A Ballerina Who Loved a B-Boy

The Ewha PEACE buddies brought a huge group of students to see A Ballerina Who Loves a B-Boy. I'm so glad that I saw this performance. It was really amazing to see people moving like this.

One of the ballerinas changes her lifestyle into the break dance for this guy with the blond hair.

I'm trying to post a video of it too. It's taking some time though

동대문와 노령진을

This is the Dongdaemun gate, one of the oldest parts of Seoul. Brianna, Brooke, and I met with the Brask family in Dongdaemun. We had lunch and did some more shopping in the market. This lady was cooking amazing pancakes from soybean. Mmm.

Then, Brianna, Brooke, and I went to the drum shop so Brooke could finish some business for her dresses.

That night, we went to a 노령진 (fish market). I have tons of pictures of gigantic fish, crab, and lobster. We got to pick out what we wanted and have them kill it for us. Then we brought it to a restaurant below the market and had them cook it for us.

This is the lobster that Brooke bought. It was 85,000 KWN. Below is a picture of it cooked :-)

Sea Cucumbers and Worms

Me with a ginormous crab that was oh so delicious!!!
Some sushi we had cut up an hour before we ate it. Apparently not everyone likes it...
Scallops! The native Korean told us to eat all of the insides, because it's good for one's 'nightlife'.

Our delicious lobster that was swimming peacefully in his tank two hours earlier.
The aftermath:

It really was delicious. I enjoyed all of it! It's probably not something I'd do a whole lot because it's so expensive, but I'd recommend everyone trying it at least once.

Some Random Bits of Information

My Ewha buddy, Youna, brought me out to dinner last night. She thought that we should have western food. So, we had spaghetti with cream sauce and red wine ice for dessert. It was pretty good, obviously not the same as at home. It was a good change though. Youna also bought me a gift from The Body Shop. It's white musk scented body lotion and shower gel. She's so sweet for taking me out and buying me a gift.

I received a small scholarship from Ewha, which supports Korean-adoptees returning to the Motherland. Another girl and I split the total scholarship. It's not a whole lot, but it'll be some nice spending cash.

When I went to open a bank account today, the man said that we had the same birthday. When all the paperwork was finished, he handed me my account book and a box, saying happy belated birthday. How awesome is that?!

Brooke is in Korea! We're going to hang out tonight, I think.

My Roommate is So Thoughtful!

My roomie chose 'Coffey' as her English name. How cool is that?! Anyways, she left last Thursday, super early in the morning. She put a note on my dresser that said her friend was seriously ill, and she was going back to China until Sunday. Poor thing. So, I get back today and she's all excited. She tells me that she got me a present. She goes to her closet and pulls something down from the top shelf. She says, "I think you'll really like it. Directions in English too." So, I look at it, and it's a duck in a bag. Now, I'm thinking "What the hell do I do with a duck?!" All the while, I try to look as excited as she obviously is about the whole thing. So, now I have a duck in a bag on my desk.

UPDATED WITH PICTURES (5/14)

I think it went past the expiration date, because the gases in the bag were quite potent.

My Birfday

Thank you all, who wished me a happy birthday. I had a lame day, but a great night! JongWoo, Simon, and Gilles surprised me with an ice cream cake and a bottle of champagne! It was soooo delicious. I also got Nutella and candy. Erik wrote me a nice note, which was themed. It was fairly obvious that he was listening to "I Can Show You the World" from Aladdin.

My amazing ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins
Look at all the extra food they bought!

Kkotji Beach

This past weekend was busy. On Friday, Bri and I went shopping. Black heels for $10. Then, we went to dinner with Benjamin, Molly, and Nik to celebrate my bday. Woot woot!!

Saturday, Gilles, JongWoo, Simon, and I went to the bus station. We changed out destination many times, but finally decided that we'd go to Kkotji Beach. We went riding on the beach with ATVs, which was super fun!!

We saw the Grandmother and Grandfather rocks, if you want to call them that.

JongWoo wrote my name on the beach!

After all that, we ate spaghetti at this fancy restaurant. I miss spaghetti. It's just not the same. We had fun with some fireworks on the beach.

We rented a room at a pension, which was a single room with mats, blankets, a small kitchen, and bathroom. It was cheap, so I suppose it wasn't terrible.

