Long day.

Hello :) Today I had a long but fun day. I met up with Noah (Noers) and we had adventures! First we went out to eat 순두부 (soondubu), which is like... tofu soup. 

Then we walked around the city hall area of Seoul. And for some reason, there were tons of police in riot gear, even though there were obviously no protesters around. There were a million of them, just standing (or sitting) in orderly rows.

Now that I think about it, maybe they were prepping for future rallies/protests. Today (since it's March 1 here) is 3·1운동, which is the anniversary of this nonviolent demonstration that took place on March 1, 1919, where Korea tried to declare its independence from Japanese colonial rule. It didn't turn out so well and a lot of people were arrested, torture, and killed at this event and in subsequent protests. Read more here.

I'm guessing that a lot of political stuff is going to happen tomorrow, so the cops are practicing how to react to crowds. 

Afterwards, we went to Cheonggyecheon, which is a stream that flows through Seoul. There's a walkway that lets you walk on either side of the stream. It's very peaceful and I bet it's gorgeous during the spring time, so I definitely plan to go back. It's a necessary change from the urban grey and the hustle and bustle of the city. 

People filming some Korean drama.

That's all for now. Bye :)

My Room

방 = room (bang)

So like PC Bang = PC Room. Duh. 

Anywho, here's pictures of my room. It's quite small. For you USC people, it's about the size of a Marks Tower dorm and a little smaller than a Pardee Tower dorm. It's quite cozy and there's a lot of natural light, which is great.

The only downside is that there's construction going on outside and I always wake up to some kind of hammering or drilling noise. Anyway, enjoy :)

The extra shelves are awesome. 

I love my pictures :) Thanks, Christie for printing out 1000000 of them. They totally keep me company. 

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO FAITHFUL READER FRANK. :) I know it's not your birthday in America yet, but it is here!!! 생일 축하!!

So this is harder than I thought

Updating every day is hard. My bad for the slowness. My life's been pretty crazy these days. Here's a quick update. 

FOOD! Lots of 반찬 (banchan) or side dishes. 

불고기 (bulgogi), aka delicious meat. 

Today I had some good alone time. I read and wrote a lot. This is at a donut cafe called Mister Donut. Before I called it Donut King, and I was wrong. You can even tell on the mug — Mister Donut. BUT Honey glazed + mocha. Yum yum. 

More to come soon. :)

Better late than never

My bad for not updating yesterday, but I came home super tired. Yesterday was orientation, so basically I sat through hours and hours of people telling me boring things that I could have read in a handbook. Mostly pointless if you ask me. 

But in the afternoon, I got to meet this lady here. 

Yes, that's Pia looking ridiculously nerdy and fobby. I barely recognized her at the subway stop. 

I'm happy to see her! We ended up doing the very traditional Korean activity of watching a movie since it's raining outside and thus we didn't want to get wet. We watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was not as bad as I thought it was going to be in. In fact, it was good. 

But you're not here to read about my movie reviews. So here's some facts about Korean movie theatres. 

1. Movie tickets are cheaper than in Korea, about 7,000W. 
   
2. Concessions are also way cheaper. A hot dog, a waffle (oh yeah, they have waffles.), and a large drink was only 8,500W. Er, that is cheap right? I never buy concessions at movies. 
   
3. In addition. seating is assigned. I know at Arclight and possibly other theatres they have assigned seating, but most don't. And in Korea, everything is assigned, which I like.

After a movie, we ate food. We had 보쌈, which is basically you get a bunch of pork and you eat it wrapped with fresh lettuce, boiled lettuce, kimchi, spicy seafood, and with any number of sauces. It's really good. 

This is the building where we watched a movie. It's basically another giant department store, but with more emphasis on electronics. It's a funny name because when I think of techno, I usually think of the music, not technology.

To finish off the night, we had Starbucks coffee. Koreans are really green, btw. Here if you drink in the shop, they give you MUGS. Isn't that the most genius idea ever? How many cups do we waste by drinking in the store and then tossing them away. 

