Saturday, August 15, 2009

This morning I had a few hours before we needed to leave for the airport so I packed and then walked into Sinchon to do a little more shopping. I also got some sandwiches and pastries from Paris Baguette cafe. I got back to the dorm (after a sweaty walk uphill in 90 degree, humid weather) around 1:00. We had already checked out of our rooms so I hung out with my fellow Simmons classmates in the lobby until 2:00 when one of the Yonsei students arrived to bring us to the bus stop. While I was waiting I had my sandwich and pastry and bought one last ice cream cone novelty at the convenience store.

There was a lot of traffic so it took about 15 minutes to get to the bus stop even though it's only about a 1/2 mile outside the school gate. We waited about 10 minutes until the airport shuttle arrived. It made a couple more stops and then went straight to the airport, which is about 45 minutes away. We checked in, went through customs, etc. and waited for our 6:15 flight. The Incheon airport is brand new and really nice. There were a ton of seats near the gate and the terminal had high ceilings and glass walls.

Our flight back was actually quite pleasant. The in-flight entertainment system was working this time so I watched 3 movies and listened to some music. Like the flight out we got 2 full meals and a big snack. We got to Atlanta around 6:00, which was the same time we had left Seoul. Our flight to Boston then left at 9:50 and we got to Boston a little after midnight. In total I think we experienced 37 hours of "Saturday." That made up for the Friday night we lost on the way over.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Today was my last class! Prior to class I had my wonderful cafeteria breakfast. The main course was mini hot dogs in a sweet sauce with onions. Kind of like the Flo's sauce, only not as good. Sausage is popular here, as is spam, cabbage, seaweed, tofu, bean paste (for desserts) various types of kimchi, rice, noodles and all kinds of fish and meat. For treats, frozen yogurt, ice cream, waffles, and donuts are becoming very popular. Often times they are topped with chocolate or fruit. Yummy.

Anyway, we had two guest speakers from the Yonsei Library at the end of class who talked about their experiences as librarians. It was very interesting and a good way to end class. In Korea, many librarians just have a BA (you can major in library science as an undergrad) and once you get a job out of college, you almost always work at that library your entire life. It's like that in many fields, though I suspect people in technology and biomedical fields have more opportunities to move around.

After class I took the subway to city hall station and got a waffle topped with chocolate from a vendor. The vendor made the waffles right there and then he spread a nutella-likes substance on it and some other syrup, folded it in half, and then warmed it in the waffle maker. They give you the folded waffle in a little wrapper so you can eat it easily. I ate mine on my walk to Seoul Plaza. Along the way I spotted Mr. Donut and stopped to try one. Mine looked like a regular plain donut on the outside, but the inside was bright red (strawberry flavored) and doughy. The outside was coated with dehydrated strawberry flakes. It was really good and I can't figure out how the inside was soft and red and the outside was golden colored and firmer.

Seoul Plaza has a ton of fountains and since it was nearly 90 degrees and sunny there were a ton of kids running through them. I felt liking getting wet too since it was so hot. There are also beautiful flower gardens at the plaza so I took a bunch of pictures of those. I then continued walking to one of the palaces and walked all over the palace grounds. I chose that palace because it is supposed to be the best architecturally, however there is almost no shade and it was so hot out. I stayed for an hour, but would have stayed longer if I wasn't so hot. There is a smaller palace near city hall that seems to have a lot of trees so I wished that I had stopped by that one instead.

After siteseeing at the palace I walked a block to Insadong shopping area. I had visited that area a week ago, but went back to buy a few more things. I also got kiwi smoothie that was really good. It was fresh kiwi and yogurt. They have good smoothies here - they're almost always made with fresh fruit instead of a mix. I headed back to Sichon (the area near school) after shopping and did a little more shopping there and then hung out at a coffee shop/cafe called A Twosome Place, which is a local chain. I had iced green tea and frozen yogurt with green tea syrup. They were both very refreshing and just what I needed after walking around all day. I read a book there for about an hour and then met my classmates across the street for our goodbye dinner.

