Spending the night in a Korean home

Since I needed a break from the whole Sinchon scene, I decided to spend the weekend away at my Korean relatives house. It may not seem like much, but there is a huge difference is staying over at a home in Korea versus staying over a home in the states. Usually in the states I would pack a bag with clothes, toiletries, and money. Here, in Korea, all I needed was my T-Money card (subway pass) and the undergarments. My family covered everything else.

Earlier that day I went out for lunch with a friend's parents, so from there I stood for 2 hours on the subway to get to 안양, An-yang. 2 hours would normally seem like a long time to be standing (i.e. waiting in lines at Six Flags ring a bell?) but, surprisingly, time went by pretty fast. By the time I get there, it's already dinner time and I'm starved.

So, of course (everyone should know this), the shoes come off at the door once you're inside the apartment. But that's not all. Not only do your shoes comes off, but so does your clothes. No, not like that. In Korea there are two sets of clothes: the 'outside clothes' and the indoor clothes. 'Outside clothes' are the things I, back in the states, would wear when going out to school, shopping, hanging out, ect. Indoor clothes are just lounging clothes. So once, let's say, you've gone to school and have come back home, you would change back into your 'house clothes'. get it? good.

Remember the whole "not needing anything when you come over"? My cousin lent me lounge clothes. My first time staying the night over there, I brought my own sleeping clothes. They told me that I shouldn't bring anything next time since they had everything.

The Korean home is pretty westernized in the fact that there are couches, kitchen tables, washing machines (back in the day, when I used to live in Korea when I was (I think) five, my mom used to hand wash our clothes), bathtubs, and beds. But besides the washing machine, my family is still more traditional. For example, the couches. Now, I know my aunt spent a pretty penny on these leather couches, but my family still chooses to sit on the floor whether it's to eat, do homework, fold clothes, you name it. The kitchen table is jam-packed with all kinds of things, leaving a small space for one or two people to eat a quick meal at. When I was there, we always ate on this small table my aunt would bring out to the living room area. Afterwards, we had dessert: fruit.

For me, the bathroom was the biggest thing for me to get used to. Although I've done the whole squatting while you wash yourself thing, it still gets some getting used to.

As I said earlier, there are tubs, but they're only used for soaking your body, otherwise you wash yourself on the tile floor beside the tub.

**note** this is not my family's bathroom. I jipped this pic.**

Sorah

Friday ended mid-term week beautifully, well, aside from the fact that I still had Korean language class. I was planning on skipping it (to do nothing) but our teacher said that if we wanted to know our grades then we had to come. *These teachers are pretty smart*.
As soon as our teacher walks in, she asks me what I thought about the test. I say "the writing part was hard." Then she says I must have not studied hard enough for the test, which has me thinking that I must have done pretty bad on it for her to only ask me and one other girl.

She's passing out the papers, and I feel like I'm about show everyone what I ate for lunch (in other, I'm about to puke). I take a peak at my grade, and see, not a 5, 6, or 7, but a 85.9. WTF!?!?! I did pretty well on my writing test. My speaking was an 89 (which surprised me, because I thought I spoke like a child), listening, 92; and reading was a 90. so YAY!!!! But now, since my class' writing test grades were 'low' compared to other classes, my teacher's going to give us homework every night....noooooooooo.

Earlier that day I went out to lunch with this guy named Steven (a friend of my mom) and his sister-in-law. We ate at this really nice Italian restaurant which was a nice change compared to where I usually eat on a college student's allowance. Anyway, they started talking about someone named Sorah. I'm thinking to myself, there is no way that these people could be talking about the Sorah I know. But, in fact, it was the same Sorah. The two families, I believe, are long time friends. But yeah, so we started to have a conversation about the Kims family (why? I have no idea, but I went with it). The sister-in-law was asked what Sorah was majoring in, and I was going to answer, but Steven also seemed to know: Business. "She wants to be a business woman." LMAO. I just kept my mouth shut.

오래간만이에요.

