I got accepted for another semester in GGU. Yay. Some of my friends didn't, which sucks and they only got word of it a few hours before the final closing ceremony. You can imagine how overwhelming this would have been for those who weren't accepted. Everything they had planned for the upcoming 6 months had to be changed in only a few days, some even in a few hours. The university administration told one of our friends 4 hours before she had to leave for her plane to go home for the holidays, that she wasn't accepted, that she shouldn't bother coming back and don't leave any stuff behind. Can you imagine how impossible it was to do all this in only a few hours. The school knew about this weeks in advance, but they just didn't bother to tell us up until the last second and without giving any reason...
It's a good school, but when we have nothing more to offer, we become worthless and they will treat us accordingly.
To my friends from Belgium who might visit me: It's already impossible to fit all my stuff into my suitcases, so it would be nice if we could arrange something, so I could transfer some of my stuff over to you guys (a)
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Interesting facts about the university exams in Korea
I'm not going to write down, what other people have done before me. So if you're interested, click this link if you want to read about how the day of the university exam in Korea affects not only the students, but everybody in their daily routines.
Other interesting blogs:
If you are interested in reading about the adventures of an American language teacher click here.
If you are interested in reading about ... well about Korea, click here and start reading ^^.
Have fun.
Other interesting blogs:
If you are interested in reading about the adventures of an American language teacher click here.
If you are interested in reading about ... well about Korea, click here and start reading ^^.
Have fun.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Friday December 3rd 2010
Don't feel like making my school assignment about 'Sinterklaas', so it's time to post on this forgotten blog.
This blog post is going to be a summary about my day, commenting on unusual behavior compared to the life I was used to in Belgium. This post is mainly directed to all the people out there who have never been in Korea and wonder what life here is like. There are so many things which we take for granted and are considered normal, so I'm going to go into detail. Prepare to be bored.
My day starts as usual by getting annoyed by my alarm clock waking me up at 7.30. Going into the bathroom to take a shower, the first thing I notice is that there is no shower curtain or anything to keep the water away from the rest of the bathroom. In Korea it's not surprising to see a bathroom which is basically a toilet/shower stall/bathroom in 1. So having your entire bathroom soaked after taking a shower isn't an unusual event. Good news for girls: Guys will be motivated more to put the toilet seat down to prevent ending up with a wet behind after taking a dump. Bad news: It's not unlikely to see your toilet paper completely soaked after a shower. So best not to just hang it out there. Also having your socks or pants getting wet after going to the bathroom is quite likely, since the floor is wet most of the times. Especially if 2 or more people are using the same bathroom. Usually there will be some bathroom slippers ready for you. Leaving your clothes somewhere dry and safe is another issue. Usually there are no or is just one hook to hang your clothes on. I never bothered to ask how others solve this problem, so I don't know what the best way is, so I guess you just have to be creative. Click to see Korean bathroom
Coming out the shower it's time to get dressed and leave. Yet another pair of slippers awaits you at the door. In Korean houses/temples/rooms/kiosks/... and even at outside wooden constructions (as you can see, no shoes) to chill, it is the custom to wear slippers inside the house and to leave your outdoors shoes at the door. If winter comes they will get more creative and buy cuter, warmer shoes to wear inside, but as the rule goes outdoor shoes are only to be used outside and inside shoes inside. Which isn't that unusual in even most of the European homes either (as I recall, most of the people I know have the custom of taking of the shoes at the entrance, but we tend to be less strict about it), but what makes it different in Korea is that it is really enforced and we wouldn't usually change our shoes, but just walk around without any. If you make a mistake wearing your shoes passed the place where you should have changed your shoes into more comfortable shoes, which is usually just a 1x1 meter area packed with shoes (See here, here, ...), they will tend to get a bit agitated. That's why usually people have spare slippers at home for guests, so they wouldn't have to walk barefoot or on their socks. This principle is enforced on even the most unusual places, like a changing room at a clothing store, at kiosks, on wooden outdoor constructions, ... and probably more which I haven't encountered yet.
As different shoes have different usage, you can understand that it can be a hassle to bring different pairs of shoes with you for every possible situation you might end up into. I already explained that it is the hosts duty to offer you slippers when you are invited, but it is also not uncommon to leave your shoes at the location of its usage. For example the gym at our school. It has 2 shoe racks for you to put your shoes in to exchange them for your sporting shoes. As people tend to be lazy in this country (who isn't lazy at times), they just leave their sport shoes there and don't even bother to bring them to there room. The first thing that would pop into my mind is 'They do not get stolen?'. As you could expect, the answer is 'No'. Nobody will border stealing them. This is also one of the reasons the rack is filled with shoes, probably even with forgotten, ownerless shoes (same as with the cloth racks). You might think this is just more common here because I'm living in the country side, but even when I was staying in Seoul at my small Goshiwon, we had the same principle. People left their shoes in small boxes or on top of the boxes at the entrance. The boxes had no key, so everybody could just take whichever shoes they would like, but this never happened. Because of this kind of behavior the university sometimes feels like my own big house with hundreds of brothers and sisters. Which Koreans actually call each other when they become friends. Older people are usually referred to as 'big brother' or 'big sister'. Like the woman at the school store is called 'Aunt'. Even in restaurants people tend to call the people working their (usually women) 'aunts'. You should watch out using this custom as a foreigner though. Some people don't like to be called either of these things by a foreigner and are reluctant to call a foreigner by one of these names.
Walking through the hall to the elevator I see the whole hallway completely filled with cloth racks. After doing their laundry people put their laundry to dry in the hallway. The cloth racks used to be owned by the students there, but these days, they are just for everybody to be used as you like, since most of the owners already left the school. I never stayed at a dormitory so I actually have no clue how people dry their clothes there, but I've never seen racks filling up the hallway. Especially since you usually don't want people to see your underwear, which brings me to the fact that in Korea dormitories (I think even all of them?) have genders separated. Boys and girls have their own floor and sometimes even their own building. If you are even spotted at the other gender's dormitory their can be severe consequences. So having your underwear out in the open in the hallway or staircase isn't that much of a problem anymore.
I've finally reached the elevator to go down to the cafeteria. What is the first thing I notice? The handsome guy in the elevator looking at me how I enter the elevator. In most of the Korean elevators there is a mirror to give you the opportunity to check if your hair is as you want it to be, if your makeup is okay, ... Everybody that enters the elevator is forced to check if he looks good enough. Even I start to make a habit out of it. I'm usually to lazy to actually do something about it, but that's not the point. When I turn around to the buttons to press B1 to go down, I notice something strange. There is no '4'? Instead there is an 'F'. This is not uncommon in more Asian countries using Korean characters, since the character used for '4' is the same character (or similar?) to the character for 'Death', so people avoid using it. Some countries even go as far as to rename (eg 3B) or even leave out the 4th floor. For example the famous 63-building in Yoido, Seoul, which hasn't got a 44th floor. More on Korean cultural believes here. For Asian elevator press here, here, ...
For breakfast the cafeteria gives us the choice between some cornflakes, bread or warm rice with kimchi, warm meet and a soup!? Yes, it is not uncommon to have a warm meal for breakfast. In general there is no big difference between breakfast, lunch and dinner at our cafeteria. This is not spread amongst everyone obviously, but I just wanted to point out that it is not uncommon to have a warm breakfast. While this would be uncommon back at home.
While going to class it's hard not to notice all the water distributors standing in every hallway. They do not only contain cold water, but also hot water. Drinking a cup of tea or coffee during your class was never this cheap and easy. You just need to prepare a cup and the needed powder, the water is right there in front of your classroom for you to use without any charge. This habit is not only common in schools, but at offices, restaurants, ... Most public places have this, except for public toilets, which on its own is also something we don't have in Belgium. If you need to go to the bathroom, you are forced to enter a bar or restaurant and most of the times they ask you to buy a drink for using the toilet or the toilet has a lady which will ask you usage fee. This reminds me of the fact that all the dirty jobs in this country are done by older people. I have never seen a garbage collector, cleaner, ... who wasn't a middle aged man or woman, sometimes even older.
During class it is not abnormal to hear the sound of a cellphone. While this isn't that abnormal even back at home, it's usually limited by the students and still only once in a while. While here it is during every single class. And like I indicated it not only happens by the students, our teachers' cellphone usually goes off for up to 5-6 times per class. The only thing she seems to do about it is complain and getting annoyed, but somehow shutting the damn thing off is not an option. She is a good teacher, but at times she tends to say strange and even offensive things. Calling me skinny and giving me the last kimbab piece is one of the things I got used to (not that I really mind, because this means more food for me^^), but calling other people chubby or boring, giving advice on how to put your hair to look more pretty, asking us to ask a question to the person we think is the prettiest in the room, talking down on us (This is actually normal in Korea, but I can get a bit offended by the fact that she's not polite in her speaking towards us, but I guess this is more my own problem), calling one of the guy students 'darling' (오빠) so he would sing a song in class, playing games during class, asking about personal lives (boyfriend/girlfriend stuff mainly) ... One of the other peculiar things that happened during class was the fact that our teacher wanted to have a party to celebrate the ending of the semester. Which in its own isn't that strange, but we are having it the day before our exam. Not that I mind, not at all, just strange and something hard to imagine happen back at home.
After class I planned on going to Daejeon to shop and have some fun. Since we had to go a long way some people took out their cute pillows or sleeping patches. Sleep is important and good for your health ; ) After thanking the driver, we get out of the bus, ready to go to the department store. Greeting bus drivers, cooks at the school restaurant, ... is not that uncommon for the people of our school. We also tend to great everybody we meet in the floor with a friendly anyeonghaseyo + bow/annyeong + wave (depending on how well you know the person). Our university is a bit 'famous' for that, because I never had this experience at any other university. Except maybe at smaller restaurants or bars, people tend to be more familiar at these kind of places too. You don't need to wait for the waiter to come and take your order at smaller places or outside stands. Just shout your order, they will bring it and put it on your bill, which is at your table at all time. You just have to take that to the register and they calculate whatever you owe them.
Going inside the department store, you should see tons of employees waiting to help you with whatever you need. At first I felt really awkward about somebody approaching you or talking to you at every step you take, but you get used to it/get better at ignoring them. While walking through shops it's not uncommon to be yelled at and asked to come inside their shop, because they have new offers or a discount. If this isn't enough, some shops even hire beautiful girls to get you into their shops. The pushiest I have seen so far is one of the promoting girls taking a girls wrist almost pushing her into the shop. Also when a big store is opening its door, they usually hire some beautiful girls to dance in front of the store to get people's attention. Click here, here, ...
When going into a store it's common to be greeted by the employees with a friendly, but sometimes not that friendly and rather forced, 'Welcome, please come in.'. Like it's normal to say/shout something when going outside of restaurants by saying 'Please stay well' or 'Thank you' (In Korean obviously). Although I noticed that in bigger stores, employees tend to just shout this occasionally when they are in the back or follow others shouting it, even if they didn't see anybody enter the store. After choosing everything I might wanted, I went to the changing cabinets. Not knowing, I just walked inside the cabinet with my shoes on, which triggered on of the employees to shout 'Please take off your shoes'. Going inside the cabinet, again the lack of hangers and a sign. The sign said that you could change the length of your pants if it isn't as you expected. If your pants cost more than 30.000won (20 euro), you could ask them to make the pants shorter for you without extra cost. If your pants cost less than 30.000 won, you had to pay 2.000 won (1.33 euro).
Getting quite hungry it was time to eat. My shopping partner wanted to go to Burger King, so no problem. I always fancy a burger. Sitting there talking, I started to notice more of the small details. If we order an ice cream, we get a plastic spoon, but I guess that's just too boring for Koreans (could be American thing too though, since Burgerking came from America obviously, but lets pretend it's Korean, so I can finish my sentence), because now we got this wooden, flat, construction/toy(?), which you had to fold into a spoon to eat with. Looking more around me looking at the smaller details, the first things that came to mind where the fact that you usually see bigger groups of people. Seeing someone eating alone is really uncommon, because they will have the label 'loner' (Same at home, but Koreans just care more about these kind of things, so they prefer to hang out in groups). Usually the groups are unisex or couple hanging out. I'm really generalizing here. Too be honest I never actually payed too much attention to that, but that was the impression I got. Also girls are aggressive ^^. It's not uncommon to see a girl hiss and raise her hand, hitting someone, usually a guy. The idea I have now is that girls are more aggressive towards guys, but again, as I didn't give it too much attention, I'm not sure. Like it is also not a strange thing to see 2 people play rock, paper scissors over the fact who can hit, flick, pinch, ... the other. Too think of it, I was even playing this in the bus to the department store... Uniforms. A lot of jobs require uniforms, much more than in Belgium. Waiters, students (every student up until highschool, which is at the age of 18), at the bookstores, ... Lastly, the fact that you can always refill your drink at eating places. Not only water, but everything. Just order a coke and you get infinite refill. I'm not sure if this is really everywhere, but I experienced this at Mister Pizza, a restaurant, Burgerking. Which is basically every place where I ever bought some drink and didn't just drink water. If only this was possible at bars ; )
Almost time to go back to the bus stop to get the last free school bus. Heading in the direction of the exit, we saw a theatre hall. Department stores in Korea are usually from 7 to 17 and probably more stories high, they are big and coming from a country with less people then the capital here, you can imagine that we don't have big department stores. While Korean department stores have cinema halls, tons of restaurants, karaokes, .... just use your imagination, they will probably have it for sale. And I really mean everything... Having talked about going to an arcade for so long, it was finally our chance to go there. The video games all being super addictive, I was glad that we only had a short time and that the prices were quite cheap (500 won/33 eurocents) per game.
Smoothie Time! Getting kind of hungry again, it was time for a smoothie. Nothing worth mentioning here, except for the fact that my shopping partner gets a textmessage for every time her card gets used. Which is actually really convenient if you ever lose it without knowing it. While drinking the smoothie I was reminded by something that has made me think 'wtf' every time I saw it. It were the 1 meter high doors. Somehow they ran out of door, or people where really short back in the day, but it is not that strange to see a door being only 1 meter high with people almost crawling out of it. Lets hope this is for money purposes and not just a sick prank of the designer.
Since I'm kind of bored of writing and I really should start on that assignment, I will end this post with a remark on 'cuteness'. How this is experienced completely different from back at home. I ended up with 5 definitions for the Korean word for 'cute'. Basically everything that is small or young is cute, which is understandable for us. But it doesn't stop there and I know this clearly doesn't apply to every Korean, but I heard the word 'cute' being used in these kind of situation way too often. Cute is also used for guys looking feminine, guys looking like nerds or for guys without confidence. The last one really surprised me. Even for really ugly and weird object it's possible to see a korean go 'ooh, cute^^', but I guess this is the least common version. To recapitulate; Cute is used on nerdy guys, feminine guys, strange objects, small objects, people looking really young. Since cute is usually a compliment it brings me to another issue. In Belgium it's usually not really a compliment to be called 'cute', because it makes you feel like a small little boy, so this usually isn't a compliment, since girls usually like a boy who looks more mature, rather than a boy/baby-like boy. For the same reason this is a compliment in Korea though. A lot of girls like the cool, strong, mature type, like in every country, but in this country one of the more popular types is the cute guy.
If you have any remarks or think I'm wrong in something I said, please post below.
Peter.
This blog post is going to be a summary about my day, commenting on unusual behavior compared to the life I was used to in Belgium. This post is mainly directed to all the people out there who have never been in Korea and wonder what life here is like. There are so many things which we take for granted and are considered normal, so I'm going to go into detail. Prepare to be bored.
My day starts as usual by getting annoyed by my alarm clock waking me up at 7.30. Going into the bathroom to take a shower, the first thing I notice is that there is no shower curtain or anything to keep the water away from the rest of the bathroom. In Korea it's not surprising to see a bathroom which is basically a toilet/shower stall/bathroom in 1. So having your entire bathroom soaked after taking a shower isn't an unusual event. Good news for girls: Guys will be motivated more to put the toilet seat down to prevent ending up with a wet behind after taking a dump. Bad news: It's not unlikely to see your toilet paper completely soaked after a shower. So best not to just hang it out there. Also having your socks or pants getting wet after going to the bathroom is quite likely, since the floor is wet most of the times. Especially if 2 or more people are using the same bathroom. Usually there will be some bathroom slippers ready for you. Leaving your clothes somewhere dry and safe is another issue. Usually there are no or is just one hook to hang your clothes on. I never bothered to ask how others solve this problem, so I don't know what the best way is, so I guess you just have to be creative. Click to see Korean bathroom
Coming out the shower it's time to get dressed and leave. Yet another pair of slippers awaits you at the door. In Korean houses/temples/rooms/kiosks/... and even at outside wooden constructions (as you can see, no shoes) to chill, it is the custom to wear slippers inside the house and to leave your outdoors shoes at the door. If winter comes they will get more creative and buy cuter, warmer shoes to wear inside, but as the rule goes outdoor shoes are only to be used outside and inside shoes inside. Which isn't that unusual in even most of the European homes either (as I recall, most of the people I know have the custom of taking of the shoes at the entrance, but we tend to be less strict about it), but what makes it different in Korea is that it is really enforced and we wouldn't usually change our shoes, but just walk around without any. If you make a mistake wearing your shoes passed the place where you should have changed your shoes into more comfortable shoes, which is usually just a 1x1 meter area packed with shoes (See here, here, ...), they will tend to get a bit agitated. That's why usually people have spare slippers at home for guests, so they wouldn't have to walk barefoot or on their socks. This principle is enforced on even the most unusual places, like a changing room at a clothing store, at kiosks, on wooden outdoor constructions, ... and probably more which I haven't encountered yet.
As different shoes have different usage, you can understand that it can be a hassle to bring different pairs of shoes with you for every possible situation you might end up into. I already explained that it is the hosts duty to offer you slippers when you are invited, but it is also not uncommon to leave your shoes at the location of its usage. For example the gym at our school. It has 2 shoe racks for you to put your shoes in to exchange them for your sporting shoes. As people tend to be lazy in this country (who isn't lazy at times), they just leave their sport shoes there and don't even bother to bring them to there room. The first thing that would pop into my mind is 'They do not get stolen?'. As you could expect, the answer is 'No'. Nobody will border stealing them. This is also one of the reasons the rack is filled with shoes, probably even with forgotten, ownerless shoes (same as with the cloth racks). You might think this is just more common here because I'm living in the country side, but even when I was staying in Seoul at my small Goshiwon, we had the same principle. People left their shoes in small boxes or on top of the boxes at the entrance. The boxes had no key, so everybody could just take whichever shoes they would like, but this never happened. Because of this kind of behavior the university sometimes feels like my own big house with hundreds of brothers and sisters. Which Koreans actually call each other when they become friends. Older people are usually referred to as 'big brother' or 'big sister'. Like the woman at the school store is called 'Aunt'. Even in restaurants people tend to call the people working their (usually women) 'aunts'. You should watch out using this custom as a foreigner though. Some people don't like to be called either of these things by a foreigner and are reluctant to call a foreigner by one of these names.
