Sunny Days, Bright Nights Sarah Thursday, May 24, 2012

This past week has been piled with school work that has been hindering me from blogging about my past weekend. May has also been a month of visitors so far as I was able to see friends from back home who were traveling in Korea for a few weeks. It happened at a great time as midterms finished the last week of April, and the week after, my friends and friends' friends and family arrived in Seoul. I also got a  case of homesickness around that time so it was wonderful to be able to see familiar faces again.

So what did I do?

Last Saturday, I went to Sinsa-dong (신사동) with two of my Korean friends. I got to know them since the beginning of term through Mentor's Club, a club where Yonsei University assigns Korean students to 4-5 exchange students during the term  to help them adjust to living and being a student in Seoul. I tend to meet one of them for Korean help and practice all the time, but since we were all free that day we decided to go explore the Gangnam area as I haven't been there before other than to eat Se7en's chicken in the beginning of the term.

We hit up the popular Garosugil (가로수길) street known for higher end boutiques, franchise clothing stores, big and beautiful cafes, and a delicious assortment of restaurants. This street and area in general is known to be more expensive in pricing due to pool of richer people living here. It definitely felt different after being in Sinchon/Edae so often. Despite it being a Saturday, the crowds weren't too bad and it was such a lovely day to stroll up and down the streets and alleys (where all the fancy cafes/restaurants can be found). People dressed nicer overall and the buildings were designed to give more of a European vibe. For me, it reminded me of Edmonton's Whyte Avenue-Korean style.

For lunch, we really didn't know what to settle for. We ended going to a western restaurant called King Kong near the end of the street (turn right and head straight, it will be on your left) because people were seated outside to wait for a table. We thought.. it must be good if people are willing to wait, and joined them in the waiting. It was definitely worth the wait (which didn't take very long), and for 15000won (~$15 CAD) the steak we had was AMAZING. Savory. Flavorful. Delish. The seafood cream sauce pasta and Indonesian fried rice & chicken was to die for too 너무 맛잇어! Afterwards we walked off the calories and browsed the line up of boutiques ranging from clothes to accessories to costume headbands! Many things were beyond our student budget, but it was really fun to play and take photos. I actually really like this area and there was a mini market set up selling sunglasses, shoes, hats and jewelry.

That night, I went with friends in town to a parade near Jongno-3-ga station and the Insadong area in celebration of Buddha's birthday this coming Monday (no school, YAY!). The street was lined up with rows of plastic white lawn chairs for blocks and blocks and blocks it seemed like. Many adjummas and ajussis had already planted themselves into a seat and were ready for the parade to begin (so techy savvy.. pulled out their smart phones and even Ipads to snap photos when the parade started, and these are grannys and grandpas haha). There was so many people and so many crowds everywhere. The parade consisted of a cycle of mobs of volunteers in traditional Korean costumes following a themed lantern and some cultural performances as well, and this just kept repeating with different costumes and lantern(s) each time. I lost interest after a while so we headed to Insadong to grab dinner. We ended up eating at this restaurant near Sam-chon-gil (the 3 story mall without needing to use the stairs, can read about it here), I forgot the name but it seemed to be "designed" quite cramp and our little wooden cubicle barely tolerated our height. After our meal we walked around the area a bit and the aftermath of the parade was mobs of locals watching performances on a stage, a large amount of people drinking, and confetti falling from the sky.

Anyhow, my last visitor will be gone by tomorrow (Bye Grace!), and I only have a limited time left to get everything I want to do DONE. I can't believe I'm already 3/4 through the term =(

AKARAKA Sarah Monday, May 14, 2012

Last week, Wednesday through Friday was the annual AKARAKA festival (아카라카 축제) on campus. Since the start of this term, it has been an event I have been looking forward to, especially after the cheering orientation (you can read more about it here). I can say that every Yonsei student highly anticipates for this event, even students from other campuses do (many students from Korea University came to Akaraka). In Korea, their Spring term is their first term of the year, so Akaraka has been a traditional cheering event, and it usually happens to land following the end of midterm week, which calls for a massive celebration.

It was a huge event alright. I actually didn't know this event was three-day long because for the longest time I thought Akaraka only referred to the cheering event at the amphitheater on the last day where celebrity guests are invited to perform. That is one major reason why so many students compete and claim their Akaraka tickets, because for the price of 10000won ($10), you pretty much receive a line up of singers (unknown until the event starts), and a party full of proud fellow students dancing, singing, and cheering for their favorite artists and of course, one another.

Lets start on Wednesday. 

