Potato in Seoul - Zapangi Tin and Bottle Cafe (Seoul)

Seoul is known for having dozens upon dozens of unique cafes, many of them created based on a specific theme. There's dog/cat/raccoon/meerkat/sheep cafes, color-themed cafes, Hello Kitty, comic or board-game themed cafes...literally everything. As someone who likes exploring places that offer good drinks and good food, it's the perfect city for me. There's always a different cafe to go to. (The repercussions of having so many cafes in Seoul is a different story.)

With my 베프, I headed out to a rather new cafe not too far from Hongdae called Zapangi: Tin and Bottle. It's a cafe that focuses on its milk tea and small cakes that come in little tin canisters. The milk tea and cake were both delicious!

Menu:
They offer a few different flavors of cakes. Melon, cherry, peach, and blueberry were the offerings the day I went. My friend and I decided on a blueberry cake to split between the two of us and then a drink each. I'm a big milk tea fan, so I went with the Original milk tea, while my friend went with a coffee.

Special summer drinks came in floaty stands!

Potato in Seoul - Gyeongbokgung/경복궁 (Again!)

If you're friends with me on Facebook or follow me on Instagram (@lilea_ishere), you've probably seen all of these photos already, however, you're about to see them again! Yay! I decided to make a post using some of my favorite shots from this trip to the Palace.

Last month, I went to one of the palaces that I went to last summer, but this time, I was dressed in traditional regalia. I went with two friends, and we made a quick stop to a hanbok rental place that was right next to the palace where we got all dressed up before heading to the palace. Though palace entry isn't expensive to begin with, if you go to the palace dressed in traditional Korean clothing (hanbok), you get free entry! The hanbok place that we went to was small, and I didn't get any photos of the inside. The staff spoke a variety of languages, and everything was very quick and efficient.

Although hanboks traditionally come in bright colors, I opted for one that's more modern-looking made with darker colors. Those who know me, know that I'm always wearing dark colors. I haven't worn brights in...a long time.T and you get to try on two different options, but if you're still not satisfied with the first two tries, you can pay extra to try on more. I got lucky and ended up going with the first hanbok I tried on.

Potato in Seoul - Hanbok Studio / 한복 스투디오

As South Korea becomes an ever-more popular tourist destination, the country is more than willing to share its history and traditional culture with its visitors while also creating an atmosphere not unlike the busyness of other modern cities. Skyscrapers and large shopping malls are starting to take over Seoul's mom-and-pop shops while restaurants are starting to cater to a broader range of tastes. Certain areas of Seoul are known to cater to western tastes in food and music while other areas draw large crowds of Southeast Asians.

One thing that is popular among tourists from everywhere is trying on Korea's traditional hanbok/한복. The outfits are made out of colorful fabrics with more variations in patterns than you could ever look through in a day. There are now even photo studios that dedicate themselves entirely to letting people wear hanboks and have their photos taken professionally against dramatic backdrops for a fun souvenir. So, of course, my family and I had to go.

My two sisters and I were plopped into makeup chairs immediately after being called in, and the ladies working there set about making up our faces. Foundation that was too light, false eyelashes, eyebrow shaping and filling/coloring, and even styling our hair and adding false hair pieces (in black to cover up my purple/green/blonde hair) was all part of the included package. After we got made up, we were taken over to the long row of hanboks. We all got to choose the one we liked, and the ladies helped us put them on.

The hanboks were divided by size (and also length) ranging from XS-L. You could choose whichever one you wanted, but the key was finding one that touched the ground, not the top of your feet. This meant that the hanbok I fell in love with (at first sight) was not meant to be since it would have been too short (not that I'm even tall).

Potato in Seoul - Jeju Island: Day 1

The sudden snowstorm this past weekend inspired me to write about a time when snow was a distant memory and summer was about to enter full-swing. 

During my summer in South Korea, I took a week-long trip to Jeju Island (제주도) off the southern coast with three friends, two from CAU and one from home. It's a popular vacation spot and tourist destination full of beaches, mountains, and a peaceful atmosphere that's a great escape from the business of Seoul. (Though, personally, going to a busy city is a better escape for me than a quiet island.)

