Kimchi Land

Goodbye

2008-07-09T05:27:00.002+09:00

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.

2008-06-21T11:03:00.003+09:00

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

2008-06-19T23:21:00.003+09:00

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

2008-06-19T22:41:00.002+09:00

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

2008-06-14T15:33:00.003+09:00

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

2008-06-14T02:20:00.002+09:00

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

2008-06-12T22:21:00.003+09:00

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!!!!

All nighter

2008-06-11T07:19:00.003+09:00

The night before was the first day I had ever pulled an all nighter for no specific reason. What was I doing? studying, watching dramas, and reading blogs. I know, very productive. The next turned out pretty well for me considering I was running on now sleep. I went to all my classes and didn't fall out. yeah!!!

Even better. My mom will be here in 7 hours!!! But I won't see her until after I get back from the candle light memorial for the people hurt in the protest.

sushi and the sexy movie

2008-06-09T22:19:00.003+09:00

This past weekend I was in Anyang with my peeps, aka my fam. At first I was kind of dreading it, just because I'm getting tired of taking the subway.---I've developed a deep hatred of the stairs; 2-3 flights going in and out plus 2 more sets when transfering = thunder thighs and Lonny out of breath.

This weekend actually became one of the funnest ones. why? because I got to chill with the young folks. In Korea, I have only one cousin (that's right, UNO cousin) that is around my age. Everyone else is 30 and above so to them, fun is either taking care of their kids or trying to get me to go to a jjimjjilbang (public bathhouse) ---still haven't gone yet, but that WILL be checked off my list of things to do by this weekend.

So on Sunday it was me, ji-eun unni, and her friend (<-- she was hilarious. She kept of trying to speak in English, but the funny part was that instead of speaking in a normal voice, she would whisper it to me as if she was telling me a secret.) Anyways, I've diverted. We ended up eating 초밥 and 동까스/fried pork cutlet (forgot how to spell it) after spending about 10 minutes discussing what we were going to eat. ahh, forgot to say, 초밥 is sushi. It was delish which is great, because I just found out about this Japanese restaurant that's like 5 minutes from where I live.

After that we went to go see Sex in the City, which to me wasn't as great as people made it out to be. I thought it was okay, but my cousin and her friend said it was a little too sexy. I agreed.

After that we all went home. washed up. Watched a re-run of "We got married" (alex and shin-ae are going to meet again. AHHHHHH!!!! I'm so excited I could piss my pants!) and passed out.

World Cup

2008-06-09T22:15:00.004+09:00

The World Cup qualifiers. My first official game ever. Against Korea (south, of course) and Jordan. Best game ever. The crowd did the wave, booed Jordan and cheered Korea (Dae Han Min Gook! Clap-clap clap clap clap). I had the best seats ever!! Clear view of EVERYTHING. Right side of the goal. And for how much? 20 freakin dollars!!! Or won, take your pick. I even got a video of Korea getting their second goal, which was just about the best thing that happened during the game. Seriously. The crowd went wild, but you can see for yourself.

My day actually started really early. Like 8:00 am early… on a Saturday. I know, how I even got up is a mystery to me, but it was all worth it. The girls and I went to see two of our CIEE group peeps play traditional instruments that they had been learning since the start of the semester. It was fantastico. Mainly because it was short and sounded pretty.

Afterwards we went to Itaewon to get some Korean Football Jerseys (Soccer for the Americans). Cost us 15 dollars each. Yes. While we were waiting to pick up our jerseys, I went looking around. Ended up buying some shot glasses and a bi (rain) calendar. The coolest part of it all was that I paid for them with American dollars. After that we hit up McDonalds. I felt like I was back in the states when walking in there. The only Koreans in there were the people working there and they were all speaking English. Made me feel a little uneasy and a little sad (because I have to go back soon). After that we headed back to Sinchon to meet up with Kelly, a girl from my CIEE group and her blood bro ---- little background on her. She’s an adopted Korean girl who came to Korea (this is her first trip) to find her mom. Lucky for her, her agency did just that. I didn’t actually go to the first meeting, but I heard it was everything that an adopted son/daughter could hope for in the first meeting.---- So we ended up eating at a Chinese restaurant. I really wanted to eat Jja ja myong (black noodles) but I apparently was still full from the gargantuan burger I had at Micky D’s.

By the time we finished stuffing our faces, we realized we were really pushing it for the game. So we ran like ______ (insert animal name) to get to the game on time--- which really means, that we power walked to the subway station. Least to say, we made it to the game.

