Only a Month Until home......hmmmmm

Ok so the last two weekends haven't been all that exciting. Last weekend I spent most of the weekend at home except for a Sunday excursion to the palace. It was really fun to see all of the fall colors. We also got to see the Korean presidents home from far away. It's called the blue house and is pretty cool looking. There were a lot of families there with their kids. The kids here are so adorable and I  think once I get back to Creighton I will really miss being able to see kids all of the time. It's cool how old all of these palaces and things are.

    That week on Thursday I went with a Finnish and French girl to the Hello Kitty cafe. This is funny because the whole place is decorated in Hello Kitty.  It has been fun hanging out with these girls because they were in my Korean language group and we usually had Thursday afternoon dates to go places.
    The next weekend I went with Jina home again. I really enjoy going home with her for good food and her family is so nice to me. On Friday night we went to sa-hyoung and opah (Jina's boyfriend) picked us up there and we went to a Korean restaurant. This one served a soup in the middle of the table which is just boiled veggies and thinly sliced beef. It was delicious. I think this is one of my favorite Korean dishes. The next day Jina and I searched for something to see and we found a park with all of the fall colors. It was called nam-han-san-sung. This was a really cool place but... everyone was staring at us. Go figure because everyone was in hiking gear and we were in dresses and boots. I was also the only foreigner there so that didn't help. Then after that her friend picked us up and we went to Jina and her friends old university. It was a lot bigger than Sogang and very cool. We ate supper there and just came back to Jina's house after that.
    The next day Jina had a birthday party so I went with Opah to the huge department store. It was so packed since it was the weekend. The department stores here are huge. Then we went to pick up Jina and just came home. Opah was really tired because he had stayed up late with a friend the night before. I keep telling him I could drive for him but he doesn't think that's a good idea since its Seoul and I don't have a Korean license. He is also a little protective over his brand new car.

    The next week I had a ton of homework due and the German girls kept inviting me to do fun things. I was so bummed telling them no but I did go to the Lantern festival. It was soooo cool. There is this small crick that runs through Seoul that has some really cool bridges and is nice at night. That few weeks though they had these lanterns in the middle of it. This looked really cool. The rest of the week we were just getting ready to go to the Phillippines. We left on that Friday to go.

Busan!!!