So one of my friends in my Korean class had told me she was part of the IYC food festival. I decided to help out the day of as I wasn't able to commit to the meetings they had. We were assigned Saudi Arabia and we made Saudi Arabian style fried rice and chicken. It was similar to curry and rice, but with more seasoning and flavors. Our group leader, a Korean, had actually contacted the Saudi Arabian embassy and they provided us with more than we asked for, giving us packages of dates, pamphlets, books,  traditional costumes,a large flag for decoration, contacting a Saudi Arabian international student studying on campus to lend us a hand, and even contacting a restaurant which provided 20 boxes of the dish we made-for free! However, our version of the dish was tastier than the ones provided by the restaurant since we made our own sauce from scratch and our rice wasn't bland tasting like theirs was.

It was a great experience to be part this cooking event and share the taste, sight, and smell of culture with exchange and local students on campus. Koreans don't usually get the opportunity to try food from other countries as there aren't much options available and foreign food tends to be more expensive, and secondly they tend to just stick with what they know best, Korean food.


Moving on to Thursday.

 

This day was called out to be a day of missing classes, standing in line, and waiting. Most, if not all local students had already had their chance in obtaining their Akaraka tickets. Unfortunately for us exchange students, we had to wait in line to buy ours today at a certain time. We were told there was only 220 available tickets and keeping in mind that there were over 400 exchange students this term, this seemed to be quite a problem. We were forewarned in advance via email that not everyone was going to get a ticket, and that last year, those students who waited two hours earlier, didn't get a ticket either. So even though the time set for us to buy tickets was at 7pm, my friends and I were already lurking around the area at 1pm. Actually, other exchange students were too, just that no line was formed yet. We ended up being part of the first few students at the front of the line, and thank Global Lounge that after three hours of waiting in line, they decided to pass out numbers so we could do leave and come back at 7pm to pay for our actual tickets.Waiting wasn't actually that bad though. Time passed pretty quickly as we took turns exploring the booths, activities, and food stalls all lined up on the main street from main gate of Yonsei.

Prior to lining up again to pay for my real ticket, I grabbed grub at one of the food stalls, a giant $5 seafood pancake and took a look at everything going on. There was a LOT going on. Everywhere I looked, I would see someone singing, performing, playing drinking games, eating, getting freebies from sponsors, etc. There was rows and rows of tables set up (aka inverted boxes) and people sat around them drinking soju, eating snacks, and playing drinking games. It was quite a sight, everyone was so happy and crazy. It felt like the whole Sinchon had displaced itself into the heart of Yonsei haha. It didn't feel like it was a school setting at all. When it got later, Mentor's club had organized an outdoor party for exchange students right by Global Lounge. Their theme was 'MIB', Mentor's in Black and it was so amusing to see all these mentors in black with their black shades and water guns dancing around... oh Koreans.

 

John Park, apparently an American Idol contestant turned famous American Korean singer in Korea after being on a Korean show,  sang on a stage set up in the "forest" on the way back heading to dorms. The energy was crazy and the lighting from the concert took my breathe away as I gazed around me to see the trees lighted up in a beautiful array of colours against the night sky.


The day we've all been waiting for.

Heading towards the amphitheater at 2pm,  lines were already formed and making their way in. Earlier in the term, each department/faculty had already divided up the amphitheater into sections and had drawn out of a hat where they were to  be situated during the event. Mentor's club had designated seating at the top and center section of the theater, but it was a tad far up for our liking, so we joined our other friends who had squished in with the nursing faculty towards the right and middle side of the stage. We ran into some trouble as the nurses weren't too happy that we were sitting there... though there was an unwritten rule that if students from the faculty didn't take their seats by 3:30pm, anyone can sit there, and it was just a few minutes prior to 3:30.

Anyhow, fast forward and the show began with rappers that I do not know the name of opening the stage. Most of the artists seemed to be of the older generation, like our equivalent of Backstreet Boys. When Psy from YG came out thought, the crowd went crazy. I never heard of Psy before due to my lack of Kpop knowledge, but wow does he have energy for a 40+ year old. His singing and dancing got the crowd asking him to encore at least three times. The most well known band must have been SNSD, and  even though only 3/9 members performed, they tried much harder than when I first saw them at Fashion Collection (read here).

Besides the celebrities, Miss Korea was one of our MCs of the night, you know your an Ivy League school when haha. Yonsei also had their version of a singing contest, Yonsei Idol, where the top 3 finalists performed solo and as a group. The winner was revealed later on that night and he totally deserved it as his voice was so strong and beautiful. Also, something that took everyone by surprise was that an alumni from Yonsei made a video of how he met his girlfriend back in the day and when the video ended, the MCs brought him and his girlfriend out and he proposed to her in front of the  crowd of squealing girls and guys shouting "KISS". How sweet is that? That just brought proposal ideas to a whole new creative level.

