고대!

I got in!

I can't believe that I, Magnolia Cumby, will be going to university in Korea. If you had asked me where I wanted to go to college last year, I would've said aucune idée. I never in a million years thought that I would be getting my undergraduate at a university in Korea.

I'm so excited.

I leave late February. We are still trying to figure out costs and dates. Dorms open Feb. 27. I want to get there early so that I can settle in and meet people. The dorm rooms are incredibly nice and I'm so excited to start.

I have a few worries though....
Obviously, I don't speak Korean. At all. I can hardly ask for directions much less take a college level class in Korean. I'm not as worried as I should be though. I mean, the only way to learn a language is by dumping yourself into the language. I'll learn fast... it's just going to be incredibly hard.

I was talking to Keith (my Korean boyfriend) the other night. He was trying really hard to talk me out of going to Korea University. He brought up a few good points... he said, and my father agrees, that it's better to have a degree from an American university. It'll help later in life. Korea University is one of the hardest schools to get into in Korean... for Koreans. They only accept the top 1% of Korean students.

But,

They are very lenient with international students. It's a big school, over 34,000 students and they accept 4,000 international students everywhere. I am obviously not in the top 1%, but I show motivation (and me being American isn't bad either), so I got in.

Keith's been pestering me about it. He keeps saying I should think really hard before I go. I told him, that if I get there and I hate it, I can just quit and go to an American University starting in the fall. When I start Korea University in March, I'm just going to treat it like a trial semester to see how I like it.

Hopefully I'll get into NYU Shanghai. That would be ideal. They are only accepting 300 students, 150 of which are Chinese and the other 150 are from all around the world. They already have more than 200 early decision applicants... they are probably are incredibly smart and dedicated. They probably have much better SAT scores than me. I hope that NYU won't overlook me just because my SAT scares are not what they are looking for. I want them to know that I will be a perfect student and represent their inaugural class really well.

I mean if all else fails I stay at Korea University... or go to American University of Paris. What's wrong with that?

I'm so excited to start in February though. I can't wait to be able to speak Korean. I need to study a lot though. Once I get there it's going to be difficult to get used to everything. Korea has a very different culture. I'm going to have an epic culture shock.

I'm just so excited to leave.

I'll post again soon.

xx

Readjusting

I have been home now for a few months now, the readjustment to American life hasn't been a challenge but more of an experience. It hit me like a hard slap to the face, je n'habite plus en France. I got off the plane and I instantly wanted to turn right back around and relive the past 10 months. While my mom and her Aunt were visiting, I kept having this bittersweet feeling. It was wonderful seeing my family again, and I was excited to go back to the US. There was a part of me, however, that was dreading the return home. I knew I would be stuck my small town in Edenton. There isn't a single person in Edenton that has the same ambitions as me. I know, that sounds really pompous, but it's true. Half the people in my class are planning on staying in Edenton for the rest of their lives as dentist assistants and have no grand plan for their live. I mean, I'm not judging them or anything, but I DO have plans. I DO plan on getting out of here ASAP. I'm in public school for only 3 months. It's been almost 2 months, and I have noticed the difference between Miller/SYA and JAHHS. There were people at Miller who could'nt cared less about education, who were only there because their parents wanted them out of the house. There were a lot of people who cared though. The people who tried in class out weighed the people who didn't. It's the opposite at JAHHS. I put so much effort into all the work  that the teachers give me. Even my half-assed work is 100 times better than the others. I feel like I'm applying myself too much. I have to get A's this year to prove to colleges that I am a dedicated student. After my appearance in last years grades, my chances of getting in are slim. I need to show them, I am a hard worker.

I just want to go back to France. Actually, at the moment, my goal is Korea. I'm starting to teach myself Korean. After my visit to Seoul, I haven't been able to get the language and culture out of my head. I've been watching kdramas non-stop and listening to only kpop all day. I've found plenty of programs that will get me there and teach me the language. I'm going to be doing one of them as soon as I graduate from the hell hole known as John A Holmes.

