First week of Summer!

Hey!

So, its my official first week of summer. I've been staying up til 3 in the morning and sleeping in. Not a good habit... I need to make a more concerted effort to go to bed earlier, but I function so much better at night...

 Nik playing with a touch screen Seoul Metro map

Anyhow, this past weekend Emily and Nik came to Seoul. On Saturday I made plans to go to the Lantern Festival (in honor of Buddha's birthday) with Youngwha unni and Nik.  Nik stayed at my host family's house the night before (they are so nice and let my friends crash at their house when they're in seoul!) so we headed to Insadong to meet Youngwha unni at 1.  Interestingly, Youngwha unni had never really been to Insadong, only in passing.  It's a huge hot spot for tourists, as it sells all the "traditional crafts" etc.

 temple enterance

Youngwha unni and me

We wandered around a bit and then went to Jogyesa Temple and looked at all the lanterns hanging. They had made them in the shape of the center red/blue circle of the Korean flag! cool!  I think most of the festivities were actually the next day, and the actual holiday, Buddha's Birthday is this coming Friday.  We stuck around all day and saw the parade at 7:00.

During that time, Youngwha unni asked me why I don't wear much make up. Most Korean girls are very consumed with their outward appearance and everyone wears makeup.  Even the guys (they sell BB cream for men).  I told her I didn't really have too much makeup and she got super excited and took me makeup shopping.  I am basically now set.  She put all the tester stuff on me in the store, which made me freakout a bit, internally, as I'm a huge germ-a-phob...  I don't think I really like mascara, as it made my eyes feel like they were kind of stuck together.  But, she sure had fun picking stuff out for me~ Part way through, I realized she intended to buy this for me and told her it was too much, but she said it was necessary and she was obviously enjoying herself.  it was really really really nice of her! 
I was wearing my glasses that day, and afterwards, in the height of the excitement, she told me not to put them back on. lol! I told her I couldn't really see without them... We met back up with Nik and also Emily later, as Nik had split ways earlier in the day to attend a forum.  When we met up, Emily told me she whispered to Nik, "Is Lia wearing makeup?!..."  lol! 

Emily and Nik spent the night at my hostfamilies house.  Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me to buy makeup remover, so I had a heck of a time getting it all off! I looked like a raccoon, but luckily with Emily's help, it all came off. Whew.

At a game board cafe

On Sunday Nik and Em headed back home.  I dropped Emily off at Gangbyeon, where she was to catch her bus.  We had a bit of extra time, so we got ice cream. It's tradition; we always eat ice cream together.^^

Then, I met up with Sarang and her cousin Jiyeon, who were at TechnoMart, right across the street from the bus terminal.  Sarang cut her hair! She wasn't so sure about it, but I thought it looked nice and makes her look older.  We went to dinner with one of Sarang's friends and then I went to Sarang's church.  We tried to sit near where the Korean Sign Language interpreter sat, but we got there too late... It was a special Family Day that night, so there was lots of sings and skits etc.  Towards the end, I thought to myself, wow, her church is really fun, but somethings feels like its missing. Then not even two minutes later, the pastor apologized because that night there were so many things going on, he was going to skip his sermon.  Ah... I realized that's what was missing. The sermon. haha.

I spent the night at Sarang's house. The next morning Sarang had work at 10am at the English school she is working at.  I hung around  her house a bit and ate breakfast and talked with her dad.  My Korean has definitely improved, but I still was lost much of the time during out conversation.  Actually, Koreans seem really good at talking, so her dad talked to me for like an hour. We jumped from graduate school to the founders of Samsung and Hyundai, to ship building.  I most definitely missed the transitions... I'm positive there were some because at the end, he somehow managed to tie everything back together.  We also talked about what type of guy I like. I told him I like people who are smart, fun, and have a good heart. He laughed and told me if the person is smart and fun, he wont have a good heart and if he is good and fun he wont be smart.  haha!

Afterward, I went to Sarang's work place and met her students and her for lunch. Her students are both in their 30s and are doing a program called "Prision Break," and they are there from 10am-9pm Monday-Thursday!!! After lunch, we played the game Up Words, which is essentially Scrabble, but with the added component that you can build words up.

