Today was the beginning of the 3-day long Add-Drop Period. I desperately needed to get into classes because I was below the minimum amount of credits. I actually overslept till about 11am and the registration opened at 8am so I was a bit nervous.
But, I logged in and almost every class had a spot in it. Some classes had up to 17 spots!! All this time I was worrying about not getting into any classes but the Add-Drop really saved me!
So with that done, I headed to my first class, Kumdo! Kumdo is the Korean word for Kendo, Japanese sword-fighting. I was a bit nervous because I wasn’t sure where the classroom was and such. It took me about 30 minutes to find the sports complex, thank goodness I left early ^^
The class is in a small gym, almost looking like a dance studio with a mirror wall. The only thing is that the walls are lined with swords, spears, a giant drum, and at least 50 to 70 small trophies.
We removed our shoes before walking in. I honestly wasn’t sure of the protocol but I followed how this guy in front of me. Studying abroad is a lot of just observing and reenacting. I placed my sneakers on the shelf and sat cross-legged at the back, again better for observing.
The teacher started talking to me, beginning with asking if I knew Korean. I heard that and answered that I could speak a little. However, because of the echo in the gym, the other questions I had a hard time hearing and so another foreigner girl would turn around and repeat them for me. Normally in America, that would have been totally embarrassing, but when studying abroad, embarrassment fails to exist.
Anyways, class was very informal and fun. The teacher promised to work us hard and give us blisters. TT My baby soft hands will be no more, he’ll make sure of that… We do need to buy a shinai from a sports store.. I’ll have to find one this weekend..
After that, I grabbed lunch, udong and gunmandu, and we met with our friend Changhan. It was for a short time but was a nice break. I took a quick nap before Korean class, I’m totally tired now a days… But I still don’t sleep early ><
The Korean class was two hours long and it was INTENSE. We started off with reading a passage and we basically had to listen to the teacher read the passage and just repeat based off our memory.
We had a 10 minute break and then she went into explaining the new vocabulary in Korea. And she talks really really quickly. I mean, I guess its good for us in the long run but we literally just jumped off a cliff and into Korean class. The isn’t a lot of hw but that’s probably going to change soon. I can see it’s really intensive…
At night, we went out with my roommate’s CIEE group to get dinner. We walked for maybe 15-30 minutes before finding this place. One word, disappointing. We ordered tuna kimchi jjigae and they placed bowls of rice in front of us before bringing the pot of soup later.
The soup was relatively bland.. Even the kimchi jjigae in the states had more flavor. The tuna was small and not very abundant but the tofu was good. It came to about 4,000 won (4$) a person, which may not look bad. But for 4,000 won, we could have had a really satisfying meal, easily. Additionally, we had to pay extra for the rice. I still can’t figure out if that was because we were a group of foreigners or what, but I’ve never paid for rice in Korea. Ever.
There was one Korean girl who dominated most of the ordering and such which I really disliked. I mean, I came to Korea to learn and speak and live, not to have some pretentious Korean do it for me. Even if it was to be helpful, I didn’t like that at all. Like let me try to experience something please. That would be really helpful. That dinner experience really solidified my feelings that I don’t like being around large groups of foreigners. I think on my own or with 2 other people, we’ve found lovely places with great service and delicious food. Nothing that I saw here.
Dinner had me (and a couple other girls) feeling a bit annoyed so we went to get waffles~~!! Those waffles really do the trick and I had mine down before we even left the stand >< We stopped at the combini for some soft serve ice cream too. Only 1,000 won (1$) and the chocolate ice cream is amazing~! It tastes like real chocolate… Almost like it was made from a chocolate bar! No artificial bleh.
Over all, the day was nice with the exception of dinner. Also, I finally found out where there is this all you can eat bbq, so I hope to take my friend who is visiting from Suwon there ^^ But first, I want to go just to be sure of the quality and atmosphere and such.