At about 8 or 9pm (I think, lost track of time), fireworks lighted up the sky (whattt!) and this crazy green light show was projected onto the stage showcasing a moving eagle (Yonsei's mascot), the words "YONSEI" itself and other pretty cool stuff. I thought it was the opening of a crazy popular band such as Big Bang or something to end off the night (as rumored), but turns out, the Blue Knights (Yonsei's cheering team) came out in their costumes to kick off a series of consecutive cheering. I couldn't ask for a better way to end off Akaraka. I felt so much school spirit and it brought me so much joy to see all of us students jumping up and down, cheering and singing together, dancing like no tomorrow, and having such a happy time as one school body.

It felt so surreal and unbelievable to be there in that moment and I didn't want it to end. Though, the reality of it was that the event wrapped up at 10:30pm, after 8 hours worth of celebration. When will you ever have this experience in North America?

Yonsei students know how to throw a party.
사랑하다 연세!

Beautiful Getaway Sarah Thursday, May 03, 2012

If you've been following me lately, you know I have been preparing for a getaway.

This weekend I had the joy of going to Busan, SouthEast of Seoul in celebration midterms being finished. I had been in anticipation of this trip all of last week as I couldn't wait to get away from my room, my study area, my books, and even my school. Yes, you do get sick of spending so much time on campus.

KTX Platform at Seoul Station

 Day 1

 Foreigner Special Compartment

My friends and I got the KR Pass for foreigners (unlimited 3 day ride pass that can only be bought online) and headed out early Saturday morning. An important piece of information you should know is, despite the great deal your getting on these KR passes, there is a catch that we didn't know until we got on the train, and that is, you only get a seat if there is a seat, if not, you stand, or sit at the compartments in between the trains. As it was the weekend, we were forewarned that all the seats are usually taken, but if your lucky, you can sit for a while before the next stop where new passengers get on. We were a little surprise this information wasn't made known to us prior to buying our tickets, but we made the most of it, laughed at our situation and endured the approximately two and a half our ride.

Arriving in Busan felt so good, but it still took another 40minute by public transit to get from the KTX station to where we were staying at, the most popular beach in Busan, Haeundae Beach(해운대).

Haeundae Beach 해운대

Finally, after settling down, we decided it was time for lunch. One thing you notice about Busan is that even though it is the second largest city in Korea, the population is obviously smaller as everywhere you go, even on the trains, its not as crowded as it is in Seoul. As Haeundae is a popular tourist area, the lineups of seafood restaurant in the area were literally in competition for our buisiness. Adjummas would stand outside their door and wave towards us and call us '"아가시" ('agassi' meaning young lady) to get our attention and draw us in. We were all so indecisive and at one point we even walked out of one restaurant as quickly as we walked in due to the lack of interest in their menu (they were actually quite assertive in deciding our food of choice). We settled on a restaurant that had the most business of all (when in doubt, always go to the busiest one!), and had a steamy hot, delicious, fresh seafood stew between the five of us ($40). Octopus, clams, shrimp, crabs, and fish satisfied my omega 3 cravings as Korean food lacks seafood in their dishes. This restaurant was actually published in the journal, sovno wonder they had business without even competing for it. It was worth every won and I would highly recommend it to you if you're in the area.

Gwanganli Beach광안리

After some exploring in the area for some time, we headed to Busan's second most popular beach, Gwanganli (광안리), known for the Gwangan Bridge that lights up at night. It so happened that there was some sort of festival going on and we walked into a parade about to start. Many tents selling food was also set up on the beach, and thus, there was much more people than expected. Our getaway was mainly for us to just relax and be at peace from all the buzz in Seoul so we took the time out to take photos, play, and enjoy the view while resting on the beach

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 Around dinner time, we ventured to Millak Fish Town Center (민락 희 타운 흴 어판매시장), which was located at the far left end of the beach if your facing the bridge from the beach). This was a place we had researched where you can buy your fresh seafood on the main floor, and they will prepare the fish for you to eat upstairs at an additional cost/person. I had thought it just be a two story building, so I was a little taken aback when I realized this place was a whole building. I have to admit it got intimidating too because once we entered, all these ajummas at their respective fish stations are calling out to us and once again, competing with each other for our business. We somehow ended up at a nice looking adjumma station and she just started grabbing fresh fish from her 'tanks', weighing them, and tell us the cost. She was more fierce than she looked when she took one of the fish fighting for its life in one hand, and took a knife in her other hand, and slit its throat. We ended up spending $50 (2 kg was $40 for this adjumma, varies from seller to seller) on four fishes and 3 baby octopuses (one was thrown in for free) since we wanted to try eating them while they were still moving.

