Chapter 5: 난 뭐 했지? (What Have I Even Been Doing?)

A small pond (my friend calls it a lake, but it’s a pond in my opinion haha) outside of Lotte Mall

Okay, sorry. I realize it’s been like three weeks and apologize for the delay!

The semester has finally started, and there is just a lot going on in general.

Let me try and organize my thoughts:

1. This semester
   So, I have a lot of classes and things to do this semester, so I’m already feeling a bit overwhelmed. In total, I’m taking three regular courses and then also doing my internship. Classes are on M, W, F and the internship is T. Th. One of my classes is the Flagship Korean class and is what everyone has been stressing as being the most important. Lots of reading, lots of presentations. Lots.
   My other class is an introduction to Korean language education, which is already interesting just from reading the first chapter of the textbook. There’s only eight or nine people in the class and I’m the only exchange student, so that’ll be plenty of interesting.
   The last class is an intro to Korean linguistics, but I still need to register for that class during the Add/Drop period because the seats filled up so quickly. Yeah, all of the students here sign up for classes literally on the same day at the same time and it’s actually like a war zone. When the clock hits 10AM, you better be clicking your heart away or you’re not going to get your classes.
   There’s also tutoring and extra speaking classes the Flagship students have each week, so yeah, there’ll be lots to do. Naturally, I’m slightly dreading it but looking forward to it as well!

2. Internship
I’ve finally received my internship assignment! I’ll be working with 3 other of the Flagship students at an NGO called VANK (Voluntary Agency Network of Korea) which works to spread information about Korean culture and history to those who are curious all around the world, and also work to correct mistakes that have been published about Korean history and culture. I believe we’ll be writing articles and making video content (possibly in English?). Past students from the Flagship have said really great things about this organization and everyone there seemed super friendly. It’ll be a good learning experience, not only for language learning but also for learning more in-depth about the history and culture of Korea.

VANK gave us a bunch of promotional items about Korean history as well as a book about the company! I don’t know why I was so excited to receive all this, but it all looks so interesting!

3. Phone and Bank Account
This was a very large source of stress for me, so I’m just going to write it down here. But I finally got my Alien Registration Card, which meant that I could finally go and set up a bank account, which I would need to get a phone number and pay my rent. And also, just pay for things a lot easier? Anyways, as I’ve stated before, official things scare me. Official things in a foreign language is just…impossible. But we did it (I think) and now everything is set up, so we’ve crossed that bridge with minimal damage.

4. What Have I Been Doing For Fun?
Honestly, not much? I know I said I’d try and go do some sightseeing, and I did go places. I just apparently don’t have a lot of pictures lol. I’ll just see what I have and give some explanations.

The most exciting thing I did was probably going to Naksan Park (낙사공원). Korea is a very mountainous country, so if you go to a park, expect to get your share of cardio. I’m pretty sure the slope I walked up was a good 45 degrees at one point. The weather was overcast, but the view was still amazing! I had spent a good few days studying, so I just took the day to go walk around a few parks and finally get some fresh air.

This is just a small river that runs sort of near the campus and is a great place to walk. If you couldn’t tell, I enjoy my nature and am anxiously awaiting when the weather finally decides to cool down.

There’s also always food, of course! My friends and I found a restaurant that served really good pizza and also fries, which we were all craving for some reason. The cafes everywhere also always serve their drinks in such pretty ways, so whenever we go, I need to take pictures. The thing that looks like a salad was actually like, a soup? The green stuff is minari (미나리) which was just kind of like, a bitter tasting green, but was surprisingly really good. The rest of the stew had beef and bean sprouts and eventually noodles. The last picture is food our teachers ordered for us for our start of the semester gathering. The pizza was…not great. But the chicken was good haha. Finally there’s 김밥 (kimbap) and dumplings, which has basically become my Sunday dinner.

These are some snacks my friend bought me as a welcome gift of sorts from a company that’s been around since 1951. I’ve known this friend for three years, since she was my Korean tutor at UW for that long, and it was so nice to finally see her in person again (and in Korea of all places).

And here’s a Garrett’s Popcorn of all things in Lotte Mall! Unlike the one in Chicago, it is surprisingly empty :(

Here’s how I typically spend my days when I have time to go outside. By finding some nice cafe and studying for a majority of the day. Both of the cafes where I took these pictures are my favorites. The atmosphere is peaceful and there are outlets and wifi, which is probably the most important thing to consider.

This is a pop-up store that I went to, which was honestly the most exciting part of my weekend, so I’m going to document it here. The plushie I bought is supposed to be a mountain, and his name is Soopy haha (soop 숲 means “forest’ in Korean). Fun episode: Literally almost every restaurant and a lot of stores had a nice system they used for having people wait in order, which was basically just you entering your phone number and then texting you when it’s your turn. Honestly, we have this in the states too, so I don’t know why I was so impressed by the technology, but I was. It’s a little sad though when you see that there are 153 people in front of you…

This is the mall where the pop-up store was located! The Hyundai Seoul. It had six floors and two basements, so lots of space to get your steps in. There were…a lot of luxury brands, which was quite funny when I waltzed in with my worn out Wisconsin t-shirt and jean shorts.

I went back to the karaoke room for some brief stress relief. It was only about 20 minutes, not 3 hours this time

And once again, here’s me just so you know that I’m alive and well. Can I just say that I’ve been on the lookout for a nice bucket hat for the last like 2 years and finally found one? The second picture is just me in probably the nicest bathroom I’ve ever stepped foot in, so we had to document it.

That might be it for this update. It was more chaotic than anything, so apologies for that haha. I’m just hoping that these next few weeks go by smoothly as I adjust to the new schedule and workload. It’ll be a lot, but again, we’re here to learn. So let’s try and be optimistic!

Until next time~