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By Clare, August 11, 2011 9:17 pm

It’s been a very busy week here and suddenly it’s Friday morning and we leave tomorrow! I know it’s cliche but it is nonetheless true: I don’t know how it went by so fast!  It’s a grey and humid day here which is one of the main weather experiences of my time in Seoul. I can’t say I’ve gotten used to it exactly but it certainly is something I’ve come to expect.  One of my strongest memories of this trip will be of the sea of umbrellas that seemed to be everywhere we went.

To catch up on this last week: Michele’s class started on Monday and finishes today. There will be blogs from Andrea and others about the class. Monday afternoon I took time off and went back to Insadong with Lori and Chris (who didn’t take Michele’s course). Much shopping was done and many gifts acquired. We also had an incredible vegetarian dinner at a Buddhist restaurant called Sanchon. It was a 20 course meal including the tea and it was quite lovely. We had no idea what we were eating much of the time but it really didn’t matter. The dishes kept coming and we kept eating.

Just some of the dishes at Sanchon

At 8pm the lights suddenly dimmed and in the center of the restaurant a woman in a traditional costume appeared. What followed was a variety of beautiful performances of all types including an elegant crane dance, a fan dance and drumming. It was a really neat evening.

Wednesday I went to Everland with Chris and Lori: http://www.everland.com/MultiLanguage/english/index.html It was a day of regressing to our 12-year-old selves as we experienced a very fun day of amusement park rides. We rode the steepest wooden roller coaster in the world, I went upsidedown on more than one ride (a first for me), ate lots of frozen goodies and saw a fantastic light parade and fireworks show. We did choose not to try the peanut butter roasted squid which is a regret we’ll just have to live with.

Phoenix rising after it vanquished the evil dragon.

Lori, me and Chris

Yesterday was a day of work and class and then we visited the National Archives in the afternoon. That was a very cool site visit as we saw both the digital preservation aspect and the traditional conservation side as well. We got a full tour of their facilities and a lecture from the director. We learned about their disaster preparedness and saw restoration occuring on presidential papers that had recently been damaged by the flooding of the Han.

Conservationists at work at the National Archives

The whole Simmons crew and some of the Yonsei folks at the National Archives

After the tour of the National Archives we headed back to the city for our farewell dinner. As Jee Yeon said during her toast-it seems like yesterday that we just had our welcome gathering. It was a very fun evening and as usual, many tasty dishes were consumed. After dinner a bunch of us went out for drinks and we discovered through Juhee, one of the Yonsei students who will be at Simmons this fall, that we could order fresh pineapple juice with soju in it. It was a very tasty discovery.

Many types of pork and other goodies at the farewell dinner.

Now it’s Friday morning and I’m in the office wrapping stuff up and contemplating what I’ll eat for my last lunch and dinner in Seoul. Far too many good options. Tomorrow morning we fly back to Boston. We leave  Seoul at 10:30 on Saturday morning and we land in Boston at 5:30pm on Saturday evening. It’s like time travel!

Overall this has been a fantastic trip. We’ve learned a lot about library and information science in Korea, we’ve eaten incredible meals and we’ve made great new friends and colleagues. It’s been interesting to be here during such tumultous time in the world with the riots in London, international stock markets plunging up and down and a multitude of other chaos.  I don’t think it’s possible to understand a culture, a city or a people in only two weeks but I do feel I’ve gained much from my little glimpse into life in Seoul. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be here and I look forward to coming back next year to continue the connection between Yonsei and Simmons.

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By cronina, August 8, 2011 12:30 am

Hey all! We ended the Records Management class with cake on Friday in celebration of Chris’ last class and subsequent graduation. It was really good cake too (fresh cream and fruit or green tea sweet potato). A women from the International Vaccine Institution named Heejung Kim came to lecture on Korean records management and archives. The history of records management in law in South Korea is surprisingly young, as the first law was only enacted in 1992. It was a good presentation in order to understand the differences affecting the cultures of the class.

On Saturday, we all headed out early to the Korean Folk Life Village. Unfortunately, I was a little sick during the visit so I’ll ask that you refer to Clare’s blog about the trip. I’m sure they had a great time. I did witness some awesome traditional Korean folk dances, but the heat on Saturday was unbearable.

Performers from the Korean Folk Life Village.

