The last lap

On this fine Sunday afternoon, I am getting ready to embark on my mountain of work I have to do before I leave this country. Five final presentations, three finals papers, and four final exams stand between me and Friday, June 21^st, the day I leave Korea. Looking back to when I came here in mid-August, I never thought this day would come. The last couple weeks has consisted of me one day being excited to come home, and the next being painfully sad and nervous to leave the place I have called home for almost a year. I have no doubt that I will enjoy my last few weeks here, yet I know they will probably go by faster than any other period this year. With that being said, I still have lots of work to do before I can breathe my sigh of relief. This finals period is going to be a strain on me, but I am confident that I will do well and be satisfied with my work. I am starting to finalize my plans for senior year. First off I got my job back at Brownsworth this summer, so I will be able to make some much needed money. I also got my house finalized for my senior year. There will be eight of us (yes I know, 8 men in one house) but I like and respect every one of these guys and I have no doubt in my mind that it will be a smooth experience. Also I got an internship at the CICE office (the study abroad office) helping fellow students begin their study abroad experience and being able to help the International office. I am very excited for this opportunity and look forward to the rewarding memories in my future. Along with that, I am working in the history department (basically a teaching assistant) where I will be able to learn more about what being a history professor is all about and making some much needed cash. Basically my senior year will be very busy but I am super excited to get back on the hill and enjoy my last year of undergrad. Wow.

Quick update on the past two months since I last wrote. I guess the biggest thing that has happened to me was that I started talking to this cute Korean girl. Eventually I fell for her and we started dating for a little bit. It was very nice to not only learn more about a side of Korean culture that I never knew about but also to finally open up and like a girl again; something I have not done in a very long time. Unfortunately, out of nowhere, she dumped me. I still do not know the real reason why and probably never will, yet I am grateful for the time we had together and even if I knew the ending beforehand I still would have gone through with it. It was painful at first because I had started to really like this girl, but I know it was for the best because she must not have felt the same way and there was no reason to keep continuing if so. So I went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows within a matter of a day. Luckily, Kessler was coming the very next night and we had a very fun week planned. My school has a festival every year called “AKARAKA” which is basically a huge concert/cheering session. Tuesday and Wednesday consisted of booths and little concert sets around Yonsei campus and we participated in all the festivities. On Thursday night the actual concert happened. It included many different K-POP bands, most of the likes I do not know, and then ending with the actual Yonsei “AKARAKA” team singing the school songs. This was an amazing night and probably one of my favorite in my year abroad. I was quickly back to the top of my rollercoaster ride that is my current life.

The following morning we left for Busan. Originally the girl I was seeing was going to come with us, but obviously did not come and probably for the best as I would have been more preoccupied with making her happy rather than making myself happy (uhh relationship Sam…). We had a group of eight riding to Busan on a bus, on a national holiday, on a Friday, thinking we’d be there in the estimated five hours. Once five hours came, we were barely out of Seoul. Everybody seemed to be on the road heading south and in hindsight it was very dumb to think we would be there in five hours. To add insult to injury, the air conditioning was very bad making the ride hot and sweaty. We came up with the motto “The Busuana: Slow and bumpy, hot and sweaty” for our bus adventure to Busan.  Eventually we made it and checked into our pension. We were located in a quieter place of Busan, but it was right next to the beach and located among other pensions that were being rented by other Korean college kids. The majority of the weekend was spent on the beach, cooking our own food, partying, and basically enjoying a small spring break. We had a blast meeting other Koreans, playing with fireworks (Roman Candles!) and making home cooked meals that actually turned out very very good. On Sunday we did a little sightseeing: going to the fish market, visiting the shopping district, and visiting the city temple and monuments. On Monday, we left our pension and played another epic game of beach volleyball before departing back to Seoul. It was an amazing trip and I am really glad Jack was able to come. He meshed very well with my friends and I know all of them really liked him as well. He came at the perfect opportunity and made me forget all about the low place I was earlier.

Jack eventually left and is now on his own little traveling adventure (jealous) while I am still stuck doing an immense amount of schoolwork. Still, we have been trying to take advantage of the little time we have left. A couple of buddies of mine and I attempted to go bungee jumping yesterday (Saturday). Unfortunately by the time we got there the place had closed (closed at 5, got there at 4:50…). All was not lost though and we ended up going to an amazing duck barbeque and had one of the best dinners of the semester. Also, the area of Seoul we were in was amazing. It seemed like we were in a different city, more spacious and less chaotic with an abundant amount of trees and parks. It was the first time that I truly considered coming back to Seoul and living here. The place I currently live is fun and all, but it’s very chaotic and I could not live here again unless I was a student. This area of Seoul, however, was much more tranquil and definitely someplace I could come back to live (perhaps teach English…).

