LAZY UPDATE #6

Wow, I really haven't been updating very much, have I?  I seem to go through phases of wanting to post everything I do in my life on here and posting absolutely nothing, which is either because I'm lazy or because nothing has actually happened.  Well, this time (as like many other times) it's because I've been lazy.  It's also because I don't take any photos of where I go so I feel like I have nothing show.  Pictures make all the difference you know.

Last Saturday a small group of us went to watch a documentary screening of "63 Years On", which was organised by the House of Sharing.  It was about the role of comfort women during World War II and the organisation tries to raise awareness through screenings such as these as well as other public events like tours and protests.  For me, it was interesting because I've always had an interest in this area - child prostitution, human trafficking, corruption etc.  If I ever make it as a lawyer, this is the area I would really want to focus on.  Sure the torts cases are fun and they're easy money, but what's the point in studying law if you're not making a better world, right?

Afterwards we joined up with a lot of other people and went to 노래방 noraebang (karaoke) in Shinchon.  It isn't the first time I've been to karaoke before but it was the first time in Korea - how do I say this....it was interesting? I'm not someone who can open up and just sing in front of anyone so the whole night I was debating inside my head whether to sing or not, but we only had the room for two hours so by the time I wanted to sing we had to leave.  But it was still a lot of fun watching my friends sing (or try to sing....) to the classics and dance around the screen like it was a moshpit.

On Sunday I went to church and had one of the best days I'd during my week.  I always feel really safe when I'm at church.  I think it's because I know that they are people who have the same mindset as me, so I can loosen up a little and know that I don't have to be on my guard on all the time.  Anyway, I met two Chinese girls, Muse and Amanda (Guangzhou and Hong Kong respectively), and they joined us for Bible study and dinner.  It was reeeeeeally strange because we were mainly speaking Cantonese (another girl at church speaks Cantonese as well) among the four of us while the rest of our group - Amber (Korean), Chris (Korean-German) and Chance (American) - had no idea what was going on.  And seeing how we're in Seoul, I guess Cantonese is kind of weird.

I was supposed to see a movie with my friend on Sunday night as well, but we ended up going out on Monday instead because she was really busy.  We went out for dinner (tacos), watched Red Riding Hood (don't watch it) and then ended the night at Paris Baguette for coffee and cake.  Or rather, I ended the night with coffee and cake and she watched me eat it.

Yesterday I had lunch with Jooyoung, my buddy, and we had ........PHO! I was craving pho last week and had no idea that there was a little shop tucked away in one of the many streets near our school which served it.  The flavours are pretty similar, but their noodles taste a bit different.  Not weird, but different.  Afterwards I went to Apgujeong to try to find Rodeo Drive, the famous shopping area where everything is expensive.  I spent two hours walking around the same area because I didn't realise I actually had to go inside rather walking around outside.  I think I'll talk more about it when I go there with other people and actually have time to browse.

MARCH SNOW

It was snowing yesterday! Despite the fact that it's almost the middle of spring, the snow kept falling down rapidly during the later part of the day and into the night.  This morning I went for a walk up the mountain trail and took these photos because it was SO PRETTY!

Besides from snow, nothing really interesting has happened this week.  I have some saved posts lined up for later publishing; they're on specific topics e.g. what my professors are like, the girls I live with etc.  When I decide to un-lazify myself I will write them up properly and take appropriate pictures.  

PLEASANT WORDS

"The wise in heart are called discerning, and pleasant words promote instruction...Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones." Proverbs 16:21,24


The passage today was from verses 20 - 30, but I think I can sum up what they were trying to say: Instruct people with pleasant words so that they may have wisdom and understanding.  I think it was focusing more on the pleasantness of the words as well.  How many times have I myself felt accused or angry because someone else was instructing me in a way which was hurtful to me? How many times have other people avoided instruction because of the poor word choices?

I have always believed that the words you say and the tone in which you say it in makes the biggest difference in how people respond.  There are a lot of people I know who don't realise how negative or dissuasive they actually sound, despite their good intentions.  I guess today's passage doesn't focus so much on what God has done for us, but what we can do for other people to show God's love.  For myself, I think I am getting better at changing my tone in order to match what I want to say, but only because I have realised that what I say should be spoken with love.

