Hunt for a one room

Alright everyone! So here's my story on how I found my oneroom.

There are multiple reasons I want to leave the dorm. The main reason is that it's a 7-10 minute walk from campus. I know that doesn't sound bad. But KU is on a friggin' mountain and I'm ready to pass out by the time I get to class. Plus, the walk back to the dorm is worse. It feels a million miles away PLUS there's a big hill AND 111 stairs to hike up. EXERCISE! YAY!

Also, the dorms are really strict about visitors these days. And even coming and leaving the dorm. I'm not even talking segregation. Because Korea is very segregated. Our "uni-sex" dorm is one building with two different entrances for each sex and two different study rooms/laundry rooms. Everything. That isn't really a problem though. I don't mind that too much. 

Also, I have been spending so much money on food. And there isn't a fridge or a microwave in the dorm so I could never cook food. I also REALLY miss vegetables. So I mostly wanted a oneroom so I could get some broccoli and start eating salads again. (I don't want to be part of the freshman 15 ><)

Don't get me wrong, the dorms are VERY nice. I'm in Frontier Building. I have a bathroom that I share with one roommate. The bathroom gets cleaned once a week and I don't have a curfew (since I'm international) the Korean students have to be back by 12:30 for some reason.

My parents didn't really want me leaving the dorms because they said I won't meet anyone once I leave the dorm. 

The thing is, I only have 2 friends that I actually MET in the dorm. Emily and Estelle,who, if you remember, were kidnapped by Keith's mom. Other then them, all of my other friends I met in class, on facebook or on the street. 80% of the international students I know live off campus anyway.

SO! I pretty much started off by talking to all of my Korean friends about how they found their oneroom... but they all told me that they dropped a good 2,000-5,000$ deposit >__< 
That wasn't happening. I found cheaper onerooms that were a few subway stops from campus, but my parents said they wouldn't pay for the apt if it was expensive or not near campus. 

I found one place that had the perfect pricing. $500 deposit and 480$ a month. But the only problem was it was kind of like a dorm. The landlord kept calling it a "public place." I didn't want to leave the dorms for another dorm-like atmosphere. Plus this place didn't allow visitors. There's 2 problems with that: 


1) all of my exchange student friends are leaving right after I move in and I promised them that we would have a sleep over. Yumi (my roommate) especially because I'm going to be in pieces when she's gone. So she's going to come and we're going to party hard in my apt. 

2) I have a boyfriend. 'Nough said.
Anyway, Chad and I dedicated one day to finding a oneroom for me. What we thought would take a whole day literally took like an hour. I wanted to be near the school just in case I ended up having to pay a 2,000$ deposit and I could sell my parents with how close it is to the school. So we called the first number we saw. It was full. But there were a million other "For Rent" signs. We basically stood in one spot and spun in a circle going from number to number. 

Most of them were full. The rest wanted a $5,000 deposit. I was about to loose hope when we called the last number on the street.

There was space at the end of the semester. We could come look at the room now. The deposit is $500 and the monthly bill if $400. 

PERFECT! We walked up the hill. I looked at the room. Talked the to current (foreign) tenants and gave half the deposit and signed the contract.  I HAVE A ONE ROOM!!!

I move in June 22. (18 more days!) I'm so excited. Yumi is going to come over and cook and we're going to have a blast. 

I cannot waiiiittt!!!!!!!!! I get to buy carrots and I Can stay in my room and eat and not have to leave if I don't wnat to.

and the best part is no more stairs because it is literally RIGHT ACROSS the street from the main gates of the campus. A 2 minute walk to my classes compared to 10. I'm so happy.

That's a long post. Hope you guys are actually reading this  O.o

If you have any questions feel free to ask~~~

xx

Classes~~~

So, I'm not sure if I have posted about all of my classes or not.

Since most of my posts were about a certain Korean boy that is no longer in my life. I feel guilty to all of my followers who only followed me because they want to hear about my wonderful Korea University.

So! Here's a post dedicated only to my KU life. 

------Mondays-------

On Mondays I only have class at 3:30 which means I can sleep in as late as I want (which usually isn't past 10 o'clock no matter how late I went to sleep that night).

