Hello All,
Three weeks left, cannot believe it. The next couple
weekends will consist of boring studying and saying goodbye to friends. The
latter will probably be much harder than the former. This will be my last post
until the end of the semester. So this past month has been pretty eventful. The
10th-11th we spent the weekend checking out the club scene around Hongdae. Some
of them were really cool, while others were pretty sketchy. On Friday night we
went to a couple bars and then went to our first club called "Club
Naked". That should have been our first sign. It was banging some good hip
hop so we thought we'd give it a shot. What we witnessed was something none of
us were prepared for. It looked like a scene out of a rap video. All the
American military personal go there to party, and this was very apparent with enormous
black men. Like six and a half feet tall. Since I have been in Asia, I have forgotten
what tall guys look like so this was a wakeup call. We quickly left the club
haha. Then we went to this club called gorilla or something like that. It had 3
different venues so we stopped at all of them to get our free drinks. They were
pretty good places. Small, but good music and a good vibe. They club life in
Hongdae is pretty popular and luckily we live right next to it. Saturday night
we went back to Hongdae but this time went to FF Club. This was a little
different in that it was more Indie and rock music. They initially had a live
band which was really cool. Then they started playing some great rock and punk rock
throwback songs. Even played "cant stop" by RHCP. Really good night
and we have been back to that club a couple times sense.
The weekend of the 17-18th I went to a temple stay with my
Swedish friend Per. This was a fantastic experience. We arrived there on
Saturday afternoon and had lunch with our group of about 20. Everything was vegetarian
and made at the temple so it was a nice change up. We followed that with an
hour and a half meditation hike through the temple mountain. This was very
relaxing. After arriving back at the temple, we walked around the temple
grounds and what the specific temples and areas were used for. After dinner (at
5:00!), we learned how to properly bow like a Zen Buddhist. As I have bad
knees, it was very painful for me but I managed to do it! I have no idea how
they manage to do it 108 times in one time period. Then we learned how to
properly meditate, Zen style. By the time we were finished it was time for bed,
at 8:30. I don't even remember the last time I went to bed on a Saturday night
at 8:30. But this was because we had to wake up at 3:30 on Sunday morning.
Surprisingly this was easy for me. We started the morning with some Zen meditation,
and then we participate in morning chanting. This was very interesting to see
how all the monks chant and a true Buddhist religious ceremony. Afterwards we
had breakfast and a chance to talk with one of the monks and ask him some
questions about his life and Zen Buddhism in general. Quite the weekend but it
was very interesting to learn about the culture and be able to take a chance to
relax for a weekend in a temple in the mountains. Highly recommended for anyone
who travels to Korea.
Now this past weekend I went to Taiwan! We went with 3 of us
guys and 4 girls, all from Yonsei. We arrived last Thursday night and got lost
on our way to the hostel. Luckily a Taiwanese girl managed to help and point us
in the right direction. We finally arrived at our hostel and ready to start the
day bright and early. We woke up to a cloudy day, and unfortunately stayed that
way all day. This was okay though because most of our activities were inside.
We started off by going to the National Palace Museum. This is one of the most
famous museums in the world because most of Ancient China's artifacts are
located here. I could go into a long history lesson but basically they were no
longer safe in China and had to be moved to Taiwan to be preserved.
Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures in there but wow it was
cool, probably my favorite part of the trip. We then went to a temple and
memorial place. Pretty cool touristy areas and got some great pictures. At
night we went to Taipei 101, which is now the second tallest building in the
world. The inside was really well done but the view from the top was amazing.
We could see the entire city skyline. We were pretty tired afterwards and went
back to the hostel for the night. The next morning we went to the Taipei Zoo,
which is the largest zoo in Asia. It was so cool and we got to see Pandas!! We
then went on the gondola ride which went for about an hour around the
mountains. At the top we went to a tea garden and had authentic tea from the
locals. That night we went to the Shilin night market. Taiwan is very famous
for its night markets with cheap merchandise and great food. The dumplings I
had were absolutely amazing, best I have had in Asia so far. I really enjoyed
my trip to Taiwan as it was much different from Seoul. You can tell it’s in the
process of "westernizing" but still has a bit ago. I enjoyed the more
"Asian" aspects of the city though. Well I think thats it for now.
Just sent out a bunch of postcards today so hopefully you get them soon! I'm
done with school the 22nd of Dec and leave for Japan Jan 2nd, so in that time
period we should Skype as you will all be home and I have a lot of free time!
Hope to hear from you guys and have a great holiday, miss you all!
Sam
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