I'm backkkkkkkkkk

2008-06-04T19:59:00.002+09:00

Yeah! I’m back. I just needed to take a break from the whole blogging thing. I didn’t realize how much time a blog can really take out of my schedule, especially when my time in Korea is coming to an end. I have just about two more weeks here and as each day goes by I get a little sadder. I have to say that up until the first month here, I wanted to go back home. I guess I hadn’t fully adjusted to the Korea life (even though I’ve been here a few times in the past), but now, it’s really all I know. If I need to go somewhere I’ll either (in order of most used) walk, take the subway, bike, or take the bus (I don’t care what anyone says, it’s scary and too difficult taking the bus, especially if you don’t know the streets). If I wanna go out with the girls, we go to the bars or karaoke. The great thing about that is that we’re not limited to what we can do. We can go to the stream, go biking (they rent tons of stuff to use) by the river, and hey, if we wanted to go protest i.e. Mad cow disease in city hall, it’s only 15 minutes away (more on that laters). There’s still so much stuff I want to do here (and stuff I want/need to buy) that it’s making me go a little crazy.. AHHHH (ß see? Crazy) Anways, before I go into a mini depression, let’s do a flashback on everything I’ve been cramming into my last few weeks in Sinchon.

I hate Swimming

2008-05-22T23:32:00.003+09:00

Today started off like any other day. Went to my Art History class, which I have to say, I am learning alot (even though I forget most of it), but I won't bore you with the details. Went to my 'Topics' class which luckily was only an hour long. But then I went to swimming. Worst experience of my life. I broke my goggles today, the day I had to do 6 laps, back to back. I lost my toric lens during my first lap, and it wasn't just any lens, it was my toric lens; you know, the over-priced lens made for people with football shaped eyes aka astigmatism (really, why do I have to be punished for a deficiency I did not cause?). I drank practically half the pool during the process, and felt like like killing myself in the middle of each lap. To make it worse, I think I was the worst swimmer. The teacher kept of telling me to keep my hands down, but, I mean, I was more focused on breathing and finishing than trying to correct my swim technique. Mother bear. When I was leaving class my legs almost gave out on me, which had me thinking "How did I get worse at swimming when I took a class to get better?" Mind boggling.

So I ended up going back to my room (which was hell walking back since it's a 30 minute walk one-way) to clean up and to get some eye drops since it looked like I had been crying for about 3984273984 hours.

Afterwards, I hit up Korean class which was nothing special. We talked about weddings and stuff. Then I went and got free pizza. Well, I was actually supposed to stay and watch a movie to get the picture, but I didn't care. So I got my two slices of potato pizza (with corn?) and went back to my room to chill. I was supppeerrrr tired but ended up catching up on some Greek (which is like the greatest show in.the.world. when Emily stopped by the room. We ended up going to three stores in search of some ice-cream.

Ughhh. I am soo freaking tired. But.I.Must.Not.Sleep....Cannot.Waste.This.Night.

Awwwwkkward

2008-05-19T11:03:00.004+09:00

So I just came back from one of the most awkwardest moments while in Korea. I decided to spend my weekend with my family (once again) because I wasn't going to be able to next week because of a trip I'm going on; after going out to eat we were all in the living room watching tv.

We ended up watching this documentary on this young mom with cancer (I think, I'm not sure) who looked soo miserable. It basically showed how she lived her life in a hospital with her hubby and baby. The show was fine, up until the end.... where they showed her in her very last moments. Now, usually they would stop filming once she dies, but nooooooo. The film kept rolling, so not only did I see a real dead person, but I also got to see her husband and mom crying their arses off. That was uncomfortable in itself, but then my aunt starting crying. And it wasn't one of those tear rolling down the face moments, it was the bawling, crying your eyes out, heaving moments. To make it worse, both of my cousins had left to room leaving me and my aunt by ourselves. Now anyone who knows me, knows that I am one- against any type of crying. I just hate it. and two- I'd rather walk away and act like nothing is happening than comfort someone who's crying.

So I just sat there, staring at the tv. As soon as she stopped crying, I said goodnight and went to bed.

But oh.... the document didn't end there. It ended AFTER the grandmom and child went down to the morgue to see the 'not alive' mom. I SEEN HER FACE!!!!!! I just... couldn't believe it. I would never want to see my mom in a plastic bag, but I guess Korean people think differently.

"We Got Married"/우리 결혼했어요

2008-05-08T15:51:00.006+09:00

I can't believe that I've been in Korea for two months and I haven't talked about the TV shows here. I'm totally hooked on "We Got Married".

Synopsis: A Variety Show AKA Reality show of 8 Korean Celebrities paired together into couples. A camera crew follows them around while they complete missions like going on a picnic, doing some kind of exercise, and so on and so forth.

The couples

The couple who argues about everything.

The 'hip-hop' couple. The guy is always saying
"Atown baby", but I don't think he's from Atlanta.

The dominant wife couple. It's cute, she's
always slapping his butt.

the uber lovey dovey couple.

What makes this show so funny is that even though these people have never met before (besides seeing each other on tv), they really do act like newlyweds, but each couple is different. One always argues while another couple is lovey dovey to the extreme.

Sadly, the lovey dovey couple is leaving because the guy (Alex Chu from Clazziquai) needs to focus on his solo album. As a last present to his [fake] wife Shin Ae, he sang her a song. Watch. His voice is awesome.

