Midterm results and relaxation

I finished my midterms on Wednesday and after two days of stress, received my results on Friday. I passed! Exams in Level 3 are MUCH more difficult than the exams last semester. To give an idea of how much more difficult they are: last semester for my midterms I got a 90% average and this semester I ended up with a 79%. Fortunately, my grades from Yonsei do not transfer to MSU so I just need to get at least a 70% in the course to receive credit. Unless I do really badly on my finals, that shouldn't be a problem.

The speaking midterm consisted of our 3-minute speech (which I wrote about meeting Christopher Nolan) and an interview. I did really well on the speech and ended up getting a 93% and I did decently on the interview. Ironically, the speaking portion of the exam was my highest score. I say "ironically" because I consider speaking to be one of my weakest abilities in Korean. The interview was more difficult than last semester because the questions were different. Instead of asking four questions and then responding using whatever grammar points we wanted, the teacher crafted the questions so we were forced to use certain grammar points. You couldn't just prepare the topics but instead also prepare practice sentences for each grammar point. I'm hoping the final exam will use the same format so I will be better prepared.

The listening was surprisingly easier than I expected. We took a practice exam in class and I was honestly predicting that I would fail the listening because it was that hard. I ended up with a 77% on the listening which is honestly a good score for me, considering I thought I was going to receive below a 60% and listening is the biggest weakness of my Korean language ability. On the other hand, I was unpleasantly surprised by how our reading part of the exam was. Unlike last semester, this part of the exam included two readings that we didn't cover in class. I understood the first reading quite well but the second reading had so much vocabulary I didn't know that I just had to make a bunch of educated guesses. The questions for the readings that we did cover in class were also very difficult. Last semester the reading part was by far the easiest part of the exam (I got a 95% for the semester), but this semester is by far the hardest part. Luckily my reading-out-loud grade (which is 10% of the total reading part) saved me, so my score wasn't too horrible. I was actually surprised how nicely my teacher graded me for the reading-out-loud. I thought I made more mistakes this semester than last semester but I received a much higher grade. But despite the toughness, I didn't fail and I got above a 70% and that's all that matters.

Lastly, the writing part of the exam was formatted without any surprises except for the second page. That page included questions where there were four sentences and you had to choose the false, or least correct, one. I had to spend a lot of time with those because there were a couple that I swear all looked correct. I made some silly and not-so-silly mistakes throughout exam and I think I can improve this part of the exam for the final because I have a better idea of what to study for.

Overall, I'm very relieved with my results. I really thought I was going to fail at least one part of the exam or receive a lower overall score. I guess those two weeks of studying paid off. And I'm so happy I don't have to take higher levels of KLI because I honestly don't think I could pass them the first try. Some people are naturally talented at languages, and I'm just not one of those people.

By finishing all my homework before Friday, I set out to make this weekend a relaxing one. I deserved it. I celebrated Marisa's birthday with Lea and Marisa's friend, Kira, by eating Mexican food and cake and then heading to Hongdae for some maekkoli Friday night. We ordered strawberry-banana maekkoli and it tasted exactly like a smoothie. It was beyond delicious. We also ordered a maekkolia, a maekkoli-sangria, and that was also delicious and surprisingly refreshing.

On Saturday I started the day off by Skyping Henrik and then I headed to Insadong to buy a gift for Nisreen, my best friend in the U.S. After stopping in multiple stores, I found something I think she would like (I won't reveal what it is in case she reads this blog) and I greatly enjoyed and appreciated the storelady who helped me. Honestly, customer service swayed my decision on which gift to buy. I hope all storeowners realize that genuine friendliness will get you more customers! Before heading back on the subway, I bought some rice cake in a really nice rice cake shop for a snack later on. I love Korean sweets and desserts because they're not very sweet and actually are pretty healthy because they use a lot of beans, sweet potato, green tea, rice, etc. I then headed to Hongdae to do some retail therapy and then I met up with Kate for dinner. I ended up buying a dress, leggings, and some jean shorts. I lack warm weather clothes and now that the weather is getting to be consistently in the mid-70's it's necessary that I pick up some items other than sweatshirts and cardigans. Kate and I stopped in a burger restaurant, and an interesting event occurred in the restaurant. This Korean guy in his thirties came up to us and starting what I assumed was flirting in both Korean and English. It was just really awkward and even though Kate and I said we both had boyfriends, he just didn't seem to get the hint. Luckily he eventually went back to his table when our food came out, but we were actually worried he was going to follow us out of the restaurant because he had those creepy vibes. Luckily he didn't, and we were able to leave that awkwardness behind.

One of the rice cakes I bought: sweet potato flavored!

If you know me well, you know that I'm very much a morning person. To me, nothing beats a relaxing, early morning. I either like to chill and drink coffee or go on walks. Back at MSU, I would enjoy my morning walks on our beautiful campus. Because I live in a city now, nature is greatly lacking so my only option is to go to a park. I've been to Seoul Forest before back in January, but I decided to check it out again to see all the spring flowers. I woke up at 6 a.m. on Sunday and headed to the Eastern part of Seoul while also occasionally running into drunk people still awake from the night before. Despite people walking around, it was still less busy than normal and the lack of people makes everything more calming for me. I spent about an hour and a half walking around the several parks in Seoul Forest and taking photos of all the flowers I walked by. It was really relaxing going by myself and on my own schedule. I even saw a random pen of bunnies! I took a break halfway through and ate the rice cakes I bought the day before, contemplating the fact that I'm in Korea and I have two months before I leave.

