January 25, 2013
What happened before I left 대한민국 ;)
Hey everyone ^^
I know it’s been a while but I’ve also had to ‘adapt’ a little back into my old society.. for example. I still bow at people when exiting or entering a store. My little sister actually noticed and laughed at me, siblings can be so great sometimes 😉
Furthermore, I would like to show you what the food I ended up making, looked like;
This is called ‘Rapokki’ it’s basically ttokbokki (spicy rice cakes) and ramyun (noodles) together. I was also in the kitchen for a short while.. and this was the only time I actually managed to ‘cook’ in Korea ^^.
The intention of this evening was to show us how to make certain Korean dishes, and it was quite interesting to learn. I’ve been trying to make my favorite jige (soup) back home, but it hasn’t been a success yet as I don’t know how to get the soup water right.. Anyways this evening was quite interesting since we went to Seoul station to shop at the Lotte mart there ^^. After this I went to Myeong-dong for a cat café with someone I met during the food preperations. I also received a homemade card from someone there, the text was really touching ^^.
The next day I went to dinner with my friend, we visited her favorite café (Café On) the daughter of the woman that owns it, is quite fond of her.. so whenever we go there we also end up getting things for ‘service’ which is quite nice. I tried the strawberry latte there, and it’s one of my favorite drinks there ^^.
Furthermore, on Tuesday, I went to COEX. For once, I was walking around and just taking my time without having a real specific purpose.. this lead to me ending up in the Hyundai department store that is apparently linked to it. I hadn’t eaten yet by that time..and for some reason fate led me to this on this particular day.. I first ended up eating them when I got home though..
And looking at this made me a little greedy too, but luckily I didn’t buy anything there :
![IMG_2235[1]](https://koreantime.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/img_22351.jpg)
Furthermore I shopped a little for accessories and other things that are only limited to Korea ^^.
Wednesday I had my own ‘farewell party’with some of my friends. We went to a restaurant that made it’s own pizza’s. The owner had been in Italy to study; and I got to say.. the pizza’s were delicious ^^. I actually lost my footing while we were on our way to the station, and made a sound that vaguely resembled ‘Nyah!’ one of the people I was with, misunderstood and said ”When you die, you really want your last words on the epitaph to be ”Nyark?!” Hopefully not ;). But it was really slippery downhill that night.
Friday I went to Tapgol park with one of my friends, we were supposed to meet up at Jonggak station, and we had lunch together (breakfast for me) it was the only place where they sold homemade pork cutlet. I also walked around there, the snow made it look beautiful, I also saw the ‘Avoid horse alley’ something that has been a few centuries old, and just like the park, just in the middle of the fast-pacing society and high buildings that Seoul stands for.
My final Saturday in Seoul was spent.. shopping.. I really had a few ‘last things’ I had been meaning to buy, but never managed to get there. So in the afternoon we went to the student district and went around Ehwa to have breakfast. Moreover, we decided to go to Myeong-Dong to visit the ‘Goodovening’ cupcake store. They were delicious, but they didn’t look as awesome as the ones we had the next day ;).
Sunday we went to the national museum of Korea, I’ve seen a lot of interesting artifacts there too, and I got to say, Asian art is completely different from what European art is like. Moreover, even the lay-out of the museum was quite large and intimidating, unlike some of our museums back home. Another interesting thing, was that the entry was free, but it was also evident that Samsung had invested a lot of money in this. This showed as .. 80% of the tv’s that were in the museum were Samsung-owned. In the evening I had promised to meet my teachers for dinner, so we met up at Jonggak station. The funny part is, that I’d already been to the same restaurant and eaten the same thing as we were about to eat that day ^^. The first time was with one of my friends her buddy. who had told me that the food there was delicious. For some reason, the chicken and the vegetables really taste like my mum’s cooking.. so I definitely wasn’t complaining ^^. Afterwards we went to a café and after this we had to say goodbye. I actually went home by bus that day, which was quite an interesting experience too.
Tuesday I met up with another friend of mine, we had lunch together around Sinchon, afterwards we went for samgyupsal (pork belly fried in a table) with lettuce and gochujang. I had seen the photo booths before, but I wasn’t sure what to do with it at first.. my friend and I went in and took a few pictures, and edited them too.. they are incredibly cute ;). Afterwards I went to buy a card for my buddy’s grandmother. She had been really good to me ^^.
