I had the morning shift then I went back to the apartment for a couple hours I think. I got dinner with Cathy, Erin, and Jenna at the Sri Lankan pavilion, meaning I got to have samosas for the first time in months. They were pretty good, although I think my standards for Indian food have lowered due to the difficulty in finding it. After dinner, I went outside of expos to get waffles with ice cream with Cathy and Audrey, which are always delicious.
That night I got on the KTX train at the train station at 9:50 pm. I had a standing room only seat, so when I went into the car, I had no idea where I was supposed to go since it just had an aisle and rows of two seats on each side, meaning there was no space for people to stand. So I just stood in the area between the two cars where there was a restroom, stoarge rack, and 2 seats along the wall. I nabbed one of them while trying to observe or eavesdrop my way into figuring out where people with standing room only seats went. It turns out I wasn't the only person who was confused though. A bunch of Koreans had no idea where to go either. After hanging out in the middle space for about an hour, a stewardess informed me that I could sit in the car, which I assumed meant that there were just extra seats. Anyway, the cars are really nice and they have free wifi, which makes the 3 hours go by pretty quickly. I arrived in Seoul at 1 am at what I thought was 용산역 (Yongsan Station) and I started looking around the station for my friend Minsung, who had promised to meet me at the station and had been there waiting for me since 12:30. I couldn't find her though, and after 20 minutes, I went and explained to two policemen in the station I couldn't find my friend who was going to pick me up and that I had no way to contact her since I didn't have a cell phone. One of them immediately gave me his cellphone so I could call her on it, which I did. She told me to go to the third floor entrance and meet her there. I was on the second floor and had been looking around there so I figured that was the problem. When I tried to go up the staircase though, another officer told me it was closed, but I explained my friend told me to meet her up there, so he let me go up. It consisted of a shopping center that had been closed down for the night. I managed to exit it and I ended up passing a security guard, who was surprised to see someone come out that way probably because that area was supposed to be blocked off. The exit led to the parking garage, so I thought that maybe she was just waiting in there for me, but I didn't see her in there. By this time, I'd been looking for her for a half hour, so I just shouted her name to see if she was within earshot. She didn't respond, but the guard finally asked me what I was doing. I explained to him my predicament and he called her, but she didn't pick up. So he walked me back through the shopping center to look for her and he kept talking to me. Finally, he just asked me if I knew where I was. I told him I thought this was 용산역 (Yongsan Station), but he informed me I was actually in 서울역 (Seoul Station), which is why I couldn't find my friend. I had thought the KTX was getting out at a different station, which is where my friend was waiting for me. So he tried to call her again, but couldn't get hold of her. I went downstairs to the taxi area and some guy asked me where I was going. I thought he was a taxi driver, so I told him I was headed to Yongsan Station and he told me it would cost me 10,000 won. I honestly didn't care about the cost at this point. I just wanted to find my friend and go to sleep. But he then pointed at a car that was clearly not a taxi and warning bells obviously went off my head. All I said was that isn't a taxi and walked away. I found the real (marked) taxis and got in one of them and went over to Yongsan Station, which as a side note only cost 4,500 won. By the time I got there, the taxi driver let me use his cell phone. I called Minsung and then I actually saw her since she was near the taxi so finally at 2 am I met her and headed to her house. I apologized profusely to her mother for having to stay up so late waiting for me. When I got to Minsung's house I pretty much just went straight to bed. That hour had been really stressful, but it showed me a couple things. First of all, I need to refamiliarize myself with Seoul. Second, I should get a cell phone, if for nothing else, to have for emergency purposes. Third, despite how bad my Korean still is, I have learned enough that I can express myself enough to get help in unexpected situations. I was honestly really proud of myself despite the fact that I was flipping out, I could explain my problem to others in Korean and get help instead of only panicking more.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Wednesday, June 20th
I went to Emart in the morning to pick up some groceries. I got the granola I needed, but was devastated to find out there wasn't any mango juice, which I have been downing here like it's a drug since I don't really like the taste of milk here. I also tried to pick up some Neosporin and large bandaids for Ellen, since she had fallen the night before during the concert, but surprisingly you can't buy that type of stuff at Emart. The employee when I asked him just looked at me kind of confused and then told me you buy all that stuff at a pharmacy. So on my way back to Expo, I stopped by the pharmacy and picked up everything, which by the way was super cheap. Pharmacies here are really cheap. You just tell the pharmacist about your injury/sickness/symptoms and then the pharmacist tells you what you should buy.
At around noon, I went to go play in the soccer game against East Timor because they desperately needed a female to play and I felt bad. I figured even though I sucked it would be better to lose than forfeit. I actually turned out not to be the worst player because that honor should be bestowed on Bjorn, who was our goalie. We were ahead 1-0 at the end of the first half, but by the end of the second half the score was 1-4 I think. It was all in good fun though. I don't actually take any of the soccer games seriously. They're just a fun way to get some exercise and chat with other Expo workers from other countries. After that I had the afternoon shift for work.
At about 9:30 pm I went out to dinner with about 20 other people from our pavilion. Our security guards had actually organized the dinner and had been planning it for about a month. We all went out for 삼겹살 in an area of 여수 that I didn't even know existed. I stayed for about two and a half hours and then people were leaving for round two of drinks, so I decided to go home. One of our retail managers, Steve, actually gave Rachel, Yvonne and I a ride back to the apartments, which was really nice of him.
At around noon, I went to go play in the soccer game against East Timor because they desperately needed a female to play and I felt bad. I figured even though I sucked it would be better to lose than forfeit. I actually turned out not to be the worst player because that honor should be bestowed on Bjorn, who was our goalie. We were ahead 1-0 at the end of the first half, but by the end of the second half the score was 1-4 I think. It was all in good fun though. I don't actually take any of the soccer games seriously. They're just a fun way to get some exercise and chat with other Expo workers from other countries. After that I had the afternoon shift for work.
At about 9:30 pm I went out to dinner with about 20 other people from our pavilion. Our security guards had actually organized the dinner and had been planning it for about a month. We all went out for 삼겹살 in an area of 여수 that I didn't even know existed. I stayed for about two and a half hours and then people were leaving for round two of drinks, so I decided to go home. One of our retail managers, Steve, actually gave Rachel, Yvonne and I a ride back to the apartments, which was really nice of him.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
I am a Professional Audience Member
Tuesday, June 19th
I had the day off today since I traded my afternoon shift with Marisal so that I could attend a concert that night. In the morning I just caught up on some blogging and then I headed down to the USA Pavilion in order to meet friends for the flash mob. I tried to pick up four rolls of 김밥 (kimbap) at the 분식 (fast food) place at the bottom of the apartments, but the lady told me that because they were busy, she couldn't make me 깁밥 without ham. She had to put the ham in otherwise I couldn't buy it. This really annoyed me party because it was a simple request, but mainly because she made no sense. I wanted to buy food and not putting in meat would mean less effort for her, so it was completely illogical to say it would take more time, especially since making 김밥 takes all of one minute. Anyway, I just left and picked up some yogurt at the convenience store instead. Once I got to the pavilion it took about an hour for everyone to show up and get ready for the flash mob, which we then went and filmed underneath the huge digital gallery screen. None of us really knew the rules regarding that, but they performed the whole song without interruption from Expo staff. After the performance though an Expo worker informed us that although we could dance whenever and wherever we wanted, we weren't allowed to play music since it could interrupt with the shows playing on the screen. He was really nice about it though and let them perform again right outside of the main screen so we could film more (I was one of the people filming.) Then we filmed by our pavilion, but we couldn't show anything that would mark it as the USA Pavilion since this event wasn't affiliated with USAP. It was a lot of fun despite a lackluster reaction from the crowds. You should check out the video below:
After we finished filming, I got a bagel and strawberry smoothie at Dunkin Donuts. Cinnamon Raisin Bagels with cream cheese have become my new favorite thing from there. I think I'm going through cinnamon withdrawal or something. Like I would kill for a cinnamon roll here, but there aren't any. Then other people hadn't eaten a real lunch either, so we all decided to get something to eat outside of expo. We went to 김밥나라 (Kimbap Land) and I got a roll of 김밥 (kimbap) for a late lunch. After that we all headed to the cafe Brown City for coffee and smoothies, but everything was like $4 minimum, so we decided to try Cafe de Paris where it was just like 50 cents cheaper. Some people got stuff there, but I went and got a strawberry smoothie at this other place I love that just sells fruit juice and waffles. I also got a fresh waffle and ice cream, which is delicious if you've never tried it.