We had the dinner at a restaurant near campus and ate roasted pork belly, the assorted side dishes, and two buckwheat noodle dishes. We also had the usual Cass (popular Korean beer) and soju (not sure if that's spelled right), a Korean liquor that tastes like vodka. I had drank Cass several times before, but it was my first time trying soju. It was quite strong, but people love it over here...it's really the only thing you see people drinking.

After dinner we went upstairs to the Oktoberfest restaurant/bar and everyone got a beer and talked for a few hours. We didn't order anymore food, but they brought out some bar food, which was breadsticks with a really good sweet, whipped butter, and then an assortment of dried octopus, dried squid, pistachios, and banana chips. I liked all the dried fish, but it was really chewy so my jaw hurt by the end of the night. It was sad saying goodbye to everyone because we really have all become very comfortable with each other. At least if I ever come back to Korea I'll have some people to visit!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

This morning I brought the pastries I had purchased yesterday to class to try them out for breakfast. The first was filled with bean paste that had actual chunks of bean in it. It was good and I liked how it was more filling than a plain pastry. The second, which was purple colored, was blueberry flavored. It had a mild blueberry flavor and was nice and light and flaky. We had a typical class and then I had noodles with a fried vegetable cake in the food court at the Student Union.

At 2:00 was our visit to KERIS - an educational research institute in Seoul that is government funded. They provide electronic resources, such as grade management systems, databases, full-text articles, ebooks, interlibrary loan delivery etc. to K-12 schools and universities. We have similar services in the US, but nothing is centralized.

After our visit, Kate and I met her finance, Pete, at one of the subway stops on the other side of Seoul to search for a bbq restaurant that was supposed to be really good. We tried to take 2 cabs there and neither would take us, so walked around a bit and found guy who was working in a convenience store who spoke engligh well. He was really helpful and called the restaurant for directions and then persuaded a cab driver to take us there. It's about 15 minutes away from the subway stop on the outskirts of town which is probably why no cabs wanted to go there. On the way we drove through hundreds of flower farms - I guess they must supply all the flowers in Seoul.

At the bbq restaurant we sat at picnic tables outside under a huge tent. Apparently the restaurant is very famous because a sign outside highlighted how some pro american golfers had eaten there and a man we met while eating said that David Beckham had come as well. Each table was equipped with a metal box in the middle for holding hot coals. We ordered ribs and pork belly. They were already cooked, but we grilled them over the coals for a few minutes before eating. We also had all the usual side dishes - kimchi, cabbage, salad, etc. There was one dish that seemed to be dried vegetables in a spicy/sweet red sauce. I ate a ton of it. I loved that the veggies were very chewy, which is why I assume they had been dried or dehydrated in some way.

The man at the other end of our picnic table took a liking to us and gave us a ton of his duck, which seemed to be the specialty of the restaurant. He also showed us how to eat it - dip it on the bbq sauce (which was a semi-sweet brown sauce) and then top if with a slice of jalepeno before eating. You could also add some cabbage on top for extra flavor. The combination was quite good - savory, salty, tart, and sweet. The man kept giving us more and more duck and we felt obligated to eat it to be polite so we were all stuffed by the time we left. He also ended up paying half our bill. In general, the people in Korea are really nice and helpful and on this outing we ended up having great experiences with the nice guy at the convenience store and the guy at the bbq restaurant.

We took a taxi back to the subway station and then the subway back to the university. I convinced Kate to walk back to the dorm so at least we burned off some of the calories we consumed. We arrived at our room smelling of smoke and bbq and very full, but also very happy from our bbq adventure.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

This morning was a typical cafeteria breakfast. I can't remember exactly what we had, but it involved a little fatty beef and the usual spicy side dishes. Class was mostly lecture, which was somewhat painful, but we only have two left at this point.

For lunch we ate in the academic building where I have class. They mostly have spaghetti so I got chicken alfredo spaghetti. It was salty, of course, but good and I was starving so I ate the whole thing. After lunch we went to the Mapo Lifelong Learning Center, which is a huge community center that also has a library. The library was similar to a public library and they also offer all sorts of classes. We got to see a couple painting classes and all the women who were painting were really, really good - of profesional quality. I guess if you don't work you can spend your days painting and get really good like them. Perhaps if I don't find a job that's what I'll do...

