Productive Cafe Date, Feeling Sick, and Age Gaps in Korea (04/10/19) NSLI-Y AY

04/10/19 Wednesday

Views from my transfer station 대곡역 which is mostly outside. It makes me truly feel like I am outside of Seoul since its surroundings look pretty rural. But look, some flowers started blooming~ Although the morning is still very chilly. I have a love-hate relationship with this station; however, the scenery is nice.

When I woke up Wednesday morning, I knew I had come down with something and it wasn’t just a cold. My throat ached badly and when I opened my mouth to cough, the sheer raspiness in my voice surprised me. I could still breath out of my nose perfectly fine but my head also throbbed. I placed my hand against my forehead and could feel unusual warmth. I decided to just carry on with the day regardless (I do not get sick often and have not skipped school for sickness in a long time so my initial game plan was to ignore it.) and threw on my 생활복 and didn’t even do my hair or put on any makeup (something that’s pretty rare now—though in high school, I never wore makeup.) 

Wow, catch this awkward sick-day selfie. Look at those dArK CiRcLeS!!

Wednesday’s day of school was literally a blur. Maybe because I was sick? But trying to look back on this day… I come up with nothing. However, I guess it could have also just been an uneventful school day. I had 국어 in the morning which I basically just day dreamed throughout the entire thing because I wasn’t feeling well. At one point, the teacher was explaining some concept involving fire and paper so he came to my desk (I was sitting in the back) and took my paper and tried throwing it up in the air. While demonstrating, he dropped his marker and paper on the floor so it ended up being kind of awkward—especially because I still had no idea what he was trying to show me. I had to muffle my nervous laughter.

Another time, he asked me what 벚꽃 (cherry blossoms) were in English and after I told him, he proceeds to point out the flower on our paper but he realized that I was “looking”at the wrong side of the paper so he flipped the side for me. That was a bit embarrassing to be honest… 

During my study period with Katie… I literally stole her coat and then slept for almost the entire period. It was pretty nice. 

During my two hours of 세계사, I worked on my Korean workbook pages and then did a Topik reading test. 

We ate lunch with our friends but I was not really impressed by the meal. Mostly because the rice contained corn kernels and I could barely eat around it so I gave up eating it halfway through lunch. (I hate corn more than any other food in this world…) I was also really sick at this point in the day so I barely said a word during lunch. I just brought spoonfuls up to my mouth and chewed. Katie was also very tired so she didn’t say much either.

We had Japanese Omurice (오모라이스) which is just an empty omelette draped over rice usually accompanied by a savory/sweet sauce.

My last class of the day was politics and we just listened to lectures for the two hours, so I worked on my Topik writing test which left me finished with my last Topik test! (Actually this is a lie; we will probably get one more before the date of the actual test.) 

After school today we had our second club meeting; however, since midterms are coming up, we ended up self-studying during the period—or at least for the greater part of the hour. At first we goofed off about the club hoodies that we are making and the ugly logo of the club but after awhile, everyone was able to settle down in their own desk and do some work. I made a Quizlet for the newest chapter for Korean class! 

Gloomy weather after school

After school, even though I felt like death, I decided to go to Twosome Place with Katie because I worried that if I went home, I would just sleep and not do any actual work. I wanted to prevent this or at least lessen the consequences by doing most of my work before I got home. 

And I was successful, despite the random dance breaks to Taylor Swift’s Love Story and Let it Go, I was able to write my entire presentation on a Korean historical figure: I choose the Korean independence movement leader 유관순 열사. Also Katie told the employees at the cafe that I hurt my foot (which is why she ordered a hot chocolate for me) and so when we left the cafe after our study date, she asked me how I hurt my foot. I explained to her that I wore new shoes (left out the part about the fact that they were heels) and walked around for hours so I hurt my feet. She laughed and said “Oh I assumed you hurt it badly.” We laughed and left but if only she could see my toe! It is no tiny blister! No, it is not! 

(I don’t think I wrote about it earlier but one of my blisters—from wearing uncomfortable heels while walking for hours on Sunday—on my foot popped and the skin ripped off so I have an area on my pinky toe (makes it ten times worse) about the size of a quarter that’s all red and raw as my first layer of skin literally peeled up. It hurts a lot and even if I put band-aids on it, it hurts really badly–especially, when I wear my sneakers and walk around so I currently have a limp while I walk. I also have been using it as an excuse to use the elevator in the school more often cause stairs… are not my favorite right now.)

Anyway, I came home after studying at the cafe and had dinner with my host sisters. We ate at home but we had this huge feast made up of grilled meats, two different kinds of noodles and a pot of steamed egg. During dinner today, we had an interesting conversation about age difference in Korea. In America, we have a common phrase that “Age is but a number” but in Korea, it is so much more than that so I was curious to know  how it relates to relationships. From what my host sisters told me, too big of age gaps are not common but they really aren’t a big deal as long as the two people are close enough in age that they are a part of the same “generation” if you will. When it comes to friendships, it’s a bit different because if there’s a very large age gap, sometimes it can feel like you aren’t true friends but simply a person that’s just older than you (like an 언니 or 오빠). She did tell me that there’s a very negative image towards guys in their late 20s dating girls in their early twenties/in college. 

My older host sister explained that this is seen as really sleazy to most people and they actually view the guy as a bad person. (Example, if a 26 year old was dating a 21 year old in college.) They also said that he would probably take advantage of her because she doesn’t know better but more importantly, it’s a real red flag if he can’t find anyone in his own circle of acquaintances and has to resort to shooting his shot in a bigger pool with younger girls. They did mention that this the other way around (a way older woman with a younger guy) has no negative connotations. 

She also made sure to tell me that I need to be careful with Korean men especially because I’m a foreigner—she said no one too old!! And if I find someone, especially someone that old, she will have to have dinner with him and make sure that his intentions are pure. It was really cute~ At that moment, I felt what is what I assume it feels like to have an older sister~

That is all for this blog post~ I hope you enjoyed! I am on the grind writing out these blog posts so quickly this week. I am really trying to catch up (only 5 days behind now!) Let’s get this! Thanks for reading, anyway! Insert your email to the right of this post to follow for more!

• Emma 엠마

TempleStay in South Korea (2 Days & 1 Night) (3/23-24/19) NSLI-Y Korea AY

3/23/19 Saturday 

Katie and I woke up around 8:30 am today to start getting ready to spend the weekend outside of our homes. She ended up basically not packing any clothes so she borrowed a T-shirt, some sweatpants, and even socks from me. (Which, while writing this, have still not been returned to me… Katie!!!!) We had to meet the rest of the NSLI-Y program at the subway station around 12 so we needed up heading to a bakery in the shopping mall next to my train station for some starchy breakfast. I didn’t end up taking a photos of the bread we ended up sharing but here are some really cute croque monsieurs (Shoutout to Kaitlyn for sharing my first one with me a while ago and bestowing upon me knowledge of such a great French carb!) that have heart cut outs in the bread! 

Apparently when we got to the station, it was raining really hard and only one NSLI-Yian brought an umbrella so 민정쌤 ran out to the closest convenience store and bought us all rain ponchos. All the students were wearing rainbow colored plastic coats that highly resembled gummy bears… you could say we came in an assorted batch of colors and flavors. What made this really funny was that when we made our way outside once the final student was accounted for, it was basically not raining at all—if anything it was just a light drizzle. But hey, at least we looked ridiculous all together! 