The next couple weeks will include lots of school work. Fortunately, I still have a couple fun activities for the weekends to make the next couple weeks not so boring. This upcoming weekend we are going to a Korean-league soccer game. I have gone to a couple baseball games now and they were super fun so I am hoping this will also be just as fun. A week from today I am (tentatively) getting another tattoo. I have wanted to get a tattoo in Korea for a while now, symbolizing my trip for me. Right now I am planning to get a Koi fish, the Asian symbol for courage, on my chest/shoulder area with the words 용기 (courage). However I am not too positive if I am going to get it based on the $$$$ and if he will draw it up the way I want it to look. I will know next Sunday if I like it or not and potentially might be getting it done! The following week we have Thursday, the 6^th, for Korean Memorial Day. We are planning to rent a beach volleyball court near the Han River for the day and enjoy the river and competitive volleyball. That weekend will be the last “free” weekend before finals weekend and we will probably being going out a couple of nights to enjoy the amazing Seoul nightlife. The weekend before finals we are planning to give bungee jumping another try and have another great duck barbeque for my last Saturday in Seoul. The last week is finals week and bam, back on a flight to Minnesota. I am getting in around 9 PM CST on Friday, June 21^st and my first American meal will be the wonderful establishment of Chipotle! I miss you and I am excited to see all of you guys soon! Enjoy the first couple weeks of summer and I will be back soon. I am planning right now to write a final blog before leaving, but if I get too caught up with school work I will probably skip that. I hope you guys have enjoyed reading about my travels and I will try my best to not be that guy that starts every conversation with “In Korea….” because I know how old that can quickly get. If you have any questions related to Korea or study abroad or traveling in Asia in general, do not hesitate to ask and I will give you my opinion. With that being said, of course I will have some interesting stories for you guys to hear about ;). More than anything I am excited to hear all about how your guy’s lives have been the past year and catch up.

Miss you and talk to you soon!

Love,

Sam

Taking it all in

First off big apologies for taking so long to compose this blog. I have been quite busy this semester and just have not found the time to write this. It’s already been 5 weeks and I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by. In two and a half months I will already be on a flight back home. I have very mixed emotions about this. For one I love Seoul and have made some amazing friends here; both last semester and this semester. I love being abroad and I love living in a different culture. I am also very nervous about coming back home. How easy will it be for me to just step into my previous life? It sounds cliché, but by the time I come home I will have been abroad in Asia for nine months. I am both excited and nervous for this experience. I miss you all and am very excited to see you guys again, but in the meantime I am trying to make these last 2 or so months count.

Right now at Yonsei I am taking 18 credits, which is 6 classes… Yes it is just as busy as it sounds. On top of that, I will be taking an online “Teaching English as a Foreign Language” class to receive a certificate to teach English abroad. This semester I am living in International House, which is a little different from my old dormitory but in a good way. The majority of my guy friends left last semester, so I made new ones this semester and it was gone extremely well so far. Interestingly enough, the majority of them are from North America, while last semester it was almost the complete opposite. My time abroad, however, has taught me that where you grew up isn’t too important. Everybody is essentially the same and looking to enjoy the best things life has to offer. I just realized I haven’t even written a blog about my time in Southeast Asia…my bad. I suppose I’ll start with that. This blog would be far too long to write day-by-day accounts so I’ll just list some of the more memorable things.

I started in Hanoi, Vietnam with my mother for 4 days. While Ha long Bay was amazing, my best memories of the city is drinking wonderful Vietnamese coffee (seriously it’s amazing) on the rooftop with my mom talking about life. As I have grown up, I have learned to appreciate more and more on what my mother has to say and soak up every bit of advice she gives. She has helped me through some of the toughest hardships in my life and having the chance to talk about everything from politics to social peace in Hanoi was truly special.

After leaving Hanoi, we went to Hue, DaNang and Hoi An. As my roommate will tell me (he is from Hanoi) I pronounce these cities terribly. Hue is the old imperial city and we got to see the old imperial palace, which was pretty special. Da Nang is a beach city where we ate some excellent sea food and got to enjoy the ocean life. Hoi An is a historical city in Vietnam known for its famous silks. I bought a couple of girls gifts from there and also got myself a Kimono robe (in case you were wondering, I look spectacular in it).

