LARA IN KOREA!: ONE WEEK IN SEOUL

With my new acclaimed friend I have been discovering a little bit more of Seoul. This bustling city is really exciting. I kinda like it. Julieta, my new friend, she likes us to pronounce her name in a Spanish way as she’s from Mexico (City). So call her ‘ghoelietta’. I really like her...glad we’ve met early, when we were both trying to find our way in this new life.

So Julieta and I, we took the subway to go to the Immigration Office on Friday to get our ARC (Alien Registration Card)… It took us a while to get there. Wherever you go, using the subway is often a fun way to get around: watching people falling asleep, carrying shopping bags, playing with there phones, staring at other people... Anyhow, we were at the Immigration Office... People who like to generalize once in a while will agree with me: everywhere around the world people in administration offices seem to work slower than the average employee (is there a special reason for this?) and at those offices you have to queue a long queue before getting what you need, i.e. essential documents with a stamp on. After two hours we both finally got what we needed: a stamped paper stating that we can pick up our ARC after THREE WEEKS. I have to wait until then to be able to buy a mobile phone and get a new number. I wouldn’t mind not having a mobile phone number here, as I don’t have too many friends yet. But still it would be nice to be able to reach my few friends in a modern and convenient way. We, as modern people of the twenty-first century, are not used to make appointments in advance anymore, you know… let alone go knock their door every time you need to ask something! But my Korean was not good enough to explain this to the administration officer in a decent way! ;) Anyway, at least we will get what we need, in the end.

The next day, Saturday, we went to visit Deoksugung Palace and Nam Dae Mun Market. Both were relaxing and fun at the same time. At the Palace we were able to enjoy the ‘changing of the guards’, which seems to be performed especially for the many cheerful tourists, like us. I must say the Palace was nice, although I think and without wanting to sound cocky, I’ve seen more beautiful ancient palaces. But it was fun, because we went to sit down somewhere, and people were preparing a stage to have a music concert. We heard from some people that the concert would only be in the evening around 7pm… Way too late, we didn’t want to wait that long. All of a sudden the girls started to sing and the band was playing music. The girls could sing very well. BUT… most of all I liked their traditional dance, which to me resembled cheerleaders dancing for their winning team! They didn't wear their costumes for the concert. All of this only made it only more amusing to watch. I personally think that the Korean music and singing style is nice(r than the Vietnamese)! Especially the cheerleader moves, I kinda like. ;)

Sunday was a day for relaxing and I tried to study some of the Korean alphabet. But as typically as it could be, the book I got from NIIED/KGSP (the taxmoney organization that is funding my stay in Korea) doesn’t explain how to write this alphabet. So I searched for a solution on this world wide web, and I found it. After some studying I felt more at ease and ready for my first class of Korean the next morning… That morning we had to buy our handbooks and CD’s. Oh, my teacher named Park Kwang Hee is so adorable. I think I’ve never met an enthusiastic teacher like her before (maybe not even Niehaus Sensei;)). She tried to make us feel at ease with making jokes and say funny things. “I love my job! You are all intelligent students, so you know why I love my job… Tell me! Yes, yes! One… because I like traveling, two… because I like meeting new people, three because I like teaching, four indeed… because I can speak Korean and I can bring all the things I know to you and let you become acquainted with Korean culture. You are all smart! Don't worry, I'm here to help you!” That was a really good way to start the class, everybody felt more comfortable. With many powerpoint presentations and photographs she started to teach us how to read Hangul consonants, vowels and also how to mix them into syllables. After exercising and a lot of repeating we had a dictation and played a game. We were divided in two groups and each team had to suggest a person who can write well and one who can read well (wasn't me of course!). It’s the kind of game we played in primary school, didn’t we?! I felt 8 again :): the two readers of each team had to look at the Korean word the teacher was showing only to them, read it as fast as they could and whisper it into the ear of a fellow teammate... then that persons transmits the word to the next and the last one of each team had to write it down. Of course some male individuals of our class, with their haantjesgedrag, were competitive and getting nervous when it didn’t go fast enough according to them…

