신데렐라처럼 (Like Cinderella)

Seoul has an amazing, (usually) convenient public transportation system. It's got 14 subway lines with 8 million passengers per day (according to wiki). The subway goes to major hubs (large intersections, etc) in the city, and from there you can take a bus to other locations.


Subway map. Not to scale. I live equally close to Sillim and Seoul National University Station
(not "of Education") on the green line in the bottom middle, essentially under the "won" in "Indeogwon."

I can't even imagine how many buses there are... but ones from 11 different routes stop at the stop at the bottom of my hill. Anyway, this means that you walk to the closest bus stop, take a bus to the closest subway station, take the subway to the general area you want to go, take another bus/walk to your exact destination. With a T-Money transportation card, buses and subways are ~90 cents for the first 5km, plus ~9 more cents each 5km after. And there are free transfers bus to bus, bus to/from subway, and intersecting subway line to subway line. Alternatively, there are taxis. Fares vary based on type ('regular' or 'luxury'). There are also International ones in which the driver will call a number with a free translator at the other end (for English, Chinese and Japanese only)... but I'm not exactly sure how this works as I haven't had to use it yet. The 'regular' taxi base fare is ~$2 for up to 2km and ~9 cents each 35 seconds sitting in traffic or each 144 meters when moving thereafter.

The reason for my post title, you ask? Subways and buses stop completely between 11pm and 12am and don't start again until 5:30-6am (even on weekends!). So, if, for example (as is the case w/ my friends and me), your favorite eating/drinking establishment is across the river near Hongdae (Hongik University stop on the green line, straight north of Sillim station in the above subway map), you have to leave at ~10-10:30pm to be able to walk the 15 minutes to the subway station, ride the subway for ~30min, and still have time to catch the last bus from the subway station (at ~11:30). Or, you can take a taxi, whose fares go up after midnight, conveniently when the subways and buses stop. :) A subway/bus ride from Hongdae costs ~$1.50 per person. A taxi ride costs $14 for up to 5 people going to the same place (if not, the meter is reset and the base fare is reapplied when the first person gets out).

So, last night (Sunday, 1/27), Iza and I went to Kim Jaejoong's (side note: most Korean names are 3 syllables -- last name first, then first first name, then second first name... so in English, his name would be Jae Joong Kim) concert in Ilsan (Daehwa station, orange line, top left, above). From our dorm, it's 5 minutes to the bus stop, 20 minutes by bus, 1h20m by subway, 20 min walking. The show started at 6 and ended at 9:45.


So many people!

We had to haul butt out of the venue to make it in time to catch the last train at 10:49 (we actually made the 10:34 one). We also managed to make a connecting train at 11:22, but unfortunately for us, its final stop for the night was 4 away from Sillim, so we had to go out of the subway station, and find a taxi at ~12:30am. All the taxis right by the station were for the airport (seriously, who needs to go to the airport at midnight??), so it took us 10-15 minutes in an unfamiliar area to find a taxi willing to go to our house. Still, even as 2 girls wandering at night, Korea feels pretty safe (did I mention guns aren't sold to the public? No 2nd amendment here). Seriously. It's strange to see people leave all their stuff at the coffee shop (cellphone, wallet, bookbag, etc, just chillin' on the table) while they take a 15 minute bathroom break.... and no one bothers it.

