Chapter 9: 끝이 보인다 (The End is Near)
That title sounds a lot more morose than I intended. Oops.
I just meant that the end of the semester is nearing. Next week is final exams week and I am wisely spending my time writing this post because my motivation to prepare for my presentation or study for my exam is just non-existent at this point.
So here is the update I promised about the fun things I did. Enjoy~
Ok going back through my last post, I realize that I left off on the day right before Halloween. And it’s December now…
At least you’re getting something, so there’s that silver lining!
Also, here’s two more articles I wrote, one about Korean age and another about the mountains on the Korean peninsula. Feel free to take a look if you have time.
And here is a podcast the other interns and I made as well as a behind video from our appearance on KBS radio. I thought there would be English subtitles, but I guess not…? If you’re interested, you can watch, but if not feel free to skip!
Anyways.
On Halloween Day, I woke up early to go to Achasan Mountain again because I wanted to see the changing leaves. And I had an online concert to attend at 10 AM, so I left my house at like 7 AM and made it a very speedy walk. Just the type of invigorating exercise I needed on a Sunday morning.
It’s probably best to tell you that I attempted to watch a lecture after I got back and fell asleep for a majority of it. So…yeah….
That night, my friends and I gathered in my 100 square foot room to watch the Charlie Brown Halloween special and eat food because we deserved it. Once again, Korea’s delivery service is quite nice, and we managed to order a charcuterie board of all things. My friend also went to a local bakery to pick up a Halloween themed cake that was perfect for three people.
That next weekend, we bent back to Achasan, because I wanted to show my friends the view. I needed to get my hiking in before the weather got too cold.
After that we went to a pretty infamous ddeokbokki (떡볶이) restaurant. Ddeokbokki is just a spicy rice cake, usually served with fishcakes and maybe a hardboiled egg. It’s a really common street food. And when I say spicy, I mean spicy for me. Maybe by Korea standards it wasn’t that bad, but I was kind of dying for a little bit. We also got some fried dumplings and a hot dog. 10/10 would go back again. After that, my one friend and I also got some hotteok (호떡) that a street vendor was selling, which is kind of like a pancake with a sweet filling of cinnamon and I think peanuts? All I know is that it was good. 가성비 좋았다 (It was worth my money haha)
Then, according to my camera roll, on the 13th of November I went to Seoul National Cemetery.
Funny story; I was really just looking for a park to go walk around in and just kind of saw a big expanse of green on my navigation app and went there without really looking into it. And I had forgotten the word for cemetery, so that didn’t really help.
According to Wikipedia, Seoul National Cemetery is specifically reserved for Korean veterans, including those who died in the Korean Independence Movement, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Four past presidents are also buried here.
Not gonna lie, it was a bit creepy, but there were surprisingly a fair amount of people there and it was the middle of the day, so I was like 80% sure that no spooky happenings would occur.
The next big event after that was Thanksgiving, surprisingly. Obviously American Thanksgiving isn’t a thing in Korea because…it’s Korea. Also, turkey isn’t a very common dish here, but it’s not like I know how to cook one anyways, so I wasn’t feeling too bad about that.
Instead, my friends and I went out to a restaurant for some American food: sandwiches and soup. A nice Italian sandwich and chicken noodle soup. I did not realize how much I needed that. And after that we took a taxi to find a cafe that served pie. Overall, it was a pretty good Thanksgiving to me.
The next day was another class field trip. This time we went to another cooking studio to make kimchi! If you were unaware, kimchi is a very staple ingredient for a lot of Korean cooking and is also just always, always serve as a side dish with meals. It’s a fermented food product, so lasts a long time and honestly tastes better the long it ages, in my opinion. There’s a lot of varieties of kimchi, including types that use cabbage, radish, sesame leaf, or burdock.
It was surprisingly a much harder process than I was expecting, and mine turned out just…okay. I think I screwed up a step because it honestly tastes way too salty, but not really sure how to fix that. Also, the cabbage I was given was absolutely ginormous, so now I have two huge tupperware boxes of kimchi in my mini fridge.
That same weekend, I had a surprising amount of free time I guess, so I took another long walk to Namsan (남산) and up to N Seoul Tower. Namsan is probably one of the top tourist spots on anyone’s travel itinerary. Despite that, the walk up to the top is not exactly the most friendly. Once again, you’re just climbing infinite stairs, and just when you feel like you’re going to bust a lung, you’ve reached the top.
Because of this, they’ve installed a nice little cablecar, but I have too much pride for that. I looked like I was dying, but at least I made it.
Also, a tradition is for couples to go to the top and buy a padlock on which they then write a message and fasten it around one of the guardrails around the observatory deck. There are literally thousands there, and it was really cool to see the difference between the locks that had clearly been their for years based on the heavy rust I was seeing and the newest ones where I could actually make out some of the messages.
That’s it for major events and outings. Since the semester will be over soon, I’m hoping I can go outside a bit more for my two weeks of break.
Now, onto another important aspect of this year abroad: The food
Random photos:
Also, as of today I received my booster shot here! It was very much of a process, since the government here didn’t recognize foreigners’ overseas vaccinations for a while, so I was beginning to panic. But on December 9, I got an email saying that they would start recognizing them and immediately went to the nearest health center to get all my stuff put in their system. When I got back, I booked an appointment to get the vaccination and now we’re here. Another thing to feel accomplished about. I understood all the information I needed to fill out the forms and managed to get through all those administrative procedures which still terrify me, so I’m feeling pretty good about myself right now.
I think that’ll be it for this update. I’ve practiced my presentation twice and think that deserves a reward, so I’m off to go look for Christmas decorations to look at 🎄❄️⛄️
Until next time~!