However, on Sunday morning, Lori, Chris and I began our day with waffles and pancakes! We quickly (as we could in the heat) moved on to Namdaemun market again to purchase gifts for people back home! Then we decided to check out Itaewon, which is a district near an American military base. It was very, very tourist, but we did have a great lunch at a Thai restaurant that Lori picked out. I had a yellow curry chicken dish with rice, which was delicious! And Chris picked the best dessert to share, mango sticky rice! It was really, really good. We wandered all around Itaewon (where I managed to score to Transformers belts, I’m not kidding, one Decepticon belt and one Autobot belt) and we met the sweetest bunch of little shopkeepers, whose English was excellent.

Namdaemun!

After that, we took the subway back to Seoul Station, where we decided to hike up Namsan Park to Seoul Tower. And by hike, I mean, we had no idea just how much a hike it was. We climbed hills just to get to the park, stairs the entire way up, but it was so worth it! We found a fountain at the base of the stairs to the tower, and we totally jumped in because it was just so hot. Then we made it up to the “photo island” and we got an idea of just how high we were climbing up these winding stairs. By the time we made it to the top, it was just about sunset. The ride to the top of the tower, advertised as “shocking elevator,” was less shocking than we imagined. It was super fast. At the top, we got a real idea of just how big Seoul really is.

Let me tell you, it’s huge.

Lori and Chris at the fountain of salvation under Seoul Tower!

Chris, Lori, and I – being goofs under the “Two becomes One” sign at the top of Seoul Tower.

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By Clare, August 7, 2011 9:47 pm

Helen, Katie, Lori, me, Chris and Kevin in the back row at the Korean Folk Life Village

Friday afternoon  we celebrated the last day of Kevin’s course and Chris Carter’s last class ever as a GSLIS student. Two gorgeous cakes: Green tea sweet potato and a fresh cream cake with berries were consumed by students, faculty and staff with great enjoyment after the guest lecture ended. Then the students and I went off for a night of shopping, consuming far too much chicken in various forms and a little soju enjoyment as well.

Saturday was a long day spent at the Korean Folk Life Village: http://www.koreanfolk.co.kr/folk/english/main.html  We saw various traditional performances, wandered among the traditional houses from different regions of Korea and I particularly enjoyed their Folk Life Museum. It was set up as a calendar year, starting with New Year’s Day and ending at the end of December. Very informative even if only parts of each exhibit were in English. 

Traditional music performance at the Folk Life Village

 Saturday evening we were wiped and headed to a very tasty Italian place right by campus called The Kitchen. Had my first real salad since we got here and very good pasta.  

Tomato, mozzarella, wild greens salad with pineapple.

Sunday everyone went off in different directions. I went to Itaewon which is an international area near the US military base. I saw more white people than I have the whole trip. I can’t say that was my favorite part. I did have an amazng Turkish lunch and went to a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jjimjilbang which is a Korean spa. It was fantastic. For only 8,000 won (about $8 usd) you can stay all day/night, use all sorts of services and just nap on warm floors if you’d like. I really enjoyed Itaewon overall, especially once I got off the main drag. There are African, Turkish, Pakistani, and Chinese restaurants to name just a few. People from all those countries and more live in the area. There is also a mosque on the hill which I didn’t visit because I wasn’t appropriately dressed but they do normally welcome visitors. Itaewon is also known for being the only area of Seoul that is at all gay and lesbian friendly, the GLBTQ community is not one that is particularly welcomed in Korean culture at this point.

From there I went to Seoul Forest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seoul_Forest which wasn’t exactly a forest but was a very neat, very large park. A portion of it goes right down to the Han River which was really neat. There is a sculpture garden, lots of ponds, a huge deer corral and a concert venue. There was music playing as I left in the evening and lots of families sitting on the grass listening.

I went from the forest to Seoul Tower.   In retrospect not the most exciting part of my day. Long lines going up and down and it really wasn’t that interesting to me. Some of the students had gone earlier in the day and they walked up the long, long hill in daylight and said it was very cool. I went up by taxi in the rain and by the time I had to stand in a line to go in the elevator and then wait again to go back down I was perhaps a bit cranky. It was pretty to see the city and all the lights at night but not really worth it in my opinion.

Seoul Tower

Today is Monday, August 8th and Dean Cloonan’s class just started a few hours ago. Three of the Simmons students are taking it with 13 of the Yonsei folks. We’re all looking forward to another interesting and fun week. We visit more libraries on Tuesday and Thursday and have our farewell dinner Thursday night. I can’t believe we’re already making plans for departing on Saturday.