I generally lie in bed and watch Korean videos or study some Korean before actually preparing for school. I bought a few children's books in Korean and during my free time I take out my big expensive dictionary (40,000W) and translate a page or two. It normally takes me 30 min to an hour to translate one page. The book I bought is maybe a 10 year old level and I'm pretty sure I'm at a 5 year old level... but I might as well aim high~~  ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 

I don't know what it is, but I always feel so legit when I use an actual dictionary and not an online one. I feel more studious and intelligent, you know?

Plus, using the dictionary,I see other words while looking for one which helps me expand my vocabulary. 


At around lunch time I text all of my friends trying to find someone that's available to eat with me. Generally it's either Christine (American) or Estelle (French). I am still in love with Korean food and never want to eat anything but Korean. Especially since my boyfriend (Chad) works at a Chinese restaurant and gives me free 자장면. So I go there often. Otherwise, I eat Korean bbq or dakgalbi (chicken stirfry thing) which are both VERY good. I don't know what I'm going to feed my vegan mother when she comes to visit..... I think there's like one vegan restaurant in all of Seoul...She's just going to have to live off of rice and bibimbap because Korea like meat.

Anyways, I normally end lunch at around 1 or 2 so I just go to a cafe and do some reading or homework before class starts. 

At 3:20 I head to my Korean speaking class. The teacher is SO pretty and SO young. I swear she's a student. She's incredibly nice and very funny. The class however, is way below my level. So I normally play on my phone when we are working on things I already know very well. Every once in awhile we'll do something I don't know. In which case, I take advantage of asking questions and participating.

At 4:45 class ends and I go to the classroom next door to prepare for Beginners Korean class. 

Mondays and Tuesdays we have an older male prof who is hilarious. I love him. He doesn't speak English well so he uses a lot of hand movements because, once again, I'm in a class below my actual level, so  there's a lot of debutante students who don't understand what he says in Korean. So he makes a lot of gestures. 


 At 6:15 I leave for dinner with either Estelle or my roommate.
After that, I either go back to the dorm or go to a cafe and wait til Chad gets off work so we can hang out and he can help me with my homework.

------Tuesday------
Tuesday, I have class at 2...HOWEVER... I am totally failing that class to the point of no recovery. 
It's an English lit. class and I feel severly hurt my ankle so I had to get physical therapy and the only time I could go was during that class Tuesdays and Thursdays. Before, I was already way behind on work and now that I've missed about 6 classes, I'm too far behind to even think about getting back. Plus, even if the teacher does accept me back in the class.. I won't be able to pass the final because I have missed too many notes.

Yay for failing my first class my freshman year. 

I'm so disappointed in myself. But now I know what college expects of me and I plan on studying my ass off next semester. I have to to get my GPA up after this class. 

Also, my ankle is still killing me. I have no idea what I did to it and neither does the hospital.
Tuesdays at 3:30 instead of Speaking I have Writing class. Which is above my Korean level and I LOVE it. It's the one class that challenges me. The one class where I actually feel like I'm learning Korean. The teacher is hilarious and she speaks ONLY Korean she doesn't even try to speak English. She speaks so fast too so when I understand what she's saying I am SO proud of myself. 

After that I have Korean beginners class until 6:15.

-----Wednesday-----
Wednesday I have French class at 10:30. It's basically a French class where we read and learn to translate into Korean,,, except I don't speak Korean. So the prof makes me read and then summaries in French because she doens't speak English. 

This prof loves me though. Because I speak French and lived in France. She always makes me answer the questions and walks with me after class. Last class we had a class lunch which was fun. They only spoke in Korean, but I love listening to Korean conversations to see if I can pick up anything. It was realy fun. Plus we ate at Chad's restaurant so I got to see him.

Then at 3:30 I have speaking class again.

6:15 Korean for beginners.



-----Thursday------- 

Thursdays I technically have English Lit. at 2
Writing at 3:30
and
Last day of Korean for beginners for the week.
It's generally an uneventful day. Sometimes I go to some sort of festival with my Korean friend Wonsuk. Or we just get dinner somewhere.



