Simon and Martina!

I met Simon and Martina and they were so cool! Martina was beautiful as always and Simon looked exactly the same (which is a good thing!) I took the taxi alone because my friends were too slow and walked into Cafe Lua. They were in the back at a small table and were talking to 3 of my friends already (I wanted to be first!) We ordered some ridiculously expensive drinks and just talked which was cool. They let me film some of their long-winded stories too which was nice of them. They are EXACTLY like they are on youtube in real life. I love when people don't change! They were so impressed that around 14 of us showed up in the end. They didn't think they were THAT popular, but they are! They put up with a photoshoot and an autograph signing session (where most of us didn't have paper, so we had them sign a 1,000 won bill :p ) We also learned what the music Monday would be before they did it that night. We all said goodbye to them (and I got to hug them both!) and I went off to meet my Bucheon friends for dinner and Noraebang! Inhyop and Yechan are so good at singing it's unbelievable. (We probably made them look 10x better though because our group was just terrible). The next day, I went out with Ellen to Ewha/Idae and we went shopping. This was the best trip yet! I got 3 shirts for 5 bucks each and a dress for 10 that is absolutely beautiful. I don't have any souvenirs for people yet because i'm clueless what to get. Traditional Korean souvenirs are kind of lame. Just traditional bags you can keep makeup or pens in, or like cell phone charms (which american phones don't have). I've also never found a shirt with korean on it yet and it's really disappointing! I'll find you guys souvenirs sometime though! (No chocolate mirror yet for Jen =[ ) After I went out with Ellen, she and I met up with some Korean friends and went bowling and then out to dinner. Then Junyeong took me to Namsan tower at night and it was especially beautiful because it was foggy. I had a great night and it made me never want to leave Korea! Today I go to a traditional village and will probably get to try on Hanbok!

Official Mosquito Bite Count: 27

So I've still been getting eaten alive by mosquitos, but it seems like I'm the only one haha. My family has been Mosquito-spraying my room every night...but it doesn't seem to be helping at all. Yesterday I went with 준영 to guanhamoon (sp?) and it was really fun but sweltering hot. I saw statues of General Lee and his boat (and was explained the whole story behind him and why he's famous). He basically was a genius when it came to predicting weather and forming strategy. He made his boats to look like turtles after he saw one crawling past one day. It had a completely covered top, the top had spikes to prevent being boarded, they were made strong enough to fight off cannon fire, and the front of the boat had a dragon head to spit fire on the Japanese enemy. He won and became famous for his genius. I then saw a statue of King Sejong (sp?) who created Hangul and was a great ruler. There were also some astrology statues as well. We then went to the gates of a sort of fortress. The gates were guarded by traditional-looking guards and the fortress was backed by mountains. The Koreans believed that this was the best way to protect a city. Funny fact though: this fortress/wall was burned down three years ago by a man protesting against the government. I couldn't even tell though, because it was so beautiful. We got to go inside and see a demonstration of a sort of changing of the guards I suppose. It was really cool and the weaponry they had was like nothing I'd seen before. I was really tired from such a long and hot morning, but school was actually the best class I've had in Korea yet. The language is now starting to click. We're onto our third different teacher and this one is definitely the best. She knows a bit of English, so I can ask questions. She also knows Japanese...so when I mix up Korean and Japanese words, she knows what I was trying to say and corrects me :p I just went home yesterday and had dinner with my host grandparents at a restaurant. I had black bean noodles for the 4th time in Korea and supposedly that's pretty often because my host mom laughs at me every time I have them. Supposedly they're old-people food? I love their grandparents though because they always smile at me and feed me yummy things. They treat me the most like an adult than anyone here. They give me coffee (which is a real "adult" drink here) and just offer me adult food which is actually kind of icky but also flattering to be offered. Anyway, today I'm meeting Diane and people in Ewha and then headed out to Bucheon! I meet Simon and Martina at three and then Bucheon friends afterward! I'm excited and hope they bring Spudgy! <3

Record Breaking Weather!