We took this one tiny bus where we all almost didn’t even have room to stand let alone breath but after a quick ten minutes, we arrived at the temple: 길상사. We were not allowed to have our phones out during the program because they were locked up during the duration of our stay so the photos that I took last up until this point. (Though I will scatter them throughout this blog post so photos are not only concentrated on one part.) Plus, there was a professional photographer that took photos of us, so I have those shots as well! 

On the walk there, we passed a famous statue of Korean comfort women from the Japanese occupation of the peninsula. The community (?) dressed the women up warmly for the cold winter weather with hats and scarves.

The first order of business was giving up our most worldly possessions (cell phones and wallets) and then we went and changed into our Buddhist attire which consisted of these really baggy sweatpants type bottoms and then a corduroy vest that went over whatever top we were already wearing. 

During the beginning of the templestay, we met the main workers and volunteers for the day and the monk that would be taking us through our journey of experiencing Buddhism. We started off learning about the rules of the temple aka the rules we also must abide by while we are here. Most of them were common knowledge like being respectful, peaceful, no phones, etc but others were new to me. I knew that many Buddhists didn’t eat meat (so we would be eating vegetarian all weekend) but I didn’t know that you were required to finish everything that you put on your plate. Also, during the duration of the stay, we were supposed to try our best to be silent but that didn’t last very long…

We were doing the program along with another group of foreigners (a couple European exchange students from SNU) and then several other native Koreans; although, foreigners definitely outnumbered the Koreans. 

It was at this time that we also learned how to properly bow like a Buddhist would in a temple and also how to create the 합창 pose– which is just the post of putting your hands in a prayer-like formation.

The first activity of the day was to take a tour of the temple grounds. We provided our own interpreter aka 소영쌤 for our programming but for the tour part, we switched her out with one the of the volunteers whose English was fluent and almost 100% natural. She was definitely thankful about that because earlier the Monk was being quite a savage to her when she couldn’t quite translate everything (Especially when Josh would shout things out from the crowd to help her out). The volunteer actually attended 대원외교 and so he bonded over that with the rest of the NSLI-Y kids attending that school. 

One of the more interesting parts of the tour was when we found out that this temple actually started out as a high class restaurant/ alcohol joint for rich men and politicians. There were also usually female performers to entertain the men that came to drink. The lady that ran the place was very rich as the place brought in a lot of revenue but she ended up giving it to one of the monks at the temple, after begging them for years to take the location.

This unique characteristic is why some of the buildings and the makeup of grounds is not exactly representation of most Buddhist temples. When 소영쌤 was translating this fact earlier, she called the place a high-class bar. Everyone was a bit confused so when we actually got to see where people would drink (and where the females would change), the volunteer rephrased the explanation of the place so we wouldn’t be confused. (So, in conclusion, the place was not as seedy as a normal bar.)

We walked around a bit more to see the rooms in which the monks sleep in and mediate in and the main temple where the monks (and visitors to the place) can go and pray. We also were showed two statues that our tour guide really made sure to emphasize that they symbolized religious harmony. One of them was donated by a rich white Christian to the temple while the other depicted Mary. 

After our tour, we learned how to mediate like a monk. This involved a demonstration of hand positions and breathing techniques and then all of us trying out meditation for ourselves. The monk walked around us carrying this large wild stick (Don’t you love my descriptions?) and showed us how he would hit people if they fell asleep during mediation time. He ended up showing off the stick’s power (it sounded like it hurt badly but apparently it was not that hard) on Alix, Jacquelyn (good foreshadowing) and 민정쌤. I am going to be honest, it was really difficult for me not to fall asleep while sitting there. I was tired and toasty from wearing so many layers and so I definitely felt myself nodding off at times. (Luckily, he never caught me) Although I will say even when I wasn’t fighting with sleep, I couldn’t mediate very well.. I kept the thinking of other things—my mind was racing with thoughts about everything and anything. I wouldn’t be a good monk for sure. 

Picture of me meditating…or was I dozing off at this point?

Eventually dinner time rolled around and it was time for us to experience Buddhist food—very simple ingredients, no meat, not much seasoning, and very healthy. In Buddhism there are actually a lot of different words for things that differ from plain-spoken Korean. For example, meal time is called 공약. And like I mentioned previously, the food you take is all the food that you need to eat! Monks do NOT waste food. 

Unfortunately, since there was no cameras or phones allowed, I can’t exactly remember what we were given to eat… what I can remember was that there was soup, different types of 김치 and vegetable 반찬, batter covered mushrooms and other root vegetables, rice, watermelon, and traditional rice cakes. Every single person had to wash their own plate and silverware at the end of the meal. 

After dinner, we had an evening Buddhist service in which we got to bow along with the monks at the temple as they had their nightly pray session. We were given pamphlets to follow along with what they were chanting but regardless of the fact that I can read Korean, I was confused at what page to be looking at. Either way, we all got to participate by bowing along with the monks.

We also did walking meditation after this which although it was very cold, I really enjoyed just mindlessly walking around the temple grounds. Compared to sitting meditation, I was able to let loose of more my thoughts during this exercise—maybe because I wasn’t as tired and because I had just eaten and was in a very calm and satisfied mood. 

We got the chance to talk with a different monk and ask him all his questions during a tea time session. We were given plum tea and a bunch of 약과 and assorted nuts. I was able to understand a lot more of what the monk said (before the volunteer translated) which made me quite proud. I could not imagine how I much I would have understood after only being here for a little while (say back during first semester).

We finished off the night with a movie documentary on a famous monk: 법정스님. It was interesting seeing how he lived his life as a monk. One thing that I thought was interesting was that he was highly judged by his parents. They had paid so much money for him to get a college education (not an easy feat now and not an easy feat then either) and he decided to leave the academic world behind and become a monk. But because of this tension, he did not help his family at all once he started earning money from the royalties off of his bestselling books. He had some ask for help but he basically cut them off completely. Instead, he would donate a lot of money to students who were struggling to pay for their college tuition and were near having to drop out. 

We all got ready ready for bed and slept on mats on top of the heated floor. I was expecting it to be rather uncomfortable but honestly, it was one of the best rests I have had in awhile. I think that sleeping on the floor is really good every once in awhile! I definitely do not mind it. I fell asleep right away and the next thing I knew… it was three in the morning.

3/24/19 Sunday

The lights slowly turned on and a bell began to sound. I looked around the room and watched everyone stir awake. No one had their phones so we could not tell that it was 3 in the morning but our bodies definitely were aware of this fact. We got up, changed, washed up a little, and then headed out for the early morning Buddhist service in the temple. Like the evening service, we got our own mats at the side of the temples and were given pamphlets to follow along with the monks. We finished off the service with another round of walking meditation around the temple grounds. This one, in comparison to the last, was actually very relaxing for me. Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was the morning and I was too tired to think of anything else but I was able to just watch my feet while I walked and forget about the world around me. It was very nice.

