The Movie, the War, the Game

It has been yet another hectic weekend in Seoul! We have been traveling quite a bit and seeing a fair bit of the city.

We wouldn't have classes on Friday, so we were out late Thursday evening. We went to see Captain America on with our friends Martin, Huyen, Zoë, and Amy. Strange that a movie called Captain America would show in South Korea before America. Josh Moore told me I should write a review of it. I'm bad at reviews. I would give it a ranking of "If my friends invited me to go see it again, I would have no problem paying another $9 to see it again." We went to an area called Dongdaemun. It was a much bigger than many of the areas we had traveled to. The new building there, the Dongdaemun  Design Plaza, looked like some sort of alien spaceship. It was incredible!

Friday was a long day. We woke up extra early to grab some breakfast in our dorm's buffet area. It's $6, which is a bit steep for breakfast, especially for here, but we make every dollar count! It was mostly rice and eggs for breakfast, which were both really good. The lady working there actually went to the kitchen and fried us some more when we were finished. We were pretty full, but you can't say no to a fresh fried egg that someone made just for you! They also had french fries that were very similar to McDonalds. I guess there isn't much of a line between french fries and hash browns. Colby set up his laptop so we could watch one of the biggest games of this year's tournament. I was too frustrated with them to watch most of the game, but I did watch as they came back and won.

No idea who this guy was, but I nominated him as MVP!

And of course, the icing on the cake!

What a game! Both teams were great! Hopefully UK can keep the title in the bluegrass for yet another year!

Anyway, we decided a while back that we needed to go see the Korean War Memorial. We had no other plans, so we got up and took the subway down there. We had no idea just how massive the place was! They had all kinds of tanks, airplanes, and other large weapons used during the Korean War by both sides.

The B-52 Stratofortress. You know you have a big plane when your wingtips need landing gear!

Unfortunately there wasn't any water in the ponds yet.

When we finished looking at the big weaponry, we went to the courtyard of the memorial to find some sort of ceremony going on. It was very cool. It's hard to see, but there were many servicemen attending the ceremony as well. Not sure if it was a special event or if this was fairly routine, but it was amazing nonetheless. Unfortunately, I only managed to get a few pictures before my camera died. On the wall behind those pillars are the names of all servicemen who lost their lives fighting in the war. It was a huge place, and almost every piece of wall was utilized. To say it was sad would be an understatement. On the left corridor, all the way to that 90 degree bend, were the names of all of those from abroad. The backside of that wall was space dedicated for Americans, separated by state. It was a lot of names.

The museum was absolutely massive. It covered all of Korea's wars, not just The Korean War. We probably spent a total of 2 hours outside and 3 hours inside. It was quite a learning experience and I'm very glad I went. The place was beautiful.

After the museum, we headed for a section of town called Itaewon. This part of the city is known for its tourism. We were in the mood for some Mexican. We found this place called Vatos Urban Tacos, which was more Californian than Mexican. I'm not complaining. The fish tacos I had were amazing. I had been craving salsa for a while as well. We also had a big bowl of cheese dip. It was served in a stone hot pot and was still furiously bubbling. It was so good. Cheese is not a very common food item around here. We finished up all of the chips with a bit of cheese still left. I'm not ashamed to say we finished it off with forks. Yeah, we hadn't had cheese in a long time.

Today has been a lazy day. This seems to be a common thing for us on Sunday. After all we did this weekend, it's easy to understand why! I have been procrastinating all weekend though; I have a paper that is due tomorrow over a case study I haven't even read.

One Month in Korea

Today makes a month since Luke and I arrived in Seoul. It's gone by so fast! I can't believe that this trip is already a quarter of the way over. As I sat down to write this post, I realized that we've actually done quite a lot since we arrived. Maybe that's why it seems to be going by so quickly?

Classes are getting into full swing, keeping us on our toes. We had a quiz in our Investments course on Tuesday, and just to make sure that we were still studying he decided to give us one on Thursday as well. Good thing we read ahead.

Another memorable moment came in our International Business course. Two of the Korean students gave a lengthy, detailed presentation to the class on the Hyundai Motor Company. It was a great presentation. I was impressed by the amount of research that the two students put into it. Our Professor, on the other hand, was not. He pretty much told them it sucked in front of the whole class. Kind of reminds me of a Professor I had at UK.

That's enough about school. Onto the fun stuff!

