This afternoon we attempted to make fried dough! I wouldn't necessarily call it an "epic fail", but it was pretty close. A few nights ago we encountered this street vendor making fried dough with cinnamon sugar in the middle. It was delicious, and quite cheap, only 500 won, which is about 45 cents. We all bought some and raved about how good it was but then when we went back to the same location the next day, the vendor was no longer there!
This afternoon Rosie, Felix, and Jason and I walked a few blocks to Grand Mart, which is the big grocery store/department store in Sinchon. We bought the ingredients to make fried dough and started cooking it in the kitchen in our building. It was going pretty well, although they didn't taste nearly as good as the ones we had on the streets. While we were cooking, a few more friends came down and we had a very fun, messy time. The best part was when the cleaning lady in our building (who was cleaning the other side of the kitchen at the time) came over to help us. She didn't speak any english, so it was really difficult to communicate with her. After a few minutes of her speaking korean to us and attempting to take over the frying pan, we just couldn't help but laugh at the situation. We finally realized that she did indeed just want to help us. It must've been quite a sight, us foreigners, covered in flour and attempting to cooking Korean fried dough. I've attached a video of the cleaning lady trying to help and us failing pretty miserably at our fried dough endeavor. Just one more crazy adventure in Korea, and tomorrow we're off to the beach!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Jongmyo Shrine
Yesterday afternoon we braved the rain and decided to adventure outside of Sinchon. Ariane from France picked out the Jongmyo Shrine from a Seoul guidebook that we've all been looking through. Located in the city-district Jongmyo, (named after the shrines), it was only a few subway stops and one transfer away so we decided to go for it! I went with Rosie, Axel, Andreas, Samantha, Kia, Ariane, and Andrew. The Jongmyo Shrine is a historical shrine that the Confucians used to honor the deceased kings and queens of the Jonseon Dynasty.
The picture below is of the Main Hall, Jeongjeon, and it was built in the late 1300s. At the time it was considered to be the longest building in Asia. Later on, in the 15th century, the Hall of Eternal Peace was built, which we also explored. We weren't allowed to go inside of the shrines, but the property surrounding them was beautiful. We were able to see how each shrine has been expanded since the 14th century. The Main Hall was last altered in 1726 and was expanded to fifteen spirit chambers, totaling a length of 101 meters. Each "spirit chamber" serves as a house that enshrines the spirit tablet that belongs to each deceased king and queen. The spirit tablet contains the name of the deceased ruler and the Confucian people believed that the soul of the king or queen would forever be contained in their respective tablet.
Unfortunately, we arrived too late in the afternoon to catch a guided tour, but we walked all around the grounds and saw a lot on our own. Also, we stopped for a bit at a pavilion which was showing an informational movie all about the shrines. That served as a nice break from walking around in the sweltering heat and humidity. Temperatures were only in the mid 70s, but with over 80% humidity, it felt a lot hotter. The other picture is of Rosie and me on the stone platform that surrounds the Main Hall.
The picture below is of the Main Hall, Jeongjeon, and it was built in the late 1300s. At the time it was considered to be the longest building in Asia. Later on, in the 15th century, the Hall of Eternal Peace was built, which we also explored. We weren't allowed to go inside of the shrines, but the property surrounding them was beautiful. We were able to see how each shrine has been expanded since the 14th century. The Main Hall was last altered in 1726 and was expanded to fifteen spirit chambers, totaling a length of 101 meters. Each "spirit chamber" serves as a house that enshrines the spirit tablet that belongs to each deceased king and queen. The spirit tablet contains the name of the deceased ruler and the Confucian people believed that the soul of the king or queen would forever be contained in their respective tablet.
Unfortunately, we arrived too late in the afternoon to catch a guided tour, but we walked all around the grounds and saw a lot on our own. Also, we stopped for a bit at a pavilion which was showing an informational movie all about the shrines. That served as a nice break from walking around in the sweltering heat and humidity. Temperatures were only in the mid 70s, but with over 80% humidity, it felt a lot hotter. The other picture is of Rosie and me on the stone platform that surrounds the Main Hall.
