Scavenger Hunt

To get to know Goesan, the OCT gave us a scavenger hunt to complete. We had to take photos with 7 different locations.

We were the team that came in #1. Ooooh yeah. Here are the pics:

 Take a photo with a Korean person. Poor terrified girl.

 We're on our way!

 Hanna, who actually speaks Korean, asking directions. We all felt a little useless.

 Squid snacks!

 Pushups? In front of a stationary store?

 More directions.

 D-Mart, K-Mart's less successful older brother. 

 Getting sick in front of the hospital

 This is a couch as a bus stop. I guess you can wait in comfort?

 Norebon!

 Rock Paper Scissors in front of the B&B. B&B is the Fulbright ETA bar apparently. It stands for Beer &Brewer, I believe.

That's what #1 looks like.

Korean Chremistry

Beer to Soju mixing guide. Korean Chremistry.

Jungwon Fun

Our OCT is pretty good about keeping us busy in the marble palace (the university). They make sure, however, that we get a good amount of fun as well. First, there is a wealth of extracurricular activities. I've already posted about KPOP, which was the first. They also have Taekwondo and Hanji.

Yes, be jealous.

 Here's my black belt. Our teacher told us we might be beginners in body, but advanced in mind. Therefore, we deserve a black belt.

 When I was so "advanced in mind," I didn't know how to tie my belt.

Yes. The first Taekwondo Kid.

Twice a week, it's great to go upstairs and let out some grunts. I mean, I'd say it's fun to kick and punch things, but I still don't really know what I'm doing. Grunting, though, is very important and easy to master

While Taekwondo might have been the most well known activity, Hanji is also very popular with our ETAs. Hanji is traditional Korean paper crafting. Basically, it's a really cool form of paper mache. We're taught by an adorable woman who doesn't speak any English. If she interacts with you, it's to show you exactly where you're making your Hanji incorrectly.

Here's hanji paper:

Here's what completed hanji can look like:

Ours...is...just as cool? We made a pencil case and a basket. They look great.

What a grade A pencil holder.

When we're not participating in Korean activities, we have our own Fulbright culture to interact with. From writing our names on stage with our rear ends:

(Taylor forgot his nametag and had to work for it)

To making house cheers:

(The house competition. We each had a day to make cheers. Oh, my team, won! Oooooh yeah)

To starting our own wobbling tradition:

(I'm not really sure what it is either. All I know is that we all did it)

 

To our yummy watermelon parties.

Yeah, Fulbright has been keeping us busy, but we're still having fun.

Candy Crush

Many people probably wonder what Fulbright ETAs do all day. Well sure, we have lesson plans to write and talks to go to. But, really, our days are supplemented by this.

Candy Crush? What is it?
Awesome.
In any given moment, there are probably at least 5 people in the program constantly playing this game.
Sugar crush can draw cheers from your fellow crushers.

And everyone knows the pain felt when you run out of lives and have to wait the half hour. What are you supposed to do in that time?

Bejeweled just isn't good enough.

Oh. So that's Soju.

With 80 new and young residents that are definitely eager to explore, Goesan just got a little more exciting. Whether we're making the rounds for Papinsu or a quick stop in the stationary store, we're making an appearance.

One of the places where we most frequently make our appearances is B&B. This is a local bar that, somehow, became the ETA place to hang out. One Friday, we successfully crammed at least 60 of us into the bar. Oh, and we spent 650,000 won. 

How's that for a bar tab?

Now, I'm a self proclaimed whiskey girl, but my liquor of choice has been rather nonexistent. Instead, Soju is the choice option. Soju and a PBR-esque beer. 

So, what is Soju? (소주) Soju is a rice vodka like thing. 

You can order it by the bottle, and take shots. In our group, it is not uncommon to see one person with their own bottle. We usually share though.

Or, you can blend it with watermelon and make this delicious treat.

Oh yeah. It is as good as it looks. A group of this drank 4 pitches of this and 3 pitches of beer. After those 2 hours at the bar or so, we each owed 4,000 won. 

That's like 4 dollars. Less than 4 dollars. Best country ever?

And what do you do after you hit up the watermelon soju? Go to the 노래방. A "norebon" is where you rent out private karaoke rooms. Your group of friends can go in and sing. For hours. There is a wall of television screens and pages upon pages of books. The walls are fairy soundproof too, to hide your awful singing.

Now, those of you who have heard my singing voice should not be surprised, but after a half hour or so in my room, everyone fled my voice. My friend Kate and I spent literally 45 min straight singing. We were the only ones in the room for most of that.

What a pitcher looks like in Korea.

 The projector screens with KPOP

 노래방!

Mmmmm Beer.

...Although not very good beer.

Breaking the 4th dimension

Sometimes, you just need to see a movie in 4 dimensions. Goesan itself does not have a movie theater. So, the OCT announced that there would be an optional excursion to a nearby town (like an hour away) to watch a 4D movie. 30,000 won later, we were at Lotte. This 5 story (or so) department store boasted a 4D theater.

Now what is 4D? I was a liiiittle uncertain myself until you sat in the seats. The chairs move. Puffs of air shoot at your face. I hear there are even smells sometimes. It looks a little something like this:

These theaters aren't really in the US yet, although there are some amusement parks that have small rides. According to this article, we might be able to look forward to them soon.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/07/entertainment/la-et-ct-4d-cinema-20120707

Yeah. Overall, a really fantastic time. The OCT promised our minds would be blown. They were.

Oh and what move? Pacific Rim. Imagine all those fighting sequences/water scenes. Every time the big robots went into the water, we were splashed. Our chairs moved when they walked. Great movie, better in 4 dimensions.

Gotta ask though, what's 5 dimensions? And when can I get it?

K-Pop Dance

Our program offers a variety of extracurriculars. One of them was a K-Pop dance class. For those of you who are not that familiar with K-Pop (which I was not before my arrival), it is a mix of electronica and techno that manifests as Korean Pop.

Like so:

In my infinite wisdom and based on my amazing dance skills, I decided to sign up. We all arrived at the TaeKwonDo studio on the ninth floor. Two short instructors waited for us. The first question on everyone's mind? Did we have 2 male instructors or a male and female instructor?
The girl was wearing a very loose shirt. It was a little difficult to tell.

Then, we were divided up based on B-Boy or K-Pop. Since we were all expecting some K-Pop

B-Boy was a pleasant surprise. This is B-Boy.

All of us were fairly confindent B-Boy was beyond our skill level. Nevertheless, some people broke off. I remained in my KPop safe zone. Our teacher took one look at our motley crew and translated through our RA, "This will not be good. But just have fun."

And there was plenty of fun to be had. This is what the real video looks like:

This is what we looked like. Sexy, I know.

Our B-Boy Bros 

 

Our Teachers Demo

Group Shots!

BTW, I'm not sure who the photo cred goes to, but these pics were from Sarah Xiyi's camera.