SUMMER HOLIDAYS SO FAR

First of all, I am sick.  It started last Saturday morning when I woke up to start moving my luggage downstairs to the 7th floor.  The management office had only told me the night before that I was moving rooms, so I had decided to stay up late to pack and had to wake up early to move everything downstairs.  I woke up feeling really, really dizzy and feverish, and after I'd moved everything into the room I crashed onto my bed and slept for the whole day.  I was getting better on Sunday, and by Monday I was totally fine.  Except for my voice, which started deteriorating.  By Tuesday, I had no voice whatsoever.  I didn't think much of it until last night, when my voice wasn't getting better and my throat was starting to hurt.  So I went to the hospital today and they gave me some medicine.  Now I feel much much better.

Second of all,  I'm pretty happy to say that so far I have left my room at least once a day for each of those four days for non-medical reasons.  Generally I'm a bit of a hermit in Adelaide and I can stay inside my room for days and days, but why would I do that when I only have a few more weeks left in Seoul? Every time I don't feel like going out I remind myself "Esther.  You are not in Adelaide.  You are in Seoul.  Go DO something."  So on Monday I went to Kyobo, one of Seoul's biggest bookstores, by myself and shopped around.  Tuesday was a birthday party for the pastor of my church, who left today for a vacation in the US.  Yesterday the only time I went out was for a long walk across the bridge over the river - and yes, that does count as going out.  Today I went out to Yongsan with a friend to look around, as a 'reward' for our wonderful grades.

Speaking of which, I am very proud to say that I recieved straight A's (3 A+'s, 2 A's) for my final results!!! I'm not really a straight A person - honestly, I'm more of a A and B person - so this was really exciting for me.  I have a funny feeling that I got these grades because I was a foreigner, but either way....they're still there no matter what the reason.  Kkya!

LAZY UPDATE #12

This past week has been pretty packed with events, and I think it's only going to get even more busier now.  School's out for the summer holiday so everyone's going to be out and about now.  Seoul is raining cats and dogs at the moment.  I've never seen it rain so much for consecutive days before.  There's a typhoon coming according the forecast, but right now the weather is nice and breezy.  It was really sticky and humid before.

Last Friday was the last gathering of all the international students at CAU.  We went back to where we first started off in February, Mom's Touch, and just had a good time.  It was really strange to think back to four months ago when no one knew anyone, whereas now it was like we were all best friends.

Afterwards, a small group of us decided to walk out to the Han River.  It was about 2 am and no one wanted to go back to the dormitory yet, so we bought some drinks and some snacks and sat next to the water.  Music, laughing and crazy lack-of-sleep-induced dancing ensued.

Saturday was Randy's, an American friend, last night in Seoul, so we went out to Korean BBQ and another walk along the Han River.  I used to go hiking with Randy in the mornings when we first arrived, and during those times we became pretty good friends.  Hiking ceased as the weather got warmer, but we'll always have good memories.

On Tuesday, the day after my very last exam, I went to Incheon with a few friends to look at the 'Chinatown'.  My Korean friend told me it was government funded, which explains the lack of authenticity and plenty of Koreanized Chinese elements.  We discovered a shop which sold 豆浆 and 面条, and were so surprised to find out that the old grandpa owner, despite having been raised in Korea, could speak perfect Chinese! He even had the accent.

The actual place was pretty quiet when we arrived.  There were lots of stores selling Chinese souvenirs, different types of foods and there were a lot of lanterns hanging around.  In fact, the streets were decorated with a lot of red stuff.

Wednesday night was the last night my roommate was going to stay in the dormitory, so we went out to dinner in Myeongdong with another friend.  We went to this Indian place called 'Saffron', where everything they served was Halal, which mean my Muslim roommate could eat whatever she wanted there.  The food was quite nice, but I think it was a posh-ish kind of restaurant so the prices weren't that cheap.