But yeah, you can totally Youtube it, if interested.

Kundo/Kendo/검도 (thnx)

2008-05-08T15:31:00.008+09:00

Kendo
-noun

a Japanese form of fencing using bamboo staves, with the contestants wearing head guards and protective garments.

So a while back, I told you guys that I was taking Kundo classes. Well I was finally able to take pictures of my actual class.

I was NOT pleasantly surprised in deciding to take this class. When I signed up for this, I thought it would basically be a blow-off class, you know, where the students dress up with their sticks and fight each other, but learn some legit moves along the way. NO.

We are basically being trained just like any person paying to take lessons. All we do is the same movements which are two: 1- you hit the head and 2- you hit the wrists. Oh wait, I almost forgot; there's also the combination where you hit the head and wrists.

At the end of the first week my arms were killing me. Really. I could barely lift my arms that next week. But just when I started getting used to striking non-stop, our teacher has us charge and jump AND strike. ughhhhhh. It's funny though because we look like retards when we do it. But that's because we can't seem to master the leg movement. It's kinda hard to explain so go youtube it.

In the end, I think it's worth it. Why? I get to keep my Kundo stick and I can give my friends back home a good laugh when I show them just what I've been doing in my kundo class.

Below is a video of what our daily test was. Enjoy!!!

HiSeoul Festival

2008-05-06T14:58:00.003+09:00

If you were in Seoul this past weekend, you would have found me, along with just about every expat in korea, at the HiSeoul Festival. What is it exactly, I can't tell you. All I know is that it happens four times a year (for every season) where there's just a bunch of performances (some free, others not) and parades. I went on both Saturday and Sunday, but I had the most fun on Sunday at the Lotus Lantern Festival/Buddhist festival. All my friends and I did was basically act like kids. We painted with our mouths, made paper lotus flowers and buddhist prayer bead necklaces, and ate this delish Indian lunch. It was unbelievably greasy (as if the servers dipped our food in oil before serving it to us) but none the less pleasing to my palate.

We made those flowers!!!

My friends and I were practically celebrities that day, well not really. We kept on getting our pictures taken, but I think it was just because we were the minority.

I made this, yeah!

Traditional Dance

Coronation of King Sejong

I used to eat this when I was little; for 100 won, the equivalent of 10 cents. Now it's 1000 won

I forget which parade this is.... The Afternoon lotus parade?

My feet couldn't make it to the lotus flower parade Sunday night(I had been walking all day), so when I got home, I just watched it on TV.

Spending the night in a Korean home

2008-04-28T14:24:00.005+09:00

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

2008-04-26T11:21:00.003+09:00

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.

2008-04-24T21:01:00.002+09:00

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

2008-04-18T22:38:00.002+09:00

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

2008-04-16T09:53:00.003+09:00

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...

2008-04-15T12:11:00.004+09:00

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

2008-04-15T11:50:00.002+09:00

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

2008-04-15T11:20:00.003+09:00

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

2008-04-10T10:16:00.003+09:00

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

2008-04-03T12:12:00.002+09:00

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 :( :( :( :( --

Club Night

2008-03-31T15:00:00.010+09:00

Friday night, I burned about $25.00. Doesn't sound like much, right?

WRONG.

That's alot considering in TX I've spent about $0.00 when going out clubbing.

Right before the club, we stopped by a bar to get a drink with a bunch of people I didn't know. Everyone was drinking $7.00 Heinekens while I drank a wine cooler (Beer, to me is yecht). Well the people I came with didn't realized how expensive imported beer is and didn't want to pay for it, so we snuck out of the bar and left the tab for that group of people already there. It's not how I usually get free drinks, but that'll do.

So the reason for me going out: Club Night. It happens on the last Friday of every month. Basically, you pay $15.00 to get one free drink and a wrist band that gets you into a bunch of clubs. On any other night you would have to pay $15-20 for each club you went into. We only stayed until around 2:30 am but it was FUN. The music was okay though, alot of old school rap and R&B.

Mission Ipod

2008-03-31T14:52:00.003+09:00

Friday March 28, 2008
Mission: Must attain one Ipod Nano USB cord by night fall

After about a 30 minute ride on the subway, I've made it to my destination. Yongsan, or as the foreigners like to call it, Electronic city. All the computers, cameras, and mp3's are exceptionally shiny today, as if calling my name. No, I must not allow anything to divert me from my mission.

5 minutes of walking and I have given in. I stay i the video game section rocking out to Guitar Hero for 30 minutes. By then, the sellers realize I have no interest in buying their products. They take the remote controller away from me. I leave.

Again I continue my search for the missing Ipod cord. Ahh!! My eyes!! Oh, it's just those neon colored cameras all neatly stacked on the thousands of shelves surrounding me. I play with those for another ten minutes before the people's stares cause me to leave. My feet start to hurt after 3 hours of walking. I'm hungry. I start to head back but then I see it. The big white apple. Yes! I ask the man if he sells what I'm looking for. He pulls one down and tells me it costs $20.00. I give him the stink eye. He lowers the price to $15.00. Perfect. Mission completed.

