azubuike

I have been really sick lately and it has taken me ages to get these pictures up...but here they are! I had a wonderful time and it was an incredible experience!
HERE WE ARE AT INCHEON AIRPORT IN KOREA...


HERE WE ARE AT OUR FIRST HOTEL IN PATTAYA






THIS IS A DAY TRIP WE TOOK TO A SMALL ISLAND. THE WEATHER WAS GORGEOUS AND THE WATER WAS PERFECT!!!











PARA SAILING ON THE WAY TO THE ISLAND!!!


THIS MEANS WE ARE GOING TO GET WET...AND WE DID!!!







HERE WE ARE AT THE ISLAND









WE WENT TO A TIGER AND ELEPHANT SHOW










WE WENT ON AN ELEPHANT RIDE THROUGH A GARDEN!!








WE WENT TO BANGKOK TOO!!




WE WERE LUCKY ENOUGH TO VISIT TWO TEMPLES IN BANGKOK












THIS WAS OUR LAST DAY IN BANGKOK. THIS POOL WAS ON THE 23RD FLOOR OF THE HOTEL!!



THESE GUYS WERE SOAKING EVERYONE IN CELEBRATING OF THE THAILAND WATER FESTIVAL(NEW YEAR)
WE GOT VERY VERY WET!! THERE WERE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ON THE STREETS WITH SQUIRT GUNS AND BUCKETS JUST SOAKING EVERYONE!!


I had a wonderful time on this trip. I feel so fortunate to be able to be experiencing all of these new things. I really feel like my time abroad has had a positive impact on my life. I am learning to cherish every moment, slow down a litle bit, and to let things go. It's important that I spend my time wisely because it is the only thing in life that I can't get back. Everything happens for a reason. Sometimes opportunities just take a little longer to reveal themselves...

THE NAME OF THE CLUB

GOING FOR A SWIM :)

SO VERY VERY COLD!!!

"CHICKEN FIGHTING"


UNFORTUNATE ACCIDENT...HE BROUGHT IT ON HIMSELF:)


CRAZY CRAZY GUY!!



SOCCER CHAMPION!! NOT REALLY, I SCORED ON HIM TWICE!


THIS GUYS WAS A CHEATER! EVERYONE HAD NAME TAGS SO THAT WE COULD LEARN NAMES, AND THEN HE GOES AND DOES THIS......

TOO MUCH DRINKING...


ANOTHER INTERNATIONAL STUDENT HAD A BIRTHDAY PARTY LAST WEEK. HIS CAKE WAS DELICIOUS!

HERE WE ARE WRITING FUNNY THINGS ON A SEXY CALENDER FOR HIM. WE WERE DOING FINE UNTIL THE KOREAN GIRLS SHOWED UP... I HAVE NEVER HEARD SUCH HORRIBLE LANGUAGE IN MY ENTIRE LIFE! SERIOUSLY! WHO TAUGHT THEM TO SPEAK LIKE THAT!!!

BIRTHDAY BOY IN THE MIDDLE


I am really having a wonderful time here. The people are so nice here and I am making so many friends. This weekend all of the English village students are going on a field trip together. And then the week after that..."study week". Should be lots of fun! I am planning a trip to explore the area. Wish me luck!

Alright, so this is the second set of pictures that were supposed to accompany the previous set. I made it on time to parctice so I am still in one piece. My kicks are getting better though, I still have a tendency to overextend my legs when I do a side or back kick. Here are some pictures from our initial welcome dinner.
OUR DIRECTOR AND THE REST OF THE CREW


I SWEAR THIS IS THE BEST FOOD EVER! THE ONE THING I TRULEY LOVE TO EAT IN KOREA!

DINNER WITH THE GANG

OUR PERSONAL CHEF

OUR MATRICULATION CEREMONY

SNOW......IN MARCH...IN APRIL...POSSIBLY IN MAY JUNE AND JULY.....

A REALLY WELL DONE STATUE

THE FORTEENTH OF MARCH. THIS IS A HOLIDAY VERY SIMILAR TO VALENTINE'S DAY. THE CATCH IS THAT GUYS HAVE TO GIVE SOMETHING TO GIRLS AND IF THE GIRLS RECEIVE NOTHING THEN ON THE FOURTEENTH OF APRIL THEY HAVE TO EAT BLACK BEANS. VERY SAD...BUT I, ALONG WITH THE REST OF THE INTERNATIONAL GIRLS RECEIVED SOME CANDY FROM ONE OF THE GUYS! SO NO BLACK BEANS FOR ME!

