Daecheon Beach

Today was a beach day! After working on some online and Korean homework on Saturday, it was time to have a day in the sun. What better way then to go to the beach? Daecheon is a coastal town on the Western side of Korea. It is on the Yellow Sea. The area is world famous for its Mud Festival. It is about an hour from school, so it is a perfect day trip.


I was joined by Amanda for this expedition. To get to Daecheon, we took the train. Daecheon is not connected to the Seoul Subway line, so we took a lovely Korail train. Korea has a great railway system that has been around since the economic development in the 1970's under the leadership of President Park. His sole goal was to make Korea economically independent. Part of that included creating a nationwide form of transportation.





Today, you can reach almost any corner of Korea by train and if you can't get there by train, you can travel there by bus. When I first came to Korea, I was shocked by the expansive and precise nature of Korea's transportation. Coming from the Midwest, it was hard for me to believe that I could travel around a city, county, and country by public transportation. Now I can't really picture another way here in Korea. Public transportation is incredibly convenient and cheap. Our trip to the beach was about 60 miles one way and cost us about $5 each way. I can travel to Seoul, which is about 60 miles as well by subway for about $3 one way. I love how I never have to worry about the current gas price (which in Korea is around $6 a gallon) or maintaining a vehicle. The only setback is having to plan according to the schedule of the public transportation. Going to the movies or Emart (Korean Walmart) is a well thought out expedition.



Once we arrived at Daecheon, we took a bus to the beach. It was a great day for the beach, nice upper 70's and sunny. The water was still too cold for swimming, but the warm breeze was an indication that summer is just around the corner. We spent the afternoon collecting seashells and walking along the beach. It was the perfect way to relax before the insanity of the final weeks of classes commences.


While the beach was great, I do have some sad news to report: My camera is no more. While eating lunch, my camera randomly decided to turn on, denting the lens. It puttered out right then and there, leaving me with no way to continue to document experiences here in Korea. The moment my camera decided to cease to exist,I felt this sense of emptiness. If I see something amazing, how can I capture the image? Our quest for a new camera began.

Our mission to find a new camera led us to the local Emart. When we arrived, we searched for the electronics department. Walking past the cosmetic, clothing, and household departments, we found the electronics. In the glass display sat over 50 different cameras, most of them being Samsung. My only goal was to find a camera that takes decent pictures and will not cost me a fortune. I didn't want to invest a huge amount of money in a camera when I'm desperate for anything that takes a picture.

It was quite a challenge to determine the megapixel and overall quality of the different cameras, seeing that all of the descriptions were in Korean. I would only recognize a word here and there "High quality.....excellent feature....." The electronics salesman tried to explain as best he could, and he did a great job trying to answer my questions in broken Korean. I was able to ask questions and he was able to answer them in a mix of broken Korean and English. It was quite a sight! Eventually, I decided to purchase a reasonable Samsung camera. It was almost half the price of my previous camera and has three times the megapixel quality. Oh technology, I felt like such a caveman as I showed the salesman my previous camera to see if they had a camera that takes AA batteries. He almost laughed but politely said "No cameras take these anymore."

I need to catch up with my technology I tell you, especially here in Korea where everyone is constantly upgrading their phones, MP3s, and who knows what else. Korea is the most technologically advanced society as a whole. When I first got here, about half the people I saw had phones with webcams. Now, I can't find any Koreans without one! It is quite a sight on the subway seeing ten different people talking to screens!

I purchased the camera and a pocket translator (which was quite an adventure to make sure all the features I wanted in a translator were included). My Camera uses the same charger as my phone and can be charged by a laptop (Samsung will give Apple a run for their money I tell you!) so I will be able to use it both here and in the States.

Spring Festival is Here!

Granted, Spring is pretty much over, but nevertheless it is time for SCH's yearly Spring Festival. Basically, Spring Festival is a three day excuse for students to miss class before it's time to buckle down and study for the impending finals. I think the school has a different description for it, but that is what it is. It is interesting, college students can be really stressed when it comes to class, but when it's time to take a three day break, it's time to take a break.

Yesterday was the first day of this festival. The field has been transformed into a carnival like setting with a huge stage in the center of the field. The tents on and around the field are filled with vendors selling food and of course alcohol.