I’ve added more pics to the food section on Flickr and a general file of photos of Korea. http://www.flickr.com/photos/65914161@N03/sets/72157627355259012/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65914161@N03/sets/72157627256775357/

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By Clare, August 5, 2011 10:37 am

It’s just after noon on Friday and the students are in their last day of class of Records Management. They have presentations this afternoon and a guest lecture about Records Management laws in Korea. And I’ll be going out shortly to buy a sweet potato cake to celebrate Simmons student Chris Carter’s last class. Nothing like finishing up your MLIS with a trip to Korea!

Yesterday we visited the National Library of Korea and the National Digital Library. Both a very impressive libraries and the National Digital Library really redefines the traditional idea of what a library is. It has many of the same technologies available as the Samsung library here at Yonsei: touchscreens, intelligent tables, a plethora of online resources and computers, media labs, recording studios and more. There is a hallway that connects the NDL and the NLK  and they talk about how it connects the digital and analog worlds.

We got a great tour of the conservation labs as well as an introduction to the rare books collection at the NLK.

Link to pictures of the National Digital Library and the National Library of Korea: http://www.flickr.com/photos/65914161@N03/sets/72157627234835623/

And here’s a link pictures of what you’re all really interested in-the food! http://www.flickr.com/photos/65914161@N03/sets/72157627355259012/

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By cronina, August 4, 2011 9:49 pm

Oh, man, this week is almost over! And so is our first class! Records Management with Professor Kevin Glick started on Monday. Since Monday, we’ve had seven lectures, a case study review, an executive summary, a memo, and a retention schedule due. It’s been homework every night and a good dose of reading as well. This week, on Tuesday, we visited the Yonsei Samsung Library. It was amazing. In the Information Commons on the first floor, the Library has touch-screens for everything! They have news media touch screens for reading newspapers across the globe. They also have digital library access, a message board, games, and an electronic koi pond. Now, if only you could feed the fish like the games on my smart phone.

Here is the koi pond as Clare tries to touch the fishes.

Here is the top of the Yonsei University Library! There’s a café on the top! And the views are awesome.

Yesterday, we went to visit the National Digital Library of Korea. It was also awesome! They have a whole section of this National Library dedicated to digital materials. They had rows of computers, a digital media section, video-viewing, video-editing, a studio, and multi-screen computers. It was just astounding how invested in technology this Library was. It was not our idea of a traditional public library. It was up-to-date and well funded. Investments had been made in this media and technology that we haven’t seen on a local level in the United States. But we can’t really compare because we actually don’t have a national library. We have the Library of Congress, which is devoted to Congress like its name suggests.

We went from the third basement level to the sixth floor in the National Library, where we were shown the rare books collection. The library staff brought out books on Confucius, a map of China, Korea, and Okinawa from the 18th century, and a copy of one of the national treasures: Songjopyojeonchongnyu, a book printed with movable metal type, which the original is kept at Seoul National University. (If that’s wrong, forgive me. We didn’t take notes.) Then we were treated to a tour of the Deposit building, where conversation of the library’s material takes place. We saw a leaf caster and deacidification machines.

On Monday morning, Lori and I found this great place for breakfast where they served us boiled beef slices, ox bone soup, and all the side dishes. It wasn’t spicy! We brought Chris with us there on Wednesday as well. On Tuesday, we stopped at a chicken restaurant. They suggested to us what we should get because there wasn’t any English on the menu. It was spicy chicken soup with squash/pumpkin, onions, and a raw egg which cooked in the soup afterward because it was so hot. Literally, the meal was excellent with “pap” or rice, but it was so spicy that the outside of my mouth was completely red. It hurt to eat, but I was so hungry. It was an experience, anyway! I might cry if I have to eat something like that again, especially so fast.

One nice thing about Seoul is that there are these water machines everywhere! Free ones! So you never run out of water, especially if you have a water bottle. I love it.

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By Clare, August 2, 2011 10:03 am

I’ve just returned from one of the best days yet of our short time in Seoul. It’s Tuesday evening, 9:30pm and tonight was the big welcome dinner for all of us Simmons folks. But I can’t start there, I need to go back to Monday first.

