Saturday, August 4th
I had a free day and I think I just chilled at my apartment, but I really don't remember. Anyway, that evening I saw the film 도둑들 (Thieves) with Jenna, So Jung, and Bernadette.
Sunday, August 5th
I went to the beach in the afternoon with Dana and George and was surprised to find a bunch of debris in the water. I think it was partly from the incoming typhoon and because there was party on the beach from the night before. Later we all watched Crazy, Stupid, Love because it's a fantastic movie.
Monday, August 6th
I had the PM shift.
Tuesday, August 7th
I got lunch with Rachel and we had about an hour to kill, so we went to a couple pavilions to look for gifts. The last one we went to was Pakistan, where I ended up buying the majority of my gifts because they had some really beautiful things, which I will not mention so that my family can still be surprised by what they're receiving. After that I worked the PM Shift and following that there was a thank you party hosted by Tom Underwood that was on the behalf of the US Embassy, thanking the student ambassadors for all their hard work. However, I didn't really feel like staying, so I bailed early and went back to my room to do some packing.
Wednesday, August 8th
I worked the AM shift and then I ordered in pizza for dinner with Rachel.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Friday, August 24, 2012
August 2nd - 3rd
Thursday, August 2nd
I had the AM shift and then I chilled in the apartments with Rachel until dinnertime. For dinner, Rachel and I met up with Boram and a girl from the Swiss Pavilion and then we just talked all together on the playground set outside our rooms. After that I studied Korean with the textbook I'd bought in Seoul. I think what I'm weakest on is vocabulary. I just really need to sit down and memorize words, but it's just rather boring to do without any external motivation, so I haven't been studying much.
Friday, August 3rd
I took over the PM shift for Audrey, so I worked PM instead of AM since she wanted to see the Psy concert that night. In the morning, I woke up to a phone call from the bank, which had called to inform me I had gotten a bank transfer. They were asking me to explain why I had gotten a wire transfer. After I explained it was money from my parents to study abroad, they then requested my bank account number and the amount of money received in the transfer, so at that point I told them I would feel more comfortable talking to someone face to face, not on the phone. So then I got ready and headed straight to the bank to deal with the whole problem. However, when I got to the bank and tried to explain (poorly) about the phone call I had received in the morning, the lady behind the counter just gave me a funny look and then showed me the money had been deposited in my account. I was really confused, but I decided that there was no reason to push the issue since I had the money already deposited with no hold put on it or anything. I grabbed lunch on the way back to the apartments and then caught up on some blogging. The cleaning ladies asked me what I was doing after Expo and when I explained I was studying in Seoul for the year, they gave me free towels and hand soap, which was really nice of them. They told me not to report it to their bosses or they could get in trouble.
Out of my many strange Expo work experiences I had one of the strangest during this workshift. A Korean guy came into retail and after asking my friend and I if we had heard of some place in Alabama (we hadn't), he asked me for my phone number. I lied and said I didn't have a Korean phone, so he asked for my American number, and I told him it didn't work. He then asked me to marry him, telling me he lived in Alabama working at a Hyundai plant, to which I responded I was definitely too young to get married. During this whole conversation my friend and I kept exchanging looks and laughing at the absurdity of the conversation, but the guy was completely serious. He asked how old I was due to my response and I told him my actual age, but he responded that he was twenty (total lie, he had to have been at least thirty five). At that point a huge crowd of people came through the retail area, but he kept asking if I wanted to get his number so we could go on a date. I kept telling him I was busying handling transactions and finally he was like so are you not interested in me? And I told him no and he finally left. It turns out he had asked two other girls at our pavilion earlier for their contact information and then later asked one again for hers and asked her to marry him too. When she said no though, he told her he could make her happy and asked her why she wouldn't agree to it.She just walked away. We theorized he was trying to marry an American out of visa issues or something. Regardless it was weird, but because I never felt personally threatened since I was always with another American at the time, we mainly just found it funny.
Later I went to the Psy concert and actually got a pretty good view despite the fact that the area was absolutely packed. Psy's new song Gangnam Style (강남스타일) is currently an insanely huge hit in Korea (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0) so he's super popular right now. The concert was really good, although I think holding it in the digital gallery was a poor decision because it was too crowded and hot.
Afterwards, I ran into Boram and a friend of hers from Singapore as they were headed to the Colombian Party, so I decided to tag along. It was pretty lame though, so we ended up migrating to the party at the Philippines, which I didn't particularly care for either, but it was done by midnight so it didn't matter that much.
I had the AM shift and then I chilled in the apartments with Rachel until dinnertime. For dinner, Rachel and I met up with Boram and a girl from the Swiss Pavilion and then we just talked all together on the playground set outside our rooms. After that I studied Korean with the textbook I'd bought in Seoul. I think what I'm weakest on is vocabulary. I just really need to sit down and memorize words, but it's just rather boring to do without any external motivation, so I haven't been studying much.
Friday, August 3rd
I took over the PM shift for Audrey, so I worked PM instead of AM since she wanted to see the Psy concert that night. In the morning, I woke up to a phone call from the bank, which had called to inform me I had gotten a bank transfer. They were asking me to explain why I had gotten a wire transfer. After I explained it was money from my parents to study abroad, they then requested my bank account number and the amount of money received in the transfer, so at that point I told them I would feel more comfortable talking to someone face to face, not on the phone. So then I got ready and headed straight to the bank to deal with the whole problem. However, when I got to the bank and tried to explain (poorly) about the phone call I had received in the morning, the lady behind the counter just gave me a funny look and then showed me the money had been deposited in my account. I was really confused, but I decided that there was no reason to push the issue since I had the money already deposited with no hold put on it or anything. I grabbed lunch on the way back to the apartments and then caught up on some blogging. The cleaning ladies asked me what I was doing after Expo and when I explained I was studying in Seoul for the year, they gave me free towels and hand soap, which was really nice of them. They told me not to report it to their bosses or they could get in trouble.
Out of my many strange Expo work experiences I had one of the strangest during this workshift. A Korean guy came into retail and after asking my friend and I if we had heard of some place in Alabama (we hadn't), he asked me for my phone number. I lied and said I didn't have a Korean phone, so he asked for my American number, and I told him it didn't work. He then asked me to marry him, telling me he lived in Alabama working at a Hyundai plant, to which I responded I was definitely too young to get married. During this whole conversation my friend and I kept exchanging looks and laughing at the absurdity of the conversation, but the guy was completely serious. He asked how old I was due to my response and I told him my actual age, but he responded that he was twenty (total lie, he had to have been at least thirty five). At that point a huge crowd of people came through the retail area, but he kept asking if I wanted to get his number so we could go on a date. I kept telling him I was busying handling transactions and finally he was like so are you not interested in me? And I told him no and he finally left. It turns out he had asked two other girls at our pavilion earlier for their contact information and then later asked one again for hers and asked her to marry him too. When she said no though, he told her he could make her happy and asked her why she wouldn't agree to it.She just walked away. We theorized he was trying to marry an American out of visa issues or something. Regardless it was weird, but because I never felt personally threatened since I was always with another American at the time, we mainly just found it funny.
Later I went to the Psy concert and actually got a pretty good view despite the fact that the area was absolutely packed. Psy's new song Gangnam Style (강남스타일) is currently an insanely huge hit in Korea (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0) so he's super popular right now. The concert was really good, although I think holding it in the digital gallery was a poor decision because it was too crowded and hot.