PREPARATION
A few weeks before we were planning on going, my (Parisian model) friend Andy (from CAU) and I spent around six hours using four different computers trying to buy our plane tickets, which was such a hassle. Funny how buying airplane tickets can sometimes be the most difficult part of the trip. However, in the end, the tickets (round-trip) only cost us $40 for each person! So, you could say those six hours paid off in the end. After that, it was just the waiting game: finishing our classes and taking final exams and saying goodbye to friends who were leaving right after the semester ended.

Our third group member, Jenni, actually flew in only a few days before we left for Jeju Island. Incidentally, she saw most of Jeju Island before she ever saw much of Seoul. However, I did make sure to introduce her to my favorite boba place (which has since closed ㅠㅠ) before we jetted off to Jeju.

Potato in Seoul - Gyeongbokgung Palace / 경복궁

 Gyeongbokgung was the main royal palace of the Joseon dynasty. Built in 1395, it is located in northern Seoul, South Korea (Wikipedia)

Gyeongbokgung is one of Seoul's most famous historical landmarks. Otherwise known as the Northern Palace, its history runs long and deep. Most of the palace that's there today are replicas or re-built buildings based on the originals. Many of the original buildings were destroyed or taken by the Japanese government and then set up in Japan. All of the buildings were restored or re-built in the late 1800s under King Gojong.

The palace is also the setting for many popular Korean dramas such as Moon Embracing the Sun (해를 품은 달), Mirror of the Witch (마녀보감), and Scarlet Heart: Ryeo (보보경심: 려). It's seen its fair share of famous Koreans, past and present. 

This archway is in the subway station closest to the palace. It's said to bring good luck if you walk under it

Potato in Seoul - Studying in Korea

CAU Library

My entire reason for going to Korea was to study. Technically speaking. It took up 4 of the 6 of the months I was there. I studied at a university in the southern region of Seoul called Chung-Ang University, or CAU (중앙대학교). Located in the Heukseok area (off of the Heukseok station/흑석역), it's essentially the Korean version of a college town. Despite being part of Seoul itself, Heukseok is pretty self-contained. All the popular makeup chains have stores located there, there's some local shops, and there's an abundance of restaurants. There are several convenient stores, and a Daiso, which is a discount retailer similar to a dollar store here in the US.

Yook-sam Naengmyeon: a lunch-time hot spot as shown by the line

The CAU campus is pretty average looking, to be honest. It's definitely prettier than my home university, but seeing that CAU is built entirely up hill, the administration is pretty limited in terms of what it can do for beautification. The school is made up of three sections: front, center, and back gate. The dorm was at the back gate, literally all the way in the back. It was at the top of the giant hill. Just guess where all my classes were. Front gate. Of course, right? It took me about 15 minutes to walk to the giant 102 building for classes from the dormitory. I could make it in ten if I was rushing, aka I slept in a little too long, but honestly, running to class wasn't necessarily an option unless you wanted to risk breaking a bone by rolling your way down to class instead of walking.

308 is the dorm. 102 is where most of my classes were

The stairs of death at front gate

Lonely Seoul - Reuniting

Imagine you have the chance to talk to someone that you haven't seen in a really long time. Maybe that person has passed away, or maybe they live rather far away. Perhaps they live nearby, but you're both just so busy that you don't get to see that person very often. If you had that chance, would you drop everything and go see them? Go talk to them? Maybe you'd spend the whole time talking and talking, whether the topics are significant or not: it would just be nice to talk to them.

What if I told you that I have that opportunity? To meet someone who was once dead to me and is now alive? Someone I spent my entire life not thinking about. Someone I still don't even know how to imagine in my head because I have no physical image to remember this person by. If you know my story, you've probably guessed by now, who I'm talking about. I'm talking about my mother. Not the mother who raised me (love you, Mom), but rather, the mother who gave birth to me: the one who gave me life.

As a kid, I rarely thought about my origins. The closest I got was listening to Korean pop music (otherwise known as K-pop) in my early teens, which I couldn't even understand. It was catchy music in a language I didn't know. It was a language that I was born into but not raised in. As most Korean adoptees were. 

For those of you who don't know the details, I was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1996. I was given to a social worker the day of my birth, and I was adopted by my American parents in 1997. I'm definitely not alone in this. From 1999-2015 alone there have been 20,058 Korean children adopted by American families with 16,474 of those kids being under the age of 1 at the time of their adoption. (Source)

In April of 2015, I called the Ohio adoption agency (the local agency) and talked to an employee there about starting the birth search process to find my birth parents. I was on the fence about starting a birth parent search, but I wanted to have the paperwork in case I decided to do it. I got the paperwork and ended up filling it out a few weeks later, but I didn't send them to the agency until August of that year after I came back home from spending a summer in Nashville, TN.

