K LolliLolli Pop

No time to waste! Let's spend less time reading and more time listening. Below you'll find a delectable selection of my most favorite KPop (Korean Pop Music) songs and artists. I would love to know of any gems that I might have missed. Try not to get addicted. 

Lollipop by BIGBANG and 2NE1

Clap Your Hands by 2NE1

Right Now by PSY

Bad Girl, Good Girl by miss A

Nobody by Wonder Girls

Too Late by Co-Ed School

Breath by B2ST (BEAST)

Beautiful by B2ST (BEAST)

Hoot by Girls' Generation

Sorry I Can't

So I just had one of the best classes yet. This lesson with one of my 6th grade classes. and  was about saying you can't do something and giving the reason why. So, I started the class by having them make a list on the board of reasons why they wouldn't be able to go to school. The list went from, "I have a stomach ache," and, "I have a cold," to "I have malaria," "I have A.I.D.s," "I'm crazy," and "I have mad cow disease." ???


Also, it was pretty cute to hear the kids talk about their "stomatch atch," "cord," and "tootch atch," but mispronunciation is incredibly common in every class. That is probably one of the most critical reasons for having a native speaker teach...to be able to teach the difference between ruler and durer.


At the end of the class, I had the kids do an activity to practice their phone etiquette. They would throw a ball to one another around the room. When they threw the ball, they yelled Ring! Ring (or Ling! Ling!). When they caught it, they were supposed to "answer the phone," and say, "Hello, (their name) speaking."


In one case, a boy named Insoo caught the ball....and just sat there...silent...staring at the class. The class started screaming at him about what to say, and still, he sat, quiet and confused. Finally, the rather large, plump boy next to him shouted "Jaaaaaaaah!" in anger as he smashed his fists and head down on the desk in front of him. Then abruptly he sprang up, grabbed Insso's head in his hands, and yelled right in his face, "HI!!! INSOO SPEAKING!!!!!!!!" Insoo sheepishly repeated the greeting under his breath, and so ended the class.

2 Steppin' up the Mountain

Korea is a country that is ever so slightly larger that the state of Indiana. There are nearly 50 million people squeezed into this itzy bitzy space, a feat that becomes that much more impressive when you take into consideration Korea's multitude of mountains. 

Most every where you go in the Gyeonggi Province you are surrounded by mountains. This one of the reasons Koreans rave about their fall. It's then that all of the green lumps around you turn into multicolored lumps. This is obviously the best time to go hiking!

It's amazing when you can wake up on a Saturday at noon and decide on a lark to go skipping up an entire mountain. Mike and I climbed up a 810.2 meter high mountain that was practically in his backyard. I was struggling up this baby. Skidding on leaves, passing out on trees, etc. What made things more pathetic was that I kept getting passed up by ajimas (elderly women with short permed hair, outrageously huge visors, and $70 walking sticks). It was baffling how these grannies could mooooove. I kept thinking about how my grandma hated trying to sit down and stand up. 

The greatest part of this climb was to finally reach the top, and find a man selling frozen strawberry yogurt pops. I'm so happy that men who carry huge, cumbersome packs of ice candy up mountains exist in Korea. It must also be noted that that evening Mike and I went out in Seoul and were able function all the way until 8AM. I guess a combination of Korean dumplings, Coronas, mokoli, and sujo create a potent cocktail of endless energy.

The second mountain we climbed this month was Juwongsan. We met up with a group of 50 hikers in Seoul around midnight, hopped on a bus, "slept" for six hours, watched the sunrise over a lake that had trees growing right out of it, and then climbed up Juwongsan the rest of the day. This was definitely an, "OK, we're in Asia moment," because even though we were in a huge natural space, it was CROWDED as could be. It wasn't hard to see why...this park was amazingly beautiful. The leaves were bold bright colors, there were a variety of temples, plump spiders, waterfalls, streams, and incredible views from the top. One of the best parts of our trek was that once we were near the peak, a group of Korean hikers asked us to join their picnic and fed us a hearty korean lunch. We then took a zillion group pictures with the cheerful bunch. It can really pay to be a novelty in this country.