Last weekend I got the privilege of going to Busan and it was really fun and funny.
Friday: Getting there was interesting. I had a later class so everyone went on without me and I caught up. I thought I would ride on the KTX (the really fast train) to get there in only 3 hours instead of 5 and a half. So when I get to the train station and am waiting in line for the machine to get my ticket from there is a girl in front of me and a man behind me. The girl in front of me seemed to be having issues and so the guy behind me was watching very intently behind my back and looking over my shoulder. He was breaking my space bubble a little. Then the girl got done and I got up there and the man behind me moved up to my right to help me and this other guy appeared out of nowhere to help me on the left. The guy on the left I thought was a train worker but he turned out to be a clerk from the nearby Lotte mart. So they are trying to help me purchase a ticket even though it is in English and they have no idea what it says. So I'm trying to tell them that it is sold out and they aren't understanding so we finally get the ticket. Then the Lotte guy grabs my waist pulls out his cell phone and asks a stranger to take a picture of us on his cell phone. I have no idea who this guy is and he didn't even ask. While taking the picture he keeps pulling me closer to him. It was a little startling but really funny story for later. Then we parted ways and I went to my platform but they were shooting a drama on the platform. This was kinda cool to see because dramas are so huge here. Getting on my train was not to bad I just matched up the characters and the number with the ones on my ticket for which car. Then I asked a random guy where I can sit and he said anywhere. I sat in a window seat so I could see out. There was 4 boys who came in and sat down across the isle from me and I think they were from the military taking the weekend to go home. One of them still had his uniform on. I didn't make eye contact with them and just sat in my seat. A girl sat next to me and got off at the first stop. After a little while one of the boys got up to go to the bathroom and it caught my eye so I looked up at him and made eye contact and smiled. Then when he got off the train he gave me a Starbucks latte and I was so surprised I just said thank you. I couldn't even think to say it in Korean. When he was leaving he waved really big at me. I still can't believe all the kindness of the Koreans. They are always helping out and really accommodating.
     Once I got to Busan the girls picked me up and we went to the Hostel. This was probably one of the coolest places I've stayed in. We had our own room with 4 twin beds and then a kitchen and living room and bathroom which we shared with the other people staying there. It was called the Indy House after Indiana Jones and it was only around $17 a night per person. On the last day they even let us leave our stuff there until we left for the bus even though it was after 11 am. Then we went to a delicious Italian restaurant and a bridge where we took pictures and hung out by the sea. Even though it was chilly it was beautiful. Afterward we played on some play ground equipment and hula hooped there.
   On Saturday: We went to the fish market in the morning. This was also very interesting. I'm not sure I ever want to eat fish after that. There were also lots of places that sold pork including pork feet and pork heads. There was squid, octopus (live and dead) and sting rays. While we were there we kept getting asked where we were from and the people were all very nice. One lady asked me where I was from and then when I told her she told me I was pretty and started to touch my hair. I wasn't exactly thrilled to have someone touching my hair when they've been working with fish but I guess that it was just a sign of friendliness. On the way to the Lotte department store where we could see the city and sea from a nice view on top we saw the dried market. They dried everything. Apparently even frogs which is what the picture is of. There are also dried squid, octopus and fishes. This was an experience. Once we got to Lotte there was a water show where they shot up water and it feel in designs from the ceiling also. This was all to music and they set it to lights too. In the water falling from the ceiling the wrote words like welcome to Lotte and others. Koreans sure know how to do some things big. The view from the top was also very cool. We could see the view of the market and all the ships coming into it and then also the city and the tower. Best of all it was free to do and we didn't have to pay to get into the Busan tower to see the same view. Inside the department store we saw a Hello Kitty store and a Barbie store. They had everything here. Also I got to eat a bread bowl from Quiznos for the first time since being here. It was delicious even if it wasn't Korean. When I was walking in the store a few little boys ran up to me and shouted Hello! When I asked them their names in Korean they just ran away. Maybe they aren't as tough as they first seemed.

     After this we went to see a temple. There are always temples here. The temple was Beomosa and it was kind of far away. When we got off at the subway station we just started to follow the signs thinking  they would lead us to the temple. We saw one that said 3 Km and I  thought that's not that far so we started walking up the mountain. Then we reached a fork in the road with no sign so we asked a guy. He was so nice even though he was talking on the phone and didn't know where it was he tracked someone down and asked them and translated it back to us. They asked us whether we wanted to take the bus or walk and that should have been our hint but we said walk anyway. 15 min later and one very narrow winding road with no side walk we found a bus. And we embodied the saying stupid foreigners. It was a nice temple though and we were glad we made it up there. It wasn't as cool as the shrines in Japan but it was free and very nice. We were tired and very ready to just sleep or eat or rest. So we went back to the hostel and some of us took a nap. After this we decided to just eat delivery pizza at the hostel but we weren't sure where from. Pizza here is kinda expensive so we asked the lady working at our hostel she showed us a bunch of different menus and even ordered it for us. The only problem was we had a communication error and only had two small pizzas for the four of us. After this we just went out to eat a snack and this guy who was also staying at our hostel came with us. He was from New Hampshire and  he was very nice. He had graduated from college and was just taking some traveling time across southeast Asia. After this week looked at all the good Halloween costumes. They don't actually celebrate Halloween as a holiday here just the bars have huge parties for it and people get all dressed up. The costumes were hilarious. We saw a really good Marge Simpson and other people dressed up well too. When we came back to the Hostel we ended up staying up late talking to the guy from New Hampshire and another guy who was staying there from Israel. He spoke awesome English because his dad had grown up in the US and all of his family was still in the US. He told me his dad was an orthopedic surgeon and had gone to Harvard Medical school. He was a nice guy and it was interesting to hear how Israel works.

