The First Few Weeks in Korea: Orientation week and First week of school
Orientation. Day 1, Day 2, Seoul city tour.
It was very hot that first day! Actually Seoul was quite hot the first month or so I was here, but not anything I wasn't expecting. Having spent a few summers in Singapore, I expected it to be of similar humidity, which to me it was. However, a few other girls from Singapore found Seoul more humid than Singapore. Well, I feel quite sticky and sweaty in both countries, so it feels the same. Vancouver summers are different - we do sweat too, but I find the actual heat more strong, and it is not that humid.
Anyways, once I found my group, group 8, the girl who had the attendance sheet turned out to be my buddy! After a little while, we watched a video about KU (which I think I actually have seen on youtube before, or at least some version of it) and listened to some introductory speeches.
I think we had lunch after that. It was still Ramadan, so I wasn't eating but I still joined my buddy and the other 2 in our group (she has 3 buddies altogether) at the table. I don't find it that hard not eating while everyone else is eating; I feel that people care more than I do because I'm not eating.
On a side note (I did warn you that this blog would have many tangents and stories here and there). There was a male buddy from our group in the line-up for lunch that asked me how tall I was. When I told him, he said something along the lines of "You are so tall, I can't stand beside you!". Haha. He wasn't really short, and he was a dongseng anyway (<--dongseng means younger sibling, younger friend, or younger person you know), so perhpas he might still have room to grow! A female Korean friend gave me a piece of advice about Korean guys before going to Korea: Don't ask them their height because it would be the same as asking a girl how much she weighs! Actually, the only guys that have made a big deal about height were Korean guys. Once, at a going away party for my Korean friend back in Vancouver (who was going back to Korea), we met a Korean guy who commented that I was really tall, and asked how tall I was. When I told him my height, he said he was the same height. Well, being the usual social me, I said "let's compare heights!" (well, perhaps I have just liked comparing heights since I was young...to see how tall I was compared to my mom, to my dad, etc). But his response was not anything I expected at all. "No, I can't do that. I don't want to embarrass myself". I'll give you a third anecdote about height before I move on. Sometime in September I met with a male dongseng who is also from Vancouver and studying Korean in Seoul. At some point, I had mentioned that I wanted to buy heels and he said that if I did by heels, to make sure I am not with him when that happens. And, he was also wearing insoles that day! Or, was it just the fact that he bought insoles? Anyways, apparently some Korean guys(or in his case, Koreanized guys) wear insoles in their shoes to make them taller. I just find it amusing how important height is to Korean guys, or at least seem to be. Or perhaps, it is just because this is coming from a very tall girl, who at some points in her life absolutely hated being tall. But I'm mostly fine with it now :) I could probably write another blog just about the experience of being tall. Ok! Next up is...oh yes, we are still on day 1 of orientation! After making our IDs and doing the campus tour (which for me, was my second one - the first one being on the day I moved into my gositel), we had the Korean placement exam! We basically just had to write an introduction about ourselves and then proceed for an interview. So, my original plan this year, once I had decided on KU, was to study Korean immensely on my own so that I could take a higher level Korean course, that could possibly translate back into upper division credit at my home university... or perhaps more so that if I was going to be there for a year, might as well take a higher level class if I could right? Even though I bought a ton of books (basically I was able to get an awesome deal of getting about 8?? books for only $40 because they were 90% off...probably old edition or something) to learn Korean, I barely touched them. So, besides me watching Korean dramas, listening to Korean music, and sometimes asking Korean friends how to say things in Korean, I didn't study much, well, with a book. Actually, the dramas were quite helpful, especially when they had Korean subtitles - I would listen to what they would say, and write down (in both the Korean and English subtitles) what it meant. Wait, I think I brought a few of those sheets with me to Korea..hmm should go find them. Anyway, the point is, I was probably still at a very basic level, seeing as how the only time I had really learned Korean was during the free Korean lessons that were offered by a club at my uni - but even then it was informal and although learning hangeul and basic expression was essential, and I am thankful for it, some of the other stuff we learned was just vocab, which didn't help