pc 방

It's 5:21 am and I am not sleeping in my dorm. Depsite how bad I want to be in my bed, I am currently in a dirty, smoky internet cafe waiting for the subway to open. I was at a coffee shop late with a friend (in fact, it was the most expensive coffee shop I have ever been to in my life. Talk about a $12 cup of coffee!) and I accidentally missed the last train, which was slightly before midnight. One would think that the subway would stay open later on a Friday night... It came as a shock to me when I looked at my money clip to only discover that I did not have enough for a cab back. The ATMs in Korea rejected my Bank of America card because the ATMs only allow 4 digit pins, and mine is 6 digits.

So I thought to myself, totally not a problem! I'll just camp out at a PC Bang (Internet cafe)!!! And it's not bad at all. I have this sticky keyboard all to myself, and I managed to nap on my leather executive chair! I got a game of WarCraft 3 in as well. Lost. Oh, and the internet cafe is out of hot water therefore I can't buy any ramen!! I had to settle for this creepy hot dog bun and a banana milk (바나나맛우유)

Only fifteen more minutes left before the first train! I'm excited to go home.

under my window

Artsy Fartsy

Had some delicious Bulgogi rice today with a new friend.

Cool vending machines on campus.

i'm shakin'

Baskin Robbins in Korea. It's a sit down restaurant! And one of their flavors is (still) 'My Mom is An Alien,' as pictured here:

my room

OK I have no idea how blogger works. Anyways, from left to right: my desk and bookshelf, my Asian entrance, my bathroom and roommate's desk, my sink and shower (we don't use it because water goes everywhere and it's just easier to use the public showers down the hall), my glass elevator (super cool!), kitchenette and balcony, my keypad lock to my room, and finally my bed with Guido! There's also a balcony that I don't know how to access next to my bed. I'll figure it out one day.

daft punk discovery

Woke up at 7 am again. I am having a tough time sleeping. If you want the feeling of sleeping on a flat rock, then my room is definitely the place to be. Not to mention if you've ever wanted to sleep on top of a tortoise shell, then let me introduce to you my pillow.

I 'hit up' the gym again downstairs. They don't have much in terms of weights, just four machines which exercise random muscles. No bars to do dips, so I managed to create one from these really heavy beams. Pictures to come later.

Hunger called, and when I tried gathering some people to get breakfast with me, everyone was asleep. Their loss! I did some exploration on my own and here are some pictures. From left to right: a street near the campus, my awkward Bulgogi Burger, my drinks (notice the Let's Be coffee), and the Campus Center (coolest looking thing ever).

korea is a paradox

Just went out for a quick drink with a German fellow named Felix. Very cool guy who has been here since the past semester. Talked a lot about politics, sociology, anthropology, stereotypes and such. He brought me to this secret bar called 'Tae,' which has a meaning with something along the lines of placenta.

The theme of the bar is babies in the womb.

Holy guacamole! And they played Oasis, Cranberries, LCD Soundsystem (per request) and to finish up the night, Here Comes Your Man by the Pixies. Go UMASS!

On the way back we walked through a sketchy tunnel. I am beginning to grow a fondness for tunnels. Perhaps it will rival my fondness for bridges one day!

I wish my friends were here to see all these interesting places.

california dreamer

Woah formatting much? To the left we have the lovely Rich Scanlon throwing up them Big B's for the Outback cheese fries. On the right are all my friends from the South Shore (missing a few!) at my farewell dinner at my favorite restaurant in Quincy!

Today! I woke up at 8:30 am, a result of major jet lag. Only four hours of sleep. I decided to try the 24 hour gym out. To my surprise, it was nearly empty and really clean! I ran a mile or so on the treadmill, and when I tried hitting the 'stop' button, the screen on the treadmill read 'S-T-O-P,' but oddly enough it didn't stop. Instead it retaliated with 'S-T-U-B-B-O-R-N' and kept going. Took about 3 extra minutes of running for the machine to shut itself down. Definitely Terminator 3 down there.

I picked up a cell phone too. Used for 40,000 won (about $30), Anycall brand, which I think is an offshoot of Samsung. Some prepaid plan for foreigners, haha. 010-8696-9476 if anyone is interested!

Pictured to the left are my new buddies. Keith, from Hong Kong, Aaron from Tianjin, Cato and Nick also fron Hong Kong. They all turn red when they drink, and it doesn't take much to get them dancing, haha. Those tigers just chill on the side of the path to my dorm. So random.

I had dinner with a friend I met through a Smith student. Her name is Christine and she helped me pick out my cell phone. She took me to Itaewon, the area which all of the foreigners in Seoul live. The restaurant was a country-side style restaurant, with a ton of old 'trinkets' you would find in a farmhouse. The menu was on a big wooden spoon. I forgot my camera though. She's pictured on the right with Ewha's big ass church thing. It's on top of a mountain of steps.

And of course no entry is complete without some delicious looking food stuffs. Aaron took us kids to this restaurant with "tie xie," which means specialities in Mandarin. He speaks no Korean, so it was pretty funny to see him order. The waiter ended up just bringing out 30 small appetizer dishes and some fishies. Delicious lunch.

I think I'm going to catch up on some sleep tonight. Lots of Europeans in this group. I've never met so many before!

all safe and and sound

Look at that. Beautiful.

The plane rides totaling 20 hours were surprisingly not miserable. I was lucky enough during my Boston to San Francisco and San Francisco to Seoul flights to not have a neighbor eating up space. I slept for most of the ride from Boston to SF, and reread the Watchmen for the third time from SF to Seoul. The lady next to me drank 5 mini-bottles of wine, and reeked of cheap fermentation by the end of the flight.



Eddie and Daniel picked me up! My luggage made it safely, including my guitar. Eddie told me that the only thing Korea does not sell is quality gum. Apparently, America has the best gum. I brought him 15 packs of assorted Orbit gum. Kid was all smiles. Oh, Daniel is going to Duke next year, and Eddie may be going to Columbia. Crazy!

My roommate is from Tianjin University in China. He's a super cool guy and I'm definitely looking forward to practicing my mandarin with him. He introduced me to some Hong Kong guys last night - a wild bunch! We met up with like 20 other international students at some restaurant/bar on the 6th floor of a building. There was Kiwi Soju. Fun was had!

I am super jet lagged, but that isn't going to stop me from using the free 24 hour gym downstairs! I'll update this later with more pictures.