Orientation Part 2/ City Tour

For dinner after orientation day 1, my new two German friends (Anna and Connie (Connie is also my roommate!)) went out for Korean BBQ! This is probably a food that Korean cuisine is most famous for.  BBQ is when you have a little grill of hot coals at your table and cook you own meat (with side dishes also). It is super yummy (but maybe a little too much meat lol).

The BBQ set up

Action shot of Connie flipping our meat

Yum!

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Yesterday was the second day of the exchange student orientation. The morning was used to help us apply for bank accounts and fill out forms for our KU i.d. card. It will be nice because our KU i.d. card will also be our bank card. We had a lunch similar to the one the day before (Korean, cafeteria style). Then in the afternoon there was a presentation about life in Seoul. This was really helpful because the presenter (originally from Saskatoon!) shared a lot neat facts about population, geography and lifestyle/cultural tips that will make it easier for us foreigners to adapt to life in Seoul. He said that the gesture of clenching your fist with your thumb tucked in between your fingers (like when you play "got your nose!") is 100x more offensive than what the middle finger gesture would be in North America.

In the evening we had our KUBA group one after-party where our whole group went out to a restaurant to hang out. This was so awesome because I met even more people (Korean and foreign). Everyone here is so nice and friendly. I've met one other person from Canada (he's from Vancouver) and we talked about hockey/ the Jets. There was also an American I met you once she found out I was Canadian, not American, her first reaction was: "Oh wow, really? Why don't you have a Canadian accent?". 

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Today was a fun day where KUBA organized a tour of the city. We went to the Gyeongbukgung Palace, had lunch/went shopping in Insadong, and then saw a famous Korean play: Nanta. 

The palace was so amazingly gorgeous! There are a many buildings on the property, each with a different purpose. It was a lot more colourful than what I expected it to be.

Here is the main gate to the Palace

The underside of all of the roofs were like this. Everything was handpainted.

A second entrance gate with the mountains in the background.

I thought this shot was kinda fun. The Palace is right in Seoul so it really contrasts with the modern high-rises.

Korean guards

This is the main building where the King and Queen would greet the people and listen to their problems. My Korean friend Julie said this was/is the most important building.

Throne inside the main building.

The colourful and detailed roof.

Scary statues are put on the roofs to scare off evil spirits. 

Another building, used by the King to mediate each day before making important decisions. 

Inside that building.

Taller building, also where the museum of artifacts is located.

Julie-me-Melisa (she is in my KUBA group and is from Peru). We are in front of the building used for parties. As you can see it is surrounded by water. So pretty.

This was located right outside Gyeongbukgung. This is the Korean president lives. Korea just elected a new president (a female, for the first time), and she was inaugurated this past week.

In Insadong we ate Korean bulgogi (or beef) with side dishes (kimchi of course). We then had some time to check out the shops in the area. There was a bunch of clothes/ accessories shops and a lot of others selling touristy trinkets. 

We then went to see the play Nanta. It would probably be best described as like a silent comedy play but then the sort of drumming style from Blue Man group. It was really fun!

So far everything is going well! I'm making lots of friends and have already settled in quite well. Thanks for keeping me in your prayers. Miss you!

Orientation/ Anam Area

Today was the first day of exchange student orientation. They grouped us up with our KUBA group. My buddy Cecilia was there along with the other two buddies Melisa (from Peru) and Rika (from Japan). Us four are then part of group 1, which has about 8-10 KU buddies, each with 3 or so students. There are 8 of these large groups in total.

In the morning there were presentations telling us about the university and the KUBA program and such. Then it was lunch! We all ate in the cafeteria and had our choice of Korean dishes. I had a sort of pork main dish with onion that you could dip in a salty sauce and wrap up in a lettuce leaf (without the leaf). There was also side dishes of salty/sweet noodles, kimchi, soup, and rice. It was all really delicious! (Sorry, no picture. Maybe tomorrow!)

Then in the afternoon they set us up with KU emails, helped some students buy Korean cell phones, and then we finished off with a campus tour.

