Text log 111100
Today is 빼빼로 데이 bbaebbaero day, a commercial holiday like a second Valentine’s Day where you give these snacks to your lovers — which would have been really awkward since I was gonna give it to all my friends … probably in public.
This week I went to 양평 Yangpyun on a field trip – there was a temple and it was raining – I didn’t even take pictures ; I’ve seen enough temples. BUT HEY GET THIS: remember the pupa/chrysalis I talked about eating from last post ? Ta daaaaaaaaaa:
[The cup actually has dimentions, sorry for the bad angle ><]
[The cup actually has dimentions, sorry for the bad angle ><]Yeah this is vendor food at the temple. The fact that they sell it implies it’s okay to eat. It’s not like it’s predominantly crunchy like you’re crushing it’s exoskeleton. It was gross, but .. tolerable. -_-
And I’m gonna be honest: the field trip – consisting of 100 foreigner students and ~40 Korean students – was actually MT (membership training) for the Korean/foreigner club at my campus. So called “membership training” wasn’t training at all ; it was just a rented room for drinking and dancing. And I’m not going all “bro, I partied so hard this weekend” on you all, this says something about the drinking culture. A lot of school-organized clubs here (even the Math club) have these MTs that is like this one. The drinking age here is 19 anyway, so it’s not like Penn State in that they forbid drinking at school-related events for underage purposes (plus other obvious purposes). But having alcohol in the dorms here is banned, but it’s not really a problem for the moderate drinkers here since nobody hangs out in their friends’ dorms anyway ; they go other places around the city.
(Geoblog staff: was that paragraph okay to post ? :3)
That was my week. So I’m gonna tell you about my horror stories from the 찜질방s Jjimjilbangs as discussed in several previous entries (reference previous post: Top 7 Things to Fear in Korea):
I’ve been to two of these so far – both outside of Seoul (fewer English speakers) and both in my first week when my Korean was really bad and both being the only foreigner in the building. The point of these stories is to educate that you don’t do the same mistakes I did …. and to entertain. xD
The first was in Busan where my Korean friend was showing me the city. So far, it’s the typical routine: walk in, watch friend get naked, get naked too, enjoy the spa, hang out playing with phone while it charges. Decide I neeeeeed sleep (jetlag) so I tell him “I’m gonna go out to the sleeping room floor. You can continue to hang out here, and when our phones are done charging, just put mine in your locker. After that, COME FIND ME AND SLEEP NEXT TO MY POSITION.”
Later, 12am, open eyes only to discover – he’s not here. I look around among a crowd of maybe 200 sleeping guests and can’t find him. I’m looking for: a sleeping (eyes closed) Korean male in his twenties with a basic Korean haircut wearing the jjimjilbang issued clothing. That narrows it down to…. every male. This is a disaster because the main ways that I distinguish Asians is by their eyes, hair, and outfit.
I try to sleep, wake up every 30-60 minutes to look around again for him ; I don’t have my phone.
I take a break to watch some American baseball, Korean casted. 😀
I finally approach a PC and pay a dollar for one hour use. I start to think he left the jjimjilbang. I send him a desperate message on Facebook saying I’m lost and come find me, etc. Just as I’m done, I see him walk out of this room that I didn’t even think about checking. It was my fault, because I wasn’t specific in where I was gonna sleep. He thought the guy that he ended up sleeping next to was me.
That’s the end of my torture. Regardless, the remainder of that day in Busan ended up being my best day in Korea, even to this day.
Next was in Daejeon, a few days later, still with jetlag. Because my friend DaHye showing me around the city is female, I didn’t bother insisting that she stayed with me at the establishment. We agree to meet at 10:30am of the next day. I finish enjoying the spa, go to the sleeping room, and fall asleep almost instantly (still haven’t had a full night’s rest).
Later, I wake up from an amazing sleep to check the time. The digital clock on the wall said 12:40pm. PEE EHM !! My sleep was so good, it was a FIFTEEN HOUR hibernation. I’m freaking out, storming to my locker to get dressed, rehearsing what I’m gonna say to DaHye and how I could possibly make it up to her for making her wait two hours. I run out of the building to see —– it’s … still … nighttime. I couldn’t look outside in the first place since there are no windows. I, in fact, slept for three hours, not fifteen. The clock was improperly set ! So now is the real agony. The following scripts are translated from broken Korean to broken English. I tell the lady at the front desk, “I… left. I should go in. I read clock, said PM12. I thought AM12. Sorry. What to do?” along with plenty of body animations to help explain. She calls the guy upstairs to tell him there’s a foreigner coming back up. The guy already doesn’t like me since I gave him a hard time speaking broken Korean to him earlier. ^_^ I try to explain to him the situation. He doesn’t get it. He takes me back down to the sleeping room, wakes up an older Korean man who speaks clear English to me. I tell him the situation and apologize deeply for waking him up. He looks at the digital clock and says “that’s Korean way.” I’m like OOOOOOOH, 12 o’ clock noon is considered 12AM. I go back asleep, waking up frequently from pure embarrassment.
