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!
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