National Folk Museum

This weekend I went with Samantha and Victor, two fellow exchange students to apply for our alien registration cards. The process itself involved about three hours of waiting in line and lots of running back and forth for photocopies, postage, etc.
And then there was the slight problem of transportation. The bus ride there took only and hour, but afterwards, we decided to get on a bus that would take us to a nearby subway station that was six stops away. Six stops and about an hour later, we ended up in Seoul. The southeastern part. Suwon is to the southwest of Seoul. So we spent another hour or two making our way back to the university via subway and bus.

The red arrow was where we ended up.
The bottom middle of the picture was where we needed to go.

We were so hungry at that point that we went to a chicken place to eat. They put chicken, cabbage, potatoes, and rice cakes into a large skillet and cooked it for us on our table. The banchan were self-serve and all you can eat. Mmm.

The uncooked barbeque chicken and cabbage

I also went to the National Folk Museum of Korea.

These totems were once placed at the entrance to villages to give protection.
The tall stick has a bird on top and served the same purpose.

Huge mill stone.

There were replicas of buildings from various eras of Korean life, both traditional and from the era after the Korean War.

The inside of a westernized Korean restaurant

A school house

Movie posters

Water wheel

Old toilet. There was likely a stream running underneath.

From the inside of a traditional house

The temple under which the museum is housed

The twelve animals of the zodiac

I was born in the year of the monkey

A tree with paper foliage from inside the museum

Miniature replica of a traditional village

Traditional dress of the high class

Beautiful vases

More totems!

This was on the floor of one of the exhibits

Some puppets recreating a parade

Rolls of fabric

Inside a high class home

These are all different kinds of kimchi

I had to include this fail!pic for the history behind it.
When a child was born, a garland was hung with charcoal
 and for a girl, pine, or for a boy, red chili peppers.

Acupuncture chart

Here they celebrate 60 years instead of 50. It takes 60
years for the zodíac and element under which one is born to realign.

Smallpox exorcism by a female shaman

Funeral beir for a high ranking official

A jessa, or table for the honoring of ancestors

Random rock pile near the exit.

After going to the museum, I wandered around a bit, ending up at the Seoul campus of SKKU, and took the subway to the Seoul forest. It was very underwhelming, but I think I'll come back in spring when it's green and not freezing with sub-zero windchill.

Look what I found!

I climbed the mountain to the SKKU entrance
and had to walk halfway back down to get to the actual buildings.

Seoul sup

They had an "Insect Garden" with a greenhouse and a few dead bugs.

Deer!

A random bridge

There was also a sculpture garden

The Seoul Forest was made up of five or six separate parks. I think I only saw two or three of them. I'm definitely coming back when it gets warmer and exploring some more.

Classes

The first two days of classes were interesting to say the least.

On Monday, I had class from 12 to 6. Signals and Systems was taught almost entirely in Korean with only a bit of English used during the announcements. The class notes are in English though and seem to be fairly straightforward. All we did was go over the syllabus for an hour, which gave me 30 minutes to find my next class.

Speaking of which... Each class is given a code for its location, with the first two numbers standing for the building, the next for the floor, and the last two for the room number. This would be a great system if they had given us a sheet of some sort telling us which building goes with which number. Thank goodness for HI-Club members.

Intro to Automatic Control was thankfully taught in English, I dropped Applied Math because even the notes were in Korean, and Calc 2 seems like review(and is taught by a white dude with the habit of punctuating with "Cheers!").

Later the HI-Club members decided to have a party, so we all went to a bar. On a Monday night. I had an early class the next day.
It was lots of fun though, and I got to know my fellow exchange students and HI-Club buddies a bit better. The best part was the free snacks.

I actually didn't feel all that bad the next day and ran for an hour in between my classes.
First was Modern Optics, in English. The class sounds interesting enough, though there are several group presentations which means that I'm going to have to work with up to 5 Koreans who will probably begrudge my presence since they'll have to speak English. It doesn't help that the professor told the class that because of me, all the presentations and lectures will be in English. Also, the professor expects us to teach ourselves the material. From Wikipedia. Not the most reputable of sources if you ask me.

Other than running, I taught myself how to print. All around campus, there are computer stations with printers underneath. You deposit your money into your account, and it costs 40 Won for one page. I went to the one downstairs and tried to print out my insurance information, but it didn't work. Two stations and 30 minutes later, I realized that the money slots on the first two had been broken. :(

My last class, Electromagnetic Wave Engineering seems the most interesting to me so far. The professor discussed a few of the complexities of transmission lines, some of which I had run into while working on my can crusher project. While leaving class, one of the other students caught up to me. We started talking and went to get our books. The calculus book I needed wasn't in stock at the campus book store, so he showed me another bookstore where I bought it. Good thing too, since I have homework due on Thursday.

Now here comes the shocker. Guess how much I paid for the books.

The one on the left is brand new, the other, slightly worn

78,000 Won for the both of them. 41,000 for the calc and 37,000 for the other one.
When I sell them back, I'll probably even be able to make a profit.

Then I had some yummy wang(king) mandu for dinner.

I got these from the same place I got the kimchi mandu

2,500 Won for a filling meal

Getting used to the way of things

Here's what I've been up to the past couple of days.

