dlandolfi

[dlandolfi]

Back in the US

I don’t think I really need to do this last post but it’s more for my own closure of things. Blogging turned out to be a minor hassle for a huge reward - I’m already thankful I have this for the record books. My last week in Korea was spent cramming for finals, eating a bunch of food, and basically going out every night. My last final was on my birthday, and afterwards for the rest of the day we had a grand old time. I reconnected with some Korean school friends I hadn’t seen in years, which was a little awkward at first, but a lot of fun. The last two days I spent at my schools graduation ceremony, last-minute gift shopping, and saying goodbye to everyone (especially my friends family). The night before my flight I stayed up all night in Hongdae and partied, then at 5 took the bus straight to Incheon. 29 hours later I arrived in New Haven, and now just like that I’m at Yale waiting for classes to start tomorrow :O. The trip was easily one of the best experiences of my life, and I hope I can find a reason to go back. I’m still pretty jetlagged, so i’m gonna sleep now. I’ll leave you with some pictures towards the end of the trip. Goodnight moon.

Night hike up namsan

Weird statue at Samsung Museum of Art. Really cool museum right next to my friend’s house

[dlandolfi]

The end is near

Only a little over a week left, and I’m now realizing how long I’ve spent in this country and how quick it has gone by. According to my calculations by the end of the trip I will have spent one percent of my life in the Republic of Korea. I’m really quite excited to return home and gain 10 pounds eating American-sized meals, and I dare say I’m even excited for school to start again. That being said I know I’m going to miss a lot about this country, especially the food (which is extremely under appreciated back home). It kinda sucks my last days here are gonna be mostly consumed by studying, but I’m really content with what I’ve managed to do. In terms of Korean skills, I’m sure how much my ‘speaking-focused’ program especially helped my speaking skills, but I think (and hope) a good amount  progress has been made and I just don’t realize it. A lot of this trip consisted of existential questions constantly in the back of my mind, mostly concerning why the heck I’m actually here and learning this language I have no reason to. As school nears I’ve been able to soothe these worries thankfully, reminding myself that right now this is still pretty much just a hobby.

Thats my rant for the week; I’ll leave you with some pictures of things I’ve done recently. Now that I have a friend here I’ve been doing a lot of things I didn’t really want to do alone. Basically everything in Seoul is done as couples, so its kinda nice not looking like a waysome foreigner anymore. 

Yesterday directly after class I went directly to Everland with my friend and spent 6+ hours going on rollercoasters, watching fireworks, and the like. Since today is independence day, we figured going the day before would save us from notoriously crazy crowds, and we were right!

Iconic picture everyone takes at Everland 

Got my haircut finally. They washed my hair afterwards it was gr8

Sum bowling

I didn’t take a ton of pictures this week, but also went to Lotte Tower (super bougie mall but also like 5th tallest bulding in the world), an infamous club called Cakeshop, and several noraebangs. Tonight if the weather holds up I might be going up Namsan/ seoul tower again (I live right next to it now). 

One more post and then goodbye :(

[dlandolfi]

Moving Day

As promised I didn’t do too much this week, so I’ll whiz through the events.

Beginning of the week I finally had this delicacy known as samgyetang:

Samgyetang: Basically an entire baby chicken stuffed with rice, ginseng, and raisins, served in a warm broth. Kind of hard to eat and kind of expensive, but all worth it considering I went to supposedly the best place for it.

Another week whizzed by at school, but the past weekend was pretty entertaining. Saturday morning, I somehow had to the motivation to wake up at 5:30 in the morning and make the trek to Seoraksan - a mountain range to the east of Seoul. The east coast seems to be a hot spot for Koreans, as a bus ride that was supposed to take 2:30 hours ended up being closer to five. Thankfully I woke up early enough to still get in a full day of hiking in. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day:

The next day I spent in Insadong and Yongsan with my friend who just got to Korea. Tried Vr for the first time and finally went to a noraebang (karaoke room/bar).

As far as Seoul goes, I’m getting a little tired of the shopping and overwhelming commercialism, so I’m glad I’ve been able I get out and explore other areas. Seoul is nice, but I’ve found everywhere else I’ve been so much more interesting. This is the first major city I’ve lived in, so I’m not really sure if it’s a problem I have with Seoul or cities in general. 

My last couple weeks are going to be jam-packed with last-minute things I’ve been wanting to do. Hopefully I still have some student in me to study for the upcoming finals.

