well, last night was eventful. There was a fire in the men's anam dormitory so they had to evacuate for 2 hours from like 11:45 to 2am and the internet is stationed there so none of us had internet until now.

Today's classes were fine, Korean is starting to put me to sleep because we're still doing the same thing but repetition is good for learning! Chinese Politics was ok except we just learned about Political Science and went around and said a short bit about ourselves and that one Chinese girl still scares me because she went over how she's an idealogy major and how she loves her country and her voice still sounds like she's big brother but maybe I'll get over it. Intense people are always entertaining. International Organizations was a little stressful because Barbara said she's had pressure in her chest and her heart is beating fast etc. for the past 3 days and I told her maybe she should go to the hospital so then I think she started freaking herself out more because she decided she needed to go to the hospital RIGHT THEN and so all class she was fidgeting and I was having some trouble paying attention but I walked her back to her room and now she and her roommates are going to the hospital I offered to take her but she got Caitlyn and another girl who knows a little bit of Korean and 4 is kind of a big entourage so I'm here in my room and need to catch up on some MAJOR reading that I didn't know I had to do for International Organizations.

peace

Tonight was fun, Milda and I bought Irina a cute little cake from a local bakery and brought it to her because she was on duty downstairs at the reception desk and we got to go in the back rooms and light a candle on it and celebrate her birthday properly (her friends got her a cake last night but she said they threw her piece in her face and then ate the rest of it haha.) then we gave the last piece to the Korean security guard and he was very thankful.

Also tonight I emailed to get a free ticket to the ASF asian music festival with all their awesome korean pop boy bands and girl bands like Big Bang, 2en1, girls geneation andddd lots of others! That's on september 19th.

Also I don't know if I've already said this but Elina's uncle invited me to make kimchi with them this year!!! so that is going to be a real korean experience.

awesomeness

The welcome party was very funny. Our two groups were down in the basement of a restuarant and they ordered us pizza from dominos but it was NOT american pizza at all. It was really really thin and also had potatos on it with other things. The other pizza had stuff like that too and I had a piece of both they were fine but not something I'd crave. I met another Chinese girl and more Koreans and the Chinese girl kept wanting to play games at the table she was very nice and I liked her a lot. I also met a girl from Australia who just arrived named Leah. She's cool too.

Haven't done anything today except a lot of reading for homework which is boring but oh well. Also today is Irina's (my roommate's) 20th birthday!!! yay Irina!

The weather is kind of gray but still humid. And I still want to watch tv.

Yesterday was pretty boring, read and did homework for most of the day then went to Itaewon with Milda and had dinner, Indian food again!

TODAY I woke up and decided I really wanted to go shopping so I got on the subway and went to the COEX mall. I made the mistake of going into the department store first, holy COW things are so expensive! So I didn't buy anything then I went into the actually mall where things were much much cheaper and I got a few really cute shirts and necklaces. I think my new favorite store is W&Double . They also have a store called bean pole which Elina told me is like the Korean version of a Jcrew polo hybrid even though they have Polo here but NOT jcrew grrr....

COEX also has a movie theatre and an Aquarium and I really want to go to the aquarium next time I go but today I couldn't spend too long at the mall because we have the welcome party for exchange students with our KUBA buddies. fun. We were all going to meet in one place but now they're like "ahh h1n1 we don't want to die" so they separated us to like 5 different locations. they are such babies.

My group is with group 5 (I'm 9) and we're meeting at some place called Fiesta? Except I think it's funny because they don't have F's in the Korean alphabet (the notorious gate F) so really if you read it in Korean it's more like Piesta. ha

Yesterday I got some crackers and peanut butter so it's fun to snack on those except the crackers kind of suck. well so does the peanut butter but it's the best I'm going to get so I'm not complaining. really I'm not

OK IM GOING TO GO READ MORE ABOUT CHINESE POLITICS NOW

I had a GREAT day. Woke up, one of my classes was cancelled so I got to sleep in a little more then I went and got some breakfast (an orange muffin?? I'm pretty sure it was sweet patato flavored) and sat down on a bench in the shade for a while then went to my Understanding Korean Art class. It was in the education building and was on the 4th floor. there wasn't an elevator which wouldnt be so bad if the stairs werent so steep and if it hadnt been so freaking hot. Got out of that class early then went to Korean.