Afterwards, I ran into Boram and a friend of hers from Singapore as they were headed to the Colombian Party, so I decided to tag along. It was pretty lame though, so we ended up migrating to the party at the Philippines, which I didn't particularly care for either, but it was done by midnight so it didn't matter that much.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Trip to Andong: Wednesday, August 1st
I woke up at 7 am and felt surprisingly okay for only getting 2 hours of sleep, but I knew that feeling wouldn't last long. On the bright side, going to sleep so late meant that even though we were sleeping on the floor (traditional Korean style) I fell asleep pretty much instantaneously. The three of us (So Jung, Audrey, and I who were all sharing the same room) got to breakfast at 8:15 am which we were honestly proud of. After eating we packed all our stuff and then all loaded on the bus at 9 am. On the bus ride, I talked with Daniel, a Korean American interning at the Daegu North Korean refugee center for a month. He said they have internships for the period of a month and that his boss had already let him know we were all welcome to apply. I was planning on spending February taking intensive Korean language classes, but now I'm reconsidering and I think I should apply for that internship instead. I would still be using Korean all the time and it would be a more rewarding experience. Something to think about.
Upon arriving at our destination, we started walking uphill and that was when my lack of sleep hit me. I had a headache and I thought I was going to die if we spent the next couple hours climbing up this hill, which was a legitimate possibility in Korea due to the popularity of mountain climbing. Luckily, we only climbed it for like ten minutes and ended up at an outlook over a traditional village, which a lady explained to us in Korean and which I tuned out. We walked back down the hill and headed to the river, which we crossed on what looked like a gigantically oversized canoe with a motor attached to it. Upon arriving in the town we had a super fast walking tour of it because I guess we were running behind. I think the lady just really wanted to keep to her pre-planned time schedule. One surprising thing was that I had assumed from staying up all last night we had all bonded, which was true, and that we would all be chatting a lot since we were leaving that afternoon. However, due to all of us being exhausted, like none of us talked at all during the tour because we were all so tired. I had conversations that would last about 3 minutes max because that's all we had the energy for. After the tour, we made masks with a puddy like substance and a cardboard mask mold. Then we had lunch, which was some fancy meat dish, so I just got myself some bibimbap.
After that, we got on the bus again and headed off to some ancient Confucian school of some significance. It was absolutely gorgeous, but we just kind of looked around and then had to say our goodbyes, which were really awkward. Goodbyes are always super awkward, especially in large groups. It's just a fact of life. Once on the bus, we talked about North Korea and then promptly all passed out from exhaustion. That evening, we had a pizza party at Patrick's apartment for dinner.
Upon arriving at our destination, we started walking uphill and that was when my lack of sleep hit me. I had a headache and I thought I was going to die if we spent the next couple hours climbing up this hill, which was a legitimate possibility in Korea due to the popularity of mountain climbing. Luckily, we only climbed it for like ten minutes and ended up at an outlook over a traditional village, which a lady explained to us in Korean and which I tuned out. We walked back down the hill and headed to the river, which we crossed on what looked like a gigantically oversized canoe with a motor attached to it. Upon arriving in the town we had a super fast walking tour of it because I guess we were running behind. I think the lady just really wanted to keep to her pre-planned time schedule. One surprising thing was that I had assumed from staying up all last night we had all bonded, which was true, and that we would all be chatting a lot since we were leaving that afternoon. However, due to all of us being exhausted, like none of us talked at all during the tour because we were all so tired. I had conversations that would last about 3 minutes max because that's all we had the energy for. After the tour, we made masks with a puddy like substance and a cardboard mask mold. Then we had lunch, which was some fancy meat dish, so I just got myself some bibimbap.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Trip to Andong: Tuesday, July 31st
I got on the bus to head to 안동시 (Andong) at 9:45 am to go to the camp for North Korean refugees. That is really all that had been explained to us and so none of us really know what to expect. We ended up all sleeping off and on for the 4 hour ride. I ate a lot of choco pies on the trip, which turned out to be a good thing because we were running late since we didn't actually depart at 10 am like planned, more like 10:30 am, because some people were late to showing up.
So we arrived at around 3 pm at a museum and memorial site with no idea what was going to happen. Luckily it turned out all the people we were "volunteering" with (really just hanging out with) turned out to be our age as the youngest was I think 14, most were college age, and the oldest was probably 25 or so. Anyway, we showed up and introduced ourselves while cameras filled the whole thing for whatever reason. That part was weird. So once we were in the museum, we were shown rooms where we had to dump our stuff. The rooms turned out to be where we spent the night. After we dumped our stuff, we went back out to the common area where we were told to arbitrarily break off into teams. One of the boys led me around the whole room and then back to the place we were originally standing, which was weird. None of us ever really figured out why that happened. But at the time I was already so confused because there was way too much Korean going on all at once. But we ended up getting a tour of the museum, which was a memorial of the Korean Independence Movement. Apparently, North Koreans are also taught about it as well, but with the spin that Kim Il Sung was pretty much responsible for the whole thing, so the person in charge of the trip and is a manager at the Hanawon Relocation Center in Daegu thought it was important they get a chance to see it. I quickly zoned out though because the Korean was way beyond my level of understanding. Even the Korean Americans said understanding it was difficult, so I didn't let it bother me too much. We were apparently going to be quizzed on it, so I knew that was going to be a fail. Afterwards we had a tour of buildings I assume related to the movement outside, not totally sure. Then we had a short quiz, which I knew none of the answers to unsurprisingly, but none of the Americans really did.
After that, we all headed downstairs for a brief game of trivia. Then we had dinner along with about 45 minutes of free time. Audrey, So Jung, and I chilled in the room along with 3 Korean women, but it was kind of awkward because we had no real conversation topics. We ended up just watching the Olympics for the most part together. Then we all headed downstairs for more trivia games. We had a quiz of True False, where everyone had to stand on one side if they thought it was true and on other other if they thought the statement was false. What ended up happening was that all the Americans just followed the Korean majority, meaning it took forever to get all but one person out. Ironically out of the last three people, it was me, a Korean guy on my team, and another American. I didn't even understand the questions throughout the game, but I ended up getting out on the last question. Darn. After that we went around and introduced ourselves again, only to learn that in 5 minutes we were going to be quizzed on everyone's names. I knew I was screwed from the start since I suck at names. The two other teams got to choose two people from each team, one American and one Korean. At first they were only going to choose one, but I think they realized that the Americans didn't stand a chance since we definitely couldn't memorize about twenty Korean names in five minutes. That just wasn't going to happen. So I was chosen because it was clear I had no idea about anyone's names, but every Korean they pointed to, I just turned towards my Korean teammate and hoped he knew, which most of the time he did. After that we played Taboo and the list our team was given was the medium difficulty one, meaning it was about the memorial and stuff, meaning I had no idea about any of the words. The list with easy words had words I understood, but another team lucked out with that list. After that we finally played something I could competitively compete at. I have no idea what it was called but two people stood back to back and then shoved their butts at the other member so that that person would become off balance and move their feet. I pretty much won because I was the tallest person there. Technically there was one guy there who was taller than me, but he didn't compete. Only Americans did, I assume because we felt less awkward about competing in the game coed. Thanks to that game, our team ended up coming from behind and winning first place. I've never felt so proud of my butt.
After that we headed up for 30 minutes to chill and then everyone gathered again to snack on chicken and soda (and grapes that they bought just for me). We ended up playing drinking games even though there was no alcohol, which devolved into making random people sing/dance, which then devolved into a dance party that didn't happen.
Then everyone kind of migrated back to their own rooms, but So Jung, Audrey, and I quickly got bored of that. Luckily, there were a couple people in the common area, so we joined them around 10 pm. Then people kept trickling in until we had a sizable group. We had normal conversation for several hours and then we decided to play another game, which we decided on the Korean version of 10 fingers because it seemed the easiest since both Americans and Koreans generally understood it. A Korean guy lost the game and it was decided that he would have to fulfill a punishment with a randomly selected partner. To choose the other loser, people drew numbers written on sheets of paper. One paper had K on it though for king and that person called out a number. Whoever had that number was the loser, which ended up being me. As they had already realized I'm a complete wimp, they decided to make us walk up to this traditional Korean structure outside in the middle of the night. Halfway up I screamed in surprise when I walked into a spider web, freaking out the Korean guy but I couldn't explain why I screamed since I knew neither the words for spider or web. Then I saw another guy run up to hide behind the building, but the guy didn't believe me when I told him. But when the other guy jumped out to try to scare us, I screamed back at him to try to freak him out, but everyone else assumed I was screaming in fear. Oh well. I looked like I was even more of a scaredy cat than I really am, which to be honest is hard to do. Anyway, after that I lost the next round of drawing numbers along with So Jung, so as our punishment we had to watch a scary video, which I balked at. Audrey told me that I could pick a "black knight" and ask them to do my punishment for me, but if they refused not only would I have to watch the video but I would have to sing or dance and possibly watch the video multiple times. I had no interest in that, so I honestly just started whining essentially. Audrey got sick of it thankfully and just told me she would watch the video for me. After that we chatted until about 3 am or 4 am when we were told we would have to move out of the common area so that we wouldn't disturb people sleeping. So we went to the basement and played mafia until 5 am, by which time my Korean had practically died and my English was on the verge of collapse. We all finally decided at 5 am it might be smart to go to sleep since we had to be ready at 8 am for breakfast.
