Last Weekend in Korea

Well, my last weekend in Korea is officially over with. We did our best to fit everything we had left that we wanted to do in.  It's really hard for me to believe that this month is already over with, and I'm truly not ready to say goodbye to all the Korean friends and international students that I've met here.  I'm excited to come back to America, but I can't lie... I'd love to stay here longer.

Friday we ended up going out with a large majority of the international students downtown. There were probably about 20 of us in total. We all get along so well.  We first headed to a lounge at the back gate, relatively close to the university.  A lot of our Korean buddies were there, so we were able to hang out with them a bit.  We left for downtown about 2 hours later and ended up at a big techno club called Houze.  They threw in American music here and there, and we all ended up having a great time.

Saturday we had our last cultural excursion of the program.  We were put into our groups that were established at the beginning of the program and were sent on an "Amazing Race" through the local Gwangju Market and had to perform different tasks, and were graded on a point system for prizes.  It was cool to see the market and everything, but after seeing all of the markets in Busan, it wasn't much different from what I saw there.  When we got back to the international center, the CNU ISS program staff threw us a farewell party with tons of food (both Korean and American style!) After we stuffed our faces we headed back to the dorms.

The girls and I realized that we had yet to have one night out on our own, so we decided to check out a spot downtown that we had heard a lot about. It's called "Speakeasy," which is ironic and very American- because the term came about during the Prohibition period in America, when it was illegal to sell/manufacture alcohol. These "Speakeasies" were places you could go and illegally obtain alcohol. History lesson over. Anyway, this bar is a foreigners bar, and it's tucked away where almost no one could find it. It was great. We walked in and were immediately greeted by the owner, who is straight out of Ireland living in Gwangju just for fun. The entire bar was filled with English speaking people, and it even turned out that one of the Korean buddies from the CNU program was a waitress there. We were accompanied all night by either the owner or other various Americans.  We learned that probably 95% of the people in there were in Gwangju because they were teaching English. I can't even count the amount of times we were asked if that's what we did. The owner told us all about the bar and how it came to be, along with other local foreigner hot spots. Everyone was so friendly, it was great. We couldn't stop saying how upset we were that we had just now found the place. I'm pretty sad we can't go back again. We migrated from there to a couple other places, and overall it was a great last night out on the town with the girls! :)

Today (Sunday) we were determined to climb Mount Mudeung, the tallest mountain in the Gwangju province.  So eight of us grabbed Mr. Pizza and hopped on the bus to the mountain. It was about a 30 minute ride on the bus, which isn't too terribly far considering how frequently it stops and everything. When we got there we were a spectacle as per usual... I'm assuming they just don't see foreigners at the mountain a lot.  It was a neat place though, at the base of the mountain there were a few blocks of modernized shops and restaurants, reminiscent of what you'd see at a ski resort.  They had shops like The North Face, Columbia, and Mountain Hard Ware... everything a serious mountain climber would need.  We felt pretty goofy as almost every person was decked out head to toe in their climbing gear.  The mountain has a ton of trails with different sightseeing things on each one.  We hiked for about two and a half hours, stopping pretty frequently because of the heat. Today was the hottest it's been in Gwangju since we've been here... mainly because monsoon season is coming to a close (figures- right when we are about to leave) and it's starting to get back to it's hot and humid summer.  We probably hiked 2 or 3 miles, a lot of it being really steep climbing.  We saw 2 temples up in the mountains and everything was very peaceful. Unfortunately we got a pretty late start... 3pm to be exact. I wish we could have gotten there early and stayed all day. After hiking we grabbed a cheap dinner at one of the Korean restaurants at the base of the mountain and headed back on the bus.

Tomorrow is my last full day in Gwangju. Tuesday morning, 6 of us are heading to Seoul to spend one day there and do as much as possible before we leave. I fly out of Incheon International Airport at 11:40am on Wednesday and will be arriving in St. Louis at 3pm on Wednesday. (Pretty cool huh? I'll be traveling for about 18 hours, but will only be gaining 3 hours by the time I get home.) Longest Wednesday of my life! I'm going to be busy until then, for sure.

Weekend in Busan

This past weekend I took a trip to Busan with some friends, Zahra, Lillian, Kierstie, and two Korean friends, Su and Rachel.  Our weekend was jam-packed and so much fun!

To save money, we decided not to leave until Saturday in the early morning.  We woke up at 5:45am to catch the 7am bus to Busan.  The bus ride is about three and a half hours.  It wasn't bad at all.  Kierstie, Zahra and I spent about half of it talking... and funny enough, we got shushed by a Korean man in front of us. We weren't even talking loud but we've come to notice that you're pretty much suppose to be quiet everywhere, this has been difficult. Anyway, after talking, we all got our catnaps in and before we knew it we were in Busan.

Lillian, Kierstie, Su, and Rachel... all sleeping. :)

We arrived around 10:45am. From the bus station we had to catch the subway to drop our luggage off at the hostel.  This is when we noticed there is no way we would have been able to do this trip without Rachel and Su! We had to transfer subway lines 3 times, and although most everything had english underneath, it was still hard to navigate.  We were on the subway for a while, and when we got off in was actually pretty nice outside.  That certainly didn't last. We walked to our hostel to drop everything off, freshened up a bit and went to lunch.  Rachel and Su insisted that we go to this place called Ashley's.  It was an American grill and buffet.  It was rather expensive compared to what we have been getting food here for, so the girls and I decided to get our money's worth.  Not only were there so many choices but the food was delicious. So... 3 plates and a way too full stomach later we formulated our plans and set off from there.

