These are just a few of the blessings I've received in the past 24 hours, but they're certainly not the only fortunes I've had. I'm not a religious person, but every time I travel abroad I become more and more convinced that some kind of divine being is watching over me--you'll see a particular reason why in just a bit.
I don't have as many pictures to show this time because I feeling pretty worn by the time I landed (traveling for 26 hours can do that to you, who knew?) but here are some of the shots I took from the airplane.
Also a cool shot of the cool airport:
My flight from Seattle took us up along the Canadian coastline, past Alaska, and then off the coast of Russia and over Japan. We flew into Seoul from the southeast, so I got to fly across the entire country! ...which only took half an hour. Being as familiar with flying cross country in America as I am, this really cracks me up. Everything in this part of the world is just so much closer together.
The flight was pretty uneventful. I think I timed my sleeping schedule on the flight correctly, because my jet lag today actually isn't too bad. I was passed out very solidly from 10pm to 3am, and then woke intermittently until 7:30am, and it's now mid-morning and I feel fine. I ate all of the airplane food, even the sketchy-looking egg McMuffin thing, and some of it made my tummy do a weird wiggle dance but otherwise there were no adverse effects. One of the snacks they passed out was an ice cream sandwich! Those of you who are aware of my sweet tooth will know how exciting this was for me.
I mentioned earlier about having some sort of guardian angel watching over me when I travel--this is partly due to the fact that I somehow always manage to meet someone who helps me tremendously within my first few hours of arriving somewhere. (Every time. It never ceases to amaze me.)
Well, this time when we deplaned I happened to meet two other Americans who are here in Korea for the first time ever to teach English. And I got to be that helpful person to them! I was so happy to be able to answer all kinds of questions ranging from cultural discrepancies to the stroke order you use when writing the alphabet. By now that is all pretty basic to me so I didn't feel like I was telling them anything particularly special, but they thanked me so graciously. I realized how valuable the information I was giving them must have been when they probably didn't have much else, and remembered how relieved I felt when I was the one receiving that last year. It felt good to finally be giving it to someone else.
After wishing them well and saying goodbye, I set off in search of the luggage storage place. I'll be returning to the airport again on Monday to catch a bus down to my university in Asan, so I don't need to carry all of my winter clothes with me. There weren't any signs for the luggage storage, so I went up to an employee and asked in Korean where it was. And they actually understood me!! There were so many cool things about that moment. Normally I become paralyzed with fear when confronted with a situation where I need to use Korean with a stranger, but this time the words just came out. That's never happened to me before! Overall it was a pretty insignificant thing to say, but it was such a victory for me.
They responded in English but that's okay. One step at a time.
After storing my luggage I hopped on the airport train for about an hour to the neighborhood my hostel is in. It started raining during that time, and it was when I exited the subway station and was getting ready to set off down the sidewalk to the hostel that I realized...my umbrella is still in America.
Okay, no big deal, I thought. I'll just wait in a coffee shop for the rain to let up.
Remember the divine being I mentioned in the beginning of this post? Here's the really cool part. Seriously, prepare for the ultimate coolness:
I stepped to the side for a moment to look at my map and see how far away the hostel was, and when I glanced up for a moment to look at a person who had stopped to pull something from her purse in front of me, I realized that I KNEW THIS PERSON. (Capslock is totally necessary because of how unbelievable this situation was.) Right there, in the middle of one of the most populated cities in the entire world, right at the moment I had arrived, was one of my classmates from Sogang last year. HOW DOES THAT EVEN HAPPEN?
Not really believing my eyes yet, I kind of half-shouted her name, and then when she saw me we had this really awesomely happy and high-pitched reunion. Everyone stared and I had zero cares to give because seriously how does that even happen. I'm still kind of freaking out about it. It was total coincidence. She's even leaving the country today, yet somehow we managed to run into each other. Thinking about all the reasons I could have been there a minute earlier or later than I was or even not looked up to see her just makes it all so crazy.
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| HOW |
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| EVENNNN? |
It took us a solid ten minutes of saying "hi" and "wow" and "oh my god" to get over how shocked we both were, and then, seeing that I had no umbrella, she insisted on walking with me all the way to the hostel so that I could use hers.
Honestly, if that doesn't make you believe in guardian angels, I don't know what will. Mine does a pretty good job, if I say so myself.
So she dropped me off at the hostel (only a few blocks away but would have been really unpleasant in the rain) and after expressing our mutual shock for a bit longer, said goodbye.
My hostel is adorable. It was kind of a last-minute decision to stay here, but I'm so glad I did. The beds are cozy, the living room is cute, the owner is really nice and all the girls in the bunks with me are so nice. I was the only person there when I arrived, but immediately after I settled in, one of the other girls returned and asked if I wanted to go get Korean BBQ with her down the street. It was my third time eating KBBQ in a week, but I didn't mind. :)
It was actually kind of funny/embarrassing because neither of us could remember how to cook the meat (someone else with me has always done it)...so the waitress had to take care of us. I think she was a little exasperated. But then I told her it was really delicious in Korean, so that appeased her.
