Trick Eye Museum

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a while!

Friday was another ItaeOne group event, woo! This time we went to the Trick Eye Museum in Hongdae. It is kind of hard to describe what this is in words. Basically there are many pictures (usually famous ones) that if you pose a certain way, it will look like you are part of the scene. It was pretty fun. :) Here are some pictures to show you what I mean:

HyunJin: one of the KU buddies.

Ahh!

Haha, Jin has no fear.

Yay! 

Aww. 

Save me Hong!

Panda mode: activate!

Tea time!

Hall of mirrors.

To get back to the beginning of the museum you had to go through this maze mirrors, which is actually more difficult than it sounds. Just when we thought we made it out we were right back where we started from! It was definitely a fun Friday activity!

Also: HAPPY EASTER TO EVERYONE! I will miss being at our family get together! :( Connie and I are planning on going out for a nice Easter supper, but we don't know which place yet. Maybe we will have mandu (dumplings). Enjoy the holiday, miss you all!

ps. Are there things you guys are curious about that I should make a post on? I know my family wants more pictures of the KU campus, but are there any other ideas also? Just let me know in the comments!

Dongdaemun Movie Theatre

So last Thurday after our Korean class, my friends Anna (Germany), Jenny (Sweden), and Andrea (Germany, but she lives in Seoul now), went to the movies! We didn't go to a Korean movie (we are not that good yet), but went to see Warm Bodies (zombie/ romance movie?). It's not really my type of movie, but I thought it would be fun anyways. Anna found a theatre in Dongdaemun, which is pretty close. It took us probably 15 minutes by subway with one transfer.

The movie cost us 8000 won each, which would be about $7.50, so pretty much the same as Canada. It was a totally different experience that movies in Canada. Instead of free-for-all seating, we got to pick which seats we wanted when we were paying at the cash register. Also, this theatre was on the 9th and 10th floor of a department store, which was definitely the coolest part.

Movie theatre place.

This was the view of Dongdaemun from the movie theatre lobby! 

Korea is excited about Iron Man 3 too!

Another big difference was the food. They still sold popcorn, but the had 3 different flavours that seemed like different types of caramel corn rather than buttery/salty popcorn I'm used to. Here are pictures of the even weirder things:

If you look closely you can see that the middle one is squid fries!

French wine and a movie? Why not, I guess. They also sold beer too.

The one on the left is just a regular popcorn combo, but look closely and you'll see it is called the "CASH BEE LOVE" combo. I have no idea what that is even supposed to mean.

Jenny bought potato fries! There was plain and also one with powdered cheese on it. It was weird though because they were cold, not hot- but she said they were still good. 

The movie was a lot better than I expected and it was so cool to experience a movie in Seoul! The movie wasn't altered to have Korean voices, but did have the Korean subtitles, which weren't as annoying as I thought they would be. It was cool to be in a theatre will all Korean people who probably don't speak much English, but you still all laugh at the jokes and funny parts.

This next picture is really random, but I just thought it was so strange. This was the mural that they had in the ladies washroom. Why? No idea whatsoever. Definitely creepy.

I don't even have words for this caption.

So all in all it was a really neat experience! Somewhat the same as going to the movies in Canada, but at the same time a lot different.

Hope you are all doing well! Thanks for reading!
Love Kayla :)

Insadong Tea Time :)

This morning my friend Anna (Germany) and  I had to run an errand to pick up our alien registration cards, which was fairly far away (30 minutes by subway, with two transfers). To make the trip worthwhile, we decided to shop around the area of Insadong afterwards because it was so close to the immigration office. 

Insadong is a very touristy shopping area. The main street has lots of stores selling paper fans and Korean slippers, but there are also a lot of authentic stores as well where you can buy Korean ceramic or hanboks (traditional Korean dresses). Anna and I we just there for the window-shopping, but it was really interesting to see what they all had there.

Anna has a Korean travel book that recommended a traditional Korean tea store that sells the special green tea produced on Korea's on Jeju Island (located off the southern most part of Korea). It was wonderful! The first floor is like a shop, where you can smell and buy all the varieties of tea. Although they specialize in green tea, they also carried black, herbal, and oolong varieties which are so hard to find here!

One of the tea booths. 

This man was handing out samples of the famous Jeju green tea (which was AMAZING! It was really fruity for just a plain green tea). Here he is mixing up the tea leaves in this large basin.

On the second story they had a little cafe where you can buy a cup of tea and cakes if you wish. Anna and I both agreed that we needed to do this. Because I bought plain green tea from the grocery store to make in my room, I was really looking for a fruity flavour of tea so I picked "red papaya black tea" while Anna picked a 'special' kind of tea called "wedding tea".

Here is our teas! WOW!!!!

