Lotte of Lineups Sarah Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Lotte is an outdoor and indoor amusement park with your usual amusement park rides, shows, mascots, games, carnival food, and even an indoor skating rink (reminded me of WEM). I didn't think today would be so busy, and we had even decided to leave Yonsei at 8am in order to get there when it opened at 9:30, but due to two slept ins, we headed off later. I guess we didn't factor in that grade school students didn't start school until this Friday either, thus the multitude of children, family, and your usual couples everywhere (who love to dress the same... some even top to toe and I'm serious). Anyhow, we chosen today because we wanted to have a memorable leap year, and secondly, as we were foreigners, there was this promotion going on until today that gave tourists discounts at major Korean attractions. So instead of paying 40000won, we got our tickets for 27ooowon, PLUS, when I paid with my Woori bank card, I got another 7ooowon off since it was my first time using it at Lotte or something like that-say WHAT?! only 20000won? that's 50% off!!! I was so happy, it was the start of a fantastic day. Ann was going to pay with cash, but quickly pulled out her debit card to get the deal too.
Lotte has your typical kiddie rides, tamed family fun rides, and adrenaline rush seeking thrillers (mainly outdoors). Similar to the fast past, Lotte has the magic pass which is free, but you can only get one every two hours. This pass gives you a certain time frame to come back and play that ride without having to line up. The best plan is to get a pass for the most popular rides and line up for the other ones that aren't so popular and not worth getting a magic pass for. This way, by the time you finish lining up and playing the latter ride, you can head straight to the ride you got a magic pass for. Sometimes, your cutting it close as you may wait in line up to two hours like we did for the most popular outdoor roller coaster, Atlantis. When we finished, the line was even longer and we couldn't believe we actually spent that long waiting in line for it, but it was worth it and I would definitely go on it again, just not on such a busy day.

For dinner we headed to 열봉찜닭 "Yeolbong Jjimdal" at Gangnam station, aka the mother of Se7en's chicken restaurant. Se7en is a Korean celebrity that is a singer and actor. I have never heard of him until I heard of this restaurant through friends LOL. However, despite this place being well known because it's opened by a celebrity's mom, the chicken here is actually REALLY good. The menu wasn't very abundant and only consisted of their specialty chicken dishes. We ordered a large serving to share and had asked for it to be prepared with the minimal amount of spice. It still tasted spicy to us when it arrived, but the dish was so flavorful and hot that it kept us warm and wanting more. It felt like Chinese soy sauce chicken, but only a hundred times better. The chicken was tender and it came as a big dish with jap chae (glass noodles), potatos!, carrots, onions that were sweetened by the sauce, and fresh green onions mixed in.

It was a long day and we didn't feel like being on our feet no more. So after a hunt for the bus stop heading in the right direction towards Yonsei, we found seats and tiredly waited to arrive the bus stop down the hill from our dorms. It was closer than walking from Sinchon station at least.

Keepsake Moments Sarah Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Heading out later than usual was quite nice as I got to sleep in, clean my side of the room and washroom (Russian is still a no-show), stretch and study some Korean in the lounge down the hall. I had slept in and was hoping to see an unni from Edmonton who had moved back to Korea, but due to unexpected situations, I had to reroute my plans.

Plan B was doing what girls' do best, in this case, it was with my chums, Chloe and Ann. They had walked to Edae to do some back to school wardrobe shopping part 1 (yes, there will be a part 2). After finding my way downhill and crossing through Ewha Women's University, which by the way is so much faster than walking to Sinchon and taking the subway), us trio reunited and started killing our wallets. Edae is equivalent to Mongkok's ladies market & area due to the population of females in the area. However, pricing wise, HK still arises as the cheapest. I am actually surprize that some of the prices for clothes in Seoul is similar to Canadian shopping. Sometimes, the quality does match the price, but other times, make sure to check the seams and if they give you a new one, double check it too. I bought a 2-way strap rectangular bag for $10Cad, but when I opened it, the longer set of straps wasn't there. Though I don't mind as this bag was cheap, I still think I should go back and get my money's worth.

Our stomachs called it a break in between the shopping and we found this place known for kimbab (I'm assuming as it was in its name). Surprizingly, the ajussi, who looked like he was near his 60s, welcomed us and took our order in proficient English. He was better than the young guys at our hostel and the line up of people we have met so far. We were in awe of his fluency and accent and had small talk with him. Turns out, he had to learn English for his business back in the day and I was the only one who had ordered their kimbab.