After that I went to the 2AM and B1A4 concert with Ellen and Sara at about 5 pm and So Jung joined us later. The concert started at 8 pm, but we wanted to have good seats. It turns out though, we probably could have gone at 6:30 pm and still have gotten fantastic seats because the crowd showing was kind of dismal. it mainly consisted of elementary school fans of B1A4. Luckily though enough people showed up at around the time the show started so it was wasn't embarrassing for the performers. While waiting, a guy named Reuben started talking to us because it turns out he had met Sara almost a year ago in 전주 (Jeonju, about an hour away by train). Then one of the girls who works at Dunkin Donuts also happened to be sitting right next to us too, so we chatted with her too. The performance started on time and 2AM performed first and it was absolutely amazing. Expo requires that people remain seated during the concerts, but when 2AM walked out onto the runway area, everyone just stood up and rushed toward the stage.
After that, B1A4 performed and by that time there was no hope of getting anyone to sit down again. I wasn't originally planning on staying for their performance, but I ended up watching it all. Whatever they lack in talent, they make up for in enthusiasm. Despite the fact they didn't sing all of their songs live, they were just so energetic, it still made for a fun performance.
After both of the performances, I was hungry so I bought some 떡볶이at Red Spoon and it so happens that when you buy one you get one free when it's about time for expo to close since they need to get rid of the food. After eating that, I headed back to the apartments and went over to Erin's room to give her the video I'd taken of the performances and then I went back to my room to sleep.
I had the day off today since I traded my afternoon shift with Marisal so that I could attend a concert that night. In the morning I just caught up on some blogging and then I headed down to the USA Pavilion in order to meet friends for the flash mob. I tried to pick up four rolls of 김밥 (kimbap) at the 분식 (fast food) place at the bottom of the apartments, but the lady told me that because they were busy, she couldn't make me 깁밥 without ham. She had to put the ham in otherwise I couldn't buy it. This really annoyed me party because it was a simple request, but mainly because she made no sense. I wanted to buy food and not putting in meat would mean less effort for her, so it was completely illogical to say it would take more time, especially since making 김밥 takes all of one minute. Anyway, I just left and picked up some yogurt at the convenience store instead. Once I got to the pavilion it took about an hour for everyone to show up and get ready for the flash mob, which we then went and filmed underneath the huge digital gallery screen. None of us really knew the rules regarding that, but they performed the whole song without interruption from Expo staff. After the performance though an Expo worker informed us that although we could dance whenever and wherever we wanted, we weren't allowed to play music since it could interrupt with the shows playing on the screen. He was really nice about it though and let them perform again right outside of the main screen so we could film more (I was one of the people filming.) Then we filmed by our pavilion, but we couldn't show anything that would mark it as the USA Pavilion since this event wasn't affiliated with USAP. It was a lot of fun despite a lackluster reaction from the crowds. You should check out the video below:
After we finished filming, I got a bagel and strawberry smoothie at Dunkin Donuts. Cinnamon Raisin Bagels with cream cheese have become my new favorite thing from there. I think I'm going through cinnamon withdrawal or something. Like I would kill for a cinnamon roll here, but there aren't any. Then other people hadn't eaten a real lunch either, so we all decided to get something to eat outside of expo. We went to 김밥나라 (Kimbap Land) and I got a roll of 김밥 (kimbap) for a late lunch. After that we all headed to the cafe Brown City for coffee and smoothies, but everything was like $4 minimum, so we decided to try Cafe de Paris where it was just like 50 cents cheaper. Some people got stuff there, but I went and got a strawberry smoothie at this other place I love that just sells fruit juice and waffles. I also got a fresh waffle and ice cream, which is delicious if you've never tried it.
After that I went to the 2AM and B1A4 concert with Ellen and Sara at about 5 pm and So Jung joined us later. The concert started at 8 pm, but we wanted to have good seats. It turns out though, we probably could have gone at 6:30 pm and still have gotten fantastic seats because the crowd showing was kind of dismal. it mainly consisted of elementary school fans of B1A4. Luckily though enough people showed up at around the time the show started so it was wasn't embarrassing for the performers. While waiting, a guy named Reuben started talking to us because it turns out he had met Sara almost a year ago in 전주 (Jeonju, about an hour away by train). Then one of the girls who works at Dunkin Donuts also happened to be sitting right next to us too, so we chatted with her too. The performance started on time and 2AM performed first and it was absolutely amazing. Expo requires that people remain seated during the concerts, but when 2AM walked out onto the runway area, everyone just stood up and rushed toward the stage.
After that, B1A4 performed and by that time there was no hope of getting anyone to sit down again. I wasn't originally planning on staying for their performance, but I ended up watching it all. Whatever they lack in talent, they make up for in enthusiasm. Despite the fact they didn't sing all of their songs live, they were just so energetic, it still made for a fun performance.
After both of the performances, I was hungry so I bought some 떡볶이at Red Spoon and it so happens that when you buy one you get one free when it's about time for expo to close since they need to get rid of the food. After eating that, I headed back to the apartments and went over to Erin's room to give her the video I'd taken of the performances and then I went back to my room to sleep.
Monday, June 18th
In the morning, Rachel and I went to make bank accounts, which are required so that we can get phones with year contracts. It wasn't really that hard. Rachel just told one of the employees we wanted to open bank accounts and get debit cards in Korean and the girl helped us so much. She got us all the forms and marked on them the requisite stuff we had to fill out and sign since we couldn't really understand what the forms said. Then we went up to the counter and were helped by two employees. I don't think many foreigners set up bank accounts in Yeosu because it took them a while to figure out everything. All we needed though was our passports and foreigner registration cards, so it wasn't hard, but it just took a bit of time. It was really nice though because there wasn't any minimum deposit or anything, although I don't think our accounts actually gain interest. Anyway we got bank cards and we think they work as debit cards. We're not sure yet. We also think they might work as T-Money cards since they have the T-money symbol on them (T-money cards are the transportation cards you use in Seoul to pay when you get on a bus, subway, or in a taxi). We were so proud of ourselves though for getting the cards without somebody else interpreting for us. When we were almost done, a Korean Expo worker asked us in English if he could assist us with anything, but we were just like oh no thanks, we've got this. Serious feeling of accomplishment.
After that, we met up with Latoya and Madison to go exploring again. We got on a bus at a different bus terminal going the opposite direction we had gone the day before. We knew the bus went to 만성리 (the "black sand" beach), but we had no idea where it went after that. We rode it all the way to the last stop and got off. At the last stop. the area was so small that when the bus was turning around to head back the way it had come the back of the bus was just hanging over the cliff. It was really cool, but kind of scary. Anyway, the area we ended up at was right on the coast in a really old, somewhat run-down community called 오천동 (O-Cheon-Dong). We weaved in and out of the neighborhood exploring since it was so small we weren't afraid about getting lost. We found a fantastic beach, which turned out to be 모사금 (Mosageum), the beach I had heard was better than 만성리 (Manseongri) but that I had never known where it was. It was really cloudy and humid though so we decided we should go back to the beach sometime when it was sunny.
