오랜만이다!

So I wrote my last blog entry on March 9th, swearing I'd post more frequently. After that I had a pretty eventful week, and kept putting off writing an entry because I knew something exciting was going to happen the next day, and the next, and the next, so I wanted to wait until there was some down time so I had everything all in one entry. Then I got sick, stayed sick for two weeks, and didn't have much to write about at all. After that, I had put off writing for so long that I became scared to, having no idea how to recollect everything that has happened, and just put it off for the sake of putting it off (much how I write every single college paper). However, today my dad sent me a message on Facebook

and I knew it was time to stop putting it off and get back to writing. So, to those of you who actually follow this thing (dad, mom, grandma, hello) I'm sorry for keeping you waiting, and hopefully there will be less of a wait between entries from now on.

Because it's been so long, my regular breakdown of events isn't going to work out as usual. Instead I'll just be talking about what adjusting this time around has been like, with hopefully a few references to specifics as they pop into my head. I've settled into my classes now, I no longer have to glance at my schedule the night before or look up the room numbers as I go. I still sometimes get confused as to whether or not I'm in North Korean Propaganda & Mobilization or North Korean Literature & Art, since they're taught by the same professor, use some of the same information (since most North Korean art and literature ARE propaganda... and by most I mean like all of it), are in the same classroom, and at interchangeable times, but as long as I take notes somewhere it doesn't really make a difference. The class schedules here are without rhyme or reason so to speak; the same class will be in one room number the first day, then the day after a different room at a different time for seemingly no reason. My North Korean Elites class is the same time, 1-2, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, but on Monday it's in room 330 and on Tuesday and Wednesday it's in 331. In room 331 someone drew a cute little paper airplane on the wall by the whiteboard and that's the only reason I can distinguish the two rooms at all. I'm really beginning to develop a strong admiration for my Korean classmates in my three lecture classes. As a native English speaker, the classes, which are taught in English, seem fairly rudimentary at times. I rarely have homework (save for a one page essay due every Monday and a reading due every Wednesday in North Korean Elites), and the classes are predominantly memorization based. However, during the times where we do have discussions (usually about the readings in NK Elites and films in the other two NK classes) and critical thinking is required, I'm amazed at how well some of my Korean classmates express their opinions in a language that isn't their own. By no means is their English perfect, but I couldn't for a second talk about government policy, propaganda, or meanings behind art & literature in Korean (though hopefully one day that will be the case). However, there are still definitely times where I feel like the language barrier is a hindrance to understanding the true opinions of my Korean classmates. Today in North Korean Elites, we were discussing two current articles we read on South Korean President Park Geun-Hye's new two-step policy in dealing with North Korea, and how it compares to previous President Lee Myung-Park's policy. Lee Myung-Bark adopted a strict policy wherein he promised North Korea that if they got rid of their Nuclear ambitions, the South Korean government would aid them economically until they reached a GDP of $3,000, but if they refused (as it's well known they did) there would be no aid. Park Geun-Hye, who started her presidential term in 2013 just after the rocket launch of December and nuclear test of February conducted by North Korea, decided to take a different approach, attempting to have the two governments of Korea talk freely with each other, and allowing private charities to bring aid to North Korea. As of now, there is no discussion of asking North Korea to stop their nuclear ambitions, because she believes that trust must be established between the two countries prior to that serious of a negotiation. Anyways, with tensions between the two Koreas ever rising, this is a rather hot-button issue here, with many people feeling strongly towards one or the other's policy. In class, it was evident that many of the students expressed strong opinions about the new policies, but lacked sufficient English skills to express them. Professor Lim called on a random student from the list and asked how he felt about the old policy of Lee Myung-Park, and the student stuttered for a couple of seconds in English before launching into an impassioned answer in Korean about his opinions of the policy, to which there were many sounds of agreement or disagreement throughout the (non foreign members of the) class. Afterwards the professor asked him "In English, what do you think of Lee Myung-Park's policy" to which he replied "it.... very good." To hear the emotional speech prior boiled down to a blase "good" admittedly somewhat wounded me, but also encourages me to improve my Korean.

