An Interesting Turn of Events + Another Life Lesson Learned

FLEXIBILITY PEOPLE!!! It is a trait necessary to survive in life!

An interesting turn of events took up most of my afternoon, put me behind my studying plan and made me realize that I can't always plan my life to the detail that I so controlling-ly like to do!...More on that in a bit.

Well, of course today was drizzly, cold, gloomy and dreary outside. And of course I STILL don't have an umbrella. I was SOAKING by the time I got to school. Very unfortunate, cold, wet and miserable way to spend 4 hours of class time... Classes, were fine, we finished up another chapter, so...quiz tomorrow! We also got a schedule of our midterms-we will be tested on listening, reading, writing, speaking and multiple choice questions. Yaaaay! (No, not really.)

After class, I came back--it was not raining quite as hard as it was going to school. I peeled off my wet clothes, got into some dry clothes and tried to figure out how to turn the supposed heater I have in my room on. Well, as it turns out, I don't believe it's a heater, we just have the floor heating system (Ondol) which makes sense because when I looked at the little English guide about how to use the thermostat looking control, the button it told me to push then flashed up on the screen in small print the word "Ondol" *ding ding ding* I can make connections! Of course, I did not realize this until I was thinking, it doesn't feel warmer in here, but when I got out of my bed, the floor was very warm.

That being said, now leads me to after my lunch and my interesting turn of events and the lesson that I cannot control and plan everything, but that's okay. The original plan for this weekend had been for Ginger, Jihye and me to meet at Pusan Station and travel to Nampodong area to go to a favorite restaurant of Ginger and mine for dinner. Ginger and I would go to the fireworks festival together and  then Ginger would stay the night at a hotel at a different beach area and I would stay at a spa overnight, with Jihye returning to her home after dinner.

Well, come to find out there are NO fireworks on Friday this year, just Saturday. Enter curve-ball #1. Then, as I was chatting details with Jihye, she suddenly wrote, "oh my gosh! The director just called me and told me I have to go to Seoul for a meeting Friday!" So enter curve-ball #2. Now, instead of me leaving as soon as I could on Friday to make it to Pusan to meet Jihye and Ginger for dinner, Jihye and I decided to take the train from Seoul to Gupo Station (closer to Inje University) together. Enter curve-ball #3-Jihye wanted to take the KTX (fast train) but they were all sold out. So, we will take the slow train! However, it gives me a little bit of extra time to spend with Jihye. :) Ginger decided it was not worth it for her to come with the new schedule, I will unfortunately not be able to meet with her at all.

So, while I am excited at the new developments, I've also learned to be leery or wary of putting too much stock into them. I've found out that Koreans for the most part seem to be okay with not planning too much in advance at times or committing to something. They are vague or avoid you when you ask about a specific date too far in advance. I'm realizing it is better for me to make my own plans and then say "oh by the way I'm here, so you should come and meet me if you are free right now". However, it is difficult for me for several reasons. 1. I, as stated before, like to plan things out and have things in order (especially when traveling) 2. Some of these friends I haven't seen in over a year and a half and to be honest I'm not sure when I will see them again. While it is great because in this day and age we have so much connection to people globally through internet and such, it's still very meaningful to meet and connect in person with your friends.

Since today was cold, drizzly and dreary, I decided early on in the day I wanted soup for dinner. I invited my roommate, but she was not able to meet with me. I didn't want to go to a restaurant and sit by myself and eat, so I went to the kimbap shop and ordered "ddeok mandu guk" (ddeok--the rice 'cake', mandu-dumplings, guk-soup) to go. I received soup in a kitchen storage type bag, set in a bowl, wrapped in another carrying bag. How interesting! But when I got to my room interest turned into dismay as I wondered how I was going to get the HOT soup out of the bag and into the bowl!! I placed the bowl in the sink, started tipping the bag and said a little prayer. Lucky for me, almost all of the soup made it into the bowl! Phew!

After dinner, I devoted my time to studying, reviewing, and homeworking.

Dinner!!!