It was actually my time in Nashville that finally gave me the push to officially start the birth search process. In Nashville, I met Koreans that weren't adopted. I met Korean people my age who spoke Korean. It was my first time being exposed to the Korean language, which I really didn't know anything about. I could kind of read it, but I couldn't speak it at all. It was there that I truly first felt like I was Korean, though I also sometimes felt alone and excluded at times because of the language barrier, but I had decided that my Korean heritage was something I wanted to explore more into.

Also in April of 2015, I decided I wanted to go to Seoul to study abroad for a semester. I spent the next 10 months planning, earning and raising money, and finally, on Friday, February 26, 2016, I jetted off for a 6-month adventure. It was my first time stepping foot in my birth country since I had left it in 1997. 

Being in Seoul was a unique experience. There were many times where I totally forgot the fact that I was immersing myself into the country and culture of my ancestors – of my birth parents. It often felt like any other trip abroad I’d been on: London, Ireland, India. I was disconnected emotionally through a lot of my time in Seoul, though that’s pretty typical of me. For most of the beginning of the trip, I didn't feel connected to the country or the city or the people. It was just another city, another country, other people.

Prior to leaving for Korea, I had found out about the IKAA Conference (International Korean Adoptee Associations), and I decided to go. It was being held the week prior to me leaving, so I thought I’d go as a last hurrah. It was during the conference I decided to go contact my Korean adoption agency to see if there was any news yet. It had been almost exactly a year since I’d submitted my paperwork. I knew some searches took up to 3 years before anyone was found, but I wanted to check anyways. I e-mailed the agency. I heard back 2 days later with the response that they had never received any paperwork from me to initiate a birth search.

It was then that the emotions came out. I was angry that I had waited a year to contact them. I was frustrated that the local agency here in the US apparently didn't make sure this very important paperwork got through to the Korean agency. I e-mailed the Korean agency back that same day asking if I could meet with a social worker and to get a new set of paperwork to fill out to initiate the search (again). I set up an appointment for the day before I left since that was the only day that I had left at that point.

My time at the agency was bittersweet. The social worker showed me a scale model of what the agency grounds looked like around the time I would've been adopted. The agency office is still in the same spot as it was when I was adopted almost 20 years ago. I handed off my paperwork directly into the hands of the social worker, and I left. I walked along the street that was my home for a few short months, although most of the buildings that were there in 1997 don't exist anymore.

October 20, 2016. I got an e-mail. “On your request, we tried to find your birth parents and have the good news for you that we found your birth mother.” I was at school when I got the news. I had just walked into the building to get work done before class. I walked outside to call my parents. I was crying. I was crouching in the grass next to the main entrance, unable to control myself. I was getting stares, but I couldn’t even move. I was overwhelmed.

I had so many questions, but the main question running through my head was, “Why was it so easy?” If it was so easy, the agency could have found her a year ago back when I originally submitted for the search. I didn’t understand the timing. It seemed wrong and inconvenient. My mind immediately jumped to how quickly I could make it back to Korea. Could I go this year even? I had just come back home two months prior.

In the end, it happened. In fact, I'm in Seoul right now. I still don’t understand the timing, though I’ve accepted it at this point. Now, I’m just grateful that this is happening, thanks, mainly, to the support of my parents and a few adoptee friends.

I wasn't sure what to expect, what I was going to ask, or how I was going to handle all of this. But I knew I wanted it to happen, and that was enough.

Potato in Seoul - Your Questions Answered Pt. 1

Technically speaking, I can thank my friend Heewon for making this entire trip happen. He was the one that sparked the idea in me, and the rest is history. (Not really, but I'll save that for another post.) I met Heewon in the Spring semester of 2015. I didn't know at that moment that almost exactly one year later I'd be jetting off to Seoul, South Korea for a 6 month long trip.

As such, there have been certain questions that I've gotten a lot since I've come home, so I thought that I would answer those here and write a bit more about university life in Seoul (from the exchange student perspective).

Potato in Seoul - Seoul: A Cat Lovers' Dream?

Now, I am not technically a cat person. However, as much as I spout off that I prefer dogs to cats, I spent more time in cat cafes than any other type of cafe when I was in Korea. That's six months of cat cafe hopping.

