Wrap-Up

So, my apologies for not updating in Korea after a certain point. Internet was too fuzzy, mixed with lack of feedback and diminishing interest on my part made it tough. In any case, I would still like to wrap this all up (a few weeks after the fact...).

I won't go into as much detail as I did in my other posts, but I do want to try to explain all the cool stuff I did. The school had us do this arts and crafts thing, where we all made paper boxes. At one point a friend (JuHyun) took my roomie and I shopping for clothes, I got an awesome sleeveless hoodie in a very flamboyant/asian style. I am very fond of it. We also picked my Korean name (at some point...), 사자 (meaning Lion, in spirit of my Japanese name of ライオン). I took a few more trips to Insadong (for gift purposes), Itaewon, and even Hongdae -- I went to the same club my last weekend there. I also managed to go to the DMZ, which was interesting as they had built an amusement park right in it. I sort of made it to the palaces, but they were closed when I got there. Instead I went to the Palace Museum (which kind of sucked). I managed to go to a Noraebong (Korean Song-Room, essentially Karaoke) which was awesome. There is a video, somewhere, of me singing Run to the Hills by Iron Maiden. I think I will go back to Korea while I'm in Japan, as it was so much fun and there are still somethings I want to do (See outside Seoul, get to the palaces for real, get to Seoul Tower).

Classes also went very well. I have since learned I got an A (History) and A+ (Cooking). We made a lot more fun and tasty stuff, which I have editted into everyday cooking here, and I did learn some things in my History course. Also, both profs took us out on our last day of class. For cooking we went to Pingzu, which is the best thing ever, and for History we went to a famous Chinese Dumpling place in Myongdong -- which was delicious.

Overall I really loved this trip. I met a lot of really cool people (I hope to meet-up with some of them both here in the US, in Korea, and will even go to school with some at Waseda). Following this I will list all of the facebook photo albums I have made. There are about 600 pictures I'd like to put up, but can't, that were given to us by Sookmyung. They had a going away party for us in which they showed (some) of these off. I think pictures of me were most prominent in the slideshow -- I ended up making a joke about it in a speech my classmates made me give. I do not believe there is any record of this speech, except maybe photos (it is for the best).

Anyways:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017212&id=1374240562
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017213&id=1374240562
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017214&id=1374240562
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017215&id=1374240562
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017216&id=1374240562
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017217&id=1374240562
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017220&id=1374240562
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017221&id=1374240562
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017223&id=1374240562

First Weekend

Pretty awesome weekend. I went to Insadong on Friday, Dongdaemoon on Saturday, and the COEX Mall today.

Insadong is the traditional shopping district (ie: tourist trap). It was pretty fun, mainly because Zach and I went with two classmates. We had some traditional food (I think I have a picture of some of it, it was pretty good), walked around a lot, they bought us some honey-candy (I intend to get some more to bring home), and we went out to tea (Amazing. There was a 5 fruit-tea, a citron-tea, a sweet fermented-rice tea, and a Chinese Quince tea. All sweet and delicious, as well as unique). The girls were a lot of fun and very sweet (Leibe and Hrul Hang, both names are likely misspelled). Hrul Hang took my camera and took pictures pretty much all day, so they're...interesting to say the least.

Dongdaemoon was interesting, but I liked the first market (Nongdaemoon or w/e) better. It was raining all day, so we didn't go to the palaces like we had originally hoped...and I really just spent most of the day holding onto some heavy Dolsuts (Traditional stone bowls, you heat them up and they cook food while you eat it. It's great.), but I still enjoyed myself. Also, an older Korean woman hand fed me when I ate her food poorly (certainly a highlight of my trip.) Later that night a few of us (Stephanie, Tanesha, Deahna) went to Green Pasta (Italian, recomended by my buddy, Sue) and stuffed waffles/kipingsu (shaved ice topped in syrup/fruit topped with vanilla ice cream), all of which was extremely delicious (and fairly inexpensive).

COEX mall was a blast. There was a big group of us (Zach, Sue, Namin, Jang Mien, Randall, Jinsook, and eventually Sue's boyfriend, whose name escapes me right now). We went to Uno's (expensive!...but not bad), an aquarium (loads of pictures, and I learned various animal names), a coffee shop, and just generally hung-out and had a great time. I got some gifts and wished father/Steve happy father's days. I think I know what I am bringing home for everyone now, so I just need to pick things up. The day, of course, ended at a waffle house withfruit-shaved ice drink (basically a one-fruit smoothy), and some weird bun with melted butter in the middle. Also hot dogs. All pretty tasty and inexpensive (pretty standard for food in korea).

So far so good, though class tomorrow. I sort of just want to hang out around Seoul and have fun, as there's a lot to do and so little time to do it. The law students went to Jeju Island, home of Jeju Land the adult amusement park. They had lots of fun, so I really want to go now. I should also be meeting up with Prof. Jin Park sometime before I leave, she's going to show me around Korea Uniersity (Kodai) where she will be teaching. Final news, my Korean is finally improving. I am very happy about this, as it has taken a while. It's thanks to a mix of renewed effort/language tapes Zach gave me.

