"Randoms"

Point: South Korean culture is overly concerned with appearances. People get surgeries to look better, buy Western brands to look richer, and follow trends to (not) stand out. Social appearances are dually noted. Being alone means you're either on your way to meet someone or an outcast with no friends.

Case: People go further out of their way to eat in groups. For me, this has led to a lot of instances of meeting what we refer to as "randoms." Randoms are people you have never met before, but still hang out with for a meal or an evening. This could lead to a friendship or a one day deal.

These have turned out positively and negatively, and in Korea... there's always a third option somewhere in between: "Awkward." It goes without saying that I have a few stories about awkward randoms. Here goes the most requested: The BHC Ajusshis.

So one night on a mission to find food, I go downstairs to 7Eleven and look around. Unhappy with my options, I leave the establishment and head back toward my room. Before I could touch the key to get back in the building, a middle aged man stops me and invites me to come to BHC Chicken (next door) to have some chicken, and talk to his American friend, and have a beer, "if you like beer."

For the record, the "stranger danger" alarm went off in my head for a little while. But sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between normal and odd in Korea; there often is no line (just as there is no sense of personal spaces, you would quickly learn on the subway). Seeing that I had nothing better to do, and the chance of actual danger in a widely supervised and familiar area right outside the apartments was pretty low, it couldn't hurt to pop by and say hello (yeah, I'm not making this sound too great, but work with me here. crime is rare. the end).

I go out and follow the man into BHC, where there was a bigger crowd than normal. The table was full of middle aged Korean men. At this point, I wondered where the American was. Oh, and by the way, I was wearing pjs. I insa the men (and one woman). I find that these men all graduated from the same class except for one older man. He appeared to be in his 70s. They were meeting together at DMC to welcome back a classmate who has been staying in the US.

Chicken and beers are brought out and they all insist that I have some. I decline at first and only take it after the second offer (Korean custom). And we begin to talk about who I am, what I do, how I like it here, and finally what they do. Get this guys:

The old man is the son of a famous architect in Korea who built Ewha Univ. He has since been in the US, and has retired about a decade ago.

One man is a franchise designer.

Another is a travel agency CEO.

Television chef.

Corporate President.

There were many more men, but I have since forgotten their professions. I believe one of them was a famous singer's father. It was hard to tell from their broken English. I got a business card from the man that invited me in. They also gave me a Korean name. In class, I just put my name into Korean characters: Teh-Sa. It's not a real Korean name. The one they gave me was believably Korean (too real for me to feel comfortable using): Lim Tae-Hee. If I ever need a pen name, this would be it.

So that's the story of the ajusshis: free dinner and a few corporate connections all from being at the right place at the right time. I've been told to call them up and talk to them, but the guy that gave me the card was a bit strange and overly friendly (who asks a stranger to join them for dinner when there's already a big group? eh... they just wanted to see English in action). However, the other men were all adorable. It'd be nice to hang out with them again. I saw the one who came from the US not too long ago down at 7Eleven. He will be here for a while. Perhaps I will get to see them all again. Who knows? Korea is all about spontaneity.

오아~ 진짜 미국 사람 이다!

So someone needs to email me when I don't keep posting. I realize it's been forever since I last updated. And SO much stuff has happened since. I have quite a list of things to talk about.

I just got back from school. Er... shopping, too. And eating. And exploring Edae, I suppose. My friend, Emma, wanted to go look for yarn after class. I briefly considered the 25 degree weather, but thought I could rough it. As it turns out, 25 degrees is hella cold. But our adventure yielded no yarn, but rather the discovery of two bubble tea shops, boong-oh-bang (fish-shaped, red bean-filled bread), and, unfortunately, a dish I now know not to get.

There's a restaurant that DMC Ville Apartments kids tend to go to called Kimbap ChunGook ("Kimbap Heaven," AKA "Kimbap Forever Palace," as named by Jessica). I made it a mission not to eat the same 3 meals all year by taking a menu sheet and marking random dishes to get each time. Today, I picked one that ended in "tang," meaning some kind of soup. Little did I know, it was some kind of large intestine. Yummy. I ate half before I decided to call it quits.

