Tuesday :) Ridge of Wind and 365 Safety Experience Zone

** I know I'm behind like 2 weeks but life has been hectic Xd**

We started today by going to the Ridge of Wind. It's sort of like a mountain ridge where they built over a dozen wind turbines. Here they also grow cabbage, that were literally the 3x the size of my head! It was crazy! We got here by taking a bus and then walking up hill for a few minutes. I didn't go all of the way to the top but I took a lot of pictures about halfway up! After we finished up here we went to see a place called the 365 safety experience center after lunch. This place was made for kids and preteens as you could tell by the bright paint colors, but some of the stuff was made for adults. Our group first went to the earthquake simulator which was sort of like an indoor roller coaster simulator. We had 3d glasses and everything. It was short but sweet. It kind of hurt to be jostled about so much! After this we went to the Terrorist simulator ( I know it sounds weird but let me explain). That's the name of it but I didn't get a terrorist feeling from it. What happened was that we went in groups of 4 down through an elevator and were seated in this 360 degree car. It then proceeded through rooms with huge screens where the terrorists would pop out and go through this story line.. I think it was futuristic bio warfare. I guess we all died in the end maybe? I wasn't paying attention because I thought people would be like poppin out of places but nothing happened XD 

This is where things got fun~! Our final activity of the day was a military obstacle course! This course was nestled high into a neighboring mountain so we got to take a gondola up. Here we got fitted into safety harnesses and helmets and then we walked over to the course. It was suspended about 3 stories and you were attached to a rope system on only one side, and everything rocked and swung so pretty much if you fell you'd be hanging awkwardly with no net underneath you.. Everything was fine besides the sideways rope bridge Xd! We then got to propell zip line down to the group and then got to do a decently sized zip line across a lake ( Costa Rica spoiled me with ziplines, sorry Korea!). After this we had dinner and then checked into our hotel! In this hotel there was a sauna room called a jimjibang. Here you get an outfit and then there are steam rooms, pools of hot/cold water, and then another level filled with hot and cold rooms. People in Korea freuqent these types of places and sometimes people even sleep overnight! (I mean for $6 it's not bad..) we ended the night with a minor spider scare in our room (eww) and air conditioning! 

Photos will be up later~! I'm too lazy to separate them by day but they are in order :)

Culture corner: 

What can I write about for this culture corner... Hmmm since I already said things about the sauna I think that's covered! 

Music: 

EXO's Growl

G-Dragon's Coup d'etat 

Dramas I'm watching: 

Master's Sun (omg it's scary but soooooo good) 

Goddess of Fire (I'm a sucker for historical dramas) 

Monday~ Icheon and Wonju

Our first stop was at a Folk Village~ it was a recreation of 17th century Joseon time and was really interesting~ Sungkyunkwan Scandal, Dae Jang Geum, and the king and the Clown had scenes filmed here~ it was so weird to think that I was stepping where Micky Yoochun had stepped. Afterwards we had lunch in a traditional Korean restaurant in Icheon and went to paint pottery~ after this we went to King Sejong's tomb and ate dinner in Wonju (roasted duck). Near our hotel was pretty much nothing so we stayed in the lobby until curfew and ordered our B.A.P tickets~ it was a stressful process because my debit card wouldn't work although I told my bank I'd be out of the country.. So I had to use my friend's card and I gave her the won so I'll just go to the bank and withdraw some money when we get back to Seoul. Nothing else happened last night ;-) haha~ 

Sunday ( Free Day~)

So in the morning I ate breakfast with my friends and I went to Myeongdong with my friend Nick :) we walked around for a while. We decided to see a movie called Snowpiercer since there wasn't much open in the morning. This was a really funny experience. Umm so Nick is Chinese/Malay and everyone here thinks that he is Korean so the box office guy kept speaking to him in Korean. Then I told him that he wasn't Korean in Korean so then he just talked to me in Korean haha :) here we get to choose our seats beforehand but I just let the office guy choose them. Apparently they are the best seats and cost a dollar more haha. So we got drinks and went to our theatre. The movie had already started and it was dark so we weren't exactly sure where our seats were but I think someone took them so we ended up in a two seater seat called the "Sweet Box.." I don't know if the guy thought we were a couple and that's why he chose that seat for us but whatever. It was really comfortable and we could talk easily because there were dividers on both side of seats. We were legit laughing over the seat for 20 minutes and then laughing about the movie. It was in English with a few Korean phrases but they had subtitles. It was a creepy post ice age movie that was pretty good :) glad i saw it. After we went shopping for about 10 minutes and head back to the hotel. After I got changed and everything I went out with a friend to the art mural town and since he spoke Korean it was so helpful. He could ask for directions and order food easily for us :) oh yeah we ate patbingsu first and then went up the hill to the art mural town.. It was a long walk.. I think with him I walked probably 4 miles.. Haha~ mm the art mural place was so interesting~ a lot of artists were painting on the walls that day and we got some good pictures :-) we walked for a while afterwards and then headed back to my Hotel area for some chicken~ after this I met up with Nick again and we went to Dongdaemun where they were supposed to have Disco Pang Pang and street markets. They had lots of stores but no disco pang pang :( I did buy Some souvenirs and we went to the stream to listen to some live music :) we headed back around 9:00 since our curfew was 10:00 and we stopped at 7-11 for some snacks :) the next day we were off on our 4 day trip~ 

