Ji fell and hit her head right before our first class, so she spent most of the day at the hospital. She's fine and was able to come back about half-way through our third class (magic class).
My classes were all rather fun. I learned a lot of new games and songs to use in class, as well as a few 'magic' tricks.
I went out to Noraebang with a group that evening. It was a lot of fun, and I even sang a few songs (never solo though). I didn't get back to my room until about 1:30am.
Day 13 (full details)
I woke up at 8 and got ready for my first trip into Seoul on my own. I thought the bus fare was 1800 won, but I wasn't sure, so when I got to the bus stop, I asked a girl in very broken Korean if that was how much it cost. She said yes, so I was very proud of myself for being right. When the bus got there around 9:15, I wasn't exactly sure where to put my money, but I figured it out soon enough. The bus ride was rather uneventful. I queitly listened to my music, and an older lady sat next to me all the way into the city. Along the way, I noticed a lot of cars stopped on the side of the road. Some of them looked like they were having car troubles because there were jacks and spare tires and tow trucks and police cars here and there. But some of the cars looked like people were just stopping for a picnic. There were coolers and lots of people and everyone seemed to be smiling and having a good time. I'm not sure what exactly was going on.
I got to my stop at about 10:10, and Jina was waiting for me. We went to Krispy Kream doughnuts and had donuts and coffee. We stayed there for about an hour just talking.
Jina gave me a T-money card, which is like a rechargable fare card for the subways, trains, and buses. After we left Krispy Kream, we got on the subway an went to the Samsung station so we could go to the aquarium at the COEX mall. It was a lot of fun and I took a ton of pictures. 
Before going to the aquarium, we stopped in a store that had tons of stuff from Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli (Me at the door with Totoro!). After the aquarium, we went into some shops. There was a puzzle shop that I thought was really cool. There were tons of jigsaw puzzles; I wanted to buy them all! Another shop we went into had tons of cute stickers and notebooks and cell phone straps. There was also a poster of 둘리 on the door so I took a picture with my nickname-sake. In the store, I bought a funny cell phone accessory for
a guy in my class, Steven. He once acted out a skit where he was gay, and he kept calling the other guy "sailor" so we all call him sailor now. The accessory is a funny buff cartoon guy in underwear wearing a sailor hat. The package describes it as "Strong Marine Boy Mobile Strap". Jina bought me a book for keeping vocab in, so I'm going to be filling it up with Korean words I am learning.After all that....there was my first bad experience in Korea. Jina went to the bathroom and I was sitting by some escalators waiting for her. While I was waiting, I was looking at a little kid and his father because the kid was cute and I had nothing better to do. Eventually though, I saw a girl walk past me, so I turned to look at her shoes. There was a guy standing in front of me with his hands clasped by his crotch. When I first looked past him, I thought he had a really distorted thumb and I felt kind of bad for him. But when I tried to nonchalantly checking to see what was the matter, I realized it was his erect junk! O_O I quickly looked back at the little kid and then I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to stay there waiting for Jina, but I thought she would be back soon. I sat there for about another minute because I didn't know what to do. Once the shock wore off, I quickly got up and rushed towards the bathroom. I thought I was going to puke, I was so disgusted. I still feel disgusted. And I hate that even though I didn't do anything wrong, I still feel ashamed. I stood outside the ladies bathroom for a good thirty minutes, trying not to cry, terrified every time a guy walked towards me to go to the mens bathroom. Eventually, I realized Jina wasn't in the bathroom, but I was still a little too scared to go back towards where the guy had been, where I knew Jina would be frantically looking for me. I walked back very slowly. I was so scared. When I got close toward the escalators, Jina called out my name and came running to me. That's when I started to cry and asked if we could leave. We got to an empty service hallway and I told her about what had happened. Turns out, it happens all the time in Korea. We went to the service desk and told them about it, but because so much time had passed and the guy was no longer there, they couldn't really do anything other than apologize to me.
