Three Months In, One Month Left

Wow. Time has flown by. Today marks one month left here in Seoul, and I don’t really know how to feel about it. I guess bittersweet is the best way to describe it, but more than anything it just feels weird and surreal. Regardless, three months in I’m still managing to try new food and see new things every week.

November 13th

Sunday was a pretty laid-back day. My friend and I got our favorite comfort food here- dumpling ramen from the green grass place down the street. Unsurprisingly, it did not disappoint. We then headed to a new cafe we wanted to try out to do some work, the Korea University branch of Jeongwangsu Coffee House. We were a fan of the vibes, not too busy or loud. Some other cafes are packed or blast music, so it makes studying difficult, but this one got it right. The night came to an eventful end when my roommate and I realized we had a new friend in our dorm- a house centipede. It is one of the freakiest bugs I’ve ever had the unfortunate opportunity to see AND it was on the ceiling. They’re not as long as the typical centipede, but they have a wider body, 15 legs, are usually tan, and are way faster than they need to be. House centipedes are actually a good thing because they eat other insects, but neither of us wanted a creepy bug crawling around our beds. So after my ingenious idea of putting my sandal on my umbrella for a little more reach and coaxing the centipede away from the beds with water, it was put to rest. I’ll spare you the discomfort of attaching a picture of what they look like, but if you look it up, I think you’ll understand.

November 15th

Tuesday after our classes, my friends and I headed to a shabu shabu restaurant in Anam that I was recommended. You know how I mentioned the workers at the last shabu shabu place we went to walked us through the whole process? Yeah, that was a one-time thing, we were left entirely to our own devices this time. So we took to watching what the group at the table in front of us did and when. This shabu shabu came with brisket, lots of mushrooms, even more bean sprouts, onion, potato, and an unknown green leafy vegetable. We were also given some rice noodles to add to the pot which was delicious. The only regret was that they didn’t have rice paper to make wraps with. However, the real star of the show was what came at the end. Once they saw we were slowing down, they poured the contents into a bowl and took our pot. After a bit, they came back and the pot now had fried rice in it. I have no idea what they did, but I have never had fried rice this good. Something about cooking it with a little leftover broth maybe. It had a little crunch to it and was just beautiful. But over a week later, my friends and I are still talking about how amazing it was.

November 16th

I finally got my ARC (Alien Registration Card)! With just a month left. Super necessary (it actually is, now I’ll be able to re-enter Korea after going to Japan). After my friend and I picked up our cards, we wandered around the area by the immigration office in Jong-ro. We happened upon a mall with an entire floor dedicated to an LoL (League of Legends) Park. E-sports are super big in Korea, and they have very successful teams. They had a decked-out PC cafe where you could play League, a restaurant, a gift shop, and a hall of fame for the different teams. I made sure to send my brother lots of pictures to make him jealous. For dinner, I just grabbed a quick burger. The important meal of the day was trying delimanjoo for the first time. The name is short for 'delicious mandu' (the Korean word for dumpling), and it couldn’t be more true. It’s basically a sponge-like cake filled with custard and shaped to resemble corn. We’ve walked past them being sold in subway stations countless times, and wow, we have been missing out. You also get 12 of them for like $2, so what’s not to love?

We finished up the night by trying yet another cafe- Cafe Pine. This has got to be one of my favorite cafes so far. I loved all its decorations, the music isn’t loud, there are two stories, and they even have little study rooms you can work in. Needless to say, I see many a study sessions happening there in the future.

November 17th

Thursday night my friends and I got some K-BBQ, with pork belly, brisket, and short rib. This time I actually cooked a lot of the meat, something I was previously too scared to do. That’s what I call growth. I’m also slowly becoming an expert on making lettuce wraps, but eating them in one bite like you’re supposed to is seriously tough. I personally like putting meat, rice, bean sprouts, toasted garlic, and whatever sauce they have on mine.

November 18th

On Friday, my friends and I ventured further Sinnae bound than we ever have on Line 6 (basically further east?) to Hoegi. We started the day off with brunch at a place we found close to the subway station. I got the bacon jam sandwich. It came on squid ink bread (which I love) with pesto. We then found the Artbox store we came there for. Artbox is pretty much just a design stationery store that has so much cute stuff. After spending a dangerous amount of time there, we walked around some more in search of a cafe to do work at. And wow. We found another new favorite, this place called 8Street. We all fell completely in love with the atmosphere, it was so cozy AND there was a dog. We pretty much spent the rest of the day there. For dinner, we tried this pizza place called 17 (like P17ZA). My friend and I split a pepperoni pizza and carbonara pasta, both of which were so so good. I also was able to have some wine from South Africa!! On our way back to the subway station we found the most adorable, delicious-looking bakery. Everything looked incredible, but we were unfortunately stuffed from dinner and overwhelmed by the sheer number of pastries available.