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Here are a couple pictures just showing what Anam, the area around the university looks like. It is mostly buildings catered towards students so there are lots and lots of coffee shops. The picture below is a typical sort of building where there are shops on 2 or even 3 floors. Pretty much all the buildings in Seoul have the first 2-4 floors for restaurants, shops, cafes, conveniences stores, etc. and then the rest of the floors as apartments.

Also notice the Subway (sandwich store) and the hill!

This next picture is of the road I take from the subway station all the way up to CJ House. The first 600m or so are more shops like the other picture, and then the last 400m are residential area/ hill. I counted 11 coffee shops on the 600m stretch of this road (but I probably missed some too; especially if they were on the second story), so like I mentioned before: a lot of coffee shops!

Here is a picture I took at the GS25 convenience store: KicKer chocolate bars! I can't tell if this is engrish (aka bad translating) or just a knock off of KitKat. Either way, it's pretty funny.

Exploring Campus Adventure/ Korean Food

I didn't really have any specific plans for today, so after I got up and ready I decided to scope out campus and see if I could find the Inchon Memorial Hall. I thought this would be smart as this is where I am supposed to go for the international student's orientation at 9am tomorrow (Tuesday). The group of residence halls is on a hill above the main campus area with some residential area and some shops between the two. I guess today was the graduation ceremony because once I reached the main campus it was SO BUSY! All the students were in cap and gown with their families all taking pictures and people selling bouquets of flowers. I don't even know how to describe how packed it was, so here is a picture:

See? Very busy!

Here is a picture of the main building

I was able to find the building I was looking for, so at least the adventure was still a success!

When I went back to my dorm I met Connie, the last person to move into my dorm. Her room is right next to mine. She is from Germany and is very friendly. I showed her where the convenience store is and we picked up from lunch foods there.

For dinner, dad and I decided to go to a place he read that had good Korean food. We took the subway east about 5 stops to get there and then the restaurant was about another 5 minute walk. It seemed like a very traditional place, with the booths all surrounded by barriers and sliders. There were no pictures in the menu so we didn't know what the dishes were, but the lady just kinda pointed at one page so we figured she would get something for us. :S In hindsight I guess she just got us the meal for 2 people instead of a larger variety of foods that would feed 3-4+ people.

So this was the first course she brought us. These were all cold foods. I don't really know for sure what these all were, but I labelled them what they tasted like. At first I thought the red dish was kimchi, because that is what it tasted like, but when I asked the waitress, she was saying it was something else and I just pretended I knew what she was saying (I think she knew zero english because she kept doing that thing where you repeat what you say just slower, hoping the other person will understand). I have no idea  what the grey dish is supposed to be (sauce or soup?).

The beef, noodles, and vegetable kimchi were my favourites!

We thought the meal was now over but then she brought us another whole course of foods. These plates were all hot foods. These were all really good expect I did not try the gelatinous fishy thing. Dad did though but didn't really like it (points for trying though).

Now we were sure the meal was done, but then she brought out even more dishes! There was another soup surrounded by side dishes (including kimchi) and then also wild rice with seeds wrapped in a banana leaf. Some of the sides were spicy and others were very mild. By this time I was getting really full and did not have enough room to try them all.

Overall, it was very good even though I know really know what the dishes were called or what was really in them. Tomorrow is orientation so I have to get a good night's rest! Goodnight!

Day 1 (Yesterday)

Sorry I couldn't post sooner, I haven't been able to hook up the internet in my room yet! Anyways, here is an update on yesterday. It was a busy day so this might be a bit of a long post. :)

Moving into CJ House
This was the first thing we did yesterday. CJ House is the residence for international students and is supposed to be "hotel style".  The first floor is the lobby and cafeteria, second is workout room, third and fourth is boys rooms, fifth and sixth is girls rooms, and the basement is laundry and piano rooms.  I am room number 522D and I share my room with 3 other people. But so far there are only two other people here.

Here is the floor plan of the fifth floor. In room 522, my bedroom is of the left-most side. There is also a kitchenette down the hall I will be able to use.

Swiping my keycard to get into my room (See mom? It's very safe)

Common space in my room

Hallway to my room. I share the sink, shower and toilet with one other person. There is another hallway like this on the  other side of the common room for the other 2 girls.