-----Friday----
At 10:30 I have French class again. I hate waking up early, but I enjoy that class. 

Then at 2 I have my 3 hour long history class. It is SO easy. The prof gives take-home exams and our midterm was to write a one page paper on an ancient Korean folk-song. Which was incredibly easy. You don't have to pay attention in the class. You just have to show up because he takes attendance. It's really boring though... 
I fell bad because he says this is the first time he's taught unversity students. He normally teaches business men or something. So he tries to make the class interesting but it's just not. It's so boring. The prof is really nice though and I love him for trying.

=====WEEKENDS=====

My weekends are normally very uneventful.... I have tutoring on Sunday and I hang out with my roommate or Chad all day. Or I just go to a cafe and work. Sometimes I go shopping.

Last weekend I rented a oneroom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited. I move in June 22. I'll post more about how I found it later. I'm so happy to not be in the dorms anymore. I don't have to walk up those damn stairs!!!!!

So happy~~~~~

Anyways,, that's my week. Boring, right?

Hopefully you guys enjoyed this post. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Class Registration is Stressful

So, I Would like to point out that I'm a international FRESHMAN student.

I have never ever registered for classes before

And all of my exchange friends keep talking about the horrors they went through while registering for classes. I'm SO nervous~~~~

I had orientation yesterday, which I would like to say was pretty useless. Most of the international students are Chinese, there are only like 15 non-Chinese international students so basically the entire orientation was about what Chinese students need to do for visas and stuff.

She only covered class registration for a minute. She didn't say anything about what credit I need or anything. She just said "You need 130 credits to graduate and I recommend you do 12 credits your first semester"

12 credits of what?!!?! Am I required to take a science? or a math? or even History? Because if you don't tell me I'm going to avoid those subjects at all costs.

So basically I chose all the English classes I could find (that weren't any of the subjects stated above) There aren't very many classes in English, but there are definitely enough to have a couple semesters of just English classes, which is nice.

So hopefully my schedule will look something like this:

Intermediate French Tues-Fri
Korean for beginners Mon-Thurs
Language and Culture Tues & Thurs
English and Human Mind Mon &Weds
Syntax Mon &Weds

Once again, I pray this will be my schedule. Sadly, I don't really have any days off, but that's okay. I'm new at this. I can perfect my scheduling later when I'm not so stressed.

There were only 3 classes related to my linguistics majour in English and the level wasn't specified. So, I just signed up for Syntax just in case all the other classes were junior level classes or something. I can always drop the class.

I have 6 back up classes just in case I don't get any of these, but I'm REALLY hoping I can get those. Based on the horror stories from my friends and my parents I'm probably going to end up in some really stupid class taught in Korean.

I don't speak Korean.

On the bright side!!!
While I was at orientation I started talking to this one girl and SHE'S FRENCH! So, I'll have a 4-yr undergrad French friend!! I'm so excited. I think there is also another international linguistics freshman. So, hopefully i can make a few non-exchange student friends. I do love my exchangey friends, but they are leaving me in a few months sooo..... yeah.

I woke up 3 hours before  registration begins because that's what everyone recommended I do so I have nothing to do right now...

I'm just going to listen to some kpop and refresh the registration page until I die.

xx

Shoes!!

So, I used to always judge girls when they told me that they always pack a bag dedicated to shoes…


Now I understand. I have literally filled an entire suitcase with shoes. I didn’t even realise I had this many shoes. I guess that’s what I get for working at a shoe store. I’ve heard from multiple resources that Korea doesn’t really make shoes larger than a 8…. I’m a 9.

WHY IS KOREA SO SMALL?!

I am literally not going to be able to buy anything there because I’m too big for all the clothes/shoes. *curses*

But I do get to hang out with Keith’s mom soon! Part of me is very excited and the other part keeps repeating “don’t get nervous and shut down, don’t get nervous an not talk” in my head. 

I need to collect some courage and not be scared to talk to her in Korean regardless of how incomprehensible it is. 

She’ll appreciate me for trying! (I hope….)

I still don’t know how I feel about calling her mom, I know it’s totally normal in Korea, but it’s not a western thing to call your boyfriend’s mother “mom”
It might be weird for her too, I mean I am a foreigner. 