[dlandolfi]

What a week

By far this past school break was the best week I’ve had in Korea. I had never traveled alone before really, and I was just expecting to see the sights by my lonesome. This was true for the most part, but because I chose to stay in hostels (a first for that as well) I met SO many people, Koreans and foreigners. I found some really cheap and reputable places, and the majority of the people staying in them were Korean college students about my age, traveling around with their friends because it’s their summer break as well. I had a lot of fun (trying to) converse with them, and although I don’t think it really improved my speaking abilities much, it definitely increased my confidence. For the first time I felt like I actually learned about what Koreans think about their own culture, instead of just reading about it, having a teacher telling it to me, or observing it as an outsider. I also kind of felt like an outgoing person this week - I don’t know if it will stick at all, but it was fun while it lasted.

Anyway, since my last post I stayed one more night in Jeonju and then ended up staying in a city called Yeosu for the rest of break. I wanted to go to one more city, but Yeosu had plenty to keep me busy.

Here are some pictures from my second day in Jeonju:

I woke up early and did this pretty short hike close to the hanok village. Called Mt. Chimyeongja

Main reason I wanted to do the hike was because I could see some huge statues from the ground and wanted to see what they were. I learned there was a huge Catholic persecution in the 1800s in Korea, and near the top of this mountain 5 wealthy martyrs were buried. Turns out Jeonju has pretty lengthy Catholic history! I also got to go inside this cathedral, which is considered one of the prettiest in Korea:

After this I decided to try the other specialty food in Jeonju, called kongnamul gukbap (soybean sprout soup with rice); I made sure to go to the famous place my hostel owner recommended.

The rest of my day consisted of getting a personal tour around gyeongijeon shrine (I was on the english tour and most of the tourists in Jeonju are Korean), going to a lotus flower park, drinking some cinnamon liquor called moju and eating some dope “choco pies” - also a specialty in Jeonju. Not sure what makes them so special but I’m not complaining. 

The first and only picture of King Taejo (founder of the Joseon dynasty) is in Gyeongijeon shrine.

Dokjin park in Jeonju  (The word for lotus flower in Korean sounds like yeonkkot)

You walk through the park on this narrow bridge

Yeosu

From Jeonju I took a speedy train to the coastal city of Yeosu, and found my guesthouse asap to put my bag down. This hostel was more official-looking, but not as personal. I only had about half a day on this first day, so I spent it exploring to get accustomed to the area. I instantly noticed that the nightlife in this city was a lot better than Jeonju, which basically just consisted of shopping. There were street performances by the water every night and a good selection of street food. I also recognized this city was way more geared towards tourism, but thankfully it wasn’t overwhelmingly crowded. If Jejudo is Korea’s Hawaii, Yeosu is Korea’s Florida. All of Yeosu’s specialty food is seafood-based, and under normal circumstances I would’ve been stressed about this, but I was determined to try it all. One of my favorite dishes was sodaehoe bibimbap (literally “tongue-fish sashimi over rice”).

Put this over rice and enjoy. I had this for dinner on my first night, after walking into a REALLY local place and asking the waitress what was delicious. 

As a white person, when I’m outside of Seoul I get A LOT more stares and  a lot more people saying hello to me. I’m not complaining, because this can lead to some pretty nice conversation. 

Here are some pictures and highlights from my trip to Yeosu:

View from the water

Yeosu is made up of like over 200 islands, and this was from one of three that i went to. Called Odongdo.

This one is hard to appreciate through picture, but one day I went to a Buddhist temple at the very edge of an island, on a mountain. Gave an amazing view of the great blue for miles. Hyangiram Hermitage

