A short little entry

Hey, everyone. Hope all of you are doing well :)

It's now APRIL and the weather is still pretty chilly. I think it's mostly because of the wind. If there were no wind, then it would be quite warm. The days are supposed to be getting warmer though, which is awesome. 

Not too much to update here. Still going to classes and such. I guess I'm just getting busier! Update soon?

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 :(

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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!

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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.

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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**

Getting settled

Two updates in one day? Yikes! See below for a video update too :)

So this is the story all about how my life got twisted upside down

And I'd like to take a minute, so sit right there

And I'll tell you how I came to this crazy place called Seoul and about my first few hours here.

I got to the airport yesterday (day before yesterday since I'm in Korea, I suppose) at 8:40. My flight wasn't for another 3 1/2 hours. My parents are nuts (Hi, Mom+Dad!!!). So it was awesome that people came to say bye to me :)

So I got on the plane and this nice guy who sat on the aisle (I got window!) put up my carry-on before I realized a few minutes later that it had all of my "passing the time" stuff: iPod, books, journal, etc. But I felt too bad to tell him to get it for me, so I decided just to forget it and sleep the entire time. 

Which is what I did. I woke up, ate 비빔밥 (bibimbap), slept, drank orange juice, ate 죽 (juk), watched House, slept, woke up, landed. Nice, eh? Plus no one sat in the middle seat so I had lots of space. 

The only annoying thing was the immigration line. I must have stood there for more than 30 minutes, but that's OK. So I got my luggage, and I was a little anxious because I was supposed to take a taxi to my second cousin's apartment in Seoul (oh, in case you didn't know, the international airport in Korea isn't in Seoul. It's actually about an hour west of the city on this island). AND I didn't have a cell phone so I didn't exactly know how they were going to know I was at their building (and I didn't really know where the building was either). So you can imagine how relieved I was when I saw them waiting for me at the terminal. Woo!

Then we were off. They bought me 설렁탕 (suhlungtang) for breakfast, then we got some coffee at this really cute bakery/cafe at the bottom of this apparently really famous office building where the father of the family works. It's famous for being 63 stories high. AND the bakery gave me my first taste of engrish in Korea. Lover it.

Oh, remember how I said it was supposed to be freezing cold? It actually isn't that bad. My tan coat is good enough to keep the cold out as long as I'm not standing around and doing nothing. Whee! It might rain/snow tonight though...

ANYWHO. We eventually got to the apartment where I am now in this really girly study room that belongs to the daughter. I'm not sure if she's my cousin or if her mother is my cousin. This generational thing gets all whacky sometimes. But her name is HyunJoo, and I'll refer to her parents as HyunJoo's Mom and Dad. The room is very pink and very cute. I'll be spending the next few days here, so expect more updates soon. 

Final thoughts:

- Wi-Fi really isn't that prevalent here. Might be a problem?

- Their GPS navigators here have LIVE TELEVISION ON THEM. WOW. What will they think of next?

- I saw my first 바나나 우유 bottle today (banana milk). Wonder when my first taste will be...

The Weather

Weather = 날씨 (nahl-shee)

Under my Twitter feed, you can see this little Goggle app that lets you see the weather in Seoul (at least, that's what it's supposed to do. Let me know if it isn't). In any case, it's going to be cold in Korea. Super cold. 

I looked up more detailed weather on wunderground.com and basically it's' going to be cold for a while. And possibly rain. And snow. AHH. The average temperature at this time of the year is supposed to be in the 40s and it's in the 30s. 

But don't worry because I'll survive somehow — thick socks and lots of layering — or just complain all the time. On the bright side, maybe I'll have some pretty pictures of snow in Seoul. Whee! 

I'm finally done (mostly) packing.

That picture was during the process of packing. So much stuff. And I think I'm over the weight limit on my bigger suitcase. We'll see what happens at the airport. But I'm basically done. I just have to add a few odds and ends, as well as pack up my laptop, etc.

So I'm taking:

• 2 full suitcases
  
• a carry-on bag that's like a mini duffel bag
• a laptop bag

In about 12 hours from now I'll be at my gate. !!!