Chapter 15: 자, 이제 마무리하자 (Alright, Let’s Wrap Things Up)
Y’all…I am honestly so sad at the fact that the time for this post has come.
That’s right. The current time is Thursday, June 29, 4:22 PM. My plane for the states leaves in almost exactly 24 hours. This year in Korea is finally coming to an end, and honestly? I’m not sure how I should be feeling. I think I’ll do one more update with all of my “thoughts” and an honest review of my time here, so this post will just be an update of the last few events that have been going on as we wrap up the semester.
First things first, I GOT AN A IN MY HISTORY CLASS???? If you read my last post a few weeks (months?) back, you’re probably very aware that this history class was the literal bane of my existence after my Korean language classes, and you will also know that I pretty much just gave up after midterms in terms of putting in effort. Literally turned in my final papers in English because like, he let me do the midterm in English, so I figured this time would be the same? And he sent me an email saying “Good job. You did everything. Have an A.” And so here we are. I mean, I didn’t care that much about the grade because what’s one little history class going to do to my GPA? (Probably irreversible damage, but we don’t have to think about that now lol). And if someone questions me in the future, I’ll just say “Well have you ever tried to take a class in a foreign language about a history that you have very little knowledge about? Probably not!”
Anyways.
On a happier and more exciting note, after finishing up the semester, we had our little graduation ceremony where we got our certificates of completion (not the official ones from Flagship, but like, ones from our teachers and the Korean language department at Korea University), took lots of pictures, and got treated to lunch. We all had to get up and give a little speech for the end of the program, and I think that’s when it kind of started to hit me that, hey, this is actually over. After so many weeks of nonstop work and presentations and studying and and and, we’ve finally reached the end. Crazy.
I and a few other students worked all day on one Monday to make a nice little collage of pictures that we had taken throughout the year, and, if I may toot my own horn, I think it turned out pretty awesome.
Here are just some pictures from the event. Ah, just looking at the pictures is making my eyes a bit misty ㅠㅠ
And then last Thursday (6/23), it was our official last day and also the day where we would be taking our final speaking test. That test was a whole ordeal in itself (spoiler: I cried afterwards), but before I went in to take my test, I gave my teachers letters that I had written as well as a BTS coffee. You know, something to remember me by hehe. I think they all got a kick out that.
I think I will really miss my teachers from this year. I mean, they were kind of the only support I had here within the country for an entire year as I was throw into all new and scary situations, and so are kind of more than just teachers in my mind. Luckily, the internet does indeed exist, so hopefully we can stay in touch. And if I ever find myself back in Korea, I’ll be sure to go and visit Tiger Plaza at Korea University to say hi.
Okay, onto the fun stuff.
After Jeju, I am now introducing you to probably the second most fun thing I did this entire year, which was take a trip to Busan! I did go to Busan back in 2019, but honestly it was raining that entire weekend and I feel like we didn’t really get to go see as much as we could have. But this time I just went with one other friend and we were there for 2 nights and 3 days. We took the fast and convenient KTX there, meaning that our trip was only about twoand a half hours. We took the slower Mugunghwa train back in order to save money, so that ride was closer to five and a half hours, but even that wasn’t too terrible. I actually came to realize that riding the train is actually quite nice? We rode through the countryside during the day, so the view outside the window was just beautiful green mountains and farmlands. I wish I could have taken more picturesㅠㅠ. But I’ve now made a new item on my bucket list for when I eventually come back (yes, I will come back. It’s just a matter of when), which is to take a train tour of the country. I’ve heard from some people that it’s definitely a worthwhile thing to do, so I think I might just go ahead and do that.
The first day we arrived around 5 PM and immediately went to go eat dinner after checking into our AirBNB. Honestly, food was not my main concern on this trip. I was more interested in sightseeing. I know Busan is well known for its seafood and apparently gukbab? (rice and soup(?)), but I knew I wouldn’t be too terribly disappointed if I didn’t eat any of that. I was just looking for some pretty things to take pictures of and sights to remember. So the first day, we ended up just going to a Chinese restaurant and getting jjajangmyeon and fried rice. Delicious. We then went to Gwanganri Beach (광안리해수욕장), which is known to have a very beautiful night view. There is a bridge that stretches across the horizon that is decorated with lights, and there were even fireworks being set off in the distance! So pretty.
The next day, we went to probably one of the most popular tourist spots in Busan: Gamcheon Culture Village (감천문화마을). It’s just a very prettily painted cluster of buildings with lots of little shops and alleyways to go and explore. This is one spot that I really wanted to see last time but didn’t get to, so I’m very happy I finally got to see it in person.
I should also note that we got off at the very wrong location within the village. Instead of navigating ourselves towards the visitor center, we kind of just got dropped off in the middle of the village and then had to walk uphill for about twenty minutes to get to the actual tourist spot. God, the sweat. It was not pretty, I’ll tell you that much.
After that, we wanted to go back to the beach for a nice walk, and so went to Songdo Beach (송도해수욕장), where there was even a bridge that went over the water and to this teeny tiny rock island. It was a very refreshing walk. Nothing like feeling the ocean breeze rush past you while you watch the waves crash onto the beach. Sigh. I’m relaxed just thinking about it.
