We're Halfway There

This week marks the halfway point of my time in Korea. Which means I only have 2 months left. Which also means I have midterms. It’s a surreal feeling and also a wake-up call that we need to get out and do more. However, as you’ll see in this week’s recap, midterms have taken up a lot of our time.

October 9th

Sunday was a pretty relaxed day. The main thing on my list was meeting with my partner in Korea University’s Learning by Teaching Experience (LTE) Language Exchange Program! Basically, people who want to learn and practice their Korean or English can apply for the program, and KU matches you with another student with the opposite language you need (so I’m matched with someone who is fluent in Korean and wants to practice their English). We met up at a coffee shop to get to know each other and start our studying. My partner is awesome, she was super sweet and helpful. I felt kind of bad because her English is really good (despite her just starting to learn at the beginning of this year), and my Korean is definitely not at that level. However, we worked out a pretty good system where we alternated between her helping me pronounce my vocabulary words in Korean and then just casually talking in English. It was really nice being able to practice one-on-one so that I can improve my own pronunciation instead of saying words along with 20 other students. She also taught me a lot about what people actually say in casual conversations versus the more formal way we learn in class. Outside of learning Korean, it was cool to just get to know her and compare our experiences of being from South Korea and the United States. We’ve made plans to meet about every two weeks, which will definitely be helpful for my Korean midterms.

October 10th

Monday we had yet another day off, so we used it to catch up on our readings and homework for the upcoming week. It was also the beginning of the weather getting cold- especially at night. First of all, the sun now sets at like 5:50 PM, which feels wayyy too early. Second, the low is now pretty consistently in the 40s. So on this windy Monday night, waiting by a bus stop to go get dinner, I was bundled up in a long-sleeve, my thickest jacket (which to be fair isn’t all that thick), and a BEANIE. In October. I definitely took the like two weeks of nice, fall weather we had for granted. The Texan in me is woefully unprepared for just how cold it is going to get here by December.

Anyways, we headed to the area around Seoul National University Hospital to have dinner at Pizzeria’o. We ordered a Margherita pizza, a prosciutto arugula pizza, and some red wine. All of it was super tasty, even if the arugula pizza was basically a salad on pizza dough. To wrap up the night, we went across the street for gelato. My incredibly generous friend was gracious enough to give me the mini gelato cone that came with her. It was really good though.

October 11th

On Tuesday we returned to classes. In my Korean speaking class, we learned the second number system used in Korea. Basically, the native Korean system is used when counting items (how old you are, how many apples you want, etc.), and the Sino-Korean system is used for pretty much everything else. So we were now learning the native Korean system, which also requires counters following the numbers to identify what kind of item you’re talking about (but you still usually name the specific item before the number and counter). There is a neutral counter used for most items, but there are more specific counters for counting people, animals, cups, bottles, paper, and age to name a few. So if you were ordering at a cafe, the form would be coffee + one + cup counter, or 카피가 한 잔. It was a lot of information to take in, especially when I was still getting the hang of the Sino-Korean system.

After making my best attempt to learn the numbers in class, I grabbed a quick convenience store lunch and headed to Korean diplomacy. This week, Ambassador Young-Mok Kim was our guest speaker, a former ambassador to Iran, the U.S., and the UN, and the former president of the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). He discussed international development, the challenges it faces, and Korea’s role in it. Hearing the compounding implications of climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, global inflation, the war in Ukraine, and rising superpower competition was a bit daunting. However, it’s all incredibly important to be aware of, and hearing it all at once really impressed upon all of us the seriousness of these issues.

October 12th

Wednesday was an important day- my Alien Registration Card appointment! As exchange students staying for longer than a certain amount of days, we have to get an ARC within 90 days of our arrival. Having one also makes getting a bank account easier, is required for certain apps, gets you access to National Health Insurance, and allows you to leave Korea and return before it expires. If you fail to get your ARC or fill out a waiver within 90 days, you’re basically illegally in Korea, so it’s pretty important to get it squared away. That being said, I arrived at the nearest immigration office an hour early right after my first class finished. Despite a broken down payment system, I was still able to finish with enough time to rush to my next class with one minute to spare.

