A quick note pre-post: If you’re interested in seeing unedited (and more) pictures, I should be posting them on Facebook soon enough! And once again, this is a loooong one.

Day 1: Wednesday

For my first full day in Seoul, I actually did very little. I woke up early to get ready for the placement exam, before I realized it was at 10:00am and NOT at 9:00am. I saw for the first time just how long the bus lines can get in the morning, and the importance of being ready to go at least an hour ahead of time. But, me and my friend Victoria (who is staying at the same 고시원) made it to the test on time and found our way pretty easily. 

The exam itself was not what I expected. The first part was the written grammar and vocabulary evaluation. Each question was set up like a short two-line dialogue, with blank spaces we had to fill in based off the other parts of the dialogue given to us. Although I was glad that I understood many of the words, it was more difficult than I thought to actually use context to understand what the right answer was. For many of the questions, I either knew all the words but not the grammar used, or knew the grammar but not the key words. After that, we had to do an interview portion as well. Going one at a time into the interview room, the test was graded right in front of you (yep, not the best thing for my test anxiety, but I made it out just fine). My interview wasn’t much of an interview — he asked me how long I had studied Korean, how much time I spent per week studying, and why I wanted to learn Korean. Then he asked what level I thought I should go in. I said Level 2 and he agreed. 

With the more stressful part out of the way, other Yalies and I waited outside in a group for everyone else to finish. We stood around talking and getting to know each other for a while before most of us went to lunch together. We ended up going to a restaurant right around the corner from the placement exam. I ordered miso ramen, thinking it would be a safe vegetarian dish, but found ground meat on the top. An easy enough fix, but this first meal was certainly a reminder of the extra barrier being vegetarian puts on meal time. Although more expensive than I would have liked it to be, the food was good and it was a large serving. After lunch, I headed back home to the 고시원 and just rested for a couple of hours. My jet lag was still pretty bad, and although I felt a little guilty for not going out and exploring the city more, in hindsight it was a good trade off. 

Victoria and I tried eating dinner in the kitchen for the first time, with good success. I can already tell that I will be eating many meals at the 고사원 to help save some money, and because it’s an easy place to get vegetarian food. Later that night, my suitcase arrived and I was finally able to unpack and really get settled in. I was mostly relieved that I didn’t have to go out and buy another outfit for the next day.  I went to bed early, ready to go out and explore the next day. 

Day 2: Thursday

I spent the morning editing my first blog post and reflecting a lot on the fact that I am actually in Korea. The sense of disbelief hadn’t really dispelled, and I’m not sure when it completely will. In the afternoon, I headed to 명동 (Myeongdong) with some other Yalies to explore. To get there, I took the subway for my first time in Korea! The subway is pretty cheap, and reliable. Although usually crowded, if you ride for more than a couple of stops you can usually find a seat. Aboveground, I passed by some amazing views as well. My first impression of the subway was to put it in contrast to the subway system I am most familiar with — New York City. The subways in Seoul are very clean, with clear signage everywhere, and while riding the subway itself, the announcements are clear and easy to hear, and are coupled with screens displaying the stop information. It took awhile to get to 명동, but the ride wasn’t unpleasant. This was in part because Victoria and I had accidentally taken the longer route there, but we were still in high spirits. 

 명동 is one of the largest shopping areas, with tons of high-end stores as well as streets lined with booths selling knock-offs. It is an area more common with tourists, and we definitely saw more businesses catering to foreigners. It was the first experience I had with wanting to practice my Korean, but as a foreigner, instantly being approached in English. We browsed through some of the shops, and I was excited to go through a plethora of t-shirts with very humorous English words on them (I’ll include a few down below). After exploring 명동 for a couple of hours, we decided to walk over to 남대문 (Namdaemun), which is a less touristy shopping area . After exploring some of the claustrophobically tiny and maze-like aisles of a department store there, we headed back to 명동 for the main event — street food! Once it gets dark, the streets of 명동 become filled with food vendors, offering everything you could want for only a couple thousand won. I tried 게란 빵 (bread with an egg cooked on top), 호떡 (a very popular type of Korean street food; a pancake filled with brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts/seeds), and a red bean filled cake that I can’t remember the name of. 

