Geoje Weekend!

Geoje is a town next to Busan, and one of my friends was lovely enough to invite me to stay the night at her house for a weekend.

I rode the bus to Geoje, a first for me. I had never been on the intercity buses or the terminal, so, if you know me, of course it took me 24 phone calls and a 40 minute delay to actually get where I needed to get going. Once I got on the bus it was all smooth sailing, though.

I got there on Saturday, where we proceeded to make grilled cheese and watch movies much too late at night. It was raining most of the day, but in a lull, I asked if we could go up to the roof to look around. 

My lovely friends Lucie(left, whose house it was) and Cara, who was also staying the night. 

The next day, we went to the beach to have a barbecue. It was really fun, and the weather was much improved from the previous day. The beach was beautiful, the food(which we cooked ourselves) was great, and the company was even better! 

(Raul is the kid in red. He's very nice, but refuses to let people take good pictures of him, so this will have to do) 

All in all it was a great weekend!

What Can I Say Other Than "Thank you"?

Ever since I got to Korea I've been missing one thing more than almost anything else...MUSIC (sorry family and friends). 

I'm surrounded by so much music in the United States, be it through choir, band, or theatre, I guess I started to take music for granted, but trust me, I know how much it means to me now.

I have been missing music so much, I’ve been jumping at any opportunity to participate in anything music related, so when I saw a choir festival was taking place (even though I wasn't technically eligible) I emailed the director anyway, and he replied, giving me more than I thought I would get...a spot. So now I'm in an international choir festival with a group from an int'l foreign school in my city that will allow me to meet new people from all over Korea and take part in an amazing event. I’m singing in German, Latin, and English, and I can't believe that such a great thing has fallen into my lap.

As if it could get better, the first day I met with a representative of the school we talked about band, and what instruments I played. Of course I mentioned clarinet, and THEY GAVE ME ONE to borrow, and asked me if I would like to come and join them for their orchestra rehearsals. An un-refusable offer if I've ever heard one. 

So now I've bad these two amazing things fall into my lap in the past week, and all I can say is thank you to the gracious people that live in my amazing city, and around the world. It's people like this who really bring good into the world, and I am so lucky to have encountered some. I can't believe that an email I sent on a hope brought back all of these great opportunities and I can only hope there are more chances out there! 

2nd Host Family!

  I moved into my new host family as well! They're really nice, and although I can't see the ocean anymore, I really like my new host house. I'm much closer the mountains, and it's much quicker to get home in this new house.

     I spend more time above-ground as well. I know that sounds weird, but when you spend hours on the subway everyday, you kinda forget what a beautiful city you live in. Now I take mainly buses, and one of my most frequented bus stops is across the street from the biggest department store in the world which is another plus. Definitely a big change from the midwestern rural-ness I'd been accustomed to for so long! 

Moving also makes it so clear that time is passing so quickly! It seems like just yesterday when I was getting settled into my first host house!! It makes me realise all the more how much I need to make the most of what time I have left.

2013 and the Halfway(ish) Point!

This is a little late, but yes, it's 2013!! I can't believe that this exchange is going so fast.

My 5 month mark was passed about a day ago and it has just flown by, it doesn't seem quite possible that that much time has gone by. But then I look back and remember everything I've done and it makes a little bit of sense. I still think it's speeding up.

I can't really expect it to slow down either! I have so many plans for the remainder of my exchange, I know having all these things going on will make what little time I have go that much faster, so I'm trying to make the most of every moment! I can't wait to see what the next half of this exchange has in store, but I don't want to see it end. I recently got the email to decide the date I'm flying home, and even though I haven't decided what day exactly, knowing that it's time to plan for that flight home is terrifying.

Luckily, I still have trips to Seoul, China, and who knows where else still left to experience.

RYLA!

So the past weekend I had the privilege of going to a Rotary event called RYLA. It stands for Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, and although I didn't leave Busan, it felt like I did.  I went to the same event back in the US last year, with a very different (but equally amazing) experience.

Both programs I partook in consisted of physical challenges, lectures, and a dance/preformance time, and amazing people. I am so happy that I had the experience of working with my team, learning/performing a dance with them, and tackling the physical challenges together. Everyone I met over the course of the weekend was super enthusiastic and welcoming. It was such a great group of people.

The lectures were mainly in Korean, and to be completely honest I doodled through most of them, but there was one lecture on Anthropology in English and it made me remeber how much I missed learning in a classroom and having questions to ask. I really miss learning! I'm not going to deny it.

All in all, I met amazing people, learned a lot, and had tons of fun. I would definitely do that again! 

Let it Snow!

So, when I first got assigned Busan, the thing I heard right away was "You won't see snow." LIARS.

Yesterday, much to everyone's surprise, snow started coming out of the sky! It was so great. I never thought I would miss snow, but as it's December 8th and I hadn't sang a single Christmas carol before yesterday, I realised I hadn't fully come to the conclusion that it was ACTUALLY Winter and that this year was almost up. So when I saw the snow fall, and when I was out playing in it with my friends, it finally started to actually feel a little bit like the holiday season.