Monday was the first day of class for all five of the students and Kevin as the professor. Andrea and some of the other students will blog about their in class experience so I’ll leave that to them. I spent the day getting settled into the library science office where I have a desk and computer and multiple Yonsei grad students who are constantly available to help me. I feel rather like visiting royalty.  There were many things to be ironed out and technology to deal with. I got an international cell phone set up through the campus international cell phone office. I’m so grateful such an office exists for folks like myself.

The first day of class.

Much of my work day was (and will be) spent emailing to the GSLIS office about our goings on and talking with Kevin and the students about how class was going. There was initial concern about how much the Yonsei students were comprehending but by the afternoon session it was clear they were going to be just fine. The Simmons students are being wonderfully helpful to the Koreans and vice versa. The Americans are offering assistance with understanding the readings while the Koreans are helping us understand the country and find more great places to eat. We’re also hoping for some night life this weekend.

The students from both countries had a lot of work to do after class so the evening was a quiet one.

Today they had class in the morning and then we got a tour of the Yonesi University Library. There are two libraries on campus, the Central Library which is currently being renovated to reopen next year and the new library which was built in 2009. The new library is amazing. It is incredible. It is everything I think a library should be and more. It was funded by Samsung so it has some crazy cutting edge technology going on. There are at least 10 interactive touchscreens that display everything from the map of the campus and library to over 1000 newspapers from 27 countries in 42 languages.  It is a beautiful building in many ways  as well as being usefully and logically set up. The librarians had a huge hand in the design of it down to adding shelves that slide out from under the main stacks so you can rest your heavy books while browsing. All the furniture and shelving was specifically designed for the library and prototypes were displayed before the final building was done so students could vote on what the furniture would be like.

There are study rooms, class rooms, a theater, a film/sound/photography studio, and a rooftop garden/cafe/open space. There are “intelligent tables” where students can play games, do interactive work, and watch movies. There is a digital koi pond where when you touch the fish they swim away and butterflies flap and fly. There is a variety of green space inside complete with crickets chirping. The entire library collection has RFID tags (radio-frequency identification) including DVD’s so that the collection can be continuously checked to see what is in and what is circulating. It is the first library in Korea to have this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification#Libraries

You can explore the library through their virtual tour and learn more here: http://library.yonsei.ac.kr/main/main.do?sLang=en

I have a bunch of pictures that you can check out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/65914161@N03/sets/

I’d apologize for all the geeking out about the library but I’m not actually sorry.

This evening we had an incredible dinner with faculty from Yonsei and Simmons as well as graduate students from Yonsei and all of the visiting Simmons graduate students. It was great fun and great food.  That about wraps it up for tonight but stay tuned for more on Thursday after we have our first class in the Library classroom and visit the National Library of Korea.

The start of the feast.

Yonsei faculty, grad students and Simmons students.

The rest of the Yonsei/Simmons crew.

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By cronina, August 1, 2011 6:10 pm

Hello from Seoul! It’s currently 6:15 am on Tuesday. And it’s August! Oh, man! We first arrived after a 14 hour + flight from JFK International airport to Incheon. We were exhausted and it took us two hours to get out of the airport alone. A Korean grad student greeted us just outside the airport. She got us on the right bus to Seoul. I fell asleep on the bus – as did everyone else as Clare tells it.

On Friday night, we got settled into our dorm. Unfortunately, the hill to our Muak dormitory is steep! No one was kidding. I’m going to have calves of steel after two weeks of climbing that hill. When we got here, I found that my legs were swollen from the flight. It looked like elephantism, we all joked. With all the walking we’ve been doing in the past few days, it has only gotten a little better. But it was so weird to not have ankles! That’s never happened before and it freaked me out. Lori is my roommate, fellow earlier-riser and foodie. We have been getting along just fine.

After we put our stuff away, we walked out the North gate looking for something to eat. We finally settled on a Galbi restaurant, where Chris and I were the grill masters. We cooked delicious pieces of beef for everyone, although Helen ate the pickled dishes and vegetables. Clare can probably recount the whole experience for you, so check out her posts as well.

On Saturday, Lori and I had about four hours of sleep before we woke up at 6:00 am Seoul time. We got up and decided to explore the Main gate and campus. We walked right out the Main gate (a thirty-minute trek downhill) onto Yeonsu-ro (the road right outside the Main gate). We got an amazing honey buttered bread at a cafe called Holly’s. Then we walked all the way back around the campus to the North gate. Oh man, did it get hot! It must have been in the 90s as the sun was rising and the humidity just took over. We met up with everyone at 10:00 am at the dorm and headed out to show them what we had figured out about the campus and the subway location. Clare broke away from the pack to met with the dean of Yonsei’s library school and professor Kevin Glick.

