Goodbye

CIEE Spring 2008 Seoul, Korea Group 6

After having been in Texas for a full week, I am 80 percent free of this disease called Jet lag.
First, I would like to apoligize for the lack of posts since my last one. Since moving out of Casaville, internet was non existent until I was back at home.

Since being back, I was suprised to see that I fell right back into the nick of things. It felt as if I was never gone. Now this could be both a good and bad thing. Good in that I still have my friends and bad in that it kind of seemed like this awesome trip didn't really bring about change in me. Since getting used to central time, I've just been hanging out with my friends (when theyre not working or going to summer school) and studying Korean. And guess what? I'm still speaking Korean. My mom is pushing me to speak Korean to her more often. And since I'm not working and have no transportation (I'm being very "nice" and giving my sister my car for the rest of the summer) I'm starting to study Korean by myself. Although I'm crossing my fingers for this to not just be a phase.

Not much more to say here, for it is the end. But I just wanted to thank CIEE, Suzanne, and most of the the lovely 8eight8 (<---lol) because without you girlies my time in Korea would've have been a great as it was. See you guys in New York.

Deuce,

Lonny

I'm so sad. Last day for Vianey and Pang씨.

Yesterday morning I was SUPPOSED to wake up late (due to my lack of sleep for the past week), but I ended up waking up at 9 because I knew I should get up to get my hair dyed (I know, a little vain). So, I did. grudgingly. Cost me 20,000 won ($20.00) which was fantastic, but I did have to wait about 15 minutes for my hair person to come. Seemed like she drank too much the night before.

After paying her, I realized I had only 15,000 won to last me the next two days. So I emptied out my account. Then I had 25,000 won to last me the next two days. I almost had a heart attack. I need to buy shoes. and hair boes. and magazines. and food. most importantly food.

at 12 I went with the girlies to Yonsan to get some cheap usb's. 18,000 won for a 4gb. I was soo jealous because theyre soooo cute while I have this huge stank ugly one from the states. Oh well, poor people shouldn't complain. For lunch I had a 1,000 won kimbap roll. It was delicious, but more delicious was the service (free) 반찬 (side dishes).

Next we went to Apkujeong (rich city) to get 5 dollar cheesecakes at Cafe La Lee... I was disapointed. Totally not worth a poor person's money.

We were done by 5:00 so me and Caroline tried to take the bus to Insadong to have a farewell dinner with our Korean class. The bus was too complicated so we just took the subway.

It was sooo much fun and the food was delish. Everyone came and we all talked in English--- great way to apply the Korean we used, right?--- and then talked about the other Korean classes and how ours was awesome.

fun.fun.fun.

Something new

man sleeping on the floor of the subway on the way home from the jjimjilbang (at 2:00 am)

It was fun. A little weird; we seen the KLI (Korean Language Institute) cafeteria lady who usually serves us. And a whole lot of nakedness.

I didn't want to go at first because I was exhausted from all the tests and last minute cramming, but it turned out to be one of the most relaxing things everrrr. I wish I couldve gone sooner. Maybe I'll make a last minute trip there before Sunday. Anyhoo, so for anyone who doesn't know already, the jjimjilbang is a public bath house/sauna. The one I went to had 3 floors. The basement for showering and the hot tubs (which had a green tea tub). The first floor was the actual sauna place where you could cook food, well actually bake (things like potatoes and ddok/rice cake). We stayed there most of the time. The second floor isn't really anything. Just where you put your shoes before coming inside.

I forgets to tells yousa. I went to see gramps and the uncle last week, which was pretty cool because one) I got to bow---two full bows and then one half bow, two)share my drink with grandpa and three) learn a few things about my grandpa.

a- His Catholic name was Peter

b- He was from Geong-ju (where I went to visit with my CIEE group. weird huh?)

c- He and my 할머니 had an arranged marriage.

I know, my mind almost exploded with all this new info. It was cool. The end

Seoul Outing

mi madre on the subway.

It's 11:00 p.m. on a thursday night. I'm tired and poop and want to go to bed. But I can't. Only two more days with the girlies and then POOF, they'll be gone for a very long time.

The reason for my tiredness? All the walking I did with my mom and aunt. Woke up this morning mad because I had to get up early (to help a friend get her hair cut). Then mom calls me and wants to hang out in Seoul and buy me food. YES!!

So I take them to Yonsei which was boring like .... sand, then we walk through idae to go to the subway and my mom and aunt act like kids in a candy store when they see all the stores. We all end up getting earrings.

We finally get to itaewon and eat lunch (which was okay) but I feel a little self conscious because my aunt still hasn't stopped talking about my gargantuan thighs and pot belly (all achieved through pounds of bread that I've consumed.) I've even named it: 찜닭--pronounced: jjim dak.
Still, I ate everything I could get my chopsticks on. yummms.