SO NERVOUSSS!!!

Too early to pack?

So I leave in 15 days.

I feel like 2 weeks before departure is a reasonable time to start packing… right?

Except, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO PACK!?
I’m going to have to bring a lot of clothes because I don’t exactly have a Korean sized body, especially in the chesty area. Everywhere I read says that if you wear larger than a B is going to be pretty hard to find bras/shirts that fit. So, basically I’m screwed!

WHY, MOTHER, HAVE YOU CURSED ME WITH LARGE BOOBS?! ALL I WANT IS TO WEAR CUTE KOREAN CLOTHES.

*sigh*

I might be able to fit some of the “one size fits all” shirts, but come on, their Korean. Their “one size fits all” really means “you might be able to wear this if you normally wear a medium, otherwise don’t bother.” My boobs wear a large (sometimes XL, it’s bad)… the rest of me is medium. I’m so disfigured >___<
Anyways, I don’t know if I should focus on packing warm clothes or cold clothes because it is going to be REALLY cold when I get there, but it’s almost spring and it gets REALLY hot too. Ooooh the conflict!

What about shoes? I don’t know how that works in Korea. I wear a 9USA/40EU/7UK, I have no idea what I wear in Korea or if they make shoes that big. Do Korean women have big feet?? I dunno….

So, I’m basically going to be staring at my closet for the rest of the day. Wish my luck!

xx

16 More Days!

So, I basically spent my entire last semester at high school dreaming of leaving for Korea. It’s getting so close and it hasn’t hit me yet. I’m excited, but it still feels like a distant dream.

I mean come on, Maggie, you’re going to be living in Korea for the next 4 years!!! 

It’ll take me awhile to get used to the idea. It still hasn’t really clicked in my head that I spent all last year in France. 

Anyways, it’s taking a lot of effort to prevent me from packing now. I still have two weeks. I need to wear something! I just have no idea what I should pack and what I should buy there. 

Speaking of! So, my boyfriend is Korean and he’s in the army doing his mandatory service. But, he told me a few weeks ago that I should arrive in Korea 3 days before I actually need to be there because he might be able to get a break and hang out with me for three days. Obviously I was very excited because I haven’t seen him since he randomly showed up at my door 7 months ago.

Guess what he told me a few days ago? He wasn’t able to get his break. So I was going to arrive in Korea 3 days before the dorms open with no where to stay.

“Don’t worry Maggie! You can just stay with my mom, she’ll pick you up from the airport.” 
Keith (that’s his name), your mom doesn’t speak English. My Korean is beginner. I can have a small conversation involving the whereabouts of cats
“고양이가 탁자 밑애 있어요— the cat’s under the table” I can understand stuff, but that’s only because I watch WAY too many kdramas. I’m basically learning my Korean from Lee Min Ho (bless him). 

Well! Screw it! I want Keith’s mom to like me, she seemed like she liked me when I visited last year. So I’m going to be spending three days with my boyfriends mother without said boyfriend. 

I’m FREAKING out. I speak enough Korean to get by without starving or dying, but I don’t know formal conjugations. Formality is very important in Korea. And I know Keith’s mom will not be insulted by my speaking informally to her because I’m a foreigner learning Korea, but I still want her to know that I respect her and I would speak formally if I knew how!

Why is Korean so difficult?!

Anyways, I can’t wait to move into my dorm. I was originally supposed to stay in Anam hall, which is the cheapest dorm. However, they filled up fast and now I’m staying in the Frontier House which is awesome! I GET MY OWN BATHROOM! I’m so excited. I’ll only have on roommate instead of 2. And we have our own bathroom.

This is long, I’ll try to keep up with this blog better than my blog to France, I kinda failed with that. 

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.

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!!

2 mois.

I'm in France. How weird is that?!