A portion of downtown Busan

Luckily, our hostel was in a great location.  Minutes from the bus and subway, and a 2 minute way to Haeundae (Hey-oon-day) Beach... the most famous beach in Busan.  We took the bus up to the Yong Gung temple.  It was about a 15 minute bus ride north and was RIGHT on the beach.  As we rode up there, it started to monsoon outside. Literally. From the bus, it was about a 10 minute walk to the temple grounds, which was all outdoors but up on cliffs on the beach.  Without a doubt, this was the most beautiful place I have visited in Korea so far.  I can't even imagine what it looks like when it's sunny out.  We spent about an hour touring the grounds in the pouring down rain and headed back to the Haeundae area.

This was on temple grounds!

The Haeundae area had a lot to do.  There was a market about a minute from where our hostel was that we walked.  It had all the live seafood (from fish to snails to octopus) as well as little fruit and vegetable shops too.  After this we headed for the beach.  The rain started to let up a bit which allowed us to snap some pictures without umbrellas for once in the day! The beach was great.  The water was frigid and although it was gross out, there were so many people there! Busan's famous aquarium was also on Haeundae beach.  We wanted to go, but the entrance fee was $18 per person, so we opted out.  We walked the whole shore and then went up to a peninsula area that was completed forested with paths up along the beach. It was so pretty! It showed great views of downtown Busan.

Haeundae Market

We grabbed a quick bite to eat (kimbop and such,) hopped in a cab and did a drive over the Busan Bridge.  At 9:30pm every night, the bridge is illuminated by lights, along with all of the buildings around it.  It allows for great picture taking!  The cab dropped us off at another beach downtown where we walked a bit more (still in the pouring down rain.) We called it a night after that.

This is only a small portion of the bridge, but you get the idea!

All the girls were up and ready by 10am the next day.  The hostel we stayed in was actually very nice.  It was recently renovated in 2010 and provided toast and (unlimited) coffee for us.  Zahra, Kierstie and I sat around and had a couple cups of coffee talking with the hostel owner about his clashing outfit (a Boston Red Sox hat and New York Yankees Jersey.) He laughed.  We also couldn't remember when the last time was that we could actually just sit around and enjoy a cup of coffee, and not be drinking it because we were exhausted. It was nice.  The hostel owner allowed us to keep out luggage there throughout the day so we wouldn't have to lug it around all day.  Our Sunday was booked!!!

Zahra in the common area of our hostel!

We set off on the subway toward the actual downtown area. Somehow we lucked out and had beautiful weather on Sunday, all day long!  We first went to the Jalgalchi Market which was primarily a fish market.  I've never seen so many live sea animals before in my life.  Kierstie actually got to touch an octopus.  (I snapped some comical pictures of a market man who was smoking a cigarette just pulling out octopuses from this tank like it was nothing.)  The back side of the market faced the port of Busan, which had stunning views as well.  The area next to the market reminded me in ways of cities on the Mediterranean. After the market we travelled to PIFF, the Pusan (or Busan) International Film Festival area.  This is held every year, and there is a large tower and a few streets dedicated to the event.  There are handprints in the ground, movie posters all over, and street vendors selling great Korean food.  We did a bit of shopping and had lunch in this area.

From here, we headed up to the city park that Busan Tower is located in.  We had to take five very steep escalators to reach the top, but it was totally worth it.  The views were incredible! We didn't stay long because we were on a strict time schedule all day.  Our next and last destination was the Shinsegae Department Store.  This store in Busan made the Guiness Book of World Records in 2009 for being the WORLD'S largest department store. And it surely was large.  It had 14 floors equipped with luxury shopping stores like Chanel, Prada, and Louis Vuitton, an IMAX movie theatre, an ice skating rink, a driving range for golf and a park on the roof. These views, like almost every other one in Busan, were beautiful.  It was a great way to end our trip.

Busan Tower

We didn't end up getting back to Gwangju until about 10:30pm that night.  It was a great weekend and I'm so happy I got to travel while I was here! It's so hard to believe I only have 6 days left in Korea.  Tonight, we made our travel plans for Seoul the day before we leave.  We also booked our tickets to see Harry Potter in 3-D tomorrow (yes, I'll be seeing it about 40 hours earlier than anyone in the USA could.) :) We are also still hoping to make it to a baseball game on Thursday, weather permitting.  And tomorrow (Wednesday) is our field trip day, so we're traveling about two hours to one of the largest steel mills in Korea as well as a famous Korean folk village.  To say that may last few days in Korea will be packed is an understatement.  I'm homesick, but I'm not ready to leave Korea.  I've made so many good friends here, and I'm not ready to say goodbye to them!  This trip has been everything that I've hoped for and more!!!

One of the many views at the temple

A part of Downtown Busan in the clouds

Video

Link to Video

Click on the link above! It's the YouTube video that one of the CNU staff made for the things we did yesterday. At the end, there's a bit of video footage from the traditional wedding ceremony.

Here Comes the Bride?

It's Wednesday!!!  Which means I had another full day of cultural excursions set up.  They wanted to give us this upcoming weekend off to do personal traveling, so they moved what had been scheduled for Saturday onto today's itinerary.  It certainly was a busy day.  Also, I forgot to put my memory card back in my camera, so I couldn't take pictures today.  Of all days, this was probably one of the worst to not have my camera.  Thank goodness for Facebook, I'm just taking all of these pictures from friends. :)

Dara, Megan, Zahra, Myself and Kierstie in front of one of the Korean flags found at the 5-18 massacre. 

