Day 15

I woke up today feeling tired, but I push myself out of bed, not allowing myself to stay asleep for more than 20 seconds. I have a full day today, and much to do, so I better get to work. I wash my face while half asleep and try to force my thoughts to be in Korean. I get frustrated by how I can't yet express myself well in Korean, but I know that I'm making a lot of progress every day and that it is getting easier and easier for me to express myself even a little bit in Korean, plus I'm too tired to feel very frustrated, so I go on with my day and I eat breakfast.

I head to school with my headphones in my bag. I decide that I don't want to listen to music as I walk and wait on the subway because I want to fully experience all of Korea, including the sounds of the city. Instead, I studied Korean. Today, there were many people on the subway, even in the less popular areas. Today, I walk to class alone. I don't meet people until I get near the school, but I wanted to get to school quickly, so I passed by them. My foot started to have a pain and I was sweating from the heat and humidity, but I made it to school eventually.

During school, things were great! The first class I felt my progress showing and I understood a lot of what was said. During the second class, I had felt very tired and continued to feel more and more tired as the class progressed, yet the class only got more and more difficult as more new material was being introduced to us. In the last thirty minutes or so, we moved onto a reading that was a huge leap from what we had been learning. Class started off a bit confidently, knowing everything I read, but what I was currently reading, I understood less that 10% while reading it. Apparently, most of the class felt that it was easy, so we kept going until the end of the class. Then, the highest level class presented to us advertisements and we had to choose which advertisement 'sold' us.

I went to a restaurant with some of my friends and we quickly ordered some spicy noodles with chicken. We were in a rush because in less that one hour, we had to meet up with our supporter (a person who is a student in college who will host activities to help us with our Korean). We quickly ate our food, but it was difficult because it was spicy and hot, so with each bite, it got exponentially more spicy.  However, it was absolutely delicious! The glass noodles were chewy and easy to eat, but they were almost literally impossible to pick up with chopsticks due to how slippery they were. Also, there were theses pieces of tteok that had cheese in the middle. They were heaven! This meal was the best tasting meal I had had in Korea, but we had to scarf it down so that we could meet out supporter.

We left the restaurant at 1:50PM, ten minutes before we were supposed to meet. We made it to the location right on time and waited a bit for some other people to show up. Then, we went to a nearby cafe to play some ice breaker games. I felt bad because my supporter was talking very quickly in Korean to me right as I met him. Since it was my first time meeting him, it was hard for me to pick up words through his accent and speaking patterns, and he spoke very quickly, so I understood nothing that came out of his mouth. When we got to the cafe, I got more comfortable with him, so I could understand more of what he said, but he still spoke very quickly and with words I had never even heard of. Because of this, I didn't fully understand a single sentence that he said.

We were together in the cafe with two other supporter groups, 12 of us in total: 3 students per supporter. I ordered a cafe frappuchino. (It was seriously delicious!) The first game that we played was one where we went around in a circle and said each others name. It was kind of like the song 'the 12 days of christmas,' where each person has to say all the names of the people who went before them. We played this game in English and in Korean.

The second game was one where we wrote out favorite animal's name on a sticky note, and then we folded up our notes and mixed them up. Then, each of us got a random sticky note and had to guess who wrote the animal that was on our note. After this, we played our last ice breaker game that was basically never have I ever. We played this game in Korean and English. Afterwards, we talked for a bit before peaceing out.

I went to a stationary shop nearby the school (morning glory) with some of my friends and they got some cute things, but I didn't purchase anything because they did not have my aesthetic. Afterwards, we met up with some other friends and we all went to a cafe nearby the school. The cafe was expensive and not that good tbh. We then went to gongcha near exit 7 of Sookmyung station and we studied Korean there.

At 6:30PM, I returned home. The subway was mindbogglingly  busy today no matter where I was, and the subway train, for whatever reason, stopped at each stop for at least 5 minutes, so I ended up returning home about 20-30 minutes later than I usually do. I took a shower and ate dinner, speaking as much Korean to my mother and brother as I could. Then, I wrote this blog. Now, I have a ton of homework.



I bought some coffee because tonight, I will not be able to sleep-- or at least, I will sleep very late. I have a ton of homework and a lot to study, so I really need to get on it. Right now, it is 9:45PM and I still have so much to do, so I will end it here and start studying once more.

See ya, 여러분!

-end