me too much in applying it in conversation. Other wise it was dramas, music, friends, and self-learning through internet sources. I'll try do a post on internet sources for Korean learning too...once I get through all of these ones :) I met a Japanese guy (who I have never seen again! which is weird - most students I've seen randomly on campus at least) in the line up for the interview. Boy, it was a relief to speak Japanese with him with him while I nervously waiting for the interview - ironic, isn't it? Trying to get rid of pre-Korean placement interview jitters by conversing in Japanese. The interview... well as I hadn't actually ever really practiced, or even heard the questions that were asked, I felt I did quite poorly. They were really basic things, but I had just never heard the questions..all I knew was how to introduce myself but not how to answer if people asked me questions about it. A few days later I got an email saying that I was put into beginner's 1! Ah...I really wanted to get into a higher level. My class, is however, more of a beginner's 1.5, or beginners 1 advanced as we started from ch.6, everyone can write hangeul, and the teacher speaks mostly in Korean. I actually wanted to try to do beginner 2, but it conflicts with the a couple of my other courses, so that wouldn't work. At the beginning of the term, I found it a bit easy. Not easy because I already knew the stuff (because I didn't really) but more so because I felt I wanted to learn more grammer points when we were learning very few and I felt I picked up what we learned quickly. It is, however, a different case now. I think the pace has picked up which I'm happy about BUT it is still my goal to get into atleast intermediate 1 next year. The levels are: beginner 1/2, intermediate 1/2, advanced 1/2. I would really like to improve my Korean here, atleast to the point where I can speak comfortably in everyday conversations - perhaps the level of my Japanese right before I left for Korea (which my spoken ability has started to deteriorate due to my lack of use...not to say that I don't use it at all, because I try to with my Japanese friends, but it doesn't roll off the tongue as easily as it used to...too many languages in my head, haha). At the intermediate level, there are also reading and writing classes in addition to the main speaking class which I would like to take. We had dinner that night at some place at anam. We took up the whole restaurant. Towards the end of the night, they put on Orange caramel's "Magic girl"song ...and one of the MALE Korean buddies got up and started dancing to this! When I say danced, I mean do the choreography. For those of you who are not familiar with Kpop (which should be very few if any...I'm sure that if you know me then I have probably already taught you in the ways of Kpop! =P).... practically all mainstream kpop songs come with choreography, whether it be strong and sharp, or girly and cute, as in this case. My buddy and I also did some of the choregraphy, but just sitting down, as we didn't want to steal the limelight from him, haha. Here's the mv:
You must admit, the chorus choreo can be kind of fun right? Well, at this point, I was thinking I must be in the right place. People doing Kpop choreo in a restaurant- fantastic, I'll fit right in! haha
Then day 2 of orientation, then Seoul city tour - Folk museum, lunch, walking around Insadong (an area with souvenirs, shops, restaurants, etc), then JUMP!, comic martial arts performance. When we were walking around Insadong, we came across one of the many shops selling traditional souvenirs, and I found these and had to capture it!
That Saturday, my group, group 8 went bowling...I'm really not sure where, since we all took the subway together from Anam. I think there were about 7 or 8 of us that met at Anam, but at our peak we had about 15 people or so. Here's a group pic :)
A note about groups...many of my friends in different groups don't meet very often with their group, or really at all. As well, some of my friend's buddies don't really contact them or reply to them when my friends try to contact them. I'm thankful I've got an awesome buddy and a fun group that meets often! My buddy is awesome, she's helped me a lot, always helps me when I text her random questions sometimes, is a lot of fun, and we try to meet when we're not busy with school and other stuff ^^ Our group meets most thursdays, so I see my group (or I guess parts of my group, since everyone is not able to make it 100% of the time) pretty often. I'm proud to say that I have never missed a group 8 outing (wait unless they had one today...Thursday,Oct 14th, I went to a wedding, but more on that in a future post :]) and I've been to most KUBA outtings.
At one of the restaurants we went to that day, we had this! Shrimp chips. It looks and tastes just like keropok (in Singapore/Malaysia)! It was nice to have a familiar snack :)
The following Monday I started classes. I enjoyed my first week of school - it was nice to start school again and it was also nice seeing many familiar faces on campus already!
