Korea is my Hogwarts

As the schoolwork slowly but surely begins to pile up, I would like to take a moment to reflect on my past week here in Seoul ...

Monday was a normal day and friends and I ended up ordering Kyochon Chicken for delivery, which just so happens to be advertised by the men of Super Junior. Mwahaha. I kept the bags. The chicken itself was so delicious that we ended up ordering the exact same thing on Friday. My first class on Tuesday was canceled (yay!) so I got to be super lazy. I went to dinner with new friends, one of them a Filipino! According to him there are at least 5 and 1/2 Filipinos on campus (inclusive of Fil-Ams). We went to Red Mango for "the most delicious yogurt in the world" (it was pretty tasty). Wednesday I ate mackerel and kimchi 찌개 (I have been craving fish recently and have no idea why) and then went to a talk about the situation in North Korea according to a leading Russian expert.

I spent way too much money on Thursday but it was definitely worth every won. During my free time before Korean friends and I went shopping on the streets behind Ewha University, which is catered to the female fashion sense. I ended up buying two more shirts to add to my collection, as well as a funky bag and two pairs of earring to prevent the holes in my ears from closing. After Korean class friends and I went to eat at Choi's Tacos, which sounds kind of sketch but has delicious burritos. We then proceeded to go to a 찜질방 and had a naked happy time. Anyone have to read that sentence twice? Hehe. After that we then proceeded to go drinking. Thirsty Thursday! Seriously though, drinking is an undeniable part of Korean culture that everyone has to do it at least once. We got rejected by two bars but the third one was a winner. We ordered peach and yogurt flavored soju and played drinking games in order to get to know each other better. Sorry parental units, but I lost count of how many shots of soju I had! My head was a little buzzy at the end but I felt like I really got to bond with my friends.

Friday night I stayed in and fangirled with two friends in preparation for the 2009 Asia Song Festival, which I will get to shortly. We ate Kyochon Chicken, watched music videos, and attempted to do the dances. Saturday was the day I had been looking forward to since I got to Korea. Thanks to my program director everyone in CIEE got tickets and other friends were able to get their own. The crazy ones and I got up at 5AM in order to arrive at the World Cup Stadium at 6:30 AM. Talk about hard core! We had no idea what to do (and neither did the staff) so we ended up sitting in the YG fan line and were branded with numbers. Around 9AM I went to get my friend from Yonsei and upon return met more Yonsei students who knew what to do. Being a foreigner in Seoul is one of the greatest things ever - we got VIP seats!!!

After waiting around for another six hours (and helping friends get to where they needed to go - I was on the phone for half the time) the concert finally started. It was AMAZING!!! Performers from all over Asia came to Korea to represent their countries and perform their hit songs. The female performers were kind of scary (one of them reminded everyone of Xena, Warrior Princess) but everyone was entertaining in their own way. The fan chants and waving of glow sticks were so coordinated! Standout performances for me were 2NE1, V6 (they performed songs I knew - I was spazzing so much!), Gackt (man can really work a crowd), Super Junior (of course), and Big Bang (my friends were pretty much there for this group). I failed at taking good pictures, but this one of Gackt is pretty sweet.


Sunday was a nice calm day after that craziness. I finally met up with Yoon Joo, my mother's supervisor's sister (how's that for a connection!) at Myeong-Dong. We ate lunch, went to an outdoor market, and had a little dessert. It ended up being really fun! Her English was very good and made up for my not yet existent Korean skills. She told me to call her son, which I have yet to do because that would be the epitome of awkward (hi, your mom gave me your cell phone number, want to hang out? Not happening). After that excursion I attempted to do homework then went to Sogang University to attend mass. The past few weeks I have been church hopping but now I think I have found a pretty comfortable place. One funny thing is that I got in trouble for singing during the mass parts - I need to join the choir!

Today I was bombarded with things to do but I joined this really cool club called the "Giving Tree" which basically does volunteer work with Korean children! Just what I have been looking for. Now I need to get off my lazy butt and start acting like an actual college student! Or I can say I have senioritis ...