Yonsei vs Korea!!!

Sorry I have been busy with midterms for the longest time so I haven't updated my blog at all. 

So on September 24, it was the BIG sports event of my school, Yonsei, versus its "rival" Korea University. I had to wake up at 7:30 in order to catch the bus that is taking us to the game. I was soooo close to not going because it was really early for me on a Saturday! However, this was a once in a lifetime chance so I dragged myself out of my room and made it to the game. 

The bus ride was an about an hour. When we got there, there was already a lot of people. We followed the rest of the students that were with us. I didn't know where to go, so me and my friends were trying to find out where Yonsei students sat. We got Korea University towels from students who were handing out free stuff. We finally found our spot and sat down. 

We waited for a while before the games started. The games were Rugby and then Soccer. The game finally started and during the whole time that the game was on, the yonsei students cheered to the music that was playing. After a while, I started to think that no one or at least a majority of the people, were not even watching the game; they were too busy focusing on cheering to the songs and dancing correctly. I saw that everyone around me had a Yonsei towel and a visor so I wanted one too. My friends and I decided to go and find where they were giving it out. After a while of searching, I spotted them in a box so we finally got a visor, but we couldn't find the towel :(

We went back to watch the game and cheered. However, I didn't have that much spirit so I didn't cheer for the whole 5 hours that I was there, but the rest of the students did. This is seriously the most spirit I have EVER seen; which is a nice thing lol Yonsei lost the Rugby game though :( The second game started. Our University was giving us water and kimbab so that was nice of them. By 3 pm, the sun was shining straight in our faces so I began to have a headache :(

I endured the sun for a bit, but then I decided that I want to leave because I also had a concert to go to at 7. One of my friend, Cristina, left with me. That was the end of my day there at the game. I was really glad that I went and I enjoyed my time there a lot ^_^

Namsan Tower!!!

So today is actually Yonko Geum Games for my school and Korea University. Yonko Geum games are when Yonsei and Korea University compete in sports: Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey, Rugby, and Soccer. I plan to go on Saturday because this night, me and my friends are going to Namsan Tower. So me, Paoyee, and Cristina had dinner before we headed off to Namsan Tower. However the dinner we had was horrible. We had noodles and these are some of the least tasty noodles I have ever tasted :(

After a not very satisfying dinner, we headed out to Namsan Tower. We took the subway there and finally after an hour, we arrived at the house where we can take the cable car up to the place where the tower is.

It was about 6 dollars to ride the cable car one way. There was a lot of people in the cable car so I barely got the chance to enjoy the view or take pictures. It was about a 3 minute ride before we reached our destination.  Paoyee and Cristina didn't want to pay 9,000 won to go up to the tower so I went by myself. I would really regret it if I didn't go up the tower. I bought my ticket and went to look around the area before it was my turn to take the elevator up the tower. I saw the threes where the locks of love were. There were so many of them:

I then went to get in line to go up the tower. The guide took us to the top of the tower though an elevator that is supposed to make you feel like you are flying into outer space. When we got into the elevator, we were told to look up and there was a movie that was playing. It was a clip of us going out of Earth and into outer space. We finally arrived at the second to top floor of the tower. I went around the tower and looked out. The scenery is beautiful; the camera did not do a good job at capturing this beauty, but it was better than nothing. I spent a good 30 minutes looking around the tower. It was really nice! I went down one floor and there was a cafe shop there and also big cut outs of JYJ and Jan Geun Suk lol I saw some old ladies taking pictures with the cut outs. After like an hour in the tower, I finally got back down to the first floor.

 I went to explore the shops around the tower. There was a teddy bear store so I went in there and that was where I saw Paoyee and Cristina. After taking pictures with the toys, even though they said that there are no pictures allowed, we left the store and headed back down the mountain. We had to walk back down the mountain. There were wooden stairs that led us all the way down. The walk down was really nice and relaxing. We finally got down to the bottom and headed back to the Subway station. However on our way back, we saw some SUJU posters on the wall of a building and we decided that we liked it. lol I know it was bad, but we took the posters from the wall and took it home with us. We felt ridiculous lol That marked the end of our night.

Chicken in Korea

Tonight Paoyee and Cristina went out to eat and we decided to eat some chicken. Cristina knew this good chicken place so we went to eat there. As we walk in, we notice a lot of SNSD pictures. I then realized that this is probably the chicken that SNSD advertises for lol

We ordered some spicy chicken. It was very good however very expensive (well to me it is).

Updates on my classes

So I have decided that I am going to drop my swimming class. There are several reasons why I want to drop this class. First of all, I don't like to be half naked in front of people. A majority of people in our class are guys. The teacher doesn't instruct in English even though it is supposed to be a class taught in ENGLISH. I am also the only non-korean person in the class. The pool is not large enough for 30 people so I can't even practice comfortably. I can't see since my googles aren't the kind that is made for people who can't see without their glasses :( It's 9 in the morning. My classmates don't really attempt to befriend me so it's very lonely in the class. I don't know, I just made a decision while walking to swimming class today that I was not going to take the class anymore.

