I’ve lost track again of what has been going on, so this will be highlights and pictures. And not necessarily in order. Ha ha. Blogger fail. OH WELL ๐Ÿ˜‰

 

Ice cream on the roof with a friend. To be more specific, “congratulatory ice cream.” #foreshadowing

The teeniest, tiniest moon.

Graduation Day. There’s usually a handful of people actually graduating from the program. This time there were two students. So, we listen to a speech from the University President, one student from each level gives a little presentation, there’s a slideshow montage from all the classes, usually a k-pop dance and sometimes a taekwon-do exhibit (cuz the university offers classes in those two things). This is my Mon-Wed-Fri teacher and my class. She was a doll and a really good teacher.

This is my class and my Tue-Thur teacher’s (photo right, next to me) class.

This is sweet Lin saying YOU FINALLY PASSED! And me saying I FINALLY PASSED! Cuz I finally passed! One year and four Korean One classes later, I have PASSED. What a RELIEF! I had pretty much come to terms with not passing time after time, as long as immigration kept extending my visa, that was the most important thing. But what a good feeling and RELIEF to finally have PASSED! #hencecongratulatoryicecream

My sideways grades, not as good as the midterms but…Reading: 73, Writing: 76, Listening: 78, Speaking: 89! Overall class average 81! I am SO freaking proud of myself. As you all know, I have REALLY struggled. And there have been just non-stop challenges and distractions (emotional and physical), but. BUT. I did it.

I’m excited to finally have a new book! I know Korean 2 is going to be a LOT harder then Korean 1, but I’m also excited to finally learn some new stuff!!!

Slow. Don’t worry, it’s the only speed I got.

We got flowers for the teachers.

Truly a rare find – trash cans on the street. This is not a myth.

The Yakult Lady. Yakult is a little yogurt drink, the ladies fill up their motorized freezer carts in the morning and then sit out on the sidewalk selling their yogurt and protein drinks.

From the time I first started thinking about coming to Korea, I’ve wanted to get a tattoo to commemorate my time here but can never think of quite the right symbol. I know it sounds a little weird, but I actually really like the design of the manhole covers and am thinking that could maybe be it. If you didn’t know what it was, you’d just think it was an abstract circular design with the word Seoul. But each area has their name on them…so I think it could be cool to have “my” dong’s manhole cover design and name as a tattoo. Nothing is confirmed yet, it’s just a thought.

Test Day 1: Reading, Writing, Listening

Treated myself to a scent diffuser. “Sweet solitude is a subtle scent.” Haha ha ha ha.

Lunch with a friend.

I got mail! #thanksjodi

shadows

Verb endings with the “ใ„น” exception. Meaning, when “ใ„น” is the bottom character of a syllable block and is followed by certain letters in the next syllable block, it can change to a different letter. Many letters have these exceptions. #notconfusingATALL ;-\

Sometimes you just want the familiar flavors of home. Korean McDonalds does have a lot of Korea specific things on the menu, but…a quarter pounder with cheese is a quarter pounder with cheese (well, except for the mustard, but I know that’s a US regional thing anyway).

Cat trying to be a cool cat on a disgustingly humid day.

Sunset sky through the screen.

Oh, and one last thing cuz I never know if videos are going to embed correctly…but on our last class day we had this roleplay assignment. We we were randomly paired with another student (this was Senna from Japan), randomly assigned a topic (ours was weather), we had 30 minutes to prepare a dialogue on the topic, then another 30 minutes to memorize it (THIRTY MINUTES TO MEMORIZE?!? THAT IS NOT A THING!), then we presented it in front of the class. It’s a little hard to hear but…this is me haltingly speaking Korean ๐Ÿ™‚

 

So, yeah, those are the highlights of the past week-and-a-half. It was a LOT of studying, I started my new job, my tutor and I had a little spat, it’s still a million degrees and million percent humidity out but the everyday rain has stopped…and NOW…I am on a THREE WEEK VACATION. I have a little solo trip planned for next week…and some day trips and activities in mind both by myself and with other people. And a lot of just resting and relaxing because this past term has been very draining both emotionally and physically. This term was double-friend-betrayal, hospital procedure, and month-long catheter from hell.

NEXT TERM WILL BE BETTER.

See ya next week.