What is a cat cafe, you ask? Well, let me introduce you to the one I most frequented. It's called 고양이다락방 or 'Cat Attic' (loosely translated).

It doesn't really look like your average cafe. Sure, there's some cute decor and an attic-kind of vibe, but the main difference is that there are about 25 cats freely walking/laying around, as you can see in the picture.

For those who are probably worried about the health hazards and the germs, the place is actually extremely well kept and cleaned regularly. The cats are well-kept and frequently checked for things like bugs, etc. The cafe even did a two-week interior renovation near the end of my trip. Thankfully, I still had another week to visit the cafe to see what was new.

Potato in Seoul - 4 Hours in Daegu/대구

Mountainous view on the way to Daegu/대구

Just last week, I left Seoul for the first time since I arrived almost four months ago. Three friends and I took the bus from Seoul to one of South Korea's other cities on a one-day trip. Actually, we missed our first bus and had to change our tickets to a bus that left 45 minutes after our original bus. After paying to switch tickets, we were off. It's only about a 4 hour bus ride from the Express Bus Terminal to Daegu's main  bus terminal.

 The views on the way to Daegu are quite stunning. So many mountains and giant hills. It's all so green. Escaping the city once in a while is always good, even for a city-lover like myself. The peacefulness of rural South Korea is peaceful and calming. Watching rice fields pass by and the small towns reminded me a bit of road trips at home: passing all those corn fields and the 1000 people towns.

Lonely Seoul : Change or Grow

*Note: a bit of a long read. So maybe you might want to refill your coffee mug before reading or grab the whole package of cookies instead of just two*

As an adoptee, I often hear stories about "connecting to your homeland". People often go back to their place of birth to try to identify with the place and the people there. There's a lot of people that think that being surrounded by similar looking faces might somehow help them find their identity. And, I too have believed these things. I entered South Korea hoping that maybe someday I'd meet the person who birthed me. I thought maybe being surrounded by Asian faces would help me find myself. I thought that no longer being "different" because of my Asian features would be comforting, that it would be something I needed. I've found it's quite the opposite.

To be completely honest, my first weeks in Seoul were not that fun. I was slow to make friends, and while I'm very thankful for the few I did make those first weeks, I was depressed and utterly lonely inside. I was disappointed in myself and in South Korea for not helping to feel "connected", for not feeling like I had found that South Korea shaped "missing piece" inside of me. I was upset that I wasn't seeing the changes I thought I'd make when I came here.

When I came here to Seoul, I thought my life would drastically change. I can't really word the type of expectations I had, but I definitely thought that something would become different about me. But, to be honest, not much has changed. I have the same worries and anxieties, joys and enjoyments. I have the same personality and general dislike for intensive academic lectures. I have the same distrust of weather forecasts and the same love of pizza and fried chicken. However, these might also be examples of consistencies. Perhaps some things about a person never change. Maybe there are things that, no matter how small, are meant to stay the same. Maybe the changes we see in ourselves aren't really even changes. Maybe they're just the consistencies of our lives slowly starting to emerge and show themselves in our daily lives. Instead of calling it a change, it's more of a growth. A flower is a flower even as a seed. It is no less a flower as a seed than it is when it's a flower. It just looks different. But it's still a flower.

The sunrise looks different every day, but it never actually changes. It rises consistently. The colors splashing the sky are never in quite the same array or pattern, but it always rises. It's always there. It never, technically, changes. It just looks different. Perhaps humans are the same way: we look different, but we're still the same. Not to say that we, as humans, cannot better ourselves. We can.  

For most people, the sunrise might represent a new beginning, a fresh start. For me, the sunrise represents consistency. It reminds me that despite the chaos of life, that there is at least one thing that remains the same. The sun will always rise. To me, it doesn't mean that a new day makes everything better, but rather that there is a new day to continue living the life I already have.

While it's amazing to live in another country, it's nice to have that constant reminder that despite the fact that I'm on the other side of the planet, I'm still living the same life I live at home. I might not have the same daily routine I do at home, but my life is still the same. I'm still living as me. The sun that rises here in Seoul is the same sun that rises back home in Ohio. It's the same sun that shone when I was in London, Ireland, and India. And when I go back to Ohio in August, it's still the same sun.

