Goodbyes

Sorry this post is soooo late, but the last few weeks of my stay were crazy busy! I know most people haven't looked at this blog in ages, but for my own satisfaction, I had to finish it. Also, for my most diligent reader, my grandpa, Pop. I had final exams in my film class, pop culture, grammar class, and Korean language class... After that, I pretty much had to pack up and get ready to move out. I permed my hair! and did a lot of saying goodbyes which was really sad.

Dewi and me before

during...

and after

The last few weeks I was in Korea were full of political turmoil. There was a big uproar about the US - Korea FTA agreement. There is way more to it than this, and I don't know the half of it, but President Lee MyungBak agreed to import only US beef. Many Koreans were upset because they felt that American beef was unclean and unsafe due to outbreaks of mad cow disease in the US. This led to large protests at City Hall as well as all over Seoul (and I presume the country), anti-US government sentiments, and a sever drop in approval ratings of their president, who at that time had only been in office for about 4 months. Traditionally in Korea universities are the forerunners of political movements, so Yonsei was covered in FTA slogans and information. On June 10, there was a HUGE rally, that started at Yonsei and ended at City Hall. June 10th marks the anniversary of the 1987 pro-democracy protests which ended in the death of a student. Although I was having a hard time getting a straight answer from Korean students as to what the protests were exactly about, and personally, I felt like the protests had spun out of control and became a bit unfocused, yet it was still really amazing to see an entire country unite for a political cause and voice their opinion. The civilian participation in this political involvment was astounding.

a panel at City Hall where nightly candel light vilgils were being held

people participating in the candel light vigil at City Hall

a large banner and picture hung up at the Central Library at Yonsei University commemorating the 1987 democracy movement and the student who lost his life

infront of the gates at Yonsei University - I think this woman speaking might have been the mother of the deceased student who died in the '87 protest. I think she was giving a speech to kick off the march to City Hall on 6.10.08

Our CIEE farewell dinner was held at this restaurant in Insadong that serves temple food. It was all vegetarian and all side dishes. Delicious! And there was a show of traditional/buddhist dances. They had a soljangu player - he was good, but def. not as good as Dahwa, the present of Tte. Afterward, our group of friends and our program director went out for ice cream at Baskin Robins. We talked a lot and learned some really interesting things from her.

at the monk restaurant

at Baskin Robins - oh shooting star ice cream, how I love thee

A few days before I was to move out of Casaville, the (serviced) apartment I started packing and realized that I had WAY too much stuff... as did most of my friends. So I decided to go buy a new suitcase. I had heard from friends that you could get good deals at Namdaemoon market. So one night, a couple of my friends and I headed out at around 11pm to do some midnight bargaining. I ended up getting an extremely large red suitcase for about $30. Not bad, right?

some of the sketchy stuff I found inside my suitcase

A few days later I started packing and I opened up my new suitcase. I opened the front section and stuck my hand in to put something in and screamed - there was stuff in there! I pulled it out and I found a plastic bag that contained about 5 lighters, a pack of cigarettes, and a bunch of metal labels that could be attached to knockoff handbags. There was also a large sweatshirt and a Nike jacket (I threw everything out except the jacket which I gave to my dad when I got home. hehe). I was totally sketched out. The suitcase had tags on it like it was brandnew... I have no idea how that stuff got in there. Maybe someone stashed it there, or maybe it was stolen. Who knows... My CIEE (study abroad program) friends and I pulled an all-nighter the night before the first two of us were leaving. It was fun, but also sad. We stayed up all night making funny videos and talking. The next morning, we all walked our two friends who were the first to leave, over to the bus stop to drop them off. It was POURING rain and their suitcases got all drenched... It was really rushed and we barely had time to say goodbye between trying to get to the bus stop and then getting their luggage on.

eating our final meal of samgyupsal out in Sinchon

CIEE girls pulling an all nighter!!!

our cute pig cake to commemorate our last night together

yum!

Later that day, Sarang's older sister, Soyeon came over and helped me bring my luggage over to her house. I had so much we couldn't take it all in one trip, but I was coming back to the area the next day for an orientation for the farming excursion I was planning on going on later in the week with Tte, so I figured I'd pick the rest of my stuff up then.

Ahhh! TOO MUCH STUFF!!!

