방문 방문~

"Visit visit~"

So as a quick update to what's happened these two weeks other than the ear issue and getting used to Level 6, these two weeks also involved two of my friends visiting from other countries!

Not just that though, but I've been seeing lots of familiar faces lately! Don't you love it when you haven't seen someone for a long time and you finally get to see them again? That's when Koreans say "반갑다!", which is also used for "Nice to meet you!" For one familiar face, those following my blog two years ago will remember my Japanese friend Yoshiko, who continued at Sogang after me but then returned to Japan and is now back and taking Level 6 with us, woo! :D So two weekends ago, Yoshiko, Kana, Henry, and I met up with Kyunghee (the girlfriend of my friend Greg from Level 3) and her friends to celebrate Kyunghee's birthday!
Tandoori chicken mm~
Chicken Paneer and Lamb Masala. Ah how I've missed Indian food :).
To butt in quickly here, living in Seoul for a long time has made me notice one thing--I cannot go for a long time without super varied food! Out of Korean food that is within normal price ranges, there really isn't much variation (this day 찌개 stew, that day 삼겹살 samgyupsal--Korean bacon, next day 볶음밥 fried rice, rinse, repeat). Korean food is very delicious, but as with anything (and perhaps because I am spoiled by how many different kinds of foods there are in New York) it does get tiring and repetitive after a while, and foreign food is normally very expensive (at least 3-4x more expensive than normal Korean food). Alas! Henry actually took me to an American diner the other day and we were both pleasantly surprised by how it actually was really good and reminiscent of good old-fashioned American diners! (and now back to the topic).
Hapypy birthday Kyunghee :D. Yummy pudding cake!
After dinner, we went to a cafe (not this one) but I just found this very amusing hahaha.
My green tea latte in the cafe.

Okay, now for the visitors! One was former Korea Light Fellow Heeseung, who is studying abroad in London this semester and came to Seoul for a few days. For people who have been following my blog (or Heeseung's when she was here, or River's when he was here) you'll recognize Meng Ju in this picture :D!
As you can see we had yummy yummy fried chicken (it's funny how popular fried chicken is in Asia! This place, called The Frypan also has really amazing fried chicken! I was pleasantly impressed :D).

My second visitor (unfortunately, did not take pictures that day) was Arthur, who is studying in Beijing and is my high school friend Angela's friend (phew what a link) and you'll have seen pictures of him if you saw my post about Beijing! He was here for a weekend and found Seoul awesome (who would expect less? :D) I also learned that day that the Korean practice of playing the most popular songs on repeat forever (such that it is impossible to not know what the popular songs of the moment are) extends as well to Lady Gaga (as we heard Telephone at least 20 times that night). Go Lady Gaga.
Another visit was from Henry's mother once more (who also visited earlier this year). She took Henry, Kana, and I to a yummy 한정식 restaurant (where you will get about 20-30ish small 반찬 small dishes of food as you can see below) in Insadong.
We then finished our trip in a tea shop where I tried an interesting drink--a ginseng smoothie haha. As expected, it was bitter and had that "good for your health taste" but to be honest, it wasn't bad! To be honest, I'd try it again ^^.
Also fun fact: for those who studied Level 4 at Sogang University, or seen the Level 4 book, they will know "Brian Barry" a famous 탱화 (Buddhist art) artist who became a monk and has lived in Korea for over 40 years. Funny enough, Henry's mom knew him from Peace Corps! What a small world! :D

What else to say in this post? I've been feeling much more confident about my Korean lately! Hanging out with my Korean friend and two of her Korean friends such that I was also able to hear how they spoke to each other (Koreans definitely speak to each other differently than they will to foreigners from my experience, but I guess that's anyone right?) and actually understand most of it was pretty awesome! Also, after going through Level 5 and a bit of Level 6 video class, I'm actually feeling good about watching dramas without subtitles. I've begun 찬란한 유산 (Brilliant Legacy, Shining Inheritance...you can translate it in a few ways) recently and even though there are some scenes where I have to repeat the scene to hear what they're saying, and sometimes even then I don't catch everything, I get a good deal! It's still frustrating to not understand everything though...I wonder if my parents felt that or still feel that when they watch American TV, hmm.

On the other hand, I think my English speaking skills have dropped o_O. I noticed that when I was talking to Arthur, I would ramble on about something and then think to myself, wait, there is no way that what I just said made any sense in English...almost as if I was saying it in a Korean way? I don't know! Weird! Hehe :).

To next time! Tonight's Naoko and Hiroko's last night in Seoul before heading back to Japan and Saturday is Shaun's wedding so look forward to a post about that :).