Ewha Women's University and Hongdae. Part 1

Two of my favourite things.  Shopping and having an awesome night out with great people.  The area of Hongdae (Hongik University) and Ewha Women’s University were two places that offered a various spots for both of these. 

Ewha Women’s University:

While I didn’t get a chance to shop in Hongdae, my friends and I took a shopping trip to the area around Ewha Women’s University.  Since Ewha is a women’s university, many of the shops cater to the students--both in fashion and budget!  Once you divert from the main roads, which carry the more expensive shops and boutiques, you enter into inner roads that are filled (I mean FILLED) with lines of shops selling accessories, clothing, and SHOES SHOES SHOES (so many shoes!).  After about five minutes of walking through the market area, I looked around me and thought the place could be endless.  In short, it was awesome.  When shopping there, you definitely need to be up for walking a lot and for doing some bargaining and comparing prices from store to store.  The same shirt at one store could be priced more or less than in another.  Also, some stores are not very organized, you can't expect anything fancy.  So patience and determination to find something is a must, luckily that is not difficult.  I saw a lot of things that I would definitely wear.  

Finding my shoes my size was not as difficult as I thought it would be.  I remember telling my homestay host, Serena, that I was a size 8 US and she gave me a surprised look.  Yup, I’m a beast, no big.  And it didn’t help when I found out when ordering my training shoes that my male Taekwondo teacher and I had the same shoe size, hah. It was interesting to come from Canada, where I worked at a shoe store and saw sizes like 7/8 as average--11/12 as at least existent—to believe how tiny everyone’s feet was here.  So I was afraid that shoe shopping would not be possible for me in Korea, but I lucked out.   In the shops around Ewha, the maximum size they carried was a size 250, which I happened to fit into.  My classmates and I tried to take it easy, remembering that we had a flight to China a few days later, with a weight limit.  I picked up two pairs of boots for a ridiculously low price.  I have to say, the quality of the shoes at Dongdaemun seemed to be a lot better, but for less than $20CAN per two pairs, I was all for budget shopping. We then went into a department store called YES! a pm.  I think it might have been the same store we went shopping in when we went to Dongdaemun, but this one was had a much weaker selection of clothing, as I believe they had just opened up and were still in the process of renovating.  I left with nothing but a bunch of photos of funny outfits we saw being sold (see belowJ).  After we decided we had had our fix for the day, we left Ewha.  The damage?  Not much.  We stuck to the market stores and picked up some good-looking things.  I left with three skirts, a long top, and my two boots for just under $40.


I remembered I had my camera in my purse half-way through and so I took some pictures.  They aren't that great, and they are mostly of the ridiculous clothes we saw inside of YES! a pm.  But here you go!

one of the many places selling shoes

Always wanted the Pringles man on my sweater.

The following pictures are photos I took inside YES! a pm.  I don't want people to get the wrong impression of this store, or shopping in Korea in general.  There are beautiful little shops set up selling great items.  I just was too busy looking through those shops to bothering taking photos of them!  So I ended up with photos taken while passing by not-so-good-looking clothing. I kind of wished I tried on the pink  body suit though.

"I want to become a flowerpot at your small window....

you're going somewhere faraway from the very start you stoke my heart"

My heart's stoked man.

Rabduckasauras 

Shops

Taking tiger print to a whole 'nother level here in Korea.  Oh look, the Rabduckasauras bodysuit comes in teal too! OUUU! Decisions, decisions...

Quite happy.

Hongdae

Hongdae is a great place to both shop and go out at night.  Unfortunately, I only had the time to experience the latter.  The area is beautiful and alive at night.  The inner roads are insanely packed with young club/bar-hoppers and all-night shoppers.  I honestly don't know how and why people bother trying to drive on those roads.  Like Ewha, the area surrounding Hongdae caters to its clientele.  There are shoe stores, clothing boutiques, and vintage stores all over.  But unlike Ewha, the streets are also packed with bars and clubs.  The people there are also quite different from the crowd I've seen around Sookmyung.  More males, more party-goers.  Hongdae is a larger co-ed university that is known for its arts program, I believe.  The area is thus filled with the arts.  Students play their music for an audience and others sell their artwork and accessory/clothing designs on the streets.  Also, in terms of fashion.  There is more variety in Hongdae.  People show off their individual fashions and play around a little bit more.  Hongdae is quite well known, and I suppose that because of its reputation, we saw that it attracted many other foreigners too. 

