On Tuesday I finally began to practice calligraphy in calligraphy club. I learned very basic strokes, including straight lines, diagonals, 90-degree angles, and curves. I also learned how to hold the brush correctly, how to make ink, and how to clean the brush properly. Long story short though, calligraphy is much harder than it looks. I spent two hours practicing those basic strokes and I was nowhere near perfect. A lot practice will be needed to make it to the advanced level. When I watched the instructor last week I thought that calligraphy was going to be a quick learning process but I learned fast that that was very incorrect. Calligraphy also requires patience; you cannot give up if you keep making mistakes and your lines do not turn out perfectly. The instructor has 30 years of experience so of course he is going to make it look easy and I cannot expect to be as good as he is in such a short period. Fortunately I have a lot of time to practice!
Practicing basic strokes in calligraphy club.
On Wednesday my Korean class went out to dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant and later we headed to Baskin Robbin's to get some ice cream and we ended up talking there for almost two hours. It was enjoyable getting to know my classmates outside of class and I'm very fortunate to have the class that I have because we all get along and we have interesting personalities that doesn't make hanging out boring. My class is also very diverse. The countries that are represented are: USA, Germany, New Zealand, Brazil, Hong Kong, China, and Japan. I look forward to hanging out with them in the future.
KLI class dinner. Too bad you can't see my face because I was all the way at the end of the table, haha.
After class on Thursday I had dinner with Inho at a Korean soup (chigae) restaurant. The entire restaurant is run by one man which is quite impressive and the soup was really filling and really cheap. The only soup that is served is kimchi chigae, one of my favorites. We each got a bowl of rice and chowed down to the last drops of soup. For the two us it was only $10 for a huge pot of soup. If I can find the restaurant again I am definitely going there in the future.
On Friday I had my North Korean class which delved into the political system of North Korea. North Korea's political parties are leader-oriented and are always changing, so it was actually quite difficult to get all the parties and organizations straight in my head. I will have to go back and review the names of the different organizations and how much power each organization has relative to the other. Later that night Marisa, Lea, and another friend Helen went out clubbing in Hongdae. We started off the night by buying some bottles of soju in a convenience store and then sitting and drinking in a park in Hongdae. Hongdae, and Seoul in general, is bustling at night. It was interesting and fun seeing how much the city comes to life at night and how there are just endless things to do. I also love how convenience stores carry cheap alcohol so you don't have to pay for expensive drinks at the club. While we were in the park we met with other exchange students from Yonsei and we all headed to a club called NB2. We bought a ticket where we could access numerous clubs and have two free drinks for only $15 but we ended up just staying at the same club because we were having so much fun. I can't wait to go clubbing again this coming weekend which is what I'm going to do for my 21st birthday. I figured since it's my 21st I need to go big so we're going to Gangnam and going all out at some expensive but really good clubs. Apparently one of the clubs had a trampoline in the middle of the dance floor. How awesome is that? And before we go clubbing, Seoul is going to set off fireworks so we're going to watch those.
A night of clubbing in Hongdae.
On Saturday Marisa, Helen, and I headed to Incheon (the city where the international airport is located) to attend the Sky Festival. Tickets were free which was really great considering how much we were able to do and see. The festival had numerous tents set up for cultural activities including making soap and wearing traditional clothes. There were also food tents where I ate my fill of mandu (dumplings). Later that night at the festival was a huge K-pop concert. Many groups were represented including big names like Super Junior, Girls Generation, Sistar, Vixx, etc. The concert lasted for two hours which definitely gave me my fill of K-pop. I'm personally not a huge fan of K-pop but I figured since it was free and since I was in Korea I should go at least once while I'm here. Plus I got to witness crazy fan girls screaming behind me which you can only get at K-pop concerts (trust me, I mean crazy).
The soap I made! It's supposed to be in the shape of a traditional Korean mask. The flavor is cocoa butter so it smells really good!
One of the groups at the K-pop concert.
Lastly on Sunday I worked on my homework and I met up with other Boren scholars and fellows studying in South Korea. We got some Korean BBQ (can you tell I get Korean BBQ a lot?) and then later went to a cafe and got Oreo bingsu and fruit bingsu. We ended up meeting for around three hours just talking about our lives but mostly our plans for the future, which for all of us includes working for the government. Similar to my Boren orientation, it was really insightful and fulfilling being able to discuss my life with people who have similar goals and experiences. There's definitely a "we're in this together" attitude which will help me in the future and has already helped me so far in Korea (I received a lot of advice from past Borens who studied in South Korea).
A cultural aspect that I will discuss this week is bathrooms. Korean bathrooms, like most non-Western bathrooms in the rest of the world, are unlike American-style bathrooms. In many cases there is no bathtub or shower curtain. Instead the whole bathroom is like a shower so you end up getting the whole room wet when you bathe. Additionally, in some bathrooms (I've only seen these in the KLI building), the toilets are non-Western. For those of you who aren't familiar with non-Western toilets, they are essentially a glorified hole in the ground where you have to squat to do your business. I'm actually surprised I haven't encountered more because I've had my fair share of using those style of toilets when I lived in India and travelled around Asia. Anyways, I will see you next week!
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