한국아모하닝

travel log of my summer in korea 2012 2014.

[koleahhh]

mosquitoes: 36; mink: 2

wow i'm so behind! woop.

july 9th: ack i don't have any photos, need some more time to remember what i did this day. D:

july 10th: visited one of the costcos that they have here! it's exactly the same as the ones back home, layout and samples and all, haha. difference is the use of multiple floors and of course more korean-oriented stores.

i wished these costcos were in the states too; wholesale bulk korean products and foods omggg. *_* was kindly invited over again to eat dinner at dk's place. gogi time!

july 11th: visited my old volunteer place at snu's cancer hospital! ate lunch with the workers there and it was really nostalgic... i missed a lot the two friends i made there too. it just wasn't the same without them!

after lunch, headed over to the national museum to check out the musee d'orsay impressionism exhibit. so cool to see those famous paintings up close! i'm terrible at identifying art pieces, even the most famous ones, but there's just something ethereal about impressionistic works that i really like ...

all the berries bingsu @ beans and berries in seoul station. ehhh it was alright.

july 12th&13th: spent the weekend at my grandparents place in suji again. woke up at 5:30 this time to accompany my grandpa on his morning walk, and we took a more countryside-esque walk through the town. it was my favorite path thus far! you could see how the town was before all the apartment complexes and new buildings popped up all over the place. i like this part of town so much better. it's too bad i didn't bring my phone along this time. 

spent lunch making omurice for my grandparents and auntie who came to pick them up for church. it came out a lot better than i thought it would! hehe ^.^v

blue (!) lemonade from the standing coffee shop near noksapyeong station.

interior of "de espresso room" cafe along one of the streets in yongsan. they had two cute poodles there, one brown, the other white, with little handkerchiefs around their necks. ;-;

spent the rest of the day first near itaewon then at myeongdong. augh. it was nostalgic walking through those streets, but also a sharp reminder of how it's a place i'd like to visit only maybe once or twice everytime i come. just so many peopleee hnghhh. @__@

mmmm misutgaru patbingsu at dongbinggo in lotte young plaza, myeongdong. :9

july 14th: went on a date with my momside grandma for lunch! it was the first time that we ever ate a meal with just the two of us, so i really appreciated the time we spent together today ... we went to a naengmyeon shop that opened up recently in front of the apartment complex because she knew of my obsession with the dish, haha. it reminded me how my grandpa also took me out on a naengmyeon date when i was little before he passed away...

met up with dk afterwards only to find out that he was feeling under the weather. we were gonna visit coex only to find out the entire mall is under renovation until december. we then rerouted to the express bus terminal to visit the shinsaegae department store, only to find out that was closed too, haha. we called it an early day though since he wasn't feeling any better. :( he really has been busy taking me around all of seoul though, so i think he does need a break. rest up love!

tried mos burger for the first time at the express bus terminal. not bad!

$6 hwedupbab at the homeplus in the world cup stadium. $6?!?

a week left now ...

[koleahhh]

mosquitoes: 30; mink: 2

[koleahhh]

june 8th: day twentynine

i can't believe i only have two weeks left here. everyone at the clinic also can't believe that i've already been here for four weeks. i don't want to leave! i've grown to love this clinic so much. i've seen and learned so many things despite only being a first year and understanding so little. not only do i want to come back when i know more and view this clinic again from a more experienced medical student perspective, but i want to actually work here in the future with these people... ahhhh i'm going to be so sad on thursday. :(

spent the majority of the day after clinic playing with dk's new maltese puppy. her name's ho-du, which means walnut in english. ahhhhhh isn't she adorableeeeee. 