The teas were SO AMAZING. Mine was really fruity like what I hoped and Anna's seemed like a white tea that was very floral. We each got our own tray that had the pot, a bowl, a cup, and two little cookies. The waitress showed me that you first pour the tea into the bowl, then pour the tea in the bowl into the cup (you can see the bowl has a pouring spout). The cookies were good too! They were both shortbread and the green was green tea flavour while the red was earl grey. Mmmmm :)

Tea makes me happy :)

View of the Insadong shopping street from the second-story cafe.

Bronwyn and Larissa: the whole time I was here I thought of you guys and wished you would magically appear so we could go crazy over all the teas!

Mom and Dad: when you come to visit me in May, I am for sure going to take you here!!!

Thanks for reading everyone! Miss you! :)

Hidden Gem

I've said before that the food in the restaurants here is cheap (you can buy a decent dinner for less than $5!) but my roommate Connie and I have found something even better: one of the school's cafeterias. This may sound really dull, but it is actually really exciting! :)

This cafeteria is located on campus in a building right next to the one where we have our last class (Korean Language class, so Connie, myself, and our other friend Anna are in it together). It is set up buffet-ish style, where there is a long line of plate of food (one section with plates of rice, then plates of chicken....). So basically you just walk down the line and pick up what you would like to eat. There is great selection: always 2 kinds of rice, kimchi, other various veggies, 2 types of meat plates, 2 types of soup or stew, plus more! This is what I had today:

Curry chicken, brown rice (that looks purple), kimchi vegetables, pickled red radishes, and egg soup.

Now make sure you are sitting down because here's the kicker: it was only 1850 won (less than $1.75)!!!!!! So amazing! Connie said that she heard from someone else that the food is subsidized by the university so it is really cheap for the students.

These are also some of the Korean foods that I am really liking (excluding the chicken because that is Indian food, but still yummy):

• Kimchi Vegetables (gakdugi or gahk-doo-kee): this has the same flavour and spiciness as regular kimchi, but is made with radishes instead of cabbage
• Pickled Red Radishes: I don't really know how to described the flavour, but it is salty, sweet, and sour all at the same time. There is also a yellow kind you see sometimes too which tastes just the same.
• Egg Soup: This is a really simple soup. All it is is scrambled eggs in an egg broth. Sometimes there is also green onions on top. Simple, but surprisingly delicious.

These are all very typical Korean foods that have become staples in my diet and I love it. :) Especially when it is so cheap! Connie, Anna, and I are thinking we might start coming regularly to this cafeteria after class Monday to Thursday, and then only go out to the restaurants on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. That gives us the chance to save money (while eating good foods) and still have the chance to get out there and try a lot of restaurants (of which Seoul has plenty).

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Another exciting thing this week is that my Korean Language class is progressing past learning consonants and vowels. I am now able to read sentences at a slow-moderate pace and introduce myself (joh reum Kayla ye yo). It is pretty funny because to convert my name into the Korean alphabet system it would look like this: 캐일아 and sound like this Kay-i-ra (with the 'r' sound more like a cross between an 'r' and a 'l'). I think if I want to convert Vanderwees to the Korean way it would sound like "Ban-de-we-se" haha.

My Korean language textbook and workbook.

I can read these! Yay!

Lesson and exercise about introducing yourself.

So as you can tell not a lot of adventuring has gone on, but I thought I would still share about my campus life. :)

Stay warm in all that snow you got in Winnipeg (suckers). Love you!

Lotte World!

This Friday the ItaeOne group decided to go to Lotte World!! :D

In case you don't know, Lotte World is a theme park located right in the city of Seoul. It is owned by the brand Lotte which is a company that does pretty much everything here (expect for the things Samsung does). There are Lotte department stores, markets grocery stores, hotels, high end shopping stores, and of course, THEME PARKS! This theme park is part inside/part outside, but the inside section is the largest indoor theme park in the world! It's really a fun place for people of all ages because they have everything from crazy roller coasters and gyro drops to bumper cars and little kiddy rides. 

They were having a deal on Friday that if you "liked" their Facebook page and shared their post you could enter for only 10,000 won (less than $10). So that was an awesome deal, but the only downside was that the deal started at 7pm, which only left us with 4 hours as the park closed at 11pm (with the outdoor rides closing at 9pm). So we had to hustle. If you are either Bronwyn or Larissa, then you know that I am good at hustling in theme parks :)

Castle! Not a rip-off of the Disney castle at all... *sarcasm*

Roller coaster: Atlantis. Was super fun!

Part of the indoor section. In the middle there is a skating rink.

Also the inside. Notice the hot air balloon ride at the top!

So I didn't take many pictures because we were so focused on getting of the rides. The Atlantis was probably my favourite. We also went on the Gyro Drop (like the Power Tower at Valley Fair), the Viking (pirate ship), and a Sinbad ride (where you sit in a boat and go past scenes from the movie).

We had hoped to go on the indoor roller coaster, but after we sprinted there got there, we found out they were about to close it. :( But all in all it was so much fun! By the end of the night I was so tired. We all agreed that we have to go back for a whole day in the Spring. 