Yesterday I had a test and school as usual. The test was really hard and took me a while because it was memorization of dialogues we did in class and I don't memorize them because I just memorize how to use the words differently. I also have trouble spelling in korean and always mix up the ㅓand ㅗ sounds in words =[ After school I came straight home and I'm glad I did! It started POURING and no one had umbrellas. I had to call my host mom to pick me up from the subway station! We went to this really hip Asian fusion restaurant and had tons of different things that were chinese, vietnamese, japanese, and korean. I even ate buffalo chicken wings with chopsticks (which is so difficult!) Today we had another test in school that went better. Class started late too because the teachers' former classes ended late. It was nice starting a half an hour later! The lesson really confused me, so I called up 준영 to help tutor me. We went to a nice chinese restaurant, and to get coffee and ice cream and he paid for it all! I think he likes me because he's doing all of this for free and he also gives me hand massages to keep me paying attention haha.

The main news though is about all of this rain! It is horrible and feels like you're taking a swim in the Han River! My host mom said that it is the most and hardest rainfall she has ever seen in her lifetime (44 years). The Han River overflowed and is completely flooding Subway Stations. The streets are like rivers in some places, and in most others there are impassable puddles. It is crazy how much water can come from the sky! Supposedly 6 died in a landslide and so far 13 are reported dead. It's also the first time I've seen lightening and thunder in Korea. Usually it just rains. At least this is another first I get to experience in Korea! Tomorrow our supporter meetings were cancelled because it's so dangerous. I'm sort of hoping school will be too because I need a break! 6 hours of studying today! And I want to learn a traditional Korean game that I saw my family playing!

Great things can happen in a subway!

Today I was just minding my own business on the subway and an old "blind" begger came up to me and kept tapping me for money. This Korean boy came up and helped to get him away and was really sweet. He told me that he'd studied in Iowa for a year and had studied English a lot and very dilligently. His English was perfect...no accent...and he even used slang! It was so cool. We talked more and I ended up even missing my stop because we were talking on and off in Korean and English (and maybe a little because he was cute...) He asked for my number to maybe meet up later and I gave it too him because he seemed like a great guy. He texted me later and asked me to dinner. I wanted to feel safer and more comfortable so I had him bring a friend and I brought Caroline and we double dated. They took us to this awesome Korean steak place in Ewha and then out for smoothies. They paid for dinner and we paid for the smoothies. We talked a lot about Korea and its culture, and the differences, and some language things. I really did learn a lot. He took me to my station and we got a quick ice cream before parting. He was real sweet and offered to tutor me any day for free or take me anywhere I wanted to go. They offered to get us into a military camp or into the UNICEF headquarters. It was really nice  =]

Korean games hurt!

I can't believe I haven't gone over this yet. One of these times I'll just devote a post to things different between america and Korea, but for now, just games. There are all sorts of games, and i'll just mention them briefly, but all of them end with some sort of pain haha. There is Kai Bai Bo that is just like rock paper scissors...but the punishment is more than just losing. From what I've seen, they will either flick your forehead (which is painful!), slap your wrist with two fingers, or slap your hand as hard as they can. They also will Indian Bap....which is hitting you on the back basically :p The point is to keep playing until it is too painful to go on. Other games are like a sort of thumb game. One person calls out a number of thumbs up and if there are that many thumbs up, they get to smack the others. Another game is sort of like Hot Hands that we play in America. You keep slapping each others' hand until it is so red and painful you give in. I haven't seen ddibiddibidip played in Korea yet which makes me sad, but i'm sure there would be pain as well :p That's about it for games. I'm sure there are way more and more pain methods, but that's what i've seen here :p

Bucheon Camp!

