Notes on Korea 2

1. Along with stairs being slippery and questionable, hand rails are nonexistent or non functional. Hold on for your life.
2. Many Koreans admit that their nation is slightly xenophobic and reluctant to welcome other cultures into their own.
3. Despite our distinguishing North Korea and South Korea, the Korean constitution considers the entire peninsula united.
4. Koreans pick their English names when they start learning English. What name would you pick in another language!?...
5. Korean culture is very room oriented. Many people like their space or to have their group separate from other groups. But this isn't necessarily for privacy issues, however.
6. If a guy takes you on a date to Outback Steakhouse, he's essentially saying he loves you.
7. Every age group dresses fashionably. Every day...
8. Despite how clean Seoul is as a city, it is impossible to find a garbage can.
9. Although many guys are metrosexual to the extreme, the gay population is relatively low and very repressed here.
10. Even after a light turns red, drivers will continue through it for at least another 5 seconds. You never want to be the first person to cross a crosswalk...
11. In K-Pop music videos, if a character in the video falls down, it means they have cancer and are going to die. DRAAAAAAAMA!!!
12. Like the teeny tiny cups they have, the napkins are even smaller. And they're never fabric. They're like tissue paper, really...
13. In restaurants where you're eating in, they will give you a reusable cup--never a paper or plastic one. Way to be sustainable!
14. Bathroom stall doors are really tall and stalls are a lot more substantial. Koreans like privacy when they pee. Also, all those fancy toilets that spray your tush are quite prevalent.
15. When it's even drizzling, EVERYBODY has a fashionable umbrella. Everyone.
16. It's impossible to hail a cab. You really have to show off your goods (and being blonde helps, but not much).

Missing you

The ten hour flight went by fast. If that’s possible? I didn’t sleep one wink, but somehow the time passed along quickly. I think I spent half the flight daydreaming about things that did and didn’t happen in Korea, what I’m going to do this spring and pretending that instead of flying to LA, I was flying to Mumbai. Or any other world city on the map of my flight…

Once we landed, it was weird to say goodbye to everybody as we all headed towards our separate gates and separate lives. No more meeting up in the lobby or taking the subway together...There will always be Facebook and such, but nothing will ever compare to our interactions that we had on this trip. One of the best parts of traveling are the people you meet--the friendships being small journeys in and of themselves.

After landing safely at LAX, I realized I could switch to an earlier flight to Boise (and avoid a 5 hour layover in hell!). Once again, this led to me running around like a crazy person and sweating profusely through security. I just don’t think I can have it any other way at LAX, unfortunately. And living up to its reputation as world’s worst airport, the bathrooms looked about as nice as a bathroom located at a crack house in the projects. Oh and there’s no free wi-fi here. Has anybody told LAX that it’s 2011 and there’s no reason to have to force people to pay for wireless through a T-Mobile hotspot? That’s cruel, stupid and very unusual. I’m missing Korea already…And of course upon landing in Salt Lake, my flight to Boise wasn’t listed on the departures list and I had no idea what gate it was departing from, so again more running until I found another departures board and saw that my gate was in a terminal somewhat far away and I had 10ish minutes to get to the gate. MORE RUNNING. And sweating. I must look and smell terrible and my shirt is pretty much stuck to me after running up stairs with fifty pounds of luggage hanging off of me…then I found out that my flight was running a little bit late. Awesome. It’s great to be a traveler. I left Seoul at 3pm on Saturday and arrived in Boise at 4:30. Almost a day of traveling, and it only took an hour and a half!

And when my flight finally touched down in Boise, it felt like trading in trading in one part of the sun for another. And when it rises tomorrow, I'll start a different journey...

Blondie's last day

My last day in Korea, you’d expect that I did something crazy, but being that my night before was crazy enough, I welcomed the mellow farewell ceremony that premiered the video documenting our trip. How our cameraman edited all that footage in time for the ceremony, I will never know, but we were all laughs as we watched candid moments captured on our journey. Not having anything planned from 1-5 we were free to roam about wherever we wanted and once again, I went to Sinchon because it is across the street from Yonsei, where we held the ceremony.

Being the only non-Asian and blonde girl for my entire walk through the city, I was greeted by stares and raised eyebrows. Although Seoul has tourists, many of them are from other Asian nations, so I really stuck out like a sore thumb. I found my way back to the guts of the alleyway markets and went on my mission to find the perfect pair of high heels. Not so much for my own enjoyment, but for someone else’s…

I found a perfect, sexy pair of red pumps, but was dismayed to find that they had an uncompromising smear on the side. Maybe a Mr. Clean magic eraser could have done the trick, but I didn’t want to risk it. Even though they were only $10 dollars…but you can’t have smudged red pumps. It just doesn’t work…Despite my 2 hours of shopping and browsing, I failed to find pumps that either fit properly or were affordable. I did manage to find yet more makeup, a devilish spider ring and a mod looking watch (I decided I’m going to try and do watches now)…

Once again, I took the subway back to the hotel, and gracefully arrived at the perfect time to depart for the performance, Nanta. Nanta can best be described as Ratatouille meets Stomp meets the Marx Brothers. But I love cooking, cheesy comedy and rhythm so I was absolutely in love with it. The actors/drummers/performers did an incredible job using random kitchen items (including sharp knives and actual vegetables) to make intense rhythmic patterns and beats. I was in total awe watching them create complex rhythms as though it were nothing. If you’re ever in Korea, I recommend it! During the performance, there was a call for an audience member and I was sitting in an aisle seat, so the actor picked me to come on stage. They fed us soup (that tasted like mac and cheese sauce—something I gladly accepted the taste of) and somehow that led to my marrying the other random audience member on stage with me. I feel like this happens a lot that I get married without my realizing it…especially in foreign countries…

Once the performance was over, we headed back to enjoy our last meal and last night together. After “the last supper”, I headed back to my room to load all the pictures from my camera on to my new USB drive that the Korea Foundation gave us (get this, the USB can be used as a cell phone charm!!) and started uploading some of them to Facebook (which is going to take FOREVER to do). I have almost a thousand pictures. Normally, I edit all my photos, but being that there are almost 1000, I made no adjustments unless necessary…Having stared at my screen for 2 hours, I decided it would probably be a good idea to start packing. I dumped everything on my bed and went through all my purchases, delighted at all of them and imagining where I could use or wear them. I can’t wait to try everything out and give people their gifts!

2 hours later, my bags were packed and somehow everything fit in my main suitcase and my 2 carry on bags. I even managed to keep my checked bag under 50 pounds! Reluctantly, I crawled into bed. I took one last look at the night skyline visible from my window, knowing I would probably not see this view ever again. I was excited to know I would be going home in the morning to come, but sad to know that I was leaving Korea behind...

Clubbing in Korea

I returned to the hotel and was confused when I heard a knock on the door and saw Brian, beer in hand, telling me that I had to go out tonight. I was exhausted and had hoped to upload more photos, but this was essentially my last night to experience Korean club culture and since I hadn’t gone clubbin in Korea yet, I was even more convinced when Sam knocked and calmly, but strictly told me that in fact, I was going out.