Thanks for reading, miss you all! :)

Not Much to Post About, But Anyways....

This post is pretty much to let you guys know that I am still alive, but that there really hasn't been anything super exciting to post about lately. One interesting thing is that my Korean language class started on Monday. We are learning the consonants (자 음 or "ja-eum") and vowels (모음 or "mo-eum") this week. So far I am finding this fairly easy because I taught myself the consonants and vowels and how to read before I left (if you are interested too, try this site).

We are having another ItaeOne group outing on Friday so I will have more exciting things to post after that. For now it is just class and studying.

On Monday our group went out for BBQ buffet. It is probably the best combination ever invented.

Sorry for the short post. I hope you are all doing well and staying warm in Winnipeg!

KUBA!!!

I've talked about my buddy Cecilia before and a little about the KUBA program, but I thought it was time to dedicate a whole post about it. KUBA, or Korea University Buddy Assistance, is a program where you get assigned a 'buddy', a student from KU, to help get you settled and integrated into Seoul and KU. Each buddy takes care of 3-4 exchange students. There are about 400 exchange students (I think) in the KUBA program, so we and our buddies are also divided into 8 groups of about 50-60 people each, if you also count the KU buddies. So my buddies name is Cecilia and I am in group 1.

The job of the buddies is to pick you up from the airport, help you find your residence, help you with getting your alien registration (form is you stay in Korea longer than 90 days), and help during orientation (ex. filling out forms for your bank account, which is in Korean). The groups organize fun events like the city tour I went on before. Group 1 has a group lunch every Monday and a group outing every Friday.

Now like all group things here, you might guess that this sort of thing is taken seriously. Each group has a leader, a media member (to take pictures at all the events), a group name, and group colour. Haha, we even happen to have a group theme song. There is an area in Seoul called Itaewon and since our leader used to work there our group name is "Itae-One". It is oh-so-clever. :) Our group colour is green, but I don't really know the reason why. It just is, I guess. And our group song is an actual song called "Itaewon Freedom". Cecilia told me it was a hit song like 3 years back, and since we our ItaeOne then it just became our song. Check out the hilariously weird music video here. (Note: it is intentionally cheesy, so be prepared).

Group 1! This was during orientation.

Woo! Our leader, Gyeonguen, is holding the green sign. Take a minute to appreciate this picture because it took us between 10-15 minutes to set up.

So, this past Friday, our group went on an outing to a market, the Cheongyecheon stream, and Namsan tower. Here are some pictures.

Here is the market. All the booths in the middle were little food places. (This is a bad picture because you only see ones that are closed- haha sorry!). But if you gaze into the distance you can see the lights where the open ones are.

Squid. I passed on this.

I did have this though! Kimchi mandu!!!! Aka: kimchi dumplings. They were "mashiseyo" (delicious)!

I don't remember the name for this, but it was like a fried pancake thing made with shredded potato. 

Next we went to the Cheongyecheon stream (pronouced: "Chi-ong-gee Chon", not "chunky chun"). It is a manmade stream that runs 5.something km through the city. We just walked down a part of it, but it was very beautiful. Our group leader also had like a scavenger hunt for us and we had to find little notes to win prizes!

I am not trying to be artsy or anything here: I just didn't let my camera focus. Sorry! But anyways, this in the Cheongyecheon!

Yay!

Action shot of me swiftly crossing on the stones. Photo credit to Cecilia.

Me, a KUBA buddy (sorry, I am still learning all of their names!), and Julie

I was so beautiful and so much fun! Together Cecilia and I found 3 notes, but one of them was a "sorry, try again". Haha we got really competitive with the scavenger hunt, so we mostly spent our time looking at the sidewalk instead of the river! I can't wait to come back in spring when the trees and leaves and the cherry blossoms are blooming.

Bonus picture of our group at the Cheongyecheon.

Next was the Namsan tower! I don't know is any interesting facts about other then the amazing views of the city from the top. Oh, I was told that it has the fastest elevator in the world, it that counts.

Namsan Tower!

Picture 1/2

Picture 2/2. Now try to imagine both pictures at the same time.
 This is Belle (America), Estelle (France), and me.

View of the city from the top! It was a bit foggy so you can't see super far, but it was awesome to see all of the city lights.

More city lights!

So, in this direction was Seattle and Denver. They didn't have Winnipeg and I think this was the closest one. Also notice the reflection of the gift shop in the background.

So yeah! It is so awesome for KUBA to organize these events. It is a great way to get to know both the KU and other international students while also touring Seoul.

*I heard some people are having trouble commenting. If you are commenting from a tablet, then maybe try commenting from a computer or laptop instead. I am asking blogger-extraordinaire Cass from http://grandpajoeshouse.blogspot.com/ for blogging advice, so hopefully it will be fixed soon! *