Actually, we had a handful of pleasant scenarios with other ajussis as well. The three of us had bought shoes at this shoe store we stumbled upon as the word 'sale' drawn us in. He wasn't as good as the kimbab ajussi, but he was a very sweet man and reluctantly, I was able to carry somewhat of a conversation with him about giving it to us cheaper and where we were from. An earlier on, when Ann bought a blouse, this other ajussi who owned the store also talked in English and told us he picked up all the phrases and words he knew from us college students shopping there. He also said that by the end of the term, those who speak English in the beginning of the term would come back speaking in Korean very well after taking the Korean class everyday-I sure hope so! A lot of stores in Edae is actually owned or ran my males, which is quite different compared to HK, Osaka, and even Canada, but they were all very nice and super helpful (probably because they wanted us foreigner's money, oh well).
The day was well spent-literally and I figure I really need to budget more wisely if I am to survive here the next four months. I can't believe March is right around the corner and school will hit us in the face soon.

Tonight was dinner and bowling with the Emmaus group. About thirty of us went to Emmaus' usual Japanese restaurant so they were allowed to make reservations as they bring them a large amount of business. The sound of a kimchi and cheese donkatsu (chicken rice bowl) interested me and I didin't regret it. I haven't had cheese in a while and despite it being a piece of melted processed cheese, my calcium craving is happy. I'm really starting to click with everyone in Emmaus, and its only been the second time I spent with them. Everyone I met so far is beyond friendly and goes out of their way to greet and get to know you. I love them and I can't wait until the term starts so we can have our weekly meetings on Tuesday. I already feel I can form a christian community with them and that they can keep me accountable in various areas in my life. I also felt very myself today as earlier this morning I was kind of in the slumps, missing home and feeling sick of seeing tourist attractions and going out to explore. It was "homey" to be around open people and it reminded me of my friends back in Edmonton. However, due to misreadings of a friend, I had a little irrational laugh attack at dinner and I'm hoping everyone doesn't think I'm that odd girl at the crazy table haha. Some things just don't change no matter where you are located.

Unfortunately, the bowling place we went to was busy and the ajumma seemed to be in a bad mood and told us to leave. This lead to all of us heading to a coffee shop, but it was pricey and nothing attracted Chloe, Teresa, Ann, and I, so off to Ice Berry we went to share a bowl of patbingsu.

oh yea...

Dear Lotte World,

I'M SO EXCITED FOR YOU.

See ya on leap year,
Sarah

Seoul City Sarah Monday, February 27, 2012

A city day tour was organized by Yonsei Global, a student group on campus for us exchange students. For the cost of 20000won ($20Cad), it was remarkably cheap for all that we saw, ate, and did.

We headed out at 9am when we were suppose to meet at Global Lounge at 9:45am because two of my friends wanted to go today instead of tomorrow and were hoping that at least 2/80 would sleep in, be a no-show, or had forgotten about it. To our surprise, more than two spots were open and we were all able to go together,. Today was also a graduation day for Yonsei Students and compared to my home university, it was such a captivating scene on campus. There were a line up of street stalls that sold a variety of street food, beautiful bouquets all wrapped and decorated in fancy wrapping- all ready for the buyer to give to the graduating recipient, and inflatable Spongebob and Hello Kitty plastic balloons ready to be bought. If I didn't know, I thought it be a carnival going on. I guess graduating from an "Ivy League" university in Korea should be a huge deal eh?

So on board with our itinerary, we headed to Seoul's Worldcup Stadium where the 202 FIFA world cups were held. It acted as a museum as well so we were able to see pictures of soccer teams, signed soccer balls, the world cup, and even play a 'game' on virtual floor displays. I wasn't a sports fan, and I'm far from being an athlete, but being there made me want to sit in that giant outdoor stadium and experience a live soccer game with the hundreds of thousands of crazy fans sitting there.Next we headed to the CJ EM (entertainment & media) center, a private company that hosts variety shows, singing competitions, and media-related events. As a result, no photos were allowed inside of the lobby of the building for privacy reasons and there was no chance of scouting celebrities either. At one point, we all got really excited seeing a black van pulled up with all its windows covered thinking it be someone famous arriving, turns out, it was a girl who came out with her two assistants/dressers, but she wasn't famous enough for any of us to recognize her. Nearly next door was the DMC (Digital Media City) exhibition hall. This place was so trippy and filled with the most up to date and advanced information about plans to building a highly green and state of the art techy minitare 'city' in this area. They are in the process of completing the Seoul Lite tower which would be completed by 2014. When finish, it would include 8 floors of department store shopping, 37 floors of offices, 38 floors of apartments, 23 floors of family hotel rooms, 18 floors of regular hotel rooms (which would become the world's highest), 2 floors being a performance restaurant, 1 floor being the broadcasting antenna and house 2 floors of the soon to be the world's highest observatory. The area around this tower will have WiFi access where ever you are, and provide the most high tech facilities for all ages.

