추석/Chuseok + 타사의 정원/Tasha's Garden + 홍대/Hongik University

Hope everyone had a wonderful 추석/Chuseok/Korean Thanksgiving holiday! Mine was pretty uneventful, but I met my cousin's sons. Apparently, they're my cousins once removed? They're SOSOSOSO cute:

Hyunsoo/현수

Insoo/인수

Here's Hyunsoo/현수 being adorable and playing by himself. He did this for like 30 minutes straight: 

So cute.

Here are some of my aunt's watercolor paintings. My family is so talented! 

And here is a cousin who isn't directly related to me, but he's quite talented: 

The day after 추석/Chuseok, I met up with my uncle and aunts at this quirky restaurant called 타사의 정원/Tasha's Garden. It had fusion food with so many courses. So good: 

Beautiful with so many flowers.

Café area.

The traditional Korean part of the meal.

누렁지

Complimentary coffee. 

I then hung out with my friend in 홍대/Hongik University again, but this time, I got to experience the street musicians! Here is my absolute favorite: 

First time eating 호떡/hodduk/mini pastry with sweet filling in Korea. Noms. 

Saw these things and thought they were hilarious: 

Back to real life on Monday! I'm picking up my alien registration card, which is exciting! I hope they don't take ridiculously long for the pick up too...

배봉산/Baebong Mountain & Killer Mosquitos

Okay. So maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but mosquitos are crazy here. There was one in my room last night and it feasted on my hands, and only my hands. I don't understand. There are at least 20 small bites on my fingers. This time, I am not exaggerating. I took a picture of the biggest ones:

The bites are swelling. It's absolutely terrible. And the mosquito bites kept coming at 배봉산/Baebong Mountain.

배봉산/Baebong Mountain is not exactly a mountain per say. It's more of a very tall hill. There were quite a few elderly folks there getting their exercise. I went with Shiloh, Dennis, Joe, and Peter from KU. We're all from the US, and Dennis is the only one who is not in the AU-KU Dual Degree Program. Going up, we stopped by this interesting area:

You take your shoes off and walk on these stones. Yes, it is painful, but apparently Koreans believe that walking on these stones are good for your circulation. I don't know if that is true, but it made your feet feel refreshed. After walking on these stones, I once again got eaten alive by mosquitos (yes, I'm exaggerating just a little), but only on my legs and ankles this time.

Here's a picture of us minus Joe:

Me, Shiloh, Dennis, and Peter

The exercise was great. The slope was quite steep and there is a lot of exercise "equipment" throughout the trail. We had quite a bit of fun with the "equipment":

However, we were nothing compared to this intense grandma, who had to be up there in age. We were just playing around compared to her: 

The view from the top of the mountain is beautiful, but unfortunately, the tree is blocking some of it: 

Afterwards, we walked through one of the outdoor markets: 

School starts tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Myungdong & KU Orientation

Attempting to recap the past two nights...

Last Night:

Went to 명동/Myungdong, which is a big international shopping center, and it was extremely interesting (maybe even chaotic). I went with my pretty friend, Soae. We spent Christmas in Paris together in 2010. It's been 3 years and it was so good to catch up. 명동/Myungdong is a huge tourist location. They have all the major stores there: H&M, Zara, Uniqlo, all the Korean cosmetic stores, outdoor stands, and a multitude of food stands.

We ate at this place called Battery Park. It was a fusion Italian+Korean restaurant that played a lot of hip-hop music. I was skeptical to try Korean pizza, but this place was actually delicious. We shared vongole pasta, which is spaghetti with olive oil, garlic, and clams:

We also shared an apple gorgonzola pizza with this deliciously thin and crispy crust. Highly recommended:

I forgot to take a picture first, so you can see we already started enjoying it. Oops :)

We wandered around 명동/Myungdong for a while, just browsing. Then, I realized that I needed a new backpack, so we went to this one Korean store, which I forget the name of. It was simple and classic, but I wanted something different. I found my new backpack at an outdoor stand that sells various bags. It was perfect. I asked for the price and the lady said 30,000 KRW. We (more Soae than me) haggled it down to 26,000 KRW!!! This was my first haggling experience and it was exhilarating. We can't really do that kind of thing in the states. Here is the product of our haggling:

명동/Myungdong is extremely busy all the time. It is full of people from all around the world. The cosmetic stores even target Japanese customers, with employees stationed outside marketing their products in Japanese. Apparently, Japanese customers tend to buy cosmetics in larger quantities, so companies in 명동/Myungdong market to them. I heard so many different languages, mostly Chinese, Japanese, and English. 명동/Myungdong is a lot of fun and very, very lively. Here are some pictures of the crowds of people and quirky stands at 명동/Myungdong:

The last photo is of the shoe inserts that men put into their shoes to make them taller. Korean men tend to be very short. It contributes to their pride to be taller, so they put in these inserts, find shoes with tall heels, or both. It is quite interesting to what lengths Korean men will go to make themselves taller.