On our first night at Hongdae, we went to a bar/pub type venue called Wara Wara.  I did not order any food myself, but it did not look that great and it was a bit pricy.  The beer and soju on the other hand, was quite inexpensive.  That was great.  A pitcher of beer was around $15CAN.  Back home, a team pitcher could go up to $25-$30.  And this pitcher was MASSIVE (see pic below).  The night was a lot of fun  and I learned some really cool Korean drinking games.  They LOVE their drinking games!  Most of the games included a lot of singing and yelling.  I liked it.  Two games I'm definitely bringing back with me: This one that was a kind of a chance game, where we chanted "mandu mandu mandu mandu...(number)!"  And another, called the "Shock game" that was filled with confusion and lots of yelling.  It was cool, you don't need to go out and buy any beer cups or pingpong balls or cards to play, all the games were simple and hilarious.  Oh, and the loser's drink?  Half a shot of coke and a half shot of soju dropped into a mug of beer.  I tried a drink and I have to say, not bad.  Apparently the stuff, after just a few drinks, will just hit you without you knowing it.  I'm not up for that.

Musicians on the streets.   They looked like Harry Potter.

Beautiful walk down the street.

Yup.  Hello Kitty Cafe.

One of the shops in Hongdae

Korean bar food..Deep fried something chicken and cheese in a pan? 

Personally, I thought it looked disturbing.

I told you the pitcher was big.

Asian-glow at work.  Tiff matches the tomato sauce!

Get Naked in Korea

Last week we decided to try out the Dragonhill Spa, a jjimjilbang, or spa that includes bathhouses, saunas, massages, and skin treatments...There was even a “game room” on the basement floor equipped with more than a dozen computers and gaming systems.  Also, people can actually SLEEP at these spas. In the main hall, the floor is heated and there are pillows scattered everywhere.  There are also various different rooms i.e. the salt room, the charcoal fire room, which people can go into and sleep in if they’d like.  Actually, some of the other students on exchange at Sookmyung dealt with the 12 am curfew by staying at the spa overnight.  It probably wasn’t the most comfortable bed…I mean, it wasn’t a bed at all, it was a floor…but it’s a lot better than waiting out in the cold until 5am.  And you can wake up and take a dip in the pools!

Women’s Spa:

After paying our entrance fee 12,000 won (approx $12 CAN) for 12 hours, we separated from the boys and headed upstairs to the women’s bathhouse.  As soon as we stepped out of the elevator, there were naked butts and all else everywhere.  I could tell that we were beginning to get a bit nervous, but after a few awkward minutes, we became more comfortable.  I had never experienced anything like it before, and it caught me off guard at first.  I think that modesty is valued amongst many Asian cultures, including the Koreans, so I believed that since nudity is usually associated with sensuality, the sudden nakedness of all those people just threw me off.  But there was nothing sensual about it; it was more about female camaraderie.  It was nice. I began to relax once I saw how comfortable the other women were with one another. There were even mothers with their younger daughters at the spa together.  It really is a place for girlfriends and family members to hang out, talk, and relax.  Anyway, the spa was amazing, especially after a rough week of Tae Kwon Do.  They had a bunch of different pools (skin treatment, deep-water bath) with different jets, and different temperatures (from 15 degrees Celsius up to 41 degrees Celsius).  My favourite area of the bathhouse was definitely the saunas, particularly the Salt Room.  It was burning hot in the sauna, but I loved it and I loved the smell of the burning wood and..salt? (I suppose).   

Co-ed Main hall:

After the women’s section, we headed to the main hall to meet up with the boys.  Everyone in the main hall wore the same outfit given to us by the spa; vintage-washed green v-neck skirt and matching shorts.   People were lying, kneeling, and rolling around on the heated floors; the stand was selling drinks and ice cream and eggs, which people were using to give each other egg-masks.  It was kind of unreal and I imagined myself entering a cult meeting for some time.