LAZY UPDATE #5

It's the weekend!! This week has been pretty quiet for me, compared to the first and second week.  It still surprises me when I realise I've only been in Seoul for three weeks - that's not even one month!   During the first few days, it felt like a rush to see and do everything I needed and had wanted to for a long time e.g. food, shopping, sight-seeing.  But things have fallen into a comfortable pattern now.  I sleep, I eat, I go to classes, I shop, I eat, I sleep.  It's becoming a little bit more home-y, I guess.

Interesting things that happened this week:

1. Yesterday I went to the Immigration Office with Jooyoung (my buddy) to put in my registration form for my alien registration card.  The application process took less than an hour, which I didn't expect at all because they had told us it could take up three hours if we didn't register online (which we didn't because it didn't work :( ). On the way back to the subway station, Jooyoung and I had some pretty interesting and funny conversations about our families and how we grew up.  When I first met her I felt like we had a lot in common, but after getting to know her I realise we're almost the same.  I'm glad God gave her to me as my buddy.

2.  On Wednesday night, I went to have a look at the university's dance club - Dance P.O.zz.  Words fail me when I try to describe what I feel like when I see other people dance, so I'm not even going to try.  I'll just say that they were amazing and I wish I could be like them.

3.  Today I walked into a shop called Jamilro and got a shock when I realised they had a website and they actually did photo shoots inside the shop.  The backdrop of the pictures in their website? I SAW IT IN PERSON.  It's very exciting stuff you know.  I've seen a lot of Korean online shopping sites so to see the place where they actually took the photos is pretty cool.  Although the stairs in the pictures where the models are posing are so scary.  진짜 장난 아냐.  I also chatted with the owner of the shop - in Korean - and it turns out her daughter is going to Australia! Well, that's what I think she said.  When I say 'chatted', I really mean that she was speaking proper and complete sentences and I replied with two or three words.  But I'm still happy that I understood most of what she was saying, even if I couldn't really say anything to her.

4.  This one is about my friend, Sanna, who is an exchange student from Finland.  A few days ago, she went to get a haircut and colour from one of the hairdressers around our campus area.  She had gone out for a very, very long time and we were wondering why she was taking so long.  When she finally came back, her hair cut was really nice, but the colour looked a little off - in the light, it looked a little gray blue (her hair is blonde).  She told us that the first time the hairdresser dyed her hair, the end colour was white-blonde with yellowy-orangey tips on the end.  Sanna wasn't pleased and said "Noo! Can we change it please?!"  So the hairdresser said OK and proceeded then to change Sanna's hair into a lovely light BLUE.  Sanna: "Nooo!!" At that moment both Sanna and the hairdresser were completely horrified.  Because you see, it was the hairdresser's first time to dye blonde hair.  In the end she was able to change the colour back to blonde-ish, but you can still see shades of blue when her hair is in the light.

And that's pretty much all the 'big' things I've done.  Little things include walking the mountain behind the university every second morning, missing breakfast because it finishes at 8:30 am (so early :( ) and watching Dream High whenever I am free, which is a lot of the time actually.

P.S The photos are pretty random - some are from Hongdae, some are ones taken inside our student union hall and the others are just what I see everyday around the campus.

THE OTHER VALENTINES DAY

HAPPY WHITE DAY EVERYBODY!

White Day only exists (I think) in Japan and Korea, where males will give their female counterparts flowers, cake and chocolates.  It's different to Valentines Day because on V-Day (in Korea and Japan), girls give the presents to the guys.  I don't know why these two countries chose to be different from every other country in the world, but I think it's nice to have two 'love' days a year.  Gender equality and all that.

Yesterday I went to Samil Church for the first time, where one of the members gave out roses and chocolates to all the females in the congregation.  It was so sweet of him to think of all the girls, and it was funny because one of the girls thought someone else had bought the flowers and told the guy "Oh, so-and-so was so nice to buy flowers for us, what did you do?"  

