Back in Korea, and busy as a bee

I just got back to Korea last week, and life is fun as usual. America was a blast. I made sure to visit a Korea-town in every city I went to. I had $8 ddukbokki in NYC, and saw $10 soju in LA. Scary stuff. As usual since this is a Korea blog I wont write much about the US, but it was fun.

Ddukbokki in NYC

$10 soju

The day after I arrived I took my placement test at Yonsei University to begin studying Korean.
I had just gotten back and remembered no Korean mind you, but happily, I was placed into level 2. Seems about right. If I had pushed a bit more it might have been level 3 but I would have severe gaps in my grammar knowledge. Well, the bad news is the closest stop to Yonsei is Sinchon, and I live in Nowon. That's about an hr and a half commute. Because from Sinchon station its still about a 20 minute walk, or I could take a bus. Either way- Horrible.

photo from my iPad

So I am desperately looking to move to a closer place. I would still work near Nowon, but there is a shuttle that takes us (part of the way) home. I also returned to boot-camp to get back in shape after a month of not working out.

the place I might be moving into - sweet right

Tuesday night I made in back in time for the work hweshik, and they took us to a fancy 5 star barbecue restaurant. We followed that up with some soju cocktail action, and then noraebang. Glad to see Korea had not changed in my absence

I had my first day of class, and while the students are mostly Americans (Yonsei groups people by cultural background as well as language ability, because well, the Japanese have the added advantage of having a language similar to Korean for example) there is also a Brit, a Swede, a Norwegian and a Dane in my class. The program itself is called the Korean Language Institute. We actually get student ids and access to all of this cool stuff. Now if you have no idea, Yonsei is like Harvard is to America, or Cambridge and Oxford are to the UK. In other words, a good freaking school. So far I like my teachers, but some of my classmates are as obnoxious as my students.

Friday night I was too tired to do anything (oh yeah, did I add I had not even started working yet, I begin this week). But on Saturday I had a busy day. I missed my Korean class due to a series of unfortunate events, but I then I went to see an apartment in Hongdae. Horrible. The room was tiny and I'd have 2 roommates. I've kind of gotten used to living by myself. I walked past a book fair and heading to a meetup on Atheism and Art (yes I identify as atheist, no I do not try to convince others to be atheist. - in my opinion believe what you want as long as you don't hurt anyone... and hence my problem with religion). It was very interesting. I'm not a movie person so that bit was most enlightening.

After that I headed to another meetup (I really like to jam pack my days I know) in Apgujeong. It was a dinner and drinks ladies night. What was I thinking? Now for anyone who knows me, I'm not really girly. Once in a while I'll put on a nice dress and make up, but I am happier in jeans. I also get uncomfortable around large groups of women. Lets just say I prefer hanging out with guys. I made it on time and even made a new Korean friend while waiting, but then the trouble began.

First, we could not get a taxi. Then Google maps led us astray. Then we asked for help and got a slew of amazing Koreans stopping to help us. They even called their English speaking child back home to help us. After realizing our mistake we got in a taxi and arrived at the wine bar. At this point I was tired, cranky and starving (I didn't eat all day). I mean the hostess did not even call us to find out if we were OK or maybe give the people directions or something. I would do that. Maybe it's a southern thing.

Also, not that I am snobby about wine, but if I am at a fancy wine bar I don't want to be drinking crap wine. But the other ladies just wanted to go for the cheapest. Luckily there was a wine expert there who ordered some good ones that kind of met in the middle. I finally got food and it made me less upset but the damage was done mentally. There was also some Korean girl there that kind of annoyed me because she lived abroad most of her life, but yet she was very judgmental of foreigners trying to speak Korean because of their accent. "Listen buddy, you've got an accent too". That's all I've got to say.

Needless to say I thought this night was going to be a bust, but I was supposed to meet up with another Korean friend. She was in Gangnam, so I headed off to Rainbow, the hookah bar. She was there with two Iranian friends (she specializes in the middle east and just got back from Iran, Yemen, Dubai and some other countries). After the hookah bar we went to Club Eden ($30 to get in, holy cow). But after an hr we decided it was too pretentious, so we went off to hongdae instead. I got to practice my french. That place was more fun. Buckets of long island later (yes plural) and a vague memory of two Korean guys fighting over me. Oh yeah side-note - in the US the stronger would win, guess who wins in Korea? If you guessed the older, you win a prize. Then I crashed at her house which is actually pretty nice. I am thinking of moving into that building...

Fun times at Eden

So what are my future plans you wonder? or maybe not. Anyway, I want to go up until level 4 in Korean... maybe higher. But that will take me about a year. Then I want to head back to the U.S. to get my PhD in California. Aiming for 2013 admission. Then travel forever.

But for the immediate future I am moving, and the next few days will be rough with classes, working, and trying to fit in boot-camp, taekwondo and a social life. But I can do it. I've done worse.

Oh, also I am planning to move my blog to wordpress. Wish me luck. What a fun first week back!