Happy White Day

Today in Korean class, Peter brought Hershey kisses for all the girls. He said "(girl's name) shi, I want to give you a kiss..." It was really funny. During out break, German Guy leaves a box of chocolates for Loud Girl. The last two people to come back were German and Loud. Loud walks in first, finds the class talking about her box of chocolates and looks confused. German walks in a few minutes later, after the entire class has returned. He turns radish red and has a silly smirk on his face. Loud Girl was super embarrassed and didn't know what to do. She tries to play it cool and offers other students some of her chocolate. I actually felt bad for Loud Girl today.

This past week has been fairly uneventful. I've been busy with homework and trying to catch up on sleep during the day. Some evenings are filled with the hilarious company of Brianna and meeting her friends.

JungIn, JongWoo, Simon, and I ate sushi one night. The top of the bar rotated with plates of different types of sushi. So, you can choose what you want to eat and how much. Here are some ridiculous pictures of how much we ate. Simon and JongWoo are proud of their accomplishment.

Brianna and I have made a habit of eating ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Remember: ice cream is the universal solvent.

The Weekend

I met with Brianna Friday afternoon. (What a long week!) Brianna and I went out to eat with some of her former classmates. I have found that my comprehension is better than my speaking skills. I can follow a conversation far easier than trying to contribute, other than laughing at what is going on. We ran into one of Bri's roommates, Molly and her brother, Ben on the way to lunch. So, we all ate lunch together. I wish I could remember what I ate. It was good, nonetheless. Anyways, we went out for coffee near Ewha. I got a 스트라배리 브리자드 (strawberry blizzard), which was mighty tasty.

Molly, Bri, and I went to Insadong to go shopping.

We saw dragon's beard candy (video above) and spaghetti being made from scratch.

It was sweeeet. There also was a Starbuck's, which was spelled in Hangul on the storefront. It's the only Starbuck's in Korea not to have the Latin alphabet. It's something to do with Insadong being extremely traditional, and the only way for the coffee place to come in was to do it this way.

Later, Bri and I met lots of her friends who are Korean-adopted. We ate delicious hamburgers at Smokey's Saloon. Then, we went to another restaurant, which I can't remember the name of. Go figure. Soju was ridiculously cheap. Anyways, after that, I split a cab with Marie. The cab driver asked me where I was from "Japan, China..." I told him that I was American, and he became totally confused. He said that I look really Korean. After that, I gave up on trying to explain.

Saturday, I went to a GOAL (global overseas adoptees' link) meeting at the Sofitel Ambassador's Hotel. I met tons of Korean-adoptees from all over the world. The meeting was kind of boring, but afterwards was open buffet and bar. I went with two girls, Janna and Lotta, from my Korean class. It made for an interesting night. Janna is a Korean-adoptee from Colorado. Lotta is married to a Korean-adoptee from Norway. I have no idea who this dude is.

Last night, JongWoo, Aeryoung, Simon, and I ordered pizza. I wish I would have taken a picture. One was a seafood pizza and the other was chicken with spinach. Both were delicious. As you may have noticed, I really don't dislike much of the food here. There was kimbop with little fish in it that freaked me out, but other than that, I have enjoyed everything thus far.

Even Korea has Marketed Holidays

2.14 Valentine's Day
3.14 White Day
4.14 Black Day
11.11 Pepero Day

Everyone knows that 2.14 is Valentine's Day, where the guys buy their girlfriends/wives gifts. Isn't it sweet? In Korea, the women give gifts to the men in they love or want to date. On March 14th, White Day, the men give a gift of white candy to their significant other in return.

4.14 is called Black Day. It is for those who did not celebrate White day and wish to celebrate the single life. They eat 짜장면, white Korean noodles with a black bean sauce.

11/11 is also called (빼빼로)Pepero Day, because it looks like five of the chocolate-dipped cookie sticks. According to Wikipedia, pepero also means 'thin like a stick.' Check it out.

Foosball - All Night

My Financial Management class is on Mondays and Wednesdays. However, they're at different times, which is so stupid, because then I forget to go to the Wednesday class which is an hour and a half earlier than Monday's class. Silly scheduling, I'd say.

I got my classes registered. I'm officially signed up for 12 credits. Woot. It's going to be a great semester! Now, I just need to pay my housing bill and other fees, then I'm free to spend my money on shoes ;) and food.

I haven't told anyone when my birthday is. I really just don't want to have a party or go out with the international students. I'd rather buy myself something small and go out to dinner with Brianna. It's not fun to go out in huge groups that can't speak the language. I like to keep my inabilities to communicate on a minimum.