I don't think I've addressed the culture of alcohol in Korean schools, so here goes....Basically, alcohol is not only tolerated, but is completely accepted at Korean universities. The legal drinking age in Korea is 18, so every college student can legally purchase and consume alcohol. The issue of underage students obtaining alcohol simply doesn't exist in Korea, as a result, SCH is not a "Dry" campus. You can consume alcohol in the dorms, around campus, and on the fields. It is quite normal to see Korean students playing drinking games on the field between classes. They will then go to class a bit tipsy and the professors do not raise a fuss. My suitemates have a weekly get together Monday nights to catch up and drink in the common room of our suite. They will drink about three liters of beer, two bottles of Soju (Korean vodka), and two bottle of Macholi (Rice wine). They do not suffer any hangovers from this, even though the Soju alone has an alcohol percentage of around 40%.

When I first came to SCH, I was in shock. Coming from a "Dry" campus at SEMO to a school where drinking is about as normal as ordering pizza was an adjustment. This semester the drinking has been even more prominent. Half the girls in my suite are freshmen. The semester in Korea starts in the spring, so this is their first semester in college. Part of their initiation into their major department required a series of evening or overnight activities called MT Training. The upperclassmen would order the freshmen in their major to do certain acts, which included the freshmen guys to crossdress and sing, and all the freshmen to continue to drink until told to stop. My freshmen girls were absolutely terrified about this and rightly so. Looking back to my first semester at SEMO, I was scared the first week of college. The college environment is a foreign place compared to the carefree days of high school. It is the first time you are truly on your own and have to take care of yourself. Thankfully, declaring a major at SEMO does not require school approved hazing.

My heart would break every time my suitemates told me that they had MT training and how they didn't want to go. One of my girls broke down in tears because she didn't want to get drunk, but she knew her "Seniors" would make her drink until she could hardly stand. I tried to comfort her, telling her that no one has the right to treat her like that. She gave me a huge hug, but told me that she has no choice, she must do whatever they tell her. I think this extreme hazing comes from the aspect of Korean culture that demands that younger people must respect their elders. Young people must do whatever they are asked to do by their elder. This is wonderful in some respects, like younger people giving up their seat for the elderly on the subway. However, the college community at SCH has taken this cultural expectation out of context, turning it into a semester long hazing for young, frightened freshmen students, who want nothing more than to be accepted by their superiors in their major.

The suitemate I told you was dragged back to our suite by two of her Seniors. They dropped her on our couch, demanded that us other suitemates take care of her, and walked out the door without another word. No explanation of how much she drank or why they let it get to that point. I can't even tell you how mad I was. If there is one thing that makes me angry, it is when people treat other people as less then, when someone doesn't take the time to care. These two "superiors" forced a young girl using a twisted cultural norm to drink to a dangerous level. To leave a girl in their major, who they call their "family" at the university in such a state really displayed to me that college can be ugly anywhere in the world. We had to keep her awake, because she kept blacking out and we were afraid that she could be in serious trouble if she fell asleep the first two hours after she came back. We were able to find out from her between her trying to sleep and running the the bathroom to throw up that she drank an entire bottle of Soju, which really should be consumed by at least three people. Eventually, she got to a point where she could walk to her room and sleep.

SEMO is one extreme of the spectrum, being absolutely paranoid about a drop of alcohol existing on campus. At the other extreme is SCH, where alcohol is seeping out of every corner. There needs to be a middle ground where students realize that school is not Happy Hour or the Prohibition reincarnated. I don't know exactly where that point should be seeing that I do not drink, but I hope both schools are able to deal with this eternal issue with the right mindset.

Ok......THAT WAS A REALLY LONG TANGENT! It is a part of college life that can be controversial to write about, but it is something that needs to be discussed openly and frankly. Anyway back to the Spring Festival (which was the original subject of this post, what happened?)

The vendors have been present both day and night for the past two days of the festival. Each major has a stand selling various products. My favorite stand is the Management Major's Pineapple stand. Pineapple is pretty much golden perfection and the students (I should really say the mob) running the stand were very enthusiastic about Pineapple. Every time I walked by, I would get mobbed by at least fifteen students in red "Management Major" shirts, saying the few English words they can muster "Pineapple! Delicious! Very Cheap!" I must say all their statements were true, and my wallet was much lighter by the end of the day.

This evening, the main performer was a group called "Supreme Team." For those of you who are still learning your Kpop groups, Supreme Team is pretty much the most popular Hip Hop/Rap group currently in Korea. The group consists of two guys who rap and sing. They are extremely funny in their music videos and very talented, so I was very excited to see them live. They were incredible live! They have an amazing ability to play off each other and were very humorous as they bantered between songs. It would be an understatement to say that the Korean students were also excited. The field pretty much turned into a screaming frenzy as they took the stage. Cell phones were abundant as people recorded the performance and a girl behind me kept yelling in Korean: "E-Sens (the more 'thug' guy in the duo) I love you! E-Sens look over here! E-Sens you are amazing!" They are one of my favorite Kpop groups because they don't follow the redundant commonplace musical structure and performance style as most other Kpop groups. They have a uniqueness that can be hard to find amongst the redundant emotional cutesy Kpop songs.