Blue Knights
The Blue Knights is Yonsei University's official cheering group. Costumes and all! Tonight all the exchange students gathered in the Centennial Hall (academic building with large auditorium in the center) and learned all the YU cheers. Cheering is a big deal at YU as well as at Korea University. KU is YU's biggest rival. Each year they play each other in a variety of sports. September 9th and 10th is the kick-off for this semester's athletic competitions. The event is referred to as Yon-Ko Jeon, which roughly translates to Yonsei-Korea games. There will be a baseball game, soccer game, and I believe a tennis match as well. The Blue Knights are in charge of choreographing all the University's cheers and teaching them to all the students. At YU they take cheering really seriously and the Blue Knights put a lot of time and effort into choreographing the cheers.
The Mentor's Club, which is the exchange student club on campus hosted the event tonight where we all learned the cheers and then went out for dinner and drinks afterwards. We went to a German-style pub called Heidelberg Haus, only a few blocks from campus, and had sausage, fries, chicken tempura, and quite a bit of beer. Not exactly traditional Korean food, but it was a nice change of pace. It was also nice socializing with all the mentors. Although I haven't been assigned a mentor yet (I will be soon, they're recruiting additional mentors since there were more exchange students this year than expected) it was still fun to talk to the members of the club and learn more about campus life at Yonsei.
The Mentor's Club, which is the exchange student club on campus hosted the event tonight where we all learned the cheers and then went out for dinner and drinks afterwards. We went to a German-style pub called Heidelberg Haus, only a few blocks from campus, and had sausage, fries, chicken tempura, and quite a bit of beer. Not exactly traditional Korean food, but it was a nice change of pace. It was also nice socializing with all the mentors. Although I haven't been assigned a mentor yet (I will be soon, they're recruiting additional mentors since there were more exchange students this year than expected) it was still fun to talk to the members of the club and learn more about campus life at Yonsei.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Iteawon
This afternoon I traveled to Iteawon with a few friends. Andreas, Kia, Rosie, Jumee, and Samantha from Waterloo, Canada, decided to explore this district of Seoul because we heard that it's very American friendly. And that it was! It took us about 40 minutes with walking and subway time to get there, also we had to make one subway transfer. When we ascended the stairs to the street we immediately saw a Mcdonalds, Coldstone Creamery, Subway and Burger Mart (basically a Burger King) all on the same block. This district was extremely American! Everything from the street vendors speaking English (not common in Sinchon) to the large variety of Western-style hotels, this was definitely more familiar to us. In fact, it basically looked like parts of New York City.
The reason Iteawon is so Western is because the U.S. Army base Yongsan Garrison is located there. We saw a handful of both American and Korean soldiers on the streets and in the shops and restaurants. We realized very quickly that Iteawon was not as great as we were hoping it would be. To be honest, it just felt a little boring after being faced with the culture shock of the much more traditional city-districts of Seoul. We decided not to have dinner there and return to Sinchon to eat. Since it's more of an international-friendly district, everything was more expensive. In Sinchon my rice and egg bowl was 3,000 won or about $3 but if we had ate in Iteawon I would've ended up spending about $8 or $9 (which is still fairly inexpensive compared to American prices).
The coolest thing I saw in Iteawon was a pair of socks for sale on a street vendor cart. Each sock had a huge picture of President Obama's face on it. Very cool, but very American. I know you're all psyched for the interview/bio on my roommate Valerie, but you'll just have to wait one more day because she got caught in the rain tonight and needs to dry off. It's rough times here in Seoul.
The reason Iteawon is so Western is because the U.S. Army base Yongsan Garrison is located there. We saw a handful of both American and Korean soldiers on the streets and in the shops and restaurants. We realized very quickly that Iteawon was not as great as we were hoping it would be. To be honest, it just felt a little boring after being faced with the culture shock of the much more traditional city-districts of Seoul. We decided not to have dinner there and return to Sinchon to eat. Since it's more of an international-friendly district, everything was more expensive. In Sinchon my rice and egg bowl was 3,000 won or about $3 but if we had ate in Iteawon I would've ended up spending about $8 or $9 (which is still fairly inexpensive compared to American prices).