We had to go back to the Expo because Latoya had the afternoon shift and it has actually started to rain so the rest of us wanted rain jackets. We stopped by at a food stall to eat lunch and I had 야채전 (vegetable pancake). I don't think any one of us though found the food to be that tasty. After lunch, Latoya left for work and the rest of us went to the place Rachel and I had gone the day before since Madison wanted to buy a guitar. She ended up deciding not to because the cheapest guitar was like $150 and so she thought about buying a ukulele until she found out the cheapest one was $110, which seems super expensive to me. After that we went to a bakery and got some pastries to eat. While we were eating, there was this fantastic cinnamon aroma and so we waited 10 minutes until the little cinnamon balls came out of the oven. They were little bread balls coated all in cinnamon, which I thought would be absolutely delicious, but wasn't because the bread was really dry. Most of the bread, especially pastry bread, is super dry, which I don't really like, but for some reason keep sampling anyway. After that we headed to the movie theatre, but obviously the movie selection hadn't changed and so we just decided to go back to my apartment and watch a movie there. We were going to order in delivery, but we couldn't find a place, so we just gave up and made ramen and 김치만두 (kimchi dumplings) although I didn't eat that since it has pork in it. We tried watching a movie, but it seemed sad, so we started watching another one. However, then a group of people decided to go to the 찜질방 (sauna) so we decided to go too, which turned out to be a fantastic decision because the second movie we were going to watch I found out later was also going to be depressing. There were like 10 of us at the 찜질방, which was a pretty large group, so we just all went into the sauna rooms in smaller groups. Some people I think slept there (which isn't uncommon), but I headed back around 12:30 am because I wanted to sleep in my own bed and I was really tired.
After that, we met up with Latoya and Madison to go exploring again. We got on a bus at a different bus terminal going the opposite direction we had gone the day before. We knew the bus went to 만성리 (the "black sand" beach), but we had no idea where it went after that. We rode it all the way to the last stop and got off. At the last stop. the area was so small that when the bus was turning around to head back the way it had come the back of the bus was just hanging over the cliff. It was really cool, but kind of scary. Anyway, the area we ended up at was right on the coast in a really old, somewhat run-down community called 오천동 (O-Cheon-Dong). We weaved in and out of the neighborhood exploring since it was so small we weren't afraid about getting lost. We found a fantastic beach, which turned out to be 모사금 (Mosageum), the beach I had heard was better than 만성리 (Manseongri) but that I had never known where it was. It was really cloudy and humid though so we decided we should go back to the beach sometime when it was sunny.
We had to go back to the Expo because Latoya had the afternoon shift and it has actually started to rain so the rest of us wanted rain jackets. We stopped by at a food stall to eat lunch and I had 야채전 (vegetable pancake). I don't think any one of us though found the food to be that tasty. After lunch, Latoya left for work and the rest of us went to the place Rachel and I had gone the day before since Madison wanted to buy a guitar. She ended up deciding not to because the cheapest guitar was like $150 and so she thought about buying a ukulele until she found out the cheapest one was $110, which seems super expensive to me. After that we went to a bakery and got some pastries to eat. While we were eating, there was this fantastic cinnamon aroma and so we waited 10 minutes until the little cinnamon balls came out of the oven. They were little bread balls coated all in cinnamon, which I thought would be absolutely delicious, but wasn't because the bread was really dry. Most of the bread, especially pastry bread, is super dry, which I don't really like, but for some reason keep sampling anyway. After that we headed to the movie theatre, but obviously the movie selection hadn't changed and so we just decided to go back to my apartment and watch a movie there. We were going to order in delivery, but we couldn't find a place, so we just gave up and made ramen and 김치만두 (kimchi dumplings) although I didn't eat that since it has pork in it. We tried watching a movie, but it seemed sad, so we started watching another one. However, then a group of people decided to go to the 찜질방 (sauna) so we decided to go too, which turned out to be a fantastic decision because the second movie we were going to watch I found out later was also going to be depressing. There were like 10 of us at the 찜질방, which was a pretty large group, so we just all went into the sauna rooms in smaller groups. Some people I think slept there (which isn't uncommon), but I headed back around 12:30 am because I wanted to sleep in my own bed and I was really tired.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Wednesday, June 13th
Afternoon shift. No recollection of anything else.
Thursday, June 14th
Before work Erin gave me and a few other girls dance lessons, teaching us the song Like This by the Wonder Girls. She wants to perform it in a flash mob at Expo and enter the video in a contest. Afterwards I had the afternoon shift, but I went in early to cover Bjorn's shift so he could play in the soccer match against Argentina. There's a soccer tournament that started among all the pavilions. The field is actually just an open space in between a couple of the pavilions. Anyway Bjorn decided he was too tired to play, so I played in his place while he promised to cover the first part of my shift, which turned out to be unnecessary. The game consisted of two 8-minute halves. Each team could have 4 players on the "field" at any time. One had to be Korean and one had to be female. So Argentina had three hard-core guys and the one required female, who just stood on the field in order for them to meet regulations. The poor girl was like terrified and even screamed once when the ball came near her. We, on the other hand, consisted of mostly females, which prompted one of the Argentinian players to ask if our whole team consisted of girls. I only played for about a minute in the second half because I was so bad. It was a lot of fun though, even though we ended up losing 4-1. We were tied at half, but the second half of the game went downhill. Oh well.
Friday, June 15th
I worked a full day shift. After the shift, I went to Dunkin' Donuts to meet up with their employees. I talked with two of them, but I left after an hour out of exhaustion. It was 11 pm and I was super tired and they were about to go out and eat, so I figured it was a good time to leave. They also wanted to go out and eat 삼겹살 (sam-gyeop-sal, thick bacon), which I obviously can't eat, so it was a good time to leave.
Saturday, June 16th
.JPG)
I worked the morning shift. Afterwards I went shopping downtown with Eunice, Esther, and Grace. They were on a hunt for shoes, but Korean shoes definitely don't fit me, so I just browsed around without buying anything. On our way back to the Expo we ran into Pete and then all of us headed over to the Expo Hall for a performance by Quartetto di Sassofoni Accademia. When we passed through the security, Pete and I got separated from everyone else. The gate area is so small, I have no idea how it happened, but it didn't really matter. After the performance we all met back up outside, at which time we were also joined by Madison and James, and then we walked down to the port to tour a ship for the Korean Navy, but tours had stopped at seven so we missed it by like a half hour. So we all just went straight out to dinner at the Blue House, a restaurant right outside of Expo. Everyone else ate 삼겹살 (sam-gyeop-sal, thick bacon) while I got 된장찌개 (soy bean paste stew). After that there was another dance practice for the flash mob. The chorus part wasn't that hard, but the first verse convinced me I was not cut out for performing. I would have to devote way too much time to learn the dance at any real level of proficiency.
Sunday, June 17th
I spent the morning catching up on stuff, like doing laundry and homework. Then I went to the pavilion and met up with Rachel, Madison, Eric, Sara, and Erin. We all headed over to the Samsung Pavilion to go see it (me for a second time), but found out we needed to wait another 40ish minutes for the next performance. Erin and I were hungry so we scurried off to the Belgium Pavilion along with Rachel to get some Belgian fries. Then we headed back to the Samsung Pavilion and watched the acrobatic performance.
