7/22-7/24

The last three days have been filled with classes and lots of sight seeing. On Monday after classes we headed off to Itawang to meet up with another ONU student studying in Seoul at a different university. We had dinner and dessert while just hanging out before making our way back to Hanyang. Tuesday we once again had classes and that evening we met up with a very large group of Hanyang students at a local bar to celebrate a birthday. After an hour at the bar, we grabbed the last subway train towards Hongdae and hit the clubs. We spent a few hours in Club Cocoon before catching a taxi back to fall asleep around 4 am. This morning was the latest morning we have had so far here in Seoul as we didn't get moving till around noon but once we left we made the most of our short day. Susie, Morgan, and I went first to Gangnam to check out a few shops and show Susie around the Samsung D'light building with all of the new Samsung electronics available for the public to play with. We then caught a subway towards Insadong for a little more shopping and temple visits before heading back towards campus, stopping for ice cream and waffles on the way back. Btw, ice cream and waffles-best idea Korea has had yet! Tomorrow is another day of class with a presentation during my second class and lots of preparation for final exams on Friday. Only 4 day left!!

7/18-7/21

The past few days have been crazy as our time here in South Korea is coming to an end. We have been trying to experience as much of Korea as possible before we head back to the US. Thursday evening after classes, a few of us headed over to Wangsimni station to the Jimjibang located above the train station. This traditional Korean bath house was a very interesting experience. We started in the fully clothed co-ed sections of the jimjibang where they have saunas, sleeping rooms, an oxygen room, and a snack bar. There were 2 different hot saunas with temperatures of around 60 and 80 degrees Celsius and a cold room much like a freezer with the walls lined with ice. After an hour or so moving from room to room as we sweat like crazy, we decided to head off to the baths. The bath area had 4  pools of different temperatures, three warm with one being located outside on the roof of the building and another at a chilly 19 degrees Celsius. Along with the pools were two more saunas, one wet and one dry. Our trip to the bath house was a wonderful experience and very relaxing. Friday after class we headed off on another adventure, this time to the site of the 1988 Olympics, or at least the main venue. We were able to walk inside of the stadium that houses the track and was the site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the games. Walking down onto the track and seeing the stands as an athlete would have all those years ago was amazing. I decided to run a lap on the track before we headed out looking for the swimming pool and gymnasium also located in the same general area. We found the pool however, I wasn't allowed to actually get in and swim, not sure why since there were prices on the wall behind the front desk and there were obviously people going in to swim but the front desk people didn't really speak any English so I didn't push the issue. The night came to a close with a stop at a local bar to try fruit soju which turned out to be pretty good even though normal soju has a horrible after taste. Saturday morning started out early since we had to meet in front of the Hanyang gymnasium by 8 am to leave for the last Hanyang sponsored field trip, the overnight trip to the Boryeong mud festival located about 3 hours from Seoul. The festival was lots of fun but very crowded and located right along the Yellow Sea so when one got tired of being muddy they could simply walk into the waves and get washed off. There were mud slides, pits, and even a mud prison. We spent our day here until we met again with the group to head off for our location for the night. The buses drove us out to a summer camp location where we spent the night, with no beds or hot water. It was a fun night with music playing, a bonfire, and lots of students everywhere having a good time. Sunday morning was not as much fun when they woke us up over the intercom at 8:20 am to announce it was breakfast, a very Korean breakfast of rice, some sort of eggs, and other dishes that I would not associate as breakfast food. We then started the long drive back to Seoul on very quiet buses as everyone slept even though we didn't leave for Seoul until 11 am. Tomorrow starts the last week of classes and our last week to explore Seoul so we hope to get in a very busy week of adventures.

7/16 and 7/18

Tuesday was another day of classes which are quickly winding down-only 6 more to go. That evening we were invited to the home of one of the girls who will be coming to ONU in the fall. We arrived at her apartment home after a half hour ride from the city on a very crowded subway and bus to find that her mom had cooked us a very large Korean meal set up in the traditional style. The food was amazing and we had a great time sampling home made Korean dishes and spending time in a Korean home. We had bulgogi-beef, chicken, vegetables wrapped in thinly sliced potatoes maybe?, rice with many different spices and vegetables added, sweet potato noodles, and cooked vegetables. Once we helped clean the table off after we were done eating, her mom brought us fruit and some sort of  pastry with pecans that was delicious. During this time we decided to share a little American tradition with our Korean friends and taught them how to make s'mores over a candle. Koreans do not have graham crackers or our type of marshmallows so a few of us had brought along the proper ingredients. Our friends found s'mores to be amazing and the process just as cool. We stuffed ourselves full of marshmallows and chocolate before heading back towards Hanyang. This morning we went on another field trip. This time we traveled to a traditional Korean folk village where we spent a few hours exploring and eating traditional foods. We went from there to the Samsung D'light gallery which is an exposition center for Samsung to show off their most recent inventions and allow the public to play with their products before having to purchase them. We had a very limited time at Samsung as we had to return to the university but a few of us are planning to return in a few days to fully enjoy the new technology here in Korea.

