New Dorm

The trip to campus was just as long and agonizing as I had expected. Several times there were no escalators or elevators, so I had to carry two 50ish pound suitcases up several flights of stairs. There was no room to sit down during the hour long subway ride either. When we got to the station, we had to walk almost another mile to get to the main office to figure out where to go. I felt like my arms were going to fall off. Oh well. Enough with the complaining.

We got to the main office and waited outside for the office to open up again after lunch so we could register. The international affairs coordinator, Rebecca, spotted us fairly soon and escorted us to our dorm where we checked in without hassle.

The dorms are fairly new and a lot nicer than my old dorm at UT.

Right after dumping all my stuff off

There is plenty of storage space, a desk with a nice rolling office chair, a room for the toilet, a separate room for the shower and sink, temperature control, and windows that open!!!

Toilet. Yay!

Shower and sink and only one towel rack!

Wonderful open window

I went with Justin and Tim to a nearby Emart to buy supplies and eat. The food court was set up so that you order your food before you go in. You are then issued a receipt, and when your number shows up on a display, you go get your food. The nifty thing was that there were several windows, each dealing with a certain type of food. All the fried rice entrees came out at one window, all the soups came out at another, and so forth. Once done with your meal, you had to return your color coded tray to the correct window. I had kimchi fried rice with octopus.

Mmm. The yellow stuff is pickled radish

Tim standing in front of the various windows

The Emart had three stories. To get from one to another, you pushed your cart onto a moving tilted walkway. The magnetized cart wheels anchored your cart in place so you wouldn't slide down. Justin and Tim had to buy bedding and assorted other things. I had brought sheets with me from the US and had that morning purchased an awesome blanket from the Namdaemun market. I haggled the price down to 47,000 won and could probably have gotten it for even cheaper, but it was at least a better value than anything at the store. Otherwise, I got paper towels, detergent, a laundry basket, tape for putting pictures up, a pillow, and apples!!! (The first ones I've eaten since getting to Korea)

My bed with the awesome blanket I haggled for

Desk with pictures of home all put up

My suitcase fits!!!

Laundry time!!! I had to do laundry after 8 days in the city. I was using a top loader and powder detergent, both of which I had never used before. On top of that, the control panel was entirely in Korean. I think I managed to do everything right though. The washer was free, but the dryer cost me 1,000 won for still damp clothes. :( I might have to invest in a drying rack.

The female's laundry room. There's one for the guys next door.

The control panel. Yikes!

There's an iron!

I'll look around campus more tomorrow and probably check out the fitness center on the ground floor. It has free weights and everything!

Last day in Seoul

Sunday morning, I went to the English mass at the Myeongdong Cathedral and finally got some pictures of the inside. The priest was an old white man with a faint Irish accent, and every single song that was sung, I was already familiar with.

The altar

The organ, and people streaming into church for the next mass

I then went to the Children's Grad Park, a huge space with a zoo, amusement park, water park, culture center, and theater. My favorite part was the greenhouse. I can't wait for spring to make everything green again. Next to the park, there was a winter play area where snow had been piled up to form a hill. Dozens of children were sledding down it and playing around in the snow. I didn't manage to get any pictures of it though. :(

Stairs to the park after getting off the subway

Sink and soap dispenser in the public restroom

The magpie was gathering loose fur for its nest

Potted flowers in the greenhouse

These remind me of Easter and lilies

There was also a small "potted plant garden" full of bonsai trees

Buds ready to burst into bloom

Rock man lifting a big yellow rock

Traditionally made wall

Model of a traditional Korean farmer's house

Two sad, dirty polar bears

This little guy kept picking fights with the other sea lions

I walked around for a good long while, and then meandered through the surrounding neighborhood for a bit. There was a large sign for an art museum that I thought I'd check out, but when I got there it looked as if it had been long empty. There were, however, a large number of mismatched statues lining the road and what looked like an old go-cart track.

Gas prices for liters. 1,000 won is approx. 1 dollar

There were taxis parked throughout the sculpture garden

A proud lion guarding the entrance to the hodge podge collection

Along the road

Happy Buddha

A dinosaur, nude lady, saint, foo dog, dragon, and others

I then headed back to Myeongdong for a delicious meal of dolsot bibimbap, mixed rice in a hot stone bowl. The outer layer of rice gets cooked nice and crispy this way.

