Summer in SoKo

I've noticed this in enough bathrooms (including on campus in the building where my classes are) to post about this:

What's the difference between these two stalls, you ask? Well, I'm sure you can guess from the picture on the left door what would be behind it, but what's that picture on the right door? Lemme help you:

Yup, it's a squatter. More hygienic, some would tell you, and it makes sense as to why. Your skin doesn't make contact with anything on there. I've even used some before in rural Italy, but after 29 years of the other facility, I think I would have a hard time getting used to this.

Oh people, let me tell you - Seoul was made for fun times Friday night. We didn't have culture class again today due to our fieldtrip in the evening, so Michelle and I found a place to get some samgyetang, or chicken ginseng soup. I think it's one Korean dish everyone would enjoy. It feels like comfort food, but it's waaaaay better than just chicken noodle. They cook a whole chicken stuffed with sticky rice and ginseng in a yummy chicken broth that's unlike anything I've ever had before. And because it has ginseng in it, it's supposedly gives you energy, especially in the summertime. Since we each got individual servings, rather than one huge pot for several people to share, we got our own little tiny chicken in our bubbling clay pots. I was going to take a picture, but we were the only foreigners in the place, and I didn't want any more attention drawn to me. Next time, though...

View of Yeouido Island from the bus on the way to the game

Arriving at our seats in the stadium

Doosan Bears mascot (why are most mascots bordering on creepy?)

The game is starting!

First pitch!

The stadium was so packed!

So one of the main reasons this was so different than American games was that the crowd was so passionate. They had all these songs and chants (some even for a few individual players!), complete with beats and choreography with the thundersticks, and EVERYBODY knew all the words and movements. It was like being in a giant musical, or the biggest karaoke room in the world. I'll have to post some video clips when I get back to the States, because it's kind of unbelievable without seeing it.

I got to explain the game of baseball to my friend Michelle from Hong Kong, which was actually pretty fun. We were all yelling and cheering, and it felt like "Foreigner Day" at the baseball field around our section, since we were all from the Korean Immersion Program.

My friend and classmate Giulia from Italy

My classmate London from Canada (and Simon, from Switzerland, with his back turned)

Classmate Cody, the only other one in my class from United States

The stadium was packed!

Giulia, Claudia (also from Italy), and I

Melinda (from Singapore) and I, the eonni/noona (older sister) and emo (aunt) of our class

There was so much good food at the game, and you could bring whatever food and drink you wanted to from outside into the stadium - can you do that in the States? Some Korean families even brought coolers. Here I am eating ddukbokki, or spicy rice cakes, I got from a stand outside the stadium:

You can't see in this picture, but this was a much older lady carrying a crazy ton of snacks for sale on her head - ouch!

Scoreboard - we were losing for the first 3 innings, but caught up with 6 runs in the 4th inning - it was amazing!

Most of my class as we were leaving the game - love these guys!

We had to leave the game before it ended due to our charter bus' schedule, so I don't know won, but that can be googled later.

We got back after 10pm, and I don't know if it was the adrenaline from the game or the ginseng from the soup earlier, but I was too hyped up to call it a night. So Alejandra, Michelle and I decided to go for an essential part of Korean nightlife: noraebang, or karaoke! So in America, we do karaoke by singing in front of a room of semi-sketchy strangers because we lost a bet, but here, you go to a noraebang and pay some money to rent a room for an hour or two to have your own karaoke party with your friends. See why it's so much better? No public embarrassment to mar our butchering of Korean pop songs.

Michelle and Alejandra getting ready to throw down some mad Kpop lyrics

Trying to figure out how to work the machine in Korean

Once we got the machine figured out, we just picked all our favorite Kpop bands and songs and tried to keep up. Turns out none of us are super-good at reading hangeul (Korean words) fast enough to keep up with most songs, so a lot of the song verses ended up more like "Nananananana ja! Dadadadada bwa!" - we could usually get the first and/or last syllable, unless we really knew the song well...which was almost never.

The super nice guy running the place came in to help us while we were trying to figure stuff out and was surprised/pleased to see that we knew how to read hangeul. We theorize that it was for this reason that he kept on adding time to our room for free. Either way, thank you noraebang ajusshi!

We didn't get back until 1am - it was close to the school, don't worry Mom - and between the baseball game cheering and noraebang-ing, my throat is a little worse for the wear. So worth it.

After mostly staying nearby Sogang University on Monday and Tuesday night due to quizzes and cleaning checks at the dorm, I was raring to get outta this place by Wednesday. We had taken our quizzes in class, so we didn't have any new material to learn, therefore the night was all mine.

It is basically a Korean BBQ restaurant with the theme of outdoors/camping, so a lot of the tables are on a patio under an awning, you sit in camping chairs around a grill with real coals. The side dishes, lettuce, etc. comes on a metal tray, you drink out of camping cups, so it's just so fun.

Michelle waiting for our meat!

The waiters didn't speak much English, so they started speaking Korean to Michelle, we think because she's Asian. She is one of the best students in our class, but we're all beginners, and I think she gets flustered to use Korean in real situations, because she looked at them, and said, "Wait, what?" in English. The waiter then got nervous and started to run away, but by then I got the gist of what they were telling us (that the banchan, or side dishes, were self-serve, and where it was located), so I called out to him and said I understood in Korean. The look on his face was priceless, as he heard more Korean from the Western girl than from the Asian girl. What can I say, I just really know my food terminology. After that, they spoke to me.

I've noticed that a lot, especially when I'm with Asian people, no matter their ethnicity, people will automatically talk to them in Korean on the off-chance they're Korean, and talk to me in English. However, I always try to respond in Korean if I can. After all, what else am I here for?

Before

After!

We got samgyupsal and moksal, both pork, both delicious. Those white stick-looking things are mushroom slices, and we also grilled some garlic. When the meat is starting to get done, you cut it with scissors into smaller pieces and move it away from the center. When it's done, you get a piece, dip it in seasoned soybean paste sauce, put it in a leaf of lettuce with garlic, mushrooms, kimchi, etc., wrap it up, shove it all in your mouth, and enter meat paradise. It was sooo yummy!

Then we walked around the alleyways in Hongdae, which are filled with cute cafes, vintage shops, and cool buildings like this one: 

We were craving some good patbingsoo, or red bean shaved ice/ice cream dessert. We found the most perfect one. 

Patbingsoo is made to share!

There's a layer of shaved ice, sweet red bean sauce, ice cream, chocolate drizzle, ddeok (chewy rice cake) with more red bean, and frosted flakes (we think) to top it all off. Lest you think the cereal was weird, let me tell you, it was delicious. It had a good crunch when we stirred it all up, and I might be adding it to all my ice cream from now on. And this ddeok was absolutely wonderful, which is what Alejandra and I were looking for when we got the ddeok from the devil the other night.

Here's the cafe we got it in:

Once we had that good ddeok, we wanted more, so we googled a good ddeok shop in Seoul. Let me reiterate not to trust internet directions for places in Seoul, because it led us on a wild goose chase around Insadong, which was not fun. We found a place with some ddeok, but settled for whatever was left by the time we got there:

Cute chocolate steamed bun with apricot filling

If you look in the reflection in the window, I'm on the left side, and this really tall Korean guy is right up next to me on the right side. There was a lot of room on this subway on the way home, but this dude parked it right next to me and played on his phone. Weird.

Ok, I think I'm about as caught up as I can be at the moment. Hope you guys are having a great summer! Happy Pioneers Day!