Last night was a perfect example. It was Marloes' 21st birthday, and she invited everyone to go to the bar with her. That's cool, but I had no intentions of going, because: a) I really can't stay out late due to 8:30 am class and b) it was going to be a ginormous group of people.

Instead, I did homework at Bri's apartment and then went out to dinner with her friends. We ate really fatty pork and pig leg. It was interesting... Never really thought we'd have the bone and all of a pig. After that, Bri thought that some cider at a quiet place like Mike's Cabin (a western-style bar owned by a WI Korean-adoptee) would be nice. The bar has a wii, so we were pretty pumped for that. We got there, and people were playing ping-pong, so we stuck to foosball. I pretty much rock. I guess I can thank my parents for raising me with a table in our basement.

After being offered liver, beer, and multiple games of foosball, I was ready to get out of there.

Reading/Writing

Last night, Moniek, Ralf, Ben, JongWoo (Jason), Simon, one of the buddies, and I went out to an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ. It was soooo good. Jason bought everyone's meal. I love eating with traditional Korean people. The oldest one always pays for everyone. Mwahaha.
Then, we went to a noraebong.

I also survived my second day of Korean. My Korean class begins bright and early at 8:30 and goes until 11:10. We get a 10 minute break in there too. Every morning, we had a dictation test of five questions of the things we learned yesterday. We have two different teachers: Speaking/Listening and Reading/Writing. Today, we met the R/W teacher, and she seems a bit more strict than the other. She has lots of energy and talks really fast and high. It's so difficult. We're learning commands, and I'm really not used to using this form. I feel like I know so much less than everyone else. However, I can't really go down a level, because those are the people who know absolutely nothing about the language. I suppose I have a slight advantage of already knowing how to read and write. Now, I need to expand my vocab and grammar.

한국어 수업

I had my first Korean language class. It was not nearly as stressful as I imagined; however, today's class only reaffirmed my continuing suckage at numbers. I'm getting better though. Everyone uses 입니다. I suppose we use polite for everything, so it's difficult to get used to. The Japanese people seem to know a lot already. There is this Mr. Arrogant who seems super disappointed to be in the level that he's in. It's not like we tested into level zero... I'm sure I'll have more stories about him within the weeks to come.

Financial Management had about 60 girls, 9 or 10 were international students. I'm not sure why the other girls want to take that course in English, but okay. The professor studied at U of Michigan. His English is fairly good. It definitely helps to already know some Korean, because I understand his accent.

My roommate has maintenance guys here fixing her closet. Ahhh. I don't understand. Yesterday, I opened the fridge, only to have a pungent smell escape. I searched a bit and found a container of kimchi. Why!! I also saw that she has the movie poster for Rambo on her wall. I also almost died laughing.

Autre Choses:
*I'm a little disappointed to learn that every time I unplug my webcam, I have to uninstall the the software and then reinstall everything. It's sooooo annoying.
*Jet lag is still a problem. Even the Europeans say that they're always tired.

A Boost of Collagen, Please

Today really was my lazy day. I got up and did some laundry. Then, I ended up taking a nap from 1-4. Then, I took the subway all by myself, like a big girl :P, to meet with Bri. When I got there, I met her boyfriend, Benjamin. He immediately said, "It's nice to meet you, Giraffasaur." Of course, Brianna already told everyone my nickname, so I am still Giraffasaur. [for those of you who don't know: I was given my nickname in dance class because my stand is usually really wide when we do the Three Drum Dance-check a version out on youtube- Anyways, its purpose was to make fun of me having the longest arms.] We went to the Coex Mall and did some shopping. Bri is such a good unni. She bought me ice cream! We also went to Smoothie King for Ben. He got something with a boost of collagen. I thought that was so weird.

Another odd note: At the Smoothie King, there was a machine that dispensed money. If they return their cup, they receive money back, but no one was watching it. Koreans are so trustworthy. It's kind of sad that I think that that is odd.

After that, we went to a market and bought food, because Brianna wanted to make dinner for us. Some of her other friends were going to meet us. We had sushi and cream cheese wontons as appetizers and lemon garlic chicken with linguini alfredo for the main meal. Everything was absolutely delicious! We sat around and watched some movies. Then, Ben, Bama (they call him that cuz he's from Alabama), Bri, and I went to play some pool. Unfortunately, Bri and I lost two of three games. I suck at pool... Bama and I split a taxi back to Itaewan and Ewha. Now, I am here, ready to catch some z's.