Oh nothing big or anything...

I'd just like to tell you about my last two days at work. They were completely normal. 재환 clawed my face so hard I have a small, baby fingernail-sized red mark on my chin. 유진 gave me a raspberry (or mouth-fart, whatever you want to call it) that was so loud (Morgan, you'd be proud) and surprised me into a fit of laughter that made the shocked babies all laugh in response. Yesterday the weather was nice so we took the three eldest on a walk to a nearby park. Then we gave them baths. It was a quiet past two days... nothing else happened.

JUST KIDDING.

WELCOME TO CELEBRITY VISITAS!
Thats right ladies and gentlemen. It is the latest fad to show how humane and loving you are by volunteering for an hour or so at your local adoption's nursery! You just come on in and look pretty for those babies and the world will realize what a good person you are.

This means that on Monday a little known celebrity from a group called 2NE1 came to visit. She is just the leader of the group. And the most awesome, bamf, female rapper in the world. YES, CL came to Holt with her sister and some manager-like people. She fed my favorite, 지훈, during mush time and the really attractive man she was with fed 유진 his mush, and I stared at them while absently shoving a spoon full of mush in 도진's face.

She brought five teddy bears for all the boys. It's the same bear that she is obsessed with, called Rilakkuma, and takes everywhere with her:

It was amazing. CL was just sitting there, hanging out with the babies I've spent the past week with, and I couldn't believe it was real. I mean this: 

was sitting mere feet away doing this (photo from her visit to Holt last year):

She was really nice. She laughed a lot with the babies and seemed so relaxed, so I felt bad when all the other student volunteers and I got her autograph, but she was really nice about it. She is supposedly fluent in English, and she spoke really well, but (I don't know where this criticism is coming from because I love 2NE1) what she said to me could easily be rehearsed lines for meeting fans, "Have we met before? You look familiar. What's your name? What a cute name!" etc. but regardless I felt like the queen of the world when she said that to me.
CL wasn't wearing makeup so we couldn't take pictures (she is known for always wearing tons of eye-makeup) but I thought she looked really pretty even with a bare face. She looked a lot younger and more, I don't want to say normal, but more real might suffice. I was shocked at how skinny she was. For some reason I pictured 2NE1 as a more normal sized (i.e. not anorexic-thin) KPOP group, but that might just be because of their attire... because CL is without a doubt, the skinniest Korean I have met this summer.
I stayed 30 minutes overtime because CL was there, and I would've stayed longer if I didn't have a meeting with a friend (love you Jongyoon! ㅋㅋㅋㅋ)
But I have to say, seeing CL as a real, laughing, breathing person has only made me admire her and 2NE1 more. I am currently trying to get tickets to their show when they come to Japan this fall. ;)


Yesterday another celebrity came, 김지수.

 I honestly had never heard of her before (she has been in several Korean movies and dramas I haven't seen) so she was really just another pretty (and super skinny) woman in my eyes... and I didn't stay overtime to watch her.

Now I'm off to my last day at work (NO DON'T TAKE AWAY MY BABIEZZZ)
I wonder if anyone famous will come today?

-성냥개비

Ketchup (Gangnam Style)

- Part 2 of the Double Post Monster -

Warning: If you had difficulty with Part 1, run away while you still can. This post is truly a Monster. (or take it in small doses)

AND NOW YOU GET LEARN ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE THAT HAS HAPPENED THIS SUMMER! (with the help of Psy)

yaay.

So first I would like to inform you that I am afraid of old people. Great.

(and to prevent horrid misunderstandings, I'll state more diplomatically that dealing with elderly people makes me uncomfortable and I often don't know how to act other than smile nervously at them.) Super.

While on the subway one night, I was standing next to the door, trying not to stand out too much, and old man approached me (trapped me in a corner) and asked in pretty good English, "Is this the last train?" I didn't know, so after a moment of staring into my confused, helpless, and terrified eyes, he left me. But I have a question for the world: WHY DID THIS HAPPEN? I am very clearly a foreigner. I know little to nothing about the subway schedule and if I did know the schedule, I don't think there is any actual way of knowing if the train we are on is the last one or not... Also. Old man. You are Korean. You are on a train full of Koreans. I am the only foreign person in the whole car. WHY DID YOU APPROACH ME? Was it to show of your English proficiency? Bravo. You creeped out this foreigner while being completely comprehensible with your pronunciation.

While on my class's excursion to the Southern area of Korea, we stayed in a traditional home one night and the very kind old couple running the place made us dinner. Before serving me the fabulous fish she had cooked, the old woman grabbed my face and encouragingly nodded. Letting my face go she said, "예쁘다. 너무 예쁘다." Basically saying that I am pretty. Thank you old woman. I was nervous about having to approach you for fish, but I like fish, and the tour guide was raving about your fish, so I took my chances and then you grab my face. I know you probably didn't mean any harm. Maybe this is how you greet every foreigner (she did not do this to the other Harvard students that I saw). If that is the case, next time i will wear a mask or be sure to go swimming in a bee swarm before asking for some fish. Or dance through flying garbage foam stuff.

Not so pretty now huh? Just feed me, please.

There was another incident with an old woman coming uncomfortably close to my face and telling me I am pretty, but I must've blocked it from my memory with terror since I cannot recall any more details. Wait it was at the interview we had with the traditional Korean dance troupe. One of the elder performers came up to me after I was tired and sweaty from squatting to look through the camera eyepiece for the whole interview with the main performer. I did not feel pretty at that moment. And that woman's make up scared me up close.

Korea. You are a great place. But your old folk scare me.
As do old people in every country. But Koreans are more bold.

On the note of interviews here is a short summary of who we interviewed*:
*(we interviewed a person from the Korea Tourist Organization, but since I wasn't there I won't talk about him other than he gave us lots of free stuff - so I wish I had met him)

- Professor Cho, who I first thought was just a ballet professor at Ewha, but is actually the director of the Ewha Center for Performing Arts - one of the most well known of such centers in all of Asia. She was really fun and smart. So much of what she said was brilliant that we had a hard time cutting down her interview. She also gave us candy and when we left we gave each other dramatic ballet farewells with bows and curtsies and arms reaching out to one another. She is awesome.

- Traditional dance troupe. We went to film their outdoor performance which included four different routines of women wearing beautiful costumes and dancing. The final piece was a solo of an old women that had the whole audience of 40 or more (all old men) cheering and clapping. This soloist is the leader of the dance troupe and the lady we interviewed. She was pretty dramatic with her statements about, "Protecting traditional Korean dance until I die". But was very nice and let us take a picture with her at the end.

- Random audience members at a novice dance competition. One was an awesome old guy who went up and owned the audience participation dance competition dancing to "Gangnam Style".
What? You don't know Psy's Gangnam Style?

