^^

According to figures released by the National Statistical Office in 2007, teenagers between 15 and 19 on average sent a whopping 60.1 text messages per day, a slight increase from 59.5 in 2005.
Young adults aged between 20 and 24 also send more text messages, with the average number of SMS increasing from 22.6 in 2005 to 30.9 in 2006.

I send about 10-15 text messages a day and I already think that's a lot! I think I've developed a texting thumb now haha

I only text in English (of course), but there are some interesting facts about texting in Korean. They don't use spaces. ItsurewouldsavealotofspacesinceIonlyhavealimitof90characters! They can type without even looking down at the keys! Annnnd they use a TON of emoticons! I really get a kick out of how many emoticons Koreans use when they text! At home, I've never really used any (of what I call) "Asian" emoticons... but here, I see at least one in every text message. The most common one used by both guys and girls (that I find to be quite girly) is ^^. It's supposed to be "grinning eyes"... happiness. I've even started to use it quite often! haha it looks cute.
Popular variations.. ^_^, ^.^, ^-^.. etc.

Some of the emoticons my cell phone comes with:

\\(^-^)//
yay! Arms up in the air.
*^.~*
@0@
d^o^b
thumbs up!
o(>.<)o
(-(-.(-.-).-)-)
dizzy?
T_T
so sad... crying

I like it.. it really puts emotions (hence, emoticon) into text msgs whereas at home, unless you know the person, text messages are usually dead-sounding.

A lot of Koreans are not familiar with terms like lol (laugh out loud), lmao, rotfl.. etc. so I taught them. They taught me OTL. I don't think it stands for anything, but it's written to show a person's disappointment or frustration.

Koreans don't use "haha" - they use "kk" or "ㅋㅋㅋ" (that's the Korean character for the sound k).. or if they're snickering from teasing, they'd put a lot of them like "kkkkkkkㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ" or "hh"/"ㅎㅎ" which is like hehe.

Cell phones in Korea are called 헨드폰- hendeupon (handphone).

When you answer a phone call, you say "yeobosayo?" (as in, hello?). But then, the person on the other side just starts talking about the purpose of their call! They hardly ever ask how each other is doing.. and a lot of them don't even know the proper way to respond in English. In person, you would say "anyonghaseyo" as a greeting. It really means "hello, how are you?", but Koreans never literally respond saying "I'm good, thanks". I learned in Korean language class that people also ask each "ohdee-ehkayo?" which means "where are you going?" as a polite greeting... but they often don't answer that directly either.

What I still can't get over is how Koreans end their calls. I'm often left hanging and thinking to myself 'did he just hang up on me without saying bye?!'... how rude! But everyone does it unless they're saying goodnight. It's almost a mutual 'bye'. Sometimes they go 'neeeeeeh' which means yes as their goodbye.

Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh.

CJ International House Dormitory

I'm living in a dorm on campus called CJ International House. It was built in 2005 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Korea University.