My roommate moved out on Thursday, and for the whole day I was kind of depressed.  Luckily I had already organised to meet up with a friend from Ewha University for dinner.  We went to eat at this 'famous' naengmyeon place, except when we got there we were both highly disappointed.  To cheer ourselves up we went to have dessert at Holly's Coffee.

I met up with some of my classmates for dinner on Friday night.  These classmates were from the class I hated the most, but surprisingly the class where I made the most friends.  We had the best pasta I have ever eaten in Seoul, and then went to Hongdae for some shopping.  It was a fun night.

This was a very brief update because I'm sick at the moment, so my brain's not functioning properly.  I'll probably tell you what happened on Saturday morning after I get better.  Over and out.

ALL FINISHED

다 긑나다! I finished my last exam one hour ago, and now I am relishing the deliciousness of not having exams while my friends in Adelaide are studying away for their semester exams.  Actually, I will be perfectly honest and say that the feeling I have right now isn't that much different than what I was feeling this morning.  I tried to study hard for this exam, but the knowledge that I just have to pass (which I really hope I do because I did study for it) isn't too much of an incentive for lots of study.

The next few days are lined up with outings and meetings to which I am SO looking forward to, but I'll also have to figure out what to do with myself without spending money everyday.  Window shopping or just walking along the streets is torturous for me.  The streets are filled with food and clothes and little trinkets so it's difficult to walk for a long time without buying something. Maybe I should limit myself to 10,000 won a day (except when I'm meeting up with someone) until I leave for Beijing?  Sounds like a good plan.

The weather is definitely heating up.  Apparently this summer is going to be hotter than ever because the past winter was the coldest Seoul has had in 30 years, so I'm looking forward to that a lot.  Not.  The monsoon is also apparently coming early this year as well, so the rains will be coming and I can finally wear my lovely rainboots!

P.S. The potato pizza has no relevance to this post whatsoever.   I just like looking at food, so I decided to spread the food love around. :)

THE END IS NIGH

The end of my stay in Korea is sadly looming up ahead, but that's not for another few weeks so I refuse to think about it.  But how can I?  This morning I said goodbye to my Finnish friend, who lived opposite me in the dormitory, as she left for the airport to go back home.  In the next few days, most of the international students will be packing their bags (they're already started) and we will be saying goodbye for maybe forever.  It's not being dramatic, unfortunately.  The truth is that a reunion will be pretty much near impossible unless someone makes it big and hires a private plane to jet around the world and pick us all up.  I was telling my friend last night how he was lucky, because there were three other students from his university which came to Korea with him.  They didn't know each other before, but now they do, and it's easier for them to catch up.  Australia is on the other side of the world compared to everyone else.

Oh well.  Another end is night, and that's the end of exams!!! I have one exam left on Monday evening, and then I will be officially done with the semester and free to do whatever I please without any guilty feeling for not studying instead.  This time round I haven't been so prepared for the exams, so I don't feel as good as I did for my midterms after I finish the paper.  But over time I've learnt that it's no use worrying about what I should have put in, or what I did wrong - if I've learned something from it then it's all good.

P.S.  Sorry for not writing anything for so long.  I have literally been in the library and in my room studying (or trying to) or at church for most of the time.  Oh, and downloading stuff as well.....so looking forward to holidays!!

LAZY UPDATE #11

I can't believe how fast the time has gone since mid-terms.  I am so not ready for finals, nor am I in the mood for studying like I was with my mid-terms.  These past few weeks have felt as though someone pressed fast-forward x32 on the remote control and everything has been such a blur.  A lot of stuff has been happening with my family coming over and me having to organise pretty much everything for their trip, which has made me stressed out - money, accomodation, travel fares, visas, finding out where to go - and then there's my visa and my dormitory accomodation for the summer and just everything has been building up and up.  I finally broke down on Friday because it was just all too much to handle, so hopefully now that I'm all cried out I can just focus on getting through the exams and into holidays!!!

