Sogang korean language institute

I spent all last night just not being able to sleep - sort of still running on adrenaline and body felt so tired but my mind was was just wide awake, so i got to sleep at about 4am forcing myself to sleep, and suddenly woke up at 9:30!!! My first class of the term was supposed to start at 9! and breakfast is served from 7-9 in the morning. Somehow both my alarms had failed! not sure what that was about - just plain unlucky i guess. It was just one of those morning where your water despenser decides to pour boiling water instead of chilled, and then you realise you havent got a cup to get any out - so you use your kettle as a cup and it all pours down your front...
not a great start to my day, but whatever I left the house feeling hungry, wishing i had shaved the previous evening, or at least in those hours that i couldnt sleep.
Eventually i navigated my way to Sogang university stopping to buy a big bottle of powerade to cheer me up. it was difficult finding out where i was supposed to be - i had already missed my first class and was starting to miss time on my second class, i found my room number, but had no idea where the room was supposed to be - eventually i found a reception desk and they pointed me in the right direction.
My classroom is on the 10th floor, they let me off being late because i'm guessing it happens to someone every year. Theres about 10 or so people in the class theyre all really cool. A couple of Americans, a guy called Greg who teaches English and has been here for a year already, and chris who is a American Born Korean (ABK- as josh edbrooke likes to call them) He's actually already really good at Korean so im not sure why he is in our begginer class, but he's really cool. My partner was a Japanese girl called naoko who i think has a similar level of korean as me - everyone else is better than us i think - its hard to tell at the moment - but they seemed to understand the teacher when she spoke to them in korean - where as i just sort of looked blankly back having no idea what she just asked me. But the teachers are great, really nice and we play lots of games. And eveything is taught in Korean which is really good, but also just a bit more confusing if you dont know what is going on.
Its been great puting my korean into practice, im sort of still surviving on 'Konglish' but thats ok because most people know a bit of english.
I had lunch with Roy and a couple of his friends which was great - the food is awesome, i really do love it. Im sure there will be many dishes i dont get on with and eating kimchi is still a struggle to ever be called a pleasant experience, but i guess i will get used to even that in time.

So yeh then we just went round a few shops, and played (korean sort of word for doing fun things).


This last picture is the view from my room.
Anyway im going to go and get something to eat.
안녕!

The Arrival

Well... the story so far. Starting from the beggining: My flight was pretty good - can't sleep on planes so i was pretty tired and uncomfortable, You've got to hand it to Emirates tho, great airline, i would recommend them to anyone.
I stopped of at Dubai - to be honest i didnt like it very much, it was stupidly busy and it was 2am local time! sort of too busy too complicated - too long, and yeh well lets just say i prefered Incheon airport. There was a really cool Korean guy i met on my second flight who has been studying Arabic in yemen for 3 years, and he was really friendly, so im hoping to meet up with him sometime. But yeh, i made it to Korea despite the overweight baggage and being really tired in a foreign airport.

When i arrived in Korea two of my friends were there to meet me: 송훈(Roy) and 희진(Hee-jin)

Without these guys i seriously dont know what i would have done. I stayed at their house for the first night which was great because they're just such a wonderful family 아줌마 (their mother) is especially friendly and caring - and a great cook. They gave me an electric kettle for all the ramen i will be living on! haha, and towels and korean books, so i hope i can visit them often.

On sunday we went to buy some essentials and go house hunting - well i mean boarding house 하숰집 (hasook-jib). They helped me buy a monitor and speakers for my computer - so now i have a lovely 19" samsung screen and alright speakers all for about £200 which is alright, we didnt really have the luxury of searching because we were short of time so we just got them out of the first shop we saw.
Hee-jin then very kindly offered to regester a phone in her name for me, you cant just buy your own phone. So thats really been great, i can actually call people and feel a little more reassured haha.

So then we went to look for a hasook. The one we chose is really good. The room is pretty big, it came with a bed, TV, Fridge, Desk, and a Bathroom! pretty cool, and not just that but the walls are actually stone - usually it's just a sheet of paper between you and your neighbour.


The 아줌마 is very kind, but she doesn't speak a lick of English, so we dont talk much.
however, the room is not exactly without defect:

and there is no air condtioning - so im glad its not summer.

When we were looking for my room i was pretty scared, more like really scared. But actually once it came to moving in it sort of became my own and I really do love it - the location is great too because its about 15 minutes from my university, and its half way up a hill sort of down in the back-alleys, but thats been great because it means i can nearly escape Sinchon and its ostentatious night life, but i still only have to walk for 1 minute and im suddenly surrounded by cinemas, shops of all kinds, singing rooms, pc 방, restaurants, churches, and the subway is about 3 minutes away.
Its actually just like people said it would be - seoul is so dense that wherever you live your likely to be surrounded by these kind of things - i literally live just behind a huge cinema, and i think there is mall benethe that undeground - and another mall just for choice about another few minutes down the road.
I also just had a quick look further up the hill and there is a little park with all the standard gym equipment that Korea's parks offer, and i get a good veiw of sinchon. so im really pleased about that, its quite cold to be training, but its there if i need it...
I will get some pictures of all these things. so you can sort of see what i mean.

well this post is slightly out of date due to the fact that my hasook came with no internet so with the help of Roy, an engineer came round and installed it for me. so i think i will follow this post up straight away with todays post.