 GO BE ENLIGHTENED: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

- Jinjo crew. ONLY THE COOLEST B-BOY CREW EVER! They competed at an international B-boy competition called R-16 that Christian filmed earlier, and won the performance division, and we somehow called the right manager (and used the word "Harvard" a lot to get them interested...) to get an interview scheduled. We went to their studio, and when we walked in they were all sitting in a circle on the dance floor eating dinner (did I mention they were all shirtless and glistening? And that they are all hot? No? Okay I'll just keep my inner-seizure to myself).
They were all really friendly and cool about the interview even though we were like blumbering (blubbering and lumbering) baby walruses learning to swim with the camera equipment and interview questions. Christian and I introduced ourselves in broken Korean and they acted like we were babies learning to walk. I proudly spoke my smooth, memorized intro with some complex grammar bits I learned in class without pause. Jinjo seemed impressed. Then one of them asked how old I was (something you learn in the first week of elementary Korean) - and my mind was completely blank. My "fluent in Korean" cover was blown in less than a minute. I tried to cover with a "in Korea or America?" because ages are different here but I'm pretty sure no one was fooled. SMOOTH GABBY.
The interview was fine, we got a photo with them (my current desktop wallpaper), and then they ran through some of their routines for us and I cheered like the brain-dead fan-girl I'd become in their presence.

I still keep on imagining how I could've acted differently during that interview to make myself less of a loser... from breaking out my awesome "stunts and stumbling" dance class moves to responding to their teasing "Have a boyfriend?" question with "Need a girlfriend?"
Instead of what I actually said: "No..."
All in all, it was really cool, and I appreciate b-boying so much more after meeting them and making this documentary.

My film course was pretty good overall. Our film ended up being just under 10 minutes and it won the audience favorite award at our fancy screening event - Team Blue pride! <3

Things I will miss when I leave (since I am leaving in half a week OMG NO THIS CAN'T BE):
Music announcing the subway's arrival.
Cute couples with matching plastic surgery and underwear <- LOL JK NEVER HAPPENING ㅋㅋ
팥빙수
My babies (the babies at Holt, where I'm interning/playing with babies every day)
My dorm room's air conditioner (both my Oregon home and Harvard dorm lack this...)
Bad and/or obvious English words/phrases
김치 and side dishes and Korean seasoning and KOREAN FOOOOD
찜질방 (Korean sauna)

More wonderful examples of English (version "lets describe everything in one English phrase under our Korean store name")
"Waffle and something" - good because I AM CRAVING SOMETHING
"Bagels and sand" - what? no cream cheese?
And general statements like, "Yoga makes you happy and life better" or "The perfect blend of tea and milk to make you happy". In the States you'd need an official doctor's statement of acknowledgment to go around with statements like that. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Observation: When I was going to work one morning I saw a girl calming eating some corn on the cob as she walked like it was a Nutrigrain bar. Apparently that is normal here, but I never could imagine eating corn at 8:30AM... corn is for Thanksgiving... and other feasts in my book.

Speaking of work, really quickly I forgot to mention the absolutely crazy radio station that plays in the nursery. It plays the randomest songs of all time. Sometimes the music goes well with nap-time, like Chinese lullabies, Mozart, and soundtracks to Hayao Miyazaki films. Then it plays hard-core Korean rock, followed by an operetic "The Water is Wide", followed by the "Lady Marmalade" from Moulin Rouge, followed by "Lalala it's Love" from the Korean drama Coffee Prince, followed by an extremely twangy-country version of "Sweet Home Alabama". It blows my mind. I honestly never know what song will play next. At least "Gangnam Style" played while the babies were awake so we could all dance along.

EDIT: 

I have deleted the final few paragraphs after re-reading these old blogs with nostalgia. The paragraphs I deleted were more than just embarrassing (and yes, a lot of what I wrote on this first trip to Korea and my first time in Asia was embarrassing) but these paragraphs were honestly offensive and just incorrect. I wrote this almost ten years ago now and have more perspective and yes, I was very wrong. 

Let me just summarize why I am wrong: Just as every person on this planet has a different personality -  every person has their own genes - every person has their own preferences for playing outside. You cannot say blanket statements about an entire COUNTRY of people after a summer in one city. So yes, if anyone remembers what I wrote about skin tone I apologize. I was absolutely wrong.

*back to original blog post*

... is it safe? Okay. Thanks for reading this monster. (Congrats if you did in one sitting)
Later,
선냥개비

Working

- Part 1 of The Double Post Monster -

(continuing from my last post)
Simplifying things so you will understand why I titled it "Sore arms and a happy heart"
유진 wouldn't go to sleep during nap time, and as I have become his favorite person to take advantage of due to my gullible heart, I carried him around for a. very. long. time. to make him happy/fall in love with me further (muahaha).
Wednesday was also the day the volunteers began trying to speak with me to learn more about where the heck I came from. Part of our simplified Korean conversation was while I was carrying 유진 around. They first started talking about how cute he is, then pressured me into confessing that I like him best (지훈 still has a special place in my heart though...), and then to their current mantra about how much he loves me/we are great together/I should take him with me to the States this next week when I leave (holy toilet paper, I am leaving in a week). 유진's overflowing love with his giggles and smiles and hugs has truly filled up my sort of lonely heart. Really. This summer I think I hugged a person once, and high-fived a few times with my film crew, and that was the extent of my physical affection. 유진 and these babies are making me really appreciate human contact and making me feel really happy. It's just what the doctor ordered! ;)
Later that day (still Wednesday) a bunch of us Harvard/Ewha folk went to hang out by the Han River where there are lots of trails and strips of grass to hang out on and little light/water-work shows to watch. As I hadn't done a full regular work-out I started doing some of the basic tumbling/gymnastics on the grass and climbing a tree. Where that energy came from... 몰라요...

The next few days my arms were very tired from: a) moving bed/bed parts, b) supporting 2012 babies, c) carrying 2011 babies, d) gymnastics, e) climbing trees, f) eventually returning to the basic exercises.
Yes.

Okay. I really wish I could record every single thing that happened at work Wednesday to today, but since I'm sorry you have to read about my entire summer anyways and I don't think I would finish writing so much before bedtime, this is a going to be a very inadequate Sparknotes version of the highlights of my past five days at the nursery.

- 유진 and my relationship has grown a lot, to the point that I can tell what he wants most the time and he actually crawls over to me to complain sometimes instead of the head volunteer ladies that are basically the babies mothers who have been with them every day of their lives. When 유진 won't go to sleep, the volunteers just give him to me like, "okay. Whatever. He's your problem now since he's beyond us." Then 유진 looks at me with a triumphant gleam in his eyes then his tiny little hands cling to my apron and he smiles and I forgive him for being a complete brat that should be asleep. Every day when I wave bye to the babies, he stops what he's doing and almost sprint-crawls to the elevator, while all the other babies just wave happily.
I've gotten closer with all the other babies too. They recognize me when I come in each day and remember things that we've shared. In particular ever since I fed 정우 his mush he has treated me completely differently. (Food is power after all)

