The End.

So we kind of did a sucky job keeping up with the blog towards the end of the semester but I think that shows how much fun we were having in Korea. This has been one of the best experiences of my life, and I can't begin to describe the amazing people I was able to meet here. This exchange was definitely more than I thought it would be. I was hesitant at first to come because I thought I knew everything about Korea--it wasn't a "foreign" country to me. I also thought that everyone here was going to be Korean-American. I was wrong on both accounts. This exchange has really opened my eyes to Korean culture. I now wish I had immersed myself in it more. And the people here... What coincidence it is that we were all brought here together for these few months. It was inspiring to see people who had no Korean heritage try so hard to learn more about Korea and learn the language. It was amazing how fast friendships formed and I hope I have made life long friends during my stay here...

The House of Sharing.

The past weekend Amy and I visited the House of Sharing with a group of international people. The House of Sharing is two things. It is first a home for ten "halmoni"s (grandmothers) who were forced to be "comfort women" or sex slaves for the Japanese soldiers. Second, it holds a museum that serves to spread word of what these women went through before, during, and most importantly after the enslavement. It was such an eye opening experience and a daunting task to write about. I've known for a while about the Japanese enslavement of Korean women and that this was why Korea-Japan relations are still rocky. But I never understood to what extent these women were abused and how appalling it is that the Japanese government to this day denies any involvement. I learned that the biggest thing I can do to support their cause is to spread the word of their experiences, and I'll try to do that here.

From 1932 until the end of the war, an estimated 50,000-200,000 women from all over Asia were captured by the Japanese military through kidnapping and deception; about 80% of these women were Korean and most of them under the age of 18. They were sent all over Eastern Asia, from China and Japan to Thailand and the Philippines. Japanese government acknowledges the existence of these brothels but denies any governmental involvement. They say that the women voluntarily entered these brothels, which proves impossible since most of the women were poor and would never have the means to individually go to such far away countries. They deny involvement even though all of the brothels had the same rules written in Japanese, same structures inside, and Japanese government stamps on all the documents.

In these "comfort stations," the women were raped, severely physically abused, and sometimes killed. They had to serve over 40 men every day who often ignored the rules and stabbed the women and often did not use condoms. The women were only given one condom to wash and reuse, but if they got pregnant, they were blamed and often fed mercury or even killed to serve as an example to others.

After the Allied forced took over, the women were technically free. However, most were stranded in foreign countries with no means of returning home and no means of survival. US soldiers attempted to help them, but found that since most of these women were taken at such a young age, surrounded by Japanese soldiers, and living in a foreign country, they had not developed efficiency in any one particular language. To this day, there are pockets of Korean communities in East Asian countries that formed after the liberation by korean women who could not return to their home country.

Since 1991, 220 former "comfort women" have formally come forward to demand an apology from the Japanese government. Many of these halmonis have become outcasts in Korean society by doing so, but still stand by their decision. Of those 220 women, only 97 are alive, most over the age of 90. They have been participating in a weekly protest in front of the Japanese embassy since 1992, but it is hard to deny that the halmonis are approaching their last years. It is the responsibility of their descendants and people of our generation world wide to support their cause until the Japanese government finally formally address the issue and apologize.

"We must record these things that were forced upon us" -Kim Hak-Sun

Taken away and abused by Japanese soldiers at a blooming age, it took fifty years to rediscover a lost life. Now I am an old grandmother covered with wrinkles, but with the strength of the powerful evidence we know the truth. The worlds of those affected that were filled with fear of the dark shadows are now shining with bright light. Although we have become grandmothers we put on our bright clothes and spread our wings here, where we can again reach for the lives we wanted. Let the sad spirits that floated in the heavens now disappear...

For more information about this issue and the halmonis visit www.houseofsharing.org

Halloween!

Koreans don't actually celebrate Halloween, so we had to improvise. One of my native friends had never made a jack-o-lantern, so we hunted down some pumpkins from Homeplus and helped her--I think she really enjoyed it! (and her carving probably turned out better than mine...)

jejudo - korean utopia

abundance of rocks, women, and wind

and no thieves, beggars, or gates...

