SECOND WEEK DOWN. Each day, I've seen the progress in construction, it's quite spectacular. What's not spectacular is the amount of area that is blocked off because of the construction. Even more so, Yonsei is hill-y. Every Tuesday and Thursday, I have my Korean class in the New Millennium Hall and I usually have ten minutes to get there from my class at the bottom; the distance is comparable to the distance from Moore Hall to Shidler. (The killer hill here seems more deadly.) Anyways with all of the construction and the building of the new Business building, there has been changes to classrooms and basically all my classrooms have changed. Overall, I like my schedule! Korean is a bit of a challenge because I cannot differentiate certain sounds and it's been years since I tried learning a new language, heck, I'm still trying to master English. I think as long as I keep up with studying the vocabulary, I will be able to reach my goal of conversing with an ajumma (korean "aunty"). The business classes provide a more broad perspective of international business, we haven't gone in depth yet since my professors were still trying to finalize syllabi and classroom issues.
As for the bumps...it all started on Sunday (9/6). This was the day the Maroon 5 concert was scheduled for in Daegu (a 3 hour bullet train ride from Seoul) at 7 pm. Me and three other Freeman scholars had planned out the transportation situation by purchasing Korail passes (You can buy 1-, 3-, or 5- day passes.) and exchanging them for KTX (bullet train) tickets to get to Daegu. We also found a place through Airbnb to stay near Seoul Station because the last train coming back would get us home after the subway stops running. After some confusion, a 3 hour ride to Daegu Stadium, and a taxi ride to a closed off stadium, a staff member informed us that the concert was cancelled due to an accident and that it would be rescheduled for Thursday. We were shocked for a bit and tried to find English-speaking workers for clarity. We pushed through a mob of angry people and found that we could try to get a refund online or just come back on Thursday for the same seats we already purchased. Already frustrated, we attempted to find our way back to the station by walking down a stretch of land with no signs of a Taxi, finally we caught a bus back to the station. Got tickets for the KTX back to Seoul Station, went to the place we rented out and picked up the bags we had left then and got home around midnight. Bummed out and tired, we fell asleep soon after. For a few days, the sadness seemed to carry over. Monday felt really long because we started school around 11 am and ended at 3 pm, but stayed until 7 pm to meet with our "cells" from the buddy program. This was fun until I tried to eat seafood (out of respect) which my taste buds did not enjoy. I woke up late on Tuesday suffering from the seafood encounter from the night before and had to rush to Korean class. It was on Wednesday that we had to make a decision about going to the rescheduled concert or just getting a refund. Two of the girls decided not to go, but one was still up for the trek to Daegu to see Maroon 5!!! I'm going to continue this up there because this is getting too long. Read on if you want to hear more about the struggles of seeing Maroon 5....
As for the bumps...it all started on Sunday (9/6). This was the day the Maroon 5 concert was scheduled for in Daegu (a 3 hour bullet train ride from Seoul) at 7 pm. Me and three other Freeman scholars had planned out the transportation situation by purchasing Korail passes (You can buy 1-, 3-, or 5- day passes.) and exchanging them for KTX (bullet train) tickets to get to Daegu. We also found a place through Airbnb to stay near Seoul Station because the last train coming back would get us home after the subway stops running. After some confusion, a 3 hour ride to Daegu Stadium, and a taxi ride to a closed off stadium, a staff member informed us that the concert was cancelled due to an accident and that it would be rescheduled for Thursday. We were shocked for a bit and tried to find English-speaking workers for clarity. We pushed through a mob of angry people and found that we could try to get a refund online or just come back on Thursday for the same seats we already purchased. Already frustrated, we attempted to find our way back to the station by walking down a stretch of land with no signs of a Taxi, finally we caught a bus back to the station. Got tickets for the KTX back to Seoul Station, went to the place we rented out and picked up the bags we had left then and got home around midnight. Bummed out and tired, we fell asleep soon after. For a few days, the sadness seemed to carry over. Monday felt really long because we started school around 11 am and ended at 3 pm, but stayed until 7 pm to meet with our "cells" from the buddy program. This was fun until I tried to eat seafood (out of respect) which my taste buds did not enjoy. I woke up late on Tuesday suffering from the seafood encounter from the night before and had to rush to Korean class. It was on Wednesday that we had to make a decision about going to the rescheduled concert or just getting a refund. Two of the girls decided not to go, but one was still up for the trek to Daegu to see Maroon 5!!! I'm going to continue this up there because this is getting too long. Read on if you want to hear more about the struggles of seeing Maroon 5....