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!

HAPPY TIMES

Yesterday I went back to Idae with Heidi where we spent four hours shopping in and out of numerous clothes, shoes and bag shops.  It was so insanely freezing during the time when we were there, but it didn't really hinder us that much.  Heidi had never heard of the 'service' system before, so she was happily surprised when a lady outside Etude House offered her a basket with free samples inside them.  'Service' in Korea is pretty much free stuff.  The main reason for service is so that they hope to remain in a customer's mind and hope that the customer will come back.  We both love free stuff (heehee) so we happily took the basket and went inside the shop where we ended up buying a few items and receiving even more 'service'.

Both me and her were looking for specific items - I wanted shoes, jackets, coats, a bag (....and more) and she was looking for boots, gloves and earmuffs - so we kept our eyes out while walking along the streets.  I ended up buying a pair of really pretty flats for 29,000 won (25 AUD) and we both bought some books for university classes.  The mini-mall where we bought our books was really cute.  Downstairs there was a vintage clothes store and upstairs was taken by a fashion brand called codes-combine.  It was really fun shopping with Heidi, mainly because we have similar mindsets when it comes to shopping - 5,000 won rack? Chargeee!!

Today I went to Yongsan with Jooyoung to fix my phone.  My SIM card wasn't working so I couldn't make any phone calls out, but now it's all fixed!  Afterwards she took me to Myeongdong where I had a look around the famous tourist shopping destination.  I was by myself because Jooyoung had to leave for yoga class, but it was still fun.  The items in Myeongdong are definitely overpriced though, probably because of all the tourists which flock there all the time.  If you're looking for a place to shop, I wouldn't really recommend it unless you want to pay more for something which you can get for much less if you go to other places.  But the vibe of it all is very good.  There is one loooong street for unbranded fashion shopping, another street for branded shopping and then another street for food.  I was so tempted to buy food but this line from In Her Shoes kept coming back to me: "Clothes never look any good... food just makes me fatter... shoes always fit."....so I skipped the food and bought another pair of shoes.  heeeeeee :)

More happy things have happened other than shopping though.  My classes started yesterday, and so far I'm finding it to be pretty interesting.  I didn't realise so many Koreans would be taking the courses I was taking - in fact, I had initially thought my classes would be full of exchange students.  Not the case, however.  I have one class where I am the only international student and the rest of them are local Koreans.  Therefore, the teacher said he would have an 80:20 English:Korean teaching style.  I don't know, I really hope I can understand the lectures.  All I need is a pass in all my classes, but I still want to learn as much as possible.  Another good thing is that I've opened up my bank account, so now I have a safe place for all my money.  For the past few days I've been carrying around 2,000,000 won in my bag, occasionally taking some out for my necessary purchases (yes, those shoes were necessary!! :) ).  It wasn't too scary but just inconvenient.  I like carrying cash with me, but not that much...you know?