All of last week was spent doing who knows what, but I am sure my time wasn't studying. I think I was sleeping most of the time, thanks to Mr. Zyrtec. Can't really remember though. On top of that I had my first horror experience with registering for my classes back at UT. I have to take 18 hours (in order to graduate by the fall of '09') next semester but the computer wasn't helping me out, not one bit. First it wouldn't let me register for the classes I needed b/c it said I didn't meet the prereq's, when I clearly do, AND the stupid classes wouldn't waitlist me. So now I'm playing the waiting game hoping to get the right classes I need.

But back to this week; What did I do? I crammed, big time; though it didn't seem to benefit me in the least. I think I failed my art history test and the report I had to write for that class. Omg, it was THE worst paper I have ever written. Really.

But it's cool, because today marked the end of my mid-terms. And how did I celebrate? I ate Takoyaki,translation: Octopus Balls. It is SOOOOOO good. It's this doughy thing with octopus bits in it. On top are three different sauces and the flakes are (i think) fish skin, which is really creepy to see, b/c it moves as if it's alive when really it's the heat that's making it move. Oh, and earlier I tried cheese dokboki for the first time and it was DELICIOUS. All $3.00 of it. It had noodles, and rice cake (떡), fish cake (오댕), and an egg topped with mozzarella cheese. Absolutely delish.

Alive again

So, I got tired of waiting and went out and bought a new laptop battery charger... All 143.00 of it. ughhh, great way to spend my shopping money, but oh well. sacrifices must be made. Nothing much happened today other than buying my cord.

I almost ended up skipping Korean class again. It was soooo hot today, but it was only 83 degrees. I can only imagine what it's going to be like when I go back home to Texas weather. yay... sorta.

Well here is a few of the videos I've taken when my computer was 'dead'. Enjoy.





One of the millions of cheers Yonsei students seemed to have ALL memorized.

More Pics plus a good deed

Even though Korea is doing great economically wise (Korea is steadily increasing the value of their Won from our Dollar), there are, I think, just as many homeless people and beggars on the street. Because of the (many) news stories I see on TV about 'fake' beggars, I rarely give them money. But after my talk with my padre, I finally gave money to this halmoni (elderly woman) who sits on the sidewalk everyday hitting people as they walk past her. no joke. I couldn't believe when I heard it. I even got hit too, lol. Even so, I figured I might as well share the wealth. ahhhhhhh.... it feels good to grow up.

Oh, and I forgot to say, I'm published!!!! I have three articles in the Rokon Magazine. nice huh? Feel free to check it out at Rokonmagazine.com.

Us chilling at the airport on our way to Osaka, Japan.

Our first temple visit. They say that in washing your hands before you go in, you will be blessed.

The largest wooden structure in the world. Pretty amazing considering a part of it was destroyed.

These girls helped me and Vianey (the girl beside me) find the two stones that you have to walk to with your eyes closed.

our first night out. I paid him 100 yen ($1.00) to sing a song.

Japan is expensive...

I knew that coming into Japan.

But it didn't really hit me until we decided to go do karaoke there. Me and my friends had just had some awesome ice cream sundaes when we passed this karaoke place.

(green tea and sweet potato flavored)

Kao Nou, the only person from our group who spoke some Japanese asked how much it cost. 360 yen ($3.60) per half hour. We were flabbergasted. It was cheaper than karaoking in Korea, so were all for it. Two hours later, we come down to pay and pull out our coins thinking we would each be paying like 300 yen. But then the lady taking out money shook her head, and wrote down that the total price was 12000 yen ($120.00) What?!?!?!?!?! huhhhh????? Well we failed to read that it would cost us 360 yen per person per 30 minutes. ughhhhhhh. So we each paid 2000 yen to cover the cost.

Even so, I've decided that I'm set on coming back to Kyoto to study during next summer.

Sight Seeing

The palaces here were extraordiary. Seriously. Each place we went to had something new to see, whether it was the structure of the buildings, the huge ponds, the gold palace, or the gardens.

