like it came straight from the Wrigley’s Doublemint Gum commercial, you know the one with the twins, for 3,000 Won for an hour. Like almost everywhere we go, we got attention for being foreigners and many people said “Hello!” There were also many hard-core bikers and people exercising on the outdoor gym equipment. I think I could do that every week because of the busy but laid-back atmosphere. Yesterday was Wednesday so I went with Pauline and Jenni (from Finland) to Topgol Park. It had a large Pagoda to see and a few old Korean style pavilions. There were a lot of old men relaxing in their suits with their newspapers, and a few more serious people near the Pagoda. We decided to sit on a small wall and somehow ended up sharing what was on our Ipods. First we busted out the Disney songs, and let me go on the record saying that Jenni singing “Hakuna Matata” in Finnish is hilarious! However, catching us seat-dancing to a Spice Girls song had to be the highlight of the day for a couple ahjussis (old men) that passed by. Today I met my language tutor, SeonYeong, and a group of other tutors and international students to make Kimbap. As I said before kimbap looks like a sushi roll, but it can be filled with anything but raw fish. SeonYeong and I sat at a table with two of her classmates and between us we made 12 rolls of kimbap! It was delicious, although the café Ewha Sarang on campus has the best and cheapest kimbap around and I don’t have to work for it. I met a few girls for some shopping and a movie, we watched “The Women,” with Korean subtitles of course. The theater was really nice and the screen was huge, but I found it a little weird that they gave us assigned seats with our tickets. When I returned I had a message from Saera, an Ewha student that was my roommate when she exchanged to Waynesburg, with dinner plans for tomorrow. Before that, I have Understanding Images class from 3-6:00. We analyze films with economic, cultural and historical perspectives; it’s really interesting and I like it a lot but I’m kind of regretting taking a class so late on a Friday. Right now the plan for the weekend is to go to the beach on the East Sea, so we get to do some sight-seeing and still slow down enough to study. Plans change easily though, so I’ll let you know about that later.

study overload already - week 6

Tonight I was pretty productive considering recent bouts of distraction. I took another nap today before my International Relations between North East Asia countries class. One thing that hasn't changed since my freshman year is my affinity for naps.

My IR (international relations) class is pretty interesting. It's right around lunch time however and my professor always brings up food, and how he just crave a simple American cheeseburger or plain cheese pizza. (He taught in the US for a couple years.) It's true, pizza here has potatoes, seafood, and much more on it, and burgers are bulgogi burgers usually (with a sweet marinade). Although I'm a fan of a good bulgogi burger, I think McDonalds should move it worldwide. So I was hungry...but i just ate a convenience store sandwich and chips. I'm trying to save some money.

I was going to eat dinner in my room but my roommate ("Ella" from Beijing for future reference) was going out so I joined her. We went to one of my favorite 24 hour places. We had kimbap (looks like a sushi roll, but it's filled with lots of things like sausage, egg, veggies --not raw fish! We also had fish cake soup and teokbokkgi, or spicy rice cakes, all for 7,500won. Lots of good food, cheap. Around 11 Colin (for those who don't know Colin goes to Waynesburg too and is also exchanging to Ewha -- read his blog!) instant messaged me & we went out to get him some street food. It was a welcome break from the 12 Korean language workbook pages I had to do.

So, how about a throwback story?
The dancing I told you about at the Mask Dance Festival in my last blog wasn't the only time I've done something like that. During orientation week the Peace Buddies* organized a party for the international students. We went to a place called Osama (weird I know) and people were dancing. Well I decided to make some friends by teaching them an old-school move some friends and I made up. Just to give you an idea it involves pretending to throw and run with a football, and I'm dramatic. It worked well for breaking the ice and meeting people. Before the party was over I got invited to my first Norebang (Karaoke, literally "sing-room") with a few Japanese girls. It was a fun night. The next day I met my Peace Buddy, YeongMi to go to the Seoul Food Festival and she showed me a video she secretly took of me dancing ***i know now how ridiculous i look*** Somehow that didn't stop me.

(*Peace Buddies are Ewha students that volunteer to help international students. They organize events and every day we have the option of meeting for Buddy Lunch where we all eat off campus together. YeongMi is my buddy, and she's amazing.)