Interesting Rooms:

Surrounding the main hall, there are about a dozen different rooms you can go into to hang or even nap in (if it’s not too hot…or cold).  For example, there was a cold room that I think was 3 degrees Celsius.  There was no way in hell I was going to stay in that room, it was already freezing outside, and I was not about to waste my time in a spa re-living the chill.  I opted for the pine firewood room.  The entrance looked like an oven, honestly and as soon as I walked in I did not expect to see what I did.  The whole thing was like a small hut made out of stone, the floor was lined with burlap, it was hot, and people were sitting on their bums sweating and fairly quiet.  I felt like I was hiding out in some cave or something.  It was weird at first, but I started to really like it.  There were similar type-rooms in different temperatures. 

A Couples’ Hide-Away:

There was a load of couples hanging out in the main hall together.  They’d put on each other’s facial masks to beautify one another and then lie down and stare at each other’s mummy-wrapped faces.  T’was interesting.  Also, I can’t read Korean so I don’t know if there were signs (I don’t think there were) or just a public agreement that some of those rooms were designated couple-rooms.  I’d walk into one room and just see couples lying down beside one another.  There was this one very interesting Egyptian themed room that had blankets on a sandbox type thing that was filled with salt, I think.  I’m sure people could sleep on those blankets, but it was the sarcophaguses that really interested those sleepy couples.  They were basically little openings in the wall that were lined up and conveniently large enough for one, or two laying close enough to one another to be one.

The spa was such an interesting experience; I don’t think we have anything like it in Canada, at least not near where I’m from.  I had a great time with my friends and I slept like a baby after coming back that night.  I would definitely do it again, and maybe next time I’ll get my “hips washed”.  Just kidding.  I have no idea what that meant, but they offer it at Dragonhill!

So, I didn't take any pictures (obviously), so I stole these pictures off the internet.  All of them are from either the main hall, or the specific rooms by the main hall.

One of the firewood huts on the inside. 

*Ding* Your oven-baked Koreans are ready.

Sleeping, hanging out on the floor

Hanging out in the main hall. 

The cold room. BRRR, Crazy people.

I think this is the crystal room

http://www.dragonhillspa.co.kr/hill/main01.htm

Visit to the museum

Whew! It's done! We did our Korean Language test today, and I'm pretty sure all we Canadians got our passing credit (yay us!).  It's been a busy week of touring and studying, so I haven't been able to update as much as I would have liked to.

Anyway, last week, our new Australian friends, Alex and Guillaume, brought us along with them to the National Museum of Korea.  The place was great.  I learned a lot of cool things about Korean history and culture, saw some pretty trinkets from the past, and best of all, it was free admission (excluding the special exhibits).  We even arrived just in time for the english guided tour.  I don't think I would have learned as much if we wandered off on our own.  I'm the type of person who goes straight to what ever is big and shiny, and I only skim over captions without fully understanding what it is I am looking at.  We definitely lucked out.

I took a lot of pictures at the museum, but I've only posted a few of the things that I particularly liked.

Jewelry/accessories:

Jade on necklaces.

When I said I like big and shiny things, I wasn't kidding.  This display of a king/shaman's solid gold crown, long earrings, and belt definitely caught my eye.

These gold earrings look heavy because of their size, but apparently they are very light in weight.  I want some.

Hair pin! So beautifully detailed.  I also want.

Pretty knife cases. Women carried around knives to protect themselves.  

Gold gold gold.

Sculptures/pottery/art:

Ancient Koreans believed that birds guided the souls of the dead to heaven, so they often buried their dead with bird bones, feathers, and bird-shaped pottery.  

This is one of my favourites! The Baekje Incense Burner is absolutely beautiful.  Birds, animals, plants, and human figures are carved in detail around the burner, which is divided three sections that sit on the twisted-dragon pedestal. I particularly like the way the burner supposedly symbolizes the harmony of different things.  It was found at a Buddhist temple, but according to the tour guide, it also represents a lot of Taoist values.  See, harmony.

Small sculptures people made.  A lot of them show the way the ancient Korean people lived.  I.e. the way they ate, the way they gave birth, the way they play, etc... This particular one was entitled "love".  Hah.

Buddhist Art/Sculptures:

This display showed the differences and progression of the sculptures of Buddhas from different countries, including China, Japan, Korean, and India.  It's really interesting how each ethnic group projected their own image/features onto their representation of Buddhas.  No belly rub for Korea's Buddha. 