I SAW A PLAY AT SCHOOL. I HAD NO IDEA WHAT THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT! :)

HERE WE ARE STANDING WITH THE DIRECTOR

HERE ARE THE PICTURES FROM THE TAEKWONDO MT. I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT MT STANDS FOR BUT IT WAS A BLAST!

COOKING OUTSIDE

EATING INSIDE

TRAINING DAY

HERE I AM TRYING TO TOUCH MY TOES

AND LOSING A RACE...HOW SAD...


HOW FELXIBLE ARE YOU

I finally got some picture uploaded. I think that it took me a few days but here they are, I hope that they work! Computers are completely evil so who can tell for sure what this will look like! :) I will start with the birthday party and do more when I get the chance. As of right now I am very late for my taekwondo club and they will literally kick my ass if I don't show up!

BIRTHDAY PARTY PICTURES:

ME WITH A GROUP OF FRIENDS AND MY ROOMMATES AT THE BAR


GROUP OF KOREAN GIRLS AND GUY FROM UZBEKISTAN... VERY QUESTIONABLE

GROUP OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS. GUY STANDING NEXT TO ME IS REALLY COOL KOREAN!

SO MANY PEOPLE WERE THERE. I AM SO GRATEFUL!


ME AND THE HEART SHAPED BALOON THAT EVEYONE MADE FUN OF!


VERY COOL GIRL. NOT A NATIVE KOREAN THOUGH :)


THEY MADE A REALLY COOL POSTER FOR ME AND HAD THE CALIGRAPHY CLUB DESIGN THE MIDDLE!


ME AND TWO OF MY ROOMMATES

The trip was amazing! I had a wonderful time! It was such a good experience for me and I am very happy that I got to participate. We left Friday evening around five and then got there a little after seven. It was freezing. I am starting to think that there may never be another temperature here in Korea. :) When we got there we got settled in and then worked on dinner. The place we were staying was kind of like a hotel but also kind of like a house. Maybe similar to a condominium but not really. Difficult to explain really. There were three long 2ft high tables outside which we sat and ate on and to the right of the table was a small room and bathroom where about twelve people could sleep and directly behind the tables was a door which led to a bigger living area with a kitchen bathroom and two rooms for sleeping. There were no beds just a pile of blankets and pillows which we distributed and shared. Outside next to the tables against a wall was an outdoor kitchen which we used in assembly line style to help feed all of us. It was kind of like a camping trip with a house instead of a tent.
There were so many of us that we had to cook in shifts. I was in group two so I usually got to eat first. :) I kept trying to help cook and clean but they wouldn't let me. OK, so I lucked out and I wasn't going to try and fight it. :) The first night we ate dinner and then played a few games and went to bed. We played a Korean card game which was very similar to poker. Or at least that's what they were trying to tell me. I didn't understand the game at all! The deck was not western and just had a series of pictures on it. Four people started playing with seven cards each and the rest in the middle. Then immediately someone "died" and only three were left. Then they took turns slamming cards on top of different cards trying to match them and get sets. I am not an idiot but I could not seem to match the cards because I couldn't figure out how the pictures related to one another! They didn't look like matching pairs to me!! Then when they "matched" pairs of cards they lined them up in a particular order of columns and rows. I saw no pattern to this action either. So I lost a few times and then moved onto the next game.
We played Mafia in the other room with a large group. After they had finished acting out how I was supposed to play, we played. The thing about Mafia is though, it consists of a significant amount of arguing and defending...neither of which I could do in Korean. They killed me the first round even though I wasn't chosen as Mafia in the beginning. The second round I was secretly chosen as Mafia. When they started saying my name and tried to "kill" me I decided to give it my best shot and I yelled" I have absolutely no idea what you are saying but please don't kill me!!!". It was enough to confuse them and they "let me live" and I ended up winning! :)
The next day everyone was forced to wake up at 6am and we trained on the beach. That was extremely fun but very very very cold! After warming up we stretched...anyone who knows me can testify that I am the least flexible person in the world!!! Especially my hamstrings! But they paired me up with a Korean guy who was at least 6'3". Then he knelt down and I put my leg on his shoulder. Then......... he stood up!!!!! Oh my god!!!!! I have never been in so much pain in my entire life! I almost fell over! After that torture we practiced the correct form of our kicks and punches. By the end of the training I was so cold that my fingers were swollen and purple. I only felt pain. I have never been that cold in my entire life! Quite the experience. I appreciate the CA weather a lot more now!
A little later we ate lunch and then played soccer on the beach and played chicken fighting which consisted of hopping on one leg trying to knock other people down. I had a little trouble though trying to remember who was on my team:). Unfortunately sometimes everyone still looks the same to me...:) Korean culture is very different in that the girls are not normally very competitive in sports and the girls on the trip stood off to the side to let the boys play soccer alone. Wow were they surprised when blocked a shot with my body, stole the ball and took off towards the goal! :)
Then came that night! Oh my god! Drinking games drinking games drinking games!!! These games are very complicated in the first place but trying to understand how to play them when the instruction is entirely in Korean........well you either learn fast or drink plenty!!! I convinced them to play a few practice rounds and I ended up doing pretty well and only losing a couple of times. We had play a few of the games that afternoon only instead of drinking they threw the loser in the middle of the circle and beat them with pillows. (kicked them if they were a guy) and sometimes just slapped the person on the back! So violent! I loved it :)! Except for when I lost........
Anyway, that night we sang songs and had a fire and played so many games. I had a lot of fun! I got to meet a lot of really great Koreans! And they really tried to speak whatever English they could and combined with my slowly growing arsenal of Korean vocabulary, we managed.
The next day we played a little on the beach, climbed a few rocks and collected some shells. There were a lot of really cool shells! I was really surprised! They were whole and really big and colorful! There were also many starfish on the beach which was very unusual to see.
We got home yesterday and I ate dinner with a really wonderful Korean girl who is also in the English Village. Finding food is always safer and better with a Korean speaker at my side! Then ice cream in the 28 degree weather seemed like a good idea so we did that.
Unfortunately the other international girl who went with me is sick. She was the official picture taker of the trip so I will not have any pictures to show until she gets better and can give me the CD. Hopefully this week I can get those up!!! But for now, it is time to go try and get a meal. My most exciting and adventurous task of the day!!! :)

