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Friday, May 21, 2010

Honyong Asayo!

Means "hello" to everyone not up to speed on their Korean. So like I said, honyong asayo everyone! It is my third day in Seoul and I feel like this is my first chance I've had to sit down and make a post. We have been incredibly busy!
We began our first day at the University, with an orientation on how things would go while we were here. Then we were introduced to our Korean "Buddies" that we would be spending the majority of our time with here at Honyang University. They have been such a blessing for us, showing us around Seoul and taking us to must see places.

Our "urban field research" consists of a list of sites to see and things to do in Seoul that can be completed for points which will go towards our grade, tough work huh? After the first day we had already visited an ancient palace, a traditional Korean village, and the cultural center of the city called Insadong. We even got to visit a Buddhist temple ON Buddha's birthday! The amount of people at the birthday festival was incredible, we were invited into a smaller Buddhist center for a tour later in the day. We couldn't stay for tea but were blessed with snacks for the road. We were all very tired by the end of the day but managed to find energy to take part in the university's spring festival later that night, it was quite a party.

On the second day, I left my group because my friend Kevin and I had a little urban field research to do of our own. Kevin is part of the MSU Breakdance Club and has been studying in Seoul for the past 9 months. I got in touch with him earlier in the week and found out he was studying at a university not too far from my own. As it turned out, there was a B-boy(Breakdance) Battle (Competition) in Seoul that Saturday, so we thought, when will we ever get a chance to represent MSU in a battle in South Korea? So we hopped on the subway in search of our destinies. Wouldn't you know it we even made it past prelims! Video footage coming soon.
After a long day of riding public transit and catching up with an old friend, I once again rejoined my buddy group to continue sight seeing. We actually navigated the subway and met our Korean friends in a commercial center called Samseong. "Coex Mall, Everlasting Pleasure" adorned the great entrance to the mall that could be considered a small city where we spent most of our day. This city has continued to amaze me whether it is their ancient buildings or modern architecture. I am looking forward to the rest of my time here in Seoul before I have to say goodbye to Seoul and hello to Shanghai, or should I say Honyong Asayo!

Hanyang University overlooking just a small portion of Seoul

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