After departing from Mom, I made my way to Nha Trang. This was a very touristy beach city, but turned out to be a very rewarding experience for me. I spent one day working at a children’s orphanage for Agent Orange victims. Agent Orange is the chemical the United States used in the Vietnam War (also called Napalm) and devastated their countryside and affected many innocent victims. Unfortunately, one of the more powerful side effects of Agent Orange is that it becomes genetic, so 2^nd, 3^rd, and even 4^th generation children still show the effects of Agent Orange; which includes deformed limbs, enlarged heads, and loss of limbs, etc. It was very powerful helping these children and see how happy they were that a foreigner was there to spend the day with them. It was an activity a little different from the rest of my trip but I really enjoyed it. After Nha Trang I went to Ho Chi Minh City. I loved Ho Chi Minh City. One of the coolest things I did was visit the Coo Chu Tunnels, which were the tunnels that the Vietnamese army dug to surprise the American forces. I also got the chance to shoot a real AK-47, which was thrilling.

One of my more memorable moments of Vietnam was at my hostel in Ho Chi Minh. One of the nights we spent on the roof, drinking Vietnamese beer until the early morning hours discussing world problems and solutions; you know the usual things college-educated dreamers talk about under the influence. It was refreshing to meet people traveling who had very similar mindsets to me, even though they grew up in different parts of the world. The people I met along my trips made the actual trip itself that much better.

After Vietnam I made my way into Cambodia. The most memorable thing about Cambodia for me was visiting the Angkor Temples. The famous one is “Angkor Wat”, but there were so many temples that to see every one of them would take about three days. Since my Australian buddy and I only had one day to do them, we started at the crack of dawn until 6pm. While it was a long day, it was very worthwhile.

This was at 5 am!

 I enjoyed Cambodia but unfortunately I did not have enough time to experience the more cultural part of Cambodia. I didn’t have really set time-tables for my trip and I ended up spending a lot more time in Vietnam (because I liked it so much) then Cambodia or Thailand. If you are to travel Southeast Asia, that is how you should do it. Don’t have everything pre-scheduled. It’s easy enough to find a hostel once you arrive somewhere and it is more fun to be spontaneous about your travels. You end up meeting different people and seeing different things outside of the usual back packers route. After Cambodia I headed to Bangkok, Thailand for my last 5 days. I think you could spend a month in Thailand and not see it all. Again, unfortunately I did not have much time left (pesky school) so I had to contain my trip to just Bangkok. My hostel was just outside Khao San road (called the main back packers road in the world) and it lived up to its hype. So many things to buy and the craziest food to try. I partied one night there and that was more than enough. My last day was my most memorable in Thailand. I wanted to get a tattoo in Thailand to kind of cumulate my trip as a whole. I decided to get a Sak Yant tattoo. This is a holy tattoo in Thai Buddhist culture. It is performed by a Buddhist monk in a Buddhist temple. I had to travel about 70km outside of Bangkok (that itself was an adventure) and I arrived at the temple around 9am. While waiting in line, I realized how spiritual this whole experience is. Everyone in line is bowing to the person getting their tattoo done. The monk is constantly chanting while doing your tattoo. When it was my turn I had no idea what to expect. You do not choose your tattoo, the monk chooses for you based on your spiritual aura. He also chooses where it goes. I thought I’d be ready for the pain (since I already have two large ones) but it was a different type of pain. He uses a long bamboo stick and constantly pricks you to make the tattoo. It took about 20 minutes yet no breaks. While tattooing you, he’s chanting and you have two other monks holding you down. Once done, I still had no idea what tattoo I got (it was on my back) and did not find out until I got home (about three hours later)! For all I know he could have part “I hate America” and I would have no idea. However, I love the tattoo and the story behind it.

A bad picture but thats what it looks like, right in the middle of my back

That’s it, five weeks just flew by. I cannot way to travel again and I highly recommend it to all of you. Do not be afraid to travel by yourself. It ended up being the best choice I made. You meet so many other single travelers that it does not matter. This is a quote I found from the book, "The Backpacker" and it perfectly sums it up. 