Walking through the hall to the elevator I see the whole hallway completely filled with cloth racks. After doing their laundry people put their laundry to dry in the hallway. The cloth racks used to be owned by the students there, but these days, they are just for everybody to be used as you like, since most of the owners already left the school. I never stayed at a dormitory so I actually have no clue how people dry their clothes there, but I've never seen racks filling up the hallway. Especially since you usually don't want people to see your underwear, which brings me to the fact that in Korea dormitories (I think even all of them?) have genders separated. Boys and girls have their own floor and sometimes even their own building. If you are even spotted at the other gender's dormitory their can be severe consequences. So having your underwear out in the open in the hallway or staircase isn't that much of a problem anymore.
I've finally reached the elevator to go down to the cafeteria. What is the first thing I notice? The handsome guy in the elevator looking at me how I enter the elevator. In most of the Korean elevators there is a mirror to give you the opportunity to check if your hair is as you want it to be, if your makeup is okay, ... Everybody that enters the elevator is forced to check if he looks good enough. Even I start to make a habit out of it. I'm usually to lazy to actually do something about it, but that's not the point. When I turn around to the buttons to press B1 to go down, I notice something strange. There is no '4'? Instead there is an 'F'. This is not uncommon in more Asian countries using Korean characters, since the character used for '4' is the same character (or similar?) to the character for 'Death', so people avoid using it. Some countries even go as far as to rename (eg 3B) or even leave out the 4th floor. For example the famous 63-building in Yoido, Seoul, which hasn't got a 44th floor. More on Korean cultural believes here. For Asian elevator press here, here, ...
For breakfast the cafeteria gives us the choice between some cornflakes, bread or warm rice with kimchi, warm meet and a soup!? Yes, it is not uncommon to have a warm meal for breakfast. In general there is no big difference between breakfast, lunch and dinner at our cafeteria. This is not spread amongst everyone obviously, but I just wanted to point out that it is not uncommon to have a warm breakfast. While this would be uncommon back at home.
While going to class it's hard not to notice all the water distributors standing in every hallway. They do not only contain cold water, but also hot water. Drinking a cup of tea or coffee during your class was never this cheap and easy. You just need to prepare a cup and the needed powder, the water is right there in front of your classroom for you to use without any charge. This habit is not only common in schools, but at offices, restaurants, ... Most public places have this, except for public toilets, which on its own is also something we don't have in Belgium. If you need to go to the bathroom, you are forced to enter a bar or restaurant and most of the times they ask you to buy a drink for using the toilet or the toilet has a lady which will ask you usage fee. This reminds me of the fact that all the dirty jobs in this country are done by older people. I have never seen a garbage collector, cleaner, ... who wasn't a middle aged man or woman, sometimes even older.
During class it is not abnormal to hear the sound of a cellphone. While this isn't that abnormal even back at home, it's usually limited by the students and still only once in a while. While here it is during every single class. And like I indicated it not only happens by the students, our teachers' cellphone usually goes off for up to 5-6 times per class. The only thing she seems to do about it is complain and getting annoyed, but somehow shutting the damn thing off is not an option. She is a good teacher, but at times she tends to say strange and even offensive things. Calling me skinny and giving me the last kimbab piece is one of the things I got used to (not that I really mind, because this means more food for me^^), but calling other people chubby or boring, giving advice on how to put your hair to look more pretty, asking us to ask a question to the person we think is the prettiest in the room, talking down on us (This is actually normal in Korea, but I can get a bit offended by the fact that she's not polite in her speaking towards us, but I guess this is more my own problem), calling one of the guy students 'darling' (오빠) so he would sing a song in class, playing games during class, asking about personal lives (boyfriend/girlfriend stuff mainly) ... One of the other peculiar things that happened during class was the fact that our teacher wanted to have a party to celebrate the ending of the semester. Which in its own isn't that strange, but we are having it the day before our exam. Not that I mind, not at all, just strange and something hard to imagine happen back at home.
After class I planned on going to Daejeon to shop and have some fun. Since we had to go a long way some people took out their cute pillows or sleeping patches. Sleep is important and good for your health ; ) After thanking the driver, we get out of the bus, ready to go to the department store. Greeting bus drivers, cooks at the school restaurant, ... is not that uncommon for the people of our school. We also tend to great everybody we meet in the floor with a friendly anyeonghaseyo + bow/annyeong + wave (depending on how well you know the person). Our university is a bit 'famous' for that, because I never had this experience at any other university. Except maybe at smaller restaurants or bars, people tend to be more familiar at these kind of places too. You don't need to wait for the waiter to come and take your order at smaller places or outside stands. Just shout your order, they will bring it and put it on your bill, which is at your table at all time. You just have to take that to the register and they calculate whatever you owe them.
Going inside the department store, you should see tons of employees waiting to help you with whatever you need. At first I felt really awkward about somebody approaching you or talking to you at every step you take, but you get used to it/get better at ignoring them. While walking through shops it's not uncommon to be yelled at and asked to come inside their shop, because they have new offers or a discount. If this isn't enough, some shops even hire beautiful girls to get you into their shops. The pushiest I have seen so far is one of the promoting girls taking a girls wrist almost pushing her into the shop. Also when a big store is opening its door, they usually hire some beautiful girls to dance in front of the store to get people's attention. Click here, here, ...
When going into a store it's common to be greeted by the employees with a friendly, but sometimes not that friendly and rather forced, 'Welcome, please come in.'. Like it's normal to say/shout something when going outside of restaurants by saying 'Please stay well' or 'Thank you' (In Korean obviously). Although I noticed that in bigger stores, employees tend to just shout this occasionally when they are in the back or follow others shouting it, even if they didn't see anybody enter the store. After choosing everything I might wanted, I went to the changing cabinets. Not knowing, I just walked inside the cabinet with my shoes on, which triggered on of the employees to shout 'Please take off your shoes'. Going inside the cabinet, again the lack of hangers and a sign. The sign said that you could change the length of your pants if it isn't as you expected. If your pants cost more than 30.000won (20 euro), you could ask them to make the pants shorter for you without extra cost. If your pants cost less than 30.000 won, you had to pay 2.000 won (1.33 euro).
Getting quite hungry it was time to eat. My shopping partner wanted to go to Burger King, so no problem. I always fancy a burger. Sitting there talking, I started to notice more of the small details. If we order an ice cream, we get a plastic spoon, but I guess that's just too boring for Koreans (could be American thing too though, since Burgerking came from America obviously, but lets pretend it's Korean, so I can finish my sentence), because now we got this wooden, flat, construction/toy(?), which you had to fold into a spoon to eat with. Looking more around me looking at the smaller details, the first things that came to mind where the fact that you usually see bigger groups of people. Seeing someone eating alone is really uncommon, because they will have the label 'loner' (Same at home, but Koreans just care more about these kind of things, so they prefer to hang out in groups). Usually the groups are unisex or couple hanging out. I'm really generalizing here. Too be honest I never actually payed too much attention to that, but that was the impression I got. Also girls are aggressive ^^. It's not uncommon to see a girl hiss and raise her hand, hitting someone, usually a guy. The idea I have now is that girls are more aggressive towards guys, but again, as I didn't give it too much attention, I'm not sure. Like it is also not a strange thing to see 2 people play rock, paper scissors over the fact who can hit, flick, pinch, ... the other. Too think of it, I was even playing this in the bus to the department store... Uniforms. A lot of jobs require uniforms, much more than in Belgium. Waiters, students (every student up until highschool, which is at the age of 18), at the bookstores, ... Lastly, the fact that you can always refill your drink at eating places. Not only water, but everything. Just order a coke and you get infinite refill. I'm not sure if this is really everywhere, but I experienced this at Mister Pizza, a restaurant, Burgerking. Which is basically every place where I ever bought some drink and didn't just drink water. If only this was possible at bars ; )
Almost time to go back to the bus stop to get the last free school bus. Heading in the direction of the exit, we saw a theatre hall. Department stores in Korea are usually from 7 to 17 and probably more stories high, they are big and coming from a country with less people then the capital here, you can imagine that we don't have big department stores. While Korean department stores have cinema halls, tons of restaurants, karaokes, .... just use your imagination, they will probably have it for sale. And I really mean everything... Having talked about going to an arcade for so long, it was finally our chance to go there. The video games all being super addictive, I was glad that we only had a short time and that the prices were quite cheap (500 won/33 eurocents) per game.
Smoothie Time! Getting kind of hungry again, it was time for a smoothie. Nothing worth mentioning here, except for the fact that my shopping partner gets a textmessage for every time her card gets used. Which is actually really convenient if you ever lose it without knowing it. While drinking the smoothie I was reminded by something that has made me think 'wtf' every time I saw it. It were the 1 meter high doors. Somehow they ran out of door, or people where really short back in the day, but it is not that strange to see a door being only 1 meter high with people almost crawling out of it. Lets hope this is for money purposes and not just a sick prank of the designer.
Since I'm kind of bored of writing and I really should start on that assignment, I will end this post with a remark on 'cuteness'. How this is experienced completely different from back at home. I ended up with 5 definitions for the Korean word for 'cute'. Basically everything that is small or young is cute, which is understandable for us. But it doesn't stop there and I know this clearly doesn't apply to every Korean, but I heard the word 'cute' being used in these kind of situation way too often. Cute is also used for guys looking feminine, guys looking like nerds or for guys without confidence. The last one really surprised me. Even for really ugly and weird object it's possible to see a korean go 'ooh, cute^^', but I guess this is the least common version. To recapitulate; Cute is used on nerdy guys, feminine guys, strange objects, small objects, people looking really young. Since cute is usually a compliment it brings me to another issue. In Belgium it's usually not really a compliment to be called 'cute', because it makes you feel like a small little boy, so this usually isn't a compliment, since girls usually like a boy who looks more mature, rather than a boy/baby-like boy. For the same reason this is a compliment in Korea though. A lot of girls like the cool, strong, mature type, like in every country, but in this country one of the more popular types is the cute guy.
If you have any remarks or think I'm wrong in something I said, please post below.
Peter.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Mail Address:
Raeves Peter
Boys Dormitory Room No. 308
14-9 Daemyeong-ri, Sangweol-myeon,
Nonsan-si, Chungnam, Korea 320-931
Raeves Peter
Boys Dormitory Room No. 308
14-9 Daemyeong-ri, Sangweol-myeon,
Nonsan-si, Chungnam, Korea 320-931
Tue September 14th - Wed September 15th
After the introductions on the 13th, the partnership has finally set off. I squeezed in 8 hours already. Basically I ended up with 2 groups of friends, which makes it so much more fun, since they know each other, they motivated each other, help each other. So in the end it's really fun to do and we all learn from it or at least practise a lot. With the 1 group I saw a movie and we discussed this. While getting to know the group, they agreed being just a bunch of otaku's, like me. So we even considered going to a Cosplay event in Busan one of these weeks. I hope I have a camera by then. I just have to! See Busan, go to a Cosplay event, ... All things that are on my to do list, so it'll be great to combine this with the partnership, because that means I get payed for it too ^^. The other group is more serious on the partnership. They want me to help them with their upcoming TOEFL test, which is a 'Test of English as a Foreign Language'-test. So they prepared essays to go through, to summarize, to talk about, ... but in the end we should ended up talking, so it wasn't a productive first session, but we had a lot of fun ^^. All my students are just amazing ^^. I guess my luck still hasn't run out yet ;)
These days have been fun, but they were really tiring too. We had a test, homework, the partnership, going to the gym, so I'm beat. The upcoming 10 days will not be much less tiring, I'm guessing, since we first have 3 days off for the field trip and then we have 2 days off like always and 3 more because it's a Korean holiday. Since I'm going to Seoul during Korean thanksgiving, I'll probably not be able to write much soon, so be patient and just miss me more ;) I know I miss you guys at home. Almost missed the roll call because of this blog, but I don't take the rules that serious anymore anyway. Since they put me on the list for breaking one of the rules and since I'm the perfect student, this doesn't make sense. Meh.
Anyway. Off to bed now and see you guys in some days.
These days have been fun, but they were really tiring too. We had a test, homework, the partnership, going to the gym, so I'm beat. The upcoming 10 days will not be much less tiring, I'm guessing, since we first have 3 days off for the field trip and then we have 2 days off like always and 3 more because it's a Korean holiday. Since I'm going to Seoul during Korean thanksgiving, I'll probably not be able to write much soon, so be patient and just miss me more ;) I know I miss you guys at home. Almost missed the roll call because of this blog, but I don't take the rules that serious anymore anyway. Since they put me on the list for breaking one of the rules and since I'm the perfect student, this doesn't make sense. Meh.
Anyway. Off to bed now and see you guys in some days.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Sunday September 12th - Monday September 13th
I'll start off with a funny remark on the big cultural difference. I finally understand why Korean people always have toilet rolls hanging above their heads when they're eating. It's because the word 'tissue' and 'toilet paper' are translated to the same word in Korean, being 휴지, so they don't consider it strange to have toilet paper at the table. (fyi: They don't do this in restaurant, only in smaller places or on festivals.)
The English language partnership started and it's going much better as planned (which basically means, I don't have to do as much as I had thought to do). I'm meeting 2 girls for 2 hours, helping them with their essays (I don't know if this is such a good thing though, knowing how good my language skills actually are. But if it makes them happy and I get payed for it, I'm happily excepting it). The English teachers came up with the idea of making one big group, to make the work easier on the teachers and to give the students the opportunity to learn english is a more fun environment. I'm meeting my other 3 students during that session. Again 2 hours. I have a nice bunch of students, so I think this is gonna be fun :). Although they somehow like to call me 아저씨 instead of 오빠 <_<
I guess that's all that happened or at least what I remembered. Off to the gym now.
Bye
The English language partnership started and it's going much better as planned (which basically means, I don't have to do as much as I had thought to do). I'm meeting 2 girls for 2 hours, helping them with their essays (I don't know if this is such a good thing though, knowing how good my language skills actually are. But if it makes them happy and I get payed for it, I'm happily excepting it). The English teachers came up with the idea of making one big group, to make the work easier on the teachers and to give the students the opportunity to learn english is a more fun environment. I'm meeting my other 3 students during that session. Again 2 hours. I have a nice bunch of students, so I think this is gonna be fun :). Although they somehow like to call me 아저씨 instead of 오빠 <_<
I guess that's all that happened or at least what I remembered. Off to the gym now.
Bye
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Friday 10th - Saturday 11th
This weekend there's a 'Sweet potato' festival in Geumgang without actual sweet potatoes or even potatoes for that matter. It basically had korean food, soju, makolli (what in korea doesn't?) and older people performing samulnori which is always nice to listen to. Too bad we can't enter the samulnori club for our culture activity. It's either 13 weeks caligraphy or 13 weeks taekwondo, so I'm stuck with doing taekwondo <_<.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Sunday 5th - Thursday 9th
Like I told you not much has happened. I have a boring life in Belgium, so that will not change in any country ^^.
I wrote down 'folder', but I forgot what I wanted to right about that, so I hope I remember by the time I finish. I told you about the English partnership program. Well since the Korean students had to fill out a paper with the hours they want to study English every week and which teacher they would like to have, we held a party today to celebrate. Which was quite intimidating, since the korean-foreigner ratio was 4 to 1. But it wouldn't be korea if there wouldn't be soju and food to set the mood ^^. We still don't know who our students will be, but tomorrow we're getting a list so we can start contacting them and make up some good schedules (and some good lessons. I'm so glad I'm creative... Ow wait. I'm not <_<, but I guess it'll be okay.
We are also playing to do a movie night every week, showing a movie from every country to get everyone in contact with different cultures. Not sure about the movie I'm going to choose, but it's not that I have a big list to choose from though.
The night call at 11.40 pm is becoming a real hastle and everybody is showing up a bit tired to class because of it. We will try to talk to the guy in charge, but as someone stated out, it's quite unfair to the other students if we, foreigners, aren't obligated to go to the night call anymore. (Well actually I don't care too much, since I'm usually still awake at that time).
Okay, I remember again why i wrote down 'folder'. I got this flyer about the program I'm following, so I'm not going to write it down. If you want some information about the program just ask. Basically it's 4 months of korean language training for free, meals, stay, ... everything is included, except for some small fees that you have to pay. Although you can earn the money back by taking part in the language partnership program, which I almost obligated, or they kinda expect you to anyway, but I guess and hope it'll be quite a nice experience. Especially if you have the amazing social skills I posses. If someone would be interested in learning Korean. Feel free to ask about it and if you don't want to come alone, I was thinking of doing another semester, since well, it's living for free for 6 months...
Some Korean info. The weather is changing really rapidly these days. It went from super hot to chilly in only a couple of days. It might be the tornado that passed by Korea, apparently they have tornado's in this country, but I think this is normal for Korea to change so fast. So I'm wondering where it will end... Ow wait... As I remember correctly I just walked outside (it's 23.55 now), with only a tshirt and I didn't feel cold and I'm sitting with the airco on, so maybe it's not as bad as I first thought, but still... it's getting colder these days though...
Ow and this cute couple went in the gym, while we were still there, to make out (well that's our guess anyway), so the guy pretended to come into the fitness (he was all dressed up with nice clothes, so as you could figure out easily, he didn't actually come to work out, but he just didn't want to lose face) to work out and they went away again after 5 minutes. Which is a thing I don't like about Korea though. You have to find a quiet place to just kiss your girlfriend, since it's not really accepted to do it in public, and the dormitories are not mixed either, so they can't go to each other's rooms either.
Missed the night call, because of this blog. I'm glad I noticed it at 11.44, so I could catch the caller before he left.
Anyway. That's it for now. Talk to you later ^^
I wrote down 'folder', but I forgot what I wanted to right about that, so I hope I remember by the time I finish. I told you about the English partnership program. Well since the Korean students had to fill out a paper with the hours they want to study English every week and which teacher they would like to have, we held a party today to celebrate. Which was quite intimidating, since the korean-foreigner ratio was 4 to 1. But it wouldn't be korea if there wouldn't be soju and food to set the mood ^^. We still don't know who our students will be, but tomorrow we're getting a list so we can start contacting them and make up some good schedules (and some good lessons. I'm so glad I'm creative... Ow wait. I'm not <_<, but I guess it'll be okay.
We are also playing to do a movie night every week, showing a movie from every country to get everyone in contact with different cultures. Not sure about the movie I'm going to choose, but it's not that I have a big list to choose from though.
The night call at 11.40 pm is becoming a real hastle and everybody is showing up a bit tired to class because of it. We will try to talk to the guy in charge, but as someone stated out, it's quite unfair to the other students if we, foreigners, aren't obligated to go to the night call anymore. (Well actually I don't care too much, since I'm usually still awake at that time).