(photo credit: stolen from jenny finitzer since i slept through the sunrise!)

i didn't think korea could be this pretty. it was great to get out of dingy, flashy seoul.

anyways, yonsei planned the weekend trip for a group of international students.

Here are some highlights of that weekend's good times:


took a plane to jejudo - less than an hour from seoul!

PARTY BUS equipped with flatscreen TV - watched a lot of KPOP MUSIC VIDEOS ON REPEAT: 2ne1, 2 pm, 4 minute, girls generation... etc. & KARAOKE - sang some dancing queen and let it beeee

korean traditional village: drank some omijacha (tea), learned about the history of jejudo, for example, how the women worked mostly because the men hid from the draft. the women even took their babies with them to work in the fields.

our tour guide: explained to us how the jeju natives used to use outdoor bathrooms that fed (literally) directly to the pigpens.

maze!

big rock.

ATV's / hanul looking mad-fly

international peace museum of jejudo

one of the manmade caves in the side of a cliff where Japanese hid their weapons during World War II (i think) - apparently the Japanese forced the Jeju people to dig these caves themselves, just another example of Japanese oppression (just sayin)

Green Tea Farm

DINNER: JEJU PORK!

Family time...and lots of it...

This is also kind of about Chuseok, but more about some personal experiences with my family, so if this already bores you, go ahead and skip this entry :)

So my mom just visited for about 2 weeks because she is from Seoul but hasn't really been back here in about 10 years or so. She came for Chuseok and we went to see her family, who live in Uijeongbu.

This might get a little wordy, but basically it was just such an amazing experience.

Pretty much none of my family can speak English, and I do not know much Korean at all, so most of the time I was sitting and smiling and trying desperately to follow the conversation. Bits of the conversation that I picked up on were things like "Bad mom" for not teaching me Korean and "Eat a lot." I'm obviously learning Korean at a voracious speed...

Regardless of the ease (or lack thereof) of our communication, it was still a great experience. I met 3 of my mom's brothers and 2 of her sisters, and realized that almost all of my cousins are married and have children, some of them my age. So basically I have several relatives ages 16-18 that have to call me 이모. It makes me feel so old! haha

My cousins are also learning English in school, and are supposedly pretty good at it, but whenever my aunt told them to speak to me, they got really shy and refused. My 7- and 8-year old cousins were the only ones who tried, but basically they just kept shouting "Hello!" and "Good morning!" at me (even though it was late at night) and then running away laughing and embarassed. Probably a highlight of my night.

But on the day of Chuseok we did all the traditional things-we set up a large table with tons of great food for my grandparents and all did the traditional bows and drink pouring. There was also a smaller set up for my eldest uncle, who also passed away several years ago. This is going to sound really cheesy, but being there with my family and participating in this sacred tradition was just really emotionally taxing.

I was just standing there, thinking about this entire part of my life that I've missed for 19 years. Before I came to Dartmouth, I was so, SO removed from my Korean heritage. I didn't even think about ever learning the language and I would have NEVER thought to visit and meet my family here. But my Korean relatives were SO nice to me and want me to keep visiting while I'm here. And I love them but it just makes me so frustrated that we can't communicate well. And then I thought about my sisters and brother who still don't know about this part of our life. And then when we sat down to eat, my mother gave me my grandmother's rice bowl, and yeah...it was just too much.

I used to think that since we lived in America, we were supposed to be "white" and speak English and do American things. And I am half white and I grew up in a primarily white area and went to white schools so it was very easy to forget about the other half of my heritage. But it has become so important to me to have this Korean part of my life and continue to pass it on. Korean people are just so proud of their country and their culture and it makes me really sad that I ignored it for so long. And makes me wonder what it will be like when I go back home, and try to explain and share this with my other 3 siblings, who are still very removed from the culture.