The Blue House photo stop was equivalent to the White House of the states. It wasn't really 'blue' to me but it was a nice area to capture photos of the monuments and natural landscape despite the icy cold wind. By this time, were were all starving and were jumping for joy for our next destination knowing that we would be making Kimchi and Jap Chae (Korea glass noodle) at Chongga Kimchi World, a Korean food company that manufactures mainly Kimchi to supermarkets around the world (check your local TnT for this brand 종가집). My new friend, Teresa and I felt like ajummas with our aprons and gloves while smearing the sauce on each layer of the vinegar soaked cabbage. It was a very easy task, yet very satisfying to do too. Fun fact of the day, there are over 200 types of kimchi you can make and the one we made was called bosam kimchi and included pine nuts and other ingredients which made it more savoury and flavorful than your regular kimchi. We got to take ours home in a plastic jar and apparently it lasts up to a month and boosts your immune system as it has more lactic acid than yogurt! To our surprize, we got to make ddeokbokgi as well, which resolved our hunger along with a can of makgeoli (rice wine)- sweeter than regular wines, but I wasn't a fan of it (but I don't drink wine usually so I can't justify fairly).

Acknowledging that we were all full, the tour guide delayed our lunch and we went to Kyengdong's oriental herb market. Here, there were over 1000 shops that sold variety of herbs, roots, teas, and snacks. Before we even entered the entrance gate filled with streets that sold these things, we already smelled it in the air. Ginseng is really popular in Korea and another fun fact is that Korea is the only country that can grow all 60 (something like that) types of it. However, antlers, dog's blood, cow's liver, and another disgusting part was four things the Koreans seek as they believe it to be highly beneficial for the human body (yuck).Following, lunch was bibimbap in a hot stone pot. I love bibimbap, I'm not a fan of rice, but I love how the rice sticks to the pot and turns crunchy at the bottom. In fact, I have been eating rice at least once a day in Korea. Rice is a staple here in every meal, and I'm actually enjoying the rice I've been eating. Kwanghwamun square was another photo stop we went to. This area consisted of a the Kwanghwamun palace, a statue of a King for the Lee dynasty I believe and some well known buildings near by. I wish we got to enter the palace, but due to time constraints and additional cost, we didn't.The last stop was the place everyone was looking forward to: Namsan Tower. This is where the infamous love lock gate was. If you don't know, basically there is an area where couples literally lock their love here and write a love note or message to their significant other on their lock. You wouldn't believe the sight of this place; I couldn't even estimate how many couples have locked a lock up here. It was so cheesy, but outrageously cute at the same time to look at locks that were rusting, to newly placed ones with written messages on them. I didn't head up to the observatory deck of the tower as I will be back with my mentor's group this Saturday, so I will be anticipating for an evening view of Seoul.

With that, our magenta tour bus headed back to Yonsei and my friends and I went to eat at a place near our dorms that had a menu consisting of everything under $5Cad. We all yearned for a bowl of hot stone pot goodness as we were all chilled to the bone from being out all day. I forgot the name of this restaurant, but we foreshadow ourselves being regulars here as the selection is abundant with the price being within our student budget.

An Easy Day Sarah Saturday, February 25, 2012

(yesterday)

We started our day a little later than usual and headed to Dragon Hill Spa. It’s known to be a spa for foreigners as it has had a handful of publicity in the media and it's also popular with the locals too. A day to relax and regain our energy from the past week was necessary so we decided to head to this place to rejuvenate ourselves. The three of us trek to Yongsan station where we found this place really easily. Prior to entering, we decided to eat something to fill our stomachs and prevent ourselves from having to fork out our wallets on overpriced meals at the spa. We opted for one of the busier street food tents and had ddeokbokgi and some fried snacks across the street.