The day started off at 10am when we boarded the bus and headed to a culinary school here in Gwangju.  The items on the list to make were Bibimbap and a type of soup that I forgot the name of.  We first watched the head cook make the dishes, and then made them with our partners.  I won't lie, the first thing that I spotted on the table was the largest bottle of soy sauce I've ever seen.  This was a blessing because despite the fact that they have rice for EVERY meal, I have not seen soy sauce once.  And because I knew that I didn't like the sauce that typically goes on Bibimbap (a spicy red pepper paste) I knew exactly what I was going to be putting on my Bibimbap.  Anyway, the dish itself means "rice with mixed vegetables" which is exactly what it is.  Except naturally, we aren't talking carrots and broccoli, we're talking ferns, radishs, and jelly stuff.  They did have cucumbers and zucchini to make too, so that was enjoyable.  I also got to have beef for the first time (in a Korean dish) since I've been here.  Luckily, the girl across from me was a vegetarian so she gave us her beef.  I told her that being from the Midwest, beef was in my diet almost every day and that I would happily accept her beef.  :)  Anyway, it's a simple dish to make and it's essentially all about the order in which you cook things.  The soup was simple too, the broth was created out of soy bean paste and you boiled fish (woof) and seaweed in water for about 10 minutes, drained it and then added some veggies.  It wasn't my favorite but it was okay.  My dish itself turned out tasty because I got to put whatever I wanted in it, and topped it off with soy sauce.  I regretted not bringing my big bag into the class with me, I was trying to figure out any way to take that bottle of soy sauce back to the dorms with me.  I was unsuccessful.

My partner Allyssa and I! Cute pink aprons, huh? :)

From the culinary school we headed to the May 18th Memorial Cemetery located right outside of the city of Gwangju. We started the tour by watching another video outlining more about what happened.  They also had a museum that was pretty interesting too.  The best part about the memorial is what's outside.  The area is huge, and there are a few different statues and things throughout.  It was beautiful!  We went to the main memorial where we burned incense for the victims.  From there, we were explained more about the gravesites.  There are 641 graves at the memorial, 100 of those are dedicated to people who were never found after the 5-18 massacre, and still to this day are not found.  There are names on their graves, but no pictures.  The other 541 graves are people who not only died when the attacks happened from May 18th to the 27th, but also the people who died after those dates due to injuries or illness that occurred during  that time.  Because there are bodies in those 541 graves, there are large mounds over each one, including a picture of the person at each grave and flowers.  This cemetery opened in 1998, because it wasn't until then that the Korean government was okay with people opening knowing about what happened in Gwangju. I was really interested in all of it, and wanted to stay longer!

Part of the grounds. The large stone thing is the main memorial.  It is two hands gripping an egg, symbolizing new life and fertility. You can also see some of the grave sites here.

After the cemetery we moved on to a Confucianism school where we learned Korean Courtesy, traditional Korean dress, and a traditional Korean wedding ceremony.  This is where things got a bit more interesting.  I should probably add in here that on the bus on the way to the school, I, along with a girl Dara from Indonesia were picked to be brides to display a traditional Korean wedding.  Well when we got to the school they let everyone dress up in the traditional "Hanbok" clothing, however since Dara and I were the brides we got all decked out by the women working there.  Of course, there were two grooms, Jerry and Jadd.  I'll get to them later.  Most of the girls had on a long dress type of garment with an overcoat shaw type of covering.  They were very colorful. Well I had on that dress, overcoat, a colorful striped robe, two belts, a long stick in my hair, a huge ribbon tied around that stick, a hat with tassles hanging on my face, another ribbon hanging from the back of my hat, and two big red circle stickers on my face.  From here, we began the traditional wedding ceremony.  At the beginning the men bowed to the women, and then vice versa.  For some reason there were two wooden ducks in between us... I didn't really get that.   From there, I kid you not... the man carries the woman on his back just around the room.  I don't think the word comical describes this experience enough.  From there the men lay on the floor and two other women (not the brides) hit their feet with sticks to massage them, while the bride sings. I'll recap really quick- I was in layers upon layers of garments, I had glue on my face, a stick in my hair, I got a piggy back ride from a guy I've known for two weeks, and then I sang Happy Birthday and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in front of 30 people.  The reason those two songs were sung is because I sang them with Dara, and since she's from Indonesia, their weren't many songs that we both knew.  Anyway, that pretty much concluded that.  Afterward, we all took a ton of pictures in our costumes and continued home.  This was QUITE an experience.  I decided I play a little joke on my mom too and send her an e-mail when I got home just saying... "P.S.- I got married today."  Sorry mom. :) Gotcha!

Dara, Jerry, Myself and Jadd. 

Let the piggy back rides begin!

Anyway, it was a long day.  We just set our weekend plans up though.  Myself, Zahra, Lillian, Kierstie, and two Korean girls are going to travel to the other side of the country (only 3.5 hours away) to Busan, the second largest city in Korea, after Seoul.  We are staying in a hostel that is on the beach!  We're hoping to come up with an itinerary before we go so we don't waste any time.  It should be a great time, I'm just hoping the weather is nice!

Our group at the Confucianism School in our Hanboks!

