^^

Yesterday was pretty spectacular. I woke up, got ready, and then took the subway as normal. On the subway, I checked my e-mail to find that the decision had been made for my John Hopkins application. Unfortunately, I couldn't open the letter on my smart phone, so I had to wait for school.

Waiting made me pretty anxious

I opened the letter (well, e-mail) to find that I had been accepted into the International Development program at John Hopkins! I certainly am proud about this feat, but still not really sure where I'll be going to grad school. Too much rides on financial aid packages... I've gotten one from John Hopkins, and, even though it is generous, I would still end up with 40,000 in debt. Ouch.

Anyways, back to my great day. I had some good lessons and fun activities that worked well with classes. I had Korean class downtown at 7 pm, so I decided to take a jog from work. The route was a bit loopy, but quite wonderful. I ended up running east from my school under part of Bukhansan, through Pyeong-chang dong, Bu-am dong, and Cheong-un dong. It was VERY hilly, but so beautiful. I'm one of the few joggers in Seoul, so it is a bit awkward to be running in the streets. But I find such wonderful places, so I just ignore when people stare.

View from the north

So many cute cafes on this street

The ticker said 'Welcome to Korea' in English. Not really sure why...

As I was getting further south, there were more and more policemen. I wasn't really sure why, until I ran into a plaza with a huge plaque for the Cheong Wa Dae museum. Huh? Was I near the Blue House?

Yep, apparently I had run right by Park Geun-hye's new residence. Pretty awesome. Also explained a lot of the barbed wire on the mountain.

After a bowl of tuna jjigae to warm me up, I had Korean class downtown. I haven't attended the Korean Foundation courses in a long time, so it was great to be back. I've downgraded a level, but it is ok because I need to review grammar. Maybe I'll make this run a weekly thing.

Working on HTML

I have been practicing writing in HTML so I wrote this entire page in HTML. It has been a lot of fun. I'm using the website Code Academy which is quite informative and uses a really smart pedagogical approach. I made the following table. It took about an hour... but it is kind of cool. Some people that I really like and hyperlinks to their facebook pages. The picture of David and Shela goes to Shela's facebook page cause, well, she is much more active on facebook. The pictures of Sarah's kids goes to Sarah's page, because that is where I get all the latest updates about my niece and nephew. WOW!

Some Wonderful People

A Visit to Sujongsa

When my sister and mother visited Korea for ten days in January, we visited a lot of great places. Sujongsa was perhaps my favorite destination. I found it on CNN Go's list of 33 Beautiful Temples. The temple is quite accessible from Seoul; we took the KTX to Ungilsan station and followed the signs to Sujongsa (수종사).

The road to the temple was quite simple. In fact, you could take a care up. But we hiked of course. 

The temple had many of the trappings of Buddhist temples in Korea. Same color scheme, same design, but the atmosphere at Sujongsa is unique. Overlooking Gyeonggi-do and the Bukhan River, it was hard not to feel reverent once we reached our destination.

The view (much better in real life)

Sujongsa's tea ceremony was something unique that I've never experienced in Korea. We entered a warm room where we were explained the steps for properly preparing green tea. This included warming up the brewing pot initially, seeping the tea leaves for about a minute, pouring the brewed tea in our pre-warmed cups, and then repeating the process. We used the same tea leaves for three rounds of tea. Secondary brews only seeped the tea leaves for thirty seconds. The tea's flavor was minimal, but the entire experience quite memorable. Especially since I was sharing it with my family.

I'm creeping in the background

Instructions

Interior of the tea room

View from the tea room

 On our hike back down, we stumbled upon some tombs. So much history in this country.

I'm quite pleased with this trip to Sujongsa. Maybe I should try to visit all of the recommended temples on CNN Go before I leave Korea....

ROK's Air Force Does Les Mis

Les Mis was pretty popular in Korea. So popular that the Air Force decided to make a parody. There are some great voices (which is unsurprising, since there is conscription in Korea so everyone must be in the army for 20 months. Even music majors). They released the video with English subtitles. Pretty enjoyable.

In crazier news, a Korean American shot his neighbors over dog shit. No joke.

Seoulcation

Japan (which I haven't yet mentioned on this blog...) robbed me of all my money so last week I had a stay-in-Seoul vacation. It was nice with some much needed sleep. A lot of it. I slept in past noon on two days. Crazy.

As I was short on funds I couldn't do too many crazy fun things. I had some sane fun instead.

Friday was sloppy joe's at the home. Very American. Very delicious.