After that Rachel and I decided we wanted to explore Yeosu, so we went and waited at the bus stop outside of the Expo, but it was taking forever for a bus to come, so we grabbed some fruit juice at a cafe and headed to a different bus stop. There we waited only a couple minutes before jumping on the first bus that came, lucky number 88. We rode it for awhile outside of the area we were familiar with and then the area I dubbed Tire Town because it consisted all of auto repair shops and tire stores. Finally though we hit an area that looked interesting and got off to explore. The first thing we came across was this tunnel (see two pictures above). We were intrigued to find out what was past it so we walked up the whole hill to find out there was indeed nothing past it.
Then we went on a hunt to get close to this colorful school building and get a picture of it. When we walked up an alley to take a picture of the school we also happened upon this green car with band-aids covering up its dents (see two pictures above). I thought that was pretty awesome.
Walking down the sidewalk along one of the main roads, we came across fish murals. This one (lower right) though was definitely my favorite. We realized while walking around that nothing was open because it was Sunday. We decided we needed to go on a search for a restaurant to eat at because we wanted to try a new place and not eat around Expo for once. It was a challenge though just to find a restaurant that was even open. When we finally found one, we walked a bit farther to make sure nothing else was open and then we immediately backtracked and ate there. I got 콩나물 국밥 (bean sprout soup with rice and egg). The egg was mostly uncooked and served in a separate bowl, so I assumed you dumped it in your soup to cook. I was definitely not going to eat it otherwise. I asked the restaurant owner to double check and make sure I wasn't making any eating faux pas, but she said that was indeed what I was supposed to do with the egg thankfully. The soup was pretty good, although the flavor wasn't that strong. I think, as Rachel pointed out, it would be a good thing to eat while you're sick since it's not too strong.
After dinner, we came across the movie theatre I had gone to back in May to see the Avengers. We thought about seeing a movie, although there were only about 5 movies to choose from. Most of them if not all of them weren't new releases as they were playing movies that had even been released up to about 4 years ago. We agreed upon one movie, but we had an hour to kill so we went back outside and walked down the nearest alley and discovered these murals. Right next to them was a small exercise area with a couple machines and a basketball court. We sat down on one of the benches, but since we were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and I needed the restroom, we headed back to the movie theatre. We then went into an adjoining cafe and split some berry forest and yogurt ice cream. I think it was supposed to be frozen yogurt, but it was marketed as ice cream. Not really sure. Anyway, after an hour had gone by we realized that we were tired and would rather just head back to the apartments, which is what we did.
Also sorry the photos are placed weird. I spent so much time trying to get them to be positioned in a logical way, but blogger refuses to allow me to do so, causing them not to be placed next to the text about them.
Afternoon shift. No recollection of anything else.
 |
| Us doing stretches before the match |
Before work Erin gave me and a few other girls dance lessons, teaching us the song Like This by the Wonder Girls. She wants to perform it in a flash mob at Expo and enter the video in a contest. Afterwards I had the afternoon shift, but I went in early to cover Bjorn's shift so he could play in the soccer match against Argentina. There's a soccer tournament that started among all the pavilions. The field is actually just an open space in between a couple of the pavilions. Anyway Bjorn decided he was too tired to play, so I played in his place while he promised to cover the first part of my shift, which turned out to be unnecessary. The game consisted of two 8-minute halves. Each team could have 4 players on the "field" at any time. One had to be Korean and one had to be female. So Argentina had three hard-core guys and the one required female, who just stood on the field in order for them to meet regulations. The poor girl was like terrified and even screamed once when the ball came near her. We, on the other hand, consisted of mostly females, which prompted one of the Argentinian players to ask if our whole team consisted of girls. I only played for about a minute in the second half because I was so bad. It was a lot of fun though, even though we ended up losing 4-1. We were tied at half, but the second half of the game went downhill. Oh well.
Friday, June 15th
I worked a full day shift. After the shift, I went to Dunkin' Donuts to meet up with their employees. I talked with two of them, but I left after an hour out of exhaustion. It was 11 pm and I was super tired and they were about to go out and eat, so I figured it was a good time to leave. They also wanted to go out and eat 삼겹살 (sam-gyeop-sal, thick bacon), which I obviously can't eat, so it was a good time to leave.
Saturday, June 16th
.JPG)
Sunday, June 17th
I spent the morning catching up on stuff, like doing laundry and homework. Then I went to the pavilion and met up with Rachel, Madison, Eric, Sara, and Erin. We all headed over to the Samsung Pavilion to go see it (me for a second time), but found out we needed to wait another 40ish minutes for the next performance. Erin and I were hungry so we scurried off to the Belgium Pavilion along with Rachel to get some Belgian fries. Then we headed back to the Samsung Pavilion and watched the acrobatic performance.
Then we went on a hunt to get close to this colorful school building and get a picture of it. When we walked up an alley to take a picture of the school we also happened upon this green car with band-aids covering up its dents (see two pictures above). I thought that was pretty awesome.
Walking down the sidewalk along one of the main roads, we came across fish murals. This one (lower right) though was definitely my favorite. We realized while walking around that nothing was open because it was Sunday. We decided we needed to go on a search for a restaurant to eat at because we wanted to try a new place and not eat around Expo for once. It was a challenge though just to find a restaurant that was even open. When we finally found one, we walked a bit farther to make sure nothing else was open and then we immediately backtracked and ate there. I got 콩나물 국밥 (bean sprout soup with rice and egg). The egg was mostly uncooked and served in a separate bowl, so I assumed you dumped it in your soup to cook. I was definitely not going to eat it otherwise. I asked the restaurant owner to double check and make sure I wasn't making any eating faux pas, but she said that was indeed what I was supposed to do with the egg thankfully. The soup was pretty good, although the flavor wasn't that strong. I think, as Rachel pointed out, it would be a good thing to eat while you're sick since it's not too strong.
After dinner, we came across the movie theatre I had gone to back in May to see the Avengers. We thought about seeing a movie, although there were only about 5 movies to choose from. Most of them if not all of them weren't new releases as they were playing movies that had even been released up to about 4 years ago. We agreed upon one movie, but we had an hour to kill so we went back outside and walked down the nearest alley and discovered these murals. Right next to them was a small exercise area with a couple machines and a basketball court. We sat down on one of the benches, but since we were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and I needed the restroom, we headed back to the movie theatre. We then went into an adjoining cafe and split some berry forest and yogurt ice cream. I think it was supposed to be frozen yogurt, but it was marketed as ice cream. Not really sure. Anyway, after an hour had gone by we realized that we were tired and would rather just head back to the apartments, which is what we did.
Also sorry the photos are placed weird. I spent so much time trying to get them to be positioned in a logical way, but blogger refuses to allow me to do so, causing them not to be placed next to the text about them.Sunday, June 17, 2012
Tuesday, June 12th
A group of us went on a tour of the China Pavilion in morning since so many of China's pavilion workers had visited our pavilion. The first part of the pavilion was a video about this girl in ancient times. She went out with her father to go fishing in the seas. The first couple times they were fishing, they caught huge bounties of fish. However, there stopped being fish as garbage, like plastic bags, entered the seas...in ancient times. But no worries because 20 years later the girl is all grown up and now operates an underwater rover that magically cleans all the water by sucking it in and removing all the trash before spraying back out the pure and clean water. Then there's a blip on her radar, so she rushes off and saves a dolphin from being caught in a net. Thank you China for giving us a pragmatic way to save our oceans.
After that Dana, Madison, Anne and I toured some of the pavilions. Samsung's consisted of an acrobatics performance, which was cool, but I'm not really sure how it connected to the oceans.