Home-Stay

This weekend the "culture experience" that the CNU program had us do was a traditional Korean home-stay.  We were all assigned a family to stay with from 6pm Friday night until noon Sunday.  My family was a family of 4, the mother was a high school math teacher, the father was an engineer, and they had two children- a boy who was 11 (so 9 in Korean years) and a girl who was 5 (so really 3.) Originally we had all thought that Koreans add one year on to their age but it's really 2.  How it works is that when the child is conceived, it is 1. When it is born it is 2.  I digress.  (Shout out to Kristi with that one... if you read this. :)  Anyway- Sonju (the mom) picked me up outside of the BTL dorms at 6pm on Friday. She introduced herself and immediately said she was pretty bad at english.  It was very choppy and I couldn't understand what she was saying most of the time.  The family lives about 15-20 minutes away from campus, where I met the two kids and the dad at home.  Most Koreans live in this tall apartment complexes.  From the outside they don't look that nice, but inside they are very spacious and nice! The father spoke english the best. He said he's better at reading it than speaking, and the reason he learned it was because of his job. The son could speak a bit of english because he took an online class, but he ended up hating it. That night, they took me to meet some of their friends from church where we had pork and other dishes.  I'm going to go off on a little tantrum right now, which I would like to say that I think this is my first of the trip. But hopefully everyone will have sympathy for me. I hope you're ready for this one.  Koreans ruin all sweets with beans. I'm not kidding. We got cookies a couple days ago... they had bean paste on the inside. I got a snow cone... it had BEANS in it. And this night that they took me to dinner, they got me ice cream and it had shaved ice and BEANS in it. Beans. Seriously? All I want is something sweet to satisfy my after dinner sweets craving and everything is ruined with BEANS. Why Korea? Also this was interesting... the father told me his daughter just had to get 6 fillings at the dentist.... and I almost wanted to ask why because I didn't understand where their fulfillment of sugar came from. Okay, rant over with.

Outside of Gwangju National Museum. (It was bright out!)

That night, the father found out I liked baseball, so he went to the market, picked up some Budweiser and turned on the baseball game. I explained to him that Budweiser is brewed in Saint Louis, and he was impressed. I wanted to talk more to the family, but it was tough for them to understand me so we kept everything pretty basic. I headed to my room around 11pm to go to bed. They were nice enough to let me sleep on a bed, as I was expecting to sleep on the floor. Funny enough... I might as well have. The bed was a piece of wood, and then on top of it was about a three inch thick mattress that I THOUGHT was stuffed. Well, it was wood too. They told me the next day that it was stuffed with wood. I don't know how the stuff a mattress with wood, but they do. And boy was it uncomfortable. I've never had such bad sleep in my life. That was my second rant. Sorry.

My wood bed. That green thing under the white quilt is wood. I didn't know that until I sat on it.

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early and headed to Sonju's high school to meet her students. In Korea, not all schools have athletics, so this school that she teaches at is an "athletic" school, meaning all students participate in sports. Also, in high school most schools go from 8am-10pm Monday thru Friday and then 8am-noon every other Saturday. They also get a 2 month summer break starting in July. She brought me into a classroom of about 40 students.  They all stared at me and giggled and asked me questions. It was actually pretty awkward... 16 and 17 year old boys were asking for my number in Korean and one of them came up to shake my hand and turned it into a "bro" hug. Oh I'm so thankful I went to an all girls school. Anyway, it was cool to see the school. I took a picture with a few students too.

Sonju is next to me on the left. Everyone else is a student at the school!

From the school we hopped over to the Gwangju National Museum where they just had a lot of artifacts excavated from around the Gwangju area. An older Korean man who studied english in West Virginia immediately came up to me when I came into the museum and led me around.  He was so kind, although the museum was kind of boring. It had a whole lot of rocks. From the museum we went and ordered lunch and brought it home.  I told them I liked Kimbop (the sushi I like) and they proceeded to order 8 rolls of it. There are 12 pieces in each roll, so for you non-math-wizzes thats 96 pieces of sushi. 96 pieces for 3 adults and 2 kids who barely eat. This was the style all weekend... they gave me food like every 2 hours. I couldn't eat it all!

Gwangju National Museum

After lunch we went up to Jongju... a city about an hour and a half north of Gwangju. It had a cool folk village and other touristy things. It was a rather warm day, and my family kept apologizing for it. I kept trying to explain to them that it was nothing compared to St. Louis but they didn't believe me. The heat was really bothering the kids, as they were crying and complaining most of the time.  The moral of this is that we barely did anything due to the weather. Jongju has a ton to offer sightseeing and touristy wise, but I barely got to see any of it because of humidity. All well, it was still a cool place to be. We headed back to Gwangju after about 2 hours of walking/sitting around. This is where I came to one of my other realizations of Korea... I have no idea what traffic laws there here.  They don't obey speed limits. (100 kilometers per hour speed limit on the highway really means you can go 150 km/h and be okay.) I'm not sure what the purpose of a red light is, because everyone drives through them. They don't even stop.  And lines for lanes are painted on the roads for show. No one obeys them. Lastly, you hear a honking horn every 2 seconds. Surprisingly, I have yet to see one accident or police car pulling anyone over.

Me with the family in Jongju's Folk Village!

That was pretty much the bulk of my home-stay. We just watched more baseball Saturday night, and they took me back Sunday morning.  They were very hospitable, it was just tough to communicate with them. When everyone was back on campus we watched the movie May 18th, which I talked about in my earlier post. Tomorrow (technically today, it's after midnight) is the 4th of July! I'm bummed I don't get to be in America for it, but we're ready to show the Koreans how we celebrate!

Side-note: I obviously lied when I said all of my postings wouldn't be so long. I'm terrible at summarizing so I'm sorry. :)

May 18th

We just got finished watching the movie "May 18th."  I must admit, before coming to Korea I had no idea what May 18th even was to Koreans, or how big of a tragedy it was for them.  I wish I would have learned about this in one of my many history classes, but unfortunately I wasn't.  Essentially, South Korean troops were sent to Gwangju on May 18th, 1980 (interestingly enough the same day that Mount Saint Helens erupted...) to suppress groups of people who were against the newly formed military dictatorship in Korea.  A lot of these groups were formed by college students, or on colleges campuses like Chonnam.  Chun Doo-hwan was the leader at the time, and closed all college campuses. On May 18th, students and citizens of Gwangju met the military at the gates of Chonnam where rioting and fighting began.  The military beat people with clubs, which caused an uproar, and by the morning of May 20th there were over 10,000 rioters going against the military.  On May 21st, the people were told the military would retreat due to the large amount of protesting, however the military began to shoot in front of city hall right before noon, killing many. They warned civilians to step down or else they would come back into the city. The civilians refused and the military came back in on May 27th and defeated the civilians in less than 90 minutes.