Tomorrow evening at the festival, the main event of the night is something that is being called "Club night." The description was as follows: "A night that is like a club, only on the field." Too funny! Stating the obvious but it needed to be said. I will be going with Bermet and Elena, my two friends from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. We are going to dress up and go to this "club on the field." Will be interesting!

Not much to report from the SK

I haven't blogged in a week and feel like I should give a report of what's been going on since the Sports Festival. It was a pretty uneventful week, but I still have a few bits of news:

1. I started my online Psychology class. It is a three week intensive so I will be done with it before my finals here at SCH. It has been going well so far. I have been looking forward to taking Psychology in college and so far it has not disappointed! Interesting topics and good discussions in the class (of course when I say "in the class" I mean the discussion board, oh technology....). It is another step towards my goal of completing my college education on time.

2. I finished all of my large projects for my SCH classes this week! On Monday, I had my group project for CID, which marked the end of presentations and research papers for the semester.


3. On Monday, my suite celebrated our Sports Festival win in style at the nicest Korean restaurant in town. We won a gift certificate for our third place finish, so we had a night on the town (at least as much as you can for a small farm town). We ate a lot of food! We also ate quite a few delicacies including: raw crab, squid, and liver. They were quite good as well. It was nice to spend time with my suitemates after our busy day at the Sports Festival.

4. I had two Korean exams this week. Both exams went well, but I still have a lot to study before the final. I am still struggling with my vocabulary, but I'm still charging forward!

5. I received the official notice that I have been accepted for the Fall semester and obtained the course listing for the Fall. I will be taking three Korean language classes in the Chinese program, which is a Korean language intensive program. The majority of the students are Chinese, so the teachers speak in both Chinese and Korean. It will be quite a shock initially for me to not have the possibility of English as a crutch, but I am ready to step up to the challenge. In addition, the Chinese program moves at more than twice the pace of the English program, which is both exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. I will continue my Korean studies this summer, hopefully completing the English program Korean textbooks before the Fall. In addition to the Korean classes, I will continue to have exchanges with Korean students and take a few other courses with the English program. It will be very different from these other two semesters, but I think it will really benefit my Korean.

6. On Friday, I joined a group of 20 international and Korean students to go watch Pirates 4 at the local theater. We moved as the Children of Israel (aka. mass mob) to the theater, arriving about thirty minutes early. After purchasing some snacks (I shared some caramel popcorn with Amanda, not in the mood for fried squid on a stick), it was time to go to the movie. I think I have mentioned this before, but in Korea, you are given assigned seats. We weren't able to purchase seats together. As a result, there were pockets of international students all over the theater. It was funny throughout the movie as jokes were cracked, different international students would find it funny, resulting in pockets of laughter from different corners of the theater. It was nice after a week of classes to unwind at the local theater, just like home.

Well...that's all I can think of as of now. I suppose no news is good news! As the semester winds down I am sure I will have lots of stories to share, so stay tuned!

Global Village Sports Festival

Yesterday was the much hyped and anticipated Sports Festival for the students living in Global Village. It was an eight hour tournament between suites playing Korean recreation games. Each suite was paired with another suite to play these games against two other paired suites.

My suite was paired with Heathers suite. This event was mandatory for international students, but optional for the Korean students. As a result, the turnout by the Korean students was not great, but we still had a great time. I was happy to see that six of my thirteen suitemates turned out. We joined Heather and her two suitemates that came for our all girl team, the only one in the festival. The teams were preassigned, and they tried to put a boys dorm with a girls dorm for each team. However, there were two more girl dorms compared to the guys, so we were the only all girls team.


One of the games we played was a kind of leapfrog. I would consider it leapfrog on steriods however. Here's the rules: you must get your "runner" across the field. To do so, you must form a human bridge with everyone on the team bending over, allowing the runner to walk across their backs. There are also two helpers for the runner, who hold the runner under her arms, helping her keep her balance. For this game, my suitemate Yaewon was the runner, while Heather and I were the "helpers." We were given a head start because we were an all girl team. It was a tough game, Yaewon would lose her balance and we would be literally holding her while she tried to gain some footing on the other girls backs. With good communication and teamwork, we were able to win the race!

