Update

Saturday 3/22 I went to Samulnori lessons in the morning. I met this cool lady who is here on a fullbright to do research on ethnomusicology and what types of music are used in Korea dramas. I told her that I was taking a class on hallyu (the Korean popculture wave that has spread throughout asia) and she got all excited and actually came to our class later that week! I went to noraebang with some of the kids from my Korean class. They were all super into it. I don't really like singing alone, but they were from Japan and Singapore, so we didn't really any mutual songs. too bad. : ( I went to the Hyundai Dept. store with my friend for dinner. We got pizza, which was pretty good and expensive... Afterwards, I bought a dress on impulse. Its so unlike me, plus, its so unlike me to even buy a dress. I didn't even see myself in it... but my friend Vianey said it looked nice. However, I tried on the white one and then decided to get the black one. When I got back I tried the dress on and it didn't fit!!! Now, I need to figure out how to return/exchange it... Later some of my friends and I went to Dongdaemun to go shopping. It was pouring rain outside though, so it wasn't that fun. A lot of the shops are indoors, but still... all the vendors are outside. I think I hit three people with my umbrella and I got stuck between a vendor and the wall... I thought if I kept walking my umbrella could squeeze through; not true. It was a wet night. Sunday 3/23 Happy belated Easter to those of you who celebrate Easter! I was going to go with my friend Vianey to a Spanish speaking church, just to check it out, but it turned out the service was much later than we though. I was supposed to meet my Language Buddy, but she never showed up. My phone ran out of minutes, so I couldn't call or receive any texts. Later when I reacivated it I found six text messages from her... oops! I waited outside (but under an awning) for an hour and then left. Man was cold out! Monday 3/24 nothing exciting that I can recall Tuesday 3/25 Pang and I met up with our former classmate (we all took Korea together last summer at the University of MN) and friend Kaitlin. We had donkasu for lunch and then went to Angel-In-Us-Coffee after. (the name makes absolutely no sense). I had a pumpkin latte. Very interesting... You know how in the states pumpkin is full of spices etc.? I don't really like that, but this was basically straight up pumpkin pure with milk. It was interesting; there were nuts in it too, and when I got to the bottom there was a whole chunk of pumpkin. Later, after class, we went to our poongmul meeting. We got these free facemasks that some org. was handing out at the subway station, so later that night we got really silly and pretended we were ninjas... we got yelled at by other casaville residents because we were being to loud in the hallway. oops! Wednesday 3/26 I had class from 11-12 and then I went to lunch with my language exchange partner SungEun. We had shabu shabu!!! yum! It only cost W6,000 and included ice cream for dessert! Then we took sticker pictures, which was really fun. It only gives you a certain amount of time for each pictures, and then decorating, so we kept running out of time. Then Emily, Pang, and I went to get our haircut. There is a hair salon below InKAS in EeDae where adoptees can get a free haircut. I think we should have gone with someone who spoke Korean though... I do NOT like my hair cut. Afterwards, I freaked out. I was so bitter!!! At least it was free. Pang and Emily's hair cuts turned out really well. I just wanted a trim and then my bangs cut. I tried to tell them how to cut it and the lady was like 이상해 ... (weird...) Really it wasn't. All I wanted was what half the female Korean population has; side bangs. She obviously did not understand... So she cut them and then, I tried to tell her I didn't really like it and so she came back and razored them! which made them way worse. Basically she cut them too short, and there is nothing I can do about that except, let them grow back out. They washed, cut, dried, cut, dried, and curled my hair. It took so long we missed class... oops! Another lady curled my hair with a straightener which totally fascinated me. But my hair wasn't cooperating, and it kept getting bigger and bigger! the lady kept adding hairspray and trying to re-curl it, but eventually she just gave up. Afterwards, I was so sad about my hair I ditched the rest of class and dragged Pang to InsaDong with me. haha. Thursday 3/27 I finally met my language buddy (I have two through two diff. programs). Her name is MinSeo and shes a freshman. It was really funny because Korean school year is opposite from ours. So, this is their first semester, and our second semester. So, really this girl has only been at Yonsei as long as I have. Went went to lunch and had BoriBap (like bibimbop but with barley. it was really good!) Afterwards we were walking around campus a bit and she was so fascinated with everything. It was really funny and cute! Later Emily, Pang, our friend Ryoma, and I thought we had poongmul club. Turns out the meeting was cancelled because there was a school wide protest/demonstration against the school administration against raising tuition etc. So, we just messed around with the instruments and I showed them some of the beats the group is playing. Then one of the members came in to the ttaebang and invited us to go out with them. I guess all the Yonsei poongmul groups rented out a restaurant. All the new leaders for each group had to drink soju out of a big bowl. The bowl was passed around table to table and people could add whatever they wanted to it (salt, twedgigoki, onions, garlic, milk, radish etc.) We all thought this was very amusing. Little did we know, this was similar to what would happened to us this past weekend. haha. Friday 3/28 I went to Sarang's parents house! I think there was a misunderstanding, because I tried to tell them I had class til 6, but I think they thought I was going to arrive at 6. So, her dad called me right as I was walking out of class. oops! I takes me about 25 min. to walk back to my place from school. I grabbed my bag and ran out to the subway station. About two stops later I realized I left my phone back in my room... So I had to go back and get it. Sarang's parents live about 18-20 stops away, so it takes quite a while. The line splits too, which Sarang told me about, but I didn't really understand it, until it split... So I ended up on the other side! I asked these two women who looked to be in their mid-twenties if they spoke English and could help me. They told me what to do and eventually I got there!!! yay! I saw Sarang's parent's new building. Its so nice! There is a restaurant (where we ate dinner at) on the first floor and then office space and the top two floors are theirs. They house is so cool! Everything is automatic. (Sarang, I took a bunch of pics for you). The next day, we took a drive though the country. I think they wanted to show me the spring flowers, but it was raining, so we didn't really see any... too bad. It was fun though!