Quick story time and goodbye: After seeing visiting this temple in the morning, intended to explore another island for the rest of the day. Sights are pretty spaced out in Yeosu, and my plan was to take a bus (which rarely comes) to this port and then a ferry to the island. I ended up taking the wrong bus though, as wasted a solid 2 hours getting to the port. When I arrived, I learned that the next ferry left at 4 o’clock, and the last one returned at 6:30, leaving my barely any time to explore. I made it all the way there though, so I was determined to still go. After a beautiful 20 minute ride to the island, I learn that it’s huge and that most people ether spend a night or stay an entire day. I was planning on neither, and with my lack of any sort of plan for a split second I felt I wasted so much time getting there. Thankfully, a worker lady at the port said there was one hike I could do, but with my time I would need to call a taxi to get me to the start. So I call this taxi, and during the ride we have a heart to heart and he explains the route I should take. After dropping me off, 5 minutes into this hike I run into three extremely old ajummas sitting in the shade. By their reaction, this is the most excitement they’ve had in a year. They look at me like I’m insane though, and ask where I’m going. I tell them and they’re like,  “Oh no way you can’t do that, honey you’re sweating sit down with us instead and use this fan” (rough translation). Long story short, Instead of doing my hike on this no-name island, I sat on a porch with three old ladies fanning myself on this no-name island until it was time to return, explaining to them my life and why I was alone (the latter they must’ve asked 20 times). I get picked up by the same taxi (wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the only one on the island), and somehow he noticed I didn’t do the hike and was really confused. I try to explaining to him like, “No, you see the thing is I ran into these ajummas and they told me I couldn’t.” He remained visibly concerned, but thankfully got me back to the port in time to take the last ferry. 

While arguably I spent like 30 dollars for absolutely nothing that afternoon, I say it’s the most memorable experience I’ve had in Korea so far. Time is moving so fast, and I’m hoping I have time to do everything else I have planned. 

I’m expecting this week to be pretty uneventful, so next blog post i’m gonna try to do some reflection on the trip so far instead of just stating the things I’ve done.

[dlandolfi]

Break

I made it! I think I left off a day or two my interview test, which preparation for was quite stressful. In the moment though, I went perfectly fine. Ever since then I’ve been in complete break mode - hopefully I don’t forget everything before going back.

This past weekend was very eventful, and I’d like to take a moment to apologize to my ears. Saturday I went to a music festival at the Olympic park stadium in seoul - the lineup was pretty sweet! Got to see these famous artists:

Heize

Crush

The atmosphere was a little bit different than American concerts (people seemed to respect personal space a lot more here), and I didn’t know a lot of the songs, but nonetheless very enjoyable.

A few hours later I decided to torture my ears some more and go to a club I’ve had my eyes on for a while. Turned out to be very underground in both senses of the word. Disguised completely as a karaoke bar on the outside, It took me a solid hour to find it. After I did I paid an undisclosed man at the front and walked downstairs through a really creepy tunnel to reach the venue which consisted of 50-odd people. A lot of foreigners were there, but it was nice to see that the djs were mostly up and coming korean artists. After I left, I was even able to meet one of them which I thought was really cool.

Creepy man

Apart from that long Saturday, that weekend I went bowling, tried samgyeopsal for the first time (way too late into this trip), and watched a movie at an extremely nice theater.

On this fine Monday morning I left my apartment around 7 and eventually got on a bus headed to jeonju. I barely planned my trip (and still don’t really know where I’m going for the rest of the week), but figured it was best to leave as soon as possible and not waste time on logistics. I stuffed a backpack full of clothes the night before and I’m planning on slowly making my way to Busan with a few stops in between.

I booked a pretty reputable guesthouse in jeonju, and it’s been amazing so far. The owner is super friendly and gave my tons of suggestions about what to do and where to eat. Jeonju is especially famous for being the birthplace of bibimbap. I had it an incredible one for dinner tonight:

Look at all the banchans!

Most of my day was spent around the Jeonju hanok village - hanok is like a korean traditional house, and this area has over 800. One of my favorite parts of the area was the Confucianist School from the 1600s almost completely in tact still.

Entrance to school with some old ginkgo trees

This doesn’t do the village justice (bc of uggo buildings in background) but you get the idea

I did a lot more stuff but I don’t not want to drown you with everything. I’m planning on staying one more night in Jeonju and finish up what I’ve missed. I am in full tourist mode and do not have any regrets. Unsurprisingly, people are a lot friendlier compared to Seoul and had at least three conversations with strangers already. I did feel a little bit lonely today, but the excitement outweighed it by far. After tomorrow I’m not entirely sure where I’ll be headed but I’ll let you fine folks know. And try to make it briefer (sorry!)

[dlandolfi]

Midterms :(

Last week was the start of my midterms, and the ones I’ve gotten back so far I did pretty will on. This Thursday I have my interview test though, which I am by far the most nervous for. This post will probably be pretty short because I should go back to studying!