      Sunday: We went to the worlds largest department store in the morning. It was still kind of expensive but had good sales. All of the world famous brands are in it and they even have an ice rink. It's kinda like a mall only just one store. It was very large with I think 12 floors. It also had a Krispy Cream doughnut shop in the basement. Here there are so many doughnut shops here like Krispy Cream and Dunkin' Donuts. After that we hung out at the beach for the rest of the day. This was a beautiful day to do that because it wasn't too cold to put your feet in. It was probably 60 degrees out and the sun was out. There were lots of people at the beach. We had a lot of fun taking random pictures here and just enjoying relaxing. After that we went to get our stuff and get on the bus to come home. The bus ride home was pretty uneventful other than the man next to me was snoring very loudly. I've never actually heard anyone snore on a bus but I'm amazed his wife next to him didn't wake him. It was a very fun trip and I still really like Korea.

October!

     Sorry I haven't written for so long. The weekend of Oct. 2nd we went to Lotte world. It was a lot like Disney World on a smaller scale and Asianized. It's mascot was a raccoon which was hilarious. It was also surprisingly cheap or about $16. It was raining though so we spent time inside and outside. The ride lines were kinda long but the rides were different. There were only two coasters and both of them didn't have huge drops they just went really fast and upside down and sideways and all over the place. It was a bit intense. Also when you were getting onto the roller coaster there were 6 park employees (men) singing a song in Korean and clapping to the beat. I think they were telling us to how to get into the ride, put on our seat belts and enjoy the ride. When we were leaving they all waved big and said bye in Korean and English because we were on it. This is pretty common in Korea and they use this technique while making a traditional candy to sell it. It's very fun but I couldn't see an American boy ever doing it. We went to fireworks on Friday night but they were hard to see. They were some of the best in the world because this week was the international fireworks festival in Seoul. (I have been really bad about bringing my camera this past two weeks. Sorry!)
      On the weekend of October 9th I did a bit more. On Friday night I went to an apartment with some Finnish and French friends from language class. This was a blast! I was going to try to make bread but then I realized even if I could find flour I wouldn't know what it was in Korean to pick out which kind. After that I gave up the bread. We just made spaghetti with some mystery ground meat of some sort and a salad. It was good though. It was nice to be in a place other than the dorms to see what normal Koreans live like but once getting there we realized that this couldn't be a normal Korean place. It was huge and very gorgeous. The lady that we were borrowing it from was gone to Jeju for the weekend and this was her second home. The Finnish couple had lived there while they were searching for a place to stay in the beginning.
        On Saturday I really needed some warmer clothes because I didn't bring enough. Go figure. So we went shopping and I got some clothes. I was still running into the troubles of them all being one size fits all. This really doesn't work for me when all the other people around here might fit into a size 0 or smaller. They also don't allow me to try stuff on since in theory it should be one size fits all. My cardigans fit well but I bought a dress that is a little tight and so I must wear a cardigan over it. This is the problem with one size shopping. Then after that I went with the french girls to sam-gap-sa or Korean BBQ. This isn't really my thing because it's all fatty pork but that's ok. I usually just get some spicy tofu soup and its ok. After that we went to the fireworks show but we were too late and missed the whole thing. There were soo many people there. It is on this island in the middle of the han river which is pretty cool.
      Sunday I got the privilege to hang out with Jina and her boyfriend all day. He has a nice brand new car (the companies here help their new employees buy cars) and he took us around. First we went to On The Border which was the most delicious Mexican food I've had in awhile. Jina didn't really care for the enchiladas but they really enjoyed salad and quesadillas. During lunch we kept on trying to get Jina to say legitimate the right way but she just can't. There are too many rs and ls. After that we came back to campus and worked on homework for the afternoon. It was really nice because we could sit outside on a picnic table on campus. After that we went to a place for some Korean soup which we cook in the middle of the table with a bunch of veggies and some beef on bones. It's pretty good but I feel like maybe an acquired taste. Definitely healthy though. This Korean food makes me realize how they stay skinny over here. Lots and lots of veggies. We really needed some stuff from the store so opah (Jina's boyfriend, Opah is the honorific term for older brother used for any guy older than you) took us to the supermarket. This supermarket was huge and kinda like a Target with more of everything. It was also in the world cup stadium which I thought was interesting. They don't waste any space here.