"Every day was different, often spent with different people from every conceivable background, and usually in a new place, which I loved. You get the same buzz when you're introduced to someone you fancy for the first time. It's addictive, I couldn't get enough, it's like the best Friday night you've had, when everything clicks; people and chemistry, mood, drink- except suddenly it's every day. Freedom, in its absolutely purest form, freedom from any ties whatsoever. It's the compass; not just the little head ruling the big head, though that's part of it. It's the natural instinct of following your heart, your eyes, to move from place to place, country to country, and do what you feel inside, to find out what you feel inside. How can you find yourself if you stay in your country of birth? It's important, vital, to stand aside and take a look from a different angle, to look with a fresh pair of eyes. As my friend from back home said, 'Go for it John. you only live once, and when you're dead, you're dead for a very very long time'."

I was happy to get back to Korea, yet I came back with the urge to travel free-spirited again (and I know I will have that urge forever). I am back into the Korean routine and I love it. I have midterms already in two weeks, then I start my online class and a quick ( L) 8 weeks later back home. I know this blog is long but I hope you enjoyed it!! I will try to update again in a quicker fashion but no promises. Hope all is well back home.

Oh and by the way for all you guys wondering about the North Korean situation, here is my insight. First off the American media is blowing it completely out of proportion. In 2009 the US and South Korea renewed military agreements and North Korea reacted quite similar to how they are reacting now. While Seoul is about 7 minutes away from a missile attack from North Korea, it will never happen if Kim Jung Un knows what is smart for his country. His regime wouldn’t last a week, much less a month, in a war. Their country is starving and while they have a large military force, they do not have the provisions to sustain a war. Now, if Kim Jung Un acts irrationally and does attack, then his regime will end but unfortunately it will end in bloodshed. Hopefully this does not happen, and so far it looks like it won’t happen. However, with the United States moving missiles to Guam it might cause an ill-advised reaction from North Korea (Does the United States not remember the Cuban Missile Crisis?????).  It will be interesting to see how this plays out but no, South Korea is not in nuclear lock down and no, South Korea isn’t freaking out. In fact if you ask anyone in Seoul if they take the North Korean threat seriously they will laugh and say no. That’s my two cents about it but who knows, this time next week we could be in a surprise war.

Anyways I am done now, enough writing. Talk and see you guys soon.

Love, Sam

Indonesia and Mom in Korea

Hello Everyone,

Currently sitting in bed at 1:15 AM, writing this post while waiting for my damn laundry to finish. Still have not packed or clean my room yet and I leave to Indochina for 26 days in exactly 14 hours....procrastination at its finest. But I have the excuse of being super busy this last week. Before I start with that, however, I will go into my 10 day adventure to Bali.

Got into Bali at around 12:30AM local time in the beginning hours of Saturday morning. Walked out of the airport and had my first lungful of hot, humid, and sticky Indonesian air. Instantly all the taxi guys swarmed the white people looking to drive them around and rip them off. Fortunately I was prepared for this and got the normal rate to my hostel. My next surprise was finding out that my room did not have A/C and that I would be sleeping in 95 degree F weather the night 5 nights. Perfect! For the hectic beginning that it was, Bali turned out to be a very exciting and eye-opening trip.

 

The first day I went to the beach and literally laid there all day. I had bought the 5th book of Game of Thrones (so good!!!!) and my goal was to finish it on this trip, which I easily accomplished. That night I spent back at the hostel meeting some new people around the pool. So I went to Bali by myself, not really expecting what traveling alone would be like. Quickly found out that almost everyone backpacking is alone. This makes hostels that much more fun because you meet all sorts of different people who are looking to meet other people also! I actually learned that it is a disadvantage to travel with friends because then you tend to stick to your own group and don't reach out to as many people. So all the people that I met were traveling alone and from really all over the world. Everyone has different reasons for traveling. Some had vacation time. Others were in between jobs. I met one German guy who literally just sold his apartment and car and quit his job and just left Germany to travel with really no plan to where. Crazy story and an equally as crazy of a guy. This trip, however, quickly erased all doubts in my mind about traveling alone in Indochina and I encourage you all to do the same!!! Anyways back to my trip...

Sunday I traveled to some different beaches with a couple of European girls. We started with the super touristy beaches and ended up with our last beach being almost completely empty but easily the best beach we had seen. Twenty foot high waves with clean white sand as far as the eye could see. Ended the night with a cocktail at the bar overlooking the magnificent view.

