First Sunday in Seoul

Sunday the 21st was my first Sunday in Korea. It was strange not being able to easily drive to my parish in Tulsa with no hassle and go to church with my family. But luckily for me, my friend Amy from TU is in Korea this summer visiting family and she was able to meet me for mass on Sunday! Amy and her aunt kindly met me at my hotel and we took at taxi to Myeongdong Cathedral for their 9 am English mass!

It was a beautiful morning. The sky was bright and clear and it wasn't hot yet because it was early. Even though I was far away from Tulsa I felt completely at home in the Cathedral. I love the way Catholic churches are the same all over the world. The liturgy is the same, the readings are the same, the prayers are the same, the Eucharist is the same. I was united with all of my family and friends through the Eucharist and felt such peace all throughout mass. Even just walking towards the Cathedral made me feel at home as I walked towards Christ in the tabernacle, and Christ in his people, the Church. 

The church is up on a hill, so it rises above you and sits alone on the skyline. Beautiful!

Inside, looking down the nave, after mass.

Amy and I, pumped after mass in Korea!

After mass we went to have an early lunch of Seolleongtang, which is ox bone soup made with bone broth, rice, meat, and green onions. It tastes like something your mom would cook for you if you were feeling under the weather- comfort food. It's very good. After lunch we walked around and looked at shops.

Early lunch

We love Kimchi. <3

Lookin' good Lee Min-ho

Haha Hyun Bin

You've gotta have dessert to celebrate the Lord's day, right? Amy and I went to a "Well Made Dessert Cafe" and got an Oreo Ice Cream Waffle which came with free coffee. So. Good. Waffles are big here. Street waffles, breakfast waffles, and dessert waffles. My mom would love it, she loves waffles. 

Waiting on our waffle.

LOOK AT IT- Oreos, oreo ice cream, chocolate sauce, and hey why not stick two pirouette cookies on there too?

The aftermath...We couldn't finish it. Notice how my side is more finished than Amy's haha.

Unfortunately I didn't eat these delicacies, but aren't they cute!? I saw them in a cafe window and had to take a picture. Okay, even though Totoro (the character/pastry on the far right) is a Japanese character from Studio Ghibli, he's EVERYWHERE in Korea! I see plushies, phone cases, pouches, and keychains in tons of shops. Which makes me want to buy all of them. I love Totoro...

After some more walking in the humidity and heat and shopping we got bubble tea. Because when you're with Amy Chang in Korea might as well live it up. :)

Isn't she too cute?!

Amy brought me back to my hotel and then we joined a few people from my group to go see Seoul's Embassy Day. All the embassies had tents around a huge grassy area displaying food, arts, and other things from their respective cultures. It was pretty cool but extremely hot. I was using my umbrella as a sun shield. I do that a lot here. A couple of K-pop groups made an appearance (not to sing, just for pictures) but I didn't know them. They were VIXX and Apink. A girl in my program was really disappointed when she heard I saw Apink, she's a fan. 

In front of a statue of King Sejong the Great!

The views here are breathtaking. I love the mountains.

Amy had to head back to her aunt's home while we were still at the Embassy day, so we said goodbye and parted ways. It was so wonderful to see her though. She is one of my very good friends whom I love dearly, so I always enjoy hanging out with her, but getting the opportunity to hang out in Korea was such a blessing. It was so relaxing and nice to spend some time with someone close to me after having spent so much time with strangers and new friends. And besides that, Amy, being Korean, and I, being a lover of Korean culture, have always bonded over Korean things- so being in Korea together was a dream come true for me. I love you, Amy!

That night I had mandu (dumpling) soup for dinner, while my friends had samgyeopsal (pork belly).

After dinner we walked around Insadong and heard some amazing street performers. There was a girl singing and a man on guitar accompanying her. She sang a beautiful acoustic rendition of 2ne1's "Lonely." I was majorly impressed.