So we arrived at around 3 pm at a museum and memorial site with no idea what was going to happen. Luckily it turned out all the people we were "volunteering" with (really just hanging out with) turned out to be our age as the youngest was I think 14, most were college age, and the oldest was probably 25 or so. Anyway, we showed up and introduced ourselves while cameras filled the whole thing for whatever reason. That part was weird. So once we were in the museum, we were shown rooms where we had to dump our stuff. The rooms turned out to be where we spent the night. After we dumped our stuff, we went back out to the common area where we were told to arbitrarily break off into teams. One of the boys led me around the whole room and then back to the place we were originally standing, which was weird. None of us ever really figured out why that happened. But at the time I was already so confused because there was way too much Korean going on all at once. But we ended up getting a tour of the museum, which was a memorial of the Korean Independence Movement. Apparently, North Koreans are also taught about it as well, but with the spin that Kim Il Sung was pretty much responsible for the whole thing, so the person in charge of the trip and is a manager at the Hanawon Relocation Center in Daegu thought it was important they get a chance to see it. I quickly zoned out though because the Korean was way beyond my level of understanding. Even the Korean Americans said understanding it was difficult, so I didn't let it bother me too much. We were apparently going to be quizzed on it, so I knew that was going to be a fail. Afterwards we had a tour of buildings I assume related to the movement outside, not totally sure. Then we had a short quiz, which I knew none of the answers to unsurprisingly, but none of the Americans really did.
After that, we all headed downstairs for a brief game of trivia. Then we had dinner along with about 45 minutes of free time. Audrey, So Jung, and I chilled in the room along with 3 Korean women, but it was kind of awkward because we had no real conversation topics. We ended up just watching the Olympics for the most part together. Then we all headed downstairs for more trivia games. We had a quiz of True False, where everyone had to stand on one side if they thought it was true and on other other if they thought the statement was false. What ended up happening was that all the Americans just followed the Korean majority, meaning it took forever to get all but one person out. Ironically out of the last three people, it was me, a Korean guy on my team, and another American. I didn't even understand the questions throughout the game, but I ended up getting out on the last question. Darn. After that we went around and introduced ourselves again, only to learn that in 5 minutes we were going to be quizzed on everyone's names. I knew I was screwed from the start since I suck at names. The two other teams got to choose two people from each team, one American and one Korean. At first they were only going to choose one, but I think they realized that the Americans didn't stand a chance since we definitely couldn't memorize about twenty Korean names in five minutes. That just wasn't going to happen. So I was chosen because it was clear I had no idea about anyone's names, but every Korean they pointed to, I just turned towards my Korean teammate and hoped he knew, which most of the time he did. After that we played Taboo and the list our team was given was the medium difficulty one, meaning it was about the memorial and stuff, meaning I had no idea about any of the words. The list with easy words had words I understood, but another team lucked out with that list. After that we finally played something I could competitively compete at. I have no idea what it was called but two people stood back to back and then shoved their butts at the other member so that that person would become off balance and move their feet. I pretty much won because I was the tallest person there. Technically there was one guy there who was taller than me, but he didn't compete. Only Americans did, I assume because we felt less awkward about competing in the game coed. Thanks to that game, our team ended up coming from behind and winning first place. I've never felt so proud of my butt.
After that we headed up for 30 minutes to chill and then everyone gathered again to snack on chicken and soda (and grapes that they bought just for me). We ended up playing drinking games even though there was no alcohol, which devolved into making random people sing/dance, which then devolved into a dance party that didn't happen.
Then everyone kind of migrated back to their own rooms, but So Jung, Audrey, and I quickly got bored of that. Luckily, there were a couple people in the common area, so we joined them around 10 pm. Then people kept trickling in until we had a sizable group. We had normal conversation for several hours and then we decided to play another game, which we decided on the Korean version of 10 fingers because it seemed the easiest since both Americans and Koreans generally understood it. A Korean guy lost the game and it was decided that he would have to fulfill a punishment with a randomly selected partner. To choose the other loser, people drew numbers written on sheets of paper. One paper had K on it though for king and that person called out a number. Whoever had that number was the loser, which ended up being me. As they had already realized I'm a complete wimp, they decided to make us walk up to this traditional Korean structure outside in the middle of the night. Halfway up I screamed in surprise when I walked into a spider web, freaking out the Korean guy but I couldn't explain why I screamed since I knew neither the words for spider or web. Then I saw another guy run up to hide behind the building, but the guy didn't believe me when I told him. But when the other guy jumped out to try to scare us, I screamed back at him to try to freak him out, but everyone else assumed I was screaming in fear. Oh well. I looked like I was even more of a scaredy cat than I really am, which to be honest is hard to do. Anyway, after that I lost the next round of drawing numbers along with So Jung, so as our punishment we had to watch a scary video, which I balked at. Audrey told me that I could pick a "black knight" and ask them to do my punishment for me, but if they refused not only would I have to watch the video but I would have to sing or dance and possibly watch the video multiple times. I had no interest in that, so I honestly just started whining essentially. Audrey got sick of it thankfully and just told me she would watch the video for me. After that we chatted until about 3 am or 4 am when we were told we would have to move out of the common area so that we wouldn't disturb people sleeping. So we went to the basement and played mafia until 5 am, by which time my Korean had practically died and my English was on the verge of collapse. We all finally decided at 5 am it might be smart to go to sleep since we had to be ready at 8 am for breakfast.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Friday, July 27th
I worked the AM shift, but I don't remember what I did during the PM shift.
Saturday, July 28th
I worked the AM shift and then I went to a cafe with Anne and Rachel so that we could work on the homework. Afterwards, Rachel and I watched the Olympics, which here only feature events with Koreans. Granted the events don't even have to be live. If a Korean wins, I can guarantee you it's on every single day just so that everyone can relive the moment and prove that Koreans are better than everyone else.
Sunday, July 29th
I hung out with Rachel for the day.
Monday, July 30th
I went to 오동도 (Odongdo), a nearby with Grace, Rachel, and Dana in the morning. The weather was nice, but when you're walking in the sun, you start to feel not so nice. So we got excited to finally find shade and just sit down for awhile to cool down.
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In the afternoon I headed to 모사금 (Mosageum), the much nicer beach, with Nawit, Boram, Rachel, Grace, Alex, and Rae, where we just chilled for several hours. A couple people left early, but afterwards the rest of us grabbed dinner at the 분식점 (bunshik restaurant) in Expo Town. I try to avoid that place though because they're really uncooperative in accommodating my vegetarianism. On multiple occasions I have asked them to make me 김밥 (kimbap) sans the meat, but they refused. I think I wrote about the first time they did that, but the second time they just told me they weren't making kimbap at the time, when 3 minutes later I watched a Korean order regular kimbap without a problem.
That night I went to the Germany Party with Alex, Boram, and Nawit, but I didn't really enjoy it that much, although I somehow ended up staying there really late regardless. I enjoyed bits of it, but I was bored for long periods as well. On a side note, an American thought I was from a Scandinavian country, which amused me and kind of confused me at the same time.
