먼저

Wow, I really need to update this more frequently, since a lot has happened in the last week! I'll try to recall everything as best I can!

I started classes this week, and so far I think I will like them all. Monday, I only had two: North Korean Elite and Advanced Korean. In North Korean Elite on the first day, we just went over the syllabus, but the other two classes that week we talked about the different offices in the North Korean government and the different generations of North Korean elite, and what historical events in North Korea helped shape them. It was all very interesting, I don't know much of anything about North Korea right now and I'm hoping that by the end of this and the other two North Korea classes I'm taking, I will know a lot! Monday evening I went to my first Korean language class. Originally, I was the only one to sign up for Advanced Korean, and was told if more people didn't sign up, it would be dropped. Fortunately however, enough people switched from the intermediate level to make the class 5 people, just enough to constitute a class. I showed up Monday and a student from the intermediate class who had switched came in soon after, but since it was just some "placement" testing that day, none of the other intermediate students did (as they'd already taken the test) and the one who did show up just kind of sat there. When the professor came in, he looked at me and very slowly and cautiously asked my name in Korean. I later found out that he also teaches intermediate class, and speaks very little English, but a lot of the people in intermediate didn't know enough Korean to understand him, hence why he was nervous about my ability level. I answered, and he gave me the test. It was all very basic and easy questions, like what is your name, where are you from, what are your hobbies, etc. To make up for the fact that they were so basic, I attempted to answer them all with unnecessarily complicated grammar rules, in hopes of showing what I know. After I had to write a brief introduction, so instead of just rehashing the stuff I'd answered earlier, I talked about my career goals, aspirations, and passions, where I'd traveled, my past experiences in Korea, and ended by saying I intended to study diligently during the semester I'm here. He took the test from my, read it, stopped, looked at me, then just nodded and told me (in Korean, just assume any conversation I write out between him and I is in Korean from this point forward) that it was very well written. We talked back and forth a bit, he told me that we wouldn't have class again that week, that we were supposed to use the level 2 book but can't, asked me questions about the time I spent in Korea during the summer, and about my past experience with Korean language in my home university. After he was done talking, he kind of laughed a little and relief-sighed at the same time, then thanked me, after which we both laughed. I have my second language class tomorrow, I hope it goes well. My two other North Korean classes, one on literature & art and the other on propaganda & mobilization, were on Tuesday and Wednesday, both taught by the same professor, a Russian woman who insists we call her Tatiana, her first name, since her surname is too long and Russian to pronounce. So far I love both of those classes, and I think they will be my favorites of the semester. My eyes were just glued to her throughout class, and I found everything she had to talk about fascinating. After class, some of my fellow students were talking about how they had to force themselves to take notes just so they wouldn't fall asleep, but I don't know how. My last class was Korean Culture, on Friday. However, the night before, I misread the time it started for two hours later than the actual time, so when I left for the class that day, I ran into Kaitie, asked her if she was going to Culture class, and she looked at me strangely and told me it just ended. Oops.