After the visit I took the subway back to school and picked up some pastries for breakfast tomorrow morning. I did school work and ate in the cafeteria. We had the usual kimchi, some mixed veggies with a brown gelatin substance (not sure what that was...), rice with bean sprouts, seaweed wrappers and a fried egg. They use eggs a lot in cooking here. They also don't refrigerate them, which is interesting.

After dinner was more school work, but we finished our group paper so tomorrow night I'll hopefully be able to go out to dinner.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

This morning's breakfast included a potato pancake, which was pretty good and what appeared to be imitation crab meat salad. The "crab" seemed thicker and not as sweet or fishy as the crab I've had in the US so I think it may have been soy based. The soup today had a couple dumplings in it, which was new.

In class we did presentations and then had time to work on our group projects. Today was the first rainy day in Seoul. Light rain when we walked to class and heavy rain when we got out. After class I stopped by the post office and then grabbed a roll and pre-made sandwich at the convenience store and took the shuttle back to my room to eat. The sandwich had egg, pickles, lettuce, ham and what I think was honey mustard and regular mustard. I've only seen ketchup and mustard for condiments (besides all the salty and spicy Korean sauces) so I assume there was mustard mixed in with the egg, rather than mayo. For dessert I got an ice cream cone novelty.

I had wanted to see another palace, but since it was pouring out I spent the afternoon reading and doing school work. At 5:00 I took the shuttle down to the subway station and met up with my roommate Kate and her fiance, Pete, for dinner. They wanted to try grilled eel and of course I was game since I'll eat almost anything. We had directions to a certain restaurant, there are no street signs in Seoul and we couldn't find it. We went down another side street and found a restaurant that had a picture of an eel on the sign so we ate there. Everything was in Korean, but the owner spoke a little English and suggested a sushi dish and two sauteed fish dishes in addition to the eel.

I had the sushi dish, which was some mixed greens, herbs, scallions, onions and spicy sauce topped with various raw fishes. The other two dishes just had mixed greens and a women came and cooked some sort of white fish at the table in a electric saute pan. Of course there was spicy sauce on that. We were instructed to put the rice in the bowls and mix everything together. Apparently I didn't mix mine enough because the woman took my spoon and spent a few minutes mixing mine before she would let me eat it. Each table also had a built in grill and the eel was grilled on that and we could take pieces whenever we wanted.

The eel was really good - not too fishy in taste, just nice and buttery because of all the fish oils. The mixture in our bowls was also quite good, but very oniony due to the scallions and onions. We also got a ton of side dishes: some sort of egg custard, sweet cabbage leaves, various sauces, potato and cabbage kimchi, acorn squash, green peppers, salad, and octopus. Everything I tried was great. I especially loved the octopus - it was like squid - firm and not too chewy. We also liked the sweet acorn squash which was a nice contrast to the spicy food.

We took a cab back to the dorm since it was still raining and changed right away because our clothing reeked of eel and our breath smelled like onion. The cab driver must have been glad to get rid of us. To help mask the taste of onion I got a peach drink from the vending machine. It seemed to be coconut water with peach flavoring and some sort of sweet, white chunks in it - peach I think, but who knows. It was quite refreshing, though, after all the other foods I ate tonight.

Monday, August 10, 2009

This morning's cafeteria meal was rice, cabbage kimchi (in more of a tomato sauce and warm), pieces of hot dog with cabbage and carrots, scallion and onion salad, sauteed tofu and noodle soup. The thing I like the best about the cafeteria certainly isn't the quality of the food, but rather that I never know what's coming. I think the weekly menu is posted, but it's in Korean so every time I eat there it's a little adventure. All the food was good except for the scallion salad, which was a little bit strong for the morning (or really any time of the day). I only had a little of that.

Class #6 met this morning and we mostly had discussions and then time to work on our group projects that are due on Thursday. After class we ate at the food court in the student union and I had noodles in broth. It also had some veggies, like seaweed and cabbage and what I think was two triangles of tofu. After lunch Kate and I bought Yonsei University t-shirts. The student union is currently being renovated so there is a make-shift bookstore in one of the cafeterias that is closed. It has the usual bookstore gifts, except that everything was much cheaper than in the US. My t-shirt was the equivalent of about $8.

