노래방/Noraebang & KU GSIS MT

Just got back today from KU GSIS MT! I was exhausted. So much yelling and singing. The night before MT, a few of the international students got together to eat shabu shabu, drink 막걸리/makkoli/rice wine, and go to 노래방/noraebang/karaoke:

Shabu shabu has 3 steps: 1. meat 2. noodles 3. fried rice

After dinner, we went to this rasta bar, which had the wrong flag. They were trying to be Jamaican, but put up the flag of Libya instead.

We went to this very popular 막걸리/makkoli/rice wine place in 안암/Anam. 

노래방/noraebang/karaoke was a lot of fun and very emotional!

Reena, Shiloh, and I! 

The next day, we went on MT at 남이섬/Nami Island. One of my best friend's name is Nami, so this was so funny that the island was name after her. ;)

남이섬/Nami Island considers itself its own republic. You need your passport and everything for the ferry ride onto the island. Overall, the island is very quirky, as you will see:

Super yummy peace iced tea.

Super fluffy bunny!

And an ostrich. 

Some of the people on my team: Joe, Taro, and Alex.

Strangest sculpture ever...

I'm not sure if you can see, but there is a spiderweb.

Chipmunk!

Very traditional way to make rice and other food. 

남이섬/Nami Island is very famous because of this drama called Winter Sonata. It's a classic!

Cute snowmen.

Pretty lily flowers.

On 남이섬/Nami Island, there is a lot of arts and crafts with used soju bottles. 

Here are recycled 막걸리/makkoli/rice wine bottles.

This guy was jammin' on his sax all day long. 

Soju bottle tree :)

Being a tourist :)

The trees on the island are beautiful!

Front gate.

This is my friend, Sunny! :)

Hahaha. I don't know who that girl is, but she is in my program. 

The island is known for its peculiar animals. After exploring the island, everyone stayed at a "pension." It's basically a house with a big area for activities and kitchens, then men's and women's sleeping quarters. We ate so much 삼겹살/samgyupsal/thick bacon without any salt. It was delicious. 

Then, we had a few bonding activities inside the main area. Each team introduced themselves with a traditional KU introduction called FM (apparently it stands for Field Manual). Although we are in graduate school, it was still an interesting introduction to our school life together. After the FM, each team member drank a bowl of 막걸리/makkoli/rice wine while everyone else sang the 막걸리/makkoli song. I found out that we are all terrible singers. You were also supposed to put the bowl on your head upside down after you were done to verify that you drank the whole bowl. Here's a video of one team: 

Interesting welcome to KU :)

경희대/Kyunghee University + 홍대/Hongik University + 평양냉면/Pyongyang Naengmyun

It's been a few days, but I've been so busy with work and meeting up with people. I need to give you a recap on the past few days.

My good friend, Hyungchang, gave me a tour of 경희대/Kyunghee University. The campus is gorgeous. The building are quite majestic and the landscaping is phenomenal. However, I didn't take any photos because he said that spring is the best for visiting. I will return in the spring when the cherry blossoms are in bloom to take many photos. After the campus tour, which was very short because we didn't feel like walking up the big hills, we went to eat 파전/pajun/Korean pancakes with 막걸리/makkoli/Korean rice wine:

 This street near 경희대/Kyunghee University is known for 파전/pajun/Korean pancakes and 막걸리/makkoli/Korean rice wine.

 You normally drink 막걸리/makkoli/Korean rice wine from bowls.

 We mixed 막걸리/makkoli/Korean rice wine with 사이다/sa-ee-da/cider. For short, it is called 막사/maksa. Koreans like to combine words like this. 

 파전/pajun/Korean pancakes

This is my friend Hyungchang!

The next day, I went to 홍대/Hongik University to spend time with one of my really good friends, who I studied with in France, named Goeun. She showed me the area around 홍대/Hongik University, and I had a great time. Some parts of the 홍대/Hongik University area are extremely busy and crowded, but other parts are a little quieter. Here are some pictures: 

 짬뽕/jjambong/Korean Chinese spicy seafood noodle and soup dish that was white instead of the traditional red. 

 덮밥/dup-bap/rice with steak on top

 The start of our walk that turned into intense shopping around 홍대/Hongik University.

 This is Goeun! She loved those glasses ^_^

 On weekends, bands play on the streets, but as it was Friday, there weren't that many. 

 We considered stopping at this cafe, but decided not to because of the creepy dolls >.<

 I loved this cafe. It was adorable and the drinks were delicious. 

 빙수/bingsoo/shaved ice with sweet red beans, corn flakes, and rice cake & 복분자/small strawberry juice with lemonade.

 This was so pretty

 Adorable lace coaster.

 This is the 합정/hapjung, which is where there's a big shopping mall with Home Plus, one of Seoul's biggest supermarkets. 

 I couldn't believe they had Jamba Juice here! At home in DC, this is also pretty new. 

 The flowers at Home Plus were beautiful. I wish flowers were this pretty at the supermarkets in the US. 

So. Much. Hello. Kitty. SO much. There was much more in Home Plus than this wall, but I thought this wall summarized it in one picture. So much. 

On my way home, I noticed some pretty interesting things. First, men and women in Korea have so much skinship. That's what they call it in Korea. It's essentially the physical relationship between people. As I've mentioned in a previous post, there is no personal bubble in Korea. Women hold hands with each other when they walk down the street, men have their arms around each other, and it's completely normal here. Yet, many Koreans are homophobic. It's a shame that some Korean people can't just respect and accept the way some people are, especially when they have so much skinship with their own gender. However, I hope that will change with time. LGBT rights are human rights! 

Just to show you, here's a picture I took of some Korean men walking down the street: 

This is quite common. 

Another interesting/funny thing I saw was this: 

Did they seriously just combine Chef from South Park and Dexter's Dad from Dexter's Labratory? I laughed so hard when I saw that. 

Today, I went to go eat 평양/Pyongyang style 냉면/naengmyun/Korean cold noodles with a 동생/dongsaeng/younger sibling (literally, but commonly used for a younger friend). I had never had it before. In the US, I've had South Korean style 냉면/naengmyun/Korean cold noodles. It was very good. Compared to the South Korean style, the taste was a lot more simple and natural. It was also not very sweet. I thought it was delicious. Also, when you eat it, you don't need a spooon. You sip the soup from the bowl. 

 평양/Pyongyang style 냉면/naengmyun/Korean cold noodles.

제육/jae-yuk/boiled pork 

So the past few days were packed full of activities. Tonight is the first night I can just relax and catch up on work and studying. School starts on Monday! :O