The only minor issues that I had was that I found out that I wasn't actually registered in any courses even though I had gone to 1-stop centre to register. At that time, the lady said she had registered me, so I thought everything would be fine. But, during my first class of Postwar Japan, the teacher didn't read my name out during attendance, so I saw her after class and discovered my name was not on the list. When I went home during my break, I saw online that I wasn't registered under any courses. I had to go back to the one-stop centre to get it re-done. Also, I had trouble withdrawing money from the bank because I had to pay my Gositel manager my monthly rent. I was trying to withdraw enough money but it kept saying "insufficient funds" - which was strange because I had more than the amount I wanted to withdraw in my account. I came back several times after, and even talked to the teller. I had also gotten my mom to call the bank back in Van, and there also seemed to be no problem... Basically in the end I was able to withdraw money BUT then I discovered in October that ACTUALLY there was a withdrawal limit for my home bank at night! So basically there is a limit of $200 Vancouver time like 9pm-7am, which is why I couldn't withdraw the amount I wanted...I usually went in the afternoon (which is night time in Van)! I wish they had told me when I called the bank when I informed them of my exchange before leaving for Korea...I asked if there was anything I needed to remember or do differently etc. But perhaps they assumed I would know about the night-time withdrawal limit. Anyhoo, glad I got that figured out!
The Tuesday of the first week of school I got a phone! It TOTALLY beats the phone I used in Canada...well if you knew me when I had the last phone, I could probably rant about it for awhile about the problems I had with it... unable to receive/send texts, phone just deleting all my texts,etc
Anyway, so the phone is quite awesome. I got a good plan, a lot better than whatever I was paying for in Van, looks cute, has a dictionary, subway map (very useful!), TV!!! (but actually I don't really use it but still! so cool!), and the regular stuff like calculator, memo, photos, etc
The box said LGLU1600 so I youtubed it, thinking it would probably have some ad with Korean celebrities, and sure enough it did!
My cell phone is called icecream 2 and the celebrities features are Big Bang and Kim Tae Hee!
It was very hot that first day! Actually Seoul was quite hot the first month or so I was here, but not anything I wasn't expecting. Having spent a few summers in Singapore, I expected it to be of similar humidity, which to me it was. However, a few other girls from Singapore found Seoul more humid than Singapore. Well, I feel quite sticky and sweaty in both countries, so it feels the same. Vancouver summers are different - we do sweat too, but I find the actual heat more strong, and it is not that humid.
Anyways, once I found my group, group 8, the girl who had the attendance sheet turned out to be my buddy! After a little while, we watched a video about KU (which I think I actually have seen on youtube before, or at least some version of it) and listened to some introductory speeches.
I think we had lunch after that. It was still Ramadan, so I wasn't eating but I still joined my buddy and the other 2 in our group (she has 3 buddies altogether) at the table. I don't find it that hard not eating while everyone else is eating; I feel that people care more than I do because I'm not eating.