Well today I leave for my MT with the Taekwondo club Hwarang. I have really no idea what an MT is but it is somthing the groups do together to strengthen their relationships with one another. I know that we are going to an Island of some sort and that there will be a sufficient amount of training on the beach but other than that I am completely in the dark. There are a few member who can speak a little English so that is where I am getting most of my information. I think that I will learn a great deal of vocabulary this weekend. Maybe I should practice "Plese don't sell me to the North Koreans!"?
Hopefully it will warm up a bit because right now another cold fron is passing through. I guess that Shin Chan has a very unique pattern of weather systems though. It stays colder for longer and snows when it is hot everywhere else in Korea. But the Campus will be beautiful when it blossoms. I am so excited to see all of the cherry blossoms. Every other tree right now is a "dead" cherry blossom tree so it will be amazing when I actually get the chance to see the flowers. Good thing my mom sent me those claratin :).
In two weeks we are going to go on an English Village field trip. Rumor has it that the primary objective of the excursion is to see how drunk everyone can get. We had a meeting about it a few days ago but it was entierly in Korean so I still don't know exactly where we are going. I heard that maybe we are going to go to Seoul. I would much rather go to Busan though. I am really looking for that warm weather! But maybe there is something more to Seoul than I got to see last time. I really want to put some pictures up on this page but I am going to wait until I have more from the trip this weekend before I put everything up. Ok, well wish me luck and let's hope that I return!

