Being 20 doesn't feel any different haha but it's weird saying your new age.
While we were taking a bathroom break, the girls noticed they had these in the bathroom....
Pink toilets for women's restrooms!
After class and lunch, Kenwood, Victoria, Michelle, and I went out to the markets nearby the house. Michelle and I found some K-pop socks for 500 원 which equals about $0.50!
2PM 닉쿤 양말 Nickhun socks!
I got 2PM 닉쿤 Nickhun and Michelle got Big Bang.
We went up to the university to study. We thought we would could do language practice with the students by talking to them and getting to know them. However, it didn't work out well. Everyone was busy studying in the library or on their way out. No kidding; it was impossible to find anyone. While we were sitting down, we saw these two Korean (I emphasize that because it make sense later) girls on a bench. Kenwood went to go talk to them because us girls were still afraid to use our language skills. This is when it gets really interesting. Kenwood started talking to the girls and as he was talking to them, they got really confused looks on their faces. After he was done one of them says, "Sorry, we don't speak Korean that well" in an American accent! Haha funny joke right? We tried so hard to find someone to talk to and we end up talking to the only Americans on the whole campus.
After studying, we heard there was a music festival happening tonight so we all (everyone from the study abroad) went together. Before the festival, we met 심태용 Shim Tae Yong who has been studying with Derek a couple times. The festival was pretty cool. They performed a Disney medley and some Western classics.
After the festival, we met 심태용 Tae Yong's girlfriend who was in the festival. We were all hungry and so 심태용 Tae Yong knew of this cheap but good 돈까스 Japanese pork cutlet (dohn-ga-seu) restaurant nearby the school. One of his friends, who is a girl, met up with us at the restaurant.
WOW!
Back row: Stephen, Rachael, Michelle, Benjamin, 심태용 Tae Yong's 동생 friend.
Front row: Juni, me, 심태용 Tae Yong.
심태용 Tae Yong is so much fun to hang out with! He's really funny and when he tries to speak English, he speaks really fast that's it's really funny. We walked around and talked about meeting again at a nearby park. We've noticed being here that the native Koreans are actually laid back and very friendly. Seeing Koreans at their most comfortable (being in their own country) and us being the foreigners has been intersting to see. Getting to know more Koreans in that context has given us a better idea of what Koreans are like.
It's my birthday! Woot woot! What a great way to spend my 20th birthday! :-) Breakfast was really interesting. Usually Koreans have 미역국 brown seaweed soup (mi-yuhk-gook). However, I'm not a huge fan of it so I wasn't disappointed that I didn't have it for breakfast. Actually, breakfast was pretty meager lol. We didn't have a chance to buy groceries and all we had back at the house was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So that was breakfast haha lol.
We had class and they sang to me in Korean "Happy Birthday". By then it was time for lunch. We went to 본죽 Bon-jook, the porridge restaurant again which we were all excited about. This time I got 쇠고기버섯죽 beef and mushroom porridge (shwe-go-gi-boh-soht). So good! "-) Who would have thought having porridge for your birthday would be a real treat! After, we went out in our language groups. This time I was with Kenwood and Michelle. We went to a shaman's house who gave a fortune to Kenwood. It was pretty cool. However, I was really sleepy again. I think it's hard to pay attention when they use technical terms that you're not familiar with.
쇠고기버섯죽 :-)
Haha poor Kenwood. The chick in black has the sam shirt as him. I guess Kenwood has true Korean sytle because all of the clothes he has, someone else in Korea has it too! Haha we told him that his shirt looked like a couple's shirt. :-)
After that we had some free time. Kenwood, Michelle, and I since we finished our language practice when out shopping around the city. I found some 소녀시대 Girl's Generation (so-nyeo-shi-dae) socks! They were really cheap so I got 태연 Taeyeon and 유리 Yuri. :-) Hey, why not treat myself? It's my birthday, you know. Then I wanted to buy some birthday candles because I love the birthday candles they have here. They're long, skinny, and so much fun! I went to a 7-11 and asked if they had any. The lady gave me 8 and as I was about to pay, she told me there were free! AWESOME and HOLLA!!!!! As we were walking, we saw some of the others. We called out to meet up with them but then all of a sudden, they ran away. As they were running away, I saw Benjamin holding a blue box. I had an idea of what that was but I thought I wouldn't ruin their plan. :-)
When we all got back to the house, they asked me where we should go for dinner. I wanted to get 삼겹살 sam-kyup-sal which is where you wrap rice and meat in lettuce and then you can add sauces or whatever you want to it. We went to a store nearby. It didn't look very clean but we thought we wouldn't be able to find one close again (even though it's Korea, we haven't found a ton of places serving it). So we went inside and the lady didn't give us a lot of meat and it was pretty expensive. All of us in the end were still a bit hungry.