[koleahhh]

i should have a separate bingsu blog for all the bingsus i've tried since i've been here, jesus.

jeju hallabong (tangerine) bingsu - holly's coffee 

[koleahhh]

july 5th to 7th: days twentysix to twentyeight

stayed home again all day on the 5th to recover. i've never had a cold like this where i sneezed so much. it usually had been mostly just sore throat --> runny nose --> optional coughing, but this time it was a triple whammy of congestion, cough, and sneezing that you see in those cold medication commercials. 

feeling better, i visited dk's family farm for the first time on the sixth. his parents own a plot of land northwest of seoul, and they grow all sorts of vegetables there from lettuce, peppers, bell peppers, eggplants, tomatos, and even chamwae. i wish i had brought my phone out then to take pictures, but it was amazing! they let me pick as much as i wanted to bring back to my grannies. they don't use any pesticides at all either. it was your ideal home garden, and it inspired me to seriously pursue my own home garden in the future. all the veggiesss ! it was wonderful. :')

dk and i then went to visit the lotte shopping outlets in paju, a little further north of their farm. it reminded me a lot of the shopping centers back home in the states, which makes sense considering that's what they're modeled after.

the weather has been hideously hot and humid these days, so i've been on the hunt for a light summer dress, but nothing yet within my budget. T-T Though, the prices at these outlets were really nice! Just didn't see anything that I particularly was looking for. :( 

it says self, but is it really self ...?

uh...

dk's place has a trail right behind the apartment complex, leading to this amazing view of seoul. its a first-time perspective, as i've never seen the city from the west. above is peering down at southwest seoul; the photo doesn't do it justice, really.

today, dk came over to yeouido after dinner, and we took a nice walk across the mapo bridge. it was such an pleasant walk despite the humidity, not only because of the view, but also due to the bridge itself.

along the rails of the bridge were little phrases of poems and songs, most of which were uplifting and/or inspirational. it was really nicely setup, beautiful even, compared to the plain black font of the suicide hotline numbers that are calculatingly stickered along the bay bridge/golden gate. here, the rails actually light up as you walk by, highlighting the different words of the poems as if someone was actually talking right next to you, comforting you, trying to make you laugh, reminding of you of your loved ones, and helping you rethink your own capabilities of self-love. at different distances of the bridge, there were little green callboxes that were connected to what we would call suicide hotlines back home, but they call 생명의 전화, literally "phone of life" here.

one of the rails that lit up since i was right next to it, pointing towards yeouido.

view from the middle of the bridge.

it was sombering, to think how many people have tried jumping off of this bridge. i think this is a fantastic way though to help prevent more from happening, rather that just a hotline number printed on the metal, or high-rise fences to physically prevent jumps, as if like prison cages. this bridge though, despite being made out of such cold metal, was warm; you can tell that those who made this project come true were really those who care. its the power of hope, really. i think a lot of us underestimate what hope is capable of, and this bridge alone represents a small, but powerful result of such. 

[koleahhh]

july 4th: day twentyfive

sick with the cold. spent the whole day literally sleeping, haha. i don't think i've ever done this, but i like it. if only i can sleep all day like this more often, hahah.

[koleahhh]

july 2nd and 3rd: day twentythree and four

today and yesterday were long days at the clinic.

yesterday started off with going to geongook university to sit in on a lecture by dr. brasseur, our clinic's director. it was a little exciting because i've always wondered how lectures were given in korean universities. the style of presentation is very different from the states, the mannerisms in which she talked and the phrasings she used to not only describe, but also transition from topic to topic. since she was my first korean lecturer, i can't say whether her style of lecturing may not be completely reflective since she is also a foreigner like myself, but those around her told me that she is an excellent speaker, and i thought so, too. i'm not sure if i'd be able to do an entire lecture in korean at a large korean university, haha.

wednesday ended late as i followed one of dr. cheong to a home hospice visit. i'm still not too sure how the wednesday home visits are different from the thursday home visits. i should ask next week, haha.

today pretty much consisted of solely dr. brasseur's home visiting, but it was a little different from the previous weeks because we also visited two nursing homes. one nursing home just remodeled/moved to a spanking new facility, so everything was exceptionally clean and bright. it was a little crazy though as we saw about twelve grannies in about two and a half hours. it's a catholic-based nursing home as the workers themselves are nuns, but apparently the staff turnover is high, making continuity of care a little hard for both the patients and dr. brasseur.

the second nursing home was completely different, not so much a facility as it was an actual home. five to six grannies lived there with one caretaker and her daughter. this nursing home is located in gwangmyeong, where i also saw my first costco in korea as well as the beginnings of the first ikea to be opened in korea.