R.I.P ~ My computer ~ 3/24/08

2008-03-25T14:05:00.001+09:00

Yes, So I actually wrote this blog on paper (lame) and am currently ditching class to type it up for you guys (the class I left is super gay anyways).

Reason why: The power cord to my computer has died. It seems that tripping on the cord too many times can prevent it from connecting to my computer. whoopsy!!! The a/c adapter was just purchased today, which means it should take a week for it to get delivered in the states, and then another week for it to get to Korea, so until then I won't be blogging as much. Sucks for you guys, because now I wont' get to show all the pics I'm going to take while in Japan (Is anyone jealous yet??) muahahhahaha.

So the M.T. was pretty awesome. (It stands for membership training, although I was told that all it really is a reason for everyone to get together, drink and play games.) I only have two pics because I stole them from facebook, but I'll show you the ones I took when my computer is resurrected.

If youre going to comment on how red (or brown, however you wanna see it) I am, no need, I already know.

I met some really cool people there, I don't really remember who they are anymore, but none the less they were nice. The Korean girls in my group were especially nice, and surprisingly they were all freshman. Very mature for their ages, I would say. Which reminds of another "young" friend I have back in the states who's just turned 18. Happy Birthday!!!!!

After meeting each new person, I go the usual, "So, what are you?" I responded with the usual "Korean and black". In the states that would either be the end of it or they would go on to say that I don't look like either, but over here I got,

"Do you know who else is Korean and black?"

me: sighing in my head "No, who?"

The others: "Amerie and Hines Ward."

The other response I got was," Where is you're family from in Africa?" WTF?!?!?!?! I said, "America" then they said,"No, where in Africa?" So then I just said my fam was from Tanzania (only because my aunt and sister was named after it). How bizarre.

Hey Tanzy!!

2008-03-21T20:44:00.001+09:00

TGIF!!!! It's Friday, 9:00 p.m., and I'm in my room blogging. Doesn't sound like the start of a good weekend to me. Everyone's still out doing their club things so maybe we'll go to the bar (gay bar, gay bar... look it up, it's an awesome song) later tonight.

On a normal weekend, I would most likely be with my family (I decided that unless I'm doing something with my school on weekends I'm dedicating my weekends to spending time with them seeing how I'm not gonna see my friends here again once we all leave), but tomorrow I'm going to a dance clinic, to where, hopefully I'll be able to audition and *cross my fingers* make the team. It's not a great team or anything, but the guys are pretty awesome dancers. After that I'm going to Gapyeon (someplace on the outskirts of Seoul) for an overnight hangout thing for the international students.

I'm actually really excited to go. I almost never see the I-house people anymore (International House, where all the other exchange students live). CasaVille is a great place to live, living condition wise, but it's just the CIEE people and a few other program people. Being 20 minutes away from school makes it really hard to see the people there, but whatever, atleast I live better than them and don't have to wake up to construction. :)

So, about a week ago I found out there are other girls from different programs here. Last weekend I tagged along with them and went to a bar. What bar, you say? The Ho Bar. It was okay. We just had a drink before we all went to Lotteria to quench our munchies. I had a cosmopolitan. It was ehhhhhh... okay. Pretty though.

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This was awesome!!!! For you Korean food noobs, all this is is fried rice cakes with some kind of chili-ketchup sauce on it. Absolute delish. And it was only 50 cents.
I'm a total magazine whore in "America" (Koreans don't understand when I say "The States"), so I had to buy a fash mag here. It cost $4.50 and came with a free make-up book. The magazine was awesome. It's basically an American magazine translated into Korean. The majority of stories are about Americans.
I was starving after my swim class but didn't want to eat too much so I could eat dinner, so I got this waffle. Inside it (it's folded in half), this woman swiped some syrup and then put some whipped cream stuff on it. It was good, but afterward, I started to get a stomach ache. I got a little scared that I might have gotten food poison (I bought it in the same cafeteria my friends got sick from) but then some people told me that it was because I ate bread on an empty stomach. Supposedly that's not good for you. Who would've thunk?
If you like grape fruit then this drink is for you. I didn't like it because I hate grape fruit. Yecht.
So I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that bows are in season. I was wondering why there were bow everything in all the shopping ares I've been in. I didn't go into the store. I was afraid the people would see that I couldn't afford anything.
Meet one of many 'crippled' men who push this little music box that plays horrid korean music. I still haven't put any money in the box just because you can't be too sure if they're tricking you. He's been here everyday since I've been here. Just today, I seen him trying to eat his hotdog.
WTF?!?!?!??!!?!?

Jump: Comic Martial Arts Performance

2008-03-20T01:02:00.000+09:00

Just about the most awesomest thing i've seen since I've been here. It was super funny and there was a hott guy (although the actors do change with each performance). Take a looksy.