Wow! what a hassle trying to get my VERY heavy suitcases down to the subway station. Korea is still not particularly handicap accessible in terms of elevators etc. So we had to cross three roads in a six street rotary and walk half way towards Ewah Univ. so we could cross the street (its really busy) at a crosswalk and then walked all the way back to the rotary to get to the elevator on the other side. Oy! that was NOT fun! Sarang's family was really nice and let me stay at their house for about a week. TheyDuring my last few days in Korea I also went on this school sponsored trip to the countryside. I went with Tte, the drumming group, but the point of the trip was to interact and help the farmers with various tasks. I thought it was a really good idea because it showed students first hand where their food comes from and part of the process of food production. (NOTE: refer to my previous entry about this) I was on the Nonghwarl trip for a few days and then I came back to Seoul. I had sent a few things in the mail because I had so much I wasn't sure how I was gonna get it back. I guess I didn't send quite enough... I barely fit everything I had into my very large (possibly stolen) suitecase and my other suitcase I had come with. I managed to cram everything and thought I was pretty sly. The day I was leaving Soyeon was leaving as well to go to New York City to start her new job. Her dad (attempted) to grab my suitcase. It was WAY too heavy.... but we were supposed to be leaving for the airport so there was nothing I could do. When we got to the airport I tried to check-in. The guy asked me to put my suitcases on the scale and I could barely lift the lighter one of the two off my cart; and I was trying to make it look easy... He looked at me with disbelief and told me my suitcase was way too heavy. He told me to put my other one on. The second one was even heavier. I told him I had read online that if my suitcases were over the weight limit I could pay a $70 fee. He began flipping through his handbook trying to find the rules and regulations. His English wasn't too great, so after Soyeon checked in I got her and her dad over. Basically, I had to reorganize everything. Being smart, I had put all of my textbooks and notebooks in one suitcase. Luckily, Soyeon's dad had an extra bag, so I ended up checking three bags, my two suitcases and what was supposed to be my carry-on, so I could distribute the weight better, and paid for a third piece of luggage (this was before airlines started charging for each piece of luggage). I used Soyeon's dad's bag as my carry-on. Whew. I did have to pay a $130 fee. I word of advice to people going to Korea, there is lots of shopping there so pack LIGHT! : ) The flight home was rather depressing. I opened the letters some of my friends had written me which was really nice. When I got through customs at the Mpls. airport, I found my uncle waiting for me!!! He works for NWA as a flight attendant and was working that day! He brought me down to baggage to meet my parents. I was home for a little under two weeks. I got home July 1st, and left July 12th to go up to Bemidji to work at Concordia Korean Language Village. During those two weeks at home, both set of grandparents came to visit, I saw friends, and I had my 21st birthday. It was really nice, and so crammed full of stuff I did not really have time to dwell on missing Korea or experience any culture shock. When I got to camp two weeks later, I found myself surrounded by Korean people, language, and food again. For the first few days I kept forgetting I was back in Minnesota. When I would see American products, like Vitamin Water, I would think, "Wow! Where did they get that!?" Haha!

Various Pictures from the end of the semester

my lovely bed (although it was practically a double with my roommates bed...)

Lonny and Emily at the Pooh bar, a bar dedicated to Winnie the Pooh. Seriously!

Chioo, class 414's favorite hangout

414 sticker picture time!!!

선생님 (our teacher) and Becca taking a 러브 셧 aka love shot

a final goodbye to some 414 classmates. Sue-Ann (Singapore), Becca (Michigan), Dewi (Indonesia), me, Tom (Oregon), and Emily (St. Paul, MN!!!)

our Pizza Merry delivery guy. Emily and I ordered so much pizza (always 고구마 sweet potato) that they knew our room: 802 Casaville, next to Grand Mart. I made the guy pose and I think he was way weirded out...

Emily digging into our last Pizza Merry's 고구마 Pizza

Caroline, Emily, and Kelly at Painters Donkasu restaurant

hookah in Sinchon

the menu at the hookah bar - "orgasm sausage and potatoes" sounds delicious, right???

Kelly and me at the hookah place

Eunha (a then, future co-worker from SupHo) and I at Red Mango

Tte goodbye to us foreigners in ttebang ...they ordered pigs feet...

Out to lunch to say goodbye to SooAh L: Emily (현), Lia (별님), SooAh (뽈뽈), and Pang (맛살)

video 1: Changoo solo from our performance at our school festival video2: Our final performance at the National Center for Traditional Performing Arts for the Saturday Samulnori class for foreigners (there were people from England, South Africa, France, Canada, Japan, America, and Germany) - we played YongNam NongAk

Thanks for reading my blog! I hope you enjoyed it!!!