Lately I've been busy with school and trips and meeting people. It's hard to squeeze in time to sit and compose meaningful blogs in spare time. I barely get time to myself at all. But I will try harder to write at least once a week, before memories become too distant to recall. If you notice some slacking, give me a slap on the wrist. Please. I'll sum up some recent notable mentions:

• I'm applying for photography contests now. Hopefully I can get something published somewhere.
• It's freezing outside. The next time water comes down, it should be frozen. Yay snow!
• Tomorrow, I'm going star gazing to see the meteor shower. However this means sitting in the frozen air in the countryside somewhere. You can't be in Seoul and see stars, not unless a massive power outage happens.
• No swine flu yet. But two girls next door got it. They were quarantined at the top of the boy's tower.
• To clear things up: I don't live in a hut. I live on the 11th floor of an apartment in the DMC: digital media city. This means LED signs and modern art buildings. It's the most tech-savvy streets in Seoul, except for maybe Gangnam. But Seoul is very advanced. And crammed full of people. Out of the 50 million people in Korea, 23 million live in this city.

Everything else deserves a full post. So guys, here's my list of things to cover:

• beer and chicken ajusshis
• learning korean
• awkward situations
• korea: the land of juxtapositions
• japan
• transportation (bricks, cars, subs)
• shopping addictions

Be prepared!

Getting Sick in Korea

The world is in a frenzy about H1N1, and every cough and handshake seems like a biohazard. Actually being one of the walking biohazards ha been quite an eye opener. I've been waiting a few days to share this story about my experiences as an ill person in Korea. Now that the tests results are in, I can disclose it to you.

Friday and Saturday was YonKo Jun. As expected, there was lots of screaming and walking and jumping and dancing involved. I wore myself out. Though there was much to do Saturday night, I left early after finishing the "train game" (i.e.--begging for food, see here). I probably went to bed by 11. When I woke up the next morning, I ached all over. I could barely walk without holding the wall. Some would say I had a gangsta swagga. But all in all, I felt horrible. My voice was fading, my feet were killing me. I took it all as aftershock from the weekend. I stayed home and played hookie from church (I've been church shopping for a while now). Instead I worked on the computer and watched Twilight and Ghost Rider with Korean subtitles on TV with my friends in their apartment.

The next day, I managed to get myself up and go to school. We watched a Korean movie, called A Single Spark, about human rights in Korea from the 1960's to to 1996. As much as I love Asian film, I couldn't find much interest in this one. I immediately left class, ate lunch, and hit the couches in first floor New Millennium Hall. The day dragged on, and I dragged myself back to the apartments where I ate chicken nuggets from the restaurant downstairs boasting advertisements featuring DaeSung from Big Bang.

The next day, I stayed home. Things got worse, and I just stayed in bed the entire day. When my suitemates got back, an intervention went down. They expressed how concerned they were (I'm still not too sure if it was for them or for me, both are understandable) and that I should go to the hospital. [On a side note: In Korea, people don't go to a doctor's office, they go to the nearest clinic or hospital. So when I say hospital, it's not like I was dying]. They call the RD who then calls the program director and they come to talk to me about going that night. I put up an argument against it using the excuse that I don't have the money (legit) and that I'd get over it anyhow.

I lost. Next thing I know, I'm waiting in a mask for a cab to come pick me up and whisk me away to the ER (since it was after hours, maybe about 8 or 9pm). David walks by the lounge and the first question he asks is, "It's not confirmed or anything, is it?" The RD calls my friend Emma to go wait for me there with the program director. Eight bucks later (8,000 won), I'm in the ER explaining my symptoms to the International intern. He had a funny way of talking, as if he was worried about having to talk to me or that maybe in the next 2 minutes he had some horrible news to share. Again, both are likely.

So they bring me to their makeshift H1N1 ward. It's right outside of the ER through the double doors right next to the EMS lane. A few rows of chairs faced some fold out tables with laptops and usual doctor's supplies like tongue depressors and glove boxes. There were probably more hand sanitizer dispensers than there were people in the ward. Everyone had to put on a mask (so far I was rolling three people deep: Emma, the RD, and Suzanne, the CIEE program director). I got my temp checked, my medical background reviewed, and my American insurance card handed over. After all the paperwork was done, and Suzanne paid for the registration fee, the doctor told us all the tests he wanted me to get done. "It would cost about 1,000,000 won." Suzanne haggled them into just doing the 500,000 won H1N1 swab.