Dragon Hill Spa is very organized and structured. Once you enter, there is a man who briefs you on all the details and services you can get from this spa in every language possible; a walking google translator. He talked really quick as if he memorized the spa information pamphlet and replayed himself as if we had pressed the rewind button. We got a personal locker number and an electronic, waterproof wristband each to keep our shoes in after we paid. This wristband gave you access to your lockers and acts as a proof of payment when you buy food from the spa.

As this was our second time (Ann and I), we didn’t think it would be as scary as our first time in Japan. However, we didn’t acknowledge that there would be guests of all ages though, from toddlers to teens, to ajummas. The change room was quite a sight, but thanks to Chloe who has been here before, she helped us two terrible vision girls navigate around the place (we had taken our glasses off). First, we had to scrub ourselves to make sure we were absolutely clean before entering the variety of tubs. There were tubs filled with natural sea water, body temperature water, ginseng infused water, and so much more. It was so relaxing to just be able to sit and let yourself go or let a conversation take the stress away. An hour and a half later, we rinsed ourselves, changed into the oversized t-shirt and shorts provided and went to explore the saunas and common (unisex) area. This was another startling sight since I didn’t expect to see so many couples and families just sitting around talking, eating snacks and drinking juice from a plastic container. We got ourselves drinks as well and just sat and chitchatted. The warmth from the baths and the rooms were sufficient for us so we didn’t go into the saunas to get warmer.

For the cost of $12 Cad, you were able to stay a maximum of twelve hours and if you came at night, you were able to stay overnight to sleep on designated floors for each gender. It was a new Korean experience and I believe my comfort level has gradually increased since the time in Japan. We only stayed for three hours before we called it a day and headed to the National Museum of Korea. This museum was a stop away at Icheon and offered free admission. Despite being tired and wanting a nap post-spa, we still went with our plans. When we found the place, we were in awe of the beauty and naturalistic elements of this place; a man made pond, state of the art architecture, pagodas, a gorgeous view, and the huge spacious area available. It consisted of such lovely and generous spacing that a picnic would be a fabulous idea in the Spring time. The three of us explored the 3^rd and 2^nd level of this museum; Southeast Asian art, sculptures, and paintings of Asia exhibition. It was very educational to gain an insight on the artistic side of Asia and neat to see artifacts dated back as early as the 3^rd or 4^th century.

The Mentor Club had planned a welcoming party for us exchange students that night, so after a Japanese rice bowl dinner, we went back to our rooms and got ready for our first at Barfly.

(today)

As it is Sunday, I decided to join Emmaus (English-speaking Christian club) for the first time and headed to the church they are affliated with, New Philly, an English speaking congregation. The church was at Seoul National University station, about a 20-25min away from Sinchon station. The service was different from my home church, but a fresh experience indeed. Afterwards, we all went to one of the Emmaus staff members' apartment and played board and group games after a pizza dinner. The rest of the day was a great time of chilling and meeting new friends and I foreshadow many more moments like these as the term begins.

Another easy day well spent.

Yonsei Sweet Yonsei Sarah Thursday, February 23, 2012

I believe this is the first year Yonsei set up a Foreigner Alien Card office on campus. Thank God for that because the process was much quicker not having to trek to the Seoul Immigration office elsewhere and wait among other non-students in order to get our alien card application done.

In between the pre-registration (handing in paperwork and getting a number for later on) and the actual registration, we went to Sinchon and ate at a place known for their 만두 (Korean dumplings, "man-du"). I ordered a mandu soup and it was filled with these giant dumplings! About double or even triple the size of Chinese dumplings. Nomnomnom. I couldn't figure out what was exactly inside, but its some sort of meat, flour, and chive/leek concoction. There was an ajussi (middle age man) and ajumma constantly making them non stop (super fast too) in the back and I went to ask how much they make per day. I couldn't remember the exact number they said, but it was a LOT!

Chloe brought us to the Hyundai Department store to get some macaroons after lunch. Ann was craving them since abandoning Duchess back home and they had so many more flavors here to offer. The price point was about the same as back home with some flavors being 10-20 cents more, though they looked just a teeny bit bigger than the ones at Duchess.