(p.s. I didn't actually record it. I stole it from Youtube.--I realized that i'd rather enjoy the show than waste time taking illegal pictures and videos)

This is the hott namja. I think he's old though.

...

2008-03-16T18:54:00.003+09:00

It's been 3 weeks already. It's been both going too fast and yet not fast enough for me ( I have a concert waiting for me back home :) ) I'm really worried that I'm not going to get out of Korea what I came here for, which is to be able to speak Korean; well, atleast well enough to communicate well with my family. But things don't seem to be going my way. I thought that in coming here I would be forced to speak Korean everyday, but the only thing I seem to say constantly is either "How much is this?" and "Where is this place?". Other than that, I'm always spoken to in English.

On top of that, aside from maybe 3 people, everyone has either no knowledge of Korean or barely any. But my roomie and I have been trying to speak to each other in Korean whenever we can, but I try to say some pretty simple stuff to my other friends like "Where do you wanna go?" I have to translate it back into English because they have no idea what I'm saying. It's not there fault because I know they're trying to learn, especially my friend Vianey.

She came here with NO knowledge whatsoever of Korea but is learning alot. Just the other day out of the blue she said "배고파. 밥 사조" (I'm hungry. Buy me food.) ~~~spelling might be a tad off~~~ It was pretty funny since I wasn't expecting it, but her pronunciation is pretty spot on. Anyways... So I signed up for this program that matches you up with a Korean buddy to help you speak Korean. Mine seemed fine until I asked him why he signed up for this. His answer? He wanted to improve his English. Kill me now. Now it's going to be more like me tutoring someone for free. great.

Oh, and my family doesn't make it any easier for me. When I was talking to one of my older cousins, she asked me how many people are in my program and instead of saying 15 people, I said 15 things. (15개 15명) Well my little cousins thought it was funny and started laughing at me. It's a little depressing to think that I have a high chance of leaving Korea with the same speaking ability. Who knows, maybe it'll change.

Naked People and the Almost Club Night

2008-03-14T19:43:00.002+09:00

So Thursday was my first actual swim class day. Earlier that day I was debating whether or not I should wear my swimsuit there to save on time but then I thought, "nahhhhh, I'll just change in the changing stalls." Well stupid me. I should've known that the 'changing stall' would actually turn out to be a big open room. As soon as I get in there I'm looking around and seeing everyone nonchalantly taking off their bras and panties to get into their swimsuits.

"What the hell am I going to do?" I say.
"Just change in here, I did" says my chingoo (friend).
"Heck no! Do you know who I am? I'm Lonny."
"What does that mean?"
"Well noob, it means I defy all rules."

So I go change into the ONLY tiny bathroom stall. So fastforward and I'm talking to my friend before class starts. I'm telling her how my pits are a little stubby (TMI???) but then I look over her shoulder and see this Chinese girls pits. I could've braided her hair (if I was that disgusting). ughhhhhhhh!!!!!! This is one Western culture thing I think ALL of Asia and Europe should copy.
Anywayssss.... so the class was really fun. Our teacher wanted to test our swimming ability by having us freestyle 2 laps down the pool. I was just about to piss my pants I was soo nervous. I had not swam in like 8 years and she was asking me to go down the pool the long way. Well I did it, and it wasn't too bad. The teacher said I was a pretty good swimmer, but ehhhh. After that we practiced kicking with those floaty board things. forgot their name.

The nerve wrecking part didn't happen until about 10 minutes after class when everyone was taking their shower. So I decide there's no way anyone's gonna get me to take off my suit in front of 13 other girls so I go straight to the changing room. Every where I looked, there was the female anatomy. Very uncomfortable for anyone who's not used to seeing this on a daily basis.

What happens when you wear heels all day everyday like the girls here in Korea.

Rokon Magazine

2008-03-13T21:33:00.002+09:00

So basically at exactly 5:49 p.m. the best thing ever happened to me. Drums please.... I finally.got.my.internship!!!! YAY!!!! And not only did I get an internship but I got one that's interesting; a music magazine. Effin awesome, right? I know all you jealous heffers must be curious as to how I got this fantabulous opportunity. It was one of those "being in the right place at the right time." I was in my Topics on Korean Language and Culture (<----- yawn fest of a class.) And when I introduced myself I said that I was a magazine journalism major. Well after class this guy came up to me and asked if I would be interested in writing for a magazine in the sinchon area. Course I said yes, so he told me to call the publisher of the magazine which brings me to today. I called Julian (that's his name) and after I told him about the music I liked he said,"Write me up four profiles of any band you like." nice huh? Once I get published I get my own all access card which means, Lonny won't have to pay a damn 10-15 dollar cover fee. YES!!! Yeppers. I'm great and you know it!!

School is lame...

2008-03-11T14:49:00.001+09:00

to the max... I could NOT imagine going to school here permanently. Had I got my schooling here, I probably would've dropped out by now.