At this point, my friend Jessica had heard that I was in the hospital and ran over to check in. We were still waiting on the meds to come out and Suzanne to again come back from paying the rest of the cost (all of which insurance will cover, but you have to pay up front in Korea). Meanwhile, the three of us joke around in the waiting area. There weren't many other people in the waiting area. Most people come during the day to avoid extra fees. But there was a girl sitting up on one of the two beds behind a screen in the corner and a little boy in a Spiderman jacket with his father waiting in the row behind us.

The doctor comes out with some baggies with pills in them. I look at the labels written in Korean. The first one I couldn't make out (I've since stared at the letters long enough to realize that it says "allegra") and the second one was named in English: codeine. I didn't realize what it was at the time, but everyone had the same reaction: "good stuff."

On the way back, my friends treat me to some soup from Kimbap Chungook ("Kimbap Heaven"), but we fondly call it Kimbap Forever Palace (copyright Jessica). I then felt the awkwardness of wearing pajamas in public in Korea. Unlike in the US, people never leave the house indecent. Ever. So I had to suck it up and play the role of the silly American who leaves the house in inappropriate clothing.

Since then, I stayed home alone working or watching TV. Though I hear codeine is supposed to knock you out, I only get about 3 hours of sleep per night, plus a few naps during the day. My room mate is amazed that I'm always awake when she goes to sleep and awake when she gets up. I visit my friends downstairs in the evenings, but even they seemed to have to pretend not to be scared. When I walked over to the 7Eleven, I would get stares (even more than just being white in Korea) because of the mask, my badge of illness. It's a thing that makes people go quiet when the elevator doors open and they see a masked person on the other side. Getting that kind of treatment all of a sudden isn't that heartening, especially when trying to recover.

My family had a panic because of things posted on my Facebook. I had to call them and stretch the truth a bit. They knew I was sick, but I just threw in that I already knew it wasn't swine flu and that everyone was just joking, it wasn't that serious. Things like that. Meanwhile, I was holding my breath hoping that I was right.

The results came back today. Suzanne called me on my newly activated phone (yay! no more getting lost in Seoul!) and told me she talked to the intern. The results came back negative. Both of us were relieved. No one had to be quarantined. (I'm not kidding. That's what would happen to all of us in the apartments). Tomorrow I plan on going back to school, but I'm still not sure if I'll be taking the mask. Luckily, tomorrow is movie day and Korean class at the end. But it's straight home and no night life so I can rest to make sure I save energy for the Asia Song Festival on Saturday. Lets hope I'm all better by then (and that it's not cancelled due to swine flu).

연고전: 사랑하다 연세~

Every year in the fall, Yonsei and its lead competitor, Korea University, hold a series of games over the course of two days. This is what we at Yonsei call YonKo Jun (Yon from Yonsei Dae, Ko from Koryo Dae). Likewise, Korea U calls it KoYon Jun. Brief note: universities are casually shortened to the first syllable and then dae (dae hakkyo=undergraduate college). So Yonsei Dae Hakkyo is called Yondae. Hon-gik Dae Hakkyo is Hongdae.

I'm not the sports type. I don't usually get into the game, or yell or shout. But today I have no voice. Why? Going to the games isn't about watching ball. It's about cheering and dancing for the team. This is where some "culture shock" happened: no one yells profanities at the other team. In fact, when we came back to campus, we saw reds and blues sitting together in a circle eating on the lawn. My friends and I had internal error messages poppingup for a while before we got used to it. But I still didn't really understand whether to cheer with Koryo kids when they chanted yondae or not. I felt mocked, but I didn't think that's what they were trying to do.

The games were a tie, by the way.

YAY! Yonsei and whatnot

So today (er, yesterday. it's 2am right now) was my second day of school at Yondae. I'm taking 3 electives and a beginner's Korean course. The three electives include a comparison of east asian cinemas, an analysis of Korean society and cinema, and a Korea through ethnography class. They all sound interesting, but the ethnography class is stumping me for the moment. Since it's all basically based on freelance field work, I'm not sure what to research. Good news: only Korean class has given text book assignments thus far. Grand total is approaching about 100,000 won for texts (i.e. course readers and Korean books) (also means that it's about 80 USD).