Okay, I remember again why i wrote down 'folder'. I got this flyer about the program I'm following, so I'm not going to write it down. If you want some information about the program just ask. Basically it's 4 months of korean language training for free, meals, stay, ... everything is included, except for some small fees that you have to pay. Although you can earn the money back by taking part in the language partnership program, which I almost obligated, or they kinda expect you to anyway, but I guess and hope it'll be quite a nice experience. Especially if you have the amazing social skills I posses. If someone would be interested in learning Korean. Feel free to ask about it and if you don't want to come alone, I was thinking of doing another semester, since well, it's living for free for 6 months...
Some Korean info. The weather is changing really rapidly these days. It went from super hot to chilly in only a couple of days. It might be the tornado that passed by Korea, apparently they have tornado's in this country, but I think this is normal for Korea to change so fast. So I'm wondering where it will end... Ow wait... As I remember correctly I just walked outside (it's 23.55 now), with only a tshirt and I didn't feel cold and I'm sitting with the airco on, so maybe it's not as bad as I first thought, but still... it's getting colder these days though...
Ow and this cute couple went in the gym, while we were still there, to make out (well that's our guess anyway), so the guy pretended to come into the fitness (he was all dressed up with nice clothes, so as you could figure out easily, he didn't actually come to work out, but he just didn't want to lose face) to work out and they went away again after 5 minutes. Which is a thing I don't like about Korea though. You have to find a quiet place to just kiss your girlfriend, since it's not really accepted to do it in public, and the dormitories are not mixed either, so they can't go to each other's rooms either.
Missed the night call, because of this blog. I'm glad I noticed it at 11.44, so I could catch the caller before he left.
Anyway. That's it for now. Talk to you later ^^
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Thursday September 2nd-Saturday September 4th
2nd:
First real class, which was quite okay. I didn't have too much trouble. I don't really like the teacher though. I don't know why, it's just a feeling and apparently the other teacher is way better, teaching all these useful words and stuff. I can't really remember much else but studying.
Anyway, since I'm not in Seoul, I will probably not have something to write about every day, so I'll just stick to stuff worthy mentioning from now on.
3rd:
After class we all went to Daejeon to buy needed stuff and pass some time, since it's weekend anyway. Daejeon is basically like a small version of Seoul and I think it's cheaper but I'm not sure. Nothing new discovered, except that on weekends the students all go home. They are encouraged to do so. I heard that's why Koreans tend to be quite independent even until they get quite 'old' compared to our standards, because their parents and especially their mothers tend to take care of them too much.
4th:
The uni actually became a ghost town. I think I only saw about 20 people except for the foreigners. Everybody just went home to their own families. So we had no trouble finding a quiet spot to study ^^.
[Lol, it's getting more and more like a public dictionary]
First real class, which was quite okay. I didn't have too much trouble. I don't really like the teacher though. I don't know why, it's just a feeling and apparently the other teacher is way better, teaching all these useful words and stuff. I can't really remember much else but studying.
Anyway, since I'm not in Seoul, I will probably not have something to write about every day, so I'll just stick to stuff worthy mentioning from now on.
3rd:
After class we all went to Daejeon to buy needed stuff and pass some time, since it's weekend anyway. Daejeon is basically like a small version of Seoul and I think it's cheaper but I'm not sure. Nothing new discovered, except that on weekends the students all go home. They are encouraged to do so. I heard that's why Koreans tend to be quite independent even until they get quite 'old' compared to our standards, because their parents and especially their mothers tend to take care of them too much.
4th:
The uni actually became a ghost town. I think I only saw about 20 people except for the foreigners. Everybody just went home to their own families. So we had no trouble finding a quiet spot to study ^^.
[Lol, it's getting more and more like a public dictionary]
Friday, September 3, 2010
Wednesday September 1st
I finally met my roommate, which is a great guy I think. Not sure since I didn't get much chance to talk to him. He came in last night, packed half of his stuff, some of his friends came and I didn't see him the entire day. When I came back from my class he had fixed the air conditioner though and got some stuff to clean the bathroom from his home (which is near our university), so he's a good roommate.
Classes started, so we had to do an entrance exam, which was quite okay. All the people in the class are great too, I think I'm gonna have a great time here ;). You can see a big difference between living at a goshiwon in Seoul or living at a dormitory in the country side. In the goshiwon everybody just completely ignored me, but here everybody says hi to everybody. Not my style, but I'll get used to it. But in general everybody is really friendly. Only freshmen can be a pain in the ass from what I've heard, but that will change soon, when they go to the military and learn a bit about respect.
After class we explored the campus a bit. As expected a lot of places to study, but since we still didn't have any studying to do, we watch a movie at the cinema in our library. I think that one is free too, since nobody seemed to pay for anything. Or really cheap and the guy that got the movie payed for it.
At this university it's also possible/obliged to earn some money, by tutoring Korean students. We have to tutor for 4 hours in total to 4 different Korean students. Since I'm no native speaker, my English isn't perfect, I probably can't control them, they don't actually care themselves, but have to, etc I'm a bit afraid of the classes, but there are a few students here staying for their second semester, so I'll have a talk with them, they might be able to offer some good ideas. We are payed 800.000 won/about 533 Euro with this and have to do it for 11 weeks. So maybe I should watch the movie 'Please teach me English' again ^^
Classes started, so we had to do an entrance exam, which was quite okay. All the people in the class are great too, I think I'm gonna have a great time here ;). You can see a big difference between living at a goshiwon in Seoul or living at a dormitory in the country side. In the goshiwon everybody just completely ignored me, but here everybody says hi to everybody. Not my style, but I'll get used to it. But in general everybody is really friendly. Only freshmen can be a pain in the ass from what I've heard, but that will change soon, when they go to the military and learn a bit about respect.
After class we explored the campus a bit. As expected a lot of places to study, but since we still didn't have any studying to do, we watch a movie at the cinema in our library. I think that one is free too, since nobody seemed to pay for anything. Or really cheap and the guy that got the movie payed for it.
At this university it's also possible/obliged to earn some money, by tutoring Korean students. We have to tutor for 4 hours in total to 4 different Korean students. Since I'm no native speaker, my English isn't perfect, I probably can't control them, they don't actually care themselves, but have to, etc I'm a bit afraid of the classes, but there are a few students here staying for their second semester, so I'll have a talk with them, they might be able to offer some good ideas. We are payed 800.000 won/about 533 Euro with this and have to do it for 11 weeks. So maybe I should watch the movie 'Please teach me English' again ^^
Tuesday August 31st
Today I finally arrived at the university at a 3-4 hour journey. The taxi was way too expensive though (20.000 won, while bus would be 1.200 won), but as it started pouring I'm glad I took it (not really, but this makes me feel better about the money). Arriving there, everything went quite smooth. I got my key, filled in some paperwork, payed whatever needed to be payed. My room was the biggest pigsty ever though, especially the bathroom and balcony. Basically I have a big room with 2 beds, ... well I don't wanna describe since I'm getting hungry. I'll show you the pictures when I get a camera, which would probably be next weekend when I will probably go back to Seoul. I hope the weather remains the same, because it has been so amazing I'd like to share that with you.
Basically our uni is a small university founded by the buddhist monks living just next to us on the hill. There is also a really famous temple nearby in the mountains from what I've heard. I might check it out one of these days. Almost everything is free, except for dormitory fee and insurance. We can play table tennis, badminton, fitness, basketball, soccer and it's all free. Karaoke room costs some money per song, but that's it and I saw people practice salmunori, so I'm going to ask Joey, the professor in charge of the international project if we might be able to join any of the club activities. I found a picture online about the surroundings, so I'll just post it here, so you can get an idea about the place I'm staying at.
As you can see, I'm at the countryside. I now understand what they meant by 'we offer you a place where you can fully concentrate on your studies'. You can since there is basically nothing around that can distract you. The 2 nearest cities being Nonsan and Daejeon are respectively 30 minutes and an hour from the university and busses drive only every hour.
Basically our uni is a small university founded by the buddhist monks living just next to us on the hill. There is also a really famous temple nearby in the mountains from what I've heard. I might check it out one of these days. Almost everything is free, except for dormitory fee and insurance. We can play table tennis, badminton, fitness, basketball, soccer and it's all free. Karaoke room costs some money per song, but that's it and I saw people practice salmunori, so I'm going to ask Joey, the professor in charge of the international project if we might be able to join any of the club activities. I found a picture online about the surroundings, so I'll just post it here, so you can get an idea about the place I'm staying at.
As you can see, I'm at the countryside. I now understand what they meant by 'we offer you a place where you can fully concentrate on your studies'. You can since there is basically nothing around that can distract you. The 2 nearest cities being Nonsan and Daejeon are respectively 30 minutes and an hour from the university and busses drive only every hour.
Monday August 30th
Forgot what happened. I knew I had to wait for my luggage, so I couldn't get in time to Geumgang uni, but I forgot what I did during the waiting and after that.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Sunday August 29th
After having my first good sleep in days, I got out of there at about 2pm. After a nice soak in the bath of course ^^. I wish you could get this for just 8000 won in Belgium (6 euros). I got back to Ula and Martinas and we had a nice, interesting and a bit scary day. We ate Indonesian at this local restaurant in one of the alleys near, I think, dongdemun subway station (Ula correct me if i'm wrong) and had a drink at a really shabby pub. The ceiling was too low to stand half the time, but it was a great place for a pub. After that they went back to their dormitory and I went back to my sauna, since I liked that one a lot. (It took me 3 hours to find it again though, but I got to see the whole dongdemun area in the end, so that was quite interesting. Like I said, it's really worth going there. During the day, or the night, whatever you prefer, it's always nice to hang around and shop there. Shoes, clothes are quite cheap there. Not sure about the quality, but why would you care. If it breaks, you can just buy another xp.
That night, the owner kept everyone awake with his screaming though. About half an hour after I arrived, he started shouting that some guy came to this place, that spoke English and he didn't spoke English, so he didn't like it and said a lot of fuck. So I'm not if it was because of me, but when I tell people about this story, they always say, he shouted like that because he was totally embarrassed he couldn't speak English and I didn't offend him, he just felt really bad about it. He actually asked if there was some soju, so that was kinda strange, funny, but still disturbing since he kept everybody awake with his shouting ><. So this is one of the strange things I will not really understand soon (or ever) I guess.
That night, the owner kept everyone awake with his screaming though. About half an hour after I arrived, he started shouting that some guy came to this place, that spoke English and he didn't spoke English, so he didn't like it and said a lot of fuck. So I'm not if it was because of me, but when I tell people about this story, they always say, he shouted like that because he was totally embarrassed he couldn't speak English and I didn't offend him, he just felt really bad about it. He actually asked if there was some soju, so that was kinda strange, funny, but still disturbing since he kept everybody awake with his shouting ><. So this is one of the strange things I will not really understand soon (or ever) I guess.
August 28th
Arriving back in Korea, made me able to contact Korean friends again, so I met with Yura the first day. I had a nice time spending some time with her again ^^, although I was only to see her for a couple of hours. Being in Seoul with nobody where I could crash, I went out to search for a cheap place to sleep. As I explained before, the sauna's are cheap places to spend the night, but you had to sleep on the ground. But you go through situations like these to safe money :).
Yura recommended me a really famous one nearby 신용산 station, line 4 (http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=610092), so when I was on my way there, I had to transfer to another line, but as I missed the last subway, I had to get out at the place I was (myeondong). Not feeling too tired at that time, I just walked around that place, which is really crowded and awake, even late at night, since it was already about midnight back then. You can see a lot of street vendors too. It's a place worth going, especially at night. After walking a couple of hours a sign caught my eye. This really small sauna was open 24 hours a day, so I thought, why not try that one then. In the end it didn't had the mixed room as I told you, it just had 3 heated pools, being 20, 30 and 40 degrees and this bigger bath, which I didn't check out, probably much hotter, a shower place, wash-up place with a tv and a small and cosy sleeping room, being about 50cm high, but it had actual beds. They were traditional, but too be honest it's quite nice to sleep on traditional beds. I didn't have trouble getting some sleep at all. There were about 12 beds at the guys room, and since this was a quite small place, only half of them were occupied, even on the saturdays. This place was nearby the exit of either the underground shopping street of euljiro 5 ga or jongno 5 ga. I forgot, but like I said, I found it by accident.
Yura recommended me a really famous one nearby 신용산 station, line 4 (http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=610092), so when I was on my way there, I had to transfer to another line, but as I missed the last subway, I had to get out at the place I was (myeondong). Not feeling too tired at that time, I just walked around that place, which is really crowded and awake, even late at night, since it was already about midnight back then. You can see a lot of street vendors too. It's a place worth going, especially at night. After walking a couple of hours a sign caught my eye. This really small sauna was open 24 hours a day, so I thought, why not try that one then. In the end it didn't had the mixed room as I told you, it just had 3 heated pools, being 20, 30 and 40 degrees and this bigger bath, which I didn't check out, probably much hotter, a shower place, wash-up place with a tv and a small and cosy sleeping room, being about 50cm high, but it had actual beds. They were traditional, but too be honest it's quite nice to sleep on traditional beds. I didn't have trouble getting some sleep at all. There were about 12 beds at the guys room, and since this was a quite small place, only half of them were occupied, even on the saturdays. This place was nearby the exit of either the underground shopping street of euljiro 5 ga or jongno 5 ga. I forgot, but like I said, I found it by accident.
August 26th-27th
Welcome back to everybody who still reads this.
I said I was going to stop this blog, but Pie Kok is the biggest nagging son of a bitch ever, so I'm gonna continue ;)
I started writing this at september 2nd, so I'm gonna write in past tense.
Today was the day I could finally return to Korea. So after having a great farewell party with my friends, which includes receiving a ninja costume (don't ask...) I set off to the airport of Schiphol Amsterdam. After some minor troubles at the Central Train Station in Antwerp I got on the Thalys and at 15.27 arrived 54 minutes later at Amsterdam, going through security... Or did I? I got inside before my luggage was even opened and before I had to undress before all the security with their white gloves, ready to do a full body search (Security guards can be scary >_<). Nah just kidding, but somehow I got in without having to go through any baggage search. I didn't mind and was too tired to actually care. Going to the local store to spend my last euros (on some nice Belgian truffels. Nomnomnom ^^), I finally met Ula again!! I had to miss her for over a year, but it ended there with a great hug ^^. Now you'd think you're going to be able to read a happy end story, but you couldn't be more wrong. After that all the troubles started.
After waiting 2 hours, we were getting our bags ready to board the plane, but as there was something wrong with the power-control-unit they wanted to fix it before getting the plane in the air... As I was in the Netherlands I didn't expect to get inside the plane the next few hours and I was right. They said us to wait for 2 more hours. 3 hours later, we were getting quite tired of not knowing what happened so we went up to the desk to ask for more information. Apparently by then the plane had already been cancelled, they just didn't tell everyone yet, since they hadn't prepared the hotel reservations I guess, but told us 3 to go to this information desk, since that's where they would send everyone else in a couple of minutes. We were quite 'happy', because if we had been stuck behind all the korean people at the airport, we would have been waiting for like midnight... When we got at the information desk, we got a number, so we could wait at the waiting room, so we wouldn't have to stand all the time, so that was nice. Except for the fact that the queue didn't really budge at all and that they actually didn't do anything to help us at the information desk, but tell us to go somewhere else, but by this time all the korean people had already gone past us, so in the end we did have to wait until midnight...
They prepared hotel reservations for everybody, rebooked the flight, free dinner, breakfast and lunch and free calling vouchers, so we could call whoever we wanted to let them know of the late arrival (We had 2x5 minutes per person). After getting to the hotel, we had to use 1 voucher to contact the airport to ask the details of the rebooked flight. Ow wait, they were for contacting family, or was it? Sigh. Apparently KLM was so nice to put me and ula and her friend Martinas on a different flight, mine being at 6.30 am and theirs at 18.20, so again a big mess. Luckily breakfast was served at 4am, so we could just get in time to eat something and arrive at the airport in time to start complaining about the flights. Arriving at the airport they at first told us there was nothing they could do since both flights were totally overbooked as it is. I was able to convince her to change flights in the end though. She put us all on the 8.20 flight to Paris, where we had to wait a couple of hours and transfer to a direct flight to Seoul.
Arriving in Seoul on August 28th at 8am-ish, after a successful flight, we contacted our unis. I got the message that I had to arrive on monday then, since I missed the bus (which was 2 days later) and Ula and Martinas had to wait for their pickup taxi. Which again made us wait more for hours and hours, since 1 of the passengers didn't show up. In the end I got lucky here, since I could just take his place in the taxi and get a free ride to Seoul. The taxi driver was really confused about me being there and even if we tried to explain in our best Korean, we gave up and excepted the free ride. Arriving there, they settled all their uni stuff, which went okay and I left my baggage with Martinas. So after a big sleepy sigh of relieve we went for something to eat, forgetting about our troubles with some nice Korean meal <3 ^^.
I said I was going to stop this blog, but Pie Kok is the biggest nagging son of a bitch ever, so I'm gonna continue ;)
I started writing this at september 2nd, so I'm gonna write in past tense.
Today was the day I could finally return to Korea. So after having a great farewell party with my friends, which includes receiving a ninja costume (don't ask...) I set off to the airport of Schiphol Amsterdam. After some minor troubles at the Central Train Station in Antwerp I got on the Thalys and at 15.27 arrived 54 minutes later at Amsterdam, going through security... Or did I? I got inside before my luggage was even opened and before I had to undress before all the security with their white gloves, ready to do a full body search (Security guards can be scary >_<). Nah just kidding, but somehow I got in without having to go through any baggage search. I didn't mind and was too tired to actually care. Going to the local store to spend my last euros (on some nice Belgian truffels. Nomnomnom ^^), I finally met Ula again!! I had to miss her for over a year, but it ended there with a great hug ^^. Now you'd think you're going to be able to read a happy end story, but you couldn't be more wrong. After that all the troubles started.
After waiting 2 hours, we were getting our bags ready to board the plane, but as there was something wrong with the power-control-unit they wanted to fix it before getting the plane in the air... As I was in the Netherlands I didn't expect to get inside the plane the next few hours and I was right. They said us to wait for 2 more hours. 3 hours later, we were getting quite tired of not knowing what happened so we went up to the desk to ask for more information. Apparently by then the plane had already been cancelled, they just didn't tell everyone yet, since they hadn't prepared the hotel reservations I guess, but told us 3 to go to this information desk, since that's where they would send everyone else in a couple of minutes. We were quite 'happy', because if we had been stuck behind all the korean people at the airport, we would have been waiting for like midnight... When we got at the information desk, we got a number, so we could wait at the waiting room, so we wouldn't have to stand all the time, so that was nice. Except for the fact that the queue didn't really budge at all and that they actually didn't do anything to help us at the information desk, but tell us to go somewhere else, but by this time all the korean people had already gone past us, so in the end we did have to wait until midnight...