The next program on our schedule had been highly anticipated since the beginning. We would be doing 108 prostrations or bows. This involved bowing in the right way that was taught to us during the temple etiquette presentation and with every time we came down to the floor, we strung a brown bead (handmade, completely unique bead! You cannot find them/buy them anywhere else. You can only obtain them by doing a templestay!) on a string that would later become a necklace. We were told that with every bead strung onto the string, we were saying goodbye to a temptation, something bad in our lives, worries, etc. I found this activity very peaceful and I actually enjoyed being able to count out everything that had been consuming my mind recently. I metaphorically imagined myself saying goodbye to all my worries: not reaching my desired Korean level, confidence issues, not making friends in college, struggling with grades in college, homesickness, trust issues, my friends moving on without me in their lives, not being able to find true love, negative body image, missing out on a dream job of mine, etc. (Was that information too intimate? Oh well…)

It felt good feeling like I was releasing them into something else. I also figured that the 108 bows would be more tiresome than they were. I felt wobbly by the end (my legs) for sure but I did not really break a sweat. By the end of the activity, I was able to look at my necklace, and its 108 beads, with pride. I had done that. I had made this with my own hands and it definitely was not easy. When I got home, I hung it on my vanity mirror and I cannot help but smile when I look at it every day.

The finished product!~

We had breakfast after which consisted of 죽 (porridge), 잡체, spicy tofu, salad, lots of 반찬, and apples. It was all very clean tasting~ The next activity of the day was community work. For this part of the morning, we returned to the temple that we prayed at earlier and “cleaned” the mats that you kneel on while bowing. This process involved taking the mats out of the temple (assembly line style) and patting/smacking the dust off of them outside and then placing them back into stacks inside the temple against the wall. 

Smiling faces after accomplishing the task!

To work off some of the breakfast, we did temple yoga next which was not exactly like my yoga classes in high school; this yoga was definitely centered more on stretching and breathing. It  was a nice final session to end this program before we wrote our reflections and got ready to leave the temple. 

Last Photo of our TempleStay experience!

Katie and I went back to my house together so that she could pick up her bags. We ate lunch together at the shopping mall near my apartment– at 홍익 돈까스 to be exact, sharing 돈까스 and tomato pasta.

We also dropped by a cafe where I bought Katie bread for getting into UCLA!!! Congratulations Katie! ❤ We hung out there to study and chat for a bit before we both returned to our respective homes for dinner.

This bread’s name was 남편보다 더 달콤한 빵 (Sweeter than your husband bread)

My host mom was not feeling well and my sisters were out so I ended up eating dinner by myself in my room that night while I was studying. It was a very chill Sunday night. Although I did no actual work or studying during the templestay, it was still quite draining yet rejuvenating at the same time. Probably one of the biggest examples of something contradicting itself but hey that is how the world works sometimes!

That is all for this blog post! It is a very long one… more than 2,500 words yikes! If you got through all of it then… thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! I really had an amazing experience doing the templestay. I am so glad that we were able to get approved by Better World as it truly was such a unique and eye-opening experience. Especially because a lot of Buddhist values can be seen in aspects of the Korean culture even to this day! 여러분 기회가 있으시면 꼭 템플스테이를 해보세용~ Alright BYE!

• Emma 엠마

Korean Music Class, First 급식 Meal of the Semester and Knowing Nothing! (03/05/19) NSLI-Y Korea AY

03/05/19 Tuesday

Today was technically the second day back at 하나고 for the new semester but it felt more like the first day as yesterday just consisted of the 입학식 (the entrance ceremony for first years) and getting things settled within our homerooms. Today was the first day that we would be following our schedules AKA going to new classes and having to make friends! 

Today was also the first day of my new waking-up-at-five-thirty-in-the-morning-school-life. I woke up this morning and the entire house was dark; I had to pour my cereal using the light from the fridge to guide me because I was afraid of turning on a light and accidentally turning on all of the lights for the house as well (irrational fear? maybe…) I left my house before 6:30 am and jogged my way over to the subway station for my 50-minute commute. It was so early! However, a positive of waking up so early was that the train is not as crowded. I also have planned my train schedule to give me about ten minutes at my transfer station (one with good wifi and benches) so I have time halfway through my commute to communicate with Katie or any other friends. Also, already I am feeling grateful for this long commute in a weird not predicted way and that is because, with this extra time I am forced to commute, I have extra time to study vocabulary on Quizlet or write blog posts. I have only been doing this for three days (while writing this at least) and I have gotten a lot done! We love using our time wisely!

Arriving at school brought an expected wave of nerves as I realized that it was, in fact, our second day of school. Unlike my high school (that had block scheduling) and would only have 2 days with the “first day of school” feeling… our schedule was different for every single day of the week meaning we would be having 5 first days practically!

My first class today was my English Mentorship (or as it is called in Korean– 교환학생 함께하는 공간–free period with an exchange student); however, I ended up sitting in the discussion room in the library for the entire period by myself. The library teacher explained to me that since it is the beginning of the school year, the kids for the class have not been decided yet. So I believe that Katie and I can accept 자습 (self-study) time during all of our scheduled mentorship periods this week (We have more this semester! I believe three instead of two?)

My second class of the day was music with Katie!! One good thing and one bad thing in that sentence, can you guess which is which? I was so happy that 민정쌤 succeeded in getting us a class together even if it’s for a subject I know nothing about! Never took a music class in high school {well I guess… now I can say I have}. 

When we first got to the music room, all the first-year students were waiting outside. When they saw us walking towards them, they started getting loud and obnoxious probably excited and or nervous to interact with us? When we got there they were all saying hi to us in English and then Katie pulled out the “Actually we can speak Korean.” card which caused almost everyone to visibly show surprise on their face and the boys got all loud and rowdy again. They asked us some questions like where we were from {When we said Chicago they kept screaming Simon. Turns out, that’s the English name of the vice-principal who attending graduate school at UChicago.} and our age {When I told them we were 21 Korean age, they all screamed again. I immediately followed up with the fact that they can use 반말 with us and call us 언니 and 누나 if they so please. 

Once we piled in the classroom, Katie and I sat next to each other in the very back. Our music teacher seems really nice and was very enthusiastic about having us introduce our names {though she probably mispronounced Katie’s several times.} There was also this boy in the back that asked his friend to tell Katie that he wanted to be friends with her! It was the cutest and most freshman type thing I’ve ever seen. 

During class, we filled out this music pretest of sorts which I literally failed! I was able to guess some notes correctly but I knew none of the symbols for rests in music. She also played two pieces of music that we had to try and identify. There was nothing filled in for that section! Overall music class was chill. She explained the rules of the classroom, using the instruments, and practice room etiquette. At one point she warned the boys from doing any roughhousing near the ceiling speakers because they would break. She called them out; it was pretty funny. 

After that class, I had 한국사 which was supposed to be with first-year students and on the fourth floor but when I arrived at the classroom, I was greeted by no one. I will say that I am pretty happy with how I handled the situation! Rather than freaking out, I went to the next class over and asked what class it was (in hopes that maybe the one written on my schedule was wrong). Unfortunately, they were still a first-year class and not the one I was looking for (영미문학 instead) and since this was only their second day of school, they had no good advice to give me. Actually, before answering my question, they exclaimed that my Korean was good and then asked if I was an exchange student. One of the girls just told me to wait in the room until someone showed up… I did for like 5 seconds and then I walked outside to find a teacher. One teacher passed by me and greeted me and I immediately ran up to him to explain my situation. It turned out that he was actually my teacher! And I was actually taking the class with third years instead so our classroom was on the 5th floor. I followed him up there and got to walk in after the teacher which was only a little bit embarrassing… 

These two girls recognized me and called me over to sit with them which was relieving. I avoided having to panic over where I should sit for this class period at least. This teacher seemed really nice and actually acknowledged my existence which isn’t always the case for my teachers… He had me introduce myself to the class even though most of them probably know of me by now since I was with them last year. In class, we just went over the syllabus, teacher expectations, and then got started with a little bit of the class. I was able to follow along just slightly by being able to connect the dots with the random vocab words that I did understand. I think this class will be okay!