On the other side of the doors
The lobby. They have 2 computers with internet, a scanner, printer, and copy machine. There's always a security guard in the front watching this TV split into over 20 screens of the dorm hallways and people who come in. I'm pretty sure he recognizes us all now. We're always watched when we're not in our dorms... one time, I danced in the hallways to amuse him.The waiting area (for when other people wait for me) heheElevators to our rooms. They're very strict about gender mixing. The guys use the lift on the left that only goes to floors 2, 3, and 4; the girls use the right lift that goes to floors 2, 5, and 6. The communal gym is on floor 2. I have yet to go there (tomorrow I will, though)! The KU emblem is frosted on the elevator doors and inside is fully mirrored.
The hallway to my room
There's 2 kitchenettes on the 6th floor. Luckily, my room is right across from the less-used one.
Nonetheless, this fridge is always packed. You're supposed to buy your own see-through container but if I did, it wouldn't even fit so I shove my milk in any empty spot. It ain't smelly.
6 is my favourite and lucky number. I live on the 6th floor. I feel so lucky to share my dorm area with 2 other girls: Woo Ja (a Korean who has lived in Japan for most of her life) and Michelle (Korean born and raised in Toronto). I technically share my bedroom with Woo Ja and Michelle has her own single room. All three of us share a bathroom, sink area, and shower.
Welcome to my abode.
I have a card to open the door. It came on a lanyard with a bunch of keys I have no idea what to use for.
Actually, I broke the lanyard today unfortch. The other side of the door (our shoes go in the closet/shoe rack on the right).
Next to the entrance is the bathroom area. The bathroom is checked and fully cleaned once a week by a maid.
My room is symmetrically identical. Mine is on the left. I'm so happy - although it's simple, this room is very spacious compared to some of the other rooms. Some of them have to share a bathroom (with shower + toilet connected) with 5 girls and in that same dorm area, the double room is half the size of my room and is a bunk bed!
I took this picture on the 2nd day and dumped everything on the desk.
I paid 20,000won for a white sheet, a thin fleece blanket, and a pillow. I froze the first couple nights (ended up sleeping with my coat on) until I found out there was heat (it was in Korean - I had no idea which buttons to press).. but b/c my roomie had a thick Hello Kitty duvet, I didn't want her to sweat to death so I froze another night until I realized she was fine with the heat on so now the room is constantly at 25 degrees =D
Yea I lucked out with Woo Ja. On the application for this dorm, I put "no preference" for everything (eg. sleep late, study at night, wake up early etc.) except for the non-smoker so it was really the luck of the draw. We have a great "roomie connection". We happen to go to bed at the same time and wake up around the same time. She showers at night and I shower in the morning. If she sleeps a bit earlier than me, she doesn't care if I leave the light on or use my laptop. We both listen to the same music so I can play my music and she likes it. Woo Ja is so helpful and very considerate. Even though we don't communicate too much because of the language barrier, we do try. She's cute with all her interesting Asian beauty gadgets and morning routine. It's almost as if everything she owns is pink. My side of the room looks so dull compared to hers! She had 2 huge boxes shipped from her home in Japan full of clothes and told me I could borrow her clothes (though she's much thinner than me)! When she finds out information that's in Korean or information I might not know about, she makes sure I'm fully informed. On the first morning, she offered me a piece of chocolate cake for breakfast.
My desk
The view outside my window: The Korean Cultural Centre
Kind of neat, eh?My empty closet. I also have a TON of shelf space on the left of this and three drawers under my bed!
Rent for a double at CJ Int'l (for 4 months) is 1,599,000 won (approx. $1,330CDN).. a little over $10/day and a single is 2,000,000 won.

Laundry room in the basement. 1 medium-sized load is 1,000won and drying is another 1,000. For large loads, it's double the amount. There's also a plasma TV/DVD room next to this and some vending machines and business meeting rooms.
CJ International Dorm is situated on a hill (like SFU!) so in order to get there, we have to walk up a hill. Here's to a toned tushie ;) It doesn't look too steep here, but it's impossible for me to walk down it in heels. I walk backwards (with help, of course).
The dorm is clean, functional and comfortable. I don't think I'll have any problems living here for the next few months!

This is my T Money card. Yaaay Hello Kitty! There's just something about being in Asia that makes me want Hello Kitty merchandise. The T Money card is used for transportation. There may be other uses, but you load money onto the card and you beep yourself in and out of subway stations and you can even use it to pay for taxi rides. I believe you can use it at convenience stores too, but I'm not too sure. The card cost 4,000won. You can also buy T Money cards in the form of cell phone charms. Technology here is really neat - some people have their cards in their cell phones!!
I needed to get my vitamins and since I have a really hard time swallowing pills of any size (I chew them all), I bought ones in gummy version today. They reek but taste alright. 2/day.
My hair feels like straw right now. I think it's because of the hair dryer.. it isn't ionic. I bought serum to coat/protect/shine my hair. I have no idea what it says so I only think it's serum... it does make my hair softer and smoother, though!
I bought stickers!! Aren't these cute? I plan to use them in my school agenda to motivate myself. "Study Hard!"
That is all.

Cell Phones

I've been spoiled by a full week of gorgeous (albeit cold) weather... and now it's drizzling... yet over 70% of the girls on campus continue to wear heels to class. I saw one person wear a sweatsuit today, though... an extremely rare sight!