After eating, we decided to check out another popular Korean activity — singing in a 노래방! Essentially, a 노래방 (noraebang) is a karaoke room, which you pay for by the hour. They have Korean music, but also many English songs. We had a blast singing at the top of our lungs and even got some extra time for scoring high on some songs. Back home, I kind of hate karaoke, since I’m more or less tone deaf. The only time I will sing at home is when I’m in the car alone with my music blasting, when I’m dancing around my house with just my mom or older brother around, or occasionally very quietly under my breath while I’m studying (but only near my closest friends). Singing in the 노래방 was more fun than I expected, and while I didn’t take the mic and solo, I realized that participating in the act of it was more important than having a good singing voice. Cheers for self-growth all summer!

Day 3: Friday

For day 3 in Korea, we (a group of Yalies) headed to 광화문광장 (Gwanghwamun Plaza)! First, we looked at the statues of 세종 대왕 (King Sejong) and Admiral 이순신 (Yi Sun-sin), which are located just outside the subway station. King Sejong was the inventor of 한글 (Hangul) which is the modern Korean alphabet. Besides that, he is credited with several other improvements to Korean society during his reign, including the celestial globe, sundial, and a rain gauge, which are displayed in front of the statue as well. Admiral Yi Sun-sin was a naval commander known for his victories during the Japanese invasions of Korea. There is also an underground museum dedicated to these two men that we checked out. 

The plaza was also the site of a protest. One Korean man approached us, recognizing us as foreigners and most likely Americans, and began talking to us about the imprisonment of the former Korean president, Park Geun-hye. This interaction highlighted one perspective of Americans that Koreans hold, and the way our presence in Korean society can change depending on the political ideology of the other person. I am nowhere near well-informed enough to post on the internet about this political division, so instead, I urge you to look up information on your own if you have questions about what is happening in South Korea at the moment. This encounter served as a reminder to me, and I hope to you as well, that we must be vigilantly critical of the news we consume, and to be wary of engaging in highly politicized talk when we may not be qualified to speak on it. Although I won’t go on a tangent about this, I felt it was necessary to mention this experience because it, along with the other experiences I’ve had so far where I’ve been stopped simply for being a foreigner, serve as reminders of the way being American in a foreign country inherently signifies something or other to locals, whether you want it to or not. Now, back to the sightseeing!

From the plaza, we headed to 경복궁 (Gyeongbokgung Palace) which is the largest palace in all of Korea. After the first gate, the Palace opens up and is much larger than it looks from the outside. I originally thought it was only one building (which seems foolish in afterthought) but it actually contains dozens and dozens of buildings. During the Japanese occupation of Korea, nearly all of the structures of 경복궁 were destroyed, and those present today are part of an ongoing restoration project. 

Visiting 경복궁 was an interesting experience. Partly, because of the distinct clash between the high-rise buildings and the palaces, and partly because of the clash between people dressed in 한복 (Hanbok — traditional Korean clothing) and Balenciaga. Walking around, I was filled with happiness to see the mountains rising behind the palaces, the variety of trees everywhere, and the birds flying around. On top of this peaceful environment, however, was an interesting commentary on tourism and the preservation of culture. Anyone who wore 한복 could gain free admission to the park, which is a good marketing tool. That being said, it raised questions among us as to what is cultural appropriation, and whether or not it was really okay for non-Korean visitors to don the 한복 given its cultural significance. I certainly don’t have answers to this, but my stay in Korea as a foreigner will likely raise questions like this again.

My visit to 경복궁 also opened my eyes to how quickly I’ve adjusted to being surrounded by the Korean language. Walking through a place with so many tourists, compared to the homogeneity of other parts of Seoul, I was almost startled whenever I heard languages other than Korean being spoken. I found this very interesting because as a group we still mostly speak in English, and yet I have already adapted to the default background language being Korean. In most places that I have traveled in Seoul so far, other languages stick out immediately, and it was interesting to begin to notice this as one of the people speaking in a language that wasn’t Korean. 

Aside from the beautiful views, we also watched a changing of the guard ceremony. Watching it filled me with the same kind of feeling I have when watching Indigenous dances on pueblo feast days — it’s the feeling of knowing you don’t, and never will, totally understand something, but appreciating its beauty anyway. As spectator, I was part of the dance, but kept separate from it too. After watching this, we explored quite a bit further, to areas with only one or two other tourists. Some of the courtyards were completely silent. It felt so far away from the city, even though it was still all around us. Funnily enough, I wrote in my application for the Light Fellowship (the Fellowship that I received and that has allowed me to study abroad this summer) about how one of my hopes for this trip was to capture the same vivid memories of the lands and skies in Korea as I have from other places I have traveled. Visiting 경복궁 definitely added to my fulfillment of that goal, and I felt rejuvenated despite the many miles we walked. 