The number of causalities is still up in the air.  The official count that is out is a little above 200, with approximately 1,200 injured and 900 unaccounted for.  These numbers are still disputed today, as some believe the death toll is between 1,000 and 2,000 people.  On Wednesday, the international students are traveling to the May 18th Memorial, hence why we watched the movie. Obviously military dictatorship is no longer in South Korea.  Over 1,000 people were arrested for involvement in the May 18th Massacre with a little over 400 being indicted. 7 received death sentences and 12 received life in prison.

Here is the link for the trailer of the movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPZen6lNInY&feature=related

If you get a chance, I would highly recommend watching the movie.  It's one of those things you really can't believe happened. The girls and I were walking back after seeing it and felt like we needed a little boost of happiness, so we're off to T.G.I. Friday's. :) I'll blog later about my home-stay this past weekend!

Google Earth

I love maps... so I made one. These are the places I've been so far!

Click on it to make it bigger!

And here's a map of Korea and the location of the school.

Okay, I'm done being mappy.

Oh yeah- I'm here to learn!

I finally started my other class this week.  It's Political Geography, but my professor really likes to call it Geography of International Terrorism.  I LOVE it so far.  The funny thing is that there are only 3 people in the class, counting myself.  There were 4, but the only Korean in the class dropped it today.  I made the mistake of telling my teacher that I'm a geography major, therefore he looks at me for almost all of the answers, but I don't mind.  Surprisingly I haven't been stumped yet and I surprised him with my knowledge of the Middle East.  Looks like I did learn something in my Geography of Asia class this past semester.

My professor is from the University of Utah and has worked for the Defense Mapping Agency and the NGA.  He's very qualified and really knows what he's talking about.  He's told us plenty of times that he's not here to stress us out or give us too much work... he's just looking to give all of us A's.  Fine by me!  I even feel like I'm learning a lot too.

This week went by really fast.  Tuesday night we went out to the back gate (figures, it's our new favorite hang out now that we finally know where it is.) I'm not sure if I've mentioned this already, but the back gate has a ton of great shopping, restaurants, and pubs.  We (Megan, Zahra, Lillian, Kierstie, Teddy, and two Korean buddies) grabbed Pizza Hut and had some hilarious conversations.  The two Koreans we were with were hilarious.  One of them is Teddy's buddy and the other is his best friend.  It's funny to see how the language barrier really gets in the way and they don't really understand certain things that they probably shouldn't say... which actually makes it funny.  For instance, Zahra took a candid picture of me and it was rather unattractive.  Kitae looked at it and went, "Oooh, ugly ugly ugly!"  We all laughed pretty hard and then explained that in American you can't just go around calling people ugly. Then he said to me, "Oh no it's not that you're ugly, I'm just not interested in you." That made it that much more funny. We teased him all night.  This type of situation has happened more than once.

Kitae, Me, Lillian and Megan at Miller Time

After Pizza Hut, the boys took us to "Miller Time," a bar that they figured we would like because they serve Miller Lite. It was a relaxed setting.  We just sat around talking about Korean customs, what we wanted to be when we "grow up," and dating life in Korea and America... topics that are apparently all pretty common to talk about in Korea.

The sign at the back gate. I thought I should put this in here since I talk about it so much. From back to front its Latifah, Megan, Kierstie, Lillian, Tiffany, Jasmine, Me, Zahra and Jing!

Wednesday we don't have classes.  My buddy and Kierstie's buddy picked us all up and took us to lunch before our cultural trip for the day.  They took us to a local Korean restaurant where I finally got Kimbop again! I found out it actually has crab in it... and I still loved it.  We were also forced to try Pig Stomach. Not kidding. They ordered it for us and asked us to try it.  We asked what it was and our buddies just said it was best for us not to know, and rightfully so. It was absolutely disgusting. After lunch, we headed back to the dorms to catch the bus to go to the Gwangju Cultural Center for pottery making! This was a lot of fun. We didn't actually use the wheel to make the mugs, they were already made for us.  We did trace designs on them and paint them. After, a photographer found Megan and I and made us go to the pottery wheel to try out the actual molding of the clay so that he could take pictures of us. Once again, I felt like a celebrity because everywhere we walked pictures were being snapped. It was fun though!

Korean Girls love doing this. We fit right in. :)

Tomorrow (Friday) after class I leave to go on a homestay. I'm living with a family this weekend who lives in the Gwangju area. I got an e-mail today that said that it's a married couple that has two kids that are 11 and 5. I'm not too sure what I'm going to be doing with them, but I'm with them until Sunday! I'm nervous, mainly because of the language barrier, but the e-mail said that they've had a lot of experience with foreigners so hopefully that's a good sign.

My buddy In also has made a list of things for us to do together. Some things on the list include shopping downtown, kareoke (which is HUGE here,) and going to this dance club that she loves going to. We also plan on taking the bus up to the mountains to go hiking and hopefully making it to a baseball game. Gwangju has their own team here, and apparently baseball games are a lot of fun! I'm missing watching the Cardinals games, so hopefully this will be just as good.  I hope everyone has a good weekend!

We're Famous

I don't have much time to blog... but I thought I'd share the newspaper article and video that we made it in from the pottery making! Enjoy! :)


[호남] 외국인들의 한국문화 배우기 - 1등 인터넷뉴스 조선닷컴  <-- Video!