So last Saturday (the last one in May) I went to watch a movie with a student from the Anseong campus of Chung Ang University.  She and I met during the Folk Village excursion a few months ago and we wanted to hang out in Seoul.  We had 삼게탕 samgyetang (herbal chicken) for lunch and then went to watch Kung Fu Panda 2.  It was my first time trying the chicken dish; ever since I came to Seoul I wanted to eat it.  It was okay.  The taste wasn't anything explosively amazing but it wasn't plain either.  KF2 was on the ordinary side as well.  I enjoyed the first one, but as with most sequels the second one wasn't the same.

Last Monday was my friend's birthday, and though he had celebrated it with drinks the night before, he wanted to do something on the actual day so a group of us went to the 찜질방 jjimjilbang (Korean sauna)! I didn't take any photos that night since I didn't know if it was appropriate to take my camera out, but it was a lot of fun.  There were lots of different kinds of saunas - some were super super hot and others were ice cold.     We also ate the hard-boiled eggs and drank 식혜 sikye (rice dessert drink) in the main common area.  It seriously felt like we were in drama.

On Thursday, me and my roommate decided to have a mini-party in our dorm room.  Both of us wanted to try 'take out' in our dorm room, whether it be pizza or chicken or a full meal, so we decided that Thursday would be the day.  I invited another friend to come along as well - she's Japanese but has studied Korean for three years - so we had three people.  We also had a cake because my roommate and I both had been craving for cake as well.

Friday night was the first time I stayed out after 1 am (our dormitory curfew is 1) and guess what I was doing? Shopping!! After our evening class, I didn't feel like going back to the dormitory so I asked a few of my friends to go shopping with me at Dongdaemun.  We went out at 10 pm and didn't come back until 6:30 am in the morning, but it was a lot of fun.  One of my friends' mum used to to own a clothes shop when she was young (my friend is Korean) so she knew the best places to go to for cheaper clothes.

What was really interesting about shopping that late/early was that it didn't feel like it was different from any other time.  When we got tired from shopping, we went to a cafe nearby to rest our legs and get a drink and it was packed.  Not just packed for 3 am in the morning but packed for any other normal time of the day.  And it wasn't only the cafe - the shopping complexes and streets were still full of people.

Today was Memorial Day, similar to ANZAC Day we have in Australia.  It's a public holiday so everyone has the day off.  Samil Church has this month-of-prayer thing where people go to morning service at 6.30 am everyday to pray for the church.  My leaders had been really promoting this event to everyone and though I was initially not going to go, I ended up going because a) it would be a welcome change from waking up late, b) they were going to watch a movie after the service and c) it would be something that I couldn't experience back home.  What I didn't expect were the amount of people who would turn up alongside with me.  The line of people could easily have been 1 km long - from the door of the church to the station exit of the subway.

The service was interesting, especially with the amount of people that were there.  After the service we had breakfast at the church, which was provided by the church.  We met up in our international fellowship group and then proceeded to go to the cinemas.  We split up into two groups - Kung Fu Panda 2 and X-Men: First Class - and went to our respective theatres. I'd been waiting to watch X-Men for a LONG time - my friends on Facebook would definitely know - so it was an easy choice for me.  And then we had dessert afterwards as a big group.

In other news: finals are next week.

LAZY UPDATE #10

Sorry for not updating for a long time.  Blogger was down for a a couple of days before and this week has been so. freaking. BUSY.  Like, really really busy.  But many exciting things have happened as well, and I am excited to write about them! It's been so long since I wrote my last post so I'm not going chronologically.  I'm just going to state the exciting things which happened during the last two weeks.

Firstly, I went bowling with my volleyball team last Saturday near our church.  I haven't been bowling in a long time, but I thought I was still pretty good at it.  Unfortunately, pride always comes before fall and I ended up being the ultimate loser amongst the whole group.  My scores were 32 and 41 - don't laugh.  But it was still a really fun night! I always appreciate the time I have with my volleyball team because it's a chance for me to practise my Korean.

