The Korean Institute of Foreign Studies

Wednesday after my Korean class ended I got on the subway going the opposite direction. I wasn't lost (for once), nor was I just exploring. I headed to southern Seoul and then took a bus out of the city to the south east with express purpose. I was on my way to meet YoungBin at the Korean Institute of Foreign Studies.

The story of how i met this YoungBin is a curious one that also happens to be quite common to me so far. Suffice it to say that strings are being pulled by a mysterious individual on the other side of the world. Already I have been introduced to five or more people through this omnipresent power across an ocean and a continent. YoungBin and I had met once in Insadong, the historical portion of the city, and had a good enough time. When he invited me to take a tour of his campus, I couldn't refuse.

Little did I know, however, that the KIofFS would be two and a half hours away from my university! This wasn't even the suburbs of Seoul: it was a small town in the outskirts. When he called me at 8:15 to ask where I was, the best I could muster was "next to a stream." The town and campus were nestled in the mountains in the country side, and it was beautiful to see. There was very little around, despite that not 15 minutes away was one of the only them parks in Korea, and 30 minutes from that was the third biggest city in the world. On the other side of the mountian we were at the foot of was a special forces training base for the Korean military. Lots of helicopters.

YoungBin and I are a good pair since we both speak about the same ammount of eachother's languages. We both have to struggle in a mixture of Korean and English to communicate effectively, and we're both very eager to learn.

The night that I arrived we went out to dinner in the nearby town, where I was probably the only foreigner they had ever seen. I spent the night in his homestay/bording house, which was a little quirky and was photographed a lot. The next day, YoungBin gave me a tour of the spacious and lush campus, and I met several of his friends at the school. I then had to take the bus back to school for my four o'clock class, but I can't wait to go back some weekend. There are alot of pictures below of my first venture outside of the big city.



1)The giant stone with Chinese on it marking the entrance to KIofFS.
2)The living room of the homestay (note that even computer use is done sitting on the floor).
3)The man dries peppers for a living. It's hard work, trying to get the sun to dry all those peppers.
4)This was inside the cabinet in YoungBin's room. The room used to belong to the homestay guy's son, and these are his little cultural souveniers. One is a very traditional helmet, and the other is a very cultural catch phrase "Dear God, Oh! I'd like to get married. Do I have to wait until I grow up?"
5)They take those old school western photos too!
6)One of the buildings on campus.
7)YoungBin and I infront of an outdoor amphitheatre.
8)Another campus building across a scenic pond.
9)YoungBin by one of the many picturesque bridges.
10)The campus is designed as one long road with buildings on either side. The strip is on a gradual incline up the foothills of this mountain. This is me at the top of the campus with the rest of it behind me.