This week was also spent better getting to know Jochiwon, my new friends, and my roommates. Sunday, I went into town for lunch with Kaitie. Not much was open, but I found a guk-su (type of noodles) restaurant with an all Korean menu. I ordered Bibimguksu (noodles in a chili sauce) for myself, and asked Kaitie if she wanted me to pick her out something since she is still learning Korean and didn't know what the foods were. I ordered her gamja (potato) mandu (dumplings), since she doesn't like spicy food. It was all delicious. On the way back I stopped at Paris Baguette to buy "squid ink bread", which I had seen earlier but was too afraid to try. My curiosity got the better of me, however, and I couldn't help myself. Turns out there was a hotdog inside the lump of black bread, and the whole thing tasted like a room temperature, slightly fishy corndog (but admittedly, I enjoyed it). Later that night, my roommates told me that it was tradition for roommates to eat together late the night before the first day of the semester, which I thought was a lovely idea. So they ordered Kimbitang, vegetables and fried pork with melted cheese, covered in a red sweet and spicy sauce and kimchi. When they came back from picking it up from the delivery guy downstairs, I tried to pay them back for some of it, but they outright refused to accept my money, saying they wanted to treat me since it was my first semester here. The food was amazing and the conversation was even better. Sumin set the food on top of a set of drawers from under her desk that rolls out, and we all pulled our chairs around it and shared from the giant plate of kimbitang (which we managed to still eat all of!). I asked Sumin and Sophia about themselves, and they returned the questions. I found out that they were both raised Buddhist but don't practice any religion of their own, they both have boyfriends (one of the first things anyone is asked in Korea, along with "where are you from" and "how old are you"), that Sumin used to want to be a teacher but now is majoring in business and wants to work for a heavy machinery company such as Hyundai, that Sophia wants to be a flight attendant and that's all she's ever wanted to be for her entire life, Sumin has one younger brother, Sophia has two older brothers, and they both used to really want sisters, Sumin has been to Myanmar to volunteer at an orphanage, and Sophia has volunteered in the Phillipines, and goes to Seoul twice a month to volunteer there too. There were times where the language barrier made it difficult to fully express ourselves, but we managed to work through it and figure it out. They're both great people and I don't think I could have asked for better roommates.
Before classes on Monday, Sophia, Sumin, and I decided to go to HomePlus, the Korean equivalent of WalMart, to buy some dorm necessities that we could share (such as toilet paper, laundry detergent, shampoo and conditioner, etc). Homeplus is almost three miles from the university, and we took the bus for about a mile (it only has two stops, the university and the stairs outside of Jochiwon Station) and walked the rest of the way. I'm glad they knew where they were going, because I had no idea. It was outside of what everyone calls "town", which is walled in by metal and train tracks, and we walked alongside roads and highways I didn't recognize in the slightest. Finally, we arrived at the gigantic building that it HomePlus, only to find the doors gated and locked shut. Fortunately, we realized that the store opens at 10am, and though we had left at 9am, with the long walk it was already past 9:50 by time we got there. So, we waited out in the cold for ten or so minutes, then went in to shop. I was really impressed by the amount of stuff that was there. Although it was similar to any other Super Market type store in the US, I just hadn't seen something like that in Korea. It was strange yet cool to see things like quail eggs, silkworm pupa, and the same sort of precooked whole chicken you find in the US, except with the neck and arms left on. After we bought everything we needed, we were all hungry and decided to eat at Lotteria, a fast food restaurant owned by Lotte, I think the largest food company in Korea (seriously just about every prepackaged food I see here says "Lotte" on it). Sophia and I got shrimp burgers (a patty made out of shrimp, tasty), and Sumin just got an icecream cone. We had put all of our groceries in a cardboard box, rather than bags (since bags cost here), and took a taxi back to the dorm. In the taxi, I was happy that I could understand a lot of Sumin and the driver's conversation. He asked her where she was from, but since Korean doesn't often use "you", "he", "she", or anything like that, the question literally translated is similar to "where come from". Since Sumin is Korean, she assumed he was asking about me, and pointed to me and said "she came from America", and he pointed to her and asked again, emphasizing that he meant her. She laughed and said Korea, and then he laughed and said "oh, you look Chinese!". She said people tell her that a lot, and people say she looks like Mulan, which made all of us laugh.
