First snow

Today was the first snow in Korea! I hear it was in the 70s back in VA..... sigh. But still, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. The sidewalks were very slippery (only a fraction were actually salted, and only in the morning before class), but I walked carefully and managed to not fall on my butt. Still, it was very pretty!


My walk to the bus stop in Daehakdong.



The view just on the other side of the SNU's Museum of Art (MoA), a bus accident, and the language buildings
(see previous post for a snow-free view).

The third day of class was more of the same. The final alphabet lesson. I'm already well beyond this, but it's good to have pronunciation practice.

It continued to snow all during class, finally letting up about 4:30pm. Class ends at 5:30pm, so at least we didn't have to walk home in the snow (like I had to walk to class while it was snowing, so I ended up covered in snow.... though that's still less wet than the rain we had on Tuesday 12/4).



By this point, the sun had set 30 minutes ago... but there was still some lingering sun to make these pictures pretty.

I went to dinner with Isabella (from Brazil) again. She lives a floor below me, so it's convenient, plus we seem to get along well. It turns out she's 28 as well -- her birthday is in January '84, so she's actually older than me! But still, as far as Korean rules, we're close enough in age to forgo the formalities and be "equals." Obviously, because we're foreigners, these rules don't necessarily apply anyway, but when in Rome..... so it's nice to have someone as old as I am, and yet the same age, so I can act comfortably.
Because it was cold out, we decided to go to Mapo Galmaegi on our street, that I went to with Rui over the weekend. You cook your own food over a charcoal fire (they bring in 3-5 pieces of hot charcoal to cook over... we were there for over an hour, and the pieces they brought us remained hot for the duration). We started with the go-to samgyeopsal (fatty but tasty), then we were still hungry, so we tried the namesake galmaegi (pork from between the diaphragm and midriff). I've heard about "service" for foreigners before, but this was my first time experiencing it! We got a free bottle of Coca-Cola, and a free half serving of some super-spicy meat. I wanted to ask what it was, but by the time the waiter came back, we'd eaten it all. ^^ (There was a buzzer to call the waiter at our table, but neither of us wanted to use it.) We also had 2 bottles of soju total, each of us pouring for the other. It almost felt like an actual Korean situation -- as that is how it's done here (you never pour a drink for yourself). But it's really, really nice to have a friend, especially a friend that's the same age as me. Sadly, she's only got plans to stay here for 4 months. Not sure what I'm going to do after that (for Korean Level 2). :( Our (free) "service" pictures:



Galmaegi we ordered and paid for cooking with garlic slices, free Coca-Cola, free spicy-meat.

I miss Rui and I hope we can hang out this weekend. I also hope I can see Jerry, a friend from PSU who's living in Seoul now. Generally, I'm very happy --- I have some friends, Korean class is going well (mostly because I already know the lessons), it's not unbearably cold or snowy.... Here's to most of the previous staying the same for a few more months. :)