I miss all of my friends. I'm used to being alone and only having a few friends. It's different here, all of my old friends have been living their lives since I left. They don't need or want me there. It's strange to try and pick up an old friendship considering I have changed so much and they don't know me anymore. I'm trying to pcik them up, but it's been hard because I'm no longer apart of their community. There is no one at that school that can understand me. I have concluded that I'm just going to get through the year with as little contact as possible. I'm going to be gone soon anyway. There is no point in trying to pick anything back up. They are all wonderful people and it's amazing how much they have grown. They have boyfriends and drive now. These people, who were once my whole world, my best friends, have completely forgotten me an put me into their past.

On a lighter note, I recently applied to universities. I got my first acceptance to American University of Paris. I am thrilled! I could possibly live in France again however I looked up the reviews and it's one of those schools that you go to if your father is the president of a majour company and you have all the new fashion. Atleast I have a fall back plan. A fall back plan in France?! That's not too bad.
I also applied to Korea Univeristy which is basically the Harvard of Korea. It's very prestigious and hard to get into. After a looooonnngg and stressful application process with lots of problems and calls to Korea, I finally sent in the application and had my interview. I should be hearing from them soon. I'm so nervous and excited.

I started this post in August or something... I added the last few paragraphs about college. I'll create another post weighing the pros and cons of going to Korea university. I really need to think about it, it'll be a real challenge.

I guess I could continue this blog in hopes of once again living somewhere different. Plus, it's nice to get some things out in the open. My life has been kind of stressful lately.

That's it.

xx

Queen of Procrastination

I’m writing this from the bus heading to Marseille. Sorry it has been so long since I have updated. I have been overwhelmed with school. We have had so many projects this past month or so. Starting off with Art History, we had to choose an artist (painter, sculpture, or photographer) that we liked the best. We then had to present their life to the class… the entire 45 minute class. It took a couple of weeks to get through the entire class. I chose Mark Rothko, he was an abstract artist between 1920-1970.

                Anyways, I never posted about my February break to Paris/Germany.

Paris:
Most of you reading this know that I, Magnolia Anne Cumby, am beyond obsessed with Paris. I adore that city more than anything. So, the 5 days we spent there were magical. Normally when the school takes us on trips we have very guided and strict itineraries that we have to follow. However, for Paris, the school basically let us roam free. It was magical. I was in absolute heaven. When we got there it was pretty late at night, our hotel was perfectly placed near the bastille which is just a few metro stops away from the Eiffel tower. There were a million awesome restaurants surrounding the hotel, so my friend Akhir and I wandered around to find the cheapest and coolest place to grab a café. We went to this little café that seemed pretty popular. It was absolutely freezing so I bought a hot chocolate…. This was basically pudding. It was so rich and thick I pretty much drank the entire thing with a spoon. Khi got a mocha, which, according to her, was also magical.
                The next day, I went to the Eiffel tower with my other friend Natalie. Before that we were supposed to meet up with the school at the architecture museum right in front of the tower. I had no idea where the museum was before going. I was just following my friends because they seemed to know where they were going. We walked up from the metro into Paris and I was overwhelmed with the beauty of all the buildings and cafes that surrounded the museum. I went to explore more and when I turned the corner, I was blown backward by the most amazing view of the Eiffel tower. I died… it was amazing. The sun was positioned right behind it so it was being silhouetted on the horizon and I just could not stop looking at it. I honestly could’ve sat in that court yard all day and stared longingly at the city, the tower, the people and everything about Paris. The atmosphere there is so interesting. I didn’t really talk to the people, but it didn’t matter because it’s too beautiful to not love it. Natalie and I then quit the group after looking at the museum and walked to the Eiffel tower. We got there just in time to our tickets because just after we bought them a huge crowd of people came. I’m sure it would’ve been much more crowded if it was summer because it was so cold the entire time we were there. When I return in June, I’m 100% that my mom, Taylor, my aunt and I are going to have to wait in a long line. Anyways! Natalie and I walked up all the stairs to the tippy top of the tower. We took a million pictures. But then Kat called us (one of our friends) telling us to wait because she was coming too, Natalie and I spent more than 4 hours on top of the Tower because we were waiting so long for Kat. It was awesome. I loved it so much.
                The metro trains are from every époque imaginable. Paris apparently has the oldest metro system in the world. And when you go, you can see it. Some trains are super fancy and chic with automatic doors and big windows. Others, however, are very old and you have to press a button or lift a lever to open the doors. It’s really interesting to see.

