To Go

I'm going to start doing these short cultural observation blurbs because I'm getting too lazy to write rediculously long passages that I don't even want to read sometimes.

Koreans don't ask for to-go boxes and if they do I haven't seen them do it.  They either eat all of their food or just leave 1/2 of it there.  The latter is especially true for girls.  The "finish everything on your plate" mentality has a historical  foundation for it.  Before Korea's rapid urbanization around 50 years ago (?) people were barely making ends meet and living in poverty.  Food (especially rice) was a rare commodity and extremely coveted and cherished.  People even changed their greeting to "pab mogoseoyo?" or "have you eaten yet?" because food was an important factor in culture.  But back to the point.  I think asking for a to-go box is looked down upon b/c A)it meant you couldn't finish the food or B)it shows you can't afford to waste the food (food here is cheap for the most part).  In America however, if people like their food and can't finish it, it's an automatic "to-go box please."  Seeing a Korean at a sit down restaurant ask for a to-go box is rare.  I wonder if, aside from my lame attempts at explaining, there is a legit reason why

This is going to be a short recap of the day post.  I woke up early and actually exercised this morning. Afterwards, I studied a bit and napped b/c boring books put me to sleep really easily.  I then rushed to campus, visited the KU museum and ran to my art class. As I breathlessly walked through the door, I realized not a soul was in the room.  Class was canceled and I apparently didn't get the memo.  So I had 4 free hours before my next class so I grabbed lunch at the cafeteria. Here's what I got:
pic
The steamed egg and stew dish were really good and had a resemblance to what my parents make at home.  The pajeon and salad, however, was nasty and I chucked them.  A bunch of middleschoolers came and soon I was surrounded by a pack of youngsters chit chatting in Korean.  I was really tempted to strike up conversation with them but chicken out because Koreans take the hierarchy thing seriously an don't usually make friends with older people.  I walked around for a bit and found the perfect homework/people watching spot that was secluded yet surrounded by hustle and bustle.  I finished the billion pages of Korean homework and went to the Samsung Centennial Memorial Hall to explore it more in depth.  The KU museum is housed there and there are some interesting works of art.  My favorite part of the building is the cafe because you can plop down anywhere and study while observing students come and go.  Plus, it's somewhat cheap (it caters solely to students) and really close to a convenience store so you can buy snackers if you don't feel like ordering anything off their menu.  And the have patbingsu which is a really cool dessert that I have yet to try. 
After Korean class, a couple of friends and I went out to eat a Korean restaurant called *name* and OMG, it was delicious.  We had Chicken (something) Masala with rice and Nam (really yummy flatbread).  I got a mango lassi and that was the perfect end to my first Indian food experience.  The owners are really nice as well and their Korean is top notch (their son was speaking fluent Korean and he's only like 4).  I will definitely be back there later
(pics)
JP, Jessica and I then headed off to a cafe to study but we ended up having the coolest conversations on really interesting topics.  They are awesome people and just chit-chatting with them made me really happy.  I <3 my friends here!
Here are pics of the cafe and my caramel mochiatto :D
pics

We went in search for corn ice cream but couldn't find it in the marts near school.  I hate how things work like that.  You look for something high and low and when you don't want it or need it anymore, it appears *sigh*
Today was basically an awesome day and even though midterms are the day after tomorrow, I'm feeling really good :D

Museum and Ewah Shopping

I'm going to try to recap the past 48 hours to the best of my ability because I think I have early onset Alzheimers or something lol.  Saturday morning/afternoon were spent frivolously.  I did nothing, accomplished nothing, and I think I got dumber watching dramas lol.  Saturday evening, however, I got out of my dorm and was actually productive! That evening, I went to the National Museum of Korea, and let me tell you, it's enormous.  There's apparently a main exhibit center that houses the permanent collection and a west wing that houses the special exhibitions   There's also a performance theatre and a Pagoda Garden that was just gorgeous. Entrance into the main exhibition hall is free and even thought that building is only 3 stories high, it's really like 10+ stories because each floor was gigantic.  The artifacts date back from neolithic to Joseon, Shilla, Goryeo, Goguryeo, etc time periods/dynasties.  I spent hours there just to hunt down the pieces I was suppose to be commenting on for my art class and some of the artifacts were really interesting.  Here are some pictures of the museum:

I really wanted to find the Dragon Falls (sad excuse for a waterfall btw. it doesn't look like the picture and it's worse than our little waterfall at Imperial Garden lol) and went down some trodden path following the sound of flowing water but that ended up being a dead end.  On the way out of that wooded area, I swear I heard footsteps behind me or something.  Needless to say,I skedaddled out of there as quickly as I could and I definitely won't be going down any scary horror movie looking trails again.  I wandered into the park that's right beside the museum (y-something family park) and it's pretty amazing.  There are ponds and apparently on the other side  of the park there were ecological wastelands.  I walked around that area for an hour or so and found the I'Park mall!  The I'Park mall is where I got my cellphone and it's on massive shopping mall. 