Meanwhile, Lori and I led Chris, Katie, and Helen to a Paris Baguette bakery and the Hyundai department store. The B1 floor is amazing. It is a huge grocery / food court floor. Lori and I had tempura, shumai,and pork buns. It was great. Then we headed off the the subway. It is so easy to navigate. I led the way for everyone. We decided to go to the Gyeongbok-Gong palace. It was sweltering by that time but we managed to tag along with an English-speaking tour. We learned all about the palace lay-out, the King, the Queen, and the concubines. We stopped in both the National Korean Folk Museum and the National Palace Museum of Korea. It was a little frustrating to see all these interesting artifacts, but because the explanations weren’t in English, we really had very little idea what we were looking at – the placenta jars of the Kings were … so strange.

Then we headed of to Namdaemun market. It was so completely fascinating. Lori and I watched a lady chop up what looked like a pig’s knee. She sliced the dark meat so easily. Lori regrets not trying it then, and she says that we have to go back. There was food, clothes, and trinkets all through these narrow bustling streets. I definitely want to go back. While I was there, I found baozi! I was so excited. I had seen Anpanman earlier in the day at the Hyundai deptartment store, but then I found baozi. I am dying to find Meronpan. I think I miss that the most from Japan. I haven’t seen any dango yet either!

On Saturday night, I was too tired to stay up from all the walking and I crashed early. But on Sunday, I was up again and rolling out early in the morning. Clare came with us on Sunday. We stopped at Namu cafe in the morning and had waffles. We went to show Clare the Hyundai department store. We had squid and egg stuffed rings, shrimp rolls, sweet potato honey fries, and buns. It was fun. I know how to ask for things pretty easily in Korean now as well as ask for the check and to thank people profusely.

Then we slipped away and my group headed towards Dongdaemun market. Unfortunately, it appeared that Dongdaemun was closed on Sunday. So we walked down the stream, Cheonggye-cheon. It was very pretty, even in the pouring rain. We regrouped at Doota department store (these aren’t stores like Macy’s, these are entire skyscapers). Then we headed off to Insa-dong. That was an excellent idea! It’s a very kitchy and neat artisan area and shopping place. We watched these guys make a tradition Korean candy of honey strings and nuts. We stopped in a traditional tea shop and had some tea. It was awesome. Clare has a few pictures on her blog from the tea shop (I took the one of Lori, Clare, and Chris).

While I was there, I picked up a few gifts for people back home. It was a great experience. We headed back to meet up with Helen at 7:00 pm at the Main gate. By then, though, I was feeling sick. My stomach wasn’t agreeing with me, especially after all that we ate. We had spicy chicken but I couldn’t eat much of it. It hurt too badly. I will next recount Monday’s class experience, but first I have to go to Tuesday’s class. Today we are headed for a site visit to the university’s library and then to a traditional welcome dinner. It should be great. See you in a bit!

(I’ll upload pictures when I can, but we have been experiencing serious technical issues, especially trying to get wireless or LAN access. It’s been frustrating to say the least.)

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By Clare, July 31, 2011 7:31 pm

Right now it’s 10 to 8 on Monday, August 1st and the students start class in an hour. How did we get here? Let me catch you up.  Saturday afternoon, when I last left you, I went out and wandered the main streets right outside the main gate of Yonsei.  There are so many stores, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and people it should feel overwhelming but it really doesn’t. That’s something that keeps striking me about this city, there is more going on here than anywhere I’ve ever been in the world and yet it moves easily and without a feeling of confusion. Sure there are motorbikes roaring down small side alleys and thousands of people on the sidewalks but somehow it doesn’t feel like too much or like it’s all in chaos and confusion.  While it’s clear I’m in a place that is very foreign to me I’ve also felt remarkably comfortable, even with the extreme language barrier.

Saturday evening was an example of the language barrier issue. Things we’ve learned so far:

1. Don’t point at things on a menu, you’ll be understood to be ordering it.

2. Vegetarianism is not well understood here or at least it can be hard to find.

3. Drawing a question mark doesn’t get across the idea that you were only asking questions not trying to order.

4. It gets easier to walk out of restaurants in search of more understandable menus after you’ve done it a few times.

5. When someone crosses their arms in an ‘x’ in front of them it generally means that whatever you want is not an option.