Nothing really happened on Tuesday except classes. Wednesday, when I'd normally have 6 straight hours of classes, I only had 4 since my Korean class was cancelled. I still woke up early enough for breakfast however, since I knew I was going to be sitting in the same room for four hours. That day, they had a Western style breakfast option, which my roommates and I all picked. I had a pastry, a salad, soup, and pasta in a red sauce. I couldn't finish it, since the big thing in Koreanized Western food is that they add a ton of sugar to it, it was all just too overbearingly sweet. When asked later what the pasta tasted like, the best analogy I could come up with was the same sauce used in elementary school cafeteria spaghetti, but with a few cups of sugar added and cut up hotdogs inside, at which people laughed and agreed so I guess that's as accurate a description as any. After the three North Korea classes were over, all of which I share with Tara and two of which I share with Kaitie, the three of us decided to go get lunch. We weren't sure where, until while we were walking Tara saw a delivery driver for Dos Mas, and said we should go there and get burritos. Dos Mas is a "Mexican" restaurant owned by a local Korean man. Now, while if you're expecting an authentic Mexican burrito you will probably not be too pleased, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed my chicken burrito, which had stereotypical Korean white sticky rice, a gochujang (Korean pepper paste) based sauce, pickled cabbage, and processed American cheese slices all wrapped up inside.
Thursday was probably my busiest day, even though it was free of classes. It was a cloudy and rainy day, and Sophia asked if I wanted to get Kal Guk Soo with her for lunch, since it's something a lot of Koreans like in cloudy weather. We walked to the restaurant, which was quite crowded. We managed to get two of the last spots (it was a restaurant where you sit on the floor), and Sophia ordered the Kal Guk Soo. A pot of clams in broth is brought to the table and put on a burner there to boil, and after it starts boiling, you add in handmade noodles that are on the side and let them cook too. It was really delicious, the clams had a really fresh taste and the whole meal tasted vaguely ocean-y, and it definitely did hit the spot in that weather. Afterwards, we headed back and Sophia went to class. Sumin had asked me the night before if I wanted to exercise with her that Thursday. She's very athletic and always invites me along with her, so that time I finally said yes, to which she said "really??" then was very excited and happy. So the first thing I did Thursday was tutor her in English (part of my agreement as an exchange student here), where we worked on pronunciation and intonation. After doing that, we changed and went to the dormitories next to ours, which have yoga rooms in the basement. We signed out a yoga room, then went and did some old Korean aerobics-type videos she had on her phone. Even though Koreans are much more reserved in their movements, even when it comes to workout videos, it was still pretty tiring. After going back to my room to shower, I contacted Kaitie to ask if she wanted to go to town with me so I could buy a backpack, to which she said yes. Sophia soon came back to the room (Sumin's boyfriend had come up from his military service to visit, so working out was the last I saw of her for a few days) and I invited her along too. The three of us walked around town until I found a stationary store Tara and I had gone to on my first trip into town, which sold backpacks, and I picked one out I liked, while Kaitie chose some both adorable and hilarious pens (hilarious because of the poor English, my favorite example was an environmentalist pen that read "We are giraffe, mostly of us are not die for natural enemy, but for human"). Afterwards, the three of us ate dinner in a Japanese restaurant. Sophia got sushi and udon, Kaitie got fried pork over curry noodles, and I got a fried pork cutlet with cheese inside (whenever I have the opportunity to eat cheese here, I take it) served with rice, soup, and cabbage. That night I got back to the dorm and figured I'd turn in for the night, but around 7:20, Theresa (whom I sat next to at the beer and chicken place the one time I went) messaged me and said that some people were going out that night, and asked if I'd come too. I said sure and asked when, and she said 7:30. So I rushed to get ready and met them outside. There were 10 of us in the group, all foreigners except for one Korean person who was in the ITS program last semester, because the Korean ITS students were having their own party that night. We went to a foreigner bar called Touch, where there were a lot of other foreigners. I was really surprised and wondered where they had come from since all of the foreigners at the university know each other and they seemed older, so we just assumed they were all English teachers (as the only other logical option is military, but we're nowhere close to a military base). We drank and played games and talked for a few hours, then decided to go to Noraebang (the Korean equivalent of Karaoke, except you rent out your own room). We stayed there until around 11:15, then decided that since curfew is at midnight, we ought to head back. As we made it farther back, we started running into more and more Korean students, including a bunch of (totally wasted) Korean ITS students on the way back from their party, and a bunch of (equally wasted) Korean freshman, coming back from a sort of... freshman initiation held in a bar every year. The group grew as we saw people we recognized, we all walked together and talked and a few of us even bought some convenience store icecream on the way back. At one point I was kind