During one of the girl's songs a family sent their little boy up with some won to drop in the guitar case, but the little boy didn't understand what to do. He walked up to the man playing guitar and held the money out to him. Of course the man kept playing guitar since it was the middle of the song and the little boy who was probably around two and a half or three became increasingly frustrated, hopping and shoving his money at the man while on his tiptoes, before finally running away into the arms of his laughing mother. It was so cute. :)

Navigating Seoul - Or Not

On Saturday the 20th the orientation activity consisted of a photo scavenger hunt through Seoul. It was really fun to explore Seoul and the Yonsei campus, but there was one issue. It was pouring rain. Like, REALLY pouring. My umbrella kept my head and shoulders dry and that was about it. Our big group of 40 was divided into groups of five. It was really nice to spend some time in a smaller group of people and to have the opportunity to have some longer conversations. However, we weren't the best at the activity. We started with the items on the scavenger hunt list that were at Yonsei University and it was a huge mistake. There's a ton of construction happening at Yonsei currently, and it's already a giant campus, so we got worn out really early on and ended up giving up after we had a late lunch. Oh well!

Construction + Rain = Lakes of Gravel

We found the Korean Language Institute! And the rain let up a tiny bit.

Lunch at a mall- Delicious mandu (dumplings), and donkatsu (pork cutlet)!

After lunch we tried some coffee bingsoo at Seoul Bing! Seoul Bing is a Korean dessert cafe and bingsoo is a dessert made of shaved ice with various toppings. Patbingsu is the traditional form which is shaved ice with red beans. The coffee bingsoo that we all shared was shaved ice with coffee ice cream on top, chocolate covered espresso beans, nuts and granola, chocolate powder, and a hidden pocket of red beans under the ice cream! It also had coffee and condensed milk that could be poured over the ice. It may sound odd, but it's incredibly delicious. Especially at Seolbing- that's supposedly the best place. Dessert heaven, and big enough to share with four other people. 

After the best dessert ever we had to head to our final destination for the scavenger hunt, which was a theater where our whole program group was watching Bibap. Bibap was a non-verbal musical based around cooking. It featured fantastic beat boxing, dancing, and comedy. It was so different from any show I've ever seen and everyone I talked to enjoyed it as much as I did! The performers were really talented and high energy. It was also audience interactive, with the various "chefs" dragging audience members onto the stage at various points. Guess who got dragged up first before the show even officially started? Yep, you guessed it! I did. "Green Chef" pulled me onto the stage after he had combed through the audience asking people where they were from and finding targets for later. He sat me down on a stool, had me hold his microphone, and started singing to me while on one knee. He pulled a napkin out of his shirt and twisted it into a flower and sprayed it with red paint while he sang and presented it to me. I was just laughing, it was pretty funny. Then "Red Chef" burst out onto the stage and snatched the "flower" away and handed me a plastic flower (it was a step up from a painted napkin) and HE started singing to me. Green Chef was obviously pretty outraged by being upstaged. He started yelling "WHY?" at me and I just shrugged and said "This flower is prettier!" which got a laugh. ;) But then he snatched the flower away and stomped offstage and thus their rivalry for the remainder of the show began. I got to sit back down after that. 

A group of us with the cast.

Later for dinner we had chicken and beer- which is a really common meal here. I just skip the beer and enjoy the chicken. They set these snacks on the table at the place we went too and it tasted like cereal...and was highly addictive.

Orientation Begins

Friday the 19th was a long but awesome day! The morning began with a buffet style breakfast at the Center Mark. They had a mix of both western and Korean foods which was nice. Then I rode a Korean subway for the first time. I was really taken aback because the subway system in Seoul is incredibly clean. Additionally, there are glass sliding doors that separate the tracks from the rest of the station that only open when the subway cars open- so there's no chance of anyone falling on the tracks. I was so impressed. I'm sure it's expensive, but to me it seems so worth it for every subway to have sliding glass doors to protect the public.

Subway station!

Since I'm still so new here I find the subway confusing, but I'm told it's actually quite simple because everything is clearly marked (in Hangul and in English) and the lines are designated by different colors. And at least for now, the subway is pretty fun too. It makes me feel like I'm in a futuristic society as people rush to transfer lines and casually brace themselves without using the hanging hand-holds with headphones on and apps distracting them during their commutes. There are also little take-away restaurant stands and other shops down in the subway stations. It smells so delicious sometimes, especially when you don't have time to stop.