It also made me respect and admire my mom a lot more. I realized how hard it must be for her to have lived in the U.S. for all these years, never really visiting her family or friends in the place she grew up in, never being able to speak her native language with her own children, knowing a very different set of values and traditions, and putting all of these things aside so that her children can grow up fully "Americanized."

Whether or not it was a good thing that she didn't push her culture upon us, it's definitely a part of me that I don't want to ignore anymore.

SORRY for the long post, but I just had to get this out. It's probably only interesting to other white-washed halfies...or maybe not even them...hm awkward...

ALSO
Last weekend all 5 of us Dartmouth kids went on a Jeju-do trip with a bunch of other international students. Epic post/pictures to be updated soon...

추석 [choosuk: korean thanksgiving]

So for choosuk I first went to my mom's side of the family.. It was slightly awkward because I haven't seen them in forever and my cousins were slightly scared of me.. its fine.. haha but my grandmother grows lots of plants on the roof of her house..

Spinach!

Radish!

Sesame Seeds!

she also had these cool old urns that she used to use to store kimchi and other cooking things (soy sauce, red chili pepper paste..)

Then the next day I went to the mountains to visit my great grandparents' grave with my dad's side of the family. We had to hike a bit and we were

carrying a lot of food so it was a little tough... But as soon as we got there the first task was to clean around the grave

and putting (fake) flowers around the grave...

and food!! This is basically a setup so my great grandparents can have a meal. note the two rice bowls and two sets of utensils set up for them

so the spoon is set in the rice bowl and the chopsticks are placed on various dishes so the spirits can eat.. then we do the traditional korean bow.

at the very end we all kneel and pray for various things we're wishing for...

then we eat and drink!!

and an awesome picture of my twin cousins demonstrating typical asian poses (but for real)

i had an awesome weekend

almost forgot

to mention i witnessed someone actually using a pickup line. delivery was amazing enough to make up for the absolute lack of content and relevancy.

korean 아가씨 1: my name is 이 신혜.
me: oh hey. im 하늘, 만나서 반가워요.
bro 1: oh ahh, 신혜. sounds like 식혜.
korean 아가씨 1 who thinks that bro 1 has misheard: ah no, it's 신혜.
bro 1: oh i know. but it should be 식혜. 식혜 is sweet. sweet like you.

an extremely awkward two seconds pass before she laughs and blushes. amazing.

did i forget to mention this was during a small group meeting consisting of 7 people who didnt know each other at all? well played sir. he did get her phone number.

but so did everyone else with everyone else.

-hanul

oh right. i have a blog.

time to play catchup. but ill just give yall the cliffnotes for now.



-the video above was taken at the yon-ko games. so im guessing this is the equivalent to dousing your coach in water/gatorade after a game. but this post-game celebration takes that to another level. watch as the yonsei basketball coach gets man-handled by his players. suicides soon to follow.

anyway, i was very surprised about the overall atmosphere at the yon-ko games. witnessing a sea of red and blue moving in unison with their respective cheerleading squads, i was shocked to see the crowds so enthusiastic about their school spirit. even more shocking, the korean natives were completely sober. the people in the stands watched and followed the co-ed cheerleading squad while totally disregarding the score of the games.

the yon-ko games eventually ended in a tie: two wins, two losses, and a tie for both schools. remember how i said that i didn't see any koreans drinking during the games? i should have known better, but no event in korea can be a completely sober one. supposedly, all the people at the games packed sinchon saturday night after the last game was played. they proceeded to march into all the restaurants, hofs, and bars in town and demanded that they supply the students with soju and beer. after extorting all the free alcohol they could get, the students lined up in trains and drank the night away on yonsei campus. the post-games' festivities are also part of this yearly tradition.

where was i at the time? i was at a bar for the debuts of various techno and new-age groups. an above average experience i would say. but too much standing around for my tastes.

classes are alright. but, what ive come to realize is that i cannot drink and go out like i used to. my time here in korea has been far more lax and low-key than two summers ago. this has been a fairly long post, so ill end it here. hopefully, ill blog more frequently from now on.