 

Monday traveled to a volcano and the Monkey forest which was pretty neat. The monkeys literally climbed all over you which were pretty intense. One moment you are sitting down and the next moment you have a monkey on your shoulder pulling at your hair. Tuesday went white water rafting which was a blast. A little different from Colorado but I still liked it all the same. The next day was my last day in Sanur so I just hung out around the beach and did some shopping, pretty low key. Thursday I went to my new hostel in Kuta, which is on the other side of Bali. Kuta is the "party" area and basically where every single Australian goes on their summer break. Bali is basically the Australian version of Mexico to the United States. Thursday night was quite the night...

So we went to the main club called Sky Garden. It was probably the coolest club I have ever been to. 6 different floors and the top is a rooftop bar and dance floor overlooking all of Bali. Super fun dancing, great times. Stupid me decided to walk home by myself at night. Once I leave the main district it quickly becomes very dark. All of a sudden I have two women grabbed me asking if I "want some loving tonight". Quickly pushed them away and tried running until I felt a cold sharp point at the back of my neck. Their pimp had come and asked for me to empty my wallet. I throw out 80 dollars and bam run as fast as I could. By the time I got back to the hostel I realized I also had my IPhone taken too. Uhhhh....

Friday morning comes and I am in a pissy mood. Find out three of my friends also got jacked that night. Quickly find out everyone in Kuta usually gets mugged at some point. Basically I chalked it up to a "life experience" and moved on. I was not going to let it ruin the rest of my trip. Saturday and Sunday I spent on the beach and shopping, nothing too crazy. Basically by Monday I was ready to get back to Korea so I could see my mother! I loved Bali and had a great time. Met some wonderful people and got very tan.  Saw a very distinct difference between the rich and poor. Almost 80% of Balinese live in poverty. In Kuta people would do anything for a dollar. Walking down the street people yell out to you things like "transport" "shirts" "hats" "mushrooms" "marijuana" "pretty girls" just trying to get your attention to sell you something. The taxis would honk at you as they drive past and pull over to try to see if you need a ride. I have never seen such desperation to make a quick buck and it honestly made me sick. I felt so bad for everyone and yet they need people like us to live. Tourism is the biggest source of income for Bali and without it they would have next to nothing. Really makes you appreciate all the things you have in life.
By the way here is the "peace" sign found almost everywhere in Bali..

Yes, exactly what it looks like. Crazy

Ok so moving on to this week...

Mom arrived Tuesday afternoon. Rejoice! Finally after six months I reunite with my mother again. Did not know quite what to expect but we were both clearly overjoyed to see each other. Moved her into her new place in Sinchon and had our first dinner together in quite a long time. Wed we went to the DMZ. We did the JSA tour, which basically means we got to go to the front line. We went to the place that you see in all the movies. Literally a stone line with two South Korean guards and two North Korea guards standing on opposite sides of each other. It was a very surreal feeling. The kind of moment where no one is talking, like a cemetery. The moment kind of over flows you once you realize that you are literally in the middle of a war. Sometimes living in Korea I easily forget that but once you see this sight the harsh reality slaps you in the face. Overall it was a great tour. Spent the rest of the day showing her Yonsei (my school) and the area I have been living in. Thursday we went to the traditional village, saw one of the palaces, and went to a museum close by. By this time Mom is really starting to like Korean food which is awesome! Honestly I am going to miss it so much when I go home. Friday it was pouring so we went to another museum and at night walked around Itaweon (foreigner district) and did some shopping. Saturday we went to dongdaemun (basically a flea market) and then to gangnam did see all the high price shopping area. Sunday we went to another shopping area called myeong dong and then went to seoul tower where we literally could not see anything because it was snowing (fail). Ended the night with jimjilbang, which is a korean sauna. Perfect way to end the trip and one that I think (and hope!) that Mom enjoyed very much.

 

Tomorrow we head off to Vietnam. Mom will be with me for 5 days then will be returning home :(. I will be spending another 21 days on my own in Indochina. I am super excited for this and curious to see what my mindset will be after this trip. Well it’s late in the morning now and my laundry is finally done. Looks like I am going to be finished. Hope all of you are doing well and I look forward to talking to you guys soon! Until next time,
Love,

Sam

Adventure to Japan

Hello Everyone,

First off I'd like to start off with a little story. A year ago, I had the best/worst night of my life. I partied too hard, got mixed up in the wrong situation, and ended up with 16 stiches in my face. It was the scariest night/morning of my life and I can't imagine how incredibly lucky I got. Much worse things could have happened and I consider myself lucky. However, it was the best night because it made me realize how I have to stop mucking around and apply myself better. It pushed me to want to expand my horizons and take advantage of my situation and better myself as a person. Looking back I realized how much I have changed and grown up in just a year and I owe it all to that night. God was watching over me and knew that if I could turn myself around I would make the impact that I inspire to do. Just had to mention that quick because it means a lot to me how much of a difference just a year has made. On that note.....

