Dinner Parties and Bread Pillows

So I was lucky enough to be invited over to one of the Seoul Mates' house this past weekend for a dinner party. In total 5 of us students went, while 4 of the Seoul Mates were there. We were gong to meet up at exit 2 at the subway station that was near YuJeong (Seoul Mate host)'s apartment. Now let me tell you all about the subway system here in Seoul. I love it and it is very easy to understand (unlike the bus system *shutters*), but sometimes it takes a lot longer than you think it does, especially if you have two different trains using the same line (ie express bullet trains verses the normal All Stop train). Well long story short, I missed the all stop train the first time around and had to wait awhile until it came again after the express train had come and gone. Never felt so much like a salmon swimming upstream then I did when the express train let off all those people who had to transfer to the inner circle line, very glad that I was able to stand on the other side of a column while they  all poured out around  me.

I eventually made it to the station I needed to get to and also met up with my group of friends at the exit we needed to be at (thankfully, because I have no data on my phone at the moment, so not outgoing text/calls for me). When everyone was there, we left the subway and walked to the corner grocery store by my friend's apartment and bought meat, sesame leaves, beer, soda, and other foods for our dinner. It was not that back, split between everyone there, we only had to pay about 5000 won per person (about $5).

our poison for the night, mostly stayed to the soda and Max

After getting the food for the night, we went to YuJeong's apartment to start the festivities. When we got in, we left our shoes by the front door like custom and then made ourselves comfortable in the living room area while the Koreans all started to cook our dinner. We helped them out by bringing the finished dishes to the table and set the atmosphere for the event. We all were talking and swapping stories. I even played DJ for the night!

I made a new friend for the night! We named him 빵이, or in English "Bready"

Dinner was amazing! We had the meat rapped in the sesame leaves with hole grilled garlic bulbs with rice and also an odeng soup that YuJeong had made that was so good! For those of you that do not know what odeng soup is, it is a presses fish cake that in cooked in a broth with onions and radishes for a long time until all the different flavors are blended together to make a great warm soup that is not to strong in any one flavor.

the meat that was also grilled with the whole garlic cloves, the lettuce/sesame leaves, and the Odeng  soup with rice

After dinner we cleaned up the table and the dishes and started playing Card Against Humanity, aka Apples to Apples the rated R version. Let's just say that it is a little  awkward playing with non-native speakers, because every now and then we would come across a phrase or word that they did not know, and all of us native speakers would just look at each other and silently ask who would be the one to explain what was gong on (for example it really hard to explain what "Queefing" is to a non native speaker). Even though truthfully even I had no idea what some of the card were saying, but I knew that in the context what they were getting at.

We played for a few rounds, until most of the card were in the discard pile. But unfortunately our night had to come to an early end, because the last train was running at 11:30 that night.  So since we had to get the last train, we all speed walked through he neighborhood to get to the train station. It must have been really funny to watch us. There we were 5 people all speed walking/jogging in a  line through the side streets in the dark just laughing as our breathes were puffing in the late night cold--like little penguins in a row!

We got the last rain and then had to run like mad-women through the transfer station so that we could get the last train that would take us to Ewah station (we were on the other side of the Han, so it would have been a little pricey cab ride). Well we got to the station on time after having run to the wrong side then sprint to the other side. Note for the future, never sprint in the subways after you have had lots of soda and a few beers while you gorge yourself on grilled meat and later chocolate brownies!!!

It was a great night, but it was also a great honor to have been invited. Here in Korea, it is really rare to be invited to other people's home. There is not real thing here as a sleep over among friends and dinner parties for friends. It is a real western idea, and not really a thing here in the Land of the Morning Calm. But to be invited really showed me how close I was considered as a friend and that they really wanted to get to know us in a more relaxed manner. Really hope that I can get the opportunity again!
 
고마워 유정 언니!

photo by YuJeong. I had such a great nigh!!!

Buzz Korea Awards

 So I am going to talk about my time attending the 2013 Buzz Korea Award ceremony. I was invited a few weeks back by my fried David, whom I meet at the filming for After School Club that I did way back in September (He is the really tall guy who was on my team during the games). His friend was up for an award and was able to get us in to the event for free, meaning we did not have to apply for tickets and were able to just go in.