Unfortunately, it was closing up when I got there so I went to the E-Mart downstairs and got some really nice smelling hand sanitizer (yay for clean!). By the time I turned on my cellphone to check the time, it was already past 10 and I think the train stops running at 11 or something like that so I was freakin out because I was appx 1 hr. away from the Anam Station (my dorm stop fyi).  Fortunately, I got on one of the last trains on that route and made it home.  Oh! I saw some people filming a mug scene on Anam Street.  I sat there and watched it until they packed up.  That stabbing/mugging scene took many shots and it was interesting watching the actor scream out the actresses names 5X's because the director wasn't happy with how he screamed it out the time before lol.  I bought some cheese chips from the mart afterwards and let me tell you, cheese flavored anything in Korea is basically sweet and smells rancid.  There is no real cheese here so to those who like cheese and want to come here, you are forewarned.

The Ewah Women's University and the Sinchon areas are 짱 for shopping.  Seriously, because there are so many stores targeting women, it's like shopping paradise for me. They have stores solely for shoes, clothes, accessories, and jewlery.  There's even a store sole for condoms...I wonder what that implies lol

haha...it says "be safe" on the window

As I was walking around, I stumbled across the famous Issac's Sandwich Place.  It's a little hole in the wall shop with a red sign but they make the best sandwiches.  I only got the cheese sandwich (like a grilled cheese with an omelet inside) and it sound simple but sometime simple is the best.  I walked around that area for forever and saw the Charlie Brown Cafe. I thought I could find it again later but to no avail, I lost it.  I walked around in the same giant circle about 3X's and got frustrated to I settled down at a Smoothie King to study for one of my midterms.  I got the cutest bows at Ewah and I  am definitely going back to get more ^^

Giant shoe:

My bow! I feel like Minnie Mouse with such a giant red bow lol

Unfortunately, I saw like 5 million couples hand in hand and I can honestly say, I'm mildly jealous.  Just looking at them being all lovey-dovey makes me sick because I sometimes feel bitter about being single.  My one shining hope is that things happen in due time and I can't force anything.  Anyways, back to Ewah, there was a streetside jazz performance and they were amazing.  They interacted with the crowd and the vocalist was really good.

That's all for now! Must study for midterms ^^

Yeouido Cherry Blossoms

Today was a rather satisfying and insanely fun day.  I met a couple of people at noon today to go see the Yeouido Cherry Blossom festival and we were acted very touristy by taking a billion pictures.  For lunch, we decided to have a picnic by the park so we stopped by this busy kimbap restaurant and let me tell you, they make the most unique kimbap.  I got the cheese kimbap and it was something like purple bean rice, veggies, ham, and cheese rolled into a good 2-3 inch diameter roll. I'm not gonna lie, it was really yummy and filling so I'm going back to that stand for sure.  My cheese kimbap XD

The 3/4 of the group I went with posing in front of some mosiac mural:

The cherry blossoms!

Cat's french lover and his friend (Sasha and Meti) tagged along after we ate.  They're both french breakers (bboys) and they're really really good. Like, they train with Hong10 and are part of the team representing France in the World Championships or something like that. good.  Pics of park + their random craziness:

In front of King Sejong. We fail at taking timed pictures lol:

A rock path that tests the health of your feet.  There are rocks that jut out of the cement at different heights and if you can walk all the way across it, you have good feet.  Ahjumma's really like to do this, look at this lady go!

I thought this made them look like they were on the jacket of some  indie rock band album:

Here is a part of the wall filled with condolance notes from the citizens regarding the naval ship sinking a couple of weeks ago:

In the front of the part, there's this huge pavement area filled with about a dozen basketball courts and in the middle, there are a bunch of people rollerblading and biking.  Every couple love to ride tandems here.

Yeouido is an island district (comparable to Manhattan) of Seoul and it's Seoul's main business and investment banking district.  Big buildings/businesses such KBS, MBC, the 63 building, the National Assembly building, LG, Korean Exchange Center, etc are all housed here

We rented a basketball for about $3/hr and were playing horse for a while until a bunch of Koreans from across the pavement invited us to play 5 vs.5 with them.  Foreigners vs. Koreans lol.  They weren't extremely good but I'm really bad so they seemed good in comparison lol

It was really fun playing with them.  It was the first time I played basketball here and it was sooooo tiring, but in a good way :P  We parted ways afterwards and then a couple of us went to Dongdaemun to shop. We saw some comedians perform songs to advertise ramen and they were really entertaining :D

I noticed some odd fashion trends and behavior.  Aside from the fact that guys have man purses, men here are definitely more feminine in some respects.  1: they cross their legs.  There was a guy at the basketball court who sat on the bench with his legs crossed in a very girlie way the entire time.  They also like to primp themselves and fix there hair.  Here's a guy with a compact and a rattailed comb and he was combing/fixing his hair for a good 3-4 minutes.  Sometimes I want to scream at them, "YOUR HIAIR LOOKS THE SAME AS 5 MINS AGO!" Metrosexual men sometime baffle me

This dude just draws attention for obvious reasons.  Seriously, Cheetah Print?