Germany:
                I have a friend, Raph, that went to my old school, Miller, a few years back and he moved to live with his mom in Germany. His mom and his step dad own a really nice B&B in this cute little village in the middle of the Alps.The people that stay there are normally interested in skiing and snow sports because the B&B is perfectly located right next to a ski resort and in the winter is buried in snow. I’m not kidding, when I stepped off the train I fell into a few feet of snow. The last time I was there it was hot and summer-y, we went bike riding and I sped down one of the steep mountains and flipped over the handle bars, knocked myself out and broke my collar bone. So, seeing the snow made me a little nervous…. Who knows what disastrous accident could happen.
                I flew from Paris to Munich and Raph was there waiting for me when I got off the train. He was going to drive to pick me up, which would’ve taken a 2 hours, but since there was so much snow, it would be safer to take the train. We spent over 7 hours on that train. We had to transfer a couple of times. But when we got to a station a few minutes from Raph’s place, the train froze. The ice got in the engine or something and it totally froze. We waited for a good 2 hours before it thawed out.
                We finally made it to his car which we had to unbury, and then we drove about 5 minutes up and down BIG mountains until we got to his house. His step-dad, Charles, had made us homemade miso soup which tasted like it was soup from the gods.
                For the rest of the week Raph and I pretty much played his video games because his room is hooked up. I mean, the ENTIRE room has wires strategically running everywhere, he attached his computer to this huge plasma screen… he plays a million video games a day. I failed at basically all of them. Every once in a while I’d actually win a battle, but Raph was being nice.
                One time I went cross country skiing with Raph’s step-dad, Charles. It was so much fun. I was so bad at it, but Charles was really patient with me. I was falling and sliding all over the place. It was so hard!  I really want to do it again though; it’s one of those things that once you get used to the movements and find your rhythm you can do it for hours. Not without consequences though because the next day I was super sore and had bruises all over from falling so much.
               

                The Marseille trip is looooonnnnnggg over, it was a month ago or something. I have yet to post this because I am the queen of super laziness. We have 3 more days of SYA and then it officially summer. (I'm officially a senior!!!!) My last day of school was Friday, and I get my SYA diploma on Tuesday. I’m currently in Redon, which is about 45min from Rennes at my host aunt’s house because my host family left me to go to a music festival. I couldn’t go because I’d be all alone and they didn’t want me to get bored. So, I’ll stay bored in a small town far away from Rennes during the last weekend, when I should be hanging out with my French friends. But, ça va, I can’t win them all. En plus, I’m here for an extra two days so there is plenty of time to see them. I’ve posted pictures of Marseille and my independent travel to Nice on facebook, go check them out. If you’re not friends with me then just add me. I’ll hopefully post another post soon about Marseille and Nice, because it was the best of all the vacations. Sorry for being a procrastinator these past couple of months.

La Premier Jour du Reste de Ta Vie

First off,

I falled down stairs :(
I was going to do my laundry and... and... I slipped and fell. I can tell you, scariest thing EVER. How my pinky down is the only thing suffering is beyond me, I did every acrobatic trick I could think off as I was falling. My foot, my ENTIRE foot was the size of a football, the above picture was taken after the swelling went down a bit. I thought my pinky toe was broken, but it's just badly sprained and very angry at me.


