Time Flies When You're Having Midterms

It's hard to believe that we have already been in Korea for two months! Everything seems to move so quickly here. Especially the time. It's been a while since I've last written a blogpost, so let me bring you up to speed.

Last week marked the midterm of the semester. It felt more like finals. I dreaded those exams and am so glad to have them behind me! Luke had four exams and finished Tuesday. I had five and finished on Wednesday. We then had ourselves a nice little break from classes.

On that Wednesday night, I went to dinner with my friend Sardor from Uzbekistan. He's one of the first friends that I made at Korea University. I met him in my Operations Management course on the first day. I've really enjoyed our discussions about Korea and cultural differences between our home countries. I think I might almost have him convinced to study abroad in the US. Other than that it was Indian food and it was pretty good. I didn't take a picture. I devoured it.

On Thursday I went with some friends to see a Korean baseball game. It was a blast! Completely different from a ballgame in the US. Instead of peanuts, popcorn, and cracker jacks (as my grandpa would say), Koreans eat fried chicken during games. I went for a hot dog instead. It tasted like America.

Friday we went to Gangnam! You know, from the song! It was a little different than Psy made it out to be, but I really enjoyed it. We walked down a street lined with trees and shops. It reminded me a lot of Gatlinburg for some reason. Then we turned the corner to have a drink at a cafe. It was all great fun, so we decided to go for dinner at a fancy Chinese restaurant that Huyen liked. Just between you and me, it all tastes the same to me, but it was good nonetheless. 10/10 would eat again.

This part of the city did have some really cool looking buildings though!

On our way home that night, the temple near our dorm had lit up a bunch of lanterns. It was beautiful in the dark. It was like the hillside was alive. There was also a friendly cat that was playing with people underneath them. I really wanted to play with it, but the Europeans were hogging it so I let it go. The lanterns are for some kind of festival. I don't really know much about it, but they're pretty cool.

Saturday we went to watch The Amazing Spiderman 2. I didn't take any pictures, but Luke did pick up about 50 Korean posters for it. Don't be surprised if you get one as a souvenir when we get back home. It was an alright movie. Not my favorite, but I'm glad I went. Huyen cried.

We watched it in a special theater with big comfy chairs. They were soft and big enough so that everyone had two armrests. I wish there was a theater like that back home! 10/10 would sit again.

Today I woke up early to go into the countryside to pick strawberries. It was quite an adventure as well as being my first time out of Seoul since my arrival! We took a bus with a spectacularly aggressive driver. Thankfully we survived the trip and I got to see a real Korean farm!

We first sat down inside to make dumplings. I wish they were Chicken & Dumplings, but they were full of spicy stuff and wrapped in some kind of strawberry dough. Surprisingly good though! Mine turned out pretty ugly, but I guess they all taste the same.

Mine is the one that looks like a burrito in the back!

After that, they must've thought we smelled bad, so they had us make some strawberry soap. It was a lot easier to do than the dumplings. Plus it smelled good. The lady giving the instructions also said it was good for your skin, so win-win.

This is the soap cooling.

While the soap cooled, they gave us some cartons and told us to get picking. I won't divulge how many strawberries I ate, but let's just say that I got my money's worth. And quite possibly the entire group's money's worth.

I even brought some back!

That's about it.

It's been a great time thus far in Korea. I hope that the next two months are half as fun and twice as long as the first two! I'll try to write more posts. Thanks for reading!