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

Keith Cho pt 2 (not as exciting)

So basically after I punched him, he ran after me and made me go back to the restaurant. He told me he wasn't leaving, but he was recommended to go to Afghanistan. I made him promise he wouldn't.

Then we went back to his apartment and hung out with his mom. Keith is so cute around his mother,,, he can't act cool around me because I've met his mother and it's adorable. 


But we basically just hung out for an entire week. We went out to eat, we went to karaoke (we totally rock at it, I might add). He took me on a picnic. He let me take pictures!! When he came to visit me in France, he never wanted me to take his picture and I got really made at him... so now he lets me capture his precious face in photos :D :D 

...I basically skipped class all week >__< But, I mean, can you blame me?! He surprised me out of the blue, and I wasn't about to ditch him for stupid classes (sorry mom :p ) 

With all the tension going on between North and South Korea, Keith hasn't been able to call much which has been really worrying me.  I miss him and I want him to be safe. But he called me this morning telling me he was fine and there was nothing to worry about. I was so relieved to hear his voice. I had been freaking out all week. But during the call he told me he might be able to get a break once a month. So I might be able to see him again in May!!!!! If everything goes according to plan and we don't get blown up that it......

That was basically our week. Not that exciting for you guys, I know. But I loved it and I can't wait to see him again. I miss him so much.


Also, I died my hair,,, I post some pics soon. 

I got class soon, plus I'm trying to decide if I should leave the country or not. I don't really feel uncomfortable with the whole Korea situation, but maybe just to be safe, I might go to Hong Kong for a few days. 

Nothing has been decided though. Keith seemed very okay with the idea of me leaving the country,, which bothers me.... but no other Korean I know seems to be freaking out. So I won't either. 

I'll post again soon. Gotta run

xx

Another Keith Cho Text PT 1

SO…. 

Sunday March 31… I broke up with Keith. 

He called me early morning, no idea why. But I just started crying because I missed him so much. And for some damn reason my brain was like “Hey, Maggie, waiting hurts you, so just break up with the boy”

So… I did. I broke up with him. I cried and cried and then I hung up on him. He called me back a few hours later begging me to rethink. He told me he’d start calling more and he’d put more effort into our long distance. He said he’d start talking to me and telling me what he thinks. Which has always been a problem for us. He’s afraid to look weak to me, so he never expresses his feelings. But that just pushes me away. I told him that…

I don’t know how I did it, I have no idea how I managed to, but I hung up on him. I said “Keith, I have to go, this is too hard for me” and I hung up.

Lord only knows how…..

But I went on with my day, regretting it and then trying to convince myself that it was the best thing. 

Waiting hurts. I spend every night staring at my phone hoping he’ll call. I’ll send him a dozen emails a day expressing how much I love and miss him and never receive a reply. And I can’t get mad at him for it because he’s in the army, he’s busy. He doesn’t have time to think about me or call me. I understand that„, he calls me when he can. I have to accept that and not torture him for it. 

I figured breaking up with him would be easier for both of us.


Anyways, Monday morning April 1, I was in a cafe with my friend telling her about the break up and then I get a text message from Keith’s mom saying that she wants to meet tonight- she has a gift for me from Keith. 

I freaked out. It was 11am, she said to meet at 7h20 pm. I was having panic attacks allllll day. What could the gift be?? What could Keith possibly ask his mother to buy for me??

I decided that I should write a letter to her explaining why I broke up with him. I wasn’t going to be able to express my feelings otherwise because I don’t speak Korean. So I got my tutor to translate a short letter which I copied onto some pretty paper. I put it in my bag and I went to wait for her…….

I was panicking. I didn’t know what to say to her or what she was going to give me. 

I was in the midst of a small attack when I hear:

“Maggie” 

I look up and who the hell is standing in front of me but Keith Cho himself. I was hoping it would be him, but I didn’t wan to get my hopes up because there was no way he could’ve gotten a break on such short notice. 

I literally almost fainted. 


I just jumped into his arms and hugged him for a good 5 minutes before he asked me to take him to a restaurant. 

Wanna know what my goddamn boyfriend did to me then?!

We sat at the restaurant and I asked him

“Keith, how did you get this break? Why are you here?”

“I had to tell you something Maggie…….I’ve decided to go to Afghanistan.”

My heart exploded. I got so angry at him..

“Why???”

He said “Well, they recommended that I go a few days ago, but I turned them down because I knew you wouldn’t like it… but considering the circumstances now, I’ve decided to go”

I started bawling my eyes out at this point. I kept telling him how stupid he was, he should know by know that our break ups last a month at most. We always get back together.

“When do you leave?” I asked.

“At the end of the week, I’ll be back in December”

I start bawling even harder.
He sees that I’m distraught and he stands up and grabs my arm and asks me to come outside. I refuse. He asks again… so I let him lead me out of the restaurant.







“April fools, Maggie”


I punched him and walked away.



I’ll post PT 2 with pictures later, I have class now~~

Classes~~

I got class in an hour and I'm in one of the moods that I just don't want to do anything. 

My Korean speaking for beginners class is sooo boring because I'm surrounded by people that can't speak so we had to start from the beginning. Which let me tell you, is SUPER boring. I basically text the entire class while the teacher and students repeat the alphabet over and over like a machine. 
"아 야 어 여 오 요 우유 으 이"
"가 거 고 구 그 기"

I don't know how much more of that I can handle >___<
Hopefully today we'll start working on comprehensible and useful phrases. 

