Week Three: Still Registering For Classes.

Just like that- another week has passed. Last I left you all, my fellow Seoulites and I were bracing for the typhoon to hit. While there was a lot of rain, the endless predictions of intense weather in my area were slightly off. This week I got to once again endure the epic highs and lows of Korea University registration and attend most of my classes.

September 5th

On this very rainy Monday, I made my way to campus for my only class of the day- Beginner’s Korean. All we did in class was take our placement exam, which was pretty humorous for me, as I understood none of it. While I did put some effort into trying to detect any patterns among the Korean letters, I believe the results were feeble at best. Rest assured, I am not too advanced in Korean to take the beginner's class (I know, I’m surprised too). On the walk back to my dorm, I walked through one of my new favorite spots on campus. Outside one of the larger buildings on campus, there’s a speaker that’s always playing some upbeat song. It always either gives me encouragement for the long walk ahead or lets me live a little “I’m in a movie” moment. For lunch- hold onto your seats everyone- I cooked ramen!! For those that know me, I have very limited experience cooking and this was, embarrassingly, my first time making ramen by myself. But it was delicious, and I’m now convinced I’m destined to be a cook. The rest of the day consisted of relaxing, reading, and listening to the aesthetic sound of rain outside. I also had a class in Urbanization held over Zoom in the late afternoon, which was mostly an overview of the syllabus and a quick lecture on the urbanization of East Asia. The class was hybrid and had over 200 students in it since it was one of the few without an enrollment limit for international students. The class was pretty interesting, however, would probably be too economically focused for my liking (spoiler alert: I drop this class later). For dinner, I returned to Meal Plan B to try the burrito that everyone is always eating. I found out why- it is immaculate. Mine had chicken, rice, lettuce, and a mild spicy sauce on it.

September 6th

Tuesday was the day the typhoon was expected to impact Seoul the most, and accordingly, both of my classes were moved online. I wake up, fully expecting the weather to be miserable outside like everyone had predicted. I open my curtains, and this is what I find…

The weather is absolutely beautiful. Gorgeous. Best it’s been all week. We were hoodwinked- the weather pulled a whole prank on us. Regardless, my classes remained on Zoom. Let me tell you, language classes where you speak along with the teacher are not made to be online, especially when people lag and microphones echo. It was a trial, but I slowly began to pick up the basic vowels and consonants in Hangul. After a late lunch of ramen, I had my Korean diplomacy class. This is the class I am most excited about, the topic of diplomacy has always interested me, AND I get to hear from people who have literally been at its forefront for Korea. However, the first class just focused on explaining the breakdown of the course and the instructor’s expectations. At 6:30 PM sharp, every KU student across Seoul was huddled around their computers for the beginning of the add/drop period of registration. Basically, for the next 18 hours, we could pick up any classes that had empty spots in our category (so exchange students for me). I took the opportunity to drop my Korean linguistics class, urbanization, yoga, and a science policy class, as they wouldn’t work with other classes I wanted to take. I was lucky enough to get into a Korean Speaking for Beginners class; however, I wasn’t able to grab any other classes. The same story was true for most of my other friends. Registration is very stressful and competitive here. For dinner, my friends and I wandered around Anam for way too long in search of a new place to eat. Finally, we happened upon a place across from campus that looked good. We ordered a cheese jjimdak that came topped with potato slices and bacon and had little dumplings inside. Jjimdak is a braised chicken and vegetable dish that has been marinated in Korean soy sauce. This one was served family style, and by the look of the dish by the time we were done, we were all big fans. Our nighttime walk through the lit-up university buildings to get back to the dorms was a great end to the day.

September 7th

Wednesday started the same as most of my other days- drinking a coffee protein shake and walking to my Korean Beginner’s class. We were continuing to learn the different letters in the Korean alphabet and how they are combined together to make syllables. Since consonants don’t technically have a sound on their own, they have to be put with a vowel to create a syllable. We learned about 2 of the 4 different ways syllables can be made. However, the main thing on everyone’s mind was the last opportunity to add or drop classes. This time, if the class had any empty spots, not just spots designated for international students, we would be able to register. Just before 6:30 hit, my friends and I met at a coffee shop called Bean Tree to attempt to register together. We prepared our top choice of class and hit the register button right at 6:30 PM. After a few tense seconds, a cheer rang out around the cafe (apparently everyone else there was also trying to register). Unfortunately, I was not able to join in on the cheering. The class I was attempting to add (American Empire and Northeastern Asia) was still full. As my last hope, I wrote an email to the professor subtly begging to be let into the class and in the meantime, registered for another East Asian class (thankfully, the professor got me added to the class the next day). After finalizing our schedules for the semester, we walked around Anam in search of dinner. We decided on a tonkatsu place that, as always, was delicious. This restaurant actually provided instructions on various ways to try the tonkatsu that would emphasize different flavors. The first was to dip it into Himalayan salt and truffle oil, which was quite salty but still enjoyable. There were also options to dip it into the strongest mustard I’ve ever tasted, katsu sauce, or sprinkle it with lemon juice. I also tried the tiniest bit of wasabi that they provided, which tasted strangely of mint and wasn’t very spicy. After eating, I returned to my dorm to look over the syllabi of my new classes. I’m especially excited for my International Politics in Northeast Asia class, where I’ll be required to write a policy memo in response to a territorial crisis in the region.