Once again waiting around on random people in “our group” we made it out to hail a cab. Korean cab drivers are different. They apparently are very selective about who they drive around and opted out of our business as they whizzed by. Everybody told me to get at the forefront because I’m blonde and female, and sure enough a cab came my way. We piled in and held on for dear life as we dashed to the other side of Seoul. The first bar we headed to was called Eden, which is one of the top bars in Korea…however, that’s among the wealthier working class. And being that it was a Thursday night, nobody was really there. Our 20something Korean chaperones (who, yes, came clubbing with us) told us there was a livelier club 5 minutes away so after downing my free vodka/OJ we headed over to NB (noise basement) and before we were even halfway there, I was already drunk. Keep in mind that I had a small bowl of soup for dinner back at Everland 5 hours prior…didn’t take much. NB was indeed much livelier with tons of poshly dressed Korean guys and girls. Korean guys wear outfits just short of suits when they go out. Oh and they’re mostly all good dancers, too. I’ve always been disappointed by the “dancing” at college parties, but now I’m going to be even more disengaged because instead of instantly rubbing their junk all over you (without asking), Korean guys play it a little slower and actually dance with you. Although the music was mostly the same old lame American pop music, there were a few Korean songs intermixed. And while the Korean music mixed in with the American music, the Americans mixed in with the Koreans.

Normally opting to dance by myself to avoid how monotonous and gross grinding is, I decided to find a guy to dance with, telling myself it was a cultural experience. I spotted my dance partner and my friends literally pushed me into him. Initially kind of awkward because he didn’t speak much English and my Korean is limited to “hello” “goodbye” “thank you”, it didn’t take long before the universal language of dance started to make sense. And instead of being limited to the same old rubbing, skanky moves of grinding, it was almost like a dance off between us. We would mimic each others’ moves or pass it off to one another. On some songs, we danced dramatically close to each others’ faces and it was like a K-Pop video (which are the epitome of drama). It was flirtatiously torturous. Koreans are notorious for being shy, and I was almost in awe of the fact that this way of flirting was actually working. It was reserved but aggressive at the same time. I won’t declare it on customs, but this is something I’m bringing back to the U.S. And despite the heavy beats of the music, I thought it was interesting that my Korean dance buddy would flutter his hands over my body; but then other times he would hold on to me in a bear hug almost. After nearly every dance he would say I was funny, cute or something I couldn’t quite make out. Probably after dancing for 2 hours, he said he had to go meet up with his friends, but he desperately tried to get me to leave with him. Considering that he essentially spoke no English and I was absolutely not going to leave with a stranger in Seoul, and was just dancing with him to say I did, you won’t be shocked to find that I stayed at the club and continued to shake it for all the onlooking Korean boys.

At 3 am, sweaty and haggard, we headed back to the hotel and I leaped into bed, not looking forward to the alarm that would go off in 4.5 hours…

Drumming, dancing and octopus eating

Day 6 began with a trip to the nearby “folk museum” which, while not the most exciting of museums, still had some redeeming items on exhibition. I especially enjoyed the huge wall of traditional Korean face masks, which are used in dramas and dances. They are especially interesting because many of them don’t resemble Koreans at all, making me wonder where they drew their inspiration from…Towards the end of the tour, there was a stray cat sitting at the front of the doors into the museum and two people from our group thought it would be funny to let the cat into the building. When they opened the doors for the cat to get in, it didn’t budge. After a minute or two of coaxing and cajoling, the cat nonchalantly wandered in and the students conspicuously walked away. It hadn’t been more than 5 seconds when a teeny tiny old Korean woman came running after the cat, yelling at the students that let it in. While, in theory, letting the cat in was funny or cute, in real life it was immature and kinda scary. Didn’t reflect so well upon our group…Our group sponsored by the Korea Foundation (subsidiary body of the government itself), mind you…

The grounds of the museum were quite extensive and our group was divided into two, with my group heading down to a small amphitheater area to get a lesson on how to play traditional Korean drums. I haven’t played an instrument since I quit band my sophomore year (yeah, yeah, band geek, I know), and it was kind of exhilarating to play the rhythms on both ends of my hourglass shaped drum and let out any stress or boredom I had. Our instructor said I was the star pupil. No big deal...

We traded with the other group and moved to the traditional dancing lesson, which was less of a dance and more of a story through body movement. “Macho”, the main male character, had just married the daughter of the “old woman”, who had to sell her daughter to get money. The dance features movements that mimic a flower blooming and somewhat of a duel. Our dance instructor was very shy about dancing in front of so many girls (especially the blonde ones)—almost to a point that he was awkward about it. My partner and I volunteered to perform the dance (with me in full costume as the “old woman” and him in Macho #1’s mask), meanwhile, Kyle somehow got swindled into being my daughter, instead of Macho #2…The dance instructor and his assistant wanted Kyle to show a little skin and made him pull up the costume so that it would show his belly and they wanted him to stick it out as far as possible. Initially mortified, Kyle just went with it, and from what I could make out from my little peephole eyes in the mask, it was almost as hilarious as the sweatshirts from the previous night…The dance/drum lessons were probably two of my most favorite parts of the trip.

Being upbeat and hyper from our two lessons, we headed out to lunch which was an Asian buffet. It was a lot nicer than I expected and all the food was very photogenic. While meandering around deciding what to pick, a very special little thing caught my eye: a teeeeeeeeeeny tiiiiiiiiny OCTOPUS. Seriously. A whole octopus, but it could fit on an Oreo. I put it on my plate out of sheer fascination. Half of me said, “eat it, eat it!” and the other half said, “we’re putting this on the plate out of curiosity. Not to land on the next episode of bizarre foods…”. After finishing my lunch, the baby octopus was staring at me on my plate. I decided to eat it. Already knowing it would make me wanna vomit, I anticipated the worst and wasn’t surprised when, after the first chew (chewy head, crunchy tentacles), the texture alone made me want to blow chunks. It was disgusting. Luckily there was no taste to it, but the mental image of eating this tiny ass octopus and its horrible texture made me gag about 6 more times before I swallowed it all, followed by a big gulp of water. I got a video of the whole thing that you may view on my Facebook! J

The next part of our itinerary, Everland, was questionable for me. Everland is essentially the Disneyland of Korea, but it’s sponsored by Samsung. It seemed kind of cheesy and not all that cultural, but being that it had been years since I’d been to an amusement park, I will admit it was amusing. Wasting no time, Brian and I headed to the biggest rollercoaster at the park. It supposedly has the worlds steepest/tallest drop of any wooden rollercoaster in the world. After a 40 minute wait in a line that, every time you turned the corner, a new part of the line was revealed, we finally made it to the front. I was shocked to see that it had started snowing just as we strapped in. Keep in mind that contrary to popular belief, the area of Seoul is about the same latitude as Moscow (as in Idaho, not Russia…), so it wasn’t like SoCal here. The ride went on and the drop was so epic that I couldn’t even scream because I had no air in my lungs. I thought I might fly out of my seat. After that, the ride was far less extreme, give or take a few weightless drops. It was exhilarating!

We started to wander aimlessly about the parking and stumbled upon a “spooky house”. Apparently the Korean idea of “spooky house” is a house of ghosts that spin around (but they’re smiling), smelly socks and a music-making center…it was more hilarious than spooky. The best part was walking out of the house, there is a ghost that farts at you. I might be 20 going on 35, but fart sounds will always make me laugh. I got a video of this, too!

