First week of class and FOOD!

I have been having difficulty finding time writing between six hours of class each day and passing out afterward, but I finally found some extra energy (caffeine) so here goes…

Monday morning I woke up bright and early for breakfast and my placement test at 9:00. They corralled the 70+ students into a classroom and a woman announced in Korean "Now we are going to be taking the placement test. There are two versions: the first covers levels 1-3 and the second covers levels 3-6… yada yada… If you can understand everything that I just said you should sit on the left side of the room to take the second test." I took the second test and ended up feeling really good about it. I then went on to my one-on-one interview which also felt pretty solid. I still have so much to learn and a few awkward moments in my interview made that fact apparent, but in the end the instructor told me that I was on the border between levels 4A and 4B. Last Summer I took 3A so hearing that I had surpassed 3B and 4A (pretty much) with barely any study over the past year was very encouraging. My confidence in my speaking ability has dramatically increased, which has turned out to be the key to successful language acquisition.

Some cats outside our classroom (This one's for you Ally)

A giant bug in the stairwell!

The students then all were made to sit though a long orientation in which the facilities, rules, and information about the Shinchon neighborhood were discussed, my favorite rule being the one where we "should not voice any complaints or concerns to classmates or teachers." Luckily they fed us lunch, which made the three hour long orientation more bearable. Afterward they posted the official class rosters, which took into account the results of our written test as well (my interviewee's assessment of my skill was not a guarantee). Unfortunately, the 4A and 4B classes were too small so they were combined into one class. I made my way to my first class where we met one of our afternoon culture class teachers and introduced ourselves to the people we will be studying with for six hours a day for the next five weeks. All in all a good day, but it got better…

My Korean teacher at Oregon, Bomi Oh happens to be in Seoul right now for The 12th Conference of American School Korean Language Teachers, which is taking place at Sogang (where I am studying) so after classes I texted her to see if she had any free time. She was just about to teach a workshop on one of her teaching styles and she invited me to come and watch. It was so nice to get to see her and I really enjoyed watching her presentation. She even asked me to read a couple of her slides out loud to everyone during the presentation which was fun. Afterward we walked around Shinchon in search of somewhere to eat dinner and settled on a Jjambbong restaurant. We of course ordered the Jjambbong, which is a spicy seafood soup with noodles. We sat and talked for a couple of hours reminiscing and talking about this and that. I had such a good time, and I hope that I am able to see her again before she leaves at the end of the month.

This delicious hazelnut coffee comes in a pouch with a sealed cup of ice!

My favorite canned coffee (Georgia)

Since then I haven't done very much outside of class. Six hours a day of intensive Korean study is pretty exhausting and I'm still adjusting to life here and making friends to explore with later on. Every day for lunch I go out with a small group of people and we try one of the many small restaurants near the school. So far I've had Bibim nengmyeon (spicy cold noodles), Hemul Kalguksu (seafood soup with large knife-cut noodles), mandu (korean dumplings), yookgaejang (spicy beef soup), bibimbap (rice with mixed vegetables), and today I had Seolleongtang (beef bone stock soup) for the first time. Of course I have also consumed copious amounts of kimchi of which there is usually 2+ varieties at any given meal.

Tuna bibimbap

Yookgaejang

Bibim nengmyeon

Jjambbong

Seolleongtang

It feels so nice to be back in Seoul and I'm sure I will have much more to write about as the program progresses. I hope all of you back home are enjoying the beautiful Oregon Summer!

Reconnecting with old friends

So I had forgotten that the mattresses in the dormitories at Sogang were rock-hard. They also don't come with bedding which I was aware of, but due to my late arrival I didn't have time to buy any before turning in, so I bunched up some soft garments for a pillow and fell asleep. It didn't last long though since the air conditioner, which I had spent 20 minutes trying to turn on had slowly brought the room to Arctic temperatures. Neither the remote or wall dial seemed to make any difference and I couldn't even manage to turn it off again, so I pulled the plug, pulled on a pair of pants (I was wearing shorts before ;-P) and a jacket and went back to sleep.

In the morning I woke up pretty sore and hobbled down to the cafeteria in the basement to grab breakfast. The friendly workers assuming that, as a white person, I old want the "western" breakfast, loaded up my tray with cereal, apple slices, a bowl of yellowish goop, and hat appeared to be an individually packaged hotdog bun. The goop turned out to be some sort of corn porridge and the hotdog bun was just that, but filled with a copious amount of sweet whipped butter. I believe the menu referred to it as 버터빵 (butter bread) and it was actually kind of good. At one end of the cafeteria there is a large tv which was playing a show about a nail technician who does incredibly intricate designs on pedicures. I watched her paint perfect tiny characters from Kung fu Panda and fancy ballerina silhouettes onto toenails with tiny gems and bows glued on as well.