After walking around a bit, we went to this place called Nu Look that combined 막걸리/makkuli/Korean rice wine with fruit juice for 막걸리/makkuli/Korean rice wine cocktails:

This one had 복분자/bokbunja/small strawberry juice: 

This one was with 매실/meshil/plum juice:

They were quite yummy, but also quite pricey.

Today:

Before orientation, the AU-KU dual master's degree students had lunch together. We went to this Korean-Chinese restaurant. Shiloh and I ordered 짜장면/jjajangmyun. It's a noodle dish with black bean sauce with vegetables and meat:

We started our KU GSIS Orientation at 1p.m. today. For 5 hours, we listened to so much information being thrown at us (a lot of it was useless information). To be honest, I was ready to go to sleep in the middle of it. Interestingly, there was a session on sexual harassment and gender equality. KU has a Center for Gender Equality. Apparently, there was some inappropriateness between students AND between students and professors. There was also a recent scandal, but I'm not aware of the details other than that it involved a professor and a student. *Heard it through the grapevine. I don't know the facts.*

Moving on, after the orientation, there was a fun bonding night for everyone. We had dinner and unlimited drinks for 3 hours at this one place. That was fun. Here's a picture of the us AU-KU students when we were there:

Me, Peter, Joe, and Shiloh. Thank you Amy for the polaroid!

First Tour of Seoul

As it is Sunday today, I went to church with my aunt, who is a nun at the catholic church in Anam. It was the priest's last day, so there was a big celebration, including free lunch. I knew this beforehand, but seriously, do not stand in the way of Korean old ladies/아줌마/ajummas or grandmas/할머니/halmuni. There is no concept of your own personal bubble here. They will push and shove, especially for free stuff. The ladies behind me kept pushing against me and stepping on my heels. I'm really particular about people I don't know touching me. I like my personal space, but alas. I realize that I probably won't have that here... Also for the celebration, there were 2 cakes. The one fake cake was elaborately decorated in an outdated way as decoration. The second cake was the real cake that we actually ate.

For dinner, I met up with my old friend, Rosie. You'll see pictures of her soon. Rosie and I go back to our undergraduate years at American University. I first started dancing in k-pop covers because of her. She was the k-pop queen at AU. I think you can still find our old videos on YouTube from culture nights and other various student events. I also rode the Seoul metro, which is very clean, for the first time today. There are very large mirrors at the metro that Korean girls spend way too long looking at themselves in, but that's pretty typical for Korean girls with mirrors. On another note, I thought it was cool how they had the moving walkways at metro stations:

We went to a very famous and delicious 족발/jokbal restaurant called 만족/man-jok at the City Hall metro stop. They combined the first parts of the word for 만두/mandu/dumpling and 족발/jokbal/pig's feet. Now, I know that may not sound appetizing to foreigners. However, don't judge until you've tried it. It's delicious. You don't actually see the feet. It's basically sliced meat and fat. Very flavorful and slightly sweet at this place.

The line was pretty long even at 5:30 p.m., but it moved quickly and it was totally worth it. According to Rosie, this is the best place for 족발/jokbal: 

 Complimentary 만두/mandu/dumpling:

After dinner, we walked around and did some touristy things. We saw the palace, blue house, and the statue of 이순신/Yi Sun-shin/Historically famous naval commander from afar:

Then we went to the famous stream called 청계천/chung-gae-chun and stuck our feet in:

Me being a tourist:

Rosie being cute:

Sticking our feet in, which you must do or else you aren't getting the full experience:

Me being a tourist again:

By the 청계천/chung-gae-chun, there is a big three screen tv/camera thing where you stand on a circular platform and take tourist photos. There are several backgrounds you can choose from. Here's ours from today:

After all the touristy things, we went to 이태원/Itaewon. There was quite a number of shops there. I saw a North Face, Adidas, Aldo, and all these Western stores mixed in with Korean stores like Etude (cosmetics). I actually bought a baking powder foam face wash from there that I really like. It makes my skin feel really nice and clean.

 At 이태원/Itaewon, we went to two bars. Be careful not to go to sketchy areas of 이태원/Itaewon. Some areas are not that safe. The first place was called glam lounge. It was a bit pricey, but their drinks were super yummy. Rosie got the sangria, which had a lot of fruit in it, and I got the lychee martini:

The atmosphere was very sophisticated and nice. However, my favorite place was the next place we went to called Virgine. The bartender was much more friendly here. Rosie got the tequila sunup and I got the raspberry mojito. It was also very good, and the artistic ice touch was very nice:

Last, but not least, I wanted to share some shopping tips that Rosie shared with me:

Apparently 동대문/Dongdaemun is not that cheap anymore compared to other underground markets. Others to look at are:

• 영등포/Times Square Mall
• 강남/Gangnam
• 명동/Myungdong

However, don't go to multiple places in one season. Apparently, each market is the same every season, so there is no point in going to them all in one season. Just wait until the next season. I'll end there. Goodnight!