Ready for More Sarah Thursday, March 29, 2012

This weekend will be significant.
This weekend will be awesome.
This weekend will be unexpected.
This weekend will be a revival.
This weekend will be out of this world.
This weekend is off campus.
This weekend is not in a nut shell.
This weekend is going to end off March.
This weekend is going to kick off April.
This weekend This weekend This weekend
This weekend is the Emmaus "New Wine" Retreat!

This weekend is only the beginning.

Be anticipating Sunday for a faith lift on this blog.

Shop like Home, Eat like Home Sarah Tuesday, March 27, 2012

I really felt like blogging today and though nothing special happened, I shall talk until something perhaps significant comes along.

I thought I had missed out on telling of the damage I did on Saturday. What started as a spontaneous buddy shopping day turned into a trio and soon a quartet of broken wallets. I have been deprived of a really good shopping day. Street shopping is fun and diverse, but I realize I have been craving store shopping. Myeondong had the best of both worlds, so I headed there with the intention of setting a budget and breaking it (I know tsk tsk). I was so happy to be in Forever 21 and immediately felt guilty upon leaving wondering why I had just shopped so much there when I could do so at home. Well, I justified it with the fact that I don't go to F21 as often as I like to since it's a far and inconvenient trip from where I live in Edmonton. Also, as it was started by a Korean couple, I thought I might as well support their location in their home country, and lastly, because I miss it so-that's enough of a justification to me. However, to my surprise, I found lots of sale items and F21 at home never has sales (well only crappy leftovers), and everything I bought was less than what it would cost on the street-especially stuff not labeled with a price on it (the seller usually jacks up the price if your a foreigner, therefore speak Korean and be assertive on getting a discount).One of my friends usually fills out a form for tax refunds when she spends quite a bit at one store. I always thought it was for custom purposes until she told me that if you keep your receipts and have a tax refund form filled out from that store, then when you leave the country, you are eligible for about 10% (depending on the store) of the tax you paid back (tax is 9% in Korea and usually included in the price tag already). It sounds fairly little and insignificant when the items are cheap, but being here for a semester can add up to a few bills back in your pocket.

Unfortunately, I found this out after I had paid and left F21. I guess this tip will be for future shopping trips. Otherwise, even though Myeondong was busy and crowded as expected for a Saturday, us girlies were satisfied with our store and street shopping and headed for dinner at Pizza Hut. Again, why are we eating at a place where we can eat back home? Well, because we wanted to try bulgogi pizza and this popular sweet potato crust. Pizza here is not cheap, its about the same as home or a little more. No surprises when you acknowledge that most western food places are considered higher end here. But again, our taste buds were happy with pizza selections you can only savour in Korea.

Well, nothing really significant came about in this post, except the fact that its okay to be doing non-Korean activities in Korea. Having these places gives you a piece of home and happiness. Sometimes, that's just all you need to make a day special.

Night Owl Sarah Saturday, March 24, 2012

This past week hasn't been all that exciting. What started as a dry, sore throat turned into a Mr. Cold and he's been stirring up a tornado in my nose. In Korea, blowing your nose in public is not a very polite thing to do, but more than often, I just couldn't contain my wailing trumpet. This time around, Cold FX didn't fight off Mr. Cold for me, but I'm so glad to say that I'm finally not congested or suffering from phlegm no more.

During the week, I was anticipating for Friday. It was a skeptical, curious, and a lack-of-expectation type of anticipation. My language exchange partner had decided for us to have a 'meeting' with my friends and his friends. So with the knowledge I have of the term 'meeting' in Korea, it pretty much refers to a blind date, though nowadays its more of a comfortable setting to meet new friends. Well, you never know what will happen through the meeting, but he had planned it so it was one guy for every girl. You can see now why my friends and I were a little skeptical about this whole set up now. As common as Koreans do these meetings, for us foreigners, it was a first, so we really didn't know what to expect. Also, we were meeting to go to a 술방-literally a drinking room, a bar like place set up into rooms where people come to drink soju, play drinking games, and eat snacks.

So the day arrived and we headed to a place in Sinchon. The rooms in the 술방 actually reminded me of traditional tatami rooms in Japanese restaurants, minus the taking off your shoes and sitting on your knees part. It was slightly awkward at first with five guys on one side and us five on the other, but I'm glad there's always that one guy who has an outgoing persona to break the ice. We were first taught a drinking game call 딸기 딸기 ("Strawberry Strawberry" which was supposely the easiest game according to the guys, but then again they learn these games since they're fairly young, so they're pro at it by now, and disclamer: it wasn't the easiest for us, we were so slow compared to the guys). We ended up splitting off into pairs to play as a team as it actually didn't work very well girl vs. guys, and it turned out that being paired off was to our advantage too, well initially haha.

