Week 3

Greetings from the house of God!

Sounds odd, but the name of the Seoul neighborhood where my host family's apartment is is 신당 (Shin-dang), and the meaning of the 한자 (hanja) - the Chinese characters from which the majority of Korean nouns originate - is 'the house of God'. Before this city was made the capital of Korea, and long before it was named Seoul, it was an important spiritual center, and Shin-dang (神堂 in hanja) was so named because there was an abundance of shamanistic fortune tellers there, a vestige of Korea's distant past that can still be seen all throughout Korea today.

History and religion aside, another week has passed by in Seoul, and I am daily becoming more able to use Korean in everyday life. On Monday we had our weekly meeting, and several people from the State Department came and spoke about safety abroad and further opportunities with the U.S. government. On Thursday we had our first official language supporter meeting. Every Tuesday and Thursday, we will meet in groups of 3 NSLI-Y scholars and one Korean college student to work on conversation skills and discuss Korean culture. This will be a big part of the learning experience here in Korea, so I will make the most of it. On Friday, I went to Gangnam with a small group of friends, and although I didn't get to spend too much time there, I look forward to going again because it is definitely the busiest part of town that I've been to. Yesterday my host dad and I went to the Seoul Museum of History and the Seoul Museum of Art, both of which were great. We came home and had a traditional meal, and I met my host grandmother! Today is my host brother's birthday, so we will have another special meal tonight. Thanks for reading this much! I hope you enjoy the pictures.

건강하세요 ~ May you stay in good health

Picture from last week of 부대찌개 (bu-dae-jji-gae), literally "corps stew". It originated during the Korean War when the then-poor Koreans would take discarded but intact rations and MREs and put them into a stew. Absolutely delicious; one of my favorite meals here so far.


Street food in Myeongdong


The view from my host family's apartment


The government-funded facility where I'm learning traditional Korean music


The entrance to the U.K. embassy, which is right next to the Seoul Anglican Cathedral, the church I'm attending this summer


Our language supporter, the other two members of the group, and me in front


The Anglican Cathedral - a mix of Romanesque and traditional Korean styles


My host dad and me in front of the art museum

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 16, 2017 at 5:55 PM

    Love the photos, so happy to see you and the world you're experiencing this summer!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Spend the Summer in Seoul?

Dear family, friends, teachers, and whoever else might have stumbled across this blog,      Thank you all for joining me on this exciting journey. I can't wait to share it with you, and before I leave, I'd like to offer a few details about the program and what I'll be doing. Also, I'd like to give a brief shout-out to everyone who has helped me get to this point, most remarkably my unfailingly supportive family and teachers. I'd also like to thank Caila McHugh, who made me aware of and interested in NSLI-Y and whose format for this first blog I borrowed! Enjoy. What? NSLI-Y (National Security Language Initiative for Youth) is a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State that provides merit-based scholarships for eligible high school students and recent high school graduates to learn less commonly taught languages in summer and academic-year overseas immersion programs. NSLI-Y awards full scholarships, which cover all expenses including travel. If
Read more

Orientations & Arrival

Image
여러분 안녕하세요! Hello from Seoul! I've had a very busy last 6 days full of orientations, State Department presentations, icebreaker games with my fellow NSLIans, and lots of hanging out and bonding, but I am at last settled in with my host family in Jung-gu, Seoul. I am writing, belly full of delicious Korean Japanese food, from the desk in the Cho family's beautifully furnished apartment. The group of 50 going to Seoul on NSLI-Y scholarships this summer all arrived at the Seattle airport on Monday, June 26th, and had Pre-Departure Orientation for the next few days. Monday was just hanging out and arriving, and Tuesday there were back-to-back presentations all morning and early afternoon. However, there was lots of time for us to walk around the University of Washington campus, where we were staying, and it is beautiful. We got up early and left at 7 for the airport. The flight lasted 11 hours, but was not too bad. We stayed at a hostel in Dobongsan, North Seoul for two nights
Read more

Week 6

Image
Hello all, Thank you for joining me as my adventure comes to a close. This will be my overall second-to-last post, and the last post I will write while in Korea. Last week I did much, so I will only briefly recount my experiences and will let the pictures do the hard work for me!  Since my time here is coming to a close, I have been reflecting on the impact that this program has had upon me. For the first three or four weeks, I simply went about life and adjusted to my routine here. I am still doing those things, but I am now realizing that when I return home, I will be a changed person. I will reflect more upon this in the final post, but I'd like to thank all of you for keeping up with this blog. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, we had class as usual, but on Tuesday, we ended up just having conversation in Korean for an hour of class before we started working on our materials. That was quality time, but it reminded us that such opportunities will soon not be so close at h
Read more