They prepared hotel reservations for everybody, rebooked the flight, free dinner, breakfast and lunch and free calling vouchers, so we could call whoever we wanted to let them know of the late arrival (We had 2x5 minutes per person). After getting to the hotel, we had to use 1 voucher to contact the airport to ask the details of the rebooked flight. Ow wait, they were for contacting family, or was it? Sigh. Apparently KLM was so nice to put me and ula and her friend Martinas on a different flight, mine being at 6.30 am and theirs at 18.20, so again a big mess. Luckily breakfast was served at 4am, so we could just get in time to eat something and arrive at the airport in time to start complaining about the flights. Arriving at the airport they at first told us there was nothing they could do since both flights were totally overbooked as it is. I was able to convince her to change flights in the end though. She put us all on the 8.20 flight to Paris, where we had to wait a couple of hours and transfer to a direct flight to Seoul.
Arriving in Seoul on August 28th at 8am-ish, after a successful flight, we contacted our unis. I got the message that I had to arrive on monday then, since I missed the bus (which was 2 days later) and Ula and Martinas had to wait for their pickup taxi. Which again made us wait more for hours and hours, since 1 of the passengers didn't show up. In the end I got lucky here, since I could just take his place in the taxi and get a free ride to Seoul. The taxi driver was really confused about me being there and even if we tried to explain in our best Korean, we gave up and excepted the free ride. Arriving there, they settled all their uni stuff, which went okay and I left my baggage with Martinas. So after a big sleepy sigh of relieve we went for something to eat, forgetting about our troubles with some nice Korean meal <3 ^^.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
August 1st-2nd
A big welcome from the future,
(which is actually a time paradox, since if I had written this in the future to be read in the past, I would have seen this article before I started writing it, thus making it impossible to actually write it, so it could never exist in the first place.)
-> This is for those who have seen season 1 of the Big bang theory ;)
Anyway...
Since I'm gonna pack my laptop after writing this, I will just end my blog here.
August 1st I will say goodbye to some of the friends I've made here.
August 2nd I'll be going back home, which you all know ;). I hope I get enough sleep on the plane to be good entertainment to both family and friends when I come back, since I will probably stay up all sunday night. But I guess it'll all work out as always :)
I'm glad you all thought I was interesting enough to read through it all. I probably wouldn't have written it all down otherwise. Sorry I didn't make any pictures after all, but I guess you all knew this would happen ;) Thanks for reading and talk to you soon :)
Bye ^^
(which is actually a time paradox, since if I had written this in the future to be read in the past, I would have seen this article before I started writing it, thus making it impossible to actually write it, so it could never exist in the first place.)
-> This is for those who have seen season 1 of the Big bang theory ;)
Anyway...
Since I'm gonna pack my laptop after writing this, I will just end my blog here.
August 1st I will say goodbye to some of the friends I've made here.
August 2nd I'll be going back home, which you all know ;). I hope I get enough sleep on the plane to be good entertainment to both family and friends when I come back, since I will probably stay up all sunday night. But I guess it'll all work out as always :)
I'm glad you all thought I was interesting enough to read through it all. I probably wouldn't have written it all down otherwise. Sorry I didn't make any pictures after all, but I guess you all knew this would happen ;) Thanks for reading and talk to you soon :)
Bye ^^
July 31st
Hi,
Since I'm packing atm (Packing, sitting behind my pc? Again. Sometimes I don't think it was worth bringing it along) -_- *Sigh* I'm off. I'll edit this later.
Bye
*Edit:*
I'm as good as packed, my room is cleaned, so I'm ready to go.
Too be honest, I only payed up until august 1st and my plane leaves at august 2nd, so lets see how we can get this solved tomorrow ^^, but since I'm not going to Ocean world or Caribbean bay anymore on my last day in Korea, I still have time enough to get it solved <_<. *Hates the work-system in Korea*.
Today I didn't do shit again (be prepared to be bored). I just walked around for hours, looking at the people, the shops, ... for the last time. I'm gonna miss it all and I will probably never come back like this or in this situation. Walking around myeongdong and namdemun wasn't really the smartest to do, since I only have about 2500 won left in cash, which makes it quite impossible to buy anything at the vendors and with my next years in mind, I just didn't buy anything except for an expensive, yet tasteless cup of coffee. Let me correct that. It wasn't tasteless, it had taste, but a really crappy bitter one. When you see something that reminds you of your hometown you want to try it right? Like for instance a 'Dutch Amerikano', but yet again I was fooled by the alluring outside. It was just as bad as a normal Amerikano, but still I naively try it <_<. Since it was 5500 won I couldn't just throw it away either, so I drank the whole bit. -_- So I spend hours of looking at/thinking about things I wanted but couldn't have and after I just roatered (Which is roam + loiter ^^ @Joen: I made this mistake intentionally) about Seoul, mentally preparing to leave this place and return home.
(Warned you!)
Since I'm packing atm (Packing, sitting behind my pc? Again. Sometimes I don't think it was worth bringing it along) -_- *Sigh* I'm off. I'll edit this later.
Bye
*Edit:*
I'm as good as packed, my room is cleaned, so I'm ready to go.
Too be honest, I only payed up until august 1st and my plane leaves at august 2nd, so lets see how we can get this solved tomorrow ^^, but since I'm not going to Ocean world or Caribbean bay anymore on my last day in Korea, I still have time enough to get it solved <_<. *Hates the work-system in Korea*.
Today I didn't do shit again (be prepared to be bored). I just walked around for hours, looking at the people, the shops, ... for the last time. I'm gonna miss it all and I will probably never come back like this or in this situation. Walking around myeongdong and namdemun wasn't really the smartest to do, since I only have about 2500 won left in cash, which makes it quite impossible to buy anything at the vendors and with my next years in mind, I just didn't buy anything except for an expensive, yet tasteless cup of coffee. Let me correct that. It wasn't tasteless, it had taste, but a really crappy bitter one. When you see something that reminds you of your hometown you want to try it right? Like for instance a 'Dutch Amerikano', but yet again I was fooled by the alluring outside. It was just as bad as a normal Amerikano, but still I naively try it <_<. Since it was 5500 won I couldn't just throw it away either, so I drank the whole bit. -_- So I spend hours of looking at/thinking about things I wanted but couldn't have and after I just roatered (Which is roam + loiter ^^ @Joen: I made this mistake intentionally) about Seoul, mentally preparing to leave this place and return home.
(Warned you!)
July 30th
Hi,
Today I watched the entire first season of the Big Bang Theory.
After doing so much and seeing so many people I just wanted to be alone and do something I hadn't done in a while.
Waste my time on my computer the whole day! and I'm glad I did ^^.
Today I watched the entire first season of the Big Bang Theory.
After doing so much and seeing so many people I just wanted to be alone and do something I hadn't done in a while.
Waste my time on my computer the whole day! and I'm glad I did ^^.
Friday, July 30, 2010
July 29th
Hi,
Today I went to 여의도 (yeoeuido) which is more of a business area, which has a lot of the broadcasting studios on it, like KBS for example. When we went to the kyocho chicken place which PMS had operated in/sponsored we saw a lot of office workers having their first round of food + drinks. The chicken tasted really good, but we didn't take it to the riverside since we were kinda lost and it would have been cold if we got there. The owner told us that if we were going to the river we should just call him and he will deliver more chicken there, without any extra transportation cost ^^, but we didn't do it. We had our own snacks anyway ^^.
Apparently views on Seoul differ a lot, so you might disagree with stuff I've written. I was talking to Ahmed and I was saying that I thought Seoul was dirty and didn't have much nature, but when I finished my sentence he looked at me quite shocked. Disagreeing completely. He thought it to be really clean and full of nature, so it probably depends where you go or how your hometown is (I knew Brussels was dirtier than Wommelgem, but that we would have such different opinions about this city I wouldn't have expected), so I guess you just have to find out for yourself ;).
It's like some people think the subways here are dangerous to go in at night and prefer to take the bus, while I feel so comfortable here compared to our subways. At night I don't like going down to our subway stations, I usually avoid it. The bus system is quite convenient here too. Apparently there is a free number 120 which you can call and there is a lady at the other side, who will help you with whatever practical problem you have. The 2 things I've seen her ask where how far bus number **** was and she replied by '2 stops away', and what the phone number was of the nearest pizza delivery service and they gave her the number. So this is quite useful. The only catch is that you have to talk Korean ;)
Little tip to you all. If you go to Korea during raining season and it's really clouded, always carry an umbrella... <_< (Am I pointing out the obvious again?) Anyway. I didn't bring any, since my bag was full and it hadn't rained for days, I thought I'd be okay. Guess not. I ended up waiting beneath the bridge for some time -_-. I had stuff to do, so I was quite okay and I had a friend checking up on me if I was okay (If you read this, know that I appreciate it :)), so I didn't mind it that much. The things I could do, were: Fitness using the local fitness equipment which was standing there to be used (They really have this a lot. While here you have to pay 300-500 euros for a fitness subscription... Even renting a bike is free at some places...), watch some tv on my cellphone (I got it to work^^. I forgot to put the antenna in, that's why it didn't work before...), watch the river, look at people setting off fireworks, look at the lit city across the street, ... The riverside is always crowded, no matter at what time you go out. (Latest I've checked was 3am, so I'm not sure about later, but I've heard about people spending the night there chatting, drinking, so I guess even until the sun rises there is people hanging around there). I'm gonna miss this part about Korea though. No matter what time it is, no matter what weather, you can always go and sit outside in a tshirt and busses start riding again quite early (Yura said 4 am), so that's still a decent hour to go home.
Today I went to 여의도 (yeoeuido) which is more of a business area, which has a lot of the broadcasting studios on it, like KBS for example. When we went to the kyocho chicken place which PMS had operated in/sponsored we saw a lot of office workers having their first round of food + drinks. The chicken tasted really good, but we didn't take it to the riverside since we were kinda lost and it would have been cold if we got there. The owner told us that if we were going to the river we should just call him and he will deliver more chicken there, without any extra transportation cost ^^, but we didn't do it. We had our own snacks anyway ^^.
Apparently views on Seoul differ a lot, so you might disagree with stuff I've written. I was talking to Ahmed and I was saying that I thought Seoul was dirty and didn't have much nature, but when I finished my sentence he looked at me quite shocked. Disagreeing completely. He thought it to be really clean and full of nature, so it probably depends where you go or how your hometown is (I knew Brussels was dirtier than Wommelgem, but that we would have such different opinions about this city I wouldn't have expected), so I guess you just have to find out for yourself ;).
It's like some people think the subways here are dangerous to go in at night and prefer to take the bus, while I feel so comfortable here compared to our subways. At night I don't like going down to our subway stations, I usually avoid it. The bus system is quite convenient here too. Apparently there is a free number 120 which you can call and there is a lady at the other side, who will help you with whatever practical problem you have. The 2 things I've seen her ask where how far bus number **** was and she replied by '2 stops away', and what the phone number was of the nearest pizza delivery service and they gave her the number. So this is quite useful. The only catch is that you have to talk Korean ;)
Little tip to you all. If you go to Korea during raining season and it's really clouded, always carry an umbrella... <_< (Am I pointing out the obvious again?) Anyway. I didn't bring any, since my bag was full and it hadn't rained for days, I thought I'd be okay. Guess not. I ended up waiting beneath the bridge for some time -_-. I had stuff to do, so I was quite okay and I had a friend checking up on me if I was okay (If you read this, know that I appreciate it :)), so I didn't mind it that much. The things I could do, were: Fitness using the local fitness equipment which was standing there to be used (They really have this a lot. While here you have to pay 300-500 euros for a fitness subscription... Even renting a bike is free at some places...), watch some tv on my cellphone (I got it to work^^. I forgot to put the antenna in, that's why it didn't work before...), watch the river, look at people setting off fireworks, look at the lit city across the street, ... The riverside is always crowded, no matter at what time you go out. (Latest I've checked was 3am, so I'm not sure about later, but I've heard about people spending the night there chatting, drinking, so I guess even until the sun rises there is people hanging around there). I'm gonna miss this part about Korea though. No matter what time it is, no matter what weather, you can always go and sit outside in a tshirt and busses start riding again quite early (Yura said 4 am), so that's still a decent hour to go home.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
July 28th
Hi,
Half our Korean class from Brussels met today ^^ (Half being me, biko and Ahmed with his girlfriend Jenny) at Namsan tower. Me, Biko, Yura, Jessica, Jessica's sister and Angela went up to meet with Ahmed and Jenny and to watch the view. The walk was quite steep, but it was really worth it. Especially with the view up there. A lot of people there, which kinda ruined the mood, but well, what are you gonna do about it. The first thing you notice in front of the tower is the immense amount of padlocks hanging on the railings. Combined per 2. The idea is that couples write some note down, either of them not knowing what is on the other one, locking the papers with 2 padlocks intertwined and after the key is either thrown away (which is forbidden, but everybody does it anyway. It's the idea that counts) or kept to be opened at a later date. But as Yura couldn't find her friends' locks and Ahmed and Jenny couldn't find theirs, you should just throw the key away, since it's quite impossible to find it. Especially since there are A LOT of locks. We went on the tower and saw the view which was quite amazing. You really have a great view of Seoul, but too be honest, I liked the view a bit lower, since there is no glass in between you and the view and there weren't as many people talking and shouting, ruining the mood. You even have a great view from the toilet btw ;)
Half our Korean class from Brussels met today ^^ (Half being me, biko and Ahmed with his girlfriend Jenny) at Namsan tower. Me, Biko, Yura, Jessica, Jessica's sister and Angela went up to meet with Ahmed and Jenny and to watch the view. The walk was quite steep, but it was really worth it. Especially with the view up there. A lot of people there, which kinda ruined the mood, but well, what are you gonna do about it. The first thing you notice in front of the tower is the immense amount of padlocks hanging on the railings. Combined per 2. The idea is that couples write some note down, either of them not knowing what is on the other one, locking the papers with 2 padlocks intertwined and after the key is either thrown away (which is forbidden, but everybody does it anyway. It's the idea that counts) or kept to be opened at a later date. But as Yura couldn't find her friends' locks and Ahmed and Jenny couldn't find theirs, you should just throw the key away, since it's quite impossible to find it. Especially since there are A LOT of locks. We went on the tower and saw the view which was quite amazing. You really have a great view of Seoul, but too be honest, I liked the view a bit lower, since there is no glass in between you and the view and there weren't as many people talking and shouting, ruining the mood. You even have a great view from the toilet btw ;)
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
July 27th
Hi,
Today I saw Biko again. Meeting some of your old friends makes such a difference. You speak your own language again, catch up about whatever has happened so far. You know how it is, it's great ^^.
If you ever go to myeongong you will see a big shopping street and 3 department stores, but if you go in either of those department stores it makes a world of difference. The first one, was quite a normal one (Or normal in Korea anyway, since we don't have much buildings like this in Belgium), but the other one creeped me out so much. When we went in, we didn't have to open the door ourselves, they opened them for us, bowing all the time we were walking through the door, like having your own personal butler. The previous one was filled with people, but this one was so empty you could hear a pin drop (I didn't test it though). It looked so nice and at every store there were 3 people waiting for a costumer to come in and help them. I didn't even dare to walk into any stores even because of that. We got to the top and saw this suit hanging for 1,049,000 won, so we were curious about the tshirt and sweaters, but when we touched them, someone came up to us asking what we are looking for so we didn't really got the opportunity.
Btw during this time of year there are sales going from 10-50%, so if you wanna go shopping in Seoul this would be a good moment to do so.
After getting out we met up with Angela to go to this Makorri river place where you pay 3000 won for 3 hours of makorri. Apparently it's really close to Sinchon subway station. There is actually a river btw, but this is only opened if you enter with a big group of people. Strange enough there weren't many people around (Except for this drunk english guy who is going to give me a call on friday. Why did I even give him my correct phonenumber. Aigo), but I guess it's because it was tuesday. If it were friday the place would probably be packed, since this friday is party friday anyway.
Today I saw Biko again. Meeting some of your old friends makes such a difference. You speak your own language again, catch up about whatever has happened so far. You know how it is, it's great ^^.
If you ever go to myeongong you will see a big shopping street and 3 department stores, but if you go in either of those department stores it makes a world of difference. The first one, was quite a normal one (Or normal in Korea anyway, since we don't have much buildings like this in Belgium), but the other one creeped me out so much. When we went in, we didn't have to open the door ourselves, they opened them for us, bowing all the time we were walking through the door, like having your own personal butler. The previous one was filled with people, but this one was so empty you could hear a pin drop (I didn't test it though). It looked so nice and at every store there were 3 people waiting for a costumer to come in and help them. I didn't even dare to walk into any stores even because of that. We got to the top and saw this suit hanging for 1,049,000 won, so we were curious about the tshirt and sweaters, but when we touched them, someone came up to us asking what we are looking for so we didn't really got the opportunity.
Btw during this time of year there are sales going from 10-50%, so if you wanna go shopping in Seoul this would be a good moment to do so.
After getting out we met up with Angela to go to this Makorri river place where you pay 3000 won for 3 hours of makorri. Apparently it's really close to Sinchon subway station. There is actually a river btw, but this is only opened if you enter with a big group of people. Strange enough there weren't many people around (Except for this drunk english guy who is going to give me a call on friday. Why did I even give him my correct phonenumber. Aigo), but I guess it's because it was tuesday. If it were friday the place would probably be packed, since this friday is party friday anyway.
Monday, July 26, 2010
July 26th
Hi,
I updated the drinking game post.
Today I was invited by Agnes' parents. With the knowledge that in Korea this usually only happens when you are almost married, I expected a weird and awkward situation, but it all worked out well (She had to convince her mom really hard that I'm not her boyfriend though. lol. But I guess that's not only typically Korean, I think every mom is like that.). I'm not going to go into too much detail since it's still her personal life, but it was great, her parents welcomed me openly to their home and we had a great dinner (Which took hours to make. It's too bad that a good meal takes so long to make, but it gets eaten so fast...). I had a great time and I hope to see her again before I leave, but time is running short and still so much I want to do or people I want to meet ><
More update on cellphone info.
With a Korean number you can't receive messages from other country numbers, but some phones can send (not everyone, since I couldn't). Receiving is impossible though, so the only communication with someone who hasn't got a korean number is true calling (which is expensive) or internet >< and I still keep losing money. Something is really weird, but I only have a couple of days left, so I stopped caring.
I updated the drinking game post.
