김치 연구 (The Kimchi Studies): After Japan, only 3 weeks left of the semester and time in Korea :O

After the Japan trip it struck me that I only had more or less 3 weeks left in Korea. At this time I was getting stressed out that I would not be able to experience and see all the stuff I wanted to do before leaving ... and I turned out to be true. But then again that only leaves me with the urge to go back to Seoul and Korea in order to experience what I missed :)

First thing to do after returning back to Seoul was to have dinner with Eva, Sam and Tomi :) and afterwards we went to the typical Korean thing: DVD room. It is like somewhat of a cinema where you get privacy and much better sits. You choose which movie you want to watch, you buy your snacks and then you get your own room with a projector, sofa, blankets and everything. You can even decide the temperature of the room.

After that I went to pick up my tailored suit, which was one of the things that I had determined to do in Korea before even going there. So I went and tried it out and I was pretty satisfied :) and this is how it turned out.

During the days around that I was finishing up all the assignments that was left and we had group presentations and final exams. I remember that I had the final exam in the forever difficult course International Financial Management. I was lucky that the teacher moved the exam a couple of days ahead from my arrival from Japan otherwise it wouldn't have been that good. The presentation for the groupwork in that course we were able to do right before leaving to Japan. I wasn't able to do too much up till the next weekend when my friend Simon and his Girlfriend Wendy arrived for a couple of days.

So he arrived thursday night I think. We meet on friday and I showed them some typical Korean streetfood that they had to try. Tooekbokki and sundea (spelling?) after that I wanted to take them to a temple which I hadn't been at yet the Bongeunsa Temple. Which is an old budhist temple that is located in a vibrant and welldeveloped area. So you can see modern high buildings around this old temple. When we were leaving this place a group of Koreans approached me and told us that they worked for Amazon Korea and where having a christmas party and they got some tasks to do before returning to the party. They needed to take a picture where they worshiped a foreginer as a god or Budha. I totally agreed on this of course. It was so much fun :D Later we took a coffee at a place close by, trying to wait out the snow weather.

After that we went back to my university Area Hyewha. Too see the university but also have a look around. Simon was admitted to this university as well but went to Taiwan instead. So I showed them where I lived and then we walked up to the university before going for some gold old typical Chicken and Beer .... with Soju ofcourse :) We ate and later we joined some of my friends at another bar for some drinks. And even though Simon stayed 2 more days with Wendy i didn't see them. I guess they wanted to be alone and go around and see stuff :)

After their visit I had some more exams and when I was done with the exams and all my friends still had exams I decided to go solo explore Seoul and some Museums :) so I went to the Korean war memorial museum. Before I was just outside of it because the Musem was closed. It was a pretty good museum :) unfortunatly I was sick that day and didn't feel to good.

After that everyone had to move out of their dormotory because the semester had ended. After Japan I had decided to I would go to the Philipines and Singapore after my Semester =) Two friends and other people from School where also going to Boracay. Anways so ne and some friends stayed at a hotel close to city hall for 2 nights before some went home to their home countries and some continued their asia adventure. The last days I focused on picking up some souvenirs and just walking around certain areas to kinda grasp the last bit of Seoul :) Trying some things that I have been waiting to try. And I meet up with my friend Sam for a final dinner :)

One thing being to eat dog. Which Sam had tried to take me to try before but the place was closed. However she managed to find a place and take me there :)

And I tried dragonbeards filled with hazulnuts and I went to a Cat café which was AWESOME :D so many lovely cats that you could pet and hold while drinking a te or coffee =) The souvenirs I was able to pick up was metal chopsticks (took me 1 hour to deside) and Yutoi which is a Korean game :)

I had one more dinner with Sam and then I got to try what they eat for new years eve every year :) Which is a soup with pork dumplings and ricecake :)

And after that I was alone at the hotel because everyone had already left. All my friends from Korea had already left. I was left in a city and Country which I only know through those people that I new there. It was a real strange feeling. I felt that I was in a different place. And the place that was my home for more than 4 months will only be memories from now on. I will definatly go back but I am not sure when and for how long. An exciting periode of my life is about to end and I was just stolling around the streets. Trying to decide what the last sights and places of Seoul and Korea and this awesome periode was going to be. I had a feeling of both sadness and happiness. The happiness was not for leaving but for the experience I had over there. I was so happy with my decision to go to Korea and on an exchange. I think it just turned out better than I would have ever expected.