Candid conversation in general is a rare treat here in Korea. With the Korean formality culture, along with the language barrier, it's not often that conversation is deep. Of course, with the American friends I've made here, language is no issue, and we often have great discussion about Korean life, although not often deeper than that. I manage to suppress my urges to grab people and ask what they stay up at night thinking about by keeping close contact with friends back home, but I'm still tempted at times. However, the exception to the language barrier as an absolute hindrance for meaningful conversation comes in the form of my two roommates, though more often Sumin than Sophia, since she is much more talkative. The first time this happened I was walking from the shower to my desk, which I have to pass Sumin's desk/bed (the beds are lofted on top of the desks) to do. As I passed by, she popped her head over the edge of the bed where she'd been resting and said "Liz?", to which I answered, expecting some sort of question about English or my schedule or something else of the sort. Instead she said "what will you do when you are an old woman?" I was a little confused and just said "what do you mean?" and she said "will you *gardening motion with her hand*... flowers? Or cook food? Read a book?" I stopped, genuinely thinking the question over, and had to honestly say "I really don't know." She said "I don't know too...  I don't want to be old." then just disappeared back into her bed, leaving me standing staring after her for a few seconds and contemplating the cult of youth. Since then, we've talked about everything, ranging from more profound topics like meditation and cancer to ones that just made me laugh, like when she went on a rant about what foods made her gassy (at this point I'm banking on the fact that if she reads this blog, she's given up by this point since it's so long, but if not, I'm sorry Sumin). Sometimes I also forget that certain things I say on a near daily basis are actually idioms or colloquialisms, and not things that they would have learned in class, but sometimes my roommates hear these idioms and decide to bring them up at random times. Today at dinner, Sumin out of nowhere was like "what does 'oh, crap!' mean? Yesterday you dropped your earring and you said 'oh, crap!'". After I explained to her what it meant, clarified that it wasn't "crab" like the animal, and it wasn't a bad word, but if she wanted to use a bad word, she could say "shit" instead, she smiled and imitated me losing my earring a few times, each time depicting me in an increasingly escalating rage. Another night, I was up at around 2am while both of my roommates were asleep, typing to a friend back home (the only times I can do so are late at night or early in the morning usually due to the 14 hour time difference). While I was pounding away at the keys, Sophia peeked out from over her bed, which faces mine, and said "Liz?". I thought for sure she was going to ask me to type more quietly or inquire when I was going to go to bed, but instead she asked "what does 'I have no idea' mean? Today I asked a foreigner when he was going to dinner and he said 'I have no idea'" and after I explained it to her, she nodded thoughtfully, then rolled back over and fell asleep.