I was walking around town this evening, around 18:00, it was already dark. The walk was normal, I knew the street I was on, I knew the next right would take me to Sainte-Anne and the left to the park. I was used to it. Or so I thought, as I was walking to the fork of the road preparing to take the right to my bus at Ste Anne, I looked up. There, right before my eyes, was a huge French flag being illuminated by spotlights. It stood out from the dark sky behind it, waving proudly in the French wind. I have yet to have the awe-ing moment or realisation that I'm studying in France. But there are moments, like this, that suddenly come and scream in my ear--TU ES EN FRANCE, TU PARLES LE FRANCAIS, TU CONNAIS LA VILLE, TU AS DES AMIS FRANCAIS , ET TU ES CONTENTE! I just stopped and stood in the middle of the cobblestone rue, staring at the flag with a big grin on my face--I'm in France, I speak French, I know the town, I have French friends and I am happy.

I find myself more often talking to my friends in French, it doesn't really bother me when we switch back and forth between languages. En fait, je remarque à peine. I'm beginning to realise that I can understand what people are saying to me without really concentrating. I just understand them.

It has been two months. It doesn't feel like it at all... I've become so used to the life here, the days are just flying by. I feel like I just arrived, but more than 50 days have already passed. If it keeps continuing like this, tomorrow will be the 31 of May and I will be packing my bags and heading home.

I'm taking it all in, one day at a time.

xx

Amsterdam!

I'm back in France! Yesterday was a very long day-8 heures dans une voiture pleine. Naturally, I slept the entire way.

I bought my host family crazy clog slipper things because I thought they were hilarious. My host family thought the same thing.

While I was in Amsterdam, I basically just walked around all the time by myself. I would wake up every morning and leave the apartment and walk for 5-10 hours until I was tired or it was time for dinner. It was amazing. Amsterdam, is so beautiful. The architecture is very different than in France, but it still holds that wonderful European style that I have always loved. I spent a bit way too much money for my taste, but je ne regrette rien. The apartment was beautiful and in the center of everything, so it was easy to walk everywhere. Which leads me to another one of my not-so-useless-but-still-pretty-useless moneyspending stories: I wanted to see the Anne Frank house. My host family told me that there is always a huge line to wait in if you want to see it, but it's still worth it. The only problem was I had no clue how to get there. So, I created a master plan. I had seen a lot of canal boat tours in front of the apart and I knew one of them stopped in front of la maison d'Anne Frank, so I went to the nearest ticket counter and bought a day-pass for 20E because I figured after Anne Frank I could go to some of the other stops that the tour offered. I got on the boat and it was very nice. There was an audio tour of interesting attractions that we passed and it was a beautiful warm day. The first stop was Anne Frank. I got off and walked to the house... what do I find? A huge line that goes down the entire block. I spend a few hours in the line before entering the house, which was so amazing and heart breaking. After I was done with the tour, it was already pretty late and I had no time to go to any of the other stops with my day-pass. But, how do I get home? ...I walk of course, Anne Frank's house was literally like 2 blocks away from my apartment. There was no point in me buying that 20E day-pass... oh la vache.

I go back to school tomorrow, I have to say, I'm kind of relieved. I really missed Rennes and I am so happy to be back.

xx

L'école

I guess I never really explained my classes and how school works.

Basically there are like 60+ students in the entire program, and we all took placement tests to determine our level in French and math. They are 2 levels of French I and II. Level I is for the meilleur éleves and they study a lot more Literature and work less on learning grammar. Level II, were I am, is dedicated to expanding our vocabulary and speaking skills. Level II still takes Litt. but not as often as level I.

So, the school day is created for each individual student and group. Each level is divided evenly into groups--IA, IB and IIA, IIB--for scheduling purposes. I'm IIA, so all of my classes are with the rest of the people in IIA. Except for math, math gets mixed up according to math skill. I'm in pre-calcI and there is a pre-calcII and a pre-calchonours as well as ABCalc and BCCalc.

Classes are:
CESF(culture et société Françaises-Taught in French)- which is us just learning everything we need to know about France and it's culture..... the prof is hilarious.

Histoire(Taught in FRench- French history... I'm really surprised by how much I love this class, our prof is crazy.

Histoire de l'art(French)- Art and architecture... I love this class the prof is so funny!!

