Taking Candy From Strangers

University, getting Korean Names mine is 나래 sounds like 'NaRae'

I am 1/3 of my way through my exchange year. I am having mixed emotions about it. On one hand, I am three months into my wonderful exchange year and I have learned so much. On the other hand, I only have six months left an that doesn't feel like enough time to learn everything I want to. And As for the title, Korea is one of the safest places I have ever been to. I sometimes forget this. The other day on the bus, the bus driver came up to me with some candy and offered me a piece, at first I said no thank you, no thank you, but he kept insisting. Then I remembered "oh right, this is Korea, he isn't going to hurt me by giving me some candy, just take it!" Then the bus driver went around the bus to everyone else and gave them candy as well. I had to laugh at myself a little bit for forgetting how nice people are here.

I haven't posted in a month, but the last month has been pretty steady with almost the same schedule every week. At the beginning of the month, I went on another Rotary bus trip to Busan, a city on the southern tip of South Korea. It is the second largest city in the country but is significantly smaller than Seoul's 10,000,000+ residence. I am sad to report that on my first day in Busan my camera died on the first tour we took and I was not able to take any pictures but I will post some of the other exchanger's pictures. Also on that trip, my adaptor broke so I had no way to charge my camera for a while. Luckily South Korea is a pretty hoppin' place when it comes to technology so it was not hard to find an adaptor at the local Home Plus store. This store has almost everything. From designer clothes, shoes and a food court to a grocery store in the basement and a complete kids level dedicated to baby clothes and room accessories. The place is HUGE but isn't a mall...

A small sliver of Busan 

A few other things I have done this month:

Introducing ourselves

 I danced with the other exchange students at our district conference. I only messed up a few times. We performed the dances we have been learning at our K-pop class we take at Sungkyul University. We also had to introduce ourselves in Korean. It took a lot of practice to memorize those few sentences but it turned out alright!

3rd grade (seniors) took the biggest test of their lives in mid-November. This test is their one chance to prove how smart they are. This test determines their future. Talking to the kids in my class (2nd grade), they are already nervous for this test and they still have a year before they have to take it. Streets and business's around the school are shut down to remove any possible distraction for the students. And if a student is running late? They can call the police for a quick ride to school.

Watching the elections for a different country was strange to say the least. I am sad to say this I did not get my absentee ballot in, but I think if the results were different I would feel even worse. Koreans all seem to love Obama. Everyone I talked to was so excited that Obama won. It made me realize though that it seems every other country in the world knows what is going on in the U.S. but we, as Americans, rarely know what is going on in other countries. That made me take a small step back and reevaluate how I see the world and how I need to be more observant of the world around me. But to say the least, this election made me very proud to be an American and Minnesotan with Vote No.

Korean Class

My Korean is coming along a little better than last month. I can now communicate more easily and am understanding much more. Listening is much easier than speaking and reading. Writing has become fairly easy when I know how to spell the words correctly but so many sounds seem the same so it is easy to mix up ㅔwith ㅐandㅓ with  ㅗ.

This coming week will be my last week at Sungkyul University. I am a little sad that my time there is already over. It was usually the part of the day I looked forward to most. I really enjoyed spending time with the other exchange students and meeting some of the korean students that helped out in our classes or would randomly come up to me to ask me questions in English because they wanted to practice speaking. Next semester, after a two month break in Jan. and Feb. I will hopefully be taking another Korean class at a University or local YMCA. I look forward to learning even more korean!

With Thanksgiving just a few days ago and Christmas/New Years just around the corner I thought I would feel a little more homesick but I am doing great. This could change with the snap of a finger but as of now, I am feeling very comfortable here with my family and with the culture. I do miss my family and friends back home but they will all be there when I get back in June. This is the time to live in the now and take in every second of this year. But I do really miss our yearly round of lefse and chocolate cutouts. (hint hint Grandma...;)

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays to everyone back home!

Busan- The Coast