To 'drown' my sorrows of not having a boyfriend, I went to Myeongdong tonight to do some shopping.  Okay, okay, that's a half - lie.  I have no sorrows about being single at all, but I did go shopping at Myeongdong.  It wasn't packed with couples as I expected, although I saw lots of business men carrying around flowers and a cake box probably rushing to get to their date/home and give them to his one and only love.  

REFLECTION

Today's post isn't really about what I've done in Seoul for the past two weeks, or what I've eaten or what I've bought.  I'm going to focus on where my thoughts have led me; what have I been thinking about during these fourteen days?

In a lot of the classes which I take, the professors ask each individual to introduce their names, major, why they chose the class and what their future dream is.  What's surprised me is that most of the students are really clear on what they want in their life.  "I want to be a drama producer", "I want to be a documentary director", "I want to be a journalist because my father is one, and I respect him a lot."  It's so different to what I'm used to - because at home, no one knows what they want to do.  It's a lot of should-I-do-this-or-that'ing, a lot of oh-I-don't-know-it'll-work-out-somehow'ing.  When I sit and listen to the students in my classes, I am pretty amazed by them.  It feels like they're all heading towards their dream and therefore can focus hard on it and succeed.  But where am I?  I am studying two degrees, neither of which are what I really want to do, and therefore I am torn between the two professions as well as the wishful thinking of my personal dream.

I've also noticed that I'm a lot more similar to Koreans than I am with my exchange-student friends.  Although I know Chinese people and Korean people are different, the history and the backgrounds for education, health, wealth and psychology are really similar.  In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say that most Asian countries have the same ways of thinking regarding those four subjects.  Actually, maybe not health and wealth, but I think education and psychology are the same.  By psychology, I really mean ideals, morals and just general way of thinking.  Anyway, so when my exchange student friends sound so surprised about certain things, or when they realise a certain way of thinking behind something else, I find it hard to relate to them because I don't find it surprising at all.  In fact, I find it surprising that they didn't know.

Which leads me to my third point - I honestly think I come off as stand-offish and a little bit haughty.  Maybe it's because I actually am, but I've been trying to change that about myself for a while now.  I can do the friendly gatherings and be the sociable acquaintance, but I keep feeling as though there is a barrier which I keep around myself.  While I want to be how other people are like - open, bubbly, okay with 'skinship' - I just can't bring myself to do it because it feels foreign to me.  I also seem to have a problem with saying out loud what I feel, and instead just write it down on here and hope that the people I want to say it to will read it.  Sometimes I think it's an automatic defence mechanism because of how I've been brought up by family, the community I grew up in and all the things which have happened in my life, but I really don't like to blame it on anything but myself, because then it sounds like I'm just excusing my behaviour because of other things and that it has nothing to do with me.

But the thing which I have been thinking about the most is that I am so grateful and happy to be here.  Not only because it's Korea, although that's a huge part of it, but because I am finally doing something which was what I wanted.  Something which I dreamed about for months and months before coming here and now that I'm actually here, it's turning out to be more than I hoped for.  The people I have met are people I am so grateful to have met and to have bonded with.  The things I have seen and experiences are like dreams.  The life lessons I have learnt are invaluable.  I am so looking forward to the next four and a half months.

COUNTING BLESSINGS BEFORE I SLEEP

"Praise the LORD, O my soul and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases...he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities." Psalm 103:2-3, 10

Dear God,

I'm sorry I haven't been talking to you for a long time.  I'm sorry for breaking the promise, yet again, of how I would read the Bible every day and listen to what You want to tell me.  You have always been my rock and shoulder of support whenever I needed it; I always turn to you when I need help, but push you away when I think everything is going fine and I'm caught up in the midst of the materialistic world of clothes and food.  Thankyou for always being there.  Thankyou for treating me well, even if I don't deserve it.  I'm so thankful that you forgive us whenever we make mistakes.  Please help me to be like You.  Please help me to understand what Your will for me is, and guide me towards that path.  

Tonight I read the Bible again for the first time in a week.   And you know what God is telling me?  Esther, wake up and realise that God has given you so many good things in your life - why do you keep wishing you were different?  Why do you think your life is not rich and fulfilling?  Count your blessings, Esther.  Count them and open your eyes to what He wants you to see.  