Aside from one teacher (my Kundo teacher), the teachers here are all exceptionally boring. Oh, and don't forget the monotone voice. Perfect match right? To make it worse, the students here are either too shy to talk or don't understand enough English to speak (All my classes are technically for English speaking students, but Koreans are also allowed to take them).

I seem to be one of the 3 students speaking in my class (Intro to Art History) which is pretty bad considering it's a discussion class. Now, I would totally understand if this was a 100 plus student class, but there are only 15 of us. count it. One. Five. Just so you can get an idea, here's an example:

Teacher: Describe this picture.
Student: It's a man sitting on a chair.
Teacher: Okay, well, does anyone else have something to say?
~~~~Crickets~~~~

Come on now, we're in college. The least you could do is throw in an opinion or something. From what I can see, these people seriously believe in the whole lecture format.

Anyang "안양" with Little Uncle "자근 삼촌"

2008-03-10T14:32:00.001+09:00

So I just came back from spending a three day weekend with my fam in Anyang, more specifally, in Gunpo. It turned out to be really fun, although in the beginning being with my fam made me, for the first time, want to go back home. Let's elaborate. One- my kiddy cousins refused to talk to me, nor did they want to sit by me on the car ride back home; Two- it was uber uncomfortable with the awkward silences (considering my speaking ability is limited); and the most important reason, my favorite cousin is no longer the 'cool' cousin I remembered her as the last time I was here. Instead, she is a mom, just like all the other ajjuma's here (note** ajjuma is basically an old geezer. married, kids, in her thirties, so on and so forth). But I'm better now; I guess this was my first negative culture shock.

So we decided to go to a Korean folk village (민속천). As soon as we got there I realized that I had been there the week before with my CIEE program (totally my fault since I didn't even know the name of the place the first time I went). Even so, this time, visiting the village was fun.

Above: my youngest cousin making a wish on those paper things.

My grandma doing what the man on the right professionally does. She's like super grandma. (She's such a good sport. She acted like she didn't see me take this pic of her when it was obvious that I was,lol.)

One of the earlier birthing kits. I think I would've been happy barren.

I forgot to tell you!!! I have a phone now! Yayyyyyyy!!! Take a looksy. Anycall (Samsung's asian brand) slider equipped with a camera. It's basically the most awesomest phone ever; seriously. Not only can I change the default language to English, but I can text in Korean and English interchangeably (which might I add is wayyy fun to do). But I didn't tell you the best part.... it was only
2만원 or $20.00. I know, but there is one drawback; for every 15 seconds I call someone (all incoming calls and texts are free-- oh, how I miss the old AT&T days) I, or should I say my uncle, gets charged 50 cents. Not great. But that's what you get when you get when youre a foreigner.

Even though my family kept on pushing for one of my cousins to come with me on my way back to school on the subway, I insisted on going by myself. It turned out pretty well considering I didn't miss any stops but I had to get help from a couple of ajjumas just to be on the safe side. Well, by my last stop I was feeling quite confident in my subway riding abilities... well... until I seen this -----> (I had to take the pic for you guys to see, but I wonder if the other people on the subway thought I was some kind a perve. That wouldn't be cool.) Now I have no idea what he was doing but it couldn't have been anything good considering he was bunched up in a corner with his hands down there (ewwwwww!!!!).

Korea vs. The States

2008-03-06T21:48:00.002+09:00

It's spring!!!! ~봄~!! About time too, because I don't have too many winter clothes and I'm tired of wearing my Ugg boots (although I have to say that they really were the only shoes that kept my feet warm in 25 degree weather).

I've also finalized my class schedule. Check it out. So basically, I don't have class on Monday's and Friday's (excluding Korean class). This schedule is way better than any of my classes at UT AND I'm taking a full load, 15 hours.
So far I've been to all my courses except for Kundo (I think Yonsei misspelled it; I think it's supposed to be Kendo) and the dance class. I didn't really want to take that class at first but then I read that we get to learn how to swing dance, so that should be fun. Before I got this class I registered for a body building class. Well, I found the room, but the door was taped shut, sooo.... I didn't go to class.

Today, in my Intro to Art History class, my teacher told us we won't have to buy books since importing them would take too long (and a lot of $moolah$ I don't wanna give). Awesome. So for this semester I have spent a total of $72.00 on all my school books, as opposed to the $200.00-$300.00 I usually spend at my home campus.

Have you guys ever heard of cross walks going diagonally across the street? I haven't nor had I ever seen one til I moved off campus.

*note* I hope you guys are appreciating these pics, b/c after every single one I take, I get a lot of weird stares from Koreans