This weekend still managed to be packed, and one of the most eventful while I’ve been here. Saturday I planned a trip to Chuncheon, a city about 2 hours away by subway. Thankfully I had a friend to accompany me, because some of the food I wanted to try is basically meant for two people. The downtown area wasn’t really poppin during the daytime, and since we got there really early we decided to explore the surrounding area. We walked along this peaceful river that cuts through the city for a few hours, and then took a taxi (my first taxi ride here) up to this dam known as the Soyang dam. The view was beautiful (pictures can never do it justice), and apparently it’s like the fourth largest dam in Asia which is kind of cool.  

dam

We then took a bus back down to the center of Chuncheon, walked around a little bit and ate dinner. Chuncheon is known is Korea for its dalkgalbi (which I discussed in previous post) and makguksu, so we had to try both. They’re super famous for their dalkgabli, and it did not disappoint. There’s a ‘dalkgalbi street’ in Chuncheon and literally every restaurant you pass specializes in it - it was kind of stressful making a decision, but I’m pretty sure they all would’ve been great. Overall, the people in Chuncheon were a lot friendlier and the food much fresher. It was the perfect day trip to get away from the hustle and bustle of Seoul which is exactly what I wanted. We didn’t get to visit, but a full day could be spent visiting an island in Chuncheon called Namisom. With the limited time I have left I’ll consider going, but I’m gonna have to start being a bit selective :(

This week I also started playing in an amateur basketball league. It was kind of intimidating given I have no actual basketball skills, but the group turned out to be really welcoming. It’s a nice way to get my exercise in while also feel like I’m being social.

After this (rough) week is over, my school break begins. The plan is the travel   여기저기 around South Korea, mostly on the southern coast I think. I was hesitant at first about going alone, but then I remembered I like being alone and I don’t want to waste an opportunity to travel while I have it. Once my midterms, are officially over, I’ll start planning the logistics. Probably also get a sim card, because traveling without a phone for a week doesn’t sound too safe.

adios amigos

[dlandolfi]

Time moving too fast

Next week is my school’s midterm already, and I can’t believe it. I’ve been here for over a month, and it still feels like I’ve only scratched the surface with what there is to do. I’ve never lived in a real city (sorry New Haven) so I can’t really compare it to much, but at times it has been so overwhelming with the amount to do. Every side street has hundreds of stores and restaurants and karaoke bars, and unless I have a specific place in mind it’s impossible to narrow them down. Obviously there’s good things about this as well, I’m just not used to being in a place so tailored to the consumer like Seoul is.

Despite this, I’ve managed to live independently pretty well so far, and I’m glad I’ve been able to learn that about myself early in my life. It makes it easier that I’m not completely alone here though - I have a lot of classmates from Yale and a few other friends in Korea for the summer. Yesterday I had lunch with the other Light fellows my korean teacher from school which was really nice (and of course bougie since Yale was paying for it). Afterwards we went to Gyeongbukgung palace and walked around - I had been by myself a time before, but was too cheap to pay for entrance that time. 

The only decent picture I took

During the week, I went to Itaewon (known as the foreigner’s district) to watch a firework show on the American military base on the 4th of July, which was a nice reminder of home. A few days later, I went to a baseball game for school field trip, which ended up being one the most bizarre experiences so far. The stadium is huge, but there were about 300 people there for the game. Unlike America, the people who were there got REALLY into it, and kept the energy for the entire game (and it slowly grew as people drank more). There was an MC and a handful of cheerleaders who led chants and arm movement routines nonstop. It probably would’ve had a very different time if I was drinking, but the for the most part this just gave me a headache.

To update from last post, I ended up never getting a haircut. I found a good place but as always It’ll only happen when it’s completely unbearable. However, I managed to join a basketball league and find a nice church to attend, so I’d say I’m 2-1 in whatever category this is. 

Food wise, the most notable dish I tried this week were black bean noodles (jjajangmyeon)- very cheap and very delicious!

This week, I have my test Wednesday, so before then will probably be studying for the most part. Next weekend I might plan a trip outside of the city, but I let you fine folks know before then

[dlandolfi]

Thats chill dog

I know I’ve really settled in when I stop/forget to take pictures, which was the case this week. I’ll try to sprinkle in some of the ones I have, but don’t get your hopes up. Nonetheless, I still did a good amount of stuff, so I’ll try using such descriptive language that you won’t even be able to tell there aren’t any pictures. 

When I last left off I was about to head to the Korean War memorial/gallery/museum, and it did not disappoint! Kind of unfortunate though, I went there with a friend whom I met in person for the first time that day (long story).  As a result, it was a lot of conversing and catching up with little attention paid to the actual museum. There were some pretty cool tanks we got to sit in, though. Before I leave, I definitely want to go back and actually learn some stuff. 