After heading back into the city and grabbing dinner, we happened upon the Seoul Pride festival while wandering around. This was another double-edged experience, as inside the barricade my heart was overjoyed to see so many families, young and old, gathered together to celebrate the freedom of love, while knowing that just outside was a large group of protesters. Progress is always difficult; in America, in South Korea, and all around the world these struggles are different but the same. Still, it was a beautiful night, and hope and love abounded. I was very happy to have this chance discovery and it was a fitting end to a day on the boundary of old and new.

Day 4: Saturday

After sleeping in for a little while, I spent a couple hours working on this blog post and catching up on some forms for school. I also played a couple of rounds of Uno on my phone with my friends from school (my future suitemates who I miss a lot). During this time, I had another learning lesson that incorporated both my lack of common sense and my inexperience with international travel. It goes like this: Before I left, I ordered an adapter off of Amazon for $12 or so. Once it arrived and I looked at it again, I panicked because I realized it was ONLY an adapter and not also a converter — but after some frantic googling I discovered that Apple products (aka my iPhone and MacBook) are dual voltage, and thus don’t need a converter to be used internationally. So, one disaster avoided. But then, I looked at it again, and (being the idiot that I am) didn’t think it was equipped with anything other than USB ports — meaning I thought I had no way of charging my laptop. I noticed some grooves on the front and tried plugging my laptop in but it didn’t seem right.

So to fix this problem, I last minute bought a converter/adapter from Best Buy for way more than I paid for the one on Amazon. But this one had a plug so I thought I was good. Fast forward to my first couple days in Korea. I needed to charge my laptop so I plugged it in to the Best Buy adapter/converter. Everything worked fine, and my laptop was charged in no time. Now fast forward again to Saturday. My laptop was down to 6% while I was working on my blog post, so I went to plug it in again to the Best Buy adapter/converter. Hm. Something was clearly wrong.

Since I have the older magnetic strip MacBook charger, there is a little light indicator on it, which starts green but quickly turns orange once it starts charging. Rather than changing to orange, however, the light was flashing green. My laptop wasn’t taking any charge. With my battery dwindling, I googled “macbook charger blinking green” and followed the recommended remedies … with no success. My laptop was essentially dead. I started googling the nearest Apple store, which is about 45 minutes away.

Looking at the adapter/converter again, I was hoping it wasn’t a problem with the charger after all, but just the adapter. I had first tested to make sure it was working by plugging my phone into one of the USB ports, but then tried it using the charge block and the regular outlet. Nothing. Even though my phone had the little lightning bolt indicating it was charging, the battery was going down instead of up. I messaged Victoria, my 고시원 neighbor, and asked if she had an adapter I could borrow. Finally, my laptop was charging! I asked her where she bought it, thinking I would have to go out and get a new adapter no matter what, when she happened to show me one she got at Daiso that didn’t work. Seeing it reminded me of the first Amazon adapter I had bought — I scurried back next door and looked at it again. Even though I had thought my charger hadn’t fit the first time I tried it, I tried again and found it actually did. A prime example of the ways in which I can be utterly oblivious. All that aside, my laptop was charging and even though I didn’t have to go get a new MacBook charger, I did realize that I never needed the expensive BestBuy adapter/converter after all. Live and learn, I guess. 

In the early afternoon, Victoria and I visited the new 고시원 we’re both moving to in a month and put down the deposit. I have no complaints with my current living situation, but the new place is within walking distance of campus and has a private bathroom. These are not necessary upgrades, but since the rent is still within the budget, they will be nice factors to have. After a quick snack, we headed to 홍대 (Hongdae) to meet with our other friends. 홍대 is a more student-filled area, and with more foreigners. We walked around for a couple of hours, checking out the little shops and just exploring. Later in the evening, we headed to our second 노래방 of the week — our reasoning being that class starts on Monday and we wouldn’t have as much free time once that happened. It was just as fun the second time, but I don’t plan on going again for a while. 

Day 5: Sunday

On Sunday, we collectively decided not to do anything big, and just rest up before class. I spent the morning taking care of some more school stuff online and editing more of this post. To celebrate our last day of freedom before classes start on Monday, Victoria and I headed around the corner from our 고시원 to Café Benne to get some ice cream. 