LAZY UPDATE #4

Wow...apologies for not writing anything for so long.  Lessons have officially started - as in, since we can't add any more classes to our schedule the teachers have finally started to teach some substantial material.  Which also means homework and studying have commenced.  I can imagine your faces right now.  What? Homework? Esther? STUDYING? Yes...sigh...it's true.  I have conformed to the Korean education system and am now anxious about staying ahead of classes.  My mum will be so proud.

On Sunday, a group of us decided to go to Namsan Tower/Seoul Tower to have a look around.  The weather was kind of cloudy that day, so we spent thirty minutes in the lobby of our dormitory apartment trying to figure out whether to go or not.  In the end we did, and we had fun.

When we got there, half of the group took the cable car up while the other half walked 30 minutes up the stairs.  Guess which group I was in?  That's right, because my legs were so tired from walking around on Saturday, I decided to kill them even further and take the stairs.  Honestly it wasn't that bad.  When you're with a large group of people, the atmosphere is so different than trudging up steep stairs by yourself. There were a lot of people there that day, and lots of activities going on such as a traditional Korean play, a man playing on the flutes and lots and lots of food stalls set up everywhere.

Namsan Tower is also famous for it's wall of love-locks.  For those who don't know, couples will buy locks from the shops up there (or take their own lock because it's cheaper) and write little messages on them.  They put the lock either on a tree or on the fence along the wall, and then throw the key away as a testament of their ever-lasting love.  We had a few couples in our group, but I think only one couple bought a lock.  The couple in my pictures isn't from our group, by the way.  They were a random couple which I asked to take photo of.  The girl was like "Oh? Why......???" but the guy was like "Sure!"  I ended up taking a photo for them on their camera as well.  Bless me and my great camera skills.

I'll give a short summary of what's happened this week, but unfortunately I didn't bring my camera around with me so no photos.

1. Monday: I attended a class called International Communications for the first time.  Even though the lecture is in Korean, the teaching materials are in English, and the professor also tries to throw in some English for the exchange students benefit every now and again.  Speaking of which, the professor took the exchange students out for coffee after class on Monday as a sort of orientation to his class, and also to get to know us.  There were three exchange students and another Korean girl who had returned last year from living in Canada for seven years, so we all kind of chatted for a bit.  Ji Eun, the Canadian girl, also happens to be in most of my classes which means I now have at least one friend in all my classes :)

2. Tuesday: Another first time class - 'pre-production'.  In this class, we're going to learn about making a short film and writing synopses.  Because I'm trying to learn about everything going on in media, I figured taking this class would help me with the behind-the-scenes camera and footage area.  I've always been interested in this kind of field anyway, so I love it.  On Tuesday night, Sonya (American-Korean exchange student) told us she had heard about this AMAZING spaghetti place near our dorms and that she had gone there at lunch time but was turned down because it was too full, so she wanted to go for dinner.  It ended up being as good as she said, and by the time we left there was a huge line waiting to get in.

3. Wednesday: At night time, I finally visited COEX.  I don't know if we actually went to the right place though, because COEX is supposed to be massive, right?  The place we went to was big, but it wasn't that big.  Either way, Sonya and her boyfriend wanted to buy a pair of Toms from Åland so we did.  


4. TODAY: I went shopping at Idae today.  I'm going to Hongdae tonight.  Happy tiiiiiimes :)


P.S.  There were a lot of children running around at Namsan Tower on Sunday, so I took some photos of them.  There's something about children which seriously tickles the insides of me and makes me all happy and joyful.  Plus they have amazing clothes and can pull off anything.

WALKING AROUND SEOUL

Every morning when I wake up, I look out the window and I can see these grandpas and grandmas walking the trail high up on the hill which surrounds our school.  Every morning I think to myself, ooh I really want to see what's up there, maybe I should go for a walk, but it normally just fades away once I start getting busy with something else.  Yesterday I decided that I would climb the mountain in the morning today, so this morning me and Randy (exchange student from San Diego) met up at 8 am and endeavoured to climb this hill and see what was on it.  