After the climb, we went to rest in Andong Village. This was an area composed of old, traditional Korean houses. The next morning we got to see a masked dance performance. It was similar to Kabuki theater except it was interactive and there was a lot more urine involved.

These excursions have been great and I really want to conquer many more of Korea's mountains. Apparently one of the tallest ones here is called Gerri Mountain (that's how I'm going to romanize it). One important thing that I learned on this trip was how awesome all of the Wisconsin people I came here with are. There were some wierdees on this trip and as one of my friends put it, "Some people come to Korea because they are adventurous, outgoing, and want to discover Asia, others come here because they are still searching for a place to be socially accepted." Case in point; the giantess who barks out to the entire bus, "Why is it that I only attract hideous annoying guys!!!???"

Welcome to Tokyo! One Glance Will Turn Your Eyes Purple

I asked my parents if I could go to Japan when I was in 7th grade...and then I held my breath for 11 years. Last week I finally made the 2 hour flight to Tokyo, and though I fulfilled my dream to visit the country, I feel like during my six days there I only got a a small taste of Japan. 
Tokyo was a great place to start my relationship with the country. This city is immense (over 13 million people), which means it has a lot to offer but can also feel extremely overwhelming. Since Mike and I chose to go to Tokyo instead of Osaka or Kyoto, we made sure to actively seek out as many traditional Japanese experiences as possible. 


Three Year Old Tako...Can't Get Any Fresher
The most obviously place to start was to get ourselves an incredible sushi dinner (oishikatta!) at Fukuzushi in downtown Roppongi. We ate the freshest sashimi of our lives while we chatted with our chef about Japanese and Korean cuisine (sorry Korea, even though I am acquiring a taste for fermented cabbage with chili sauce, nothing you have can compare with a slightly seared and delicately seasoned slice of fresh tuna). Gochisosamadeshta!


Baby Battle
The next big thing on the list was the sumo match. Ryogoku Kokugikan stadium is THE place to watch a sumo. The stadium is huge but fails to dwarf the size of the wrestlers. There is a lot of build up and suspense leading up to when the two wrestlers actually start bumping bellies. Before they fight, the rikishi (wrestlers) fill up a fair amount of time throwing salt, stomping, clapping and squatting. The crowd would go nuts during some particular squat which really confused Mike and I. When both rikishi have their fists on the ground, then the match starts. It was pretty scary to watch since there is so much power and muscle hidden under that flab. They would slap each others faces and pull up one another's thongs, but the best when one would get chucked into the crowd. Worst place to get front row seats.


Now, Thank Me for the Tea
One of the last traditional Japanese experiences that we had, that was particularly important to me, was attending a tea ceremony (Hotel Okura if you're interested). It was just Mike and I and this sweet little Japanese women in a kimono who spoke broken English. (I want to take a second to mention how surprised I was to see how many people actually wear kimonos and use fans like what you read about. The great thing about Japan is that they really hold tight to these traditional elements of their culture. They find ways of preserving tradition by seamlessly integrating those ancient cultural aspects within their very modern society.) But anywho, TEA! Great green tea, great sweet treats, but what really made the experience was watching this women perform such an intricate, detailed ceremony flawlessly. There were so many moves and she did them all so delicately! (I also couldn't help but think of America's Next Top Model and how easy it is to totally botch up the process.)


"Irashaimase! Can I help you? What size? Look at this!" "Run!!"
Tokyo is one of the best places to go if you want to be surrounded by rad fashion. Unfortunately, all of that style comes with a wicked steep price tag. Let's just say we did a good deal of window shopping. Department stores in Tokyo aren't like heading over to the nearby Sears (or Fleet Farm for you Mom). The clearance racks were filled with $100+ T-shirts. It was fun seeing how hip all of these Japanese kids are (you see a lot of electric school girls and essence of anime in almost every outfit). The creepiest part of shopping were the sales girls who seemed to be on a constant loop of chanting "Irashaimase Irashaimase!" (welcome). Even though everything was super expensive, at least we got to stock up when we hit the anime book shop!