Breakfast of rice and seaweed, soup, fried spam, and dried fishies

When I tried to obtain a membership for the fitness center in the dorm, I was informed that you couldn't pay cash. So I waited in line at the ATM twice for close to an hour each time to no avail. The machines don't take cash or foreign debit cards for anything but withdrawals. Gah! So the next day, I went to the Woori Bank branch in the shops and services center and got it taken care of. I gave them my money and the SKKU account number, and five minutes later I was done!

All that trouble for a little purple sticker.

I also tried to go to a store to obtain Ibuprofen. First of all, none of the convenience stores carry any sort of medication, so I went through six or seven before I saw what looked like a pharmacy. Evidently on March 1st, Indepence Movement Day, all the major businesses are closed. Came back the next day, asked for ee-bu-peu-ro-pen, and got what I came for. Let's just say that even simple tasks are much harder when you don't know the customs or the language.

The pharmacy, 약, or yahk

It was even written on the package in English!

And now for some random pictures!

The west gate to the University

The Samsung apartments in which I might be living during the summer

Work those obliques!

Most of the gateways, whether old or new, have a traditional roof

They're everywhere! I see at least four every time I go out.

Orange wall in the dorm

Sunset

Neat air hose system for shoe cleaning after walking around the lake

I've been eating in the cafeteria most days since they gave us little meal tickets that let us eat for free, but I have had a few food adventures since I got here. The food choices around the University are a bit limited as well, however I did find a nice restaurant specializing in dumplings, steamed on the spot.

Freshly steamed kimchi mandu

 I also took a bus toward central Suwon to see if I could get a prepaid SIM chip for my phone. All the smaller phone shops couldn't help, and the larger shop I had planned on going to was closed. Tough luck. Instead, I wandered around looking for food. I walked into a random restaurant shortly before I realized that nothing on the menu looked familiar. So I took off my shoes, sat down at one of the low tables, and sort of mimed confusion. The ajumma that ran the place took pity on me, and pointed to one of the first choices on the menu. I nodded, ne(yes), and she went off to go cook my food while the ajeossi I presume was her husband brought me my banchan.

Kettle on the traditionally low table(sitting on the floors
 made sense because they were heated(ondol)) 

Main dish and banchan.

Fried octopus with veggies? Nakjibokkeumjeongshik

A sort of egg souffle soup

All done. It was sooo good.

After the delicious meal, I walked to the Hwaseong Fortress, a wall surrounding central Suwon. It reminded me a bit of the Great Wall of China.

Cannon, set to inflict self damage.
A few feet to either side would make all the difference.

The wall...

The inside. Once you get over the wall, you have it easy.

Yin-yang on one of the watchtower doors

All along the watchtower... blue and white flags flew proudly

The stairs to the top of the hill

Interesting lock on one of the doors.

Tree with Suwon in the background. Not as massive as Seoul
 but still incredibly densely populated.

Happy orange and blue roofs!

Oh noes! Falling!!!

The bus stops actually tell you when the next bus is coming!
I had to wait 6 "boon" for the 62-1. You can also use a Tmoney card for the fare.

On a side note: tomorrow is my first class day!!!

Settling in

The first few days at the Suwon campus of Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) have been rather uneventful. I got some of my paperwork done and got to know the area around campus a little better. My roommate's name is Tamires, and she's from Brazil. She's here with four other students from her university, and they all seem very nice so far. Other than that, I met  Petra from Finland, Samantha from  Mexico, and the other three guys from UT, one of whom is originally from Austria.

The library, the "pride and joy" of the campus

 There is a fairly large lake just south of the campus. The track that runs around it is just over a mile in length, perfect for a morning jog. There are also several areas with exercise equipment.

Bridge next to the lake.

Muddy rice paddy, possibly fertilized with manure judging by the smell.

Grape vines? This might be the agricultural students' project

Multicolored roofs

Human city Suwon. Thank goodness! I was starting to worry that all
these Koreans were Gumihos (fox demons).

View of the dorms. I'm staying in the one on the left, on the third floor

Entrance to the university

 On Wednesday, all the exchange students in Suwon had to travel to Seoul for the orientation there. They talked at us about paperwork and acclimatization to Korea. The Help and Informational Club, HI-Club, members introduced themselves and talked a bit about both campuses and planned events. The HI-Club's sole purpose is to help out the foreign exchange students and make them feel welcome. I later met my HI-Club buddy who goes by the English name of Clark. After the HI-Club info, they had a quiz session with prizes for correct answers. Then we all took a group photo and went to a reception with delicious food that lasted way too long. I met a lot of interesting people from all over. Most of them are studying in Suwon though.

Gandalf statue on the way to the Seoul campus

The neat bookmark and magnetic case that I won for answering correctly

The reception. About a hundred students, only 13 of whom are studying in Suwon

Yummy food.

After the reception, the Suwon group went to dinner for more food. I forgot to take pictures. :( It was some sort of stew with lots of bean sprouts, cut up sausages, various other pieces of meat, and lots of spicy sauce, simmered in a shallow bowl on the table and eaten over rice. To finish the meal off, more rice was added to the bowl and was cooked until crispy, after which it was scraped off of the sides and eaten. We then went to the International House on campus to relax and chat for a while before heading to the afterparty. We headed back to the Suwon campus just in time to catch the last subway train at midnight, and made it back before the dorms closed at 1 o'clock curfew.

The bar where the afterparty took place, right next to the restaurant where we had eaten

Mama and kiddy toilets in the subway station

And for your viewing pleasure, dinner at the cafeteria in the dorm. Kimchi and rice are served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

It wasn't too bad the first time around,
but I get the feeling it's going to get boring pretty fast