After buying our t-shirts we browsed the school stationary store and the book store and bought some postcards. We met at the main gate at 2:30 for our next library visit - Namsan Public Library. Unlike the other libraries we visited, this one wasn't too far away - only about 20 minutes by cab. It was big, but otherwise like most public libraries in the US. In general, the libraries we've visited in Korea have a ton of reading/studying space and fewer stacks of books. Some libraries had books in storage, but it seems like others have only recently developed their collections and just don't have too many books yet. There were a ton of people at the library studying and working on computers. There were coed, all female and all male study rooms - I guess so there are no distractions while studying. There also happened to be a photography exhibit by some students at the women's college which was cool because I like photography exhibits.

Back on campus I've just been doing school work and had dinner in the cafeteria. Tonight's random meal was a thin layer of egg (like a piece of an egg used for an omelet) over white rice, topped with brown sauce. The rice also had some little pieces of pepper and carrots in it. Side dishes were mini spring rolls (filled with what looked to be kimchi), potato kimchi, and a very spicy rice noodle dish with cabbage. The broth today was miso with seaweed. We also got mini bottles of a sweet yogurt drink. It was a nice contrast to the spicy noodles. For dessert I got a red, white and blue ice cream cone novelty. It was berry flavored and the blue ice cream seemed to have pop rocks in it. There are just so many types of ice cream novelties here. I'm hoping to try as many as possible before heading back to the US.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Today was my free day to explore so after reading for a bit in my room I walked to Tous Les Jour and tried a couple more pastries - a croissant-like pastry with almonds on top and another light, flaky bread with a sweet, crispy top - like the crumbles on coffee cake. I then took the subway to City Hall Plaza and did a walking tour from my travel guidebook. It brought me along the wall of one of the palaces, which was very quaint and tree-lined. I also saw a few of the museums and a palace. Most museums in Seoul are free or very cheap ($1 or less), but many were not open yet since it was Sunday so I just looked at their outsides. I also got to see Seoul Plaza and City Hall Plaza, which are massive, open plazas in the center of the city. You could spend hours just strolling around them and it was quite hot out so I took a few pictures and then kept walking.

I happened to get to the palace in city hall plaza right as the changing of the guards happened outside the entrance gate. About 50 men dressed in traditional costume preformed a ceremony that involved drumming and exchanging a box. I'm not sure what was in it - perhaps the key to the palace?

Next I went to Itaewon for some shopping. It's near a US army base so there are many foreigners in the area. The predominant stores were those selling leather goods, suits, and clothing in big sizes. Every other store advertised "Big Sizes." This is where Rich would have to shop if he lived in Seoul because most of the other shops only offer clothing in one size and that happens to be small. It's good for me because I'm not much bigger than most Korean women, but if you're not small, it's very difficult to find clothing that fits. According to my guide book you can get a custom-made suit for about $250. The shops seemed to have all sorts of fabrics and that's a pretty good deal. Since I was in a somewhat American area, there were mostly American restaurants so I ate at a burger/sandwich shop and had a grilled vegetable sandwich with fries.

After more shopping I headed back to Sinchon, the area where Yonsei is located. Something nice about Korean subways (besides being fast, clean, large, and reliable) is that each station has a bathroom. And it's well-marked, clean and people actually use it. I used subway bathrooms the entire time I was out today. In general, bathrooms are well marked in Seoul. Back at Sinchon I did a little more shopping and then got some frozen yogurt topped with fruit, like I did the other day. This time I had blueberry sauce, strawberry puree, peaches, mangos and coco puffs.

I got back to the dorm around 4:00, drenched in sweat (it was sunny and 90 today, though not very humid) and did some school work until dinner. Tonight the cafeteria was serving rice, cabbage kimche, dumplings and carrots, sweet, pickled radish strips, sweet/spicy chicken stew, and miso broth with seaweed and wide noodles. The radish strips were a light green color, but I can't figure out what was added to them to turn them that color. They were good, though, sweet and tangy at the same time.