We were going to meet up at Wangsimni station, but we had a little mix up of communication because they were at a different part of the subway than I was. I waited around for about 20 min and even called a friend of mine (the wonderful Kaitlyn) to be my ghost writer on Facebook to see if we could get in contact with them, before I decided to go top side and find a cafe so I could use their WiFi. I ended up getting a small hot chocolate from the Dunkin Donuts in order to get the WiFi password and eventually was able to find out where they were and meet them at the platform. I meet up with David, Yin Suen, and Hibaq (more ASC film mates) and their friends from their university here in Korea. We eventually made it to Jamwon station were we go off the subway and were able to take the free event shuttle to the location of the award ceremony.

I had passed this place before when I had visited the Han River before, and was really excited that I was able to go inside this time. The event location was inside of a lounge, cafe area that was built of a floating block in the river, connected to the shore by a long gangway. Since we had to split up the group because of room on the shuttle bus, the first group and I went inside and checked in and got our tickets/wrist bands. After checking in we were ushered upstairs and let loose upon the buffet while we waited for the awards start time. There was a really good all-you-can-eat Korean buffet that had a lot of the traditional food and drinks like bibimbap, ddeokgalbi, and even some traditional rice cake desserts. There was also an open free bar that was serving jager bombs and Orange Juice ( I am thinking that Jagermeiser and Red Bull may have been sponsors because we were also allowed to take full cans of Red Bull if we wanted--found that out later after it was too late). Our other friends arrived a little after we got our food from the buffet and it really turned into a party-- and by party I mean that we all stuffed our faces full of free gourmet Koran food and super delicious western desserts until we literally could not eat anymore.

free Jagerbambs

My dinner, the first plate of about three

the mouth watering sweets and free coffee

Thankfully, before I went back and stuffed my face with more cake and macaroons, the staff members come over and told us that the awards were starting and that we needed to go back to the second floor and head into the auditorium (same floor where we checked in on). The hall was like the size of any small ceremony hall. When we had checked in we were given wrist bands with table numbers and seat numbers, so we split up to go find our tables for the night. I was at table 8 (there was a total of 20 tables I believe) so I was really close to the stage.

the program for the evening

The MC for the event was Ricky Kim, a really famous model and actor here in Korea ( he is from Hawaii originally so he was perfect for the all English award show!) and is a major hottie if I do saw so myself.

 The show started up with a few opening words form the Director of Buzz Korea, Mr. Shin. and then lead on to the performance by female group Dal Shabet. They performed about 4-5 songs and then at the end of their stage, they had a drawing from a questionnaire that the guests filled out when they checked in. The winners were given a signed copy of their new album. My friend David was the first winner that they called, which is funny because he was the one that was telling us to go downstairs and fill it out while we were all enjoying the buffet--I did not go down, I was too busy stuffing my face and taking pictures! 

My friend David

After the opening dance performances, there was the actual awards ceremony. The awards were given out to bloggers and people who actively promoted Korea and the Buzz Korea website. I really did not know any of the winners, but it was still cool to see the get awards for their blogs and activities. After the awards were over, there was a drawing for three winners from the audience to win some really cool things. The three prizes were 1) a necklace and earring set from a really poplar TV show here in Korea (the Master's Sun) 2) A signed sports jacket from ZE:A's new clothing line  3) and a backpack that was worn by a popular idol in some TV show. Non of us in my group won anything but we still had a great time cheering on the winners and holding our breathes to see if we won.

After te drawings, we had a performance from 8 of the 9 members of the boy group ZE:A (Kwanghee was at another schedule and could not make it).

You sing it Kevin!!

The one on the far left is also acting in a really popular drama right now in Korea called "Heirs"

They were really good and performed about 4 songs as well as two encore performances. They also had a give away of signed CDs, but to win these the fans had to go on stage and be one of the top dancers from the fans in order to get a CD. One of the girls who was in our group (who is French btw) went up on stage and worked it! Sadly, she did not win, but everyone said that she should have been one of the three winners that were chosen to get the signed CDs.

After the ZE:A performance, the awards where done and we were asked to start heading out the back where we would be able to get cake and also our goodie bags (I think they are referred to as "Swag Bags" nowadays...). My group staid back and were one of the last to leave, because we wanted to thank David's friend for inviting us and it also allowed the crowd to thin out for us.