Dinner at Stella's

S'mores for dessert

the folk village

tying my wish onto the ropes which will be burned at the start of the new year allowing the wishes to come true

the river that ran through the middle of the village

Samsung D'light-there was a camera that would take your picture and then display it on a photo board

Gyeongju and another amazing week

This past week has been another amazing experience here in South Korea. Classes are going great-so much more relaxed then classes at ONU and the trips have been so much fun. On Wednesday the 10th Hanyang brought us to Seoul's local water park/theme park (we had to choose one to go to). I went to the water park and had a great time on the slides, lazy river, and at their hot springs. It was a lot like an American water park just filled with Koreans. Thursday and Friday were back to classes with a little exploration throughout the city during the evenings. Friday night was the International Party hosted by Hanyang at a local bar. There were really great snacks, finally we got some fresh fruit! it is really expensive here. A dance floor was located on the bottom floor of the bar while the upper floor was a great space to hang out and talk to people. We went from the bar to Baskin Robbins which has so many choices all of which looked delicious. Saturday morning another ONU student and I got up early to catch a KTX bullet train out of the city to the southeastern area of Korea. We spent the weekend at Geongju which is the ancient capital of one of Korea's first dynasties. The city was full of history and surrounded by so many beautiful mountains. We spent Saturday visiting temples and other historical places in Geongju such as the National Museum and a Lotus flower field. We spent the night in a hostel before heading out again on Sunday for another day of exploring. After our traveling on Saturday we decided to spend Sunday hiking around Mt. Namsan so we caught a bus to Samneunggol Valley and found a trail with spectacular views and many sites of historical significance along the way to the top. It took us around 3 hours or so to make it to the top of the mountain where we were rewarded with wonderful views of the mountains surrounding us. We choose to travel down a different path than the one we climbed up and quickly found why our first path is the path most often taken. There were 3 different sections on our climb down that required climbing down a rope that had been hung from nearby trees. When we finally made it back to Gyeongju we spent a few hours exploring downtown before we had to catch a bus back to the KTX station to make our train back to Seoul. This trip was an amazing experience and definitely an experience that I will not forget for a long time. Unfortunately I have no pictures currently from Sunday because my camera died on Saturday but I will download pictures from my friend sometime later this week.

Sunday 7/7 through Wednesday 7/10

Hi! I know it has been a while since I last posted but things have been busy here in Seoul. On Sunday we spent a few hours in Gangnam before heading over to Hongdae to meet up with the summer school program to attend a Nanta cooking show. The show was very few words but highly entertaining and enjoyable. Monday was a boring day of classes and studying and completing a presentation for my afternoon class on Tuesday. A few of the ONU students went to the IMAX theater downtown and watched World War Z in 4D. They told me I missed an amazing experience; honestly, I think they missed the amazing experience I had of not having to walk up and down the hill between our dorms and the theater. Tuesday was great. I got back a test from my first class and received a 100% but don't think I'm bragging-i still missed 10 points, the professor decided to put a 10 point curve on it since it was our first test and my presentation in my second class went well. That evening we met with two future ONU polar bears and went to a pizza place that is styled more like American pizza than Korean pizza. (Koreans put everything on their pizzas: potato wedges, corn, honey, and really no tomato sauce.) After pizza, we headed up the N Seoul Tower once again to give the Korean girls their first view of their city from the tower. It was beautiful to see the city all bright and shinning in the night. This morning we headed out for another field trip with the summer program. Today they allowed us to pick entrance into either Caribbean Bay-a water park or Everland-a theme park. We decided to go to the water park and spent most of the day running from one slide to the next to the hot springs and sauna. We got back to campus around 8 pm and headed off in search of a quick dinner before coming back to a few hours of studying for classes again tomorrow.

Caribbean Bay wave pool with waves so large you had to rent a life jacket to enter- I took this picture at closing time so they had already emptied the pool

dumplings for dinner

July 4,5, and 6

Wow it seems like it has been weeks since I last posted a blog but yet it has only been a few days. Between 12 hours of classes, shopping, studying, and hiking it has been a busy 3 days. Thursday was filled mostly with classes and studying as it was the first day that we really got started in our classes. We celebrated Independence Day with a wonderful dinner of Burgers, fries and a soda but the party plans got canceled-at least for me-due to a torrential downpour that began at 5 and refused to let up all evening. Friday began much the same way with class again until 4. However, we met as a group at 7 with current ONU students as well as our exchange students for this coming year to enjoy a meal of Korean BBQ with a little Soju and Korean beer-neither of which I would really recommend. From there we moved on to Korean karaoke which is a little different than in America. In Korea, each group pays for the rental of a room which is set up much like a sound booth and they sing just to their friends for an hour or two. At this point we decided to jump on the subway and head across town to a night market only open from 10:30 pm to 5:00 am. We aren't sure if we ever made it to the actual night market but the stores we looked around in were very interesting and shopping so late at night was just a new experience for all of us. We finally made it back to the dorms around 2 am and quickly headed off to bed since we were planning on going hiking the next morning. At 10 am we set off for Mt. Yongmasan for a hike to the top and a view of the waterfall. After seeing the waterfall which had no water running down it, we decided to hike to the top. After a few minutes on the trail we were faced with two different paths. One that went straight up a pile of almost vertical rocks or one that seemed to be a very long path to the top. At this point our group split into two and I found myself in the group heading straight up. After about an hour or hour and a half of intensive climbing and a lot of sweating, we finally reached the top and took in the beautiful site and enjoyed some ice cream pops being sold at the top. Of course once up we found a very easy and short path that we took down that only took us 20 minutes. We came back to campus for a few hours of relaxation and then headed out once more to an electronics market, a dinner of street food, and a trip to emart to begin my collection of Korean foods and snacks to bring back to the states. We met a group at the subway station on their way out to a bar and some of the group decided to join them but it is time to crash for this very tired American so good night!