We hunted down Lotte 999, which just happened to be right across the department store. This was another grocery store recommended to us and we wanted to check out their pricing. Fruits were a tad cheaper, with bananas being the cheapest. I have a feeling I will lose interest in this beneficial potassium filled fruit very soon though if that's my only choice. Chloe and I also got cereal and milk to share for our breakfast as she has her own room with a fridge in it for us to keep our food chilled and safe.

During the second part of the foreigner's card registration where we hand to do a fingerprint scan, there was a session on Korea's cuisine courtesy of the Institute of Korean Royal Cuisine going on at the same time. Basically, a group of ajummas came to demonstrate how to cook 떡볶이 (rice cake 'ddeokbokgi') and served us a mini set meal. It felt like a live cooking show with all these ajummas in their aprons and handing out food.

The highlight of my day and best post secondary experience thus far happened today. I never felt so much school spirit in my life-ever. The mentor's club organized tonight as a Cheering Orientation for us foreign students. Every term, Yonsei University and its rival, Korea University has a cheering competition that happens during the term. This isn't just your cheer leading squad tossing around and shouting with pompoms, this is EPIC. I never seen anything quite like it. There is a group of dancers known as The Blue Knights dressed in black and white with a royal blue tie on (Yonsei's school colour is a royal blue), who leads everyone to their dance moves (different for every song!) while other Yonsei students sang and taught us the song lyrics. I lost track of how many songs we did, but there must have been at least twenty; pop culture and classic songs that have had their lyrics changed. For example, the "We Will We Will Rock You" song was rewritten and titled as GO Yonsei, "Over the Rainbow" also had its lyrics changed to a Yonsei themed song. I had so much fun and I wouldn't mind singing and dancing each day with everyone to these songs despite not knowing what majority of the lyrics meant. Due to the active and involved crowd, a tentative hour of cheering turned into two hours as encore was a must. The auditorium in Baekyang Hall became a dance party mob of students! I will never forget this memorable experience I had tonight. The clip below doesn't justify this event at all, but it does give you a sense of the cheering culture-Yonsei style.
We didn't expect to sing and dance so much until our legs and arms were giving out, and as a result, we had to turn down our original plans to go 노래방 (karaoke). We were all so tired, sweaty, and feeling like our voices were about to give out from all the screaming we did. In the end, we decided to have dinner with a part of my cell group and a couple of new friends at a modern and simply chic eatery called The Cup, known for their fusion of Asian and Western noodles/pastas/rice that come in a take out box even if you eat in.

It's been exactly a week since I've been here and I cannot wait for what the rest of this term has in store! Go Yonsei!

P.S. The dorm electrical man came to fix my laptop connection today, hello access to the world again =)

Hongdae Sarah Thursday, February 23, 2012

What an activity filled day.

This morning was a stress fest as it was our second round of course enrollment. I already had a full course load from the first round of courses, but had wanted to drop a course or two and have a backup in case I don't like a class when the term starts. Unfortunately, I still haven't got internet working in my room as WiFi connection is terrible in my room, but better in the student lounge on my floor or other floors (so annoying). Thus, I had to go to the lounge to access Yonsei Portal (equivalent to Beartracks) to do some class dropping, enrolling, and searching.

After a brief exploration of the Global Lounge at noon, we headed to a short orientation session regarding the Foreigners' Alien Card which every student is required to get in order to stay in Korea to study. We didn't think the sexual harassment talk afterwards was necessary as we assumed it to be common sense, so we left and headed out to Hongdae for some cafe hopping as there are so many there. Hongdae is actually known for its party scene due to the amount of nightlife in this area, but its also quite an artsy area as Hongik University nearby is an art school. We decided to head to the Hello Kitty cafe first. It was a girl's dream come true. Pink walls, bows galore, hello kitty of all shapes and sizes, it was so cute and feminine! I tried the sweet potato latte and it was so a fabulous choice as Ann and I shared a 'rare' hello kitty shaped cheesecake.



Next, we went next door to Cats Living cafe. We paid eight dollars to get in to play with cats and this fee included a free drink. We had to sanitize our hands first before we played and there were also cabinets for us to put our personal items in. There were at least twenty different cats in there-fat, skinny, hairy, short legged, well dressed, and many sleepy ones as well. It was a new experience to just be in a cafe that allowed you to take photos of the cats and play with them or else, just watch them if they were cuddling in their baskets. There were also lint rollers provided when you were ready to leave to rid yourself of cat hair.