Sunday was my birthday here in Korea. The university was deserted and most of the international and Korean students had left for the weekend. I was really sick and I needed some downtime so I stayed behind. When Sunday came around my parents called me, it was awkward at first because I was using the Korean toilet and we all know how difficult that can be without trying to answer the phone at the same time :). I talked with my parents for about an hour. It was wonderful to hear their voices. They made me feel so good. Then I got another call from my boyfriend. I talked with him for about an hour and felt even better. He is always so encouraging.
After that though, I started to feel alone. I ate breakfast alone. I sat in my room alone. I don't even think I said more than two words to someone for the remainder of the day. I was so sad. I felt so lonely because there was no one there to share my birthday with me. Where was my family, where were my friends? Anyone? Just to talk even?
So, a little disheartened I got ready for bed only to be aroused by two of my friends who had returned to the dorms. One of them left and the other took my downstairs where much to my surprise a group of people was waiting to take me out to the bar to celebrate my birthday. Every international student who was on campus came and many Korean students came too. I was so happy! It was incredible to see everyone and I felt so grateful to have these people to share my birthday with, to spend time with. We celebrated and I had a wonderful time. They were amazing! The next day I woke up and felt so good about how everyone remembered and everyone came to congratulate me. I was elated.
And then there was last night...
I was still very happy about the night before because I had never spent my birthday with so many people before. I went through the day feeling like I was the luckiest person alive. Then later that night as I had finished my training and all of my classes, I relaxed on my bedroom floor (Because it is heated and feels so nice :) ) and thought about how good the previous night had been. Then my roommates started coming back which was odd because I hardly ever see them together. Then one of my wonderful friends stopped by and gave me some fresh strawberries as a birthday present. They were so good! And I don't even eat strawberries! So I sat with my roommates for an hour eating the strawberries before we realized I should have probably washed them off first...oops :). Then they started leaving and one of my roommate's friends stopped by and said we would go to dinner. I couldn't find the person I was supposed to go with before so I went with them. They took me to a bar I had never been to before. When I walked in the entire middle section of the bar was full with people screaming "Happy Birthday" to me!!!! Oh my god! I was so happy I wanted to cry! Everyone I knew was there!!!!!!!! All of the international students, a huge amount of Korean students. I was so astonished, amazed, excited. That night they sang to me, toasted to me, made me dace to the Korean techno birthday song, passed out cake and got one of the calligraphy students to paint me a happy birthday message on two separate sheets of paper which afterward everyone signed! It was so beautiful! How amazing! I am so elated! I feel so good! SO GOOD! I cannot believe that so many people cared to come and celebrate with me, again! I swear it was one of the best days of my entire life. My entire life! These people are amazing and I will remember this day forever. Thank you everyone! Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!! It is so cool how all of their effort and kindness can make my heart feel so peaceful, so happy. Thank you again everyone.

Lat weekend I went to Seoul. I went with a large group however that proved to be to difficult to maneuver so we split up. The purpose of the trip was to spend money and buy things that we didn't really need. The first place that we went to was called something along the lines of Dondemoon. It was really neat. I love the little side street markets. There were a lot of food carts and although at times the smells were questionable as they are throughout Korea, the roasting meat smelled delicious. The place was a little cramped meaning that it was almost impossible to turn around. Backtracking was completely out of the question. I decided to go with a smaller group to a district called Myungdon (or something like that :) ). It was amazing! It was a little bigger and cleaner than the place we had been before. i have never seen so many people in my entire life. I was so amazed! Everywhere I looked there were over two hundred people pushing their way down the street. We even had to push our way into the street because the traffic on the sidewalk was stopped.
When we finally got to the allies I was so happy because of all the various vendors. You could buy anything you wanted for a very cheap price. I needed some socks so I bought 7 pairs of crazy socks for seven dollars. I even bought a few pair that had pictures of famous Korean actors on them. I have no idea who they are but it looks cool. I also got my first experience in bargaining. Granted I only lowered the price two dollars it was still something I had never done before. I bought a cheap hat that I might never wear and a beanie that I use everyday.
One of the guys I was with was on a mission to find a very popular department store. he had hyped up the store so much that by the time we got there I never believed that it would live up to its reputation. I was wrong. It was the coolest department store I have ever been to. EVER!! There were five floors. The first floor had a mix of things for both boys and girls. The second floor was completely filled with makeup for women. The third floor had formal wear for women. The fourth floor had casual ware for women and then the fifth floor was another mix. The prices ranged from 2 dollar t-shirts to 15 dollar jeans. I bought three t-shirts, one skirt, and a Korean bandanna (for the World Cup :) ) for a grand total of $17.90. Very very cool! I can't wait to go back!
Exchanges started this week. Some of them are going very well however, there are other where I can't stop watching th clock. The exchanges are meetings where one international student is paired up with two Korean students in a room for one hour. During that hour they are supposed to practice English conversation. Sometimes it is an hour of an unbreakable awkward silence while other times you forget the time and run over the hour limit. I have had nine so far this week and today is my tenth. This one could go either way because it is early in the morning and sometime the Korean students would rather sleep in than come talk with a strange foreigner at nine in the morning. Maybe if I bring them chocolate they will talk to me...... :) :) :)

