Awkward

So the phone in my dorm just rang and I got scared but I picked it up anyway cos what if it was important?!
But the person on the other line obviously just started speaking Korean, and I was like "omg I don't even....what is happening is this a telemarketer" and it probably was but I said in Korean "Do you speak English?" And she said something and then said Thank you and i was like " sorry..." and she just laughed and hung up
aaahhh....yeahh..... :P

Tired...

maaannnn....waking up for 8am korean class was a struggle, lemme tell ya. And to top things off..i'll have to do the same thing tomorrow. In fact, we have 8am-10:45am Korean classes every week, monday through thursday.
I don't really mind though, if it means I'm learning and improving my Korean :) I just really like learning languages I guess.
OH but story time. So, I"m realizing that while Seoul is amazing and great and interesting and damn cool, Ewha university....is a bit overrated. The make this big deal about how great the school is, and I'm sure it is great...if you're Korean, maybe.
The administration and school system seems really inflexible and unaccommodating for exchange students. I've heard stories already of people not being able to take classes they NEED for their major because the professor let Ewha students sign up first. They're also really slow and inefficient at organizing things and running things efficiently. Like, they ALWAYS take days to reply to emails, and sometimes don't reply at all. They're also scarily late at putting up important things like CLASS SCHEDULES and info for HOUSING?! Like...why?! grrrr.....
Another example....I went to my Korean class this morning, and it soon became apparent that something wasn't right. The classes are supposed to have maybe 10-15 people, and soon about 30 people were trying to fit into the classroom, and standing at the back. The teacher was really nervous and did a pretty good job of handling it, but she called the office to get someone to figure out what the scheduling conflict had been, and they never sent anyone. We wasted like an hour filling time with introductions, and then learning the alphabet (which half of us already knew) until she decided to look online at everyone's level, and confirmed who was supposed to be in that beginning class. Then the rest of us finally went to the hallway and met another teacher and walked to a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT BUILDING and finally started our actual class, appropriate to our level. Ha, great job Ewha....great job at organizing your students...
Ah well, it was all good, I like our class, and the most difficult thing I've got to do so far is memorize vocab I don't already know.
Another good thing was that I talked to my parents, checked my email correspondence with Beloit, and then talked to the Global Affairs Office and it looks like my tuition is being sorted out *phew!*
Still a bit of a stressor, but I'm pretty sure Ewha and Beloit will figure out how to get their money sorted out...

Ah, another bit of sad news...Me and some friends were trying to get tickets to GD's One Of A Kind concert here, which went on sale today and tomorrow, but since the concert tour is sponsored by Gmarket, we couldn't buy tickets without an account--and when we tried to make an account, it needed our Alien Registration number, which we won't be getting for another few weeks! :( 
We were Heartbroken

But I figure 1. we might be able to try again tomorrow...2. There will be other concerts during the time we're here that we'll hopefully be able to go to 3. As my friends pointed out, its sponsored by Gmarket, and an 8 and up concert sooo...it has to be family-friendly which sadly means probably no cussing in That XX and No GD taking off his shirt ;__;

Heheh in all seriousness though, it's a bit sad, but we're having a great time anyway :) and we'll find fun stuff to do and maybe run into our favorite celebrities at any time...It IS Seoul after all ^_^

Love you all!

more complaining

I always seems to stress out the most over what choices I make. I'm so worried that I'll end up making the wrong choice and ruining whatever great experiences were waiting for me had I made another decision. In the current case, I'm worried about what classes I'm taking. I'm definitely in three classes: Korean, korean cultural heritage, and Diversity in Language and Culture. I think those three classes will be a good balance and a moderate and manageable workload.
...
But there's two other classes that I could take as well.... one on The World and Christianity, and another on Korean Aesthetics. I ended up skipping going to World and Christianity, which had the first intro class today, because I think it's the type of class I can get at Beloit or through other means,and it seemed like it focused on a more academic understanding of the religion. Plus I figure, hey, most of the reading is from the Bible anyway, and I kept the course syllabus so I can do some self study too, and I don't want to overburden myself with the workload that it seems to have. But then...I think, if I had gone, and if I did sign up for it, what kind of experiences would I have had? Would I have made close friends? Would anything about my faith have changed? Would I simply have been stressing out more because of the workload that was not my first priority in comparison to more important classes?
And Korean Aesthetics is on Thursday, and I'm still debating if I should go to it and see what it's like or not... I suppose I should... But then I'm afraid I'll like it too much and then definitely have a bigger workload! And I definitely don't want too much work this semester because I REALLY want to concentrate on learning Korean, and I don't want to fall behind on it or devote less attention to it than it deserves.
:/
I'm so conflicted.....

p.s. I suppose I could always go to the wednesday class for the world and christianity class...and tell the prof that I didn't know if I wanted to take it or not... -__- I do not like being indecisive.
P.s.s. I've thought about it a bit, and I think I'm ok with the decision I made. That is, not going to world and christianity, and visiting korean aesthetics to see if its something I'd like... but still, being indecisive and dwelling on my choices SUCKS :(
I'm gonna go eat now, that should cheer me up. 