That evening I went to Myeongdong with one of people from Tte.  He is actually a student at the Korean Lang. Institute from New Zealand because hi has to get ready for his mandatory 2 year military service.  Yikes! It was fun, but towards the end, it started to rain and neither of us had an umbrella.  The rain continued all the way home. I called Nik and was standing at the bottom of the stairs at Sinimun station, which is right next to the subway maintenance area.  I figured I'd finish my phone call before I ventured out into the rain, which presumable is acid rain or at least yellow dust rain.... After about 10-15 minutes, one of the subway station workers walked over and poked an umbrella through the fence to me!!!  How sweet!!! His act of kindness made my day!

Tuesday I tutored one of my tutees for an hour.  Then I went to Dongdaemun and met Youngwha unni and her husband for dinner (they're the couple that I sat next to on the airplane^_^).  I got into her car and she handed me a dress!  All I need now is a large hair bow (I think that's next on her list Oo) and with my makeup and new dress, I will be the quintessential female Korean archetype.  Afterward, Kyungmoon and I met up at Myeondong (yes, again) because she wanted to get a pair of shoes and we needed to find a baby gift for one of the camp unnis, as we went to visit her today!

It was raining and all of the surrounding department stores closed at 8, so we ended up going to Lotte Mart, which is kind of like an extreme Target ,and got her baby clothes and stacking cups.  So obviously our first time shopping for a baby gift. I brought the stuff home and showed my host mom and turns out we bought 3-4 year old sized clothes... ugh. we thought it was months not years! 
He'll grow into it eventually.

Wednesday Kyungmoon and I got to meet Hyeonjeong's baby!!!  We were supposed to go at 9:40 but at 9:00 I woke up from a phone call from Jeonghye unni, who was going to be taking us.  She started talking about a time change, which was basically a stream of conscious in Korean; way too much Korean first thing in the morning. I croaked, "sorry, what?" But things got sorted out and we went late morning.

I didn't know it was my host brother, John's birthday yesterday until roughly 4:30 in the afternoon! I got home to get ready for tutoring and my host sister was making a birthday card. yikes! I had been planning on going to drumming lessons, which I've missed about 3 weeks in a row due to finals and Tte practices, but ended up going out to dinner, which was fun! I got him a new lego set and a watch, which he seemed to like. I used his name and made one of those skeleton words by writing his name in cursive on a piece of folded paper and cutting it out and unfolding it his birthday card.  I think it turned out pretty cool~

We went to dinner and after wards they got an ice cream cake from Coldstone. Yum!  When we got back, I told John that if he put some of the dry ice (which came in the cooler to keep the cake frozen) in water, it would carbonate the water and turn it into sparkling water.  He took it to an extreme and dumped all of in... but it looked really cool!

Coldstone cake

we started with a cup

and ended with a bowl

Anyhow, today I'm going to lunch with one of the tte members, the sogo leader, Haegeum. She needs to borrow some of my Korean language materials for one of her classes, so I'm going to drop those off with her.  Til later!

End of Korean Class

So, Friday was my last day of class! Crazy. I don't know what I'm going to do now! I wont miss getting up in the morning for class, but I really liked my classes.  My teachers were all really awesome; super nice, friendly, and helpful. And my classmates were really cool. There was such a range of people. At Yonsei everyone was about the same age and all in college studying abroad, but the people in my class at Sogang ranged from age 20 to over 65! and from all walks of life.

We had our graduation ceremony on Friday.  First we got back our test scores. I did pretty well and got an overall A in level 2 Korean. Yay!  Our class pitched in and bought our speaking teacher (she is our main teacher) flowers, so we gave those to her. Then we went to the graduation ceremony of the top level students.  The poor announcer had such a hard time with some of the names.  Almost everyone has some sort of foreign name, and there were some crazy hard ones!  Students would go up to accept and he was supposed to say their name read their diploma to them.  There were some crazy hard Russian, Armenian, Tibetian, etc. names. It was really funny though.
One of the other classes did a parody of the TV show "rollercoaster" about Sogang's Korean Language school and it was so hilarious!Some woman sang a song in Korean. Obviously, some people got a little sleepy... haha!

