Clubs, Canada, and First Day of School!

I left off arriving in Sinchon so I'll just give a brief update on getting settled into the residence here and then more recent news.

June 25: After getting off the bus, a very nice Norwegian med student offered to help me with my bag because it is ginormous and I can barely carry it. He had a wheely suitcase so we balanced mine on top and wheeled it off towards Yonsei University. We had no idea where the International House was and I think he was getting tired of lugging my stuff around so I ended up taking a cab for like 2 minutes to campus and up the hill.

I-House is ok but I'd say even crappier than Lister. It's completely gender segregated and very overpriced for what it is but I guess that's life if you want to live on campus. I live with a girl from Detroit right across from the construction site of the new I-House #2. We are greeted by sounds of hammers and cranes every morning :)

June 26: The last Friday of every month in Seoul is "Club Day", which means you pay ₩20,000 and you get 1 free drink and can get into about 15 different clubs. The cool thing is that they don't ever seem to shut down the bars here...they stay open until people stop dancing. I think I stayed out until 6:30 am and there were still people left at that time. It was definitely a different dynamic with the way Korean guys approach women...will write more on that another time.

June 27: After a bit of sleep, I went out to visit MG's homestay family in Hanam. He has been studying in Korea for a few months now and this was his last night there before moving to a different family closer to the university. It was really nice to get out of the big city for half a day and experience the semi-countryside. They cooked us a really nice dinner with vegetables straight from the garden and kimchi and beanpaste that they fermented in the backyard.

Next door was a dog farm and although we tried, we couldn't get a straight answer from the family about whether they sell the dogs for pets or food. Nonetheless, there were about 7 puppies running around and the little daughter kept stealing pieces of meat to feed them.


One cute thing about the host mother was that she kept calling us her "lovely ladies" and at one point she said it was like there was a Miss Universe pageant at her home because we had women representing Canada, Denmark, Germany, and Korea.


June 29: I checked out Dongdaemun market with some friends and scored a sweet skirt/top outfit for about $9 CDN and some earrings for 90¢! Later on we went to Insadong (more traditional area with lots of teashops and artisans).

July 1: This marked the end of my first week in Korea and I celebrated by....doing laundry! I also went over to visit the off-campus housing DMC Ville and it is BALLIN! For about $150 more, they have a pool, squash courts, free breakfast service, and a driving range in their apartment building. I'm a tiny bit jealous but once again, I try to justify the convenience of I-House to myself.

After dinner in Hongdae, I tried to find a Canadian pub called the Rocky Mountain Tavern. However, my directions were crap and I couldn't find it at all so we ended up just going out in Sinchon. M, S, K, and I went to a really cool rooftop patio bar and then an expat bar called Mike's Cabin. We ended up playing "Guess Who" there and I taught them the oh-so-fun version where you say things like "Does your person have an income of less than $30 000 per year?" or "Does your person have an STD?" based on looks only. I realize that it's completely prejudiced but it's way more entertaining than "Does he wear glasses?"



July 2: Today was the first day of school and finally we have some structure to our days. I'm taking Korean Business Ethics, East Asian International Relations, and Beginner Korean. So far, my Korean Business Ethics class is super cool. The professor is all about giving us ethical dilemmas and asking us to make tough choices. Our first exercise of the day was based on the opening scene from "Vertical Limit" where a father, son, and daughter are rock climbing and the son has to choose whether to cut the father loose to save himself and his sister or not cut the rope and all 3 could potentially fall to their death. Also, our first "mission" is to go out in groups of 8, eat dinner together, and then go to a noreabang (karaoke room). We then have to take 10 pictures and post them to the class portal for a little photo contest. I'm not sure if the point is just to get to know each other better or if there is a hidden message we're supposed to take away from it about business in Korea. We shall see! More to come on the other classes...