With our little time left, we started heading back to area by the main entrance where we were supposed to meet, but we were ushered into the safari ride. The park actually has a legitimate safari zone with real animals just freely hanging out. There were lions and tigers and bears (oh my! but seriously there were). Also, there were giraffes (my favorite animal ever J ) and a liger, even. Thinking the animals would go into hiding because of the snow, I was surprised to see them out and about as though they enjoyed the weather. It was quite the safari considering I was thousands of miles away from Africa and I wouldn’t expect that these animals would survive in Korea…

After our return to our original hotel in Seoul, I was exhausted, but knew that I still (somehow) had more shopping to do. So appreciate your souvenirs, folks, because I put some time and effort into them! Insadong is less than a 5 minute walk from our hotel so I ran over (in the sleet) to buy yet more things. After the purchase of 2 more purses, various accessories and more make-up (not all for me, mind you!) I headed into the cutest tea place I had ever seen. Adorned with dozens of sparkling strands of white lights, too many plants to count and Polaroid photos all along the golden-toned walls, I felt calm and happy as I slipped into my big cushy chair and sipped on some green tea. I tried to tell the waiter, in Korean, that it was a beautiful place. But apparently my pronunciation was wrong and he had no idea what I was saying, so I just had to point to the Hangul in the phrasebook and he thanked me. So much for speaking Korean…And unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of it because I opted to leave my Rebel at home, not thinking I would have any photo ops on my quick shopping jaunt. But if you’re looking for romantic ideas, I’m a big sucker for strands of lights, plants and tea. And most other girls are, too. So take a lesson in love from a Korean tea house.

America--it kinda looks like a shark or something...

Perhaps sensing that some students were starving and sick of bulgogi (the main meal we’ve been fed this whole trip), Pizza Hut was thrown in the mix for dinner to the delight of probably everyone. If there’s one food that hasn’t been screwed up internationally, it’s pizza and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t totally excited to see something with cheese on it whose ingredients I knew like the back of my hand. The salad bar was still distinctly Korean, however, with things ranging from kimchi to delicious green apple jelly to cocoa puffs and lychee berry. Go figure. Perhaps this suggests that I don’t like Korean cuisine, but anyone can get sick of bulgogi when it’s all you eat for 5 days in a row…And at a few places, I didn’t find the bulgogi to be all that edible. I’m not much of a meat person unless it’s chicken/turkey breast or LEAN cuts of beef. So I’m maybe 50% vegetarian (but mostly just 100% picky). Fatty, chewy textures are inedible for me, and often times bulgogi has this exact texture. Luckily the meat is sliced so thinly that I could handle it most of the time. But I must admit for 2 meals I had to rely on my Kashi go-lean rolls because it seems that Korean food has NO fiber. I would kill somebody for some fresh veggies and whole grains right now…I do also realize the irony and incompatibility of wanting to be a world traveler and having the “white meat only” complex, but maybe one day I won’t want to throw up if I eat chewy meat. American cuisine, nutritionally, is disgusting—but it’s universally edible. And every time I’m abroad, the thing I miss the most is sandwiches… Is there anything wrong with just wanting a regulation turkey sandwich? Is that so bad? I hope everybody is in the mood for a sandwich date when I get home. Because I’m going to resume my love affair with them as soon as I’m home.

After eating a continent of pizza, my nervous system was flooded with endorphins and naturally the next step was to shop on the streets leading up to our hotel. Kyle and I were reunited for another shopping extravaganza (how he still hangs out with me when I’m shopping is a mystery; what a champion). He said he was happy to have my company and was entertained by how enthused I get over sparkly things. And shoes. And makeup. And pens. And hair accessories. And shirts. Having been told that cosmetics were cheap, I went in to The Face Shop and Innisfree. And I hate to sound like such a girl but OH MY GODDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!! While I only sampled certain cosmetics in the store, they seem to be of good quality, but are SOOOOOO cheap! Lip gloss for $3? OK!!!!!!!

Then it was off to the next store, which I would call an advanced dollar store. Most things were more than a dollar, but it was just cheap, random knick knacks. There was a little bit of everything. Pens, notebooks, purses, shirts, hair accessories, earrings, candy, cell phone charms, socks. EVERYTHING! Ok, everything girly, I guess…The first thing that caught my eye was the whole aisle of colored pens. And if you know anything about me, you know about my legendary pen bag filled with every color of pen. However, I had to really search in the small space where my wants met my needs and settled for one apple-green pen. I had to put back about 5 other pens…

What happened next is better seen than explained, but you can imagine the hilarity that ensued when I spontaneously decided to look at cheap sweaters and was greeted with some of the funniest things I’ve ever seen printed on a shirt. I should first explain that it’s really big here to wear sweaters (and by sweater, I mean a sweater made out of sweatshirt material with screenprinted design, not a nice wool sweater, but those are popular, too…). It’s especially popular to have references to American things (I saw a UW sweatshirt…?): sports teams, cities, cartoons/characters or just America itself. The first sweatshirt I picked up was bright yellow with a shark with the phrase, “America—it kinda looks like a shark or something”. And I mean I guess it does, but that’s random, even for me. The “or something” really sold it for me and Kyle and I burst out into flames of laughter. The store keeper glared over at us, possibly offended by our laughter. She really had no idea that it was the opposite. Being that I am quite blonde, I never wear yellow, but I will sacrifice the appearance of my skin tone and run the risk of blending into myself to model this around campus. The next sweatshirt made even less sense. In the corner, there was a poor interpretation of a DNA helix with the caption, “BINGO! DINO DNA!”. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat does that meeaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnn?! I have no idea, but it’s awesome and at this point, tears were gathering in the corners of my eyes, I was laughing so hard. Being that they were only $10, I had no choice but to buy them. Other people in the group had heard about my “legendary” sweatshirts and a few people came to my room to see them.

At this point, I had kind of become notorious for my shopping, everyone either envious of my unique finds (5 pairs of shoes for $50!?) or amused by the strange things I found. Most doubted that I could fit everything I got back into my luggage, but I am glad to say that everything fit in my one checked bag and my 2 carry-ons. I might not come off as a girly girl, but when a nation is filled with adorable shoes, great cosmetics, fun accessories, fashionable clothes, silly trinkets and colored pens at cheeeeeeeeeeeeap prices, you bet your ass I’m going to come home equipped with new everything.

Potty gods and penis rocks

While I hate to admit that I had resorted back to level one in Malow’s hierarchy of needs, my body ached with the need for sleep and music and it was hard for me to focus on the fading sights of Seoul passing by in the window. Luckily the drive into the “folk village” outside of Seoul was an hour long, and hanging on with the soft flicker of battery remaining, my iPod held through and my music replaced the tired, apathetic nikki.

The folk village itself is not an actual folk village, but a reconstruction of one. It is as “folk” as Death Cab for Cutie is indie rock. When we arrived, we seemed to be the only guests so the village was eerily empty and deserted. Slowly, more and more Korean tourists equipped with hipster glasses, letterman’s jackets and tights emerged from nowhere. During our tour, our guide explained that the floor heating system typical in Korea was a feature that every family, regardless of economic status, had. They all had bathrooms, too. She explained that if people had to go to the bathroom at night, they would pray to the bathroom god that they wouldn’t fall in—especially the children, who were the most prone to falling in. Along with praying to potty gods, villages often had phallic rocks that they prayed to for fertility and vitality. Potty gods and penis rocks? Sounds like my kind of village…

We headed to the mini-amphitheater where the “villagers” performed a traditional musical number with 4 different percussion instruments. Along with the song, they had very particular outfits suited for this song and dance. Some wore hats with a long ribbon attached to a small pole that, when they moved their heads properly, swirled in a gyrating motion so the ribbon choreographed the music. It takes a lot of skill to play a drum, dance along and move your head perfectly.