Anyway, more to come soon. Also, if you know a good image site for mass uploads please tell me. I don't want to just do facebook or image shack if I can help it, but I'm not sure of the alternatives.

Electronic Market

The Electronics market was alright. Everything was about standard price, though, apparently because we didn't have a korean with us to haggle. It was like a giant mall of laptops, mp3 players, gps's, etc. I'm not certain if it was the right place, though, because there were street signs that listed the station we got off and the Electronics market separately.

While we were in the area we went to Hooters Seoul. It was expensive and quiet, not very good, and funny in a depressing way. It is as funny as it is depressing to see a Korean girl dressed in the Hooters clothing, with like, no customers. It's sort of awkward and embarassing.

Conversely, classes today were good. My cooking class seems like it will be a lot of fun, and we got to eat some traditional food towards the end of it. Citron Tea, Da (Rice balls, like Mochi), Sangpyan(I may have butchered this, they are delicious though), and Pumpkin Da (Harab Da? I forget how to say Pumpkin). The professor also told us to ask if there was anything we want to try, and we will make it, which should be awesome (there are various kimchis and such that I want to eat that I likely won't get to eat).

My other class, a History one, seems like it will be pretty good. The teacher's very laid back, and the girls (all Sookmyung students) are very nice. We got candy (maple-sugar candy, as the prof is Canadian) so I can't complain.

I need to open a Korean bank account to get my scholarship, and take out money tomorrow to pay off the rest of my fees. I tried to today, but I couldn't take out more than 500,000W (about $400). I'm a tad worried, as my balance showed up wrong on the receipt, but correct when I checked online. Hopefully it'll be alright.

--Daniel

Orientation Day

Today was orientation, which was pretty cool. I met a lot more people, we had an awesome (free) lunch, toured campus (it is huge -- I had no idea how big it was -- it has multiple museums in it), and went to a showing of Nanta. For the record, Nanta is a musical show borrowing from stuff like the Blue Man Group. It has a premise of chefs working with a deadline with the manager's nephew added last minute as a chef, though the story is somewhat unimportant.I met some AU students, too, and have had various chances to practice Japanese. (At the market yesterday, with some students today). I've exchanged numbers with one of the AU students (Jim) and we all intend to go out, sometime. Should be cool. After the show, a few of us went to dinner, which was great like all the other food here. We ordered one and a half chickens, which was cut up and cooked in a fairly spicy black sauce with various vegetables and clear noodles. Out of the 4 of us eating it, I don't think we managed to eat half of it. Afterwards I picked up a "T-Card," essentially a SmartTrip card that works in subway, bus, taxis, and some stores. I don't have many pictures from today as I was mainly on campus. I will, however, take pictures of the campus at some point later on when I explore it again on my own.

Tomorrow we go to a Folk Village out some ways from Seoul, and on Sunday we are going to try to find the Electric Shopping District. I have been told both that I have to go there, and that it has everything/anything I would be looking for. Monday classes start, and I will probably start posting less frequently.

As for my impressions on the country so far, it is pretty impressive. I'm rather comfortable being here, as things feel rather familiar. I think it's because of the time I've spent travelling alone in NYC/DC, and my trips to Tokyo and Italy. Cities are cities, and language barriers arepretty simple to deal with (when you speak English, might be harder if my only language was Swahili). Also, although I am loving the food, I fear i might hurt my stomach if I eat like this the full month. Everything is spicy, lots of things are sour and/or salty. We'll see what happens.

--Daniel

P.S./Edit It may also be worth mentioning that almost everyone here is aware I missed my plane, somehow. It was mentioned by a Korean girl during orientation, without name mentions (I had not met her), and was brought up a few times by concerned faculty that wanted to make sure everything was alright (I did arrive yesterday).

Flights and Early Impressions

Hey everyone, I’ m here!

Those of you especially astute will know I should have been here for about 17 hours, whereas it has been less than six. Clearly there were some issues with my flights. In Albany, we got delayed about an hour - boarded a bit later, and were forced to wait another 40 minutes. I ended up arriving in JFK with 15 minutes before departure, mixed with some misleading directions (I asked when I got out of the plane, I am directed to a terminal, the woman there is on the phone and then runs away, security guy tells me to go a different rout that takes me out of the security zone. Apparently I was supposed to take a shuttle to the terminal, who knew?) and my lack of experience in JFK, made it an impossible feat. I got a good chance to run around JFK trying to arrange my flight though -- they tried to scare me with “The next flight to S. Korea is at midnight,” and “Korean Airlines employees don’t work from 2pm until 11pm (2pm being when my flight departed. Apparently I had been pushed into a flight to LAX with a connecting flight to Icheon, just no one told me/told me the right person to ask. In any case, it ended up alright. I just lost 11 hours due to the delay (5 additional hours in air, 6 additional hours in stations).
Moving on, the flight to LA was alright -- I was next to a woman with loud toddlers, but they slept most of the flight (including the woman, who sat protected them like a bear or lioness, and thus slightly on my leg). This big, dark-skinned, male flight attendant was pretty helpful/sweet to the little girl, which worked out nicely for me. I watched both “Taken” and “Milk” on the flight, the latter being a tad more enjoyable than the former.