L: Cheonhye (Taiwan), Hiroko (Japan), Martin (Sweden)

L: Sara (California), Jaclyn (Canada), Travis (Virginia)

 announcer

 sleepy people - it's always risky when the lights are dimmed

Then our class had a little lunch party in our classroom.  Sogang provided us with lunches from Outback Steak House! We had chicken, not steak. haha! but it was really nice!

our classroom

most of our class and all three of our teachers

Back Left: Lee JeeHye writing teacher, Scott (England), Ling (China), Travis (US), Jaclyn (Canada), Sara (US), Hiroshigae (Japan

Front Left: Hiroko (Japan), Martin (Sweden), me, Kim BoKyeong speaking teacher, Cheonhye (Taiwan), Ku EunMee reading/listening teacher

After lunch, I went with Cheonhye, one of my classmates who is from Taiwan to Eedae to go shopping. ^^  We wandered around and then went for patbingsoo. Yum!  A good way to end Korean classes.

 ~patbingsoo~

Hello summer! Here I come!

Sheer Madness: Finals, Drumming Performance, AKARAKA

Hey!

So, I don't know what came over me when I decided to commit to doing the poongmul performance with Tte, the day after my writing final, on the same day as my huge paper final, and the day before my oral interview, but...
It was a stretch from the start, but then I got sick which really threw a wrench into things. I ended up missing 20 hours of practice! Yikes!
But, when all was done, I pulled it off.  WHEW.

The night before our performance, we had practice as usual.  I studied from 1-5 and then the changoo players,무공 (Mugong), 따지 (Daji),창현 (Chanhyun aka Bennett from New Zealand), and me (별님 Byulnim)met up for dinner to energize ourselves for our performance the next day, so we went out for samgyaetang, chicken/chicken soup.  YUM!  Interestingly, Koreans don't know what a wishbone is! I guess they don't have a huge turkey holiday, but still.
 

 Samgaetang - it doesn't look that great because I started eating it before I realized I wanted to take a picture...

 ~Ddaji and Mugong eating~

 ~Changhyeon and me~

After dinner, I worked on my paper hat (고깔 모자) a bit. I still wasn't done with it and I was kind of freaking out, as I needed it for the next day.  People were very nice and helped me out! I had 5 poms to make and I think at one point I had four people helping me.
Then we had practice.
I was in Ttebang until 10:30 finishing my hat, and I was kind of having a heart attack, as I had my big paper test the next day!  But I finished it and it didn't look too terrible...

My reading teaching is awesome, and let me take my reading/listening test early from 9-10am instead of from 12-1, as my performance started at 1:00.  So, I took my reading/listening test, then my grammar/writing from 10-12 and then booked it out of class.  I realized that I had forgotten to wear a white shirt! so on my walk to Yonsei from Sogang (about 20 min), I ran into a PJ store, but they didn't have any white tshirts. I bought a tank top just in case, but then went to GrandMart and found a $5 tshirt.  Of course the sports wear was on the top level, so I rode the escalator up and up and up looking for tshirts. When I finally found the floor, the lady asked me what I was looking for and I told her I needed a white tshirt she directed to me and asked me if I was shopping for my husband. Um, no.
I just kind of looked at her and then she switched to boyfriend. weird. Since I was running really short on time, I just went with it and pretended to be shopping for my non-existent boyfriend. 

Normally, I really appreciate how Korea likes to give you good service and presentation, but after I bought my shirt and she was trying to wrap it up in cellophane.  I told her it wasn't necessary and she seemed rather regretful that I wasn't going to have my shirt wrapped up in a clear plastic bag.  Then, she tried to put it in a regular plastic shopping bag, which I also told her I didn't need.  I probably should have just let her, but what a waste.  Anyhow, she finally handed over the shirt, I thanked her and booked it back down 7 escalators and to Yonsei, all the while, shoving kimbop in my mouth, as I didn't have time for lunch.  haha.

