Day 10

Today was another regular day, more or less. Because I stayed up until 2:00AM studying Korean, I didn't wake up early today. In fact, I did not want to get out of bed, but not because I was tired- but because the bed was comfortable. 저는 일어나는 걸 별로 안 좋아했어요. 하지만 안 피곤했어요-- 침대가 너무 편안했네요! However, I got up anyways and ate breakfast with my family. It was sunny, so I decided to wear pants and a long sleeve to achieve that outfit 분위기가,  요-! Although I am obviously not Korean just by looks, I don't feel like I stick out like a sore thumb; not that many people have stared at me and most people treat me as if I was some other person that they didn't really care about. I have no issues with the subway system. Not having a private bubble is alright because feeling very close to people can, yes, make you feel claustrophobic, but I find that more often or not, I feel more like i'm actually a person in the crowd. I don't quite feel like a foreigner when there are waay too many people in a train and you are all stumbling in reaction to the movements of the subway train.

I am getting more and more adjusted to Korean life and it is actually quite lit. The weather is not super hot nor super humid and while there is a lot to do, education and good status are held in a higher regard here rather than in the States. However, I always feel like the air is sticking to my skin and I have to take a shower everyday or else I feel extremely mucky and gross. This isn't too bad of a thing, but some of the cosmetics that I need for the dry weather of the US become too moisturizing when compared to the humid weather here.

The first part of class today started off ok towards the 'this is difficult' spectrum, but then it became difficult by the second portion of the first class. However, the second class was a breath of fresh air and I went from having difficulty understanding to understanding 80% of the time once more. However, sometimes, my mind would blank out and refuse to focus on Korean, so I have to manually force myself to focus on that is being said and try to make sense of it to the best of my ability. Although I had studied until 2:00AM, there was still so much being taught and so much to learn. I haved leveled up many times in Korean and my Hangul reading skills are increasing constantly, but I am not up the level of everyone else, and for good reason. Most others started at at least lvl50 Korean over the years, so coming from lvl25 Korean is difficult, but I'm working very hard and diligently. 열심히 공부고 있어요! My biggest limiting factor is vocabulary, but I am learning so many new words every day that it becomes super difficult to actually remember them all or even get the time to study them all through quizlet.

After class, me and my friends went to a restaurant near the university. I got a type of pork over rice while my friends got beef over rice, some kind of sauce spaghetti, and something else of which I do not recall.  It was a good, filling lunch and then we got some bobas at a nearby boba restaurant. The boba there was not so good and the price was a bit high. We then went back to the university lobby to prepare for orientation once again. This time, we all went into a room and talked about our first week experience in Korean. We discusses the rules another time and discussed cases about supporters. After a while, we concluded our session of orientation.



After orientation, I went to a cafe called gong cha that was nearby the subways station exit 10. For about an hour, we studied out Korean and practiced dialogs that were assigned for us to memorize by tomorrow. At around 6:19PM, I headed home (I usually head home at around 5:50PM) and worked on my Korean homework of memorizing three scripts. My mother made me some barley tea and coffee to help me stay up and eventually, I was able to push through the script by memory, abiet roughly.

After talking to my brother about cool songs, he headed off to bed while I continued to do some homework and write this blog. I am super tired right now at 12:03AM, so I'm also going to head off to bed and prepare for tomorrow!

Tomorrow will be a huge day-- not only is it the last weekday, I also have a lot of quizzes and start my first culture class! For my culture class, I will be participating in 태권도 (taekwondo) and I will have much fun!

However, for now, I am tired and must sleep, so for now, I will say goodbye~~! 나무 OUT!
나무을 떠나고 있어요!


-end