I worked the AM shift, but I don't remember what I did during the PM shift.
Saturday, July 28th
I worked the AM shift and then I went to a cafe with Anne and Rachel so that we could work on the homework. Afterwards, Rachel and I watched the Olympics, which here only feature events with Koreans. Granted the events don't even have to be live. If a Korean wins, I can guarantee you it's on every single day just so that everyone can relive the moment and prove that Koreans are better than everyone else.
Sunday, July 29th
I hung out with Rachel for the day.
Monday, July 30th
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| Bugs here are mutants. |
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In the afternoon I headed to 모사금 (Mosageum), the much nicer beach, with Nawit, Boram, Rachel, Grace, Alex, and Rae, where we just chilled for several hours. A couple people left early, but afterwards the rest of us grabbed dinner at the 분식점 (bunshik restaurant) in Expo Town. I try to avoid that place though because they're really uncooperative in accommodating my vegetarianism. On multiple occasions I have asked them to make me 김밥 (kimbap) sans the meat, but they refused. I think I wrote about the first time they did that, but the second time they just told me they weren't making kimbap at the time, when 3 minutes later I watched a Korean order regular kimbap without a problem.That night I went to the Germany Party with Alex, Boram, and Nawit, but I didn't really enjoy it that much, although I somehow ended up staying there really late regardless. I enjoyed bits of it, but I was bored for long periods as well. On a side note, an American thought I was from a Scandinavian country, which amused me and kind of confused me at the same time.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Tuesday, July 24th
Free day, but I forgot what I did.
Wednesday, July 25th
Rachel and I grabbed lunch together and then we worked the PM shift.
Thursday, July 26th
I had the PM shift, but I showed up an hour and half late because I went on a Pavilion visit to Pakistan. I had my friend cover me for that time and I'm so glad I went because I had an absolutely fantastic time. I had met the commissioner of Pakistan during the Six Party Talks as he was the North Korean representative in our group. It was also really interesting to hear his perspective on Pakistan and the Pakistan-US relationship. He was really honest about the violence in Pakistan, but he talked about how education is what people need the most because the private schools in Pakistan are fantastic, but the public schools are really bad. He said that even though the US gives Pakistan billions of dollars, the money ends up in the pockets of friends of the high government officials, not with the people, so what Pakistan really needs is money put directly into education. As a side note, I didn't just blow off work. Rachel was falcon breaker, so she didn't have anything to do for the first hour and a half and so she agreed to cover my shift for me.
At the end of work I got a text from Boram saying that some guy had come into her pavilion the day before and told her he was a spy for the Korean military and that today he had somehow found out her cellphone number and Facebook page and started contacting her, which really freaked her out understandably. We just hung out with her after work in order to give her some rational advice since she was beyond rational thinking by that point. One thing I've learned from Expo is that you can the best and worst in people. For example, people have been at times incredibly kind and friendly to us. At other times, they've been completely rude or creepy. I don't know how people can think that their behavior is okay or acceptable, but it really pushed everyone I think to the edge several times and really tested us.
Free day, but I forgot what I did.
Wednesday, July 25th
Rachel and I grabbed lunch together and then we worked the PM shift.
Thursday, July 26th
I had the PM shift, but I showed up an hour and half late because I went on a Pavilion visit to Pakistan. I had my friend cover me for that time and I'm so glad I went because I had an absolutely fantastic time. I had met the commissioner of Pakistan during the Six Party Talks as he was the North Korean representative in our group. It was also really interesting to hear his perspective on Pakistan and the Pakistan-US relationship. He was really honest about the violence in Pakistan, but he talked about how education is what people need the most because the private schools in Pakistan are fantastic, but the public schools are really bad. He said that even though the US gives Pakistan billions of dollars, the money ends up in the pockets of friends of the high government officials, not with the people, so what Pakistan really needs is money put directly into education. As a side note, I didn't just blow off work. Rachel was falcon breaker, so she didn't have anything to do for the first hour and a half and so she agreed to cover my shift for me.
At the end of work I got a text from Boram saying that some guy had come into her pavilion the day before and told her he was a spy for the Korean military and that today he had somehow found out her cellphone number and Facebook page and started contacting her, which really freaked her out understandably. We just hung out with her after work in order to give her some rational advice since she was beyond rational thinking by that point. One thing I've learned from Expo is that you can the best and worst in people. For example, people have been at times incredibly kind and friendly to us. At other times, they've been completely rude or creepy. I don't know how people can think that their behavior is okay or acceptable, but it really pushed everyone I think to the edge several times and really tested us.
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Friday, July 20th
I woke up at 7:40 am because I had to leave around 8:20 am to get to 홍대 (Hongdae) by 9:30 am. An hour and two subway line transfers later I arrived in 홍대역 (Hongdae Subway Station) and then walked 10 minutes to finally arrive at my destination, YES International. YES International is responsible for the NSLIY program in Korea and they paid for the five NSLIY alum working at the USA Pavilion to come up and talk to this year's summer students. As it turns out, five minutes into the presentation I realized I was sitting next to one of the current NSLIYians for about a half hour on the subway earlier, which we both laughed at. After our informal presentation, Haemi Ssaem took us out for lunch. We were going to eat at Outback Steakhouse, but the line was too long, so we ended up eating at TGI Fridays. It's good to know that the TGI Fridays in Korea has as bad of food as the chain does in the US. After lunch, Rachel, Bjorn, Jenna, and I met up with Minsung and went to Zoo Cafe because it was way too hot out. While we were there, she called housing places for me to find out if I could make reservations or see if they had empty rooms available, which was really kind of her. I'm feeling the pressure to make a housing decision because it's less than a month before I need a room. Afterwards, Rachel, Minsung, and I wen to go look at another place and then Minsung had to leave. Then we met back up with Bjorn and Jenna and ended up taking sticker photos. Apparently there are whole stores here just filled with sticker photo booths. I was amazed. Then I caught the train back to Yeosu, got a pizza for dinner and did laundry.
Saturday, July 21st
I worked a full day shift.
Sunday, July 22nd
I worked a full day shift.
Monday, July 23rd
In the morning, I attended the Six Party Talks Simulation, which was put on by the USA Pavilion and the Korea Economic Institute. Luckily it was held once again in the Denmark VIP Lounge and was catered by them, so lunch was delicious. The Six Party Talks Simulation was such a great experience though. I enjoyed it so much and I got to meet some new people there too. I played the role of Russia and, since the talks were theoretically being held in Moscow, that meant I got to be the moderator and practice taking the lead. I had no idea what I was doing at the beginning, but after about a half hour, I just started pulling people out to talk with them one-on-one to reach compromises because having six people argue six different positions meant that nothing was being accomplished.
After that I bought Asger Turkish ice cream since I had lost a bet to him back in May or June and had yet to pay up. We then decided to go to the beach because it was ridiculously hot and the sun was blazing. The beach was so refreshing though and it felt so good to go swimming and then just lay down and do nothing. Afterwards we went back to the apartments briefly and then met up again to grab dinner at 김밥 나라 (Kimbap Land). Then I went over to Bjorn's later and finally saw the movie Inception for the first time. I'm still not sure about whether or not I liked it.
I woke up at 7:40 am because I had to leave around 8:20 am to get to 홍대 (Hongdae) by 9:30 am. An hour and two subway line transfers later I arrived in 홍대역 (Hongdae Subway Station) and then walked 10 minutes to finally arrive at my destination, YES International. YES International is responsible for the NSLIY program in Korea and they paid for the five NSLIY alum working at the USA Pavilion to come up and talk to this year's summer students. As it turns out, five minutes into the presentation I realized I was sitting next to one of the current NSLIYians for about a half hour on the subway earlier, which we both laughed at. After our informal presentation, Haemi Ssaem took us out for lunch. We were going to eat at Outback Steakhouse, but the line was too long, so we ended up eating at TGI Fridays. It's good to know that the TGI Fridays in Korea has as bad of food as the chain does in the US. After lunch, Rachel, Bjorn, Jenna, and I met up with Minsung and went to Zoo Cafe because it was way too hot out. While we were there, she called housing places for me to find out if I could make reservations or see if they had empty rooms available, which was really kind of her. I'm feeling the pressure to make a housing decision because it's less than a month before I need a room. Afterwards, Rachel, Minsung, and I wen to go look at another place and then Minsung had to leave. Then we met back up with Bjorn and Jenna and ended up taking sticker photos. Apparently there are whole stores here just filled with sticker photo booths. I was amazed. Then I caught the train back to Yeosu, got a pizza for dinner and did laundry.