After dinner I got an ice cream bar that was like a chocolate elcair bar, except the crunchy outside part seemed to be rice-based and the vanilla ice cream was filled with raspberry flavoring. Quite yummy and only 630 won (about $.50). The food on campus is all very cheap (about $2 to $4 a meal) and much of the food off-campus is under $8 a meal. In general the exchange rate is on our favor and goods and food are cheap to begin with so you can really buy a lot for very little money. I spent about $120 today shopping and got a ton of stuff - about 10 pieces of clothing and a bunch of necklaces, earrings and other accessories. I will definitely miss the shopping when I leave Seoul. I'm hoping to get out one more time during the week.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

This morning we met at the subway stop to head over to the Korean Folklife Village. On the way I got a pastry at Tous le Jour, a chain pastry/coffee shop around here. While it has a french name, it mostly has Korean pastries, which are often flaky breads with something sweet inside - cream cheese, ricotta, bean paste, etc. My pastry was a cranberry bread filled with a sweet cheese that seemed to be a mixture between cream cheese and ricotta.

It took about 2 hours to get to the Folklike Village via subway and bus. It was on the outskirts of town. It's like Sturbridge Villiage, except they have replicas of all different types of Korean buildings - those of farmers, government buildings, palaces for the wealthy, etc. Many of the buildings were actual buildings that were moved there, rather than being built for the exhibit. As you walk around you can see many people doing traditional Korean crafts and can buy the things they make.

In addition to strolling around, we saw a traditional farmers dance done by a bunch of young men, a tightrope walker, and a traditional, Korean wedding. We ate lunch at the Korean food court which served traditional Korean food. I had Festive Noodle Soup, which was ramen noodles in a mild broth with a bunch of vegetables and a side of mixed veggie kimche. After lunch we did some shopping at the village and then headed back into downtown Seoul.

Before heading back to campus some of us stopped at the Insadong shopping area. It is filled with hundreds of crafters and is on a pedestrian-only street, which makes it easy to shop. There were a bunch of stores that sold dishes and jewelry. I spent a few hours looking around a bought a t-shirt for myself.

Back on campus I did laundry and ate in the cafeteria. Tonight's dinner was potato kimche, rice, things that looked like sticks (I couldn't tell if they were hard noodles or a julienned vegetable, but they were in a sweet soy-type sauce and tasted good), sauteed zuchini, spicy noodle and veggie soup, and some sort of egg dish. At first I thought it was a block of tofu, which they have served before, but after tasting it I realized it was egg cut into squares with a few vegetables cooked in it. In addition to soy products, eggs are really big over here as well. Really most foods are common - chicken, beef, pork, fish, veggies, tofu, soy, grains, etc. I haven't seen tomatoes or peaches, but I think the grocery store had every other food we have in the US - and more.

Friday, August 7, 2009

This morning's cafeteria breakfast was rice, kimche potatoes, potatoes in a light soy-type sauce, seaweed wrappers and thinly sliced beef. We used the seaweed wrappers to make little roll-ups with the rice and beef, kind of like sushi. After class I had lunch with Kate and Michelle, who were craving american food, so we split a pizza at one of the cafeterias on campus. They make them fresh there so it was really good - just like in the US, except it had bulgolgi on it, which is a bbq Korean beef. We also had garlic bread, which was really good. The bread was thick and soft and the outside was nice and crisp and buttery. They baked goods here are really amazing. The 10,000 coffee shops near campus all sell a huge assortment of fluffy breads and pastries.

We didn't have a library visit this afternoon, so I wandered around the neighborhood for 3 hours. I went in the little alleys near the women's college. They are filled with tiny shop after shop of clothing stores. Each are only about the size of a college dorm room, but they're all next to one another. I didn't end up buying anything, but they were fun to browse. I then went to a street that's known for its designer wedding dresses. They were in all the shop windows and I assume are all hand made by the women that own the shop.

Next I went to the grocery store in the basement of the Hyundai Department store and bought various Korean snacks to take home with me. I also tried a bun from Rotiboy, which I had been smelling the whole time I shopped. According to their bag, they started in Malasia about 10 years ago and are now spreading all over Asia. Before they bake the buns they coat them in what appears to be a brown sugar frosting, which ends up making the top sweet and crispy. I also discovered that they're filled with butter. So it was a hot, sweet, flaky, chewy, buttery bun. It was delicious. The store adverised the buns as a low calorie treat, but I don't see how that is true given the butter and sugar.

