중간 (mid-term)

It's hard to believe level 2 is halfway over! I like my teachers and my classmates, but I must say, besides Ines and Joana (whom I met in level 1), I haven't really talked to many of my classmates outside class. By this time last semester, Iza and I were eating lunch and dinner together every day, and a group of us were hanging out on weekends. I don't really know what's different, other than that Ines, Joana and I already knew each other... Though, this weekend we went out with a Taiwanese woman whose English name is Christine (진의, Jin-ee, in Korean). A lot of the students are only here for the short term, which I also think is keeping me from really trying to be friends. I & J are here for a few years, like me. I don't really feel up to making another friend like Iza. I'm glad I met her, but she left after 3 months, and it was hard. Though, on the other hand, that's the nature of this situation, so maybe I should get used to it and be more positive, heh.

Midterm exams are coming up at the end of this week. Again, I'm really nervous about the Speaking test (Thursday, 4/4). I'm also a little nervous about the Writing portion of the Reading/Writing/Listening exam (Friday, 4/5). This semester, we've been assigned lengthy writing assignments. Mine always come back with only a few corrections, but I spend 1~2 hours writing and reviewing them before turning them in. I won't be able to spend that long on the exam, so I'm worried my "rough draft" won't score very well. Still, unless I really screw up, I should be able to get the 70% required to move on to level 3. (Though there's also the final to consider... which uses grammar and vocab from the entire semester.) Sigh.

On Friday, 3/29, we had our first of two field trips this semester. Our class, minus a sick classmate, went to 국립국악원, the National Gugak Center. Gugak means "traditional music" in Korean. There, we spent ~2 hours learning to play the 장구, an hourglass-shaped drum.


Me and my (borrowed) drum.

You play the Janggu with a wooden mallet (궁채, goong-chae) in your off hand and a wooden stick (열채, yeol-chae) in your main. Then you either hit both sides together (덩, deong), the mallet side alone (쿵, koong), or the stick side alone (따, dda). Sometimes the mallet and the stick can both be played on the stick side. There are a bunch of videos on Youtube, but this is a pretty good example.

Anyway, they have a music instruction center (with classes every Saturday morning for foreigners), a museum, a gift shop with CDS and instruments for sale, and a performance center (plus some other buildings whose names I didn't understand). There's also an outdoor a pavilion with some instruments, including a janggu, you can just walk up to and play.



Top: A few pictures from the museum. Bottom: The musical instrument
pavilion, complete with matching(ish) telephone booth.

Ines, Joana and I arrived early, and walked around the grounds for a while. We were a little bored by the end, so we took some pictures. In keeping with my policy of not posting pictures of others' faces on this blog, here's a couple of our shoes and socks.


I'm wearing the khakis in the middle. :)

Joana and I also bought matching SNU sweatshirts from the student center the other day for ~$28 each. The front isn't nearly as exciting as the back, so this works out well.


Seoul National University, represent! Etc.

For that same $28, plus a little more, I got all of this from Gangnam station:


Three t-shirts, two sweaters, and a long-sleeve cotton undershirt for $35.

Gangnam Station has a TON of stores, mostly with clothes and cellphone accessories (covers, earphones). Items are regularly priced inside the stores, but outside, they all have $5 and $10 (really, $4.50 and $9) racks filled with stuff. Obviously the quality isn't great, but the selection is huge, and most things are worth at least the $5 or $10 you'll pay for them.

For once, food won't be mentioned last! I have something else to talk about after this... but:



Top: Marinated chicken and steamed potatoes. Bottom: Vietnamese
spring roll ingredients, ready for assembly.

I turned the steamed potatoes into tasty garlic mashed potatoes. And the spring rolls were delicious (and mostly healthy!). I wish my pictures of the assembled rolls would've come out well, but.... We had chicken, carrots, onions, bean sprouts, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, pineapples, and various chili sauces for the stuffing. There are also bowls of hot water on the table, because you have to dunk the dried rice paper (in the blue bowl) in them for a few seconds to turn the hard sheets into a rollable, soft taco-like shell.

Finally, apartment pictures!




My room.
Top: Standing on my bed. Middle: Closeup of the colored organizers I bought for $13
total (incl. shipping) on the interwebz. And the view of my room from the doorway.
Bottom: A view from my screened-in "veranda," i.e. storage area on the other side of
double French doors (one is clear, one is frosted).




The rest of the apartment.
Top: The stairwell outside our door. We live in a 3rd-floor walkup. And a picture of the
entryway. In Korea, you have to take off your shoes. Currently, I'm the only one home,
but usually there's quite a pile on the floor, despite the shoe storage closet by the door.
Middle: A picture towards my room from the back corner of the living room. And a picture
of my roommates' closed door (they share a room with bunk beds) and the bathroom entry.
Bottom: The bathroom here is about as big as my bed/desk area in my last place. Finally,
the kitchen. A stove with four burners, sink, big fridge. Our washing machine and more
storage is behind the door on the back wall.

Back to studying for the midterm. :)