By the time we got back, most of the other girls in the room were there as well and we spent a good hour talking. One of them is an older Japanese woman who switches sporadically back and forth between Japanese and Korean while she's speaking. It's a fun challenge to try to understand, mostly because I scarcely remember any Japanese. Luckily the girl I'm sharing a bunk with is conversationally fluent in Japanese, so she filled in the holes for me.
I needed to shower before bed because I was really gross and sweaty from being outside in the heat and inside where there sometimes is no air conditioning, which was when I had my first experience with shower-bathrooms. (That's not an official name, that's just what I'm calling them.) The ones in the hostel aren't really that exciting to look at but here's an example I pulled off of Google:
That's basically what our bathrooms look like. There's nothing separating the shower head from the things you don't want showered, so you just have to be careful when maneuvering it. It takes a bit of getting used to, but this kind of set up is pretty common in Korea and I was aware of that beforehand, so it wasn't that big of a deal. I don't know if the bathrooms at my university in Asan will be this way yet.
As I mentioned before I slept soundly the first half of the night and mostly soundly the second half. I didn't feel like getting out of bed right away so I spent some time catching up on the past two days of news I'd missed, and then had a really nice breakfast conversation with the girl I'm sharing my bunk with. She's visiting Seoul for a few days before she returns to the US after spending three years teaching English in Japan (hence the language fluency). She actually paid me a really big compliment--she said she thought I was an English teacher too at first, because I speak so slowly and clearly. As someone who tutors English and hopes to someday teach, that was wonderful to hear! No one has ever told me that before. It gave me warm fuzzies. :)
Near noon I met up with a girl in my sorority who graduated last year, and we walked around the neighborhood (called Hongdae, which just has a ton of shops and restaurants) and ate lunch at this place that was featured on a Korean food show. We ordered ramyun (basically ramen) and on the menu had the option of either spicy or more spicy. I thought it wouldn't be that bad because I've had "spicy" Korean street food before and was fine with it, but I will be totally honest with you, by the end of that meal my eyes were completely watering and my entire mouth was on fire. The corners of my mouth were actually sore because they were just burning from the spiciness. My friend agreed that it was much more intense than either of us had anticipated.
After that we walked a bit trying to find a coffee shop that I went to last year and really liked, but I couldn't remember exactly how to get there so we just wandered around until we stumbled across this liquid nitrogen ice cream shop, a type of store that's becoming increasingly popular. Essentially they just make ice cream in front of you using liquid nitrogen. I forgot to take pictures of the establishment but it was set up to look like a laboratory, and the added effect of liquid nitrogen vapor spilling over the counter while they made the ice cream was actually really cool. I regret the lack of pictures. :(
However, here at least is a photo of what I ordered:
It's called a "choko volcano" and yes, that is a syringe of chocolate syrup. Coolest dessert ever. My friend got a different flavor that didn't come with a syringe and she was super bitter. She said next time if she orders another flavor that doesn't come with a syringe, she's just going to demand they give her one, haha.
After finishing our ice cream we visited an art store that I also saw last year, though I don't remember if it made it into any of my posts. I don't remember the name of the building but it's dedicated to artsy things. The first floor is a really hipster store that has a bunch of overpriced useless decorative crap that I want to buy so badly, and there's also a cinema, a floor full of restaurants, and a gallery. We happily discovered that one of my favorite artists is actually being featured in the gallery right now, so we spent a while looking at his works. It was really cool for me because I saw many pictures I hadn't seen by him before.
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| A huge billboard version of one of my favorite photos of all time! |
--until it was time for me to go meet another friend, one of my classmates from last year. By then it was late afternoon and I was starting to feel really tired because my body was feeling confused about what time of day it was, but I managed to stick it out!
My classmate friend and I hung out in You Are Here, the brand-spankin-new cafe opened by the famous Eat Your Kimchi duo Simon and Martina. It was especially cool for us because our mutual friend/classmate/the girl I ran into yesterday actually was an intern for them this summer and helped open that cafe. We could see some of her work and it was pretty cool. :) Also in this cafe I discovered THIS:
So. Cool. I could literally play with that thing all day. I want one.
We spent about an hour or so just talking and discussing Korean grammar (he just finished level two at the university we were both at last summer, so he helped me brush up on the things I've forgotten since my spring semester ended so many moons ago) and then, feeling hungry, went in search of dinner. I forgot to take pictures again but we split a seafood pancake and ddeobokki (spicy rice cake) (but not as spicy as lunch was) (thank god).
I used Korean with the waiter to ask where the bathroom was and I think he was not expecting that because he stared at me for a second before responding. It's always fun to get those kinds of reactions.
Then we browsed through a nearby bookstore for a while. I want to find some children's books to read and mark up and practice my grammar.
By that point, having exhausted all ideas we had of things to and also feeling rather exhausted myself, we said goodnight and I returned home to the hostel. There were two mosquitos in the bathroom. I forgot there were mosquitos in Korea so that made me kind of sad. :( I hope the spice from my lunch is in my blood and poisons them all.
On another unrelated note Spotify apparently works in Korea, which is great because I knew Pandora doesn't so I was a bit worried.
Tomorrow I get to see one of my teachers from last summer! I'm excited.
But for now, time to pass out again. I can't believe I've already been in Korea for 30 hours!
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