On Friday, we went to pick up our Alien Registration Cards. I'm finally, almost/officially Korean - I think. Luke didn't get his due to a processing mistake, but thats a story for another time. After that we went on to an area of Seoul called Hongdae with our friends Martin, Huyen, and Zoë. There we toured through an art gallery full of optical illusions that you could take pictures of and we also walked through an ice museum. It was a blast!

Here I am fulfilling my lifelong dream of becoming a synchronized swimmer. 

And here's Luke pretending to be a ballerina.

The ice museum was pretty cool too.

This is Zoë and Martin carving their way through the ice.

I know what you're thinking, "Wow! You've done everything there is to do in Seoul! There's no way you can top going to an art gallery/ice museum." Wrong again, internet stranger!

After this we went to a Puppy Cafe. That's right. A PUPPY CAFE.

I already posted a bunch of pictures from the cafe on Facebook, but who doesn't like puppies? Here are some more!

This is Huyen with the saddest little Korean dog I've ever seen.

This guy refused to vacate his table, so we decided to join him.

The best way to describe the cafe is as a Starbucks with dogs. It was awesome.

There's a lot more that I could write about, but I'm tired and if I write about everything I won't have any stories to tell when I get home. To close, it's been another great week full of fond memories and even more new friends. Let's hope that the next 3 months are just as spectacular as the first!

4 Months an Exchange Student

Hello everyone!

Colby is busy, so I will try my best to talk about our week. This will be one long blog post!

Classes have been going pretty well. Nothing really to report there, it's just business (classes) as usual. (I'm not even sorry for the horrible joke.)

We opted out of going to the overnight temple stay this weekend. It seemed pretty boring to us. We heard it was kind of interesting, but I'm glad I ultimately decided to stay here.

No classes on Friday, so we decided to go exploring around campus a little more. The area is called Anam. It was interesting. We went some ways we hadn't been before and ended up in a pretty sketchy place. We promptly turned around and left.

As we were walking along the highway, we began to hear sirens going off. We thought it was a parade at first. Then, air raid sirens began going off. All traffic on the highway stopped, but people on the sidewalk went about like nothing was happening. We put on our best poker faces and continued down the street like nothing was happening. We saw a few military helicopters (we usually see them flying over campus about one or two times a week) and then a jet fly by. It was a really interesting experience!

We went to McDonalds for lunch and had a real Korean meal. I joke, but Colby did get a bulgogi burger. He said it was interesting, but he probably wouldn't get it again.

Saturday was a pretty boring day. Nothing really worth mentioning there.

Sunday was a pretty interesting day. We received a text from our friend Martin asking us if we wanted to go see American Hustle in a theater on the edge of Gangnam. We jumped at the chance to join him, Huyen, and our new friend Amy. When we arrived, we were devastated to find the movie was sold out. I still can't believe it would be sold out considering it came out in December. Oh well. There was a showing of 12 Years a Slave later that evening, so we decided to go see that instead and just have some dinner before the film. 

We approached this restaurant that had a little cartoon cow on it. Good enough for us. We walked into yet another Korean barbecue place. We opted for the personal room where you had to sit in the floor. I'm sure there are some pictures out there somewhere, so I will add those as they pop up. After trying to communicate with the server for about 10 minutes, Huyen and Amy finally had ordered us...something (thank goodness they knew some Korean. Martin, Colby, and I would have starved if we were by ourselves!) It ended up being pork, strips of beef, and what I think was beef tenderloin. Whatever it was, it was delicious!

After dinner, we went to a pool hall and played a few games. Colby and I decided to go easy on them and promptly lost every game. We are such kind gentlemen.

It was time to go to the movie. We scurried around the area, desperately looking for our theater. There was one building with the theater's name on it, so we went in there. Turns out, it was just theaters 1-3 (we were in 5.) We ran around like chickens with our heads cut off for the next few minutes as we tried to figure out where theater 5 was. Turns out it was across the street in another building. It was really strange, but I guess you have to make do with the space that you have in the city. The movie was pretty good, but I think I would have enjoyed American Hustle more. It definitely wasn't for the faint of heart. Katie, if you read this and decide to go watch it, you might want to bring a box of tissues.

By the time we got back to the dorm, it was around 10:30 or so. I had a paper to write that was due the next day, so I had to quickly crank that paper out. Colby was exhausted. We were originally going to make a post yesterday, but that wasn't going to happen after our adventure with our friends that evening. 

Things are still going fairly well though. I feel more and more at home here, although people at home generally understand what I am saying. By the time the semester is over, I will probably come home and speak to everyone really slowly.