That same day, we went to the Cheonggyecheon creek in Seoul and sat for about 3 hours - I fed the fish there some snacks and fed myself some as well. This is what the stream looks like (creds to google images):

After that, I went to a dog cafe for the first time, which was more dog and not as much cafe as I was expecting, but it was still a novel experience.

The atmosphere is a little bit weird, and it’s hard to tell how happy the dogs really are. Despite that I ended up going again 2 days later so clearly the dogs charmed me. Next time: cat cafe

That all happened last Saturday, which was definitely the most touristy day of my week. Other than that, I didn’t visit many more places, but tried eating and also making some new food. 

Last night, I made kimchi fried rice with help from my friend Formosa. Very tasty an filling indeed, although all this fried food I’ve been eating is concerning me that my exercise is all for naught. Therefore, my next challenge is to learn how to cook/prepare a vegetable.

Beautiful dish with a beautiful egg

I also got fried chicken delivered to a park by the river, which everyone kept raving about, so I’m glad I tried it. Actually getting it delivered to where we wanted it to go was quite a process, but well worth it in the end. I think it’s a way a lot of locals like to spend their weekends, which they like to call “camping” but its really just a picnic with a tent. It’s a very endearing way people hang out with they’re friends though, and I would love to return with more of my own friends.

And that’s basically it folks. My weekdays are mostly routine, with the occasionally outing, but I’m pretty content with how everything has gone so far. To ensure I don’t go crazy from my tiny room, I stay out pretty much the entire day.  Finding a place to study has been a difficult task, because the library is too depressing and cafes are too expensive. I do as much as can on benches and picnic tables in parks. 

I’ve also upgraded from walks on the streets to runs, because what better way is there to explore the city and get my energy out. I’m still looking for some better/quieter routes, because on the main road I get quite a lot of stares - running culture isn’t that big here. I can also feel pollution and smoke smacking me in the face which probably isn’t the healthiest. 

This week I’m going to a baseball game which I’m hyped for, and hoping to find someone who is willing to cut my hair. Cya next week folks 

[dlandolfi]

Week 3ish

I’m nearing almost a month of already being here, and time is moving way too quickly. Touring and exploring has been super fun, but I’m currently kind of disappointed with where my language skills still are. I might have come in with unreasonable expectations, but I also feel like I’m definitely behind my classmates in terms of speaking skills. Whatever the case, I’m gonna try to study a little bit harder and hone in on speaking. For the midterm and final we have a one-on-one interview with our speaking teacher, which I’m already seriously dreading. We need a seventy percent to pass which seems doable, but I’m going to think of some ways to meet and/or lower my expectations. I’ve heard from other Light fellows who say they got bummed out too when they realized how bad they still were at the language, so maybe I’m not crazy.

Regardless, I’ve been keeping my head up and doing lots of exploring still. The day I left off my blog, I went to a Korean barbecue place with a group of Light fellows for some delicious grill-it-yourself steak. The experience was amazing, including the part where I ate an entire spicy pepper and scared the group with my tears. Definitely want to go back, but I also still need to try samgyeopsal (bacon), which people say is even better.

While we’re on the subject of food, I’ve still been trying to cook, and improvements are being made. A few days ago I made kastudon, which is really a Japanese dish but very popular here. Looked like this in the making:

Katsudon: pour into a bowl of rice and enjoy!

An old hobby I’ve stayed true to so far is exercise - I go to the gym/track at least 4 times a week. When I don’t feel like going though, I’ve been making an effort to go on a walk instead. This has resulted in some obscenely long walks, but I usually find something cool and helps orient myself in the city without total reliance on the subway. As a result of this, a few things I toured the past week, include City hall, Seoul public library, Seoullo, Gwanghwamun, and Ewha Women’s University (which was gorgeous). Those guys were mostly unplanned, but a few planned things I did were hiking up Namsan and going to Gwanghwamun (a second time) to watch Korea’s first world cup match. 

Given that I’ve been doing this mostly on my own, I do get lonely at times, but I’m also pretty set on not just staying in my room all day when I have nothing to do/ no one to go with. 

Friends are slowly being formed in class, though. Today we went to the National Museum of Korea, and designed some cute fans that we got to take home. I can’t see how I will make any super close bonds though, given the large age difference and limited conversation that we can have.