Each fish station had their own respective restaurant upstairs, hence the size of this building. We went to the ninth floor where her affiliated restaurant facing the beach was, and waited for our fresh meal. It cost an addition $5 for us to have our fish prepared and an extra $3 (all together) to eat the fish cook rather than just as sashimi. Also, fried cocoons tend to be a common 'snack' here in Busan, but we were quite surprised to see it served as one of our side dishes. None of us dared to try it and the waitress took it away from us upon noticing this.

The live octopus was a whole new experience to us, minus the Korean of the group. It looked really gross at first to see these chopped up tentacles still squirming around, but with a new found courage, we tried it and liked it! Octopus actually doesn't have much taste to it itself, and its flavor was found in the sesame-soy sauce/ spicy gochujang mixture we dipped it in. Next was our platter of fresh fish and I couldn't ask for a better way to eat our seafood than as one my favorite dishes ever, sashimi. The texture was so smooth and wrapping it in mint leaves and lettuce (Korean custom) and adding some gochujang was delicious. Our cooked fish was fried and salted with salt similar to kosher salt. It was a little salty for me, but the fish was well cooked and tasted fresh.

 After our hearty seafood meal #2, we were ready to head back to the beach to take some photos with the bridge that was suppose to be lighted up. However, stepping out from our seafood adventure, we noticed the bridge didn't light up yet, despite the sky being covered in darkness. Instead, fireworks were lighting up the night sky (most likely because of the festival we assumed), and we were so stoked to see them as we had wanted to light fireworks on the beach if it was permitted (fyi: its not permitted in most circumstances), so seeing the sight of them made us acknowledge that everything happened in our favor that day! The bridge lighted up afterwards and we took more photos in memory of our day.

Day 2


Rise and shine to an early start and wandered to the other side of Haeundae Beach. The sun wasn't out, but it felt warmer than the day before due to the humidity. It was a very calm and slow day for the most part as we wanted to take it easy and not have a rush or full on itinerary.

In the afternoon, we headed to SeaCloud hotel for Seaside's church service, the more recent church plant by New Philly, the church I've been attending. I can finally say I've been to all three campuses: Hillside, Itaewon, and Seaside!  I met so many wonderful people and it was such perfect timing as all three locations will be joining to have a church wide retreat this coming weekend.

$7.50

After a great message, we headed out to a Japanese restaurant with our new and old friends. This eatery was actually really close to our hostel, Pobi Guesthouse, which was convenient for us to grab out baggage and head back to Busan Station to catch our train afterwards. For the price of sushi and Japanese food in general, the pricing was decent and went from $5 for a small plate of sushi to $20-$25 for a platter, depending on the size and types of fish. There was this sashimi salad bowl some people ordered, and I wish I had ordered it if I had knew about it because it looked so yummy. It's basically a mixture of salad on top of a bed of rice and sashimi and you mix it all together with gochujang (Korean hot pepper sauce).

  Before we went to catch our train home, we wanted to get some souvenirs as Haeundae and Gwanganli didn't sell any (though, you would think they would since they are hot spots for tourists). We were recommended to go to Nampo-dong, a shopping area similar to Myeongdong in Seoul with international brands as well as Korean labels. Having to go there with all of our baggage was a hassle already (since we were head to the train afterwards, Nampo is two stops away from Busan Station), but running around trying to find souvenirs didn't make it any better. We seriously could not sight any souvenirs until I asked an adjussi selling street food. He directed us to take an escalator heading upwards to find a place that sold souvenirs, but this escalator led to 2-3 more escalators (some which didn't work), and another few flights of stairs, eventually leading us to Yongdusan Park (용두산 공원). We burned off our calories for that weekend alright, but it was funny how our unplanned plans worked out because originally, we didn't plan to come to this park where Busan Tower was unless we had some extra time, but in all spontaneity we found ourselves here and were able to snap some photos. After much seeking, we found the souvenir shopping center, but unfortunately, it was closed already.

All in all, it was a wonderful getaway and I would definitely recommend Busan as a destination to hit up when your traveling in Korea.


P.S. I love the new layout for Blogger, posting photos and editing them is so much faster now.