World Cup

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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.