That's about it for now. Unless something really cool happens this week, expect another update Sunday morning (EST). Take care!

Making Friends

While Luke wrote about boring class stuff, I thought I'd talk about the more exciting adventures that we have had outside of the classroom.

One of my biggest worries before starting off on this adventure would be whether or not I'd be able to make friends. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a strange, strange man. Honestly, I'm surprised that I have any friends at all (let alone 120 brothers at UK)!

For the first week, I kind of felt like Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls. I didn't know how to tell The Plastics apart from the "Out Crowd." It seriously felt like going to high school for the first time all over again! Thank God for Hawaiians.

Two of the nicest people that I have ever met came from the University of Hawaii. Their names are Martin and Min. I have two classes with Martin and one with Min. Both of them have been very friendly and welcoming. I also have to give a shoutout to Huyen and Zoë for being so friendly to us as well! They have all been kind enough to invite me and Luke along with them for adventures.

That is Min eyeballing my meat on a stick.

On Thursday night we went out to a different part of the city called Hongdae. We got to ride the subway again! While there we tried meat on a stick and went out for Korean BBQ. I have no clue what kind of meat or vegetables were on that stick, but it was one of the single most delicious things that I've ever eaten from a street vendor. We also got to cook our own meat at the BBQ place and feel like real men!

We're much better at eating the food than we are at cooking it.

After our dinner we decided to go see a movie. I love movies! I've gone to movies my entire life, but never on the tenth floor of a department store. It was wonderful. We watched Frozen, which is apparently a big deal here in Korea. Martin and I hadn't seen it yet, but the rest of the group had and they swore it was pretty good. I guess I agree. I mean it was okay. I still like Pocahontas the best. Anyway, it was a great Thursday night that segued into a pretty alright Friday morning.

We met up with our new friends again the next morning. Together we headed off to the Immigration Office to submit our applications for alien registration cards because it's no fun being an illegal alien. We played it smart and made appointments online, but still ended up standing in line for 45 minutes when we got there. Thank the lord for Min too! They weren't sure what to do about our appointments when we made it up to the desk, but with his amazing translating skills and my devilishly charming smile, they bumped us to the front of the line and had us out of there in no time. One guy I met named Diego was there for over 5 hours and we were in and out in under 2!

Overall, it's been another great week filled with great memories and new friends. I can't wait to see what the coming weeks have to offer.

Class Time!

The week of classes finally arrived! Things are beginning to roll and we are settling in quite nicely. Things this week have been rather repetitive, so we thought we would limit our blog posts to once per week.

First off, wow! The buildings here are incredibly nice! Hyundai Motor Hall, their newest building, puts Gatton to shame! LG-POSCO is also really nice, but definitely feels less modern than Hyundai.

Our first class is International Trade Theory in Hyundai Motor Hall, Mondays and Wednesdays at 9:00-10:15 AM. We were pretty nervous as we sat waiting for the professor to come in. When it was about time for class to start, a guy in a suit came in and started speaking to us in Korean. There was a slight moment of panic, but then the guy left the room. Apparently it was just some sort of advertisement for some internship opportunity or something. The professor entered a short moment after that. He told us this horror story of a top student who did bad on his final exam and received an A in the class, not an A+. It was hard not to laugh at just how silly this sounded to us. 

There is a 3 hour break between that and my next class, but Colby has an Operations Management (Analytics) class at noon. He said the professor is really relaxed and he was guaranteed a B if he showed up and did the work. I really wish I would have waited to take Analytics here!

The final class of the day is International Business in LG-POSCO at 2:00-3:15 PM. The class seems very discussion-based. There are long pauses in the discussion, which felt incredibly awkward, but apparently these pauses are normal. The professor told us that he wants to focus on Asian companies, which is what we came here to learn about!

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we don't have class until 10:30-11:45. That class is International Finance in Hyundai Motor Hall. The professor went on a tangent talking about teamwork and related to video games like Starcraft, WoW, and Battlefield. I think I will like her class. She goes through her notes really fast, but posts them online as well. 

We then have a break until our 2:00-3:15 PM Investments class in LG-POSCO. Nothing much to say about that class really. The professor seems pretty nice in there as well. So far it has been a lot of stuff I learned from my finance course from last semester. Still, I think this might be the toughest class this semester.