On Wednesday, it really was my final day in Seoul. I met up with my buddy and we cancelled my phone subscription. Afterwards she went to class, and I went to City hall to meet up with one of my friends. She was already in the library, I guess it was my way of saying goodbye to the city.. I found her and we talked for a short while, I walked past the entrance of one of the palaces, and ordered something to eat first. Afterwards she had to go to work, and I walked to one of the bookstores, above ground since.. I really wanted to see certain landmarks once more before leaving. I finished packing and threw out a lot of things. I also made a few bags for the people who were staying for longer for things that might supposedly come in handy later (cookies, paper, necessities). At 5 pm I went to the housing office and handed them back my keys, my laundry basket and my access key. At 5.15 I was back up since I forgot to bring my UOS jacket (left it in my closet, it’s so good to be me sometimes -.-) Luckily I had someone to help me with the suitcases, and I was severely grateful to this person for helping me out and even waiting while I ran to get my jacket ^^. At around 6 pm my friend who had finished her classes for the day, met us at the entrance and we could head off towards the airport.
We had dinner at the airport and went to the hotel, there we relaxed a little bit until we went back to the airport at 10 am the next morning. I was in time for check-in at 11, so she could have breakfast with me; and then head off back to school.. I spent the rest of the hours at my own leisure while waiting for the airplane. When I got back home I think I experienced something that could resemble a reverse-culture shock, but more on that later.
Thanks for reading this incredibly long post. And.. until next time!
Love,
-Kirti
November 11, 2012
This week’s minireport
Hey everyone,
It’s been almost a week, right? This week has been reasonably confusing for me; hence I haven’t had the time to put down my thoughts on paper. I’m thinking of possibly travelling on my own on the days that I don’t have classes next week. (Who knows, new experiences might do me good ^^)
This week I’ve been to the ‘Grand Children’s park’ for the second time. It was more amazing than it was last time, as my time limit was not so bad this time; and thankfully the weather was a lot better too. I went with a korean friend of mine, and we were both surprised to find that there were actually ‘wild’ animals in this park.
Usually when we go to see.. elephants or tigers, there is an entrance fee, right? Not for this park (as far as I managed to find). We just took our time walking around and relaxing, it was really nice ^^. However, taking the bus still scares me, even though I have to do it a lot lately if I want to get anywhere XD.
I actually had a lot more fun in the afternoon than in the evening, I was supposed to go to the station; then when I am there I get told to take another bus, as I am already tired from just walking around all day, in combination with the weather getting worse over the course of the day, didn’t help my mood much. Guess what? I actually ended up outside of Seoul. Not far, but still.. I actually was thinking to myself (before taking the other bus) “it won’t be that far, I’m hungry so I can eat close to the station…” but, nevertheless, the meeting was interesting.
Monday I went to my East Asian History classes, one of the hardest classes I’ve been having. Definitely. Firstly, I usually don’t sleep that early on Sunday (because, really?). And then Monday morning I try to pay attention, I honestly do, but just listening to this professor is difficult. His accent makes it hard as he doesn’t speak loudly or articulate, then when he doesn’t quite know what to say he says ‘ahh ahh ahh’ and then continues, whatever he is saying. For us it’s a challenge to just count how many times he loses his story during a class. Moreover, he also tends to turn the lights off to show us video’s while we’re all tired. Then when the lights go on again, it becomes even harder to focus..
Finally; our Korean teacher is teaching us, how to say when or what happened in the past. The funny part is that this is also a small exhibition of culture (I think), as a lot of exchange students asked themselves why we would learn the past first. Since usually we end up learning grammatical constructions such as ‘present continuous’ or ‘present perfect’ but, this is quite interesting too ^^. One of my friends was also surprised that we didn’t know how to tell time, or the days of the week yet (I secretly started studying the days of the week a while ago). But that is also happening now.
The Koreans even use both numerical systems to tell time, so confusing sometimes 
I’ve got to practice more with this, it’s a real challenge -.-. Tuesday, I met the jimjilbang, and well guys, I got to say; I wish I could make this place my second home. A jimjilbang is basically a sauna, you get a key which grants you access to two lockers, one for your clothes and one for your shoes. Also, you get awkwardly colored clothes that you can wear during your stay. Before going into the bath you have to wash your whole body first under one of the many showers. (I believe the Japanese people have a similar custom ^^) so it wasn’t that weird. Anyways, we went to the one in Hongdae (student district) and it was nice, it also had a gym, massage chairs and places to nap. (more on that later..)
Wednesday was reasonably uneventful, so I decided to go to Cheonggyecheon (the stream that a lot of couples go to) but this time I went with a group of around 100 people I did not know beforehand. I read about it on the internet, two hours before the meeting was scheduled, but I still managed to be 20 minutes early. The stream was beautifully decorated, and the people were friendly.