Buddhist Guardians.  

Sculpture of a Buddha.  He does have particularly Korean features, doesn't he?  Not the jolly fat Buddha I'm used to.

Pensive Buddha

Decked-out Buddha

Buddha Kaycee...Nah, it's just me guys! I know, hard to tell with the resemblance.

Donations from other countries:

I liked this for some reason.  It reminded me of a greek/roman sculpture, but with Asian facial features. Cool.

Love the expression of the figure on this incense burner.

Mask. Scared me a bit.

Donated by India.  India's representation of females in their sculptures was a lot more sensual than in the Chinese, Japanese, or Korean sculptures.

The context of the sculptures donated by India were also a little bit more riskee.

Architecture:

A 10-story pagoda made of marble. 

This was so COOL. Apparently, when they made houses (such as the one in the picture below) and temples. they would not use any nails at all.  Instead, the parts of the structure would interlock with one another to hold together, which means they had some talented people working on these houses and measuring out those interlocking pieces!  

Because of the way these structures were made, they were able to be taken apart quite easily, and then reassembled.  Often times, when they knew a flood or something would be coming, they would actually move whole temples and other important buildings over to a safer location.  Now that is awesome.

This model house of a Korean scholar's home was made using the interlocking wooden joint method. 

Okay, that's it for me.  I am pooped.  Just practiced the forms for my Tae kwon doe test tomorrow (wish me luck!) and I'm absolutely exhausted.  Sorry for the lazy post..but at least there were pictures:)

I went shopping again today, lots to show and lots to say about that. But for now, later!

Blast from the past (muahaha). Korean Folk Village field trip.

A lot of blog-worthy events have happened in the past couple of days, but unfortunately I haven't had the time to record them up until now.  I'll try my best to remember everything.  

First up, our trip to the Korean Folk Village.  

To be completely honest, I've never been much of a walk-around-for-FIVE-hours-in-the-cold-comparing-the-different-materials-used-to-make-shingles-back-then-when...-type girl.  This place was just way too reminiscent of my days at the Pioneer Village.  That's not to say I didn't learn and see a few cool things, I'm not that much of a downer.

I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish on this rock:

The first thing we passed by before entering the gates to the village were hundreds of these pieces of paper tied around a pile of rocks and onto surrounding pine tree branches.  Our tour guide explained that people write their wishes onto paper and tie them onto the ropes or branches.  We then wrote out our own wishes and he assured us that: "they WILL come true".  Damn, should have wished for something cooler.

I even managed to find some Folk Village fashion:

Practical and fashionable.  Those round life-saver-shaped things that are hung on the lower-class houses were used by the women to help them carry jugs on their heads.  

This season's top-knot hair trend originated in old Korea!  Not really, but he still pulls it of better than I can.

Alex modeling a traveler's backpack with straw shoes hanging from it.  Lookin' good.

 Village-couture.  Amanda trying on one of the dancer's hats. 

We also made friends at the Folk Village:

With pot-lady.  Julian getting kind of touchy after just meeting. She looks uncomfortable.

Alex finally learning to play with kids his own age.

Made friends with a horse.

Andrew can't come up with his own poses. Geez.

What I thought was supposed to be a campaign poster for something like village leader, but ended up being a WANTED poster for a criminal.

My favourite part of the trip was definitely the performances.  The performers were so talented, it made standing in the cold seem worth it.

  

Traditional male dancers.  Their costumes, especially the hats were AWESOME.  I have no idea how they managed to keep those ribbons on their heads spinning.  There was this one dancer who had a ribbon twice as long as the others and who was doing break-dance-like moves while jumping over and around his spinning ribbon. Talent, I tell you. Talent and a cool hat.

Talent.

Tight-rope walker.  So cool.  In this picture it looks like he's about to fall, but he actually fakes it by bending his left leg and then bouncing back up on it.  You go fan man.

Oh, aside from the performances, these awesome pocket warmers helped keep me satisfied while out in the cold.  I ended up taking one more from my friend and then I stuck both down in my shirt.  It was great until I got back home and realized my chest might have gotten a little too hot.  It stayed red for a while.  Oops.

And here's the money-shot:

Good ol' fashion torture methods.

The end. 

Later!