After the stress of the appointment and getting to classes on time, my friends and I went to our favorite comfort spot for dinner- what we refer to as the green grass place (surprise, it’s because they have green grass out front). We all ordered the dumpling ramen, which, as always, was delicious. We then headed to Waffle Alley (whose slogan happens to be ‘Belgium waffle mania’- waffles be going crazy there apparently) for dessert. Ironically, we didn’t get waffles but strawberry gelato shakes that did not disappoint. Eventually, I’ll have to return and figure out what the mania is all about.

October 13th

On Thursday after classes, my friend and I made a landmark purchase for our time in Korea- KU letterman jackets. This is usually a thing in high school back in the states, but almost everyone buys one here, and they look DOPE. Especially with the weather getting colder, it’s nice to have a thicker jacket- feeling super cool when you wear it is just a plus.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/e52874_3bb3d1eb0b564afa9bf08cef04019da7/720p/mp4/file.mp4

For lunch, we grabbed caesar chicken salad wraps from Salady after realizing we were severely lacking in our intake of vegetables. For dinner, we returned to Darling Steak for bacon cream pasta and cubed brisket (which may sound weird but is actually so good).

October 14th

On Friday, my friend and I spent most of our day in a cafe that just opened called ‘The First Penguin’ studying for midterms. It was so cute inside, with lots of penguin decorations as the name suggests. My Korean midterm flashcard set has 250 vocabulary words in it. And that’s not including the two number systems I also need to memorize. Thankfully, I already know a good amount of the terms, but it is still so much to fit in my brain. For a late lunch/dinner, my friend and I went to KFC. We had been craving chicken tenders (specifically Canes for me), so we figured KFC was our best option. It was pretty good, but I miss my dipping sauces back home. Finally, a little later, I met up with some friends for ice cream and did a fun little photo booth (which are everywhere).

October 15th

Saturday I let myself sleep in and got a late start after a long week of studying. I met up with some friends for lunch at a Korean restaurant that for the life of me I can’t find on the maps anywhere. Which is very unfortunate because I had some of the most amazing fried potstickers. That I also neglected to take a picture of. If you can’t tell, I was slacking on my photography this week. After some more studying, my friend and I ventured to McDonald's (I know I know I’m having a lot of non-Korean food, but in my defense, my throat is still sensitive from my tonsillitis, so I can’t take any gambles with spicy food right now). We both got the fried chicken sandwiches and fries, which is probably the saltiest food we’ve been able to find here. On our walk back to the dorms, we ran into a crew filming on the main street. It was a whole production- large high-tech cameras, people wearing earpieces and speaking into walkie-talkies, a huge boom mic- the works. We joined the small crowd watching them organize the scene, which was basically some dude running around with his laptop. We have no idea what they were filming for, but if you see some K-drama scene like that outside an Ediya coffee shop, we were there.

October 16th

On Sunday, we once again got a late start. This week was full of late nights studying so sleeping in was only fair. For lunch, we went to Tratar, one of the few somewhat Mexican places in the area. I ordered the bacon and egg burrito in honor of it being my first meal of the day, and it was so good. We then wandered around to find a new study spot for the rest of the day. First, we tried this comic and novel cafe which looked really cozy, but we think you had to pay just to be there, and we decided to return another day. Finally, we landed at Pause Cafe, where I got the best iced vanilla latte I’ve had here so far. We probably spent like 4-5 hours working there, and then had a quick ramen dinner at the CU near the dorms.

October 17th

This Monday breaks the beautiful pattern of days off- there are no more days off left in the semester. I was definitely spoiled by having 4 day weekends and probably didn’t take advantage of them enough. After my first class, I went to Left Coffee to do some reading. I got an avocado bacon panini and iced vanilla coffee. I really enjoyed the chill vibe inside and was grateful for the shelter from the cold weather outside. That night, my friend and I returned to Benares Curry House for their amazing butter chicken curry and naan. I can confirm that it is still incredible the second time around.

57 Days Later

It is absolutely crazy that two months have already passed. It has definitely brought a sense of panic that we really need to get back on our exploring game. However, midterms (which basically count for half of your grade here) have been occupying much of our attention. Regardless, it’s pretty cool to see how much I’ve accomplished and been able to do here. Thinking about the plane ride here feels like a year ago. This is apparently around the time most study abroad students hit a low, where the adrenaline fades, and everything isn’t as new and exciting. While I definitely can tell my energy levels aren’t the same as when I first got here, and I do miss my friends and family back home, I also wouldn’t call it a low. I am still loving my time here and am ready to continue taking advantage of how long I have left.