Korean and Chuseok

Well, first off, I am taking one month off of Facebook. I started it about 4 days ago, so I'll be back on October 20th, or so.

I decided to take a break after I realized that I haven't been working hard enough at learning how to read/write Korean. I can read it al-right now, it just takes me a second it process the letters and such. Tomorrow when I go into school (It's Monday for me right now), I'm going to start reading The Great Gatsby in Korean. With my Korean dictionary in hand, I think that this will be a good start and I'm going to start working through other books I read before, in Korean, once I've completed this one. It will, hopefully, teach me a bit about Korean sentence structure, as well as teaching me new words and making my reading more fluent.



I've been out and about a lot lately, and one of the things I most enjoyed was going to a hiking park. It was absolutely breathtaking, and it felt nice to breathe some fresh air again. The smog has been really thick lately, and it was nice to escape it for a while.

Unfortunately, the fabulous day of climbing and hiking and fresh air was tarnished by my knack for losing things. My ipod is gone. I was, and still am, really upset with myself for not noticing its absence sooner, and since we went all over this really popular shopping district, as well as hiked the mountains I highly doubt I will ever see it again. My host parents have been in contact with the subway and bus lines, but they haven't found anything, and it's only a hope that I even lost it in one of those. it could've easily fallen out at the mountain, or on the street in the shopping district when I was rifling through my purse.

I cannot be more disappointed with myself for losing it, especially because I will not only have to feel terrible, I'm literally paying the consequences of being scatter-brained by having to buy a new music player with my limited allowance. Let's just say I'll probably be the poorest exchange student in the world for the month of October.

At least I know the lower I go, I higher the highs are going to seem. I have an amazing city, and an amazing trip to China to look forward to, and if I can't listen to music, I guess I'll have to talk more, and that means more learning.    

I know it will all work out and be amazing in the end.

Another bright spot on the near horizon is Chuseok, or the Korean Thanksgiving that is coming up this weekend. I get some school off, and I get to eat the most traditional foods for a weekend. Excited doesn't even describe it. I'm hoping I get to wear my hanbok again, too, because it is so pretty. 

One month in S. Korea!

I can't say it's all been good. I can't even say today has been perfect. But I feel like that's what it's all about. Having every day feel like it's home makes me realize how quickly I've slid into my Korean life. Although the language is still my biggest barrier and challenge, I know I've learned so much since I've been here. I knew I would learn a lot, but I don't think I could have ever imagined how much of an adventure every single day is. I will set out saying that I'm just going to class and then straight home, and end up utterly lost in the randomonium of Korea and not getting home until and hour before my curfew. Eating Korean food, exploring Korean stores, learning the Korean language, I couldn't imagine wanting to go home at this point, I can't imagine being anywhere else. all in all, this past month is amazing, and I'm happy that I have so many left to explore every nook and cranny of this gorgeous city and country.

Bug Bites, Postcards, and Fish Eating

  Just about two weeks ago I was laughing at my friend Rosa, who was scratching her leg after receiving what seemed like her billionth bug-bite, and now... let's just say I understand her pain now. I have amassed a grand total of 21 demon bites, and my hatred for the little buggers has increased substantially. On a positive note, I find it helps my vocabulary to describe how fed up I am with their existence ("But what purpose do they serve?!")...or maybe that's just my complete immersion in literature as of late.
     So far, in the past 12 days of school, I have inhaled The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Lovely Bones, The Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, The Foreign Exchange Survivor's Guide, and the first three books in the Harry Potter series, with the rest to be completed this next week, I expect. I really have nothing else to do in classes other than read and revise my Korean notes. I just can't keep up with the Korean curriculum yet, due to my lack of language training. However, with my Korean classes having started this Monday, I have made great leaps in reading. Once I learn the rest of the alphabet (there's no song, I'm afraid) then I'm going to re-read The Great Gatsby in Korean, I bought a copy with both versions, and then go from there.

    Not only have I kept busy with my reading, but I've also kept quite busy outside of school as well, This week I started Korean on Monday and then went out to a lovely little dinner with the other exchangers.

     Tuesday, school was cancelled because of city-wide testing, and we had no extra class, so I woke up an went to lunch with Rosa(US) and Myriam(Canada-the french part) at Gwangalli, a really pretty beach near Rosa's house, then the three of us went to Haeundae, another famous Busan beach, to meet Yasara(Germany) and almost all the other foreign exchange students for a little birthday celebration for Yasara! It was really fun, and both beaches were beautiful.

                              Wednesday we had another round of Korean classes, and then went to dinner again.

     Thursday, Myriam, Emilie(France), Mike(Canada-the English part), and I went to the Busan aquarium which was so fun! There were sharks, and I couldn't help but make Spongebob and Nemo references almost the whole time. There were belugas and jellyfish, and afterwards we went and ran around on Haeundae, which was really fun, since I love the beaches here so much!

   By Friday, I just went straight home after Korean class to sleep. Today (Saturday), I went to an International Travel Fair at BEXCO(top left), it was quite entertaining, and I picked up a lot of free food, including a dried little fish(bottom left). It took me like 5 minutes to finally eat the thing, and while I was eating it, it wasn't bad, but the aftertaste....let's just say I ran for some soda after that. I'm just proud I ate it, and also that I held it down.   I also got some free postcards there, and I plan on sending out some overdue mail.  
I get to climb and mountain tomorrow.

Hope everything stateside and worldwide is good!