-hanul

재사 [jae sa]

So this weekend I went home to my grandparents' place for jae sa. Jae sa is basically a ceremony to honor a deceased elder. It's held on the day they passed away, and this one was for my great grandparents. I hadn't participated in this in a while since I'm only in Korea during the summers so I had forgotten what it was all about. Recently I learned in one of my classes that traditional korean culture reinforces the belief of spiritual existence after death, and this was very apparent in this ceremony.

I wish I had brought my camera home this weekend, but my grandmother and aunts spent the last couple days preparing aka cooking a LOT of food. For the ceremony, a large table is set up with the pictures of my great grandparents and all the food that was prepared. Every jae sa needs to have certain food (such as fish, rice cakes, fruit, meet, stew, rice etc) and there's a specific arrangement in which all the dishes must be placed relative to where the ancestors would sit. Before the ceremony the front door is open so the spirits could enter, the lights in the house are turned off, and candles are lit. We welcome the ancestors by doing the traditional korean bow twice. Incense are lit and a small glass of alcohol is poured then is rotated around the incense three times counter clockwise. I don't really know why they do this, but I got to do it because I was the oldest in my generation to be there. There was lots more bowing and bowing and at the end, we each did individual prayers where we asked the ancestors for good health and luck. It was fun participating in the ceremony.

Then we got to eat all the food and i am stufffed. and I brought a lot of the food back with me to the dorms so i have plenty of food to snack on while i write an essay for tomorroww woooooo

Janggo-do

So this weekend Amy and I went on a trip with other international students to Janggo Island. It was an amazing experience. We went to a fishing village and learned to fish with dragnets, pan for sea salt, and dig for clams. We even got to eat the different kinds of fish, squid, and crabs that we caught!

It was really nice to get away from the city and do something more "authentically" Korean.

We saw ajummas making homemade 멸치 (dried anchovies) and waded in water up to our waists while using a huge dragnet to bring in a variety of fish and shellfish. The island itself was also very beautiful and the locals were extremely friendly and welcoming. In fact, one of the ajashis kept repeating over and over how glad they were that we were visiting. I guess they don't get many visitors and life on the island gets pretty monotonous.

Makes you really appreciate what you have. Life in Hanover gets pretty dull sometimes, but I can't imagine living on a little island like Janggo-do and doing the same things each day with the same people. That being said, I would definitely visit again. It was nice to get out of my comfort zone and experience some of the more base pleasures in life.

Pictures below!

700 year old restaurant!

pit stop at the west beach

cute girls on the ferry!

bus buddies with one of the locals :)

our lavish accomodations

salt field

sunset at Janggo-do!

We caught all of this in our dragnet:

...and then celebrated with the locals!

korean stamina

last weekend was lots of fun - it was yon-ko-jung, which was ridiculous in itself. it's basically a huge event where yonsei (our school) plays against their rival school (korean university) in five sporting events (baseball, basketball, hockey, rugby, soccer). who knew koreans played rugby?

but what differentiated THESE particular sporting events from say a football game at dartmouth (besides the fact that we WON! GO YONSEI!) is that THOUSANDS of students show up - the stands were a sea of blue (yonsei) on one side and red (korean university) on the other side.

AND the fans spend the ENTIRE game not even watching the sporting event. They have a stage set up next to the field/court/whatever, on top of which are dancers who lead the crowd in cheers and dances.

i.e.


the fans cheered and danced and sang for HOURS. it was just CRAZZYYYY. i got tired after twenty minutes of cheering and screaming. but it was SO MUCH FUN. there's one song where you put your arms around the people on each side of you and you just sway in unison. so the entire crowd was swaying in one motion - i put my arm around someone i didn't even know but that was totally normal. i felt a certain connection to my school (yonsei), my people, and my country. it's cheesy and hard to describe but i just felt like a part of a bigger thing.