it was such a nice place. perhaps it was all due to the caretaker. she was so incredibly pleasant, bright, and attentive to the grannies, and the grannies themselves were such sweethearts. the overall atmosphere of the house was so warm despite the pouring rain that was happening right outside. it made me think to myself, this is how a real nursing home should be, ideally even a hospice. if we had this sort of setting, but multiple floors to help accommodate more than just five to six seniors...

 after work today, i went again to dk's neighborhood and we walked around a lot just browsing the different shops and buildings in the area. for dinner, we ended up walking into a random japanese restaurant that was very hole-in-the-wall style. it was delicious though! and also so reasonable in price.

wooyeon udon (udon noodles in cold broth) and katsudon: one of the only two pictures i was able to take these past two days @_@ haha

afterwards, we hung out at the local tom and toms, only to visit a puppy shop spontaneously around 9:30pm, haha. the shop had two adorably playful greyhounds, and one took a liking to me and ended up sitting in my lap, eeee.

bawrrrrrrrrr.

also i think i caught the cold. i don't think i've ever failed to get sick at least once whenever i've visited korea, haha.

[koleahhh]

july 1st: day twentytwo

mosquitoes: 24; mink: 2

four bites in fifteen minutes. i call foul play.

on another note, tried artisee's patbingsu for the first time. it was a terrific option considering how hot and humid it was today, but in comparison with the other places we've tried regarding taste, it was just alright. but if we factor in price, definitely not sure if it was worth the ~$13. :(

[koleahhh]

june 30th: day twentyone azoto liquid nitrogen ice cream @ hongdae

it was... alright? i think the texture at alaska ice was better, but in the end neither can really compare to smitten in berkeley.

hongdae - hapjeong - sangsoo: apparently the new hipster triangle of seoul

already halfway done with 2014 ...

[koleahhh]

the streets of yeouido are so nice and empty on sundays...

june 29th: day twenty

almost been three weeks since ive been here. where has the time gone! ;__;

today was a wonderful day. i spent the majority of it with my grandparents; spent breakfast with my momside grandma, lunch with my dadside grandparents in suji. i was originally going to eat dinner with two sunbaes, but had to rush back home to help prepare dinner back at my momside grandma's place.

spent a long time at my dadsides talking with my grandma about our family and with my grandpa about cameras. he actually ended up giving me three of his as presents, a sony alpha-350 dlsr, a canon eos 3, and the last which was actually one that my momside grandpa used before he passed away. its an extremely retro film camera, one of the first models that canon has ever made. its so cool, but it also looks so complicated to work since its all manual, haha. regardless, i can't wait to start taking pictures with these cameras, especially the sony. he cared to particularly emphasize that the lenses and cameras that he gave me were of higher quality than the ones that he gave me cousin and my aunt, eep. i'll take care of them well, grandpa! ahhhh, so excited. ;~;

i felt a little undeserving though; he was basically giving me a part of his life. he had been a hobby-ist photographer his entire life, and his little office is full of photo albums that he compiled since he picked up the camera at age 18. he's really the reason why i even started photography in college, and i feel so blessed to carry on his passion.

talking to my dadside grandma today was also really nice. i never had a full on one-on-one conversation with her before, so it was enlightening to hear more of her story, feelings, and perspectives especially towards her family over the years. she cares so much. so so much. it was the first time i've ever bearhugged her and completely enveloped her in my arms. she felt so small and fragile. i want to do more for her. her and my grandpa.

a part of me wishes so much that i had lived here in korea and was able to grow up with my grandparents on both sides. they're such amazing and inspiring people, and it scares me to think that i won't have much time left with them. i still feel like i've barely gotten to know them at all...

[koleahhh]

click on the photos for captions!

june 26th to 28th: days seventeen to nineteen

what a crazy last three days.

watched the world cup game outside with thousands of people as the sun rose on friday, went on a date to emart with my grannies in the morning, paid my respects at my first funeral later that night, attended a traditional korean wedding today.