Next there was a cute old man tightrope walker. He spoke paragraphs of Korean to explain how he needed more applause as each trick was more difficult than the last. The photos of his tricks give a much better idea of what he did versus my trying to explain it, but essentially there was a lot of bouncing on the rope (did they make cups in the olden villages?!) and bouncing on one foot, etc. I don’t know what was better—his tricks or his seemingly silly explanations of them in Korean, completely disregarding the fact that none of us could understand Korean.

As a complete juxtaposition to the tour of the folk village, our next feat was a tour of the Hyundai factory in Asan. Welcomed by a very extravagant and overbearing PR video (apparently driving a Hyundai saves the environment and ends cancer), we started off the tour in a factory where the components of the body were cut, welded and finished. As we got deeper and deeper into the building, there were more and more robots, whose movement was fluid, yet discontinuous and I found this mechanical movement almost frightening because at times, they moved like a human, but then they became robotic again. It was like Wall-e on steroids. The mechanical components were all contained behind metal encasements, with odd warning signs plastered all over. Leave it to Asians to make electrocution posters cute. All the while, echoing throughout the factory is a eerie rendition of Fur Elise in several different keys, blaringly chiming at every moment. Sparks were flying out on to the floor and I started to feel like the whole building was going to collapse, my hair would light on fire, the robots would start a revolution and throw me into the maelstrom of electrocurrents. Maybe it was a mini panic attack? I’m more of a Toyota girl, anyway. 

North Korea. Not a big deal, actually.

North Korea. A rogue state with an infamous leader whose “coolness” has given him somewhat of a cult status among the young political crowd. Meanwhile, its people are hidden behind stone walls and secrecy. All Koreans seem to long for a united Korean peninsula (despite how feasible this may or may not be), but Korea is still very much divided. North Korea is desperately impoverished and underdeveloped and everything about it seems to have somewhat of a mystical uncertainty about it. Facts and figures from North Korea are not to be taken even remotely seriously. The DMZ (de-militarized zone), where we went, represents the borderland shared between the Koreas near the [arbitrarily chosen] 38^th parallel. Set up to ward off an attack from either side, it sounds like a place that could break out in tense gunfire at any moment or a place that would foster diplomatic negotiation between these two nations. It is neither. Despite what the American media can make it out to be, the situation between the Koreas is not something of great concern to most South Koreans. The DMZ itself is an exhausting and overly technical tourist attraction majorly lacking in features that I found interesting. It does have a rich history based on the events of the Korean War, which was dubbed “the forgotten war”. Surrounded by heaps of dead grass, dead trees and a stark landscape, it makes Nevada look like the Amazon. For most of the tour you can’t take photos, yet even in the places you can, I didn’t find much to photograph. Maybe I sound calloused, but the DMZ is one of those places that has a rich history that is exploited to bring in tourists but doesn’t offer much of a cultural experience (in my opinion). The only reassuring thing about the DMZ was an encounter with a hoard of Korean soldiers (every Korean male has to serve for 2 years sometime from age 18-22) who were more than eager to get photos with us (especially the blondies…). Also the DMZ screens a hilarious video explaining some of the history of the area, but absolutely comes off as a propaganda video. It tries to play the DMZ as a peaceful nature reserve. Maybe it’s just because I’m visiting in March, but given that there are landmines and hardly any areas that look alive, I don’t know if I believe if any anything natural and peaceful resides here…The tour ended with a stop at the train station to the “iron silk road”, which is a railway going from Seoul to Paris but doesn’t really exist due to the fact that the rail has to pass through North Korea. And god knows a train loaded with hordes of tourists with dreams of trainhopping all the way to Paris is NOT going to be passing through Pyongyang anytime soon! The main attraction of this train station is the fact that former President Dubya Bush visited. So you know at this point in the day I was about ready to die. Military history + dead landscape with no contrast or color + George W. Bush is a lethal combination for a nikki in one day.

Upon returning to the hotel, however, I had 2 hours before the Taekwondo class, so I high tailed it back to Sinchon to find more cheap shoes and maybe some souvenirs for friends. Being that nobody is using their phone on this trip, if you don’t make plans before everyone breaks off, it’s sort of hard to make them. My roommate functions on a “giant groups of girls” basis, and despite my being in a sorority, I avoid them like the plague. Especially when it involves shopping and a limited amount of time. To make matters more complicated, most of my friends on this trip are guys. So I went alone (“ridin’ Seoul-o”, if you will). I know the cardinal rule of international travel is do not ever go anywhere alone (especially if you’re 5’3” and blonde), but given that it was still daytime and I knew exactly where I wanted to go (and Sinchon is always dense with people), I felt like I would be safe. Seoul has, thus far, been a safe city for natives and foreigners. And given the Koreans’ reluctance to approach anyone, you’ll be fairly undisturbed until you approach them. Unlike China, nobody here is really going to solicit you to buy anything. This phenom gives Koreans somewhat of a standoffish, aloof or even cold air, but as soon as you initiate conversation or gesture at them, they become warm and interested. But as soon as you are disinterested or fail to understand them, they can start to shut you off, too…

So, I laced up my chucks and ran to Anguk, the nearest subway station. I’ve used the subway system in every major city I’ve visited, so I’m fairly used to subway travel now, no matter what language it’s in. Seoul’s subway was no different. So the little blonde hopped on the train and held on for dear life as her train took her to Sinchon among the stares of the Koreans. My train spit me out in the midst of a million Koreans in a monochromatic cityscape narrated by every combination of sounds in the Hangul alphabet. I knew where I was. Sort of. Being a geography major, I hate admitting when I’m lost, but as soon as I took a right, a left and a right, I was smack in the front of a rainbow-colored optical office (the greatest reference point!) and I knew exactly where I was. I immediately remembered my path from Sunday night because of the photos I took and names of stores. I do this in every city I’m in and soon enough I’m navigating like a native. I found my way back to the random alleyway filled with every type of cheap shoe you could ever want. This time, trying to haggle actually worked. I brought a pair of nude pumps down to W30,000 from W90,000. But 30,000 is just under $30, so I still said no haha J. Some other vendors were offended, saying that if I want to spend W10,000, I get “made in China”. “Made in Korea” seems to suggest an air of national pride and the belief that Korean products are more valuable than Chinese ones. But who doesn’t think their national products are of better quality than Chinese made ones? Yet Koreans still consume Chinese-made products like they consume kimchi.

After what seemed like an endless and uncomfortable haggling session for the nude pumps, I realized it was 6:20, and the group was leaving for Taekwondo at 6:30…Worried that the chaperones would think I was kidnapped, dead in an alley or hopelessly lost, I booked it back to the subway station ten minutes away. I was already late by the time I boarded the train. 7 stops later and I was back at Anguk, sprinting out of the station to the hotel, not seeing our buses anywhere. Realizing I probably should have just stayed in Sinchon, I reluctantly walked back to my room and proceeded to begin the uploading of 300+ photos. I brought my mom’s Canon T1i so that I would have incredible pictures, but given that many days were hazy and had dull lighting, I realized nearly all my photos were overexposed or just flat, so I had to adjust the contrast on every single one. And I’m still adjusting them. This led to me not going to bed until midnight, despite only editing 70 photos…

Tater tots, waffles and Burger King

I welcomed day 3 with open arms as we got to sleep in later than usual and were going to have a leisurely day at the university listening to lectures and talking to students. The first lecture was on NK/SK relations. It was less of a lecture than it was a Q&A session where the answers seemed more convoluted than the politics behind them. It didn’t help that his accent was heavy and the microphone was echoey. Essentially it was a lecture set up for failure. The most entertaining part was listening to a room full of international studies, poly sci, pre-med, etc. students try to outsmart each other by seeing who could ask the most intricate question or question with the most background information required to explain the question in the first place.