So.........I said earlier that I was really hungry and afterward I went to go order food. Nobody wanted to come with me because they all had exchanges or class. I went and alone and let me tell you that ordering food by myself in a store where the workers speak absolutely no English.....well that is an adventure. I can read so I am not inept. I can also point when they have pictures. But I really knew what I wanted but I couldn't find it anywhere on the menu. So I did my best with trying to pronounce what I was looking for. It shouldn't have been too difficult because it sounded very similar to its English counterpart but my "ham and cheese bagel" turned out to be a toast sandwich with lettuce, pickles, bacon fat, egg, carrots, onions and that gooey sweet sauce that Koreans like to put on everything. Wow! Though I have to admit that I am now full, I still feel as if my craving for REGULAR FOOD has yet to be satisfied. better luck next time! :)

So...I said a while ago that now it is Spring and that it was getting warmer. Well, the bitter cold set in two days ago and it snowed all day today. It was really cool except for that it was well......really cool. It was so cold today I could hardly stand it. I do not understand how it can snow in March! But it was -3 degrees Celsius today and I froze. Thankfully I didn't fall today (knock on wood). The black ice was a little tricky as the day went on and the snow melted and then froze again and again. I liked how cool it looked when it was falling. For some reason I thought that snow would be like rain and fall straight down. But, instead, imagine my surprise when it floated everywhere. This one guy walked by and he had his hair spiked. All of the spikes were holding little piles of snow. It was pretty cool and I would have liked to take a picture.
Last weekend I went to the hot springs in Onyang again. This time a couple of my roommates took me. It was much different than the first time I went. The first time I was very relaxed and just enjoyed the heat. But, this time it was all about exfoliation. They gave me a scrubbing pad to try. I think I may have been using it wrong because nothing was really coming off of me and if I had continued I most definitely would have drawn blood. But it was a good experience.
Taekwondo was canceled yesterday because of the snow and I don't really know where we are going to practice today. I was grateful for the break from embarrassment yesterday but I really don't know how I am going to fair today. I am so completely uncoordinated it is ridiculous. No wonder I stuck to track and cross country. It required no coordination whatsoever. This however, is very different in that I need to move my hands in opposite directions into different positions at the same time. A couple more international students will be there today and supposedly they have done taekwondo before so maybe they can help me a little bit. Either way it should be interesting......
One of my roommates is a computer science major. Very cool considering my laptop is crashing. She took it yesterday and she and her boyfriend are trying to fix it for me. They didn't see anything wrong with it which was slightly unsettling considering that it took me 30+ min to open Windows yesterday and the day before that it wouldn't open at all. Hopefully they can just get it to work for a little while longer until I get back home.
I miss my family but I am not really homesick yet. There is one thing that is driving me crazy though. THE FOOD! I got really sick a few days ago after eating some really bad food. I was throwing up all day long and I didn't eat for three days. I really really really really want American food. Really! When I get home I am going to order an extra large Pizza just for myself. It will have pizza sauce, cheese (pasteurized), pepperoni, sausage, and canadian bacon. That's it. Nothing else. There will be no corn or indistinguishable little black blobs on it. There will be no onions garlic or bell peppers. There will be no bits of squid or fish on it. I will know and like everything I am consuming. I can't wait. And also I will have a giant glass of the hot chocolate my mother made for Christmas. My hot chocolate will have little white marshmallows in it, not purple paste or sprinkled lemon. Anyway...I am really hungry now and I gotta go to class! Time to study.

Classes started this week. I am having so much fun in them! I am actually excited to go to school for once! I am taking a couple of Korean language classes , a Taekwondo class, and a history class. I am not so excited about the History class. I think it has to do with the fact that I have no idea what the teacher is saying. He has an incredibly thick accent and I can't understand him. I sat in class on Monday for the beginning orientation and I heard:
"Korean culture is extremely unique because it.........sdfljkhsakldfh"
"One thing that you must remember about Korea is.........asdflkjseiojr"
"To get an 'A' in this class it is very important that you......... asdlfkjein"
So, that was a little impeding, but once I get the book I will be able to read what he is saying and it shouldn't be too bad.
I absolutely love my Korean language classes. I am learning more from my roommates right now however, the classes are very helpful and I am learning how to read. Last night a group of Korean girls taught me how to say, "My name is Courtney", "Very Beautiful", "Really?", "Yes", and "No". Not an overwhelming amount of vocabulary but I am making progress. Oh! I can also say baby, milk, bull, Korean, American, Hello, goodbye, "please take me to Soonchunhyang University" and "One pitcher of beer please!".
Taekwondo club starts tonight! I couldn't be more excited and more nervous. They don't speak English so it will be a wonderful way for me to practice!
Korea has an incredible drinking culture. I have never seen so much alcohol in my entire life!! They have a lot of drinking games and the bars/dorms can get pretty loud at night. Here are two games that I think are incredibly amusing...
Game One: In this games players have a mug of beer with a pair of chopsticks set on top of it. The players take a shot glass full of hard alcohol and balance it on top of the chopsticks. Then the players hit thier heads on the table and try to knock the shot glass into the mug of beer. Once this has been successfully completed, the players place a napkin on top of the mug and mix their drink. The players then proceed to take the wet napkin and throw it against the wall and drink the entire contents of their mug.
Game Two: Power Hour
This game is very popular with the international students. In this game the players need a large pitcher of alcohol. Usually this is beer but it may be substituted with some other alcoholic beverage. The players must also be equipped with a shot glass. An official timer is needed for this game. The official timer says "Begin" and thus commences "Power Hour". The players begin with a shot of their beverage and for every subsequent minute during "Power Hour", the players must take one shot.