Today I was invited by Agnes' parents. With the knowledge that in Korea this usually only happens when you are almost married, I expected a weird and awkward situation, but it all worked out well (She had to convince her mom really hard that I'm not her boyfriend though. lol. But I guess that's not only typically Korean, I think every mom is like that.). I'm not going to go into too much detail since it's still her personal life, but it was great, her parents welcomed me openly to their home and we had a great dinner (Which took hours to make. It's too bad that a good meal takes so long to make, but it gets eaten so fast...). I had a great time and I hope to see her again before I leave, but time is running short and still so much I want to do or people I want to meet ><
More update on cellphone info.
With a Korean number you can't receive messages from other country numbers, but some phones can send (not everyone, since I couldn't). Receiving is impossible though, so the only communication with someone who hasn't got a korean number is true calling (which is expensive) or internet >< and I still keep losing money. Something is really weird, but I only have a couple of days left, so I stopped caring.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
July 25th
Hi,
Today the mud festival ended after a week. I'm not explaining what it's about, just check the link in the last post, there is a video on it, which explains it all pretty well. I had a really great time at the beach and playing in the mud. Who wouldn't with this amazing weather, temperature, beach, atmosphere, all the people around, ... It's an annual event, so if you're in Korea around this time of year, you should check it out. It has a lot of side events too and you can always just watch the people play around in the mud. BUT bring sun cream or you will be looking like a tomato, just like me... This is gonna hurt a lot tomorrow ><
The event was at Daechon beach, which was about 2 hours from Seoul and you had to take 2 busses, costing about 10.000 won. It's even worth going there without the festival being held. There will be a lot less people around of course, but it's still a beach, it's still really hot in summer in Korea and the weather there is much better than it is in Seoul. I hate big cities for this. Up until now I only saw the moon twice and no star. I don't have a window and didn't even know it rained the other day, but still... I don't think you can ever see some stars here. Like in more big cities I guess.
Getting back was quite the hassle though. Remember to book your bus tickets really early, since the busses get full quite fast. We went back at around 18ish and the only bus available was the one at 21.50, so we were stuck at the second busstop for quite a while. Luckily there was a E-mart and cheap restaurant available to kill some time, but still... I don't understand why it was organized like this. You'd expect more busses, especially if there's an event like this. They also didn't speak English at all, so we were glad to have an Interpreter nearby. We made her happy by this too, since she could finally help someone out of trouble ^^. When we got back we had to take a taxi back home, since the subway was closed already because it was a sunday. But since there are like millions taxis in seoul, finding one wasn't difficult and prices are quite cheap too. It's actually quite fun to be in a taxi. For those who have played 'GTA'. At some point I felt like being in the game I have played for so long.
Anyway. Off to bed now, since I will see Agnes again tomorrow ^^
Today the mud festival ended after a week. I'm not explaining what it's about, just check the link in the last post, there is a video on it, which explains it all pretty well. I had a really great time at the beach and playing in the mud. Who wouldn't with this amazing weather, temperature, beach, atmosphere, all the people around, ... It's an annual event, so if you're in Korea around this time of year, you should check it out. It has a lot of side events too and you can always just watch the people play around in the mud. BUT bring sun cream or you will be looking like a tomato, just like me... This is gonna hurt a lot tomorrow ><
The event was at Daechon beach, which was about 2 hours from Seoul and you had to take 2 busses, costing about 10.000 won. It's even worth going there without the festival being held. There will be a lot less people around of course, but it's still a beach, it's still really hot in summer in Korea and the weather there is much better than it is in Seoul. I hate big cities for this. Up until now I only saw the moon twice and no star. I don't have a window and didn't even know it rained the other day, but still... I don't think you can ever see some stars here. Like in more big cities I guess.
Getting back was quite the hassle though. Remember to book your bus tickets really early, since the busses get full quite fast. We went back at around 18ish and the only bus available was the one at 21.50, so we were stuck at the second busstop for quite a while. Luckily there was a E-mart and cheap restaurant available to kill some time, but still... I don't understand why it was organized like this. You'd expect more busses, especially if there's an event like this. They also didn't speak English at all, so we were glad to have an Interpreter nearby. We made her happy by this too, since she could finally help someone out of trouble ^^. When we got back we had to take a taxi back home, since the subway was closed already because it was a sunday. But since there are like millions taxis in seoul, finding one wasn't difficult and prices are quite cheap too. It's actually quite fun to be in a taxi. For those who have played 'GTA'. At some point I felt like being in the game I have played for so long.
Anyway. Off to bed now, since I will see Agnes again tomorrow ^^
Saturday, July 24, 2010
July 24th
Hi,
I'm starting to love my bed too much. I wanted to go swimming today, but instead I just slept some more.
Anyway, after doing basically nothing all day, I went to the big bookstore at the 고속버스터미널 (*I forgot*-bus terminal). Yes my brain is really getting worse, or maybe it's because someone is rubbing it in <_<, but I forget a lot of things.. That's why she recommended the movie 'Memento' and 'A moment to remember' (Korean version), which are quite good movies. If you have some time you should watch them. The bookstore is not inside the department store, it's just outside it at floor B1, but I told you about it already. It's funny how the lady still remembered me from 3 weeks ago, because she asked where Agnes was.
Today I went to dance some salsa, which has really been a while. Apparently there are some good places in seoul according to http://www.salsainkorea.com/ I went to 'Macondo' near Hongik uni subway station. It was a small place, but really cozy and fun. It's really recommended to go there if you like dancing salsa. Entrance fee was only 7000 won and you got a free drink with that and free food all evening (I wasn't even surprised about this, but apparently this isn't every time, just only today). There were a lot of foreigners too, so language wasn't that big of an issue. But you're dancing anyway. They even taught us this movie in salsa, but that was way too difficult for me, so I just watched, which was quite interesting, especially since a lot of people got heels on their feet. So when the teacher got to the middle of the little lesson 1/3rd had quit already.
When you walk through subway stations at night, when the trains stopped riding, you always see some older people sleep in them (And some drunk people too. The other day I saw this middle aged really drunk bit fatter guy cross the street. But in the middle of the street there are this low fences, so he had a lot of trouble getting over them. But when I offered some help, he just got angry and started scolding. Why did I even bother trying <_<. I don't think he got run over though.). The subway stations are lit all day and it's really warm inside, since the air conditioner has been shut off by then, so quite good to sleep without pillow. At first I thought they were all just poor people, but I've heard about this from several people now that pensions have been cut down drastically by the current president, which makes it really hard to live for the common older person. That's why you see so many older people selling stuff on the street. It's not legal, but they allow it and you really see a lot of them, selling umbrellas, vegetables, tuna, ... At night you also see a lot of street vendors selling all sorts of food and drinks, which can be quite nice to be at at night, just talking. Too bad I don't have many people left to just talk with, since class ended and most left already.
Anyway. Off to bed now and get some sleep for the mud festival from tomorrow. http://www.mudfestival.or.kr/
I'm glad yura told me about this before it ended, because it seems like a lot of fun. Too bad Pie isn't here though :(
I'm a big idiot btw.
Does anyone know how I can contact Biko? I gave him my cellphone number in Korea, but afterwards I bought a new cellphone and forgot to give him my new number before he came to korea. Does anyone know how to get in contact with him? I send a message on facebook already, but he hasn't replied yet..
I'm starting to love my bed too much. I wanted to go swimming today, but instead I just slept some more.
Anyway, after doing basically nothing all day, I went to the big bookstore at the 고속버스터미널 (*I forgot*-bus terminal). Yes my brain is really getting worse, or maybe it's because someone is rubbing it in <_<, but I forget a lot of things.. That's why she recommended the movie 'Memento' and 'A moment to remember' (Korean version), which are quite good movies. If you have some time you should watch them. The bookstore is not inside the department store, it's just outside it at floor B1, but I told you about it already. It's funny how the lady still remembered me from 3 weeks ago, because she asked where Agnes was.
Today I went to dance some salsa, which has really been a while. Apparently there are some good places in seoul according to http://www.salsainkorea.com/ I went to 'Macondo' near Hongik uni subway station. It was a small place, but really cozy and fun. It's really recommended to go there if you like dancing salsa. Entrance fee was only 7000 won and you got a free drink with that and free food all evening (I wasn't even surprised about this, but apparently this isn't every time, just only today). There were a lot of foreigners too, so language wasn't that big of an issue. But you're dancing anyway. They even taught us this movie in salsa, but that was way too difficult for me, so I just watched, which was quite interesting, especially since a lot of people got heels on their feet. So when the teacher got to the middle of the little lesson 1/3rd had quit already.
When you walk through subway stations at night, when the trains stopped riding, you always see some older people sleep in them (And some drunk people too. The other day I saw this middle aged really drunk bit fatter guy cross the street. But in the middle of the street there are this low fences, so he had a lot of trouble getting over them. But when I offered some help, he just got angry and started scolding. Why did I even bother trying <_<. I don't think he got run over though.). The subway stations are lit all day and it's really warm inside, since the air conditioner has been shut off by then, so quite good to sleep without pillow. At first I thought they were all just poor people, but I've heard about this from several people now that pensions have been cut down drastically by the current president, which makes it really hard to live for the common older person. That's why you see so many older people selling stuff on the street. It's not legal, but they allow it and you really see a lot of them, selling umbrellas, vegetables, tuna, ... At night you also see a lot of street vendors selling all sorts of food and drinks, which can be quite nice to be at at night, just talking. Too bad I don't have many people left to just talk with, since class ended and most left already.
Anyway. Off to bed now and get some sleep for the mud festival from tomorrow. http://www.mudfestival.or.kr/
I'm glad yura told me about this before it ended, because it seems like a lot of fun. Too bad Pie isn't here though :(
I'm a big idiot btw.
Does anyone know how I can contact Biko? I gave him my cellphone number in Korea, but afterwards I bought a new cellphone and forgot to give him my new number before he came to korea. Does anyone know how to get in contact with him? I send a message on facebook already, but he hasn't replied yet..
Friday, July 23, 2010
July 23rd
Hi,
As I said, I slept a long time. Finally. First time I ever felt not sleepy the entire day.
Apparently Koreans do sleep. When I was walking back home at 2-3pm-ish, there weren't that many people on the street. Only a few people drinking/eating at some street vendors and people getting home or eating at mcdonalds. They might all be clubbing though, since it was friday. I went to 홍대 area, which was so crowded tonight. This will get even worse next friday night, since that's the last friday of the month and Koreans consider that clubnight. So don't go on those nights (or do go on those nights ;) Depends on how you like to party.). If you are a foreigner you can get into clubs for free ;) So for those who are korean, but living abroad: Bring your passport! ^^. As far as I've heard, the 2 best places to go clubbing I know so far are 홍대(hongdae) and 강남 (gangnam) (This might be more expensive I think).
I walked over the river using the 서강대교 bridge, which goes over the small island, you can see in the movie 'Kim's island'. If you want a good place to watch over the river, this bridge are these kind of 'balconies' were you can have a good view on the river, especially at night. It's so quiet. When I got to 여의도 island it looked even better, because it had a lot of good spots looking over at the river, but it was getting quite late, so I had to get back. There was a big swimming pool to if you ever fancy some swimming ;). This island has a lot of celebrities, since a lot of broadcasting companies are located there. I should search for 박명수 (Park Myung Soo) one of these days, I might find him ^^. Who knows, maybe I find him in the middle of doing another episode of infinite challenge ^^ (This show is still on, isn't it?)
If you ever want to see a real go-match, between old wise men, you should walk 마포로 street. Even a taxi driver stopped there to watch the game ^^. I saw them playing a fierce game, but white prevailed at the end ^^. Again I saw these fitness equipment at the street, it's everywhere! I also saw a lot of people sleeping outside. I hope they were just drunk and not without home, but I've heard a lot about the president, not being all that good for the poor...
As I said, I slept a long time. Finally. First time I ever felt not sleepy the entire day.
Apparently Koreans do sleep. When I was walking back home at 2-3pm-ish, there weren't that many people on the street. Only a few people drinking/eating at some street vendors and people getting home or eating at mcdonalds. They might all be clubbing though, since it was friday. I went to 홍대 area, which was so crowded tonight. This will get even worse next friday night, since that's the last friday of the month and Koreans consider that clubnight. So don't go on those nights (or do go on those nights ;) Depends on how you like to party.). If you are a foreigner you can get into clubs for free ;) So for those who are korean, but living abroad: Bring your passport! ^^. As far as I've heard, the 2 best places to go clubbing I know so far are 홍대(hongdae) and 강남 (gangnam) (This might be more expensive I think).
I walked over the river using the 서강대교 bridge, which goes over the small island, you can see in the movie 'Kim's island'. If you want a good place to watch over the river, this bridge are these kind of 'balconies' were you can have a good view on the river, especially at night. It's so quiet. When I got to 여의도 island it looked even better, because it had a lot of good spots looking over at the river, but it was getting quite late, so I had to get back. There was a big swimming pool to if you ever fancy some swimming ;). This island has a lot of celebrities, since a lot of broadcasting companies are located there. I should search for 박명수 (Park Myung Soo) one of these days, I might find him ^^. Who knows, maybe I find him in the middle of doing another episode of infinite challenge ^^ (This show is still on, isn't it?)
If you ever want to see a real go-match, between old wise men, you should walk 마포로 street. Even a taxi driver stopped there to watch the game ^^. I saw them playing a fierce game, but white prevailed at the end ^^. Again I saw these fitness equipment at the street, it's everywhere! I also saw a lot of people sleeping outside. I hope they were just drunk and not without home, but I've heard a lot about the president, not being all that good for the poor...
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Korean Drinking Games
*** July 22nd ***
The games I know so far.
1.
When you order a bottle of soju and you open it, you get something like this
http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1237526142/gallery_22892_6547_6281.jpg
Twist the tail and hit it with your finger. The one who hits the tail off has to drink 1 shot of soju.
2.
That person is safe the next round though, since he/she can look in the cap and look at the number that's printed. It goes from 0 to 50, so everyone has to guess and the person that knows the number says 'higher' or 'lower'. Whoever guesses the number loses.
3. Titanic
You ask an extra beer glass, fill it with beer and let a soju glass float in the beer. Everybody has to pour some soju in it. The one that makes the glass sink has to drink the whole glass.
4. 31 game
Someone starts off the game by saying a number from 1 to 3 (If you chose 2, you have to say '1, 2', so all the number up until 31 have to be said. In Korean though, but it's easy. You can also play it in English, but I usually played it in Korean, which is a good way to practise your Korean number. The next game was even used during Korean class in Lithuania, but they didn't tell us it was originally a drinking game of course;)). The next one has to add 1, 2 or 3 to the number and count up until that. The one who say 31 drinks. You can chose the amount they have to drink. It depends what you're drinking at the time. It's for fun, so there basically are no real rules.
5. sam-yuk-gu gami (Which is basically just '3-6-9 game')
This is a good game to count your korean numbers, since you will basically just count. Someone starts off with 1, the next (Counterclockwise, but again, just as you prefer. You can change it to confuse people, so they have to drink if they go before there turn ;) ) says 2, 3, 4, ... BUT every number that has 'sam', 'yuk' or 'gu' in it (3, 6, 9) cannot be said out loud. The person that has to say either 3, 6, 9, 13, 16, 19, 23, 26, 29, ... has to clap instead of shouting the word. Since 30 also has 'sam' in it, you have to clap then too. So from 30 to 39 you have to clap at every number. This sounds easy right? But since 33 has 'sam' in it twice, you have to clap twice, same with 36 and 39. I guess it's the same with 60-69 and 90-99, but you will never get there. The one who gets it wrong drinks obviously.
6.
Count the number of people you are drinking with. Imagine you would be drinking with the 5 of you, every number from 1 to 5 has to be called for. Someone (at random, at your own will) starts the game of by saying '1', someone else will reply with '2', so forth until 5 is said, but if you say the same number at the same time with someone else, you both have to drink. (When I learned this game we did a verbal test and only the loser drank, but it's not usual. Like for instance you say the worth 'tomato' saying 1 syllable each, which makes it get confusing and you'll get it wrong eventually, but it's more fun without it. If no numbers are said at the same time, the one that said '5' has to drink, since he was the slowest. Don't play this game with only the 3 of you, unless you wanna drink a lot fast;) (You start this game off at any time, by just shouting 'il' (1), even if you're playing something else. Someone will catch on and shout 2 and you're on. Like I said, just having fun, no rules)
7.
I played this one in Lithuania. You start off with a cup, or glass or whatever. Again depends on what you're having and you have to pour something in it and pass it to the next one to pour some more in it. The one that makes the glass spill drinks, but since you are spilling all the time, I haven't seen this been played a lot.
If you are actually planning on playing this in Korea, but don't know the korean numbers, it's quite simple.
1: il
2: i
3: sam
4: sa
5: o
6: yuk
7: chil
8: pal
9: gu
10: shib
11: shib il
19: shib gu
20: i shib
30: sam shib
90: gu shib.
So you basically have to learn 10 numbers by heart and can count up until 99 ;)
Those are the one I can think of at the moment. Or at least the ones I remember.
You always eat when drinking, so you're quite alright, unless you really drink too much. Usually if you lose and you just drink a sip, or drink water or whatever, they're not angry. You know your own limits and like I said a lot already, it's for fun, so you can even play this with water if you want.
Some habits I learned about drinking in general are:
- The youngest has to pour (The youngest basically has to do everything in korea)
[This makes old people rude sometimes though. I met a really rude old guy in the subway the other day. You know how subways are busy and everybody needs to go somewhere quickly, so when you pass someone you sometimes don't know to go right or left. So the other day I saw this old man coming towards me and when I turned left, he turned left. When I turned right, he turned right. So to be safe, I just stood still, so he could easily pass me by without any problems, but when he saw that he paused for a second and didn't turn at all anymore, he just walked right into me, which was really rude, but when I told my friend about it, he said that that's normal. I'm much younger so I should have gotten out of his way, it's my obligation to. Don't think every old person in Korea is rude, because they are not, but you can have some though, so don't be surprised. I think it's because when they were young they did everything for the older generation, so they expect younger generation to do it back for them I guess. But like I said, this is not that bad in general.]
- You can't pour your own glass, someone will do it for you (So when you see an empty glass, be so kind to fill it up. Especially if you're the youngest.)
- When the boss/oldest picks up his/her glass, everybody has to drink, but the boss/oldest usually pays for it ;)
- If you drink in front of someone older than you, you hold your cup to the side, you don't face that person when drinking.
*** July 24th ***
8.
Everybody holds their hands together with their thumbs on top. Then someone starts of the game by saying a number going from 0 to *number of people times 2*. At exactly the same moment as the person is saying the number, everybody, including that person, choose whether they put up 0, 1 or 2 thumbs (and do so). If the number that has been called for is the number of thumbs in the air, everybody except for the caller has to drink, if he/she failed to guess the right number, it's up to the next (counter clockwise) to guess a number. At this game a lot of people drink at the same time, but it can take a while to get the right number.
