A New Semester!

WOW I haven't posted in almost a month!! I was without easy internet access for about two weeks (my summer vacation which I spent between Ilsan, where my cousin Chaeyoung unni lives, and Chungju to visit my grandma and co.) and then I was crazily busy for the last two weeks, when I moved into the new housing and school started! Anyway, enough with the excuses! So much stuff has happened!

Once I went shopping in Myung-dong, a fashion/shopping district/haven, and a huge demonstration started!! It was cool.. and then it got scary!! Basically whenever a new president comes into office, he replaces all the top media people at KBS, the national broadcasting system, with his party people and other cronies. It happens every time apparently, and it's actually quite scary how different Korea is from America and I can see that it is not a completely developed, absolutely modernized and democratic country like America is. There is so much censory and government control over everything and citizens' rights are not respected like in America. There is probably so much about America too that I'm just ignorant of, but nonetheless it's not as blatant as it is in Korea- no wonder there are always so many riots and demonstrations going on here!! Anyway, we were shopping and walking around when all of a sudden WHOOSH!! All these cop vans and trucks zoomed up and army men came spilling out of them yelling army chants and screaming and intimidating all the crowds!!












They shot water that was dyed blue at the rioters, and later they targeted people who had blue stains on their clothes and dragged them away. They arrested over 120 people, and I didn't get any shots, but 4 soldiers take 1 citizen by taking each arm and leg and picking him up like you do when you throw your friend into the beach water.






News reporters:




And then the end of the summer semester :( We had a commencement ceremony and a banquet at the top floor of a huge building at a restaurant named Top Cloud. Delicious!









Leaving our home :( And we went out later for a last girls' night out in Shinchon and took sticker pictures :) which I can't upload because I don't have a scanner...


Delia and I went to Insadong, a touristy area where they sell lots of Korean cultural stuff.
Guess what this says!

At a dduk cafe (rice cake cafe):





Me and Delia at the Coffee Prince Cafe in Hongdae (the site of a famous drama). Overpriced and nothing special...







I am now living in a brand new apartment which just opened (we are the first residents), which is a serviced apartment for foreigners. It feels like a hotel because there are cleaning people, and provided breakfast, a front desk, etc. I love the brand-newness and the spiffy gym! It's a little far, 20 minutes from campus by bus, but I've gotten used to it now.

Pictures from a typical night in Shinchon with the group, plus Glory's friend who's visiting Korea:
Pineapple soju!





Watched a musical put on by students of Ewha University. It was called Madical for Mad Musical... hahaha ^^ It was about all the happenings in an psychiatric hospital; pretty funny. I think I've seen better high school musicals though... Koreans have a long way to go in the performing arts department!





I just got an unpaid internship at PRAIN, a PR firm which works with a lot of foreign clients. I start next week so I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing, but I think it'll be some translating work? I chose this over the other one that I got accepted to even though that one seemed more fun because that one was an hour away in Gangnam. That one was at the National Korean Performing Arts Center or something like that, where they teach foreigners how to play Korean traditional instruments and cultural stuff, and I would be an interpreter or something. Anyway this one seems cool too! Because of the internship, I only have to take 2 classes WOOHOO! I'm taking North Korean Culture and Society and Japanese 2. My Japanese class is not part of the international department, so it's taught in Korean.. eek!! It's pretty intimidating since if I don't understand the explanation in Korean.. I'm screwed! I'm also a little regretful because I was looking forward to taking a Korean language course (that was kind of the reason I came.. so I could be really really advanced) but I leveled out when I took the proficiency test unfortunately. They don't offer a higher level because there are not enough students to take it I guess. Anyway, it seems as though I'll just be going to class on Tue, Thur, and working MWF.

Oh yea, I also went to the house of one my ex-tutorees! When I was in 8th/9th grade I think... I used to tutor a little girl whose family was temporarily staying in America. They've been back in Korea for a few years, so it was really good seeing them after so long. Little Amy is so big now! :')

So this past weekend was CRAZY! It was the two-day Yon-Ko-Jun Festival, which is the hugest college competition kind of thing all year, between the two rival schools: Yonsei and Koryo Universities. It was so much fun! Friday was baseball and basketball and we cheered from 10-4 straight! We hardly ever sat down. It felt like the World Cup!






Summer crew!


Cheerleaders wearing really weird clothes...



On Saturday was soccer and rugby, but I only showed up for the after party (I had plans already for the daytime). Basically the tradition is that after the games, students pour into the streets and scream and yell their cheers (each school has their own set of many many cheers- it's really fun cheering in unison with thousands of Yonseians!) outside of beer places and food places until the owner gives them free food. What a great tradition!




I visited my cousin in Daejeon, about 2 hours away by express bus, because he invited me to watch a concert. It was a fusion of traditional Korean instruments with modern sounds and music. It was cool! We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but there was a little mini-thing going on in the amphitheater outside the concert hall.





Then I went to Chaeyoung unni's house and she dyed my hair black for me :) I now have stains on my ears, toe, back, and forehead... -.- At least my bangs cover the spot on my forehead though...