Although, when I woke up and it was 40 degrees and sunny, I kind of forgot again.

I'm so excited for the next month, mainly because of the holidays and the new year. These past (almost) four months have been amazing, and I cannot wait to see what the new year brings!

30 things I've learned since I've gotten to Korea

In no particular order or organization, I bring you my list of 30 things I have learned about Korea since I arrived here 95 days ago. 

1. Korea loves technology. They love to learn, and they really love to work hard, as a community, Koreans just love to work all the time, and improve everything. 

2. People will hate you if you hold up the subway line, even if there are other terminals open, they just stand   behind you, making noises. 

3. Korean people eat SO much. You'll go to a buffet restaurant  order a main course, then go to the buffet and get three plates of food. Seriously. And they snack all the time, too. 

4. It's all about respect for your elders here in Korea, you have to add "-yo" to a lot of phrases when talking to someone older, or use a different, more formal phrase altogether. You also have to bow when you leave the elevator/before you walk away/when a teacher leaves a classroom/etc. 

5. Their phones are huge. When I first got here, I was like..."Is that a tablet?" and then I'd see them put thi hulking thing up to their ear and call someone. 

6. Koreans love little games, my friends in school all play a game similar to jacks, except with little beanbags, and they also play a lot of hand games. This includes phone apps, too. Almost all koreans play this one game on their phone that is called "안니퐁" or Anipong, that they play on the subway all the time. 

7. They are really serious about school here. My friends go from 8am-9pm on weekdays, and they started going from 5pm-9pm on Saturdays (I think, I only go on weekdays, for a portion of the time.) 

8. You always wear a school uniform to high school/middle school. And there are no co-ed classes like we have in the US. 

9.  They recycle everything here, in my house/school they have rubbish bins for every type of trash. 

10.  Ironically, they leave lights on constantly, and they leave the water running, too.

11. Korea is a very nationalistic country. They love Korea, they buy Korean, they think Korea is the best country in the world (and in many ways it is). 

12. The threat of N. Korea is non-existent. Koreans don't worry at all. It's not even thought about, and if it is, it's laughed at. 

13. There are old people everywhere. 

14. No Korean girl thinks she is pretty, apparently, even though it's hard to find a Korean who isn't pretty. And they get tons of plastic surgery here (STARTING IN MIDDLE SCHOOL) to look more western. (more western eyes, nose, etc.) 

15. Koreans are also really insecure about their English. Even students who have ridiculously amazing English  for never even conversing with a native speaker before are terrified to say hello to me because they think I'll make fun of them. 

16. Everyone here is super nice. Everyone always smiles and corrects me really sweetly if I make a mistake. 

17. You use chopsticks and a spoon when eating, but if you look like you need it, they put a fork down, too.  (which I indignantly pushed to the other side of the table until my host family made the waiters stop bringing them, and they stopped doing it at home, too.) 

18. I haven't seen a big truck/SUV since I got here. Maybe because:

19. Their roads are like alleys, or they have 8 lanes. It's either one or the other. 

20. You have to bring you own TP to school. 
       a. If the bathroom does have it, it's outside the stalls. 
       b. Normal public bathrooms only have 1-2 sitting toilets, the rest are squat. 

21. YOU NEVER FLUSH THE TOILET PAPER.  

22.  Korea is really safe, I don't think there's a Korean thief in Korea. Maybe foreigners steal things, but I don't really think any Korean ever has.

23. No one has a shower curtain. The whole bathroom is your shower. 

24. I got lucky and got a mattress, but most Koreans sleep on a mat, or raised platform with a mat on it. 

25. They love convenient stores here. There are GS25's and 7/11's everywhere. But you rarely see gas stations.

26. They eat dog here. Not a lot of people do, but in certain markets, you can go and they have dead dogs laying out, just like any other meat. The dead ones are also right next to cages of live ones. (Keep in mind, on the same street you can also buy fresh duck, chicken, beef...dog is just another meat, albeit less common.)

27. They also have fish markets with live fish, octopus, squid, crab, and lots of other seafood in big warehouse-like buildings. 

28. Lots of old women have rather large carts selling fruits and vegetables that they pull around to different locations. These ladies have to be almost 90, and they're still doing hard, physical labour. 

29. Thirty years ago, Korea was poorer than Malaysia and Mexico, so it's thanks to all of the ubiquitous elderly people, and ladies like the ones still pulling the fruit carts that Korea is now a powerhouse for amazing technology. (If you want to read more on Korea and how they changed their economic standing just google "Korea's economic miracle" as it's known, or read this article from Time: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2029399,00.html) 

30. I love Korea and all of it's amazing-ness. It's ambition as a whole brought it to where it is today, and I love being able to be in such an amazing country, and I think the world has a lot to learn from this little peninsula.