Unfortunately, I didn't actually know how to get up there.  I hadn't seen any trail leading up to the top, nor had I ever seen anyone coming down, so we kind of just cut through the forest at the back of the dormitories and went straight up instead of starting at wherever the start is.  It was pretty slippery with all the leaves and dirt around, and I think I've bruised my kneebone (is that even possible? can bones bruise?) when I slipped on a rock.  But once we got up to the top it was a pretty easy trail.  As we arrived at this pagoda area, we saw these exercise machines just randomly sitting in the middle of the trees.  I've seen this kind of thing in Hong Kong before - there was a park near my apartment with exercise machines planted along the jogging path.  We tried to figure out what each machine did by looking at the pictures but I don't know if we got it right or not.  The view from the pagoda structure...thing...was amazing.  You could see the whole of Seoul from that one point - it even had a map to tell you where everything was.  

Once we decided to come back down, we realised that we couldn't go back the way we came back.  We kept walking and walking until we finally came to some steps which led down to this playground.  It was such a cool playground.  It had everything I loved about playgrounds - swings, seesaw, slippery dips (one of them was made of metal rollers which really hurt my bum) and even exercise machines for the adults.  

After lunch, a group of us went to visit 창덕궁 changdeokgung (Changdeok Palace) which is one of the many palaces situated around Seoul.  There were a lot of families and groups of children with a teacher walking around.  I normally don't have an interest in historical buildings like such, but it was interesting this time because now I could see the buildings which I've seen in historical dramas.  I know, stop talking about dramas so much and live in reality, right?  But I honestly believe that it's because I've seen so many that I can find Seoul so interesting and want to learn more.  Anyway, we spent about two and a half hours walking around the palace when some of the girls were getting cold and so we left.  We split into two groups - one left to go back to the dormitory while the rest of us went to visit the largest music shop in Asia and then get some dinner.  

All in all it was a looot of walking for one day, and my legs are actually kind of tired.  But I'm not as tired as I thought I would be, which is excellent news since we're going to visit Seoul Tower tomorrow and plan on walking some more.  I'm going to be so super fit :)

SOME OBSERVATIONS

Okay, so after being in Seoul for a week here are some things which I've noticed.

Firstly, no one holds the door open for you.  Well, none of the local students do anyway.  The teachers, other international students and exchange students do, but if you're walking behind a bunch of people then expect to get door swung into your face if you're not careful.

Secondly, almost all the professors (almost of all of mine anyway) will discourage you from taking their class.  I think it might be because all my classes are the ones being taught in English so they don't want that many people, but I don't really know about that.  Lots of professors who are teaching the English classes openly say that they don't want to do it - they were 'forced' to do it by the university.  So I think local people don't really like to speak English.

Thirdly, every girl pretty much dresses the same except for their shoes.  There are four types - high heels, converse sneakers, boots/booties or ugg boots.  For the boys it's almost like a uniform - cap, baseball jacket and jeans.  You'll get some guys looking fashionable but they're mostly in the Arts department so go figure.

And lastly?  All the things you've seen in dramas? The coffee cups with straws, the modification of faces, the super-packed subways, the drunk ahjusshis who go very red in the face?  IT'S ALL TRUE.  Oh, but no crazy, four-way love story.

Here, have a bagel.

HAPPY TIMES

Yesterday I went back to Idae with Heidi where we spent four hours shopping in and out of numerous clothes, shoes and bag shops.  It was so insanely freezing during the time when we were there, but it didn't really hinder us that much.  Heidi had never heard of the 'service' system before, so she was happily surprised when a lady outside Etude House offered her a basket with free samples inside them.  'Service' in Korea is pretty much free stuff.  The main reason for service is so that they hope to remain in a customer's mind and hope that the customer will come back.  We both love free stuff (heehee) so we happily took the basket and went inside the shop where we ended up buying a few items and receiving even more 'service'.