I walked all the way there and then just walked back to my dorm to eat breakfast; kind of dumb lol

Well, my hip hop class is getting pretty fun since I get the choreography more now :) My korean language class is moving tooooo slow. I am tired of saying the same things over and over :( My food Nutrition class is pretty relaxing and easy. The other day in class, we measured our blood pressure and this upcoming class we are going to measure our body mass and fat percentages. That should be fun. As for my creativity class, it's pretty interesting. However, it does get confusing and repetitive at times. My textbook for this class hasn't arrived yet so thankfully I have a classmate who is nice enough to let me borrow his textbook.

Last but not least is my FAVORITE class: Taekwondo!!!
This class is soooo fun. I don't know why, but I enjoy this class so much. The teacher is super cool and my classmates are all cool too so I look forward to this class the most lol

2nd attempt at Dongdaemun Shopping District

So today is the day that Cristina and I went back to Dongdaemun to go shopping for clothes and shoes. We first went to eat some Mexican food because it was Independence Day for Mexicans. We enjoyed chicken burritos. It was surprisingly good lol

After eating, we walked to the subway station and took the subway to Dongdaemun. We explored a total of four malls today. Most of the malls were 8 stories high.

The interesting things that I would like to point out are as follows:

1. These store managers are scary and annoying at times. I mean, they kind of force me to try on their shoes and clothes. They have less manners I feel, than those in the states. Seriously, it makes me not want to take more than a few seconds at their booths.

2. Made In Korea = Expensive
    So the story is that I saw this really cute sweater so I asked how much it is. She told me that it was 15,000 won so I told her I would think about it. I moved on and a few minutes later, I saw the exact same sweater so I asked what the price was; to compare prices. The lady told me it's 28,000 won. I was like "so expensive" so I was about to leave, but she stopped me. She asked me what the other people's prices were. I told her 15,000 won so she said that it is because hers is made in korea and therefore it is better quality; the other one was made in China. I didn't buy it of course. When I was about to buy my tennis shoe, the owner of the store was like, it's made in Korea that is why it is expensive. From now on, I am watching out for those Made In Korea products!

3. The products that are on sale, you have to buy with cash or else they won't sell it to you. I was so shocked at this! Plus, I was not happy because I didn't bring any cash!!! Cristina had to help me out :(

4. A lot of these places don't have a fitting room so if you want to try something on, you have to wear a skirt they provide you with and just change that way...I'm going to be so uncomfortable with this!!!

5. Finally, the thing I am most pissed about is that I don't understand and speak korean that well at all. Therefore, these people can rip us off really bad. I feel like I was ripped off for my shoes :( There are like no price tags on most items!!! They know that you are a foreigner so they will purposely give you a high price to start with and then lower it to make it seem like they are making it cheap for you!!!!!!! URGH, I have to take a korean person next time!!!!

So I did end up buying three shirts for 5,000 won each. My tights were also 5,000 won. My shoes were 30,000 won and my snack was 2,000 won ^_^

Cheonggyecheon and supposedly Namsan tower...

While I am here in Korea, I met these two twins from London, Cindy and Lucy. On the second day of Chuseok,  I went with Cindy, Lucy, Cristina, and Lucy's Language Exchange partner, Da Woo, I believe that's how you spell his name lol Well he took us around to see some traditional things about King Sejong. Then we visited Cheonggyecheon, which is a river that connects many cities together so you can just walk along the river and explore all the towns in Seoul.

I went inside the river and it was deeper than I thought so I got my pants all wet. None of my friends would go in with me, but it was still very fun; I almost tripped and fell because it was very slippery lol

After this we walked to Insadong and just looked around. We got to try poop bread and rice drink, but sadly it wasn't that good. Oh well...From Insadong we went to try and find Namsan tower. Before we got to the cable cars which will take us to the top of Namsan Tower, we had to walk up this steep hill. We were all so hungry too :( When we got to the place with the cable cars, there was a LLLOOOOONNNNGGGG Line :( Seriously, it was a line going from the outside of the building all the way up to the 3rd floor. There was no way we were going to wait that long. We decided to go look around and come back another time. Next time! Next time!

Bampo Bridge 2nd attempt

So on Chuseok, Joan, Max, and Paoyee we went to Bampo bridge hoping to see the water show. So we get there at 6 pm and that is supposed to be the last show of the day. And.....there was a show!!!

Yes, it was water shooting out of the bridge, but NO COLORS!!! Well since it was still light out, the colors wouldn't have shown anyways :( So all of us were really pissed and disappointed. The group decided to order chicken to eat by the Han River. I didn't feel like eating chicken and plus I feel uncomfortable just eating with people who I just met. So I walked to a near by Family Mart and bought dinner for myself. my dinner only costed me 3,000 won.

I finished my dinner and the group's order of chicken hasn't arrived yet, so Paoyee and I decided to go take a walk. We went across the street to go explore and this was what we saw:

All of a sudden, Paoyee yelled out to me that the water show is on and there are COLORS!!!! OMG, we both ran all the way back to where our friends were. It was a good run since we were on the roof of this 5 story building. While running back, I almost dropped my camera lol

When we got there, the show was ON and there was music playing and the water was actually turning different colors. It was so amazingly beautiful ^_^ I'll show you :)

If you want to see more pictures or even a video, go to my facebook ^_^

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002352595158

After watching the show, I was so happy!!! We all went back to our dorms ^_^ Mission Completed!!!