Lunch for the day was buffet style with an interesting mix of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and American. On the same table, there were chips and dip, tater tots, sushi, kimchi and spicy orange chicken. I’m not going to lie when I say that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy the tater tots…Following lunch we had another Q&A session with a foreign service worker from the embassy office. Having a background in sports promotion, he was just as surprised as we were that he passed the foreign service entrance exam, but having brought the WWE to China, he was fluent in Chinese which helped his case. He said the exam consisted of a multiple choice with a wide range of various trivia questions about other countries that are necessary to know being an agent. His first service was in China, where he met his Korean wife at a language academy. Curious about his cross-cultural marriage, I asked if there were any interesting or funny cultural differences that they initially incurred in their marriage. He said initially his not being fluent in Korean yet led to some funny misunderstandings, “practicing Korean with her helped me get it up.” referring of course to his language skills in Korean, but of course you can’t say “get it up” in a room full of college students and expect us to not take it there. It took a minute before we calmed down and he looked completely mortified. Needless to say, I’m putting the Foreign Service on my potential to do list. Travel the world, master several languages, live abroad, gather cultural/social/political intel and maybe marry a foreigner? Sign me up.

After the interesting and innuendo laden Q&A, we got a chance to talk to actual Yonsei students. All of them introduced themselves, making careful note that their Korean names were “difficult, hard to pronounce, so just call me _________”. They seemed to take a lot of pride in their “English names”. The student at our table was named David and he was dressed in a perfectly fitted cardigan and tight jeans, and not a single strand of hair out of place, despite his thick head of hair. How do Koreans look so perfect all the time?! We had the opportunity to ask him whatever we wanted about Korean culture and all of us seemed to be interested in the school system in Korea. From their early years to high school, they get on a bus at 6:30am and don’t return home until around 10 or so. After they’re done with school for the day, they usually go a tutor to get ahead in their subjects. Generally the richer you are, the better tutor you can afford and the better you do in school, so poorer students can get left behind…Being that they have very few spare hours away from school and studying, this makes them very focused, however it also takes away many necessary outlets for them to explore other activities. Many of them will give up meal times to play sports or do other activities. Finally, senior year, there is one day arranged for the Korean equivalent of the SAT. It is a 10 hour test day with tests in every subject, and advantages of having studied abroad, high quality tutoring and extra hours spent on school work begin to show. It is rigorous. This test only occurs once a year, and if you do poorly on it, you have to wait til the next year before you can re-try. Those who get a near perfect score are the best candidates for schools like Yonsei, Seoul or Korea University. Those who don’t do as well go to lesser schools, but ultimately getting into a good university is the ultimate goal. So after years of intense studying and testing, university classes are somewhat of a joke. Students can take it a lot easier and not focus on school so much. But whether that means they completely slack off or just take the level down to a normal level, I’m not sure. Either way, it’s no wonder suicide rates for teens are so high here. Pressure to be perfect is high and the work load is even higher. Looking around at the Yonsei students, who are fluent in English, I suddenly realized how talented and devoted they were. Being that I’m a devoted student, I wonder how I would fare in South Korea…

Hardly taking any time to rest and eat dinner, it was back out to the streets of Seoul. However, as we made our way to exchange money, it seemed that more and more people tacked on to our group to go out. Eventually there were about 12 of us, setting us back an hour while we waited for everybody to get their shit together. My natural instinct was to cut out from the group as soon as possible. I walked quickly, cutting ahead of everyone with my friend Brian, but they caught back up to us at a long stoplight. Once in the subway station, all but very few people were confused about what to do and where we were going, which only prompted me to move faster so I could get rid of them entirely. I navigated the crowded halls leading down to the trains like a gazelle, weaving in and out of the crowd with stealthy grace. But once again, they all caught up as the train wasn’t there yet. Many of them doubted that we were getting on the right train, but I assured them that we were going the right way. After one transfer and 3 stops, we took our first steps into the crowded streets of Dongdaemun. Immediately branching off from our group, Sam, Brian, Arjun and I took off in the direction towards the $10 suit jackets. Dongdaemun is an area of endless shopping. Not finding much to suit our interests in the area where the train let us out, we started heading off towards the skyscrapers full of shopping. Unfortunately, being a Monday night, most things started closing at 8 (which of course pissed me off because we could have been there earlier had it not been for our giant retarded group). One place was open, and there was an endless hallway stuffed with small stores as far as the eye could see. It took me back to my experiences in the Lohu Mall of Shenzhen, China. I filled with a flutter of nostalgia and my eyes opened wide. Despite the shops being stuffed with scarves, hats and belts, I didn’t see anything that caught my eye. Things started to get strange because the hall filled with a chemical smell and we were essentially the only people in the building and there was no exit in sight along this endless hallway. Finally, in a hat shop, we found a door out and were spit back onto the street, lined with bookstores, which had stacks and stacks of books. Imagine a house made of bricks, except instead of bricks, it’s books. Overwhelming doesn’t even begin to describe it. Luckily they were in Korean, so I wasn’t tempted to browse through all the literature. A stack of National Geographic caught my attention until I imagined trying to get the solid 20 pound stack of them in my luggage…

Feet tired and shopping senses dulled, we made our way back to the subway station to get back to the hotel. But before we reached the hotel, we were at the mouth of Insadong, and a purse was calling my name (for less than $10!!!!!!!). Not wanting to torture the boys, I told them to head back without me, but they refused and were willing to continue down the rest of the street with me. Most of the stores were closed, but peeking our heads down alleys and around corners we found some peculiar restaurants, “barber shops” and drunks. At the end of the street I finally found a waffle vendor. Often wafting through the streets or subway stations is the scent of fresh waffles. Apparently having a strong affinity for waffles, Koreans have taken them in as their own and made them into a delicious and diabetes inducing street food. The waffle is folded in half and spread, doused with a generous shower of maple syrup and smothered with sweet whipped cream. While I rejoiced about finding a waffle vendor, the guys were overjoyed when they saw a Burger King (especially Sam). Leaving me at the waffle vendor, I met back up with them at the Burger King, but was initially dismayed when I walked into the store and didn’t see them. I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw a stairwell and decided (against my better judgment, given my experience with Korean stairs) to head up and see if there was more of the restaurant. Turns out the guys were on the second floor, enjoying their burgers. Total, there were 3 floors to this BK. And it was actually kind of a nice establishment, overlooking Insadong and the boulevard below. There were many middle-aged women, too, which I found interesting. Many young couples shared a pile of fries and a soda. Definitely not the demographic you see enjoying BK in the U.S.

Coming off my waffle induced sugar high, I passed out as soon as I got home.

