Korean history
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Dokdo is our land
Dokdo island (internationally known as the Liancourt rocks) is a small island group situated in the East Sea between Korea and Japan. Ask any Korean, who Dokdo island belongs to and they will tell you that it’s their land or in Korean, “독도는 우리땅”, (Dokdo-neun uri-ddang). If you ask a Japanese about Dokdo, you’ll likely…
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48 hours in Jeju Island
After three years in Korea I finally (!) made it to Jeju Island, which is located south of the mainland peninsula. It’s not that I have not wanted to go earlier, but being a lousy driver I needed someone willing and able to drive to go with me in order to go and come back…
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Saju – Korean fortune telling
Yesterday I tried visiting a saju cafe for the first time in my life. Before I delve into my experience, let me just briefly explain what saju means. Saju, in Korean 사주 and in Chinese characters 四柱, literally means ‘four pillars’. In this case, these four pillars are determined by your four birth numbers: the year, the…
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The Korean national anthem
Wow, it apparently took me almost two weeks of 2018 before I finally got around to updating my blog. Happy (very belated) new year. I also just realized that I can celebrate my 3-year anniversary with my blog this January. I feel like so much has happened in that time. So, with the arrival of…
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Introducing the Koreans: Korean ajusshis
I’m now through my midterms at Sogang, and it’s time for the fourth and final installment of my “introducing the Koreans” series. This time, I’ll be dealing with the Korean ajusshis and I’ve promised my friend Jonson from Spongemind to go easy on them, haha. I’m not sure Jonson quite fits into this category, though.…
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My Gyeongju getaway and semester start at Sogang
Since last weekend was the last weekend before the new semester, I spontaneously suggested to my husband that we go to Gyeongju in the south-eastern part of the country for a weekend getaway. Well, if you can really call finally getting your lazy butt out of the greater Seoul area after 7 months of living…
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My very first Korean historical drama
I’ve just finished the last episode of The Princess’s Man (공주의 남자) and I’m so happy that I stuck to this one all through the end. I’ve never allowed myself to really give in to the temptation of Korean historical dramas until now, for fear of learning anything but contemporary Korean. However, with plenty of…
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The good or the bad Korea?
Whenever I tell people that I’m about to move to Korea for a year, it happens more often than not that I get “witty” reactions along the lines of: “Oh, to North Korea?” or “Really, are you moving to the good or the bad Korea?”. I’ve slowly learned to avoid these awkward moments by just…
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Humbled by history
Yesterday my husband and I had the honor of attending the official opening of the Jutlandia Hall exhibit at the Korean Embassy in Copenhagen. The hall is a tribute to the hospital ship “Jutlandia”, which was sent as humanitarian aid by the Danish government to the war-torn Korean peninsula in 1951. Of all the great…
Sofie to Korea 