It has been a long winter. However, I am still unprepared for the classes that begin in two days. First, I need to go to the office and beg them to let me sign up for a Korean language class. This semester, for the first time, Korea University is offering fewer Korean language classes to its exchange/international students. I was dropped from Intermediate Korean 1 during the class registration period. I am really disappointed. I came to Korea University in Seoul, South Korea so I can take a Korean language class! Makes sense?
As a backup plan, I registered for an intensive Korean language course at the Ehwa language center. I intend on studying there in the morning, then taking classes at Korea University in the afternoon. That is not perfect either because I am struggling to pay the tuition. First things first, internet banking is hell in South Korea. The bank interface, in addition to many other things on this internet, is not compatible with Mac OSX operating system. Once I struggle my way over to the slow always broken public computers, I am able to play with money sending. Second, getting money into that account is not fun. I am still short, so through Facebook messenger I am trying to teach my mom how to use western union in order to get the tuition from my USA account to my Korean account.
I don’t know about this culture shock thing that everybody talks about. However, my life is stressful due to banking difficulties in addition to getting dropped from my most important class. If I fail to get into any Korean language class at Korea University or Ehwa, then what is the point of being here?
To answer that question, not everything is doom and gloom here. A couple weeks ago I had a lot of fun going to the mountains in Pyeongchang. It snowed a lot. I felt happy because it reminded me of my hometown. In addition, I had fun with my two Korean culture classes that are required as a part of Ehwa language center curriculum.
