May 14th - From Classrooms to Class

Another day in Seoul has left me with way too much to talk about, but little energy to actually do so - though writing without restraint hasn't really been a difficulty for me either.

We started out today with some roaming on our own. A few of us stayed in the Sinchon area to do some shopping, while the rest of us drifted over to Hongdae for a short amount of time. Following that, we met up for lunch at a vegan cafe. I had kimchi fried rice, most others had jajangmyeon (자장면), a popular Korean dish consisting of noodles in black bean sauce. Korean food almost always comes with sauces, and these sauces often consist of different variations of beans.

The major part of our day was a visit to Yonsei University's international campus, which was located about an hour away from the Sinchon campus, if taking a bus in bumper-to-bumper Seoul traffic. We didn't know what to expect of the campus, but the students were definitely expecting us. We were greeted by a few students as we got of the bus and there was even a banner welcoming us outside the pristine white buildings. We went up to a classroom to join students in their "Topics in Asian Studies" class as our professor, Juhn Ahn, gave them a self-proclaimed "crash course in Buddhism." To be honest, it was a crash course for me as well - Buddhism was a topic, but not the main topic in my Asian studies class.

The sun was bright; we weren't totally prepared for that.

After Dr. Ahn's presentation, we took a break with some much-appreciated snacks. Following snacktime, which should be a requirement in any class longer than an hour and a half, the students gave their presentations on different parts of Seoul. They were entertaining, funny, and genuinely interesting. Students presented on some of the places we will actually visit, like Dongdaemun and Hongdae. One student went so far as to recommend clubs and bars, which didn't thrill our professor. Another student presented a Google Earth walk through a nature path in a Seoul park, which I found very creative. The English abilities of the students was near flawless - according to one student, roughly half of the students in the University's international studies program study abroad. It's still impressive to see how fluent the students were, even if they hadn't gone abroad. We spoke to a girl from Texas, a boy from Canada, and one of the presenters had an Australian accent. The international program at Yonsei defintiely holds true to its name. These next few days will be the University's annual festival, which the students urged us to attend. Hopefully we will be able to visit and celebrate with the students a little tomorrow.

The second half of our day's agenda was less like that of a student and more like that of an Japanese businessman. We took the bus back toward Sinchon, but passed it to go grab dinner and see a show at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, the largest cultural and art performance center in Seoul. We ate at a fancy restaurant just a few blocks down from the palace before watching a dance performance titled Buddha, a dance-centered performance that artfully depicted the life of the Buddha. 

Now it's time for the obligatory food paragraph. Today's dinner was a traditional Korean dinner, with a myriad of plates, bowls, and platters and a variety of foods large enough to match. The servers, in their traditional clothing, prepared and served the platters throughout the dinner, doing things like cutting our fish and wrapping colorful unknowns in wrappers while neatly placing them on our plates. There was Kalbi (갈비), a very popular dish, essentially Korean short ribs - very tender, very savory. The variety of foods ranged from jellyfish to stingray, with colorful vegetables and soups for your eyes.. and also your mouth. One thing that came up in conversation was the notion of wasting food. I personally thought that it would have been rude of us to not finish the food as it was coming and going (which was happening very quickly). What is interesting though, is that they don't expect people to finish everything. Places like this are often frequented by business men, many of which are international. Korean businessmen will treat people here, and the foreigners can eat what they like... and leave what they don't. Traditional eating customs are a way to introduce culture to others and almost act as a sort of social lubricant. After so many courses (I lost count; plates just came and went), we headed out to watch the dance.

...aftermath

I feel like I've written too much already, so I won't talk much of the dance. It was slow, but very dramatic, with orchestral rhythms and colorful costumes. The man who played Buddha was an excellent dancer, but really, they all were. It takes serious strength to writhe around on stage in a controlled, slow manner. The female dancers did a great job too, and their costumes very nice.

After the performance, we headed back into the subway to work on our card-scanning and subway-boarding skills and rest for tomorrow's activities, which involve going to the palace and hopefully participating in Yonsei's festivities like Seoul college students.

bye for now!

In Short - Where did we go? - Hongdae, Yonsei University International Campus, Sejong Center for the Performing Arts