November 19th

Saturday was a great day- we were finally going to Nami Island! We met up with the TEAN staff at around 9 AM and then took the 2-hour bus ride to the area. When we got there, we all got dakgalbi chicken, which is stir-fried chicken, vegetables (squash, cabbage, etc.), and tteok (rice cake) in a gochujang-based sauce (red chili paste, but it’s not spicy). We also had lettuce on the side to wrap the stir-fried food in, along with bean sprouts, garlic, and onion. It was good, the chicken was so tender and I will never, ever complain about tteok. After a bit, a server came around again and added rice with seaweed to the pan. This was also good, but honestly, we all got a little tired of having so much of the gochujang sauce and there was so much seaweed. But overall, it was a great meal.

After everyone finished eating, we headed to the ferry that would take us to the island. Nami Island is an absolutely beautiful place. Even though most of the leaves had already fallen off, all the trees and leaves on the ground were a pretty sight. There were even some rare spots with pops of color where the leaves hadn’t yet fallen. We even got to ride a sky-bike, which is basically a seat you pedal around a raised track for a better view of the area. Probably the most iconic part of the island is this path that is lined by these tall, straight trees on either side. However, our favorite part was the tiny bunnies that popped out in front of us at one point. They were so cute and compact and just all around adorable. We also loved that they crocheted little sweaters for some of the trees. It was a fun trip but a tiring one- I think all of us passed out on the bus ride home.

November 20th

After the long day before, Sunday was another laid-back day. The main highlight was finally trying the soup dumplings we kept seeing on the sign outside of a Chinese restaurant near the university. We sat down, figured out what we wanted to order, and marked it on the little ordering sheet at the table. Enter the confusion. What did we do with the sheet- do they come take it or do we bring it to them? If we bring it to them, where do we bring it? So, of course, we returned to the trusty ‘wait and see what other people do’ trick. After pretending to be busy for the next ten minutes, we saw a group take their sheet to the counter, so we followed suit. Boom, problem solved, no biggie. The food starts coming out, and we’re hype. Enter problem number two- too late do we realize that we get a dish that we did not order. This was our worst fear coming true. We don’t know how to say it in Korean, and we didn’t want to be rude. After a couple of minutes of stress and uncertainty, we pull up Google translate and tell the server. Way easier than we thought it would be right? She was super nice and took the dish away. Only to return with it and our ordering sheet which shows that we did in fact order said dish. We were just stupid and didn’t line up the items correctly. In our defense, everything was in Korean, but it’s not much of an excuse. The server politely asks us to eat the dish since it was made to our order, which, of course, we do. The dish we accidentally got was dandanmian, a noodle soup with a somewhat spicy sauce, vegetables, and pork. It was actually delicious, so our mistake worked out in our favor. We also got pork soup dumplings and Xinjiang-style stir-fried noodles with vegetables, eggs, and leeks. All of it was amazing, despite our embarrassing fumble of the simple ordering system.

November 22nd

Tuesday, after a very interesting diplomacy class from the former Minister of Trade for Korea, my friend and I wandered around the Anam area to discover new places to try. After marking a bunch of restaurants and cafes to try in the future, we ended up outside of this Thai place. My friend’s family is from Laos, and due to the proximity, there are similarities between the two countries’ food, so she was interested in trying it out. The place was called ‘Pepper’ in Thai. My friend and I both ordered a combo that included beef rice noodle soup and egg rolls. Following my friend’s guidance, I added chili flakes, sugar, and fish sauce to my pho, which made the already delicious broth taste even better. The beef was also incredibly tender, basically falling apart in the soup. While maybe not as good as Little Papa Pho, it was still amazing. We finished up the night by getting some fresh fruit juice from Fruta. I got the mango juice, and it came in the cutest packaging.

Third Quarter Reflection

The sudden realization that I have just one month left in Korea was a very shocking one. It’s definitely caused me to start doing some reflection on my time here and going back. I knew I would get used to living in another country, but I didn’t know I would be this used to it. And that I will probably never experience it like this again. I am looking forward to seeing all my friends and family and sharing everything I’ve done and learned. But there are things I’ll miss too. I already know I’m going to miss the proximity and walkability of everything here and the convenience of public transportation. I also get to try something new pretty much every day at a reasonable price, I know I won’t have that back in the states. But more than anything else, looking back on everything, I am so grateful to be able to do this. So many people aren’t able to travel or study abroad, and I am lucky enough to be one of them.