Anyhow, I got to Ttebang and went to change really quick.  Kyungmoon and Nik came, and Sarang brought her two English students, and Susie, her friend Celine and her boyfriend, Mark came!  Unfortunately, we were supposed to start at 1 but there was some sort of scheduling conflict because there was a taekwondo demo where we were supposed to perform. Lame. So, we had to parade around the streets for an entire hour.  Which was really too bad because I had another friend coming, but since we weren't where I had told him, he couldn't find us, and Sarang, Susie et al. and Kyungmoon had to leave before we even started our actual performance....

 wandering around campus killing an hour...

            1. wandering and playing                                                  2. Susie and I

 taekwondo demo.. grrr.

Nik came extremely prepared and was the most amazing camera/film person.  He had his computer with so he could continually upload videos to make space for more footage on the camera memory cards.

Sunbaes hydrating someone with a cup of makoli, rice wine

The actually performance went well! I was no where near perfect. lol! So, two years ago when I performed my problem was getting enough turns in. This time I had the exact opposite problem.  I over turned. I continued to spin long after we had moved on to the next step, which is particular obvious in the video of Seol Changoo, the changoo solo piece. Oy vey. Oh well. ^__^

 The End! 인사

The weather was absolutely perfect though and overall the performance went really well! and of course, was lots of fun!

group picture after our performance

 복범 (Buk leader and club president), 망사 (sangswae), 헤금 (sogo leader),무공 (changoo leader) 

- '08

 *Changhyeon, Ddaji, and me*

After the performance, Nik and I wandered around the festival a bit.  There was a lot of international cuisine available; Nepali, Turkish ice cream, "american food" whatever that is, etc.  We bought Yonsei shirts that say: "With out saying, Yonsei" on the back and have Yonsei in sign language on the front. I didn't look at it too closely when I bought it, but when I looked at it later at home, I realized they didn't even use Korean Sign Language.  The shirt has BSL, British Sign Language. Randomly disappointing.

We went to a cafe for a bit so I could attempt to study for my oral interview... That didn't work so well. haha. And we met up with Tte later for dinner/뒷풀이 (relaxing time aka drinking and eating).  We had samgyupsal and soju, the traditional fare for 뒷풀이 haha!  It was really fun! Nik came along, and showed some of the video footage he shot of our performance.
I sat next to 클클 who was in tte two year ago and I think we had our first full conversation! It was so nice to be able to have an actual conversation with her! and of course to see a tangible example of how my Korean has actually improved.  ^^
Everyone went around by year and gave a self introduction and talked about their thoughts on our performance and experiences during the past two weeks.  There were 33 people and it only took about 30-40 minutes! I think that's record time for Tte! haha.

Eating dinner

강박 Kangbak - last years Tte club president ('07), 알싸 AhlSah  ('09), 뽈뽈 BbolBbol ('07), 깔삶 Ggalsalm - last years changoo leader ('07)

Mugong and I - two years ago she didn't know how to play changoo and now she is the changoo leader! way to go Moogong 무공!

'07 class, the largest class, giving small speeches/introductions

Unfortunately, I had to leave around 9:30 because I had my oral interview the next morning at 9:20... So, 뒷풀이 has something like four stages, eating and drinking is only the first.  So, apparently, they were out to noraebang until 3 am.  wow. That's hardcore.

My interview was terrible, or so I thought.  For our midterms, we were interviewed by our speaking teacher and it was super chill and informal.  But for our final, a level 3 teacher interviews and records your interview.
The teacher mainly asked me questions that required reported speech grammar.  Initially, I just answered normally, but the teacher kept repeating herself until I realized she was looking for reported speech. Ugh. It's so dumb, but while I was studying the night before, it honestly didn't even occur to me to study that.  I can use reported speech in reading and writing fine, but implementing into speaking is HARD!
I walked out feeling pretty bad about how my interview went, but I ended up getting 90% on my oral interview, so whatever.  It must have been okay...

Anyhow, after my test I met up with Nik and we went to G.O.A.L in Hongdae.  I received a partial scholarship from the organization to study Korean at Sogang, but hadn't made it over to visit their headquarters yet.  The people were really nice and Nik (previously interned at GOAL) and I set up their book display.