Open your heart, rip open your chicken

Day 2 began with a brief history of Korea. Legend has it that the first Korean was created when a bear and a tiger both desired to be humans. God told them to live in a cave and eat nothing but garlic for 100 days and when they emerged from the cave, they would be humans. The tiger gave up, but the bear emerged as a beautiful woman. However, being a woman-bear made it difficult for her to find a mate, so god decided to just give up his son to marry her (and I don’t mean Jesus; despite the fact that a LOT of Koreans are Christian). Bada-bing, bada-boom, the first Korean was made. Then, throughout much of their history, Koreans were divided into strict social classes (similar to the Hindu caste system). In the 20^th century, their royal system came to a halt when Japan decided to claim Korea as a territory. After imposing somewhat of a brutal regime upon the Koreans, they finally became free when Japan lost WWII. Like WWI, the victors of the war began to divvy up territories of the losing side. When it came to Korea, the US and then ally, USSR split Korea at the 38^th parallel (completely arbitrarily I might add) and decided that the US would look after the southern portion, with the USSR keeping tabs on the north. This worked pretty well until communism began to take hold in the northern portion. Tensions over this led to what became the Korean War. Although it may be a “forgotten” war, almost 3 million casualties were incurred, many of them from the US, and other countries (like Ethiopia!?). The keynote of the lecture seemed to be that despite Korean pride, they often times have been marginalized throughout history; whether by Japan, the US or a simple history book, Korea is left out. Even in international discourse, it seems like Korea gets pushed out of the picture, being that North Korea is a rogue state, Japan is even more tech oriented and developed and China is becoming a major powerhouse. There’s just not a lot of room for South Korea. So that’s one of the points of this trip is to show the reason why it should be a big part of the picture. Part of me is excited for that to happen, but it still has a long ways to go in terms of making itself more open to that possibility…

After the lecture, we got back on the bus for a city tour of Seoul. But first it was lunchtime! Ginseng chicken soup—a Korean classic typically enjoyed in the summertime (why sweat a lot, when you could eat soup and sweat more!? Apparently it’s cleansing…) was on the menu. Initially I didn’t know what to expect, only knowing that it was a whole small chicken stuffed with rice and ginseng root. I sat down to find exactly that sitting in front of me on my plate. Our server ripped open the entire chicken in one graceful slide of her chopsticks and we all followed suit to reveal the delightful innards of rice and root. The chicken had a simple chicken taste, which I was glad about and happily devoured both its little breasts. The broth was delicious, tasting of simple chicken broth, but with a refreshing taste that only can be described as “Asian-y”. You know the flavor, I guarantee!

Full of some cleansing ginseng soup, we drove over to the “blue house” which is where the president lives. It’s actually not a fully blue house. It just has a turquoise roof. But a spectacular palace nonetheless. Instead of touring through the blue house, we went to this—eh, museum? It wasn’t really a museum, though. It was mostly a high-tech info center promoting Seoul. Like the rest of Korea, everything was high tech with interactive booths, maps, graphs, photo booths and a robot that guided your tour if desired.

Then we drove over to Gyeongbokgung Palace, whose grounds seem to be endless and the magnificence of the palace just as endless. Even more remarkable was the fact that it was preserved next to the modern skyscrapers of downtown Seoul. A common motif of Asia—the battlegrounds where old meets new in a spectacular display of lights and centuries old practices. I definitely think my pictures of Gyeongbokgung Palace will display it better than I can describe.

Just a few blocks away from the palace is the bright, noisy, colorful and cultural Insadong street, with the greasy, sweet and fishy scents of street food to lure you in further. Many shops along the street sell the typical Asian kitschy souvenir stuffs. But if you can navigate your way through the been-there-done-that knick knacks, you can find some tea houses, art museums, delicious and/or interesting street food (there were 2 bug-roasting stands—where was Andrew Zimmern!?). While meandering down Insadong, I was approached by two girls who couldn’t have been much older than freshmen in high school. One asked if I didn’t mind answering a few questions, and being a sucker for surveys and true to my xenophilic roots, I wasn’t about to pass up a questionnaire from an adorable Korean student who probably had this as an assignment to practice her English. She asked basic questions and questions about my knowledge/appreciation of Korean culture while her friend recorded me with a cell phone. I was so impressed with her English; really anyone that speaks a language completely unrelated to English gets a lot of credit in my book. It took me 3 days just to master hello, good-bye and thank you…and that’s just speaking it, not even writing it in Hangul…

To wrap up the day, we headed to the Korean War Memorial Museum. I was shocked to see a whole hallway filled with the names of those lost to the war from top to bottom from all 50 states and several other countries as well; lives that I feel, while not lost in vain, were essentially lost for nothing as Korea ended up in the same position it had been in before the war (not geographically, but socially and politically). Maybe that’s why everyone tried to forget it? Regardless, this essentially the end of my day. I returned home and in lieu of going out, I stayed in to work on my first few entries. On that note, kam sam ni da for reading along, despite this not being updated everyday. I’m trying, given my busy schedule and limited time out. My entries come in waves. 

nikki interlude: notes on Korea--culture and people

Though I am not incredibly well versed in anthropology, I am well versed enough to know that simple observations do not necessarily define a culture. However, here are some peculiar things I found interesting, funny or different.

1. Taking pictures of Koreans could lead to a photo filled with Asians making peace signs, or to screaming. You should ask them for a picture, or just say screw it and stealthily snap a shot when they don't notice...
2. If you let meat burn in the stovetops that are present at your table, the Koreans advise against eating it, contesting that it is cancerous.
3. There's a BIG difference between "Sprite"and "Spri-tuh". Only one of these words will actually get you the beverage.
4. Shoes are just under $10 and cute accessories are under $10. This is a steal in my book. However, most other things aren't that much cheaper.
5. Shirts are one-size-fits-all and you can't try them on in stores. Only bottoms are allowed in the dressing rooms...
6. Prices are as marked. You can try haggling, but this is somewhat of an insult to Koreans. I've tried haggling on 3 separate occasions and each time I have gotten a death glare, followed by a "No, no, no! 20,000 [won]!". It's definitely not China over here.
7. Taking the stairs is dangerous for several reasons. One, the stairs are usually slick and the handrail is either just for show (thus you can't actually hold on to it, really) or just not there. Two, the stairs may lead you to a completely irrelevant part of the building, or part that you need a key to enter. Three, the door after the stairs probably locks behind you. Four, just take the elevator.
8. EVERYBODY IS IN A RELATIONSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!! And everybody is holding hands all the time. If you are single, there is something horribly, horribly wrong with you. 
9. They do not make cups that hold more than 8oz. Idk how people aren't dehydrated around here, because every cup is TEENY TINY!! (Good for portion control for soda, bad for how much water I need to drink)
10. Everybody wears hipster glasses. And everybody is fashionable as hell. And everybody is probably a size 4 or smaller. 
11. There are no street names or addresses that are comprehensible. Yeah, you got me on that one. How people get around or explain where shit is is a mystery.
12. Paper isn't 8.5"x11". It's narrower and taller!
13. Nobody solicits you to buy stuff. If you don't want it, no sweat off the merchant's back. This is a nice break from China...
14. Blonde hair and blue eyes are still mystifying. A girl started petting my hair in a store and her jaw just about fell off when she saw my blue eyes...she continued to just stare at me until I walked away. 

These silly notes are one of my favorite parts of traveling :) I find culture shock and cultural differences absolutely thrilling. And I'm sure you can all imagine me, pen in hand, jotting down these notes as I go. 

Nerdily yours,

-n

High tech in Hangeul.

I woke up with a stranger staring me in the face. I asked for his name and he said, "Seoul". Instead of gentle morning whispers, I was greeted by the sporadic zooms and honks of city traffic. In the hazy blurriness I tried to put the puzzle pieces together to determine how I ended up thousands of miles away from home. I had doubts I was actually really in Korea, until my vision started to become a little clearer and I was staring down at dozens of Hangeul characters. "Land of the Morning Calm"? Land of the Morning Crazy more like it.