Both me and her were looking for specific items - I wanted shoes, jackets, coats, a bag (....and more) and she was looking for boots, gloves and earmuffs - so we kept our eyes out while walking along the streets.  I ended up buying a pair of really pretty flats for 29,000 won (25 AUD) and we both bought some books for university classes.  The mini-mall where we bought our books was really cute.  Downstairs there was a vintage clothes store and upstairs was taken by a fashion brand called codes-combine.  It was really fun shopping with Heidi, mainly because we have similar mindsets when it comes to shopping - 5,000 won rack? Chargeee!!

Today I went to Yongsan with Jooyoung to fix my phone.  My SIM card wasn't working so I couldn't make any phone calls out, but now it's all fixed!  Afterwards she took me to Myeongdong where I had a look around the famous tourist shopping destination.  I was by myself because Jooyoung had to leave for yoga class, but it was still fun.  The items in Myeongdong are definitely overpriced though, probably because of all the tourists which flock there all the time.  If you're looking for a place to shop, I wouldn't really recommend it unless you want to pay more for something which you can get for much less if you go to other places.  But the vibe of it all is very good.  There is one loooong street for unbranded fashion shopping, another street for branded shopping and then another street for food.  I was so tempted to buy food but this line from In Her Shoes kept coming back to me: "Clothes never look any good... food just makes me fatter... shoes always fit."....so I skipped the food and bought another pair of shoes.  heeeeeee :)

More happy things have happened other than shopping though.  My classes started yesterday, and so far I'm finding it to be pretty interesting.  I didn't realise so many Koreans would be taking the courses I was taking - in fact, I had initially thought my classes would be full of exchange students.  Not the case, however.  I have one class where I am the only international student and the rest of them are local Koreans.  Therefore, the teacher said he would have an 80:20 English:Korean teaching style.  I don't know, I really hope I can understand the lectures.  All I need is a pass in all my classes, but I still want to learn as much as possible.  Another good thing is that I've opened up my bank account, so now I have a safe place for all my money.  For the past few days I've been carrying around 2,000,000 won in my bag, occasionally taking some out for my necessary purchases (yes, those shoes were necessary!! :) ).  It wasn't too scary but just inconvenient.  I like carrying cash with me, but not that much...you know?

LAZY UPDATE #3

It's amazing how fast time flies by here, and how comfortable I feel in Seoul when I compare it to when I was in Adelaide.  I remember when I was back from Hong Kong I wrote a post on how strange it felt to be 'home', because it didn't even feel like home.  When I'm walking around in Seoul, even though I'm not fluent in the language and I've never been here in my life, it feels like home. I know that you might think Oh, it's because you idolise the dramas and kpop singers, but that's not the reason why I like it here.  There's just a feeling of familiarity (no doubt due to the dramas) and ease when I look around here.

On Sunday I went  to Seoul International Baptist Church all by myself (no, I did not get lost).  The journey there was incredibly wet due to the persistent rain, which also made it extremely freezing.  I arrived there in the end though, with the help of three Filipino men who answered my questions in English.  The church was a mixture of foreign and local people.  I overheard a few conversations (yes, my speciality is pretending I'm absorbed in something else while actually listening intently) and a lot of the foreign people are English teachers.  It didn't really surprise me, because the only real jobs which foreign people who can't speak Korean can take part in are teaching jobs.  The pastor wasn't there that morning, so instead they had invited one of the church members to give his testimony which turned out to be really powerful.  If you ask me about it in person later on I'll tell you, but it's really too long to be written here.  I went back to the dormitory after church, but not before being trapped inside the subway station for half an hour....but that's a long story too.

Sunday night was when all the exchange students at CAU met up.  We went to a chicken place near the university and introduced ourselves to each other.  It was fun meeting all the new students.  It ended up being so loud in the restaurant that we were kind of yelling at each other across, even though we were sitting opposite each other on the table.  There was a lot of fried chicken, beer, and soju going on during the meet-up, which is pretty much the standard Korean meet-up I guess.  I left at around 10:30 because I was tired and wanted to sleep, but I think the others didn't leave until about 12:30 am.