This is a pitcher of strawberry so ju that one student used to play "Powere Hour". It is very popular and is a little stronger than beer.

These are the players.

This is one of the players waving a white napkin in defeat after only making it to "Power Half Hour"



Here we are when we saw a small street concert in Cheonon. All of us were dancing in the street!

This weekend has been so much fun!! Yesterday we went to Cheonon which is sort of like a mini Seoul. It isn't too far away so that was a major plus considering the railway strike that is going on right now. We went to Fridays because a few of us were craving American food. I didn't really care for it. I think that was mostly because the American food came with American prices. But we got to hang out with some new Koreans and they were a lot of fun. We went shopping in the department stores a little bit but they were kind of expensive so some of us opted out. We walked around the city for a little while and then found a little mini concert. That was a lot of fun. We all danced in the middle of the street to some really corney music. Around six we managed to locate a little night street market in between the towering buildings of a small alley. It was so much fun! I bought a jacket. The arms are a little too small for me but I love how it looks and I can always extend the sleeves when I get home. It is really cute. It is black and has a little belt with a few zippers and pockets. I also bought a really cute green belt with little flowers on it. I love the style of clothes out here. A friend is going to take me to go shopping at a really cheap street market in Seoul. I can't wait to go. I want to buy some shirts.
Our directer was right when he warned us about Koreans fixation with exfoliation... we went to a hot spring thing today and wow!!! Everyone was washing each other and scrubbing every part of their bodies with these coarse scrubbing pads trying to get rid of all of the dead skin cells. It was amazing. I loved it so much!!! They separated the men and women and then we all had to get naked. I think I was the only one who didn't mind that part. Hey, it is part of the Korean experience right?!?! :) Then we showered and got into hot tubs, outside tubs, saunas and steam rooms. The steam room was really hot but I think that I liked that one the best. After the steam room I jumped into the pool of cold water. Wow that was really shocking but it felt good after the 150 degree steam room.
After the steam room we went into the city and shopped a little bit. We got dressed first of course, but then we hit the street market. I bought oranges and bananas. I needed some fruit for the morning. When we were walking down the alley I heard some guys speaking Russian. I turned my head to look at them and they noticed. Then later when I was walking all three of them came up to me a started speaking Russian to me. Surpisingly I understood almost everything they said and they understood everything I said to them. They invited us to a party that they were having for one of their wives in April. It was kind of weird and I didn't really trust them but I was excited to speak Russian with someone especially when there was no other language we could communicate in.
Classes start tomorrow and I think I am going to sign up for the Taekwondo club to meet some more Koreans. Hopefully they will speak a little English. but even if they don't it will be a good chance for me to practice my Korean.

This is at a local bar.

There is a little story to the next one though. A little scarey so you might want to brace yourself...This is me and a group of people.........SINGING KAREOKE!!!AHHHHH



And this is me singing Kareoke in Korean! I had absolutely no idea what I was saying


Jaehyuck and Cody doing a duet...

Here are some more pictures...

Opening ceremony for incoming and international students.


This is the frozen pond on the campus which we like to walk across.(starting to melt so maybe we should stop doing that...:)

A classmate of mine finally showed me how to put my pitures up so here we go...



This is at a market in the town nearby.