Pretty flowers!

More flowers.

Aaaand more. I have more photos on my Facebook.

A random pen of bunnies!

I have a lot mixed emotions about leaving Korea. I'm really excited to leave soon because I get to see Henrik, my friends, and my family, but I'm also sad because I don't when I'll be able to visit Korea again and I know I'll miss certain things like food and public transportation. Time has already gone by fast, so I know these next two months will fly by.

After leaving Seoul Forest, I headed to Edae for some more clothes shopping and then I walked to Sinchon for lunch. I then came back to my apartment, did some much needed cleaning, and then took a very nice nap. The weather is absolutely perfect so I was able to open my window and comfortably chill for a couple of hours. Overall this weekend was great. It was incredibly relaxing and rewarding. I also did most of the activities by myself, so things were never stressful and instead I found some inner peace.

I'm going to Damyang and Boseong with Lea and Marisa next weekend. We'll visit the bamboo festival in Damyang on Saturday and then head to Boseong to see the green tea fields and consume green tea everything on Sunday. I've been looking forward to the weekend trip for a really long time so I'm excited to recall the events next week. Until then, see you later!

Cherry blossoms

Spring is finally here! And you want to know why? Because the flowers are finally blooming! After the dreary winter days, it is so refreshing seeing cherry blossoms and green starting to appear when I walk around in Seoul. On Saturday I decided to take advantage of seeing the cherry blossoms by visiting Yeouido. I went my friend from Russia, Veronika, who's also in my KLI class, her boyfriend, and her friend from Russia. After getting off the subway, we walked toward the Han River to the park where we saw a lot of pretty cherry blossoms on the way. The weather was also perfect (70 and slightly cloudy), which made the day even better.

Veronika, Sergey, and I. 

Cherry blossoms!

More cherry blossoms!

And even more!

After reaching the park and walking around for a little while, we stopped to rest and take in the view and weather. We also ordered some chicken and beer as a snack. When going to the river parks it is very, very common to order chicken and beer via delivery for food. While eating, we talked about some interesting things, varying from crime rates in our respective countries (Nika's boyfriend is Korean) to why Americans don't like traveling to other countries. While I'm in Korea and abroad in general, I find myself being a representative for the U.S. a lot of the time. I think of it as people diplomacy, and if I ever want to have a career in diplomacy in the State Department, which I do, I think this is good practice. While I have my patriotic doubts sometimes, I am reminded that I'm proud of the U.S. for varying reasons and I hold my responsibility of representing the U.S. strongly.

The park was full of activity.

After our snack, we got up and walked around some more. That day was perfect for people-watching and I could've spent all day watching people if I wanted to. Two moments stood out to me while we were walking around. First, we spotted people riding these single wheel things and then dodging through cones to show off their skills. Apparently they cost about $1,000 when we asked one of the riders. I've seen people ride these things in Seoul before and I wonder if they'll become more popular in the future. Second, we saw a guy on a bike jumping on stone blocks. He was actually really good at it, and I wonder how he got to that point. I mean, it's not a common trick to want to learn when you're on a bike, but impressive nonetheless. 

These cool single wheel-rider things.

A guy jumping on stone blocks with his bike.

After it started to rain a little in the park, we hopped on the subway again to go to a market that is famous for its non-spicy tteokbokki. I haven't tried the non-version yet so I was definitely curious to see what it tastes like. Geumcheongyo Market is a small market by Gwanghwamun, and we stopped by a food stall to try this famed snack. It was definitely unlike any tteokbokki I've ever had, and the flavors were very simple. We got both spicy and non-spicy and I actually preferred the spicy, which I think is indicative of how Korea has changed my tastebuds, haha. 

Trying the famed non-spicy tteokbokki. 

We walked around in the neighborhood by the market where we shared a Nutella waffle and then chilled in a cafe with some tea. The neighborhood was quite and peaceful, which was the icing on the cake for the day we had. Afterwards Nika's boyfriend was generous enough to drive me back to Sinchon, where I ended the night with some movie-watching.

On Sunday I was productive with my Korean homework and studying, and I did my usual end-of-the-week errands like laundry and cleaning. I spent some time that day thinking about possibly getting my hair permanently straightened before I go back to the U.S. It's a lot cheaper to do in Korea and since I straighten my hair almost every day with a flat iron, why not? I'm also going to spend the next couple of days planning for some day trips. Specifically I want to travel south to visit a bamboo festival and tea fields sometime in May. There's also a pretty good chance that I might be able to travel to Vietnam at the end of June. Once I get those details figured out I will let you know.

Midterms start next week so I will be spending the next two weeks preparing for them, which means I won't be writing a blog post until the end of April or early May. Hopefully I do well on my exams so spirits will be high, but only time will tell. I will you see you at the end of the month!