With all my schoolwork, I haven’t had time to update the blog; somehow, it has become the new year, and so many weeks of school have already passed! I was very nervous about my first school day in a new country. After the first week passed, I was surprised at how enjoyable the teachers and my classmates made every class and how fast it would be to make new friends, which was one of my worries because I felt that my Korean skills would not be good enough to talk to people for a long amount of time. Since so many weeks have passed since then, I have come to realise that I did not need to worry so much about this since everyone in the class is very much on the same boat and are all learning Korean at the same time in the same pace and the friends I’ve made in class are so friendly and kind!!
There was so much snow in the first weeks, and it fell pretty often! It made me so giddy every time it fell (even though walking to school was quite hard if it formed into ice); however, it made everything prettier, and I loved looking out the window to see all the piled-up snow! Also, at this time, I still wasn’t very familiar with the new surroundings and felt more comfortable just going back to the dorms and eating at the convenience store (which I still do for dinner, and its name is so very fitting haha). But if I did go out with my friends after class, it would just be to nearby restaurants to get some food, then go back to the dorms to rest.
After those first few weeks, everything felt so familiar all of a sudden and going out on weekends felt even more fun than ever. I grew closer to my new friends in my class. After we all went out for the first time, it felt like we had known each other for so much longer, and it was such a fun time! By this time, Christmas had come, and my program friends and I decided to rent out some school uniforms and spend the day at the Lotte World theme park! Although we spent most of the time taking pictures, and the number of people overwhelmed me a little, it was such a memorable and fantastic day. The lights projected on the main building, which resembled a castle, were so beautiful!
Before I knew it, the New Year came in a few weeks, so I decided to go to a bar with familiar and unfamiliar faces and have fun celebrating. The bar was an enjoyable experience, but the music was so loud that I had a sore throat that whole week because of screaming too much! However, I did feel better by the weekend, and a friend and I decided to visit a famous K-pop entertainment store to seek out things to buy (and be on the lookout for idols 🤫). Even though I came out of that store empty-handed, I did find something I was always looking for in another store, and I was so happy since it would have been way over my budget back in New Zealand!
Last week was also a delightful week! My friends from class and I had another day out, and we went to a PC room and coin karaoke! We ended up just ordering food and watching our videos in the PC room because we realised we had to have our own accounts for the games if we wanted to play there! The coin karaoke was also fantastic; we had so much fun singing our hearts out! On the weekend, another friend and I decided to go to a samoyed cafe, and it was the cutest thing ever! The dogs were so cute and fluffy! I highly recommend going there if you ever can come to Korea!
As always, to finish this blog post, I will attach my favourite song right now, along with some pictures, and I will catch you in my next post!