Another game we played was Korean dodgeball. For all you dodgeball fans out there, this is a totally different animal. The object of the game is to knock out all the "attackers (usually played by girls on a team)." The "defenders (usually guys) each have an attacker on their team that they must protect. There is only one ball in the game. Only the attackers can throw the ball. The defenders can get hit by a ball and not be eliminated, however if their attacker is hit, they are both out. When an attacker and defender are knocked out, they move to the perimeter of the court and try to get the ball and attack the other team. It is a complicated form of dodgeball, but it is quite fun. My team did well playing game as well, mostly because my suitemate Jijong is extremely aggressive and was able to knock out almost every attacker on the other team on her own. I was surprised to see such a competitive side of Jijong, she is usually really quiet and sweet, don't mess with her when playing dodgeball!


There was also a three legged relay race. The twist was that before you could pass the baton to the next pair, you had to complete a challenge. Some of the challenges included answering multiplication questions, search for a piece of candy in flour using only your mouth, and eat half a lemon and whistle when you finish. I was paired for the race with Syngmin, one of my suitemates. I am about a foot taller than her, but she was determined to set a fast pace and not let this "slight" height difference slow us down. We were given the lemon challenge, and I must say the lemon was quite delicious! Our team finished second on this challenge, which was a great finish.

After we finished the games, the winners were announced. My team placed third, which is really good considering there were twelve teams. Considering we were the only all girls team, I think we proved a point that girls can be just as competitive and aggressive in games as guys.


Following the awards came one of the best parts of the day: a mass BBQ. There were huge barbecued pieces of pork slow cooking as we arrived to the picnic spot. A Korean BBQ would not be complete without sticky rice, whole pieces of garlic, hot peppers, and of course the most Korean food of all: KIMCHI! The food was so good, especially since we were only given some cream bread to hold ourselves over during the six hours of games. It was great to unwind after a long day of fun in the sun.

Korean Writing Competition

Today was the yearly SCH foreigner writing competition. My Korean writing teacher encouraged my class to participate, if for nothing else to have a chance to write an essay in Korean on a day other than class. It was also an excuse to miss other classes to do something really unique.

I met Bernice and Maiko on the way to the auditorium. Our teacher was one of the judges, so we had a chance to talk to her before the competition. She was wearing a gorgeous Hanbok. There were about ten students from the English international program. There were also an additional sixty or so students from the Chinese international program. The English program is the students from English speaking countries or students who are proficient in English. The Chinese program is the Chinese students that come to intensively study Korean. Because of the language difference, all of the instructions were in Korean.

After a few opening statements, guess who came to the stage? The Power Ranger/KungFu group that was at the opening ceremony. I learned here that they are a school cheer group called "Sunshine." They came back with the same outfits that I am thoroughly convinced they stole from a Japanese anime. They did the exact same dance/cheer routine, hop punch jump spin...AHHHH! Not only that, they had whistles this time and blasted their music so loud that I was sure Kim Jong Il would come from North Korea to tell them to turn it down! They ran through the audience, screeching their whistles, yelling in Korean "clap your hands." I think it is really sad when a group has to demand the audience to applaud, really an indicator that something isn't quite right with the performing group. The last thing they did that really made me feel like I would be scarred for life was that the lead Power Ranger began to lead a chant. This chant went along the lines of "Soonchunhyang University" "Fighting." This is fine, but no one was yelling this chant except the girl, not even her fellow Power Rangers. She then began to screech this chant, hoping that someone would join her. Out of what I think was half school spirit the other half hopes that she would give her voice a break, the auditorium began to repeat the chant. It was as bizarre as the first time I saw this group, what was the point of leading cheers for the school before an essay competition? Only in Korea....

We then were given the three topic choices: Family, Childhood Memory, or Embarrassing Moment. My vocabulary is still not by any stretch of the word adequate to write anything decent about any of these topics, but I decided to write about family and write as much as I could. It was a good "self test" to be thrown into a situation where I had to write about a topic completely different from what I had been writing in class. It was a wake up call for me here in the semester to continue to work on my vocabulary.

After the writing portion was completed, the judges read the essays and chose the most notable. One of my Chinese friends got second place, which was very exciting. She is fluent in both Korean and English, on top of her native language Mandarin. I enjoyed the experience and hope in the future I can write a full fledged essay in Korean.

The Journey Back to Korea

The journey begins at the train station in Chiang Mai, Friday at 5pm. We boarded the overnight train for Bangkok. We had bunk beds where we would sleep until 5am the next morning. I did not sleep too much on the train up to Chiang Mai, so I was determined to get a lot of sleep.