of walking by myself as the minigroups within the group kept splitting and changing, and a Korean girl ran up to me, locked her arm in mine, and introduced herself and starting talking to me, it was really nice. I was behind Theresa when the three boys we sat with at the beer and chicken place the week prior approached her and asked if she remembered their names, which she (after some help from other people giving her hints) did. This came in handy as about five minutes later they all saw me and approached, and one was like "do you remember my name?" and I said "of course, it's JungHo!" to which he was shocked. The other two were immediately asking "what about my name??" and I said "you're Paul and you're Daniel!" and they all just laughed and said "ooooooooooooh!". If I hadn't been listening to Theresa talk to them, there's no way I would have remembered their names, but thankfully I was able to fake it. We all made it back to the dorm safely and about 5 minutes shy of curfew (around curfew there are even Korean students wearing sashes and waving flashlights making sure to rush everyone inside), and I got to my room, stayed up for a little while to chat with my American friends online who were just waking up, and then promptly fell asleep.
Friday, as I already said I missed my class (that's what I get for checking the time while exhausted and tipsy), but had made plans to go to Seoul that weekend. Kaitie and her roommates were going Friday after classes, and I asked if I could tag along just until we get there. We took the train, which is about 1.5 hours, but couldn't get a seated ticket. Instead, we all bought standing tickets, and stood in the cafe car (though eventually we found places off to the side to sit down on the floor. While in Seoul, I visited Hoehyeon, Anam (where I spent the summer), and Hongdae (a very trendy, hip, young area of Seoul). I spent the night in Hoehyeon, then headed off to Anam around 11am. I walked around town and campus, saw my old dorm building and class buildings, then sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful 70 degree weather while soaking up the nostalgia of being back at the KU main campus. Later, I went to Hongdae, where I met some other foreigners (one other university student abroad, who was the same year and major as me, some English teachers and some military personnel). I ended up going with them to the Hongdae "Trick Eye" museum, a museum of paintings made to look like optical illusions that you could join in. Unfortunately, my camera does terribly in low light settings so most of my pictures are blurry, but it was still fun to see the paintings, and even more fun to see the Koreans all taking pictures of each other. Afterwards, we went to TGI Friday's (they have those in Seoul, who knew?) where I got pasta in a spicy alfredo sauce with mushrooms, which was so western, filling, and just hit the spot (I love Korean food, don't get me wrong, but I do often miss dairy). We were there for a couple of hours talking, when a Korean waitress told us there was going to be a cocktail demonstration at the bar (like, flashy bartending and such) and asked if we'd like to go see, which we of course did. So we filled up most of the bar, and when the bartender came out started clapping and cheering like madmen (or... Americans), which drew over more Koreans to come see. He did some cool tricks and was really funny and entertaining. Afterwards, we chatted with him and a Korean waitress who was also at the bar, and they taught us some Korean words and slang. Afterwards, we all left and walked around for a bit, even stopping in to visit a Korean sex shop, which was amusing. Koreans are incredibly reserved in public, so I honestly hadn't even stopped to thing that a shop like that could exist in Korea (though, anything is possible in Seoul!). Afterwards, what was left of the group (three of the nine had left by this point to head back home) was going to go get coffee and talk some more, but it was almost 9pm and I had plans to be back before curfew that night, so we exchanged contact information and I said goodbye. I took the subway back to Seoul station, then bought a train ticket back to Jochiwon. I had a standing ticket again, but this time the car was absolutely packed. I was pressed up against a wall while Koreans shoved past me, and couldn't even sit on the floor. Fortunately, after the first half hour it cleared up enough for me to sit as curled up as possible on the floor (still having to stand every once in a while to let someone past) and after an hour room on a bench opened up and I was able to sit comfortably for the last thirty minutes of the ride. I arrived back in Jochiwon around 11pm, and though I was tired, decided to save taxi fare and walk back to the dorm, arriving around 11:30pm, with still a half hour until curfew. I almost immediately showered, since I smelled like... Seoul, and went to bed around 1am, with my throat slightly sore and nose slightly burning.
I woke up this morning with that slight soreness turned into full fledged pain, and unable to breathe through my nose and barely able to talk. I got up and moved around, which help clear my nose and now I can talk (albeit scratchily). Another ITS student gave me some medicine, which I definitely appreciate. Though I'd rather not be sick, I knew I would be eventually (everyone does while abroad!) and I'm glad it happened after my trip to Seoul. Hopefully I'm well enough to go to classes tomorrow!

