I was able to chat with my Mom on skype after a few week period away I think. Then I rushed off to class. We were joined by a new student from Singapore doing a week long program. She will leave on Friday! I think she knows a bit of English along with Chinese and she happens to sit next to me, so maybe I will get to speak some English for a few days in class! Today was an easier day, we were finishing up chapter 20 so it is really only reading and listening, and the second half we started chapter 20. The multiples of 5 chapters are about pronunciation rules so it was easy too.
After class, I was asked to help an Australian student. She is doing research on native English speakers' pronunciation of Korean words. Her goal is to make Korean {pronunciation} easier for English speakers. So I had to read a list of Korean words 3 times each into her little microphone. On my way back to my room, I ran into Brian and he and I went to the kimbap shop.
I returned to my room and bought my final ticket to Busan!! I also got some studying done. Min Kyung sent me a text telling me to meet her about 40 minutes earlier than planned, so I left and met her in the Jongno area (it's right on my subway line, about 20 minutes away)-Cheonggyecheon runs through this district/neighborhood. We went for ddak galbi, which is what I had to eat on Saturday. (Chicken, veggies and a hot sauce) However, this time we added rice at the end-when just there's a little bit of chicken and veggies left you can add rice and it is kind of like fried rice. It's my favorite part of ddak galbi!
We walked to a coffee shop and along the way passed an office building with a huge Christmas tree inside, so we went in and took our picture and then went on to the coffee shop. MK again paid for dinner, saying I could buy coffee. I think I have officially decided my stomach does not care for Korean milk. This is about the 3-4th time in the past few weeks I've noticed it hurts after I've drank warmed up milk in some form. I'm going to stay away from that and get tea or juice at coffee shops from now on. I am interested to see how US milk affects me when I return home. Anyway, MK and I had some really good conversation ranging from cultural behaviors to North Korea. It is really refreshing to have someone to speak English to; not to struggle to be understood or understand and not just through typing (because that is how most of my English has been 'spoken' these past few months).
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| Me and the giant Christmas tree |
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| MK and the tree |
1. You mentioned that you plan to do and see a number of things in the next 3 weeks. We marvel at how much you've done and seen so far. 2. We think it would be interesting to be a subject in a research project (e.g., how an English speaker says Korean words). 3. Wow: Somehow we didn't fully grasp--till now--how few English-speaking people you've been with and how much typing you've had to do to communicate with people who don't speak English! What a challenging time overseas! R&M.
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