Another from the first week:
I went on a trip hiking to the Mt. Samgak festival. It was a race, but it was my first time hiking a mountain so I stayed with the rest of the group and was lazy. It's a big festival for the neighboring town and the Mayor was there for introductions and photo opportunities, but he also climbed with us. He kept coming around us and talking with us, with his photographer in tow. He sign-languaged asked me about my nose ring, with a look of shock. It was funny. I don't care if he used me just for photo ops he was a sweet man. The festival sent a representative from the town to pick us up from school and hike with our group that day. I got to talk to her quite a bit and was kind of sad to say goodbye. When we said goodbye I said Gomapsmnida (thank you) and she said "ah!" and hugged me like I made her really happy. I'm still not sure, but maybe it's because gomapsmnida is more personal than Kamsahamnida (also thank you). Anyway I started out my trip meeting lots of people and I'm still meeting more ^^ I love people.

Blog 1 ㅋㅋ(I'll get more creative with titles when I get used to this.)

Annyeonghasaeyo? (hi, how are you?)

It's my 5th week in Seoul and this is my first blog post. Some may say it's because I've been having too much fun experiencing South Korea to write, some may say I'm just a procrastinator. Both are true, but I'll push the first excuse. This is my first blog, and now that I'm finally starting maybe I'll get the hang of it even toss in a throw-back stories from these past 5 weeks.

It's 12:15am here tuesday morning October 7. Today (yesterday i guess) I had just had one class - Korean language. I have it every morning 8:30am-11:15. It's 9 credits and really intense. I just finished memorizing some dialogue about meeting a new neighbor. We have tests everyday, and move really quickly. The midterm test is coming and I'm extremely nervous I won't remember everything from the past 7chapters. I didn't study Korean formally before I came, but this program and book was tailored for Ewha University, and I am learning a lot of useful things. Anyway, today was an easy day. I had ramen for lunch (Korean ramen is soooo much better than that Top Ramen you are all stuck with in the US, sorry) and met my Korean tutor for dinner. It was only our second meeting but we're getting along well. We had a spicy rice, chicken and pork dish, and talked about our weekend, travels, families, and boys of course. ㅋㅋ (<-- the Korean cyber laugh "KK"). After we grabbed some sodas from the Family Mart convenience store and went to chat on the roof of my dormitory. I Skyped home, took care of some bills and verified I was registered to vote. I have to work around the 13 hour (ahead) time difference from Pennsylvania.

We have midterms in 2 weeks. Scary! This school is the largest women's University in the world (I'm proud Waynesburg is affiliated with them.) It has a great reputation so I feel some pressure. When I tell someone that I go to Ewha I get to see that raised-eyebrow look of impression. Sometimes I feel I'm not worthy though, especially since I don't know the language, and as mentioned before I've been accused of being a procrastinator.

This past weekend I did my first overnight traveling to a town in the southeast called Andong. There was a Bulgogi (marinated beef-it's in the next picture) festival and International Mask Dance festival. I went with Pauline from France and stayed 2 nights in a motel for 30,000 won a night (for future reference just assume 1000won = $1.00 US, although the dollar is a little more) but people keep telling me we got cheated. Oh well, it was cheap by US standards.

We saw a lot of sights including a Confucian school, a Buddhist temple, a Buddha statue carved into a boulder, pagodas, and countryside. Buddhism is a large part of Korean cultural history, and it still preserved today. Although Protestant Christianity prevalent here. The mask festival was really interesting, we watched dances from Taiwan and Polynesia, and a few other shows. We ate lots of carnival style food; waffles with flavored whipped cream are a popular dessert anytime. There was a VJ on stage getting the audience to play games, pulling people on stage and such. Long story short: Because we stuck out of the crowd as foreigners we were easily picked to go to the stage and embarrass ourselves in a game of "repeat this Korean phrase." I think they purposely threw difficult grammar and a country accent at us in the end, but it was fun though and we got a free gift. I actually got 2 free gifts that night because later there was a DJ "mask" dance and Pauline pushed me in front of the guy looking for people to dance on stage. I have no problem embarrassing myself sometimes because it leads to great stories. In the end we got pictures with the staff that were dressed up in costumes. Spiderman was the most interesting. I love people.

I didn't sleep much that night for some reason so on the ride back to Seoul I felt gross. Still, that night I went out to Korean barbecue with a few girls for dinner. Yesterday Pauline and I were in the mood for Italian pasta for lunch, then walked to Hongdae and tried out the Dr. Fish cafe. We bought smoothies and put our feet in water and the little doctor fish ate the dead skin from our feet...I know it sounds disgusting, but it's a really cool way to get a pedicure. Before I left Pennsylvania I read a news article that there was one in Washington D.C., I hope it catches on so I can go when I return home. I finished the weekend by doing laundry, eating rice and tuna in the dorm kitchenette watching a Korean game show. I'll explain that phenomenon later, because it's 1a.m. and although I took a nap today I should study my Korean a little more and go to bed (once my Chinese roommate can control her laughter, over her discovery of the show "Biggest Loser").