Litterature(French)- French literature

English(English)- Is just a basic English class.... the prof is so smart and crazy, I really enjoy this class

Langue(French)- grammar class..... I love speaking French

TPL(French)- it's a pronunciation class, each group has it once a week

Math(English)- I love our teacher, she is so young and smart and she's super fun

C'est tout! Je vais faire mes devoirs!

PS below is me reciting my first essay in French. We were supposed to do it in class, but they prof only chose certain people to recite. I worked really hard on it, so I wanted to share it with you! Excuse my pronunciation... I was reading too fast.

xx

I Miss Hugs.

These should be the last of my attempt to show Taylor my outfit for the first month.

Since it's been awhile since I posted (sorry!), this is going to be a fairly long and choppy post. I'm just going to write all the experiences in short paragraphs.

I swear, these people here think we have amazing stories to write about. For English we have to write an anecdote that we think helped shape us into the person we are today. And if writing that in English isn't hard enough, French Litt. wants us to write a extremely funny or extremely dramatic story (en français) that has happened to us while we've been in France... I have plenty of stories to write about for Litt, but the prof has extraordinarily high expectations AND she wants us to present it in class.
Her requirements:

-5 minute long presentation.
I don't think any of my stories are long enough!

-Must speak flawless French, the grammar and the accent.
....

-We cannot use "Il y a (there), faire (to do), ça (that) or chose (things)"
That's been easy so far.

I'm just going to ask my host family to just sit with me and help me write this, because writing and speaking is going to extremely difficult. As for English, I thought it was going to be easy because it only has to be 500 words, but my story is finished with only 286 words. I have nothing else to say, so I'm just going to create another draft and see how that goes. Anyways, for English, I'm writing about my near-death experience in Germany and for Litt. I'm going to write about the strange day I had shopping with Eilidh (one of my SYA friends) and some old man.

I'll post both stories when they are completed.

I just wanted to show off my amazing note taking skills IN FRENCH. I was never a big fan of history, but I love history this year, my prof is so funny. I love him.

I made a few French friends! Finally!! SYA had signups for this meet-and-greet at a French school. So, I signed up for it, and while I was there I talked to this one guy and we exchanged numbers and we've been texting ever since!!!!!! We haven't been able to meet up because he is always extraordinarily busy with basket ball (yes, he's athletic). But what I love the most is that he speaks French!! And all 125 messages that we've exchanged are in French!!!

So, I went out yesterday with my friend Crispin and I only had 10E on me, so I decided to go to an ATM and get some cash. So, I found a BNP, which is the sister bank of BOA, and went to the ATM and put my card in, typed in my pin and chose the amount of money I wanted to withdraw. Well, instead of giving my money, the ATM decides to "withhold my card at the request of the bank". Like, what?! J'étais tellement en colère. I called my dad and he called the bank a million times and worked it out, so I'm getting an emergency replacement card ASAP. THANKS DADDY, LOVE YOU!!!!! But, the not-so-funny-but-ironic thing is that was the exact same ATM that my friend used last Saturday to withdraw money and guess what? It took his card too. Oh la vache... I thought it was safe to use because he walked away from the ATM for a while, so I just assumed it took his card because he left it unattended. Stupid machine.

I bought new shoes, a new shirt and two new pants for under 50E! All of it is so cute!

<--These are maxi pain au chocolats... so.good. Eilidh and i both had one they are literally bigger than my face.


Oh, I realised that I don't really miss the US all that much. But the thing I do miss are hugs. I was never a touchy-feely person so, I didn't give very many hugs... but now that I'm in a country that never hugs, all I want to do is hug people. I just want to walk down the streets of Rennes with a sign that says "Free Hugs" just so that people will hug me. Maybe, I can make France realise that hugs are awesome!

On Friday my adviser had a little advisory party at her apartment. It was ridiculously fun. She's only like 28, so she's really easy to talk to and she's so funny. The entire school is trying to find someone to hook her up with because she doesn't have friends yet because she doesn't speak French. She was with SYA: Vietnam last year, so this is her first time in Rennes. She's just as new to the city as we are. But, at her apartment, we all basically ate junk food for about 3 straight hours, then we had epic heart to hearts. She's the math teacher and I swear, she's like the smartest person ever. I never would have imagined that she was that amazing at math. She's a great teacher!