Japan. So flew into Osaka on Wed the second. Jack got me from the airport and I had my first experience with the infuriating train system. It is terrible. I thought I was pretty skilled at public transport from living in Seoul but no, Japan's train system is ridiculous. If Jack was not directing us (or the smartphone capabilities) I would have missed so many trains. Anyways, get to Osaka and meet his host family. His host family consists of: Mom, Dad, Grandma, one sister and two little brothers. Wonderful people and wonderful family.

 

The first night we went to his grandparent’s house. This was quite the wake-up call. We had a traditional Japanese dinner with about 15 people and no one spoke English. It was really a “well I am in Japan” moment. I highly enjoyed it though and I think they had a fun time with me being there. The following 5 days we spent in the Osaka area. This included a trip to both Nara and Kyoto. We went to Nara on 1-4 and had a great time there. There were many cool temples to see and also a bunch of street vendors and such. A unique thing about Nara is that they have these deer all over place that like to be fed. I thought it would be fun to feed them and eventually they started attacking me trying to get my food. Like literally slamming their heads into my legs. I just threw my crackers up and got the F out of there haha.

Had some sushi afterwards and another great dinner at grandpa’s house that night. Never once did I have a bad dinner in Japan. Friday we went to Osaka castle and relaxed most of the day. It was Jack’s host sister Cocoro’s birthday so we made her a cake and had a good evening at home. Saturday we went to Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. There were literally hundreds of temples here but they are so spread apart that it’s hard to hit every one. We went to three and were exhausted by the end of it. My favorite temple was the second one we went to. There were thousands and thousands of these orange Torris there.

Jack and I didn’t even walk through all of them because there were sooooo many. Our assumption is that you can “buy” a torri to be put in there with your family’s name on it. Saturday night we went out and had some beers and such with a couple of Jack’s classmates. We had a great time but came very very close to missing the last train which would mean we would either have to walk for 3 hours, wait tell 6 for the next one, or pay 80 dollars for a taxi. All terrible options. Sunday morning we watched the Packers beat the Vikings (!) and took care of some stuff at home. We figured out that we would have to be sleeping at the airport Sunday night to catch our flight to Nagasaki on Monday morning. I believe everyone should sleep in the airport at least one night haha it was quite the experience. On to Nagasaki. We got to our hostel around 11 exhausted, yet they did not have our beds ready. So we decided to do some extra sight-seeing. What we quickly found out was: Nagasaki is relatively small and you can walk everywhere and it is incredibly beautiful. I found out a lot of history about Nagasaki including the fact that it was the first Japanese port open to the Chinese and Westerners. It really has a tourism feel and you can see the influence of both Chinese and Dutch culture in the city. It is in a wharf so the houses are built up the mountain. If you visit Japan you must stop in Nagasaki and if you ever decide to live or teach English in Japan I highly HIGHLY suggest doing it in Nagasaki; you will not be disappointed.

This was the view from the top of the gondola ride. Apparently it is rated one of the top 3 views in Japan. So Monday and Tuesday we did all the sight-seeing stuff and saved the bomb stuff for Wed. This is because we knew it would be super heavy so saving it for the last day seemed appropriate. The museum itself was amazing. Jack and I took about 2 hours walking through it and didn’t say a word to each other. It really hits you how immense this bomb was. You don’t really understand it until you are in the city and can visually see the effects of it. They kept some monuments from pre-1945 and you can see how the stone is burned black from the bomb. The best part of the museum was they exhibit advocating for peace and the destruction of all nuclear weapons. We should take a lesson from this city and its people and understand the terror that comes from nuclear weapons. I could write an essay on this but I am going to stop before I ramble on too much. Anyways, we ended our last night in Nagasaki with a birthday party in our hostel. Great time to meet some different people and had a very special ending! From Nagasaki we went to Okinawa, home of Jack’s grandfather and the hometown of his mother. His aunt, Chikako, also lives with his grandfather including her husband, an American Marine, Andy (great guy, A+) and their two kids. It was interesting being in Okinawa because it has such a strong influence from the American military. Now whether you think it’s right or wrong is beside the point but it was very interesting seeing the effect the American military had. For one, they had huge amounts of land space compared to the local Okinawans. Also they have had problems with the nightlife because of some Americans causing trouble. It’s also interesting to see the effect it has had on interracial marriage and the influx of English. On my trip I got a healthy dose of both American culture and the local Okinawan culture. First we had two American-made meals: hamburgers and tacos. Oh my god was it amazing. I have not had a good hamburger in sooooo long. We also got to enjoy local Okinawan culture. On Monday Jack’s childhood friend took us around Okinawa. We made some Okinawan glass mugs that I will be using back home.

