Translation Trouble, Tonkatsu, & Typhoons

Welcome back to my blog! As I’m writing this, we’re under a warning for a typhoon soon to touch down in South Korea. Only two weeks in and my stay here has never been short of excitement. While I wait out the rain, here’s a recap of the past week- including my first classes at Korea University!

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August 30th

On Tuesday we set out with high hopes and dreams to visit a samoyed cafe in the Hongdae area. You can only imagine our disappointment when the cafe’s only day off happened to be on Tuesdays. Instead, we found a meerkat cafe that was open nearby. This cafe didn’t stop at meerkats- they also had foxes, wallabies, and a raccoon. While this sounds very exciting, the reality was actually quite depressing. After paying and entering the cafe, we quickly realized that this was not the environment these animals should be living in. Their surroundings were nothing close to their natural habitats, with only cushioning from the tile and a couple of children’s toys to fill their enclosures. There was no evident place for the animals to wander outside or use the restroom (I even saw the fox relieve itself inside its own water bowl). If that wasn’t enough, the enclosures they were kept in were very small, especially for the two larger wallabies they kept together. Occasionally they would let one of the animals out for people visiting to feed them; however, it felt immoral to make these animals put on a show just to get some food. These animals weren’t made to be domesticated, yet here they were, in this tiny room being expected to entertain whoever walked in the door. Needless to say, my friends and I didn’t spend much time there.

On a more positive note, to lift our spirits (or so we thought), we visited an arcade nearby. Claw machines are everywhere in Seoul, and one of my friends may have developed an unhealthy addiction to them. As a group, we decided to try our hands at them. Let me tell you, this was SUCH a frustrating experience. The number of times I came *this* close to getting the most adorable plush Toothless out of the machine was infuriating but to no avail. We walked out with our heads hung low, venting our frustrations. However, and I don’t want any judgment for this, just a couple of blocks down, we found a store that sold all the same things that had just been unattainable in the claw machines (they clearly knew what they were doing). Since we worked so hard and the claw machines were obviously rigged, we decided we had to buy the plushes we had failed to win. I feel absolutely no shame for this and no, you cannot change that.

After walking around a bit, we stopped at a Kakao Friends store. We lovingly refer to Kakao as the Google of Korea- their name is on everything. There’s KakaoTalk (the main messaging app in Korea), KakaoMap, KakaoMetro, KakaoBus, even a KakaoHair. On their apps, they have the cutest little characters, which they sell merchandise for in Kakao Friends stores. After gushing at how adorable everything was in the store, we made our way up to the cafe on the third floor. Here, we all had fresh watermelon juice and a hot dog on a stick wrapped in sweet bread. On our way back to the dorm, we spent a couple of hours at a bowling alley we found (interestingly on the 3rd floor?). I quickly remembered how inconsistent my bowling game was, but somehow managed to pull out a win in the last game.

Finally, at the subway station on the way back, we stumbled across a display of the island Dokdo. This was actually pretty exciting for me in a very nerdy way. Last year, I took a class about the Asia-Pacific at UTSA. In the class, we discussed how Japan and South Korea have disputed territorial claims over Dokdo, and it has become a big part of South Korea’s nationalism, even being the focus of a very popular song. As I was explaining this to my friends, one of them was actually familiar with the song I mentioned. It was pretty surreal to see a tangible manifestation of what I had learned in class.

August 31st

Wednesday was the day before classes started at Korea University, so I decided it was probably a good idea to figure out where all my classes were. Again, I was hit by how beautiful the campus is, especially with all the trees. Thankfully, it didn’t prove too difficult to navigate. After we all finished walking our schedules, we headed to Yeongdeungpo-gu, a district right on the Han river that cuts through Seoul. We found a mall-like building that housed a bunch of restaurants and cafes inside. We decided on a place called School Food because the dish pictured looked amazing. It was. It was called butter jangjorim bibimbap, which consists of rice, a little butter, creamy eggs, and jangjorim (beef that’s been braised in soy sauce). This is one of the best things I’ve had the pleasure to eat in Korea so far.

Once we finished eating, we walked to Yeouido Hangang Park which lies right on the bank of the Han river. From here, you have a great view of part of the Seoul skyline. There were tons of people with little camping tents or picnic blankets eating and drinking on the grass, and others playing a small game of badminton. The view was beautiful, to say the least. They also have the iconic “I Seoul U” sign that everyone stops to take pictures at (us included). Interestingly enough, there’s quite a bit of debate around what this sign means exactly. It’s pretty accepted that it’s not intended to be a variation of “I love you”, but potentially represents two individuals co-existing in Seoul, or “Seoul, yours, mine”. Regardless, it is a cute sign with an amazing view. After taking more than enough time to get all of our photo ops in, we met the TEAN program at the edge of a river for a sunset cruise! Although the sun was almost all the way set by the time we were on our way, the nighttime skyline of Seoul from the river was gorgeous, despite the occasional divebombing birds. On the ride, we got yet another view of the rainbow bridge and its light show, but from head-on this time. Once again, it did not disappoint. On the way back, we also got to sit in on a live concert below deck that featured songs in both English and Korean.