Also, as of Wednesday, I have been here for a month. 8 more months to go. I don't like that. I want to stay here forever. I love everything about Rennes. I have yet to be homesick or sad in anyway.


This post is awful, I'm sorry! I need to start posting regularly so this doesn't happen again.

xx

J'adore Ma Famille d'Accueil.

I really cannot explain how much I love my host family. Ils sont très amusant et incroyable. They are just so understanding. We will be at the dinner table and I am stumbling trying to speak decently (I'm sure I sound like Tarzan though: "Me. Eat. Now." "You.No.Like?"), but they understand easily and help me say it right. C'est bizarre parce que I am more comfortable speaking French with them than I am with my other friends who are on the same level as me. I'm not embarrassed to jump into a conversation and fall on my face trying to explain difficult things. Everynight, without fail, I go downstairs and sit at the table in the kitchen and do my homework while my host dad cooks, and I tell him about my day and he helps me with my French homework and I help him peel potatoes or carrots. It's really fun, it's my favourite time of the day. And when Valerie comes down to eat we will talk for hours! It really is the best.

Anyways, I just had to say a quick something about them. They are truly amazing.

Also, I had a very exciting experience talking to a random stranger. I was walking down the ally that my school is on and this woman was walking towards me and she asked "est-ce que tu habites ici?" and I immediately understood and without even thinking answered "Oh, non, je vais à l'école", she mumbled something about needing a toilet and walked away. I know it doesn't sound that impressive because it was such a petite conversation....but je ne pensais pas en anglais. I understood her French, I didn't do any translating an when I answered I didn't think about conjugation or word placement.... I just said it.

I have noticed that I understand French better when I'm not trying to translate everything, I just have to learn the words. For example, when someone says "je pars" I don't think in my head "(Je=I) + (pars=partir=to leave) = I am leaving" I simply think of the action of leaving like I do in English. It's difficult to explain, but easiest way to say it is I am beginning to really comprehend the language.

I'm sorry, I've been so bust lately I haven't been able to post. I'm going to post about the first school trip this weekend.

xx

PS Remember the clock I bought? Well, I was messing with it today and it does, in fact, have an alarm! So, it wasn't a waste of money!

La Première Jour

It was a long day of travel, but I finally made it!!

Words cannot explain how amazing of an experience it has been so far, and I've only been here about a day!
When we arrived to Rennes around 19:00, our host families were waiting for us. I had no idea what my family looked like because they never sent a picture, one of my new found friends came up to me and was like "Magnolia, I found your host family! It the woman with the green hair." I looked up and sure enough, I see a tall slim woman hovering over the crowd wearing a blue fuzzy jacket (It's REALLY cold here, unlike the 80 degree weather I left back in DC) and a blue dress. Her hair is mostly black, but she has green bangs, and she is the nicest woman I have ever
met. She saw me and was like "MAGGIE" and we kissed the French way. My host dad was behind her and he is so funny. He grabbed my bags and they showed me the bus route, and then we left for the house.

The house is so cute! It's small, but roomy. They showed me my room and left me to unpack and shower while they prepared dinner. I unpacked and took a shower in my very own bathroom! And I unpacked in my small, but beautiful room. It's so cute and as I'm writing this, I'm sitting on my French bed with the French windows open listening to (British, but still European) Adele, and watching the French trees sway in the French breeze. IT IS SO AWESOME!

Anyways, I went downstairs and there was a table set with a of slice cantaloupe, I don't know if you know but French cantaloupe is the most delicious thing you'll ever taste. But we were sitting at the table and my family was talking to me, and I was so proud of myself because I could understand them! The problem was I couldn't talk back... but I still understood!! It was around the time that my host dad went and got the main course, a yummy roast beef thing, that it hit me. I'm in France, but not on vacation, to study for a year. It might've been a little awkward with my host family now, but within a month or two, I'll be able to talk back and we will be really close and I'll feel more comfortable doing things around the house! And all my peers will be really good friends. It's amazing. I can't wait for that time to come, but I don't want it to come too fast. I'm not looking forward to the end of this year. I can't imagine going back. I love it here so much.

