Departure
Recently, I had been feeling as if I was finally feeling comfortable with my life in Korea -- I was happy in my school, going quickly upwards in the korean learning curve, developing a good relationship with my family. I was prepared to spend another seven months in korea. The idea of going back to america was not a thought I had entertained in a long while. But with an unfortunate series of events, I found myself on the next flight to San Francisco, where my grandfather was in the hospital. Now before you worry (like many people did apparently), I am writing this from Korea, so I did come back. I'm not going to go too much into detail about the trip. I actually didn't experience any sort of reverse culture shock. It seemed perfectly natural to me that I was in San Francisco. While my reason for leaving was not a happy one, it was nice to see my family again. After a week, I got on the plane bound for Incheon Airport.
Return
Got off plane >> onto bus >> got off at wrong bus stop, possibly the sketchiest place in incheon  
I was rescued by my host mother and sister, who picked me up...in a new car, most likely bought with the money they saved on my food expenses while I was away (as my host mother once said, I eat "well".) It was a happy reunion, they were quite kind to me and told me that I was missed. I had missed them as well. They took me out to eat something I had been craving while in san francisco. I had difficulty communicating, not quite sure if it was because I hadnt spoken korean in a week or because of severe jetlag. I took two days off school to sleep and get my things in order. Yesterday, I didn't go to high school but I did go to Korean class. I was so happy to see the NSLIYans and teachers again. There were several moments where I almost cried...it was an honestly nice day. Today I went to Korean high school for the first time in a while.It was a bit exhausting to be honest, but again, I was happy to see all my classmates.

...  
I've never really liked fall, partly because of my hatred of cold weather. Although more likely my dislike of this season stems from the association with school just beginning. This year, I am actually quite enjoying autumn. A week ago, the foliage was at its peak. Right now, the gingko leaves are beginning to turn yellow, making the streets a lovely golden color. Despite the cold, I find myself smiling at the scenery on my walk home.

So I haven't posted for a while and quite a lot has happened, too much to remember and write. But here is a general recap of the highlights aka the things that I can remember off the top off my head.
Since my last blog post, I have...

- climbed two mountains, one (bukhansan by name) which made me actually fear for my life to the point of almost kissing the ground at the end of the trail and the other (considerably smaller moutain in incheon) of which was accompanied by the melodramatic musings of TW. His repetitive (and grammatically incorrect) exclamations merited an english lesson courtesy of yours truly. "No no no, TW. It's not "My die!" but rather "I am going to die." See, "I am going to die, We are going to die,  etc." TW begins getting creative: "We are going to the die!!!"

-I got incredibly sick with a cold. This was probably exacerbated by the fact that my family took me hiking on the first day when I began feeling terrible. Despite my not so subtle hinting that maybe we should reschedule our hiking plans... after two weeks of faucet nose and rattling coughs, I'm feeling somewhat better. However, considering that right now going to bed at seven seems appealing to me, I might not be 100 percent well quite yet.

- visited the big orthodox cathedral in seoul. I was hoping to attend the service for the protection of the Mother of God but unfortunately there were no services that day. The cathedral was open so I went inside for a little.

- cut off quite a lot of my hair. I was pretty nervous about getting a haircut, having heard horror stories about the experiences of other foreigners. Surprisingly, I got one of the best haircuts of my life for about one fourth the price i usually pay....

- went to Jeonju!!
This was a NSLI-Y monthly excursion. We did a two day, one night stay there. It was such a refreshing change of scenery. The weekend's adventures included kimchi making, soft serve ice cream, exploring the traditional village, ordering and eating an obscene amount of japchae (glass noodles), and the best meat I have eaten thus far in Korea. It was seriously fantastic meat. I don't know why it was so amazing but I would travel three hours back to jeonju just to eat that bulgogi.
Unfortunately....the weekend was not all a lovely getaway but in fact kind of spoiled by the fact that we had to take the TOPIK exam on sunday. And of course, since we all roomed together at night, none of us were particularly well rested. I caught myself falling asleep during the test.
The train ride back from Jeonju was one of my favorite parts of the trip. The scenery was calming and accompanied by a gorgeous sunset. I would love to take a week or two to live in the countryside of Korea.

- Had a samgyeopsal party at school this past Friday! Basically, all the students got into groups and were handed huge plates of raw meat... which we then cooked together and devoured. It was fantastic. We sat outside in the cold eating straight off the pan.

...somewhat caught up

Labels: food, jeonju, korea, NSLI-Y, school

I left my last blog post hanging. Unintentional, but appropriate considering the sequence of events.