Tomorrow, I’m meeting a friend and we’re going to tour the Korean War Memorial - I’ll let you know how it is in my next post!

King Sejong the Great

N Seoul Tower

View from the top of Namsan

[dlandolfi]

First Week of School

I made it through my first full week of school, and I think I’m going to have a lot of fun. My class is from all over the place: Syria, Spain, Colombia, Thailand, Japan, Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, and the US. I was expecting it to be a diverse class, but wow. It was kind of strange at first being in a classroom where there was no common language, but I haven’t been stressed or overwhelmed by it. I already love my teachers, and they’re super welcoming and friendly. The age range in my class is also huge, and it’s really nice being in a learning environment where grades aren’t a concern. I know midterms and finals will be a little bit stressful (as these are basically our only two grades) but in the meanwhile I will just be enjoying my learning. I’m suspicious over how/if I’ll make a friend/friend group in the class, but the four hours we spend together has been a great time. 

In addition to the main class, I signed up for a pronunciation class that hasn’t started yet, and I have a tutor with two other Yale students. The tutor has been kind of questionable so far (especially given the price we’re paying for it) but we’ll see how it goes. 

I’ve finally gotten into a solid routine which consists of going to class, the gym, watching k dramas, reading, cooking (sortof), and studying. This has been more than enough to keep me busy, and I’m glad I fit in as many toursity before school started as I did. I’m currently experimenting with cooking, and although I wasn’t planning on doing it, nor do I know how to, I don’t really like the idea of going every night to eat. So I’ve only been making some pretty basic things right now, like beans and pasta, but I hope to get more sophisticated. It is quite hard though, because on top of my lacking skills, the kitchen is very limited. 

A Tasty Meal by David Landolfi

Besides getting in a routine/school, I’ve been exploring when I have larger chunks of time, doing some fun things with Light fellows, and having talks with religious people who urge my presence at their church. The people in Seoul who hand out fliers/advertisements, intentional don’t hand them to foreigners I’m pretty sure, but for these religious groups I think its the opposite. At first you think they want to have an innocent conversation and you say to yourself ‘wow, this is so nice.’ Then you realize they’re either trying to get you to join their cult or have you buy something, and you have to find the quickest escape route. I somehow keep ending these interactions by giving them my contact information, and regretting it the second the walk away. 

I’ll end my rant for now. It’s been quite a while since my last blog post, but I decided that I wanted to get through my first full week of school before writing again.  I’ll leave u with some notes and pictures.

Notable foods I’ve tried since last blog post 

-Butter Janjeorim bibimbap: Apparently a childhood favorite - butter, meat, rice, and a few vegetables. Mix it around and you have urself a tasty meal!

-Sundae (Pronounced soondae): A super cheap street food that’s basically a full meal. All you need to know is that their blood sausages, don’t look into how they’re made any further or you won’t want to eat them

-Tonkatsu: Japanese-style pork cutlet that’s really common in Korea. Had it with oodong noodles which were also quite tasty

-Tonight I’m going to Korean all-you-can-eat barbecue and I could not be more excited. I’ll let you know if it lives up to the hype.

views from the han

cute outdoor mall in on insadong-gil

me after finishing hike up gwanaksan with Keaton (Light fellow)

entrance to seoraesom (a cute little artificial island)

[dlandolfi]

First Week

After that crazy flight delay, I finally made it to the Incheon Airport! I practically lost a day (I was supposed to fly in at 8 am but got here at 8pm instead), but thankfully I didn’t need much time to find the (shady) hotel I was staying at. The bus took me from Incheon to a block away from where I was staying in Seoul - about an hour in total. That night I took it easy and just got some Burger King, wanting to rest for my big day tomorrow.

My hotel next to a pile of trash (rightfully so)

Before leaving the US, all I had done was book a hotel for two nights, and I was planning on finding housing when I got there. I was hoping two days was enough time, but since I lost a day from travel, I tried getting it done in one. Needless to say, this did not end up working out, so I added another day to my stay at the hotel. I was very stressed for multiple reasons while I was looking for housing, which I will elegantly bullet point below:

- I did not research any places beforehand, so I was aimlessly walking around for a long time.

- I basically put myself on a clock of two days to find something (i dont recommend)

- Ideally, I wanted a hasukjib, which, for those of you dont know, is an apartment where a middle aged korean woman makes breakfast and dinner for you, and reportedly helps you with your korean homework. I learned quickly that these tend to be more low tech than the other options available (not many postings online), and less official looking. They did have phone numbers but...