September 8th

Thursday was my first day with a new class- Korean Speaking for Beginners. My Beginner's Korean class introduced new Korean consonants and vowels. There are three groups of vowels that are pronounced exactly the same by Koreans, but we are required to try to understand the minimal difference between them all. If I ever figure it out, I’ll let you know. I then had Korean Speaking in the same room, which was actually very enjoyable. The professor was constantly cracking jokes, and although I definitely need to sharpen my reading skills, I learned some new Korean vocabulary words. Afterward, my friend and I went to an Italian place near the university and enjoyed a Margherita pizza. I won’t lie, it was better than a lot of pizzas I’ve had in the U.S., although it may not be fair to compare places like Dominos to a sit-down restaurant. After lunch, I returned to the Bean Tree cafe, got a vanilla latte, and did some reading for my International Politics in Northeast Asia class. For dinner, I had yet another burrito from Mean Plan B before heading to karaoke with my friends. There are karaoke places on literally every corner here, so I was excited to finally be going to one. The place we went to had little rooms for each group with a light-up disco, tambourines, and a big TV display. When you weren’t playing a song, you could definitely hear the other people there singing without any background music. It was hilarious as long as you forgot that people could probably also hear you. The system also assigns a grade for your performance after each song, although we were skeptical of its accuracy (we may not have deserved all the A+ scores we got). We of course sang some Taylor Swift, BTS, Fleetwood Mac, ABBA, and Pitbull. Although we only paid for an hour, the system kept adding extra time until we somehow ended up being there for two hours. Our theory is that our singing was so good, they had no choice but to give us more time.

September 9th

The next day we had a late start, but eventually made our way to Ikseondong Hanok Village, which is basically a collection of cute shops and restaurants. Many of the buildings had a traditional structure and design, while others had more modern designs and murals outside them. There were so many options it was hard to decide which stores to stop at. The shopping village had everything from ice cream to jewelry to selfie stores. For dinner, we stopped at a Japanese-Italian fusion place that offered a variety of pasta and donburi (a Japanese rice bowl dish). I ordered the garlic shrimp spaghetti that had SO many chili flakes in the dish but was still very tasty. After finishing our dinner, we stopped at a cafe with an interesting stone display around the entrance. Once inside, there was a revolving conveyor belt of delicious-looking desserts, including tiramisu and earl grey chocolate cake. After walking around a bit more and attempting to find an evasive ‘make your own T-money card’ machine at Seoul station, we returned to the dorms on campus.

September 10th

Happy Chuseok! This weekend is the biggest traditional holiday in South Korea, celebrated during the full moon of the 8th month. The holiday basically celebrates the harvest and is usually spent at home with one’s family (people have compared it to what Thanksgiving is for the U.S.), meaning many of the stores are closed. Interestingly enough, it is believed that the holiday originates from a month-long weaving contest called gabae. Whichever team wove the least amount of cloth had to provide a feast for the other team.

Since most things were closed, and we didn’t have a hometown to return to in Korea, my friends and I spent most of the day hanging out and doing homework at the Coffee Bean, as it was still open in Anam. I had my usual vanilla latte and a bagel with cheese, ham, and egg which was super good. We sat down and before we knew it, it was already 7 PM, and we had spent 6.5 hours there. Figuring it was probably time to leave, we walked around to try to find an open restaurant. We stopped outside of Insaeng Seollongtang down the street and after a quick consultation of the pictures and how busy it looked inside, we decided we had to try it. If you’re curious, the name of the restaurant is referring to ox bone soup, basically, a broth made from ox bones with noodles, beef, and other toppings like spring onions and garlic. While one of my friends ordered the seollongtang, I decided on the perilla naejangtang, again, because the picture looked yummy. Let me tell you, this soup was SO spicy. I don’t have the highest spicy tolerance in the world, but my lips were burning the whole time. And I wasn’t the only one- my other friend ordered the same thing, and both of us were struggling. I also actually just discovered while writing this that naejangtang is Korean beef tripe and intestine soup. It was still very good. It's also apparently always served spicy, so we learned something tonight. This probably explains why the woman who brought out the soup was laughing at us and offered more water at the end. The soup also included dae-pa (large scallions), kongnamul (soybean sprouts), gosari namul (a fiddlehead fern vegetable side dish), and perilla seeds (from the mint family) among other things. Overall, it was tasty but tough to finish because of how spicy it was. Afterward, we stopped at a nearby convenience store to get a drink to soothe our burning mouths. For the first time, I had banana milk (I know I’m late). Banana milk is super popular in South Korea, and it does in fact taste like the liquid version of a banana Laffy Taffy. Overall, despite a mostly lax day, I felt I had in my own, albeit limited, way celebrated Chuseok.