Anyway! Back to JJ's concert.. I'm sure many (all?) of you don't care, but it was actually far more interesting than I initially expected. Jaejoong (henceforth "JJ") is part of a Korean group called JYJ (short for "Jaejoong, Yoochun, Junsu"--the 3 members' names), ironically super popular in Japan but not so much in Korea. This was his first solo (mini) album and concert effort. You can watch his first video on YouTube. It's not quite as popular as Gangnam Style (heh), but in 2 weeks it's gotten 1.5 million views. Anyway-- JJ is an interesting character. He started the show off by having everyone chant "We love you, Kim Jae-joong! 'Mine' [his song] is awesome!" (사랑해요 김재중, 마인 대박 김재중 -- "Sa-rang-hae-yo Kim-Jae-joong, Ma-in dae-bak Kim-Jae-joong") as he rode this..basket over the audience. 2 hours of audience games followed. As I'd never been to a fan meeting before, during the first round, I had no idea what was going on. But everyone stands up at the start, and when you lose/fail, you sit down, and whoever is left standing (when it's a small number) gets to go up on stage to do something w/ JJ. So, the first game was 10(ish) trivia questions about JJ. Some were super-obscure and it was kind of scary that people knew them (or guessed right)... His birthday was Saturday (1/26), so one of the questions was "on what day of the week was JJ born?" I will forever remember that January 26, 1986 was a Sunday-- but at least 5 people already knew that. They got to go up on stage w/ JJ, and play a few games to whittle it down to one person, who got a necklace from the man himself. The next game was Rock Paper Scissors (Koreans use this to decide many, many, many things) vs. JJ. This was for a flower in your hair (I'm still curious what would've happened if a guy had won -- there were a few in the crowd). The final game was just a random seat selection, to taste JJ's cooking. Yes, he cooked, live on stage with a hotplate. Hah. Imagine your favorite member of your favorite band cooking for fans and that's just a sliver of what a Kpop fan meeting is. ^^ Finally, he sang some songs, including a cover that was voted on by fans on Facebook. When we arrived, there was a glow stick on our seat, and a note in several languages saying to use it during the fan-voted song. I wish I could've taken a pic of all the lit glow sticks, but I was afraid of getting kicked out, like the girl in front of us (busted by a security guard 30 minutes in, cellphone confiscated, escorted out, never to return). I did manage to take the above picture after the show, when I figured it was safe to do so (no JJ or security in sight). Everyone spoke entirely in Korean, but I understood quite a bit. And because, as I mentioned, JYJ is so popular in Japan, there were a ton of Japanese fans there (Tokyo is just a 2 hour flight away), so all the written stuff was done in both Korean and Japanese (except the glow stick directions, which also had English). Though JJ did take a minute to greet fans in English (the extent of his English knowledge? "Hey guys! OK, bye bye!" haha), which I appreciated.

In other news... (yes it's been a while since the last blog post... sigh)... I got a haircut on Friday, 1/25. Joana and I went together to this place near her house. Iza and Ines came too, but they just sat in the waiting area. It was an experience. They give you free drinks (coffee, tea, whatever), a fancy robe, and a scalp massage (plus internet access and a laptop to use while waiting)! And apparently the owner/manager of the place came out to personally cut our hair. Yay foreigner service... I decided (while waiting and Googling around) to get some layers. The first cuts she did were my bangs, and I had to watch over a foot of hair being chopped and tossed onto the floor! I think I lost about 5 pounds of hair overall... because she cut layers with scissors, but then took a blade and added a gradient. End result?


I'm conveniently wearing the same clothes for your ease of comparison! The "before" picture is a little blurry
(taken w/ my Nexus 7) but you get the idea. Also, don't make fun of the "V," I'm trying to fit in, OK?? ^^

Class has been going well. We're getting to some things I didn't know before, mostly relating to honorific language (Korean has many intricate speech levels). For example, when the subject of the sentence is a friend (or someone of similar/lesser age), you use can use one verb, but when someone is of a higher social status (your boss, teacher, etc) or age (your parents, etc), you use a different form of the verb, or in some cases, an entirely different verb. I didn't really study this before, and it's still kind of awkward, but it's definitely interesting.


Left: Me during one of our hourly 10 minute breaks, courtesy of Ines. Right: The paper I pulled to act out
for our "Present Progressive" grammar lesson. It reads "Doing the 'Gangnam Style' dance."

Tutoring has also been going well. Tomorrow morning is my final lesson. We've been working on previous TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean) writing exam questions. They have to be 150-300 syllables per. I've generally hit the mark, but I'm not sure it's been in the allotted time (I think you only get 30 minutes to plan/write on the topic on the actual exam), so I'll have to double check that. But she's helped a lot on formatting and she's explained a few grammar points I was confused on. (Remembering that she speaks no English, this is quite a feat, heh.) We've also eaten together a few times at the student cafeteria near the language buildings. I told her how I'm not very good at using chopsticks (I can use them well enough to eat my meal, but by the end, my hand is very tired, mostly because I'm holding them wrong). So she bought me training chopsticks! Hahah...


The character, Pororo, is famous in Korea like Elmo is in the US. You can see the slots for your pointer and
thumb. I haven't opened the package yet, but these are for 5-7 year olds, so I'm hoping my adult fingers fit...