Me Sleepy
There is so much that I must leave out otherwise this post is going to endless. I'm so lucky that I was able to take this trip (and hopefully future trips) to Japan. It was an amazing relief to discover how much of my Japanese I could remember after so many years. I think that if I devoted two months of intense studying to relearning my Japanese, I could get back to where I was at the end of high school. 
We saw so many surprising and strange things in Japan (Kabuki theater, monkey pet store, girls with giant purple contact lenses, sushi conveyor belts, women only train cars, big yellow Pokemon plains) that now I am even more excited about this year of traveling around Asia.  
Special thanks to our couch surfing host Ankit Gupta. We loved staying in your traditional Japanese apartment and especially drinking shochu with you at the boat bar.

bang bang bang!

It was a torrential weekend in Namyangju but we jues made the most of it. It started out with watching a little boy on the sidewalk play with his newly purchased toy gun. Though guns are illegal here, they certainly try to make up for that with their children's toys. This 5 year old's gun was hardly a hot pink, plastic water pistol. Instead, it was AK-47 replica, just shy of his height, that had rather realistic sound effects. Little did I know at that time that I would soon be pulling the trigger on my own firearm.

We spent that night jumping around a Nori Bang. In Korea you have the delightful option of renting your own private room with your friends to sing karaoke for hours and hours. They take it very seriously...as did we.

The next day we went to an imitation Disney theme park called Lotte World. All of the girls (and a sizable number of guys) were wearing animal ears or big sparkly bow headbands which we immediately adopted. Korean girls really seem to love super sparkly, pretty, silky little outfits and accessories. I can't wait to see what my wardrobe looks like at the end of the year. 

We spent the day going on rides, eating whipped cream and honey waffle sandwiches, going through a haunted house where I ran into some Korean Texans, and exploring the world's largest indoor theme park. 

We stumbled into an area which appeared to be some sort of exploration center for the kids. There were aquariums filled with ugly fish, a tank full of crickets and only crickets, a few sticks covered with giant beetles, a pit where the kids could play with giant maggots, and (what, by that point, seemed very out of place) a cage with baby bunnies and ducklings. The gift shop was primarily filled giant beetles for purchase.

We ended the day at the Lotte World shooting range where I got to shoot my first hand gun, a revolver, ten times with 90% accuracy. Ow ow!

Now it's time to start planning my trip to Japan....that I leave for in six days.... What this is really about is me just trying to live up to my senior favorites title of "Most Spontaneous."

Three Ladies in White

So I left school this afternoon, scoffing at how absurd it was that I still hadn't found a map of Nmayangju, and headed out a journey to any shop that might have had what I was looking for. I wound up at the post office. I asked the man behind the desk, "Do you have a map of Namyangju? If you don't, where can i find one?" I was more than able to say all of this in Korean, but far less than able to understand his response. Just when I had finished listening to enough of his jibber jabber, I heard from behind me, like the ethereal notes of a golden harp, in crisp clear english, "Yeah, maps are hard to come by in these parts." I whipped around to greet my instant friend.

So it turns out that there is another American girl living in my apartment plaza. Her name is Shane and she introduced me to her kiwi pal, Theresa, who also lives right by me. Tonight I gained two new friends, hiking buddies, an invaluable resource, and a bike to boot.

Welcome Weekend in Hongdae, Seoul

After a week in various forms of isolation, the majority of the GEPIK kids met up in Seoul to experience the electricity that Hongik University area had to offer.

Korean Street Art

Karaoke House

Joined a Drum Circle on the Way Home

Time Never Feels Slower Than When You Are Waiting for Hello Kitty Waffles

Japanese Food...Finally

Tinpan Alley Table Dancing

Everywhere we go in Korea We're Surrounded by these Misty Mountains

 Our People