Finally, it was lunchtime and we were going to be able to eat with our friends for the first time in a while! We all met up at 12:20 pm {the time 2nd graders are allowed to start eating} but there was already such a huge line! The food we had today was so good! There was 자짱밥 (black bean rice), 해물만둣국 (seafood dumpling soup), and 탕수육 (sweet and sour pork). Unfortunately, Katie and I had to rush out of there to get to Korean class on time but nonetheless, catching up with our friends was fun. On our way out, we all ran into 규원, 주연, and 지은 {the girls from my mentorship class last year} and we talked to them on the hallway a bit! We promised to definitely have lunch together sometime next week! I miss them so much!! 

(Since the freshman students are still new to eating in the cafeteria, there are still signs up explaining how to dispose of bones and clean up your tray at the end of the period because the lines are still super long due to the first years not exactly knowing what to do.)

Korean class was… average. Nothing too exciting. I didn’t feel very good about my speaking or participation this day but I also didn’t want to cry during the breaks so that’s a plus? Actually, I did forget the word for river… I looked to Josh and tried to explain the word with “a thing bigger than a lake…” Yeah… so maybe yesterday was not my day? 

After Korean class, I went straight home so I had an hour to kill before dinner. This precious hour was spent lying on the floor in my room so my priorities are quite clear if you ask me. My host mom went all out for dinner with a lovely assortment of 반찬 (side dishes), fish, 된장찌개 (soybean paste stew) as well as my favorite Korean dish ever: 잡채 (sweet potato glass noodles)! It was all very tasty. 

I told them about me coming out in the school’s newspaper! {Did I mention that in yesterday’s blog post? We did an interview a while ago and we just got the paper!} Here’s a pic: 

After dinner, I went hard at work and studied the new grammar point from today and I made a new Quizlet. I have a lot of work cut out for me tomorrow since I let myself go to bed at 11:30… but you know, you win some you lose some. 

That’s all for this blog post! I know it’s another long one~~ I just feel the need to explain every last detail right now!! Besides probably not being able to finish this monster of a post… I hope you enjoyed anyways. Thanks for reading! 

• Emma 엠마

 

Lunch with a Better World Staff Member & Dinga Cake House in Hongdae {02/18-19/19} NSLI-Y Korea AY

02/18/19 Monday 

Tuesday would be our February Monthly test {It seemed like it had barely been three weeks since our last test! How could it almost be the start of the March already??} and by the time Monday rolled around, I did not feel ready at all. I have had trouble keeping motivation as of late and did not study nearly as hard as I did for the previous tests. Katie and I decided to meet at Coffee Slob to study for a bit before class with some cheap drinks and cookies to accompany us. I did get some stuff done but overall, I have not been productive lately!! 

For lunch, I decided to use the time I could be spending studying… to instead go out for lunch with some of the other NSLI-Y students: Liam, June, and Alix. We ordered two pizzas for ourselves at Pizza School. One was some cream carbonara pizza {It literally had noodles on it!} while the other one was some type of spicy chicken pizza that had tons and tons of corn on it! It was literally the worst pizza we could have picked! Luckily, the others were so kind as to allow me to eat more slices from the other pizza so I wouldn’t have to suffer and pick all the corn off the pizza. 

Alix & Liam w/ a drawing that Alix bought at a concert for him. I believe she is an idol singer.

Korean class was a huge blur… I really cannot remember what we did.. I believe it was a grammar point and vocab day so we went over the new chapter’s three grammar points and the new vocabulary from the workbook. We also took our first quiz since 설날 which consisted of three chapters from the textbook rather than the usual two. Let’s just say… I hardcore failed that quiz!!! I did so bad… it was quite embarrassing…. 

(These two photos showcase a scene during one of our breaks between class periods…I do not know what we are doing… my teacher walked passed us and gave us the weirdest face and once she fully left, we all burst into laughter. The one covered in the scarf is Kaitlyn, btw.)

After class, I wasn’t feeling the head-straight-home thing so I decided to spend an hour with Kaitlyn and June finally trying out Dinga Cake House! The legendary place! We got there and was worried that it would be rented out, or closed, or that there would be no seats cause we have been waiting to try that place out for what seems forever now and something has always seemed to stop us! The world did not want us to go! However, we were in luck today!

We each ordered a slice of cake around $6 which wouldn’t have been the expensive thing in the world but you were also required to order a drink along with the cake… and so the already pricy cake added up with the pricy drink. But nonetheless, for our hungry hearts (and for the cute cakes!), we all made sure to order different flavors of cake so that we could try each other’s choices. I ordered this red velvet cake with some crazy rainbow icing. But it looked like actual buttercream frosting and not that weird cream stuff {생크림 they call it in Korean} that is on almost every cake here. (As you can tell I do not like this type of frosting.) Kaitlyn got carrot cake dressed up as a hamburger with frosting while June got a caramel Biscoff cookie cake. Everything was literally so delicious! But not only was the dessert impeccable, but the cafe itself also had a really cozy and homey atmosphere which made me enjoy being there with the others. It truly felt like I had walked into an American home! It was too cute~

I came home and had dinner with my host family and spent the rest of the night trying to study and finish my homework but my motivation was severely lacking and so I slacked off quite a bit… Tomorrow is a new day!

02/19/19 Tuesday 

Tuesday would usually just be another day with Korean class but it was not an ordinary Tuesday at all. For lunch today, we got the opportunity to eat with one of the Better World staff members. This meant getting to know more of the people that work behind the scenes for all of the things that Better World does for us as well as getting free food and getting the chance to practice our Korean with a native speaker—and before we met them, a stranger at that!

Before we were scheduled to meet at the Better World office by 11:30 am, I went to a cafe for almost two hours with Kaitlyn. We went to the 달빛 cafe near Better World to get some work done but I could not get off of my phone it seemed! I was able to review some grammar and retake some notes but most of the time was spent talking to Kaitlyn too. She tried to finish some homework but her attempt was also in vain. 

My favorite chocolate banana smoothie!

Originally, I was going to have lunch with 민정쌤 as she picked me; however, Addie witnessed an accident on the way to Better World which was quite shocking and pretty traumatizing. Because of that 민정쌤 decided it was best to stay with her so I ended up eating with the person that chose Addie for the draw. When 주연쌤 explained this to me, I, of course, understood the reasoning behind the switch and only wanted the best for Addie at that time. However, I was also upset thinking why me? I didn’t want to eat with a stranger! I felt so anxious! 주연쌤 introduced me to 혜진쌤 in the office so that when it was time to leave, I would know who to go with. 주연쌤 told her that I was good at Korean so I should not worry– it would be very comfortable she said.

We ended up going to a famous 돈까스집 (a restaurant that sells pork cutlets). 혜진쌤 had heard about it being a 맛집 (trendy eatery) and wanted to try it out. Walking to the place was a bit awkward at first. I was really nervous to speak Korean to her especially because I knew we were going to be together for such a prolonged time at lunch. As we walked, she used her umbrella to also protect me from the snow, it was a very kind gesture. (Also, yes, interesting fact: many Koreans use umbrellas when it snows.)

At the restaurant, we ordered this fancy platter of 5 different meat cuts of 돈까스. Like there were pieces from the back meat, tenderloin, etc. There was even an order to eat them {in the most delicious way} which the waitress explained to us before we started eating. I could not follow her explanation whatsoever and when I looked over at 쌤 for some help, she also let me know that she did not know herself. We laughed about this and from then, I felt a bit more comfortable. Some of my stress was released. 