- Every time a volunteer learns I go to Harvard, they are confused first, then make eyes at the other volunteers, and then, as their opinion of me has changed, I am treated in various different ways.
Good ways:
Most the volunteers take my general incompetence in stride and just smile while I do things wrong and make big, helpful hand-gestures and slow-Korean/English-talking until I do something more acceptable. I am really thankful for their kindness and patience, they make my day worthwhile, along with the babies magic of course.
I have not been asked to clean the rooms since my first day.
Even though it was barely raining today, I was stopped from leaving unprotected and lent an umbrella.
Not so nice ways:
Some of the older volunteers (who fortunately have only come in a few times while I'm there) completely ignore me - which is quite understandable. If I had been working somewhere every week for a couple years, then some being who claims to be cool because they are from Saturn (a foreign place meant to be analogous to the US in Korea) and some big-name Saturn College for mysterious smart/rich/spoiled aliens (... Harvard) that really doesn't give them any qualification to be at my workplace, I would give that alien a cold shoulder too, especially if it was expecting special treatment while actually just getting in the way of my work. BUT. But. But but, some of their behavior is actually rude. In a way I cannot ignore.
Like after 도진 drooled I went over and cleaned him and the floor around him up briefly but definitely adequately, then one of the student volunteers came over and cleaned him up like I hadn't done anything at all. Multiple times. While I'm sitting right there, with a rag full of drool still in my hand, and 도진 very clearly no longer has anything on his face that needs to be wiped off. That only happened one day, but it really shocked me. I went and sat away in shock for a while and just watched everyone because I felt so unwanted. Thankfully I haven't had to work with her since that day. She was really competent with the babies, so I could tell she had been working there for a while.

- Things I find funny:
The Ewha student volunteer aprons all look the same. Yellow with a heart in the middle. And right above that fluffy pink heart, embroidered with care, is the word "Booby".
I try my best every day not to laugh when I see those aprons.
Thankfully my apron is plaid, with some embroidered Korean that I don't understand.

재환. 재환. The little devil, 재환.
This boy is amazing. He is the most impatient of them all. He's started learning to climb out of his crib because no one is helping him out of it when he wants. If he sees a baby being fed some crunchy cereal thing that he want as well, nothing will stop him from obtaining that. He climbs over the other babies. Then screams and cries or smiles and guilts you into giving him some treats too. He is extremely observant if it concerns something he desires. He understands how all the doors and drawers open, and height is the only thing stopping him from opening everything and walking out on his own. He will without a doubt be the first to walk. Instead of constantly craving the volunteers attention, he will go by himself in a corner and train. He stands up, balances as well as he can, falls down, gets back up, and tries again.
The time I feel like we really bonded was when I helped him train balancing and helped him "walk" across the room.
Even though he doesn't offer much love and affection, he is and endless source of entertainment. And he has a killer half laugh/smile combo. ;)
Future lady-killer/con-man, I'm telling you.

- 2012 baby development
Today 준혁 was determinedly rolling and finally crawling! Poor 준회 still is so confused and frustrated about crawling. We tried to help him, putting one arm in front of the other and pushing his feet, but then he just balances on his stomach and extends his arms and legs as far as he can off the ground, without moving anywhere. Then after several attempts and losing breath, he starts crying in frustration.
The two boys have a really amazing relationship. They can spend quite a while just staring at each other. They "talk" to each other. 준혁 tried to pat 준회's head (but really just hits him). And if 준회 is laughing while lying on his back playing with the dangly toys, 준혁 also starts laughing (even though he was complaining a moment before and still doesn't have any toys to play with) as if seeing 준회's joy makes him happy as well.

Alright. That's most of the highlights of work. Also... I heard that a very special guest will be coming for "community service" tomorrow, but since I don't want to get your hopes up along with mine, I won't say who it is until I find out if this is reality and not some dream. ;)

Thanks for reading part 1!
- 성냥개비

Sore arms and a happy heart

heh.
Hi there.
This isn't three days late. I'm not a liar who said I'd be posting daily. I haven't been sleeping everyday instead of doing anything productive...

If you can forgive me and continue reading, I shall summarize things that happened the past three days and promise double postings this weekend to catch up on past events that need to be shared (cough the interviews cough).

So Wednesday, I put my phone next to my pillow, determined to wake up and do a double work-out (one in the morning and one... sometime after work) and unfortunately the Fates made my flailing-sleeping-Gabby arms knock said phone into the Most Evil Crack of DOOM (in between my bed and the wall). So I woke up early to the alarm along with a double-loud vibration of my phone buzzing against the bed and the wall. I'm certain my neighbors wanted to kill me.
I'm sure you're wondering, "Gabby, why didn't you just reach down and grab the phone between the bed and the wall?" - And I would answer, "IT'S IMPOSSIBLE. DON'T ASK QUESTIONS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"
But actually these beds are terrible. They must be custom made to fit just too perfect in every room. I was half convinced they were molded to the floor as permanent structures. They are not like the moveable, organize your room however you want beds at Harvard. (I don't know if this is unusual or normal compared to other dorms). They are giant and wooden and heavy with drawers on the bottom and I already lost my way too expensive Korean literature textbook in the Most Evil Crack of DOOM's neighbor (crack at the foot of the bed) and gave up trying to fish that out ages ago.
But my phone wouldn't shut up. And it was more expensive. So I attempted the impossible.
I pulled out the two giant wooden drawers with my clothes still in them, tried reaching under the bed - and there's a different wooden pannel that blocked me mid-way to the wall.
I tried to move the bed with my mighty arm strength thinking that without the drawers, the bed would be lighter. It didn't budge.
I easily threw off the mattress next (lies, it was super awkward - mattresses (mattressi?) are not friendly) and then tried to move the bed.
It was probably my imagination, but I thought it moved slightly. So I ran from one end of the bed to the other, "inching" (not the length of an inch, but that verb hopefully can mean "moving very slightly so maybe a microscope could tell I was moving it") the bed along for several minutes or a while.
My alarm was still going off.
When I thought that the bed must've moved enough I somehow DID move the bed enough. I reached down and got my phone with the tip of my figures and celebrated by turning of that awful alarm and exploring the disgusting amount of dust and past students random things that had been consumed by the Most Evil Crack of DOOM.

I didn't get a run in that morning, but I certainly got a arm work-out.

At the nursery I spent my first real chunk of time with the 2012 babies (due to the 2011s sleeping much longer during nap-time). Let me introduce:

- 준혁 (june-hyok) - February 2012 baby. This boy smiles at everyone and I know plenty of guys who spend hours styling their hair to look like how his does all the time naturally. He is currently mastering the roll. Most the time he can get from his back to his stomach and back, but if he starts crying, 75% of the time is because he got stuck/couldn't figure out how to roll. I also enjoy lifting the toys he is holding onto slightly so it is like a mini bicep building routine for him.
- 준회(june-hee) - January 2012 baby. He is much fatter but not nearly at 도진's level. hehehe. He is also incredibly adorable. If he starts crying, I find lifting him up to "stand" while supporting him makes him satisfied. It also is a grueling workout because he doesn't actually have the strength to hold himself up unlike the 2011 babies. Imagine lifting a barrel of manageable weight up and down from the floor to comfortable carrying stance. Okay that's not too bad right? That's like lifting the babies up to carry them. Now imagine squatting and holding the barrel away from you and straight out. Much harder yes? It's five times the workout of carrying babies, I swear. I couldn't last more than five minutes at a time.