전남일보 - jnilbo.com <-- Article and Picture!

Zahra and I with our mugs!

More Pictures!

Here are some more pictures throughout my time in Gwangju so far. If you have facebook, check them out on my page. I uploaded all of them, and will continue throughout my trip!

The view from my campus. So beautiful!

Outside of the Bamboo Museum.

With other international students, Shasha, Allyssa, and Jerry all from Malaysia!

Another view from the Buddhist temple

Alleys of Gwangju

At Baskin Robbins with Teddy, Zahra, Lillian and Kierstie.

We also had our first Korean nightlife experience Friday night. Some of the girls that I've been hanging out with a lot here, along with 3 of the boys (one of them being a Korean student) ventured out downtown to Club Volume. It was a "Hip Hop and Electronia Club" and was a completely different but really fun experience. It was rather fancy looking on the outside. Inside it was filled with loud, thumping music and dancing. The nine of us were treated like celebrities all night. We had circles forming around us on the dance floor and people coming up to us asking about how we danced and things of that nature. We all had a great time!

Shohaj, Kierstie, Roz, Jasmine, Lillian, Me, Megan, and Jadd outside Club Volume!

The outside of Club Volume!

I'm finally getting the hang of things here!

Today is my sixth day in Gwangju and I think I'm finally getting how life here works.  You eat kimchi and rice for every meal, you get stared at everywhere you go for being American (and in my case- for having blonde hair) and you venture down every alley way possible because you're most likely going to find something rather comical around every turn.

This past weekend we did our first trip outside of the university.  It started with an orientation where we met with our groups. Mine consists of my "buddy" Hye Ji In and the other international student who has her as a buddy, Allyssa from Malaysia. There is also another set of 2 international students and a buddy along with us. The purpose of the groups is to pretty much have some type of organization to the program and traveling... but it doesn't help much.

Our first stop was lunch. It was at a restaurant about 30 minutes outside of Gwangju on our way to the Korean Bamboo Museum. The restaurant was very authentic. When we got there, our food was waiting for us on tables. It consisted of kimchi, kimchi and more kimchi... along with fish and a pork dish that looked and tasted like meatloaf! I wasn't feeling very well on Saturday, so all I ate really was the pork and bamboo rice. I did try the kimchi (for the 10000th time) and I can still report that I'm not the biggest fan.

After the restaurant we headed to the Bamboo Museum. We toured around looking at everything made out of bamboo and also made Bamboo fans. It was neat to see everything however, rain put a damper on our entire weekend. Of course, because I'm very good at forgetting things... I didn't bring my umbrella. Luckily, a friend and another Korean buddy "Lee" let my share his ginormous umbrella the majority of the day.  We got back on the bus and headed toward the mountains, where there was a local cooking studio. We learned how to make Hwangwa, which is a traditional Korean snack. It's popped rice mixed with melted sugar. It's essentially a rice krispy treat, minus the marshmallow. (Aka- the good stuff.) It still made for a good midnight snack that night. After the cooking class we headed toward the Chonnam "Training Center" which was located in the mountains, where they typically hold freshman orientations. We didn't do much here but sleep, however... sleeping was a bit different. We walked into large rooms with lockers, blankets, and pillows with what we think were filled with bamboo. The floor was our bed for the night and after talking with two of the girls until 1 or 2am about American food and snacking on our Hwangwa, I finally fell asleep.

The next day was what I was most excited to do for my entire time in Korea. We visited one of the many Buddhist temples in South Korea. It was absolutely beautiful and peaceful. We arrived and walked to one of the buildings where we met the lead monk where he taught us the traditional bow and prayer that they do. Although it was raining, the window shutters were open and there was a nice breeze. We were up in the mountains and it really was an amazing experience. From there we went up to the actual temple where they allowed us to go inside and preform the prayer along with them. Afterwards we did a tea ceremony where the monk prepared tea with a Lotus flower. It was really good! I wished that we could have done the overnight stay that was originally planned at the temple, but I'm just glad we got to go at all. 

After the temple we had lunch at a local restaurant where we tried the most liked dish of international people... bibimbap. It's rice with a ton of vegetables, kimchi, and hot chili sauce. We headed back to the dorms after a long and busy weekend. 

Because my friends Zahra, Lillian, and I stayed up the night before talking about all things American... we decided that we NEEDED to take a night off kimchi and rice and venture out past the back gate to an American restaurant. Surprisingly (not really) many others felt the same way. So 10 of us made our way out Sunday night to Cafe LemonTable, where they served all things Non-Korean- Pizza, Pasta, and Burgers. Coincidentally, almost no one spoke English. We had to have the owner come out to our table to decipher the menu which took 20 minutes in itself, but we finally got our food and were satisfied. It was a great ending to a long and fun first weekend in Gwangju. 

Tropical Storm Meari

I also forgot to mention that while checking the weather this morning I saw that a Tropical Storm is headed our way. Welcome to South Korea. :)

Greetings from Gwangju!!!

Well... after 40 hours of traveling, I finally made it to South Korea.  For those of you who don't already know from seeing my frustrating tweets and facebook updates, my flight plans did not go how they were suppose to.

My flight was scheduled to fly out of Lambert at 8am on Monday the 20th. Kierstie and I woke up at 5am to get everything together and took off for the airport. I should have known my travels were going to be problematic when I arrived at the E-Ticket check in and my passport scan wouldn't match my boarding pass.  Luckily my other friend Megan arrived right around the same time, and her dad who is an expert flyer refused to let me stand in the long American Airlines line and found a way to get my passport to work through E-Ticket. The sun was barely up, and I was already stressed.