The food was really delicious. It was definitely the fanciest 돈까스 I’ve ever eaten for sure. (I am used to cheap $5 cuts) We also had some lovely 반찬 (side dishes) and such which were match appreciated and matched the meat well. But of course, the best part of the lunch was the conversations I was able to have with 혜진쌤. I thought it would be hard to talk with her but it proved to be easier than I first thought. 

We talked about the basic topics like where we were both from, our families, and of course, she asked me a lot of questions on my future university major, my interest in Korean, and how I feel life here is like. One of the things I’m most grateful for since coming to Korea is being able to feel moments that tangibly showcase {to myself mostly} that I’ve improved. This was one of those times. 

We started getting into the topic of the education system in Korea and comparing it to that of America’s. 혜진쌤 brought up the fact that our previous president Obama even said in a speech that America’s system should try to take note from Korea’s; however, she disagrees. We talked about the fact that Korea is considered to have one of the best education systems just because of high test scores which really isn’t the most valid indicator of a good education. Through this, we talked about students basically having no life when it comes to having to attend 학원 (academy) outside of school. I brought up my friend 서린 who told us that during winter break, she spends about 8 hours a day at 학원 learning math. She gets breaks… but because the other girls are so competitive and study through the breaks, she is forced to do the same. 

혜진쌤 actually has two children so we also talked about hem for a bit. She told me that she too finds Korean age confusing as her child is only about 3 years old {if you count months} but according to Korean age, she’s 5 years old. We also discussed the problems she finds with kids cafes. She said that she originally thought that they were a good environment for kids to play at (in order to have a change of pace) but after going, she finds that the order of how the kid should play limits imagination and creativity. 

We discussed the fact that if there is a manner in which you are supposed to play, it’s really not playing. If you have to schedule in playtime into your planner, it’s really not playing. {I’m using the word ‘play’ here because in the Korean language, when you want to express going out and doing something fun, hanging out with friends, etc you use the verb 놀다 which literally means to play}. I thought back to my junior year of high school {particularly my life during winter break} as that would likely most resemble the current situation of the rising third years at 하나고 (My Korean high school). During my junior year, I was studying for the SAT. A couple hours every other day or so. I took a couple practice tests but honestly, that’s more than a lot of people seemed to do. Most of them truly used winter break as a time to rest and others didn’t start studying cause they just didn’t need to. (** cough cough my twin brother -_- **cough cough) I ended up not doing well on the test and taking it a couple more times and still not using those scores ever {Ending up taking the ACT once and using that score for applications} but it was okay because I didn’t allow it to consume me. In America, our college entrance exams don’t consume our lives. They are important but not everything. And you CAN retake them. It is not a one and done deal. You can get a perfect score and get rejected from top schools. You can get a mediocre score and get accepted into a top-ranking institution or thrive at a state school—it’s not all about going to the top schools. But in Korea, it is like that. In fact, a good amount of students will repeat their third year of high school just to have another chance to take their entrance exam (수능) and hopefully get a higher score to get into their university of choice.

 It was a really interesting conversation and I heavily enjoyed being able to talk about a rather complicated topic. 

After our lunch, she wanted to recommend me a latte from a cafe near Better World because I told her I didn’t like coffee but we both bonded over the fact that we like going to cafes and being productive {studying, reading, etc}. She ended up taking me to the 달빛별빛 cafe which I was at with Kaitlyn earlier that day. Explaining that, and greeting the store owner again was fun. When we arrived, Shannon, Josh, 주연쌤, and another Better World staff member {loofy was his name maybe?} were there already chilling.

 혜진쌤 ordered some tapioca nut lattes {I think that’s what they were} for us and we talked some more at the cafe. She told me that she heard about me from 민정쌤 the night before because 민정쌤 mentioned she had me at work but she didn’t know who that was until she met me. She told me that from now on, I have to make sure to say hi to her when I visit the office and I, of course, assured her I would. 

She kept asking me if I was hungry and we laughed about Koreans’ obsession with food. Well, it’s not really an obsession but used as an endearing action— an expression of love and care. Koreans will often always ask if you have eaten or what you have eaten upon seeing you after awhile. But even if they ask you what did you eat, sometimes (based on the tone of their question) they are not actually wondering what you ate. A simple expression of ‘yes’ will suffice. I learned this in Korean class and it literally blew my mind. And it is not just with this expression but it applies to others too: like ‘Where are you going?’

She was worried that she had me talk too much during lunch and so I didn’t eat enough. I assured her that I was good and that I would just buy convenience store snacks during the break if I got hungry. Before leaving the cafe, she bought me a basil scone which was delicious! I haven’t tasted basil flavor in so long!! It was really nice of her~ She said that I should eat it instead of spending money on 삼각김밥. (She listens well!)

After my meeting with her ended, Josh and I walked back to class together. I can’t remember much of class today besides our many discussions on tv. We discussed the adverse effects and positive effects of watching tv as well as our favorite shows to watch. Apparently, it seems that I really like watching medical shows even though I would never want to be a doctor. I exposed myself to watching countless medical documentaries on YouTube and regularly listening to podcasts and YouTube videos by doctors about health. Also, I told them that my favorite Korean drama was The Good Doctor {and I also thoroughly enjoyed the first season of the American version}. I usually feel like I do a really bad job at participating during class—using my voice. I always make sure to take notes, follow along, listen intently but taking part using my voice is another story… but today! I did well! I am proud!

I came home right away and took the train home with Josh. Honestly, I’ve been spoiled being able to go home with him and June after class. Now that they are moving after winter break (because their commutes to school would be crazy from where they live now–especially Josh), we won’t have that opportunity much longer. It’s sad because it has definitely made us closer… it’s a shame. I know for sure; I wouldn’t have gotten as close to June as I had if it weren’t for her moving to 파주시. I know it may not seem like the biggest deal but I truly value it—having people living so close. It makes me feel less lonely… I’m gonna miss it. (I am the student living in 고양시 (Not Seoul) for the entire program!)

That’s all for this blog post~ I hope you enjoyed. This week is gonna be crazy busy since it’s cultural activity week but that’s okay, I’m ready for the hectic schedule!! See you all then~

• Emma 엠마

Last Supporter Meeting, 미소국수, Research Project Presentation, and Night Out in Hongdae with the Supporters (02/14-02/15/19) NSLI-Y AY

02/14/19 Thursday

Thursday was our very last supporter meeting before our project presentation happening the very next day. We had to have our PowerPoint slides and video done by that afternoon, so as one might guess, it was a very hectic morning at Holly’s Cafe. I stayed up really late the night before editing the video to the point where I could edit no more {because I was lacking in audio recordings from Katie} so I actually had actual coffee at the cafe—yes a surprise. No Green Tea Lattes today, no sir. 

The two hours of the meeting went by really fast as we were busy working the whole time. I was able to finish our video and although it is no professional YouTube quality video, it was good enough for us! We also put the final touches on our presentation and split up the speaking points—timing everything to make sure it was under 10 minutes. 

At the end of the meeting, 혜린언니 surprised Katie and me with little gift bags she prepared. They each included a little pig keychain {she did not know this at the time but my favorite animals are pigs!}, a mirror, and a little handwritten letter. It was the sweetest gesture and at the time I felt extremely guilty for not having anything prepared for her. But Katie and I planned to meet early the following morning to get her a gift! 