We strolled Hongdae a bit and browsed the clothing boutiques as we directed ourselves to our next cafe. This one was quite tricky as many locals weren't very helpful, and it was quite tucked in. After asking more than a few people and walking in circles we found, the Charlie Brown cafe at the east corner of the park across from Hongik University. The 'east' through us off as we didn't know which direction we were facing. It was very well themed, but upon entering, the air smelled like smoke as they had a smoking room in the front end of the cafe. Inside, there were all the CB characters, including Snoopy, Peppermint Patty, Charlie Brown, Sally Brown and Woodstock. By this time, we were quite hungry so we ordered actual food here. One thing about cafes in this area, and cafes in general, is that their food is priced higher than Korean restaurants or street food as cafes are considered more of a sit down, and perhaps you can even say its more 'posh' to hang out here versus other eateries; which explains the three level Starbucks I saw a day or two back (it needs to compete with all the other cafes).


Upon a friend's strong recommendation, we tried this waffle booth nearby the cafe and Hongik Uni. An ajumma ran the place (and apparently there was someone in the booth sleeping on the floor), and basically its a fresh made waffle the size of a 6" plate and it was filled with five different scoops of ice cream: green apple, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and grape. Guess how much it was? Only 1000won, aka $1Cad! We couldn't believe the price and taste of this folded semi circle. Dessert at its best and is it ever accommodating to a student's budget!

We called it a day for cafe hopping and were heading back to the Subway station when we stumbled upon four street performers with a growing crowd surrounding them. They were all wearing custom made varsity jackets with their group name on it. I can't explain how hilarious they are despite the language barrier. They danced, sang (really well!), performed tricks, acted, and were comedic in everything they did. The four of them seem to be college students trying to earn some extra cash through their entertainment skills. The clip below shows a part of the awesome show they put on.

Heading home, we went to look for some garbage bags and groceries at Grand Mart in Sinchon. The prices were alright, but the cost of produce could've been cheaper, so were on the look out for a cheaper market or grocery store to buy our fruits at.

That's a wrap!

P.S. My mysterious Russian roommate still hasn't showed up yet, but I'm not complaining as I do enjoy having a room all to myself at the moment

Orientation Sarah Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Yonsei is such a huge campus and compared to University of Alberta, it's nothing. Orientation started at 10am in The Centennial Hall building. It started off with a one hour session of general first year exchange/visiting student university information from the President of the Office of International Affiars (OIA) and other important information regarding the academic calendar.

In between the three hour break until our FSK (First Step to Korea) orientation, Chloe, Ann and I headed to Sinchon to grab some more necessary items at Daiso. We all agreed that there would be many more trips to Daiso for future needs such as school supplies. At first, we wanted to find a kimbab (Korean sushi, but cooked) eatery we saw when we ate at the tofu stew restaurant a few days ago, but after a couple rounds of walking around the area and no luck (Sinchon can be a maze sometimes), we ventured into this place known for pan fried rice where they cook it in front of you. We ordered a galbi fried rice and a seafood pancake as well. Watching our high skilled server cook our galbi and rice was quite a sight, he didn’t get any out of the pan at all when cooking with the wooden spoon. I can’t even mix salad without something flying out, let along rice! The pancake was alright, it had a lot of chives in it that weren’t diced, making it hard to separate; it was quite doughy and didn’t have as much flavor as I thought it would. FSK started with once again, introductions from the President. Then it got more interesting as they showcased the abundance of clubs Yonsei has to offer for their students. There was even a Taekwando demonstration from the Taekwando club; it was amusing to watch some of them show their moves as they didn’t have the best skill and would do clumsy things or shout in very childish ways. So far I’m most interested in Emmaus, an English speaking Christian Fellowship club on campus, Global Angel, a group that volunteers and gives back to the community during the year, and KCE, which hosts three main events throughout the term: Nanta (an entertainment live show), Kite making & flying, and Korean food making class. Perhaps I might even take up the hiking club which is only once a month and you get to hike up mountains and other potentially precarious areas.The rest of the orientation was quite dry and I even fell asleep during one lady’s splurb.