We also went to Lotteria afterwards to eat 팥빙수 patbingsoo (shaved ice and other condiments).  It was the rule of the game - whichever team lost had to treat the other team to dessert.  My team lost spectacularly to the other team - they had the two best players out of the whole team (no...not a sore loser.  Honest! hehe) - so we bought the ice as well as some chips and ice-cream.

Another exciting which happened this week was my university's festival!  It was called LUCAUS (can't remember what it stands for) and it went for three days.  There were lots of booths around the campus selling things like beer, fruit, t-shirts and other things.  Unfortunately I didn't get to take any photos of the booths since I was normally rushing to class when I saw them.  But I did take photos of the most important part of the festival: the concerts at night time.

We had a lot of celebrities come for the night concerts like 김태우 Kim Tae Woo and No Brain, but the biggest and most popular star which came was 2NE1.  I just thought I'd bolden that word in case you missed it.  They're not the first celebrities I've seen since I came to Seoul, but definitely the ones which the most people know about it.  

The night concerts were really loud.  Each night I could hear it from my room in the dormitory, since the events are held in the sports ground right downstairs, but I attended the last one in person.  The atmosphere is pretty much like a real-live concert, with glowsticks and people jumping up and down to the songs.  After the concert a lot of people go drinking, but I didn't.  

I also dyed my hair for the very first time this week.  One of the people I sing with at church is a hairdresser, and he came highly recommended amongst my church friends, so I went to him in Gangnam.  I will be honest, as usual, and say that the colour which it turned out to be isn't what I wanted.  I actually wanted a dark red/purple colour and fully dye all of my hair, but right now it's highlighted red and gold.  It looks nice, but whenever I don't get what I was expecting in my mind I get a little iffy.  Maybe I'll change it later on, but I think I have to learn how to be patient with myself.  

MY ROOM MATE IS THE BEST

I haven't really talked about my room mate on my blog before, but I really should because she's one of the nicest and accepting people I know.  She also makes me laugh a lot because of the way she says things and acts, and I don't think I've ever gotten annoyed at her.  And that, my friends, is pretty spectacular on her behalf.  But unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that she's been annoyed at me before but is too nice to say anything about it.  Why do I say this?

Last night after I came home, I noticed that that the bathroom sink had been cleaned, my items were neatly stacked up and the toilet bin was clean.  I was like "Aw you didn't have to do that!" to my room mate, and I also apologised for being such a slob as well.  I'll be honest - I have only cleaned our room once, and that was during the first week I came here.  All the other times it's been my room mate who swept the floor and cleaned everything else.  I kept saying sorry over and over again, because I genuinely felt sorry for being so untidy and making her do all the work.  But she said something which I hope I will never forget: 

"You don't have to keep saying sorry.  Actions speak louder than words."

Of course I've heard this saying before, and I've probably said it a lot of times of as well, but it really affected me last night.  First of all, the way she said it made it sound like she was comforting me, when she was actually teaching me a lesson.  Secondly, the fact that she is patient enough to teach me rather than complain to other people about me (I think...) made me feel so much more guilty for not doing anything.  I've always been disciplined in the normal Asian way - my dad would yell at me for an hour until I was shaking and then I'd say sorry, but it would never really mean much to me.  

This time it feels different.  Why say sorry with empty words when I can show my genuine apology through actions? I've realised that I can say sorry over a thousand times and the only person it would benefit is me.  It only makes me feel better by saying sorry, but it doesn't help the other person at all.  The only way I can prove my sincerity is by making sure that I do something about it.  

BASEBALL GAME

I went to my first baseball game ever last night!  One of my professors is acquainted with the president of the Doosan Bears so he was able to get us some pretty nice tickets as well as giving us the opportunity to meet the president and see his headquarters underneath the stadium.  The Doosan Bears are one of Seoul's two baseball teams (LG Twins) and their home stadium is Jamsil Stadium, which is the one we went to last night.  The president gave our whole class (our professor took the whole class) baseball caps with the signature 'D' of Doosan as gifts which was nice. The one below is the women's style, but I actually prefer the men's style - navy, red and white - but I'm still happy.  It was free!! Hehe...

