Movement By Lydia

I usually make posts that list of cafe or restaurants in a specific area, but those are honestly such a drag to write and format sometimes. So, different than my usual cafe posts, this post will be all about the wonderful cafe in Hongdae called Mobssie (몹시) . The place is very well-known to Koreans for their delicious chocolate cake. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My friends and I set out to Hongdae after class one day to eat chocolate cake, and it turned out to be quite an adventure. My friend, who is a big fan of sweets, had done research and found a cafe with delicious, well-known chocolate cake so we went to find it. After about an hour of searching in this area of Hongdae, we asked a worker at a cafe near this supposed cafe... only to find out they had moved. Quite a disappointing moment. We were craving chocolate cake at this point, so we sat in a cafe searching for other...

I know you're all still waiting on your host family information still, and one lucky student will get the pleasure of staying with my lovely family, so I thought I'd write about my host family today. I did a lot with them, but I still wish I did more to be honest. I know many of you wonder how to get close with your host family, and the best advice I have is to spend time with them ! Don't always go out with your friends or lock yourself in your room. Do things with them, talk with them, interact with them, get to know them! So these are just some of the things I did with my host family over the summer that helped us get closer and create good memories together. Some things are just simple, while other things involve going places.  [Also, once you have a host family, make sure they're okay with you using their pictures and stuff!] Eat Meals Together: I know this sounds like a given, but not everyone eats a lot of meals with their host families. I always woke up ...

I'm sure going to 남산타워 is on most of your bucket lists, and I was fortunate enough to have gone! I went one weekend with my host family, and it was a really cool day with them. Here is another post about a place I went in Korea that hopefully gives you an idea of a place to go as well! ^^ We took a taxi to the area of Namsan Tower then got off and took this outdoor elevator called the oreumi. "Namsan Oreumi is a free outdoor elevator that runs between the plaza in front of the Namsan Tunnel #3 Commemorative Plaza and the Namsan cable car platform. This inclined elevator covers a distance of 140m and can accommodate up to 20 passengers. With glass on all sides, the Namsan Oreumi offers a unique and convenient way to get to the cable car station." After we got off of the oreumi, we walked around up there and went to eat before going up to the tower. My family says you always eat bibimbap when you go to Namsan Tower (there is another food too but I forget what ...

I'm sure many people are curious about what is it like to be on the NSLI-Y Korea Summer Program, so I thought that I'd talk about my average day in Seoul [while on the program]! Not all 50 of us did the same things each and every day, and even the things I did each day varied, but I am speaking generally from my own experience. I hope this will answer some questions about what daily life is like on the program and what you can do on the program~ *I did the program in 2014, and it seems like a lot is changing this year, so this might not be that much help for you guys. This is what it was like on my program and what it was like for me. You probably will have a pretty different schedule and experience, so please don't expect your day to be just like ours/mine last year!  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AVERAGE WEEKDAY 7 a.m: Wake up and eat breakfast with family 8-9 a.m: Get ready and leave ...

So I will be posting various blog posts that are about different places or areas in Seoul that I really enjoyed going to... Hopefully they are helpful to you finalists and give you some ideas of where to go in Seoul! This one will be about a stream that flows through downtown Seoul called the  청계천 (Cheonggyecheon) . The stream was restored a little over ten years ago to be what it is today, and it is a pretty popular place for friends and couples to just hangout and walk. I came here a few times and always enjoyed myself.. It's pretty relaxing and the atmosphere is nice. I went "cheonggyecheoning" (as we called it) during the day and at night, which I suggest doing. The first time I went it was right after class.. A group of us wanted to go so we set off on the subway after class. We ended up getting a little confused about the area and walked along this street with just hardware stores and stores that sold the most random things ever. We walked FOREVER before find...