Flight to Korea was extremely long. Thankfully, I met a nice woman on my rush to catch the flight (would have been interesting if I missed that one, too), and sat next to some nice people as well. I traded e-mail with the woman who sat next to me. All good.

In Incheon, normal stuff. Got my bag (which got there before me), exchanged money, got my phone to work, got hassled by a taxi driver. Took a bus to near the school, took an hour, then spent about an hour trying to find my dorm. I learned in this full process that Sookmyung can be pronounced many, many different ways.

Finally, got to the room where I am now. It is pretty amazing, way better than my dorms at AU (perhaps even better than Federal 301 - though that’s pushing it). Came with sheets, towels (which my roomie has apparently used), bunch of shelving, a TV, A/C, a bathroom, slippers, a refrigerator…it’s just awesome. Only two real issues, and one sort of fake issue. I don’t have adaptors yet, the wireless internet is more-or-less a lie (I didn’t bring a cable because I was informed it would be awesome), and I have a roommate (I was told I would be in a single/double room with no roommate). Except the internet, these aren’t really big concerns as they gave us much more than I expected. There is even a common room filled with frigs, a stove/oven (I believe I was told we wouldn’t have that) and rice cookers. Hell, there is even a floor heater! Also, my netbook makes scarce internet hardly a problem. I should have some pics up over the next few days -- just need to figure out how I want to upload them.

Also, beginning to think I should have brought my full keyboard. Totally not used to this guy yet.
Further plans for today: Maybe go for a walk around the area, meet some of the others in the dorm, eat something, go to this electronics shopping district with my roommate (his name is Zach, for the record), upload this.

--Daniel

Last night in the USA

Well, today is(was) my last day in the states before I leave for S. Korea. I'm mostly packed, the left will be for the morning. I'm pretty excited, not too nervous. Feeling pretty good (I normally feel rather ill before traveling, for whatever reason. Just always had a week stomach). My father gave me two cameras to bring with me, so I will have pictures (and possibly video), I made my bank aware of my trip, so I should have money, my cellphone is capable of super roaming and I have skype (as well as a headset as of tonight), so I'll have phone access (Please please please do not call my cell phone while I am gone unless it's desperately important. I will not be happy to hear from you. However, do add my to skype so I can try it out. daniel.ryan.shor), I'll have my netbook so I should have internet right away (and in the airports). I just need to check-in, throw some stuff in my bags, and I'm good.

Most likely my next post will be in S. Korea, but if I get bored and something interesting/relevant happens in the airport/something goes wrong, it might not be the case. I'll try to take some pictures so I can put them in the post, as well.

-Daniel

P.S. If anyone reads this, please comment so I know! I'll give you a shout-out or something.

First Post

Greetings.

This is mainly a test so I can get a better idea of what this template looks like. However, I do have some news regarding my travel plans.

Right now I have my plane tickets to and from S. Korea -- I leave on June 9th, and return July 5th. I believe my travel times for both trips are about 17hours each. Needless to say I am rather happy with that (other itineraries were over 20 hours). I'm getting rather excited for the trip, and am more-or-less prepared. I still have to pick up my visa in NYC (going down Tuesday and Wednesday this week), set up my Netbook (Asus Eee PC), and make sure my loans get to AU before I leave. Pretty manageable, I hope.

As for Japan, I do not hear about my acceptance/denial until the first or second week of June. Not much I can do but trust my Study Abroad adviser that I will get in, and come up with a back-up plan in case it does not go through. I still am thinking a semester or year off is in order if things do not work out, though transferring is not as pretty an option with my double-major. I already have decent progress on both degrees, so I would rather not start over. Oh well, whatever happens happens.

Here is a quick run-down of the next week or so, just so things are easier to read. I may or may not continue this with each post, or make such a list once a week. I will decide as I go.

• Monday, June 1st: Doctor appointment. Time to see if I am healthy or not.
• Tuesday, June 2nd: Head to NYC, apply for my visa.
• Wednesday, June 3rd: Pick up my visa, return home.
• Thursday, June 4th: Head to RIT, going to relax for a few days before I leave.
• Saturday, June 6th: Return home, apply for a job at the Track (NYRA) for when I come home, start packing.
  

Well, as I said this is mainly a test. If anyone reads this I would love some feedback on the style and layout, as well as the content so I know what to put in in the future.

~Daniel

Edit (6/1/2009): I received word from my adviser, I have been accepted into Waseda!