Candid conversation or not, one thing that's for sure is that I've had some great times with my new found friends over the weeks since my last blog entry. Jochiwon is a small town whose only public transportation is a bus that takes you from the university to the train station, and the train that takes you to far larger and busier places (the line ends in Seoul or Busan, depending on which direction you travel). While I'm on the topic of that damn train, I'd just like to interject that I have yet to ever be able to secure a seat on it. I've been on it 6 times, and every time standing. The last time, returning from Seoul, I actually did get a seat, was so happy, and then... the train never showed up. I remember the sign for the track flashing the train number and then a bunch of words in Korean that I didn't know, which in hindsight probably meant it was coming onto a different track, but at the time I didn't think to double check the track number. But 20 minutes after it was supposed to show up, I realized it probably wasn't coming, and got a refund and a new ticket, though the next train, of course, had no available seats so I sat underneath a table in the cafe car because people do that here. Even travel by foot here seems more tedious. While I was in Seoul this summer, walking even to a somewhat far-away destination meant walking through city streets and past shops, restaurants, bars etc. but here in Jochiwon, walking to some places means walking alongside highways, past dilapidated shacks where Koreans lived before the town was rebuilt to be an administrative district for Seoul overflow, fields of Kimchi jars, and smaller strip-mall like structures. Anyways, back to the point, there isn't much to do here (at least anymore than there is in Indiana), so keeping good company is a necessary component to retaining one's sanity, as well as being constantly in wonder by the surrounding Korean culture. Fortunately, I both keep great company and am really easily fascinated by the things I see here, which makes a trip into town with friends as good a time as any in my opinion. One of the first fun outings with my new friends was going to Yogerpresso, a frozen yogurt and coffee shop (get it, because yogurt + espresso = yogerpresso. Common formula here. There was a "Sandpresso" on campus this summer, which served sandwiches and coffee).  There were about ten of us, including my roommate Sumin, Kaitie, and Tara (as mentioned in my last post). There was a good combination of foreigners and Koreans in the rest of the group, but we ended up somewhat splitting into two halves of conversation, with me, Sumin, Kaitie, Josseline (from New Mexico) and Dennis (from the Philippines) on my half, and everyone else on the other side. We ordered a mixed fruit Bing-soo (Ice cream, sweet red bean, and other toppings over shaved ice), which made me happy because I ate so much bingsoo this summer and really love it, and everyone else happy because fresh fruit is a delicious and rare comodity here. Most of what we talked about, we compared the differences between our regions, starting with food and stuff like that, but by the end we started comparing how animal noises are made in our respective countries. My favorite was pig noises. I said we say "oink oink" in America, Sumin said they say "gool gool" in Korea, and Dennis just looked at us like we were both crazy, made a realistic pig squeal, and said that's how they do it in the Philippines. Dennis also takes amazing photos, and took plenty (and a video) while we were there, so some of those will be later. I also went out for lunch with a large group of foreigners one day, we ate at a chain restaurant that had something to satisfy the palettes of all nine of us, and I had my favorite Korean food, bibimnaengmyeon (비빔냉면, cold buckwheat noodles with a spicy pepper sauce) for the first time this trip, though I ate it many times in the summer because the iced noodles were amazing in the sticky heat. We had also ordered two orders of mandu (dumplings) to share between us all, and they brought us another for free, which is always awesome. Last week, my friend from the summer, Ming Quan who is from Singapore but studies in London, came to Korea for his Spring Break and came to Jochiwon for an afternoon so we got lunch at the same restaurant, and then I showed him around town, campus, then we got coffee and he got back on the train for Seoul. The whole time he was here, he remarked how quiet Jochiwon was, and how empty. I took him to the market hoping it would be bustling, but it was stark empty. Of course the next day I went out for lunch and it was more packed than I'd ever seen it (an amazing site really, I wish I had known so I could have brought my camera). Last week I also went out for drinks at Touch Bar with  Kaitie, Josseline, Emily (New Mexico), and Theresa (New Mexico). Kaitie doesn't drink so she had lemonade, but the rest of us ordered cocktails, including Josseline who unabashedly ordered a sex on the beach, which made the rest of us snicker and giggle like schoolchildren, which then made the waiter laugh too. It was a lot of fun, and though I love talking to Korean people and Korean culture, it was still nice to sit in a foreigner bar and just be able to speak in English without having to talk slowly or explain yourself for a few hours. Though my times spent with Koreans, especially my roommates, is equally enriching. The meals I get in the cafeteria are always eaten with one or both of my roommates, and often SoYeon, a friend of Sumin's who is also in the ITS program. March 14th was "White Day"; in Korea, on Valentine's Day girls give boys candy and gifts, and on White Day boys give them to girls. Sumin's boyfriend sent her a coupon redeemable for a cheesecake from A Twosome Place, a chain desert cafe, which she redeemed and shared with the three of us. One day, when Sophia returned from visiting a friend in Seoul, she brought me a bag of fried chicken, with a note from her friend who bought it for me and said she wanted me to like it. Sophia and I also ordered delivery once, "hangover soup", a soup made with big hunks of pig (I think) vertebrae and ribs (I think) and supposedly blood. I had been sick for a long time at that point and she said that though the soup is intended to cure hangovers, it would help me feel better too. Though it didn't cure me, it was absolutely delicious. Eventually, after two weeks of not being able to breathe through my nose, constantly coughing, and my throat being too sore to swallow, Sumin accompanied me to the hospital. The receptionists spoke only Korean, and Sumin was an excellent translator, but fortunately the doctor spoke English very well. He gave me some tea and vitamin C powder for free, then told me to get medicine too. He said since I didn't have insurance he was going to put both the appointment and the prescription under Sumin's name so she could pay for it for the reduced insurance price. I ended up owing her 2,500w at the end of everything, roughly the equivalent of $2.50. Now, thankfully, I'm feeling completely fine.


I'm having a great time here in Korea thus far, and I can't wait to see how the rest of the trip unfolds.

And I promise to update my blog more frequently, dad.

Off the beaten path in Jochiwon

Still walking, past a little statue store

There are a lot of cute fences stopping you from jumping into moving traffic here

Same walk, past a field of gigantic jars of fermenting kimchi

And finally after about thirty minutes of walking, we reached our destination: a buddaejjigae restaurant!

People sell anything from fruit to children's clothes on the street here. Here's some grains/rices/other crunchy things for sale.

Sitting under a table on the train back from Seoul. You can't really tell from the picture but I was pressed against the wall unable to uncross my legs.

Bingsoo! This amazing drool-inducing picture was one of many taken by Dennis

Kaitie and I (taken by Dennis)

The group of us

Chomping on some kimchi mandu (taken by Dennis)

My favorite Korean food ever... bibimnaengmyeon (this and the next two food porn shots taken by Dennis)

Twigeum (fried) mandu

Modeum (mixed) mandu

Ming Quan in Jochiwon!

Sophia's friend's note, complete with fried chicken grease stains

Cheesecake courtesy of Sumin's boyfriend

I also had Korean "toast" for the first time. Toast means sandwiches haha. It was amazing.

Medicine!

There was also "International Day" where we all had to represent our schools, but it wasn't super eventful so I didn't really write about it...

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