Saturday, July 21st
I worked a full day shift.
Sunday, July 22nd
I worked a full day shift.
Monday, July 23rd
In the morning, I attended the Six Party Talks Simulation, which was put on by the USA Pavilion and the Korea Economic Institute. Luckily it was held once again in the Denmark VIP Lounge and was catered by them, so lunch was delicious. The Six Party Talks Simulation was such a great experience though. I enjoyed it so much and I got to meet some new people there too. I played the role of Russia and, since the talks were theoretically being held in Moscow, that meant I got to be the moderator and practice taking the lead. I had no idea what I was doing at the beginning, but after about a half hour, I just started pulling people out to talk with them one-on-one to reach compromises because having six people argue six different positions meant that nothing was being accomplished.
After that I bought Asger Turkish ice cream since I had lost a bet to him back in May or June and had yet to pay up. We then decided to go to the beach because it was ridiculously hot and the sun was blazing. The beach was so refreshing though and it felt so good to go swimming and then just lay down and do nothing. Afterwards we went back to the apartments briefly and then met up again to grab dinner at 김밥 나라 (Kimbap Land). Then I went over to Bjorn's later and finally saw the movie Inception for the first time. I'm still not sure about whether or not I liked it.
Tuesday, July 17th
I went to Cafe Namoon for lunch with Bjorn and I finally got to eat a real salad for the second time since coming to Korea. (Yes, I'm keeping track.) I also got a slice of apple pie, but it was more like thick bread with a thin layer of apples. Sadly, we had to scarf the food down in about 8 minutes since we were afraid we would be late to the Pavilion Exchange with Switzerland.
The Pavilion Exchange was good. I had signed up for it since I really liked the Swiss Pavilion and thought it would be fun to see behind-the-scenes. They gave us about a 30 minute tour and then actually had us work for the next couple hours. We rotated positions every 30 minutes and I had to speak a lot of Korean on the go since I obviously didn't have their spiels memorized like I do with the ones at the USA Pavilion. It went fine though except for one position where I was saying stuff that just made no sense. I think it just amused the Korean audience though because they smiled and just told me to continue even though what I was saying had no real meaning.
Wednesday, July 18th
I got lunch with Rachel and George and then caught my train to Seoul. I went shopping in 이대점 (an area in between Ewha and Yonsei Universities) while also looking for housing. I had three places to check: I couldn't find one, the other was at the top of the largest hill I'd ever seen in my life, and the third place looked dirty and sketch. I also grabbed some bubble tea because there is no bubble tea in Yeosu. Actually there are a couple places that serve it, but it's not good, so I got some while I was in Seoul. Then I grabbed dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I think it was called Habanero, but it had some generic sounding Mexican restaurant name. It wasn't that great unsurprisingly. Afterwards I went to 민성's (Minsung's) house and then we went to cafe, she to study, and I to do Yonsei research.
Thursday, July 19th
I went to COEX early in the afternoon and and bought a Korean textbook that I hope will encourage me to study Korean. Then in the afternoon I met 기완 (Giwan) and 병훈 (Byung Hun) for the first time in 2 years along with their friend 광준 (Kwang Joon) in 강남 (Gangnam), where we grabbed lunch. Then we were bored and looking for something to do, so I suggested getting bubble tea. One of them didn't even know what bubble tea was, but they googled and found a place where we could get it, although it required a bit of a walk. I would also like to add that I was walking around in rain boots the entire time because it was supposed to be raining, but instead there were clear skies and it was insanely hot. Anyway, after the bubble tea, we went to the movie theatre but there weren't any tickets available for anything until 26:00. We didn't even know what that meant, but apparently 26:00 means 2 am the next morning. Now I know. I also know now that you should never try to catch a movie in Gangnam because it is impossible. After that Kwang Joon left and the rest of us headed to a 노래방 for two hours, which was insanely fun. After that I went back to Minsung's place, where I ate dinner and watched the MBC Concert in Los Angeles with her family. You could definitely tell that Korean media was trying to suggest that Korean pop music was huge in the U.S. because they refused to show audience members who were Korean American and who I'm sure made up half the audience. They just kept show white people going ballistic over these groups. I realized though after about five minutes they were just showing the same eight or so people over and over again, but Koreans wouldn't be able to tell, so it just seemed like every American was in love with Kpop. It's weird to see your country misrepresented because you want to correct the mis-perception but it's not like I could call up MBC and ask them to clarify. My friend actually wrote a great piece on how Korean media likes to show that Korean culture is incredibly popular abroad, but then at the same time otherize foreigners (http://seoulbeats.com/2012/06/mbc-the-vilification-of-foreigners-and-hallyu/).
I went to Cafe Namoon for lunch with Bjorn and I finally got to eat a real salad for the second time since coming to Korea. (Yes, I'm keeping track.) I also got a slice of apple pie, but it was more like thick bread with a thin layer of apples. Sadly, we had to scarf the food down in about 8 minutes since we were afraid we would be late to the Pavilion Exchange with Switzerland.
The Pavilion Exchange was good. I had signed up for it since I really liked the Swiss Pavilion and thought it would be fun to see behind-the-scenes. They gave us about a 30 minute tour and then actually had us work for the next couple hours. We rotated positions every 30 minutes and I had to speak a lot of Korean on the go since I obviously didn't have their spiels memorized like I do with the ones at the USA Pavilion. It went fine though except for one position where I was saying stuff that just made no sense. I think it just amused the Korean audience though because they smiled and just told me to continue even though what I was saying had no real meaning.
Wednesday, July 18th
I got lunch with Rachel and George and then caught my train to Seoul. I went shopping in 이대점 (an area in between Ewha and Yonsei Universities) while also looking for housing. I had three places to check: I couldn't find one, the other was at the top of the largest hill I'd ever seen in my life, and the third place looked dirty and sketch. I also grabbed some bubble tea because there is no bubble tea in Yeosu. Actually there are a couple places that serve it, but it's not good, so I got some while I was in Seoul. Then I grabbed dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I think it was called Habanero, but it had some generic sounding Mexican restaurant name. It wasn't that great unsurprisingly. Afterwards I went to 민성's (Minsung's) house and then we went to cafe, she to study, and I to do Yonsei research.
Thursday, July 19th
I went to COEX early in the afternoon and and bought a Korean textbook that I hope will encourage me to study Korean. Then in the afternoon I met 기완 (Giwan) and 병훈 (Byung Hun) for the first time in 2 years along with their friend 광준 (Kwang Joon) in 강남 (Gangnam), where we grabbed lunch. Then we were bored and looking for something to do, so I suggested getting bubble tea. One of them didn't even know what bubble tea was, but they googled and found a place where we could get it, although it required a bit of a walk. I would also like to add that I was walking around in rain boots the entire time because it was supposed to be raining, but instead there were clear skies and it was insanely hot. Anyway, after the bubble tea, we went to the movie theatre but there weren't any tickets available for anything until 26:00. We didn't even know what that meant, but apparently 26:00 means 2 am the next morning. Now I know. I also know now that you should never try to catch a movie in Gangnam because it is impossible. After that Kwang Joon left and the rest of us headed to a 노래방 for two hours, which was insanely fun. After that I went back to Minsung's place, where I ate dinner and watched the MBC Concert in Los Angeles with her family. You could definitely tell that Korean media was trying to suggest that Korean pop music was huge in the U.S. because they refused to show audience members who were Korean American and who I'm sure made up half the audience. They just kept show white people going ballistic over these groups. I realized though after about five minutes they were just showing the same eight or so people over and over again, but Koreans wouldn't be able to tell, so it just seemed like every American was in love with Kpop. It's weird to see your country misrepresented because you want to correct the mis-perception but it's not like I could call up MBC and ask them to clarify. My friend actually wrote a great piece on how Korean media likes to show that Korean culture is incredibly popular abroad, but then at the same time otherize foreigners (http://seoulbeats.com/2012/06/mbc-the-vilification-of-foreigners-and-hallyu/).