    On Tuesday of that week we got to go to the Japan vs. Korea friendly soccer match. This was really fun to see because it was also in the world cup stadium. All around there were people screaming chants for Korea and I thought it was really cool. My German friends thought it wasn't that exciting but I've never been to a European game so it was great. There were some really famous players on both teams but I don't know any of them. I just knew when they came on the field because the Korean girls behind me started to scream really loud when they were announced. One of the really cool things about food in the stadium here is that anyone can bring whatever food they want in. It isn't just owned by one company that jacks up the price of everything with terrible food. It was interesting to see everyone bringing in pizza from outside.
    The next two weeks after that were really really boring. I had midterms so we just studied a lot and didn't do anything. I only had one good story from midterms where I had a teacher speak in Korean during the test for 15 min telling the other students what to do. I could pick out some of what his words were from konglish and my limited Korean skills. It turned out to be fine in the end because he either went really easy on me or threw out some of the questions or everyone missed them. Overall it was an ok midterms.

Opah (brother) and I

Omah (mother) and I

    As soon as midterms were over I got to go to Jinas!!! This was so exciting. I took the subway and then the bus to where she was by myself and got there fine. Then her mom came and picked us up. Her mom is soooo nice. She made us supper and Jina had told her I was picky so she tried really hard to make everything I would like. I really tried to tell her that I wanted to try everything but Jina wasn't good at conveying this message. She made us spicy pork and tofu soup both of which were delicious. There was also Jina's favorite which was clams and crab uncooked in spicy sauce. I didn't care for the clams or the crab but I tried both. She had so much fruit I was in heaven. I ate watermelon, parsimon, and tried mussmelon. After that the other Opah (actually Jina's older brother) took us to a coffee shop near their home and we had honey bread and played cards. This was really fun. I taught them all the different American card games like bs, slap jack, kings corner, go fish, and others. Before we went back to the apartment we had to stop to get "post" for my breakfast. They were really insistent on my eating cereal for breakfast. The whole family was probably the best hosts I've ever had in my life. They wanted so much to make me as comfortable as possible. We then watched Letters to Juliet which was good. Its the first movie I've seen since being here. Their apartment was also rather large which surprised me. I thought that all Koreans live in small apartments but theirs was probably the same size as our first floor at home. They had 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. There was also a type of balcony where the glass doors were open and then it was outside even though it was inside. When we first got there there was a little boy who ran up to me and said Hi! Then he asked Jina a million times in Korean where I was from. She told him to ask me and I told him and he said he knew one of our songs. He started to sing his ABC's. It was so adorable. They are starting to teach the kids English really early here.
        Saturday we slept in and then we went to a few museums. The first one that we went to was an art museum of Paek Nam June. This was very interesting because it was all with TVs. Appearently he is very famous but I'm just not up on my art. Then we went to a Korean history museum of the area of Gyeonggi-do (or something like that). It was really cool they had all of the old stuff and many old pots and clothing.  We also saw many kids here and they are so adorable.

      Sunday: We went to Nami Island with Opah (boyfriend). This was a blast! It was like mackinaw island only without cars. This is where all of the dramas are filmed and it's normal to ride bikes around. We took a ferry out to the island and then walked around all day. We pretty much just took pictures the whole day which was fun. This area is known for its spicy chicken bbq. This is where we cook it in the middle of the table again and it was delicious. They also had mushrooms and rice cakes to cook on the grill and then soup and spicy noodles. It was so good. Way better than the pork bbq (sam-gap-sa).
   I promise to post soon about Busan (Pusan) and post pictures of all of this on facebook!