As for my English class, haha, my teacher is...... what's a good word?....eccentric. 
I swear she looks like a skinny Asian Einstein. Her hair is all over the place and she talks like a crazy genius. She has the heeeaavvy Korean/British accent which makes listening to her speak really difficult. 
it's so fun though. It's one of the classes where we discuss books and stories and we end up debating for hours on the importance of virtue and morals. 

However, The Moon and Sixpence is the book we are beginning to read. I read the first chapter and I have NO freaking clue what is going on. 

Why can't we just read something like Harry Potter?? Or Of Mice and Men, I like that book. I want to discuss that book. So, I need to figure that book out tonight before class starts tomorrow O.o

Alright... I got to sleep.

I'm Terrible at Korean Games...

So, I went out with a friend the other night because he wanted to teach me how to play Korean billiards (I'm American,, I call it pool, but whatever)

Anyways..  should've taken pictures because I'm going to suck at explaining this properly. 

Here goes nothing:

The table is exactly the same size as a normal pool table except there aren't any ball pockets (is that the technical term for holes...?) instead of the normal 13(?) balls there are 4. There's a white ball, a yellow ball and two red balls. 

Basically the point of the game was to get rid of points by making your ball (either yellow or white) hit the two read balls without hitting your opponents ball. 

I was white and my friend was yellow. He is like a master at this game. He would make his ball bounce all around the table squeak past my ball and manage to hit both red balls. It was incredible. He gave me a handicap because he started of with 12 points and I only started off with 5.

Guess who won.....?? 

I was doing really well (not really) until I got to my last point. I played with one point left for almost an hour while my friend was just getting rid of points left and right. In the hour it took me to get rid of 4 points he got rid of 11.

It was really haaaarrrdddd!! 

but soooo much fun. Give me a few months (or years) and I'm sure I could kick his a**!! 

This might not be a Korean game, but I've only ever seen it played in Korea and it seems to be a big thing here. Either way, I'm going to practice and one day become master~~ ^^

xx

KU Spirit!

Check out my terrible video that I took from my phone during a kind of "pep rally."

KU probably has the most intense school spirit I have ever witnessed. It's amazing. We had this cheering practice thing yesterday and the entire school piled into Tiger Dome which is the stadium thing (my vocabulary is impeccable, I know) and we just screamed and jumped up and down and sang and bonded for a good 3.5 hours.

My back hurts to bad, but I feel so much closer with the school. It was amazing. We started at 4:30 and my KUBA group left around 8..... I'm pretty sure the cheering didn't stop until around 9/9:30. It was sooo long. My group just got hungry and tired so we left to get food.

I have to say I'm in love with Korean food.

I'll post again about my first day of classes soon! I'm sorry!

I'll make a more detailed post about the cheering later too, I'm just in a hurry because I have to go take a placement test for some class that I have to take (I'm not even sure what the class is~~)

Peace out, yo.

xx

I don't know why I got all gangster.

pictures soon!

Myeongdong~~~

So on Saturday I met up with my Korean tutor and we went to Myeongdong for shopping.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into...
I had to use the subway to get there and I was really nervous to do it by myself. Myeongdong is only like a 20 min subway trip so it really wasn't bad at all and I di it!!! 

Anyways, when I got there I had to wait for my tutor. And the friggin' subway station is a mall!!! So I ran around and bought some earrings and this preciousssssss cat shaped bag (I love bags)

So once she arrived we just ran up stairs and entered heaven. I swear, Myeongdong is REALLY cool. There were so many people and so many stores and little kiosk things in the streets. The big stores had a few clothes in my size which was very exciting. But there were a whole bunch of really cute little stores that I couldn't fit into :((( We bought some delicious Korean street food and then ate some chicken galbi (I can't remember it's a Korean dish). She is really awesome and chill. I really like her. She has a lot of energy like me so we get along really well :D :D

The problem with Korea is that since everyone is basically the same size, I guess there is no need for dressing rooms. So it's really hard to decide if something will fit me if I can't try it on.

I had to leave a whole bunch of cute clothes behind because I couldn't try them on.

BUT! I bought this really cute skirt and shirt for when I see Keith on Saturday!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to look so cute! It's going to be great.

I've kinda gone through this HUGE style transformation which Keith hasn't seen yet. I used to only wear very large teeshirts and sweatshirt and never wore makeup and stuff. Now I actually put some effort into myself in the morning to look better. So I'm excited to see what Keith thinks. Keith's mom is going to pick me up Saturday morning at 10 and we are going to drive to go pick up my 오빠~~~~!!!!!!! I'M SO EXCITED!! I haven't seen him in 9 months :( So when we get back to Gangnam we are going to go to Coex mall so I can get a polariod camera so I can take a million pictures of him *^.^*

I'm sorry I haven't posted pictures yet :((((((

I'm so lazy. ㅠㅠ

But, I start classes tomorrow which is so surreal to me.  I'm a freshman in college. and not just any college, but one of the top colleges in South Korea.

It's crazy!!

I'll post again about my first day soon~~

I'm so nervous.

xx

PS This post is kinda lackluster, I'm sorry. I'll be better next time and provide more detail of stuff >_<