I then made my way down the block to the Grand Mart where I purchased a bedding set. Then onto the T-World, the cellphone store where I reactivated my old phone from last Summer. Finally I was able to get ahold of my old friends! My friend Sahnghee happens to live just down the street in an apartment and we made plans to meet at a nearby bakery called Tous les Jours. When I arrived she gave me an adorable little "cheesecake" (quite different from the American equivalent) and a carton of mint café latte o_O She had also invited her friend Bransen along and we sat down and talked while enjoying the cake. Bransen came to Seoul from Hawaii a year and a half ago with little Korean language skills and is now fully fluent. Seeing how well he communicates really confirmed for me how important long-term in-country experience really is to learning a language. If only there was some way to get that experience without leaving everyone behind *sigh*

Sahnghee with the cheesecake

Mint Lattes

After making plans to hang out the next day and saying goodbye, I called up my friend William to see what he was up to. It turned I had missed a text from him earlier inviting me bowling with him and some friends. I headed over to the front gate of the school where they were meeting and ran into my old teacher Professor Koo on the way. She had been my favorite teacher in the program last Summer and she will be giving me a week of private tutoring (courtesy of the FLAS fellowship) after the regular program ends in August. We talked a little bit before I headed to meet Will and the others.

There were nine of us bowling altogether, most from the US except for Will who is Korea, Veronika who in Hungarian, Joe from England, and Urikhan, who was born in Mongolia, but has lived in Korea since she was eight. We headed to the bowling alley, which wasn't far and found it absolutely packed. We sat for an hour and hot to know each other a little better. William insisted that we use only Korean, which I preferred, shince I've been wanting to get in as much practice as possible before my placement test on Monday. I talked mostly with Urikhan, who turned out to be really friendly and interesting.

Eventually a couple of lanes opened up and we played a few games. Afterward we headed to a Family Mart convenience store and enjoyed some beverages on the patio out front. All in all it was a very fun night. I'm so happy to be here and I can't wait to start classes and explore all that Korea has to offer.

Thanks for reading. Leave any questions or comments and I'll do my best to reply. I love you all! ^____^

Korea Part II

As some of you may already know, I recently received a fabulous fellowship from Oregon's Center for Pacific and Asian Studies. This fellowship allows me to study Korean in Seoul for six weeks practically free of cost! The last month has been a whirlwind of activity as I have prepared to depart and it has been stressful knowing that I would be leaving my loved ones behind. But yesterday I left my beautiful homeland and made my way to the capital of South Korea, which possesses a vastly different kind of beauty.

Thursday morning, after a late night of packing, I woke up tired but excited. My family drove me up to PDX, but unfortunately the traffic came to a halt halfway there. We hoped it was just typical congestion, but it turned out to be an accident and what should have taken 30 minutes slowly stretched into over an hour. By the time we reached the airport, I had no time to waste so after hasty goodbyes I ran to check in and my family drove away. :'(

The Alaska Airlines check-in machine told me that it was too late to check in and that I should go to the main desk. The woman there sassed me and informed me that my bag would probably miss the flight and therefore the connection as well and that if it did I would have to go get my bag another time. This didn't sound appealing to me as the Incheon airport in Seoul is over an hour away from the university, but I didn't have a choice so I made my way through security and on to the terminal.

The flight to Seattle was uneventful and I didn't have to wait long for my next flight to Seoul which was just over eleven hours long. bleh. My first impression was that the flight would not go well. On the other side of the plane in my row there was a woman with a small poodle in a pink harness which began yapping as soon as the plane took off. I soon began preparing my pillow to go over and smother it, but the noise ceased after several tense minutes.

The seats on Korean Air are pretty comfortable and each passenger has their own touch-screen tv with an array of movies, tv programs, documentaries and music to keep them entertained. I had created an eleven hour long playlist on my ipod which kept me distracted for the first couple of hours, but I eventually grew restless and kept seeing interesting movies on the screens of the seats around me, so I looked through the different option and decided to watch Beastly. They had English, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese audio and I decided to watch it in Korean to get in some practice. The movie was actually pretty good, and satisfied, I listened to a couple more hours of music.