Baseball's not really big in Australia, so I've never been too eager about the sport, but it's so different when you're in the stadium.  There are so many team chants and songs that the fans know, and then for each individual player the music speaker thing plays a different introduction song.  It's hard not to get excited when you have a thousand people behind screaming and singing along.  I couldn't really make out what they were saying in some of the chants, but there were two which I ended up following along with:

"(name of player) 안타 anta!"  = 'whoever' hit!
"(name of player) 홈런 homreon!" = 'whoever' home run! 

There are also matching clap rhythm pattern ...things...which go with these cheers, but it's difficult to write out.  The best way to learn is to actually go to a game.  It's pretty easy to pick up.  

And no baseball game is complete with three things: cheerleaders, the one guy and 'thunder sticks'.  The cheerleaders came out during the break times when the teams were switching from batting to fielding, and they danced to a lot of the recent pop songs e.g. Girl's Day, C.N. Blue and Kan Mi Yeon.  I really would not want to be a cheerleader, personally, because it gets kind of cold at night time and all they were wearing were mini-tops and mini-skirts.  Anyway, the 'one guy' I'm talking about is this one guy, dressed in the team uniform, who has a whistle and leads all the fans to cheer by blowing on his whistle.  The fans obviously know what his whistle patterns indicate, because they would always burst into a song when the one guy blows his whistle a particular way.  He's also kind of the atmosphere maker during the match.  And thunder sticks are those two plastic sticks puffed up with airs, and when you hit them they make a loud, superficial clapping sound.  Very effective and hand-friendly.

LAZY UPDATE #9

I was looking at my calendar and counting back the days to Sports Day and I can't believe that it's only been a week and a half since that sunny, winning, tiring day.  I was having dinner with Amber (pastor) two nights ago, and we came upon the subject of time; when you're in another country, time doesn't seem to follow the rules.  It feels as though time stretches out for longer than it really is - one month can feel like six months, one week like three weeks.  It's also a problem when I do lazy udpates because I have to think for a while about what I actually did during the week, instead of just going Oh! I did this this and this.  Or is that just old age catching up with me?

So for the Friday and Saturday after Sports Day, I rested for two days straight.  My voice was pretty much gone and my body felt like it needed three million years of sleep.  On Friday I only had one class at night time, and on Saturday I stayed inside my room the whole day.  I had a team project due on Monday so I was working on it from morning till evening until I finally finished it.  The project was to re-write parts of an episode of Friends - my team doesn't really speak English so after we brainstormed together, they wrote the script in Korean and I had to translate it back into English and 'Friends-ize' it.

On Sunday after church we went to the Hi! Seoul International Festival.  There were lots and lots of people there - mainly foreigners- and there were stands from many different countries standing alongside each other. There was also a food street where each country had its own little tent serving the national or most popular food.

We had a public holiday on Tuesday because it was Buddha's Birthday (The Coming Of Buddha Day) - so no classes again! Looking back, I probably should have gone to a celebration parade of Buddha or something related to that public holiday just to see how Korean festivals work.  But I didn't, so I guess it's too late.  That night I had a celebration dinner with my volleyball team in a restaurant in Myeongdong.  We had barbeque (I think it's customary to have barbeque for every celebratory thing ever here ....) and then we went to this amazing coffee/chocolate shop nearby.  It was so much fun because they were ALL Korean (i.e. their English isn't fluent), which is a surprising difficult situation for me to find myself in since most of the friends I've made can speak English to a pretty high level.

On Thursday night I met up with a friend who I had only really met once, but because we both speak Cantonese it was like there was this cultural bond between us which made it easier to become friends.  She came to Korea to take a make-up course and she invited me to be her 'model' for the night.  Over the past few years I've developed an interest in make-up - not me putting it on my face, but how to use what for the right occasions and how to match it with an outfit (roiworld...cough) - so I was pretty excited when I saw the make-up classroom and everything.

