Over Two Months Gone

Hello again! Thanks for continuing to check my blog! I have quite to catch you up on considering I haven't written in a few weeks. Here we go :0 The week I went to Samcheongdong with Lucy, I also went to this place called Myeongdong with some friends to purchase some winter items for the cold weather. In the evenings lately, it's been in the 40s (soon to be 30s)! I got a warm coat, beige hat and a green scarf - all are really thick! Really random, but I also participated in a linguistics study and made 20,000 won for my time = more spending money :) On the 8th, we had our first meeting with North Korean refugee students as part of the BACK Project, and it was really fun. We played games at the Yonsei auditorium to get to know each other and then, we went to the Han River to watch the Annual Fireworks show. It was the most beautiful display I've ever seen! This past Saturday we met with the students again, but focused our time on teaching an English lesson & of course, played the human knot game.

Last week was eventful as well. I had my first paper due in my education class as well as an hour-long presentation on a forty page chapter. It was an experience I never had before, but I am happy I did well. It has been really wonderful to see the intense effort my Korean classmates put into their presentation work. It has really been a strong motivator for me to do my best and be a confident public speaker. I am also happy to say I had the opportunity to play tennis last weekend & am looking forward to another match this Sunday.

This past Monday, my friend Penny and I went to Hongdae after Korean class to search for this Japanese Ramyeon place called Menya Saidame. It took forever to find the place because of my poor sense of direction, but after asking many locals and using Penny's iPad, we finally made it & boy was it worth all the walking! The broth was delicious, as were the pork, noodles and onions inside :) Penny and I were in heaven haha. We also paired our meal with some sake which made the soup and gyoza all the better. Tuesday night, I spent the evening out to celebrate my friend's birthday, but ever since then have been preparing for midterms and such. The picture above is from Tuesday night with friends.

I had my first midterm today in Korean, listening and reading comprehension. Tomorrow I have an 8 minute interview/speaking test (a little nerve-racking) and then Monday, we conclude with the writing test. I've been working on my history midterm (essay) and intend to finish tomorrow. Then all I have left is a paper for my cinema class discussing historical remembrance in two films, A Single Spark & Sopyonjae and education exam. Needless to say, I will be doing a lot of studying this weekend. Hope everyone is doing well! Two months have passed, and there's only two more to go before Christmas and home.