Later, we were separated into three groups, according to what we studied for the partial campus tour as Yonsei is too big to be seen all together. My group consisted of science, human ecology and engineer students as those buildings were most close together. It’s similar how the human ecology department in Samsung Hall is at the far right side of campus and up on a hill (and I thought the hecol building at U of A was bad), and some things never change, majority of the students are female and the student touring us said it was the best place for guys to be, while the soccer field and area was the best place for the ladies haha.

The last part of today was the best part, as it was Mentor's club, where Yonsei organizes 3-5 exchange students with a local student from Yonsei, forming a Buddy group. Four buddy groups would make up a ‘cell’ and so our cell went out to eat tonight after brief introductions. I had my first samkeubsal (literally fatty bacon) dinner, basically Korean BBQ with the main grilled meat being the fatty pork. I met lots of new people from my cell and bonded with a group of girls. We ended off the night back at Ice Berry where we had a king size patbingsu and a regular one for the eight of us to share while other students hit Barfly, a popular Yonsei students bar. Apparently in Korea, there is no fees for females who go to the bars, only for the males. Overall, my mentor is super nice and friendly and I’m glad I can say the same for everyone else too. Everyone is so willing to help you and give tips on how to travel or what to know regarding academics, it felt so Canadian! The weather today reminded me of Edmonton too, the sun was out, it got warmer, and there was no snow on the ground as usual. I can’t wait for our next mentor session already.

Our Final Move Sarah Tuesday, February 21, 2012

My back aches.

We decided to set out for our big move to Yonsei at 9am. After dawdling a bit and having one of our hostel guys find the taxi driver to help them find their way to us at our hostel (as it’s quite hard to find the first time), we finally left by 9:45 ish. Our taxi driver got quite lost finding the East gate, which was closest to SK Global, our dorms, as he has never been through there before. Anyhow, we finally made the hectic trip to the sign in area. The process was quicker than I thought it be and something unexpected even happened. Apparently, I had signed up as a male when I applied for dorms and was placed on the guy’s floor (Yonsei separates floors according to your gender), but when I looked at the list of rooms to see who my roommate was, I didn’t notice because my roommate’s name was in Korean and I couldn’t tell the difference if it was a female or male name and had assumed it to be the former obviously. Thus, when I got to the front desk to grab my key, the lady looked flustered and ended up changing my room number on the card key and I was like to her why I was being moved to another floor. She told me they didn’t realize the mistake until they saw that my name was a female one, imagine if I had walked into my room with a male roommate already there…awkward.

I was ecstatic to settle into my room! It’s like the size of a small hotel room with a bathroom, shower and sink to share and a shelf, desk and small clothing and footwear closet to myself. My new roommate is from Russia and she has yet to arrive. I have noticed that the room I got switched into is not on the room list; I assume it’s probably a ‘just in case’ room if scenarios such as the one that happened to me occurred.

We decided to get some household items at Daiso in Myeongdong as we didn’t even have any necessities including toilet paper. The trip to Myeongdong was unexpectedly long as our dormitories are at the upper right hand side of the campus and the station was about a 20 to 30 minute walk, but the trip back was just horrendous. I was holding two big plastic bags that contained 12 rolls of toilet paper, a washroom mat and other toiletry necessities, a garbage can, slippers, tissue box, and a regular size shampoo and conditioner from Watsons (similar to a Shoppers Drug Mart). It so happened that the trains were packed so we looked so out of place and I felt so ‘see lai’/adjumma during the whole trip back (though you never do see older ladies holding large plastic bags of stuff). AND, we saw a Daiso and a Watsons on the way back in Sinchon, why did we go all the way to Myeondong again? Also, we decided it be shorter walking through the main gate, but not to our surprise, we had misjudged the size of Yonsei and the amount of trekking we had to do uphill; at one point it felt like a 45 degree angle walk. Never again will we venture on that route with bags of stuff weighing us down. Though, I must say it was a pretty good workout. In the evening, Ann and I headed out with the Australian exchange student we met, Chloe,to Sinchon for western food with the other Australian girls as they have been missing it in their diet. We were going to go to a place called Ashley's, but the wait was two hours too long, thus one of the guys from the hostel brought us to a place called Spaghettini Factory. This was a really fancy place and it smelled heavenly as we entered it. It was similar to The Spaghetti Factory, but they had a better selection of pasta and other dishes. I ordered a Fungi (mushroom) cream sauce fettuccine and it was so creamy and flavorful! Better than pasta back home I must say. Afterwards, we parted from the Australian girls as they (minus Chloe) were leaving Korea on Thursday, while Ann and I took the long dark walk back home.