Here is the timeline for my trip back to Korea:
Friday - Overnight train 5pm - 6am
Saturday - 6am get off train and head back to original hotel to catch airport bus
2pm arrive at airport to board 5pm plane to Shanghai
9pm arrive at Shanghai Pudong and transfer to Shanghai Hongqiao
Sunday - 8:45am board plane from Shanghai Hongqiao to Seoul Gimpo
12:30 arrive in Seoul Gimpo

As you can see, I would need to be well rested to make sure I don't miss any details in this trip back to Korea. Thankfully, I was able to sleep until about 4:30am, when our guide woke us up to be ready to arrive in Bangkok.

We got to Bangkok late, around 7am. I went with the guide to purchase an airport bus ticket. I was told by the woman who sold me the ticket that the bus would pick me up at the 7eleven near the hotel at 11am. I wanted to make sure I got to the airport in plenty of time. It takes an hour by bus with no traffic to get there, so I wanted to allot enough time for worst case scenario and still have time to get through the detailed customs. Thailand has a lot of tourists, so their customs is a bit meticulous compared to Korea.

So I waited at the 7eleven....and waited....and waited. Eleven came and passed, so I called the company again to confirm the pick up location. They told me again "7eleven." I began to panic because they did not come and I needed to catch this flight. A note: there are hundreds of 7elevens in Thailand, if you have to catch an airport bus near a 7eleven, make sure you know exactly which one. I decided to walk down the main street, searching for other possible 7eleven candidates. Sure enough, there was another 7eleven. I called the bus again to see if it was the 7eleven on that street, it was the main street 7eleven, not the one close to the hotel. I waited again for the noon bus.

I arrived at the airport at 1:30pm, still plenty of time before my flight. I checked in and bought a snack before my flight. At 4pm it was time to board. I said "see you later" to Thailand because I hope to return one day. There is still so much I would like to see. I flew on China Eastern Airlines, which is one of the nicest airlines I have flown with. For the four hour flight they provided dinner and a snack before landing. I was able to sleep a bit on the plane before we landed.

I arrived at Pudong around 9:30pm. To enter China, you must have a tourist visa. I had a visa for my trip to China, but it was a single entry visa. I would need to transfer airports, but I did not have a valid visa. In Shanghai, the two airports are on opposite sides of the city. To get to the other airport, I would need temporary permission to enter the country. In China, if you are transferring airports in Shanghai, you are given a special temporary visa for 24 hours to change airports and leave China. I was given a special stamp in my passport that gives me permission to enter the country for 24 hours. It is a great system for a country that is so restricting on who can enter their country. It is a small step to China becoming more open to the world.

Once I went through customs, temporary visa in hand, I collected my luggage and proceeded to the airport bus. The two airports are connected by subway, high speed train, and bus. The bus is the fastest and cheapest way to move from one to the other. It also remains open until 11pm, so I would be able to catch a bus to the other airport. I found the bus station outside the airport, bought my ticket, and took it to Hongqiao airport. At this point, I was feeling pretty confident that the 7eleven issue would be the only hiccup in this trip back to Korea.

I arrived at Hongqiao airport around 11pm Saturday night. The airport was pretty deserted with a few people waiting for morning flights. I decided I would spend the night in the airport because hotels in Shanghai are so expensive and my flight was early. I did not want to miss it and be stranded in a country I was not allowed to be in past Sunday! The departure schedule was not listed because it was so late, so I decided to get some sleep and check the flights in the morning. I found an empty bench near the Starbucks stall in the airport and stretched out, with one bag under my head and clutching the other one. Being a Western woman traveling alone, I stayed aware of the people around me, you can never be too careful. I was able to doze off for a few hours. I also worked on a Sudoko, which I found to be difficult with only about six hours of sleep on the overnight train and three hours of sleep in the airport.

I woke up at 5am Sunday morning. My flight would leave at 8:45am so I wanted to make sure I knew the gate and check in information. I checked the departure information and discovered that it was all domestic departures. I saw a sign saying "International Departures" pointing down the terminal. I thought "Ok, there's where my flight will depart from," only to discover that part of the terminal desolate. I walked up to a security guard and asked here where to check in for my flight. She looked at the information and said "Wrong Terminal, you must go to the other Shanghai Hongqiao terminal, there the international departures leave."

I felt like I received a punch from Muhammad Ali in the chest. The other terminal?!? "Where is this other terminal?" I asked in as calm a voice I could. She told me "Oh about twenty minutes by taxi." It was now 7am. My flight would leave in less than two hours and I was in the wrong terminal! I thanked the guard and ran in search of the taxi station. The Domestic terminal on Hongqiao is very confusing. I asked a group of youth volunteer workers where to find a taxi. The poor things understood what I said, but could not find the words to respond. I felt so bad for them as they answered in Chinese very slowly enunciating every tone and syllable, but I do not speak Chinese by any stretch of the imagination, so I thanked them and moved on. I found another security guard, who was kind enough to take a frantic Westerner to the taxi station. I wouldn't have been able to find it if he didn't show me.