My favorite place to go was the Silver Pavillion (no pics currently, mala mi). We didn't get to see the actualy pavillion b/c they were doing some work on it, but the garden was so soo pretty. It was just like what we see in the movies or pictures. Only difference was that I was there.

This pic was taken at a temple. The saying was that if you drank out of all of these streams then you would gain wisdom, wealth, or long life. But you shouldn't drink all three b/c then you'd be greedy. I drank the wisdom, b/c I figure if I'm wise then I'll know how to become wealthy and live my long life spending it. good logic right? I think it's already taking effect.

There was another place that had two stones, each one about 2 meters apart from each other. The saying for that was at one end you would make a wish (our tour guide said that people usually wished for girlfriends or boyfriends---me and my friend did---), but in order for it to come true you would have to walk from one stone to the other with your eyes closed.



By far, this was the most extravagant palace. It's covered in gold, thus the name the Golden Pavillion.

This was one of my favorite things to see. The guardians that were at the temple gates. I don't know why I'm really drawn to them. They just look really cool.
















Above on the left is the largest Buddah in the WORLD!!!!! That's right. THE LARGEST EVERRRR. To the right of it, is my CIEE friend, Vianey going through a hole that is the size of Buddah's nostil. Pretty big. I think it was said that if you could go through, then you would have good luck???? not too sure, but it was something like that.

Kyoto

More specifically Kyoto, Naru, and Osaka.

This trip was just about the best part out of studying abroad in Korea. A major bonus was that I went right when the Cherry blossoms were out.
And guess what I seen our first night in Kyoto???? A maiko!!! (for you noobs out there, it's basically a geisha). I was surprised to see actually 'practicing' maiko's b/c I didn't think that people actually still did that today. I didn't get to take pictures of them (they were all in taxi cabs) but my director did, so when she sends them then I'll post them. I'm surprised she even got pictures; there was this one spot where alot of geishas were going into a restaurant so all the foreigners just stood outside in a pack with their cameras out. They looked like paparazzi's trying to get pics of celebrities.
Me and my friends weren't going to do that, so we went out for sake, the Japanese version of soju. It took us about a good thirty minutes to find someplace to go.---I've been told before that Japan isn't English friendly... and it's true. barely anything was written in English). Luckily our waiter spoke a little English. He recommended that we try the rice sake warm and so we did. To me, it tasted like warm beer. yeah.... tasty, right?


Okay, so this is the traditional inn we stayed in. It was huge!!!!! The room with the table was our bedroom, and then the next room was just a sitting area which lead to a terrace that had a very nice view of these small monuments (I actually have a video of it that I'll upload later).








The picture on the right the the first course of our 9 course meal. We had soup, rice, noodles, sashimi, a bunch of different kind of rolls, sweet pumpkin, etc. It was ALOT of food for dinner.





On the left was a part of our lunch. We also had salad, tempura (deep fried veggies and shrimp) and sashimi (raw fish). I tried the raw fish, but the texture was too weird for me so I gave the rest to the others. My favorite part of all the meals was the tempura and the steamed eggs with shrimp. yummers. oh, and their noodles and rice. deliciousness.

In japan I think their version of snacks are rice cake things with and without bean paste. The most popular are the cherry blossoms. I personally liked the banana and chocolate ones of which I bought some for my family in Korea.

Out of the three places I visited. Kyoto was by far the most prettiest place to go. The scenery was sooooo pretty. There were all kinds of flowers (and flower bushes- I didn't know there was such a thing) and streams, and alot of people in kimonos. It really calms the mind. And the people here was SOOOOOO nice. At the Inn (I assume it happens at all inns) when the guests leave, the housekeepers and staff would come out out and send us off.

The people in Japan I think are more 'considerate' (not sure if that's the right word). They don't just walk in front of people who are taking pictures (like in Korea), they don't shove people when going through crowds (like in Korea), and I'm not afraid to cross streets (like I do in Korea). I'm not saying that I hate Korea, b/c afterall it's part of who I am, but I really REALLY REALLY liked Kyoto, Japan.

