A stressful week that ended with a stressless weekend

This week has been dominated by financial stress. I have been awarded both the Boren scholarship and the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) and because they are both federal government scholarships, I have had to go through a lot of bureaucracy to make sure I am actually receiving the awards. Right now Boren is withholding my award until FLAS is figured out. In other words, FLAS needs to determine the exact amount of money they are giving me so I can report it to Boren so Boren can still deposit their award money in my bank account. Both scholarships need to make sure that the money they are giving me doesn't overlap. For example, Boren would pay for plane tickets and room and board while FLAS pays for tuition and program fees. Boren has given me a deadline of November 15th to report FLAS funds and the silver lining to all of this is that MSU has given the Asian Studies Center, who administers the FLAS, the same deadline for reporting FLAS funds to MSU so I should theoretically be okay. This has been especially stressful because I need to receive both scholarships in order to keep studying over here. If I don't receive FLAS funds then I have to take loans to cover tuition costs next semester. Additionally, the Office of Study Abroad has been incredibly incompetent with providing essential information, like tuition and program costs, which has not lent help to the situation. My rant about the OSA will be saved for another blog post because this is not the first time that department has failed to serve its students. I look at the bright side to all of this though, and it's that if I can handle this situation, I can handle any bureaucratic situation that comes my way in the future. I think the people I'm dealing with fail to realize I barely turned 21 and I'm handling everything the best I can as a young adult who's living in a foreign country by herself. The last part of that sentence has been stressful enough.

Fortunately the weekend took away the stress from the week. After finishing up with five hours of class on Friday, I headed to dinner with a classmate from my Korean class, Anna. Anna is exactly what I needed because she's my Nisreen over here. In other words, Anna understands me and I understand her and we are able to share what's going on with our lives with empathy. We ended up talking for four hours about a myriad of things, from problems of making friends in Korea to lack of support for foreign students to racial problems. It was very relieving to have someone on my side over here considering everything I've faced so far. I plan on writing a blog post soon that doesn't sugarcoat my experience over here and explains the dilemmas and problems I've been facing as a foreign white American female student.

We went to a BBQ restaurant in Sinchon near the Hyundai Department Store that always has a long line of Koreans outside any day of the week. We ended up waiting for 45 minutes but the wait was very worth it. We ordered kalbi sal (beef) and the quality of meat there was very high. The restaurant also offered several items for free (unlike most restaurants which is probably why there were so many customers) like steamed egg, twae jang chigae, and coffee. After dinner we were both craving a taste from home so we headed to McDonald's where I got a Oreo McFlurry. That night was a testament to what I knew before, and that is that food is the greatest therapy one can receive. I was instantly in a better mood because I had delicious food. And afterwards we went back to my apartment and looked at the amazing view from my rooftop and realized this, this is why we're in Korea. We just wish there were more of those moments here.

Lea and I went to Hanok village on Saturday, a tourist spot in the middle of Seoul. The village is modeled after a Korean traditional village, so it was neat seeing how Koreans probably lived back in the day. I wanted to check the village out to see if it was worth bringing visitors over when they come here and I think it is. Afterwards, since we were nearby, we walked and shopped around Myeongdong. I was planning on a buying a specific sweatshirt later in Seoul in Dongdaemun but I saw this exact sweatshirt in Myeongdong as a surprise so I bought it there. The sweatshirt says "ㅅeoul" on the front and the back has names of other major cities with one letter in each city changed to a letter in Hangul. I've been meaning to find one with "ㅅeoul" on the front and in a gray color and I guess that was my lucky day.

Front of the sweatshirt.

Back of the sweatshirt.

We then headed to the lantern festival in Gwanghwamun that opened this weekend and will last for another two weeks. There were a ton of people there so we took a couple shots of the lanterns and instead of waiting in line and going in closer, we decided to come back another time, possibly during the week, to avoid the large crowds. The night ended in Hongdae, where we had a couple of beers in a bar and because I was so tired from walking around, I headed back to my apartment where soon after I fell asleep.

One of the lanterns at the festival.

Another lantern.

Patrick and I met up on Sunday to go to the kimchi museum in COEX mall near Gangnam. It wasn't until we got there that we realized the museum is closed for construction and won't re-open until March 15th, which is a bummer because I wanted to bring visitors to that museum. So we walked around the area instead and it was very strange because the buildings were so massive but there was barely anyone or anything inside of them. We walked into a building and we were very, very confused because it was like an airport. There was a check-in for luggage and everything, but it wasn't the airport. We thought that since this in the business district of Seoul, perhaps businesspeople check in their luggage there and then get a ride to the airport so at the airport they can just immediately go to their gate. It was very strange. We eventually found a Hyundai Department Store so we headed to the food court to grab lunch. While grabbing lunch I looked up things to do in Gangnam besides shopping and eating, and I came across a cafe that has dogs who perform tricks. We decided that would make for an interesting afternoon, so we hopped back on the subway for two stops and found the cafe which did indeed have dogs that perform tricks. There were both small dogs and large dogs, and even a dog painted as a panda, and they did tricks ranging from shaking hands to riding a skateboard to ringing a bell. It was nice being around animals again and I'd be willing to take friends there because it was definitely a unique experience that you wouldn't have in the United States.

COEX mall.

The dog cafe: Puppy Spoon. So many dogs!

A panda dog riding a skateboard.

We headed back to Sinchon after the cafe and because I had errands and homework to do, I went back to my apartment. I spent the rest of the night taking it easy while also being productive. It was hard not watching more seasons of Breaking Bad, which I began watching last week. This week was filled with so many ups and downs and I hope things will settle themselves out soon. I will see you next week!