Wow. 우와
It has been a super long time since my last blog post. 오래 많이야! 근데 이유를 있어. 이번달 난 너무 바빴고 피곤했고 많이 공부했고 대학교 숙제를 있있어 (아직 있어 ^^).
But I do have a reason for that. This past month has been very monotonous and not much has happened. Despite that I have been very busy with studying and applying for college and as a result very tired. Although that can also be attributed to the movies I watched late at night haha.
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| Christmas Dinner |
Anywho.... Basically this month has consisted of going to school, reading, church and studying. Until this past week there really wasn't anything going on. Although the lack of anything is noteworthy, because obviously it's December, and December has Christmas. Buuut in Korea Christmas really isn't a big deal. There were a few small decorations in the city, but I didn't see any in people's houses and there was a general lack of the Christmas hype you get in America. I can't really say that I missed that part, but I did miss Christmas being important and wrapping gifts and giving them to people. I miss that it was a family day and not a couples day. But most of all I missed having a family gathering on Christmas day. I think that I had seen even my Korean family it would have made it a bit easier, but most of the day was pretty hard for me. I had dinner with three other exchange students and our parents which was nice. But then we went to a Noraebang (translated to singing room, so karaoke) and that was actually fun. It really lifted my bad mood to hear our mothers sing horribly off-key to really old korean songs and then have Juan and I rock english songs like American Idiot. I also went to a Rotary Christmas dinner a couple days later with Benedict and Coraline and got a haridryer and a thermos, so that was nice.
On Christmas Eve I performed a couple songs with my youth worship band at church (yes, in Korean). We had a lot of practice sessions in the weeks leading up to it and it was awesome to be able to spend so much more time with my only friends (outside of Rotary). They are just so much fun. But even though I really do feel like a part of the group and they're a lot better about telling me about when stuff is gonna happen, I still feel like there's a barrier there. And not just in my youth group, but with pretty much all Koreans. They're all very careful around me, and if they do something small like bump into me or knock my pencil case down, they apologize profusely and seem afraid that they might have offeneded me. This makes them much more reserved when they talk to me. Almost no one teases or makes fun of me or does things to get me annoyed because they think it's funny. I really miss that. So that's one more thing I've been working through. It's amazing how as soon as you get past one challenge God gives you another one right away to keep you growing and keep you strong.
My Korean class that I was taking on Fridays at a university with my exchange friends ended in the first week of December. We started a class with a Rotary person on Tuesdays, buuut we've only had that once because our teacher has been very sick. So, I haven't done too much korean studying in the past two weeks or so. I've been doing to much for my college applications! Yay!.... not really. But I got into the University of Iowa! Which is where i wanted to go, so that rocks. I will be majoring in Linguistics and minoring in a language I haven't decided on yet ^^. But I'm really excited for that. I was originally planning on going to Florida, but Iowa has a Linguistics major with a TESL focus which means I'm free to minor in something else.
And lastly, my host house change! Originally, I was going to stay at this house until the end of March and then go to my third house. But things got messed up, so I'm going to be here for the rest of the year. I now live very far away from my school (it takes me an hour to get there) and pretty much everything else. But it's ok. My family is super nice and comfortable. I have an older sister, which I really like. It's nice that she speaks english so we communicate important things. But she mostly uses korean with me, which I appreciate. It definitely helps me learn faster. And my mom is always giving me food and snacks and just today she took me out and bought me a sweater and pajama pants (and nutella mwahaha). And she works at Paris Baguette. Always a plus. The house itself is very nice and comfortable. My bed is really soft and squishy compared to my last one. And my room is the same size, but it feels bigger because the bed is against the wall, not in the middle.
Seriously this is all I have to tell you. Oh, and I only have two days of school left before winter vacation which lasts until the beginning of March. Yep that's it. I'm happy with a lot of things here, working to improve a lot of things, and praying for the things out of my control. "Find peace in where and what you are." - Christopher Paolini
Until next time!