So I was going to make a summary of the excursions and random experiences in chronological order to make up for long lost posts from the past few weeks, but I think I'll just cover some culture shock things.

1. Traffic-- Rush hour is unpredictable. It can happen at any time. Drivers use any space possible to further themselves toward their destination. This includes the sidewalk.

2. Personal space does not exist. You're in the way, you get pushed. Or nudged. Or whatever. Examples: I was on the subway. An old man wanted to sit in the empty seat behind me. He cleared the way by just proceeding to push me further into the aisle. Quick, simple, no one gets hurt. But I don't see why communication is out the window. Second, we were taking a group picture at the tea house and figuring out our arrangement. An ajumma thought I looked out of place so she just grabbed my shoulders and pulled me over about 1.5 feet. I've come to see this as normal to be so close to strangers. They call it "jung."

3. People are way nicer than you'd expect. So far I've had many "conversations" with people that spoke no english, but were willing to help. Examples: when I couldn't pick out shampoo at Home Plus (omg, I must elaborate later), when I got lost for 2 hours getting to a place 15 minutes away from my apartment, when I couldn't find a screwdriver to make my cupboard (the maintenance man took it further and just made it for me =]).

4. Korea doesn't know what day it is. Except restaurants seem to know it's Sunday and close up around DMC. But what I mean is that people go out and drink or eat or club regardless of the day of week. There's always something to do until at least 5am any day of the week. Oh, and jimjilbang is open 24/7 (also another topic to elaborate).

5. Korea has no trash cans. Just piles of trash bags here and there. But recycling and energy saving are a huge deal for in-home sorta stuff. Perplexing, no?

6. Korea doesn't have a concept of sketch. Good restaurant markers could be a neon sign that points to a random floor of a random building, or as little as "the red door by the corner." Restaurant prices are hit or miss it seems. But JunJu was the absolute best prices. We got samgyopsal for about 4,500 won each (==pork slices grilled on the table, eaten in "sanchu" or lettuce leaves with "bap" or rice and kimchi of sorts). Buuut here it could run for 15,000. Depends on where you go. And also how many people you eat with. Food gets complicated. If all else fails, retreat to 7/11. That was a bit of a tangent, but anyway, most of Sincheon and Hongdae appears to be one giant alley. No sidewalks for the most part, esp in Hongdae, and the food stalls and shops make the streets seem like one giant, permanent fair. Pictures to come.

7. Eating or drinking while moving is not a social norm. We ran late and ate our sandwiches on the bus today and got a few funny looks.

8. Also, Korea is obsessed with waffles, Baskin Robins, and Micky Mouse.

Elaborated topics:

Home Plus--Korean wal-mart. It has a full grocery store, bigger than most I've been to in the US. It has a department store on top. School supplies. Furniture and storage. A massive display of children's pillows (which I am SO tempted to raid). Makeup. 23 dollar laundry detergent that goes down to 13 bucks if one gets the Home Plus card (which I need to do soon). It exists in the World Cup Stadium. That gives you an idea of size.

Jimjilbang--Fun once you get over naked people walking around all over the locker room. I didn't partake in the bathhouse part of the shindig, but I did use the hot rooms, which are REALLY hot. Like 45 C hot. Maybe more. I'm still getting used to celsius and metrics. Makes the skin a lot softer though. This place is open 24/7. You can sleep there. Prices go up from 6 bucks for entry to about 9 once it gets late. But you can definitely stay all day. And yes, there is an ice room too. We stalked some Japanese kids playing cards in there last time. It was fun.

But I definitely need to sleep. I shall update again soon.

Quick Update

This program in Korea is keeping us busy busy. I just got the chance to upload my pictures from the recent excursions. There's certainly more to come. I'll write up the past few days tomorrow, probably. Here's the pictures!

Two weeks left and...