-I didnt (and still dont) have a cell phone with a korean phone number or international plan, so calling was out of the question

- I dont speaking the *** language and I was doing this without a translator

So, keeping these in mind, I tried finding a hasukjib the old-fashined way - walking in and asking if there were any rooms available. Simple enough right? 

Not quite - although hasukjibs are bountiful, I had no clue where to go when I arrived to one. The buildings are usually just all bedrooms, and I didnt want to knock randomly on a door hoping it was the ajumma’s (the name koreans give to the middle aged woman). So, without a phone or a clue where to find the owners, I decided to circle around three blocks with a lot of hasukjibs for the entire day, hoping that the women would miraculously appear outside. A few did, and with my extremely broken/nonexistent korean I managed to tour a couple rooms that day. Unfortunately the ones I saw really weren’t that great, and I was down on my luck. By the end of the day, I had toured two rooms, and at this rate I just wasnt going to find housing. I spent the next morning refreshed and determined, but got absolutely nowhere. Commence real panic mode. I tried downloading some apps that could let me make international calls for free. Sounds too good to be true, and it was. I had gotten practically nowhere, and I only had one more night at hotel. I sucked it up, became a sheep, and looked online for goshiwons. And wouldn’t you know it - within the same hour I lost my pride, I purchased a goshiwon room with ease. Some may say I rushed into a contract, I would say I wanted shelter. 

It hasnt been that bad yet either. Although I am living in a closet, the owners are very friendly and the vibe has been very nice. Another reason I wanted a hasukjib originally was because I heard you eat communal meals with your suitemates, which sounded really good for language improvement. I was worried goshiwons would get too lonely and wouldn’t talk to anyone. There is truth to this, but having full independence has been quite nice. Also, the owners are always willing to talk, and I can definitely use that to my advantage. 

What my room basically looks like

Other than that dilemma, touring around has been really fun.  I’ve gone out with other light fellows a handful of time so far, but I’ve spent most of the time wandering around by myself.  I go with the intent of trying to find one or two things (like a bookstore) and then walk around for the rest of the day and see what I run into. For example one day I found this really nice park the neighborhood next to mine:

I’ve half purposefully - half unpurposefully been doing this without a phone, which means I’ve beem reading paper maps and street signs the entire time - you should try it sometime. It’s actually very refreshing, but it also means I get lost occasionally - which I am ok with. Since my phone is currently locked, I can only use WiFi right now. There is public Wifi all around Seoul, but it isn’t that great, so i’ve kinda just stopped trying to connect and dont use my phone when I’m not in my room. I’ve learned this is very different from the culture here, where people are GLUED to there phones everywhere.

TL;DR : I’m settled in, and waiting for school to start in two days

I’ve written way too much probably, so I’ll just leave you with pictures of things I’ve seen/done 

Entrance to Geongbokgung 

Me at a Kakao story next to big little ryan

Buddhist statue at the National Museum of Korea

Flowers at dongdaemun

dongdaemum

tasty 닭갈비

[dlandolfi]

Getting to Seoul

Already 20 hours into my trip, I’m sitting at a cafe in the Paris CDG airport and I’ve finally decided to start a blog. After flying AirFrance from JFK to Paris, I had a five hour layover until my next flight from Paris to Incheon. The airport and the airplane were huge (the plane had two floors!), and thankfully both had really good food as far as traveling goes. I successfully departed on my second leg of the trip, but two and a half hours in the pilot announced the plane had a technical difficulty, and we had to go back to Paris - a total of five hours wasted. Adding on to this, they pushed the flight back four hours after re-arriving, which I am currently struggling through. I received a 15 euro food voucher for my troubles at least, but even this wasn’t so great, as I ended up having trauma flashbacks to maximizing my meal swipe at Durfee’s  

As I write this first blog post, thunder and lightning are ominously rattling my terminal. I’m positive my flight is going to get delayed AGAIN and I’m wondering if fate is trying tell me something. Despite this, my ‘immersion’ so far has been fun, and I was able to reassure myself of why I want to go to Korea so badly. I couldn’t help but smile while I boarded my second plane surrounded by Koreans of all ages, and later when I tried to have a conversation with the French/Korean student sitting next to me. I already know the next three months are going to be incredible (that is, if I can make it there).

my term