I didn't have any classes on Friday because my night class was cancelled for the week, so I took the time to go shopping in Myeongdong.  I was originally looking for a pair of sport shoes a la the Korean-style New Balance type, but I couldn't find any which I liked so I ended up buying other stuff instead.  I also met up with Amber for dinner in Apgujeong for barbeque (!!! ^^ ) and then we went to this reeeally nice coffee shop around the area.  The prices were kind of ....pricey, but the atmosphere was so nice.

Saturday was the second cultural excursion for the international students.  We went to the DMZ and an exhibition museum near the Blue House.  The DMZ was .....okay.  It wasn't super exciting but I guess it's part of the whole "I went to Korea" thing - it's just one of the places you have to visit when you're in Korea.

After the excursion I went out with my church friends for dinner and noraebang, which was so much more fun.      I didn't take any photos though, unfortunately, but I did get to hear one of my friends (who's quite demure and sweet) rap for the first time!

Yesterday was one of my friend's birthday.  She and the other exchange students had gone clubbing on Saturday night to celebrate, but since I was out with my other friends (and clubbing really isn't my thing anyway) I promised I'd spend the afternoon with her on Sunday.  Since the weather was so beautiful, we went bike-riding along the Han River and stopped half way for some ice-cream.  For dinner we met up with some other people and went to Hongdae.

In other news, I've been feeling tired a lot lately.  I'm thinking it's because of my eating choices and lack of exercise.  I always makes plans to go to the gym in the morning or at night time, but then I never do because either I'm lazy or I have homework I was supposed to have finished before.  T_T

HOME

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." Psalm 51:10


Well hello, personal devotions.  Long time no see.  I'll keep it short.

I'm a big believer in the saying "Home is where the heart is".  You can have birthplaces, places you have great memories in, the place where you grew up, but 'home' as a definition can mean so many different things.  In the message given in today's personal devotion, it mentions a child of God is always welcomed home.  In this context, home for me would be church.   I've always subconsciously known that church is a place which makes me happy, despite all the drama which goes on sometimes, but I think this clarifies why I feel safe there.  When I first went to Samil Church, it didn't feel like a foreign church, or an English-speaking Korean church, but it felt like home.  I remember when that Sunday I wasn't really feeling that happy, but as soon as I stepped inside the building I could feel so much love going around.  That probably sounds so sappy and cringe-worthy and all that stuff which makes me shudder, but at that moment in time I felt so thankful that I was part of God's family.  Knowing that He will always be there for me, knowing that He will always have his arms wide open despite me failing all these times....it's something which can't be described.

WEIGHT, I'M NOT DONE YET

My roommate and I were talking about how we felt a different kind of pressure whilst studying here in Korea.  Both of us agreed that back at home, even though the assignments were worth more and probably needed more research or whatnot, the pressure wasn't as intense.  Here the pressure to study and do well is so apparent everywhere you go.  It got me thinking about what kind of pressures are more imminent here in Seoul than back at home and how they've affected me over these few months.  And the one which has probably affected the most is the weight factor.

Like so many other people have noticed, spoken about and warned me - the pressure to be thin is very obvious.  I am not kidding when I say that over 80% of the girls here look like bodies on two sticks.  Their legs are seriously.....진짜 장난아니다.  When you walk the streets of Seoul, you really start to understand how every girl has to be so self-conscious of her weight.  Before I came to Seoul, I read a lot of blogs where the bloggers themselves always expressed their indifference to the Korean thin-ness and how it didn't affect them.  I think it's great that they're not affected by it, but I guess I don't have their self-esteem nor their confidence to build up a wall against the slim-is-beauty propaganda.  I've never been naturally thin, and I've always had troubles with my weight.  So coming to a country where girls spend a lot of time grooming themselves and making sure they don't gain a single pound probably wasn't such a good idea, because I'm bound to be influenced by them.  And sure enough, the pressure and the constant advertisements about body lines and diets are getting to me.  The pressure to look thin and to BE thin is overwhelming.  It's one of the reasons why I would like to go back home and see some 'normal' sized people; "what is normal?" I hear you ask - well, that's another discussion for another time when I'm free.