We ended up not having the chance to get lunch together because I had to finish writing an essay for Korean class {which ended up not being due then… but the following class period…ugh} and Katie wanted to cram more for her vocab test so we promised each other to grab lunch before the presentation day! 

I have literally no recollection of Korean class today and I ended up going straight home after class too {Oh I just realized… it was Valentine’s Day this day… well, no surprise… no dates for me.} So the rest of the night was just spent having dinner with my host family and studying Korean. I also took a quick run to Artbox {bless it only being a 5-minute walk from my apartment complex} to buy 언니 a letter set. I planned to get up early and go to a cafe before meeting Katie to write everything down. 

02/15/19 Friday

On the subway ride to 홍대, I typed out what I wanted to write to 혜린언니 out on a Google Doc and hastily wrote it all out at Holly’s. Katie and I met up with each other about an hour later and went around buying stuff for her gift. We settled on a blind box of this one naked baby angel toy called Sonny Angel {We chose it because she always is calling us her babies since she is older than us.} as well as a strawberry tart from Blanc bakery because she as always mentioning wanting to try one of their cakes but never got the chance. We didn’t buy a cake cause it looked too sweet for her, but we did think that a fruit tart would please her. 

We met up with 혜린언니 at the subway station and we all walked together to get lunch at this restaurant called 미소 국수 {smile noodles} and I had really good 만둣국수. It was nice to hang out and finally feel relieved—as if a huge weight was lifted off our shoulders—since the project was now officially over. No more due dates! Just showtime during the presentation.

Her reaction to our gift was the cutest!~

Listening to everyone’s presentations was actually really interesting. I was excited to see what they all ended up coming up with as their final work and some of them were so creative in how they delivered the information. For example, Pansori Vs. Kpop group {Hunter, Kaitlyn, and Shannon} had this really nicely edited video with clips of performances, interviews, news shows, etc. Honestly, at first, it seemed to be a real documentary on Korean music: old and new. Also, the group that had plastic surgery {Liam & Harmony} actually had them giving their supporter a fake double eyelid surgery in the video with scrubs, medical masks, and even tools! It was so realistic and I could not stop laughing at Doctor Harmony asking Liam for the scalpel. 

Harmony thought it was hilarious to play with my hair and put it in pigtails!!

I think that my group did such a great job on our presentation! I believe that it was really informative and was able to shed light on a topic that many aren’t really aware regarding Korean society. My edited video could not compare to Hunter’s masterpiece but hey it did the job! And I think everyone liked the images and political cartoons I included from Korean sources. I will admit that adding the English subtitles gave me more work; however, I believe it was worth it! I think that everything was able to hit harder because all the American students were able to understand. 

I won Playdoh for answering a question right and Katie made a pretty rose out of the clay!

After all the presentation were over, the Better World staff members gave out awards for each of the groups. They said that the awards weren’t really serious… that they were funny awards. Well, I will let you decide what you think about the awards: rough patch, book worm, tried their best, etc. My group 독립여성 {Independent ladies} got the award for … beautiful face {아름다운 면상}. I mean I’m flattered they think we are pretty but… this would have been more clever with the plastic surgery group. I don’t know… I thought we would get an award that really related to our topic/effort put in…

Besides awards, we also received our certificates of achievement {for successfully completing the research project} which consisted of us coming on stage and presenting the certificate to one other person in our group and saying a few words {we did it first and said it all in Korean}. We also had time to write out reflections and a few extra things for a booklet that would be made to include all of our presentations. 

Once the final commencement was made, we all went to have dinner together at this chicken place near the Better World office where we ate chicken and 떡볶이. A big group of girls {Katie, 혜린언니, 유빈언니, Harmony, 은하언니, Shannon} and I went to a 노래방 and then got sticker photos done. It was a lot of fun! The place we went to for the karaoke was one of those fancy buildings on the Main Street of 홍대 that you can look into and see all the people dancing and singing sound in the large plush rooms with velvet couches! It was my first time being at anything like that before. 

After saying goodbye to everyone, 혜린언니, Katie, and I headed to the hot chocolate cafe to just chat some more before having to go home to be back in time for curfew. I figured that since I was out for the night {and since I rarely stay out till curfew on weekends}, that I was gonna stay out as long as possible! 

And that is all for this blog post! I hope you enjoyed~~ This was my third to last week of winter break! Oh, how time has just continued to fly on by! I hope you enjoyed this post. Till next time~ 

• Emma 엠마

Research Project Interview, Community Service, and (Real?) Tacos in Korea {01/23/19} NSLIY Korea AY

01/23/19 Wednesday

We needed to record our interview today with KUMFA {한국미혼모가족협회} for our research project but we were not given a camera. To add on to that, the tripod that 더나은세상 gave us wasn’t compatible with our phones. Later, 혜린언니 found us one that she had at her home but it only filmed things vertically which made the videos not come out so nice… therefore, Katie and I went on a hunt to buy binder clips and rubber bands to somehow attach her phone to the borrowed tripod—horizontally. While we were at Morning Glory trying to search for some thick rubber bands, I found this weird phone mount for a table top which led us to find the actual tripods! They were kind of expensive but Katie took one for the team and used her parent’s credit card to pay for it. 필요한 것이라서 괜찮은 것 같은데요 ㅋㅋ

While we were messing with the tripod, Katie accidentally left her wallet on the bench we were sitting at. She didn’t realize until we were at a 편의점 about an 8 min walk away. We hurried back and returned to the same bench to see no wallet. I noticed some guys surrounding the area and saw one holding a wallet that seemed pretty similar to Katie’s—as you guessed it, it was hers! Those men were just holding it and waiting for her to return and were leaving the area as we approached. They were so kind to wait and we got there at a good time because who knows where they would have brought it. After that, we went to meet our supporter at the subway exit to head over to the location of our interview. We took a quick bus ride and then waited at a Paris Baguette. There, we practiced our interview questions and bought a cake for the workers at KUMFA. 

The office was on the 5th floor of this building and they were getting a lot of shipments the day we were there so there were boxes everywhere. We were taken to the children’s playroom in order to conduct the interview because there was no free room anywhere else. We were allowed to record ourselves and the content of the interview but we were not allowed to record the face of the man we were interviewing. 

Fun Storytime: We got to the interview location early so we just waited in the elevator on the 5th floor for several minutes. Until we saw a delivery man try to use the elevator and then we scrammed.

The interview ended up being almost an hour long! We had 52 minutes of footage! And I did understand the vast majority of what was said; I will admit! I also kept getting distracted with other things in my mind because I couldn’t always understand him… the content was quite difficult. We left after the interview and giving the present. He asked us how much the cake was and I was so confused??? 혜린언니 later told me that government officials {I think?} aren’t allowed to receive gifts from the public that are more than $10 or something along the lines of that. It was pretty interesting.

Also…take a look here! Better World used a picture of me and my former two host sisters for host family recruitment!

After the interview, we ran to find a place to have lunch because I needed to use the bathroom so badly—plus we were hungry. So, we ended up at Burger King, with some delicious chicken tenders & fries. 

We separated at this point with 혜린언니 going home and Katie going to meet Josh at a cafe. I was heading over to 마포구어린이수련관 early because Kaitlyn had gotten out of community service and wanted someone to chill with her until we both did the nighttime community service. June and Jacquelyn {and Shada} eventually joined us so we all hung out at a Twosome Place for a little more than an hour. We also ordered three pieces of cake because we wanted to live it big!!! Not mad about it…

Out of the three cake slices, the raspberry cheesecake was the best!