Korean was fine learned more characters and putting them together and blah blah blah then went to my ROK US relations class which was nice then afterwards sat with some kids from the class waiting for 6pm to meet Hyungjung my Korean buddy for dinner which was AMAZING had Indian food! yayayaya and they gave us FORKS to eat it with!!! love indian food. Came back and watched some Russian music videos which are really amusing. I'm pretty tired but I borrowed a book from Irina by Sophia Kinsella (the girl who writes the shopaholic books) so now I have something to do. I'm pretty tired and I don't have class tomorrow. yay!

To start this blog I would like to congratulate Mrs. Virginia McMarrow for being the first to said me a letter! Yay Gig! *applause*

Ok today I woke up early as per usual then finished my book Mr. Darcy, Vampyre except unfortunatly not I have read all my books and don't have anything else to do because we don't have a TV but that might be good because homework is starting to be assigned!

My Chinese Politics class is going to be very interesting we have students from China in there and there is actually a girl who in real life is studying to become someone who "teaches the government to children" she sounds like the exorcist. scary! As per usual professors are putting words into my mouth (I'm the token American) but it's ok if I get kidnapped by the Chinese government or something that would make for a great blog entry and class is more exciting if I have to make a stand on something.

I ate lunch with a boy who is in my Chinese Politics class and my Korean class he goes the the same school as Barbara from my International Organizations class and my Korean class so it is nice to have friends that know each other. He and I were both talking about how we really want a steak.

Korean class was good we moved onto connecting the vowels and consonats today, exciting! She told us at the end of class that we can now officially read. I already kind of knew that but I think some of the people in the class are a bit weary on the subject.

My International Organizations class was cancelled because he was just going to say the same thing to the students who added his class late.

I tried to work out but the workout room at CJ doesn't open until 6 and I looked and they don't have an erg which is actually weirdly what I had wanted to do. I was going to wait until 6 to go run on something but I got a text message from Caitlyn saying that some people were meeting up for dinner at 6:30 so I have changed my plans. I'm meeting them at the anam subway station then we are going out. exciting!

FINALLY got my class thing completely straightened out. (very relieving). Lucky for me I haven't missed any class and a couple of them had been cancelled so that was good. Getting textsbooks is going to be slightly difficult because I have to go to Copycenters scattered around the campus and outskirts of the campus. With each class I meet more people/ get to know people I already met better so I'm really enjoying myself.

Political Systems of the World was cancelled, I found out because I was standing outside with another exchange student and we were waiting for the professor and a Korean girl talking on her phone walked into the room turned on the lights then started screaming in Korean and came out jumping up and down still on the phone so we asked her if the class was cancelled and she was like "yes yes!" and we walked in and there was a bunch of Korean writing on the board so it was a good thing we asked her or else we wouldn't have known so I wrote in english that the class had been cancelled then went and straightened out my schedule.

Then was Korean and we went through the vowels again then moved onto the consonants, we had a substitute teacher because our teacher is sick (perhaps maybe morphing into a pig???) which was nice, I volunteered a lot to say the characters outloud 1) because I knew them maybe a little bit better than other people in the class 2) I know that's the only way I'll learn 3) because no one else would do it. Kind of embarassing but helpful none the less. Right after I met up with the Candian and a girl from Norway Melinda and we got a little lost trying to find the Korea-U.S. relations class.

Once we found it we sat down, there is me and another boy from the United States in the class (he went around the exchange students asking where we were from). The teacher is a little bit difficult to listen to for long periods of time (boring his english is fine) and whenever someone tries to answer his questions he always finds an aspect that they are wrong in. A little intimidating but also motivating to learn more. At the end of the class a girl next to me who has asian features told me she was from Texas (oh how the tables have turned, now the asians blend in...) so that was nice. I don't remember her name though.

I went to the library to get my temporary barcode on the way a boy from Israel came up to me and asked where I was from, he said he'd been studying here for 5 years. He kind of looked like Jesus but thats probably just becaues all the artists make Jesus look like Israelis so really Jesus looks like him. He made me a little bit uneasy so I was glad when I got to the library. I wanted to explore but it was confusing so I just left and went to the International Cafe to read (it isnt even a cafe but people can sit there). Still don't have any homework. blah except getting textbooks I guess.

Ok maybe I'll go wander and find some food/books.