A Day in the Life...
So I've mostly been focusing on the special trips we make, the abnormal, and that means you know nothing about what we do every day! So this post is devoted to the norm, which I guess is not so normal back home...
On a typical day:
9:30 AM - wake up and take a shower. This involves timing your alarm to go off exactly 1 minute before your roommate's, so you can get in the shower first, and you have to time it so you get in before the people who use the other bathroom get in the shower because it will get cold the second the second shower is turned on. It's a complicated process that surprisingly has not escalated into a catfight. Merely curses under one's breath. Then eat breakfast!
10:30 AM - ichat! This stands for "international chat." Basically, all of the exchange students have this, and it's 4 thirty minute sessions with 1-2 Koreans who signed up to talk to you. Who knows why... perhaps to practice English, learn about a new culture, or just make a foreign friend. These are two pairs of my ichat buddies here! I haven't taken pictures of the others cause they're on a different day...
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On Mondays, I have Oriental Brushpainting. It is extremely frustrating, but practice, as many have said before, makes perfect. Or at least presentable. This whole class is focusing on just one plant, the nan (난), or orchid, in English. It starts with three leaves, the base, and it is very important to get them right. In fact, the first week was spent drawing lines, just so as to get the brush strokes right. After that, you add some extra leaves, and finally you add the flowers. It can be tedious, especially when you're bad at it, but it gets better. The first week I started to paint flowers, they were AWFUL. I should have kept some just to prove it. Now they're getting almost presentable, but still very bad.
On Tuesdays, I have Korean Traditional Culture. We're learning about myths and history all mushed together. We got to watch a movie, Chunhyang, too! (Eh, it has some adult content that he skipped, so I'm not just recommending you to watch it.) Last week we had presentations about Korean myths to give in front of class. I wasn't nervous, because this class is full of Koreans who are taking it because it helps with their English, and I am quite confident in my English skill, heh. Though nowadays, I'm making grammar and spelling mistakes right and left.
3:00 - Korean class/Ari leadership class (on different days)
Here's a collage of us in class :-)
After that you might find us in this position:
This is his last semester at Anyang, and, yes, he is Jun from ichat. But tutoring usually ends up more like this:
6:30-7:30ish - Dinner, my favorite part! Many times a week we'll go out to eat... and usually that means meat. Like Dinosaur Meat Buffet! It's pretty awesome. They have a big meat case that you can go up with your plate and just pick the raw meat you want to grill. Then you go back to your personal grill and cook it! They also have side dishes, so you don't have to eat it alone. Lettuce, doenjang (sort of sauce they eat here), onions, kimchi, etc. surround the grill. Needless to say, I love it.
Ok, so not every night. For me, not very often at all. But pretty much any night the week, you'll find at least a small group of international students going down to Anyang downtown to Bobo's or Noblesse... Places where you can literally eat food to go along with your alcohol (not the other way around, haha). So this is what it looks like.
Another interesting about drinking in Korea is that you have to have food with it. At least in the normal Korean style pubs, you don't just buy and drink alcohol. It's courtesy to buy a food set as well. So, we end up having a meal too! After staying out late, maybe 3-5am (and everyone else gets drunk [not me]) we finally head back home!
There you have it! That's an average day in the life of us crazy exchange students!