Over the weekend from Saturday to Sunday we traveled to Bucheon for a camp. (Surprisingly on the same street as Cafe Lua where we'll meet simon and martina next week). We all got on a bus at 8:20 in the morning and traveled to a hostel. My room was intermixed with Korean girls and was the only one without beds. We slept on mats on the floor, but I really didn't mind because I'd always wanted that Korean kind of experience. We went to a big room and learned who our intermixed groups would be. We all got bandanas and mine was blue. My group was actually really sweet (and had cute guys!) We had a bonding game to learn each others' names, and also one where we had to think of a creative way for us all to have our feet off of the ground. We made a human hamburger :p We all had lunch in our groups (just some bbimbap) and went on a mission. The first step was to make a team cheer. We used the song fire and adapted it to our team four...and we also said urichechalaga (sp?) translating to we are the best :p We were the first ones to pass that step and went on for our mission at a museaum. Lucky for us, there was a comic book/anime convention happening at the time and many people were dressed up (which was sooo cool). There were lots of exhibits that we saw, but the main one we were to see was a brain exhibit. It was a big inflatable room that was a "brain" and it was the brain of an airhead. (get it? haha)  It had airplanes and lots of other daydreams and was fun to bounce off of. Our next part of the mission was to make our own brains. We made a head on a piece of paper and passed our heads around and wrote one first impression about everybody in their respective brains. When mine was done it was really sweet. People said that I was a good dancer, "have big eye", that I was beautiful, and that I was "so beautiful I thought you was movie star". It made me happy. We had presentations back with everybody and ours was sort of a fail. We didn't really know we had to do one, so we just made it up :p The prizes were pretty good though! They gave out neckrests and shower/makeup kits. We snuck out and went to noraebang with our group and it was awesome bonding time. The guys were great at singing! That night we all stayed up and bonded until 2 in the morning. There was truth or dare, and after I hung out with Caroline and Dean talking to inhyop, yechan, and a few others. They were so sweet :p We had talent show practice for the talent show the next day. It was full of cool people singing, dancing and lip synching and lots more. It was cool. No one was amazingly talented which made everyone feel better. Caroline and I did a dance to a mix (it was weird not dancing with Kayla =[ ) The highlights were a large group that did a dance to Roly Poly, a Taekwando group, and Tom who shaved his beard on stage :p We went for a final meal together at a Chinese restaurant and I ate a quail egg! I was also given a fork -_-"  But it was cool because they had a room for the korean students and a room for the american ones...but we just ignored it and bonded with the Koreans. I think i'll be meeting with some of the girls I met next weekend! Leaving was really sad because I won't see most of them ever again =[. And even after all of this I went on a date with Dean :p  We went to see Harry Potter, and went to Pizza Hut. We did this because we got foreigner cards and at certain places the cards give you a major discount! It was a sweet night and made me very happy =]

Hottest Days Ever!

So I haven't blogged in a while because I've been really busy with school studying, family, and supporter sorts of things. On Tuesday we all went to a palace and it was really beautiful except for how sweltering hot it was outside! There was supposedly a warning that people shouldn't be out more than a half an hour without shade or there would be a risk for skin cancer...whoops...lol. The palace was great, but they wouldn't let anyone go inside. They could just look from the outside, and every building was essentially the same in color, size, and architecture. We had homemade kimbap there and headed off to school. It's hard to remember 5 days ago actually! I can't remember doing anything extremely interesting for a few days except a bit of shopping with the family. Once again, it is really depressing to be a normal sized american in Korea because nothing fits! What's worse is the fact that most stores don't let you try things on before you buy them. I bought a romper the other day and I really don't think it suits me at all and am definitley regretting it! I also went out another day to Namdaemoon to shop. I got cute 7 dollar sneakers, a 10 dollar dress and cardigan set, and some basic tee-shirts and a skirt. I'm making out pretty well! I had to withdraw money for the first time and it really killed me inside. I had to use 20 of it for T-money as well because the initial 35,000 won was definitely not enough. (T-money is put onto a card that can be used in subways, convenience stores, and taxis). More and more school happened. (I can now use my new grammar rules to form sentences!) And yesterday we went to the Dragon Jimjilbang and it was amazing! Supposedly the nicest one in Seoul. We went out with a group of the guys, young-min, me, ellen, gwen, and nhi. It wasn't nearly as awkward this time! We went out afterward and I also had my first taxi experience! It only cost 5,000 won (5 bucks) to be taken home from Hongdae in a nice taxi! I can get used to it here :p Today we had our mid-evaluation and it made me really sad. We only talked about the funny things that happened to us in korea, but it's sad that in just 3 weeks it'll all be over. I want to come back desperately. Many times I wish I had chosen to do the semester or the year program. It would be really difficult, but I feel like I've only just gotten started here and there are so many more things to go do and see! It asked us to reflect on ourselves and I actually did. I think I've grown more mature and independent. I feel like a college kid with real freedom, and it will be so depressing to go home to a high school that knows everything that's going on and is just waiting to get people in trouble. Let me stay longer, mom and dad!