They are both very similar in that they have giant eyes that seem permanently open. They watch everything so carefully. They must be learning so much. You can tell that they are growing so much everyday. Everything seems like a muscle-building workout or visual treat for them. It just makes you feel really awesome to be around them.

Wednesday was also a big day because a new baby arrived. He is only around 20 days old. It's kind of terrifying how small he is. When I held him, I thought if I moved too quickly I'd break something, but he fell asleep immediately, which made me feel pretty baby-suave-y. He has some developmental problem with his throat and cannot swallow milk normally so the nurse had to come in and insert some tube contraption through his nose to feed him. It was pretty dramatic. Everyone crowded around and no one talked, making it very tense. I think the student volunteers became squeamish at the sight because their faces made it look like the nurse was personally murdering the baby instead of helping him...

And I shall dramatically end here for now because I am falling asleep.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Internship Adventures 2 - Meet the Babies

Greetings readers!
I am currently extremely sore and tired. But the blog-writing must go on, as they say. (who are "they"? Just... people you don't know...)

Today I attempted a double work-out so I woke up early early and treadmill-ed (I'm making it a verb. Shut up) to the inspirational recording some girls used while doing German Jazzercize. Don't ask. Then I left for work about an hour early to not repeat yesterday's late-loser-incident. I found the office right away, so to kill time I attempted some exploring/wandering and was intimidated by the large number of old men sitting on every chair available by the street (by bus stops, rest stops, parks, in front of stores, etc.) and they stared twice as much because I wandered back and forth right in front of their noses.

I then went to work about ten minutes early because I was tired of wandering/enduring old-man-stares.

Here's a basic run down of my work day:
Take off shoes.
Go up elevator to nursery.
Put on apron-thing.
Stare at babies.
Help with daily morning clean (vacuum, wipe down every surface and toy, wash/fold diapers)
Play with babies.
Move babies.
Clean more.
Play with more babies.
Give babies milk/juice.
Play with babies more.
Feed babies baby mush.
Take off apron-thing.
Go down elevator away from babies.
Put on shoes.
Leave.

That's it! No really. I guess I didn't mention that playing with babies involves a lot of carrying babies to calm them down after they hit their heads on something. But yeah. That's it.

The nursery has a head nurse, regular volunteers who come almost daily, and student volunteers who come once a week. We all wear aprons.

There are two main rooms with five beds in each, so the maximum capacity of the nursery is 10 babies. I was curious as to why the babies were divided five in one room and two in the other, and my current hypothesis is that they are sorted by age. There are five babies born in 2011 all in one room and two 2012 babies in the other. I spent the majority of my day with the older babies because more hands/eyes are needed to take care of them.

I shall now introduce you to the babies. (unfortunately I felt too creepy taking pictures, but maybe I'll get photos someday)

Now it's time to MEET THE BABIES

- 유진 (like Eugene) - the youngest of the 2011 babies. He is a lot smaller than all of them even though he was only born a day after 도진 (maybe it's such a great contrast because of how big 도진 is...). He hardly has any hair, but he has at least six baby teeth he shows off a lot with his toothy, satisfied grin. I think, because he is smaller, his legs aren't as strong as the others, so he prefers swinging in the doorway-baby-swing to the baby cruzer things. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about so it's time to GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH:
This is the swing - only imagine it indoors in a doorway:

This is the cruzer walker thing:

And now you understand my language.

- 도진 (like Eugene, but take off Eu and replace it with Toe) The second youngest of the 2011 bunch. He is by far the biggest. He has a big chubby face and little baby fat rolls all over. Isn't funny how fat on babies is fine, cute even, but as soon as you become a kid fat is TABOO. Fat rolls? Don't even. Somehow I ended up carrying him the most today and my arms feel it. I can imagine him being a comedian because he laughs a lot and is really lovable. When I left and said "bye, bye" he immediately sprint-crawled across and out of the doorway after me unlike the other babies who stared/waved. So I sort of love him. :) He and 재환 enjoyed trying to take my glasses (I'm almost out of contact solution, so I've been wearing my glasses a lot) and are really pleased when they see me without them. He almost stabbed himself in the eye once he had a hold of my glasses... so I will be more careful. He also really likes music/singing. One of the volunteers likes to sing brassy Korean kid tunes, and he become enraptured every time unlike the others.And finally, his favorite sound to make is "엄마" which is Korean for "mom" but he just says it all the time, so I don't think he associates it with mothers and just likes the sound of it...

- 정우 (chong-oo) The middle baby. He unfortunately has a folded/distorted ear and is a little slow, so I think he might be slightly autistic. I was honestly expecting most all of the babies to be like 정우 or much worse, guessing that that would be why they were up for adoption and not in the foster program either. But 정우 is the only one and he's really pretty normal/cute. He is really calm most of the time. He has the softest hair. I fed him mush and yogurt today. Yeah.

- 재환 (jay-hwan) The second oldest and the future lady-killer. This baby boy has the cutest smile. Even when he knows he's doing something wrong like getting into the cloth diaper storage, he just looks back and smiles at you like, "You aren't really angry with me, riiiiiight?" and try as I might, I can't keep a serious "I'm very angry right now" face at him to make him stop. He has the classic trouble-making-child hair that sticks straight up even after you pat it down. When he got a hold of my glasses it took me a few minutes to get them back/keep them out of his mouth. I assume he is teething a lot, because he tries to bite nearly everything from the toys to the laundry basket to my arm. He can be pretty determined, like he is the only one who can balance standing up for short periods without holding onto anything/someone supporting him.

- 지훈 (ji-oon) The oldest born September 2011. (he's sort of my favorite... but don't tell any of the other babies that). He is going to be a movie star (the type that wins awards because he takes acting seriously) or president or scholar or some awesome respectable thing that has him walking around in a suit, making everyone admire him from afar. You can just tell. He is really smart. If you say, "여보세요?" (what Koreans say when answering the phone) he lifts his hand to his ear as if answering a phone. And if you say, "안녕하세요?" (Korean greeting usually followed by a bow) he does the cutest, sudden head nod. And when some of the volunteers sing a certain song, he'll clap his hands and throw his arms up at the right moments. And he does all of this with a completely straight face. Unlike the others who grin in hope of you praising them, he focuses almost all the time. He is the most solemn baby but also just so cute. His crawl is more like a glide where he pushes off, slides forward with arms extended, pushes again, glides - it looks like he is swimming. When we put all the babies into chair-like-blobs to feed them mush, he did some kind of flip thing and escaped the chair, then proceeded to watch me very seriously as I fed 정우. His seriousness also makes his laughter that much more adorable.

I must say that after today, I imagined what most the guys I passed on the subway back would be like as babies and wasn't nearly as intimidated as I usually am... haha.

After work I basically crashed. Probably a combination of waking up super early, working out, and lifting babies all day has turned me into a blob that refuses to leave my bed... Tomorrow I will achieve double work-out! I think I can, I think I can...