The weather is still frigid here. The snow usually melts in the daytime but everywhere the shadows cover the ground the snow still manages to linger. All of my roommates went home this weekend despite the railway strike. The university is really good about bus transportation and the students just used that instead. All of the international students are bored to tears. I think tomorrow a few of us are going to On-Yang and relaxing in the hot springs. It should be fun. There were classes today but most of them were introductory. I think only a few of us got any actual homework out of the class. Mine lasted for ten minutes. We wrote about what we wanted to gain from the class and then left. I told her that I wanted to practice a lot so I could gain confidence using a foreign language. The teacher seems very nice. Teachers are very very different from those in the US. Here there is a societal hierarchy that is strictly adhered to and teachers are at the very very top. I like it better. Hopefully my classmates will treat her with respect. I have my doubts about a few of them though...

Well...the news said that it was supposed to snow on Tuesday...they were wrong...It snowed on Wednesday!!!!! WOW! How cool was that?! It was amazing. I have never seen falling snow before. It was colder than I thought it would be. :) I woke up early and looked outside and saw little tiny snowflakes drifting in the wind. I threw on my clothes and ran downstairs.It wasn't very much snow but it was more falling snow than I had ever seen before. I caught a few snowflakes and took a few pictures. It was so cool! But again, a little too cold for my taste. I didn't even bother to think that running through the snow field would make my boots dirty. I walked inside the building without looking and couldn't understand why the guard was looking at my feet and following my up the stairs until I turned around and saw the neat little footprints that I trailed up the three flights. Oops. well... that's a Californian in the snow for you huh?! The little pond outside the university is still frozen and yet again a group of us were bold enough to test the strength of the ice. It cracked a little but managed to hold our weight. I think we can get away with it for about another week before the ices loses all structural integrity.
I met my roommates yesterday and a few of us went out to dinner. It was fun meeting everyone. I think a lot of them were a little bit shy and didn't feel comfortable talking. I can relate. I know that I was nervous. We are starting to talk more now and I like it a lot. They are really nice and their English is very understandable.
On a side note, we are out of toilet paper. Surpisingly it lasted 100 girls two days. I had to steal some from the fifth floor last night. Hopefully it will last me until I can buy some more.
Yesterday the campus was pretty quiet because it was a national holiday but I think that today it will be a lot more active. Today is the welcoming ceremony for incoming freshmen. I am excited. I guess that there is going to be a concert of some sort. I like Korean pop music. Everything is so very exciting and new!!! Classes start tomorrow! Time to start studying!!

We moved into our new dorms today. They are much nicer than the boys dorms are. I like my room and now that I have everything unpacked I feel like I am settling in. I feel very uneasy. While I have enjoyed my short stay in Korea, I know nothing about the place I live in and the people I live with. I am illiterate and ignorant. I know nothing about what is going to take place in the next 16 weeks. For once in my life I am very very unsure about my future. The other international students and I have been split up. I feel as if all of my life support has been taken away. I am alone right now. As I walked away from the classroom today I was alone and was completely unable to understand how to react to my surroundings. For a single moment all I felt was the fear of being utterly alone and lost with no direction. I have been feeling uneasy about this moment all day long. But I realized something a few minutes ago. I feel peaceful. I have no idea about anything in my future anymore. I do not know what I am going to do tomorrow. I do not know how I am going to shower with a group of 300 Korean students. I do not even know how to order food at a restaurant. I don't know how to get money from the bank. I do not know who I am going to speak with tomorrow. Will I speak with anyone? Will they understand me? Will I understand them? Will they like me? Nothing in my life right now is certain and I like it. I feel peaceful. I do not feel any burden on me whatsoever. There is no weight on my shoulders. I like this feeling a lot. It is my hope to apply this blossoming philosophy to my entire life. I think it will make me less anxious and apprehensive. I don't know what is in my future. I am barley able to grasp what is presently happening in my life. I like not knowing because the peace I am feeling right now comes from not having any limitations that so regularly come with a structured life. Not knowing is half the adventure in life. I don't know if I am analyzing this correctly but I like how I feel right now and I am living right in this moment. Wish me luck!