@_@ 

[koleahhh]

june 24th & 25th: day fifteen and sixteen

i went to dk's neighborhood on tuesday. he lives near the world cup stadium, so we took about a twenty minute walk along the creek to reach and explore the stadium and the little stores located there.

so a homeplus is inside the stadium, which is a korean equivalent of walmart in the states. apparently homeplus has been around for a while, but i don't think i've ever been in one before. homeplus, emart, lotte mart are all equivalents of walmarts, but out of all of them i've only been to emart and only the grocery section of it. dk and i explored all of homeplus together, trying out the samples to ogling at the all the lego sets that extended from wall to wall in the toys section. it's a huge store! we had a lot of fun just browsing all the goods, haha.

where we ate that day. cute little place inside the stadium, the food also not too shabby. :9

i couldn't help but feel weirded out at how similar it was to the states though. as if i expected such a store layout and product types (especially in the clothes and accessories section) to be found only at the walmart, target, kmart, etc. stores in the states. compared to the layout of the shopping area at dongdaemun and gangman subway shopping center, a shopping center like homeplus just seemed so foreign to be in korea.

today after the clinic, two of the jeonsinsang hospice nurses wanted to check out a new coffee chain called paul bassett that's grown in popularity over the last couple of years. they were awfully nice and let me tag along. we ended up going to shindorim station, where a new department store called d-cube (d^3) was. i've never heard of it before though, so i'm not sure how recent this store is, but the inside was super fancy, its interior design unique to the point of being confusing, haha. we kept getting lost in our efforts to find both the escalators and elevators. some only went to the basement floors, while others only went to the upper floors, all of which were in different areas of the department stores. @_@

this department store was interesting cause it literally had restaurants and cafes at almost every floor. we decided on one floor that seemed more like a food court than the other floors. one part of the floor though was called the "korean food street" where the layout was remniscent of the streets of old korea where the people of then just sat on raised wooden flooring that had a low-rise dining table on top. ah, i should've taken a picture! i can't describe it very well, but it was really quaint and well-made. i'd like to go there again.

for dinner though we ended up at a dumpling/chinese food shop on the same floor. while the dumplings themselves were a little on the oily side, it was all still v. yummy, but we all decided that the jjambbong was much better than the jjajangmyeon.

afterwards we trekked over to the paul bassett cafe on the 5th floor, where the nurses enjoyed the house cup of the day, one iced and one hot, with a blueberry dome cheesecake. i just enjoyed a milk ice cream cone since i already had my coffee earlier during work.

milk-flavored desserts are all the rage right now in korea. ice cream, shaved ice, bread, even cakes. paris baguette has this new "innocent milk" cake that's literally just all white with no decorations. trying to find an excuse in the future to buy it and try some of it myself. *v*

mmm that milk ice cream cone though. so good.

[koleahhh]

june 23rd: day fourteen

it was a contemplative sort of day.

maybe i worked my body a bit too much yesterday, but i was a little light-headed and drained all day. i just came home straight after working at the clinic, where i also didn't have much to do. we admitted a new patient today, and all the nurses were bustling, but i felt most of the time at a loss of what to do. i need to make myself more useful, but maybe it was also the lightheadedness, but i couldn't bring myself to take the initiative today. ill just have to work harder tomorrow! o7

as i was going home, rain started to pour pretty heavily where it sounded like hailstones were bombarding the metal top of the bus. it did hail in different regions of seoul, but thankfully i didn't have to run across any on my way home.

my grandma had given me a couple days ago an equivalent of five dollars for me to spend on bread at the local bakery right in front of my apartment complex. it's a wonderful little independent shop that really improved on its variety and aesthetics regarding their bread, but their taste still is as wonderful as it has been over the years. i wish i took a picture, but i think i was too out of it to remember, haha. i ended up getting this milk cream bread and walnut mini-rolls thing. i expected the milk bread to be just bread made out of milk and cream, but there was actually a vanilla custard-like filling, which was super tasty! but a little heavier than what i wanted as a snack, haha. i was very fond of it though. :9

my grandmas were super wonderful and prepared a samgyupsal dinner even though they themselves aren't too fond of such heavy meals. it was so nice just spending dinner and taking the time to just sit down and talk with them after dinner for about an hour until their nightly drama watching at 8:30. i keep wondering these days how it would've been if my family had stayed in korea where i would have been able to stay close to my extended family...