Lotte's pavilion was probably what Koreans thought most pavilions would be like. They had a pre-show in this fake oversized garden that was honestly horrible. These poor four employees were wearing flower outfits and making buzzing sounds instead of talking for like five minutes straight. Then they had to play instruments in their ridiculous outfits. Their main show was really cool though. You went into a theatre that looked like a hot air balloon. The video was of landscapes and cityscapes as you would see them from a hot air balloon and the floor actually shakes and moves up and down too to make the effect seem real. The only problem was I got motion sick so I had to sit down. After Lotte, we also went to Qatar to get some henna again. Then we went to Mexico's pavilion, which just opened this week. The video just consisted of beautiful pictures of Mexico's beaches, ruins, and women essentially. The best part of the video was this stringray that leaps out of the ocean. So entertaining. This isn't the clip from the video, but here's a youtube link if anyone is interested because it's just so comical to see stringrays jump out of the water (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjDYKTYNacI).
By this time it was well past lunch time and we were all really hungry. We looked around for some place known for their 김치찌개 (kimchi jjigae, kimchi stew) that a couple of them had been to once before, but they forgot how to get there so we abandoned trying to find it. Instead we ate at another place that served good 찌개 (stews). Afterwards we all headed back to the apartments and I spend the afternoon doing laundry and watching the drama. Then in the evening Madison and Dana came over and we made (well improvised how to make) 김치 볶음밥, which actually turned out pretty well. After they left I finally finished the drama and felt accomplished for no reason.
Exploring More of Yeosu
Sunday, June 10th
Morning shift. Yay. Anyway, after the shift I got lunch with Dana and George at the ever popular 김밥 나라 (kimbap land) since it's cheap, fast, and situated really close to the Expo. Then I spent the afternoon powering through my drama before hanging out with Rachel, Anne, and 승진, exploring pavilions.
Monday, June 11th
I went to the pavilion for a luncheon with Tom Underwood, who was giving a talk on Korea. I also got a free lunch out of it with lots of good fruit, which is usually pretty expensive. So it was a good deal. Afterwards I hung around pavilion for hour and a half waiting for Cathy to get done with her shift. I was planning on going to Emart with Cathy and Audrey, but we ran into Dana and Madison on the way and the latter two and I decided to head to 서시장 (West Market) instead. We all took the same bus together, but the three of us got off on an earlier bus stop. We thought we'd gotten off at the wrong bus stop, but it turns out we just headed wrong direction after getting off. We were like a 3 minute walk max from the market, so even with walking in the wrong direction, it took us a total of like 10 minutes to arrive there. I wanted some 호떡 (bread stuffed with cinnamon), but the lady who sold it once wasn't there. Maybe she only sells the bread there on occasion. While walking, we found a huge open but roofed area that must have been the designated fruit area. Even though the market is outdoors and has a bunch of people selling food, there are still pretty well-established areas for everything, like there is an area for meat, grains, produce, packaged snacks, and non-food items. The fruit area had more watermelons in one location than I had ever seen before. After exploring for a while, we got freshly made donuts stuffed with red bean and covered in brown sugar, which was really good.
Then we also ended up finding an indoor fish area. Yeosu is known for its seafood so it wasn't a huge surprise to find such a large place dedicated to fish and other types of seafood.
After that we just meandered around the streets, at one point going on another hunt for 호떡 (ho-tteok), but failed. We wandered into a tiny port though and just sat there for awhile to relax.
The picture on the left shows the entirety of the port. That boat is docked at the port and I think the port could maybe fit one more boat. Super tiny.
After we got back to the apartments, we went over to Audrey's to eat dinner. She was making chicken with a special glaze, so I cooked myself some onions and carrots and ate that with kimchi and rice. Yum. My culinary skills are just awe-inspiring, I know. Along with Audrey, Dana, Madison, and I, Cathy, Anne, So Jung also showed up. Later Anne decided to make crepes, which I ate with honey and jam. Deliciousness. Bjorn showed up a bit after midnight with 초밥 (rice and veggies wrapped in tofu), which wasn't as tasty unsurprisingly. But I was really sleep by that point so I ended up just going back to my room to sleep.
Morning shift. Yay. Anyway, after the shift I got lunch with Dana and George at the ever popular 김밥 나라 (kimbap land) since it's cheap, fast, and situated really close to the Expo. Then I spent the afternoon powering through my drama before hanging out with Rachel, Anne, and 승진, exploring pavilions.
Monday, June 11th
I went to the pavilion for a luncheon with Tom Underwood, who was giving a talk on Korea. I also got a free lunch out of it with lots of good fruit, which is usually pretty expensive. So it was a good deal. Afterwards I hung around pavilion for hour and a half waiting for Cathy to get done with her shift. I was planning on going to Emart with Cathy and Audrey, but we ran into Dana and Madison on the way and the latter two and I decided to head to 서시장 (West Market) instead. We all took the same bus together, but the three of us got off on an earlier bus stop. We thought we'd gotten off at the wrong bus stop, but it turns out we just headed wrong direction after getting off. We were like a 3 minute walk max from the market, so even with walking in the wrong direction, it took us a total of like 10 minutes to arrive there. I wanted some 호떡 (bread stuffed with cinnamon), but the lady who sold it once wasn't there. Maybe she only sells the bread there on occasion. While walking, we found a huge open but roofed area that must have been the designated fruit area. Even though the market is outdoors and has a bunch of people selling food, there are still pretty well-established areas for everything, like there is an area for meat, grains, produce, packaged snacks, and non-food items. The fruit area had more watermelons in one location than I had ever seen before. After exploring for a while, we got freshly made donuts stuffed with red bean and covered in brown sugar, which was really good.
Then we also ended up finding an indoor fish area. Yeosu is known for its seafood so it wasn't a huge surprise to find such a large place dedicated to fish and other types of seafood. 
After that we just meandered around the streets, at one point going on another hunt for 호떡 (ho-tteok), but failed. We wandered into a tiny port though and just sat there for awhile to relax.
The picture on the left shows the entirety of the port. That boat is docked at the port and I think the port could maybe fit one more boat. Super tiny.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Wednesday, June 6th
It was Brittany's birthday today, so I treated her for lunch at Mr. Pizza. They actually had a vegetarian pizza, so I got excited. After lunch, we got gelato for the umpteenth time along with doing some window shopping. Afterwards, I watched more of my drama until a large group of us went out during the evening to celebrate her birthday by going to the 노래방 (karaoke room). Afterwards, we went back to her apartment to eat birthday cake and other goodies. Her cake was a sweet potato cake, which I personally didn't like, but everyone else did. I'm just not a fan of sweet potatoes, but they're super popular here in Korea. They make lots of unusual things out of sweet potatoes, including cakes obviously. Anyway, we also watched the movie Up, which was really good.
Thursday, June 7th
I got lunch with Brittany and then watched some more of the drama and then worked the afternoon shift. After the shift I went to Bjorn's apartment and chilled, watching some of the proceedings at the UN about Syria because there wasn't much on TV.
Friday, June 8th
I went to Emart and 서시장 (West Market; outdoor produce market) with Eric, which a bit under two hours. After that I tried to make fried rice in my apartment for lunch and it failed tastewise, but since it was all with fresh ingredients, I guess it was at least healthy. Then I had the PM shift. We just got a speaker to blast music out in the waiting lines, which makes it so much more fun since you get to dance and sing, instead of just standing and letting people in every 10 minutes. However, the songs on the playlist are going to drive us insane by the end of the summer even though we like all of them now. Party Rock Anthem especially since we play that so much.
Saturday, June 9th
I had the morning shift. During my lunch break, I attended a special event at the Thailand Pavilion. There was a performance first.