Then all of a sudden, Steve was like, "I need a snack. I'm starving." Everyone said it was ok but they had this confused look on their faces. Knowing it's Steve and that he eats a lot, I wasn't surprised but I thought it was weird he was leaving early. Then a couple minutes later, Derek came by with Steve and they brought with them a cake from Paris Baguette and a present!
We had the cake at the house and it was really rich but delicious! :-) It was a chocolate cake :-) I'm turned 20 today and the cake was so cute with zoo animals that it looked like it was for a 4 year old. :-) Funny huh? The cake was really good. The present they gave me was a Hello Kitty tupperware pack. They said, when they saw this they thought of me. How??? I don't know how but it was cute and so nice of them to get me a present! :-)
Birthday cake from Paris Baguette!
Isn't this cake darling? Haha it's still funny to me that I have left the teen years and they chose a cake suitable for a little child. But who cares? It's so cute and they were so thoughtful.
My favorite part of the cake: candles!
You know you want some? It was that good.
It's a Hello Kitty tupperware set!! OH MY GOSH!!!
Presents: Hello Kitty tupperware and 소녀시대 Girl's Generation socks
Darling birthday card
Message from everyone on the study abroad
Lately, we've been watching really funny YouTube videos; particulary Japanese advertisements. They're so corky, random, and hilarious! Like take this one below. When we saw this, we couldn't stop laughing. If you watch it overand over again, it becomes more funny each time!
Haha each time I watch this, I die of laughter. It's so random and crazy!
It's been such a great day! Very relaxed but it turned out to be great. I'm in Korea; hello! I love the snacks here. Especially banana milk! You're probably thinking, well, we have banana milk back in America. No, this is different; it's so much better and I don't like flavored milk so this is good stuff.
Today was so much fun! We went to 인제대학교 Inje University to meet up with 박현준 Hyun Joon. We practiced Korean with him and then we decided to grab some lunch. We went out to 대박집 Dae-bahk-jeep which was close to the campus. We ordered some 삼겹살 Sahm-kyuhp-sal which pretty much made my day. :-) If you have never tried Korean food, this is what you need to try: 갈비 Kalbi, 삼겹살 Sahm-kyuhp-sal, and 곰탕/설러탕 Gohm-tahng or Solo-tahng. Incredible! The lunch didn't turn out to be very filling but it was delicious.
대박집 Restaurant of glory 삼겹살!
OH BABY!!!!!
As you can see, we're all gone here because after this meal, we died and went to heaven :-)
After lunch, everyone wanted to do their own thing except me and Michelle. We still wanted to do stuff with 박현준 Hyun Joon. So Michelle and I went with 박현준 Hyun Joon and looked around what was in town and then studied at the university. We went out to Baskin Robbins and got this huge bucket of ice cream! It was worth like $15! We got 4 flavors but Michelle and I ended up eating most of it. I don't think 박현준 Hyun Joon was that hungry. Ice cream is still amazing after eating Korean food. :-)
You think that's huge? Yeah, you're not imagining anything. That's real.
We killed it! This is real too. We ate all of it.
박현준 Hyun Joon, Michelle and I at Baskin Robbins
박현준 Hyun Joon decided that he would take another photo of me and Michelle.
He said the other one didn't turn out and would take one again....haha
We thought he was finished
We had a hard time smiling the whole long time that we bursted into laughter.