So that's the end for now. Gonna go out and have dinner later so expect another update tomorrow!

why are there no pictures

I'm sorry, but I tried to take pictures today only to find out that I had left my memory card in my luggage. Yes, I am a failure. 

BUT a update nonetheless. I moved in this morning. This place does not have an elevator so I lugged over 120 lbs of luggage up two flights of stairs to the 3rd floor. Not cool. I got the Internet to work after about an hour of struggling to figure out my IP address. Then I found out it's on my door (pictures to come soon).

I then left and tried to find my way to the nearest subway station. I walked halfway there, thought I was lost, walked 1/4 of the way back, then turned around and finally got there. Hah. 

I MET PIA!!!!!! 

And then I came back and I met my roommate, who is awesome. She'll probably start reading this blog soon too. Teehee. 

K I'm delirious. Night!

I love the subway.

I'm sure you've all heard of the terrible driving that takes place in Korea. And trust me, it's pretty bad. Cars cutting each other off with inches to spare, making completely illegal U-turns, parking where there really isn't a spot, more cutting off with inches to spare, etc. But they're surprisingly good parkers. 

Every time you go into a parking lot, you notice that they always park head out. It's never (well, rarely), head in. They always back into a spot. I'm guessing it's so that they can get out more quickly and because then you can see if a car is whizzing around the corner and about to hit you as you pull out. Very interesting. 

I went to a Home Plus for the first time. Think a really compact department store for cheap, like a Wal-Mart. 

Korea does not have Wal-Mart. Because Wal-Mart pulled out. That's right. Korea defeated Wal-Mart (Click here for a NY Times story). My cousin's husband explained to me that Wal-Mart didn't connect with Korean shoppers. They had a sprawling store with high ceilings, sort of in the American style, but Koreans didn't like it. They prefer the compact, multi-layered store. But yeah. Koreans are tough to please, apparently. 

On Sunday, after church, we went to Lotte Department Store again. Now last time I told you it was this gigantic department store. It's also attached to a giant hotel. And it has its own amusement park inside. And it has something I didn't know existed until yesterday — a folk museum. Not like an art gallery. But like a museum with replicas of buildings. What the heck. And inside the "museum," there are restaurants. Not a restaurant. Plural. So we ate at one of these.

This was my lunch. Rice, veggies, and spicy squid. SO SPICY. SO GOOD. I love that stuff. 

This was my dessert. I don't know how to explain it. It's like hardened sugar, but not crumbly. It's like hardened caramel but not chewy either. 

This is part of one of the replicas. Cool lighting, eh?

Me and Hyunjoo in front of a store replica. 

~~

Eventually I went out on my own to try to find this other church, so I took the subway for the first time since I got here. Man, last time I went out less than an hour after I moved into my dorm, but this time it took me 4 days. This is the Seoungnae subway station. It's one of the rare outdoor ones.

So I never actually found the church (long story), but it was fun walking around for 45 minutes around small stores, apartment buildings, 5 other churches, and tons of schools. So I'll end this entry here. Miss you guys!

Sorry another picture-less one

And it's pretty short too. This is just a quick update. 

1. Moving into my dorm tomorrow, so expect pictures of that soon.
2. For those of you who went to NoHo, expect pictures of a certain someone who goes to a university in Korea.
3. Today was an adventure, but you really had to be there. Basically I walked around for 45 minutes trying to find a church without knowing which way to go. And the taxi driver gave me wrong directions too. 
4. I still have yet to have had any banana milk. How lame is that. 
5. I promise a longer post soon. :)

I talk money, I talk cash

So if you didn't know, the Korean currency is the won. So to me, the won is important because that's how I can spend money. Generally, $1 = 1,000W. Pretty simple right? The last time I came to Korea (summer 2007), it was about $1 = 900W, not that impressive. Back then the dollars purchasing power was pretty low. 

Now with this economic downturn, the dollar has been getting stronger, so when I was coming to Korea the exchange rate was an impressive $1 = 1400W. But on Friday, the won got even weaker, making it $1 = 1500W, a record. 