Not only that but drivers in Korea are CRAZY!!!!! They seriously don't believe in the pedestrian going first.Going across crosswalks here is like trying to get through a battle zone with getting shot. People here actually have to dodge cars... or get hit. My program director was telling me the one time she hit someone... So she was about to make a right turn at a light. The crosswalk sign was at red and no one was stupidly trying to cross it, so she started to turn when all of a sudden a dude in a white coat comes running across the street, and then she hits him. Well there was a police car a few cars behind her and a lot of people watching the whole thing; but did anyone get out of their cars or walk to the hit guy? nope. they all just watched. even the police man; he stayed in his car. Well, the guy who got hit, got up, dusted off his coat, and then ran off. So my program director got off the hook.

This was when the light was red... see what I mean? A freaking bus was in the crosswalk.

I think you guys already know that Korean guys tend to care more about their appearance than American guys. So I took a pic of two guys with a 'Man bag'.

While me and a few girls were in the school book store, my roommate found this book.It basically had all the questions a 5th grader in a sex ed class would ask. For example, if a girl put's in a tampon for the first time does that mean she's not a virgin? Can you break a penis? Is semen nutritious or fatty? And all the questions were answered. Silly, silly, Koreans.

Lastly, do not, I repeat, DO NOT ever eat at an "American restaurant" without expecting to pay atleast double of what you would normally pay in the U.S. I decided to go to Pizza Hut because I was getting tired of Korean food. Instead of stepping into the typical slightly dirty fast food restaurant I'm so used to in the western hemisphere I stepped into a 3 story restaurant equipped with an elevator, watresses with headphones, cooks in those cute chef outfits, and risotto and pasta on the menu. It looked more like an upgraded Bostons. My table's bill was as follows: One large pepperoni pizza - $17.00/One medium cheese pizza - $15.00/ One diet Pepsi drink (she actually asked for a Pepsi. Maybe the waitress was trying to say something...) - $2.50. It wasn't tooooo bad. But I wouldn't make it a regular thing to do.

P.S. I went to see a dance show performed by dance groups from Yonsei. Can Koreans dance?

Picture Diary

2008-03-03T22:56:00.000+09:00

February 29th- March 2nd

Korean War Museum

This reminds me
of Bowser from Mario Bros.

One of the many replicas in Korean museums.
Palace during the Chosun Dynasty (I think).

You're looking at a North Korean soldier. I know, weird.

Farmers' crop performance. They did alot of these turns in the air. Couldn't capture them on picture well. And they twirled long string from their hats. Was pretty cool.

Went to a couple of Buddhist temples. The people wouldn't let anyone take pictures inside the temples, so I took one of these tower things. Once you build one you make a wish, but make sure you don't tell anyone. ----- This reminds me of a story our tour guide told us ----- There once were two sisters. One night, the younger sister dreamt that she climbed to the top of a mountain and peed; but the pee devoured the whole town surrounding the mountain. Now, in Korea back then, if one were to have a bad dream they would tell everyone they knew, but if they had a good dream they would tell no one; and get this- people bought dreams. (blasphemy?!?!!?) The younger sister didn't know if this was a good dream or not and so she told her older sister. Once realizing the meaning, the older sister bought the younger one's dream for a beeauuutiful hanbok. Fast forward (because I forget the details) and the older sister became queen.

Left: At the end of each folk village tour, everyone had the opportunity to write out their wish on a piece of paper and tie it to a string. Once the townspeople burn them, then your wish is supposed to come true. My wish was for Tanzy.

Korean Mask Dance

One week down, 16 more weeks to go

2008-03-03T14:53:00.000+09:00

March 3, 2008
So, today was the first day of school. Of course I came totally unprepared. I spent all of last night first, trying to get my internet to work (I got electrocuted during the process) and then trying to find my class schedule. Well, I never found it. Luckily I figured out a way (looking at the course schedule) and went to my only class- Sociology of the Body. I was there for about 15 minutes before I left. That class was wayyyyy too hard; harder than most of my classes at UT. For one thing, the guy said that no matter how late you are, whether it's a minute or 5, you'll be marked absense. And then he took out three HUGE books and said, "You are going to read them all". What the eff??? On top of it all, he said he expected us to drop the class after today, so I figure, why disapoint him? Smart move, right?

Anyway, so I realized that I haven't yet showed you my new apartment. But first, let's start with the dorm I moved out of. VERY SMALL, even smaller than my dorm at UT (and I was at the crappiest of them all~Jester). It had a mini fridge, but no sink. And there was barely any closet space. On the upside there was alot of little cubby shelves, and there was a desk lamp. The community bath (sorry no pics), was okay except that there wasn't a changing place in the shower stalls. I'm guessing we were expected to come out of our stalls naked to change in the open? Well I defied that and hung my towel and pj's over the shower curtain rail, and get this.... I changed... INSIDE the stall. It was a little tricky staying dry though. Because of construction right outside our dorm (which would mean a wake up call at 7:00 am every morning) my program CIEE offered to place us somewhere else, hence CasaVille, a temporary apartment complex. It's waaayy nicer. Fairly new (built in 2006) with heated floors (oohhh yeahh). Only negative is that it's a thirty minute walk from the apartment to campus. Oh well, exercise is always good for the body.

