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Exams and ping-pong

Hello la! I just finished my exams!!! Woot woot!! I got friday's exams' results back too and except for the reading (which my lovely teacher enjoyed making fun of), I had awesome grades! Pays off to study so hard, I guess. I did my oral presentation yesterday and I don't know exactly how it went but maybe it wasn't so bad. I was nervous though.... I think our teacher is a bit desperate with the fact that most people didn't do so well in the exams, so after the presentations, even though there were only 15 minutes before the end, she taught us grammar!!! lol (And she gave us the silliest example ever which was hilarious...)

I met this Japanese girls who was part of a table tennis team back in high school in Japan. She's pretty good!! We met for the first time yesterday, played table tennis a bit and then went for a glass of fresh juice... It was really nice and her Korean is sooo good! I was very impressed and I think our personalities matched very well. Afterwards, I went for dinner with Jenna (friend from rez) at this Juk (porridge) place she knows. Seems like she's a regular customer, the people at the restaurant there know her! They're very nice, we took a picture with the unni there and we decided to go play bowling together some day soon. ^^;

Oh these days it's not rain anymore, it's intense heat... and there's some kind of bug that comes out only when it's that hot that makes a terrible noise.... Look at this:

Isn't it gruesome??? lol. Do we have this back home? I don't remember ever having a bug so ugly and so noisy back in Canada... Anyways, I guess it's another peculiar thing I have to experience in Korea. I heard soon they're gonna start dying and falling off the trees... Ewww.
Keumerz @ 10:37 PM< [[ 2 comments ]]



Some observations

So for the past month and a half I've been looking at Korean people and even though I can't say I fully understand them, I got to observe a few interesting facts.

1) The way people greet you in coffee shops, stores, etc. "안녕하세요~" (annyong haseyo)... If you listen carefully, the sound of their "hello" is totally different from a regular greeting. It has a complete different musicality. I was wondering why and I talked about it to 현이언니 (Hyun) and she told me that they have to reach a Sol (G), cuz this sound makes people happy. Then I asked "what if they don't know music?". She said "everyone knows the basics in Korea". Haha... I gotta admit I love the way they say it...

2) 내숭 떠는 여자 "Girls acting Wicked". Don't misunderstand, I have many girl friends here and some of the people I admire the most here are girls... But it is a fact, that girls have really many facettes!!! With their boyfriends or guy friends in whom they might be interested, or even if they're not interested, they speak with this honey-sweet voice and have this weak "please save me" attitude. Then you see them hang out with their friends or their junior, and this really strong scary loud side of them comes out. It's quite a difference! lol... (Well okay, I admit I do it once in a while too... )

3) Korean women are very touchy. (Not with guys but since I'm a girl, it's good). I love that.... I don't know, but the feeling I get in Western societies or even when I'm with my Japanese friends is that touching is something that should be somewhat restricted. Like for example, you get touchy when you get very very close... hugs, leaning on one's shoulder... that kinda stuff. But here, even if you don't know people (girls, I should say) that well they tend to hold your hands, touch your face, touch your hair... I really like that, it feels like there's a real human contact...

This week, I had a nice dinner with Ju-Na unni, took a dreadful exam, and had a few drinks with my classmates and my lovely teacher. Yesterday I met Hyun (unni). She came from Jeonju and so we got to spend the day together. It was quite a funny feeling to meet again, but at the same time, we kept in such close touch by phone and email that it didn't feel like we hadn't seen each other for so long... Except the fact that when she first saw me, she passed me by and didn't recognize me... hahaha. Here are some pics of my week:



Keumerz @ 10:33 PM< [[ 0 comments ]]



All Pictures Links and News

Yeah, I know... I didn't write for nearly a month and I suck for it. But hey, here is the positive side of things: I am BACK! and with a bunch of pictures (which you can see by clicking on the links at the end of this entry). On top of that, I'll try to write down my thoughts as honestly as possible, which is not something I get to do very often.

After an amazing trip in Japan, I am finally back in Seoul, Korea. It's been now a month and a few days that I started studying in Kyunghee University and I'm loving it. I love my everyday life, even if it's sometimes repetitive. By chance, I met some Korean people (who are great fans of Table tennis and Billiard) and through them I got to meet a network of amazing people (most of which study in Culinary School) with whom I spend a lot of time. I also started getting closer to my classmates, who are simply awesome and I have the loveliest teacher in the whole world (yeah I'm exaggerating again but she really is awesome). Aaaaaaaand, big news:

I decided to stay here for another 4 months. Until December.

There, the news are out. "Oh My GOD!" say some. "Are you crazy?" ask others. But yeah, I've been dreaming about Korea for so long and I'm not ready to let it go just yet. 3 months is not enough to improve my Korean as much as I'd hope to and even if 6 months still isn't enough, it's better than 3 months! (Am I making sense?). Everything in this country frustrates me but there's nothing I dislike about it either. The language barrier at this level is a challenge that I never really experienced in other places and as frustrating as it is, it's fascinating and exciting.... I am an entity of contradictions here, even more than I was in Montreal. But yeah, I am so passionate about this Korean experience. Some will misunderstand and fear the great disappointment that may come out of this excitement... but I'm not here just to party and do what regular people do. I'm here to learn. Not just Korean, not just Korean culture... I'm here to learn about myself, to find out that Korean me that was hidden somewhere and waiting to come out... No matter what they say, I'm linked by birth to this country and this link is stirring my blood inside, pushing me to strive harder to get what I want. Most people want things, I just want this one thing more than others. I'm so thankful to my parents for understanding that and letting me do it. I'll make them proud, I promise.

Tomorrow I have an exam. Grammar exam, reading, writing, vocab. It's quite a lot of things to get ready for but I think I'll be fine. After a very long week of studying, I was able to calm down and spend the evening with this really cool unni. One year older than me, very pretty, very smart and most of all very patient. I'm in like total awe, cuz no matter how stupid I look and how unable I am to express myself in Korean, she just listens patiently and explains to me everything I don't understand. I hope my Korean improves enough someday just so that I can have more convos with her... It's like, total atomes crochus and tastes match (she even knows Corneille! ^^). This is one of the many amazing encounters I've had here but it makes this whole experience even more worthwhile.

Here are links to pics of my whole trip since I arrived in May:

Korea First Week
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2218972&l=de465&id=13618823

Japan First Week
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2221599&l=37d71&id=13618823

Japan First Week (Part 2)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2221605&l=3a589&id=13618823

Yamaguchi
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2221901&l=74f2f&id=13618823

Hiroshima and Miyajima
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2222431&l=e5f67&id=13618823

Kyoto
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2222594&l=a797f&id=13618823

Kyoto Part 2
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2223582&l=16b86&id=13618823

Me and my friends as Maiko-san!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2223584&l=7fcc0&id=13618823

Back in Korea Part 1
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229179&l=f058b&id=13618823

Korea Part 2
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229183&l=423a0&id=13618823

Korea Part 3
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2231982&l=b6d45&id=13618823

Miss you guys. Hope to see you soon!

KY
Keumerz @ 9:26 AM< [[ 1 comments ]]


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