From the Korea Times:

The won-dollar exchange rate closed above 1,500 won Friday for the first time in almost three months while the won-yen rate reached a record high due to fresh concerns over the financial crisis.

The Korean won has depreciated nine sessions in a row since Feb. 10 closing at 1,506 won per dollar, down 25 won from its previous close, and the lowest since Nov. 24 last year.

So it's good for me, because then I can purchase more stuff with the same American dollar. But not a good sign for the Korea economy. Which is why I will stimulate by spending! Woo!

TGIF

So even though this blog is about my life in Korea, I should definitely talk more about Korea itself. Today was a pretty crazy day in many respects.

1. Today was the funeral of Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, who was the first Korean cardinal. Interesting fact: According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, During student demonstrations in 1987 the late cardinal he gave refuge to student activists. "He brazenly told the government: 'If the police break into the cathedral, I will be in the very front. Behind me, there will be reverends and nuns. After we are wrestled down, there will be students,' according to his website." Read more about the funeral here.

2. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited South Korea today as part of her tour of Asia. Clinton mostly talked about North Korea and how it should stop making missile threats. She also ensured South Korea that the U.S. alliance with the country is strong . She also received a Korean name, crazy yes? According to the article, it's a gesture of friendship and goodwill.

3. Yellow Dust. 황사 (hwangsah). Click on that link, dude. It's scary. Basically it's a heavy wind that comes from Manchuria and the Gobi Desert in China. And it not only carries dust, but POLLUTION. Yes, China is polluting the world. Apparently if conditions are right, the contaminated air even hits the United States. So this morning when we were driving, I discovered that what I thought was mist wasn't really mist. The air was tinged yellow with this Yellow Dust. Awesome. Apparently it only happens in the spring, which is why people who go during the summer don't really mention it.

What harmful chemicals, you ask?
Sulphur (an acid rain component), soot, ash, carbon monoxide, and other toxic pollutants including heavy metals (such as mercury, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, lead, zinc, copper) and other carcinogens, often accompany the dust storms, as well as viruses, bacteria, fungi, pesticides, antibiotics, asbestos, herbicides, plastic ingredients, combustion products as well as hormone mimicking phthalates.

Owned :(

~~

OKAY! Now back to the stuff you guys care about =>

PICTURES

So after a very lazy morning where all I did was post blog stuff, I went out to go shopping with Hyunjoo's mom and grandma. We went to 남대문 (Namedamun), which translates to Great South Gate/Door. AKA lots of cheap shopping.

Here are pictures of some of the underground shops there. They had everything from dishes to rugs to jade necklaces to... EVERYTHING.





AND THEN we had lunch in this secret food alleyway. Basically you walk into this tented area and on both sides of you there are food booths. They all sell pretty much the same thing, so all the food ladies start yelling at you to come sit at their booth. AKA really intimidating.

Eventually we sat at this little booth. So good. We had free 비빔냉면 (bibim naengmyun), which is cold buckwheat noodles drenched in spicy sweet sauce, and I had 칼국수 (kalguksoo), which is this noodle made from ... flour and egg? Anyway, PICTURES.

And then we started to walk back to our car. Here are some of the shops above the ground.



In addition, I also got a little tour of some of the buildings in the area.



This is the old Bank of Korea, which has now been converted to a museum (there is a new one, but it's not as cool looking).


This is the giant Post Office headquarters. The building is supposed to represent wings which transport your messages everywhere. Cool, eh?

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And for all zero of you who asked me where the pictures of myself are, here's one!



IT WAS SUPER COLD (remember snow in the morning?), so I was lucky I got to wear Hyunjoo's mom's jacket and I bought a cute scarf. I also bought cute earrings for cheap. YAY!

~~
Final thoughts:
1. Since we drove to 남대문, we needed to find parking. AND IT TOOK US 30 MINUTES. So many cars. In any case, I noticed that Hyunjoo's mom turned on her emergency lights when we were in the lot, and a lot of other people did too. So I asked why, and I learned that people who are in a lot and want to find parking will turn on their emergency blinkers to let the parking attendants + other drivers know that they're looking for a spot. See? Learn something new every day.