However, to counteract the craziness of the past two mornings, I downed a perfect breakfast at the hotel. Koreans appear to love waffles (you'd think it was Belgium over here) and their Froot Loops, instead of being rainbow colored, are pleasant tones of maroon, orange, yellow and a kind of chartreuse color. They are delicious.

After breakfast, we made our way to Yonsei University (our "host" university) for our orientation. Our first lecture was on Hangeul characters (aka, the Korean alphabet) and basic phrases in Korean. Hangeul, unlike Chinese Kanji, is an alphabet. Although the characters might look like Japanese or Chinese characters, they are not representative of symbols, but of sounds--just like our alphabet. There are 14 consonants and 10 vowels (many of the vowel sounds are reeeeeeeally difficult to distinguish). Each word is broken up into syllables, with up to 3 Hangeul characters in each syllable. Many say that the Hangeul alphabet is the most "scientific" alphabet, and is the most comprehensive. Despite the difficulty of distinguishing/forming certain sounds present in the Korean language, I'd have to agree. Originally, Koreans spoke Korean, but used Kanji to write--making it very difficult to express themselves as the Kanji matched the meanings of phrases, but not the sounds. Thus, in the 15th century, King Sejong and his scholars created the Hangeul alphabet. Despite how comprehensive it was, it wasn't fully adopted until the 20th century...go figure...

As for speaking Korean, it's not as simple. First of all, even the Romanization of the pronunciation of their words doesn't accurately portray how a word is truly pronounced. For example, you might see 'gam-sa-hap-ni-da' as a way to say "thank you", but it actually sounds more like "kam sa ni da" and is very fast, each syllable getting slightly blended into the next. I'm still having trouble remembering phrases like hello, goodbye and thank you. Not to mention, a lot of the sounds I can't even pronounce with my boring English-speaking palate. Plus, all the words kind of start to sound the same...for being so scientific, it's not that easy.

Next, we had a campus tour around Yonsei. There is a park on campus that our tour guide said was a popular location for a romantic get-away. Sound like the arboretum, anyone?? Hehe :) However, a far more impressive part of the campus was the Samsung Library, which, as you can probably guess, was furnished by Samsung. They intended to have it as a paperless library (ironic, no?), thus there are tons of huge touch screens all over the library, each serving a different purpose. Some are used for the room/seat reservation system in the library (which I think we could use at UI since everytime I need a group study room, it's always taken by ONE guy who's just checking his Facebook...), sending/checking notes to/from other students, reading books, reading newspapers, searching student/university publications and much much more. It is by far the most high tech library I have ever seen. 

They kept our feet busy at work with another walking tour, but this time of the surrounding area of Sinchon. Sinchon is comprised of hundreds of cafes, clothing/accessory stores and just about anything else a person could want. It is street after street of bright colors and interesting things to look at. It looks like somebody sneezed next to an artist's paint pallet and threw in some rhinestones and flashing lights. It screams Asia. Just like most other things in this city. 

We finished off the official day with dinner at a typical Korean style restaurant. Ever present at every meal are different types of kimchi (pickled spicy cabbage), which is an essential staple of the Korean diet. I'm not exaggerating when I say they eat it at every meal, every day. It's like bread and butter to them. My first bite of kimchi was nervewracking. I like cabbage. I like pickles. I like spicy. But would I like it all together? My taste buds all said yes in a flurry of electric excitement on my tongue. Also important in a Korean meal is having many different side dishes (they probably have a full dishwasher after every meal, there's so many sides!). I pride myself in being able to say that I tried every single one! Did I like them all? No, but other than the "glass noodle" they were all actually pretty tasty. And despite how non-filling the cuisine sounds, I got full pretty fast and ate a lot more slowly, as everything is eaten with chopsticks (and a spoon for any broth, as soups are ever present at Korean meals). All the chopsticks here are metal, but I'm not really sure why...Luckily, I would say my chopsticks skills are well above par and eating with them has been delightful. I'll probably have to bring a set home.

After dinner, we were free to roam about the city. Being a girl that loves accessories and came with $600, I'm sure it's no surprise that I had to go back to Sinchon. However, I faced a problem, realizing that I didn't make any official plans to go shopping with anyone and I didn't know what rooms people were in...I decided to just randomly wander down to the lobby in hopes there would be a group meeting up there to go to Sinchon. There was! But they were all guys...Champions, I might say. They walked around Sinchon for 3+ hours, most of that time occupied by me wanting to go look at shoes, clothes and "girly stuff". And none of them complained. They actually seemed to be enjoying themselves and we all delighted in my failures at haggling (see next entry about haggling) and made fun of my obsession with cheap shoes. We found some strange things (shady motels, men lighting flares outside of a mall) and navigated using not a map but gut feelings and "hey, should we turn right?" "yeah sure, that looks good!". Our trail probably looked like a game of Snake. 

But now I must rest these tired little feet--gotta let them get some beauty sleep so they can look good in the 4 new pairs of shoes I got...

-n

15 months in the making...

And I'm finally in Korea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
I applied for this trip last year, but was not chosen. This year I came back with a vengeance and was the first person to get my application in. After months of dreaming of the moment where I first laid eyes on Korea, it finally happened. Though the air was beige colored, there was still something romantic about it all. Like meeting someone you've heard a lot about for the first time. Your expectations are always wrong, but it hardly matters when you let yourself get wrapped up in the moment. 

Despite the 13 hour flight, I managed to keep my sanity in tact. I’m not sure how. And aside from being a little greasy, I didn’t look all that haggard, either. What a miracle. Stepping out from the airport, I expected to see the bustling city limits of Seoul in the background, but was instead greeted by a landscape you’d expect to see in the outskirts of LA. Desert, barren land. It doesn’t help that I’m visiting at perhaps the ugliest time of year (too warm for snow cover, too cold for blossoms). Everyone on our bus was nearly delusional and slightly confused. Is this the Korea we had been dreaming of for months? Of course not. And slowly but surely as we got closer and closer, we felt the heartbeat of Seoul pulsing through our veins, not knowing of the adventure to come.

안녕하세요

-n

nikki interlude 3

nikkilude #3: Have you ever wondered what’s outside your window on a flight to Southeast/East Asia? I’ll give you a hint: It’s the Pacific Ocean. For 13 hours. And it looks the EXACT same for 13 hours. And if it's going to be daytime for the entirety of your flight, there's not going to be anything like a sunset/rise that you need to look out the window for. Thus, THERE'S NOTHING TO LOOK AT. So I’m going to save you from being “that guy” that opens the window every hour to peek out the window and kill everybody with a laserbeam of sunlight. 

I can't sleep between the turbulence announcements/window openings. Figures.

Korean Encounters of the Food Kind

Airline food is the vengeful creation of a chef whose culinary talents were never recognized, yet his business savvy swindled all the airlines of the world into serving his abominations to people as edible food. Having no other options aboard the plane, passengers complied (reluctantly). We can never truly be sure what constitutes the meals that airlines actually have the gall to serve us.

That being said, you can understand how hesitant I was about the first meal of the day. Korean airline food? (In a related side note, Chinese airline food en route to Hong Kong was so nauseating it had neurological as well as gastrointestinal effects) Could it be suicide? Starvation?...Edible?