After that, we went all the way across the city to go and visit the Oryukdo Skywalk (오륙도 스카이워크), which was a bit underwhelming, if I’m to be completely honest. The scenery around the platform was absolutely stunning, but the actual skywalk itself was only about maybe 10 feet in length and there wasn’t much to see below. So that feeling of “Oh my god I’m going to fall and die” was not there, which was kind of disappointing actually hehe. But again, the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. So much so that apparently BTS’ Jimin also came to that spot to take pictures, and said spot was then turned into a national landmark! A nice surprise for me as I was walking about.
And on our way back to the bus, we passed by a man walking along being followed by three little fluff balls that we later came to realize were Pomeranians. People just do the darndest things, I tell you.
Then for dinner we had some nice salmon salad and salmon rice bowls. At least I can say I had fish in Busan. Also, there was a sign at our table that said that the price of salmon had gone up, so the menu items would be a bit pricier. And I was so proud of myself for being able to read that because it used so much of the vocab we had just learned when talking about rising interest rates and inflation! Who knew such things would come in handy.
The last day was simply spent at a cafe before we went back to Seoul. But not just any cafe, but in fact a cafe run by the father of BTS’ Park Jimin. Of course I needed to go.
Once again, our navigation failed us and ended up taking us through this gated apartment complex that I’m pretty sure we entered very much illegally, and then proceeded to make us walk up yet another sloping hill. And as we were walking, this man came out and started giving us directions. I’m sure foreigners only come to that area for that cafe specifically, and I’m very grateful that he was so nice. Lesson: Don’t trust your GPS.
And finally, here we have Busan station, where we spent probably about 2 hours hanging around before our train came because we were just too tired to do anything else.
So that was Busan! Much more fun than my trip in 2019, and I’ve discovered so much more that I want to do! Hoping to come back very soon. The 2030 World Expo is supposed to be hosted in Bsuan, so maybe then? That’d be fun! Start saving now.
Let’s see, what else has been going on? Let’s just make a list:
- Went back to another cat cafe. Pretty sure the cats hated me, but it’s fine. I’ll be home with Hamilton and Pecan very soon.
- I went to a wedding! A teacher from UW who I worked with over the summer got married at the beginning of June, and invited myself and a few other UW students! It was a beautiful ceremony but also slightly different from American style weddings, which was fun to see. For starters, after parties aren’t really a thing here. There is the ceremony, then a little traditntal ceremony just for the family, then dinner and then that’s it! It was all over within about 2 hours. Very interesting. The wedding ceremony also had an emcee kind of person who stood to the side and made announcements and like, commentary throughout the ceremony? I’m assuming it was a friend of theirs. But this is common in weddings in Korea. Overall, very fun to watch haha. I didn’t take many pictures, but here’s me on a bridge lol
- Went to a UW Alumni event that was being hosted at Lotte Hotel by the Korean branch. Not much to report there. I just got a very delicious dinner and some very awkward networking experience. Not even though. Ugh. I was just there for the food.
- I’ve been spending a lot of time in the karaoke room. Found a cheap little place right on my street and proceeded to go three days in a row right before my final evaluation. I then introduced my friend and we went two days in a row, and then yesterday I went with my classmates and spent about 3 hours there. I’ve got my list of songs that are a must-sing for me, and I am very proud of the 100s I’ve managed to score thus far. Even though my voice is completely wrecked, I’m going to go one more time tonight to kill some time and give my last hurrah
- I went to Namhansanseong Fortress (남한산성) one weekday per my language partner’s recommendation. That was like, the last day where the weather was bearable, and it felt so good to just walk around with a nice breeze blowing while taking in the scenery. I did end up getting stranded out there for like, one unnecessary hour while the bus didn’t come, but other than that it was great!
- Went back to Ilsan Lake Park one last time for another walk. I love that area. Just wish it wasn’t an hour and a half subway ride awayㅠㅠ
- Took another trip to the HYBE Museum. Funny story. There was a girl there who I guess was buying merchandise for a group order and so had like 20 packs of these photocards in her basket. But there was a limit on how many items you could buy at a time (like 6 maybe?), so she came up to me and asked me to buy them for her?? I thought she meant like, can I use my card to buy them and then have her pay me back, so I originally was like “Um, no thank you,” because that’s not suspicious at all. But here’s the kicker. She said “Oh no, you can use my card,” and proceeded to just give me her credit card so that I could go buy the stuff. Ma’am. What if I just decided to add like 20 items? What would you do? What if I just ran away? I mean, I was nice and bought the stuff, but like, still. Stranger danger people! Anyways, here’s a nice picture of my photocard tickets haha
- Visited a Harry Potter themed cafe with my friend. Decorations were a 10/10
- Went to a PC room (PC방) for the first time in my entire time here. My friends played Genshin Impact while I sat and watched like four episodes of Run BTS on the highest resolution screen I have ever seen.
Aaaaaaaand I think that’s it!
Here are just some random pictures I couldn’t fit anywhere else, along with necessary captions.
And finally, the food!
So that’s it. That’s the end of my time in Korea. Haaaaaa
I’ll write a longer post after this, but I of course just want to say thanks for sticking around for this year to read what’s been going on and bearing with me through those (more frequent than I’d like to admit) hiatuses. I hope I was able to give you at least a little bit of insight into Korea and my time here, and hope that maybe you learned something along the way too? The articles I wrote were very interesting hehe.
I’ll end it here. I can’t believe this will be my last official update, but I know I’ll be able to look back on this blog and all the pictures with lots of fond memories. I can’t wait to get home to tell you all about it in person!
Until next time~