So if we look back at the list I made early in the summer, I have done this much

• Visa (pending return flight, to be booked same day this year as departure from Seoul, ie mid-June) Still pending, but sent off
  
• macbook (hopefully) how about... NOT!
  
• Get a little more in shape, just to make my life easier in Korea hah...
  
• Obtain a phone with SIM card (for calling card use) Thank you, Antonius! ♥♥
• Bulk up on wardrobe (I hear clothes are expensive there) $300 shopping spree at Kohls
  
• Immunizations... Tessa won't be getting any Hepatitis A~~

Getting a plane ticket was the bane of my summer. What was the problem? You can't book a flight more than 330 days in advance. I could change the date, but that costs an arm and a leg. Yes, There are student travel agencies, but guess which country they decided to cut back on this year?? So I had to wait til last Saturday to book. Don't worry, I FedExed it asap.

The next catch: the Korean embassy wants me to show that I (i.e. my family) have enough money to stay in Korea for an extended period of time. How? Give them a bank statement showing $3k. Ooooooookay. I got my mom to print of a statement and stuck it in with my visa app. I got a call on Monday that said I needed to show $10k... you know, since I'm staying so long. -___- That made life a mess for about 3 hours of scrambling and scanning documents into pdf. Let's hope they don't show any more inconsistencies.

So other than being soooooper nervous about getting my passport with a pretty little Korean Embassy stamp of approval back in time, I still have to figure out what to pack and begggg my mother to buy me a new lens (est. cost: $250). Please, oh please.

How's everyone else doing? More relaxed than I, I would hope.

[edit] By the way, look at where I will be staying this next year!
DMC Ville

Pik-chas!

I finally got time to play with my camera yesterday~ I uploaded the pictures to my flickr, a photobucket, and a zooomr. Flickr is great and all, but I discovered this upload limit that maaaay be annoying for blogging purposes. I'll either buy a pro account or upload to photobucket from now on... I rather dislike that one though. Too many ads. But I shall let you know what I end up doing.

Most of these pictures are at either Folly Beach or downtown Charleston. Hopefully I'll improve over the summer. I was just playing around with settings for the most part of this album. Here's the link!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/osaycanyonsei/

Post-Freshman Year, Pre-Korea Prep

Yesterday marked the end of my freshman year at Meredith. Now that summer's begun, I'm really able to focus entirely on preparations for departure. I'm researching macbooks, reading up on DSLRs, figuring budgets, making last minute farewell road trip tours, and most importantly absorbing as much Korean language as possible.

Sitting at Korean church (my home away from dorm), I hear various Korean conversations as people pass. I'm hoping that by the time I come back to the States, I will be proficient enough to understand most of them. Sadly, I'm leaving to go home before the end of the semester of hangul hakkyo (Korean school) is over. I wish I could stay longer, but I gotta go home and make some money. To help progress me as far as possible without hangul hakkyo, I'm going to encourage people at my home church in Charleston to talk to me primarily in Korean. It'll be frustrating at first, but I'm sure that it would help me in the long run.

Here's my list for departure:

• Visa (pending return flight, to be booked same day this year as departure from Seoul, ie mid-June)
• macbook (hopefully)
• Get a little more in shape, just to make my life easier in Korea
• Obtain a phone with SIM card (for calling card use)
• Bulk up on wardrobe (I hear clothes are expensive there)
• Immunizations...
  

Fun stuff, but all within reach (the macbook is stretching it, but we'll see how it goes). I'll be at Leadershape from Tuesday to Sunday. That will help me make a good plan to bring my experience back from Korea to Meredith my junior year. Next week should be a lot of fun. There will not be internet, so I hope I can supress my addiction to Facebook and messengers.

I'll keep you guys updated as the summer's preparations progress. I enjoy reading your comments. Feel free to ask questions or give me tips about travel in general.

Happy summer, guys~!

第一

I'm just now getting this blog set up before I leave Raleigh. I have one exam tomorrow in Modern China, and after that I probably will not be back to Meredith campus for a good sixteen months. But instead, I'll be in a wonderful place called Seoul!

This is the link to my flickr account where I will be uploading all of my photos from my beautiful new Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi: http://www.flickr.com/photos/osaycanyonsei/
It's bare for now, but will soon be streaming pretty steadily.