You wouldn't believe the amount of drinking games we learned. I personally don't know any drinking games in North America except beer pong, but the culture of drinking is so different in Korea. Each game has an introduction, sort of like a 3-4 line rhyme or song to kick off the game, and then you start. It was so hilarious and entertaining to see these guys sing and do the hand actions to some of these drinking games-priceless! Most games required sufficient hand-eye coordination (like the Animal game, if you have ever played it) where you had to say something to a beat or point to someone while maintaining your clapping rhythm. Whoever hesitated, lagged, or didn't know what they were doing would obviously drink with their partner. I lost count of how many of these games we learned, but it was over ten for sure. It can get so loud too, sometimes, you could hear the room next to you shouting, but we were shouting too. I actually didn't mind losing because I liked the selection of drinks we had. For us females, we ordered strawberry, yogurt, and pomegranate soju. Its pretty much a super diluted, water down soju drink, you can barely taste the alcohol, so it tasted like a fruity drink to us. The guys on the other hand, downed soju shot by shot.

Turns out, we had over analyzed this 'meeting' and it was a very enjoyable night for us ten with lots of laughter. Despite some of the guys not having a proficient level of English, they still tried to converse as much as they could. I couldn't believe it, and you probably wouldn't either, but we lasted 6+ hours in that room! Crazy eh? Apparently you can stay until sunrise if you have the energy to. Time sure flies when your having fun.

Another cultural thing in Korea is that when you go out with your group of friends, you usually do three rounds of activities known as 일차, 이차, 삼차 (first, second, third round respectively). First round is usually a meal/dinner, second is usually at a cafe for dessert or a drink, and third round is usually karaoke. It doesn't really matter what order or what you do, but typically Koreans just do three rounds of activities. It was already around 1:30am when we figure we should wrap up our time in the drinking room, but we were all quite awake from all the games so we headed to a restaurant for some snacks (이차). We conversed and asked some questions that made us think, but the energy was dying slowly as it was hard for us to think by now, so around 3am we called it a night? and headed home in rainy Seoul.

Note to self: buy an umbrella!
Insider: After Eight no more!

Reflection Celebration Sarah Sunday, March 18, 2012

Today is a month since living in Seoul and it has actually felt like a month's worth of seeing, eating, doing, and experiencing. I have been reflecting lately and there's a few things I want to share about in this reflection. I will separate them into categories for an easy read.

Seoul City
This city has not disappointed me and I feel with each new experience, it just gets better. There is so much to do and as much as I have done and flooded your facebook walls with my photos, there's still so much I want to do: more palaces, sightseeing, touring, exploring, finding hole-in-the-wall places, things not in a lonely planet book, and more. Just more. At this point, I don't want anything to stop yet and I feel if I'm not doing something I'm not making the most of my time, though my purpose here is not only as a tourist, so this sets me back a bit, which I'll elaborate later in this post.

Seoul FoodSo when I look back on all my photos, there's been a lot of food, but you may be shock that this is actually not the top damage in my budget. Meals in Seoul has been way cheaper than a meal in Edmonton. I have also noticed that Korean food is generally more healthy with less fried, greasy, or msg added foods. However, having analyzed my consumption habits, I think this next month I will aim to lessen my indulgence at all those unique cafes and bakeries and try to eat in more. I am on my way to figuring out what is cheap to buy at grocery stores and I think with better planning skills, I will be able to keep my wallet and waistline in tack. Sometimes eating out can be cheaper than eating in, but when you split the cooking time and costs with friends, anything is possible. Actually, I really do miss making food for myself too.

Seoul PeopleKoreans are a different bunch of people. Having been to HK a handful of time, I would never consider ever in my entirety live there, but I would consider and love to live in Seoul. Having said that, this is what I'm thinking at this moment, who knows if I'll change my mind by the next month. Why you may ask? Well, for one thing, I couldn't figure it out for the longest time, but having skyped a friend earlier, I found the word. Passion. Koreans have passion in everything they do as if it was imbedded into them from day 1. Even the ajummas who clean after us college students have smiles on their faces and greet us with enthusiasm when we passed by (and who likes having to clean up piles of cup noodles, wipe disgusting stains in the kitchen, and trash garbage dumped all over the lounge?! seriously, some students are so dirty here) Koreans may look, stare, and even point at you when your a foreigner, but its really just out of curiosity or care for you (don't be shock if an ajumma slaps your leg for not wearing socks outdoors during the winter months).