Random: condoms sold in vending machines.  Look at the cute packaging lol:

That's all for today! I'm heading off to museums tomorrow.  Woohoo?

4/15/10 Hanging out with dudes :P

Today was a day filled with excitement and adventure...not.  But it was very fun b/c today is the first day I've hung out with purely guys in months.  I miss not having to talk about serious things and goofing off and laughing like an idiot without being self-conscious about how others perceive me.  Aside from guys, the only people I feel like that with are my neighbors back home and my sister.  With all my good girlfriends, I'm always cautious of my demeanor.  I don't know why, I just am.  Anyways~ today I went to my Contemporary Korean and Social Problems class and I got assigned into a group form my Social Problems presentation.  What's cool is that my new buddy Jungmin is in my group! Yay!  We studied together in the library (which I've never really seen) after lunch and it's pretty nice.  There's a women lounge in there as well with about 4 resting beds :P
 pic of library

This is a really cool bench/desk/art hybrid on the first floor.  I thought it looked interesting haha

Afterwards, I went back to CJ and napped until Korean class.  I absolutely hate the snail pace we move at in that class.  I'm so frustrated that I feel I could rip out all the hair out of my head and scream at the teacher sometimes.  We covered how to say the time and it's not a hard concept.  You say the hour in the pure korean number system followed by 시 and then the minutes followed by 분.  We spend the entire class learning that one extremely elementary concept.  I was bored to tears.  I wish they'd offered an intensive language class or something.  Afterwards, I met up with Anna, JP, and Denzel for dinner with Anna's group.  The group was huge though so we broke off into 2 subgroups so I ate with JP, Denzel and their buddy Sebastian.  Omrice is Delicious:

Sebastian and I:

JP and Denzel:

After dinner, Peter joined our group and we went to a PS3 빵 and played a shooting game (call of duty?):

I personally don't like playing war-y type games b/c it's really hard for me to control my characters movement from that POV (cuz I suck lol) but I absolutely loved watching them play and how they reacted to taking each other out.  Like, someone would die and he'd be like
*string of cuss words* "Who did that?! Was it you.? Oh it's onnnn~" lol
It went on like this for about an hour and I honestly laughed a lot.  It was refeshing just hanging out with no true purpose besides pure entertainment. 
Afterwards, we went to the mart and I got Tim Tams.  I'm going to try to describe Tim Tams to the best of my ability.  It's like 2 pieces of biscotti with a layer of the Lindt Truffle filling in between them coated with the chocolate from the shell of Lindt truffle.  It's heavenly.  The Australians and absolutely brilliant for inventing it.  Now, I'm uploading pics and a video to Facebook.  I'm also trying to memorize the Korean alphabet on the keyboard so I can type the characters faster.  That's all for today.  Will Write Later!

Cafe Day

I've been discovering new music tonight! My favorite song right now is Serenade (세레나데) by Piano.  I've been playing it over and over again and absolutely love it! :D  I'm also digging Hyori's new album.  I'm listening to "So Cold" as I write this post lol. The duet with Daesung called "How did we get" is excellent as well.  Her new songs are so catchy! I didn't care for her music before but that's not the case now. 

Today was a pretty chill day.  My art class got canceled this week because she wants us to have ample time to visit the National Museum of Korea. Woo freaking hoo! This teacher is the chillest teacher I've had so far because she doesn't believe in tests so we don't even have a midterm or a final. Our entire grade depends on attendance and our portfolio, how sweet is that? It's not like it's even a real class yet it's covering my cross cultural and non-literature art requirement XD  After the morning classes, I went to lunch with my new Korean buddy Jung Min.  She's Korean but she spend a lot of her childhood in Virginia and Ottawa so here English is top notch and she's experienced both the western and Korean education system.  It was interesting hearing her talk about anything and everything and she laughs so easily.  We're suppose to go shopping sometime after midterms.  I'm so glad I met her! Back to the point, Cherie and Bree joined us in the cafeteria and we just talked for a long time.  Bree and I then went to Anouk for the first time and I had a really overpriced Cafe Tiramasu (over 1/2 the cup was whipped cream but it was good nevertheless)

After Korean class (which doesn't end until 6:15...bleh!!!), Emily and I got some Roti-Roti bread and headed to this Uber cute cafe called Cafe 103.  They sell a mean Vanilla Latte and the atmosphere is just so relaxing and chill.  They also sell felt and other cute DIY supplies.  I kinda met some new people, an Australian named Nick and a Taiwanese girl named Jill and just listening and interjecting into their conversation was fun.  Oh~a really cool unique feature about that cafe is that you can play Jenga there and they have a little scribbling book where people wrote messages and drew pictures in.  They also had stamps you can decorate you scribbles with!

All in all, today was an awesomely mind freeing day. Visited 2 cafes, and aside from the coffees and the bread from Roti-Roti, I ate pretty healthily.  I'm starting the apple a day thing b/c I'm currently addicted to em right now and they're good for you. The only negative thing about today was that it was freezing cold and super windy.  The winter jacket had to come out of retirement today...I hope I don't have to break it out tomorrow.  KK, I'll backtrack about Yeouido and other places later :D