We ended the night with a great dinner that had some crazy Okinawan food and many different kinds of drinks. Next day we went back to Osaka for my final night with Jack’s host family. Jack and I took them out to dinner and afterwards had a few drinks back at the house. They were really wonderful people and Jack is immensely lucky to have them as a family.

I had a great time in Japan and made some wonderful memories. It was also nice being with jack again for two weeks, familiar faces are hard to come by. Tomorrow I leave to Bali for 9 days which will be very nice to enjoy the sun and the beach. While it will be great, I will be excited for the last day when I fly home. This is because my mother is coming to Korea that day! I am beyond excited to see her and show her around the city I have called home the last five months. I may be writing another blog before heading to Vietnam in Feb, but either way I will be posting pictures before I go. Hope everyone’s break is going well and remember Gusties when you are walking to class with that wind at your face, I will be basking in the sun on the beach  :D.     My best,

Sam

2013

Hello Friends,

First off Happy New Years! As I am writing this the time in Minnesota is just before midnight, so most of you will probably be too incoherent to read this. Therefore, I have given you the opportunity for some excellent reading while you are hungover in bed tomorrow. Last night we went to City Hall and watched the celebration for the new year. We counted down in Korean, and then they rung the big Buddhist bell in one of the temples in the City Hall area. I celebrated the new years with a bunch of Brazilians and made the last night of 2012 a truly unforgettable one. My Christmas was also very memorable. On Christmas Eve, Jack, my roommate Michael, and myself went to midnight mass at the famous Myeong-Dong Cathedral in Seoul. This was the site of the first Christian church in Korea (later prosecuted) and was very beautiful. What we were not aware of was that the entire mass was in Korean (my fault). However, this was easily the best part of the mass. By not knowing exactly what they were saying, we were able to focus much more on the spiritual presence of God and what this mass and holiday was really about. It truly was an inspirational experience and one of my favorite parts of this semester. While the holidays have been tough being away from ya'll (Monica) I have been very thankful for what has happened to me.
This semester has completely flown by. I remember the beginning of August coming up and thinking, "wow I am going to be in Korea for a long time." Now it almost seems too short of a time. I went into this experience with the expectation that I would really enjoy being abroad, meeting new people, and living in a new place. What I was not expecting, however, was how much I would love living in Korea. For anyone interested in traveling to Asia you must make Korea/Seoul a must stop place. And if you are also interested in studying abroad, Seoul is a great option to live in a completely new culture but one you can easily assimilate into. The people, the food, the nightlife, the atmosphere, the attitude, Korea has been everything I have hoped for and then more. While I am excited to come back home, the prospect of living in St. Peter for another year seems terrible. Seoul is just a city of endless opportunities and is open for every type of person. And the people here make it 1000x times better. Everyone is so friendly and willing to help you out/show you a good time. This is a community where you can clearly see the greatness of humanity at work. I have been so thankful to have studied here for a semester and look forward to another great semester and a fresh four months. But before that, I have two months of extensive traveling to do!!
Tomorrow I am heading to Japan, one of the most unique cultures in the world. I will be staying with my boy J Kess and his gracious host family in Osaka. While I have not been able to stay with a Korean family, this will be a great chance to stay with a Japanese family and the experiences that come with it. Jack and I are both studying in Asia, but our study abroad experiences have been quite different. This is one of the experiences that I have been truly jealous of Jack for and it will be nice to get a taste of it. We will be going to a couple different towns around Osaka (including the ancient capital of Kyoto) and then we will be heading to Nagasaki for three days and stay in a hostel. I believe this will be very rewarding yet an emotional trip for obvious reasons. Then we will be going to Okinawa to stay with his grandfather for 5 days. These five days will probably end up being a bit more relaxed and include some fun actives. Then I head back to Seoul on the 16th, but only for two days until I go to...