Then I headed to Yonsei for AKARAKA at 3:30.  I hadn't been planning on going until the night before when 무공 the lead changoo asked me if I wanted to go.  Initially, I thought I wasn't allowed to go, as I'm not a Yonsei student, but they managed to get me a ticket! I'm really not that into Korean pop music, and a lot of stars come to AKARAKA, so I wasn't too upset. But I'm sooo glad I got to go! I was sooo much fun! Honestly, I had more fun this time, than when I was on study abroad. I think that's partially because I knew more of the singers that came this time, including my favorite Korean singer, Yoon Mi-Rae, and also because I had one AKARAKA under my belt, I knew the cheers and actions better and was able to follow along.  It was insanely fun, and I felt like I let out all my stress from tests and performance prep. through jumping around, dancing, and screaming. ^^ And the weather was perfect!

AKARAKA Pics - click on them to make them larger

1. New Balance sponsored

2. students in the auditorium

Mugong and me

1. crowd

2. Beast - Kpop group

1. DJ Doc group

2. Drunken Tiger and Yoon MiRae = amazing

KBS (Korean Broadcasting Station) passed around a huge flag - I think we were on TV

1. the flag

2. Psy - singer

peoples' cell phone lights

1. Fireworks!!!

2. Yonsei Univ. band

the AKARAKA cheer group - I heard from someone that if you have that on you're resume you're guaranteed a job.

Ddaji, who is learning Korean Sign Lang. and me with our shirts on

After AKARAKA in front of Ttebang

~THE END~

Still under the weather

Hey,

So, I'm still kinda sick, which really sucks. I went to drumming practice last night, but when I got home last night I had this bad cough. I was planning on going to drumming practice today, but instead went to the doctor again; same clinic but different doctor.  This time it was a woman.  Got some more mystery pills, which my mom is extremely not fond of.  Sorry mom, but nothing is labeled!

Anyhow, I decided if I was going to go to practice I should study for my finals. I set out with my computer and books to go to this really cute cafe I went to once with one of the camp unnis. I had a hand drawn map. I went to the subway stations that it told me to, but it wasn't the same one I remembered going to last time. So, I called JeongHye unni to ask and she told me a different subway station. I went, but still couldn't find it.  So, I hopped back on the subway and decided to go a subway station that would likely have cafes around.

So, my next stop was Korea Univ. subway station. That's a huge university, so I figured there would be some place to study. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be anything around. I think all the cafes etc. are on campus, but I was trying to find something in the surrounding area.  I really didn't feel like wandering around a random campus. So, I got back on the subway again... I was getting rather frusterated, as I was wasting a lot of time and doing absolutely nothing productive.  So, I got off at DongmyeoAp, which for some reason, I felt would have a cafe near by.  Wrong, again.  Really wrong.

That area was really sketch.  Actually, I got super creeped out.  The roads around the subway station were all selling second-hand (or perhaps stole/black market goods).  It was kind of interesting and I was thinking I'd definitely wanna go back and check it out when I actually had time, when I saw this crowd of people.  As I walked closer, I couldn't figure out what they were doing because there seemed to be something they were crowding around, but I saw no stand or anything.  When I got closer, I peered inbetween the people and there was totally a dead man lying on the ground. I kid you not.

I can't be 100% he was dead, but I'm about 95% sure he was dead.  It's true that sometimes people get drunk and lie on the sidewalk until they regain consciousness. But it never attracts a group of people like that, and its normally at night, not at 3 in the afternoon.  And his position and the color of his skin just did not look good...

But I didn't understand why the police weren't there or anything.  It was just a crowd of shoppers and market operators, from what I could tell.

Anyhow, I was talking with Nik on the phone when I saw this, and just as he told me, I got the hell out of there, fast. That's so messed up.

So, I finally found a Starbucks, which is where I am now.  Whew.  Well, this cold better goes away real soon.
Off to study.

the time has come to catch a cold...

*you can see more pics if you click on the Facebook Album: Korea 2010 on the right side of the page*

Hey!