The three of us waved goodbye to loved ones from the security checkpoint as it finally hit us we were going to South Korea.  As we got our Starbucks and proceeded to stroll on those moving walkways, (I love those and take them every chance I get) someone yelled at us and said, "Hey are you going on the O'Hare flight at 8am? It's cancelled!"  We all looked at each other in disbelief and had no idea what to do. Then, like clockwork, I got a text message from my American Airlines app on my phone (thank goodness I brought my phone) saying my flight had been cancelled and gave me a number for rebooking. All three of us were on the phone close to an hour until finally Megan got ahold of someone and got our flights rebooked. We were DEFINITELY missing our connection in Chicago, as they couldn't even get us to Chicago to make our 12:35pm flight to Seoul.  So our new itinerary went something like this... Flight from STL to LA at 1:40pm (mind you it was 8am at this time..) which meant arriving in LA at 3:40pm western time, only to enjoy a wonderful 8 hour layover and then take off for Seoul at 11:40pm.  After confirming with the woman on the phone that our luggage would be transferred off the Chicago airplane onto the LA one, we went back upstairs to get our boarding passes... again.

We didn't have enough information to use E-Ticket, so we had to stand in that dreadful line that never moves. Luckily we had some friendly people in front of us that coincidentally were also going to Seoul. They had been there before and told us everything we needed to do and see and made it a lot easier for us to stay positive. We got our boarding passes and once again confirmed that our luggage had been switched. (I hope everyone understands where this is going...)

1:00pm came around and we finally started boarding our plane after 5 hours of playing speed, rummy royal, and a creative game of "I'm going to give you a jelly bean and you need to guess what flavor it is." It was comical. I was sitting next to a 50-something business man with 3 kids, who was pretty funny. He kept my mind off the flight and quizzed me on random Sky Mall items like... "Would you spend $3,500 on this watch?" Four hours later we touched down in LA.  This was my first time at LAX and not only was it extremely packed and confusing, but we had to make our way to the International Terminal which of course was outside.  On top of that I couldn't get the stupid Miley Cyrus lyric of... "Hopped off the plane at LAX with a dream and my cardigaaaan" out of my head. (Terrible.) We second guessed ourselves multiple times but we finally made it. (This was the first of many times that I was SO thankful I wasn't traveling by myself.)  Prices were absolutely ridiculous at LAX. I'm not sure if it's because it is LA or because it's an airport, but a salad was anywhere from $15-$20.  LA brought nothing but the longest 8 hours of my life. Come around 10:30, Megan went up to ask the Korean Air desk person whether her ticket was a window or aisle seat when he told her that what we had weren't tickets.  The guy at Lambert basically gave us a voucher saying we were on the flight, but it wasn't a ticket even though it had our seat #, time info, etc. on it. Then he also broke us the wonderful news letting us know that our luggage was not on the flight, and that it was most likely in Chicago.  After calling our parents at 1am STL time waking them up and breaking them the terrible news, we boarded the plane with our new tickets and hope that somehow, someway, our luggage would make it to Seoul. (On top of this, by the time we were boarding our flight in LAX we would have been landing in Seoul, had our first flight not been cancelled.) We were BITTER.

I slept a lot on the plane. After all, we had been traveling almost 24 by this point. I was in one of those dreadful middle seats next to a Korean man who was a huge armrest hog. Regardless, I slept a lot. They offered dinner and breakfast but I didn't eat either. I didn't feel very well, and getting my first wiff of Korean spices and smells didn't help my cause. I stuck to my peanuts given to me by Melissa before I left. (You were a LIFESAVER! Thanks :)

We arrived in Seoul around 4am. Here we were meeting Aivil where he would help us buy a bus ticket and find the bus. We went to baggage claim hoping to see our luggage. My one bag that I was originally going to take on as a carry on actually was there... because I checked it the second time we went to get our boarding passes. Unfortunately, this bag contains my nice clothes, like dresses... nothing too useful like toiletries, shorts and t-shirts, etc. We went to lost and found where we encountered our first real language block.  The woman spoke english, but it was very choppy.  She couldn't even locate our luggage and said she "thought" it would be arriving on the flight from Chicago to Seoul at 3:30 that day. At this point in time, we didn't even enjoy the fact we were in Korea, we were just overwhelmed, hungry, and probably smelly.

Since luck wasn't going our way, naturally Aivil wasn't waiting for us at 4am at the gate.  We were phoneless and in a foreign country. We saw a 7-11 in the airport (which was very Americanized with 7-11's and Dunkin Donuts) and bought things like toothpaste and face wash, all things left in our checked luggage, just to get some spare change. We called Aivil on a pay phone, which took 5 minutes to figure out how to work, as it was all in Korean... only to find out he couldn't get to the airport til after 6am, since the train he had to take doesn't start running until then. Aivil came two hours later and got us on the bus.  A bus ticket from Seoul to Gwangju (which is about 4 hours) cost 30,900 won, which is about $28. Not too shabby! The bus ride wasn't bad at all. The scenery was beautiful. The only negative is that the bus was rather hot. I'm starting to realize that it's pretty common for A/C to not be on in Korea...

Our Chonnam "Buddies" were waiting for us at the bus station at Gwangju. There was one for each of us.  My buddy's name is Hyeji In. She likes to say, "Just call me In, not out!" She is so nice. We immediately looked for a place to sit to wait for a cab, and we got to know each other.  She is a double major... Business and Geography (with an emphasis in Korean Geography.) It's pretty cool that we share that similarity and that I don't need to explain to her why I'm interested in geography... she just gets it.  By this time my hair had proceeded to make it's way onto the top of my head in a messy bun, my makeup had melted off in the bus, and I'm sure I probably smelled. I had been traveling for 40 hours, anyone who smells great after that long... I applaud you. Anyway, she said I looked exhausted and said "Want massage?"  Everyone had been telling me that there is a different sense of space over here, but this was my first experience of it. I didn't have her stop though... it was probably the best shoulder massage I've ever had.  And then, just like all of our orientation materials told us, she started asking me questions like how old I was and about my family. I could tell she kind of didn't know how to ask me because she felt like she was being nosey, but I didn't care. The cab finally came and we went outside to meet it.  It was pouring... and it was at this point in time that I realized I forgot my umbrella and rainboots back in St. Louis.  Hello, Monsoon season.