4진 4진 화이팅!

One of the bad things about living by myself is that I never do my laundry on time.  I always leave it to the very last day when I'm completely out of underwear, and then I find myself in the same situation - wanting to take a shower but having to wait two hours for washing and drying.

Anyway.

Today was Samil Church Sports Day! It was a long, long day, especially because I haven't been feeling too well lately (sore throat and coughing) but it was a lot of fun.  The weather was (extremely) sunny and the skies were blue and cloudless.  The most exciting part of the day was when my group WON THE VOLLEYBALL COMPETITION!!! We've been practising for almost a month so to win was a great feeling.  I'll just put some pictures up from today's events because I'm sunburnt and tired and don't really feel like saying anything else except 4진 4진 화이팅!

LAZY UPDATE #8 (Part 2)

Lazy Update #8 Part 1 is HERE

Continuing on...

Friday was pretty quiet during the daytime.  I didn't have much to do except wait for the ROYAL WEDDING.  Did you watch it? I know there are some people who were like "Stop broadcasting it already!" while others were really, really excited.  I wasn't either of them.  I just wanted to see what people were wearing and what the wedding gown would look like.  I actually missed the dress (but I saw it later) because I had to go to my class, where the professor invited us out for dinner and drinks instead.

Let me just say this: Koreans are masters of drinking.  Like, even the Germans would be beaten by Koreans because while Germans probably stop at their limit, Koreans go wayyy past their limit.

Anyway, we had Korean barbeque with lots of meat and vegetables whilst drinking.  I don't normally drink that much, so when the professor went 'Bottoms up!' on the first drink I almost cried.  It was a very interesting experience.  The lecturers back at home will be okay for a drink or two outside of classroom hours, but none of them would ever pay for a dinner and drinks, as well as invite the whole class back to their home some other day and even initiate a 'sleepover'.

Saturday was turning out to be the worst day ever until night time so I'll keep the recap of daytime events short.  The international team from Samil Church gathered together to practise for the connection party coming up on Sunday, and we rehearsed what we would do and also decorated the room.  At night time, I went out with a group of friends to watching Thor.  I was initially debating whether to go or not because of my mood and because the weather was really bad, but I'm soo glad I went.  The movie was pretty good, but the best part about the night was the company.

On Sunday, we had the International Samil Church Connection Party.  The party turned out to be a good success.  We had lots of new people come and it was fun to be able to show that Christians aren't just stick-to-the-Bible-party-poopers at all.  I had volunteered to be in the performance part of the party, so that meant I was signed up for modelling in the cultural fashion show.  I've never ever modelled before so it was kind of awkward when we were rehearsing, but luckily it got better when we actually had to walk in front of everyone.  The outfits were mainly Korean and African style, but there was one girl who wore a 'ninja-inspired-space-looking' outfit.

I left the party straight after it finished because I was meeting up with other friends to go to ice-skating and bowling in Lotte World! It was my first time in Lotte World, and after hearing so much about it and seeing it in dramas and variety shows, I'm glad I got to go there.  Ice skating was fun but tiring.  We didn't realise that we had to have gloves before we entered the ring, so there was a bunch of foreigners scrambling around for cash in front of the glove machine right next to the entrance.  Probably would have been a funny sight for the local people.  

After that we went bowling and then had some dinner.  The dinner was so yummy.  It was 보쌈 bo ssam - meat and lots and lots of vegetables.  Some of the guys didn't join us for dinner because they were doing something else (no idea what), so by the time they came to the restaurant we were almost finished.  They had to sit there waiting for us while watching us eat all that delicious food.  Poor boys.  

To end the day, a little group of us went to have Sangria and honey bread in the little cafe near our university campus.  It was the perfect way to round out the day.  Two of the girls had brought their Go, Stop! (Korean card game which you see every ahjumma playing in the dramas) cards so I finally learnt how to play.  It's pretty simple to learn up till the point system, to which I still have no idea how to count.