Korea Demands Your Attention (and won't give it back)

This is Seoul, South Korea:

You may have noticed. Look back at the posts I made when I first arrived. I set out to keep a consistent blog of my travels and ended up in a whirlpool of activities that made touching a computer for more than 20 minutes sheer blasphemy.

In that time I spent a lot of money, saw a lot of things, went out and flowed with the rhythm of the city day and night. A typical day for two weeks straight consisted of walking around and seeing what made Seoul tick - be it monuments, a show, food (both on and off the street), shopping, Buddhist temples, ancient royal palaces, and most importantly, the people. After I was done doing all of these things during the day I would take a nap then get up and go out into the neon wash of Seoul's night life. It is not only the people who live here as native Koreans but other exchange students who are pivotal to giving my experience context. We learn together what it means to be somewhere we've never been, no matter how nice whatever we left behind is. The other foreigners come from places like Stockholm, Paris, Nice, Bangkok, Beijing, Holland, India, Ghana, Italy, Finland - where do I stop with this list? These are places I dreamed of seeing, with people I dreamed of meeting, and here I am. Before this trip the canvas in my mind that I called "The World" was blank with the blue skies and fields from where I had grown up my whole life.



Now that has all changed. All of us have so far only met some Koreans, mainly dealt with the language barrier and therefore been at a disadvantage towards meeting so many who aren't good with English. The barrier is hard work and every day is some sort of work and so this is how it becomes. But this is all soon to change. We have started language classes and though I studied the language as much as one reasonably could before leaving, I find much to my frustration that my skills have splashed against the aforementioned barrier like water on rock. We're putting ourselves in more situations that require us to know Korean. It's one thing I've learned since being here that to truly separate yourself from the people is to spend your entire stay in a foreign place expecting people to adapt to you and not the other way around.

Adapting to such a different culture is easier said than done. It requires serious effort but the other alternative would be dissatisfaction and homesickness. This process of adapting is a two-way street however. I feel being in such a tiny group of Americans has really opened my eyes to the way I am perceived by others as a representative of what some consider "the most important country in the world". This is an arguable sentiment in my opinion, but interesting none the less.

I showed some Korean friends from my English teaching class my home-town in N.Y., a small place which is incredibly dull but picturesque. They said "Wow! The American dream!" It was an old term that I thought might have died somewhere between the 30's and the 50's. It made me question whether the American dream might be something that exists everywhere else but in America. Around where I live it seems as if such a sentiment would be laughable and received in the most jaded sense imaginable.



But that's a discussion for another day. Right now my only goal is to see if each day for the next week I can make it through spending less than 10,000 Won (the equivalent of about $10 in America). It's expensive here and I am a little horrified at what sort of bills I will have racked up in the coming months.

Also today was a sad day. Our program advisor Danbee Kim, who has been nothing but understanding of my antics, the worst of which being when I missed our planned excursion to Gyeongju (I will return when the weather is better) and the most common of which being when I won't answer my phone or call her on accident, has suddenly announced her departure from I.S.A. (I like to think it wasn't because of anything I might have done).

From the Left: Samantha Marquez, Danbee Kim, Jassmin Penado, Diana Ngo, Abby Cryan, Derek Koebrick, and myself.
International Study Abroad (I.S.A.) Spring 2012

Regardless, I am sure our new advisor will be really nice and hopefully as accommodating. Its her first time with an I.S.A. group and we will do our best to make her less intimidated of a new and unique job such as the one being passed on to her.

But, alas. I must thank Danbee for many things. Class registration, times when I overslept, and oh - who could forget this gem:

Winner: Blue team

That's right. Danbee went ahead and secured us some V.I.P. tickets to one of Seoul's most hilarious and talked-about show, Nanta. There was knife-juggling, all sorts of fire, people getting stuck in trash cans (Diana Ngo, one of my friends, couldn't quite help out the performer with that), and insane drum solos. I made it up to Danbee by winning the dumpling competition for the I.S.A. record book.

That same night, before the cooking performance of course, she treated us all to the best dinner I have had in Seoul - no questions asked. She came up with the idea after I had initially said how I like to eat spicy things (see the Jjimdak dish from my last post). This heavenly meal consisted of spicy octopus referred to in Korean as Nahkchi along with Kimchi octopus pancake. Danbee warned and prepared us all for the spiciness that would ensue, and I upped the ante by ordering us one bottle of soju.

What came next was the tastiest thing I've had in I don't even know how long. The nahkchi was mixed with bibimbap and though the pancake was absolute heaven, the thrill of meeting my spicy match in the heated battle of the year was enough to have me leaving more pancake for them and more fire for myself.

Octopus Pancake, Nahkchipajeon, Photo Credit goes to:
travelingbuddies.wordpress.com

Unfortunately I did not bring a camera along with me that time as part of my philosophy of experiencing first and photos second. The photo from Jassmin Penado and Samantha Marquez's travel blog seems to tactfully evade the real show-stopping fire that was nahkchi bibimbap. In a move of undeserved generosity, Danbee pulled us out of the hell fire with a stop to the corner store for some banana milk.

And so that night, like a lot of the other great nights and days courtesy of our program, is the reason why I will miss our advisor. International Study Abroad higher-ups, if you're reading this, give Danbee Kim an employee of the month award or something. She covered all our bases between work and play without the slightest irritation. Due to her patience, I feel like I'm playing while at work, studying and thriving in a city that never sleeps.
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For future reference, make sure you've eaten something good before reading this blog.
You've chosen the wrong country to learn more about if you can't get your greedy hands on something like this:

 This Sundae is one of the slightly more adventurous foods, but when weighing risk

and reward with food, you ought to take more chances in the name of your taste-buds.

Okay okay, enough torture with food. In the meantime though this has been what I've been doing...

Staying warm

Saying Hi to the neighbors

Strolling through campus

Meeting new faces  (Hello Inhye!)

Eating college kid food, About 5 dollars a plate.

Sleeping between class

Listening to new music, in a new place:

Much love to all my family and friends, and all you who read and are interested in the world.
-B