A quick note: So as it turns out, I like to write. A lot. I had planned on making a blog post detailing my first full week, but looking at what I have so far it’s already pretty long. I decided instead to post my travel experience separately, and I’ll have another post about my first few days in Seoul up at the end of the week or so. Oh, and if you get tired of reading, the pictures and captions give a pretty good summary of my time so far too!

re: first day/JFK/travel trouble 

Sunday! We left for the airport around 1:30pm, having to go back to the house only once because I forgot my Korean vocab books which I wanted to study on the plane. It was hot, and cloudy, and soon enough it started absolutely pouring. After a tense hour or so, the rain mostly cleared up, although we passed through a couple more bad spots on the way. Despite the weather, we made it to JFK around the original estimated arrival time. Then started the first of a series of annoyances which have turned me rather firmly against JFK airport (if I had a Yelp, I would definitely be leaving a bad review). 

First, my mom and I found our way to the Aeroflot check in counter, hoping to check my bag and print my boarding passes so we could have one less thing to worry about while we waited. Unfortunately, I found I couldn’t check in until 9pm (4 hours before my flight departure), so we headed to the food court with both my suitcases in tow. After 2 slices of way overpriced and greasy pizza, we decided to go exchange the cash I had taken out of the bank earlier this week for KRW. I pulled my wallet out of my backpack and shoved it into my pants pocket as we started looking for the counter. We walked for maybe 5 minutes before I stopped. Something felt wrong. It was my wallet!

Frantically, we retraced our brief steps back up to the food court looking everywhere for my wallet, hoping it had just fallen out of my pocket. When our search turned up empty, we confronted the worst. I had been pickpocketed! We started checking all the garbage cans, hoping to at least retrieve the wallet and my Yale ID which I had in it. We asked several people who worked at the airport, and were directed to a mystical “lost and found” which no one seemed to know where it was or if it even existed at all. We did this for at least 30 minutes before sitting down in a corner to regroup. I cancelled my credit card which had been in my wallet as well, and called Yale Security to deactivate my ID (just to be safe; it now seems like a bit of a hasty reaction but keep in mind I just lost around $500 and had been wandering the airport crying. So all things considered, reasonable enough). Having more or less given up on finding my wallet, we decided to tackle the issue of exchanging money. After initially deciding my wallet was gone, my mom had checked her bank account and decided she would exchange the money for me. At the counter, however, we found they were out of money.

So, back to our search! Knowing that the currency exchange pre-security in terminal 1 wasn’t available, and after a quick google search, we headed to terminal 2. After searching everywhere there, we concluded that although broken escalators and stairs were plentiful, a currency exchange booth could not be found. Dejected, and still angry, we headed back to terminal 1. We looked through a few more garbage cans, searched the floor again, then went to buy me a new wallet from the convenience store. We then plopped down in a corner to think.

My mom had been texting one of her friends and realized that there were of course tons of security cameras around, and decided to check one last time, trying to get in touch with security once again. I was pretty tired out and stayed sitting with the bags until she texted me, telling me to go over to the security line. I jumped up and rushed over. My mom had gone up to a security officer and told her she wanted to report a pickpocket. Well, that sure got their attention. I described my wallet, and gave the amount of money in it. After listening, she told me they had received a wallet earlier — with a student ID  and about $45. Yep. definitely not the $445 and £40 I had described to her. We followed her, finally, to the mystical “lost and found” — a small, unmarked room with one airport worker sitting at the desk. He pulled my wallet out from a cabinet and gave it to me without even checking my identity. As we walked out of the door, the security guard looked at me and told me, “You dropped it. No one took it out of your pocket.” Having unzipped it and confirmed that most of my money was missing and my credit card had been moved, the falsity of this claim was so obvious it was laughable. Despite my protestations, she dismissed us and walked off — leaving us without a police report, without having checked the security cameras, and without $400 and £40.

It was a turbulent two and half hours to be sure, and so we lined up to check in while discussing what had happened and the fishiness of the whole situation. This is purely speculation, of course, but it seems pretty obvious that there was more to this situation than just a good samaritan returning a wallet to a lost and found center. But I digress. Time to move on to bigger and better things! Going through security, exchanging money on the other side (thankfully the booth post-security had plenty of money), finding my gate, and naturally putting on my super cool, super fashionable ….. compression socks. Hey, I’m not trying to get blood clots. 

