시원섭섭하다~

A fun Korean adjective meaning "to feel relieved while sad at the prospect of separating." What a great word to have that combines two very disparate feelings! This is basically the feeling that I have at the end of every semester here, not to mention at the end of every school year, and that I will have at the end of next year when I go back to the US! Relieved for finishing Sogang's levels, but sad to separate from all the friends I've become so close to over this year. A lot of my friends will actually be leaving after level 5, so I'll have to say plenty of goodbyes by February, very very 섭섭하다 (the second half of the word before). It's sad, thinking of how these people that you see every day and struggle through learning a new language together you'll be able to see only a few more times in your life afterwards, taking into account the fact that you live thousands of miles away (how many chances will I get to go to Japan??? and to visit their hometowns in Japan? Or China, or whatever country they may come from). Alas! The good friends are the ones I'll keep in touch with of course ^^, as I've kept in touch with Chikae, Min Jie, Rie, and Jonathan from last summer. It's surprising not too hard to pick up from where you last left off ^^.

Last weekend Henry, Kana, and I saw off Xue Qing, who will be back in China for 2 months before coming back to start college at Jungang University. We spent her last day just lazing around in one of those "all-in-one" bangs, that include wii games, karaoke, movies, and internet. I've gotta say, watching Pan's Labyrinth, a Spanish movie, with Korean subtitles was quite the experience (refresh my Spanish memory from high school while challenging my reading abilities).

Quite the unpleasant experience I had after we left that place to go to Outbeak Steakhouse, where we had dinner. While walking on the street in front of Xue Qing and Kana (Henry had stepped into a 7-11 to get money from the ATM), I heard them call me back (which I later found out was because Xue Qing had forgotten her bag at the all-in-one bang). Naturally, I turn around to walk back, but in the process I got in the way of a tall white woman who was walking behind me (but didn't bump into her). She yelled out "Get out of my way!" but didn't look at me--the way she said it was as if she was saying it into thin air, assuming that I couldn't understand English anyway. I guess it's because I'm Asian and she assumed I was Korean and couldn't understand English. The tone too was pretty rude, but my natural gut reaction was to just yell out "Sorry!" Only a few seconds later did I get really upset and wish I had told her out on it :\. It's pretty crazy what strong assumptions are made--if you're Korean/look Asian, you probably can't speak English. And on the other hand, if you speak English, you probably can't speak Korean--an experience I underwent today a few times--once when I was helping my friend buy clothes and after the lady explained stuff to me about the clothes and I explained it to my friend, she turned to her coworker and said in Korean "Awkward," and once more when I talked to my friend and told her I'd wait at the seats while she browsed around the clothes (in English) and the worker proceeded to tell me there were also seats "over there" in English. If only we could live without such negative assumptions :\.
Saying goodbye to Xue Qing on her last day!
Yummy food at Outback Steakhouse, which is also much more expensive than the States AND includes tax!
Mmm crab pasta :)
So on Sunday, Hiroko, Naoko (friends from Level 4 who are in my class now--we're working together on a presentation), and I went to World Cup Stadium, where there are 5 parks made from the landfill that was previously there. We took several pictures and explored the park, which was strangely beautiful despite the lifelessness of winter. It was a frigid day, but regardless, we endured and explored two of the parks!
Ice on the pond that was frozen over in 평화공원 Pyeonghwa (Peace) Park
Reeds! Some eerie prettiness about them blowing in the wind.
Dandelions! So pretty close up :). They're called 민들레 Minddeulleh.
The steps up to 하늘 공원 Haneul (Sky/Heaven) Park.
The view of Seoul from up there!
Hiroko walking along Heaven Park. Really looks like a sky trail or something related to heaven. I thought it was beautiful ^^.
Pretty looking...structures? Up at the top of Heaven Park ^^.
This scene just looks SO quietly peaceful. Like a scene right out of a painting :).
Sight of the Hangang River ^^.
Tuesday I met up with several friends who I studied with from Level 3! From left to right: Henry (who I met this time, didn't study with him in Level 3), Chikae (graduated from Level 6 and is teaching Japanese now), Rie (one of my best friends from last year who saw me off at the airport--so sweet and wonderful ^^, she graduated from Level 6 and is now back in Japan--she came for a short while to Korea with her mother), me, Li Yuan (we came back to study Level 4 again at the same time--she had taken a while off for her grad school, now she's about to work for Samsung), and then Min Jie (after Level 3, he changed to Yonsei, finished up through Level 7 and will enter Yonsei University as an undergraduate student in March) yay! Reunion :D!
^_^!
Okay, Christmas in Korea is PACKED outside (you can't see here) but Lotte World and COEX (a large mall south of the river) were jam-packed with people! There was literally almost no space to move, ESPECIALLY when we were trying to get back on the subway. If I ever spend another Christmas in Seoul--note to self, avoid public transportation!
Ice skating rink was packed. I probably should've taken a picture of the large crowds!
COEX Mall, outside.
Namdaemun at night, when it started to snow, yay for a sort of White Christmas! It was also surprisingly empty for Namdaemun!
I was not aware of this, but apparently ginseng shaped like body parts is supposed to be good for that body part--by extension, ginseng shaped like a person is expensive, because it's good for the whole body. I have to say though, this particular one is just creepy!!!
Hehe fun with being sort of artsy...ish. Left to right: Ming, Henry, Tim, and Elliy.
Oh funny looking mascots.
A (fake) tree near Namdaemun wishing us a Happy New Year! Korea's quite festive for an Asian country, but of course, it's nothing near the US.
And last, a (fake) fountain near the Myeongdong Station. Yay for festive lights!

Happy holidays everyone ^^. I'll be off to Jeju Island this weekend so expect the next post to be about that :).