Monday was a pretty long day.  I met up with my buddy an hour before our orientation to try and open a bank account, except it turns out that we can't open a bank account until we've been in the country for more than five days.  Or until the immigration office sends the word that we have officially entered the country.  Because I came on a Saturday, and public offices don't open on weekends (wow, I thought that was only Australia being lazy), my details hadn't gone through yet.  It was pretty disappointing, but what could I do? Absolutely nothing, so I went to buy food to eat before the orientation.  Orientation was informative but also long.  I did take a Korean-language test though, and now I'm going to register for the Intermediate Korean class. Yay, watching dramas paid off!

At night time, a group of us went out to 동대문 dongdaemun to eat dinner and have a look around.  We first went to a shopping complex called Doota, which is similar to the Mongkok shopping centres.  There are little stores of clothes, bags and shoes everywhere on each floor, each selling pretty similar stuff for similar (and high) prices.  We had only gone our separate ways in the mall - girls and boys group - for about ten minutes when the boys called us and said that they had seen all they needed.  I guess frills and laces aren't really their thing.  

We decided to walk to the older markets for the culture and food.  It was a twenty-minute walk, but I think because it was so cold that no one really noticed.  When we got there, all we could see were stalls and stalls of 순대 soondae (black sausages) and 족발 jokbal (pork hock) along with various other items which I don't know the names of.  We came upon this ahjumma selling pupa (yes, pupa.  Like larvae.  yes, larvae.), and bought a cup because some people were interested in tasting it.  It tasted like beans, but the texture was so .....ugh.  Not nice.  

Although we had eaten some street food beforehand, we were still hungry so we went into a little place where their speciality was 전 jeon.  It's kind of like a savoury pancake, and they make it with different ingredients like seafood or kimchi.  Apparently, the jeon and 막걸리 makgeolli (rice wine) are like peanut butter and jam (celery and cream cheese, cheese and crackers, yin and yang...) so five bottles of makgeolli were ordered and shared among the ten of us.  It was a fun night, but the dormitory curfew is 1 am so we came back by around 12.

And finally, yesterday!  Yesterday I spent the morning with three of the exchange students (one girl - Heidi and two guys - Gauthier and Pontus) looking at the fitness room behind our dorms and then introducing Modern Family to the two boys, who had never heard of the show before (because they're from Belgium and Sweden) and had thought that the show would be 'girly'.  I don't think so. The fitness room has a few machines inn it, some weights and yoga mats.  Heidi started teaching the two boys some moves in yoga, which then led to Pontus telling us that he was a former gymnast in Sweden! It's not longer just one new thing a day anymore here.  It's ten new things a minute.

After lunch, I went out to meet up with a friend who is studying at Ewha Girls University as an exchange student.  He (yes, he...they accept male exchange students for some reason) took me to a place in Yongsan were he needed to change his phone, and where I ended up renting my phone from as well.  We also ran into more exchange students from different universities, including a couple of girls who could speak Cantonese!  Like I said, ten new things.  After that we went to visit his university campus at Ewha.  The streets outside the campus are pretty much a girl haven -make up, clothes, shoes, bags, skin care, street food and coffee shops galore.

His university campus looked like something out of a fairytale.  The buildings were really historic-looking and looked even prettier because of the autumn-like surroundings.  He took me around the campus and showed me his dormitory.  It was nice, but my dormitories are nicer.  We met up with his sister and his friend for dinner, where we ate a buffet Korean barbeque.  It's very different to the buffet barbeque in Adelaide, where the meat they give you isn't really....nice.  Here the meat was the authentic fatty pork, beef, and pig skin.  We ate a lot tonight, but I haven't had meat in almost five days so it was nice to eat some again.

I really need to start updating more often.  This Lazy Update thing isn't really working because I write too much for each event - maybe I should change it to Congested Update?  I also need to start writing my personal devotions up again.  This isn't just supposed to be a diary of my physical life but also my spiritual life as well.

P.S. Oh! While we were walking around the streets outside Ewha, I saw 나르샤 Narsha, 서인영 Seo In Young and 선화 Sunhwa (from Secret) filming their variety show 'Heroes'.  They seemed to be doing some kind of cooking activity, but they were finishing up by the time I saw them.