We have however always ended up finding tasty food to suit everyone’s needs. We’re hoping that after meeting the Yonsei students today they’ll adopt us and lead us to more fun food.

Sunday morning the rain started and the umbrellas popped up.

Helen, Chris, Andrea, Katie and Lori

First we had a breakfast of waffles with ice cream and cake (these are the perks of being “grown-ups” traveling) before we ate a feast of tasty food at the food court in the Hyundai Department store. We had squid rings on spicy rice veggie patties fried in egg, sweet potatoes glazed with so much honey they hardened to the container, pork buns, sujebi (kimichi in dough), stuffed shrimp and veggie buns. Then we moved on to Dongdaeum Market. We arrived in the the rain to discover most of it was closed on Sunday. It was still fun to wander through the “Tourist Fashion District” which is made up of lots and lots of department stores with street vendors selling meat (my favorite so far is essentially meatloaf with sweet sauce on a stick) and pineapple and kiwi on a stick outside while rock music plays from various locations. The fashion on the locals is very fun to watch, lots of  high heels and neat hats. Cheonggyecheon Stream also runs through the city near the market. It was very lovely even in the rain.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheonggyecheon

View from the 10th floor of the Hyundai Department Store

After a round of crepes wrapped up in a cone shape with various tasty toppings (like chocolate and peanut butter or custard and strawberries) we got back on the subway to Insadong. Side note about the subway here-it is so clean and well run it is reason enough to move to Seoul. The system is huge but very clearly laid out and the subway cars are very wide and comfy. When you buy your subway card (much like the Charlie card in Boston) you can get any money back that you don’t spend on it and also use it at vending machines in the subway as well as other places in the city. It’s a really, really great system. Added bonus is that various bugle sounds and other music plays to announce the arrival of the trains. 

Map of one of the many, many subway stations.

Insadong deserves its own blog entry and will get one when we return to it. It is a super neat district full of antiques, fans, calligraphy art, handmade paper, tea houses and so much more. We went to a lovely tea house that was so excited to see us they moved a group of locals out of their private room and ushered us in. We were pretty embarrassed that they moved people on our behalf but weren’t able to protest. They wouldn’t let Chris and Lori order the same thing because they wanted us to try as much as possible. It was pretty grand all around.

Lori, Clare and Chris in the teahouse in Insadong.

Back to Yonsei to meet Helen for dinner. Helen spent the day wandering on her own and will be doing a blog about all the neat stuff she saw and did. Dinner was a feast as usual and we did finally try Soju, the local liquor which is pretty strong and one small bottle was shared amongst us to general enjoyment although some found the alcohol taste far too strong.

That more or less brings us up to Monday morning and now I’ve got to run off to meet up with the students and Kevin for the first day of class. Michele arrives late this evening and tomorrow night we have a big welcome dinner with everyone. As always, there shall be much more to come.

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By cronina, July 30, 2011 3:26 am

South Korea

Hello all, my name is Andrea Cronin.  Along with four other GSLIS students, Dean Cloonan, Professor Kevin Glick, and Dean’s fellow Clare Davitt, we are about to embark on a journey to South Korea! As GSLIS ambassadors to Yonsei University, my fellow classmates and I have the wonderful opportunity to learn about library and archive systems in South Korea as well as take two courses: LIS 439 Preservation Management with Dean Cloonan, and LIS 456 Records in Electronic Environments with Professor Glick. We will be in Seoul, South Korea from July 29th – August 13th. It is going to be a whirlwind tour of the country and these courses, but it is definitely going to be an amazing adventure.

Let me tell you a little bit about myself, since I plan on blogging for a better part of the trip. I’m a GSLIS student in my fourth semester, concentrating in archives. I attended the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. where I recieved my bachelor’s degree in history in January, 2010.  I focused on Russian history, taking courses involving Russian history, culture and film as well as its neighboring countries – the history of Japan, Scandinavia, and Central Asia. I studied abroad my senior year of high school in Fujisawa, Japan. My Japanese is still passable, but Korean is literally foreign language and writing system to me. It will be interesting to see how the written language affects information organization in South Korea. In no particular order, I’m a huge fan of: BBQ, gardening, fishing, history, feminism, hockey (GO BRUINS!), Transformers, Rutina Wesley, Billy Lush and more BBQ. I’m seriously looking forward to some Korean BBQ! Yum!

