Korea: April Adventures

After Japan I was pretty much consistently busy (hence the taking FOREVER to finish posting about Japan and April). But busy really just means having adventures and stories to tell. So here is what went on:

The week before the CIEE group went to Japan, Megan (link to blog) from Parth and my KLI class had made a group of us grilled cheese. That one fateful night then turned into KLI family dinners (we are having one as I write this; Megan is making grilled cheese while Parth gives everyone a hard time, Christina (our friend from the US via Ukraine) sits on the counter, and Avery is straight up chillin’).

So anyways, it was then my turn to cook. I decided to make stuffed peppers, vegetarian style because Avery doesn’t eat meat (Side notes, Megan’s grilled cheese is DELICIOUS and Parth is talking about imaginaaationnn and North Korea). But yeah, my stuffed peppers were fabulous. (Another side note, Christina is now dancing with a spatula and Parth is claiming he is Christina, while Megan disapproves and Avery eats grilled cheese. It’s very amusing). And I served a salad, mashed potatoes, and failed chocolate cake too. Megan ate most of the peppers. She was quite happy.

Most of the pictures that follow are screen shots from Megan's videos. Blogger wouldn't let me delete them, so for now they are slightly out of order, somewhat awkward. Go with it.

Megan & me

Christina was sick that day so she wore a mask. But then, she
is almost always sick.

Avery helped wash the lettuce for the salad

yummy cheesy mashed potatoes!

Megan's stuffed pepper. She wants more still.

Parth skipped out on us that night, but this is him.
Eating cake. With chopsticks.

The original grilled cheese. The grilled cheese that started it all.

Prepping to cook (Potatoes in the pot already)

It should also be noted that Parth and Matt (Australian friend) made fried rice and omelettes (which were actually pretty good) and Avery made curry which was also good. Christina made potato pancakes (Ukranian), which didn't nearly fill us up so we then got MiniStop chicken (chicken on a stick). But nothing tops my dinner...except maybe the grilled cheese ;)

The next day I partook in a movie shoot. Apparently Yonsei needed smiling, foreign looking girls so Hannah from CIEE and I joined for a day. It was LONG but kinda fun and really legit.  I didn’t get a lot of pictures (because I was being filmed, give me a break here!) But they had a make-up artist and real film production stuff.

All dolled up for the movie!

Legit camera & lighting stuff (not so movie tech savvy)

Then the next day (like I said, I was busy in April) CIEE had a Seoul Mate picnic. We went about an hour and a half away (by subway). Neither the program director nor the assistant director was there (Boram apparently had errands to run…). We had kimbap, pastries, and drinkable yoghurt.

Lunch!

Then we walked around the park for a bit. We played games with our Korean friends like this one where you hop on one leg and knock the “queen” down. This amused us for a while, but we continued.

Apparently there was an International Horticulture Festival?

We came across some Korean traditional things. There was a seesaw of sorts. Except instead of a normal seesaw that children sit on, you stand on it. One person jumps, then at just the right moment the other person jumps and is launched really high into the air. Niko (from CIEE, who also happens to be from Massachusetts) was really good at it and a mother put her child on across from him. The poor child didn’t quite get what to do and didn’t jump. Instead the child just quivered on the end for a moment then left. Then Boram’s sister got on. She, mind you, is extra tiny. Like 100 pounds soaking wet tiny. She launched into the air so fast that her knees went up and hit her nose. We then promptly moved on.

It was a fun afternoon, but then it was time to head back. When we got back to Sinchon we split up for dinner. Funny enough, we all ended up at the same restaurant though. Then a few of us hopped back on the bus and went to a new neighborhood (I don’t remember what it was called). The neighborhood had some good shopping and lots of cafes.

The day after the picnic adventure Suzanne (CIEE program director) took us on a hike up an apparently nonexistent mountain. Not really sure how that works, but I went with it. Let’s be real, though. It’s a mountain. There’s only so much to say so just look at the pictures and read the captions.

A neighborhood of old Seoul. The entire city used to be like
this. It's all changed in just the past 50 years. Remarkable.

Cherry blossoms in Korea!