Friday, August 3, 2012
Friday, July 13th
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I got up at 10 am and most everyone was already awake. We sat around and watched TV for a bit and then left the beach house at 11:15 am so that we would have time to grab lunch. I got motion sickness on the way back and then was overwhelmed by the smell of fish when we got out of the car after arriving at the restaurant. But once we got into the restaurant, I felt fine again. The lunch was actually really delicious.
Afterwards, we headed back to the apartments to shower and get ready for work. I had about an hour left, so I ran to Paris Baguette and bought Rachel a cake and messaged people about throwing a surprise birthday for her since her birthday was the next day. I actually almost ran into her on the way back to the apartments while I was carrying the cake, but luckily she didn't see me because I would have had like no way to explain away the cake. Anyway, I spent the PM shift organizing the party, coordinating with everyone else. After work I tried to delay Rachel as much as possible, telling her we should watch Big together after I showered. But everyone came to my place during that time and hid in the bedrooms, so when Rachel came over, I faked that we were watching Big for a couple minutes until everyone poured out of the rooms. I'm pretty sure she had no idea. We ate the cake, ice cream, and other snacks, and ended up watching Mean Girls.
Saturday, July 14th
I blogged in the morning. Exciting I know. Then I went to work early because Kurt Campbell, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, visited our pavilion. He stopped by South Korea on his tour of Asia simply to fly down to Yeosu to see the USA Pavilion and then he went straight back up to Seoul to leave Korea, so I already had respect for him just for making the trip. But I have to say I was truly amazed by the pride he showed in our pavilion. I figured he would give another generic speech of encouragement and congratulations, but he was so moved by getting to see the pavilion he was actually holding back tears. He told us that we weren't even supposed to have a pavilion at this expo, but that his department had decided to take on the project even though it wasn't one of their responsibilities simply because they wanted to have the US represented at the Yeosu Expo. He was also an oceanography major, so he probably was actually interested in the theme as well. I was just really really impressed by him and his sincerity. After his visit, I worked the PM shift.
Sunday, July 15th
I had the AM shift and no recollection of what else I did.
Monday, July 16th
I had the AM shift and then I went downtown with Grace, Esther, Dana, and George. We got 칼국수 (kal-guk-su) for dinner, which was homemade I"m pretty sure and surprisingly good. After that I went with George to Cafffe Ti Amo for gelato and then we hit up the arcade so he could play some arcade games. We headed back to apartment at 9 pm and ran into Spanish speakers randomly on the way back. I admittedly didn't talk much, but it was good to at least hear Spanish again for once so that I could practice since I've had zero Spanish practice for so many months. After we got back to the apartments, I watched an episode of Big with Rachel while we did stuff for Yonsei since we're both studying abroad there for the year. It's been so great to have someone else be doing the exact same thing as me because we can help each other out with all the confusing stuff related to studying abroad.
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Afterwards, we headed back to the apartments to shower and get ready for work. I had about an hour left, so I ran to Paris Baguette and bought Rachel a cake and messaged people about throwing a surprise birthday for her since her birthday was the next day. I actually almost ran into her on the way back to the apartments while I was carrying the cake, but luckily she didn't see me because I would have had like no way to explain away the cake. Anyway, I spent the PM shift organizing the party, coordinating with everyone else. After work I tried to delay Rachel as much as possible, telling her we should watch Big together after I showered. But everyone came to my place during that time and hid in the bedrooms, so when Rachel came over, I faked that we were watching Big for a couple minutes until everyone poured out of the rooms. I'm pretty sure she had no idea. We ate the cake, ice cream, and other snacks, and ended up watching Mean Girls.
Saturday, July 14th
I blogged in the morning. Exciting I know. Then I went to work early because Kurt Campbell, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, visited our pavilion. He stopped by South Korea on his tour of Asia simply to fly down to Yeosu to see the USA Pavilion and then he went straight back up to Seoul to leave Korea, so I already had respect for him just for making the trip. But I have to say I was truly amazed by the pride he showed in our pavilion. I figured he would give another generic speech of encouragement and congratulations, but he was so moved by getting to see the pavilion he was actually holding back tears. He told us that we weren't even supposed to have a pavilion at this expo, but that his department had decided to take on the project even though it wasn't one of their responsibilities simply because they wanted to have the US represented at the Yeosu Expo. He was also an oceanography major, so he probably was actually interested in the theme as well. I was just really really impressed by him and his sincerity. After his visit, I worked the PM shift.
Sunday, July 15th
I had the AM shift and no recollection of what else I did.
Monday, July 16th
I had the AM shift and then I went downtown with Grace, Esther, Dana, and George. We got 칼국수 (kal-guk-su) for dinner, which was homemade I"m pretty sure and surprisingly good. After that I went with George to Cafffe Ti Amo for gelato and then we hit up the arcade so he could play some arcade games. We headed back to apartment at 9 pm and ran into Spanish speakers randomly on the way back. I admittedly didn't talk much, but it was good to at least hear Spanish again for once so that I could practice since I've had zero Spanish practice for so many months. After we got back to the apartments, I watched an episode of Big with Rachel while we did stuff for Yonsei since we're both studying abroad there for the year. It's been so great to have someone else be doing the exact same thing as me because we can help each other out with all the confusing stuff related to studying abroad.
Thursday, July 12th
I got lunch with Bjorn, George, and Pete before we all headed off to a luncheon at our pavilion with the Citi Brand Manager (Citi is a USA Pavilion sponsor), who despite doing work I have zero interest in, was surprisingly engaging. He hasn't obviously changed my mind about not wanting to enter into the business world, but I'm glad I went to hear him talk.
After that I killed a couple hours in my dorm room until 4 pm. At 4 pm, I joined Bjorn, George, Pete, Emilie, and several of our security guards for an overnight at 돌산도 (Dolsan Island), which is only about 10 minutes away, to celebrate 대현's (Dae-hyun) birthday. First off though we stopped by E-Mart to get groceries for the trip. I was pretty much content eating the veggies they were consuming too, but the security guards got really worried I wouldn't have enough to eat and so I ended up getting corn, tofu, and 김치전 (kimchi pancake) mix too. I thought it was way too much food, but it made them feel like I wouldn't die of starvation, so I wasn't going to argue against us buying extra food (Although I did turn out to be right. We did buy way too much of everything.)
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Anyway, then we got to the beach house, which is where we stayed the night. We looked around for a bit and unpacked and then we walked down to the beach, which was right behind the house. There were little crabs running everywhere and we had to wear shoes since it was so rocky. Bjorn and 민형 (Minhyung) went out into the water, but when they came back, Bjorn had a couple shallow cuts on his feet from the rocks in the ocean. So thanks to him, when Emilie and I joined in, we wore shoes into the water, only taking them off when we could no longer touch the bottom. It was a lot of fun though to go swimming. It was so stress relieving.
After that we had a barbecue and the gorging on food began. There was beef, mushrooms, garlic, onions, bell peppers 쌈장 (spicy red sauce), and lettuce for making wraps along with acorn squash. Then they grilled gigantic prawns and sausages that came in an interesting array of colors, including green. I asked what green was supposed to be and Bjorn responded it was green tea flavored, but the security guards quickly explained that was definitely not the case and it meant they were 고추 (spicy pepper) flavored.