After collecting our swag bags, with was a box filled with generous sized samples of Korea Beauty products, we caught one of the free shuttles back to the subway and then headed back to the dorms.

the venue as we were leaving

Remember when I mentioned that one of the girls was French? Well she had meet up with three other French girls at the event who happened to be heading in ht same was as we were. They were talking up a storm on the subway, and i was able to follow most of it. But the cool thing was when the rest of the French group got off and there was one of the girls left, I struck up a conversation with her about her time here in Korea and such. My French still flowed like water with a few hiccups, where some of my Korean would pop in, but I was really happy that I was still able to talk to people in French. Even though there are a lot of French speakers here at the dorm (they tend to hang out amongst themselves or the other Europeans, not really meshing with us Americans) I have not really gotten the chance to talk to any of them and practice like the way that I would like to. Hopefully soon, there will be a small pocket of them that will stay so I can practice my French over the winter break!

I'm Still Alive

So as you all might have seem, I have not updated in a while. I just have been really busy with midterms and group projects that I have not really had all that much time to update on here and in my personal journal that I have here with me (ohh, don't you all want to know what I write in there! So much stuff that I don't post on here!!! jk). But I am going to be updating in a format that my friend uses on her blog and it seems to work for her. I promise better posts in the future!!

• I am really loving the street food here. So far my favorite is the waffles (warm waffles with flavored cream and sugar!!). But we also have dumplings, chicken, hoddok (fried dough disk with nuts and spices inside), ddokbokki (chewy rice cakes in a chili sauce), and french fried covered hotdogs (yes they exist and I had one--so good!!!)

• I have been to a total of 3 Simply Kpop recordings (was interviewed by Eli for ep 88, adn introduced ep.82) , have been on an Arirang radio show for an interview, one live recording for After School Club, the Seoul Concert for the YouTube Music Awards, and two showcases--> Block B and VIXX!!

• School is going really well and I have group projects in all of my classes except for Korean. For my Traditional Korean Society and Modernization class I had to do a group project on Korean Dating Culture; for my Pacific Alliance class we are talking about the US-Australian Alliance and how Australia's growing economic dependence on China may interfere with the strategic alliance they have with the US; for my North Korean class we are going to be presenting on the Inter Korean Relations (past and present).

• Korean is going great. I am able to respond to my teacher and answer her questions, but have yet to really use it all that much out side of class (other than restaurant/ordering Korean). I am really able to read and write more so than speak at the moment. I have been getting frustrated because since I am conversational in French, I feel like I should be so much farther ahead, but I have to keep reminding myself that I have only been studying it for about 4 months now (vs 7 years).

• The weather here in Seoul is starting to look like winter. There is still lots of color around, but ti is really really cold here. You need to dress in layers and always have a sweater/coat on. I actually ended up getting a face mask to wear over my mouth/chin area and after one day of wearing it in the cold I think it was a good buy. When I am out int he cold, it is my chin that freezes over first, so with this, I am really warm because the warm air that I breath out warms up my chin! Plus it looks really cool!
  
  
  
  
  
  

• The semester is coming to an end and all my friends are starting to think about packing and heading back home. Since I am staying here over the break and not flying back to Charlotte, I am thinking of visiting a friend of mine in Hong Kong for Christmas and then later in January, going to stay with my cousin in Japan for a week. Other than that I am going to be here in Seoul for the whole 2.5 months that we have off ( I plan on bugging all of my Korean friends to hang out with me/all of my fellow foreigners that are staying here). Maybe I will do more kpop shows...

• I have really started missing American food and also my mom's cooking. Because we do not have an oven in the dorms, I am not really able to cook all that much. I have really been abusing my cooking board on Pinterest looking at all the foods that I am not able to eat over here and pinning the recipes for when I get back to the states. And now that Thanksgiving is right around the corner, I am really starting to miss home and my mommy's cooking. I would give anything to have Uncle Chuck's gooey mac and cheese with a huge bowl of my mom's cornbread dressing. Ahh I am making myself hungry right now.  We are having a Thanksgiving dinner with my program, but I am not really sure how authentic the "fixins" are going to be here, but I am intrigued about what a Korean Thanksgiving is going to be like.

I will be putting up a longer post about the Seoul Lantern Festival later. Hope the new format is ok for you all to read and understand. I might be doing this again if I get anymore behind on my posts since it helps me talk about a lot in a short amount of time.

Later!
SPF