I then attempted to get a taxi. Of course, when you are in a hurry, there are no taxis in sight. I waited a good twenty minutes for a taxi, by now it's 7:30am. A few came, but seeing a foreigner who wouldn't speak Chinese, breezed past me picking up other people waiting. Finally, one taxi drove up and didn't have enough time to see that I wasn't Chinese before I ran up to the cab. He was a 50 something year old man, that when seeing me jump in his cab, shook his head and said something in Chinese that I could only imagine being "Why me?" I smiled and said "Shanghai Hongqiao airport." He looked at me, looked at the airport, and pointed indicating "Lady, you're at the airport." I tried to explain I needed to get to the other, showing him my flight information. He looked at it, mumbled something in Chinese, and proceeded to take me to the other airport. I wasn't sure if he knew that I wanted to go to the other Hongqiao terminal, not Pudong. If he took me to Pudong, there would be no way for me to make my flight. I continued to say "Hongqiao" and he would nod. I had no clue where this airport would be considering I did not know that there were two terminals separated by 15 miles. At one point, I saw a sign on a building saying "Hongqiao Airport" and said "Hongqiao" pointing at the sign. The driver stopped between the exit ramp and the highway with a puzzled look on his face. I then realized that this sign was a warehouse for planes, not the airport. I pointed at the highway and my ticket, to which my driver muttered something again in Chinese, probably along the lines of "This is what I get for being nice."

To my relief, my taxi driver knew all along what I had requested and brought me to the Hongqiao international terminal. I was so happy I gave him a big hug and tipped him for bringing me to the terminal so quickly. He was so patient, considering his passenger was a hysterical foreigner that made him stop in the middle of the highway. I proceeded to the check in counter. I showed the woman my flight reservation and her eyes got big. "Oh, you need to hurry through security, your flight is about to board." I looked up at the clock, it was 8:10am. The flight would close in 20 minutes! The line for security was short. The security process in China is very meticulous but quick. Every person is individually padded down after walking through the metal detector, but there are several people doing this part of the security process. I was able to get through security in 10 minutes. Of course, because I was in a hurry my gate would be the farthest from security. I ran to my gate, reaching it just in time to board. They hadn't even called last minute boarding by then! By this time I was exhausted. 3 hours of sleep combined with scrambling to find where my flight would depart is stressful. I had breakfast on the plane (once again China Eastern going above and beyond for a 90 minute flight) and was able to sleep a bit before landing in Seoul.

It's interesting, that Sunday morning marked 6 months of being in Korea for me. I found myself saying several times during this whole journey back to Korea "I just want to get back home to Korea." It was the first time for me to call Korea home. It truly has become that for me. Landing in Seoul, seeing Hanguel on the signs, hearing people speak Korean, and being surrounded by the fast paced technology inundated society once again was a comfort for me. Korea is home for me here in Asia.

Over this winter break, I went to three countries and had so many new experiences. It was the adventure of a lifetime to see so much in a short span of time. I hope this summer, I can travel to new cultures here in Asia and learn more about this incredible area of the world.

Thailand Trekking: Day Three

Today, we had a delicious breakfast cooked by our guide. We packed our things and hit the trail for the last time.

The hike today was only about an hour. We hiked through rolling hills, very easy compared to the other two days. We hiked through several small villages and a few rice fields. We also walked through a small bamboo forest, which was lovely.

After the hike, we drove to a river where we took a bamboo raft ride down the river. After three days of hiking, it was nice to sit with our feet in the ice cold water. We saw a few children swimming in the river, some local women washing clothes in the river, and local farmers working in their fields.

When we finished the raft ride, we had Pad Thai for lunch at a local restaurant. Nearby the restaurant was a two thousand year old Wat and a Buddhist temple built into a cave. We were able to explore both temples. The Wat sent shivers down my back. It is amazing to see something that was built so long ago. This Wat has witnessed so many political and social changes, yet it remains unchanged. The temple in the cave was fascinating. As we walked farther into the cave, we saw more worshipers and larger Buddha statues. The few lights illuminated these bright images of Buddha and other protectors, giving it an eerie feeling.