We arrived at our dorms around 20 minutes later. My dorm is pretty nice. They are suite style. There are 3 rooms with 2 girls in each room. We share a bathroom with 2 toilets, 2 sinks, and a shower. I'll post pictures later... my camera cord is in my luggage that is lost. :(

We spent the day touring campus in the rain and buying toiletries and other things that we didn't have due to our luggage. The girls went and bought us sandwiches and we had lunch together. They also bought Korean Sushi for us to share. The kind they bought is essentially the Korean form of the California Roll. It had egg in it and some other stuff. I actually REALLY liked it. Yes mom- I tried it! I even used chopsticks.  We learned a bit more about the campus and such and also learned that rainy/monsoon season had come early and that it'd be around for about the next three weeks.  Let me say the only shoes I currently have are my Toms, which are fabric slide on shoes. They are soaked and have already had one round in the dryer. I bought a pair of slides from the market, which are VERY popular here. You see almost everyone in them and I found out why. They were 3,000 wons. That's about $2.50.  Dinner was interesting, where I had my first encounter with bibimbap, a popular Korean dish. I wasn't a fan, but I was also told that this cafeteria food wasn't good so I'm hoping that's why. After dinner I showered and put away what I had in my room. I struggled staying awake til 9pm, so I went to bed.

Today I woke up around 8am, responded to some e-mails and started my day. I got an e-mail from my TA in my political geography class saying my teacher was out of town til Friday night, and because of this I didn't have class until Monday. So I have my 1pm class today and tomorrow, and then start both classes Monday. My 1pm class is Contemporary Societies and Culture Movements. I'm hoping it's interesting. After I got ready, I decided I'd take a trip to one of the many coffee shops on campus. I brought my camera and was pretty excited to venture out on my own.  I found my way to the coffee shop. It's called "Angel-in-Us Coffee." It's very Starbucks-esque, even price wise.  This was a bummer, I was hoping to get lucky with prices, since so far everything else has been pretty cheap. My Caffe Mocha was 5,400 won... about $5. Looks like Angel-in-Us will be a weekly thing. My goal for the week is to find a cheaper coffee house. This place does look like a great atmosphere for studying or lounging. The building is cool too.

And here I am, back at my dorm soaking in Gwangju. I felt guilty when I came back. I realized that because of my busy, hectic, tiring day yesterday, I neglected to ever look out my window. I'm on the twelfth floor of my dorm and my view is absolutely beautiful. I'm facing the mountains and there are many interesting buildings, including a pyramid shaped building that reminds me of something you'd see in Las Vegas. I'll post pictures of this later too. I'm off to get ready for class and have some lunch. I promise every post won't be this long! Thanks for reading friends and family! I miss and love you all!

Also- Congratulations to my cousin Laura on the birth of her baby boy. I'm so excited to welcome another boy into the family! :)

One Month Away!

Welcome friends and family!  This starts my blogging for the summer... all about my upcoming trip to South Korea. Bookmark me- I'll be trying to blog every couple days once I get there!


I'm officially a little less (29 days, not like I'm counting) than one month away from my arrival in South Korea. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm nervous. My answer is no, not one bit.  I should probably be nervous that I don't know one Korean word, absolutely cannot stand hot or spicy foods, can't use chopsticks, have to travel for 24 hours straight, will be 14 hours ahead so my sleeping schedule will be screwed, and will be away from friends and family for a month. Honestly? I'm not worried.  As for not knowing Korean- I plan on doing a bit of cramming on the plane, after all I've got 14 hours. Hot & spicy foods- Well I'll find something. Chopsticks- uhhhhh... Traveling- Well I love traveling.  Sleeping- I've got the rest of my life to sleep.  And friends and family- I love you so much, but Skype me.  Here's what I am concerned about- Packing.  I've always overpacked. For example, I'm going back to St. Louis tomorrow for 2 days and I think I have 6 different outfits in my bag along with 4 different pairs of shoes.  I'm allowed two suitcases and my carry on for one month.  Seems nice, but I also have to bring sheets, a towel , and a pillow.  Apparently Korean's don't sleep with sheets, use towels the size of a small hand towel when they get out of the shower, and have hard as rock pillows to sleep on.  It's also monsoon season in Southern South Korea in July. (Now is when I beg anyone to donate a space saver bag to me.) This is also a time for a Twitter hash-tag for those of you that have joined the Twitter world. #firstworldproblems.  


Here's a little bit about where I'm headed to and what I'll be doing there.  The city I'm going to school in is called Gwangju (Gwang-jow).  It's a 5 hour bus ride from Seoul, which is the capital city of South Korea, and where I'm flying into.  Gwangju is a city with about 1.5 million people living in it.  The university I'm attending is Chonnam National University, which has about 30,000 undergraduate students.  I'll be taking two classes on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday- Political Geography and Contemporary Societies & Culture Movements.  On Wednesday's and weekends we go on field trips.  I'll be staying in a dorm on campus along with one of the 17 other MU students going with.  


I am so, so, SO excited.  It's finally hit me that I'm traveling halfway around the world. Thanks for reading... more will come as I get closer to my trip! Comments are welcomed, of course. :)