Then there was a performance you could join in. It was essentially a massive congo line with people trying to do traditional Thai dance moves. Mine weren't so stellar, but it was a lot of fun.
After that we got some flowers and walked down to a fountain where they floated off into the water... 10 feet. But they were still really pretty.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Rejuvenation in Namhae
Tuesday, June 5th
I signed up to go to the Namhae Garlic Festival, so I got up earlyish (8 am) and then met everyone else going at the USA Pavilion. There was like 13 of us total, 11 student ambassadors, our photographer, and another team member sent from U.S. Embassy Seoul. We all caught a ferry to Namhae, which is on the Korean peninsula, but it's faster and cheaper to get there by taking a ferry than driving there. The ferry ride was actually really refreshing and I didn't get seasick at all, which I had been worried about. When we got to Namhae, an employee at the Hilton met us at the ship and drove us to the garlic fields. I think the Hilton was having an MT (group bonding sessions common in Korea to do with coworkers and groups) and they had luckily already picked most of the garlic. We only had to pick garlic for 30 minutes thankfully because it was an unusually hot day. After that everyone who had the afternoon shift had to leave to catch the ferry. They had no idea what they were about to miss out on. The other six of us got to go back to the Hilton for a girls' day out essentially. First we got a free meal (thanks to our pavilion) and it was absolutely delicious. I had plum tea to drink, which was just the right amount of sweet. I don't even know if I like plums but it was amazing. Then we were waiting for Cathy to get back from the ferry since she had gone with everyone else to make sure they got their tickets back (also complimentary thanks to our pavilion). While waiting for her we got 2 Pumpkin and Feta Cheese Salads to share among the five of us. I can not tell you how much I have missed salads. In Korea, salads are pretty much always Japanese style salads with cabbage and a lot of dressing and that's it. So I'm pretty sure I ate one of those salads myself I was so excited. Then for my actual meal, I got a Margherita Pizza with artichokes. Also absolutely delicious. (As a side note, the menu had its dishes marked if they were vegetarian, making the food ordering process so much simpler.) Then for dessert I split an apple pie and ice cream with Lauren, who was sitting next to me. I'm not even a big pie person, but this was the best apple pie I have ever tasted in my life. Even though we were both stuffed, we were debating ordering another one because it was that good. After finishing the meal, we had a dilemma as to whether we wanted to go to the spa or to the pool. None of us had swimsuits, but the pool won out since people didn't want to pay the 13,000 won to use the spa area. I had wanted to go to the spa, but I had no problem with the pool. I had only wanted to go to the spa because I still felt gross from picking garlic out of the ground. I also had both sunscreen and lotion on, making my skin feel gross. Anyway, the pool had a gorgeous view of the ocean and pretty much all of us ended up falling asleep from food comas and long-term lack of sleep after chatting for awhile. A couple hours later we all felt positively amazing and refreshed. A couple of us wanted to take the ferry back at sunset, but we ended up taking the 5 pm ferry back, which still had an amazing view. I seriously had no complaints that day. I felt so relaxed the whole entire day and it was just so great to take a day off and get away from Yeosu. It was like a mini vacation.
After we got back from Namhae, Lauren and I along with some other people went to dinner at a restaurant specializing in duck. I thought it would be fine since I had eaten there before during a team dinner at the beginning of May. It turns out though that they had only made me bibimbap because we were in a huge group even though it wasn't on the menu. So I ended up just eating side dishes and getting this rice soup kind of thing, which tasted way better than it sounds.
Afterwards, I went back to my apartment to chill a bit more and then I went to the 노래방 (karaoke room) with Josh, Bjorn, Eric, and Jenna to sing my heart out while being tone deaf. Fantastic combination.
I signed up to go to the Namhae Garlic Festival, so I got up earlyish (8 am) and then met everyone else going at the USA Pavilion. There was like 13 of us total, 11 student ambassadors, our photographer, and another team member sent from U.S. Embassy Seoul. We all caught a ferry to Namhae, which is on the Korean peninsula, but it's faster and cheaper to get there by taking a ferry than driving there. The ferry ride was actually really refreshing and I didn't get seasick at all, which I had been worried about. When we got to Namhae, an employee at the Hilton met us at the ship and drove us to the garlic fields. I think the Hilton was having an MT (group bonding sessions common in Korea to do with coworkers and groups) and they had luckily already picked most of the garlic. We only had to pick garlic for 30 minutes thankfully because it was an unusually hot day. After that everyone who had the afternoon shift had to leave to catch the ferry. They had no idea what they were about to miss out on. The other six of us got to go back to the Hilton for a girls' day out essentially. First we got a free meal (thanks to our pavilion) and it was absolutely delicious. I had plum tea to drink, which was just the right amount of sweet. I don't even know if I like plums but it was amazing. Then we were waiting for Cathy to get back from the ferry since she had gone with everyone else to make sure they got their tickets back (also complimentary thanks to our pavilion). While waiting for her we got 2 Pumpkin and Feta Cheese Salads to share among the five of us. I can not tell you how much I have missed salads. In Korea, salads are pretty much always Japanese style salads with cabbage and a lot of dressing and that's it. So I'm pretty sure I ate one of those salads myself I was so excited. Then for my actual meal, I got a Margherita Pizza with artichokes. Also absolutely delicious. (As a side note, the menu had its dishes marked if they were vegetarian, making the food ordering process so much simpler.) Then for dessert I split an apple pie and ice cream with Lauren, who was sitting next to me. I'm not even a big pie person, but this was the best apple pie I have ever tasted in my life. Even though we were both stuffed, we were debating ordering another one because it was that good. After finishing the meal, we had a dilemma as to whether we wanted to go to the spa or to the pool. None of us had swimsuits, but the pool won out since people didn't want to pay the 13,000 won to use the spa area. I had wanted to go to the spa, but I had no problem with the pool. I had only wanted to go to the spa because I still felt gross from picking garlic out of the ground. I also had both sunscreen and lotion on, making my skin feel gross. Anyway, the pool had a gorgeous view of the ocean and pretty much all of us ended up falling asleep from food comas and long-term lack of sleep after chatting for awhile. A couple hours later we all felt positively amazing and refreshed. A couple of us wanted to take the ferry back at sunset, but we ended up taking the 5 pm ferry back, which still had an amazing view. I seriously had no complaints that day. I felt so relaxed the whole entire day and it was just so great to take a day off and get away from Yeosu. It was like a mini vacation.
After we got back from Namhae, Lauren and I along with some other people went to dinner at a restaurant specializing in duck. I thought it would be fine since I had eaten there before during a team dinner at the beginning of May. It turns out though that they had only made me bibimbap because we were in a huge group even though it wasn't on the menu. So I ended up just eating side dishes and getting this rice soup kind of thing, which tasted way better than it sounds.
Afterwards, I went back to my apartment to chill a bit more and then I went to the 노래방 (karaoke room) with Josh, Bjorn, Eric, and Jenna to sing my heart out while being tone deaf. Fantastic combination.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Beginning of June
Friday, June 1st
I woke up early so I decided to attend Guinea's opening ceremony with Erin and So Jung. Definitely the worst performance I've seen so far. Between Guinea's Commerce Minister accidentally knocking over the bouquet of flowers and Korea's flag that were on the side table in front of her to one of the dancer's wardrobe malfunction, let's just say it needed a lot more preparation than had gone into it. After the performance, we went and got lunch outside of expo and then got waffles with ice cream on the way back at one of the many cafes/bakeries. They taste really good, but because they hadn't just come out of the waffle maker, they weren't as good as hoped.