On a happier note!
IT SNOWEDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Snow in France!! I've seen snow in America, Asia and Europe! It makes me happy, it wasn't that much because it hardly ever snows in Rennes. So, when it does, it's a VERY big deal. There were kids all over the place, trying desperately to create snowmen with the little amount of snow they were given, and throwing dirty snowballs. It was so cute! The pictures are taken from my window.

Speaking of snow, my friend Cole and I went iceskating on Saturday, it was interesting. Neither of us are any good at skating, but with Cole's determined personality and my clumsiness, we were quite a sight. Le Blizz is the only patinoire in Bretagne (I think that's right), there are two rinks, a small one and a large one. Whenever Cole and I go, we always use the small one because it's got kids and inexperienced people; we don't have to worry about being run over by experts. So, we were stumbling around the little rink, and I looked over at the large rink with a jealous eye to see what the older kids were doing... what do I find? A huge crowd of people in the centre of the rink watching something. I went to Cole and told him we were missing some kind of party, so we got up the courage to change rinks. Best.Idea, there was a group of boys break dancing on the ice, the were flipping, spinning, jumping, dancing, flying and just all around swagging. It was amazing. I wish I had my camera so I could film it. It was the coolest thing ever.

Quick side note:
I've been blaring this song for the past 30 minutes.
I <3 kpop.

As for the title of this blog, La premier jour du reste de ta vie is a really good French movie, it's really funny. You should check it out. I didn't get to watch the whole thing because it was midnight when it started, but what I did watch was awesome. Oh, that reminds me, my host family has never seen the movie La Guerre des Monde (War of the Worlds) with Tom Cruise, and we watched it last night. They were jumping out of their seats. It was so funny, they were so scared!! I know now not to show them horror movies.

OHH!!! So, as you might've already noticed, I'm kind of a Korean lover, and I've been watching Korean movies inbetween French stuff. If you want to enjoy a magical movie and cry your eyes out check out A Moment to Remember. Such an amazing movie. I know plenty more if you liked that one, let me know and I'll give you other suggestions.

Must do homework now, I'll post again soon!
xx

Future

So, i have officially read 230 pages of Suzanne Collins Hunger Games in French...without a dictionary. I must say, I am very proud of myself. I remember when I started it, it took me 30 minutes to read one page because I was so lost in the vocab and the grammar. I came to the conclusion that it's better to read and only look up the words that seem important, otherwise I'll be finished with the book in 10 years. It helps that I've read it in English, so if I get lost in the grammar, all I have to do is get the gist of the sentence and figure out what's going on.

Moving on...

I am all out of money. I spent all the money I saved up over the summer on my ticket to Korea, so now I'm completely penniless. Luckily, I bought my tickets for February break in November before going to Korea. But, after going to Germany this break, I'm pretty much stuck in Rennes for the next 3 months. We have one break in April and my friend and I want to travel around France because we bought these youth cards for the train that gets us a discount on tickets. However, it's still expensive, I don't know if I'll be able to pull it off. We are just going to have to find REALLY cheap hostels.

I just finished the SAT. 4 and a half hours of my life... I either really failed it, or kinda did. I guess I'll find out when the scores get here... I hate how this one test basically determines my future.

Speaking of futures, I'm so lost at the moment. The year is almost over, and I'm not ready to go back to the States. I have been thinking a lot about what I want to do, and I have aucune idée.... I never realised how scary real life can be, and I'm not even starting it yet. It's like I'm standing on the border between my world and the real world. What I mean is, look at me, I'm a 17 year old girl living in France and I've got the whole world at my disposal. I don't want to restrict myself to following everyone thinks I should be doing. What if I'm not ready to start college? What if I'm not done seeing the world? Sure, there are study abroad programs in college, but they don't normally start until sophomore year. What if I want to do something next year? I feel as though my whole existence revolves around seeing the world. I want to experience the full of it, while I'm young. I want the world to throw me into some sort of amazing adventure.
We are reading Dubliners by James Joyce in English and all of the stories that he has written are basically about dreamers only dreaming. Or seemingly adventurous people being trapped by society. I don't want to be stuck in Dublin forever. I don't want to live vicariously through other people like Little Chandler in Joyce's A Little Cloud. Good story by the way, you should read it!