9. Catch the mouse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo-JPAGjAcg
This isn't explained as a drinking game, but if you just change 'getting hit by a hammer' by 'drinking' then it is ;)
This is quite a hard one to remember to be honest.
*** July 25th ***
10.
Someone starts the game, it's not important who, but the person that starts has to say a number. It's not important which number, just don't go to high, you'll see why. When that person calls for a number everybody has to point at someone. It's not important at whom, just randomly. If the person said 5 you count up until 5 following the fingers. So the person the caller is pointing at is number 1, number 2 is the person number 1 is pointing at, etc... until you reach number 5. That person has to drink ;). He/she then calls for the next number and so on.
11. 007 *pang*
Someone starts the game with 공 'kong' (zero) and points at someone. That person says 공 again and points at someone. That person says 칠 'chil' (seven) and points at someone. The next one says 'pang' and points at someone. The person pointed at at that moment just doesn't move, since he's dead, but the 2 people besides him have to pull up their hands like if they would be in a stick-up and shout 'Ooh' (I'm not sure about what they shout, but they shout something). Then the person who died starts it off again. If someone does something wrong during the game, he has to drink and he can start the next round saying 공.
Extra information:
If a girl doesn't want to drink anymore, she can call for her '흑기사' (Black night) and if he wants, he can drink it for her, but he can ask her to do whatever he wants for it. Like a kiss on the cheek, a dance (*winks at noru ;). I so hope you read this.*), ... be creative ;)
If I understood correctly then there is also a 흑장미 (Black rose), which is what the guys would say if they want a girl to drink it for them.
I think if you just come up with a game which is easy to understand, but easy to make mistakes at it can become a drinking game. The other day I was at my favorite small eating place and while I was eating I was watching the tv and they were playing a drinking game too. I only saw a small part of it, but if I got it right, they were just asking small math calculations to each other and if you got it wrong you drink, so you can just do whatever you want with numbers and it's potentially a drinking game. It was funny when the guy asked 3 times 3? and the reply was '39?'
*** July 30th ***
12. Spin the bottle
Same as the american version, but instead of kissing you play sort of 'truth or dare' with the person that's been pointed at. For those who don't know, you spin an empty bottle and the person it points at can say truth or dare. The person that spun the bottle can then ask something (usually private stuff to make it more interesting), if the person doesn't want to answer to the question he/she has to drink. The one that had to do something can spin the bottle again.
The games I know so far.
1.
When you order a bottle of soju and you open it, you get something like this
http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1237526142/gallery_22892_6547_6281.jpg
Twist the tail and hit it with your finger. The one who hits the tail off has to drink 1 shot of soju.
2.
That person is safe the next round though, since he/she can look in the cap and look at the number that's printed. It goes from 0 to 50, so everyone has to guess and the person that knows the number says 'higher' or 'lower'. Whoever guesses the number loses.
3. Titanic
You ask an extra beer glass, fill it with beer and let a soju glass float in the beer. Everybody has to pour some soju in it. The one that makes the glass sink has to drink the whole glass.
4. 31 game
Someone starts off the game by saying a number from 1 to 3 (If you chose 2, you have to say '1, 2', so all the number up until 31 have to be said. In Korean though, but it's easy. You can also play it in English, but I usually played it in Korean, which is a good way to practise your Korean number. The next game was even used during Korean class in Lithuania, but they didn't tell us it was originally a drinking game of course;)). The next one has to add 1, 2 or 3 to the number and count up until that. The one who say 31 drinks. You can chose the amount they have to drink. It depends what you're drinking at the time. It's for fun, so there basically are no real rules.
5. sam-yuk-gu gami (Which is basically just '3-6-9 game')
This is a good game to count your korean numbers, since you will basically just count. Someone starts off with 1, the next (Counterclockwise, but again, just as you prefer. You can change it to confuse people, so they have to drink if they go before there turn ;) ) says 2, 3, 4, ... BUT every number that has 'sam', 'yuk' or 'gu' in it (3, 6, 9) cannot be said out loud. The person that has to say either 3, 6, 9, 13, 16, 19, 23, 26, 29, ... has to clap instead of shouting the word. Since 30 also has 'sam' in it, you have to clap then too. So from 30 to 39 you have to clap at every number. This sounds easy right? But since 33 has 'sam' in it twice, you have to clap twice, same with 36 and 39. I guess it's the same with 60-69 and 90-99, but you will never get there. The one who gets it wrong drinks obviously.
6.
Count the number of people you are drinking with. Imagine you would be drinking with the 5 of you, every number from 1 to 5 has to be called for. Someone (at random, at your own will) starts the game of by saying '1', someone else will reply with '2', so forth until 5 is said, but if you say the same number at the same time with someone else, you both have to drink. (When I learned this game we did a verbal test and only the loser drank, but it's not usual. Like for instance you say the worth 'tomato' saying 1 syllable each, which makes it get confusing and you'll get it wrong eventually, but it's more fun without it. If no numbers are said at the same time, the one that said '5' has to drink, since he was the slowest. Don't play this game with only the 3 of you, unless you wanna drink a lot fast;) (You start this game off at any time, by just shouting 'il' (1), even if you're playing something else. Someone will catch on and shout 2 and you're on. Like I said, just having fun, no rules)
7.
I played this one in Lithuania. You start off with a cup, or glass or whatever. Again depends on what you're having and you have to pour something in it and pass it to the next one to pour some more in it. The one that makes the glass spill drinks, but since you are spilling all the time, I haven't seen this been played a lot.
If you are actually planning on playing this in Korea, but don't know the korean numbers, it's quite simple.
1: il
2: i
3: sam
4: sa
5: o
6: yuk
7: chil
8: pal
9: gu
10: shib
11: shib il
19: shib gu
20: i shib
30: sam shib
90: gu shib.
So you basically have to learn 10 numbers by heart and can count up until 99 ;)
Those are the one I can think of at the moment. Or at least the ones I remember.
You always eat when drinking, so you're quite alright, unless you really drink too much. Usually if you lose and you just drink a sip, or drink water or whatever, they're not angry. You know your own limits and like I said a lot already, it's for fun, so you can even play this with water if you want.
Some habits I learned about drinking in general are:
- The youngest has to pour (The youngest basically has to do everything in korea)
[This makes old people rude sometimes though. I met a really rude old guy in the subway the other day. You know how subways are busy and everybody needs to go somewhere quickly, so when you pass someone you sometimes don't know to go right or left. So the other day I saw this old man coming towards me and when I turned left, he turned left. When I turned right, he turned right. So to be safe, I just stood still, so he could easily pass me by without any problems, but when he saw that he paused for a second and didn't turn at all anymore, he just walked right into me, which was really rude, but when I told my friend about it, he said that that's normal. I'm much younger so I should have gotten out of his way, it's my obligation to. Don't think every old person in Korea is rude, because they are not, but you can have some though, so don't be surprised. I think it's because when they were young they did everything for the older generation, so they expect younger generation to do it back for them I guess. But like I said, this is not that bad in general.]
- You can't pour your own glass, someone will do it for you (So when you see an empty glass, be so kind to fill it up. Especially if you're the youngest.)
- When the boss/oldest picks up his/her glass, everybody has to drink, but the boss/oldest usually pays for it ;)
- If you drink in front of someone older than you, you hold your cup to the side, you don't face that person when drinking.
*** July 24th ***
8.
Everybody holds their hands together with their thumbs on top. Then someone starts of the game by saying a number going from 0 to *number of people times 2*. At exactly the same moment as the person is saying the number, everybody, including that person, choose whether they put up 0, 1 or 2 thumbs (and do so). If the number that has been called for is the number of thumbs in the air, everybody except for the caller has to drink, if he/she failed to guess the right number, it's up to the next (counter clockwise) to guess a number. At this game a lot of people drink at the same time, but it can take a while to get the right number.
9. Catch the mouse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo-JPAGjAcg
This isn't explained as a drinking game, but if you just change 'getting hit by a hammer' by 'drinking' then it is ;)
This is quite a hard one to remember to be honest.
*** July 25th ***
10.
Someone starts the game, it's not important who, but the person that starts has to say a number. It's not important which number, just don't go to high, you'll see why. When that person calls for a number everybody has to point at someone. It's not important at whom, just randomly. If the person said 5 you count up until 5 following the fingers. So the person the caller is pointing at is number 1, number 2 is the person number 1 is pointing at, etc... until you reach number 5. That person has to drink ;). He/she then calls for the next number and so on.
11. 007 *pang*
Someone starts the game with 공 'kong' (zero) and points at someone. That person says 공 again and points at someone. That person says 칠 'chil' (seven) and points at someone. The next one says 'pang' and points at someone. The person pointed at at that moment just doesn't move, since he's dead, but the 2 people besides him have to pull up their hands like if they would be in a stick-up and shout 'Ooh' (I'm not sure about what they shout, but they shout something). Then the person who died starts it off again. If someone does something wrong during the game, he has to drink and he can start the next round saying 공.
Extra information:
If a girl doesn't want to drink anymore, she can call for her '흑기사' (Black night) and if he wants, he can drink it for her, but he can ask her to do whatever he wants for it. Like a kiss on the cheek, a dance (*winks at noru ;). I so hope you read this.*), ... be creative ;)
If I understood correctly then there is also a 흑장미 (Black rose), which is what the guys would say if they want a girl to drink it for them.
I think if you just come up with a game which is easy to understand, but easy to make mistakes at it can become a drinking game. The other day I was at my favorite small eating place and while I was eating I was watching the tv and they were playing a drinking game too. I only saw a small part of it, but if I got it right, they were just asking small math calculations to each other and if you got it wrong you drink, so you can just do whatever you want with numbers and it's potentially a drinking game. It was funny when the guy asked 3 times 3? and the reply was '39?'
*** July 30th ***
12. Spin the bottle
Same as the american version, but instead of kissing you play sort of 'truth or dare' with the person that's been pointed at. For those who don't know, you spin an empty bottle and the person it points at can say truth or dare. The person that spun the bottle can then ask something (usually private stuff to make it more interesting), if the person doesn't want to answer to the question he/she has to drink. The one that had to do something can spin the bottle again.
July 22nd
Hi,
Today was our final class and the ending ceremony. I passed with 92% (Speaking 18.5/20, Listening 16.5/20, Reading 18/20, Writing 19/20, Vocab & Grammar 20/20), which is ironic, since I always try to be a good listener... I didn't finish first in our class, so I didn't receive a special reward (I'm not too sad about this, since I didn't want to go on stage in front of everybody anyway). We took A LOT of pictures <_<. They should come on facebook one of these days, so you might be able to see some pictures after all ;). There was a big buffet and after that we went to norebang (karaoke room) with our class, which can be really entertaining ^^.
If you ever go to a karaoke room, with a group of girls/boys who know a lot of songs, be prepared to have a microphone shoved into your hands, so learn at least a song by heart, because they will force you to sing! They have Filipino, Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English songs and really a lot of them, so you can basically learn any song by heart.
Ow, there is also this place where you can get 3 hours of unlimited makori (A Korean beer) for 3000 won. I didn't make it in time, but they will show me next time. If you go to such a place before you go to a karaoke, it gets a lot more fun. Well especially to watch, but I guess it becomes more fun to sing if you're a bit tipsy;).
Tomorrow will be my first day off, so I'm gonna sleep a long time... Don't expect me to have done something really crazy tomorrow. I might go to this mud festival, but I'm not sure. It's a festival where they play in the mud basically or that's what I made of the explanation. But it's good-for-your-skin mud, so it's good for your health ;) j/k
Today was our final class and the ending ceremony. I passed with 92% (Speaking 18.5/20, Listening 16.5/20, Reading 18/20, Writing 19/20, Vocab & Grammar 20/20), which is ironic, since I always try to be a good listener... I didn't finish first in our class, so I didn't receive a special reward (I'm not too sad about this, since I didn't want to go on stage in front of everybody anyway). We took A LOT of pictures <_<. They should come on facebook one of these days, so you might be able to see some pictures after all ;). There was a big buffet and after that we went to norebang (karaoke room) with our class, which can be really entertaining ^^.
If you ever go to a karaoke room, with a group of girls/boys who know a lot of songs, be prepared to have a microphone shoved into your hands, so learn at least a song by heart, because they will force you to sing! They have Filipino, Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English songs and really a lot of them, so you can basically learn any song by heart.
Ow, there is also this place where you can get 3 hours of unlimited makori (A Korean beer) for 3000 won. I didn't make it in time, but they will show me next time. If you go to such a place before you go to a karaoke, it gets a lot more fun. Well especially to watch, but I guess it becomes more fun to sing if you're a bit tipsy;).
Tomorrow will be my first day off, so I'm gonna sleep a long time... Don't expect me to have done something really crazy tomorrow. I might go to this mud festival, but I'm not sure. It's a festival where they play in the mud basically or that's what I made of the explanation. But it's good-for-your-skin mud, so it's good for your health ;) j/k
July 21st
Hi,
Today is the first time I saw Hangang river (Well actually third, if you count seeing it from the window of a train). I went for a bike ride with a friend from couchsurfing (http://www.couchsurfing.org/, which is a site filled with people who want to learn more about other cultures.) at hangang river, which was really nice. It was so peaceful there and the summer breeze felt so good. The weather was less bad than normal, so it was a nice bike ride. I had nice company too btw ^^. Since this site deals with culture exchange instead of language exchange, she could speak English pretty well (Thank god for that), so I was quite happy about that. Actually it's a bit ironic, I was thinking about living in Korea, while a lot of Koreans I meet really don't like to live in Seoul there entire live. I guess a lot of people these days aren't happy about the place they live. The more I talk to people about this, I start to wonder if we will ever be truly happy about the place we live at, since she will always have her korean in her and I will always stay european at some levels, which would make it quite difficult to really immigrate and get completely accepted here. She replied with a big and happy 'YES' ^^, but I'm not too sure about me though, but we'll see.
Anyway, we had a nice chat about korean life, belgian life, it's difference, it's similarities, ..., which was quite funny and interesting. Now I'm curious, since she said, I was the first Western guy to really like it, so I'm gonna ask the question to you. What do you think about couple things? Would you consider them or not? Like for example couple tshirts? For those who don't know what it is, couple things are basically things you wear as a couple, which are really alike, but have different color usually, like you would dress your twins or something. For example both wearing the same tshirt, but just different color, wearing the same hat, having the same cellphone decoration on your cellphone, having the same pyjamas, etc... Just use your imagination and it will probably exist and if it doesn't, you probably found a whole in its market ^^. Anyway, would you consider it? She thinks it's ridiculous, but a lot of couples do this. I don't know if you knew this, but in Korea they usually celebrate your 100th day, because in the old days children didn't survive much passed the 100th day, so they celebrated it and I think they still do? Not too sure,l they did 21 years ago at least ;), but I think they still do. So couples go through the same ritual. If you survive your 100th day together they usually buy couple rings, which are basically 2 rings who look alike and they both wear it. Well I've heard about this a lot and I think they do, but I can't seem to remember much boys with rings around their fingers, but I haven't met much korean boys yet.
Btw hangang river is really a good place to come and rest. You can have nice bike rides, nice walks, play games (I always see older people play the boardgame with the 5 sticks, but I haven't been able to play it :( ), fitness (We rode passed 2 fitness areas, which had a lot of equipment, but again, outside and free. Every time someone says to me that Korean people ONLY think about money, I'm not believing it anymore, since I saw so many free or cheap things around here. In Europe I would have been broke already.), ride small pedalboats (Well boats which have pedals to go forward, I'm not sure about the English name), ride a bigger boat, with a view of Seoul (Apparently this is really beautiful at night, because you can see the whole city lit at night), play badminton (I saw a few badminton fields, but I don't know how you get the plum and racket. You probably have to bring some), watch the sunset/sunrise, have a beer with chicken at night (I just heard about this today, but I so wanna do this), ... Again, be creative ^^.
Afterwards we went for drinking, but I'm gonna divide another post on this one. To update the drinking games I learn, maybe you could teach me some more;)
Ow. My exams went quite well today too ;)
Today is the first time I saw Hangang river (Well actually third, if you count seeing it from the window of a train). I went for a bike ride with a friend from couchsurfing (http://www.couchsurfing.org/, which is a site filled with people who want to learn more about other cultures.) at hangang river, which was really nice. It was so peaceful there and the summer breeze felt so good. The weather was less bad than normal, so it was a nice bike ride. I had nice company too btw ^^. Since this site deals with culture exchange instead of language exchange, she could speak English pretty well (Thank god for that), so I was quite happy about that. Actually it's a bit ironic, I was thinking about living in Korea, while a lot of Koreans I meet really don't like to live in Seoul there entire live. I guess a lot of people these days aren't happy about the place they live. The more I talk to people about this, I start to wonder if we will ever be truly happy about the place we live at, since she will always have her korean in her and I will always stay european at some levels, which would make it quite difficult to really immigrate and get completely accepted here. She replied with a big and happy 'YES' ^^, but I'm not too sure about me though, but we'll see.
Anyway, we had a nice chat about korean life, belgian life, it's difference, it's similarities, ..., which was quite funny and interesting. Now I'm curious, since she said, I was the first Western guy to really like it, so I'm gonna ask the question to you. What do you think about couple things? Would you consider them or not? Like for example couple tshirts? For those who don't know what it is, couple things are basically things you wear as a couple, which are really alike, but have different color usually, like you would dress your twins or something. For example both wearing the same tshirt, but just different color, wearing the same hat, having the same cellphone decoration on your cellphone, having the same pyjamas, etc... Just use your imagination and it will probably exist and if it doesn't, you probably found a whole in its market ^^. Anyway, would you consider it? She thinks it's ridiculous, but a lot of couples do this. I don't know if you knew this, but in Korea they usually celebrate your 100th day, because in the old days children didn't survive much passed the 100th day, so they celebrated it and I think they still do? Not too sure,l they did 21 years ago at least ;), but I think they still do. So couples go through the same ritual. If you survive your 100th day together they usually buy couple rings, which are basically 2 rings who look alike and they both wear it. Well I've heard about this a lot and I think they do, but I can't seem to remember much boys with rings around their fingers, but I haven't met much korean boys yet.
Btw hangang river is really a good place to come and rest. You can have nice bike rides, nice walks, play games (I always see older people play the boardgame with the 5 sticks, but I haven't been able to play it :( ), fitness (We rode passed 2 fitness areas, which had a lot of equipment, but again, outside and free. Every time someone says to me that Korean people ONLY think about money, I'm not believing it anymore, since I saw so many free or cheap things around here. In Europe I would have been broke already.), ride small pedalboats (Well boats which have pedals to go forward, I'm not sure about the English name), ride a bigger boat, with a view of Seoul (Apparently this is really beautiful at night, because you can see the whole city lit at night), play badminton (I saw a few badminton fields, but I don't know how you get the plum and racket. You probably have to bring some), watch the sunset/sunrise, have a beer with chicken at night (I just heard about this today, but I so wanna do this), ... Again, be creative ^^.