It was time then to head back to Chiang Mai, back to civilization. When we reached Chiang Mai, we went to dinner together and spent the evening at a local dance club. Being only 20 and not able to enter most USA clubs, this was my first time at a club. Who knew that it would be in Thailand? We spent a few hours dancing and laughing about all the adventures of the week. Thailand is famous for its clubs and now I see why. For a conservative society, Thai people know how to let loose! We were the only foreigners there and there was a live band singing both Thai and English songs. It was funny to hear them sing Katy Perry and mess up every few words, really changes the meaning. After a few hours, I was ready to get back to the hotel. We would have half a day to see Chiang Mai before getting on our overnight train. I took a Tuk Tuk with Maggie back to the hotel, ready to sleep in a bed after two nights on bamboo mats.

The next morning, I went with the Australian sisters and the English girls to Doi Suthep, which is the most famous Wat in Chiang Mai. It is nestled on the top of the hill that overlooks the city. The Wat was magical, looming over the ancient capital of Thailand. It was a holy day in Thai Buddhism, so there were a lot of worshipers at the Wat. We saw a few of the ceremonies: a monk chanting with a group, people dropping coins in jars surrounding the complex, and people lighting incense. The smells of the incense and the sounds of the chants was incredible. Here are a few things I learned about Thai Buddhism: You never point your feet at the image of the Buddha, it is the most disrespectful sign in Thai culture. Women must never touch a monk because it will make them unclean. In Thailand, the main denomination of Buddhism is Theravada Buddhism mixed with pieces of Hinduism. At temples in Thailand, there are images of both Buddha and other Hindu deities. It is an interesting mix of two similar yet contrasting religions.

After we got back from the temple, it was time to pack up for the overnight train. We would be taking the train back to Bangkok, where I will be catching my flight back to Korea. Stay tuned for my next entry about the train and my flight, it will be epic!

Jirisan and Hadong Green Tea Festival

This weekend, I went to the southern part of Korea to see one of the most beautiful regions of the peninsula. I went with Heather on an Adventure Korea tour of Jirisan (Mt Jiri) and the Hadong Green Tea festival. I had heard of Adventure Korea from my friend Maggie, who I had met in Thailand. She teaches in Korea and is good friends with the owners of this tour group, so she gave it her recommendation. Sadly, Maggie couldn't join us for the weekend, but we had an amazing time.

The adventure starts at 4am Saturday. We had to meet the tour in Seoul by 8am to catch the tour's bus. We met in the lobby at 4:45am to walk to the subway. When we got to the lobby, we saw that it was completely deserted. It was eerie to see the usually active and busy lobby desolate. We also saw that the security guard was also absent. He wasn't in his office that overlooks the front door and lobby. We thought this was quite strange, but proceeded to the door. It was locked! The dorm has a curfew from midnight to 6am, but the front door usually unlocks earlier. So, there is no guard present and the door is locked, we decided we would have to escape the fun way: out a window. When students reach the dorm past curfew or if they need to get out early, they will climb out of the several secret escape routes: the few hall windows that don't have bars on them or out the second story via ladder. We first tried the hall windows. They wouldn't budge. The usual way to outwit the curfew failed, so we tried to call Danimal, who has the famous ladder as a means of escape from the second story. He didn't answer his phone. We tried to call him several times, by this time it's 5am. We need to catch the 5:30 train or we will not make it in time for the bus in Seoul. At this point, we are about to panic. The one thing getting in our way from Jirisan is a locked door. In desperation, I went to the security guards office/watchpost, knocking frantically and yelling at the absent guard. As I continued to yell, we heard a click. The front door unlocked! I don't know what happened, the door unlocks at 6am, not 5am. I think we have a phantom guard who works the night shift or something. Weird stuff, but we didn't have time to consider the different explanations for this, we had a train to catch!

We walked to the subway station, making it five minutes before the 5:30am train. To get to the bus terminal, it would take about 2 hours. We also had to make two transfers, which could add another 20-30 minutes to the trip. We would be cutting it really close! We made our first transfer in ten minutes, the time was now 7:15am.
As we reached our second transfer, we ran to the platform, just in time for the train. We reached our meeting point for the tour at 7:55am, and we haven't even started the trip yet!

We left Seoul, made a few stops as we drove south towards Busan. We reached Mt Jiri around 12:40. Mt Jiri is the third tallest mountain in the Korean peninsula. We reached a point on the mountain where we could reach the top in a few hours hike. The tour group gave us four hours to hike to the summit. Koreans love to hike, so there were a lot of hikers decked out with bright jackets, hiking sticks, and all those other "hiking" accessories. It was interesting, as we hiked closer to the summit, the leaves on the trees became smaller to nonexistent. I felt like we were going back in time week by week as we got closer to the top.