Next stop was dongdaemun where we walked to the stream (chongaechong) which was dirty and full of mosquitoes. yes!!! There was even this woman taking pictures of fake Coach and Fendi slip ons there. even better, right?

(omg, I'm watching xmen 3 and totally didn't realize that ellen paige AKA Juno is in it.... just a little FYI for the readers---HA, what readers?!??!)

We walk some more. My mom takes some more pictures. And my aunt plays in the water (on the clean side of the stream.) We eat 빈대떡 (sp?) which is a bean curd batter friend in a gallon of oil and looks like a thick pancake. Then we go home. yay!!!!

Now I'm in my room post-packing (yay! I'm done, and it only took two days) contemplating on whether or not I should get some sleep or suck it up and go drinking. hmmmmm

Reverse Culture Shock

1. The Five things that I worry about most when thinking about going home are:

1. Forgetting the Korean I learned here.
2. Keeping the study habits I have applied here (= not studying).
3. Losing stateside friends because I've "changed" too much
4. Reverse Culture Shock
5.

2. The five things I missed most about home since I have been abroad:

1. Chau (my pet)
2. Gap
3. My room
4.
5.

3. Once I return home from overseas the five things I believe I will miss the least about living abroad:

1. stairs
2. Being called a foreigner
3. That's
4. it.
5.

The five things I believe I will miss the most from abroad once I have returned home are:

1. Late night spur of the moment shopping/Karoke
2. City life
3. CIEE
4. Japan
5. All you can eat meat buffet

Farewell Dinner

Last night didn't go as planned. Even so, it was a delicious and fun night. I ended up skipping my Language class because I was too lazy to leave the room (even though I left the room earlier that day to get a Bacon Tomato Deluxe at McDonalds).

6:30 pm rolls around and we realize that we need to be in Insadong pronto. We didn't want to wait any longer for the second group to finish buying their subway tickets, so the first group went ahead and got on the subway. So we finally get off the subway and lo' and behold ahead of us is the second group we "thought" we had left behind. WTF?!!?!? Voodoo magic. Anyhoo, it didn't really help much considering we were still late.

The restuarant we went to is owned by an ex-buddhist monk who only made vegetarian meals. At first, I was like...... but it was DELICIOUS!!!! Aside from the fact that there was a bunch of spinach side dishes, there was a bunch of new things (i'll spare you the details since 1- no one really reads this and 2-I don't really know the names). Afterwards there was a performance of traditional music in the center of the place. That was alright, a little long for my taste.

Afterwards the usual girls and Suzanne (our CIEE director) went out for a 637g (or five scoops of) ice cream. delish. more so because Suzanne shelled out 13,200 won to buy it for us.

fastforward... blah blah blah.... we passed by a sticker picture place and Suzanne says that she has NEVER done it before. Blasphemy. So we go in to do one, and these pics turned out to be my absolute faves while in Korea/Japan. yay!!!! perfect end to the day!

gomaps sister

Taking a break right now from studying (It's korean which should be no surprise). Chowing on this awesome candy my sis gave me from the states. yummmmmm.

After studying non-stop for the past two weeks, I have to say that this is the MOST studying I have done since coming to Korea; And I'm sick of it. SICK OF IT!!!!! Fortunately for me, the fruits of my labor paid off when my moms called. My Korean, I think, was pretty damn awesome, if I do say so myself.

Anyways, so last night, right after my first dinner, I went over to my uncles house to see my mom. And she was looking pretty spiffy (by that, I mean hott, as in MILF hott) ---sorry, no pics, forgot my camera--- then I had my second dinner which was great!!! I love going home because rest assured, I'm always going to be fed good food (the banchan, more so) at no cost to me, yay! After that, surprise, surprise, my dad called (thoughts** hmmmm, I wonder why he's calling me after NOT calling me in like over a month?**) of course to speak to my mom. blah blah blah, fast forward to the two most memorable moments of the night.

1) my younger uncle kept on farting (which is no surprise) but then he let out this huge one that vibrated through the floor.... I felt a little disgusted because I felt it.

2) my older uncle's awesome outfit: lilac and red-violet striped shirt, white pants with a lilac flower print, and to top it off, grey toesie socks. It was a delight to see.

Can't wait for tomorrow. CIEE is having our farewell dinner at some performance place. I hope it's expensive. Then afterwards me and the chicas are going to the stream to play go-stop and drink. be jealous.

P.S. the videos have been loaded. YOU MUST WATCH THE FIRST CLIP. YOU MUST!!!!