it was one year ago today when i arrived here in Korea. it doesn’t seem like that long ago actually. i remember being a bit worried when i first came here; will i be able to find an apartment? will i get all the school stuff figured out? will my friends be at the airport to pick me up? well, everything worked out after i arrived. my friends were at the airport and they helped me get set up with an apartment, bank account, Visa change, etc. i’m very thankful for the friends i’ve met here who have helped me get adjusted to living here. actually, there wasn’t much of any culture shock when i came here. maybe it’d be different if i had moved to the more country parts of Korea, but here in Seoul it’s very similar to the big cities in the US (except for the big language difference).

the time passed very fast. i’m not too great at the Korean language yet, but i can communicate somewhat with people better than when i first started. i’ve gained some good friends from language exchange and English tutoring, and also met many from my church at different events and dance practice. it’s been a good experience

learning Korean is taking a bit longer than i thought it would. i had to retake the level 2 course, and might have to retake the level 3 too. i’ll probably be here for another year, and then i’ll be looking for a job where i can hopefully use this language i’ve been learning. i’m earning a little money from the English tutoring, but it’s not enough to cover the bills i pay here, so i’m going through a lot of my savings. hopefully it’ll work out after i finish

a shovelful of kittens

some stray cats live right outside of my apartment window, and not too long ago a momma cat had some kittens. i’ve counted 4 of them playing around wrestling each other and climbing in the bushes, but today when i looked outside, i saw three of them huddled together on a shovel. it was too cute too pass up taking a picture. and if anyone is interested, you can download a 1600px by 1200px version of this picture and are welcome to use as you please

Angry Whopper

first the Whopper Jr. was angry, and it seemed like all was better since all signs of the Whopper Jr. being angry had disappeared from the local Burger King. but now the normal Whopper and Steakhouse burger are angry! you are probably asking “why are these hamburgers angry?” well, according to the Korean on the poster, it says “When life is angry…! It’s a really burning taste! New Angry Whopper.” the translation may sound a little odd, but i think Burger King is trying to get people to eat an angry burger if their life is angry XD

the burgers have added “Angry Sauce” and “Spicy Mushrooms” which, according to Burger King, when combined causes anger. my friend said “i’d be angry too if i found those extra things on my Whopper!” (he dislikes mushrooms). i’m curious to try it, but the price is a bit high: 6900 won for the Angry Whopper combo and 8600 won for the Steakhouse combo. that comes out to be $5.60 and $7 respectively. maybe i’ll just try the sandwich without the combo extras…

since Burger King has “angrified” some of its hamburgers, it got me thinking of other emotionally charged food they could create. maybe something like “Apathetic Onion Rings” or “Bored Salad” for those times when you are feeling apathetic or bored.

Crowded Myeongdong

it’s already august! i’ve been living in Korea now for almost a year. the time is flying by very quickly! the level 3 semester at school is halfway over. i did so-so on the midterms… Listening is still the hardest and i got a 50% score Reading was a 65.5%, Speaking was a surprising 78% and on the Writing test i got an 81%. i think the biggest reason for the low scores is not studying the many many new words well enough. also, comprehending everything very quickly is tough to do… but the words are the killer; i’ll study words and think i know them, but then when i hear them spoken, i have no idea what the word is. i guess i just need more practice. unless i can get in the 90% range for the finals, i’m thinking i may have to retake level 3. even though i’d like to pass it and move on to level 4, i’m partially thinking it would be more beneficial to take level 3 again. or maybe i’m just making up excuses?

i caught the new Harry Potter movie here. i really enjoyed it a lot, and have been wanting to watch it again, but i probably won’t get a chance until it comes to DVD–too busy and also other movies i want to see too. at Korean theatres you can get a 1-4 page flier promoting the movie. i usually grab a flier of the movies i’ve watched here. this is the flier for Harry Potter.

Harry Potter flier

Harry Potter flier inside

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Smoothie King

it’s a little over midnight right now. Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is on TV, but muted while i listen to some Assemblage 23 music and study. it’s raining outside, and will supposedly rain all of next week. it’s the middle of the first of two big rainy seasons here. the weather is in the 80’s which isn’t usually bad, but the humidity here is very high. actually, walking around outside isn’t too bad, but once i walk indoors where the temperature is cooler, i suddenly feel very very hot XD i’m thankful for air-conditioning!

i did some studying today, and then during the evening, i went to dance practice at my church. we learned cha-cha, which i’ve learned before. it was still fun and i got to meet some new people. we have a great dance teacher who is an amazing dancer! she’s taught us cha-cha, jive and also rumba i’ve been going to these practices every Wednesday and Saturday. Wednesdays we have been practicing for a performance some of us will give at a big event/meeting/gathering thing at church. it should be fun doing the performance, and hopefully i won’t get nervous XD

changed the music to Iris, and might change it again before i finish this post…

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Typical day in class

i (finally) passed level 2 and began a short vacation last friday. the class was alright for the most part. the teachers were great and fun. i also liked my classmates, but they tended to be pretty loud and talked or slept a lot during class. this was a bit frustrating when trying to pay attention to the teacher’s lesson, especially when they would interupt the teacher with a dumb question about how to spell a word so they can finish writing their text message XD (can you tell it annoyed me?) well, not all of their antics were annoying–a lot were very funny and i laughed a lot with them all. the teachers were good-natured about it all too even when they were trying to keep order.

so i have another week and a few days until i start level 3. i’m a little worried because all i’ve heard about it is that it’s tough XD i’ve been doing “language exchange” with a friend from church twice a week which has been very helpful. although i’m still not able to process quickly many of the things she says in Korean…

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while eating some instant curry tonight, i thought about (finally) adding an entry to my site. so then i got looking for a picture to go along with the entry , so it wouldn’t look so bland, and i found some old pics of the actual type of curry i’m eating. this then led me to finding more pictures of food, and so i decided to make this entry dedicated to food-related pics. anyway, on to the food pics:

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