School has started and my schedule is strange, but nice. I work from 630-800am, then 12-5pm. Weird.. but it’s nice.. I like it so far- parents are more “involved” to put it positively than they were at Stanton.. I think the culture’s emphasis on education creates an environment of “very involved” parental figures.. Good thing I had all those AP World conferences with parents and learned how to deal :)
After my first week of school was over, us girls went out to celebrate in Hongdai. (It’s right near one of the big universities here so it’s real trendy and a pretty cool hangout spot) After doing some night-sidewalk shopping we heard some music and went to discover it’s origins... there was this group of drummers sitting around in a circle just playing music..
after a moment or so, people start getting up and leaving and members of the audience sit down to play! I was like “huh?! They weren’t all in the ‘band’?” So..... we joined them!
The leader was super-enthusiastic and he taught us different beats and we pretty much just followed him and went along with how we felt like playing.. It was so impromptu and a perfect example of college life. After playing for sometime, our hands began to HURT!! I looked at them and sure enough, I had bruised them! (The next morning, my middle finger was swollen/black/and blue.. the girls each had their own unique bruised finger, but they had at least one!) I have NO idea how super-enthusiastic guy can keep it up for that long... he’s talented!
On Sat. morning we went on a Seoul city tour with Jack Moon, SFS’s activities director. He’s been living here since the 70s so he knows quite a lot and was telling us lots of really cool info... like:
Seoul actually has a population of more like 22 million, not 11 million as reported. The two neighboring regions that aren’t “officially” counted are actually part of Seoul.
The place where I live= Yonghi-Dong (“Dong” means neighborhood or area of town) is the “posh-est, nicest, and most well-to-do” area of Seoul.. when he arrived 30 years ago, the area was simply agricultural land!! Now, former presidents live in the area and well, let’s just say that the night before when I got lost in the neighborhood trying to find my way to a BBQ- I was stopped by some security guards that wouldn’t let me keep walking in their direction b.c. they were protecting some important and very rich people..
hmm.
So.. on the tour we went to Seoul Tower! Which is great b.c. my camera died the last time and I didn’t really get pics.
There were “Locks of Love” at the base of the tower
which is where two lovers will come and each have a lock. They profess their undying and everlasting love in words on each of their locks then they lock them together on a fence.
It’s a really nice sentiment.. except- there were some solo locks which had been there a long time which made us ponder whether the love was NOT in fact “undying” and “everlasting” and the scorned party removed her lock?! (Yes, I say “her” for a reason! heh)
We went up the tower this time (which cheap-o Berengere and I didn’t pay for last time) and it was pretty sweet..
On all the windows were the major cities all across the world and their distances from the Seoul Tower!! So I looked out the window with New York and DC and in that direction was my home!
It was pretty neat to see all that.
Seoul was even more impressive from the top of the tower than the base, like I’d seen before... understandably.
On Sunday, our travel-fun-day, Berengere and I (I’m sure you’re noticing a theme- we are the ones that aren’t obsessed with work and love to travel and sightsee more!) went to try to find this used English bookstore. It’s always an ordeal whenever you want to go somewhere and it took me 25 minutes to figure out the route to get to the bookstore not to mention about 45 minutes to actually take the route!!! We had to walk to the base of our hill and catch a bus to the subway station. We then took the subway and transferred lines, and then walked to our destination... which was CLOSED on Sundays!!! Bummer. BUT!! Luckily.. in such a big city, there’s always something close by so we went to Insadong which is essentially a touristy-ish area with things to buy and places to eat.
Berengere, the adventuresome Frenchie that she is, forced me to eat Octopus!!! Egads!!! But I wasn’t as adventuresome as some who eat it LIVE! Blech. It was an experience and at least now I can say I’ve eaten it!
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