Friday and Saturday

These were the days that I stayed with a host family. My eonni (she was older than me so this is the term for it) and I met at the orientation at Yonsei Univeristy. Her mom drove us to an Italian restaurant in Itaewon where I got beef pasta (it was seriously the best pasta I have ever had..). Her mom then took us to Lotte World, an amusement park with a mall, subway station, underground shopping mall, and supermarket attached to it. We went on the Giant Loop, Atlantis, Gyro Twist, and a Tree Ride. Then we had some coffee in a coffee shop, ate at a traditional Korean restaurant, and went to the underground mall to buy clothes. I bought 3 really cute shirts, some makeup, and some accessories for a really good price :-) we also bought couple bracelets. Afterwards we went on the subway to her house~ we went in for about an hour and then we went out again to Paris Baguette to buy Bread and some snacks. We met her younger brother on the way~ we came back home and her brother ate dinner and then I handed out the gifts that I bought :) I think the brother really liked the cookies~ 

So in Korea students have to study a lot and go to school on weekends depending on the classes, so my eonni had to go to math academy on Saturday. She did her homework that night and I stayed in the living room with her while she did it and kind of slept on her XD. We were really close~ we slept in the living room and watched a movie~ 

Saturday I woke up first and got ready for breakfast~ my eonni finished her homework and then we had lunch quickly and her parents drove us to her lessons. I spent 3 hours learning math and the teacher was really funny~! I think he was really surprised when he saw me in his class since I was the only foreigner in his class.. Translating Korean and doing math at the same time made me really sleepy so I had a hard time staying awake~ his assistants handed out coffee at the end though so I stayed awake ;) after this we walked to a Korean restaurant and had beef soup~ it was really unique. The beef was still on the bones and my host mom cut the meat off of the bone for me and put it in my bowl~ that was so sweet of her~ I had to say goodbye to my eonni now because she had to take a test~ and my host family took me back to the hotel~ I went out to karaoke and coffee with one friend and then I called it a night~ i also planned what I'd do during my free day tomorrow. 

Thursday

Okay so Thursday~~~ sorry I'm behind a lot~ today  we had another day of classes ( US-Korea Relations and Korean Development) after this we went to Gyeongbukgong ( the Royal Palace), King Sejong's Museum, and the Korean War Museum. We ate cold noodles and got to our hotel around 8:00 pm. We had free time until 10:30 so I went to Sinchon and Myeongdong with a friend where, yes I bought the backpack I saw~! It's super nice and feels strong. Plus it fits a lot of stuff in it.~ bought some snacks at 7-11 and then went to bed:) 

Wednesday~

Please be mindful while reading these posts that Korea is 13 hours ahead of EST so my Wednesday may be your Tuesday~ or my Thursday may be your Wednesday so that's why I'm writing in the past tense. Today we had a Korean language and history class in the morning~ they were really interesting~ for lunch they took us too.... OUTBACK!! Haha~ it's pretty much the same minus some food options. The pumpernickel bread was  really good~ of our meal options I chose the frilled chicken wrap. It was really good but really spicy~~!!! After this we went to a Buddhist temple in the middle of the city (it's modern and it's huge... So many floors~!) we did some activities and then we had lunch in the temple. After this we had free time~ this was the first time we could actually go out! Two of the Korean chaperones of our program took us to Myeongdong which is a huge shopping street! My friend and I went to the Lotte Young Department Store and there was an SM Popup store! Of course I couldn't resist and I bought a SHINee Sherlock Album and a Leeteuk Journal~ we also went to other floors of the department store~ I saw as nice school bag but it was 85,000 won ㅠ.ㅠ if we go again I think I might buy it because it was really nice and it was on sale~ I bought a cheapy backpack and a gift in the Main Street and also some sunglasses. We took the bus back (forgot to mention we took the subway to it) and now I'm going to sleep~ 

Tuesday~

Tuesday- this was the first official day of our program~ we went to breakfast at the restaurant attached to our hotel and then headed to Yonsei University where we had an opening ceremony,  an went to lunch at a buffet called Ashley's (Korean-American Style). After we went to a historical prison, Insadong, and a Kimchi making place. At night we went to Seoul N Tower which was HUGE and the views were amazing. Pictures don't do it justice~ it's so tall and you can see all of Seoul from the top (the lines for it are really long >__>). This night too we had to stay in and rest ~

Flying~

Okay~ so I'm writing this post a little late but I'm in Korea~ I have for 3 days now~ and I feel so at home with all of my group mates and hotel~ so Sunday was when I officially flew out. I had a 1pm flight from JFK to Seoul. I had a Delta flight at 7:10 am from Boston to JFK also. So my delta flight was on time but I wasn't allowed to use the shuttle connecting to the terminal I had to go to so I had to drag my luggage to the AirTran and transfer. I got my boarding pass, went through security, and went to the gate where we had orientation, got a coffee, and then boarded. I wasn't sitting next to anyone I knew so I just watched movies and played games. The food was just normal Korean airline food :) bibimbap, and beef, nothing incredibly good but edible. Because of the time difference we landed at Incheon Airport at 4:00 pm August 5th. We took our bus to the hotel, Vabien II and checked in. My roomie is Emma Philips and she is really nice~! Our room is awesome too~ it's a corner room so it was a little bigger; 2 bathrooms, living room, and bedroom with kitchen, walkin closet and make up tables. The first night we just slept~