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

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.  

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?