The hike was absolutely beautiful. We were surrounded by breathtaking mountains, everywhere you turned the view was more gorgeous. We reached the summit and what was there? A cell phone tower, so Korean! After paying homage to this display of modern Korea, we walked around the top of the mountain. We were glad to see that along with the tower, there was a memorial to what appeared to be a Scholar or Yangban. The views from the summit were unbelievable. I could have stayed there all day.

After we returned to the bus, we drove to the hotel where we would stay for the night at the bottom of the mountain. I think it is safe to say that we thought we were going to fall off the mountain on the drive down. It was an adventure! The roads were narrow and the turns were not made for a bus. We had a great driver that got us there safely, but it was still frightening.

At the hotel, we were joined by two other people from the tour in our hotel room. Korean hotels do not have Western beds, instead you are given mats to sleep on. Our roomates names were Kim and Brianna. They are teachers from USA teaching in Incheon. They were a hoot! We had dinner together at a local restaurant and sang Noraebang (karaoke) afterwords. At Noraebang, you rent a singing room, which is a small room with couches, TV screen, and a Karaoke machine for an hour. We were rocking some Evanescence, singing some Katy Perry, and rapping some Eminem (Kim was an amazing rapper). It was epic! We had so much fun spending time with them after only meeting earlier that day. It is incredible how sometimes you can feel like you have known someone for years even though you had only met. After Noraebang, we went back to our hotel and played some card games. We learned Chinese Poker, which is very similar to Poker.

The next morning, we awoke to the sound of a Korean tour group leaving in the parking lot below. A group of Ajumas (older Korean women) were arguing about how to pack the bus, which would have been humorous if it wasn't at six in the morning. We went down to eat breakfast, which was toast with jelly and peanut butter. I was very happy for this, one because it was free, two because peanut butter and good jelly are hard to come by.

We then went from the hotel to a local school. The day prior, we volunteered to learn the form of a traditional Korean tea ceremony to perform in the festival. We were joined by fifteen others to learn this ancient ceremony. I absolutely love Asian Tea, so I was beyond excited to learn this process of presenting tea. Here are a few interesting things about a Korean tea ceremony: Like with anything, you either carry out the actions with the right hand or both hands, never the left. You also must warm the cups with warm water prior to pouring the brewed tea. When serving the tea, you always give the first cup poured to the most respected person partaking in the ceremony, whether it's the king or the oldest person.

After about a thirty minute tutorial, we were whisked to the festival. We were taken backstage to be dressed in Hanboks. Only then did we learn that this would be a judged competition between the 15 of us and that it would be televised. After we were dressed and given last minute tea coaching, it was time to present what we learned. We each had a Korean woman sitting next to us to guide us in the ceremony in case we forgot something. My Ajuma was not too helpful sadly. She gave me conflicting instructions and at one point, she had moved along so far in the ceremony that my tea was poured before I was supposed to. She told me to pretend I was pouring my tea as the rest of the other competitors were gracefully pouring their tea. I smiled as I poured my invisible tea into my already filled glasses. I had a blast "competing." Everyone was really easygoing and I don't think the judges were even taking it seriously, one of them was laughing the whole time us foreigners attempted to perform this ceremony while another was taking pictures instead of taking notes. I was smiling and joking with my Ajuma the whole time because I was not graceful at pouring the tea at all and I kept doing things so wrong, that she would reach over and do it for me. Oh well, I learned a lot and I made good TV! I did not win, but everyone got a consolation prize, which was a traditional tea cup with a strainer for tea leaves, perfect!

After the performance, we had lunch with the other competitors. As we ate Bibimbap, we talked about our experience performing a tea ceremony. After lunch, we had time to explore the tea stalls. The area around Jirisan is famous for Green Tea so many local farmers were displaying and selling their tea. We were able to taste a variety of teas, listen to a group of children play traditional drums, and watch mechanical characters pull buggies around the festival. The variety and quality of the teas were fabulous. We didn't have enough time to see all the stalls, but it was enough time to see a lot.

At 2pm, we boarded the bus for the long drive back to Seoul. On the way, they showed the movie Avatar, which I had not seen before. The story was predictable, but the imagination and special effects were incredible. We reached a rest stop near Pyeontaek, which is about halfway between school and Seoul. A few of the teachers that live near our school that were on the tour suggested getting a taxi to the subway from there, saving us several hours. We reached Pyeontaek station, bought a pizza for dinner, and boarded a train back to school. We reached school before the curfew, so we wouldn't have to scream at the real or phantom security guard to let us in. It was an amazing trip filled with so many things that were completely unexpected, but that's what made it an awesome journey.