Not a very cheery blog post, but it's been a stressful month. I'm happy break is coming!

xx

The Moment

Whenever you hear or read something that talks about learning a different language, it always says something about how one day they woke up and just realised they understood. I've always said that I can understand, but not without concentration. Well, I've had the moment.

My friend Akhir and I were at this amazing restaurant called Vino et Gusto. When we sat at the table the waitress came and heard us speaking English, she asked in French where we come from. We answered America, and she asked the simple question that always gets me excited "Vous comprenez le français?" Yes, yes I do. After we said yes, she jumped into a story about how her and her daughter created this restaurant and everything is homemade, we can have one plate from the buffet and one desert for just 9,90E. She said it all in French. And it didn't even sound strange or foreign to me. It was just natural.

Everywhere I go, I hear conversations and words and just understand them as if I've never had any difficulties. I can go up to someone with ease and ask them something without being scared of not understanding the response. I'll be honest, I've still got a loooooonnnggg way to go to fluency, but I'm making progress. The only thing holding me back now is English.

I need to stop speaking English.

It needs to leave my brain.

I'm trying very hard to speak just French, but it's so hard when everyone at my school is speaking English all the time. Some of the people are sadly not as dedicated to learning French as the others. I just need to refuse speaking English for the rest of the year. I can understand everything with ease, it's just the speaking that's killing me now. I can get my ideas across and make sense, it's just not perfect.

I went to the Air France travel agency today to talk about cheap tickets to Italy for April break. I spoke in French, the agent didn't even try to speak English, I guess he just knew that although my French isn't amazing, it's still understandable.

Galettes. Bigger than crepes, not as sweet an made with different flour. The first time I had a galette, I was at a small restaurant. I didn't really like it too much because it was too buttery and fatting for me. However! My host family made galettes last night.... they used the original recipe that the people of Bretagne used in the 17th century. An it doesn't have any butter and it's made with water instead of milk and (if the family was rich) one egg. Because way back when Bretagne was the poorest department in France, however these days it's one of the richest because of agriculture.

I have a lot of homework that needs to be done, I'll post again ASAP.

xx

Korea!

Yummm, I sat on the floor when I ate this, I felt cool!

Bonnie and I at the palace!
These are the weird rice cake things at the cute cafe
The note that I wrote at the super cute cafe!
Keith's red scarf!
This is the tree in the really cute restaurant we went too.
Keith and I went to a Buddhist palace.
This is a different cafe, were my favourite kdrama (Korean TV show) was filmed.
The architecture in Korea is so cool!
First delivery in Korea!

Sorry! I haven't been posting a lot lately. I'll try to get better. But I went to KOREAAAA over Christmas break. It was the most amazing break ever.

Korea is very formal. Bowing to your elders is crucial and being polite and discreet is necessary. When I arrived, the first thing I saw was my boyfriend, Keith, waiting for me outside of customs. He lead me to his father, I was very nervous about meeting Keith's parents so I'd been practicing the phrase that Keith gave to say to his parents for weeks, which was basically a simple sentence thanking them for letting me stay with them.
경영오빠 집에머물게 해주 셔서감사합니다.
After bowing and thanking his dad, we got in the car and drove an hour or so to Keith's apartment, the drive was amazing. My dad once asked on a family vacation in Cambridge how could one tell that we were in a different country because everything was in English, I looked around and said the pound sign for the money... well not only is there the won sign in Korea, but it's very obvious as well because everything is in Korean and there are little Asian style buildings everywhere. it was amazing, I kept telling Keith in the car: "Keith! I'm in Korea! I've never before been to Asia!! I'm in Korea!!"