*TO DO LIST*

hanging in our apartment. to be continued...

A mini photostory

Things there are no shortage of in Korea:

COUPLES
I feel like everywhere I go I am surrounded by couples. Maybe I just notice it more because it is so different from Dartmouth, but really...pda everywhere.

also, manpris (capris for men)

Man purses

They are everywhere! There are a lot of messenger bags and backpacks, but also a noticeably large population of men with handbags. Maybe it is because of the difference in fashion? Men here often dress nicer than the women and wear tighter clothes. Still haven't gotten used to it...

CUTE BABIES!

self explanatory.

Palaces

A few pics from the Gyeongbokgung palace... (more to come)

Also, a little name-dropping. We had dinner the other night with some Dartmouth alums who are currently in Seoul. Pic below with Michael Kim '90, who is the Associate Dean of the Underwood International College at Yonsei.

Now off to do mountains of Korean Language homework...

korean department stores

are stressful/scary/hilarious/intimidating

I went with my family to go shopping today and they wanted to buy me a pair of nice shoes. so we go to the shoe floor which is in itself so intimidating because they legit have millions of shoes everywhere. but each little section for different brands have their own reps. so like 2 guys for each brand. and they just stand in front of their place YELLING at you as you walk down the aisle. this one guy was like "PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT OUR SHOES! TAKE A CHANCE ON US! WE WON'T LET YOU DOWN!" it was like a whiny boyfriend or something. haha. and the first phrase these people learn when they start working with shoes must be "TRY THEM ON" okay i know i can try them on. they're shoes. if i like them, i will ask for my size. but as soon as they catch you even glancing toward the direction of their shoes, they will attack you and repeat that phrase over and over until you give in and finally try a pair on. but in the end, i did decide on a pair of shoes with the hilarious "take a chance on us" guys. and this is where it gets even more intense. they like measure my feet (not only the length but like the width and the circumference (?) and are like we can add padding here and there to make it really confortable. i was amazed. so i'm really excited to see how these shoes turn out and hopefully they will be the most comfortable heels ever to exist on the planet (not like the shoes that literally cut my feet all over the place. my feet our currently covered in bandaids. but they're these really cool bandaids that are supposed to help you grow new skin there and reduce scars?? so we'll see how that works..)

besides that it's been really great being home for the weekend. it's going to be hard adjusting to dorm life after this..

also we just got these super huge dumplings for dinner. like each one is the size of a softball. so that should be delicious.

also first question my grandmother asks me when i get home is "have you gotten a boyfriend?" oh korea.. hahahaa..

going out in seoul.

lesson #1: despite what people say, korean people are still much more conservative than we think. we discovered this when my roommate and i went out in normal american going out clothes (dress, top/shorts). we got lots of surprised/dirty looks from the entire seoul population as soon as we left our dorm till we got to the bars. sooo embarrassingggg

lesson #2: korean guys are very easily intimidated by english. we went to this bar in hongdae called the ho bar (a very popular bar apparently in korea). but whenever we talked to guys, as soon as they found out we spoke english more than korean, would freeze. one guy kept saying whatsuppppp over and over again. only one guy was brave enough to actually have a conversation with us.

lesson #3: despite my lesson #1 about korea being conservative, the nightlife is amazing. the main partying areas are filled with bars and clubs, lights everywhere. a huge change from the hanover partying scene. and for some reason, the bars have very sexual sounding drinks. like the orgasm shot? or at this one bar they had a series of "pussy shots." they thought they were really clever. we were slightly disgusted. lol.

lesson #4: korea drinks. a lot. all the cafes serve cocktails (even this place that sells waffles and pancakes). and people drink at all times of the day. i'll go out to lunch and see korean men downing shots of soju. haha. i guess it is true that koreans are the biggest drinkers in the world!

i have arrived

some things i found amusing about my hasookjip.

the kitchens always have:
rice, water, kimchee, eggs, ramen, coffee powder, pots/pans

so basically, im going to eat ramen with a cup of instant coffee every day for breakfast.

the only thing separating my bed from my toilet and shower is a glass door.

the first floor of my hasookjip complex has a bar called Beer O'Clock. wait, what time was it again? oh right, drinking time!