Grrr

I went to the Shinhan bank at Ewha today to try to figure out how I'm supposed to pay them the tuition...They're not flexible or accommodating at all. For one thing, they only want to have the tuition paid in cash or through a personal transfer, which isn't gonna happen unless I can get Beloit to wire me the money... Also for a school with a pretty big international student population, there were no good english speakers there. They had to put me on a phone with a teller at another branch who spoke better english. I can understand that not everyone is gonna know english here, but for a bank branch INSIDE a campus with hundreds of english speakers coming in each semester? It's just annoying.... :/
So I had to email Beloit, and now I'm waitingggggg for a reply... I hate the time difference at times like these.

I guess in more positive news, I somehow successfully was able to scan and upload a form using a computer that was only in korean... That was quite a puzzle :P

And I attended my first class today: Understanding Korean Cultural Diversity

It seems like it'll be fun and interesting. My next class is tomorrow morning: Korean language. Still waiting for update as to where the class will actually be held. This whole week is registration week so everything's a bit sketchy and nerve-wracking...
My other class is an online course, and I still need to figure out exactly how that's gonna work, but I'll snoop around and see what info I can find.

... i'm just really tired and have no energy left and i think i might just chill for the rest of the night if i can...
Love youse!

First Kpop album and more engrish

Went to another mall today to get school supplies. It was too crowded, though, so I instead bought some things for my room and for fun...
We went into Hot Tracks and holy crap I was flipping out at finally seeing kpop being sold and advertised openly ^__^ I wanted to buy everything! There was not only kpop, also jpop as well as drama OSTs and music you'd find in a shop in America, like soundtracks and pop. I couldn't choose what to buy at first, since the cd's are so much cheaper here than in the US. I nearly bought the BigBang ALIVE cd set, but then I found GD's One of a Kind album for only 20,000 won ($20) and I hadn't downloaded the songs yet so obvi I HAD to get it :P dunno if i'm a fan of the bible-y album design tho....

maybe a bit pretentious, GD...

I'm listening to the album as I write this :P

 Even though we weren't supposed to take pictures inside the store...I was super stealthy and snapped a few pics of SHINee and Jae Joong! Shinee's Dream Girl was also playing on a tv in the store

So that was fun! There was also an Art Box store there, so I shopped around there and bought adorable slippers and some other cute stuff. ALMOST bought a magazine with Kim Bum and band like Beast and Teen Top in it...but I didn't know the price and figured I'd be able to buy another mag later...
BTW Kim Bum's new movie Psychometry looks really cool and I want to see it....

Uh..here's some more food pics, cos I love all the food here...

Crabmeat cream Omelet (omelet with rice, with salad and kimchi on side)

Street food! More heodokk

deep fried with cinnamon and nuts inside

a friend's bibimbap

After shopping we headed back to campus, and recharged until dinner, which was delicious. Didn't take pics cos it was just fried rice and bibimbap and stuff. Then we just walked around the street shops some more since we still wanted to check out a few things to get before classes tomorrow. We found some nice cheap shirts and a few had AWESOME Engrish! 

What is this I don't even....

"Just only good things are going to heaven"

 Sooo yeah.....I bought a sweater that I HOPE fits me...it should, its super big but....hmm... Also getting good ideas for souvenirs, from looking at all the shops around here... :D

Well, gotta go sleep now, have to get up early tomorrow to register for classes online...then GO to my first classes! Eek! I'm actually a bit nervous...I really really hope I can work everything out with the bank here to get tuition paid, since I only have a week to pay it. Then I need to decide if I want to take 3, 4, or 5 classes...Three is required, and I don't wanna overburden myself with work since 1. I think Korean class is gonna take a LOT of my time, since its pretty intensive study, and 2. I want to enjoy my time here and not have to spend hours doing work for too many classes... :/ Yeah, so my plan is just to visit the two extra classes I'm thinking about and keep them if I think I REALLY like them. Otherwise...I'll just drop em.
Phew....keep me and my friends here in your prayers! We need it! ALSO my friends abroad! They need prayers too! You know I'm always thinkin' bout y'all!
Love you all!
<3

 

jjimdak and ramen

Hey y'all, not much to say about today, just more food pictures :P First up we have Jjimdalk, which was made of vermicelli noodles, chicken, potatoes, dumplings and sweet potatoes. REALLY YUMS! Even though the restaurant at first seemed a little sketch cos we had to go down these really narrow steps..but it was all good from there!

pre-cooked

So...beautiful...