On a side note (I did warn you that this blog would have many tangents and stories here and there). There was a male buddy from our group in the line-up for lunch that asked me how tall I was. When I told him, he said something along the lines of "You are so tall, I can't stand beside you!". Haha. He wasn't really short, and he was a dongseng anyway (<--dongseng means younger sibling, younger friend, or younger person you know), so perhpas he might still have room to grow! A female Korean friend gave me a piece of advice about Korean guys before going to Korea: Don't ask them their height because it would be the same as asking a girl how much she weighs! Actually, the only guys that have made a big deal about height were Korean guys. Once, at a going away party for my Korean friend back in Vancouver (who was going back to Korea), we met a Korean guy who commented that I was really tall, and asked how tall I was. When I told him my height, he said he was the same height. Well, being the usual social me, I said "let's compare heights!" (well, perhaps I have just liked comparing heights since I was young...to see how tall I was compared to my mom, to my dad, etc). But his response was not anything I expected at all. "No, I can't do that. I don't want to embarrass myself". I'll give you a third anecdote about height before I move on. Sometime in September I met with a male dongseng who is also from Vancouver and studying Korean in Seoul. At some point, I had mentioned that I wanted to buy heels and he said that if I did by heels, to make sure I am not with him when that happens. And, he was also wearing insoles that day! Or, was it just the fact that he bought insoles? Anyways, apparently some Korean guys(or in his case, Koreanized guys) wear insoles in their shoes to make them taller. I just find it amusing how important height is to Korean guys, or at least seem to be. Or perhaps, it is just because this is coming from a very tall girl, who at some points in her life absolutely hated being tall. But I'm mostly fine with it now :) I could probably write another blog just about the experience of being tall. Ok! Next up is...oh yes, we are still on day 1 of orientation! After making our IDs and doing the campus tour (which for me, was my second one - the first one being on the day I moved into my gositel), we had the Korean placement exam! We basically just had to write an introduction about ourselves and then proceed for an interview. So, my original plan this year, once I had decided on KU, was to study Korean immensely on my own so that I could take a higher level Korean course, that could possibly translate back into upper division credit at my home university... or perhaps more so that if I was going to be there for a year, might as well take a higher level class if I could right? Even though I bought a ton of books (basically I was able to get an awesome deal of getting about 8?? books for only $40 because they were 90% off...probably old edition or something) to learn Korean, I barely touched them. So, besides me watching Korean dramas, listening to Korean music, and sometimes asking Korean friends how to say things in Korean, I didn't study much, well, with a book. Actually, the dramas were quite helpful, especially when they had Korean subtitles - I would listen to what they would say, and write down (in both the Korean and English subtitles) what it meant. Wait, I think I brought a few of those sheets with me to Korea..hmm should go find them. Anyway, the point is, I was probably still at a very basic level, seeing as how the only time I had really learned Korean was during the free Korean lessons that were offered by a club at my uni - but even then it was informal and although learning hangeul and basic expression was essential, and I am thankful for it, some of the other stuff we learned was just vocab, which didn't help me too much in applying it in conversation. Other wise it was dramas, music, friends, and self-learning through internet sources. I'll try do a post on internet sources for Korean learning too...once I get through all of these ones :) I met a Japanese guy (who I have never seen again! which is weird - most students I've seen randomly on campus at least) in the line up for the interview. Boy, it was a relief to speak Japanese with him with him while I nervously waiting for the interview - ironic, isn't it? Trying to get rid of pre-Korean placement interview jitters by conversing in Japanese. The interview... well as I hadn't actually ever really practiced, or even heard the questions that were asked, I felt I did quite poorly. They were really basic things, but I had just never heard the questions..all I knew was how to introduce myself but not how to answer if people asked me questions about it. A few days later I got an email saying that I was put into beginner's 1! Ah...I really wanted to get into a higher level. My class, is however, more of a beginner's 1.5, or beginners 1 advanced as we started from ch.6, everyone can write hangeul, and the teacher speaks mostly in Korean. I actually wanted to try to do beginner 2, but it conflicts with the a couple of my other courses, so that wouldn't work. At the beginning of the term, I found it a bit easy. Not easy because I already knew the stuff (because I didn't really) but more so because I felt I wanted to learn more grammer points when we were learning very few and I felt I picked up what we learned quickly. It is, however, a different case now. I think the pace has picked up which I'm happy about BUT it is still my goal to get into atleast intermediate 1 next year. The levels are: beginner 1/2, intermediate 1/2, advanced 1/2. I would really like to improve my Korean here, atleast to the point where I can speak comfortably in everyday conversations - perhaps the level of my Japanese right before I left for Korea (which my spoken ability has started to deteriorate due to my lack of use...not to say that I don't use it at all, because I try to with my Japanese friends, but it doesn't roll off the tongue as easily as it used to...too many languages in my head, haha). At the intermediate level, there are also reading and writing classes in addition to the main speaking class which I would like to take. We had dinner that night at some place at anam. We took up the whole restaurant. Towards the end of the night, they put on Orange caramel's "Magic girl"song ...and one of the MALE Korean buddies got up and started dancing to this! When I say danced, I mean do the choreography. For those of you who are not familiar with Kpop (which should be very few if any...I'm sure that if you know me then I have probably already taught you in the ways of Kpop! =P).... practically all mainstream kpop songs come with choreography, whether it be strong and sharp, or girly and cute, as in this case. My buddy and I also did some of the choregraphy, but just sitting down, as we didn't want to steal the limelight from him, haha. Here's the mv:
You must admit, the chorus choreo can be kind of fun right? Well, at this point, I was thinking I must be in the right place. People doing Kpop choreo in a restaurant- fantastic, I'll fit right in! haha
Then day 2 of orientation, then Seoul city tour - Folk museum, lunch, walking around Insadong (an area with souvenirs, shops, restaurants, etc), then JUMP!, comic martial arts performance. When we were walking around Insadong, we came across one of the many shops selling traditional souvenirs, and I found these and had to capture it!