Afterwards we went for drinking, but I'm gonna divide another post on this one. To update the drinking games I learn, maybe you could teach me some more;)
Ow. My exams went quite well today too ;)
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
July 20th
Hi,
I missed the last lesson, due to a misunderstanding. My teacher got quite worried. She's a good teacher ^^, too bad school has to end :(.
Listening test went quite good. After that we studied again at a coffee shop, which there are loads of, but I do like the concept of studying at such places. It's quiet, but not too quiet, so you can ask something to the people, have coffee to keep you awake. We should bring this concept back home, since there the only place where you can study outside is the library (Or am I mistaken about this? Well nothing near my hometown anyway.)
I miss the meat in the meals, since you get A LOT of vegetables here with your meals and I finally ate some ketchup. Apparently you get ketchup with 새우볶음밥 (saeubokkeumbab) which is basically riced, egg and shrimps, small pieces of bacon and carrot (That's what was in mine anyway). I just put the ketchup on it, it didn't really taste better, but it's a habit from home. We put it on almost everything, so I couldn't help it.
Somehow the european dishes become more and more attractive. Like you just want to go to a pizzeria, eat a sandwich, ... I only saw fries at macdonalds and on a street vendor, whose fries looked like they came from macdonalds, so I haven't been able to eat some of those : (
Ow I forgot to mention (I think). If any of you ever come to Korea and rent a cellphone, ask for an iphone ;) It doesn't cost more to rent, but it's an iphone... You can go on the internet for free at a lot of places, so this is really useful. The subway map on it is much more useful as well. You can't use it with fake nails though (Not that I have some, I'm just saying you can't...). So if you don't want to have a regular cellphone, just ask for that one, if you do want one, never mind.
Anyway, back to studying.
bye.
I missed the last lesson, due to a misunderstanding. My teacher got quite worried. She's a good teacher ^^, too bad school has to end :(.
Listening test went quite good. After that we studied again at a coffee shop, which there are loads of, but I do like the concept of studying at such places. It's quiet, but not too quiet, so you can ask something to the people, have coffee to keep you awake. We should bring this concept back home, since there the only place where you can study outside is the library (Or am I mistaken about this? Well nothing near my hometown anyway.)
I miss the meat in the meals, since you get A LOT of vegetables here with your meals and I finally ate some ketchup. Apparently you get ketchup with 새우볶음밥 (saeubokkeumbab) which is basically riced, egg and shrimps, small pieces of bacon and carrot (That's what was in mine anyway). I just put the ketchup on it, it didn't really taste better, but it's a habit from home. We put it on almost everything, so I couldn't help it.
Somehow the european dishes become more and more attractive. Like you just want to go to a pizzeria, eat a sandwich, ... I only saw fries at macdonalds and on a street vendor, whose fries looked like they came from macdonalds, so I haven't been able to eat some of those : (
Ow I forgot to mention (I think). If any of you ever come to Korea and rent a cellphone, ask for an iphone ;) It doesn't cost more to rent, but it's an iphone... You can go on the internet for free at a lot of places, so this is really useful. The subway map on it is much more useful as well. You can't use it with fake nails though (Not that I have some, I'm just saying you can't...). So if you don't want to have a regular cellphone, just ask for that one, if you do want one, never mind.
Anyway, back to studying.
bye.
Monday, July 19, 2010
July 19th
Hi,
Today, I studied.
...
Yeah that's it. We have exams on tuesday and wednesday. Hmm. That's tomorrow ><.
Today, I studied.
...
Yeah that's it. We have exams on tuesday and wednesday. Hmm. That's tomorrow ><.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
July 16th-18th
Hi,
I'll start off with some Konglish from my Goshiwon to make Joen lol^^.
'No smorking allowed!' ^^
@Joen, Before I edited it, the last blogpost ended in 'meat here' ;)
Anyway. I'm glad you are enjoying this blog. I didn't expect anyone to actually read it up until now, except for my mom and Joen, who are my biggest stalkers ever. I was thinking about ending it, but it's only 2 more weeks, so I'll keep up the daily update;)
When you read this, do keep in mind I started this to let my friends back home know what I'm doing here. I didn't expect anyone else to read this. So it started with some inside jokes and as they know me, they knew I can be quite ironic/sarcastic or overreact at times, so not everything is as serious as it might seem. So Sunny, if I misunderstood things or made wrong conclusions, that's part of the reason. Also don't forget that this is my first time in Asia/Korea and the only facts I know about Korea is through drama and friends, so some things are just hard to grasp correctly for someone born and raised in Europe. Also I tend to generalize a lot, but as everybody knows you can't generalize an entire country since every person still has his/her own personality and background. I'm just stating what I think, experience, feel, so if it's wrong in any way, just do correct me. After this blog I will read your message and update the things that are needed.
Ok where were we. Right. Friday. I told you about the cellphone system, didn't I. Well on friday I went out to get myself a second handed phone. As I got in contact with a guy, who knows a guy, who knows me ;), I could get my hands on a second handed phone quite cheap. He offered 2 versions. 1 were actually free and the others were 10.000 won. I took the 10.000 won version, since it was better and I could watch tv on it ^^. I dunno if I will use it, but I would just have it. If you didn't know, you can watch tv everywhere in Seoul for free. I'm not sure about outside of seoul, but at least inside seoul you can use it as much as you want. Well at least until the battery dies out anyway. So if I ever have a long subway ride, I could watch the weather forecast or whatever and get my umbrella ready if it would be needed, because with the rainy season kicking in, you never know <_<. Ow btw, he was from the netherlands (They really are everywhere aren't they ;). I even met some in Lithuania.), but this made the conversation a bit easier. So if you ever would go to Korea, let me know and I'll get you in contact with him if you want. There is also the option of buying a cellphone yourself, but if your Korean isn't too fluent, I wouldn't advice buying a phone yourself, they will spot you in an instant and rip you off. Like they were about to do with my friend who came along to get a second handed phone as well. Since he wasn't 20 years old yet (International age), the guy couldn't give him a contract and since I already have a contract with SKTelecom, I couldn't sign the contract for him, because you can only have 1 cellphone per passport per company. I know this sounds really complicated (and it is), but if you think about it, it's actually quite a good system, since (I think) it's not really worth stealing someone's phone. Since it's registered with your passport, you will not be able to do anything with it and according to my friend, they even have something in it to trace it down if you do use it (I don't believe him though, but it could be right). So we went to look for another company to get him the contract, but when we entered some of the other stores the cheapest price started at 50.000 won, and the phone I got for 10k, was about 100k at that shop, but I guess this is everywhere. Prices at shops are always much higher than the real prices of their articles. You could probably get a discount if you asked for it, but still, you can never get it at the rate I got it. (I got lucky ^^. Still not sure though if the guy was just really friendly or if there's a catch somehow, but since I didn't give him any information except for my passport and since I'm using a prepaid system I don't see how he could benefit from it).
Ow btw, most phone have a dictionary and subway map included. Which is SOOOO helpful, so if you would go for a phone, do ask for it, because you can get a long way with it. Busses are something different..., but the subway system is really easy to use. If you ever get lost in one of the bigger cities, just ask for the nearest subway station (You can use the dictionary for this), go to that station and use the subway map system in your phone to go home. You still have to be in the same city though... and know your own subway station... But if you do, you will get home without any problem ^^
After getting the new cellphone and eating some kebab/durum <3. I had missed this... and since we were at the only place in Seoul (that I have heard of), where they sell it, I couldn't resist not buying some. The place is called Itaewon btw. A place with a lot of foreign shops/resto's/people. So if you wanna feel more at home ;) Go there ^^. Most of them are American I think. They even thought I was American at first, since most people think every foreigner is from America (probably because most of them are...). So after getting the phone and eating a snack I went to the train station to go to Daegu, which is in the south-east of South Korea. The train station is a bit more organized than it is here. You chose your train type, which practically means how fast they drive. The time I would spend on the train would be 4,3 or 2 hours, depending on which train I would chose. To drop the cost you can also chose for a standing space. With a standing place you still get assigned a wagon, but it's on 'first come first served'-basis, so you might still get a place to sit. Anyway. I got on the KTX which is the fastest train (The slowest was full until 9pm and I didn't want to arrive at 1am <_<). As with most public transport in South Korea, this was quite cheap compared to our system or especially UK's...
I met with Jueon and her friend and we went to this resto, where they actually told us they were going to close in about 10 minutes, so would be the last costumers. I was actually surprised about this. In Seoul everything is open 24/7! (It's not though, but you can always find a place to eat if you want at any time, without any trouble, especially where I live). After that we went to 찜질방 (jjimjilbang), which is a kind of Korean sauna, but it's more than that. I'll tell you how mine looked like, but there are a lot of them and they might differ. We payed 7000 won (which is 4-5 euros), which is like nothing and you get a lot. At first both genders are separated and you get your own uniform and key, you then put your stuff and clothes in the locker and change into the uniform. At this place there is the possibility to shower (this is without any shelter, like you would experience in any team sport), but you really have everything you need. I don't know why I brought it all. There is soap, shampoo, razors, towels, gel for your hair, ear picks, a hairdryer, ... Is there anything you'd want more? A tv maybe? Well there was one just outside the actual shower ;). Inside you had the standard shower we are used to in Europe and the lower showers, where you sit on a stool when showering. I've heard that it's not abnormal that people wash each others back. I've not seen it, but I wouldn't be surprised. When you looked aside you could see 2 'big' pools, 1 with really hot water (I expected it to be hotter though, because everybody always says how it's quite unbearable to get in. Maybe Japanese are hotter, dunno) and 1 with cold water, where you could relax after your shower. When you are done with your makeup, just kidding ;) When you are done washing up, you get back into the uniform and go to the common room. There you can see a lot of things, but basically a lot of people sleeping, since you can sleep at these kind of places too. A lot of people come here to get some peace and quiet from there busy lives. The only thing is, that you only get a wooden brick for you pillow and the floor is your bed ;) It's quite the experience would Jueon's friend say and it is. You can rent a blanket, but that's as far as sleeping places get. If you looked passed the sleeping people on the ground you could see a room with massage chairs a place where you could get a massage, an inner garden with a small fountain (I think. Well it was peaceful, I can't remember if it had one, but that's not really important.), a sauna and an oven. Yes an oven, well at least it looked like one. It was a small door about half a meter high, with a small window and it looked like it had fire inside. When we looked closely this was actually the real sauna, but we didn't want to go in since it was quite hot to even open the door... I saw this family going in, with this little girl among them and my immediate thought was that I would never see her alive again... So we went to the other sauna, which apparently was cold inside instead of warm ><. The only other thing you could see was a place to get something to eat or drink ;). Sitting in the cold 'sauna' Jueon's friend (Sorry, I forgot his name again><) dared us to go inside the really hot thing for 5 minutes, so we did (Btw the girl got out safe and looked happy ^^). Apparently this was an actual oven... It was this really high room, I think about 2-3 stories high and it was blazing hot (75 degrees). So it was quite difficult to breath when we got inside, but after a few minutes you get used to it and it feels rather good to be there, so after cooling down after a while, we went back in for a longer period ^^. You actually felt clean after coming out and relaxing in the cold sauna. Which actually had snow on the pipes btw ^^. So I did see snow in Korea ^^. Even in summer! :D Really relaxed we tried to sleep, but that didn't go too well. You can imagine snoring people, getting kicked in the face because people move in their sleep and I even got a wooden brick shoved towards me. I don't think this was by accident though -_-. After a while you get used to it though, so I would recommend going to such a place. Remember we only payed 7000 won/person? Now think about sauna prices in Belgium... To girls I should give this warning though. I heard from a friend that girls can get harassed by older men at night and that her friend experienced this before when she went to such a place, so keep this in mind. I still recommend going to it though, maybe not to sleep there.
On saturday me and Jueon went to Aphsan mountain (앞산). Finally some nature ^^. Since we didn't had the proper shoes to go on, we stopped halfway at this resting spot which had benches, cups to drink from the small river that was flowing there and a mirror... Yes a mirror... I was glad to finally had a walk in one of Korean's mountains and get some rest from the crowdedness of seoul. After the walk we went to the cinema's, which is basically the same as in Belgium, except it has different subtitles ;). We, or well I, because someone fell asleep ;), saw Knight and day. Quite the funny movie, so if you are at the cinema's and don't know which one to see, go for that one. It's quite over the top, which makes it quite less realistic, but that's what makes it funny ^^. That night I slept at a hotel, which was cheaper than it would be in Europe, you also got a lot more, but you didn't have a key, so it was just for sleeping only I think. I dunno how hotel rooms for about 20 euro's are, but I got a big ass screen tv, a computer with internet connection, a air conditioner, fresh water, everything you would need to wash up, a cellphone recharger, etc...
Since I couldn't take any later train, I had to go home at noon already, so we couldn't do much more on sunday and went downtown to eat and went to the train station. Since I didn't had a tablet to write on, I couldn't do my homework, so as usual I just slept, thought about life a bit and watched the people. I was back at 4pm already, but I didn't feel like doing much at the time. The entire class went to this japanese resto at 5, so I could make it if I'd run, but I was kind of fed up with not being able to have a normal conversation. This is no offense to anyone, but always ending up in groups where I can't understand anything just got to me, it's already difficult as it is, to actually join a conversation in a group in dutch, so let alone if you can't understand anyone. I don't understand how people can cope with this, so it made me feel a bit homesick, so I just went home for a quiet evening, but listening to my old music and talking to some friends again and reading your comments made me feel much better ^^. Thanks! @Jueon: This doesn't mean I didn't have a great time with you during the weekend. It's just a pity that I'm still this bad in Korean or it could have been much more fun.
Hmm... 9.35pm already <_<. Time to eat and study : )
I'll start off with some Konglish from my Goshiwon to make Joen lol^^.
'No smorking allowed!' ^^
@Joen, Before I edited it, the last blogpost ended in 'meat here' ;)
Anyway. I'm glad you are enjoying this blog. I didn't expect anyone to actually read it up until now, except for my mom and Joen, who are my biggest stalkers ever. I was thinking about ending it, but it's only 2 more weeks, so I'll keep up the daily update;)
When you read this, do keep in mind I started this to let my friends back home know what I'm doing here. I didn't expect anyone else to read this. So it started with some inside jokes and as they know me, they knew I can be quite ironic/sarcastic or overreact at times, so not everything is as serious as it might seem. So Sunny, if I misunderstood things or made wrong conclusions, that's part of the reason. Also don't forget that this is my first time in Asia/Korea and the only facts I know about Korea is through drama and friends, so some things are just hard to grasp correctly for someone born and raised in Europe. Also I tend to generalize a lot, but as everybody knows you can't generalize an entire country since every person still has his/her own personality and background. I'm just stating what I think, experience, feel, so if it's wrong in any way, just do correct me. After this blog I will read your message and update the things that are needed.
Ok where were we. Right. Friday. I told you about the cellphone system, didn't I. Well on friday I went out to get myself a second handed phone. As I got in contact with a guy, who knows a guy, who knows me ;), I could get my hands on a second handed phone quite cheap. He offered 2 versions. 1 were actually free and the others were 10.000 won. I took the 10.000 won version, since it was better and I could watch tv on it ^^. I dunno if I will use it, but I would just have it. If you didn't know, you can watch tv everywhere in Seoul for free. I'm not sure about outside of seoul, but at least inside seoul you can use it as much as you want. Well at least until the battery dies out anyway. So if I ever have a long subway ride, I could watch the weather forecast or whatever and get my umbrella ready if it would be needed, because with the rainy season kicking in, you never know <_<. Ow btw, he was from the netherlands (They really are everywhere aren't they ;). I even met some in Lithuania.), but this made the conversation a bit easier. So if you ever would go to Korea, let me know and I'll get you in contact with him if you want. There is also the option of buying a cellphone yourself, but if your Korean isn't too fluent, I wouldn't advice buying a phone yourself, they will spot you in an instant and rip you off. Like they were about to do with my friend who came along to get a second handed phone as well. Since he wasn't 20 years old yet (International age), the guy couldn't give him a contract and since I already have a contract with SKTelecom, I couldn't sign the contract for him, because you can only have 1 cellphone per passport per company. I know this sounds really complicated (and it is), but if you think about it, it's actually quite a good system, since (I think) it's not really worth stealing someone's phone. Since it's registered with your passport, you will not be able to do anything with it and according to my friend, they even have something in it to trace it down if you do use it (I don't believe him though, but it could be right). So we went to look for another company to get him the contract, but when we entered some of the other stores the cheapest price started at 50.000 won, and the phone I got for 10k, was about 100k at that shop, but I guess this is everywhere. Prices at shops are always much higher than the real prices of their articles. You could probably get a discount if you asked for it, but still, you can never get it at the rate I got it. (I got lucky ^^. Still not sure though if the guy was just really friendly or if there's a catch somehow, but since I didn't give him any information except for my passport and since I'm using a prepaid system I don't see how he could benefit from it).
Ow btw, most phone have a dictionary and subway map included. Which is SOOOO helpful, so if you would go for a phone, do ask for it, because you can get a long way with it. Busses are something different..., but the subway system is really easy to use. If you ever get lost in one of the bigger cities, just ask for the nearest subway station (You can use the dictionary for this), go to that station and use the subway map system in your phone to go home. You still have to be in the same city though... and know your own subway station... But if you do, you will get home without any problem ^^
After getting the new cellphone and eating some kebab/durum <3. I had missed this... and since we were at the only place in Seoul (that I have heard of), where they sell it, I couldn't resist not buying some. The place is called Itaewon btw. A place with a lot of foreign shops/resto's/people. So if you wanna feel more at home ;) Go there ^^. Most of them are American I think. They even thought I was American at first, since most people think every foreigner is from America (probably because most of them are...). So after getting the phone and eating a snack I went to the train station to go to Daegu, which is in the south-east of South Korea. The train station is a bit more organized than it is here. You chose your train type, which practically means how fast they drive. The time I would spend on the train would be 4,3 or 2 hours, depending on which train I would chose. To drop the cost you can also chose for a standing space. With a standing place you still get assigned a wagon, but it's on 'first come first served'-basis, so you might still get a place to sit. Anyway. I got on the KTX which is the fastest train (The slowest was full until 9pm and I didn't want to arrive at 1am <_<). As with most public transport in South Korea, this was quite cheap compared to our system or especially UK's...