I can’t believe that after two weeks, five flights and six moves, I finally have a place to call ‘home’ for the next four plus months.

Welcome to the official start of my student exchange experience. Tomorrow begins a long day of orientation.

Wait, Walk, Walk, Wait Sarah Monday, February 20, 2012

Waited for Fay Mah at the front gate of Ewha Women`s University (what a gorgeous campus, fun fact: its an all girls university but male exchange students are allowed to attend) .
Walked to T Phone (mobile company) to find a deal.
Waited at T Phone for Fay Mah to discuss details & plan for our phone.
Walked to the Woori Bank to open an account in order to have direct phone billing.
Waited a long time for the employee to open an account for us to put our money in.
Walked back to T Phone and gave them the account number.
Waited some more for them to process everything.
Walked back to Woori Bank to give them our new contact number from our newly bought cell phone + plan.
Walked back to T Phone where our phones were charging and being set up with the network.
What a day. It was filled with walking and waiting from Edae Station, where the T Phone company was and Ahyeon Station, where the closest Woori Bank was, which was approximately a 10-12min walk back and forth and we went from the latter and former four times. I can`t believe we actually spent at least five hours in this area trying to get these two things done. When we headed towards Ahyeon Station, there was multiple blocks selling wedding dress and related merchandise. Apparently its deliberately place near Ewha Women`s Uni as once this pool of females graduate, it will be a convenient next step for them as their next phase in life is just around the corner-literally.

FY(grateful)I, have a Korean with you when you open a phone and bank account, the people working at the phone and bank barely know any English and it`ll be difficult to communicate on your own. Lets start with the phone process. Well, I already knew we needed a bank account and Korean address to get a phone, but I didn`t expect it to be this tedious, and apparently your drivers`license doesn`t count as a second piece of ID, so in the end, we couldn`t get the bill to directly take money out of our bank account. So until we get our Alien Foreigner card from Seoul Immigration Office, we will have to go to the phone company to pay our bill. Luckily, aside from the immeasurably long wait, we locked down a pretty good deal. Ann and I both got a second hand LG smart phone for $50 and we pay $34 each month for 150 minutes and 200 texts. After that it would be 1.8cents for 10sec of calling and 2cents per text. It was way better than the deals and plans we looked at the day before, and it feels so good to be connecting with the world and having access to WiFi almost everywhere you go in Korea.

Now for the bank account process, this was a much more simpler process than the phone plan despite the amount of paper work I had to sign and waiting around I had to do. Basically, the account is free and you get a bankbook and debit card with it. The bank machines have an English language option so this made life easier and we had a withdrawal and spending limit of $1000US per month as this was a student account, but not like I have that much to spend anyways. Otherwise, I am so happy I got these two tasks done as tedious as it was.

Props to Fay Mah for helping us translate so much and bringing us to a delicious little place for some udon and pork chop rice bowls.
Tonight`s dinner consisted of fried chicken from the Chicken Bus restaurant right around the corner of our hostel. The Australian girls actually got take out and brought it back to the hostel. They were generous enough to share dinner with us Canadians as we chit chat about ourselves and girl talk in general. One of them was an exchange student to Yonsei as well, so we decided to all head out for the big move tomorrow. Afterwards, Ann and I strolled Sinchon to look for dessert to get rid of the after taste of chicken in our mouths. We saw a lot of different cultural food places and made sure to mentally note them so we could come back when we craved certain foods. Korea also has a lot of cafes everywhere, some small ones with just desserts, others a couple of floors high and opened for 24hours. We saw the best and most high class looking three storeys high Starbucks ever, and it has an elevator too. We ended up settling for a cup size patbingsu at Cafe Iceberry. I had a milk flavor ice cream with ice, red bean, strawberry and this yellow chewy jelly.


I`m more than ready to move in tomorrow even though I`m despising the amount of luggage I have to maneuver. It`s definitely going to be a gong show, yet at the same time I`m very excited to just settle down and not have to move all my stuff for a long long time.

Hopefully it will be better than I anticipate for.

P.S. following up on my last post, apparently the hot water teapot on the table was actually for you to pour into your stone pot after you have scooped out as much rice as you can; it`s for you to literally make a burned rice tea with the remaining rice sticking to the stone pot-learn something new everyday (thanks Vernon!)