Seoul CultureI have close to no culture shock. There are a few things I was quite taken a back by, such as the affection same sex genders show for each other (especially guys), but I've come to acknowledge that this is their way of caring for each other and its rather a cute bro-mance. The mannerisms of Korean guys are so different from American guys, and its actually so sweet to see a guy hugging their guy friend when they meet them. Though, I do dislike those who spit and the vast amount of males that smoke in public and their admittance to smoke indoors at certain places (ugh). I also cannot understand why a girl would ruin her outer beauty by smoking either, but the choice is hers. As for the language barrier, its been better than I thought, and I find myself improving in my Korean as I'm constantly expose to it. I am also loving all the walking I am doing-tanking all those stairs and steep climbs.

Seoul Education/YonseiYou may not have known, but I didn't know until I arrived either that my university is considered an "Ivy League" school of Korea, one of the top three universities that spell out 'SKY' (Seoul, Korea, and Yonsei Uni respectively). Despite this fancy label, in the shoes of an exchange student, there is no pressure for us to live up to this title as we are marked on a pass/fail basis (having said that, I definitely want a mark better than a pass). So far, I don't feel any stress yet and perhaps for one thing it's because I'm only taking 4 courses, 1 is taekwondo so pretty much the workload is three classes. To be honest, I haven't really been keeping up with my studious habits as I would in Edmonton, but I need to do something about it before all my uni skills goes sliding. It's one thing to label yourself as an exchange student and define it as an overseas escape to fun, but another thing to ruin your transcript and have your escape backfire to doom. Thus, I am still trying to figure out a balancing act before school and play.

Seoul Life & BeyondUp to now, everything has been pretty much smooth sailing. Friends have asked if I'm homesick and the answer is no, I'm not. Being here has allowed me to learn things I wouldn't learn living at home such as buying groceries and living with a roommate (Amen, because mine is an absolute sweetheart), and if I was independent before, I feel that more than ever now. Sometimes, I do wish my friends back home could be here to experience what I am experiencing, but otherwise, I am cherishing my time here with passion like a Korean. With tentatively three more months to go, I will use all of my energy to do well in school, play harder, explore deeper, and travel farther.

Happy one month Seoul!

Han River & Norabang Sarah Saturday, March 17, 2012

Hello Weekend,

Today, Master Kim, my taekwondo teacher had organized a Han river walking/biking trip for us exchange students. I was already quite sore from my first taekwondo class on Thursday (just shows how long I haven't worked out), but I still was up for it as it sounded like a wonderful idea.

I opted out of biking as 1. I haven't biked since being on a tandem in Taiwan a year and a half ago and didn't know if I could bike properly, 2. I was sore, and 3. I wanted to walk. Everyone rented a bike except Teresa, Pey and I, so the three of us went on an adventurous stroll. To our advantage, the sun was out and shining, the temperature had risen, and it felt amazing to be breathing into breezy, clear, non-smoke-filled air. Throughout the Han River vicinity, there would be stop points, similar to a park/play area for kids... but it was actually a place for the bikers and walkers to stop and stretch out or even work out! They had work out machines where instead of lifting weights, you would lift yourself or machines that help you twist your body side to side to relieve tension or any stress you may have. It was so fun, like an adult play park, and it was quite a sight to see all these ajussis and ajummas working out. Who needs a gym when you can go to Han River right?!

In the evening, after a dinner of four different flavors of samkyeubsal (fatty pork), we headed for our first Norabang (literally singing room) karaoke experience. We went to a place in Sinchon recommended by our friends as it has a aesthetically pleasing atmosphere and ice cream was included. However, the price was higher for the place being so posh and comfortable. For an hour, it was $18 hour (we went for two knowing how fast time flies) and we got a private room to ourselves lined with cushioned seats, two flat screens, and even a tambourine and a maraca for us to play and sing to. We pretty much sang our heart out to the hits of the 90s, danced to Kpop we couldn't sing to, and partied like we could hit all the high notes, long notes, and impossibly fast lyrics.

What a satisfying Saturday.

White Day Version 2.0 Sarah Thursday, March 15, 2012

White day is another spin on Valentine's Day a month later. Apparently in Korea, Vday is when the girl gives the guy a gift (supposely chocolate) to show her love to him, and the favor is returned on Wday where the guy gives a gift back to the girl (supposely candy). I had mentioned before that Korea is a walking Valentine's Day- everywhere you go, couples are spotted, some, even with a ridiculous sense of style and so not only couples were spotted that day, gifts of all sorts were too.

