Monday Funday

Ahhh Monday. Monday was to be the first day of my Korean class. Now I was 2 weeks behind the class start due to staying in Chicago until the end of my hockey season, so I knew I was under the gun. Add on the fact that these classes are extremely intensive, at 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, it's not your typical 2 hours twice a week type class. I was already 40 hours of instruction behind.

I had already taken a few walks around campus, so I knew where my classes were. I was asked to meet about 10 minutes before the start of class in the international affairs office to iron out some details and figure out which class I would be in. The K-PACE students tend to go to breakfast around 8, so we follow them over. After breakfast and walking to the global lounge (where my classes are), I was still almost half an hour early.

As I was waiting for the office to open, an English teacher from what sounded like Australia (judging by her accent) asked me if I was Carl. Apparently I'm already known on this campus. She was apparently a friend of someone I had been connected with here in Daegu before I came here. It seems that worlds are also small in Korea as well. I also managed to catch a picture of a relative of one of my friends at ODM back home. I had been told the Ryu family name was relatively rare and so if someone had that name they were very likely related. I decided to snap a picture to show my buddy.

A relative of my buddy Andrew Ryu, and she's pretty! ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋSorry Andrew!

So, the office of international affairs finally opens and I'm able to talk to my buddy Jong Chan, who was my email liaison and airport ride as well. As I'm sitting in the office waiting, another American guy comes in by the name of Nathan. Nathan is struggling with his Korean course only 2 weeks in. He wants to drop and start over when the next section starts. This scares me. Not only am I supposed to catch up, but they're going at a pace where people are already wanting to drop 2 weeks in.

After notifying them that I barely know any actual Korean, I just know the alphabet and a few random words/phrases they still want me to take a placement test. This is fine, because honestly I want to start from the beginning. Well they take 4 of us into a small room with the placement test and give us about 30 min to finish it. The front page and answer page are fairly simple, they have English translations on them. Awesome, I can do this! I turn the page to start the test after filling out my information, and it's completely in Korean. Awesome...I can't do this. There was no point in waiting in the room for them to come get us. I got up and walked out. I told my buddy Jong Chan that I didn't know a thing and I wasn't even ashamed. First time that's happened in a long time, that I've swallowed my pride.

After about a 45 minute wait, and a jaunt into the Korean teachers lounge for what seemed to be an impromptu vocal test of our skills, I was told to go back to the OIA (Office of International Affairs) with a Chinese girl that also seemed to not know much. Jong Chan informed me that they would be opening a new section for beginning students the next day, and that I should go home for the day.

Wow, another day behind. My competitive spirit was getting the best of me, but I realized that it was probably a GIANT miracle that I was able to start fresh and not have to worry about catching up. I was in the mood for some 우동 (Udong) a noodle dish with fish cakes served very hot. I went to the ddeokbokki place that I had gone to before, and it was excellent as expected.

Nommy Udong!

Since I really didn't have anything to study, and nothing to do I decided to take a sweet sweet nap. Ahhh, the covers made love to me as I lay down and fell asleep. Later I woke up and it was dinner time! Perfect timing. We went to our favorite kitchen, and I was inspired by my roommate to try a Chinese dish called 탕수짜장밥 (Tangsu JJajang Bap) which is sweet and sour pork breaded and fried, with black bean sauce and rice. This is an incredible dish, one of my favorite since being here. I couldn't find an exact recipe for it so I linked a JJajang Bap recipe instead. (Maybe Tim Leung can help us out!) Here is a picture of its goodness!

Omg Tangsu JJajang Bap I would marry you if I wasn't already pledged to all the KPop girls.

After dinner I finally got to meet all of our K-PACE male students. I had already met most of them, but this was formal introduction time. Wow, what a myriad of names. Coming from English it is quite difficult to grasp names that differ so much from ours. In all honesty I still probably only know a few of them concretely. Heavy G took me around to each room and asked if they had any questions for me, and translated. Some of the most popular questions were "are you married?" "do you have any brothers or sisters?" and where are you from?". All good ones. I was even asked who my favorite Idol was, and also who my favorite Girls Generation girl was. This made me happy.

What I took from meeting these students is that they are all incredibly sweet souls. I am so blessed to be a part of this program, and having this adventure right now. I honestly go to bed in awe of my situation each night. I not only get a chance to better myself through language and learning, but I get a chance to make a lasting impression on these kids and help them grow themselves. I can't wait until I learn enough Korean to really converse with them on a deeper level. If any of you get a chance to work with special needs, I suggest you do it as it is a world unto itself. One that will open your heart and teach you more than you could ever imagine. Tomorrow is another new adventure!

TL:DR I'm in Korea.