(Warning: Massive photo dump ahead!)

Kimbitang with my roommates Sunday

Crossing the bridge leading to town

Squid ink bread!

Almost at Homeplus

Clooooooooosed

Inside HomePlus

Chickens!

Silkworm Pupa!

Eggs!

Shrimp burger from Lotteria

In North Korean Elites class, the professor I think forgot to make the powerpoint entirely in English, and used the opportunity to quiz the Korean students on the English names of the titles listed in Korean for the benefit of the five or so foreigners in the class.

Western style "breakfast" at the cafeteria

Kaitie not-so-stealthily sneaking one of my fries at Dos Mas

Waiting for the Kal Guk Soo to cook

Perfect rainy weather food

Sophia and Kaitie enjoying some street food as we walked around looking for a backpack shop

Some great English on the bar menu (I think my favorite is Remon Drop)

At the foreigner bar

At Noraebang

At Noraebang

Awkward standing train photo (what do I do with my hands?)

Standing car

Anam!

The intersection I grew to know so well this summer

The GS25 outside of my old dorm!

KU

Frontier House, my old dorm!

KU

So many great nights spent here...

I'm pretty sure this is the exact same fruit vendor from the summer, too.

Trick eye museum!

Some of the English at the Trick Eye museum cracked me up, though this is exactly what it sounds like.

Bartending at TGI Fridays!

The Korean sex-shop

The insanely crowded train back

다시

Well, I'm back in Korea.

This time around, I'll be here for an entire semester studying at Korea University Sejong Campus, in Jochiwon, Sejong city, a more suburban area. I'm here as part of KU's ITS program, "International Town at Sejong", where I'll be studying Korean language and culture, and in turn helping KU students to improve their English.

I left for Korea very early on the 25th. My flight was at 6am, but from Reagan National Airport in DC, which is about an hour away from my house, so my dad and I left at around 2:45am. My flight went from DC to Dallas, then Dallas to Tokyo, and Tokyo to Seoul. The overseas flight was of course very long, and since it was mostly during the day I didn't feel tired enough to sleep for most of it. I arrived in Tokyo with four hours to spare before my next flight. Both going to and leaving Korea last summer I also had layovers in the Tokyo Narita airport, but going there was too scared to spend time exploring as it was my first time in an airport alone, and coming back I was too tired. But this time, I walked around for the four hours, looking in the different shops and eating food (like green tea kit kats and ramen!). I hope one day to be able to actually visit Japan, but for now the airport will have to suffice. By time I got on the plane to Korea, the exhaustion was starting to kick in (it was 6:30pm local time, 4:30am Baltimore time, and I'd slept about three hours for the past 36 or so) so I passed out for that entire plane ride, only waking up once we'd hit the ground for landing. Fortunately I had filled out my immigration forms prior to takeoff so I could just get up and leave. Korea University Sejong had provided a one time free airport pickup service the day before, but when I found out I had booked my plane ticket for the wrong day I emailed the person in charge of the foreign exchange program at KU and explained that I had some familiarity with Korean transportation, and he told me how to get to the university, first by taking a subway to a train station, then taking a train. I had arrived at the airport at 9:30, and by time I got through immigration and had my bags it was closer to 10:30. The last train for Jochiwon left at  11:10, and the subway to the train station takes about an hour, so I knew I wouldn't make it and had arranged previously to catch the first train in the morning, leaving at 6 and arriving at 7:30am. I spent the night in the airport, which was pretty empty with no late night flights coming in. I walked around, got some snacks, watched one of the TVs (a Korean gameshow going too quickly for me to comprehend, but I just laughed when everyone else watching laughed and enjoyed it anyways), and chatted with my friends back home (for whom it was daytime) online.  Finally, morning rolled around and I took the subway to the train station, bought a ticket to Jochiwon, and got on the train.