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It was a lot of fun, but one of the problems I have in Korea is I can't remember anybody's name or face. This isn't specifically a problem in Korea. I suck at remembering what people look like or what their name is. Usually though I cheat and try to remember someone's hair and eye color, but that technique doesn't really work here. This is then made more difficult by the fact that Korean names are unfamiliar sounding, making them more difficult. I also admittedly never asked the guards' their names because, by the time I could tell them all apart, the time where it was okay to ask their names had passed. So even though I knew all of them, I only knew a couple of their names. Now why I'm explaining all this is usually I luck out and don't get called on it, but at some point during the barbecue one of the guards turns around and just asks me out of nowhere if I know his name. And I'm just like uhhhhhhh and then I start going off in English so he won't understand, but it was really obvious I didn't have a clue. Luckily, I don't think he took it seriously and by the end of the outing, I had gotten one of the other Americans to teach me all their names because I seriously needed to learn them. I also realize I need a new memory trick to remember names and faces because my current one is pretty much useless.
After we finished eating, which was a multi-hour extravaganza of food, we headed back inside since the mosquitoes were starting to get viscous. We played a lot of games (called Recreation in Korean for whatever reason), which is a really common thing to do in Korea, but not so much in the US. At some point birthday cake was brought out and that got devoured. 민형 also later made a veggie stir fry and we all just sat around eating. We were all really tired for some reason though so we went to sleep pretty early, meaning 1:30 am.
After that I killed a couple hours in my dorm room until 4 pm. At 4 pm, I joined Bjorn, George, Pete, Emilie, and several of our security guards for an overnight at 돌산도 (Dolsan Island), which is only about 10 minutes away, to celebrate 대현's (Dae-hyun) birthday. First off though we stopped by E-Mart to get groceries for the trip. I was pretty much content eating the veggies they were consuming too, but the security guards got really worried I wouldn't have enough to eat and so I ended up getting corn, tofu, and 김치전 (kimchi pancake) mix too. I thought it was way too much food, but it made them feel like I wouldn't die of starvation, so I wasn't going to argue against us buying extra food (Although I did turn out to be right. We did buy way too much of everything.)
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| Us trying to jump for the photo...and failing. |
After that we had a barbecue and the gorging on food began. There was beef, mushrooms, garlic, onions, bell peppers 쌈장 (spicy red sauce), and lettuce for making wraps along with acorn squash. Then they grilled gigantic prawns and sausages that came in an interesting array of colors, including green. I asked what green was supposed to be and Bjorn responded it was green tea flavored, but the security guards quickly explained that was definitely not the case and it meant they were 고추 (spicy pepper) flavored.
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It was a lot of fun, but one of the problems I have in Korea is I can't remember anybody's name or face. This isn't specifically a problem in Korea. I suck at remembering what people look like or what their name is. Usually though I cheat and try to remember someone's hair and eye color, but that technique doesn't really work here. This is then made more difficult by the fact that Korean names are unfamiliar sounding, making them more difficult. I also admittedly never asked the guards' their names because, by the time I could tell them all apart, the time where it was okay to ask their names had passed. So even though I knew all of them, I only knew a couple of their names. Now why I'm explaining all this is usually I luck out and don't get called on it, but at some point during the barbecue one of the guards turns around and just asks me out of nowhere if I know his name. And I'm just like uhhhhhhh and then I start going off in English so he won't understand, but it was really obvious I didn't have a clue. Luckily, I don't think he took it seriously and by the end of the outing, I had gotten one of the other Americans to teach me all their names because I seriously needed to learn them. I also realize I need a new memory trick to remember names and faces because my current one is pretty much useless.
After we finished eating, which was a multi-hour extravaganza of food, we headed back inside since the mosquitoes were starting to get viscous. We played a lot of games (called Recreation in Korean for whatever reason), which is a really common thing to do in Korea, but not so much in the US. At some point birthday cake was brought out and that got devoured. 민형 also later made a veggie stir fry and we all just sat around eating. We were all really tired for some reason though so we went to sleep pretty early, meaning 1:30 am.
Another Trip to Seoul
Tuesday, July 10th
I worked the AM shift and then Rachel and I caught an episode of Big in the afternoon. We finished the episode at 5:13 and then I ran to the train station to catch the KTX at 5:23. I definitely didn't keep track of time as much as I should have. I made it in about seven minutes, which I think set like a world record. Anyway, I made the train, which then didn't leave until after 5:30 so I didn't even need to have freaked out. When I got to Seoul, Minsung met me and we picked up take-out since I hadn't had dinner yet. After that Minsung, her mom, and I went and saw the movie 내 아내의 모든 것 (All About My Wife), which I understood most of, but I didn't really appreciate its humor unlike my friend and her mom, who were about to die from laughter.
Wednesday, July 11th
I finally got my cell phone in the morning, only to find out that my bank account and passport didn't match so they couldn't set up automatic monthly bank payments. But I finally had a cell phone to call my own, so I wasn't going to let that bring me down. It's also really cheap, especially in comparison to the U.S. For about $25 a month, I get unlimited incoming calls and texts along with 150 minutes of outgoing calls, 150 outgoing texts and 2 GB of data. I can also change my plan any month I please if I need less or more. Minsung also took me to the bank afterwards to get my information corrected since the bank workers in Yeosu had apparently done it incorrectly. I still need to go back to the cell phone place though to set up automatic payments.
In the afternoon, I met Emerson for lunch and to recommence my housing search. I felt really bad because it quickly became apparent that the vast majority of the places we looked at were women only, which I was unaware of until that point. It gave me a bit of a reality check though because through all my housing search frustrations, it never occurred to me how hard it must be for guys to find housing since they can only live in co-ed places and those are generally not as clean or nice. Anyway, I ended up finding 2 places I was interested in, which made me feel really relieved since I had had such rotten luck in finding housing earlier.
프라임 원룸텔 (Prime One-Roomtel)
소호 하우스 (Soho House)
In order to catch my train, I left an hour before it was set to depart, but I went to the wrong 신촌역 (Sinchon Station). There are two and one goes directly to 서울역 (Seoul Station), where I had to catch my train. However 신촌역 (Sinchon Station) turned out to be a train station and after waiting for about 10 minutes, I realized no trains actually stop there. So I left the train station and then, worried about whether or not I could make it if I took the subway, I decided to catch a cab. By cab it was only about 15 minutes, but if I had taken the subway, it would have taken a total of 30 or 35 minutes to walk to the station and then take the subway, transfer lines, and arrive. Anyway, I made it with like 15 minutes to spare, so it wasn't a problem. After I got back, Rachel and I watched another episode of Big, but that show is quickly becoming boring. It lacks any sort of plot development.
I worked the AM shift and then Rachel and I caught an episode of Big in the afternoon. We finished the episode at 5:13 and then I ran to the train station to catch the KTX at 5:23. I definitely didn't keep track of time as much as I should have. I made it in about seven minutes, which I think set like a world record. Anyway, I made the train, which then didn't leave until after 5:30 so I didn't even need to have freaked out. When I got to Seoul, Minsung met me and we picked up take-out since I hadn't had dinner yet. After that Minsung, her mom, and I went and saw the movie 내 아내의 모든 것 (All About My Wife), which I understood most of, but I didn't really appreciate its humor unlike my friend and her mom, who were about to die from laughter.
Wednesday, July 11th
I finally got my cell phone in the morning, only to find out that my bank account and passport didn't match so they couldn't set up automatic monthly bank payments. But I finally had a cell phone to call my own, so I wasn't going to let that bring me down. It's also really cheap, especially in comparison to the U.S. For about $25 a month, I get unlimited incoming calls and texts along with 150 minutes of outgoing calls, 150 outgoing texts and 2 GB of data. I can also change my plan any month I please if I need less or more. Minsung also took me to the bank afterwards to get my information corrected since the bank workers in Yeosu had apparently done it incorrectly. I still need to go back to the cell phone place though to set up automatic payments.