Since my first day in Korea, there were already advertisements regarding this event, so it was no surprise to see more and more of them plastering store fronts as this day came closer. The day of, booths had even popped up with bouquets of candy, boxes of chocolate, and giant teddy bears. My friends and I decided to do our own version of White Day and coined it Friendship Day. For dinner that night, we went to eat bulgogi cooked in a brothy soup with rice and delicious (what is not delicious in Korea?) side dishes- various kimchi, bacon-flavor-like lettuce, dried fish mixed in some paste, clear noodles and more. The bulgogi was seasoned to perfection and was mouth watering savory! It was a delight to eat it and spoon the broth over your rice, ahh so tasty!
So far, everything eaten in Korea is better than eaten in Canada, even western dishes. You may think that the Basket Robins franchise would be like any other in North America, but it's definitely not. We decided to treat ourselves to a cake to celebrate our friendship and also because we've noticed how people carry a BR cake in a styrofoam box. We found out that the styrofoam box includes a pack of ice to keep your cake fresh. The staff asks how long it will be until you eat your cake and this determines how much ice they give you. Also, candles and matches are free(BR is not cheap here like DQ back home). The staff actually thought it was one of our birthdays and asked how old that person was turning... we just wanted candles so I asked for five.

Happy March 14 Friends!

K-Collection: Fashion Concert Sarah Monday, March 12, 2012

Can I just say that Koreans know how to put on a show?

Amazing.

In no way am I a die-heart k-pop fan and I've been to a handful of fashion shows, but wow, this was utterly fantastic (baby!). Five sweet hours of entertainment made up for the brutally cold wait outside for our tickets with the icy wind blowing us nearly into icicles.

We were lucky enough that out of the six of us, three of us emailed early enough to get VIP seating, so the rest of us were their plus one (we ended up discarding our third seat tickets). Four rows from the stage, in a mob of foreigners-only designated seating, and a eagle eye's view of the stage, we were exhilarated for the show to begin.

Let's start with the music scene.

With our seats, and an event as such, you would be looking at paying at least $200+ in North America, but we got in for free! Three cheers to being a foreigner. Secondly, not to toot my horn, but I'm sure and know of many who would have been jealous of me haha.

There were really popular bands like SNSD and Big Bang in which the fans went nuts with just the mention of their names. Miss A, Infintie, and IU were also quite popular among the crowd as well. Then there were the ones that were fairly new to the scene such as 9muses (9 models scouted as a group... btw they weren't good at all), and some artists from older generations who were to my surprise, extremely talented and left my ears ringing for more of their astounding voices-especially this ballad group consisting of four males known as Noel. Personally, I thought SNSD did poorly with their performance. I had expected more energy and enthusiasm from their fame and popularity, but it seemed like they weren't trying at all. Also, they were missing two members that night. My favorite has go to be Infinite, boy can they dance and melt a girl's heart. Apparently they will be having a concert on April's Fools, how tempting.

In between, there were was a DJ hosting the show and presenting singers, duos, and trios popular from years before as well as up and rising artists. I think I may have converted to a kpop fan now having had such a privilege to sit through a dynamic array of Korean singers.

FASHION TIME.

Imagine my excitement upon hearing that there was an event as such, let alone incorporating the whole fashion aspect!

My expectations for the fashion side of things that there would be models walking down the catwalk showcasing different brands of clothing in between the concert scene. I've been to multiple fashion shows where models are suppose to be emotionless and just strut their walk as they are presenting the designer's clothes, not themselves, hence the lack of emotion in their faces. These ones were not the case though, and I loved it so much more. Each brand had a distinct style or theme to their clothes and would play on that theme with support from the backdrop, props, and the styling of their models. The models came out smiling and enthusiastic and you can tell that they were highly enjoying their act as well. They were absolutely exceptional, not only performing, but acting and dancing as well. Each show also had a famous celebrity modeling, be it an actress or singer from one of the pop bands.

One of the brands had a person miming in their opening and had their models cat walked down the stage with helium balloons, while another had a mini fencing performance to kick off their show; and yet another, my favorite concept of all, was a day to night transformation where the models would show their first look, and then head back to the middle stage to swap an accessory or piece so that it became an evening look. The creativity was endless, it wasn't just fashion, it was a fashion show!


I also adored the freebies! As if this entire event wasn't an enough of a freebie in itself, Skinfood gave out little packages of face masks, candy, and soaps. Other sponsors of the night tossed out teddy bears towards the crowd, and Kappa even threw basketballs to the audience. It was a night to remember and a great way to kick off the term.

Fashion & Concert, what a fabulous idea.

More please!