Aside from sleeping I've been "researching" for my internship. That's right. I've been watching videos of Korean babies on YouTube. And I've re-watched a super great Korean show called "헬로 베이비" which is Koreanized English for "Hello Baby" where idols get to raise a baby and it's super fun. Check out some images of SHINee's "Hello Baby":

So many baby kisses...

And ^^ this ^^ ladies and gentlemen, is why I love SHINee's Minho. Best surrogate father ever.

And it is now the time to sleep... I stayed up an hour later than I intended already.

Bye bye!

- 성냥개비

Internship Adventures

Allrighty. Today has officially (sorry I seem to use this word a lot) been Day 43. Less than two weeks left here! D: Oh nooooooes.

I do want to keep you all updated with what is currently happening while also sharing some of the great past experiences I've had. So bear with the time difference of what will follow for the next few posts.

Today in a nutshell:
Couldn't find my subway transport card, so I left the dorm late, was running behind schedule, showed up at the first place Google Maps suggested I should go (I planned ahead I promise) but nothing was there, went to the other place Google Maps suggested and that building looked pretty official with "Holt" (the adoption agency's name) all over it but there were also signs all over that I accurately guess-translated as "We've moved". There was one little map thing, which inspired my last post... It had what I assumed was the old office-representing-dot, and two common bank dots for my "landmarks", and a line representing an intersection that DOES NOT EXIST, and another dot for the new office.

I wandered. I wandered a lot.

I searched around in the absurdly hot weather, sweating in my fancy internship-I'm-serious-about-work-clothes that were only slightly wrinkled from lack of wear but becoming increasingly sweaty, and I shouted aloud in victory when I found the new office.

I was only 20ish minutes late... my first day....

Sorry, speeding things up, I show up at the office, the kind lady was disappointed in my non-fluency of Korean, called a bunch of other branches, finally decided to just throw me in the nursery, gave me a tour of said nursery (WHERE SEVEN OF THE CUTEST BABIES RESIDE), introduced me to the people there, gave me some gifts, told me to come much earlier tomorrow, and set me free.

So my work day was about 10:50-12:15 today. Not bad huh? And I get to spend my final days with BABIES! wjgiaowe;gfhof;jGBAFOQfwo;f ~~!! <- Excitement

I bet I'll be sick of diapers and crying pretty soon, but those babies are CUTE so I will strive on!
(Rough life huh?)

I did some errands, boring boring. Went to the fitness room at a different time and discovered a whole new crowd (a bunch of stick-thin girls rotated in and out of the room after measuring their weight on the scale, and staring at themselves in the mirror, some of them stayed to walk on the treadmills a bit) and for several hours after that, every time I looked in the mirror I was convinced that I was a giant.


OKAY.
Just have to express further frustration with the billions of couples I'm surrounded by every day. STOP IT. I've seen girls seriously dabbing the sweat off of their boyfriend's faces at street corners and fixing their hair. And guys stopping in the middle of the street to tie their girlfriend's shoes. AND SO MANY COUPLE SHIRTS/SHOES/HATS/EVERYTHING. Really. I think you all make it pretty obvious the way you all cling to each other as if some evil foreigner will snatch your beloved away on the subway and giggle and poke each other on the escalator where I cannot escape your sugary bliss - DO YOU REALLY NEED MATCHING EVERYTHING TOO? Really? Really. REALLY??? I can see that you are together. No really. I can. IT'S OBVIOUS. You do not need matching flashing shoes or matching bright yellow pink-heart speckled shirts to make it more obvious. I mean really.

This has been "Really?" with Gabby, and her lonely, single, alter-ego Gabby.
FYI the real Gabby is an independent woman who is not moved by the overwhelming love surrounding her... not moved I say!



Sorry I probably won't get to retelling the actual interviews for my film project in this post (SOMEDAY I promise it's coming), but here is a very funny event that happened on the way:

While on a bus to another shooting/interview there was a really adorable little boy who was the only one talking on the bus. I guess on most public transportation loud talking/riff-raff is generally not approved of, but this little boy was really cute. He must've been 4 or 5. He was asking his dad questions about everything he saw through the window in a loud, high-pitched voice that was even higher because of his enthusiasm and curiosity. He was sitting on his father's lap and his father constantly tried to shush him. Eventually the person sitting next to them got off, so the boy was placed in the aisle seat probably with the hope that there wouldn't be anything else for him to question from this new position.
I was sitting across from him in the aisle...
So when this adorable little boy started to scan his new environment and we made eye contact, I instinctually smiled into those cute eyes, which is something most Koreans don't do, particularly on this bus.
The boy was completely enraptured by my beauty. Haha, kidding. He was probably shocked. Or terrified.
He immediately turned to his father and asked in a somewhat lowered voice, "누구야? 뭐야?"
I quickly turned away and tried not to laugh out loud. He asked his father "Who is that? (do you know her?) What is that?"
His dad hushed him again. And I spent the rest of the bus ride trying not look at the boy who wanted to figure out what the heck this monster lady was. I'm a sucker for curious kids. They are so refreshing compared to everyone else here that just stares for a long moment then ignores me...

Sigh. It's bedtime! More exciting posts to come I promise!
TOMORROW IS BABY DAY! :DD

- Me, 성냥개비

Directional note

Just wanted to quickly express how most directions are given in "약도" or "direction map" form in Korea with a lovely representation made by yours truly:

This pretty much covers it. If you are lucky there will be two lines, which you would be accurate in assuming are roads. If you are lucky, you will recognize one of the random dots as your current location or nearby your current location. If you are doubly lucky, it will have some sort of "you are here" indicator, but, as this is too rare, I did not include it in this map. 

Thing 1 and Thing 2 will be extremely common things like a bank or 7 Eleven that you are supposed to use as landmarks, but as there are billions of these (think starbucks), it usually does not help. You will think you've found it, but after taking five more steps, you will see another one.

Easiest to recognize is your destination because hopefully you know where you are trying to go. 

The dots representing the "location" of these extremely random things are haphazardly placed on the map. Usually they are next to the streets which are helpfully unlabeled and usually don't represent the actual direction of the street. If the dot is very far away from the street, it is also probably somewhere nearby. Maybe.

Be warned. Objects in map are never to scale.

Good luck finding anything! If you aren't a "direction person" you better magically make yourself more capable, because your rental phone sure as toilet paper won't have any fancy GPS stuff to cover for you.

Work-out Woes

Hey errrebody!

Sorry this is not the post about the awesome interviews I mentioned last time. In fact this post doesn't have anything in particular to do with Korea other than the fact that this event took place while I was in the dorms during my summer in Seoul.

This is a incident that happened tonight, mostly about me, and how stupidly competitive I can get, and how pathetically hopeless I am around men.

I just had to write about it so I am and that's that. Arrr, matey! Sorry, angry pirate Captain Gabby here. Going away now.

I have been recently over-inspired by Olympic athletes to work-out about 100% more often than I did before. This is why I went to the little fitness room in our dorms again tonight.