Taking the train was the first time I really understood that my perception of Korea was going to be vastly changed this trip. The six weeks I spent in the summer were all in Seoul, which on its own is a huge city with many districts all very different from one another. I felt like I had seen so much and understood at least a good amount about Korea before, but as I watched the scenes outside the window change as we traveled farther and farther outside of the city, it began to sink in that there was a whole other Korea I didn't know. At this point, I was working on closer to 45 hours with next to no sleep so the whole thing seemed really profound at the time. Looking back, watching buildings because more sparse and run down, Western influence disappearing, isn't some huge, mind-altering experience. But at the time I just stared at the window, mouth agape, unable to believe I thought I'd understood Korea based on what I knew of Seoul. I was the only non-Korean on the train, and I felt the familiar feeling of standing out slowly returning with every person who did a double take when they saw me, and realizing I couldn't understand the chatter going on around me. Initially nobody was in the seat next to mine, but a few stops in some middle-school or high-school aged girls got on my car and one of them had the seat next to mine. She sat down with her friends a few seats over as they talked across the train, laughing and yelling. At one point she pulled out a box of some sort of cookies for her and her friends, and then turned to offer me one, smiling. I thanked her, but said no, too consumed with looking out the window in half-awake epiphanous wonder. When we pulled into the train station I struggled to drag my gigantic suitcase onto the platform, and once I succeeded, pulled it behind me amidst the crowds of Koreans, then attempted to roll it down the long stairs. It twisted and got stuck, and while I balanced my carry-on and attempted to readjust it without it falling, a Korean girl came and helped me and then asked if I was Elizabeth, and that her name was June and she was there from the university to pick me up. She helped me carry my things outside of the station and we took a taxi to my new dorm.

The dorm rooms are fairly small, and certainly not as modern as Anam, but the more I adjust, the more I like it. There are three bunkbeds, with the bottom bunk a desk, and three closets. There's a sink by the door, and two wooden doors that look like closets but are actually a toilet and a shower. I live on the fourth floor out of nine, but there is an elevator. I have to use a keycard to get in and out of the dorm building, but an actual key to get into my room. As in Anam, there is a boys' side and a girls' side, and there are guards to prevent the two from mixing. Nobody who doesn't live in the dorm is allowed in and there is a turnstile sort of thing you have to swipe your card through to even get into the building. There's a curfew at midnight, and the doors lock students both in and out of the dorm building every night until 5am. I don't think I'll ever stop finding the strict dorm rules strange here, as much as I'm used to having friends in and out of my dorm back home, and leaving at any hour.

After dropping off my stuff, I immediately went back downstairs to go with June and another foreigner student, Kaitie, to breakfast. Breakfast is from 7-9 every (weekday) morning, and one of the two meals included in our meal plan, the other being dinner. We have to provide our own lunch and weekend food (fortunately ramyeon is cheap and tasty!). Most of the rest of the exchange students were there, as I was the last person to arrive to the campus and orientation had started the day before (which means I missed the tour!). Afterwards, I finally changed out of my three day old clothes, and we had day two of orientation. We started by picking classes, which was supposed to be from 10-12, followed by a one hour break before our trip to the bank. However, after 30 minutes I was finished picking my classes, and rather than have me stick around for some of the informative stuff, the director told me to go back to my dorm and sleep until the next session at 1, as I looked tired (I guess my two days of no sleep were showing). I didn't want to mess up my adjustment to jetlag however, so instead I went back and showered. My roommate was in the room, but fast asleep so I tried hard not to wake her. At one point she woke up though, and introduced herself to me as Sophia (though her Korean name is SeulGi). Unfortunately, she was very sick that day, so she needed to sleep a lot. I went back to orientation at one, realizing that everyone else had split into groups and eaten lunch, which made me regret missing out on the bonding, since I'd also missed the first day of orientation, tour, and going to eat and the bar the nights before, and nobody knew who I was. During the presentation, I dozed off, then we went to the bus stop to take the bus to the bank, and I dozed off some more on the bus and in the bank. We opened up Korean bank accounts (the school is providing us with a scholarship to provide for airfare that must be placed in a Korean account), then were told we could either take the last bus back to campus, or walk around and do what we want. I ended up splitting off with a group who wanted to buy some essentials, since I desperately needed hangers to remedy the explosion of clothes from my suitcase onto the floor. We had been told there was a Daiso in Jochiwon, which is similar to a dollar store in the US, but with more options/quality, so we walked around looking for that. We asked many people for directions, and finally, someone just took us there. We all headed back to campus to get dinner before the cafeteria closed at 7pm, which was good because I hadn't eaten since breakfast and was quite hungry. Afterwards, I wanted nothing more than to get my well deserved night's sleep, but it was only 7:30 pm. I decided to unpack both of my bags, and make my bed, which killed enough time until it was 9pm, which I decided was a reasonable hour to sleep at. I slept like a rock until my alarm went off at 7:30, and have since then slept every night perfectly well, effectively beating jetlag with my "stay up for three straight days then pass out" method.

