Naru(mi) in Seoul: Round II

My best friend from Japan came to Seoul this past weekend to hang-out together. I have the coolest friends!

Narumi was only in town for 48 hours due to her work schedule. Every year since we have met, one of us has traveled to see the other and for next year Narumi wants to meet in Singapore. I suggested NYC so only time will tell.^^

Narumi and her friend Chinami stayed at my apartment for two nights. As is tradition when a Japanese person visits someone when traveling, they bought me many presents from Japan. Thanks Narumi and Narumi's mom^^

I picked up Narumi at the airport around noon on Sunday. I was starving so I wanted to grab some food before getting on a train. After I finishing ordering Narumi was already Skyping her parents to tell her she had arrived and I got to say hello to her family, who I've met a few times over the years. Narumi's brother is really into break dancing these days and he is really good. I think I need to go back to Japan and see one of his performances!

Note: because I have the longest arms I was the default cellphone photographer.....

Fresh off the (air) runway!

After meeting up with Chinami (she arrived a day earlier) and bringing their luggage to my place in the pouring rain, we hopped in a cab to Myeongdong. We were supposed to meet up with some other girls but plans changed so we shopped, ate dinner, and took Japanese-style Polaroids.

After Myeongdong we took the subway to Ewha, made a reservation at a princess-themed cafe, and explored around the area.

At Ewha Women's University, the first university in Korea { was founded by American missionaries}

Eventually we made our way to the Princess Diary cafe. At this special kind of cafe, you pay for a drink and then you pay an additional $10-30 to try on a dress and use the props/backgrounds to take pictures for up to one hour. 

First you order something and eat/drink it. Then you change into dresses and you're not allowed to eat or drink anything while you are in the dresses.

Enjoying our peach tea. We all ordered the same thing because it was the cheapest. kkk

Narumi fixing her tiara. :)

No need to get married now...

After our rather exhausting photoshoot, we agreed on getting drinks somewhere. The girls really wanted to go clubbing but on Sunday nights nowhere good was open. I suggested going to Itaewon {an expat neighborhood} and trying an American-style pub, to which Narumi responded "Let's find you an American boyfriend." HAHA. 

So we hopped back on the subway to Noksapyeong and sat out on a patio testing out some new craft beers. 

We were all pretty worn out from all the neighborhood-hopping we did. Being that the Noksapyeong/Itaewon area is a very international neighborhood, practically all the couples walking on the street are mixed {Asian/Western} couples. Narumi asked me if I was going to marry a white guy or an Asian guy... We headed back to my place, got some food to-go from 김밥 전국, and kept the party going for another hour before we all passed out from fatigue.

I made green smoothies for breakfast each day. They really liked them and were taking pictures of all the ingredients as I was putting them into a blender - haha. They said they are gonna make them in Japan! 

Then on Monday after I finished work we walked to a standing BBQ restaurant. I had never heard of this place before but it's very popular among Japanese tourists so we decided to check it out.

Waiting in line outside the restaurant. 

서서갈비!

No seats was an interesting concept. Definitely a local hotspot but we were the only non-Korean people. 

Then we decided to wanted to eat bingsu so I took them to busy cafe street in Hapjeong and told them to pick a cafe. We ended up at one of my favorites. :)

patbingsu!

The girls were going to go clubbing so I pre-gamed with them making some drinks outside of a convenience store. In Korea they have free tables and chairs for you to sit outside at - it's awesome! I saw a Korean newspaper article a while back about fun mixed drinks to make at a convenience store so I finally attempted one. 

Soju- rice liquor, Korean Sprite, and melon-flavored ice cream = SUCCESS!!

I actually saw some students in the convenience store while we were buying the stuff. I made them introduce themselves in English to Chinami hahaha.

We did a lot of stuff in 48 hours! 

Narumi flies back to Sapporo today and Chinami is heading to Los Angeles for two weeks.

来てくれてありがとう Thanks for coming!! See you next year somewhere^^

A night with my Japanese friends

When I was taking a Korean class at Yonsei University, most of my classmates were Japanese. A few weeks into the semester we were playing a game where we had to translate expressions from Chinese, Japanese, and English into Korean. I answered one of the Japanese expressions and everyone responded "애슐리 씨 어떻게 알았어요? (How do you know that?)" Then I told them I was an exchange student in Japan and we grew closer together talking about green tea, Japanese soft ice cream, and Hokkaido food. They all think I am some trilingual American - HAHAHAHA I have them fooled!!

My friend Kanako messaged me on Facebook last week wanting to get together. During our entire semester at Yonsei, I was under the impression that she didn't speak ANY English so I was a little surprised to see long English messages from her pop up in my inbox. She later admitted that she had a dictionary in front of her and was translating everything. I don't know why she didn't just write in Korean....

So cute^^

Kanako has a Korean husband who lived in Japan for 10 years and is fluent in Japanese. These days she is working from home translating Korean restaurant menus into Japanese for tourists. She studied abroad in New Zealand for a year when she was in her early 20s and can still understand quite a bit of English. Kanako is a true trilingual individual!!

We met at 이대역 at 6 for dinner. Kanako always prepares Korean and Japanese food for her husband so she wanted to eat Western-style food with me. I am always down for pasta.. While we were walking around, I heard some girls screaming "OMG ASHLEY!" and it turns out they were some students from the middle school I worked at last year. I believe they are 7th graders now and what they were doing so far away from school at that hour, I'm not sure.. But they were some of my best students and are very proficient in English. They were very surprised about my recent haircut and we talked for about 2 minutes on the streets about what teachers are still at the school and I told them I was leaving Korea next month. Kanako was really impressed and said she thought the students were really respectful towards me and that I was a "real teacher." 