It's a pretty simple place with a handful of treadmills, bike things, weight lift things, and a mat. Pardon my use of extremely technical jargon.

As it is so small, it is very obvious when someone else is working out. This isn't some fancy gym where you can find a corner to work-out in and get in the zone away from the people swimming laps the floor below. You know when someone else is working out. Or maybe I'm just paranoid.

I tell myself I prefer empty/private places to work-out, so I was very happy to walk into the fitness room and find it empty. I started my 15-min warm-up on the treadmill. Happy Gabby.

Then some chick comes in. Angry Gabby.

She's doing something else and then toward the end of my warm-up comes over to the treadmills and starts power-walking. Pah! That's weak. Smug Gabby.

I finish my warm-up, stretch a bit. Then come back to the treadmills where the chick is now jogging. I start my main 40-min work-out. Bring it on. Fired-up Gabby.

THEN a group of four young guys come into the room. Panic Gabby.

They start doing push-ups on the mat. Lift a few weights. Do other manly man things. FYI I don't have my contacts in, so all of these observations are not particularly precise. These guys could have really just been buff girls or 70 year old men and this post will seem more pathetic... but pretend everything I say is fact and I will be happy. Thanks. Right, but then they (the guys) all come up to the treadmills where I am currently doing a system way too vigorous than I should in an original attempt to scare away the first chick. Three of them start sprinting at about my pace, and the forth guy I think was terrified of my old-work-out-clothes stench or the planned system displayed on my treadmill - so he decided not to get on the last treadmill next to me and went back to lifting weights. Nervous Gabby (who is also somehow more fired-up than before).

We all continue running on our treadmills for somewhere between 5-10 minutes. Though I am listening to music, the sound of all our pounding feet overthrows the base-line. I start feeling tired and my stomach starts turning. I shouldn't have eaten all that Tokbokki for dinner a few hours ago. I start imaging when would be the best time to give up and try to slip out of the fitness room unnoticed. About to Barf Gabby.

떡볶이 Tokbokki - for those of you who would like a visual to truly encompass my pain

Then, amazingly, all the guys jump off their treadmills in a huff. Their manly, fast running-ness, had ended. Leaving me and the other chick (who left a little afterwards) in victory on our own treadmills. I felt so relieved at first and then I felt unstoppable. VICTORIOUS GABBY.

Unfortunately, the guys went back to their weights and other things, but like I said, one is aware of everything anyone does in the gym. So I was very aware that the guys were aware of me, some white chick who somehow out-ran them on the treadmill. I knew (or was pretty sure, or just paranoid) that they were curious about my ambitious 40-min system that happily flashes the time remaining and graphs what I've done/have left to do. I completed one increasing speed interval thing, and with 18-ish minutes to go, the graph showed I was about to start my second interval and go even faster. No way could I do this, but the guys started casually hanging around the one weight-lift thing nearest my treadmill. They wanted a show. I was determined to do it. My treadmill's brand isn't "STUBBORN" for nothing. Fighting/Show-off Gabby.

I start the speed up. I'm at the 11 speed about to go to my system's highest 12 speed. I have around 9 minutes left. I'm getting dizzy/light-headed, so I'm not sure, but I think that only one guy was left watching me. Then suddenly I must've caught my head-phone cord with my flailing arms, because my iPhone went flying up, then speed off the treadmill belt thing behind me. I don't know what's happening but want my music, so I think I press the walking speed or pause or something, but end up stumbling off the treadmill to retrieve my iPhone, but my hands are too sweaty so it slips out of my grasp the first time. Then I try to pick up the pace again to finish my work-out/regain composure/pride but I'm pressing the wrong Korean-labeled buttons with mysterious functions... and I give up. Embarrassed Gabby.

That was way more detailed than I planned. I will now try to summarize the rest more briefly:
I wanted to stretch on the mat, but there were two guys doing some fancy-weight lift process/doing more push-ups. I would've stretched on the floor, but they other guys kept going between their various machines so I would feel in the way. I had to awkwardly wait a bit. When they (the mat-dwelling folk) went to get different weights, I sped over and claimed a corner of the mat to start stretching.

Then I discovered how awkwardly sensual the stretches I've been doing my whole life (safely among girls at my old dance studio) are when in a small space among young men who are speaking another language that you don't understand but immediately assume they are talking about you and you are sweating too much and you just want to be left alone...

After the straddle stretch and my splits, I felt like they were all watching me way to closely to do the abs/butt work-outs I normally would and could not imagine being watched as I do them. So I finally left feeling like I was too attention-grabbing for my own good.

Then when I got back to my room, I looked in the mirror (up close because I still don't have contacts in) and discovered that I had mascara rings around my eyes and my whole face was gosh-darn-it-I-spilled-spaghetti-sauce-all-over stained red. Maybe I was more of a comic sight for them than a sexual one...

Notes to self:
1) Wash off any make-up before going to the gym.
2) Try going to the gym at odder hours to avoid other people and the tragedy that will inevitably ensue due to my competitive nature.

The End.

I am about to start my two-week internship which should leave me with lots of free time = my new goal  of posting here daily! Be prepared...
잘 자요!

- 성냥개비

RANDOM KOREAN THINGS

Okay. Bear with me. I have a feeling I will be pulling my second all-nighter this week with more all-nighters to come, and right now will be my only chance to post so it probably won't be very coherent.

Today is Day 30 and I only have 26 days left in Seoul! I can't believe my time here is over halfway over. This week we are making the final edits of our documentaries and presenting them Friday at a fancy closing ceremony. This means I won't get much sleep but the end is in sight! Soon I shall be able to enjoy Seoul with much less stress and obligations.
FYI: my Korean class will have one more week after this week and then I will have two weeks of internship.

Instead of telling another Korean adventure in detail, which I just don't have time for, let me briefly summarize some of my observations. I shall call it, RANDOM KOREAN THINGS!


To start off, I would like to dispel the notion you may or may not of heard - "Men in Korea are so gay."  First of all, that is not a politically correct or polite statement to make, and second it is just not logical to group an entire population and declare them something like feminine. Korea is just like the US or any other country, everyone is different. Some people might be more feminine than others. Celebrities (male and female) may get more plastic surgery and wear more make-up than some may consider to be "normal", but regardless, that is not something I am here to judge.

Okay, I'm sorry if that became too serious all of a sudden, but I felt it was necessary considering some of my "Random Korean Things" might seem like I'm trying to support the "feminine Korean men" notion which is not the case. I've seen enough Korean B-boys and Taekwondo masters and whatnot to know that Korean men are some of the "manliest" guys I know. I just find some of the things I've seen guys doing here particularly interesting and different from what I am used to seeing back home. Okay. Thanks for understanding this. Now onto RANDOM KOREAN THINGS:

- THERE ARE MIRRORS EVERYWHERE. I don't know if it's because Koreans are particularly concerned with their image or afraid their face has changed in the last half an hour, but I find the amount of mirrors here disturbing. Every single bathroom stall I've been in each has it's own mirror on the door at about person-sitting-on-toilet-eye-level. So while you are doing your business you can stare into your eyes... and I just have no idea. Make entertaining faces at yourself. View yourself more. Something. This goes for dorm bathrooms, public bathrooms, ALL THE (women's) RESTROOMS. Even more startling, there are mirrors in every shower stall I've been in. The shower stall in my dorms each have their own mirror. When I went to 찜질방 (A place with public baths, saunas, ice rooms, furnace rooms, norebang (karaoke rooms), EVERYTHING) the showers next to the baths each had their own mirror by the shower head as well. I'm getting sick of staring at myself actually. By the time I go back home, I'm going to be a full-fledged narcissist.

