Rain, rain, go away,
come again another day.

Seoul, why so gloomy?

I said it was official last Friday that school started, but this is official of the official. I finally have a tentative and debatable schedule.

Korean- got my hopes too high thinking I get into at least beginner level 3, but I got into beginner level 2, does that mean my 3 terms of Korean at my home uni was equivalent to beginner 1 here? That's just intense, but it does make sense since at U of A, Korean is only 3hr/wk, and here it's 10hr/wk (6crd. course)... so its three times as much work. Though, having gone to two classes, I realize I have already learned everything in the level 1 book...it feels repetitive and familiar, so I'm going to request to upgrade. (keeper)

Christian Ethics- prof is an amazing African American from Atlanta, Georgia, very G! but he talks to the class as if we all suck at English as this class has local students in it as well. SO slow. Topic seems very interesting though and the workload is an easy A for sure, though it requires a lot of expenditure on required texts (a debatable keeper or I can just audit this class for interest's sake)

Media Psychology- so hard to get in, sat in for a class and couldn't concentrate-miss. prof is just too soft spoken... don't need this course, just for personal enjoyment (most likely dropping)

Human Factors- 3hr consecutive design course/wk... workload sounds heavy, a group and an individual project, but I need this credit badly, so hopefully its manageable (must keep!)

International Business- with any business course, there's bound to be a group project, but I'm really interested in this class too even if my prof is close to 70yrs old (no lie!), he kept emphasizing the importance of networking all over the world as he himself has worked almost everywhere in the world. Smart man (class is a def. keeper)

Taekwondo- the idea came today; my friend is taking it and its only 1 credit (tho I won't receive any credits for this class), I could just take it for fun and as a workout, plus I always wanted to learn some self defense.. hmmm. debatable (maybe, I'll see how first class goes)

Dilemma: I need to at least receive three 3-credit courses from this term. I will get credits for Human Factors and International Business for sure, but I need an elective. If I stay in Korean beginner 2, I probably won't get the credits for it, and thus will need a fourth course. So either I go with Christian Ethics, which is easy, OR Media Psych, interesting too, but the prof puts me to sleep, OR hope I get into Korean beginner 3 and get credits for it. Darn you ALES for not pre-approving credits!

So I had signed up for the Language Exchange (LE) program where an exchange student is partnered with a local Korean student during the term to practice Korean together. I had requested a male because, as you probably have observed, I'm usually spend my time with females a lot, so I thought I take the chance to meet someone new and practice Korean with. Tonight was the orientation where we got to meet our partner. Some people had told me it feels like a 'blind date' because you get a number and letter and then you go into the auditorium to find your seat where your partner would be sitting either to your left or right. Jumping forward, my LE partner is an engineer in his 4th year and who had just came back from the military. He seems outgoing and friendly so far, but hopefully all goes well as this term progresses. He had asked to go to dinner (apparently we were suppose to do something with our buddies that night), but due to my commitment to Emmaus, I turned it down. Until lunch on Friday I guess, and I really hope he helps me improve in my speaking.

Tonight was also my latest dinner ever. Who knew that finding dinner after 9pm could be so hard? We didn't want to settle for instant noodles so we tried to hunt for an open restaurant. You would think that everywhere in Seoul would open late-not. We walked to all the restaurants around dorms, everything had closed or was about to close so they said no to us when we waved at them from the outside. Then we ventured further away from campus. Paris Baguette, a French inspired, Korean bakery chain was open-but it wouldn't have filled us up. We didn't want to head all the way to Sinchon, but we ended up being in between Edae and Sinchon anyways. Lots of restaurants were closed too, but we walked into a Japanese & BBQ place with their lights still on right before the clock struck 10pm. We didn't know if they were about to close, but the ajumma was happy to welcome us and serve us our donkatsu and udon upon seeing us.

What a night. I'm wiped out.