seoul times

For the last 2 weeks I've been in Seoul. Yay! I apologize for the lack of updates. I hope to make up for it in the future. I've been so busy that I've hardly even had any time to think.

I arrived here on Thursday the 5th and had quite some adventure finding a place to stay...fortunately my homestay mother is wonderful and made a call to a 고시원, or goshiwon, which is popular cheap housing for students who are looking to save some money and/or be able to really concentrate on their studies, since the room is so small and minimalist that there are few distractions...although I do have a working TV and internet. Above are some pictures of the neighborhood, the inside of the goshiwon, and my room. so you get an idea.

It's too much to really go into detail with everything that's happened in the past few weeks, so I'll sum up: I've been having a great time. Seoul is an awesome place! I live in the real heart of the student area, right between Ewha Womans University and Yonsei University, which are among the elite universities in the country. The campuses are enormously epic and beautiful. The 3-week (well more like 2.5 week) language class I'm taking is at Ewha. On the first day we took a placement test, which was VERY difficult and made my brain hurt, and I was placed in level 2, or low intermediate. I'm happy about that. I think in beginner I'd be bored and in high intermediate I'd be way over my head. The class is mostly Japanese women who enjoy watching Korean dramas. I'm not even kidding. They're very sweet, though, and we have a fun time in class. There are also people from Germany, London, and China. We had a brief rundown of Ewha's history, which included the fact that it was the only university to continue offering classes during the Korean War (they were relocated down south to Busan). I later made the connection that my grandmother was actually one of the women who attended the university during those 2 years! She's living history! So that was interesting.

I've been doing a lot of shopping and hanging out with friends I haven't seen in a while during this short time in Seoul. It's been really great. I'm eating a lot and drinking more than usual (which is none at all) so I think I'm getting a little fat...but it's worth it. This is my vacation.

Anyway, more updates are coming, but I felt like it was time to at least dip my toes back into the routine of blogging....