The old Seoul city wall

View over the city

And again, towards Namsan

Pretty purple flowers that I had to stop to take a picture of
...their color just stood out too much not to take a picture

Stopping at the exercise machines, of course. They are every where in Seoul.

A little dude carved into the mountain, and a  little friend for
the dude (get out your glasses, this is like a
Where's Waldo game)

Temple offerings: Soju (alcohol)

That used to be a prison, now it's a museum or something like that

Apparently the rock formation looks like a person. I don't
see it (they really tried to explain it to me, too)

Notice how this rock formation looks like a tiger?

View of Seoul from a rock outcropping we climbed on,
Namsan tower in the background.

Nestled in the ridge you can just see the top of the Blue House
(Korean equivalent of the White House)

The old Seoul city wall, centuries old and still protecting the city

Our guide for the afternoon

Down from the rocks. Caution: do. not. fall. Also, the two black rocks
supposedly look like monks or something. Clearly I just need to be more abstract.

The group: Parth, Michael Comella, Ashley & Angel,
and some other foreigners we met

Inside a temple

The monk stone thing, covered with magpies (a Korean bird)

Food offering to the spirits

A traditional ceremony. Apparently they cost a few thousand
dollars and can last for hours

Also, we were apparently lucky to be allowed to see it at all.
The doors are usually closed.

If memory serves me right, that is really potent either N. Korean or Chinese alcohol.

Korean oreo!

Traditional Korean style roof

A few days later (I needed a break, rest and recovery, and it was pre midterm week.) Crystal, Sammi, Sammi’s friend Kayla Ann, two of the Seoul Mates (Jieun and Sol) went out to dinner. We got chicken and beer. Apparently we looked so foreign that we needed about four forks per person. Seriously. Chicken in general to me is meh, but after we got bingsu which was extra delightful (ice cream, shaved ice, and toppings).

So. Many. Forks.

Since we didn't have knives, Crystal put both forks to use!

Sol and the bingsu. So much bingsu!!

Over the weekend Avery and I met up with her pen pals Jowerny and Stacey for lunch. We went to a vegetarian restaurant that is just inside Sinchon, then for coffee. Jowerny and Stacey are the CUTEST couple! They told us about their plans for a tour of the world on bikes, and we told them about our time here in Korea and what we do back home. It was a nice afternoon and we decided we must do it again (currently working on plans to see them).

The final day (Wednesday April 25^th) was Crystal’s birthday, though. So Brittany and I ventured out into the rain to get her an ice cream cake from Baskin’ Robbins. Yummmm J

Happy birthday Crystal!

Trying to hide from the camera...

Making her wish (she didn't tell us what it was, but I'm still
here so it wasn't to get rid of me!)

On Thursday I attempted to go tutoring. After I had managed to get lost on the way there two weeks before, then slept through it the next week, I finally managed to make it. But this time the woman I was supposed to tutor didn’t show up so I proceeded to walk around the neighborhood. First exciting find of the day: Nutella Waffles!!! (I didn’t have one because I wanted to wait for my friends to be with me).

After making it pretty much all of the way around Sinchon and Edae, Megan called me to get lunch with her. I happily obliged and then we decided to head back to Edae for shopping. After walking around the neighborhood twice in one day, we headed back to Yonsei for KLI where we came across a sign on the way down a long set of stairs. Thank you for the warning Korea, thank you.

"Warning: Steps ahead"

So many people at the crosswalk!

Pretty flowers outside KLI

Nutella waffles!

No nutella at grand mart :(

So that night we had another family dinner, after which we adventured to find the Nutella waffles again. Mind you, I didn’t remember it being quite so far, but I visually knew how to get to it. After walking for what seemed like forever, we finally made it to the waffle place. But it was closed L So then we went to find nutella in the grocery store because Crystal claimed she had seen it there. While I believe her, I had never seen it, and still haven’t seen it there. We ended up getting crepes instead (really good crepes, but not Nutella filled :/)

Here I will take a break to let you move on with your day. Next post (already written) is about how epic the last weekend in April was. Seriously epic. It includes seeing the sun rise and robots. Stay tuned!