After being led onto the subway and transferring several times, we arrived at an unfamiliar area of Seoul.While walking through a park with a fantastic view of Namsan Tower, I incorrectly guessed that we were being taken to seen the tower up close. Despite Gadi and Kelsi's frequent subtle (?) hinting, Eloise and I really had no idea where we were being led.
Kelsi insisted she had to go to the bathroom, so we entered a random building using the staff door. I don't think this sort of practice is generally encouraged, no matter how severe the bathroom need. Interestingly enough, our intrusion was well received by the staff and we were guided to the lobby of...the Shilla Hotel, a well known luxury hotel. The lobby was gorgeous, with hanging glass chandeliers and a spectacular view. At this point, Eloise and I were still completely in the dark. We sat for a few minutes in the cafe near the library and then Kelsi insisted that Eloise and I accompany her to the bathroom. Gadi said that he would order drinks while were gone. I picked up the menu and managed to glimpse the price of one item before the menu was grabbed out of my hands by Kelsi. 29,000 won ($29) for blueberry juice.
Upon returning we were greeted by a huge bowl of mango patbingsu. (Shaved ice, accompanied by fruit, red bean, and ice cream). At this point, my eyes and mouth both formed Os. This patbingsu is famed as the best in Korea, ergo the best in the world. People will literally line up to order this bingsu. The mangoes were special apple mangoes flown in from Jeju Island and the shaved ice was a special sort made with milk rather than just plain ice. I can say that this patbingsu was the most delicious thing I ate in Korea so far. We tried to make each bite last and gave cheesy toasts before the first few spoonfulls. "We couldn't fly to Jeju Island and so Jeju flew to us."
The four of us, a group of young Americans, sat surrounded by the elegance and tranquility of the hotel, savoring the most expensive desert of our lives. As a jazz band began to play, I experienced an interesting sensation, a dissociation. It's difficult to properly explain how I felt, but it was as if I were no longer in Korea. I could have been anywhere in the world at this moment. It didn't really matter where I was, all that mattered was the moment I was experiencing.

The wonderful surprise of the evening brings up an important point about my exchange year. One thing I fear is my life becoming routine. I don't want my daily life to become a predictable blur. While I would like to become comfortable with life in Korea, I don't want the days' events to become commonplace. Somehow, each day should be special. It's things like the patbingsu that add variety and excitement to daily life. Reminding myself to savor each day, to break up routine, to stay enthralled. Of course, we can't do something as extravagant as $40 patbingsu every day. But it's important to make each day have something valuable and distinct. Whether it's something small, like speaking to someone else for the first time at school or finding a new view out of the fourth floor window, or if it's something on a more fantastic scale, I'm determined to make each day different and memorable.

After a peaceful Saturday spent doing nothing particularly remarkable, I moved forward to a considerably busy Sunday.
I had planned in advance to attend the only Russian Orthodox Church in my area. There are three accessible Orthodox churches and only one is Russian Orthodox. (more about churches in a future blog post) After arriving at the remote station and lacking clear directions, I followed a distinctly Russian-looking woman (I was desperate) and ended up where I wanted to be.

After the service, which was wonderful, I headed to Seoul station (transferring four times) to meet up with Kelsi, Gadi, and Eloise. My recent confidence in my ability to navigate the subways independently and efficiently was shattered upon my arrival. As usual, I slapped my wallet on the card reading device to exit the station and was stopped by an unpleasant sound and a flashing 'X.' A thorough search of my bag yielded no results and the subway help booth was devoid of helpers. I can honestly say that I had no idea what to do at this point. Thankfully (?) I saw Gadi walking in my general direction and motioned wildly for him to come help. In a heroic attempt to aid me, Gadi made the mistake of coming back into the subway station. With Korean subways, if you accidentally check into a subway station and you want to leave, you can't. We traveled to the next stop on the line and tried to get out, but were inexplicably unable to do so. After making several more stops and somehow obtaining tickets, we were able to exit Seoul Station.

The four of us made our way to Siloam, a jimjilbang (bathhouse/sauna). For less than ten dollars, we had access to all of the jimjilbang facilities. We split into the gender segregated bath houses, stripped down (the most difficult part...), and began trying the many different baths and saunas.
An incomplete list:
- Jade bath
- charcoal bath
- massage bath
- ice bath


Jade sauna (it had these crystals you could rub on your skin, I'm guessing it was salt)
High temperature sauna


After getting our fill of the baths, which were amazing and incredibly relaxing, we put the Siloam t shirt and shorts on and headed up to the fourth floor where the "fomentation rooms" were. There were around ten different rooms, each with different specifications and (supposed) health benefits. I went in every room (except the men's dugout room and the oxygen rooms, I'm not sure sure what those were) Each room was completely silent and equipped with these little wooden pillows you could sleep on. I fell asleep in every room.
Some of the rooms:
-Jade room: 116 deg F, the ground was covered with small rocks
- Salt rooms: ground covered with salt crystals, there was a high temperature (116F) and a low temperature room (102F).
- Ice room: 18F I really enjoyed this room. After sitting in ridiculously hot temperatures, it honestly felt like a brisk fall day to me. The Floridian in our group lasted five minutes in there. (After what felt like thirty seconds, he started shivering)
- High Temperature room (152F) stayed in here for only seven minutes. the two girls from colder climates didn't even come in. this room is tied with the high temperature salt room for my favorite. I felt so good after stepping out of here; I was energised but I could have also taken a long nap.


