Where are you now karmie?

As I am having a lazy evening right now, I thought I would update my blog today. So... Chuseok was fun! I felt it was basically how Canadians (well at least my family) celebrate Thanksgiving. Except Chuseok or Korean Thanksgiving's level of importance is way higher then a Canadian Thanksgiving. It's almost like Christmas. Everywhere you go in Seoul it would be filled with families gathering together. My home stay family is a Christian family so they celebrate it differently. Like any other family, they would prepare the food the day before and on Chuseok, everyone gathers and eats together. My home stay family, gathered from morning to night. We ate food in the morning, talked, talked, talked, (I didn't understand 90% of it), eat some more, talk, talk, decide to get in the car, go to Haneul Park which basically looks over all of Seoul. Really cool park and then talk some more before going to a different place to eat some more and then all the young ones went to Karaoke bef...

Sinchon Intersection  Hello Kitty Cafe w/ Frenz I can't believe I've been here for more or less 3 weeks. The sad thing is I've always been in Seoul this whole time and haven't really seen that much within Seoul except for the stuff on the city tour. There is Sinchon, the major food/shopping (but i feel it's more food) hub right in front of the Yonsei University and it's also close to Ehwa University or otherwise known as Idae. In Idae, there are lots of coffee shops and more shopping area. I only passed by but it's mostly cheap and cute shopping area. Another shopping area or hang out for university students or young people are Hongdae. Hongdae is SUPER busy at night especially. Actually, even though it's busy, you should go at night. Because lots of the street food is out, and there are lots of street musicians. If you take the subway to Hongdae at night, you will always see people going in with their guitar on their backs to set up to sing at...

So, it's been a while since I've written or updated. Basically from the last time I updated, I've had done the city tour, relaxed for a couple days before school started. The Blue House Bukchon The city tour wasn't that great because we were all on a schedule so my friends and I that met that day we felt like the city tour were just giving us ideas of places to go to on our own time. I mean we went to the Presidential area, visited the blue house which is like the South Korean equivalent of the White house. We weren't allowed inside tho as predicted. We also went to like a museum beside the area where we could see like Korean history displayed. There we had the opportunity to take a picture as if we were the president of Korea or we could even take a picture with like a hologram or some sort of the President of Korea but the line up for that was too long, so  my friends and I posed as the president of Korea. That was really fun. Then we were rushed onto the...

So today... was church day. It was interesting to say the least. The church was HUGE! It's a presbyterian church and I've never gone to a presbyterian service before. It's very... evangelical to say the least. I don't know, when I do go to church in Canada or even Indonesia, I'm used to going to small congregation churches and usually the church building is only 2 floors max. This church was 12 stories in total. 6 floors going up and 6 floors underground. It has a library facility and a very huge sanctuary and they are adding onto it to build an even larger sanctuary. Apparently there are about 10,000 members of the church. I'm floored at the massiveness of the church. I wish I did take a picture of the building. I'll have more chances and I'll show it to you how massive the church is and will be. My home stay parents are very active members of the church it seems. My home stay mother introduced me to a lady, in which I didn't catch a name, who beca...

So, I arrived in Seoul after a long 14 hour trip. 14? maybe even 15. The layover in Shanghai was brutal to say the least. Well the flight to Shanghai itself was brutal as well. First, there was no tv like i'm used to on long flight travels. Second, My laptop wasn't fully charged, so I couldn't even use it for long as I was saving it for the layover. Third, Food/service on the plane wasn't that great. I got 2 meals and some sort of sandwich snack. Also, I told you yesterday about gate checking in my guitar? Well, that didn't work out well. At least they let me put it in the overhead compartment besides it being a full flight. However, I sat beside a really nice person who helped me. The flight attendants were not really good at understanding English, so the person beside me helped me ask the flight attendants what to do and etc. So the 12 hr flight to Shanghai was brutal with me fighting to sleep or staring into nothingness, attempt at conversation to the perso...

Well folks, here I am, waiting in Vancouver Airport for my flight to Shanghai. I still can't believe all the things I had to process before I got here. It's absolutely insane. From renewing my passport troubles, earlier this year to applying for scholarships but in the end not getting any of them to last minute health care plan issues I didn't know I had to take care of. Parents, you have to thank them for reminding you about so many things. One is the issue of health care. I thought all I had to do was call the health care and it will be done, they give me a number plan and ta da I have it. However, Yesterday, I called to check and turns out I have to prove my exchange to the healthcare plan people in order to get all the plan benefits and etc. So, good thing it's all over internet and I don't have to do much but, if you plan to go on a university exchange, please remember to arrange the healthcare and prove to the system that you are going on an exchange. It...

Hey everyone! I am reviving the blog with a different title and username. I realize that I didn't write much in my last exchange and why waste a perfectly good website by making a new blog when I have one made already? Therefore this blog will be forever be my either exchange/overseas adventures. As long as I am still in school, I feel like I will be embracing any and every exchange opportunity I can get! So this time, I will be leaving for South Korea. In particularly Seoul. This time it will be a university exchange and I will be gone for year. At first I applied, thinking I wouldn't get accepted. Really to be honest, I am only a second year student and I am competing agains other third or fourth year students who really want to embark on an exchange. However, I did get in and now I am only 7 days away from my departure from Vancouver Airport. Unlike my exchange to Japan, this time, because I am a university student (meaning slightly older), all the process and details ar...