The coolest thing I saw in Iteawon was a pair of socks for sale on a street vendor cart. Each sock had a huge picture of President Obama's face on it. Very cool, but very American. I know you're all psyched for the interview/bio on my roommate Valerie, but you'll just have to wait one more day because she got caught in the rain tonight and needs to dry off. It's rough times here in Seoul.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Strawberry!
I'm here! I arrived at the Incheon Airport Sunday evening and since then I've been getting settled in, meeting new people and most of all, exploring the city! The city is beautiful, it's extremely big, way bigger than New York City. The area of the city that the University is located in is called Sinchon (similar concept to the different boroughs of NYC).
My first meal out was in Sinchon, just two blocks from my dorm, which is named the SK Global House. Monday morning, although still jet-lagged, I managed to wake up and meet some friends in the lobby of my dorm for a morning meal. The reason I call it a morning meal is that in Korea there is very little concept of distinct mealtimes, such as breakfast, lunch and dinner in the U.S. Koreans simply eat what they want when they want. In the lobby I met my friends Rosie and Jim and a few other international students. Rosie also goes to HWS with me, and Jim and I became friends on facebook before we met, he is from Rochester, NY. The other people I met were Axel and Andreas, two guys from Sweden, Felix from Germany, Aliana from France, Kia from San Francisco, and Jumee from Seattle. We ventured off campus and after only a couple of blocks we found a small restaurant called Strawberry. (Which is clearly a sign because strawberries are my favorite fruit!)
We were all starving since most of us hadn't eaten since the plane so we ordered right away. The wait staff did not speak English so we ordered by pointing to the pictures of what we wanted in the menu. I ordered a rice bowl with cabbage, garlic, rice cake, wasabi, and a few other unidentified objects, with a scrambled egg on top. It was delicious, but strange eating such a meal around breakfast time. The whole meal was 3,000 won which is about $3. Some others ordered raman noodles, dumplings, and a rice patty dish. We ended up swapping meals at the end so that we could all try everything.
Another great thing about Korea is that tipping is not customary, and also you are not taxed on food or clothing. Afterwards we walked back to the SK Global House and attacked our next order of business, registering for our alien registration card. So that's a wrap for my first official in-Seoul post! Stay tuned for an upcoming bio on my roommate from Singapore!
My first meal out was in Sinchon, just two blocks from my dorm, which is named the SK Global House. Monday morning, although still jet-lagged, I managed to wake up and meet some friends in the lobby of my dorm for a morning meal. The reason I call it a morning meal is that in Korea there is very little concept of distinct mealtimes, such as breakfast, lunch and dinner in the U.S. Koreans simply eat what they want when they want. In the lobby I met my friends Rosie and Jim and a few other international students. Rosie also goes to HWS with me, and Jim and I became friends on facebook before we met, he is from Rochester, NY. The other people I met were Axel and Andreas, two guys from Sweden, Felix from Germany, Aliana from France, Kia from San Francisco, and Jumee from Seattle. We ventured off campus and after only a couple of blocks we found a small restaurant called Strawberry. (Which is clearly a sign because strawberries are my favorite fruit!)
We were all starving since most of us hadn't eaten since the plane so we ordered right away. The wait staff did not speak English so we ordered by pointing to the pictures of what we wanted in the menu. I ordered a rice bowl with cabbage, garlic, rice cake, wasabi, and a few other unidentified objects, with a scrambled egg on top. It was delicious, but strange eating such a meal around breakfast time. The whole meal was 3,000 won which is about $3. Some others ordered raman noodles, dumplings, and a rice patty dish. We ended up swapping meals at the end so that we could all try everything.
Another great thing about Korea is that tipping is not customary, and also you are not taxed on food or clothing. Afterwards we walked back to the SK Global House and attacked our next order of business, registering for our alien registration card. So that's a wrap for my first official in-Seoul post! Stay tuned for an upcoming bio on my roommate from Singapore!
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