I'm not sure giving your teacher bunny ears is considered respectful..

Kanako treated me to a nice Italian dinner. 카나코씨 정말 감사합니다!

Then we walked around for a bit window shopping and decided to head to a Hello Kitty Cafe. 

The bathroom entrance was so cute. Hello Kitty + a violin - OH MY GOSH!!

We ordered cute lattes. Normally when you order they just give you a random latte art design but I told the cashier I really loved HK so she let me pick. Score!! On our way out of the cafe, Kanako bought me a Hello Kitty cake. :) We took it to go to meet up with our other Japanese friends, who are still studying at Yonsei and had class until 9.

We met up with Hideyuki and Takuko at the Paris Baguette near the back gate of Yonsei. Hideyuki is a Japanese diplomat and Takuko is also married to a Korean man. Takuko spent 3 years in Virginia for her husband's job so she understands my American identity and sense of humor. It's so rare to find a Japanese person familiar with Western culture. Takuko is an awesome older Japanese woman!

Kanako - Hideyuki - me - Takuko

We ate and enjoyed the cute cake together and sat around talking about Japanese food, the Asiana plane crash, and how the heck am I going to adapt to American culture when I get home.

Kanako was so sweet to organize this little get-together for me. Walking out of the HK cafe last night, we commiserated on how emotional it is to be leaving a country. Being neither super sad to leave Korea or super happy to be heading back to the States, "emotional" sums it up pretty well. 

I promised my friends I would contact them if I ever return to Japan for travel one day (let's face it, I will!). I hope we meet again some day. <3

どうもありがとうございます！私はいつかまた会えることを願って！

A Meditation Retreat with Sewon

Last weekend I went to a meditation retreat with my Korean friend Sewon. We met a little over a year ago through Stephany and have been friends since. Sewon speaks English very well and is always full of energy. She works as a headhunter in the finance industry and it's always interesting to hear about her recent placements and candidate interviews. A few weeks ago riding the subway home late at night from a baseball game, we talked about spending a weekend together before I left. Sewon is a regular meditator and suggested going to a meditation retreat that she has been to several times. It sounded like an interesting endeavor to me so I quickly agreed.

We later decided on a date to go and although I have an accounting exam coming up this week, I left my books in Seoul and headed out to Gyeonggi-do to get a little Zen.

The whole program was conducted in Korean. It was fairly easy to follow most things until more abstract topics were brought up, at which point Sewon translated for me.

Thanks Sewon for showing me a piece of your life in Korea!

A Day with Eunha

Today I met up with my Korean tutor Eunha for a kimchi and tteokbeoki cooking class. I hadn't seen Eunha for about 3 months since I started my Korean class at Yonsei so it was nice to hang out again. She's one of the coolest, most interesting Korean girls I've met. She worked in the import-export business in China and Vietnam for a bit after finishing university but decided the industry wasn't for her and started tutoring Korean to the expat community in Seoul. She teaches all different kinds of people - CEOs, English teachers, international high school students, Samsung MBAs, European interns, etc. She is also really good at K-pop dancing, studies at a dance academy, and wants to open her own dance school some day. She speaks English, Korean, and Chinese and is super open-minded and really good at dancing. Such a cool person!

I've decided to take a break from learning Korean until around September to focus on my upcoming travels and accounting exams. I will continue to study with her through Skype once I'm settled in the States, which she has done with several other of her students. The thought of laying in my big bed at home with the AC blasting and a can of Diet Mountain Dew in my hand while speaking Korean with Eunha sounds amazing!!

Our cooking lesson was at Kimchi World near Insa-dong. They had hanbok (Korean traditional clothes) for us to try on and take pictures so naturally we opted in.

First we made kimchi. Kimchi World is operated by the world famous kimchi brand Chongga. One of the secrets to their kimchi recipe is using sun-dried sea salt (I bought a little bottle to take back to the States). We had fun spreading all the spicy mess into the napa cabbage leaves. 

Our finished kimchi take-home containers. The kimchi needs to ferment for about 2 weeks in room temperature.

When Koreans make kimchi and eat it, they hold a big piece up and eat it at once. The instructor and Eunha wanted me to do the same so I did and they were laughing at me while I was taking this picture and telling me I was a real Korean. : )

After the kimchi we made royal tteokbeoki. Street tteokbeoki is made with red pepper paste (which I generally find to be too spicy to be delicious) but royal tteokbeoki is made with soy sauce. It tasted really good! I will prepare this nice and easy dish when I introduce Korean food to friends and family back home.

The instructor and I.

After our cooking class, we walked around Insa-dong and headed to the basement of Ssamziegil, where you can make a lot of different hand-made things. We decided on wood carving. We were given little pieces to practice on before marking our purchased materials.

The finished product: a wooden pen key chain!

Then we stopped for a snack: funny poop-shaped stuffed pancakes and sikhye, a traditional sweet Korean rice drink.

Last, we came across these funny Korean statues. In the old days, these statues were the guards in small towns and kept out evil spirits. Now they are funny tourist photo spots - haha.

We ended up having dinner together, talking in Korean about traveling, her other students, men, what "real America" is and a bunch of other random stuff. In a touristy area fully of... tourists, it was cool to be able to eat and talk naturally with a Korean. What a great 2 years it's been in Korea. I hope I have a chance to come work here again in a few years. Eunha, I love you! Thanks for everything! Let's hang out again before I leave and see you on Skype. <3