I think the world has become so obsessed with "change". Look at President Obama's tagline from his 1st term campaign: "We are the change we've been waiting for". Change is viewed as good, as necessary for life. But is it really? I'm beginning to think not. Seoul may have brought about some appearance changes in me, but I still see myself as the same me. I don't think I've changed. Maybe people at home will think differently upon my return, but the more I spend time digging into my own thoughts ((what a scary thing that is)), the more I realize that maybe I don't need to change. Do we really need to change, or do we need to grow?

In English, we sometimes say, "Why do we have to grow up?" in reference to losing our childhood innocence, our hugely vivid imaginations, and our naive view of the world. But isn't growing a good thing? Isn't "change" really what we wish we didn't have to do? Growing doesn't mean you have to lose your vivid imagination. Growing doesn't mean you have to lose your optimistic outlook about life. It's change that makes you decide that you're "too old" for games and for optimism and imagination. But we don't have to change. We don't have to lose that imagination: that visionary thinking. In fact, aren't some of the world's most successful people often visionary?

South Korea is notorious for its impressively fast growth. South Korea went from being one of the poorest to one of the richest countries in the world in 30 years. They went from war ravaged to being in the Top 26. However, Korea, in a sense, hasn't changed all that much. The more I'm learning about this country and its culture, the more I realize that my idea that going to a country can change you is, quite simply, a silly idea. The country can't change you, but maybe it can grow you.

~

Potato In Seoul - Weeks 1-3

It's been quite some time since I've written anything. Over 8 months actually. But I'm back again on another adventure! This time a much longer one. Just under 6 months this time. I'm currently seated at the desk in my dorm room, enjoying the indoors while the city's nightlife begins. Dozens of students are making their way to the different establishments surrounding the school campus. It is the end of my third week in Seoul, South Korea.

View from my dorm window

For those who may not know, here's a brief background: I am here at Chung-Ang University/중앙대학교 as an exchange student from Cleveland State. This has been a trip I never really imagined would happen, nor did I expect it to happen before the age of 21. However, it did, and here I am, eating an apple and drinking chocolate milk like the "adult" I am.

Let me just tell you now. It has not been all sunshine and roses, these first few weeks. While studying in another country is an amazing and exciting opportunity, it is not as easy as the brochures make it look, nor is it as easy as most people who've done it will tell you. People don't really like to talk about the negative experiences they have. Maybe they're afraid it will discourage someone from doing an exchange/study abroad program themselves. Who knows. But I do think it's only fair for people to know the good and the bad experiences. I believe it gives a better perspective of what it's really like to live in another country for longer than a tourist-y visit.

On the Ground: Nashville

As most of you know, I'm here in Nashville, TN for an internship with GOA, Inc. GOA, Inc is an artist booking agency that books Christian bands and speakers. Tomorrow will be the end of my fifth week with them, and it's been such a good time. The work is interesting, though sometimes somewhat repetitive, but it's been really fun.

This past weekend, I went downtown, and I'd always thought of Nashville as being a much larger city than it is. It's quite small, but it makes it a pretty walkable city, which is nice. Cities that are walkable are much more interesting and fun to me than ones I have to drive around to get to. Plus, finding parking in most cities is horrendous anyways. But, anyways, here's some photos from downtown.

In the City: London's Asian Festival

While in London, my parents and I went to an Asian Festival. It wasn't quite as large as I thought it would be, in terms of vendors, but it was still a fun experience. There were ton of performances. Everything from tai chi to a Bollywood dance troupe to an award-winning Korean violinist. It was great fun.

Feet on the Ground: London

Hello all! It's been a long time since I've written. Well, it's been a while since I've been anywhere interesting! I am, however, quite behind on my postings! I've spent a whole week in London, and I'm currently in my fourth week in Nashville, TN.

I thought I would fill you all in a little bit on my London trip. It'll be mainly photos, to let you all see some of the fun things I did. And it'll give a little more explanation about what I was seeing that I didn't include in my Facebook album.

Firstly, this trip was made possible through CSU, the university I attend. I had enrolled back a class that's considered a "Marketing Experience Abroad" class. You write a marketing research paper throughout the entire semester, spend a week in another country, and then come home and write a research findings paper. The coolest part is that all the research the class does is for real companies, all based out of Cleveland, Ohio! I can't go into details about my company or what they were researching really, but it was an interesting experience.

Road signs pointing the wrong way, eh?

It still amazes me how you'll have these pretty ornate, old buildings in some small, random town. I forget how young the United States is.