D-12 2010/12/30 Thursday 미친팬들이

Crazy fans. This is a picture of the banners that covered the stadium at SMTOWN Live 2010. Korean fans are crazy awesome. Why? Because they don't just love celebrities, they worship them. When you like a kpop group, you are on their team. This means, regardless of how good they are musically, you support them; you love what they love and loathe what they loathe. It's great. I'll miss you crazy heads.

D-16 2010/12/25 Sunday

Merry Christmas!

D-17 2010/12/24 Friday 떡

Rice cake. After school I went to church. There were a couple of other families who were there and we all had a nice big Christmas party. We played games and then the girls went to the noraebang. AWESOME. Doesn't this ddukbokki look delicious?

D-18 2010/12/23 Thursday 사진

Pictures. I took pictures with my friends. I borrowed my friends instax camera [like a polaroid camera]. I bought the film. Isn't it pretty? I thought the colors were going to be ugly [they looked ugly on the box], but they turned out really nice.

D-23 2010/12/18 Saturday 눈

Snow. This is the road to my school. It snowed in the morning the other day. We don't get snow in Santee...I saw my first snowfall...like REAL snowfall here the other day too! It was so nice! Then we had a snowball fight. I like the feel of this picture. I took it without looking and then when I checked it I was like...woah. that's cool.

D-24 2010/12/17 Friday 교통

Public transportation. I'm going to miss buses. They make everything so accessible. Sure it takes a while and a car gives more freedom, but it's a lot cheaper to bay for a bus than it is for gas...And if you're sleepy you don't have to drive!

D-26 2010/12/15 Wednesday

이상한...I don't even know what to call this...Meatloaf?

D-28 2010/12/13 Monday

D-29 2010/12/12 Sunday

In Korea they have places where you can decorate cakes! My friends made my birthday cake at one of these places. You pay for a cake, just a blank one, and then the toppings and stuff. It's a really nice idea. I really like it. Enni and I want to make one before we go :) Jessica took me here and we decorated cupcakes for her friend's birthday. We also made one...but we didn't eat it until a month later! It was really greasy...not very delicious, but still! It was the experience.

D-30 2010/12/11 Saturday 아이돌

Korean celebrities. Everyone understands what I'm talking about it I talk about a Korean celebrity. They also sell all of the CDs and merchandise here. I'm not a big fan of Korean music, but I am a fan nonetheless. I will miss all of the understanding and availability.

D-31 2010/12/10 Friday 구두

Shoes. Look at these shoes. There are soooooo many shoes in Korea, but there are really sooo many high heels and such. There aren't many tennis shoes just around. You have to go to an actual store to find those, but there are a lot of high heels and such just around. It's nice that there are so many and they are very cheap, but it's hard to find just the right ones!

D-32 2010/12/09 Thursday 새

I made paper cranes in class today. I love my camera.

D-33 2010/12/08 Wednesday 눈이다

It snowed today! It was my first time seeing it snow a lot. All of my friends said that it wasn't even a lot. During lunch, we went outside and had snowball fight. Really it was more of an "attack tintin" fight. Afterwards, I couldn't feel my hands and there was snow in my pockets when I came back in. My hair was all wet and stuff too...I hope I don't catch a cold. Tomorrow I think I'll have to wake up a little bit earlier. It'd be nice if it was still snowy tomorrow so that I can take pictures and video.

D-34 2010/12/07 Tuesday 서울

Seoul. I'll miss seeing all of these events around Seoul. This was the movie awards I think. I saw it online. We don't exactly understand why they have the red carpet going up the stairs. It's always like this. People always trip. It's actually quite funny though, and I think they don't have space to make a long enough carpet. They have to build up on this small land.

D-35 2010/12/06 Monday 까치

Magpies. I've never seen these kind of birds in the States. There is one in this tree here, but you can't see it very well. They're black and white birds, and they hop around. There are a lot of them and I often see them in persimmon trees. It's supposed to be good luck if they sing and then bad luck if a crow does.

D-36 2010/12/05 Sunday 교회

Church. This picture came out pretty well huh? I took it with my phone and the kid was running away. I was trying to get a picture of his face, but this is cool too. The sash he's wearing is the name of our church. We went out to pick up trash a couple of Saturdays ago. It was really fun to spend time with the kids and stuff.

D-37 2010/12/04 Saturday 이상한 영어

English that doesn't make sense. It's everywhere in Korea. I could really put up a bunch of photos, or I could just direct you to the many sites that are dedicated to documenting incorrect English. As we were eating dinner today, I looked out the window and I was like..."what?" SEXYCOOKIE. So does that mean...it's sexy and cute? or delicious? or chocolate-y? I'm not entirely sure what the owner intended by naming this store SEXYCOOKIE, but I definitely remember the store.

D-38 2010/12/03 Friday 학원길

Academy road. This road is pretty much just academies. In Korea, kids go to school [in high school] from 8am to 5pm and then after that usually attend "hagwons", or academies. At these academies, the kids practice all of the subjects that they learn in school and often go ahead of the content covered during classtime. I find this to be a very inefficient system because students learn everything outside of school and sleep during school. Kids sometimes get home at 12~1am and then have to wake up to go to school. It's not a very healthy system. I personally like the American system better. I know they score better scores than we do, but who's living the better lives? I can't answer that question, and I am also aware that Korea is rising, and America seems to be falling, but I am truly proud to be an American.

D-39 2010/12/02 Thursday 쓰레기통

Trash cans. You can never seem to find them in Korea. But, the thing I like about Korea, is that they have a place for every kind of waste. They recycle, but they separate everything: bottles, cans, vinyl, paper, food. We do to in America, but if we want to go recycle our bottles, we have to go to a recycling center. I think that it is better that they recycle all together. Recycling is basic, general. But seriously, you can't find trash cans here. My friends taught me "Korean Culture": where you just throw your trash anywhere. Craziness.


Trash "area" in my classroom----->

D-40 2010/12/01 Wednesday 교복

My school uniform. It has served me well. Expensive, well-made, not something I have in America. I have worn this uniform for the larger half of my 11months here. My other, summer uniform is already packed away. I like the winter one much better anyways. My winter uniform is made up of 5 pieces: white dress shirt, vest, blazer, tie, skirt. I also wear a pair of stockings in the winter. The summer uniform is much simpler: shirt, skirt...plus whatever Tshirt you choose to wear under the shirt. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of the uniforms. I think it's really gross that we wear the same thing everyday. The uniforms are too expensive to buy multiple sets, so...there's nothing you can really do about it. It's nice to not have to pick out clothes in the morning though.