More food....

Ok, it's been really really hot lately, but that was expected at this time in Korea. Except the Koreans all told us that this is abnormal. They said that it's never this hot in Korea... and they're all melting when they go outside. Everyone is trying to stay inside as long as possible.... eek! It's been so hot that we pretty much don't want to do anything, but sit in an A/C room all the time.

So we met up with two people today... which means, more food! The trend has been: 1) meet the person, 2) eat dinner/lunch/meal together, 3) drink some drink together. Meet the next person and repeat. Too much food!! Super full all the time now!!

We first met up with my friend's friend, Soo Mi. She looks super trendy! She is also very bubbly too, so it helps with getting to know her a bit better. She doesn't really speak English, but she can speak Japanese very well! So she kept switching between Korean and Japanese to talk to both Joyce and me.... I was like..... aren't you tired switching between the two and basically just repeated what you said in Korean in Japanese?! But she was nice enough to do that for both of us.... and she's patient enough to listen to my Korean and urge me on when I'm trying really hard to express myself.

She took us to a chicken kalbi place.... I didn't know what it was until we got there! It's like a super chicken bbq place... and it was sooooo delicious!

(haha, he probably thought it was so weird that I was taking a picture of him. But the employees are supposed to mix it for you. And that big round thing around it is to prevent it from splattering onto our clothes)

It was SUPER good!!!! I'm gonna miss it when I go back to the states......

And it has this kind of tteok..... ones with sweet potato inside!

Koreans DO NOT let any good sauce go to waste. Always add a few bowls of rice and continue eating! Except this one has CHEESE!

It was AMAZING! Except I was sooooo full. Soo Mi told us that we have to eat the crispy rice that's on the bottom of the pan because that's also the "main course". Haha... they're all so funny. Anyways, yes, it was also amazing.

She was too nice to treat us to lunch.... (they've all been buying us all the food.....) so we treated her to Starbucks and talked some more in Korean/Japanese. She said she was trying to learn salsa, but gave up because they had to dance too close to the other person, and I showed her Joyce's wedding salsa dance video and she was impressed (I would too). We talked a bit more and went on to meet the next person!

We met up with Bomi around Gyeongbokgung and she did Korean language study with me for 90 minutes! I really appreciated her spending so much time helping me when I didn't even meet her before! She was nice enough to speak in easier words and urged me on to express myself in Korean when I got stuck. I realized later that both Soo Mi and Bo,i spoke really really fast (Soo Mi also said that she spoke really fast), but I think it was good training for me... because now I can listen to faster Korean. But seriously.... I'm still a ways off from being able to talk more naturally. However, I always appreciate the opportunity to speak to Koreans in Korean!

While we were doing Korean language exchange, Joyce was studying Korean on her own! She learned the Hangeul in 90 minutes! Good job Joyce!

She then took us around the National Museum of Palace and explained pretty much the entire first floor exhibit to us because she knows so much about the history. Seriously, she should have just worked for the museum! Oh yeah, her English is really really good! And she has never studied outside of Korea! Amazing!

After that tour (notice how we pretty much just stayed inside the entire day), we went to eat gamjatang (potato soup with pork), which she treated. They're all too nice!

Seriously, too much food!! I ate as much as I can.... but I was pretty much at the full extent of my stomach.

Bomi studied journalism in college and she had been very interested in meeting foreigners because she can learn more about other cultures through conversation with them. We had a lot of discussion about politics, education, racism, culture differences, and etc. It was a very interesting intellectual exchange with her.... and I'm glad to meet someone as smart as her!

It was still sooooo hot outside, so we walked around the Seochun (West Village) area until we decided to just stop at a cafe. Here are the scenery and drinks we ordered.

This is the oldest existing bookstore in Seoul (or Korea).

I, again, got an ade.

We spent the next two hours or so just really exchanging thoughts about culture and all. It was really really awesome!

I think meeting people like Bomi (which there are many on this trip) was that there are a lot of people out there who have ideas about their life that they are seeking to accomplish through their decisions. Sometimes meeting these people made me wonder why I didn't think about traveling and meeting different people earlier? I think I lived a life where I was kind of taught to just be content with where you are at the moment instead of even entertaining the idea of maybe living outside of where I was, or doing something that I may like doing better.... I just thought that staying put would be the best decision for my life. I'm really glad that we kind of branched out and actively met people on this trip.

A lot of people always ask me why I learn Korean (a lot of Koreans I meet on this trip also ask me that question). To be honest, I don't know. I started because I watched a lot of Korean dramas and wanted to sing the songs, and then it became a challenge to see if I can learn another language. Then it became my hobby to see how far I can get in a new language. But really, I don't know why I'm learning a language.... but meeting people on this trip who have mastered another language or is practicing a language, I realize that.... you sometimes don't really need an "end goal" (like you want to marry someone from that language, or to travel somewhere, or to ...whatever), it's just a hobby. Many people learn Japanese because they were interested in the culture. Will they ever live there? Maybe not. Will they marry someone who's Japanese? Maybe not. But hey, learning a new language doesn't mean that it has to have a practical reason, right? Why do polyglots learn all those languages? I think they just thrive on being able to understand more things in that language... and just the thrill of being able to learn yet another language. So yeah.... the path for me to master this language is still quite far, but I appreciate every opportunity to learn and to get a bit better!