Once again I needed to mix it up so I looked through the movies again and settled on Sucker Punch. What are the chances that the two movies that I would decide to watch would both have Vanessa Hudgens of all people in them? *Readers please don't judge me!* The movie was not what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it as well. More music and I was starting to feel agitated. I couldn't manage to fall asleep and I really needed to move around and break the monotony. I was eight hours in with three more to go. I did my best to suppress my discomfort and was happy when they began to bring around the second meals. Unfortunately the pasta which I got was smothered in cheese which I didn't realize until too late. I was so hungry that I decided to risk aggravating my… intolerance, and tried to eat around the cheese. Ten minutes later I could feel my stomach beginning to cramp and I tried to just relax and focus on not vomiting. Luckily I succeeded.

After enduring one more fit of yapping by that demonic poodle, I made it to the Incheon airport with sore joints, a sore stomach, and extremely exhausted. Thank the Lord, my bag arrived with me. The bus ride to Shinchon went by quickly and I checked into my dorm, unpacked, and exhausted, fell asleep immediately. It was quite the ordeal, but I couldn't be more excited. Now the adventure really begins. Wish me luck!

Farewell Korea

It is with a heavy heart that I write of my departure from the beautiful Republic of Korea. The country's people and culture made such a deep impression on me and has helped to assure me that studying Korean is really the right thing for me to be doing with my life.

Here begins the final chapter in my Korean saga...

As Sandy and I were waiting for our bus in Tongyeong, I called the travel agency that was in charge of ordering my vest for China. I wanted to make sure that I could pick up my visa later in the day since I wouldn't be able to make it until around 5:00. The woman seemed suspicious when I asked her how late they were open and insisted that I just come then, but I explained that I was in Tongyeong and was about to take a bus to Busan. She then warned me that I shouldn't be traveling in the typhoon and could come the next day instead. I told her that I had to catch a train to Seoul that night and she finally begrudgingly surrendered the information saying I could come before 6:00. All of this was done in Korean of course. I can't believe how much progress I made in a short eight weeks.

Upon arriving in Busan, we made our way to the Sabeopsa Buddhist temple, one that was recommended in our guide book. The temple was a beautiful, built near a small river where Sandy and I explored for a bit. Eventually we had to leave in order to get to the agency in time, so we made our way to China Town (fitting right?) and I picked up my brand new visa. It was such a relief to finally have it in my hands, as I had been very worried that I wouldn't be able to get it in time and therefore wouldn't be allowed to enter China. In celebration, we went to a nearby Chinese restaurant where we spoke a jumble of Chinese, Korean, and English with the owners and waitresses who were all very friendly. This made for a good farewell to Busan.

So beautiful

Busan Station

We had to wait a couple of hours for the train, so we went to the station's Baskin Robbins where I had my last Patbingsu of Korea. Eventually we boarded and I spent most of the ride listening to my audiobook "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula LeGuin, which had been recommended to me by my friend Oliver who I was staying with in Seoul. We didn't get back to the apartment until around midnight. It had been a long day of traveling and I was ready for bed. The next morning I went to lunch with my friend Jungsoo and tried to get a hold of my other friend Michelle to say goodbye, but she was out of town and was unable to return in time to see me off. I as really disappointed since she was one of the best friends that I had made in Korea and I wasn't able to giver her the gift which I had bought her in Jeju.

Oh Patbingsu, how I'll miss you!

That evening as I was searching for somewhere to eat dinner I ran into Oliver returning from work. He hadn't eaten yet either so we went to a restaurant nearby and we were able to have one last meal together. Afterward Oliver, his friend Jesse, Sandy, and I all hung out listening to music and talking. I had an early flight in the morning though and I hadn't even started packing so I got to work. The process was long and rather emotional as I went through the few belongings which had lasted me through the past eight wonderful weeks. I had some trouble deciding what to take along to China, what to ship back to the US, and what could be thrown away, but by the time I had to leave to catch the bus to the airport at 4:30, I was ready.

I made my way to the bus stop and arrived just as the bus got there. The ride was pretty long and I was exhausted so I slept the whole way. My time in the airport was short and before I knew it I was looking out the airplane window getting my last look at Korea.


.......
The End

I'm really happy that I could share these experiences with all of you who read my blog. Thank you for taking the time to follow my adventures. I've been in China the last few weeks and will probably be adding a few more entries to the blog, but I'll be returning to the States in a couple days and with everything else I have to catch up on it may be a while before I can recount my wonderful journey through the land of the Han. I love you all and can't wait to see those of you who will be in Oregon when I get back.