My grandmother had a very simple recipe: one pound of beef, one can of chicken gumbo soup, a tablespoon or two of ketchup and a bit of mustard. Simple, easy, sloppy.
I also saw Mr. Bacon a couple of times. That was pretty great. Who wouldn't love this face? He was, um, enjoying kissing people Saturday night at our house party. That was quite the nice house party... I particularly enjoyed two-stepping at The Grand Ole Opry.

Sunday was fun. It started with a grand breakfast and then a long walk over Namsan and around Sukmyeong University. I was with Hyeonsu and we strolled around in Hyochang Park. We kind of just stumbled upon the park, which hosts The Grave for the Three Martyrs. Check out wikipedia again for info on the park.
Monday was a lazy day. I saw Cloud Atlas (good film), ate pork cutlet (gross), and lazed around (kind of fun). Yay Monday!
Tuesday was a bit more active, but still relatively static for me. After finishing up an application for a scholarship (good luck, Mark!), I met up with Katrina in HBC for some Moroccan sandwiches. That's right. Moroccan sandwich store is open again! Yum yum yum!
On Wednesday, C and I took a walk across the city for exercise (and to save 1100 won???). We were walking by Dongmyo, so we decided to take a peek.

Old + New = Seoul

Dongmyo is a shrine built in 1601 in memory of a 3rd century Chinese military commander. It's nothing terribly exciting, but I love the way it snuck up on our walk. You can read more about the shrine on wikipedia.

Thursday was another day of walking, this time to Dongdaemun. C and I tried a new route and stumbled upon an independence monument on the northern side of Namsan (near Dongguk University Station on line 3). Korea declared independence from Japan on March 1st, 1919 during the aptly named March 1st Movement. The monument wasn't the ugliest thing I've ever seen... (litotes)

A little past the monument is a statue of Yu Gwan Sun. Gwan Sun was a freedom fighter and martyr who fought for Korean independence under Japanese annexation and one of the most famous female historical figures in Korea.

After C and I found some new Uzbek restaurants (what what?) we continued on our way to Dongdaemun. And what did we find but Bang-san-jong-hap Market. Located across the street from the much more famous Gwangjang Market, Bang-san-jong-hap has a huge area devoted to all things baking. Ingredients, measuring cups, bowls, paper cups, etc. Really quite extensive.

The air in Seoul has been a bit dirty lately. But it gives us nice sunsets!

 C headed home and I met up with Julie and Sanggun for jeon (fried everythings) and shopping. I didn't see much that I liked, but did pick up a bow tie. Bow ties may be my new thing.

On Friday, some of us braved the cold to see the Seodaemun Prison History Museum. I have wanted to go to this museum since 2009, but always put it off. I'm glad I finally went. It was a pretty well organized museum with a decent amount of English. The brick buildings were beautiful and it is a shame they have seen such abuses of human rights. Yu Gwan Sun, who I mentioned earlier in this post, was imprisoned in Seodaemun before her execution.

The one criticism I have is that the museum focused pretty much entirely on the Japanese occupation. I would have been curious to learn about the history of the museum during South Korea's dictatorships (when democratic activists and communists were locked up instead of freedom fighters). Other than that flaw, I think the museum is a must visit for any Seoul resident.

In the evening, we had pies. Delicious pies! South African pies at Braii Republic. C and I will be going to a new restaurant in our hood every paycheck. This was a good first choice!

 Do you like your pies?

Yes we do!

Friday evening was an impromptu mini house party. We played a charades/taboo game, which was quite fun. Even though Maggy turned crazy.

Saturday... Korean class and Korean class. A really long die. I studied, which was good, and then studied some more. However, during Korean class number two we made makkeoli cocktails. Can you imagine drinking alcohol in a language class in the states? I don't think so!

 In the evening, we went to Moon Night and danced the night away. My new favorite band played (The Studs Lonigan Experience).

Bagaly being pro

So how do you finish off a Seoulcation? Waffles and chicken at Original Pancake Story. Yum. Happy Sunday!

It was a pretty cheap vacation and quite fun. My next few weeks are going to be tight money-wise, however, because C and I booked tickets to ... Malaysia and the Philippine! WOOOOOT! I'll be warm in February.

Roasted Veggie Sandwich

Already getting going on New Year's goals. Here was dinner tonight:

Roasted vegetables, humus, and greens on amazing whole grain bread from The Baker's Table. My stomach is quite happy.
I don't think I've ever roasted vegetables before, but I may have to start doing this all the time. Maybe make some sort of Koreanized version of this dish with Korean root vegetables... Red pepper paste instead of hummus? ㅋ ㅋ ㅋ