The past few days I’ve been staying up packing my suitcase and trying to figure out everything I need before we leave tomorrow. Wish me luck! Expect lots of food photographs!

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By Clare, July 30, 2011 3:25 am

We’re here! We arrived Friday evening after a slight delay leaving JFK. The fourteen hour flight on Korean Air was actually pretty great if you leave out the having to sit for so long. The service was wonderful and we had our first introduction to Bibimap which is rice with all sorts of other fun things http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibimbap. They even gave us an instruction sheet for how to eat it.  We all watched many, many movies and tried to sleep for a bit.

When we arrived after taking an hour to get through customs and such we were met by Junjee (may be spelling her name wrong) a Library Science student at Yonsei who was wonderfully helpful and very patient with us. We took a very nice bus into Seoul (about an hour ride) and once we reached the main gate of Yonsei we took a cab around to the North Gate which is where our dorms are. The campus is far larger than Simmons, walking from our dorms at the top of campus to the main gate takes about 30 minutes.  The dorms are pretty traditional, just like what I had in undergrad. Once we dropped off our stuff it was about 10:30pm and we were starving so we set off on our first adventure.

We left campus and walked back to one of the main streets, only 10 minutes or so from our dorms and played the “what do they serve and are they open?” game as we walked past various restaurants. We found a Korean BBQ where we sat outside around a circular table with a grill in the middle. None of us speak Korean (beyond saying “hello” and “thank you” but we have Andrea with her trusty Lonely Planet phrase book. Both Andrea and her LB have proved invaluable already.  The menu was set, all we had to do was pick beef or pork. The lovely woman who served us was very tolerant of our lack of understanding. Her minimal English was far better than our Korean… Andrea and Chris became our grill masters as we consumed a huge plate of beef, lots of vegetables, garlic cloves and kimchi. We ate the beef and veggies and garlic on leaves of Perilla which were like mint but better: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perilla.  We also shared a few Cass beers which were very light and fresh as advertised. There was spicy sauce to dip the meat in and a spicy tofu soup that was brought out still boiling. I’m a big fan of spicy food and found all of this to be delicious although some of it was right at the limit of what my mouth can tolerate. Our host was very helpful and once she figured out that our one vegetarian, Helen, would eat lots of kimchi she brought it out everytime her bowl emptied.  The whole meal cost the six of us 99,000 won ($95 USD) which seemed pretty great considering the service and quanity.

By the time we got back to the dorms it was about 12:30am on Saturday morning. We all did a quick bit of computer time in the internet room (where I am right now) and toddled off to bed. Around 5:30 this morning we were woken by many Korean voices singing outside the dorms for about half an hour. Needless to say none of us were thrilled by this but we’ve since learned that it is not some sort of  traditional morning activity so we shouldn’t have to worry about it in the future.

I’ve just returned from meeting with Jee Yeon Lee, the Chair of Yonesi’s Library Science program. She and her husband and lovely 7-year-old daughter took Kevin Glick and I to lunch at another Korean place near the school. We had tasty cold noodles, mung bean pancakes and dumplings while sitting on pillows on the floor. It was the first time I’ve taken my shoes off in a restaurant and it was rather nice. The servers were worried about Kevin and I finding things too spicy and brought us extra non-spicy broth.  Jee Yeon and her family gave us an extensive tour of Campus and showed us around the liberal arts building where classes will be on Monday. Kevin, Michele (when she arrives on Monday) and I have all been set up with office space and computers and offered whatever assistance we may need.

It is very warm and very humid but not raining and no flooding that we’ve seen. Everyone we’ve met has been very kind and helpful even when none of us know what we’re saying to each other. It always amazes me when I travel what can be conveyed with gestures and facial expressions. The students are off exploring downtown Seoul right now and we’ll meet up for dinner this evening. Tomorrow will be more exploration and then class starts on Monday.  I’m taking lots of pictures and once I have assistance from the wonderful Yonsei students I’ll be able to upload them at the beginning of next week. It’s now 4:30pm on Saturday afternoon and I’m going to go off and explore a bit myself. More updates tomorrow!

Side street near Yonsei Campus

Yonsei University Campus Map

One of the main admin buildings on campus

Liberal Arts Building (Windgang Hall) where Library Science classes are

Instructions on eating Bibibmap