Picnics on a rainy day

So, about 3 weeks into my stay in Korea, I was informed that South Korea had created a new holiday----> Election day (oh yeah, take that USA, who likes to still have school on holidays). So anyhoo, my CIEE (the program I'm in) friends and I decided to have a picnic since the day before was a beautful day.

Well, come Wednesday (Election Day), the sky looked like gray, just as if a tornado was going to come. We were like, "whatever." So we bought a chicken for 5 dollars (I didn't know chicken was that cheap) and sandwhich stuff and made our way to the Olympic Park ('88' Olympics were here, duh).

The park was actually nice looking. Lots of sculptures and flowers. It's not usually my kind of place since I'm not into taking pics of flowers (b/c flowers to me.... are just flowers) but one of my friends is into picture taking, especially flowers. So you guys get to see.

They're really pretty, yes? Anyhoo, so we forgot to bring a blanket so we had to find a picnic table. Not an easy task considering it was on the other side of the park we were at. But anyhoo. After about a 30 minute walk we finally made it there. Up top is a pic of what our table looked like. And guess what? I made my first ever kimbop. ohhh yeah. It tasted okay though. I put in some bulgogi flavored tuna.... that was interesting.

While we were eating, this creepy old lady was walking toward us. I didn't really think anything of it, until she actually came up to us and starting staring at us. I didn't want to share (which is bad b/c Koreans in general share their food) so I acted like I didn't know Korean and just stared at my food. I guess she thought we didn't catch the hint while she was there so she started talking to us. Here's a recap:

"Are you guys from Taiwan?"

"You all have different faces."

"Wow,,, you brought alot of food."

"Are you guys going to eat it all?"

Eventually she caught the hint that WE WEREN'T SHARING so she left. wheeewwwww.

Anyhoo, so after the picnic we decided today would be a perfect opportunity to take sticker pictures!!! yay!!! Take a lookie!!!

My Wednesday turned out pretty well. But the Tuesday before didn't turn out well. Right before my korean class, my roomie had my new adapter with her. YAY!!!! Excitement. Just in time too, since I have a research paper to right next week. Well I get home and realize that this new adapter looks different than my original one. I think,Well maybe this one is just a travel size version." I plug it in and the light comes on. (YES) I plug it into my computer and the light is still on. (YES) I turn on my computer (YES YES YES YES). Then.... It. Turns. Off. Noooooooo!?!?!?!?!? Right about now, I'm starting to feel sick b/c I'm thinking that the problem is with my computer and not the adapter anymore. But then I look at the model number of the new adapter and notice IT'S THE WRONG ONE!!!!!! my model number is ....19..... and this one was ...16..... So basically the person who packed my adapter can't read. Just my luck.

So now, I don't know what I'm going to do. B/c if I have to send it back to the states to have a new one sent that's going to take about a month for it to get back here. Woe is me.

withdrawal

I think I'm finally starting to experience withdrawal symptons here. I want to go home; just don't want to be here anymore.
It's not fun anymore.

I'm not really into school over here, but then again, I'd rather stay on campus than go home after school's done. As soon as all my classes are done, I have absolutely nothing to do. On any normal circumstance that would be heaven, but considering I seem to be the only person who doesn't have work to do, doesn't make free time fun anymore.

Everyone's always doing work or studying for their class while I either don't have any work or I've already finished my homework. Which leaves me with three options:

one- I could study for 5 hours (no thank you, I max out at 2)
two- go shopping (I never thought I would tire of it) or
three- watch TV (I've been watching alot of Gossip Girls season 1 and House).

Usually if all else fails then I just chill and listen to my 음악 (music) but after listening to the same songs over and over again in one weeks time, I've found that nature's sounds is more appealing to me. Hopefully by next week (if I get my adapter) I can start adding more music.

I don't really like looking at myspace or facebook anymore because it only reminds me of what I'm missing out on back in the states--(my lovelies and concerts :( :( :( :( --