-hanul

classes!

we started classes yesterday!

I was actually really excited for classes to start because i felt like i've been lazying around too much. haha. it's been really fun going to classes and meeting new students... but now i am realizing i'm going to have to do homework.. like LOTS of homework.. haha i think all of my classes are going to be interesting. Joyce and i are trying to get into this international organizations class... and using our dartmouth connections to do so! Michael Kim, the dean of underwood international college, is a '90 from dartmouth. and we asked him if he could get us into the class. so hopefully that will happen :)

Today i met my language exchange partner. basically they pair up an english speaker and a korean speaker and we're supposed to like learn more of each others' languages/cultures. so when we were making plans for lunch via text message, i was expecting a guy my age. (i was also guessing he was a boy because with korean names its kinda hard to determine what sex the person is.. haha) but turns out he's 25 and slightly fatherly. haha i wanted to meet more yonsei students through him but at least he's really sweet. he's taking us to han river this weekend to go on the boat! i'm excited. also in korea every male has to do 2 years of army service, and he was telling us about his experience and turns out he served in afghanistan for 6 months! i didn't know they had korean soldiers there. but the funny thing was apparently he hung out with a lot of black and mexican soldiers there and learned a very.. "colorful" language. unfortunately he couldnt remember much of it.

We also had our first korean language class today. Joyce and I are in the same class... it was quite boring. we took another test for the first hour and corrected it for the second half. it was funny cuz before class started we were all talking or what not but as soon as the class started no one would talk. and the prof would be like what's the correct answer for this? pause.. no answer.. then answer it herself. this went on for the whole class... it was awkward.

anyways. i'm getting ready to start my first homework assignment at yonsei... listening to some milkman jamzz... fahey 3 shirt on... stomach full of korean fried chicken (mmm)

I write on this too much.

On the bus on the way home from Sinchon, I came to a realization.

I really love Korea.

I love how pretty it is.
I love how easy it is to get around and how cheap the public transportation is.
I love how family-oriented everyone is and how even the cab drivers tell you to be safe when dropping you off at night.
I love how the subway tracks have permanent openings that you would never find in the U.S. because people might fall in and/or sue.
I love the weather right now.
I love the massive amounts of food carts on the sides of the roads.
I love how shopping in the subway is normal.
I love the way it's perfectly normal for a college-age male to hold his grandpa's hand while walking in the street.
I love how when you buy things here a lot of places give you free stuff.
I love how Koreans understand the word "suh-tuh-rah-bae-ri" but not "strawberry."

I really think I want to come live here for a few years after I graduate and become fluent in Korean.

I know this was a random post. Killing some time between classes. Chillin with the cleaning lady, who has finally come to service our apartment! Yay for hotel-like living conditions :)

I love malling

I love bad engrish in public places. (sign outside a mall in Yongsan)

The past few days have been tiring. Oh so tiring.

We've been out to a few nightclubs in hongdae and itaewon.

Quick backstory: While at the immigration office getting our alien registration cards, a random white male, let's call him *Kevin,* turns around and starts talking to us. He then invites us to his housewarming party near itaewon. Of course we decide to go.
He meets us at a random bridge, leads us down a dark alley, and then traps us in his room (jokingly, of course?) There are virtually no other girls in the apartment and we feel like high schoolers crashing a college party so we leave immediately (after taking the last bottle of soju with us). fail.

We then head to a club in Itaewon which Jenn found online. MAD SKETCHY.
I felt like I was at Club Purgatory in downtown Dallas on "college night." Think ghetto fabulous meets korean prostitute meets ajashi predator. yeah....

