Brown Koreans

Two Saturdays ago, the Brown Club of Korea hosted a Brown Gathering at the Seoul Club in central Seoul. A country club of sorts, the Seoul Club seems to be one of the premier social clubs in Korea for people (especially foreigners) who have so much money they don't know what to do with it. In order to join, one has to be invited by two current members, then pay an initiation fee of 50,000,000 won, or about $40,000.

The Brown Gathering was attended primarily by current students, as well as incoming freshmen and recent and old alums. The Club President kicked things off by welcoming the freshmen and congratulating them on getting in, since only 20 or so Koreans got in out of hundreds who applied. He added that even Emma Watson from "Harry Potter" decided to go to Brown, because "it's the place where dreams come true."

Next, we all went around the room and introduced ourselves- just like orientation except it was all in Korean. I basically said, "I'm Cameron. I don't speak Korean. Thank you." On the other end of the spectrum, Pauline gave a spiel about World Vision and the work that she's doing and ended by telling everyone to "follow their dreams" (in English, thankfully).

Initially, I was excited that the servers were bringing out Mexican food, but i was sorely disappointed once said food reached my mouth. The guacamole hit the spot, but the enchilada was about the size of my fist and tasted pretty bad. Maybe they were trying to prepare the freshmen for the Ratty.

We were able to meet a good number of freshmen, and it was almost surreal hearing them express their nervousness at going to Brown, asking where the good places to eat are, and what cell phone service to use. Jihoon and I met a freshman who was even loopier than Julia (in a good way) and who seemed interested in joining CHC.

As the gathering drew to a close, we deliberated as to whether or not to stop by a famous bakery in the area. Wonhoe was hesitant to go, as he'd seen reports that the bakery had unsanitary conditions, but one of the K friends objected, as it was owned by his family friends. With this assurance, we decided to try our luck.

The bakery has been around since before the Korean War, so it's one of the older buildings in Seoul. Even the inside of the place seemed out of place in present day Seoul, rather, it struck me as fitting in better in pre-Communist China.

we weren't allowed to take pictures inside (for fear of exposing the unsanitary conditions)

Wonhoe and Pauline took off from there, and Jihoon and I headed over to the COEX area. Along the way, we took a brief tour of Jihoon's old high school, then stopped at the Buddhist temple across from COEX.

Finally, we stopped off at COEX for a round of Korea's national pasttime, a game of Starcraft.