 Then OH YEAH crap then yeah me and Jo--- had to meet up with our PEACE buddies and some other exchange students so we could go get phones that would use korean sim cards, so we could text and stuff in-country. It was the first time (for me) using the subway here! Not too bad, apparently there's a nice subway map app, and also a handy card you use to get on the subway and refill with money whenever, and transfers are free. And luckily it wasn't too crowded today, so not too much sardine-packing... :P
Finally got to the mall area and went up too many escalators to get to this huuuge floor just filled with phone shops. We were at the used phone shop for hours, it kinda sucked. I was sad cos I can't use a korean sim card in my iphone, so I had to buy a cheapy flip phone to use in korea. Sadly it had to be extra cheapy cos I forgot to bring extra money, sooo the only phone I could afford was a little 20,000 won ($20) flip phone. But I don't really care cos all i'll use it for anyway is texting people I meet here. (Unless I end up paying slightly less for no-contract wifi? I need to look into this...It might be worth it, but might not...I still wouldn't be able to text people here unless they had KakaoTalk... very frustrating, trying to figure all this out)
Sooo yeah, finally got outta there and headed back to Ewha.
Then it was getting close to dinner time, so had to check facebook to make dinner plans and we all met up, with couple new people too (^_^) and went to look for somewhere cheap and warm to eat. We kinda wanted ramen, but the So-oh ramen shop that was recommended was teensy tiny, so we ate at a rice ball shop instead! Holy spitballs, it was good. Most of us got a ramen set, where you get a bowl of ramen and a $2 riceball comes with it. I got a regular mild ramen and a tuna-kimchi rice ball...

 Even though it was "mild" ramen, all of us had runny noses and burning lips while we ate this >_< Someday...someday I'll get used to the spiciness!

Holy kimchi this riceball was good. I'm def going back

So yeah! That was my day, and tomorrow will be another adventure! We're gonna try to eat at the cafeteria tomorrow, cos its cheaper and still lots of food, but we gotta figure out how to use it first! Now I'm really tired and I just wanna lay down and digest...

 

 

P.S. apparently you can buy Korean-Boys here...? (yay!)

Dinner Adventure!

Me and my friends K and J (names shortened for some anonymity, unless they're ok with me using their names :P ) decided to go out for dinner tonight! We decided just to walk around until we found a nice place to eat. We wanted to go somewhere we could eat actual Korean food instead of you know, sandwiches or japanese food or something. Finally we came across this restaurant with some yummy looking Galbi dishes (marinated and grilled meat)....so we went inside and were seated at a table with a hole for the grill in the middle! YAY I always wanted to eat at a place like this, ever since seeing it in dramas and stuff! We ordered a galbi dish with vegetables...

fresh in the pan, pre-cooked...

Ready to eat! YUMMM!!! <3

At first we weren't sure if WE were supposed to stir it up, or if the server would come by and stir and cook it for us...but we soon found out that we didn't need to touch it at all cos it seemed like every time a server walked by they'd stir it up. Seriously, as soon as one server left another took their place like, 5 seconds later. There were also some side dishes you could optionally pick up, like kimchi (spicy cabbage), pickled radish, shredded lettuce, and cucumber sauce. I'll say that the meal dipped in the cucumber sauce was my personal favorite. The sauce really balanced out the spiciness of the galbi.
Another point of interest: the silverware and napkins were in a little drawer on the side of the table. Super convenient! They only had rice spoons and chopsticks, but that was fine with us :)

We decided to go shopping at some of the street shops on the way back. Bought my first souvenirs!! I won't tell what, cos one of them's a gift! I did get a cute ring though :) and I saw a couple stores I want to go back to once it's warmer and I bring more money. I almost bought some "leg wormers" though...maybe if it stays chilly I'll go back and buy them :P

Engrish is wonderful

These super creepy guys stared at us while we waited to cross the street... >_<

My friends bought bookbags, and we had a good time identifying various Kpop songs playing in the stores, but after a while it got really cold and we decided to head back. We'll see what tomorrow brings! We're gonna meet up again and with a few other people go adventure around Seoul!
 Here's a few other pics I took today:

I thought this poster was a little funny

path to the dorms at sunset

sculpture things? On other side of path to dorms

See you tomorrow, my honeys!