2. CARS CAN BE PARKED WHILE THEY ARE IN NEUTRAL. Yeah, read that again. So like I alluded to above, parking is a headache in Korea, so people double park. A lot of times people leave their phone numbers on the windshield of the other car if they know they can be back in a jiffy. But what if you're planning to be shopping all day? In that case, park your car in NEUTRAL and the people who are blocked by your car can push your car a little in some direction so that they can get out. I knew Korea was ridiculous, but this blew my mind. I still can't get over it.

3. HyunJoo is at her 학원 (hakwon). Not a big deal? IT'S 9:20 P.M.!!!!!!! She has it from 8-10:30 p.m. RIDICULOUS. I'm letting my kids watch TV, probably documentaries.

~~
One more thing

So one of my favorite Korean foods is 게장, like I mentioned before. We had it again for breakfast so I took pictures. Enjoy!

heavenly

k toodles

Weather, the best conversation topic

So a few posts ago I showed you the room I'm staying in — the cute girly pink one. So this apartment I'm living in is on the 24th floor of this giant remodeled building, thus I have a pretty decent view of the city.

This was the view this morning:

It was really hazy right, the sun was trying to peek out over this puffy cloud. It made everything soft looking. It's still pretty misty outside. And did I mention that it snowed last night?

These are the views from right outside my window, taken around 7 a.m. this morning. 

Seoul is a really different city. Growing up in the suburbs, I'm used to nighttime being dark. But when I sleep at night, it's as if I have a giant nightlight because of all the lights from the surrounding buildings and roads. The collective "light" hits the clouds and is reflected back to earth, including this room. It's not a harsh light that prevents me from sleeping, but it's a glow that reminds me that I'm in a metropolis.

Btw I love this camera.

I have more stuff to talk about, like Hillary Clinton coming to Korea, the dollar continuing to own the won, and the funeral of the first Korean cardinal, but I have to go now. So I'll try again later. With more pictures, of course.

**fob sign**

The rest of Thursday

I'm sorry if you guys are turned off by my super long blog posts. But that's why I have pictures and you can just scroll down and look at those. Yay! 

So after I left you yesterday, I got lunch with my cousin (who is Hyunjoo's mom, not Hyunjoo. I have no idea what that makes her, but whatever) and her mother (Hyunjoo's grandmother) at this sushi place. 

So basically we sat in this little room that had heated seats and a door for privacy. And WOW there was a lot of food. We had at least 10 dishes come through that door, including tempura, some buttery mushroom dish, something with fish intestines that was the best thing I've ever eaten, and lots and lots of raw fish. 

The picture on the left was taken after we were done eating and we were leaving. Scroll down for some pictures of the 음식.

Afterward we went to the Lotte Department Store. It's huge. Really huge. It's like 11 or 12 stories of crammed shelves, racks and everything else. I'm picture happy. So sue me.

The "home" floor. Lookit all the shiny!

How many bored salesmen can you spot?

The Korean economy is very service-based (and low wages). So whenever you go to any store, get ready for a salesperson to pounce on you and ask you what you want, even if you have no idea. In America, they're easy to ignore and the more or less leave you alone, but in Korea they're following your every move. Hence, they scare the heck out of me.

All of the bored husbands are chilling at the expresso bar.

I love lamp.

Eventually, we left and the three of us went to this GIANT farmer's market. GIANT. Like football fields giant. We went to the seafood part because the moms wanted to make me 게장 (geh-jang), which is this really delicious raw spicy crab. So. Good. So we went and got hounded by all these crazy ladies who wanted us to buy from their stalls. I basically just stood around and took pictures, like these. 

 

Yes, that's sea cucumber in the middle. And live octopi!

We also went to the fruit one and bought persimmons and strawberries, but I'll save that for a Facebook album (aren't you excited?????).

Afterward we picked up my cousin from 학원 (hakwon), which is like tutoring/afterschool/torture, and I knocked out. When I woke up, I had 게장 and I was freaking happy. Then I went back to sleep. 

After I eat brunch, I'll update you about this morning. Love love <3