Blogging

I would like to apologize for not updating my blog. I have been very busy and the University has given me more tasks than I was originally told about when deciding to study abroad here. Therefore, there may be times when I am unable to update for certain periods of time, so all I am asking for is for everyone to please stay patient. Thank you.

Bulgogi!

My next picture is of Bulgogi! There are a few different ways Bulgogi which is beef and there are a few different ways it can be served. The first picture is of Bulgogi Jjigae which is like a beef stew in a broth. It was pretty good! It was also served with rice and of course, what is a Korean dish without a little bit of Kimchi on the side!? Kimchi is served with every dish in Korea! The people here are very proud of there Kimchi!!

Bulgogi Jjigae:

Bulgogi:

Here is more Bulgogi (pictured above), but it is spicy Bulgogi. In the center of the dish is a pepper sauce to mix in with the beef and the vegetables on top! You can mix in a little bit or a lot depending on how spicy you like it! This dish is my favorite thing that I have eaten in Korea so far. Once it was all mixed up I took a piece of lettace and put some of that Bulgogi and vegetable mixture in the middle with some rice and rolled it up like a lettace wrap. It was so yummy!

Side dishes:

When you go to a restaurant in Korea you have a main dish and rice but you always get side dishes as well! These are all side dishes that were served with the Bulgogi! Bottom left was jellyfish, which was an awkward texture, above the jellyfish are vegetables, above the vegetables were vegetable pancakes, then there were anchovies to the right of the pancakes, underneath the anchovies, we had pickled radish, some type of  sauce, raw garlic, and then the famous Kimchi that is served with everything!

Ham...my worst nightmare

They eat a lot of ham here... I tried Korean Oreos and banana milk though! They were great!

Korean Toast!

So everyone has been waiting to see some pictures of my adventures in Korea so I am going to start by posting some pictures of the many different types of food that I have been eating for the past week. So, here is my first food posting!

Korean Toast:

The above picture is of Korean toast! I went out to lunch with my roommates to the Issac for some toast! Now when they said we were going to get toast I thought of toasted bread with butter, because that is how I like to eat it in America! Korean toast is more like a sandwich with toasted bread. The toast that I ate was actually called Pizza Toast, which had pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni and pickles on it. It was so tasty! The pickles part might sound weird but Koreans always eat pickles with pizza and other foods that have a lot of cheese on it, because they eat cheese so infrequently that they actually have a harder time digesting it than Americans do since Americans eat cheese all of the time. It was an interesting fact to learn! So if you ever go to a pizza place in Korea, your pizza will most likely be served with a side of pickles, but if you do not like them you do not have to eat them!

My new roommates!

Late last night I got to meet my new Korean roommates as they moved in! They are both very nice but a little bit shy. I am sure we will be great friends! They are both from Seoul and they both asked me if I like Kpop so we began talking about B.A.P! They know of B.A.P which is awesome and one of them even said she would like to take me to a B.A.P concert sometime! They are big fans of Big Bang and B2st as well so we might go to concerts for them if we get the chance! One is an English major that is trying to study abroad at CMU, so hopefully I can help make her hopes of coming to CMU a reality! My other roommate is a business administration major. They both like to share stories with me about their culture which is amazing! I really like learning about their culture!

Korea University!

The name of the University I am attending is Korea University, Sejong campus in Jochiwon. My major is North Koreanology to go along side my studies at Central Michigan University as an International Relations major. I have not met my roommates yet, but they should be moved in by Thursday and I am very excited to meet them!! All of the Korean students that I have met so far have been so nice and incredibly helpful with my transition to being in another country and trying to find my way around campus and the city of Jochiwon! I have orientation for the next three days and am already learning a lot! I am even starting to learn a little bit of Korean! I can only imagine how much Korean I will be able to learn from my roommates! I am also here to help teach them English, so hopefully I will be able to help them a lot! I am very excited to meet them!! :)

1st day and night in Korea!

Yesterday was a big day! I left for my journey to Korea and it has been quite an adventure already!! I arrived at Incheon International Airport at about 3:30pm KST which was about 1:30am EST! After dropping everything off at the hotel, it was adventure time!! I went exploring around the hotel on the same island the airport was located on with my friend Lauren, which I am very thankful that we flew into Korea together! We had our first experience buying snacks at a little market! I accidentally bought steak flavored Cheetos...but it was cool looking at everything written in Korean! Now it is currently 11:00am KST which is about 9:00pm EST and we are at the airport again watching President Park Geun-Hye (the first female president of The Republic of Korea) take office today as we wait to meet up with our representative from the school!