It is so cold today. The wind is blowing and it is coming straight through the windows. I have a small cold so I slept in a study room on the floor last night. The floors are heated and I thought it would be a good way to break my fever. The entire floor is very warm but I managed to find a really hot spot to lay my head on. It was amazingly comfortable. I feel a little better this morning. I wish I had remembered to take some medicine with me. Some Ibuprofen, Dayquil, or Tylenol would be nice. I bought some vitamin C today. It came in a bottle and it was liquid. I couldn’t read the directions and I don’t really understand MG/G or ML/L that well so I didn’t know how much to take. I drank half of the bottle and I will drink the other half in two days. Hopefully that will be enough. I want to drink milk here but from what I can tell none of it is pasteurized and I don’t know how clean it is. There are miniature hospitals everywhere here. A few of us went to look for some aspirin but it turns out they don’t sell regular pills. Instead they sold my friend a bottle of liquid medicine and a packet of beads to drink. That was pretty interesting. He hasn’t tried it yet because we’re pretty sure their poisonous. :)
We watched a Japanese movie last night. It was incredibly long but very well done. The effects were really neat. I liked watching the fighting scenes and the pyrotechnics.
As soon as I figure out how to upload pictures I can post the pictures I have taken so far. The town is kind of dead right now but the director said that the town will be incredibly busy by the end of the week because the school will be getting an additional 10,000 students. I am very excited. I can’t wait to meet my roommates and hang out with them. The director warned us about some particulars of Korean culture last week. He said that Koreans share everything. It we leave our shoes out they will wear them. If we leave our towels or clothes out they will use them. Food is communal and so is everything else that we leave unlocked. They also don’t like the windows open and turn up the heat to about 80 degrees. It should be quite a culture shock this Thursday. Wish me luck!

So, this is my first week in Korea and my very first week out of the country. Wow! I love it here. Everything is a new experience. Ordering food, walking around (transportation in general), using the phone... everything is an adventure. I have no idea what I am doing. I ate food from a street vendor, saw pigs being sold on the corner, a bowl of octopuses that were still alive, chickens and a basket of their feet. The street markets are amazing. There are so many people in town. Scooters are driving on the sidewalk and cars do not stop for people. In my opinion, the cars actually speed up when they see people in the street.
The weather is freezing. I have never been this cold in my life and it is not even snowing. I walked across a small pond today that was half frozen. It was amazing!! It is supposed to snow this Tuesday. I am very excited about that. I have never been in falling snow before. The wind picked up today and that made it even colder. But, I think I am getting the hang of dressing for this kind of weather. I have learned to wear many many layers and to make sure that no skin is exposed and that my neck and hands are warm.
The food is very interesting. Pork is substituted for most meats, though fish is also very popular. I never really know what I am ordering but I am so hungry most times that I will eat anything. Forks and knives are not usually offered but there is a big bucket of metal chopsticks and spoons. The metal chopsticks take a little getting used to. They are a little more difficult to control than the wooden ones are. Everything is incredibly spicy. There was one girl in our group that asked a woman cooking our chicken if she could get one that was less spicy. The woman laughed and said "No!". She said that we were in Korea now and we have to eat like Koreans do and that even babies eat like this! She said it would make us strong. Then she put an extra layer of spices on J.
The bars here are pretty fun. The hard alcohol is extremely cheap and the beer is relatively weak. They don't serve pretzels with the beer but instead they usually serve these little corn puff things. I am not really sure what they are called yet but they are small cylinder shaped little blobs that are yellow with a few green and orange ones. Another bar I went to served popcorn. There are small buttons on the tables that you press when you want something else. Very interesting experience.
One thing that I am having a little trouble with is the general hygiene of the area. The restrooms are extremely disturbing. They are not equipped with the traditional western toilets. If I'm lucky there will be one non-squatting toilet in the room. The toilet paper situation is also very unsettling. The toilet paper is always next to the door of the bathroom outside of the stall. You have to take whatever you think you'll need into the stall with you. Then there is a small basket on the floor underneath the toilet paper roll. When you are done in the bathroom you are not to flush the toilet paper in the toilet but instead you are to take it with you and put it into the small basket (usually overflowing). When you go to wash your hands (for some reason very optional) there is never any soap or paper towels. That is so frustrating! The showers are also communal and there is mold everywhere. The bottoms of the walls are black. Gross!
The dorm rooms are also interesting. They are incredibly small. There are four bunk beds for a total of eight students. They run the water pipes under the wooden floor so it is nice and soft and warm. My room in particular is very dirty. I think it has to do with my roommates. One of them sprays this gross smelling perfume that hangs in the room all day long. There is crap everywhere. It is hard to get into the room and right now we only have six students in the room. Unfortunately two of them are sick and I seem to have caught a small cold. I don't feel particularly good right now. I can't wait to get a different room where I can unpack my things, get somewhat organized and open a window.
Overall I am having a wonderful time and I cannot wait until classes start and I get to meet my new Korean roommates!!