I met with Jueon and her friend and we went to this resto, where they actually told us they were going to close in about 10 minutes, so would be the last costumers. I was actually surprised about this. In Seoul everything is open 24/7! (It's not though, but you can always find a place to eat if you want at any time, without any trouble, especially where I live). After that we went to 찜질방 (jjimjilbang), which is a kind of Korean sauna, but it's more than that. I'll tell you how mine looked like, but there are a lot of them and they might differ. We payed 7000 won (which is 4-5 euros), which is like nothing and you get a lot. At first both genders are separated and you get your own uniform and key, you then put your stuff and clothes in the locker and change into the uniform. At this place there is the possibility to shower (this is without any shelter, like you would experience in any team sport), but you really have everything you need. I don't know why I brought it all. There is soap, shampoo, razors, towels, gel for your hair, ear picks, a hairdryer, ... Is there anything you'd want more? A tv maybe? Well there was one just outside the actual shower ;). Inside you had the standard shower we are used to in Europe and the lower showers, where you sit on a stool when showering. I've heard that it's not abnormal that people wash each others back. I've not seen it, but I wouldn't be surprised. When you looked aside you could see 2 'big' pools, 1 with really hot water (I expected it to be hotter though, because everybody always says how it's quite unbearable to get in. Maybe Japanese are hotter, dunno) and 1 with cold water, where you could relax after your shower. When you are done with your makeup, just kidding ;) When you are done washing up, you get back into the uniform and go to the common room. There you can see a lot of things, but basically a lot of people sleeping, since you can sleep at these kind of places too. A lot of people come here to get some peace and quiet from there busy lives. The only thing is, that you only get a wooden brick for you pillow and the floor is your bed ;) It's quite the experience would Jueon's friend say and it is. You can rent a blanket, but that's as far as sleeping places get. If you looked passed the sleeping people on the ground you could see a room with massage chairs a place where you could get a massage, an inner garden with a small fountain (I think. Well it was peaceful, I can't remember if it had one, but that's not really important.), a sauna and an oven. Yes an oven, well at least it looked like one. It was a small door about half a meter high, with a small window and it looked like it had fire inside. When we looked closely this was actually the real sauna, but we didn't want to go in since it was quite hot to even open the door... I saw this family going in, with this little girl among them and my immediate thought was that I would never see her alive again... So we went to the other sauna, which apparently was cold inside instead of warm ><. The only other thing you could see was a place to get something to eat or drink ;). Sitting in the cold 'sauna' Jueon's friend (Sorry, I forgot his name again><) dared us to go inside the really hot thing for 5 minutes, so we did (Btw the girl got out safe and looked happy ^^). Apparently this was an actual oven... It was this really high room, I think about 2-3 stories high and it was blazing hot (75 degrees). So it was quite difficult to breath when we got inside, but after a few minutes you get used to it and it feels rather good to be there, so after cooling down after a while, we went back in for a longer period ^^. You actually felt clean after coming out and relaxing in the cold sauna. Which actually had snow on the pipes btw ^^. So I did see snow in Korea ^^. Even in summer! :D Really relaxed we tried to sleep, but that didn't go too well. You can imagine snoring people, getting kicked in the face because people move in their sleep and I even got a wooden brick shoved towards me. I don't think this was by accident though -_-. After a while you get used to it though, so I would recommend going to such a place. Remember we only payed 7000 won/person? Now think about sauna prices in Belgium... To girls I should give this warning though. I heard from a friend that girls can get harassed by older men at night and that her friend experienced this before when she went to such a place, so keep this in mind. I still recommend going to it though, maybe not to sleep there.
On saturday me and Jueon went to Aphsan mountain (앞산). Finally some nature ^^. Since we didn't had the proper shoes to go on, we stopped halfway at this resting spot which had benches, cups to drink from the small river that was flowing there and a mirror... Yes a mirror... I was glad to finally had a walk in one of Korean's mountains and get some rest from the crowdedness of seoul. After the walk we went to the cinema's, which is basically the same as in Belgium, except it has different subtitles ;). We, or well I, because someone fell asleep ;), saw Knight and day. Quite the funny movie, so if you are at the cinema's and don't know which one to see, go for that one. It's quite over the top, which makes it quite less realistic, but that's what makes it funny ^^. That night I slept at a hotel, which was cheaper than it would be in Europe, you also got a lot more, but you didn't have a key, so it was just for sleeping only I think. I dunno how hotel rooms for about 20 euro's are, but I got a big ass screen tv, a computer with internet connection, a air conditioner, fresh water, everything you would need to wash up, a cellphone recharger, etc...
Since I couldn't take any later train, I had to go home at noon already, so we couldn't do much more on sunday and went downtown to eat and went to the train station. Since I didn't had a tablet to write on, I couldn't do my homework, so as usual I just slept, thought about life a bit and watched the people. I was back at 4pm already, but I didn't feel like doing much at the time. The entire class went to this japanese resto at 5, so I could make it if I'd run, but I was kind of fed up with not being able to have a normal conversation. This is no offense to anyone, but always ending up in groups where I can't understand anything just got to me, it's already difficult as it is, to actually join a conversation in a group in dutch, so let alone if you can't understand anyone. I don't understand how people can cope with this, so it made me feel a bit homesick, so I just went home for a quiet evening, but listening to my old music and talking to some friends again and reading your comments made me feel much better ^^. Thanks! @Jueon: This doesn't mean I didn't have a great time with you during the weekend. It's just a pity that I'm still this bad in Korean or it could have been much more fun.
Hmm... 9.35pm already <_<. Time to eat and study : )
Thursday, July 15, 2010
July 15th
Hi,
I'm sorry that I'm so bad with names, because today again I don't know where I went to. So I went to *I'll fill it in later, if I know more about it* not that far from seoul, but I forgot how we went, I'm really getting way too tired these days. Anyway, this place really has a lot of nice cafes (Coffee shops) and one of them has Belgian waffles, but too be honest they only looked like them, they didn't really taste like them. Ours are quite better, sweeter and they put a lot of ice cream, fruit on it. We would only put some sugar on it or whip cream or something. I like that more though ^^.
I heard about a place with a kebab in it, so I should check that out too, I miss the stomach aches from going to a kebab late at night :( It's a place called Itaewon, quite known, especially for its foreign shops/restos/people, so I should check it out. Maybe I find some dutch speaking people there ;) Like I found a guy from the netherlands who will help me get a second hand phone tomorrow.
I dunno if I told you about the phone system here already. If I did, just skip this part, my memory is quite bad when I'm tired. Like I said, cellphones don't work here, because Koreans (Japanese and some Americans too) use CDMA instead of GSM, so the frequencies that are used are different, therefore our phones don't work with the system (I think not even japanese ones, because even they uses other frequencies). Also it's the phone that is registered, not the simcard (since they don't use them in general. Or that's what I've read/heard, because my cellphone seems to have one though... Maybe it's only for storage purposes, I'm not sure). So you would think to buy one, right? Especially if you stay for quite some time, but that's not possible, because you can only get a new phone with a korean passport/alien identification. Travellers don't have this of course, so they are left out when it comes to buying a new cellphone. But apparently you can buy a second handed one with just your passport and money (This is not illegal or anything, you can do this in shops too, you just have to ask for second handed ones).
Ow and I got mail from Geumgang. Apparently the course is 6 months, not 4. Not sure why, but since it's all payed for I'm not complaining. I haven't read the mail properly though, but it seems that way. I hope not to be bored during that period, because they say there isn't much to do around that place. A lot of people haven't even heard about it... It's in 논산시 (nonsan city), with the closest bigger city being 대전광역시, but I don't need much to have fun. I'm gonna miss the people at home though and probably some people I met/meet here.
I'm sorry that I'm so bad with names, because today again I don't know where I went to. So I went to *I'll fill it in later, if I know more about it* not that far from seoul, but I forgot how we went, I'm really getting way too tired these days. Anyway, this place really has a lot of nice cafes (Coffee shops) and one of them has Belgian waffles, but too be honest they only looked like them, they didn't really taste like them. Ours are quite better, sweeter and they put a lot of ice cream, fruit on it. We would only put some sugar on it or whip cream or something. I like that more though ^^.
I heard about a place with a kebab in it, so I should check that out too, I miss the stomach aches from going to a kebab late at night :( It's a place called Itaewon, quite known, especially for its foreign shops/restos/people, so I should check it out. Maybe I find some dutch speaking people there ;) Like I found a guy from the netherlands who will help me get a second hand phone tomorrow.
I dunno if I told you about the phone system here already. If I did, just skip this part, my memory is quite bad when I'm tired. Like I said, cellphones don't work here, because Koreans (Japanese and some Americans too) use CDMA instead of GSM, so the frequencies that are used are different, therefore our phones don't work with the system (I think not even japanese ones, because even they uses other frequencies). Also it's the phone that is registered, not the simcard (since they don't use them in general. Or that's what I've read/heard, because my cellphone seems to have one though... Maybe it's only for storage purposes, I'm not sure). So you would think to buy one, right? Especially if you stay for quite some time, but that's not possible, because you can only get a new phone with a korean passport/alien identification. Travellers don't have this of course, so they are left out when it comes to buying a new cellphone. But apparently you can buy a second handed one with just your passport and money (This is not illegal or anything, you can do this in shops too, you just have to ask for second handed ones).
Ow and I got mail from Geumgang. Apparently the course is 6 months, not 4. Not sure why, but since it's all payed for I'm not complaining. I haven't read the mail properly though, but it seems that way. I hope not to be bored during that period, because they say there isn't much to do around that place. A lot of people haven't even heard about it... It's in 논산시 (nonsan city), with the closest bigger city being 대전광역시, but I don't need much to have fun. I'm gonna miss the people at home though and probably some people I met/meet here.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
July 14th
Hi,
Today we made our own bibimbab (Mixed vegetables with rice) and dwenjejjige (Cabbage bean paste soup), which was quite easy though, really... If you want the recipe, I could scan it and send it (Not now, but when I'm back in Belgium). But I'm not making the second one any time soon, I don't like bean that much and I miss meat. Always so much vegetables :( 'It's good for your health', but I do miss the taste though, so I went for dwejikalbi today ^^.
After that we went to this traditional Korean house I had told you about before (Namsangol Hanok village). Somehow, every time I go somewhere, no matter if I've been there I discover something new. Like now, there were a lot of traditional Korean games, so I played some ^^. Quite fun though. 1 is even a traditional one in Europe I think (Hitting a round thing with a stick to keep it rolling. I've seen this before. Bad at it though.) and apparently they have this 'time capsul' at that place. On december 29 1994 Seoul had been the capital for 600 years, so they celebrated that by creating this big capsul and put a lot of stuff in it, like for example over 600 notes saying things about how the people in Seoul thought about their own life, about future life, etc... and after closing it up, they put it in the ground, not to be opened for the next 400 years. So when Korea celebrates the millenium for Seoul being the capital it will be opened up and the people in the year 2394 are able to read about the thoughts of the people of 1994.
After I met with a friend, who told me about places where couples go sometimes, like I told you about 'norebang' a room where you have a room with a personal karaoke. There also are DVD rooms, which apparently is a room, with a bed and a screen for couples to be able to watch a movie together. The third thing she told me about (We actually went to that place), was a PC bang, with is a room, filled with PC's, which have games on it, you can use to play online/together/online, whatever and it's quite cheap. We payed a bit less than 1.5 euro for something like 75 minutes, so that's quite nothing. I don't know about the prices in Belgium at these kind of places.
That's it, time for homework.
Annyeong.
Today we made our own bibimbab (Mixed vegetables with rice) and dwenjejjige (Cabbage bean paste soup), which was quite easy though, really... If you want the recipe, I could scan it and send it (Not now, but when I'm back in Belgium). But I'm not making the second one any time soon, I don't like bean that much and I miss meat. Always so much vegetables :( 'It's good for your health', but I do miss the taste though, so I went for dwejikalbi today ^^.
After that we went to this traditional Korean house I had told you about before (Namsangol Hanok village). Somehow, every time I go somewhere, no matter if I've been there I discover something new. Like now, there were a lot of traditional Korean games, so I played some ^^. Quite fun though. 1 is even a traditional one in Europe I think (Hitting a round thing with a stick to keep it rolling. I've seen this before. Bad at it though.) and apparently they have this 'time capsul' at that place. On december 29 1994 Seoul had been the capital for 600 years, so they celebrated that by creating this big capsul and put a lot of stuff in it, like for example over 600 notes saying things about how the people in Seoul thought about their own life, about future life, etc... and after closing it up, they put it in the ground, not to be opened for the next 400 years. So when Korea celebrates the millenium for Seoul being the capital it will be opened up and the people in the year 2394 are able to read about the thoughts of the people of 1994.
After I met with a friend, who told me about places where couples go sometimes, like I told you about 'norebang' a room where you have a room with a personal karaoke. There also are DVD rooms, which apparently is a room, with a bed and a screen for couples to be able to watch a movie together. The third thing she told me about (We actually went to that place), was a PC bang, with is a room, filled with PC's, which have games on it, you can use to play online/together/online, whatever and it's quite cheap. We payed a bit less than 1.5 euro for something like 75 minutes, so that's quite nothing. I don't know about the prices in Belgium at these kind of places.
That's it, time for homework.
Annyeong.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
July 10-13th
Ahum...
Well since the 9th, this is the first time I actually had some time to sit down in my room. I only came home for sleeping and showering, so a lot has happened. Since it would take me a couple of hours to write it all down, I will just keep the memories inside my head. I'll try to update this blog more, but I see new stuff everyday, meet new people everyday, so I'm quite busy. Sorry you guys.
Ow. I have some bad and good news though. The good news would be me getting the scholarship at Geumgang's. So I can be in Korea for free for four months (This sentence made me lol). It might be in the middle of nowhere (I think), but I'm so looking forward to it. @Ula, if you are reading this. FOR FREE FREE:D, no just teasing you, but now it's certain where I'd be staying, to bad it's not near seoul, but you are always welcome if you want to see more of this part of Korea. The bad news (for you guys anyway) would be that I'll be going to Daegu this weekend. I will be going to Daegu to see Juyeon, so I will not be able to write anything down this weekend either. Sorry.
So this evening will be just watching some anime. I really missed that ^^
Talk to you soon!
Well since the 9th, this is the first time I actually had some time to sit down in my room. I only came home for sleeping and showering, so a lot has happened. Since it would take me a couple of hours to write it all down, I will just keep the memories inside my head. I'll try to update this blog more, but I see new stuff everyday, meet new people everyday, so I'm quite busy. Sorry you guys.
Ow. I have some bad and good news though. The good news would be me getting the scholarship at Geumgang's. So I can be in Korea for free for four months (This sentence made me lol). It might be in the middle of nowhere (I think), but I'm so looking forward to it. @Ula, if you are reading this. FOR FREE FREE:D, no just teasing you, but now it's certain where I'd be staying, to bad it's not near seoul, but you are always welcome if you want to see more of this part of Korea. The bad news (for you guys anyway) would be that I'll be going to Daegu this weekend. I will be going to Daegu to see Juyeon, so I will not be able to write anything down this weekend either. Sorry.
So this evening will be just watching some anime. I really missed that ^^
Talk to you soon!
Friday, July 9, 2010
July 9th
Hi,
We went on a fieldtrip with school today. First we went to the Sejong museum in Jonggak, which was quite interesting. I didn't like the amount of pictures taken tough. What's up with these people ><. They wanted group pictures, which I can understand, but why did they ALL wanted the picture to be on there camera <_<. Anyway I'm not quite fond of posing. Anyway, after that we went to 청계천 again, but it's not worth going there with a group. It gets quite boring and I was not the only one thinking that... After the riverwalk it got more interesting. We went to see 'JUMP'. "The musical JUMP is a non–verbal performance that is based on the traditional movements of taekwondo, a Korean form of martial arts."
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_2_3.jsp?cid=292737
Which was really entertaining. I liked it a lot. It was quite dramatic as well. It wouldn't be Korean if it didn't had a love story too, so that got somehow mixed in the whole scenario. It's hard to explain something like that, so if you ever have the chance to go and see it. DO SO! It's really worth it.
We went to eat Chicken 갈비, which has been the most delicious food I've eaten in Korea so far, but what I wanted to say about it was not about the food, but about the 'restaurant' itself. I think if health inspection ever went there it would have been closed down in an instant. I have never seen a place where there were 3 small gas pipes lying on the floor. You know (or maybe you don't) that in Korea there are a lot of places, where you cook your food, or they cook it in front of you, so you're basically just eating out of the pan or can add some of the side dishes to it, if you wanna get it warmed, so you need gas to heat the pan, right. At the first place I've eaten like this they used gas cans, but at this place, they just placed 3 pipes across the restaurant, with tubes coming from them at every table, so that looked quite dangerous. I guess it's not, but I didn't feel quite at ease because of it. Especially since I had tripped over it when I got in <_<.
I met the other Belgian guy who's also studying at Ewha's. I was right after all, he also studies at our Korean school in Belgium, but a lvl lower. The world can be quite small. He's name is Sonbae Song. So we finally had a more Belgian night tonight. Just going to a bar and have a drink, without eating with it. Btw from what I've heard, if you do this, just drink and don't eat with your drinks, you are considered an alcoholic...
We went on a fieldtrip with school today. First we went to the Sejong museum in Jonggak, which was quite interesting. I didn't like the amount of pictures taken tough. What's up with these people ><. They wanted group pictures, which I can understand, but why did they ALL wanted the picture to be on there camera <_<. Anyway I'm not quite fond of posing. Anyway, after that we went to 청계천 again, but it's not worth going there with a group. It gets quite boring and I was not the only one thinking that... After the riverwalk it got more interesting. We went to see 'JUMP'. "The musical JUMP is a non–verbal performance that is based on the traditional movements of taekwondo, a Korean form of martial arts."
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_2_3.jsp?cid=292737
Which was really entertaining. I liked it a lot. It was quite dramatic as well. It wouldn't be Korean if it didn't had a love story too, so that got somehow mixed in the whole scenario. It's hard to explain something like that, so if you ever have the chance to go and see it. DO SO! It's really worth it.
We went to eat Chicken 갈비, which has been the most delicious food I've eaten in Korea so far, but what I wanted to say about it was not about the food, but about the 'restaurant' itself. I think if health inspection ever went there it would have been closed down in an instant. I have never seen a place where there were 3 small gas pipes lying on the floor. You know (or maybe you don't) that in Korea there are a lot of places, where you cook your food, or they cook it in front of you, so you're basically just eating out of the pan or can add some of the side dishes to it, if you wanna get it warmed, so you need gas to heat the pan, right. At the first place I've eaten like this they used gas cans, but at this place, they just placed 3 pipes across the restaurant, with tubes coming from them at every table, so that looked quite dangerous. I guess it's not, but I didn't feel quite at ease because of it. Especially since I had tripped over it when I got in <_<.
I met the other Belgian guy who's also studying at Ewha's. I was right after all, he also studies at our Korean school in Belgium, but a lvl lower. The world can be quite small. He's name is Sonbae Song. So we finally had a more Belgian night tonight. Just going to a bar and have a drink, without eating with it. Btw from what I've heard, if you do this, just drink and don't eat with your drinks, you are considered an alcoholic...
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