LAZY UPDATE #9

I was looking at my calendar and counting back the days to Sports Day and I can't believe that it's only been a week and a half since that sunny, winning, tiring day.  I was having dinner with Amber (pastor) two nights ago, and we came upon the subject of time; when you're in another country, time doesn't seem to follow the rules.  It feels as though time stretches out for longer than it really is - one month can feel like six months, one week like three weeks.  It's also a problem when I do lazy udpates because I have to think for a while about what I actually did during the week, instead of just going Oh! I did this this and this.  Or is that just old age catching up with me?

So for the Friday and Saturday after Sports Day, I rested for two days straight.  My voice was pretty much gone and my body felt like it needed three million years of sleep.  On Friday I only had one class at night time, and on Saturday I stayed inside my room the whole day.  I had a team project due on Monday so I was working on it from morning till evening until I finally finished it.  The project was to re-write parts of an episode of Friends - my team doesn't really speak English so after we brainstormed together, they wrote the script in Korean and I had to translate it back into English and 'Friends-ize' it.

On Sunday after church we went to the Hi! Seoul International Festival.  There were lots and lots of people there - mainly foreigners- and there were stands from many different countries standing alongside each other. There was also a food street where each country had its own little tent serving the national or most popular food.

We had a public holiday on Tuesday because it was Buddha's Birthday (The Coming Of Buddha Day) - so no classes again! Looking back, I probably should have gone to a celebration parade of Buddha or something related to that public holiday just to see how Korean festivals work.  But I didn't, so I guess it's too late.  That night I had a celebration dinner with my volleyball team in a restaurant in Myeongdong.  We had barbeque (I think it's customary to have barbeque for every celebratory thing ever here ....) and then we went to this amazing coffee/chocolate shop nearby.  It was so much fun because they were ALL Korean (i.e. their English isn't fluent), which is a surprising difficult situation for me to find myself in since most of the friends I've made can speak English to a pretty high level.

On Thursday night I met up with a friend who I had only really met once, but because we both speak Cantonese it was like there was this cultural bond between us which made it easier to become friends.  She came to Korea to take a make-up course and she invited me to be her 'model' for the night.  Over the past few years I've developed an interest in make-up - not me putting it on my face, but how to use what for the right occasions and how to match it with an outfit (roiworld...cough) - so I was pretty excited when I saw the make-up classroom and everything.

I didn't have any classes on Friday because my night class was cancelled for the week, so I took the time to go shopping in Myeongdong.  I was originally looking for a pair of sport shoes a la the Korean-style New Balance type, but I couldn't find any which I liked so I ended up buying other stuff instead.  I also met up with Amber for dinner in Apgujeong for barbeque (!!! ^^ ) and then we went to this reeeally nice coffee shop around the area.  The prices were kind of ....pricey, but the atmosphere was so nice.

Saturday was the second cultural excursion for the international students.  We went to the DMZ and an exhibition museum near the Blue House.  The DMZ was .....okay.  It wasn't super exciting but I guess it's part of the whole "I went to Korea" thing - it's just one of the places you have to visit when you're in Korea.

After the excursion I went out with my church friends for dinner and noraebang, which was so much more fun.      I didn't take any photos though, unfortunately, but I did get to hear one of my friends (who's quite demure and sweet) rap for the first time!

Yesterday was one of my friend's birthday.  She and the other exchange students had gone clubbing on Saturday night to celebrate, but since I was out with my other friends (and clubbing really isn't my thing anyway) I promised I'd spend the afternoon with her on Sunday.  Since the weather was so beautiful, we went bike-riding along the Han River and stopped half way for some ice-cream.  For dinner we met up with some other people and went to Hongdae.

In other news, I've been feeling tired a lot lately.  I'm thinking it's because of my eating choices and lack of exercise.  I always makes plans to go to the gym in the morning or at night time, but then I never do because either I'm lazy or I have homework I was supposed to have finished before.  T_T

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.

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.