[koleahhh]

june 22nd: day thirteen

visited my cousin and his family in wangshimni. they just had a daughter two months ago, and ohhhmygoodness she is the cutest thing ever. her cheeks! her chubby legs! ahhhhhhhh. ♥

headed over to samgakji station to meet up with dk to go to the zoo !! omg seoul zoo had so many cool animals that i'd never seen before. the facility itself needs a bit of work since it's so old, but renovations are being done and they have a great variety of animals from rhinos, hippos, capybaras, anteaters, desert foxes, porcupines, tapirs, slow lorises, just. so many! i got to see so many of them up close and personal, which wouldn't have been possible in the states.

exhausted since we continuously walked for four-five hours straight. my feet and legs are so sore, haha. hoping to go to bed soon though! korea vs algeria game at 4am tomorrow! @.@ 

[koleahhh]

june 21st: day twelve

rested at home until evening where dk and i explored the eats around hapjeong. such a cute neighborhood! i had no idea how quaint it was until today.

top: watermelon milk bingsu @ homilbat 호밀밭 in shinchon

left pair: apple mojito squash @ ogyakseong kitchen in hapjeong

right pair: earl grey milk bingsu with red bean @ jaeumgwamoeum (vowel and consonant) in hapjeong

[koleahhh]

june 20th: day eleven

i get fridays off! thus these days are usually reserved for dk and family. watched tv in the first time forever during the morning before falling asleep again and ate with a couple of super extended family for lunch (kalguksu and kongguksu mmmm). met up with dk afterwards where we traveled around yeonhuidong and hongdae for today and ate some super yummy things.

things i have learned today:

1. korean food is hella expensive in the states. the place where dk and i ate dinner at today in yeonhuidong provided so many entrees all for about $10 per person. i can't eat anywhere else now.

2. i feel so out of place in hongdae now, haha. dk and i commented how we felt so old in this sea of sparkly and dandy outfits as well as carefully perfected faces masked in make-up.

3. i miss watching tv and reading manga like i did whenever i visited korea as a kid. pretty much watched tv all of the early morning before i nodded off again, ranging from drama, variety shows, and anime, and after several years hiatus (besides attack on titan) am reading random manga right now before i go to bed. the feels.

4. monsoon season has begun. pouring outside right now, and i really like it.

[koleahhh]

june 19th: day ten

thursday is when the director goes out directly to the elderly who can't make it on their own anymore to the clinic. we saw five patients today, and as we trekked around the small neighborhood in the clinic's little car, i was finally able to see the side of seoul that the city seems to so desperately want to hide from the rest of the world.

poverty is very much real despite the lights and glitter the city boasts. i don't know yet how its being addressed by this country, but from what our director says, not much really is being done. while shiheungdong has developed greatly in its own regard, there still lives so many who live without electricity and family to take care of them. we visited one grandpa who lives in a tiny studio-like one bedroom that was filled to the brim with various knick-knacks he has collected over the years. he lived by himself despite enduring chronic pain especially in his right elbow. his daughters visited occasionally, but apparently he usually suspected them of wanting money rather than care and wanted them to leave more often than stay.

the other elderly we visited thankfully had family who took care of them, but the range of care was just so different among them. there was one where the son was so devoted to his mother who had alzheimers. our director praised him endlessly, joking how he should come work for at jeonjinsang as a palliative nurse. another who had a genetic upper motor neuron disease was being taken care of by the daughter, who had been experiencing early symptoms of the same disease, and thus had been realizing through her mother how she would become in the coming years. despite everything though, she remained jovial and the love she had for her mother was so transparent.

i used to be so intimidated when working with seniors, but i really had no reason to be intimidated at all. honestly, i still don't know if i'll be able to work the rest of my life for them due to my sensitivity towards family relationships, but i'm realizing more and more how similar they are to children as they grow older and older, in the way that they act, think, and ultimately require protection from those who have the strength to do so.

i knew so little about this field of medicine. i still know so little.

every day at this clinic, i'm reminded at how palliative medicine in general needs more exposure and emphasis in its importance, especially considering the rapid increase in the elderly population. i received two books from one of the doctors there actually, and already i have so many questions.

watching the director and nurse as they interacted with the patients today was again incredibly humbling. i find our director so fascinating. i wish i had more time to spend with her and ask her how in the world she was able to set up a clinic such as jeonjinsang as a foreigner no less.