Okay, so I'm 3 days behind

2008-02-26T22:07:00.000+09:00

It is 10:15 p.m. February 26th. I've been in Korea since the 24th and yet this is the first time I have time to myself. And so I'm going to recap everything (yes, EVERYTHING) that has happened since setting foot in my birth city.

February 24th

Was on the plane for a little over 13 hours. Although the stiff chairs and the man beside me who decided to invade my space made sleeping highly difficult, the time went by really fast; and it was all thanks to the absence of my phone and watch.... until I landed in Seoul at 5:30 p.m. I didn't end up leaving until 7:00.

Why you say? Let me give you the play by play:

5:30- I'm walking out the doors to greet my aunt and uncle all happy and smush.
5:34- I realize I can't find them.
5:35- I also realize I don't have a phone, korean money, my family's phone numbers AND I don't know their names. (*Note* I only call them by 'big uncle' 'small uncle' etc.)
5:45- I get mad at myself and sit down and sulk all by my lonesome. 6:30- I finally get over it, exchange some money into Korean Wons. Buy a phone card. Call my mom and whine to her. 6:40- She tells me my aunt and uncle went to the wrong terminal and to go look for them.

6:50- .... I find them with a sign with my Korean name 라니 and then their spelling of my American name "Rani" (Actually spelling -> Lonny)

6:55- We make out way out to dinner to meet the rest of my family. I do have to say the best part of the day was meeting the rest of my family, my grandma, in particular. She was just like any other grandma who hasn't seen her grandkid in a while. She hugged the hell out of me and kept on pinching my cheeks (keep in mind that I'm 20 years old and still getting this treatment). And then when everyone started talking about me going to Yonsei (Yun-seh) University, she started saying that she wished she could have learned English so she could teach me Korean. (Awwwwww, that's so sweet because I didn't think she cared that much.) But the most thrilling part of the day was when were eating. my grandma farted twice. Not once, but twice; and everyong acted as if nothing happened (which made it even more funny). Hilarious if I do say so myself.

February 25th

Today I woke up at exactly 7:00 a.m.. not cool at all. What does one do at 7 in the morning? Well I ate 2 Red Vines and then played with my aunt's dog until it was time to get dressed. My grandma then proceeded to give me 100,000 Won; my aunt followed with 50,000 Won, and then my uncle topped it off with some shoes- flats to be exact. I got to Yonsei International House , or I-House, at around 5:20, barely unpacked my stuff in my room and then was on my way out with the rest of the new students to an ice-breaker. That Ice breaker proved to be very informative experience, for I learned that in Korea I am 22 years old (I'm 20) because 1) you are automatically one when you are born and 2) because my birthday hasn't yet occurred during the new year I add on another year. It sounds confusing, but it's kind of hard to explain. I also learned that drinking is the number one past time in Korea. Seriously. I read somewhere that the legal drinking age was 19, but I'm thinking it's more like 18 or whenever you graduate from high school. who cares: as long as i'm legal that's all that matters right? Funny thing is, I'm not a drinker (boo). But I did try flavored soju, which basically tasted like juice. It was delish all the same. After drinking our arses off, we ended the night with karaoke. Definite highlight of the night was "Gay Bar". That should be the official karaoke song. awesomeness, which is why I recorded it for you guys. I know, I'm awesome.

February 26th

Take a looksy at what I woke up to today (at 7 o'clock again-ughhhh). 눈!! Or for you Americans Snow!!

Given that it was around 27 degrees, it was sooo worth it. I haven't seen actual snow in about a couple of years. After all, I do live in central Texas.

Internet is still not working (fyi- since I had no internet, I was hand writing this all down). gay. So now I'm downstairs in the computer lounge checking my email and stuff. Today is a busy day. 10:00 is the general orientation and 12:45 til the end of the day is the CIEE (my study abroad program) orientation. Before our first orientation a bunch of us went down to the cafeteria to get some breakfast; silly me forgot that Korean food is served morning, noon, and night. So I ended up getting kimbop and soy milk. Sounds delicious right?

At first the other CIEE people and I were a little peeved our director, Suzanne, scheduled our orientation to coincide with the other school club things, but it ended up being fun. We went downtown to check out a new apartment place for us to live in. It's called Casaville and it's fantastic! Atleast compared to where I'm staying now. They're doing construction on our dorm and are about start bringing in the big machines (i.e. bulldozer). Because of all the dust and noise that's gonna happen our director found us an on campus place to live in. Be jealous.

Afterwards we just walked around the downtown area, and I have to say that it looks fantastic. I can't wait to try out my elemetary Korean on the street vendors. Here's A pic. Next time I'll start taking more pics so this blog isn't so blahhhh. anyhoo, so after 10 plus hours of not eating (no time to eat lunch) we finally went to this restaurant to eat a bunch of Korean food- we had soft tofu soup(<--- T.lee, doesn't that sound nasty?), bulgogi, and a bunch of sides dishes. Well we didn't finish it but it was delish nonetheless.

P.S. Korea has superb spelling, don't you think?