We took the subway to The National Museum of Korea where we had some free time to look around before meeting up with the group for orientation activities.

I found this sweet painting and know no details about it... But it's so intricate!

When we met up again for orientation we were given a run-down of program rules and regulations before watching a presentation on some of the most notable parts of Korean history. The women teaching us were awesome and they fed us traditional Korean snack and gave us free books. I picked a book about King Sejong the Great- the king who oversaw the invention of Hangul. Then we got to try on hanboks! A hanbok is the traditional Korean dress, which nowadays is generally only worn for traditional events and celebrations.

My friend Aisha and I.

They have a flowing comfortable fit- I'd wear a hanbok any day.

After the orientation and a group photo of a bunch of us foreigners wearing hanboks, we had lunch at the National Museum restaurant. It was Friday so I wanted to abstain from meat and I was really pleased to have the option of fish for lunch. The food was delicious. A light white fish with carrots, cauliflower, and mushrooms, and banchan of anchovies and kimchi, with black rice and some kind of soup.

After lunch we went on a short one-hour guided tour of the museum. The tour was one of my favorite parts of orientation. Our docent was a really interesting young woman who was obviously passionate about the art she showed us. We saw lots of Buddhist art and beautiful ceramics and she explained the different meanings of symbols and explained the artistic trends. I'm definitely going to go back and spend a lot more time at the museum since it's free entry.

This Buddhist statue reminded me a lot of the "Pensive Christ" statues I saw in Poland.

This is a ceramic celadon incense burner. The color is supposed to imitate jade.

After the tour we had free time, so a group of us decided to go to Myeong-dong, which is a huge shopping district of Seoul. None of us knew how to get there so one of our Seoul-mates, the lovely Jisoo accompanied us. Seoul-mates are interns employed by my program. In my understanding, they're local students whose job is to answer our questions and to help us learn the culture here. 

Jisoo took us wherever we wanted to go, and pointed out the best place to buy cute Korean socks (they seriously have the cutest socks here) and the best bubble tea place- Gong Cha. I can't get enough bubble tea. (Wish I could bring some back to my Grandma Beam!) Myeong-dong was extremely exciting for all of us, as it fulfilled our expectations of what Seoul would be like. It was crowded with people shopping, selling, and hanging out with friends. We saw our favorite k-pop idols on advertisements at every shop, heard k-pop blaring on the streets, walked past countless street food vendors, got handed freebies from women at skincare and cosmetic stores (which are everywhere by the way) who were trying to get us to come in and shop, and just generally freaked out when we recognized something or couldn't possibly believe we were really here.

Stores are just stacked one on top of another.

B1A4 :D

I FOUND A CATHOLIC BOOKSTORE! See Pope Francis? I talked to the sisters who ran the shop, they were so sweet.

Gong Cha!

Milk Tea, 70% sweet, Regular Ice, Perfection

SHINEE

hahaha Say what?

We headed for the subway to travel back to our hotel and then ended up looking at more shops in the subway! The subway station in Myeong-dong basically has an underground mall. I could spend so much money here....

I got dinner with some other people from my program near the Center Mark Hotel that night. Soft tofu soup and bibimbap- a dish of rice mixed with various vegetables and egg.

The soft tofu soup comes served in a hot pot so it's still boiling when it gets to the table.

A Kinder Egg from the convenience store. The toy was a little ball that fit together like a puzzle.

Meeting the Crew

On Thursday, the 18th, Dad took me back to Incheon Airport (after we spent the morning and afternoon together- see previous post) where I met my CIEE program providers and other participating students! It was strange navigating the airport and making eye contact with other foreigners and wondering if they were part of the program too. I finally arrived at the designated meeting area and began introducing myself to people as they showed up. Everyone else meeting at the airport had arrived that day, so they were pretty exhausted. The first group of us left the airport by bus around 5 and traveled to The Center Mark Hotel, in seoul.

