These past two weeks didn’t exist. I seriously do not know how time moved so fast. On top of that I’m only getting no more than 6 hours sleep a night, my study plan went to hell, a good friend unexpectedly left and class has been increasingly difficult. The oral exam is scaring me right now because the last two weeks the amount of new grammar has been insane and I haven’t enough time to implement it into speech with Korean friends. This means in the exam I’ll be stuttering while I translate what the teacher is saying rather than understanding fairly quickly. I’ll feel better than I do now after exams. I’ll have time to design, work more on Keikaku, travel to Japan/Hong Kong, and explore Seoul even further. I’ll tell some stories after this is over.

Drinking here is so much more different. Back home every bar is jammed with people and you bar hop. There is always a flow of traffic and usually limited seating. However in Korean you usually stay in one bar for most of the evening and you are waited upon and pay a bill at the end. I think I prefer Korean style. It’s a great way to just chill and have a laugh while making good friends. Friday night I shared a table with five Japanese girls from my class. It was pretty interesting. We communicated in Korean for the most part. It’s pretty much a novelty way of talking right now. It’s exciting we are talking in a 2nd or 3rd language even if the conversation is basic because of it. Maybe throwing in a few Japanese or English words to fill the gaps in our Korean vocabulary.

I forgot the English phrase for this but I’m huge distance from Wales but I bumped into someone I know. She is a girl my sister met in Italy and became friends with. She’s actually Korean and lives in Seoul so the possibility was always there. Anyway I promised her I’d met her sometime soon. It’s hard to communicate though since my Korean is like her English. Pretty basic right now, nothing deep. She used to talk to my sister in Italian. I believe my sister speaks Spanish and Italian very well. I say “I believe” because me and my sister never really see each other or talk even though we lived in the same house in Wales. I guess the reason is that we lead different lifestyles. Anyway yeah what are the chances huh?

Not being able to eat meat can be a problem sometimes. Tonight for example I was late getting done with things and my friends thought I wouldn’t make dinner so went to a meat restaurant. By the time I was in the area they had started eating. So I came back here and am making something with what I have. I’ll go back out later and meet them. I wish I could eat meet, it’d make things so much easier.

I had mid-terms this week. I studied pretty hard but missed a few things. I think the listening, comprehension and writing tests went really well. The reading test was hard because I got nervous reading allowed in front of so many people and the fact that I had no idea that we had a test that day. The speaking test was the most difficult, I knew the stuff but my nerves were getting the better of me and I went blank on some location nouns and a few action verbs. The teacher repeated some questions which drops major marks. I’m really disappointed my nerves got the better of me.

What’s really difficult about class is that the teacher only speaks in Korean. It’s fine most of the time but when she has to pass important information onto us and uses verbs/nouns we haven’t covered yet, I get confused and half the time don’t realise she’s saying something important. One of the Japanese girls is on the ball now though and usually updates me if I looked like I missed something. I’m thankful for that. In everyday life my Korean works well except it’s a little too formal although Korean friends are helping me with that.

After lunch today a few of us headed to the Hyundai Department Store. It’s pretty pricey for a typical department store but it is a little more up-class in terms of product and design. Anyway there were a few tables with sale items (sales are a lot more rare here). Just clothes that didn’t sell etc. One of my friends was looking for a gift for his teacher since we get new teachers on Monday and he wanted to thank her for being so nice to his class. He looked at a few things on the table but as he did a surge of old women stampeded. He was trapped and the sale staff were fighting the old women from trying to take items from a stock cupboard. They were getting pretty rough but it went on as if it was completely normal. I mean no security staff came to calm the old women down, the sales staff just dealt with it. I still think the most deadly thing on the planet is old women with umbrellas. I’m lucky I still have eyes.