I tried doing some studying at the cafe… but that did not go too well if I am being honest… but anyway, eventually 6 pm rolled around and we met the director of the center to hear about what we had to do for the community service. We were just going to go get the food for the dinner, set it up on this table outside of the classroom, eat with the kids, and then lastly, clean up. It was fun serving the children {I was on rice duty} although I was pretty bad at giving them all a good amount of rice. We ended up not eating with them because I had plans with Kaitlyn to get pasta after the service so we just sat in the rooms and tried to speak with the children… they were shy so it was a lot of silent whispers and awkward conversations. Hopefully, next time {when we actually eat with them} it will be less weird? I do think it will get better! 

After service ended, Kaitlyn and I headed back to 홍대 to visit this restaurant known for really pretty pasta ice cream??? {Don’t worry it’s real pasta and fake ice cream!} Unfortunately, with our luck, it ended up being closed. Apparently, on weekdays the place closes at 6 pm while it stays open to 8 pm on the weekends. We were there at around 7:30… it was quite sad. We decided, instead, that we would go either after class on Monday or before community service on Wednesday. 

Instead, we went on a hunt for tacos! Kaitlyn found this one place on the main bustling street on her phone maps but we could not actually find it. We walked down the street twice before she finally accepted the fact that it no longer exists! I remembered seeing a place near exit three that Liam pointed out a while ago and we were able to successfully find that and eat there. 

We shared a plate of nachos and I ate quesadillas! I was so happy to have somewhat of a familiar taste of Hispanic food! Like there was salsa! I haven’t had salsa since America and I love salsa! It was pretty pricey not gonna lie but definitely worth it. 

We ate too many of the nachos before I was able to snap a picture…

I came home pretty late and immediately got on the grind because I had a presentation to do for Thursday!!! And I hadn’t even decided on a topic yet!!! Our teacher told us to do cultural differences between America and Korea but I really wanted to try something else so… I decided to be wild and do the concept of Lookism—the obsession of physical beauty or discrimination against others for the way they look {these two definitions exist}.

I spent so much time researching the topic because I knew it was sensitive and I wanted to represent it correctly. Since it took a lot of research time, it also took a long time to write. I finished writing the script— getting it to three minutes— at 2 am! But it was okay, I did this to myself~ I had time to start it earlier… I just didn’t. I planned to get up early and go to a cafe to make my PowerPoint. And that was the end of my day~ 

My host mom brought strawberries to my room~ ❤

I hope you enjoyed this blog post! Till the next one~~ 

• Emma 엠마

Incheon Chinatown (October 28th, 2018) NSLI-Y Korean AY

10/28/18 Sunday

Unfortunately, I lost the blog post for one of my favorite days on this NSLI-Y Program thus far. That day is the day I am currently writing about: the day I went to Incheon Chinatown (인천차이나타운) with Josh, Jacquelyn, and Kaitlyn. As you can tell, I am a bit salty because today was such a fun day and I wanted to remember every last detail! Also, we did so much, there is no way I will be able to write about everything again. Even though this is the case, I will try my best to recollect my memories with the pictures I still have~ Enjoy this blog post!

We decided to meet up at 인천차이나타운 at 11:30 am. It took me about 2 hours to go from 고양시 to 인천 which is a city outside of Seoul–actually, it is the only other city (besides my home city of 고양시) that we are allowed to take individual trips to visit (without our host family). I have been talking about coming here with Josh during our Korean class breaks and so I was really excited to finally make our plans a reality!

When we first got to China Town, we walked around and just did some sightseeing before decided what to do first. One thing that was a little bit strange was that there was a lack of Chinese people here? I figured that this may have been a community in 인천 full with native Chinese people kind of like Chinese neighborhoods in America (like the China Town in Chicago) but we really only saw Koreans– and tourists, too.

While walking around we passed by a lot of pretty murals, parks, and architecture, so we did not pass up any of those opportunities to take photos!

For lunch, we decided to get the dish that China Town is most famous for… 짜장면 (Korean style Chinese noodles with a black bean savory sauce)!! I also got to try 탕수육 (a Koreanized Chinese pork dish with a sweet and sour sauce) for the first time and although it was a bit pricy, It was definitely very very delicious!

You can honestly sum up this day we spent together as a day of eating because that is what we did throughout the entire day. We just kept eating, never stopping. Even after having lunch, we just kept on walking and buying snacks and treats from the street vendors. Since we knew that we would not be back in a long time (if we come back at all), we tried our best to try everything!

I do not remember where Josh got this map but his face made for the perfect picture! XD

Our Egg Tarts! From the Tart King!

We walked around this mural village and park with a bunch of animal statues for a bit before the sky started to get really dark and the rain came pouring down. We found refuge in this cafe near the main plaza of the China Town. I cannot remember exactly what it was called but it was a Spanish name. Something about amigos? While it was pouring, we watched people out the window struggling with their umbrellas against the harsh winds. There were even signs flying off buildings! It was a pretty bad storm.

At the Cafe~ Kaitlyn and I bought matching red heart hair pins~

Look at that RAINBOW! ❤

After the rain cleared up, we kept walking around and ended up visiting two different museums that had entrance fees of less than one dollar! It was like 70 cents for each ticket. We visited the 짜장면 Museum as well as a Korean-Chinese Culture Museum.

The Culture Museum

짱장면 throughout the years! Did you know that 짜장면 used to be called 짜짱면? The museum had a little section explaining how the name changed.

When we went to the second museum, we got to see an added art exhibition by Korean artists (that may have some ethnic Chinese background? Or maybe they had nothing to do with the museum…). Also, there was a really fun tile/puzzle game (made for children) that kept us entertained for a while. And I am going, to be honest, one of the rounds took me a lot longer than I am proud to admit!

After getting the education part of our trip out of the way (haha just kidding we all really wanted to visit these museums!), we kept walking around and stuffed our bellies full of street food!

While walking around, we went to the rooftop of one of these buildings and got to watch the sunset. It was very pretty~ When I looked up at the sky, I could not help but feel so grateful for being there at the moment with such great friends. Josh also took us through this really sketchy alleyway to find the culture museum so this is a picture of that:

Bad quality but do you see… his small head haha

We also stopped by a dragon beard candy vendor to pick up a box for our host families. The guy that was heading the cart was very very sassy and sarcastic and we talked a lot in Korean about what we were doing in Korea. He was impressed by our Korean skills which made us all feel good. While we were talking about random topics, he showed us how to make the candies (stretching the honey into a million tiny strings) and told both Josh and me that we were pretty. He then made a comment to Jacquelyn and apologized for not calling her pretty which made us all laugh. However, Jacquelyn then tells the guy “You should see this other guy on our program named Liam, he is much better looking” or something along the lines of that which made Josh quite upset for a bit. Kaitlyn and I just could not help but laugh at the entire conversation. It was all for laughs though; no one took it too seriously!

The pastries in the above pictures were very delicious! We each got a different flavor (green tea, cream cheese, mango, and chocolate) after waiting more than ten minutes in line for them. They were very popular and apparently were showcased on several travel shows it seemed. (Also, there were signatures of celebrities that had eaten at that certain stall.) Because we had eaten so much throughout the day, we decided to just get some lamb meat on a skewer for our dinner.