That Saturday, my group, group 8 went bowling...I'm really not sure where, since we all took the subway together from Anam. I think there were about 7 or 8 of us that met at Anam, but at our peak we had about 15 people or so. Here's a group pic :)
A note about groups...many of my friends in different groups don't meet very often with their group, or really at all. As well, some of my friend's buddies don't really contact them or reply to them when my friends try to contact them. I'm thankful I've got an awesome buddy and a fun group that meets often! My buddy is awesome, she's helped me a lot, always helps me when I text her random questions sometimes, is a lot of fun, and we try to meet when we're not busy with school and other stuff ^^ Our group meets most thursdays, so I see my group (or I guess parts of my group, since everyone is not able to make it 100% of the time) pretty often. I'm proud to say that I have never missed a group 8 outing (wait unless they had one today...Thursday,Oct 14th, I went to a wedding, but more on that in a future post :]) and I've been to most KUBA outtings.
At one of the restaurants we went to that day, we had this! Shrimp chips. It looks and tastes just like keropok (in Singapore/Malaysia)! It was nice to have a familiar snack :)
The following Monday I started classes. I enjoyed my first week of school - it was nice to start school again and it was also nice seeing many familiar faces on campus already!
The only minor issues that I had was that I found out that I wasn't actually registered in any courses even though I had gone to 1-stop centre to register. At that time, the lady said she had registered me, so I thought everything would be fine. But, during my first class of Postwar Japan, the teacher didn't read my name out during attendance, so I saw her after class and discovered my name was not on the list. When I went home during my break, I saw online that I wasn't registered under any courses. I had to go back to the one-stop centre to get it re-done. Also, I had trouble withdrawing money from the bank because I had to pay my Gositel manager my monthly rent. I was trying to withdraw enough money but it kept saying "insufficient funds" - which was strange because I had more than the amount I wanted to withdraw in my account. I came back several times after, and even talked to the teller. I had also gotten my mom to call the bank back in Van, and there also seemed to be no problem... Basically in the end I was able to withdraw money BUT then I discovered in October that ACTUALLY there was a withdrawal limit for my home bank at night! So basically there is a limit of $200 Vancouver time like 9pm-7am, which is why I couldn't withdraw the amount I wanted...I usually went in the afternoon (which is night time in Van)! I wish they had told me when I called the bank when I informed them of my exchange before leaving for Korea...I asked if there was anything I needed to remember or do differently etc. But perhaps they assumed I would know about the night-time withdrawal limit. Anyhoo, glad I got that figured out!
The Tuesday of the first week of school I got a phone! It TOTALLY beats the phone I used in Canada...well if you knew me when I had the last phone, I could probably rant about it for awhile about the problems I had with it... unable to receive/send texts, phone just deleting all my texts,etc
Anyway, so the phone is quite awesome. I got a good plan, a lot better than whatever I was paying for in Van, looks cute, has a dictionary, subway map (very useful!), TV!!! (but actually I don't really use it but still! so cool!), and the regular stuff like calculator, memo, photos, etc
The box said LGLU1600 so I youtubed it, thinking it would probably have some ad with Korean celebrities, and sure enough it did!
My cell phone is called icecream 2 and the celebrities features are Big Bang and Kim Tae Hee!
Comments