That day, my third roommate SooMin moved in. She was very friendly and immediately started talking to me. She told me about herself and where she was from, she said that she was happy to meet me and hoped we could be good friends. She also told me her family would love to meet me and that she wants me and our thrid roommate to go to her hometown (near Busan, by the coast) and go fishing with her and her family. Sophia was feeling better that morning too and joined in, and I was very happy to meet and learn more about them both.

I returned to orientation, where we finalized our classes. I am taking three classes on North Korea (Art & Literature, Propaganda & Mobilization, and Elites), and Korean Culture (mandatory for all exchange students). I am also taking a Korean language class, but I found out the book used for advanced, the highest level they offer, is a book I finished 6 months ago, then I found out that I'm the only student who signed up for advanced, and at least 5 need to be signed up. So I still don't know what's happening there. We also met with our roommates to work on planning our tutoring sessions. Part of the exchange program agreement is that we tutor our roommates each 4 hours a week in English, and in return the university pays for our room and board. Afterwards, I got lunch in the cafeteria with my roommates. That evening, there was a welcoming party for us all. There was lots of good food, both Korean and American, and also drinks, alcoholic and not. The welcome party that was hosted during the summer by the main KU also served alcohol, and it was strange to drink soju in a university building with other students and faculty, but at the same time I think illuminates how strictness can breed notoriety, and when things are treated in a more lax manner they become seen as less dangerous (because seriously what's the harm in drinking a little at a welcome party). Though also, public transportation is more common in Korea, so perhaps that's why it's okay to drink more, and especially in a university setting, when you don't have to worry about people driving back home intoxicated. Anyways, I'm getting carried away. The welcome party was great, there were games and music and I got to learn more about my roommates and other exchange and KU students. It ended with all of the exchange students' Korean roommates painting our faces in KU crimson and gold, to initiate us as official students of the university.

Afterwards, a bunch of us went to a beer and chicken place just outside of town. I walked there with my roommates and Teresa, another exchange student. Once at the bar, we were separated as we were told more foreigners were needed at a table that only had Koreans at it. Teresa and I sat with four Korean students, three boys and a girl, and all introduced ourselves. Teresa's stomach was a little upset, so she didn't want to drink, but some things don't change across countries and the boys still tried to convince her to. We played a lot of drinking games, too difficult to explain through text, and one of the boys told her that if she lost, he'd drink for her, but in turn she owed him a favor he would decide later. She decided at that point just to drink instead. Korean drinking culture is huge, and I forgot just how fun it was. There are certain rules I've yet to firmly understand, such as not pouring your own drink, holding your cup with both hands when somebody is pouring you a drink, turning your head and looking away as you drink, etc. It's one of the moments where I'm glad I stand out so I can get away with making mistakes because it's obvious I'm not from here. But the whole place was alive and loud and fun, and it was so great to hear and see all of the talking, games, singing, and just fun going on around us. At around 10, everyone decided to go to a Noraebang (karaoke), but I was getting pretty tired, and considering I'm not much of a singer anyways decided to head back to campus with Tara, a fellow IUP student who has been at KU since last semester.

The next day, I woke up to SooMin leaving for Seoul for the weekend. I lounged around in the morning, and then went to GS25 (a convenience store) to get ramyeon for lunch with Sophia. That evening, I studied Korean and talked with Tara in one of the dorm study lounges, and we made plans to go into town together in the morning, so she could show me around.