Last week I came down with a bad cold... sore throat and cough turned into sore inner ears turned into headache and runny nose. In Korea, people go to the hospital for the common cold and get injections. It seemed to help my classmate... but without health insurance, I didn't want to go. And I've been putting off getting health insurance (mainly because there isn't much info online, so I anticipated quite the hike in the cold) since I got my Alien Card on 1/4. Finally, last Friday morning, I went. Korea has a nationalized health system, where you pay 4.3% of your pay (I've read that employers pay half, so I think you only pay 2.15%) into the national system, or, if you're self-employed, your assets are assessed and from that, you pay a fixed amount per month. As a student, I have to pay 43,000 won per month, or about $38, to have access to the same health care at the same cost as any Korean (as a registered foreigner)! That's crazy. In the US, I was paying ~$150 every 2 weeks, and that's not even counting what my employer was paying. Doctors' visits are about $10 and prescriptions are $5. Where the system kind of sucks is that it doesn't cover 'optional' treatments, and a lot of treatments for rarer diseases like cancer are considered 'optional' (according to some Googling). For that, there's private insurance at a higher premium. But still, I went into the local National Health Insurance office (Sindaebang Station -- 1 down from Sillim, 100m out Exit 2 to catch the 5524 bus for 2 stops, another 150m walking), and in 2 hours (2 long, somewhat painful hours of paperwork, where no one spoke any English... thank goodness for my limited Korean knowledge), I had my insurance card (pamphlet, really):


No proof of insurability/previous coverage or health checkup required!

Random picture time:



Left: Korean cellphone cases and screen protector I bought for a high school friend.
Right: Said phone cases have a hole along the middle edge for 'charms'. I bought a stuffed owl for mine.
Bottom: I'm not sure I'll ever get used to driving (and parking) in Korea...

Food! These are perhaps the most least appealing Korean foods I've seen so far...


Left: Samgyetang, literally Ginseng Chicken Soup. The closest thing to chicken noodle soup we could find here.
Right: My gingseng looked too much like a finger to resist putting it in the leftover red kimchi juice...


Left: The end of our Jjajangmyeon (black bean sauce noodles) dinner. Super, super unappealing...
Definitely not my favorite dish, but I wanted to try it. Right: A nice Italian restaurant called Vapiano's in
Gangnam. Iza and I got (some kind of) risotto and ravioli and wine (hard to find and expensive here).

1/26 was Ines's birthday (as well as Jaejoong's!). We went to Hongdae to celebrate. We stopped at a new restaurant. No idea what this food is called, but it was a big pile o' meat with super spicy sauce and lots and lots of bean sprouts (the go-to filler). We also paid a little extra to add sausage and udon (fat) noodles.



Top: Raw and cooked pile o' meat. Bottom: Ines' cake! Finally, Paris Baguette cake, you were mine!!
This one was strawberry yogurt. So darn tasty.

I still have some homework to do for tomorrow... so... that's it for now. Hopefully the next post won't be two weeks away. These take too long to write, heh.

I didn't forget about you...

I can't believe it's been so long since I've updated the blog. Time flies! Lots of things to write about, which is possibly why I've been putting it off -- this is going to be a long post to write. :P

I had my level 1 Korean midterm last week. Monday (1/7) was the Speaking test, and Tuesday (1/8) was the Reading/Writing/Listening test. The test covered 8 chapters with 4 new grammars (sentence structures) per chapter... of which I knew all but 1 or 2 of beforehand.

Still, I've gained a bit more confidence in speaking, mostly because it seems like Koreans have 0 expectations when it comes to foreigners speaking Korean (though they're ready to switch to super-fast Korean the moment you eek out a word in their language). I'm still far, far better at reading and writing Korean than I am at speaking and listening (though I'm alright at listening to tapes, with a specified/obvious topic/grammar usage... it's entirely different when it's "real life" and the topic could be any number of things). Ah well, this is only 1/12 (or 1/14) of my Korean lessons here. And, ideally, as I know more Korean, I can participate in the "conversation exchanges" (Koreans looking for someone to speak English with) posted all over the bulletin boards outside the Language Institute.