When we got to his apartment, Keith's dad had to leave for work, because it was only 8 in the morning. So, Keith and I got my bags out of the trunk and said goodbye to his dad and walked to his apartment. His mom was downstairs waiting for us. I bowed again and said hello, she came up and hugged me. We got on the elevator and went to the 14th floor. All the apartments in Korea have, other than a keyhole, and keypad.. the code is the key. Of course, once we entered there is a designated area for taking off your shoes. Keith's puppy Somang (meaning hope) was excitedly waiting.

She.is.so.cute.

Keith and I decided that it was best not to venture that day because we were both very jet-lagged, so we stayed in with his mom and watched movies and ate delicious food. Keith made me ramyun, which was magical. For dinner we ordered some bulgoggi and kimbab and some kind of omelet thing that had rice in it... it was all superb.

The next day we started a little late, I slept too much. So, Keith took me to the mall near his apartment. It's called the Coex mall. It's huge. I bought some ridiculously cute pens.

After that, the days went by way too fast. My best friend Bonnie came, and I went t stay with her, but she had classes everyday (because Koreans study ALL the time), so Keith would hang out with me during the day and Bonnie and I would chill together at night. But I did everything:

--I went to N-Seoul Tower for Christmas with Keith, because Christmas isn't really that big a deal in Korea. While we were there, Keith bought us a little magnetic box to write on and put on the wall at the tower, and it'll stay there for the next year! Then Keith can go get it, so we can keep it forever.

--Keith and I went to the movies, and let me tell you, the movie theatre in Korea is enormous and the coolest thing I have ever seen. They have caramel covered popcorn for crying out loud!!!! And the seats are HUGE and red and comfyyyy. Plus, when you buy you're tickets you get to choose where you sit, so you know for sure that there will be enough spots for you and you're friends!

Speaking of choosing where you sit... Seoul, is the most organised city I have ever been to. Not only do you reserve seats for the movies, but the metro is so organised!! Let me tell you... So when you are waiting to get on the metro you wait in line, not because you have to, but because it was mutually agreed to wait in line. There are two lines, one on either side of the door and then there is an empty space between the two lines, for the people that are getting off the train. And then when you're on the train there are three seats that NO ONE ever sits in, because it's for the elderly people, I went to go sit in one because I was tired. But Keith practically ripped my arm off to keep me away. It's reserved only for elders.

Which leads me to my next point. Korea is very formal and polite. There is a specific way to speak to people who are older than you. And in Korea they have specific names for example, Keith is older than me, so I call him 오빠 (obba, which means brother) but only younger girls call older boys obba. Take Bonnie for example, since she is younger than Keith whenever she talks to him she has to call him obba and speak to him formally.
언니 (ani)- youner girls to older girls
누나 (noona)-younger boys to older girls
형(hyung)- younger boys to older guys

--One day, Keith was being very secretive about where we were going. We were at the mall and I was getting very curious... I had told him earlier that I wanted to do everything Korean, big mistake. Guess where he took me? Karaoke.... it was so embarrassing, I don't even want to blog about it. I'm holding a grudge against him for the rest of eternity.

--When you go to downtown Seoul there aren't any tourist shops, but that doesn't mean that Seoul doesn't have tourist shops. Seoul basically has roads dedicated to just tourist shops, I went to a couple a streets like this with Bonnie, my best friend, and there were hundreds of stores selling traditional Korean merchandise, the cheap and the good. There were stores selling the tourist-y stuff, like tee-shirts and socks (Korea has THE CUTEST socks ever!), and other gift-y things.