While sitting at the gate, I couldn’t help but listen to scraps of the Korean conversations all around me. Between my flight and the Korean Air flight at the next gate over, there was plenty of Korean being spoken. I understood very little, but it got me thinking about everything I will learn this summer. I can already see how quickly my Korean will improve when I’m totally immersed in the language and culture. Despite the butterflies in my stomach and the delay in my departure, I was feeling happy. 

re: a brief sojourn in Moscow/a kind-of day 2

Flying into Moscow, the thing that struck me the most was that there were SO MANY trees. Coming from the northeast, I’m used to seeing forests as I fly home, but this was different. Everything was so green, and there was so much uninhabited space. I’m starting to realize that looking at maps doesn’t really give you a scope for how vast the world is. As the plane got lower and lower, I was very charmed by the weaving rivers and hills and the big houses (but with lots of character! And so much space! It was unbelievable).

When I arrived at the airport, I passed through another security checkpoint before making it into the international terminal. I went to my first ~international~ bathroom, which doesn’t sound exciting, but trying to figure out how to flush public restrooms is somewhat of a mind exercise for me. The game of “Is this shiny circle a sensor or a button?” … my common sense is clearly lacking. I found my terminal, and even remembered the Russian word for Seoul that I had looked up before leaving. To board the plane, everyone had to take a little shuttle. The sky was comfortingly familiar in pastel hues as we boarded the plane from the ground at sunset. Best of all, in my row of three, the middle seat was empty! A sweet Korean woman sat on the aisle end, giving me a big smile and thumbs up when boarding had ended and no one else had sat down. 

One more cute note about international planes which I had forgotten about: there are little screens at the front of each cabin that show a view from the front underside of the plane so you can watch take off and landing!

re: Incheon/Seoul/moving in

I arrived into Incheon on time, amazed by all the tiny islands just off the mainland that I hadn’t realized existed. I was glued to the window, feeling more and more excited each minute. Once I landed, heading through security didn’t take long and then it was on to the baggage claim. Here’s where I met another snag in my travel plans: my luggage hadn’t arrived. After waiting for 10 minutes watching the same bags go by, I was told no more bags were coming and headed to the counter with probably 50 other people from my flight. From what I could piece together, the running hypothesis was that one of the large carrier cargo containers from our flight got confused with another, leaving the airport with a bunch of unclaimed bags as well as missing bags. I filled out a form and was told to expect my suitcase to be delivered in 1-2 days. True to their word, my suitcase did arrive the very next evening. 

Upset about my luggage and at the airline (which I heard from two friends after the fact is always terrible ….. don’t fly Aeroflot kids!) but still excited to be actually in Korea, I headed out to meet my dear friend Eunji! She had arrived earlier in the day and waited for me. We picked up portable wifi and filled up T money cards to use on public transportation before looking for the bus to bring us into Seoul. It took a bit of wandering around and asking a security officer to get us to the right place, but then we were on our way. We were both feeling the jet lag, but that didn’t stop us from looking out the window the whole time, commenting on what a beautiful day it was. Sunny but not too hot, with different trees everywhere, and bright blue sky. 

While on the bus, I called the manager for the 고시원 (kind of like a hotel but for extended periods of time and very small rooms — almost like a dorm but not affiliated with any university) and my Korean immersion took an early start. I held the phone between my ear and Eunji’s so she could help me answer as he talked quickly in Korean. Apparently I said everything more or less right because he was waiting at the station for us as promised. We walked to the 고시원 together and I checked in, paid my first month of rent, and was shown around. My room is small but has lots of storage, a mini fridge, a desk, and a small tv. There’s also a washer and drier/clothes rack and a small kitchen with rice, kimchi, and ramen always available. 

Leaving the 고시원, Eunji and I walked around to Daiso and along the streets nearby to pick up some necessities and so I could buy a change of clothes. We walked around for a while, and decided to head to campus to find out where our placement exam the next morning would be. After being thoroughly confused by the subway signs and not knowing the difference between all the bus lines, we decided to try and walk there. After heading in the complete opposite direction for quite a while, we retraced our steps and tried again. This time we were definitely headed in the right direction, but one thing we realized quickly was that SNU was a bit further away than we thought. Nonetheless, it was too beautiful of a day to not feel happy, even when walking up a steep hill. We finally made it to campus and checked out a map. Feeling successful and more confident, we walked back down. At that point, Eunji had to meet with the manager at her dorm, and we parted ways. I am still so grateful she had been there to help me out and make things a little less scary. Later, I checked my phone to find that we had walked 8 miles together that day! Maybe our legs weren’t just tired from being on the plane for so long… either way I was tuckered out and ready for an early bedtime.