I thought I had evaded catching a cold in Korea and was pretty pleased with myself, but I guess I jumped the gun.  I've been running non-stop the past few weeks (literally, as at drumming practice we literally run in circles, and figuratively) and I guess it finally caught up to me.  I had a scratch throat on and off the past week or so, but it would go away during the day, so I figured it was the air pollution (which I still think was a big contributing factor), but today, I woke up and had no voice. awesome.

So, I didn't go to class, and went to this semi-sketchy clinic instead.  I really don't feel very sick except my throat feels swollen, not even sore really, and I am coughing a bit.  Boo. What poor timing.  I have finals and my drumming performance next week. I felt like I was getting sick yesterday, so I skipped drumming rehearsal last night and obviously, am not going today either.  Luckily, tomorrow is a national holiday, Children's Day.  So, I don't have school, although I do have practice from 2-6 and I really should go... Ah! Hopefully, my voice will have come back a bit by then.

So, I went to this local clinic, run by a Yonsei Univ. graduate.  It was kind of old and run down looking but that's where my host mom took me.  Amazingly, my host mom told the nurse that I was from America and asked if she could put me under her insurance and they let her! crazy!  So, after being seen by the doctor, my final cost for the doctors visit was a grand total of W3,600, or roughly 3 USD. I think that is the cheapest doctors visit of my entire life.  Then I went across the street to the pharmacy to get my perscription filled and it ended up being under $4 as well!  wow.  way to go Korean health care system.

I just think that going to the doctor here is a bit odd because you never know what they're doing.  The doctor totally spoke English, so it wasn't a communication issue. But he didn't ask if I had any allergies to drugs, or ask me if I was already taking any drugs or had any pre-existing medical conditions or anything like that.  And then, at the pharmacy, I just received a bunch of packets of unlabeled mystery pills.  weird. whatever, as long as I get better, I don't really care.

Other than getting sick, I've just been busy with drumming practice.  The weather has been so weird, which is also why I think I got sick. It was really cold the first part of last week, and we had practice from 6:30-9:30 outside.  Then, randomly the weather decided to get really humid. Gross. There was no spring this year. It jumped from winter to summer. weird.

I bought 5 bootleg movies on the way home yesterday.  Good thing I did, since it gave me something to do today. I bought Avatar, Up in the Air, It's Complicated, The Frog Princes, and the Blind Side, all for $10. Nice!   

Last night, my host sister decided to decorate her hand and my hand with stickers. Cute! So, in Korea, kids get gifts on Children's Day.  So, I got my host sister a bubble blower gun thing and my host brother a top game.  I remember when I was little and I used to be jealous that Korea had Children's Day, my mom used to tell me that in America, "everyday is Children's Day."  Yeah, that may be true, but I certainly didn't get presents everyday! haha. 

Tte again?

Hey, real quick post, as I need to wake up in 7 hours.

I got a text from one of my friends from the yonsei poongmul group yesterday asking me if I was interested in playing with them again. I had thought about it at the beginning of the semester, but decided I was too busy. But this text made me really want to reconsider.  I mulled it over all last night and this morning, and today I was talking with a few classmates who told me to totally go for it.  Nik also agrees.  I mean, the kids I entered with, the '08 class, are now the people running the club, so it'd be pretty cool to play with them again. And next year, I wont have any connections, as the '08s will all be sunbaes and not actively partake in the club.

So, I decided to go to practice tonight.  The problem is I have finals in 2 weeks.  The performance is ON the day of my first final. ugh. I guess I'll just have to figure out how to manage my time really really well... They practice Monday-Friday from 6:30-9:30 and on Saturdays and Sundays from 2-6.  Whew. Wednesday is for sure out for me, as I have two tutoring jobs.

Anyhow, tonight was fun! It was so nice to be back. Kind of like old times, except my weigookin (foreigner) friends, Emily and Pang, weren't there. Sad. It rained all day so the normal practice area near the soccer field was too wet.  It looked like it was going to rain the entire time we practiced but never really did.  We ran a lap around the field, and then practiced the bouncy walk and spinning necessary to dance and play. Oh man, are my legs sore. Already. I can only imagine what they'll feel like tomorrow. And I really need to improve my balance!

Anyhow, that's all for now.  I'll try to post more often!
Good night!