September 11th

Once again, a lot of things were still closed in honor of Chuseok, so we had another relaxed day. What was not relaxed was the night before- my roommate and I killed SIX mosquitos in our room. We still have no idea how so many got in. Mosquitos in Korea are no joke- so far they’ve made everyone’s skin swell up huge, and the bites get strangely hard without being super itchy. Fingers crossed that we’ve scared off any future mosquitos from coming to our room. For breakfast, I had my usual protein shake and continued reading Game of Thrones. Later in the day, my friend and I walked to Frank Burger for lunch. I ordered the cheeseburger meal, which was delicious. The sauce was more buttery than expected, but that seems to be a common trend with certain food in Korea. On our walk back the craziest thing happened. We were crossing this big intersection by the station, and this older woman starts screaming at the top of her lungs while looking at her phone (all in Korean of course, so we don’t know what she was saying). This was enough to startle us and then she decides to kick the person in front of her- someone who was doing impressively well at ignoring her yelling. The woman proceeds to storm off down the street, leaving the rest of us shell-shocked and looking at each other in disbelief. Thankfully, the kick didn’t seem to land very hard on the poor woman. For dinner, my friend and I stopped at a restaurant just down the hill. We weren’t that hungry, so we only planned to get something small. This is what we ended up with…

Figuring out portion sizing in Korea has been an ongoing struggle. Sometimes things are served family style so you order one dish for the entire table. Other times, the portions are just big but still meant for one person. Regardless, as you can see, we frequently end up with more food than we need and always feel bad when we inevitably can’t finish it. But it’s always yummy. My friend got the ginseng chicken soup, I ordered the acorn seafood and green onion pancake, and we got steamed meat dumplings to share. Pancakes in Korea, also known as pajeon, aren’t like those in the states. They’re basically made with a combination of meats and vegetables (most commonly green onions or scallions), coated in flour and egg, and fried in oil. I’m pretty sure the seafood in mine was squid and maybe oyster? It was good, but the seafood had a stronger fish taste than usual. The dumplings were without a doubt the star of the show, I’ve yet to have a bad one in Korea. After only being able to finish about half of our food, we attempted to discreetly get up to pay and hurry out before they realized we had eaten so little.

September 12th

Monday was a GREAT day. We had the day off from school for the Chuseok holiday still. However, I still spent a couple of hours at the Coffee Bean working on my Hangul and reading a textbook for my American Empire and Northeastern Asia class. For dinner, my friends and I headed to Hongdae to visit a Samoyed cafe. This was the cutest thing I have ever seen. You get to hang out with and give treats to a bunch of Samoyeds. They both look and feel like little fluffy clouds. This cafe was a huge improvement from the meerkat one we had visited before. The dogs had a lot of room to run around inside, as well as a grass area outside, and you could just tell that they were happy. It also helped that all the workers there were very loving and gentle with the dogs and vice versa. We spent two hours in what felt like 30 minutes. After we left, we walked around the area until we happened upon the Egg Drop, which serves a bunch of different sandwiches with eggs in them, as the name would suggest. I ordered the Avo Bacon K-Street Toast, which came with avocados, bacon, fried egg, cheese, cabbage, and srirachup (a combination of sriracha and ketchup), as well as a side of hashbrowns. It was very good, and we made plans to return soon. But there is something we need to address- they put sugar on the toast. Now if this sounds crazy, that’s because it is, at least to us. My friends and I have found that almost everything in Korea tastes sweet, while we’re very much used to things tasting salty. Even the chips here taste sweet rather than salty. We miss our salt. At the same time, I have no doubt that when we return to the U.S., we’ll be thinking everything is now too salty. Overall, Monday was a very satisfying outing and a wonderful start to the week.

The Outro

This past week has definitely been a different vibe than the rest of my time here, probably due to the slower pace from the beginning of classes and the holiday weekend. It's hard not to feel antsy and like we're not doing enough when we spent so much time exploring the first week. However, this next weekend we will be going to Busan with the TEAN program, and we're all pumped. Despite struggles with registering for classes, learning Korean, and adjusting to the different cuisine, there's not a second that I regret coming here.

Also- big shoutout to all my friends and family for checking up on me and always offering so much encouragement. I miss everyone very much and feel so loved, I can't wait to come back and share everything I've learned with you all.