After walking around a bit more I had a healthy treat at a frozen yogurt place called Red Mango. They have soft serve fat-free frozen yogurt that you can top with 5 different things. All the toppings are types of fruits or cereal. I topped mine with blueberry syrup, peaches, pineapple, kiwi and coco puffs. It was really, really good. The fruit was all really sweet.

I headed back to the dorm after my afternoon of shopping and eating treats and relaxed until dinner. This evening the cafeteria had an american-style meal. Besides the rice and kimche they had pasta salad, a breaded cutlet (I think it was soy, like the morningstar farms "chicken") and jelly sandwiches. The pasta salad was really good. It had cabbage in it, of course, but that made it kind of like a combination between pasta salad and cole slaw. I should make it that way at home. The cutlet was also good - like the fake chicken I have at home. There was a white, opaque broth as well. It tasted pretty good, but I couldn't figure out what it was made of. For my dessert I got a chocolate ice cream bar that was like a fudge bar, but had a softer chocolate inside. So far I've been impressed with the ice cream novelty selection. They have all different types of cones and ice cream bars.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

This morning's cafeteria meal was rice, kimche, rice noodles with carrots and sprouts, seaweed salad, and little round things that look like tator tots, but were made of some sort of grain. They tasted really good and even had ketchup for dipping.

Class was uneventful. We talked about budgeting today, which wasn't all that thrilling. For lunch I grabbed a crab roll in the food court. It was like a japanese crab roll, except it just had a little crab and cabbage inside the seaweed and rice roll. However, there was crab meat salad on the top of the roll and a drizzle of a sweet sauce that tasted like honey mustard. It also came with pieces of hot dog. That was random. Koreans love their spiced meats, like spam and hot dogs.

After lunch we visited Seoul National University Library. It was just like any US university library. They had a fancier check out system, but otherwise had all the same stuff we have. It was nice to see that not all the libraries are super fancy. When we got back to the university I went out to dinner at Healthy Food. I ended up getting spicy pollack that had been dried so it has a nice chewy texture. There were also the usual side dishes of rice, kimche and spicy veggies. When I got back to the dorm I had a strawberry yogurt popsicle and some sort of corn water. It tastes and smells like corn kernals. It's quite interesting and sort of grows on you as you drink more.

Tomorrow my class will be half over and we'll have Friday afternoon and the weekend for some site seeing. We're supposed to get the remnants of a typhoon overnight, but the rain should let up tomorrow morning. It hasn't rained since we've been here and I'm actually looking forward to it because it should keep the temperature down.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

I started my day with my usual breakfast of white rice and kimche. This morning we also had a cabbage/tofu slaw with sesame dressing, sausage and cabbage, spicy broth with bean sprouts and cabbage, and onion pancakes. During class today we mostly had lectures, but the professor from Yonsei lectured for part of the time which mixed things up a little. The AC in our classroom doesn't come on until 9am, which is when we start, and since if never cools down much the room is really warm unless you sit near the AC blowers, in which case you freeze. Today the humidity had actually dropped quite a bit and there was blue sky instead of haze and smog. During one of our breaks I bought "beauty" snacks from the shop in the bottom of the library science building. They were like bite-sized puff pastries filled with banana-flavored filling. They apparently affect your beauty in 3 ways, but I couldn't figure out how since the explanation was in Korean.

We ate lunch at the food court in the Student Union and I had kimche pasta - spaghetti with a spicy tomato sauce and kimche (of course), peppers, spam, and onions. It was a nice mix between Italian and Korean. After lunch I got a walnut ice cream bar that was really good and then we sat outside for a bit before our next library visit. We went to the children's library, which was across town and took about an hour in the taxi due to all the traffic. The library itself was cool and much like the others we have seen so far - lots of light, glass, nature, and technology. There was also an exhibit sponsored by the US Embassy that featured various American books and huge wall displays about American landmarks, the 50 states, and our presidents. President Obama had his own kiosk too.

We got back to Yonsei around 6pm and ate dinner in the cafeteria downstairs - white rice, kimche, steamed potatoes and carrots, spicy yellow beans, and a stew of thinly sliced beef with onions and carrots. It was a typical meal - salty and spicy. Afterward I bought an ice cream nugot bar in the convenience store. It was basically vanilla ice cream covered in caramely chocolate - a nice contrast to the spicy, salty food. I don't like the salty very much, but I'm loving the spicy.