In the afternoon, I met Emerson for lunch and to recommence my housing search. I felt really bad because it quickly became apparent that the vast majority of the places we looked at were women only, which I was unaware of until that point. It gave me a bit of a reality check though because through all my housing search frustrations, it never occurred to me how hard it must be for guys to find housing since they can only live in co-ed places and those are generally not as clean or nice. Anyway, I ended up finding 2 places I was interested in, which made me feel really relieved since I had had such rotten luck in finding housing earlier.
프라임 원룸텔 (Prime One-Roomtel)
소호 하우스 (Soho House)
In order to catch my train, I left an hour before it was set to depart, but I went to the wrong 신촌역 (Sinchon Station). There are two and one goes directly to 서울역 (Seoul Station), where I had to catch my train. However 신촌역 (Sinchon Station) turned out to be a train station and after waiting for about 10 minutes, I realized no trains actually stop there. So I left the train station and then, worried about whether or not I could make it if I took the subway, I decided to catch a cab. By cab it was only about 15 minutes, but if I had taken the subway, it would have taken a total of 30 or 35 minutes to walk to the station and then take the subway, transfer lines, and arrive. Anyway, I made it with like 15 minutes to spare, so it wasn't a problem. After I got back, Rachel and I watched another episode of Big, but that show is quickly becoming boring. It lacks any sort of plot development.
The Work Week That Wouldn't End
Friday, July 6th
In the morning there was a beach clean-up at 만성리 (the infamous "black sand" beach Manseongni). Philippe Cousteau Jr. was there to clean the beach with us and the mayor of Yeosu made a brief appearance to thank us ahead of time for our work. Our pavilion coordinated the event, but I think over 30 countries at the International Pavilion had workers volunteer for it, so there was a lot of people. We were supposed to work for 3 hours, but it started drizzling about an hour in so they just called the rest of it off. I was really surprised though because we had been warned ahead of time we would work rain or shine and it was only sprinkling. Anyway, after that we went on a bus tour of Yeosu, which I'm not going to lie, wasn't that interesting. I think we crossed the 4th longest bridge in the world at one point. A Korean on the bus volunteered to be the English interpreter and he seemed pretty pumped about speaking English, but I think he got a bit overzealous. He announced we were crossing that bridge, but it didn't seem all that long, only for him to stand up a couple minutes later and apologize saying he had misspoken and now we were crossing the 4th longest bridge. It was admittedly a really, really long bridge. But it was just a bridge like one finds on the highway, only going on forever. We were also super sleepy, so we mainly just enjoyed relaxing in such nice buses and chatting.
Afterwards Rachel and I bought pizza for lunch while watching the drama Big. We got margherita pizza and snow garlic pizza, but the snow garlic pizza was a disaster. It was so gross, we ended up just throwing 90% of it away. Korean pizza and American pizza are somewhat different in that Korean pizza tends to be much sweeter.
Afterwards I worked the afternoon shift for someone else.
Saturday, July 7th
I worked a full day shift - my scheduled afternoon shift and someone else's morning shift.
Sunday, July 8th
I worked a full day shift again - my scheduled afternoon shift and someone else's morning shift. The two morning shifts I took were so that I could volunteer at the North Korean refugee camp at the end of July for 2 days.
Monday, July 9th
I worked a full day shift yet again because I had the morning shift and I worked Erin's afternoon shift since I owed her a day for taking my PM shift in June so I could see 김정훈 (Kim Jung Hoon).
In the morning there was a beach clean-up at 만성리 (the infamous "black sand" beach Manseongni). Philippe Cousteau Jr. was there to clean the beach with us and the mayor of Yeosu made a brief appearance to thank us ahead of time for our work. Our pavilion coordinated the event, but I think over 30 countries at the International Pavilion had workers volunteer for it, so there was a lot of people. We were supposed to work for 3 hours, but it started drizzling about an hour in so they just called the rest of it off. I was really surprised though because we had been warned ahead of time we would work rain or shine and it was only sprinkling. Anyway, after that we went on a bus tour of Yeosu, which I'm not going to lie, wasn't that interesting. I think we crossed the 4th longest bridge in the world at one point. A Korean on the bus volunteered to be the English interpreter and he seemed pretty pumped about speaking English, but I think he got a bit overzealous. He announced we were crossing that bridge, but it didn't seem all that long, only for him to stand up a couple minutes later and apologize saying he had misspoken and now we were crossing the 4th longest bridge. It was admittedly a really, really long bridge. But it was just a bridge like one finds on the highway, only going on forever. We were also super sleepy, so we mainly just enjoyed relaxing in such nice buses and chatting.
Afterwards Rachel and I bought pizza for lunch while watching the drama Big. We got margherita pizza and snow garlic pizza, but the snow garlic pizza was a disaster. It was so gross, we ended up just throwing 90% of it away. Korean pizza and American pizza are somewhat different in that Korean pizza tends to be much sweeter.
Afterwards I worked the afternoon shift for someone else.
Saturday, July 7th
I worked a full day shift - my scheduled afternoon shift and someone else's morning shift.
Sunday, July 8th
I worked a full day shift again - my scheduled afternoon shift and someone else's morning shift. The two morning shifts I took were so that I could volunteer at the North Korean refugee camp at the end of July for 2 days.
Monday, July 9th
I worked a full day shift yet again because I had the morning shift and I worked Erin's afternoon shift since I owed her a day for taking my PM shift in June so I could see 김정훈 (Kim Jung Hoon).
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Thursday, July 5th
In the morning a group of us went to Thailand's National Day Ceremony since our Thai friends had invited us specifically and we wanted to support them. They weren't the ones performing or anything but still. It was a really good performance, so I'm glad we went. The invitations also said national costume or formal dress only, so we all dressed up for the ceremony and were really amused with ourselves, although we were disappointed we had no national costume we could wear.
There was a concert with 2PM and Miss A starting at 8 pm, so Ellen and I went over at 3:30 pm to see how the crowds were. We decided coming later would be too risky because we wanted to make sure to have a good view, so we sat down and then Ellen went off for a half hour to do stuff and then came back and joined me. Then I left for an hour to go back to Expo Town to grab some stuff I needed. Then we just waited, while it sprinkled off and on. Everyone remained sitting, even though the audience section is all standing room simply because no one wanted to stand for hours while waiting. This all changed about an hour or half hour before the concert started. People started standing up behind us and Ellen warned me to be prepared for a sudden surge forward. We realized we had to stand up, unless we wanted people to charge in front of us, but probably the first sixty people remained seated on the ground. So there was this large crowd of people trying to surge forward while a group of people sitting were yelling at them to keep standing behind them. Then this middle-aged lady starting pulling on my arm and telling me I had to move forward. With all the people, I ended up making the bad decision to step over the people sitting and move into the empty area in front of them because I just wanted to get out of the crazy mob. Except I tripped and I think accidentally kneed a woman's shoulder as I face-planted into the ground. The lady started screaming furiously at me, claiming I had kicked her child in the face, but I am absolutely positive I didn't do that because I fell in order to avoid the child. But she was furious at me, and I just stood there and apologized. I didn't really know what to do. I had no interest in rushing to the very front because I hadn't crossed them for that. I simply wanted out of the psychotic mob, but by doing that, I had just made more trouble. Other people started pushing through though and finally one of the security team members (who I'm pretty sure were all teenage volunteers) told the people they had to stand up simply for their own safety since the mob was getting out of control. They stood up reluctantly and the mob just surged forward. From then on it was just a gigantic mob of people trying to push as forward as possible while everyone in front of them pushed back because people were getting too crowded. The worst was that there were a bunch of children who kept trying to shove their ways forward because they couldn't see, but they couldn't see no matter what since everyone else was taller than them, meaning they were constantly moving around everywhere without accomplishing anything.
After the concert, I changed clothes and headed to a party for our pavilion, which we held in the Denmark Pavilion's VIP lounge. Let me just say their catered food was absolutely delicious. They had open sandwiches, cookies, and the best of all, strawberry trifles. I ate more of those than I would like to admit.
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