September 1st

The first day of classes finally came! I woke up early both excited and nervous, not knowing how my classes in Korean would go. After a quick protein shake breakfast and taking my mom’s requested “last first day of school” pictures, I headed out. At the moment, I have two classes on Thursdays- Korean Linguistics and Beginner’s Korean. Once the Korean Linguistics class started to fill up, I began to question if I had made a mistake in my class. During registration, if you don’t know Korean, it’s recommended to only take classes that had English in parenthesis after the course name, as that indicates it’ll be taught in English. However, the language classes at Korea University are all taught in Korean, so I believed that was what Korean Linguistics would be. I was wrong. After sitting through the first half of class not understanding a single word except for Hangul (the Korean alphabet), I eventually found and Google translated the PowerPoint the professor was using. I quickly discovered that not only would the class be taught entirely in Korean, but it was also focused on studying the structure of the language, not learning it. Needless to say, I was quick to decide I was dropping the class. On the upside, I met the only other exchange student in the class, a girl from the Netherlands, who actually is studying linguistics and knows Korean. My second class fared better, as it is actually intended to teach Korean to those with little to no prior knowledge. On Monday we're taking a placement test to determine our level of understanding, which some people are nervous about. However, I can literally not go any lower in my class level or understanding, so it's relatively low threat for me. After finishing my classes, I wandered around campus, finding a cafe and a hotdog place (which I am discovering are very common in Korea).

Later that day, I met up with my KUBA group for Korean BBQ, still an absolute favorite of mine. This time we grilled by ourselves (or rather, I watched other people at my table grill, I don’t trust myself to cook the meat just yet). We got to have brisket, pork belly, and marinated pork- all of which were delicious as usual. This dinner I tried my first beer in Korea, the most common brand being Terra. While I’m not usually a fan of beer, this wasn’t half bad.

September 2nd

On Friday I am lucky enough to not have any classes. Instead, I let myself sleep in and later got breakfast with one of my friends. This time we tried a place called “She’s Bagel Coffee” that we always walk by. I got a potato cheese bagel that I added egg and bacon to. It also had some peppers and a spicy honey sauce that made it very messy to eat, but the struggle was worth it. The rest of the day I walked around and did some housekeeping stuff. That night for dinner, my friend and I decided to try the KFC here. Like I said last week, I do not make a habit of eating U.S.-based fast food here, but it is interesting to see what the food is like in another country. I’ve probably only had KFC in the states a handful of times, so I don’t have a good basis to compare Korean KFC to, but I found it quite enjoyable. I got the Zinger chicken sandwich, which looked impressively similar to the picture. It was a spicy crispy chicken sandwich topped with lettuce, tomato, and mayo sauce.

September 3rd

Saturday was another slower day and a late start for me. I would like to note that the lack of activity this weekend does not reflect a lack of interest or desire to explore. However, the past two weeks have been particularly busy, and with 4 months to spend here, it’s also important to rest and recover to fully appreciate all of our experiences. Okay, rant over. I spent part of the day doing a lot of reading, either for classes or just for my own enjoyment (the Game of Thrones books are addicting). Later in the day, my friend and I made our way to the Seongbuk-gu area for dinner and some shopping. We found this place called Misoya that had pictures that looked very good on its windows (if you can’t tell, this is how we make most of our eating decisions). I ordered the tonkatsu rice bowl and calamari rings. Tonkatsu is a Japanese dish that’s usually deep-fried, panko-crusted pork cutlets. It. was. so. good. Another new favorite food added to the list, surprise surprise. The calamari rings were also pretty tasty once I dipped them in the tartar sauce they provided. After eating our fill, we walked to the Home Plus, which we thought was just a furniture store, to replace our dorm pillows. Much to our surprise (and delight), we discovered it’s actually a big, three-story supermarket. Some quick highlights: huge packages of spam, garlic bread-flavored chocolate (I’m tempted to try this just to see), and mojito-flavored chips. There was also the biggest aisle of ramen that I’ve ever seen. It was a blast exploring all the different snack options available in Korea, and I will be back for that garlic bread chocolate. I think.

September 4th

Sunday! The beginning of the typhoon rain! Yay! For clarification, the past week we’ve been getting alerts about the northbound Typhoon Hinnamnor, including an email from the State Department back home. It’s important to note that the current track of the typhoon predicts it will make landfall on Monday in the southeastern part of Korea, around Busan. However, it is a super typhoon that will bring heavy rains to the entirety of South Korea, and it may be the worst typhoon Korea has ever experienced. We’ve been receiving daily safety alerts on recommended precautions to take for the next couple of days, namely securing anything that could be blown away by strong winds and making sure all windows are closed. The TEAN program has also sent some guidance on staying close to the area, keeping all of our electronics charged, and staying up to date on any safety alerts. For the most part, I am not too worried, especially with being in the north and the dorms being at a higher elevation (that steep hill may be of some actual use besides horrific daily exercise). Most likely, if worst comes to worst, we will be rained out of classes and stuck in our dorms. In the grand scheme of things, that slight inconvenience is little compared to the damage it could do to other parts of Korea. So, here I am, sitting in a cafe, writing this and drinking my coffee just in case I will be stuck inside for the next couple of days. I greatly enjoyed my iced coffee (as always) and crepe cake (literally a bunch of crepes stacked together with cream, very sweet but very tasty). I also got to enjoy a phone call with my friends Madeline and Riti back home, both of whom I miss very dearly.

Final Thoughts

Whether it's translation trouble, tonkatsu, or typhoons, I am still loving my time here. I think this week was definitely more of an insight into what my day-to-day life may look like for the majority of this semester. Although I only went to two classes, most of the things I did were organized within my friend group rather than guided by TEAN. I am beginning to feel quite at home here. I can really feel this when I’m talking with friends and family back home and explaining things- I feel very knowledgeable and remember more than I realize. I am super excited to attend the rest of my classes, especially the one about Korean diplomacy that’s taught by different former Korean ambassadors. While I am settling into my routine here, I hope to keep pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and experience every part of life here that I can.

(P.S. Mom, Dad, don't worry about the typhoon too much <3)