Since dinner I've just been working on my paper, which is due tomorrow. I've finished writing it and just need to do another read through tomorrow morning.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

This morning I had another traditional Korean breakfast in the cafeteria, which consisted of spicy kimche, cabbage salad (sweet), seaweed and carrot salad, white rice, miso soup with jalepenos (Koreans love their spicy food) and these unidentifiable brown balls. They looked like large, brown olives and were in some sort of brown sauce, yet they were soft, almost like a hard boiled egg. The inside seemed to be some sort of bean paste. They were slightly sweet and I liked them.

We had class again in the morning and spent a lot of time working on group projects and doing research for our first paper, which is due in two days. After class we tried the cafeteria in the Student Union. They had a few differerent choices of meals and you paid a cashier for whatever meal you wanted and then brought your ticket to the appropriate counter. I had noodles with a sweet black bean sauce and a side of rice and a sweet, yellow vegetable that I think is pickled beets. I then got a Korean version of a drumstick ice cream cone for dessert.

After lunch we toured the Yonsei University Library, which opened a new building a few months ago. It was similar to the National Digital Library in that they had a ton of fancy new computers, touch screen kiosks to make seat reservations and search the catalog, lots of open space, huge, glass walls, and lots of atriums and plants inside. They also had a recording studio and a movie viewing room. We'll be able to get temporary library IDs so I can go back and explore more soon.

After the tour a few of us walked around the neighborhood near the university. I eyed all the shoe stores again. I need to ask my korean classmates how the shoe sizes work here so I can buy some. We also walked around the food court and grocery store in the basement of the Hyundai Department Store (like a Nordstrom). It was huge and they had a ton of employees organizing everything and giving out free samples. We ate dinner at a Japanese restaurant, for a change, and I got some sushi and noodles. Kate got an unidentifiable meat in a tomato sauce that we concluded was some sort of sausage.

We took a cab back to our dorm so we didn't have to walk up the hill after dinner. I just finished working on my paper a little and soon it will be bedtime. Until tomorrow!

Monday, August 3, 2009

This morning I started my day with a traditional Korean meal in the cafeteria downstairs. We had kimche (cabbage in a spicy sauce), steamed greens with dressing, sweet rice noodles, white rice (a staple at every meal), miso soup, and spam. I haven't seen too much spam, but apparently is shows up occasionally in meals. It was all quite good. The food is all fairly healthy, except for all the salt. Overall I'm enjoying the food here much more than in the USA, probably because I love veggies and spicy food, which appear at every Korean meal.

We had our first class from 9am-1pm and it was pretty fun. It was interesting having Korean students in class, though they are fairly quiet. The building we had the class in was a typical academic building, but had a nice cafeteria in the basement where you can get coffee, snacks and meals. After class we went to the student union for lunch and I had noodle soup with fried veggies and seafood. There didn't appear to be much seafood, but there was a cake of fried veggies in the middle. It was quite tasty. I love noodles so that's another reason Korean food is so great.

At 2 we met at the front gate of the university and took cabs to the Korean National Library. The library is huge and pretty fancy. It has 6 floors - the top 3 or 4 floors are where the books are kept. One floor is for rare books/donations, one for government documents, and the others for the regular books. They use a decimal system like the dewey decimal system, but only keep out the books that were published in the last few years. Everything else is in storage, but can be requested. They also have RIFD technology in everything, including books, which means to check out or check in a book you just hold your id in front of the machine, then hold the book in front of it and you're all set. Basically every sort of card can just be held in front of a machine and the transaction is complete - on the subway, for taxis, phone cards etc.

Next we went to the digital library that was built as part of the national library and was just completed a few months ago. It is an over-the-top, massive glass building filled with hundreds of fancy computers, group rooms, recording studios (both tv and audio), interactive exhibits, etc. It's not so much a library as a place to go to use technology to access information. As long as you have an ID from the library you can use the computers and you sign up using huge touch-screen terminals. We definitely don't have anything like it in the US yet.