How to buy a cell phone in Korea

Cell phones in Korea are a big deal and an absolute necessity. Anyone who is anyone has a cell phone. In 2002, over 85% of unemployed had a cell phone! I don't think one could even survive in this city without one. You see kids as old as 10 walking around, cell phone in hand...... every third person on the subway is either texting or watching live TV on their phones (it was quite a funny sight - I wished I had taken a picture of it). Cell phones in Korea (Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan, too) are generally more advanced in design and function than in North America but don't think about bringing one home. Korean cell phones work on a different mobile network (CDMA) than those in North America (GSM) so I wasn't able to use my LG Shine candybar even though it's a Korean brand. On our 3rd day in Seoul, our KUBA buddies helped us get a cell phone. All of group 8 took the subway to the Digital Specialty Store in I'PARK mall (the biggest shopping complex in Korea).
This store is "wow". I was so overwhelmed at all the electronics! There were 8 or 9 floors and each floor specialized in a certain item: cameras, camcorders, mp3 players, dvd players, laptops, electronic dictionaries, or cell phones... hundreds of models all displayed in brightly lit (and frequently wiped) glass cases. Within each massive floor was at least 30 almost identical businesses selling pretty much the same things at different prices. (I couldn't help but think of all the electricity they were using up to keep this building open!)Our group visited about 4 or 5 random shops. We were all shopping for cheap, 2nd hand cell phones as most of us were only staying in Korea for a few months. The cheapest and most basic used cell phone was 30,000w (approx $25CDN). This one shop had a brand new cell phone the size of my thumb for 30,000w but I didn't get it as I knew it would easily get lost in my bag and would be hard to text with. I had my heart set on this sleek CYON slider cell phone that looked practically new for 80,000w but I couldn't let myself to pay that much. Finally, one of the buddies found this shop that had about 10 brand new KTF cell phones for 50,000w (about $42CDN) each!
Within 10 minutes, we cleaned them out and all happily went home with what is now known as the KUBA phone. Because we all bought from the same shop, we got to choose the last 4 digits of our number and they threw in free battery chargers (which you'd think would be included but no... even Sheena's 250,000w cell phone didn't come with one)!

It's pretty basic for a Korean phone but I think it's still pretty neat. It has mp3, camera (1.3mp), and video functions, alarm, games, and a simple built-in Korean-English dictionary.
Oh that reminds me - I need to find a cell phone charm to distinguish my cell from all other KUBA phones. I find cell charms to be so girly... yet I've noticed that so many guys have something long (and sometimes furry) hanging off their phone haha

So all our cell phones are on a prepaid plan with no hook up or monthly fees. We have to go to a KTF store (they're everywhere) to put money in it. Incoming calls and texts are free and it costs 2 cents CDN for each text you send so we all text each other. However, their number/txtpad is a bit different than North American ones as they take the Q and Z out and place it under the "1".

Cell phones are heavily celebrity-endorsed: TOP from Big Bang and Kim Tae Hee (an actress) for Cyon's Ice Cream phone.
For the older generation.. the sophisticated Wine cell.
While we were waiting for everyone to sign their contract, Yejin, my KUBA buddy showed Lavin and me the 2 faces of King Se-Jong (the guy who invented hangul, the Korean Alphabet) on the 10,000 bill.15 minutes before we left, Yejin and I checked out the electronic dictionaries. A lot of the Koreans recommend I buy one. Since I'm a beginner, I didn't need a fancy one so I ended up grabbing the Nurian for 90,000w (10,000 less than the neighbouring shop). I'm pretty impressed - it has an English dictionary and thesaurus, a slang dictionary, an English, Korean, and Japanese idiom dictionary, and it translates between Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and English. You can also put in your schedule and make it remind you of dates among many other things.
Mami bought the neatest multi-language dictionary for 300,000w. It's in colour, is touch screen, and you can go on the internet and watch TV on it in HD, too!

So yes -- these are my 2 newish "toys". I plan to go back to check out the other stores in the I'PARK complex as well as buy a laptop =)