I worked the afternoon shift and afterwards I watched an episode of 사랑비 (Love Rain) with Sarah because most of the people went to a new club called Ivy. It was opening night there, so a lot of people wanted to check it out. The club is also open only to foreigners and Expo staff. I don't think people liked it that much though. Some told me it looked like a TGI Fridays with all the tables pushed to the side as well as the dance floor was really bad. I just find it amazing how many things are popping out of nowhere simply for Expo.
Saturday, June 2nd
I woke up earlier than I had expected, so I decided to go to Japan Opening Ceremony, but there wasn't one because the Japanese Korean Friendship Conference was in place of that. I had planned on attending, but I was surprised to see people were already waiting in line at 10 am for a performance starts at 5 pm. I was a bit worried about how good my seats would be if people were that intense about waiting in lines because I definitely wasn't going to wait in line for that long to see a concert lasting less than 2 hours. Anyway, Jenna and So Jung had also thought there would be an opening ceremony for Japan so I ran into them at Expo Hall and then we all decided to go get breakfast. We got some food at Singapore and then we also went to Dunkin Donuts, where I got Orange Tea. It tasted more like warmed orange juice. Yum... Not really. I got some ice cubes and drank it once it was cold. After that I went back to the apartments and started watching a Korean drama. I'd seen it on TV, but there was too much political stuff for me to be able to follow it in Korean, hence why I started watching it online with English subs. As an added bonus, there aren't any commercial breaks. Although as a side note, commercial breaks in Korea last less than two minutes and I don't think they're as frequent as they are in the U.S., so it's way nicer. TV shows don't run on the hour though. They start and end at the most random times. Anyway, after watching a couple episodes, I went to go wait in line at 3 pm. During the two hour wait, I listened to two radio broadcasts required for our homework, since they were both an hour long. It made the time go by really quickly and got that part of my homework done because I didn't want to have to waste 2 hours at another time to get it done. My friend Cathy got off work and came and joined me in line at about 4:30 pm, which is about the time they let us all in. I was at the front of the line outside, but there was a separate line inside, so I was worried about where I would be seated. It turns out though I think they let that line in through the back of the auditorium and then got us from outside and let us in the entrance by the stage, which was really lucky because that meant I got to sit in the front row. All of the performances were absolutely amazing. There was a traditional music performance, a fan dance, a modern dance by these Korean and Japanese kids that were all insanely talented, 류 (Ryu) performed a couple songs, and then the main reason I attended the concert was to see 김정훈 (Kim Jung Hoon), a famous South Korean actor and singer who was performing. The final performance was by a famous Japanese pop singer. Simply watching that performance was worth the waiting time because it was hilarious. These Japanese guys I think came from Japan just to see her because they were going crazy. They even knew the main chorus dance moves and were performing the hand motions along with her. After the performances ended, I waited outside the back entrance to see if I could get a picture or signature from Kim Jung Hoon. First Ryu came out and then the Japanese singer, but after waiting like forty minutes, Kim Jung Hoon still hadn't come out. Finally we asked the guards and they said he'd already left through the main entrance, so that was disappointing. After that Cathy and I got dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Then I went back to my room to watch more of the drama and go to sleep early.
Sunday, June 3rd
I went to sleep the night before at 11:30 in order to be fully rested this morning since I was working a full day shift. We're never scheduled to work full days, but I covered another girl's shift so that she would cover mine later this month so I could go to one of the Kpop concerts. So I had the morning shift and then did her afternoon shift as well. It really wasn't that bad but I've known people who've worked full days with less than 2 hours of sleep and I don't know how they do it. I definitely am glad I got enough sleep. After the 13 hour shift, I got dinner with some people form the afternoon shift. Then I went to Bjorn's apartment to chill before going to sleep.
Monday, June 4th
I had the morning shift for the second day. My legs were really sore from all the standing I had done the day before. I think the full day made this shift more painful than the full day had been. After work, Cathy and I went to get foreigner registration cards. We took a taxi to get there, but upon arriving we found out that we had to have photos of ourselves printed on photo paper, resulting in momentary panic until Uncle John, USAP driver, who had driven there to meet us and take us home when we were done said he could fix it. We went to a shop owned by his friend that was filled with everything and anything. He took us back to his office and actually had photo paper. So after about 20 minutes we got our photos printed and hurried back to the Yeosu Immigration Office, which was closing in less than a half hour. We got our temporary card numbers and were told that we could go back in 3 weeks to pick up our official cards. After that we went back to the USA Pavilion and chilled there for a bit. I don't remember what I did after that though.
I woke up early so I decided to attend Guinea's opening ceremony with Erin and So Jung. Definitely the worst performance I've seen so far. Between Guinea's Commerce Minister accidentally knocking over the bouquet of flowers and Korea's flag that were on the side table in front of her to one of the dancer's wardrobe malfunction, let's just say it needed a lot more preparation than had gone into it. After the performance, we went and got lunch outside of expo and then got waffles with ice cream on the way back at one of the many cafes/bakeries. They taste really good, but because they hadn't just come out of the waffle maker, they weren't as good as hoped.
I worked the afternoon shift and afterwards I watched an episode of 사랑비 (Love Rain) with Sarah because most of the people went to a new club called Ivy. It was opening night there, so a lot of people wanted to check it out. The club is also open only to foreigners and Expo staff. I don't think people liked it that much though. Some told me it looked like a TGI Fridays with all the tables pushed to the side as well as the dance floor was really bad. I just find it amazing how many things are popping out of nowhere simply for Expo.
Saturday, June 2nd
I woke up earlier than I had expected, so I decided to go to Japan Opening Ceremony, but there wasn't one because the Japanese Korean Friendship Conference was in place of that. I had planned on attending, but I was surprised to see people were already waiting in line at 10 am for a performance starts at 5 pm. I was a bit worried about how good my seats would be if people were that intense about waiting in lines because I definitely wasn't going to wait in line for that long to see a concert lasting less than 2 hours. Anyway, Jenna and So Jung had also thought there would be an opening ceremony for Japan so I ran into them at Expo Hall and then we all decided to go get breakfast. We got some food at Singapore and then we also went to Dunkin Donuts, where I got Orange Tea. It tasted more like warmed orange juice. Yum... Not really. I got some ice cubes and drank it once it was cold. After that I went back to the apartments and started watching a Korean drama. I'd seen it on TV, but there was too much political stuff for me to be able to follow it in Korean, hence why I started watching it online with English subs. As an added bonus, there aren't any commercial breaks. Although as a side note, commercial breaks in Korea last less than two minutes and I don't think they're as frequent as they are in the U.S., so it's way nicer. TV shows don't run on the hour though. They start and end at the most random times. Anyway, after watching a couple episodes, I went to go wait in line at 3 pm. During the two hour wait, I listened to two radio broadcasts required for our homework, since they were both an hour long. It made the time go by really quickly and got that part of my homework done because I didn't want to have to waste 2 hours at another time to get it done. My friend Cathy got off work and came and joined me in line at about 4:30 pm, which is about the time they let us all in. I was at the front of the line outside, but there was a separate line inside, so I was worried about where I would be seated. It turns out though I think they let that line in through the back of the auditorium and then got us from outside and let us in the entrance by the stage, which was really lucky because that meant I got to sit in the front row. All of the performances were absolutely amazing. There was a traditional music performance, a fan dance, a modern dance by these Korean and Japanese kids that were all insanely talented, 류 (Ryu) performed a couple songs, and then the main reason I attended the concert was to see 김정훈 (Kim Jung Hoon), a famous South Korean actor and singer who was performing. The final performance was by a famous Japanese pop singer. Simply watching that performance was worth the waiting time because it was hilarious. These Japanese guys I think came from Japan just to see her because they were going crazy. They even knew the main chorus dance moves and were performing the hand motions along with her. After the performances ended, I waited outside the back entrance to see if I could get a picture or signature from Kim Jung Hoon. First Ryu came out and then the Japanese singer, but after waiting like forty minutes, Kim Jung Hoon still hadn't come out. Finally we asked the guards and they said he'd already left through the main entrance, so that was disappointing. After that Cathy and I got dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Then I went back to my room to watch more of the drama and go to sleep early.