We got back to Yonsei around 5:30 and then trecked back up the hill. I was pretty tired from being out all day so I did some school work and then ate in the cafeteria downstairs. Tonight we had our staples of rice, steamed greens, miso soup, and kimche. There was also a block of tofu that you put sauce on. I only put a little on and it was still very salty so I'll have to remember to avoid the sauces next time. The main dish was a chicken and noodle stew that was sweet and spicy. The noodles were really thick, which I liked. The chicken was nice and tender, but had bones so you had to be careful eating it. Also, every meal is eaten with a big spoon and chopsticks. The chopsticks are pretty much used for everything except eating rice and soup, in which case you use the spoon. I also used my spoon for the tofu tonight and saw other korean students doing that as well.

Now it's time for more school work and then bed! So far it has been hot and humid here, but today was more cloudy which was a nice change. It was still quite humid, but not nearly as hot.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

This morning my roommate and I walked around the neighborhood outside of Yonsei to get some breakfast. We ate at a chain cafe chain that we've seen in a few places around here and we both had pastries with sweet fillings in them. Mine had a bright green colored filling - maybe a rice paste? Kate's had a raspberry creamcheese type of filling. Both were quite good. We then walked all the way back up the hill and then back down a little later to meet up with the rest of the group. A few of us decided to go to the Korean National Museum so we took the subway over there. The nearest subway stop is only about a 5 minute walk from the university gate, but about 20 minutes from our dorm.

The National Museum is free and has exhibits on Korean history and art. There were a ton of people there. More than any museum I've seen in the USA. I looked around for about 1 1/2 hrs and then got some melon ice cream from a vendor outside. There's also an ice cream shop right near the main campus gate so I'll have to try that too. I wanted to get a new pillow so I took the subway back to the university and walked up the road to the women's college that is next to Yonsei. The street outside the woman's college is packed with stores that sell shoes, make-up and clothes. I will definitely go back again to check out the shoes. I managed to find a home goods store and got a fluffy pillow and nice case. No more sleeping on plastic. After doing some exploring today I have to say that it's very easy to get around Seoul because everything is in Korean and English and there is a ton of sinage. So far I've felt totally comfortable riding the subway and walking around.

At 6:00 we had a dinner with the Korean students who will be in our class. We ate at a restaurant just a couple minutes from the campus. It was traditonally Korean style so we sat on the floor and had various vegetable side dishes and some spicy pork. It was all really good and actually a lot like all the Korean food I've had in Boston. The Korean students are all nice. I'm sure I'll learn more about them when I start class tomorrow.

So now I'm going to skim some readings for class and then go to sleep. Our first class is tomorrow from 9 to 1 and then we're visiting the Korean National Library in the afternoon.

Friday, July 31/Saturday, August 1

My first flight left Boston at 6am for Atlanta and then from there we flew to Seoul. Due to the time spent traveling and the time change, we basically missed out on a whole day. It was light the entire flight so we never experienced Friday night, which is really weird to think about. We got to Seoul at 4pm on Saturday, got our bags, went through customs, etc. and then took a bus to a neighborhood near Yonsei University. It's about a 40 min bus ride from the airport. From there it was a 5 min taxi ride to our dorm.

Our dorm is at the very top of a very steep hill. It makes Holy Cross look flat. Hence, that's why we took the taxi instead of walking. We'll certainly get our exercise walking to and from class. The dorms look like your typical dorm room. The only weird thing was that the pillows were filled with plastic pieces instead of cotton. It's not horribly uncomfortable, but I'm going to look for a new one on sunday.

After settling in we walked around the neighborhood near campus. This area is a real "college town" so there are a ton of restaurants, street vendors, and shops right outside the campus gate. There are a lot of western restaurants as well, Outback Steakhouse, Starbucks, Baskin Robbin, Pizza Hut, etc. are all nearby. We ended up coming back to campus after about 1/2 hr and eating in the hospital food court because it has a ton of choices. The hospital is right on campus, which I guess is good if we get sick.

We were fed a few meals on the plane so I just got a sandwich for dinner at the store, but I'm looking forward to Korean food. The cafeterias on campus serve western food and korean food so we have lots of choices.

That's all that has happened so far. I'll take some pictures today and post them soon.