Korea Video Collage

Hey guys!

I was looking through my photos, and noticed I had a lot of cool videos, with out a home. Rather than let them sit on my harddrive, I decided to make a video for you to see. I think its pretty good (although short). You will see ots of things I've done since my arrival in Seoul. Including the international students field day, a professional football match,  some walking around Seoul (in the Myongdong market), some of the club fair at Korea University, a shot from the city bus with my korean friend Hyojeong, my birthday party here in Seoul, a shot from my Korean language class, ect!

Enjoy!

-Glenn

Noryangjin Fish Market

 

  Last weekend my friends and I took a thirty minute subway ride to the Noryangjin fish market, the largest fish market in Seoul. The market was in a large warehouse like building. We walked around, and eventually bought a filet of salmon, unsure of what to do with it. The guy asked (in Korean) "for home or restaurant?" We said restaurant (shik-dong) and handed to filet off to another woman. She took us to a back alley outside the market, went into a restaurant and sat down with our food. They brought us sauces and chopsticks, and we ate some very fresh salmon.

  The main event in terms of Korean seafood is the moving octopus. We went back to the market to find this. We eventually bought a small octopus (along with a blue crab). We were again lead down an alley to a different restaurant. A few moments after we sat down a small plate with moving octopus tentacles was brought out!  We all eventually tried it, I only managed one small tentacle (I don't even like dead seafood). Watch the video to see more!  It has to be seen to be fully understood. Enjoy!

-Glenn

In the News

The article below was copied from the Global Links Newswire, the company I am studying abroad with. It highlights my groups time at an orphanage in Busan, Korea.

Cultural Differences Fade Fast For Student Volunteers At Korean Orphanage

Submitted by admin on March 30, 2011 – 10:45 amNo Comment

Twenty AsiaLearn students quickly learned during a recent volunteer effort at an orphanage in Korea that fun and games have no cultural boundaries.

Glenn DiNicola from Western State College with one of the children from SunGae Won, an orphanage in Korea.

The North American study abroad participants volunteered their time one day in February to play rock-paper-scissors, red light-green light and other games with 40 children fromSungae Won (성애원), an orphanage in Busan, Korea.The group was joined by 15 Korean university student volunteers through the Federation of Volunteer Efforts.

When the students arrived at the orphanage, the children, ages 4-6, were still in school but soon came joyfully running into the recreational hall. The kids came to a halt, however, when they saw the group of 20 foreign faces. Initially, the children shied away from the strange faces and crept along the walls to the more familiar faces of the Korean university students who volunteer weekly at the orphanage.

It didn’t take long, however, for the rambunctious and curious youngsters to warm up to the AsiaLearn students, grabbing their hands and plopping down in their laps as they looked through books or waited patiently for turns playing games including rock-paper-scissors and red light-green light.

A local volunteer project is one component of the AsiaLearn Bridging Cultures Program, a multi-day, in-country orientation program that blends lecture, adventure, and culture together for an informative and fun introduction to the country in which students will be living and studying abroad.

“Volunteering at the orphanage was actually the best part (of the AsiaLearn Bridging Cultures Program),” said Sarah Thanongsinh, a student at the University of Massachusetts Lowell who is studying at Korea University. “The children were so cute and lots of fun.”

The AsiaLearn students played games with the children for about two hours and all were a bit worn out after trying to keep up with so many children.

Adwoa Hanson-Hall from Boston University playing a game in Korean that is similar to red light-green Light in the United States.

Learning about volunteer opportunities and being exposed to one opportunity within their first few days of arriving in Korea really encouraged the students to locate more long-term volunteer opportunities in Seoul, where they will be studying for the next semester or academic year, said AsiaLearn Manager Kelli Modica.

“We want our students to give a little something back to the community that is kind enough to take them in and teach the students their ways during the students’ time abroad,” Modica said.

Prior to the children’s arrival for playtime with the volunteers, a social worker with the orphanage described the establishment’s background. She also shared some history of Busan, which historically has had large numbers of orphanages in the city because of the Korean War, a time when many families tried to escape the North to save their lives.

Through these journeys and war, many parents were killed, leaving their children orphaned. Some parents also left their children at the orphanages because they thought their children would be better cared for and hopefully escape the pain and suffering of living on the streets.

These days, Korean children become orphans for a variety of reasons, and it is estimated that South Korea currently has 17,000 children in public orphanages throughout the country and untold numbers at private institutions.

At Sungae Won, two of the AsiaLearn students came bearing gifts and handed them out to the kids before the group departed.

Zachary Monreal, a student at Texas Tech University studying abroad at Korea University, had been in Germany before arriving to South Korea and brought a variety of German chocolates, which the kids gobbled up just before dinner.

Holly Meyer, a student at University of Colorado – Colorado Springs studying abroad at Korea University, carried an extra suitcase with her from the United States filled with over 50 Beanie Babies, which the kids grabbed wide-eyed in excitement.

“Volunteering at the orphanage was a great experience,” said Paxia Her, a student at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities who is studying at Korea University.

http://globalinksnewswire.com/3134/cultural-differences-fade-fast-for-student-volunteers-at-korean-orphanage/

-Glenn

Bridging Cultures Video

Here is my final edited video from the bridging cultures program I did when I first arrived in Korea. We went to Busan, in the south and did lots of amazing things. watch the video to find out what!