I say toughest class, but they all seem relatively easy compared to some of the courses I would take back at UK. It's really too early to feel confident about that statement, but I honestly feel like this semester won't be as stressful as I thought. I came here expecting heavier course loads and tons of homework. So far, it seems like the opposite is true. There is practically no homework in any class. The international business professor said he might want us to write a paper every now and then, but most of it will be in-class discussion. However, every class does have one group project, which could be good or bad. I enjoy presenting, but so many group projects can be hard to juggle. Then again, I don't have to worry about piles of homework, which makes things a lot easier.

So, classes are much less intense than I thought they would be. All of the professors seem incredibly nice and actually have pretty good english (despite telling you otherwise.) It's actually a very pleasant surprise! Even better, no classes on Friday! That means we have even more time to immerse ourselves in the rich Korean culture...and by that I mean we get to go out with our wonderful new friends!

Getting Settled

Today makes one week since our journey began. And what a week it has been! I honestly didn't know if we had it in us when we set out, but after a week of cancelled flights, getting lost, spicy food, and making about a hundred new friends I think it is safe to say that we are getting settled.

Over the last couple of days, we have taken a tour of the city, as Luke mentioned, and we've also explored a little bit on our own. We ventured out into the Anam area a couple of times to try finding food. At this point in the journey, I am unsure as to whether or not I really like Korean food. I've had some really great food that I have loved, but I've also had some stuff that I thought would make me puke. I'll work up another post soon to further explain my disdain for some of the food.

Because of that, we decided to go for Burritos yesterday and to McDonalds today. Each day we've walked down and back up the lonely mountain, which is what I've started to call to our beloved hill. There's a little shop at the bottom called Dos Mas, and they only make burritos. It's kind of like Qdoba, but with a Korean twist. Naturally I've dubbed it Kdoba. These were probably the least Mexican burritos I've ever seen. Mine had chicken, rice, kraft singles, cabbage, and some kind of hot sauce. Luke's was the same, but with beef. I would've taken a picture of them, but by the time I thought of it, we had both devoured ours. Thank goodness for a satisfying meal.

You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in South Korea? No, it's not a Royale with Cheese. It's a Quarter Pounder with Cheese. Real original. Anyway, we had the number 2 combo and they were burgers that came with grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, and some kind of smokey sauce. I wouldn't say that they were awesome, but by golly if we didn't devour them. One thing I must comment in is the speed of their service. Before I could even get my change back a gentleman was handing me my tray. Impeccable service! Luke even thought of taking a picture of them before we began.

If there's one thing that I have learned in the last week, it is that Koreans are obsessed with presentation. Girls photoshop their Facebook pictures, plastic surgery is praised, and McDonald's plates your food for you. The sandwiches were crafted to look just like they do on the menu. We enjoyed this All-American meal a little more than we intended to.

Our classes begin tomorrow, and I think we might be looking forward to it. It's been almost 3 months since we've had class! We will try to update the blog soon to let you know how our classes our going.

City Tour

Colby and I both signed up for the city tour a few days ago. It was about $30, but included a meal, entrance to all of the historical sites/museums, and  a show as well. It seemed like a pretty good deal, and we liked the idea of doing it in a big group rather than on our own.

We left the university Friday morning on one of the 4 large buses to travel into downtown Seoul to the historical sites. We first saw the "Blue House" where the President Park Geun-hye lives. Unfortunately, my camera had an annoying thing that recorded the date and time, both of which were wrong. I didn't catch it until later that day. Oops! I think Colby has some better pictures though.

We then visited a few different museums. Most of them focused on cultural changes throughout the country's history. Oddly enough, there didn't seem to be any kind of change in culture anywhere between 1950 and 1953. The museums were still pretty cool though.

We saw all kinds of cool architecture on our tour. I'm not sure what these places were, but they looked pretty enough to pause and take a picture.

We also had the pleasure of seeing the Gyeongbokgung Palace. It looked incredible! It was actually a recreation built about 100 years ago since the original was destroyed by the Japanese during the 1500's. Nevertheless, it was an incredible place!

I coincidentally caught one of the friends I met that day. He was a really nice guy from Japan, but I cannot remember his name! He lives a few doors down from us, so I might have to check later. There have been too many names the past few days! 

While we were there, we also got to watch the changing of the Royal Guard. It was...interesting. The best part was the big drum. The video doesn't do it justice, but I could feel my body shake when he hit the drum. The video is rather boring, the music is kind of...not my taste, but it's here for anyone who wants to see it! (Note: turn down your volume. It is quite loud!)

After a few hours of walking, we were tired, thirsty, and hungry. We boarded the bus and set out to a shopping area called Insa-Dong. I think Colby is going to write about the rest tomorrow morning (or this evening in EST)