Typhoons in Tongyeong

Tuesday morning Sandy and I woke up and headed to the bus station to grab a bus to Tongyeong. The city small, but is well-known for it's yearly music festival and has many statues and references to the great admiral Yi Sunshin, an historic military leader who invented the turtle ships and helped fight off the Japanese to achieve Korean independence. Also, off the coast lie dozens of islands of varying sizes which can be seen on clear days and visited by numerous ferries which depart each day.

Tongyeong

We arrived in the bus terminal and found a place to eat lunch before making our way down to the harbor to find a ferry, thinking we might spend the night on one of the many islands in either a  or a home-stay. The ferry terminal seemed pretty dead, all of the ticket booths were empty and the people in the waiting area all sat glumly. We went to the information desk and asked about the schedule, but the woman there explained that due to the typhoon no boats were going in or out that day. Crestfallen, we asked about local hotels and were recommended to one in the main tourism district, but there were no vacancies so we took a bus to the nearest island which was connected by a short bridge.

When we reached the end of the bus line we disembarked and walked around a bit until we found a nice little motel where the woman outside called us inside. It was very well-kept and comfortable for a very reasonable price so we got a room and headed out to explore. We found a hotel on the beach which rented out bikes, so we got a couple and spent an hour riding along the beautiful coastline. Now, we had been a little skeptical about the ferries being halted due to a "typhoon" because up to this point, there had barely been a breeze, but right as we had to return the bikes, the weather took a turn for the worse. The winds picked up and the rain started. We quickly found a bus and made our way to a point where we would hopefully have a good view of the outlying islands (our expectations were low though with the dark clouds on the horizon). After some trouble finding the right bus, and a terrifyingly wild ride along the cliffs (nearly being thrown out of our seats on numerous occasions) we reached a look-out point with a small cafeteria/coffee shop.

Our cozy little room

On the coast of Tongyeong just before Typhoon Venus hit

Despite the rain and wind, the view was extraordinary and very worth the trouble getting there. After drinking it all in we went into the cafeteria to wait for a bus out of the rain. The next bus didn't come for nearly an hour though so we got coffee and started eating the crackers that the woman from the temple had given me. As the time that the bus was scheduled to arrive drew near, we packed up our belonging and headed outside. We weren't sure which direction we need to go. We could head back the way we had come from which was familiar and safe, or we could attempt to go the other direction which technically was closer to our motel, but we weren't sure it went all the way through.  The former was the first to arrive so that was the one we took.

As the bus pulled up we started searching through our pockets for change for the fare and at Sandy's request I began searching through my pack for his wallet which he had entrusted to me during our bike ride, but to no avail… We had already boarded the bus and were several hundred feet down the narrow winding road when we realized that I had already given Sandy his wallet to buy his coffee and he must have left it in the shop. We asked the driver to let us off and began to trek back up the hill. Sandy began to run just in case and I wasn't far behind. I glanced back to make sure no cars were coming up behind us and saw in horror the other bus roaring up. I yelled at Sandy and began to sprint, but just as we were coming up to the shop the bus careened past, nearly running us down and blind to our frantic waving.

We were left to another hour of waiting on that God-forsaken hill with nothing but my crackers to sustain us. Finally the last bus came and we were able to return to the area our motel was in. We searched around for somewhere to eat dinner and saw some canopies set up on the waterfront nearby, shaking in the heavy winds. We headed over and found that they were little restaurants selling delicious-looking seafood. We ordered a plate of Hwei (the raw fish I had eaten in Jeju) and it came with a large plate of various sea creatures to snack on. There were crab legs, clams, large shelled snail-like things that we had to pull out of their mossy shells with a toothpick to eat (I know it sounds a little gross, but it was all incredible).

Unfortunately my camera had died so this part of the trip shall lack photo evidence unless I can get a hold of some of Sandy's photos...

The next morning we arose early to see if the weather had cleared and we would be able to try the ferries again, but the wind and rain were beating relentlessly at the window so we continued sleeping for a couple more hours. After checking out of the motel we got some of the cities special Kimbap which was served with large chunks of radish kimchi and spicy squid. We then explored the harbor where a couple of old style ships (including a turtle ship) were anchored. Then we went to the outdoor sculpture park which had a lot of modern sculptures and a large statue of Yi Sunshin. Then it was back to the bus station where we caught a ride back to Busan. Our trip might not have gone as expected, but we still had a wonderful time.

Breakfast

Me and Yi Sunshin on a turtle ship