After that, Jina had a surprise for me to cheer me up. She wanted me to meet her friend, but I already knew her friend. It was my JaeLang 언니! We went to lunch (I was starving!) and I had kimbap. It was really good, but I made a pretty big mess with it, because it kept falling apart on me! JaeLang also had a cell phone for me! It is under her name and I just have to pay her each month so she can pay the bill. She said it is around 25000 won/month. It is really neat because I can make video calls! I accidentally did that to Yosun when I was entering in her number into my phonebook.
After lunch, we stopped at a makeup place and Jina painted the nails on one of my hands with different pastel colors. She said they look like candies. Green, pink, purple, blue, and orange. Yum? We then got bubble tea (my first time! I'm not a huge fan of the texture of boba) and sat by these really cool fountains. Music was playing and the lights and fountains were syncronized (somewhat) with the notes. It was really pretty!
We stayed there a while just talking. A group of people came by with a high-tech cameras and were taking pictures. They took one of us. Jina wasn't aware of it so when she got
off the phone, I told her and she screamed! It was so funny.Yosun called and asked if we wanted to go to Caribbean Bay, a waterpark, the next day. We decided it would be fun, so Jina and I came to Suwon to pick up my swimsuit and pjs and then headed to Cheon-An so I could meet Jina's family and spend the night there. However, when we were in my dorm room, Jina checked her test score from the TOEIC exam she had taken, and she did not do as well as she was expecting so she felt pretty down and said she didn't feel like going to the waterpark. I brought my swimsuit just in case she changed her mine though. The train ride was rather uneventful and it was dark outside. Now every time I see a Korean male in public, I check to see if they are exposing themselves. I really want to see someone again so I can kick him. I know that isn't nice and it isn't the right thing to do, but I am really just so mad and disgusted by it that I want to hurt them. -_-u
Jina's family was really nice! I also found out that Jina's father isn't just a professor, he's apparently really good in his field (biology) so he has written a few books and his biography is going to be in the 2010 Who's Who in the World book!
Jina's mom doesn't speak much English but she definitely had the hospitality down great. When we got there, she wanted to order pizza for me, but Jina told her mom I didn't want to eat pizza when I was in Korea. Her mom said that I was sweet because I wanted to try new things. I accepted when she offered me watermelon. Then I felt very awkward when I was given a tray of my own, and Jina and her parents all ate from the same tray and plate. I mentioned it and Jina said that her mom was not sure if I would be comfortable sharing so she did not want to do that.
Her parents did not stay up for too long after we arrived, nor did I. I was very very tired. Jina and I got ready for bed, but we did not sleep until after 1:30 because we were talking.
Day 14
Jina and I slept in until about noon (so lazy!). At about 1, YoSun came over to Jina's house and then we had bulgogi for lunch that Jina's mom made. It was really yummy and tasted like real food, not like the stuff I've been having at the cafeteria and in restaurants. We talked about going to the waterpark, but it was really hot outside, so we decided we should wait until later in the year, when it starts cooling down.
After lunch, Youna went out with Jina's mom and grandmother. We watched a Korean tv show/comedy game show that was really funny! I couldn't understand a word they said, but I was laughing all the time. We started watching Howl's Moving Castle when the others returned.
Youna then took Jina, Yosun, and I to a bakery where we had delicious bread and I had asian ice cream for the first time. It's finely crushed ice with red beans and fruits. Mostly watermelon, but there was also some kiwi and pineapple. It was different, but really good. The red beans were a little hard to get used to at first because of their texture when frozen on the inside.After we ate, Youna dropped us off at a mall across the street from the train station. We went to a photo sticker booth and took some really fun pictures. They're posted on facebook, and we each got one copy of each picture (three different pictures in all).
After the picture, we went to the train station, and Jina and I said goodbye to Yosun, who was staying there. I got off the train in Suwon, while Jina continued into Seoul. After getting off the train, I managed to find my way out of the station and to the bus stop, where the bus I wanted was waiting. I hopped on and had to stand for a long time because the bus was so crouded. However, as the bus got further and further away from the station, it became emptier and emptier. I had to go pretty much the whole circut before I got to KyungHee university. I was a little scared because it was taking a long time and I was in an area I didn't know, but I knew the bus had to go to KyungHee because it was listed on the route map.
I got back to my dorm room safely and am now finished updating about my weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment