Around the US in 80 Days

February 12, 2008

Well ... not really around the whole US, but at least up and down the east coast and a little bit west in 80 Days.
Since getting back from Korea, I've been trying to make up for being away for six months by doing a lot of catch-up. I landed in Newark Airport on a Tuesday evening and by Friday, I was traveling again, this time back to New Haven for Harvard-Yale.
The Game was a disappointment to say the least, but it felt terrific to see old friends and be back on campus. I felt overly nostalgic sometimes, but I guess I'm always going to feel that way about college.

Here's Atticus, home of the best black bean soup ever, and the site of my 9am brunch with Genny on the morning of the Game (how did I manage to be ready by 9? What an oldie).



The Yale Law School in beautiful weather, on my walk to meet Jane in Silliman:


Commons, on the same walk:


After Harvard-Yale was Thanksgiving, and after Thanksgiving was a trip to Florida with my Dad. He wasn't able to come see me in Korea, and so he planned the Orlando trip instead. We stayed at Universal, and despite everything being so expensive! we both had a really nice time.



I had only been to Orlando once before, and had never been to Universal or SeaWorld. We tried to make up for that on this trip, and I ended up liking both of them more than the three Disney Parks that I'd seen on the last trip.

A creepy looking eel at SeaWorld:


At SeaWorld, you could commission a diver to bring up a bunch of live oysters so that you could "pick your own pearl." Although I didn't buy a pearl (I wondered why no one wanted to eat the oysters?) I tried to take pictures of someone else's being shucked:




My dad and I also visited Disney's Animal Kingdom, which hadn't been built when we went the last time. I liked it a lot, although it was really crowded. Here's a bat, hanging upside down in the Asia area:

I heard that one of the best things about going to Disney World in the winter is seeing the World Showcase at Epcot decorated for Christmas. Our relatives that live in Tampa suggested that we see the fireworks at night, and so after a busy day of seeing all 4 Disney Parks in 7 hours, my Dad and I were finally able to stand still.



I had a lot more fun in Florida than I expected! In the 12 years since my last visit, I've managed to overcome my fear of rides, so this time, my dad didn't have to ride the Tower of Terror alone. I was really impressed with the rides at Universal and happy that my Dad was able to ride, too. I'm not sure whether I was scared on the Mummy because it was a roller coaster in the dark or because I thought he was going to hurt his neck again, but he was fine and I had a great time. (I feel sort of corny gushing about the rides, but they were so cool! I couldn't believe how they used 3D and effects in rides like Spiderman -- I guess this justifies how much it costs to get into all the parks?) We were also lucky because the weather was AMAZING!



When we got home, the weather was COLD but I was happy to see friends and spend time in New York.

Here's Radio City, snapped out of the window of Dave's car as we drove past on the way to eat some Korean BBQ:



I also made a bunch of trips to New York when John-Rune came to visit because he wanted to see all major tourist attractions on his first ever trip to the US. He really wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, so here is Battery Park (although we were too late to get on the ferry this day):



This picture was snapped on a very tired morning, as John and I headed back home from Penn State. He had managed to arrange for an MBA interview while he was visiting, and I think we were both surprised when my parents threw him the keys and told him to take the car.


To add to our mini-road trip, we also drove to the Camden aquarium (which has hippopotamuses!)
Here are some jellyfish:



And the Philadelphia skyline, although we didn't get the chance to see the city:



I was also glad to show John-Rune around my own town. In an attempt to demonstrate some good old Americana, we visited the historical cemetery in Metuchen, where several Revolutionary War soldiers are buried:



Having John around for 2+ weeks was beyond amazing, and although I'm a little nervous, I'm more than ready to board Continental Flight 38 direct to Oslo to March 7. To say I'm counting down doesn't really reflect my excitement ....


Until I leave for Norway, there's still plenty to see and do at home. This is me riding the subway in New York, taken by Alice on our looong ride back up to Morningside Heights. I had a really great evening with her, catching up about her job with Americorps, her acceptance to Columbia Law, her family, our friends, and everything in between over some ... duck hearts and tongues! at B'un on Grand Street.



It's also good to spend some time at home with my own family. Here's Liam (left) and his friend Bailey:



This past weekend, I was in New York on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, Genny and I had brunch at Public, which was terrific, and saw Persepolis. On Sunday, I went to the Chinese New Year parade with Jane, whom I haven't seen since Harvard-Yale. The weather was a little chilly, but the parade was lots of fun!








As we were headed back uptown, we noticed a bunch of Latin American groups in the parade. There were some Mexican dancers, then the Peruvians below, followed by a huge decorated bus painted with the colors of the Colombian flag:



Time flies -- I can't believe it's almost Valentine's Day! Tomorrow Jessica is coming to get me so that we can drive down to North Carolina for her dentist appointment. She couldn't find a provider in this area, so she's been going to the dentist near where her parents live -- 9 hours away! I guess she thought it would be a one-visit ordeal and that she could schedule her appointment when she was visiting her family, but it turns out she needs two more follow-up visits. I offered to take one of the trips with her, and so ... I'm off again!

Only 3 weeks till Norway!

산낙지 is live octopus

November 10, 2007 -- Trip to Noryangjin Fish Market

The Noryangjin Fish Market is described in the Lonely Planet as, "an aquarium where you eat the animals" -- a pretty good description.
On my last weekend in Seoul, I wanted to make sure that I got to experience eating 산낙지, or live octopus (and I also really wanted to see the Fish Market, which I saw on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations.)
John, Danny, and I took the subway past Yongsan to Noryangjin, where we went out Exit 1 and walked across this bridge overlooking Yeoido (note the 63 Building). To get to the fish market, we walked down a set of inconspicuous concrete stairs to the left of this bridge.


There were old ladies selling assorted produce in the stairwell.


Halfway down the stairs, we caught the first glimpse of the Fish Market, which is enormous.



Once we got to the bottom of the stairs, I rolled up my pants so as not to get them wet, and proceeded into the hub-bub.
Here's a shrimp and shrimp paste vendor:


A bunch of little fish:

More vendors:


Yet more fish:


And still more:


And some really fresh fish:



I really liked the rays, although they looked kind of scary:


And finally, our octopus! 2 for 4,000 won.


We took the octopus into a restaurant adjacent to the vendors where the octopus was cut into pieces and served to us.





I was really surprised at how much I liked the octopus!! (You might be able to tell from the video.) I've always liked octopus a lot, and the flavor and texture of the 산낙지 was really great. Thinking back, I feel a little guilty that I ate something alive (was it really alive when it was cut up? Wasn't it dead by then?), but I'm definitely glad I gave it a try.

After the octopus, we had 매운탕, a spicy seafood soup. Since we hadn't brought in any of our own seafood for it, it wasn't very ... full of seafood, but it still tasted good.


There was this thing ... but I didn't know what it was. I'm pretty good at eating new things, but I couldn't think of a good reason to try this...


On our way back to the subway we were warned, "beware of electricity."


Noryangjin is a little bit more run down than the other areas of Seoul that I've been in, but that's not to say that it didn't have its own charm.


Waiting for the subway, I saw this billboard saying, well, "Kill English."


Finally, on the subway, I noticed an advertisement for the "Inaugural General Assembly of the World Toilet Association." This exists? And they advertise it on the subway!?

At night, I met with Keum and went to Casa Maya, a Mexican restaurant in Hongdae that was recommended to me. Although the service was kind of slow and the menu items were a little pricey, the food was great and the atmosphere was fun.
All in all a great day!

some parting shots

Of note! Some photos I took in my last week (a terrific week, despite the swollen tonsil).

Pancho arrives in Seoul and takes some pictures of the hustle and bustle of Idae.



City Hall -- Pancho and I walked from here to Dongdaemun, stopping along the way to read alongside the banks of Changgyechon.


Pancho and I eat bugs from a street stall -- silkworm larvae! They smell bad, and don't taste so good, either. I think we only made it through 3 each, although there were tons in the cup that we bought ....


Somewhat tastier is 찜닭, which combines chicken, noodles, potatoes, carrots, zucchini, and chile in a soy-based sauce. Pancho said it was one of the best things he's ever eaten.


Hongdae at night -- my favorite part of Seoul by far.


Nabi -- a bar so cool, it doesn't even have a sign. Still, it manages to be packed with young hipsters sitting around by the slate pool, smoking hookah and people watching.


Aki made me a really cool going away present! This cardboard has everyone's photo on one side, and messages from all of my classmates on the other! Here I am with Aki (left) and Ryoko (right).

korean fever

literally.

November 9, 2007
I stopped posting for a while because life started to become regular (even monotonous) and there weren't many new things to say. I lost my camera case on the night of my birthday, and since then I've been less diligent about carrying my camera around with me whenever I go out.

Then, suddenly everything was happening at once. First, Pancho came to visit from Beijing, and then I got sick during the last week of class.

Having a visitor was great! Pancho is the only one to come visit in the 9 months I've spent in Korea. I was glad that someone from home was able to see the things I see every day, go the places I go, and see and hear me live my life in Korean. Sometimes I feel like I've won a big prize that I can't tell anyone about because although I've accomplished something great here in Korea, namely the ability to be entirely functional in a (very) foreign language, I have no one to impress with my improvement.
I also think Pancho was a good person to visit Korea since he's already used to Asia, and because he's interested in seeing more of the continent (and the world). I think he had a really good time, and I had a good time showing off my favorite parts of Seoul.

Well, that is until I got sick. Somewhere in between the bohemian bar and karaoke, my throat started to hurt. Soon, I felt feverish. By Monday, after he had gone, my fever had reached 103.4 and I started to worry. I noticed that swallowing was really painful and difficult, and after a while, I started to feel something lumpy stuck in my throat. Upon further inspection, I realized nothing was caught in my throat -- my tonsil was just HUGELY SWOLLEN. I figured I needed a doctor and set about making an appointment at the international clinic at Severance Hospital.
Going to the doctor was all in all, a pretty good experience. The acronym of the international clinic is YUHS, and well, I sort of felt like I was at DUH. I found the place easily, and after filling out a brief form and getting my temperature and blood pressure taken, I had only a short wait before being called into a room. A nurse practitioner talked to me about my symptoms in English, and an American doctor came in to prescribe medicine. Although I was envisioning the American doctor at the clinic to be something like my American savior, he was (as I should have realized) a pretty self-important guy, who seemed to be in a huge rush. Dr. Linton it seems, speaks fluent (although highly accented) Korean and really knows he's the boss. He didn't even tell me exactly what was wrong; I had to extract that I had an "extremely abscessed tonsil" from the nurse practitioner. I'm sure Dr. Linton has a shortage of time, but he barely walked in the room, asked if I were pregnant and muttered "augmentin 625mg" before leaving again. At least I got a prescription?
I took the prescription to the nearest pharmacy, and they filled it immediately -- I barely had time to sit down before they were calling my name.
"Queen Kaira-nim?"
I thought that mixing up L and R was only a subject of bad Asian jokes, but apparently not. My prescription really does say "QUEEN KAIRA" despite the fact that I spelled my name 20 times, and went over the "l" part in particular detail. (Maybe the swollen tonsil is to blame?) Anyway, my pharmacy-going experience was really good -- simple and fast.

I felt relief after taking only one antibiotic, which was ... well, a relief, since I began to take my final exams today. I have 3 more on Monday and Tuesday and then I come home!
This weekend I hope to see a few last things in Seoul, hang out with friends, and prepare for my next exams.
I still feel bittersweet about leaving, but being confined to my EXCEPTIONALLY SMALL room when I was sick really did drive me crazy. I want to come home so that I can stop living in a box! I don't believe that for half the price of my room, Pancho gets an entire apartment in Beijing ><
Also can't wait to see friends and family, eat pizza, and set foot into my future!! 3 more days!

after almost 8 months, a refrain of 하지마 and 안 돼

On Saturday, Grace said, "practice doesn't make perfect; practice only makes better," and no truer words have ever been spoken by an (extremely intelligent) 11-year-old. I recalled her words today in the shower while thinking how great it will be to return to America and be able to communicate in a way that doesn't make me seem as though I have an IQ of 50. Sure, my Korean allows me to do just about anything, but that sure as hell doesn't mean that it allows me to do those things naturally. It's a tough thing, being flawlessly bilingual, and something that is hard to achieve, even for people who have lived their entire life in more than one language. During my morning shower, I realized that I'm not striving for fluency in another language -- I'm simply striving to seem a little more natural.
Today while I was trying to make my cheap-and-lazy man's dinner of kimchibap (fry kimchi, add rice and kimchi juice, stir some more, maybe top with fried egg), someone else came into the kitchen. As I was standing there cooking, I remembered an episode that occured last time I made kimchibap, and got sort of flustered. During the episode in question, I was cooking in the same way, and when I was done, I went to return the giant tupperware container of kimchi to the refrigerator. The other girl that had come in in the meantime looked at me and said in English, "I'm going to use it, so you can just leave it on the table."
Actually, what she said was a little bit more awkward, just as my Korean is probably a little awkward, even when I'm trying to say something easy. I wondered, what about me -- just frying my egg and stuff -- could tip this girl off about my foreign-ness, or more explicitly, my American-ness? I didn't recognize her, so it's not as though I see her all the time. Jane hasn't lived here in a while and without her, there's no other girl I speak English with here. I'm not insulted that this girl spoke to me in English, but I can't say I'm glad, either. What about me could possibly convince her that she should use her (obviously strained) English when talking to me? I can't say she wanted to practice English, cause she wasn't interested in a conversation. I'm sure she was just trying to make things easier for me, but do I look like I can't speak Korean? Is it the way I dress? The way I carry myself? Am I making some egregious kitchen error? Is what I'm cooking somehow ridiculous (if it is, I blame Jane for teaching me).
Anyway, after this happened, I told John about it joking around, and then promptly forgot it (it was, after all, a 2 second exchange). John said that if he observed me for a while, he would be able to tell I was an American. "How?!" I asked. "Well, you're certainly not Korean," he said.
I was reminded of this whole deal only because I found myself tonight, cooking the same things, when someone else came into the kitchen, and started doing their business. The girl squeezed through to get to the sink and said, "Excuse me." Was it the same girl!? Why, "excuse me?!" I was actually thinking so hard about this (and so flustered by someone doing their business so ... in my face instead of just waiting their turn) that I must have had a spasm or something, because the frying pan managed to get from the gas burner into the sink with my egg still cooking inside of it. "Great," I thought, "She thinks I'm foreign and unable to use a frying pan."
Anyway, this is my embarrassed rant. I don't necessarily want to look Korean, but do I still out all the time like some sort of neon-lights-flashing, American flag wearing patriot? I mean, if I do, that's not so bad, but definitely not what I'm striving for when I'm trying to act natural, adjust to another country and for God's sake just cook my dinner.

한국 생일 = Korean birthday!

October 19!!
Today is my 22nd birthday, and while it seems weird to be so far from home -- I'm having a perfectly nice day.
Today finally concluded a midterms -- last week I had 3 written tests, and this week I had an oral exam and a presentation. I think I did well, and I'm glad it's all over with. I hope I can start spending my days doing something more fun than what I've been doing -- there are only 25 left!
Today I presented about shopping in Seoul, and compared 3 famous shopping malls in Dongdaemun as well as American and Korean fashion trends. Then my class had a birthday party! It was both mine and a classmate's birthday, so we both brought in cakes, and my teacher brought in drinks.
This is (from the left) Nomuna (from Mongolia), Ryoko (from Japan), and me (with the silly hat).


Cakes! For only $16 the cake I bought (the chocolate one) came with a real plate and a knife!


Here's (half of) my class:



Everyone singing happy birthday! :0)



Taking the ribbon off the cake:


Ryoko and Aki!

Tonight I made dinner plans at 8 with some friends from Sogang and from the SK trip. Making your own plans is kind of stressful, especially when I think of Korean time and how people will all probably arrive late. ><
This weekend I want to try and get to COEX to spend some gift certificates I got for doing an interview with the Sogang student newspaper (in Korean!) The interview was a round table discussion with foreign students that took place over boribap last Friday. We talked about things that we think are strange or hard to adjust to in Korean society. I talked about age hierarchy and how it's difficult to learn how to speak to people in the right way. I'm either speaking too formally to kids, or not formerly enough to honorific people X.X One day I'll learn!! (Although I'll probably never get used to calling older guys 오빠, especially if he's another foreigner.)
I'm trying to make a list of all the things I want to do in Seoul in my last days, and also try and think about what it means to go home. I get a surge of pride when I think about "home" and "America," but when I actually realized the thoughts and visual images I had when thinking about the U.S. the other day, it was kind of funny. I'm not sure what foreigners (or even other Americans) think of when they think of their own country, but it seemed sort of weird for me to have this combination of visuals (american flag -- so ... straight-laced and ... well ... federal, select U.S. monuments, crowds, unclean bathrooms), sounds (bruce springsteen, reggaeton, and the accent of my parents), and other things that are sort of multi-sensory (international food!!)
This last month is going to be great; enjoying Korea (and beautiful Fall weather) and being excited to go home at the same time. :0)

My first cold week (ever!) in Korea

October 10, 2007
Fall arrived this week, and so far I've woken up every morning shivering, even though I'm wearing a sweatshirt and socks.
This week is midterm week, and I've spent most of my time trying to study. I've also been going out to eat less and cooking dinner for myself a lot more. Could it possibly be that Korean food every day is becoming monotonous? I'd never want to say anything like that but ... well, I could really go for some Indian food, or something with lime, cilantro, mint or fresh fruits and vegetables. I also can't wait to get my hands on a thin crust pizza, smother it in red pepper flakes and well... unceremoniously stuff my face.
Until the day when I can have real pizza and a Sam Adams, I'll have to suffice with the international festival at Sogang, which was held last week.





We got out of class an hour early, and were given food coupons to try different types of "international" foods. The food bazaar was a good idea, but there was too little food for too many hungry people... the wait was sort of agonizing. I waited ... about a half hour for 2 tacos :0(




And later waited about a half hour more for banana frites and fried fish. After the food bazaar was over, I left the festival to do some studying in Starbucks, where I saw this:



Evidently, you can ... write a letter and put it in the "mailbox" and Starbucks will send it. The sign talks about Starbucks inviting customers to take a minute out of their busy lives and send a few warm words to parents, teachers, or whoever.
I of course, don't need the Starbucks mailbox because I spend so much time at the real post office that they even gave me a gift the last time I was there.



Wee!
Besides spending time writing letters and sending people packages, I've been spending time with John, who was in level 3 at Sogang last semester, but who's taking a break this Fall. John and his brother are adoptees too, and they were adopted when they were 5 and 3 respectively. I guess it's easy to make friends with other adoptees cause we can talk to each other in English, which is really helpful when talking about sort of complicated things, including (but not only) adoption.
Here's Danny, who's taking a break from doing his P.hD. at Stanford:



And John:




And here we are eating a pint of Baskin Robbins (don't know why the Korean flavors are infinitely better than the American ones....):




This is a picture of the 김치 볶음밤 I made dinner the other day (it was a super lazy day). Pretty much ... heat kimchi in a pan, add rice and kimchi juice ... and well, that's it. I ended up heating up the leftovers for a snack and topping with a fried egg :0)


Because my room is so small, it makes me really crazy to spend too much time there. Since I've been eating at home a lot, I try and go out to study. This is Trinitea (number one), different from the Trinitea II that Jane and I frequented in the summer. Same great atmosphere and food though -- I had a green tea latte and a pretty tasty piece of cheesecake.



After studying, I took a break and walked around by 이대. I wandered around the new YES am/pm store:


and ended up buying a dress. I really like the area at night -- the plaza outside even has a cool fountain, complete with cool lights:



Here of course, is the dress that I bought, and an Asian pose that well, ... I just couldn't help but make. :p
I think it must be time to come home because I've begun to think that side-ponytails are okay.




I think it's because Pancho and I watched too much "Full House" in China ... I'm no Song Hye-Gyo, but well... you can see here:



That's about all of my last 2 weeks here in Korea. I can't believe that I'll be coming home in a little more than a month! I know that when I get home, I'll miss things like this:


which is some kind of Sogang club ... doing a synchronized dance? While all wearing pink? I don't even ask questions anymore ... :p