And that was my day in Incheon Chinatown! I assumed that rewriting this blog post would be really difficult but the sheer amount of photos I had from this day definitely helped~ Though I know for sure, I left some things out. I believe I got home around 7 pm and just relaxed in my room until it was time to go to sleep. This weekend left me exhausted… and no part of me wanted to return to school the following day.

Thanks for reading this blog post! I hope you enjoyed~ Until next time!

• Emma 엠마

Exploring, Studying, and Exploring While Studying {10/14-10/15/18} NSLI-Y Korea AY

10/14/18 Sunday

This Sunday was such a nice morning; I got to sleep in, eat a nice breakfast, and scream at the sight of live fish squirming around in the kitchen sink. In reality, this was my morning but I didn’t scream— my two host sisters took care of that. I just watched the fish in amazement because my host dad and host brother caught those fish. As a girl who has never really been fishing, I was shocked that they could actually catch fish that big and that many too!

Said Fish

This morning was really chill. We stayed in our PJs well until lunch time and I just sat around with my host sister as we watching American Nickelodeon shows. Eventually, I returned to my room to actually be productive. I wrote some blog posts and then I finished my Korean homework. I had done the workbook pages at school on Friday, but I had to also write a short paragraph comparing two different popular types of public transportation {in two different countries}.

떡국과 만두 (Rice cake soup with dumplings)

I skyped some friends from home this morning too! ❤

Then during the late afternoon, I went to this fair for children they were having near the subway station with my host sisters. I believe that the fair was sponsored by the local libraries? Around the square, there were tents set up with different activities like a Halloween storytelling, decorating bookmarks, drawing WEBTOON style stories, etc. You could tell that my youngest sister felt a bit uncomfortable having only me there so she went home to get her mom. My eldest host sister stayed with me and we made our own bookmarks together. We used stamps to decorate them and I wrote a cheesy wish on mine: to be able to read books in Korean. {We can start with children books.}

We kept walking around and got this free rice shack that popped out of this machine. There wasn’t much taste but I enjoyed the snack. We also took a photo with 고양시’s mascot which is a 고양이 {cat}. After that, we continued to walk down the main street near the subway station and I realized that it had so many things: cheap restaurants, chain stores, makeup, clothes etc. I will have to go back to explore. While we there, we went into a store that I had never been to before but it reminded me of Olive Young {Korean store} and Walgreens. My host mom bought some beauty products while my host sisters bought a bag of jelly candy.

The rest of the night was pretty ordinary. I continued to study well into the night. I came out for dinner with my host family—we had Koreanized spaghetti—and then returned to my room. I was preparing for a quiz the following day so I broke out my textbook, grammar book, and workbook to read through example sentences and practice the grammar points. I went to bed a bit before midnight which isn’t exactly unusual for me but I was studying up until I decided to go to bed. Usually, I study till 10 and stay up to watch YouTube videos, chat with friends, relax, etc so it was a different feeling— I was mentally exhausted that day.

10/15/18 Monday

This morning I slept in till 8 am, allowing myself to get 8 hours of sleep. I woke up and got ready in my room for a bit. I could hear my sisters leaving for school and my host brother eating breakfast while I was packing my bag and organizing my room. Eventually, I came out, and joined the world, to eat breakfast and such. I sat down and my host mom left with my host brother for their daily routine. I ate breakfast alone but enjoyed the peace and quiet— I also got to talk to some friends while eating which was nice.

Fried Kimchi Rice! The best breakfast!

I met up with Katie in 홍대 in order to go to a cafe and study for a bit. We chose to go to the cheesecake cafe I had bought my host dad’s birthday present at because it was so pretty! Plus there were lots of seats and good WiFi albeit a bit pricey. When we got there, we realized that it wouldn’t open for another hour so I went to Daiso to pass the time. I bought a folder for school {which I’ve been meaning to do} and two notebooks for school. I bought these really cute ones that had phrases about studying across the front.

Eventually, it was 11 am and we made our way to C27 Cheesecake Cafe which is such an adorable cafe. There’s this giant roller coaster that goes through the entire cafe and it lights up. There’s a huge Ferris wheel and gears that move and silver and gold balloons hanging from the ceiling. There are so many good places to take pictures but because Katie and I were high key grinding for our assessments, we only took photos at our seats. We will have to come back {not right when it opens so the cheesecakes won’t be frozen} in order to get photos. I spent the two hours memorizing vocab words on Quizlet and practicing grammar points while Katie studied linear algebra and vocabulary.

Around 1 pm, we left the cafe and headed over to the youth center and hung out with the other students in the lobby. I left a bit early to walk to class and I ran into Josh on the way there. We talked about his day of school and the struggle of being good enough at Korean to continue a conversation but not good enough to do much else {also talked about his struggles with Korean girls fawning over him. Oh, what a struggle! haha just kidding}.

In Korean class, we got distracted many times from our lessons to have random conversations. We talked about Korean couple culture for a bit and how that differs from years past as well as American culture. This class was a bit difficult for me because I had some trouble coming up with example sentences for many of the grammar points. I would sit there believing I knew how to use the point but when asked to make a hypothetical situation to use the grammar, I was speechless. Class ended and we were saved by the “bell” really because we were going to do this conversation activity that I hate but we ran out of time. *happy dance*

This is a lovely drawing of Josh’s brain which includes candy corn as the biggest category, Korean, dragons, coffee and saying “ah yes.”

After Korean class, I went home right away— arrived just a bit past 6 pm and the train wasn’t that crowded. When I got home, I ate dinner with my host sister and host mom before my sisters had their Chinese classes in the living room. I went to my room, closed the door, and studied. I finished the workbook pages I could do and made some Quizlet sets. I even got to talk to my mom via video call for 40 minutes which was really nice. When I was texting her good morning, I started getting teary-eyed for no reason; I was so confused. When I asked her if she was busy and she replied with cleaning the bathrooms, tears started falling from my eyes onto my desk. She then told me to call her if I wanted to talk so I did. And the minute the camera turned on and I saw her face, I started crying. I tried my best to muffle the cries so hopefully, my host family didn’t hear them but my sniffles were pretty hard to mask. Eventually, my mom started updating me about what had been going on back home which made me feel better and I soon stopped crying.

I don’t know it was like all of a sudden I was so emotional and missing everyone and everything. It was my dog’s birthday the day before and my mom sent me a video of my dog Biscotti eating bacon and her singing happy birthday to him in a silly, high-pitched voice and seeing that video made me sad. It made me miss my mom and my dog because I missed his first birthday. And the other day I video called almost all of my big group of friends back home and talking and laughing with them made me miss them so much. Additionally, my mom has been kind of bad at texting me lately so I think that messed with my head, too. Basically, all these things added up to feeling so very homesick although I’m having a blast in Korea. And it’s strange to think back too because I was not homesick really at all during the summer program. I mean sure there were times when I missed my mom and wanted to see her but I never had an emotional breakdown over it. I know this year will be different but it hasn’t even been 6 weeks! Or 5 for that matter…

But I know have such great, supportive people surrounding me like my resident director, my host family, and all my NSLIY friends {especially Katie ❤ I couldn’t survive without her!!} and I know this unexplainable {but pretty reasonable} crying will continue throughout the duration of this program, but I just need to dry my eyes and remember that this will be a year to remember forever and always. I must make the most of it!

That’s all for this blog post~ Thanks for reading and I’m sorry for getting a bit emotional at the end but that’s a real exchange for you!!! Emotions!!

• Emma 엠마