It's always odd being surrounded by a big group of people and yet all being in the same lonely boat. You try to make friends with everyone, never knowing who could potentially be your next great friend. But while you're putting equal energy into meeting everyone, you're not really getting to know anyone especially well at all. Tiring. However, everyone was nice and interesting and we all banded together to seek out food (typical).

We found a Korean bbq place nearby in Insadong and got excited to be eating in a place that required us to take our shoes off and sit on cushions on the floor. It was delicious! I also tried soju for the first time, which is a traditional and very popular Korean alcohol. A couple of girls got bottles and passed them around, I only had a sip and I've gotta say- I wasn't a fan.

Grilling the meat...and getting splattered by grease in the process. Ouch!

Eating with new stranger-friends.

Ran into my bias from Big Bang- T.O.P. :) K-pop idols are used in advertising for literally everything.

After dinner we walked around Insadong which is an area known for its traditional atmosphere. There's a mix of both traditional and modern buildings and it feels very quaint. 

I went to bed exhausted but excited to see what the next few days of orientation held!

Incheon

I immediately loved Incheon, which is probably no surprise to everyone who knows how much I've been wanting to visit Korea for the last six years. I'm sure I couldn't help loving the first place I set foot in, but it was honestly so charming. Tons of shops and restaurants lined the streets near our hotel, but there were beautiful spacious parks a short walk away as well. We only spent one night and one morning and afternoon in Incheon, but I hope to go back soon.

The evening we got in we took a taxi to our hotel. I felt like I was in real-life Mario Kart. The only thing missing was our driver throwing bananas out the window. He was actually a skilled driver I suppose, because he got us there quickly and safely even while going way over the speed limit, driving on the shoulder, trailing cars, and switching lanes like it was nobody's business. :)

My first Korean taxi ride.

Our hotel room was awesome- look at that view! The bathroom was nice too and we each got a queen sized bed to ourselves.

We visited Lotte Mart (a multi-storied supercenter/grocery store) after checking into our hotel. Why does Korean cereal have way better prizes than the cereal here??

Too cute! Bread pillows!

Walking to dinner.

Dad and I went to Cafe Chosun, a Korean barbecue place, for dinner. When you get Korean bbq it's served with banchan, which are little side dishes like kimchi and pickled radish. The kimchi here is a hundred times more delicious than the kimchi I've had in the States- spicier too! So you order what meat you want and cook it yourself on the stone grill in the middle of the table. We got samgyeopsal (pork belly) and beef. You cut it into small pieces and can wrap it up in lettuce or sesame leaves along with banchan toppings if you want and you can season it with supplied salt and pepper and chili paste. You're supposed to pop the whole wrap into your mouth at once- but I sometimes take bites.

The best dad ever. 

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel. It was a buffet so I got an omelet, a piece of french toast, some fruit, and some yoghurt. Grape Coconut flavored to be exact, it was surprisingly delicious! Then we went out for a stroll around the beautiful Incheon.

During breakfast a Kina Grannis song came on! It was random to hear her music here in Korea but I got really excited. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV1u5QrqUHM )

Love that guy.

Incheon Catholic University!!! Can I go there?

Our Lady of Lourdes, at the University

They have a Fine Arts and Design College there. <3

Right across the street from Incheon Catholic University is a big park

Okay, how awesome in this- in their parks are these little telephone booth looking-things that are actually MINI LIBRARIES. You can go in, grab a book, read it and bring it back. 

Seriously. I love it.

They had an animal statue for every month with a description of what it stood for.

I could get used to this.

To encourage public health, exercise equipment is in a courtyard in the park. Pretty cool. I saw these when I was in France as well.

I basically smiled the whole time I was in this park.

In addition to mini libraries, plenty of pagodas for gathering, and a man-made river with boats you could rent, the park also had a Rabbit Island and a fenced off habitat for deer.

After a great walk around Incheon, Dad and I packed our bags and headed back to the airport where he flew a plane back to Tulsa and I met with my program providers to travel to Seoul. Goodbye Incheon, I'll see you again.