After ice cream, we went back to the university, found a bench outside, and studied. After a while of being there, a couple students came up to us and was wondering if they could film us chatting to each other. They said it was for a group project or assignment or something. After they filmed us, they left but then they returned after a few minutes. One of them came up to me and was talking in Korean but none of it made sense but I guess everyone else understood. Michelle and 박현준 Hyun Joon just looked at me and then said, "Well, are you?" I'm thinking, "Am I what? Huh?" Michelle and 박현준 Hyun Joon said, "He's wondering if you would like to be a model for their next assignment for filming?" They explained that it was a homework assignment and since we would be at the university a lot I said sure. Since today really was nothing I thought it'd be ok. The director and I exchanged numbers, his name is 오효섭 Oh Hyo Seop. Now that I told you that story, remember it for the end. Hahaha.....
We went home to meet up with the others to go to 노래방 Karaoke! Since my birthday is on Monday, we won't be able to do anything on that day because we're supposed to go to FHE at the branch. :-( So, we decided that we would go tonight. We invited 박현준 Hyun Joon but he had to leave for 부산 Busan tonight so he declined.
We went to a 노래방 Karaoke room nearby after dinner and it was soooo much fun! We're still talking about this memory. I didn't know how this would go down because although many Americans love karaoke, people are still conscious of their singing so I didn't know how this would turn out. However, it turned out amazing!! We had so much fun with each other and we've never laughed so hard in our entire lives! Everyone did a great job! I took a couple videos but they're just for our eyes for personal reasons :-) But don't worry, I've giving you the best one below. I got pictures of everyone except Rachael and Benjamin singing but they sang and they did very well!
노래방! Everyone plus Benjamin but he's taking the picture! Me, Michelle, Kenwood, Victoria, Rachael, Juni, and Stephen.
Michelle
Juni with tambs
Stephen
Juni
Kenwood
Me. I'm surprised that I got up and did this because I'm not one into karaoke that much but coming to Korea, it's not that bad anymore haha.
Victoria
MUST SEE VIDEO! This is us singing "Sexy Back" by Justin Timberlake. Everytime we watch this, we're dying of laughter. Especially at the person recording this and screaming and making faces. :-) Might I add too, what's really "Take it the chorus" in the lyrics, I thought the lyrics said, "Take it the corner." Hahaha lol.
PLEASE WATCH THIS TOO!!! So, after 노래방 karaoke, I found this video on YouTube that I couldn't help but notice similarities between this video and our 노래방 video. Check out the video at 7:23 and you'll see exactly what I mean!! I told everyone else to watch it and we were passing out because we were laughing so hard! But watch the whole video as well; it's in English subtitles so if you don't know Korean you can follow along. I thought all of it was hilarious!
After 노래방 karaoke, we went home and pretty much had a laptop party haha. Also, this is where you need to remember the filming story I told earlier. So here it goes. All of a sudden, I get this text from 오효섭 Oh Hyo Seop that said this, "아니예요. 촬영보다 친하게 지내고 싶네요 ㅋ 혹시 궁금한거나 그러면 연락하셔도되요." That translates into "Rather than filming, I just want to spend time together. If you have any questions about Korea let me know." Haha, um wow, that wasn't forward at all (hint my sarcasm?) I showed it to Kenwood and Juni to make sure I understood right and they were shocked too. At first, they were laughing while reading it but then they got this serious look on their face. Then everyone else saw it and it got loud. "Are you going to do it? Is he cute? What are you going to do? Are you going to respond?" And I said, "There's no way. I'm not going to respond. Even though I met saw him today, I don't remember his face that well. I realize now that what we thought was going to be a little project, I should be more cautious." Then Benjamin said the best thing, "Julianne, he just wants a green card!" After that, everyone bursted into laughter for a good 5 minutes. Haha we all thought in the beginning it was nothing but it's turned out to be otherwise. Well, he hasn't contacted since and good thing it was a temporary number. But still, lesson learned.
Korea has been so much fun and especially today, I felt we all got closer to each other.