Anyway, I spent a few hours studying on Sunday night... We were given a list of topics the speaking test would cover, but not the exact details (plus the conversation would vary based on what was said). For example, the teacher said there would be a "role play" with her dealing with one of 3 randomly-chosen scenarios, so I prepared a few points to talk about for each. I didn't study at all for the Reading/Writing/Listening test, because we've been doing those all semester, and I was fairly confident in all those skills from the beginning. Speaking is by far my weakest point, though I guess listening is a close second. It's so strange how different each of these skills are for me. I mean... ok... Reading: I know a lot of words, and I know a lot of grammars, and even if you don't understand the exact nuance of what's being said, you can get a general idea and continue on. Plus, you can reread if you miss something. :) Writing: Usually, this is not in "real time," so there's time to think about what you want to say and how you want to say it, and to go back and fix mistakes. Listening: As I mentioned before, if it's constrained (say, to the things we've learned in class), I don't usually have a problem with listening. If it can be about any ol' thing, I usually end up looking like a deer in headlights. It's not so much that I don't know (which may be the case, but isn't always), but that I'm afraid I won't know, so I panic, which makes me lose focus, which makes me not listen well, then I end up more confused than I would've been if I had just TAKEN A BREATH from the start, heh. Anyway.... Speaking: The hardest for me. In the US, I studied Korean on and off for 2 years (not 4 hours a day, 5 days a week like here in Korea), and this was the one facet I couldn't really practice, so it's really lagging. Plus I'm generally a quiet person... But I think this is most difficult because you have to come up with what to say on the spot. There's no take-backs, and if you screw it up or spend forever trying to spit it out... well, you look like an idiot. ^^

After all of that.... *drumroll*:


Translation (left->right columns): Student number, name, Writing, Speaking, Listening,
Reading, Total (100 pts). As expected, Speaking was my lowest grade: 29/30. ^^

Hopefully I can do as well on the final in 3 weeks (2/6 and 2/7). :)

I also started free tutoring provided by the school on Tuesday (1/15). It's only for 4 hours, but it's free, so I'll take it. Tutors in Korea charge $60+ an hour. My tutor is a nice girl named Eun-jin. She's in the Korean teaching program at SNU (so, this is sort of a student teaching experience for her), and she's a few years younger than me. She only knows Korean and Chinese... so spending 1.5 hours with her (1 hour tutoring, 30 minutes "off the clock" eating lunch together) and understanding most things (especially understanding enough to get her jokes) was a good feeling. :) I met her briefly today and she gave me a prompt to write about tonight so we can go over it when we meet again for Hour 2 tomorrow at 11am. I just finished it before starting this blog post. It's actually a question from a previous Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) test. I bought 3 books the other day to start studying for the Intermediate Level (I need level 4, which is 70%+ on the test) to attend grad school here. I can already get 85%+ on Beginner Level (so Level 2), but it can't hurt to review....


Heavy, heavy books.

In other news, class is done on 2/8. We have a party/certificate ceremony thing the day after the final final. I have a week to rest, then I'm moving to a new place down the road (more specifically, 4 bus stops away [2 past SNU] -- 5 minutes walking from the closest subway station). Rather than a single room with my own bathroom and hotplate, I'll be sharing an apartment with two really nice Korean girls. They're fluent in English (the one is actually from Australia), but hopefully I can get some Korean practice in. :) My room there is about as big as the one I have here, plus there's a veranda (covered deck) for extra storage... and a shared living room, bathroom (that's as big as the bedroom!), full kitchen, washer (still no dryer!). It's fully furnished, and about $100 less a month than what I'm paying here.

Some brief background info on renting apartments in Korea... Basically, there are two ways to go if you're paying monthly. You can put a large chunk of change (in the US, a "deposit"... here it's called "key money") down up front, and your monthly payments will be lower, or you can put little/no key money down and pay a higher rate per month. The idea is that the owner will invest your deposit and keep the dividends, then when you move out, you get your initial investment back. So, for example, at this room now, I paid 1500$ for 2.5 months. This includes a $100 deposit (of which $70 is returned after they deduct a $30 cleaning fee) and $560/mo rent (with "free" utilities up to $100). The new place is a $2,250 deposit (2,500,000 won), but only $380/mo, plus utilities ($40-60/mo). When I move out, the $2,250 will be returned to me. I may be could have negotiated a lower key money price in exchange for a higher monthly rent, but I have the cash, and it'll be returned to me, unlike the monthly rent, which is entirely the landlord's. Some nicer apartments have key money prices of $10,000+. I saw one on craigslist (which is used mainly by foreigners in Seoul) asking $27,000.... I'm not sure I'd trust someone with that much money... ^^ Anyway, I'm pretty excited... though I'm dreading moving my stuff. I came here with two full suitcases, but since I got here, I've bought a number of things, and I'm not quite sure how I'll get everything from here to there. Ah well, we'll figure it out.

Next up, my new cards!