After this I went to Itaewon to visit a friend, sadly, the people at her workplace left late, so we slept at.. guess what.. another jimjilbang! So awesome. We arrived there at 2 am, did the usual sauna things, and then went to sleep in the ‘nap room’ to get up only three hours since we both had to be at school at 9. So after a quick breakfast, we went back ‘home’.
I had my ‘Special topics in Asian studies’ class, which was nice this time. It’s one of the classes I enjoy going to, even though it starts at 9:15, my earliest class that week XD. After this, I went to work, and even though I’d sort of forgotten about the Korean speech contest, someone still managed to convince me to join. I know my Korean skill only extends to having basic conversations in Korean, and understanding around 50% of what they talk about, I still entered. I hope I did a good job, even though my ‘speech’ was reasonably short. We got a really cute phone accessory as a participation prize though ^^. I couldn’t have done this without the help of my friends who were translating what I wanted to say though ;).
Today I don’t have much of a plan, I just got to meet up with one of the groups I have a presentation for… and just.. relax? I suppose. It’s going to be an interesting weekend. I might go to the movies for the first time!
Don’t forget to tell me how you guys are doing!
-Kirti
October 1, 2012
Everland!
Hey everyone 😀
Yesterday I went to Everland ^^. And as usual when we’re doing something fun.. I had to get up really early. So again, the alarm clock wanted to sing me a song at 6 am again. I luckily bought myself some noms before going back from Sinchon the day before. I had two croissants for breakfast, and it was really cold outside!
We made it to Everland at around 9.20 in the morning, we had to take one bus to Gangnam station, and from there another bus to get to Everland, finally there was the shuttle bus. So we waited.. the gates first opened at 10:07 while the official park opening time is actually 10 am. There were a lot of people queuing for some reason (I’m not really used to it) . Because Halloween will be soon, the park was decorated in some sort of ‘Halloween style’
After this we went on our first water ride, roughly.. twenty minutes after we entered the park. My biggest nightmare would be my bag getting wet, so I had another plastic bag (in my bag) to save them. The water ride was much like the ‘splash’ ride we have in Duinrell at home, just less wet. I also went on the Rolling X-train, it’s been operating since 1988 (The Olympics in South Korea) doesn’t make it less intense though. My head was still spinning after I came out of the ride (frontal flips in the morning syndrome?).
After this our group split up, because I didn’t feel like going to this rollercoaster:
Instead I went to the petting zoo. I prefer cuddly and cute any time! I also managed to see a white tiger cub, and white tigers and a (bengal?) tiger which were all sleeping. I also fed some budgies, it was like being at home for a few seconds. They were all over the place ^^. Also, there were a lot of fennec’s. For the people who don’t know what those are, they are incredibly cute (or at least I’d like to think so) :
Furthermore it surprised me that some of the enclosures didn’t feel like an enclosure at all. Like, things that would have had fences and glass in Europe, were ‘just’ out in the open. Sometimes for the good, and sometimes I’d worry a little bit as to whether this was a good idea or not. But that’s just me ^^.
We met up again, and after going to the Amazon express together (another water ride) some of us decided to go to the ‘dangerous’ rollercoaster (T-express), while we took the horror maze. The point of the attraction was to scare the hell out of people, which it did for me; not at first but as the tour progressed I did feel some changes in breathing and the beating of my heart. The people up front weren’t bothered by anything because hey, they had the flashlight! But for the people like me, who were in the middle and in the back, stuff was ten times scarier. (I forgot that true Asian horror is in fact.. scary)
We had been to the kids version earlier that day, so I didn’t expect much of it to be scary. Furthermore, someone in the back freaked me out by not staying in line at all times, I mean.. if the shoulder on your hand is removed (inconsistently) while you are walking, wouldn’t that freak anyone out? There was the usual rattling and scaring of people, but it got freaky when they started honestly stalking us near the end. Like.. touching and actually chasing. I guess everyone had their own way of dealing with all of this. One of the things was particulary scary..
You know those things they have in a room before surgery? Someone was lying on such a bed, and at first glance, you think.. alright. The person up front moves his flashlight over it and nothing moves; so you assume you’re safe. AND THEN the person either jumps up from behind the table, gets up from the table or there is a lot of rattling and random leg-grabbing going on. Anyways, the video that you’re shown when you’re queuing is more funny than scary, but it’s a little more different when you’re past the halfway point inside.
It’s a new ride, and I guess that in the case that you’re up for some funny stuff (which I usually am) you should try it ^^. Only there is one thing that is written at the entrance ‘To retreat, sit on the floor and make an X with your arms, help will arrive’. At least the last part of the sentence is somewhat comforting :D.
Finally, after all of this; we decided to go home again.
Until (probably) tomorrow!
– Kirti
Experiences in South Korea, 2012 / 2013 