Indonesia! This was kind of a surprise trip that I decided to take. A friend of mine that I met in Korea told me he was staying in Indonesia for a month after the semester and ignited the interest of visiting here. Unfortunately I will not be seeing him, but it will be very fun to lie out on the beach for nine days and get caught up on the 5th Game of Thrones book. This trip was made possible by my frequent flier miles (thanks Swimming training trips) so it will be quite cheap for me! I return back to Korea on the 28th, along with the arrival of my mother! This will be very nice and I am quite excited. I will be showing her the sites in Korea for a week and give her a run down on what my home has been like the past five months. Then we embark on probably the most exciting adventure.

On Feb 4th we will be flying into Hanoi, Vietnam. I have been fascinated by Vietnam longer then I can remember (ehh History) and actually considered studying abroad here for a very long time. For a week my mother and I will be exploring Hanoi (the capital) followed by a trip to Hue, which has the majority of historical war monuments. Unfortunately, she has to go back home (stupid real life) and I will be continuing this journey on my own. While my trip isn't exactly set in stone, I plan on being in that area for a couple days followed by a trip down south to the famous Saigon (Ho Chi Menh City). I will spend about five days there. From there I will cross the border into Cambodia, spending a couple days in the capital (Phnom Penh) and then travel up to Seim Reap to see the famous Angkor Wat (google it). Afterwards back to Saigon, then catch my flight out of Hanoi on March 1st. Bam, just like that it will be done and I will be starting my second semester on March 5. Of course after all these trips I will be writing blogs and posting pictures, but I thought I should make this post before I leave to get everyone back home an idea of what my winter travels will be like and also an overview of the semester.

I hope everyone has a great winter break and I look forward to sharing my travels with you and hearing about all of your news soon enough! Raise your glasses high tonight because while 2012 was a wonderful year, 2013 promises to be even better.

My best,

Sam

Taiwan and Temple Stay!

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

Another week of Korean adventure!

 Hello all,

Another week done. This semester is just flying by and now it’s already November. I will not be participating in no shave November this year, but during winter break I will be making up for it by letting the beard going loose. Anyways this week was pretty fun. School-wise it was pretty easy with nothing too difficult. The next couple weeks I will be getting my midterm results back which I am pretty anxious about. We went out for Halloween on Wed night but I did not stay out too late because I had taekwondo early the next morning. Either way it was pretty fun, but just not the same as American Halloween. During the week my roommate and I also watched the Lord of the Rings extended edition, just finished the last one today. Good way to spend 12 hours of your life. The weekend was jammed packed with man Korean activities. Friday morning I walked around taking pictures of my University for all of you to enjoy. Our campus is beautiful and it really shows its beauty with all the fall colors.

That afternoon I went to Dongdaemun, which is a traditional Korean market. They have a lot of fake brand name clothing which is pretty interesting to see. Also everyone tries to lure you into their shop with their "cheap" prices. Some can be pretty nice and like to ask where you are from, what are you doing in Korea, etc. I am trying to figure out gifts for everyone but so far turning up short. Don't worry though it will come through in the end :). That night we saw the new James Bond movie which I highly recommend. It was shown with Korean subtitles which were interesting to read because I can now understand some of it and it’s cool to see how they translate some of the English into Korean. Saturday morning we went and hiked Bukassan Mountain. Hiking is one of the most popular sports in Korea since the landscape is full of mountains. We took the bus there and it was packed with Koreans ready to start their day with a hike. The little hiking town just at the base of the mountain is full of little food shops to bring with you up to the top of the mountain and mountain gear stores. They not only have The North Face, but they also have The Red Face, The Black Face, and TheNobleFace. It’s pretty funny seeing all of these brands copying the popularity of North face but they seem to be doing pretty well. The hike itself took about 6 hours total, but we stopped for pictures and it was quite crowded at the top of the peak so there was a lot of standing around. The views from the top were amazing. We went on a beautiful day and you could see so much of the city landscape. The fall scenery was also amazing. After the hike we went out to Hongdae and stopped at a couple different bars and clubs. The last club we went was called Club Naked and was a very hip-hop club which included a very ghetto crowd mostly of American soldiers. It was pretty fun, although not the type of club I would go back to multiple times. Another fun-filled week of Korean adventures. Make sure to check out my new albums on facebook and I look forward to talking to you guys!
Cheers,
Sam