Top: My bank book. Bottom: My ARC and Korean debit card.

In early December, I went to the Immigration Office and applied for an Alien Registration Card (ARC). On 1/4, I went back and picked it up. I was in and out in 2 minutes (there's a separate window for pickups). After that, I signed up for a Korean bank account at Woori (literally "Our") Bank, complete with debit card. It's interesting that in Korea, you're issued a bank book. It looks similar to a passport, I guess. It's good for deposits only, and is basically a printed listing of all your transactions. In dramas, I've seen characters hand over their bankbooks and their seal (used with ink or wax in Asian countries in lieu of a signature), essentially giving all the money in their account to someone else... I'm not sure if that works in real life, but it's pretty dramatic. :P Unfortunately, as I have no income in Korea, the only way to get money into my Korean account is via Global ATM withdrawal then Woori Bank deposit. :\ My apartment mentioned above will have to be paid this way. Transferring money between people is super easy.. you can do it for free at the ATM in <2 minutes with your bank card and the person's bank name and account number.


I finally figured out how to get 50,000 won (~$45) bills from the ATM! Go me.

Next up, my first kpop concert! Kim Jae-joong is having a concert outside Seoul (but connected via the subway) on 1/26 and 1/27. Iza and I got tickets for 1/27. Technically, Hera's friend got us tickets. We tried, and failed, to get them ourselves. The first sales night, we couldn't get the darn plugin to work. In Korea, they have a Paypal equivalent called Inipay, but it's a popup/plugin, and it only works in IE. There was a second night of ticket sales (for the leftovers/cancellations from the first night). We got Inipay working by that point, but neither Iza nor I knew enough Korean to figure out how to pay with my Korean debit card and foreign credit cards weren't an option. :( Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of Kim Jae-joong, but it should be an interesting experience. :)

Finally,... I joined the 21st century! I bought a (used) Galaxy S3 smartphone last Wednesday (1/9). My plan allows 200 minutes, 300 texts, 500mb 3G data, and unlimited wifi access for $40/mo. I can switch plans at any time, so next month I think I'm going to change to prepaid minutes and texts (that I don't use that often) with 500mb 3G data and unlimited wifi for $10/mo. Wifi hotspots are nearly everywhere in the city. In a week, I've used 60mb, and that's only because there's no wifi at my house so I have to use my 3G data here. I forgot to look at the new place, but here's hoping... then maybe I can cut down to the 300mb for $7/mo.



Top left: Phone w/ case I bought. Top right: My Nexus7 had a baby! Bottom: DMB TV that I'll talk about in a second.

One interesting thing with Korean versions of the S3 is that it comes with a built in antenna. In Seoul, there's this thing called Digital Multimedia Broadcasting... which is basically TV (and radio) sent over radio waves. So I can watch broadcast TV on my cellphone without using my data plan or anything. And, as you can see, it works well in my room. Sadly live TV doesn't come with subtitles, but it's still nice to watch sometimes. :)

And in case you're wondering, Koreans are crazy about cellphones and cellphone cases. It sort of makes sense, given the public transportation in the city. When on the subway, it's very rare to see someone that isn't watching a video (did I mention there's superfast wifi on the subway cars?) or typing on KakaoTalk (a South Korean instant messaging program that I've started using -- it's pretty sweet, free voice calls like Skype, and you can embed photos into the conversations) or talking on their cellphones. But, check out all these cellphone case options...



Top left: One of many, many similar stores at Gangnam Station. Top right: A closeup of the available cases
(for only 1 of several types of phones). Bottom: The cellphone case display in a bookstore, because you can't
really miss out on supporting the mobile market...

And finally, what post is complete without mentioning food... I know I mentioned Paris Baguette before... but... some food pictures for you:



Left: Cakes! So many cakes! Right: Macaroons! So many macaroons!
Bottom: For Christmas, Koreans eat cakes. So, Reese, Hera, Iza and I celebrated Christmas
Korean-style and bought a four-flavored Baskin Robbins ice cream cake for ~$25.

Ines's birthday is coming up soon, and I'm looking forward to buying her a PB cake to celebrate! I've still never tried a macaroon but they look tasty. So tasty that I wish there wasn't a PB in every neighborhood (sometimes more than one), tempting me to eat their tasty-looking wares...


I will, however, cave and eat some fresh-made banana-shaped banana bread that's 3/$1.

Whew, I knew this would be a long one. Thanks for sticking with me. :)