Sunday, June 3rd
I went to sleep the night before at 11:30 in order to be fully rested this morning since I was working a full day shift. We're never scheduled to work full days, but I covered another girl's shift so that she would cover mine later this month so I could go to one of the Kpop concerts. So I had the morning shift and then did her afternoon shift as well. It really wasn't that bad but I've known people who've worked full days with less than 2 hours of sleep and I don't know how they do it. I definitely am glad I got enough sleep. After the 13 hour shift, I got dinner with some people form the afternoon shift. Then I went to Bjorn's apartment to chill before going to sleep.
Monday, June 4th
I had the morning shift for the second day. My legs were really sore from all the standing I had done the day before. I think the full day made this shift more painful than the full day had been. After work, Cathy and I went to get foreigner registration cards. We took a taxi to get there, but upon arriving we found out that we had to have photos of ourselves printed on photo paper, resulting in momentary panic until Uncle John, USAP driver, who had driven there to meet us and take us home when we were done said he could fix it. We went to a shop owned by his friend that was filled with everything and anything. He took us back to his office and actually had photo paper. So after about 20 minutes we got our photos printed and hurried back to the Yeosu Immigration Office, which was closing in less than a half hour. We got our temporary card numbers and were told that we could go back in 3 weeks to pick up our official cards. After that we went back to the USA Pavilion and chilled there for a bit. I don't remember what I did after that though.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
The Final Days of May
Tuesday, May 29th
Morning shift again. After that I went out shopping in the downtown area with Bjorn and Yvonne. Bjorn was the one who instigated the shopping extravaganza, but I don't think he actually bought anything. Even though we were mainly going into men's clothing stores, Yvonne actually bought a men's shirt to wear as a dress, which I think kind of confused the store clerks.
After shopping, we got gelato because I insisted. Second time in like a week. Oh well. It's delicious.
After getting back to our apartment, we were going to head out to a party taking place at the beach, but other people wanted to go too so we ended up waiting an hour and half for them to get off shift and meet us. Once they found out though that we would have to take a taxi to get to the beach since all the buses had stopped running, they decided not to come though. I got kind of annoyed since we'd delayed going just to wait for them and then all six of them decided they didn't want to go anymore. But I quickly got over it because the party was a lot of fun. I feel bad though because I have no idea who has to clean the beach.
Wednesday, May 30th
I spent the day watching TV in the living room and laying in bed doing homework. I didn't feel sick or anything, but it was my day off and I just wanted a day to relax and not necessarily recover from all the craziness of being here, but just take a step back. Time here seems so short and so long at the same time. Like each day seems like it goes on for eternity (in a good way), but at the same time I feel like I've been here for months and months, not just one month. So I got my homework done for this week, but besides that, did very little. In the evening, I went over to my friend's apartment for a continuation of the Once Upon a Time marathon we've been having. We also ordered in Chinese food and just hung out all evening. That night I went over to my Thai friends' apartment for a party. It was someone's birthday party, but I didn't actually know that person, but it didn't really matter.
Thursday, May 31st
Late morning I headed downtown with Bjorn, Mike, and Asger to grab lunch and go shopping. We went to Daiso first, which is like a Korean dollar store. It has some pretty nice stuff though. After that we went to Super Mario again because Bjorn is addicted to that store and I ended up buying a shirt from there even though it's a men's store. That makes at least American female #2 that has bought clothes from there. The store clerks must be really amused or confused. After that we headed to get lunch before everyone else started their afternoon shifts. Most of the places were traditional Korean places in that the food was like 25,000 won because it was meant to be shared in a group. That's totally fine, but it makes it impossible really to accommodate my vegetarianism because there are no large vegetarian options since they just couldn't sell and no one besides me wants to obviously eat vegetarian. So we ended up finding a 분식 place which doesn't sell fast food per se, but food that can be prepared really quickly. After that we all got gelato because I really wanted gelato. The worker there has started to give me a discount every time I come now because I come so often, which is awesome, but I think a sad commentary on how often I frequent that place. Anyway, we headed back to Expo so they could do their shifts and I went and met up with Brittany, who also wanted to go downtown in order to buy some book for her friend. So I went downtown for a second time. Then since we had an hour to kill, we went to get gelato again. My (over)consumption of gelato is fast becoming a problem...Oh well. After that we went back to Expo Town to meet Josh and Oil for dinner. Oil really wanted to go get dinner at some place which happened to be located downtown, so I went downtown for a third time in like seven hours. After that I was planning on going to another party, but it didn't even start till 11:30 pm and I was lame and just decided to go to sleep instead since I was so exhausted.
Friday, June 1, 2012
The Beach is My Ocean.
Monday, May 28th
I had the always lovely morning shift. After that a group of us headed to the beach. One of the people had been to the beach before and another seemed to know how to get there, so I just kind of tagged along and got on the bus that everyone else got on. After a while though, while we were chatting with some Koreans, we asked how long it would take to get to 만성리 (man-seong-ni, the black sand beach). They looked at us kind of quizzically and said that the bus didn't go there. We decided to hang out on the bus anyway and go to the end because we assumed the route was circuitous, but that was a wrong assumption. The buses travel in lines and at the end of the line you must get off. I don't know if the buses then just drive back and start the line over or what, but anyway we had to get off at the last stop. So then we wandered to a bus stop and got on the same bus line going in the opposite direction. Well, we decided to be a bit more intelligent that time and we checked the route, although we did that admittedly after we got on the bus. It turns out that since Expo had started, the bus no longer went to 만성리. So we got off at a bus stop and finally got on the right bus. It took us an hour to get to the beach when it should have taken less than 20 minutes, but none of us really cared since we were in a huge group and we were all just hanging out anyway. The only sad thing was was within that hour the skies had managed to go from sunny to cloudy. The beach was being advertised as a black sand beach in everything I had read about it, but as a friend put it, the sand was just browner than usual, not black. It was also a man-made beach and it was really rocky. But I can't really be that picky considering any beach is better than no beach. The water was chilly, but in a good, refreshing way. Overall the afternoon was a lot of fun. At one point, we started singing Disney songs in both English and Danish in tandem simply because we could. Insanely fun.
After the beach, we went out for dinner. One of the guys really wanted to go to a specific restaurant so he could say hi to his 엄마 (mom in Korean). He apparently calls the restaurant owner 엄마 and she absolutely loves it. It was so hilarious. He was walking around the restaurant like he owned it, getting us more side dishes and rice when we ran out. She also gave us an octopus for free with our meal to put in the soup everyone (but me) was sharing and she told us it cost 6,000 to 7,000 won. Their interactions were only the more amazing based on the fact he speaks no Korean and she speaks no English or Thai. It was really awesome though. At the end of the meal I translated for the two of them and it was so great.
After dinner, I met several of the people to play volleyball. Others were supposed to join us after they got off their shift, but something happened so they couldn't not really sure. Anyway, even though there were five us, only me and A actually played volleyball so the game kind of died slowly but surely. After taht we just hung out and chatted until people from some Middle Eastern pavilion got the bright idea to shoot off fireworks in the courtyard area. That was when we decided to leave because we knew Expo security would be unhappy and taking down their names and we didn't want to get in trouble with them. So we found a staircase that led to nowhere and sat there for awhile.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)