They say the Korean educational system is one of the best! Now I understand why, we should play games more often, even in university... just to relax more and have fun together! B)

This afternoon Julieta and I had to go to our banks to get the CMS thing sorted out. CMS is the system our university SNU uses to withdraw money from our bank accounts to pay our dormitory fee. It’s like ‘gedomicilieerde betaling’ in Belgium. It’s not easy to get it though because we didn’t receive our student card yet and also don’t have a mobile phone number. Mobile phone numbers seem to be something EVERYBODY in Korea has. They ask for it all the time, and when you say you don’t have they look at you with a strange face as if they hear it thundering in Keulen! ;) Julieta’s bank is near the faculty of Humanities, not far from our dorm. Whaw!!!! What a nice area! A lot of students were hanging around there. While I was waiting for her to get things arranged in her bank, I watched the students pass by. Many of the girls are really dressed up. At least, it seems to me they are, maybe it's normal that they walk around like Sookey. It just feels like watching True Blood with asians all the time! I wonder if they go to class like this, or they just dress up to walk around the campus and show off their new wardrobes… :)

I think choosing SNU was a good choice of mine. I also had the opportunity to go to Korea and SungKyunKwan University, these universities are more in the city center and probably nice too. But I heard from a fellow student that Nicolas, my Belgium colleague who is in Yonsei University, is having a little bit of a hard time. Foreigners nor Koreans are willing to seek contact with him easily and everything is double the price (food, dorm etc.) because private universities like Yonsei and Korea University are NOT funded with government money. And if it’s not the taxpayer, somebody still has to pay for it, right… ;)

Some noteworthy remarkabilities, according to me:

*There are no mosquitoes around here, although it’s hot weather!

*Fresh and hot water is basically free EVERYWHERE… except if you really want to get a bottle and pay for it in the supermarket of course. But in restaurants in the dorms, offices and so on you can always drink free water from a watermachine-you-know-what-I-mean!... in many public places you can drink water from the special taps.

*They really do eat KIMCHI with EVERYTHING, with EVERY dish. I think I ate it already in the morning too as breakfast. ;)

*Almost all girls wear high heels and many also hot pants, and still their legs are white as fresh milk from the cows.

*It hasn’t rained since Tuesday!

*Koreans love recycling, many things are so organized and logic! We can learn from them…

*There’s an annoying woman’s voice that welcomes you every time you enter the elevator of my dorm. She also says which floor you’re getting out too.

*Not many European students on my campus...

*My roommate still didn’t arrive yet (I don’t mind having a dorm for myself, just curious about who it will be…I hope it will be a Korean girl!)

*We doen hier niks anders dan eten! (twee tot drie warme maaltijden per dag, maar het eten is vrij gezond en niet al te vettig dus ik zal waarschijnlijk nog niet direct van de heuvel kunnen rollen :))

*Samsung everywhere!!! but my Samsung phone doesn't work... :@

So long,

Lara from now on better known as 라라

SEOUL*SUBWAY

but not your friend

Eating in uptown Seoul

Changing of the guards at the Palace

Beautiful skies everyday, it's for free in Korea! ;)

Alien grapes: the shape is funny and the taste aswell, but delicious!

Cheerleader moves

Een nonnetje!

Als dit geen afrodisiacum is, dan kan ik niet aan mijn elleboog likken...

<3 Nam Dae Mun Market

hmmmm lekkere varkenspoten

De aubergines zien er hier toch ietsken anders uit..

Iets zoet dat we kochten

Mangtou voor de mannen

Voor de vrouwen dan?

Julieta's gezicht lijkt verdacht veel op dat van mij!!!

Our funny faces

De bus om van de campus weg te geraken is altijd volzet..

Nog maar een week hier en dit is al mijn favoriete TV-zender: EBSHD, ze tonen er steeds interessante docu/koreapropaganda voor traditionele Koreaanse dingens... zoals hier bijvoorbeeld hoe een typisch Koreaans gerecht wordt bereid.