안녕하세요 Seoulmates!
There are less than 11 days left until my departure to South Korea! I'm super excited! This post will be my most recent news as of today rather than Sunday! Today I got my final piece of information for my trip! All of the paperwork and tickets are done and I finally got to choose my Asiana flight seats yesterday. I'm not too picky with my seats, but I'd prefer middle or window, so I'm trying to work it out so that my friend Izzy gets the window seat, I get the middle, and my friend Nick gets the aisle, because well he wants it! I can choose my seats but for some reason the travel agent forgot about a few people while she was booking the flights so I had a separate booking number than the rest, making it possible for me to pick my seat beforehand~ on the return flight all I saw were middle seats leftover so I don't know if we will all be sitting near each other but we'll probably be super tired so it'll all work out! I have my domestic flight all sorted out as well! I'm flying delta both ways. Terminal A in Logan and Terminal 2 at JFK. My flight leaves at 7:10 in the morning so I'm having to leave my house at 3:30 in the morning to comfortably get through airport security and get some coffee (yum). My flight arrives at 8:30 am so I have plenty of time to meet up with friends at our terminal until our chaperone arrives, possibly at 11 am, for orientation. Our flight leaves at 1:00 pm August 4th and we arrive in Seoul, Incheon Airport, at 4:10 pm August 5th (a 14 hour flight plus the time difference). From there on we go to our hotel with the Chicago group coming into Incheon at 4:25 pm. I'm happy that we're arriving first so we have some more free time to browse the airport stores and get through immigration. Plus, I really want to stop at the Dunkin Donuts at the entrance of the airport, where so many Hallyu (Kpop) idols have sat and had coffee. The rest of the week is filled with activities and lessons. We basically do things from 8am until 8pm and then curfew is at 11pm. I have a feeling we'll be out and about until curfew most nights because there is no end of things to do in Seoul and the stores and trains don't close or stop until well after midnight! I'm attaching my itinerary here but the first Sunday we have a totally free day to do whatever we want! That day there is a music program called Inkigayo but its really hard to get tickets to and we wouldn't be able to get enough for everyone in our group so it'll probably be an exploring day~
Anyways, in honor of this trip I'll be making a video soon about the program and about myself on my Dedicated Korea YouTube Channel "FindingSeoul". I'll also go over my itinerary briefly there. I'll be making videos during my trip, mostly from my hotel room, and I'll edit and post them when I get back since we have limited Internet access. I'll post it here when it's complete! (May take 2-3 days to be edited)
What I'm up to:
1) Summer reading ㅠ.ㅠ : I still need to read Treasure Island and the Jungle. I'll start them tomorrow!
2) Packing: I have decided to pack the morning before the trip and buy whatever I still need that afternoon since I have nothing else to do that day but look over my travel info~
3) Host Family Gifts: I still haven't gotten them yet but because I don't know who's in my host family I think I'm going to go more generic and get something big for all of the family members, whoever they may be :3
4) Harvard Minority Recruitment: I got an email a few weeks ago and I've talked to a recent graduate from there about her experience and about how much I love their Korean program :3
5) EF Tours Global Citizen Contest: I'll be entering this year! And it's in China! I have my entry concept complete and I'll share my finished product In late September!
6) School: Technically school starts September 3rd ( my birthday; still not happy about that) but I have a summer reading test August 29th. I have to do the work for that as well after my trip!
Cultural Corner:
Kpop songs I'm listening to:
~ Infinte's Destiny
~ Exo's Wolf
~ SHINee's Dream Girl & Why so Serious
~ Park Nam Jeong's Missing You (1989)
~ Kim Jong Kook's One Man
~ Super Junior's Opera (Japanese version)
~ BTOB's Wow
TV Shows I'm watching
This is the middle of the summer so kdramas are ending and there are some I just don't like that much or haven't started. I'll post the dramas I'm watching/ will watch and mark their country
~Goddess of Fire, Jung Yi (Sourh Korea)
~Mischievous Kiss (Japan- ended)
~Love, Now (Taiwan) ( they speak Mandarin Chinese; more simplified I believe, I'm currently on episode 46 but it's getting sad so I don't know if I want to finish the Other 26 eps...)
~ Can You Hear my Heart ( South Korea) (I hear its really good! Will start)
~ Gu Family Book (South Korea-ended) *well made
*This is it for my dramas but for beginners looking to find a good drama but who know a good bit about Kpop, I recommend Dream High Season 1 and Heartstrings because they have some idols in it. Boys over Fowers is also a classic drama! For period dramas you can watch Dr Jin, Fate, Dong Yi, or Yi San ( the first two are newer). For modern monarchy dramas King 2 Hearts, My Princess, Goong and Goong S are for you! For movies I can recommend My Little Bride (cute arranged marriage story) and that's it for now because Korean movies are not for everyone and there are so many that you ave to find ones that you'd like yourself
Juli's Lesson for the Day: Aegyo
Aegyo is a Korean term for acting cute. This can include cute actions, voices, gestures, or doing whatever a Person considers really adorable. Aegyo is something very popular in Korea for males and females alike. Couples do it for each other and idols do it for their fans. Currently a popular style of Aegyo has emerged called Gwiyomi. This literally means little cutie and its what we'd call song Aegyo where you sing, and perform the required gestures. This Aegyo is also called Counting Cutely Aegyo because what you do is literally do addition. 1 + 1 ( holding up one finger on each hand) = Gwiyomi ( this is where the person would do the cute action with their hand) and they keep going up ( 2+2, 3+3...) ilhoon of BTOB is credited for the creation of the gestures and getting this Aegyo viral. If you search his name with Gwiyomi you will find a video of him performing this!
And here is my meme for the day~~ 
Yeah... The amount of times idols get confessed to my the same sex... Too many to count. Some idols share tales of these events on tv too! Kangin of Super Junior had a particularly funny encounter with this in high school..can't blame the guy though...haha
That's all of now! I'll keep you updated on my packing and videos!
You'll find your Soul in Seoul~
- 박주리