As for the picture, my best friend Taylor told me to post what I wore everyday for the first month so she could see! This one is for you Taylor!! I LOVE YOU!!!!

xx

Une Semaine

I have finished packing. Although, I wasn't able to pack everything I wanted. I packed everything else! My luggage is teetering on the line of being over weight.

What am I going to wear on the plane?! That is my current dilemma. I guess I'll find out next week.

Ever since I was accepted to SYA, I've been developing expectations. I really have no idea what this year will contain. The only thing I am certain of is that it'll be an experience of a lifetime.

My host mother is allergic to gluten, isn't gluten in bread? Isn't bread a big deal in France? According to Postcards from France by Megan McNeil, the French love eating. And they love their dogs and they love smoking. That book was written in the 60's though, I think. The culture might have changed. I suspect it has... or has not. I shall find out!
SYA emailed all the France students. The email had a sentence:

What will your first 10 sentences be to your new family?

And it has been on my brain ever since I read it. What will my first conversation be with my family? Naturally, it'll start with a simple Ça va? in which I will automatically reply with Ça va bien and maybe add a "comment allez-vous?" if I'm feeling ambitious. They will probably introduce themselves je m'appelle..... and I will answer with the same.
That's as far as I've thought. I don't know what to say after. Maybe I'll just say "je suis fatigueé" and rid myself of having to carry on further with the conversation. But speaking French is inevitable, all my classes will be in French and no doubt half the orientation will be in French. So, I might as well get the initial conversation over with and turn my French brain on from the start. But what to say? As well, I guess I'll find out soon enough.

One week from today I'll be getting to know my new peers and speaking in terrible broken French. I just have to remember that this time next year, I'll be speaking, hopefully, almost flawless French and have 60 new friends with whom I will always stay in contact.

Just one more week 'til the adventure begins.

xx

12 more days.

SYA: School Year Abroad is a total immersion academic program in countries in Europe and Asia. It was founded in 1964 by Philips Academy in Andover Mass. It is challenging in academics and it challenges each individual student to be able to adapt to a different culture. Each country enrolls around 60 students who are willing to take on the challenges of living far from home and immersing themselves into a different society.

After my incredible month in Montpellier France with the Oxbridge Program: L’Académie de France, I decided a month just wasn't enough. So, I went on the search to find the perfect program for an academic year abroad. My French teacher recommended SYA. It was exactly what I was looking for. I applied and waited the long months it took for a response. Since I applied for a Merit scholarship, I had to have an interview with an alum of the program. I had a wonderful interview with an SYA:Spain alum.... In the middle of march, I got an email from SYA telling me that I was accepted early. I hadn't heard from them whether I got the scholarship or not, but it didn't matter because I had been accepted!!
It wasn't until late March that I got the letter telling me that I did not qualify for the Merit Scholarship. However, they were please to announce my early acceptance into their program! I was devastated because there was no way for my parents to afford the $45,000 fee that came along with such a undeniably perfect program. My mom spoke with SYA though, and soon enough they negotiated that we did qualify for financial aid. And it was official, I was going to spend 9 months in the most amazing country.

I really don't know what I have in store. France has always been my dream, but as the day becomes closer and departure is sooner, it is hitting me what I have signed up for:

• I'm going away for 9 months.

I go to a boarding school, so obviously I am able to be away from home without becoming completely ill. But I go to a boarding school less than 4 hours away from home.
My option of going home on the weekends has been terminated.

• I'm going to a different country.

It's totally foreign, the language, the culture, even the time. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to be going. Not many people get this opportunity, and I'm lucky enough to have had it twice (with Oxbridge). It's going to be an exciting, enthralling and different year.

• I'm living with someone that I have never meet, and before July, I never even knew existed.

My host family is amazing and I'm lucky to have them, according to the girl they hosted a year ago. They are very liberal and kind. But I'm still worried as to how they will react to me. I'm high maintenance, I'll admit. I can entertain myself easily, but there are times when I just need to do something exciting, and I don't know if this is a spontaneous family or not.

This year is going to be a real adventure of it's own and I cannot wait to experience it. I always imagined myself going to France for school, but I cannot believe that it's actually happening.

xx