The next day, I look up the time orientation for Korea….. yeah right !! – Korea is no different from the rest of the world. The clock was just set to the wrong time of day.
Looking back, there were two things that should have given away that it was still the middle of the night:
- When I woke up, the room was still full of sleeping people
- When I checked my phone after I got up, it said 00:42 (24-hour clock) meaning 12:42am.
Like I said, I was on such low sleep, my brain couldn’t process easy things. =/
Those are my stories. Remember, jjimjilbangs are great … as long as you stay with someone~~
My recent purchase of cute socks from a street vendor: Psy, Shin Ramyun (ramen noodles), 수영 Sooyoung (member of my favorite KPOP group)
Why ? Because I’m in Korea. ^-^
Seungpyun, if you’re reading, I hope you’re laughing xD
This is 떡볶이 ddukboggi — rice sticks with the stereotypical red-colored sauce well-known in Korea, a bit spicy. This is the common street vendor ddukboggi, but it’s also common at restaurants and my cafeteria. You can make this in State College – go to the 엄마손 Morazon Korean market on Atherton and ask for rice sticks and red pepper paste. It’s my favorite food =D
About a week ago, 피에스타 Fiestar released a new music video:
So far they’re kinda undiscovered. I like them because they’re one of few groups with a bit of diversity – a Korean-American girl and a Chinese-American girl – and because I really like the rest of the members individually because they’re simply good members. However, I don’t like them because having an even number of members makes watching their dance formations an eye-sore ; it’s better to have an odd number so you have one person leading the group when the oh-so-catchy chorus comes. I learned that Korea has liked odd numbers for, like, ever – with temples and whatnot. I wish I could validate this more~
This video is a bit unusual because of the implied pervertedness from a male’s perspective, which you don’t see in KPOP videos. This music video also has a sort of storyline, which is also rare. Their rapper (the girl in the video game in the music video) is one of my favorite female rappers. ^u^
….I hope you can pick up more from these discussions besides the fact that I’m a fangirl a fan of KPOP~ :3
This blog has been brought to you by the letter 빼 “Bbae”
and
빼빼로
Location: My room with heated floors
and another information about Korea.
you commented about the MT, which is generally a drinking trip party for college clubs, usually reserve a pension for partying in country side.
But there is an another meaning for MT, which i believes that only Koreans use. It means MOTEL, and if you want to now more specific about the “MOTEL”? ask your friend in Korea. Hard to give more information about it. ^^
by the way how did you knew about the 엄마손 in state college?
i usually shop there a lot hahaha
It’s not your computer ; it’s the geoblog system -_-
I knew what MT was before I went .. I learned what it meant when I asked someone “what do you do at MT?” ^^ I’m not complaining, I just find it funny how they attempt to disguise the event with the name. Sorry for the misexplanation xP
(lol sorry for the multiple comments.. computer was lagging 🙁 )
Haha I did not know MT was short for Membership Training… I am so sorry that your experience was different than what you were expecting! a lot of kids look forward to MT… it’s all college consists of! haha! p.s. my experiences at jimjilbangs weren’t that great either… especially not something i can geoblog about!
Haha I did not know MT was short for Membership Training… I am so sorry that your experience was different than what you were expecting! a lot of kids look forward to MT… it’s all college consists of! haha! p.s. my experiences at jimjilbangs weren’t that great either… especially not something i can geoblog about!
Haha I did not know MT was short for Membership Training… I am so sorry that your experience was different than what you were expecting! a lot of kids look forward to MT… it’s all college consists of! haha! p.s. my experiences at jimjilbangs weren’t that great either… especially not something i can geoblog about!
Okay, those bugs…no. Those socks are kickin’ though. I’ll take 4, please!
hey i am reading it right now, and yes i am laughing really hard. enjoying everytime when im on your blog. bytheway. 11/11 is the Bae Bae Ro day in Korea. Did you received any Bae Bae Ros from classmate?