The day we won't be mentioning after this, ok?

Today is a national holiday in Korea, so we students have the day off. I myself am spending it recovering.

Yesterday was orientation, where we chose our classes, took placement tests, campus tours, etc. I was able to get in to the accelerated program for learning Korean!! I am so excited, but scared out of my mind. I have a feeling this will be one of the harder things I’ve ever done. They cover the entire content of a normal semester in one month. However, the schedule is fixed, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm Monday through Friday, and I will have no other academic obligations. I like that. I will haunt the library to make up for the history and politics I’m not taking. (Once I can understand what I’m reading!)

Part of the walk from my dorm to the library. Our campus is built on a very steep hill, and we are going to be the most in-shape students ever!

I had to take a placement test so that they could firmly understand that I truly speak no Korean. Oh my word. I know that you can’t fail a placement test, but that was so difficult! It was all in Hangul, which is the Korean character system, and it was asking questions about things like grammar and tense. All I know is the alphabet, some numbers, and how to say ‘thank you’, so that was quite challenging. I finally decided, instead of quitting or just sitting there, to translate all the characters into English letters, which is called Romanizing. That was tedious, but it helped me recognize a few words, and I think I may have gotten some of the “what time is it” questions right. Fail. I felt very useless and unlearned. The oral exam was a lost cause. I understood nothing, and I was probably there for less than a minute before the man smiled nicely and asked me to leave. I was pretty mortified.

I hadn’t had a chance to eat that day, so I asked permission to leave my campus tour, and I went off campus to find some food. I hear the cafeteria has passable cuisine, but it isn’t open yet, so I had to take a little walk. I wandered around the streets until I found a restaurant with nice pictures of food on the outside, and went in. I was the only customer. The hostess and I stared at each other for a bit while I tried to remember what I was supposed to say first – you would think I would have thought that through before I went in, but I was pretty flustered and near tears, and very hungry – thinking was not high on the list. So we eventually got it settled that I was alone, that they didn’t have the only thing I knew how to order, and that I don’t speak Korean and she didn’t speak English. Then she made what seemed like a suggestion, so I said, “Ne!” which is yes, and sat down.

She brought me so much food! It was amazing, and I ate every last bite. 

To the left is a kind of sauce, to the right a spicy fish soup. Kimchi, yellow pickle, onions and black bean paste are in the background. The rice had eggs and possibly chicken in it...
This meal was 4,000 won, which is a little less than four dollars.

I took a picture of it, which I thought was beautiful, but when I contemplated posting it, I realized that it’s more fun for you to see at least some pictures with me in them. That meant asking her to take a picture of me. Why is it so scary to try to communicate? I don’t understand why it’s something to overcome, but I had to wage war with myself to get myself to step out. So I pulled out my phrase book and I went at it, because I always win those wars.

I think it went something like this:

“May you please excuse me (for an impolite act) thank you please. Photograph?”

By the end, we both had our phrase books out, and I was able to tell her that the food was delicious, and that I was very grateful. I even understood how much to pay, and that was without the phrasebook!

The dinner experience was such a boost to my smashed and mangled self-esteem (from the placement test) that I decided to attempt to go to the next city and find a bath house. Ah, the hazards of being an impulsive soul… I spent about an hour on Google maps, trying to get a better visual of where to go, but I can’t figure out how to sufficiently translate the page – Romanizing the Korean doesn’t help that much when it’s city names, etc. Finally I just gave up and left. It was a bad plan. I had been down the Metro line with friends, but forgot which set of tracks we took, so I gambled there, and picked the one out of four that I thought looked right. When I got off at the next station, I was suddenly in a big city, which I hadn’t counted on, because my station is very small and rural, and not that far away. There were basically no signs in English, so it was hard to find a landmark, it was dark, and I got lost.

So there I was, ladies and gentlemen, no phone, no friend, and no idea how to find what I was looking for, or to get back where I came from. I did find a kind of market, deep in an alley way, where there were live fish and eels, fresh fruits and vegetables, and many vendors with street food. The place was hopping, bright, loud, and very, very beautiful. I saw precious, tiny old Korean men and women, smoking cigarettes, huddled around their hot plates, with piles and piles of gorgeous fresh produce for sale. I don’t recognize all the vegetables, or the fruit for that matter, so it was like a live National Geographic tour. I wished it wasn’t night time, and that I had brought my camera, but I’ll just have to go back. If I can find it!

The place I was looking for is an indoor spa, sort of. Men and women are separated, you strip, and you can soak in varying temperatures of hot tubs, use the sauna, have massages and scrubs, etc. It’s this whole controversy among the students, because there are stories of the Koreans being so curious about white and black people’s bodies that they do traumatizing things like stare or grope. However, there are other stories about how fabulous it is, and how worth it - so I decided to go see for myself. Except that I couldn’t find it.

After wandering for some hours, I began trying to ask, in which I was never really successful, but I was proud of myself for being brave. Again, I have no idea why it’s so scary to me to try to communicate, but it is – I was petrified. I figure, if I do something scary every day for four months, I’ll be a powerhouse when I come home J And so far, I have done something scary every day, and I’m still alive and kicking.

This is part of my room - the bottom bunk is mine, and the left side of that two door closet you see.

I found my station again, and I thought I was able to read the Korean time table, which told me that I would have to wait two hours for the next train. I discovered this after I broke my T-Money card and bought a non-refundable one-way ticket. Basically, that meant I lost my money to cyber space, and was on a bench outside, alone, for two hours, with no way to undo anything. It was cold, and I didn’t have anything with me, because I was trying to pack light in anticipation for what I would encounter at the bath house. I walked back and forth along the railing instead of crying, and it turned out I only had to wait less than an hour. I got on my train, made it back to my station, and there met some friends who got me a taxi home.

I made silly vows about what I will and won’t do in the future for about half an hour when I got back, until the hot water from my shower helped me feel a little better. Now I don’t remember what they are, and I am getting ready to go with a group of friends to try again J I will let you know what it’s like!

With anticipation,

Grace