--At one of the tourist streets Keith and I found this really cute restaurant called Misslee Cafe. And I'm not kidding when I say this restaurant was adorable. It's a really quint restaurant on the second floor of a small building, and when you walk into the door, the first thing you see is a tree absolutely covered in rectangular strips of paper. The walls were covered by these papers too. Basically, one can write whatever they want on these papers and hang them where ever they please. I looked at a few, some people would write long stories, others would draw pictures or wishes. It was a really cool idea.
While I was there Keith and I ordered, in his terms, "very Korean food". First, we ate these foamy, puffy, rice cake things covered in sesame seeds (no idea what it's called), then the waiter brought us a thin box with a lid, Keith picked it up and shook it like there was no tomorrow and then opened it. Inside, there was a mixture of ham, rice, kimchi and egg. It was really good, I'm not a HUGE fan of kimchi, but I can eat it. After eating what I like to call the "Lunch Box", Keith ordered sherbet, which I thought was pretty normal...
this. thing. was. massive. It was pretty much a small cauldron of green sherbert with the craziest stuff mixed in. It had nuts, kiwi, peaches, tomatoes, red beans, bananas, chocolate covered rice chex (yum!), mochi and a whole ton of other things. I'm proud to say that Keith and I polished that cauldron off without any problem.

--Keith took also took me iceskating, indoors of course because it's colder than cold in Korea. But we pretty much got kicked out because we weren't wearing gloves, and it's a rule that you have to wear gloves. Silly, but true. I was surprised by how well Keith could iceskate. It was very amusing to watch.
Also in the same building as the iceskating rink there is an indoor amusement park could LotteWorld, or something. It's huge! And all the rides are so cute and fun. Keith and I went on the Crzy Loop, which is just a circle that you spin around on... funniest thing ever. Keith hates going upside down, the words that came out of his mouth on that ride... hilarious. It wasn't even that scary (no offense, Keith). However, he got his revenge by taking me to the haunted house... not funny at all.

-- So, in Asia there are these photo booths that the teenagers go to. But it's not like any photo booth I've ever seen. After choosing backgrounds for your pictures and taking them, you go into another booth and decorate each photo with cute stickers or words. Afterwards you choose a layout for printing based on how many people there are and then it prints teeny little pictures!! It's so cute!!!! I did this three or four times with Bonnie and Keith.

-- Cat Cafe. I really don't need to say anything else. It was, by far, the mostest amazingest bestest perfectest place ever. There were CATS. CATS IN THE CAFE! ...speechless. My heart exploded with fuzziness.

-- Bonnie and I went to the palace Gyeongbokgung which is thousands of years old. It was amazingly beautiful. But it was also very cold, so we didn't stay long. But the palace was built in 1394....which is exaclty 6,000 years before I was born.... yeah, I feel pretty insignificant being only 17 and all. Bonnie and I took a lot of silly pictures with the actors being traditional guards. It was fun.

Speaking of cold, the hottest it got in Korea the entire 2 weeks I was there was 4 degrees Celsius, which is 38 Fahrenheit. It was ridiculous. I did not pack for the cold, and while Keith and I were at the tourist street, I was freezing to death. So, I stole Keith's scarf, which helped tremendously. However, Keith became cold, he literally made me run to the nearest store that sold scarves so he could buy a new one. The store was pretty close, so out of breath we entered and grabbed the first scarf we could find. It was a big, thick, red scarf for 30,00₩ ($30). Keith didn't hesitate because it was below 0degrees. The funny thing is 2 minutes after we bought this expensive scarf, we came across other stores that were selling scarves for only 5,000₩ ($5)... Keith regrets nothing, the red one is a nice scarf and we both were warm. Morale of the story: if you plan on going to Korea during the winter season, pack very warmly and bring enough scarves for the family.

Here are some of my favourite Kpop (Korean pop) songs:
Clazzi's This Is How We Feel
Super Junior's Mr. Simple
2NE1's I Am the Best
10cm 죽겠네 (basically anything by 10cm is amazing)
Big Bang's Love Song
CNBlue's Love Girl and Love
There are a million more... if you want some more, just ask! I know plenty.

and if you want to watch a cute show, Flower Boy Ramyun Shop is amazing.

That was the longest blog post I have ever written, I've been working on this for the past 3 days. I'm sorry that I have been so lazy about blogging. I'm going to start a weekly posting binge starting now. Chaque vendredi il y aura un nouveau blog. Promise!!