We started the day off with our culture and language classes. Man, I feel like I don't know worth squat about Korea. In class, I swear everyone else knows what's going on and I'm a deer in the headlights. I'm sitting in class going, "Wait, who's that? What happened? Huh?" I hope that my understanding will be soldified by the end of this study abroad. I'm reading Dr. Peterson's book on the history of Korea which has helped out a bit along the way. :-)
After class, we went to 인제대학교 Inje University where we will get to attend a few classes and use some of their resources for the study abroad (library, etc.). I really looked forward to this because of the students that we will meet. I loved the Korean students at the ELC and so I thought this would be just as fun. We got to see various parts of the campus. We got library cards and visited the president of the university. That was pretty neat. Regarding presidents of universities, it's a democracy where as in America it's not democratic in its selection. I thought that was pretty interesting when they told us that. After, Dr. Peterson had to give a lecture at Dr. Park's class, the man who we met on the bus coming down here. We got to meet his students for a little bit. Dr. Peterson gave him lecture which was in Korean. It was a bit hard to pay attention because my head hurt so I laid down and slept during the lecture.
After the lecture, Dr. Park treated us to lunch at their cafeteria. They tried to make us sit with someone not from our study abroad group (so every person could meet someone new). Well, that plan didn't work out. We were all willing to try it but I think Dr. Park's students were too shy that only 2 students actually followed what they asked us to do. Across from me was a student named 박현준 Park Hyun Joon. He's from 제주도 Jeju Island (jeju-doh) which is Korea's Hawaii they say. He's the first person I've met from 제주도 Jeju Island. It was good Korean practice. During the lecture, we were all laughing inside because he had the same jacket as Kenwood that day! And then he comes and sits next to us! We couldn't help but laugh inside. :-) 현준 Hyun Joon is really nice and wants to do stuff with us. We're planning on hanging out tomorrow and studying as well.
Dr. Park's class
Kenwood, Victoria, and 박현준 Hyun Joon. They couldn't stop laughing when we were taking this photo because they're wearing the same jacket.
I'm adjusting to 김해 Gimhae even though I miss 서울 Seoul. I thought the dialect would be really strong down here but it hasn't been bad. In fact, most people nowadays are trying to hide their dialect (which they're really good at). I'm excited for tomorrow! I wonder what we'll do with 현준 Hyun Joon!
The title speaks for itself. We just had class today. We start each day with a devotional and then begin our classes. We talked about history and culture mostly. After two hours, we then split up into language groups and practiced Korean. There's 3 out of 9 who speak Korean fluently so they've been our teachers and mentors. Kenwood Huh is Korean who lives in New Zealand and served a mission in 부산 Busan. Junil "Juni" is also Korean but was born and raised in the US. He served a mission in 부산 Busan too. Stephen served a mission in 부산 Busan too.
For language groups, we were split into 3's. I was with Michelle and Juni. Dr. Peterson sent us out to talk to people and ask about what they're doing. We went into this Shaman's house and asked about his work. However, I didn't get to hear all of what he said because I was so tired that I fell asleep sitting up. I guess it was ok but Juni didn't really know what he was talking about. He was using terms relating to Shamanism that would be helpful if you were a believer in Shamanism and would be confusing if you weren't. So it was weird practice. However, I believe my listening has improved. Before, Korean sounded like garble except for words that I knew. Now, all sounds clear! I just don't know what they're saying but at least I can picture how the words are spelled in my head and understand their grammar structure of sentences and expressions. Cool :-)
For lunch, we went to 본죽 Bon-Jook which is a traditional Korean porridge restaurant. Doesn't sound tasty? WRONG!! It was sooo good! I had 해물죽 seafood porridge (hae-mul-jook). Who would have thought porridge would ever taste good? Yeah, me neither!
본죽 Bon-Jook - Korean Traditional Porridge
This sign is no joke. The food took FOREVER! But that's good because that means it's from scratch :-)
해물죽 Seafood porridge
All gone!
After lunch, we did more language practice and then had some free time. As we were walking down the streets and saw these pet shops with puppies in them. Oh. my. goodness. So cute!!!! I was so close to buying one but then the idea of where to put the puppy during the study abroad then came to mind haha lol.
How can you turn away from something like that??
We went out to eat for dinner and on our way home we heard all of this loud singing. There were these guys dressed funny making lots of noise and singing on the streets.
What's that noise?
What on earth?????????
The south is very different. It's not as busy as 서울 Seoul but it's beautiful here. I'm starting to adjust to 김해 Gimhae as we speak of right now. I miss 서울 Seoul but I think I'll have a special place for 김해 Gimhae in my heart soon. :-)