The jimjilbang was a fantastic experience which I am eager to repeat.


The whole day, Gadi and Kelsi were acting awfully suspicious. When they took away my glasses and led me and Eloise to the subway, we knew something was up but had no idea what we were in for...

After spending three hours beheading raw shrimp and battering and frying various food items, I have new respect for both my biological and host mother. It's been over five hours and umma (Korean for mother) is still going strong! ....while MJ and I have given up and gone off to study for a while. I keep asking umma if she needs a rest or any help, but she declines and says that Korean mothers are strong and she's got caffeine on her side. She'll probably ask for more help later, but I think we've accomplished quite a lot of cooking by this point.

MJ and I started by coating pieces of fish in flour, then in egg, and then frying them. I made these skewer things (pattern: meat, scallion, meat, kimchi, meat, carrot, meat) and battered and fried them in the same manner. While MJ fried more fish and cut various vegetables, I began the grueling process of cleaning what felt like a hundred shrimp (although probably more like forty). Our work was eased by singing together to an eclectic playlist selected by MJ and myself. TW (host brother) spent the whole time we were cooking by lying on the ground around the kitchen, saying random stuff, and eating.

Labels: chuseok, cooking, tw antics

Yesterday...
I felt generally pretty bad all day. At school, I suffered the consequences of only purchasing a winter uniform. Let me tell you some thing about myself: I absolutely despise the cold. I would move to Arizona to avoid winter. And for the first time in my life, I found myself for the first time wanting summer to end. It is unbearabarably, oppressively hot to wear a long sleeved shirt buttoned all the way and a knee length skirt in a stuffy classroom without air conditioning. The windows were opened in a feeble attempt to cool the room down, but the complete lack of wind was no help for my suffering.
At class I had a terrible pain in my shoulder (stress+heavy backpack?) First my tooth...I'm on my way to becoming our group's 'kid with medical issues'/resident hypochondriac. I was incredibly jittery the rest of the day. I'm feeling significantly better today :)

The day's activities:
- searched in vain for a famous kimbap restaurant (korean sushi rolls--delicious, filling, cheap)
- ate a shameful amount of chocolate (in three different forms)
- got host brother hooked on pretty little liars
- hid kit kats from host brother with host sister and mom (they said that if he knew about them, he'd eat them all. Host sister and mom are possessive of their chocolate)

Stuff my host brother says:

"Agh! My foot! My foot is sick! Foot sick!" (explanation: the word 아프다 means both painful and sick, there's no distinction as far as I know)

"No. I no crazy."

"Do you know cocker spaniel?"

Labels: school, tw antics

Brief overview of today...

School
- enjoyed gym class for the first time in ...forever. PE in the US is not kind to the unathletic sort.
- now have a future piano duet partner, pinky-swore on playing together next week
- apparently (with no consenting on my part) I'm accompanying my class' choir in the school festival

Hongdae
- visited the bread shop for maybe the tenth time
- mysterious toothache and slight hypochondria lead me to the dentist, met with some practices slightly less hygienic than I would like and a dentist telling me "Your teeth fine. I think pain...disappear...soon" Phew.

- sheep cafe with kelsi and gadi. A little disappointed that the sheep weren't roaming freely but this feeling disappeared upon eating the most delicious waffle I have ever had in my life and then taking pictures with the sheep.

Thoughts
Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving) is coming up soon and my host mother is stressing out! I keep telling her that I'll help her out, hopefully this will make things less difficult for her and I'll learn to cook some Korean dishes as well! I plan on doing some research on the holiday before it happens. Excited to meet the extended family (and to have a five day weekend!)

Host mom is hooked on an American television show, Pretty Little Liars (I never saw it before coming here) and we watch it together regularly. I actually learn quite a lot of Korean words when talking to her about it. I should probably start watching more Korean as well...

Played a little piano today but have yet to sit down and practice seriously. Host mom gets super excited whenever I play and insists that I should start taking lessons again.

Labels: cafe, hongdae, piano