- As you've probably noticed from my other posts, Korea is "random English word" obsessed. Some of the English is cute and make some sense, like this delicious restaurant/cafe called 스푼레이스 "Spoon Raise". But then there is an underwear store called "YES". Really? An underwear store. 
With a bunch of YES all over it? Really? 
Forget about getting a woman's consent before you knock her up, her underwear clearly says the 
answer.
 >.<
I want an underwear store called "NO". Or "Hands off". Or "Look at your life. Look at your 
choices." 
Or "WHAT. WHAT. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"


- Silly things I've seen Korean guys doing: 
At a Korean BBQ restaurant, two guys were sitting together analyzing something very seriously on 
their computer screen, so of course I looked to see what it was... 
They were looking at dresses. Like on a clothing store website, in the woman's clothes section, 
looking at a bunch of pictures of dresses. What.
Maybe guys do this all the time, but I've sure never seen it. And I've certainly never seen it in public.
In a restaurant. What.


In 울산 (Southern coastal town) I saw a guy rocking heart-shaped sunglasses with white frames. 
Nothing else about him was "feminine". He just owned those sunglasses.
I saw another guy with a floral umbrella (lots of Koreans (male and female) use umbrellas to block
the sun and not tan) I just don't see many guys with flowery umbrellas...


In a restaurant with lots of messy, delicious, spicy food, there were aprons for the customers. But 
my friends and I didn't use them. And I honestly didn't see anyone else using one when we arrived.
But when we were leaving the restaurant I saw a table of five or so guys, all wearing these pink, 
floral aprons while they were eating. It was a funny sight.


- Koreans hate bugs. Especially girls. Just about every girl I've met absolutely freaks out 
when they see anything from a moth to an inchworm. I can understand hating mosquitoes. I 
currently have three annoying bites on my feet. But what was once humorous is sort of getting 
annoying... I mean. Aren't ladybugs cute? And butterflies pretty? It's too confusing.


- There are overly affectionate couples everywhere. 
Everywhere. 
EVERYWHERE.
I almost miss the overly sexual and inappropriate couples from the States because couples here are 
always doing the ridiculously cute, lovey-dovey stuff that makes me want to barf and round-house kick 
them apart at the same time. 






















Here's a couple getting stuffed animal prizes for each other...











And now back to video editing. I will have lots of stories soon about all the awesome people 
I've met through interviews for this project. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ


See you on the other side.


- 성냥개비     <----- This means matchstick in Korean... but the second half sounds like my 
name Gabby. So this is now my "Korean name"

Doesn't it look just like me?

FOOD and Not Adventures

오래간만예요! Today is Day 23 and needless to say, a lot has happened since I last posted.

I've begun to use my second roll of Korean toilet paper. Only 22 more to go! Maybe I will donate my excess rolls to random locations/people in Seoul... or put 20 all in one public bathroom stall. Decisions, decisions...
Oooh. Here's an incentive to comment on my blog: Post your suggestions for what I should do with my excess toilet paper below and I will announce/follow-through with the best idea! ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ <- Korean laughter (think evil "kekekekeke" - that's what I imagine, but I'm sure no Korean would tell you that)

Tonight I also did my first load of laundry in Korea and unfortunately it was not the epic disaster-adventure I was hoping it would be. I was expecting an exciting overflow of soap suds and the washer to explode from putting in too much detergent. Or all my clothes to be dyed one color. Or my socks to go missing. Or at least the dawn of the CLOTHING MUTANT reign. But alas, my clothes are just a bit cleaner than they were before and smell kind of weird because the dryers smell weird and I didn't have nice-smelling fabric softener (nor any bad-smelling fabric softener for that matter) to put in the dryer with it. I fear I am much more domestic than I hope I wasn't. Moving on.

Last week my film course brought me to travel the Southeast, somewhat coastal cities of 경주, 안동, and 을산, throughout which I had absolutely no internet connection. Hence no word from me for so long. But before I describe any more (non)adventures I promised you a KOREAN FOOD GUIDE:
Basically eat everything.
Done! 


ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Just kidding. But I actually have not disliked anything that I have eaten here. Truly, just eat everything.
I shall now present you with KOREAN FOOD PICTURES:

BEHOLD: 팥빙수

Sort-of-not-really pronounced: PAt-bing-SU

팥빙수 is the greatest dessert of all time. It is shaved ice with a glob of red beans hidden in the middle (you can't see it in these pictures). The ice can be flavored like green tea on the left, or strawberry(?) on the right. It also often has a scoop of ice cream on top. And finally, like almost every dessert, drink, or special food in Seoul, the surface is carefully decorated to look fantastic. On the left you have tapioca balls arranged in an aesthetically pleasing way. On the right, chocolate and vanilla sauce is on top of pineapple and cherry tomatoes and bananas and grapes and honey dew - ALL INSIDE OF A WATERMELON SHELL. IT'S GENIUS I TELL YOU! KOREAN FOOD IS GENIUS!

NOW MOAR POTOS:

         

Now you might notice something about these photos, and indeed with 팥빙수 as well. Korean food is almost always "family style" or sharable. The common Western/American conception that "This dish is MY MEAL because I want it for me. And it is mine. My food. And I will eat it because it is mine." doesn't really exist here except at McDonalds or Taco Bell. I think it's really great because a) it's much easier to split the bill, b) you often can try more kinds of food this way, and c) it creates this magical, happy atmosphere of camaraderie and friendship that Americans lack. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ So c) is a bit exaggerated, but eating "family style" really does make eating more social and fun with everyone trying the same dish that you all can react to. I don't know how to explain it so... just come to Korea and try it yourself! :D

ONE MORE FOOD PHOTO:

This is my favorite Korean food: 죠스떡볶이

떡볶이 is roughly pronounced: TOCK-bok-key

I just love this dish. 떡볶이 is rice cakes and fish cakes swimming in spicy red chili pepper sauce and just sooooooo gooooood. 죠스떡볶이 is supposedly a particularly spicy 떡볶이, but like most Korean dishes that had been flagged by locals who baby all foreigners about how spicy the food is, I do not find it as unbearable as I apparently should. I admit that this dish and a few others I have eaten have been spicy, but not, "Oh my! My mouth is on fire and my eyes are watering! Give me all the water in this restaurant because this is food is SO SPICY!" kind of spicy. Eat this dish with some delicious pig intestine, 순대, and drink the delicious and refreshing 쿨 피스. Then you will find your meaning to life and happiness and stomach fulfillment.