Busan Directors Cut from Glenn DiNicola on Vimeo.


-Glenn

Exploring Seoul

This weekend was fantastic! On friday I went with my friends to dongdaemun shopping center. We walked down this really long river walkway and found a famous spot where the water and the water fall was all lit up. Very cool.

 On Saturday we went to one of the oldest part of Seoul, where the houses are still traditional Korean houses. We walked around and go lost in the streets. We eventually followed our noses to an italian restaurant! I hadn't had pasta or pizza since I'd been here (two of my favorite foods) and we had both there. It was awesome, but kind of funny to eat italian food in a historic district in Seoul. Oh well.

On sunday my best friend and I went to a famous more local market called Nangdaemun market. It is a couple blocks divided into different vendors. Food vendor alley, watch alley, clothes alley, noodle alley. We wondered around and bargained for a few things (Korean jeans, chopsticks and dried mango were my purchases).

 Our main interest however was the food. We started off at food vendor alley and had some Kimchi Jiggae, a spicy soup with kimichi, tofu and meat. Then we wondered a bit and found a street cart selling fried doughnut type things. Sweet dough coved in sugar. We each got 4 for 1000won(about 90 cents). Right after we finished those we found the famous noodle alley we had read about. It was a long-ish alley, very narrow with a tarp roof. Along either side were red stools.

We were directed towards two empty ones and sat down. There were two older ladys behind the counter. Zac knew what the noodles were called and said the name and held up 2 fingers. The ladys nodded served us 2 bowls of something different. She gave us the best bibimpap I have ever had! She took all of the fresh ingredients out of big bins right in front of us on the table. It was so good! After we had almost finished our bibimpap she handed us each a bowl of the noodles! She smiled and rubbed her belly, telling us it was good. The noodle s were delicious as well! they were in a kind of soup, and had an odd wavy pattern. We ate as much as we could, for eating so much within an hour. Oh, and the bibimpap and noodles were only 4000won total!

I held up my camera and the lady serving us smiled for me to take her picture.

I really loved that place. Our other friends all want to go back this weekend. I can't wait!


-Glenn

First week of classes

Classes started last Wednesday, which made for an odd three day week. On Wednesday I only had my Korean language class, which consisted of only the placement test. I wrote my name and handed it back, lol.

On thursday I had my two most important classes, PR Campaign and Film Criticism. Both of these are for my major at my home university. the PR classes sounds awesome. Our professor is great, funny, good english and she said she grades pretty easy. I believe her words were along the lines of "I will push you, but in the end you will get a good grade". For the class we will be getting into four person groups and doing work for a client. I envisioned an imaginary client. If it was a real client I assumed it would be a small one. Nope. Real client, its Bayer  the German pharmaceutical company (the only other exchange student in my class is a German, I hope she's in my group, lol).

The second class, Film Criticism sounds great as well. The professor is goofy and fun, with good English (not as good as the PR professor). We are going to watch 7 different movies, some american hollywood movies both from now, and the studio era, an italian film, and 2 Korean documentaries, one about North Korean defectors and both documentaries made by Korea University Alumni! Very excited to see those.

After my communications classes, I went back to Korean Language class. We spent the day learning the alphabet. Which entalied us shouting out sounds as the professor held up flash cards of the new symbols. I really like the korean language!

No class on friday, so I had a day off to catch up on sleep. I'll tell you more about this weekend once it's over.

당신은 곧 볼 수 !

-Glenn

New Video

Hey guys, its been awhile, and I've done so much! I don't have much time but here are the basics: I spent a weekend in Busan (southern Korea) and did a lot of amazing things (taekwondo, buddist temple, nightlife, korean cooking, korean theatre, volunteering at an orphanage). I came back and did orientation at my university (Korea University) and now classes start in the morning! wow, that was very few words for a very full and incredible two weeks. I spent some time today to make a short video, more of a teaser really, for the last two weeks, mostly from Busan.



In short I am loving Korea! I feel much more at home here then I did the first week (good sign culture shock is dissipating) I have made some great friends, learned some Korean, and can get along just fine. Now its time for school to start, and a whole new set of problems and things to figure out will arise.

Enjoy the video, and stay posted for more as soon as possible.

(by the way, the audio in this is a buddist monk chanting at one of the temples in Busan)

-Glenn

Hey everyone! I made it to Korea! I landed a few days ago. Since then I met up with 3 people from my program and we hung out at a hostel by the airport, we we shopping and eating for a day, and then met up with the full 20 ppl in our group yesterday evening at the airport. We then dropped our stuff off at the university and went to the Seoul youth hostel. That's where I am now, blogging on my iPod in the room I'm sharing with 6 guys. It's 7am, and we're leaving for Nusan in the south at 8. That should be fun. 3 days down there learning about Korea, stuff like cooking lessons, taekwondo, volunteering at an orphanage and going out. I'll blog more when I can, I'm not bringing my computer to Busan, just my iPod. I'm having a great time though! Korea is amazing, I love the food, the people and am starting to appreciate the language (I can say hello, thank you, and 'I'd like to Oder this..."). Keep checking back, I'll post as doom as I can! By the way, it's 3 pm in the us, 7am here

-Glenn