Banchan from left to right, back to front: kimchi, fish cake, dried fishies,
stewed bok choy?, kongjaban(black beans), and pickled radish with seaweed

All mixed up. The soup is to pour in the bowl when you're done
 to soften any rice stuck to the sides so you can eat it

Then it was back to the hotel to repack for the trip to Suwon and the Sungkyunkwan Natural Sciences campus.

Insadong, Hongik, and lots of food!!!

Since I didn't post anything yesterday, I have quite a bit of ground to cover.
When I went to Insadong, a very touristy area, the night of my last post, it didn't seem too different from any other shopping district I'd been to, but had a slightly artsier vibe. I treated myself to a dinner of street food.

These crispy fried doughballs were filled with a cinammon sugar concoction.
It dripped all over me, and I only noticed it after 15 minutes of walking around. :(

Mulitstory shopping complex with mostly handmade goods

A stand in the center with all sorts of goodies

Fish-shaped pastry with red bean filling

Korean corn-on-the-cob is a lot chewier than the American sort

The next day I went to the Seoul cartoon museum. Sadly most of the museum wasn't open yet. I did however get to see hundreds of mini Haechis. Haechi is the mascot of Seoul. He is visible all around Seoul, many times spotted on trashcans, reminding Seoulites to be good citizens and to not litter.

Haechi being a good citizen

Haechi with Koreans in traditional dress

The room of the mini Haechis!!!

My favorite, winter/Santa Haechi

There was also a claymation studio in which you could make your own figurine out of clay and create a short film.

Some sample clay figurines

Later I went with Justin and Tim to Hongik University, the "hip" area of Seoul. As with most places in Seoul, I got the feeling that it was a lot livelier at night. There was still plenty going on though.

Two ajummas with their cart

Manscaping anybody?

Copyright infringement maybe?
The German on written on the storefront was grammatically correct though.

Book cart yeah!

At the university, cadets of some sort unloading next to a sandy soccer field.

Devil child! Stay away from that sausage!

Everyone rushing to cross the street

More awesome grafitti

I also took Justin and Tim to Namdaemun market, where we tried a traditional Korean street food that was not to my liking.

Windows malfunction on the subway

WONderpants anybody?

The crowd at the market

Bunegi, stewed silkworm larvae.
The smell would be enough to scare most anyone away.

But not us! It had a beanlike texture, but didn't taste all that good.
We ended up discarding most of the cup.

Some delicious sundubu jjigae, uncurdled soybean paste stew

Later, it was back to Myeongdong for more street food.

The lights are quite beautiful at night

Mmmm. Chicken skewers

The next day started off with a planned bike trip near the Han river that turned into a trek. We couldn't find the bike rental place, but ended up having a good time anyway. We crossed the river and visited Techno Mart. Seven floors of cameras, phones, and other electronic devices, a floor of restaurants, and a 4D theater(moving seats and blown air added to the 3D movie experience) on the top floor.

The bridge we walked across. Probably lit up at night.

View from the middle of the bridge

Apartment complex. There were 10 or so identical buildings.

Shopping mall/church. You can see the steeple in the upper right.

The rainbow plaza of the Techno Mart

Colorful escalators!

The worst food I've had here. Cheapo mall food:
Bibimbap(mixed rice) with tuna. Bleh.

Found an arcade were we played a hammer game.
It was rather difficult since we couldn't read the instructions, but tons of fun.

Instead of a kiosk, you buy your movie tickets at one of these screens.
You even pick out your assigned seats. The instructions are in Korean,
but easy enough to understand. We tried it out just for grins.

For dinner, we went to a Korean barbeque restaurant. You know, the kind where you cook your own meat on a grill set into the table. Or rather, in our case, a waitress did it for us, since we're completely oblivious foreigners who couldn't possibly know how to grill meat.

The table laid out with plenty of banchan

Turning the coals

You wrap the meat in lettuce with the banchan and chili sauce or salt and oil,
and supposedly try to fit the whole thing in your mouth at once

Empty soju bottle. The stuff was a lot smoother than I had expected.

For dessert, on the streets of Myeongdong: a giant cream puff!

I've been having a great time here, but unfortunately due to all the walking I've been doing, I seem to have developed a bit of tendonitis in my foot. I've noticed this happens to me fairly regularly after I've done a lot of walking or running. Hopefully it'll get better soon.

Can you tell which one it is?

The right one. Swollen, red, and ouchy. Right at the base of my middle three toes.