But last night we went to Dongdaemun, which is a huge shopping district with a bunch of malls that are several stories high and open until like 4am. If we weren't so dead tired (as usual) it would have been much more productive I'm sure. As it was, we bought like 1 thing each and ate some street food (which Amy tactfully dropped on a watch stand).

Goal: learn to haggle. and win!

Today we went to Yongsan, which is like Dongdaemun except for electronics. Like 8 stories of different electronics. Techies dream.

But at least Joyce and I finally got Korean phones!
So now when we got lost late at night in the streets of Seoul we won't die. Hopefully.

Coming Soon: A list of things we want to do and see in Seoul. And possibly recipes that we will be trying out (in our sweet kitchen!)

interesting subway rides?

okay so i should really start carrying around a camera with me...

but yesterday Annie (my roommate) and i took the subway to get our alien registration card (which actually took FOREVER. oh also while waiting for our number to get called, we got hit on by a 27 year old skinny white english professor. he invited us to his party on saturday. update on how that goes will probs come later haha) but yeah. on the subway we see this.. person.. annie's like oh look at that guy wearing a hot pink shirt. he's probably a b-boy (because my ultimate goal in korea is to find a korean b-boy boyfriend nbd.) and i'm like annie... that's a girl.. she has boobs. and the entire ride we're trying to figure out what gender this person was. person was wearing a hot pink baggy shirt with baggy jeans and boy sneakers. boy haircut. but carrying a tiny white puppy with a red collar... but when person stood up she def had boobs. so we decided that we just witnessed our first korean lesbian.

today i took the subway to go visit my grandmother. and i spotted my first korean school girl slut. most school girls here are pretty demure.. like long uniform skirts and such. but this girl. her skirt was hemmed suuuper high and tight. and her uniform blouse was skin tight and she had huge boobs. she walked around as if she owned the place. i laughed.

anyways. the weather is getting lots better. i'm not dripping in sweat every time i step outside..

OH. so annie and i decided to throw a floor party for the girls' wing cuz we wanted to get to know everyone. so we made these lovely flyers

so inviting right?? WE WERE OFFERING FREE PIZZA AND KOREAN FRIED CHICKEN. so we put them up before we went to get our alien registration cards and on our way back we're thinking omg my inbox is going to be exploded with emails!! i wonder how many people want to come! and we run into some guys in the lobby who are looking at the poster and we're like that's our party!! and they're all oh you should make it for the guys too! we really want to come it sounds like fun! and we're like haha yeah it's going to be a blast! so we get into our room and i check my email... i have ONE. FUCKING. RSVP. so we get pissed off and think we should make this party just for the guys and us since obviously the girls dont want to be social.. bitches.. but the girl who rsvp-ed was like maybe you should put up a sign up sheet because i think people are forgetting to email. so we graciously put up a sign up sheet next to the flyer when i left this morning.. i come back like 7 hours later. ONE FUCKING NAME on the rsvp list. ridiculous.

PICTURES!!!

korea is beautiful. we've just been in seoul mainly, incheon, and ilsan, but it's been a CRAZY adventure. lots of learning new things [like using electrical converters and korean public transportation] and meeting new people [fun europeans who like to karaoke] and figuring out how to live in a totally different country that's so foreign and familiar at the same time [seeing the people and language i've seen my entire life but not completely understanding them].

Pictures of the lovely bloggers: Patricia, Joyce, Me, and Jenn. Hanul is our fifth, and he's getting here next week! YAY!

Our first traditional korean meal made by a real korean ahjima! haha it was DELICIOUS. but like patricia said, the korean food, though wonderful, is starting to wear on us. i guess it'll take some time getting used to lol


Going out to dinner in Sinchon. As you can see, it was also a great meal.

The restaurant even had aprons. Jenn stole hers. LOL

at the bar lol

at the noraebang (karaoke) LOL

outside the noraebang with the owner of the noraebang. That's his face on the sign. haha

AND CUTE ASIAN BABY OF THE DAY:


AND A LITTLE MORE:



(click on it to see larger image)

YAY KOREA!

<3, Amy