Today, Sophia woke up early to leave for Seoul to volunteer, but surprisingly I was able to easily fall back asleep after and slept until almost 11am, further convincing me that I've beaten Jetlag. Tara and I met up at noon  and made our way out. Though the weather had been warm the day of the welcome party two days prior, it was starting to get more and more cold. Though content to leave our jackets unzipped when first leaving, by time we finished lunch it was bitter cold and we zipped and bundled up. Tara first showed me around campus, then we headed out into Jochiwon. When you first leave campus, it's just fields and shacks and trash, then standalone sorts of stores and stripmalls, a highway to cross, with more stores on the other side, then a bridge to cross over a small stream. After the bridge, the buildings start to become more condensed, until you reach a series of apartment complexes. Apartments here baffle me, they're all just overwhelmingly tall, and look the exact same. I have no idea how these people don't get lost wandering past building after building after building of apartments, towering over them, and manage to find their own. It's one of the many things I found overwhelming while viewing the commuter cities from the train. After you get through the apartments, there's one more bridge, the "bridge of death" as Alex, a woman from Russia who is one of the people in charge of handling the exchange students, called it when taking us across it to the bank earlier, which has two flights of stairs then goes over train tracks and back down. After that, you're officially "in town". Though still smaller than Seoul, the general atmosphere is more familiar in this area, which has buildings and shops crammed together without a field or dilapidated shack in sight. Tara took me to a hotdog restaurant she likes, called New York Hot Dog. It is adorned with pictures of NYC and serves that I think Koreans believe to be the two most American things in existence; hotdogs and coffee. Having been in Korea for 6 months and not a huge fan of Korean food, she was understandably in the mood for American, but I got one of  the Koreanized hotdogs to make up for it, a dak-galbi hotdog, which had pickles, onions, sesame seeds, and dak-galbi (a spicy Korean chicken dish) on it. Afterwards, she showed me all around Jochiwon. We went into a few stores, including one where I bought a binder for classes with some great Engrish on it. A lot of the stationary had cutesy things and nonsensical English words and quotes on them. Mine says "Fragrance of Romantic Poetry" on it, followed by a poem. To quote it "even death, encluragees others and in it's defat, stirs". It included four notebooks, which say "WHAT COUNTRY DO YOU WANT TO VISIT" on them, each with a different flag; Norway, Belgium, Canada, and UK. It really all makes no sense. We looked around the market, which had many clothing and food stalls, and I bought two scarves (since I packed no scarves or gloves when coming here!). After four hours, we came back to the dorms, though I made sure to stop at a Paris Baguette on the way to buy some of the delicious, albeit strange, breads I'd fallen in love with over the summer (including a curry croquette and tapioca stick!). On our way back, we walked by this open garden place and first one, then four huge chickens came out. I was cracking up watching them strut around and attempt to cross the street. The leader eventually hopped across to wear we were as a Korean man was walking past us, and got right next to him. He shooed it with the bag he was holding, which made me start laughing. When he turned around and saw me, he laughed to, then continued shooing the chickens and making chicken noises (which, in Korea, are apparently "ko ko ko ko").

I'd planned to just eat ramyeon for dinner that night, but Kaitie messaged me asking if I had gone to Seoul with the rest of the American students. I said no, and she said she hadn't either and wanted to know if we could get dinner together. So we headed back out to town, along the way running into another exchange student, James, who was on his way back from Seoul, who then joined us on our search for dinner. I pointed out a bunch of restaurants, and while casually making a comment about a porridge restaurant I had also tried in Seoul as we passed by, James said he wanted to try it, so we went there. The restaurant was warm and the water was warm and the food was warm, since in Korea it's usually considered to be a health food sort of place, but it felt amazing after the cold outside. I ordered a spicy seafood porridge, and the man told me in Korean that it was too spicy, but I told him it was okay, so he shrugged and took my money. It was spicy, but not overly so (for me at least), and I love spicy food. We all talked and ate for a while, then headed back to campus. On the way back, Kaitie practiced reading Korean, after having been teaching herself the alphabet over the last couple of days, and it was definitely impressive to see how far she'd gotten. Eventually I think James got tired of us stopping every few minutes for her to read a sign while I checked and corrected her, and he split off and said he'd see us later. I returned to my dorm, settled in, and began writing this blog post.

So far, I love it here, and I really think this semester will be an amazing experience. I can't wait to see what happens!

My first meal in Korea, breakfast from the cafeteria

My dorm room!

The shower-closet

Bridge to get over the stream

Me and my roommates, Sophia and SooMin

Sophia and SooMin walking in front of Teresa and I on the way to the bar

Leaving campus

On the way to town

Tara and our hotdogs

Jochiwon station

Market entrance

Vendor

Hustling into an arcade

One of many strange shacks

The man shooing the chickens

Jochiwon by night

Korea U stairs