My room! It feels bigger than what I expected. Notice the thermostat on the left... lol I forgot to turn it on last night and woke up in the middle of the night freezing!

Lot's of closet space! There is also more pull out drawers under my bed.

Desk and side cupboard (that has a built in lock)

One of my roommate is Nana and she is from Milan! She has been here since September and can speak Italian, English, Korean and is learning Japanese. She is very nice and bought my some laundry detergent. :) My other roomie is Mizuki and she is from Japan. She seems very nice also but I haven't had the chance to talk to her much yet. I'm guessing the other girl will be coming soon.

There is a convenience store called GS25 (they are everywhere here!) about a 2 minute walk down a hill where I was able to buy hangers, toilet paper, hand soap, bread and peanut butter (yum!). There is also other sort of snack or cereal I can buy there. 

If you walk further down the hill (about 5-10 minutes) you get to a main road where there is a subway station and LOTS of coffee shops. 

When you have to walk back up the hill it takes about 20 minutes though because it is so steep. I will have buns of steel when I get home from going up and down this hill all the time!

KUBA (Korea University Buddy Assistance)

In the afternoon I met up with my KUBA buddy Cecilia. She is a student here at KU and will be helping me and 3 other people during orientation. We are all part of another larger group (group 1) which gets together to go out on weekends!

Cecilia is Korea but she was born in Holland (Tyler: I know you guess that one of my roommates would be Dutch, but this is pretty close!). Her dad's job moved around a lot so she has lived in Norway,     Thailand, and Sri Lanka (and also many places in Seoul). Right now she lives in Gangnam which is pretty cool.

Dinner With Michelle
Which also meant taking the subway for the first time! To pay for the subway you can use cash or you can buy a T-Money card from a GS25 store or 7-11. If you are staying in Seoul for a while it is better to use a T-Money card because the fares are a little bit cheaper. It costs 5000 won (about $5) up front but is reloadable. You can also use these cards for the bus, some taxis, and payphones.

This is my T-Money card

In total it took us about 15 stops with one transfer to get meet up with her (took about 30 mins). The closest station to me is Anam station on line 6 (orangey/brown) and Michelle is by Sinchon station on line 2 (green circle).

Subway map

For dinner Michelle took us to a really great Indian food place. It was delicious :) So I did not have any kimchi today, but I did have 4 cups of tea :)

So day one was a success! Hopefully I can take some more pictures of the buildings around my area.

Bonus picture of this Lacoste rip off store. (This is the one I was telling you about Bronnie!)

Here!

This will just be a quick post to say that we got here safe and sound. I had realized the plane from Vancouver to Seoul was going to be long, but it was SO much longer than I had prepared for (also Tyler, remember how you thought you were getting a cold? Well I guessed you passed it to me- I had sniffles the whole time! No hard feelings though : P).

But we are going to bed now: we need a solid night's rest because tomorrow is move-in day! More updates to come! Love you guys!

On My Way

We made it to Vancouver! The flight from Winnipeg went well, a little bit of an early flight, but nothing Starbucks can't fix. But it is nice to be out of the snow for a bit (even if it is drizzling a bit here). Right now we still have about 2 hours until our flight to Seoul leaves, so we are just killing time at the airport.

Our plane to Seoul

Bored in Vancouver

Next time I update, I will be in South Korea! :D

Packing!

So as of now I only have two more sleeps until I leave, which is unreal because I still feel like my trip is weeks away. But, I have finished packing and, after some reorganizing and asking dad to take some of my shoes in his suitcase, I am finally ready!

Phase 1: planning and organizing

The hard part about deciding what to bring was that I had to plan for both winter, spring and summer weather conditions as I will be in Seoul from the end of February to the end of June. I kept alternating between thinking I had packing too much or that I packed too little. I also had to find space to pack some supplies for school (boo, which means losing valuable suitcase space).

Phase 2: it fits!

After weighing it on the scale it comes pretty close to the airline requirement: success! I have my book and headphones in my carry-on, so I'm all set for the plane (all I will need is a coffee in the morning to deal with waking up at 4:00 am)!