Tall Koreans

Whoever said Asians were short were dead wrong! I've never seen so many tall Asians in my life...and they are normal everyday Asians at that. Wow, I still stand amaze whenever I see Koreans.

It's been over three weeks since I've last posted updates. It seems like life goes by when I'm not noticing- I guess that's the whole point, huh. It'll be a few more days and then it'll be two months since I got here. A lot of things happened these three weeks that I must split this update post into two (again). I don't want to bore my diligent readers: ).

My birthday was about two weeks ago. I never realized how lonely it could be to be without family on the day that is the most important day of one's life. I think out of the all the holidays and special days, a missed birthday is the hardest one to miss. There's friends and strangers to congratualate but it is not the same as seeing loved ones the moment I wake up. Any how- my B-day was a quite day. Coincidentaly, the Korea national holiday fell on the same day so lucky for me- no school! hehe.

There was an Asian Song Festival Concert at the World Cup Stadium (Seoul) on October 4. I don't know how describe this festive event to my readers- except if you ever have the the opportunity to experience a concert (even if you don't have a favorite girl/boy band), you must- I repeat- you must absolutely experience it before you die!!! Fortunately, I got to attend the concert by chance. A few friends got free tickets (1 ticket brings in two people). We left the apartment at 11:30am, waited in line til 1 pmish, waited to be seated for 4 hours, and waited for the concert to begin for 1 hour (it started at 6pm). It was the longest day of my life- at least the most wasted hours of my life. I can't believe people actually do this. Let's just say- those singers/bands better appreciate their fans. Go Fahrenheit and DBSK! Yep- I'm one of the those not-so-obssessed-fans but still obssessed.

Also, a few of us in CIEE went to a theatre performance a few days earlier. This opportunity came by chance as well. One of the my friend cancelled his, so I took his ticket. I was very glad that I attended the performance. The performance, "Jump", was a non-verbal martial arts comedy play. The actors and actresses were amazing. The martial arts was superb!

Classes are going very well. I must say, Victorian Literature and Culture class is my favorite so far. It's very interactive, the teacher is excellent at teaching, and the students have very interesting personalities. It's the only class that I have with actual Koreans. I had a presentation a week ago. It was quite an experience. First, I didn't know any of my group members til the week before my presentation. Second, they thought I was Korean so they started off speaking Korean. Third....hmmm...let's just say...interesting. My group worked very hard on the ppt. The last day we met, we tried to order pizza- but unfortunately our order "didn't go through" so we wasted one hour for it. We then, went to the Korean style Outback Steak House and waited twenty minutes to be seated. Wow- I couldn't afford Outback Steak House back in the states and I certainly couldn't afford to eat this kind of food daily here. One of the girls afford to pay the bill for three of us. This offering made me realize two things: 1. Most if not all the Korean students at Yonsei are rich, rich, rich. 2. Koreans are very generously.

In the meanwhile, I'm still dreading tuesdays and thursdays because my natural enemy- the HILL and STEEP STEPS. I still have yet to explore the main library. Yonsei just recently built an addition to the library. I've been to the roof top of it (refer to main blog picture). The library doesn't bring the studious person in me out- it seems too modern and tech for me. I miss Lindell library!

Life here in Seoul is hectic. There's always people rushing everywhere- the park, the streets, the sidewalk, any place you can imagine. Have I mentioned how crazy the traffic is here? It's not as bad as in Laos or Thailand (S. Korea drives on the "right" side). I think for certain Asian countries- red and stop signs seems to be of no affect. Korean drivers are kind of scary. Korea is very safe- except beware of the Korean drivers!

Word of advise: Beware of Old Women stepping on your toes while waiting for the public bus. Don't expect "sorry". I guess it's a cultural thing.