So I have to sleep now or be a zombie in class tomorrow, but I have so much more to share that a new post will definitely be up in a few days. To wrap things up with a friendly toilet seat brand, "HELLO"

Why, hello there, rear-end. Have a pleasant time here in this lovely land of bathroom stalls.

GABI OUT

MONSOONS (don't trust Jumanji)

Whew! Sorry, but it looks like I'll be lucky to post once a week. Our schedule is BUSY. I'm barely able to get all my homework done, so this post is actually a few days in the making. Maybe I'll start writing short ones more regularly (even though I really want to write longer). Anyways, I apologize for the delay. Now onto updates in Korea!

Today is Day 11.
I just brushed my teeth with brand new, mysteriously clear, less than a dollar, Korean toothpaste! It tasted like what one would expect less than a dollar toothpaste to taste like...
And I've recently discovered that the shampoo I bought is actually conditioner. Yay.


English in Korea - Stating the "obvious":

Good name

Or... are you?

Updates on Korea in general:
MONSOON SEASON IS HERE! It has not been raining nonstop and flooding like the monsoon in 'Jumanji' (and what I was expecting) but it does pour pretty often. It would actually be pretty similar to Oregon weather except that it is fifty bagazillion times more muggy/humid. I have somehow managed to make it through the rain without an umbrella, but this brings me to my second Korean Adventure story...

Day 9 - A Drenched Adventure
Some Harvard students and I set out after our classes to run some errands like paying for our dorm room fee, buying shampoo, toothpaste, and whatnot (I even intended to buy an umbrella). It was sprinkling a little bit when we set out, but I had my "summer rain jacket" on and was fine. We went into a bargain store inside the subway but soon heard some mysterious booming noises. Was it thunder? Was the Democratic People's Republic of Korea attacking... with cannons? Was it all a dream?
Well it was thunder (I know, boring) as we discovered, climbing up out of the subway. And it was raining, not just cats and dogs, but whales and elephants and hippopotamuses and moose and... other big animals. I thought that the horizontal rain that the Oregon coast can attack with was as bad as it could get (I was wrong). People were running into the subway for cover, dumping their umbrellas in our faces, and making it generally hard to get out of the station. I pulled up my hood, took a deep breath, and gave my other rain jacket-ed comrade a nod, and then we set off running into the rain for the dorms.
Just about everything went wrong.
My sandal/shoes broke after running one block. My water-logged, cotton pants determinedly sought to make me half nude, so I tried to hold them up. But my hood also persistently flew backward, so then I'd try to hold it in place over my head - and then my pants would slide off again. And finally, let me just say, "summer rain jackets" are not meant for monsoon season. I might have been dry for the first few seconds, but that was it. If anything, the jacket made it more difficult to run in the muggy, hot weather. So the jacket was sticking to me soaked through with both rain water and sweat.
I did make it back to the dorm eventually. The three layers I had under the jacket were also soaked and it looked as if I had come back from the dead (a drowning death of course). And yet, somehow, magically, my wonderful rental phone's case was mostly waterproof, as was the fancy-shmansy leather clutch that had my wallet and other papery things inside. Yay for the little things...
Also, as I'm sure you have inferred, I did not buy an umbrella while at the bargain store. I doubt it would have helped.

When it has not been pouring down rain I have seen a lot of Korea. A bunch of us went to 이태원 for dinner and tried to not be mistaken for hookers (simply because we were in that type of an area wearing dresses and were foreign, a lot of guys eyed us). Earlier that night I went to see the Krokodiloes perform in Seoul and was chosen for the first time to be their Name Girl! Yay! It was doubly fun because... well, I love all the Ewha girls in my class but have recently realized that I have not met any Korean guys at all. So it was nice to talk with a bunch of boys who I know well and are fun to be with. And don't look at me like I'm an exotic fungus growing on their big toe.
Another night a bunch of us went to a 노래방 (Korean karaoke) in 신촌, where I discovered I do not know KPOP songs as well as I thought it did (lyrics? what are those?). That night I also saw my first completely blacked-out girl, dragged into a cab by four guys. I've been warned about Korea's "drink till you're dead" motto, but this was the first time I saw it with my own eyes. That chick looked like one of those cartoons where all the bones disappear and the character flops around helplessly. Yup.
Another day I went to 남대문시장 for filming footage for one of our projects. It's a pretty cool traditional market where the vendors are expert tourist-nationality-guessers. They would just look at me and say, "We have English menu!", "Hello lady!", "Real Korean tradition!" and would change instantly to Japanese or Chinese when the next potential customer who was either Japanese or Chinese walked by.

Okay, this is a bit too much to expect most people to read so I'll stop here. Look out for a Korean food update coming soon! (But actually, I've eaten so much. And have no time to work-out. This is a disaster. A really delicious disaster.)

안녕!

Gahbi

Arrival in Korea: A Toilet Paper Adventure

Hello, world.
First, I just want to say that I will do my best to document my adventures in this blog but may leave some grammar behind in the process. It all depends on my mental state at the time of writing. Sorry Ms. Richter and/or any other English teachers of Gabby's past.

Background for Gabby's current adventure:
Right now I am in Seoul for the summer to study Korean literature and language and filmmaking and a short internship at Holt. I am currently safe and sound in a dorm room blissfully basking under the air conditioner (a piece of modern technology that Harvard dorms lack). The weather has been warm-ish and muggy but the monsoon season hasn't begun yet (though the weather forecast predicts the deluge will begin this weekend). Today is officially Day 4 of my Seoul summer, but let's start at the adventures from the beginning:


Day 1 - A Toilet Paper Adventure
The bathrooms in our rooms at Ewha are empty save for a sink and toilet, so my first mission to acclimate to Korean life was to purchase my very own toilet paper. The night I arrived I set out with another Harvard student, neither of us knew where we were going, and scanned store windows for our elusive yet essential rolled up friend. We eventually found a store with four giant, 24-roll packs of toilet paper crammed in a corner with the bread/bakery items. Figuring that 24-rolls would more than suffice, we went to pay and were informed that the toilet paper packs were buy one get one free. So, now armed with 48-rolls of toilet paper, we made our way to the door, where the assistant stopped us to give us complimentary peach tea drinks (which were DELICIOUS). Thus my official first impression of Koreans was: Here, have everything for FREE!! :D

Yay free stuff!

Now that I think about it, we probably got the deal because of how obviously foreign and confused we were (and still are...).

If you think that being white in Korea makes you stand out, try walking around with 48-rolls of toilet paper. You will reach new heights of "person most likely to be stared at on the busy street at night". Also I acquired two new mosquito bites on my neck along with the toilet paper that night, but thankfully drenching myself in bug spray has prevented more of my blood from being stolen.

Another new favorite pastime is reading the random English sentences that cover Korean business signs, advertising posters, and stationary, among other things. Sometimes it makes sense! Other times... not exactly. This gem below is a 2012 planner sure to make dreams come true.

I understand that ts and fs are confusing. But this is just funny:

Until next time!
- Gabbeh