All factors considered, the bibimpap was actually, dare I say, kind of good? A dish comprised of the mixture of assorted vegetables (mushrooms, cucumbers, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots), rice, a sprinkle of beef and a spicy red pepper paste called kochujang, it embodies the Korean idea of intricately linking color to cuisine. Neither the colors nor the taste were bland and it was the perfect introduction to a typical Korean dish. I can only imagine that if it was edible on the plane, the version in real life must be a symphony of chromatic and palatable sensations. Trying to conjure the fearless culinary spirits of wordly foodies, Anthony Bordain and Andrew Zimmern, I made a pact to myself to eat a bite of any food that makes its way onto my plate. And to photograph it all. No reservations, right?

Kimchi here I come!

-n

P.S. Stay tuned for photos on my Facebook. I really don't think I'm going to have the time to post photos in both places.

LAX SUX

OMG GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO is what I’m screaming in my head right now. People are ambling around this airport like they’re shopping for something interesting versus walking through arguably the worst airport in the world. News flash: I’m going to Korea—get outta my way!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve been waiting for my luggage for 30 minutes. Oh is that it? No. Oh wait, this one. No. That’s it, right? NO. WHERE THE HELL IS ITTTTTT!?!?! 

Ok there it is. And she’s off!

Forgetting that LAX is probably bigger than most towns in Idaho, I made my way back up to the upper level thinking my check-in area would be right there. All I saw was a solid row of Delta Delta Delta Delta Delta. Oh yeah. It’s LAX. Having no maps to figure out where the hell I was and where I needed to go, I frantically started running (in the wrong direction) before I stopped and gathered my logic and discovered that I had to now run in the opposite direction. Apparently there are little shuttles that take you to and from the several terminals. But I was so frantic that all I could do was run. The air surrounding LAX languid, filthy and clammy and with my adrenaline pumping, I could feel the sweat running down the side of my head. After setting the new world record for the fastest run by a crazy person with 40 pounds of luggage, my bangs felt damp and I approached the perfectly poised Korean Air booth manned by a woman in a sharp teal uniform, while I was damp with sweat and so disorganized and out of place. She gave me "the look". I was still working the sweat out when I approached security. And that’s the way I like to start off a 13 hour flight. Sweating profusely...

I finally made it to gate 138 and was warmly greeted by my fellow CIEE participants. We were all as excited as kindergarteners on their first day of school. And I was the sweaty, crazy kid.

Is this real life?

-n

nikki interludes 1 & 2

The following entry is a nikki interlude which is a brief random thought/observation. I have a lot of those.

nikkilude #1: I’m sorry, but who wears heels when they fly? I mean, if you don’t have a business meeting or a party to go to immediately after you land, what’s the point? What if you have to run to your gate or chase a pickpocket down? Wearing heels essentially suggests that yes, you are prepared to look nice, but to not actually handle likely scenarios while traveling. And what if you ended up in an ‘Alive’ situation? Are you really going to scale the Andes in heels?

nikkilude #2: Oh my god I hope they recycle all the cans and cups they use on this flight. Can you think of how much recycling that is?! 

4:40 PM is not 4:40 AM

The body is a divine bead that glides on the strings of the universe, humming softly along its journey. Despite all the interferences and distractions under the sun, the body persists in navigating through it all; intimately connected to the journey, putting its needs under the realm of the subconscious. Let it guide you and trust that it is your temple. I say all of this not in poetic musings to begin my trip with, but simply because despite an alarm clock malfunction, my body woke me up at just the right time. Any later, and I might have missed my destiny…Less whimsically, HOLY SHIT HOW WAS MY CLOCK SET TO THE OPPOSITE TIME OF DAY??? I never paid much attention to my clock being home, because generally when I’m relaxing on into infinity, I don’t mind the time…Setting my alarm, I was so focused on making sure this exact thing didn’t happen for my wake-up time, that I didn’t pay attention to the time actually displayed on the clock. Typical nikki. I can get straight A’s, but can’t set an alarm (or be on time for anything for that matter) to save my life.

Running out the door, Greek yogurt and eggs in hand, I made my mental checklist of things that surely I forgot. But nothing came up on the list, so I let the yogurt melt under my tongue. Nothing but green lights from here.

At the check in booth, I heard a family speaking Castillian Spanish (not something you usually hear in Boise) and instantly the crisis of the previous hour was forgotten and I spent the next half hour working up the courage to merely ask “¿Sois de España? ¿Por qué estáis en Boise? Given that I have a mild stroke every time I try to speak Spanish to native speakers, I still can’t understand why I am so eager to speak any other language that I have virtually no knowledge of—like Korean!

After months of waiting and hours of preparation, my journey was finally underway. I came stocked with 1 gig of new music, 5 different types of snacks (hand picked after way too much deliberation—“do I really want the Fiber 1 bars on 13 hour flight…?” “there are how many calories in one package of crackers?!”, 75 different colors of pens for my personal travel journal (not even exaggerating on this one—look at my pen pouch someday); 3 different books about 3 vastly different things: beginner’s Romanian, Che Guevara’s diary and a guide/phrase book to Korea. Never mind that there’s 3 different languages going on there. So bring it on 13 hour flight.

Now pardon me, the sun is rising in Salt Lake

-n

Nikkiness Geographic

I am a traveler.

But first and foremost, I am nikki: a dreamer, a lover, and an adventurous girl looking to hold a small fraction of the universe in my hands. Star by star, I’m getting there. Passion pulses through my veins and ideas swarm in my mind like fireflies in a jar. I reside on the brink of laughter, at the corner of sarcasm and random (several blocks past “the line”, which I always cross); yet my pursuits run seriously and steadily as I do on the treadmill, with a determination that will run over anything in my way. Given my love, passion and determination, forgive me if I scoff at you when you scoff at me for what I want to do (travel the world, write about it, help it, love it and share it with the rest of the world); because I’m already doing it (National Geographic, I’m coming for you). I don’t even care if that means walking around with a 500lb camera and a notepad. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Some are on the pursuit of happiness; I’m on the pursuit of nikkiness—which, in other words, is everything; my pursuit of life and my way of living it. So far, I’ve found incredible things—all things that add more and more pieces to this ridiculous puzzle that I can’t seem to stop finding pieces for. As for the nikkiness itself…at times, it flickers like small melodies, and other times it rings loudly as a full symphony. Planted softly as a little seed 20 years ago, it continually grows; and like most plants, it grows best where it is nourished blissfully. And for me, that place of bliss is either in love, or in travel. You’re seeing the psychedelic effects of the latter.

So on that note, you’ve happened to stumble across me in the mere hours before I discover South Korea. You might be able to say you know me (in which case, I’m sorry to disappoint you, because in the next 10 days, I’m going to completely change again). But isn’t it the loveliest thing in the world that the girl you drop off at the airport comes back as metamorphosed as a butterfly when you pick her up?

As for what I want to do with this blog, I hope to convey even a fraction of the bliss of my travels to you. I’m not a native Korean, so there’s only so much insight I can give into the crazy excellence of Korean culture, but I hope my attempts at some altered form of ethnography can be conveyed well to someone sitting in their room, far removed from South Korea. At the very least, I hope my adventures to follow are incredible, ridiculous, humorous and inspiring. Enjoy as I try to navigate my way through Korean culture, language, food, geography and everything else in between.

A cab driver from Ethiopia (with a fondness for Mark Twain) once told me, “the world is my country and love is my religion”. Though he may be an unexpected philosopher, his may be the only philosophy I can wholeheartedly accept. And softly, it resounds in the back of my mind all the time, carrying me from journey to journey. Some journeys require a passport, and others merely require passion. I’m packing both. 

잘 가렴 

-n