Week 2

This week was the Korean thanksgiving holiday. On Monday I met my buddy and he introduced me to the student union called HIVA, meaning Hanyang International Volunteer Association. This is a student union which welcomes international students and organises nice activities for and with them. We first had an introduction in the class room and then we went for dinner and some drinks. It was a really nice experience because the Koreans in that student union were quite open and really wanted to get to know the international students. They all spoke English quite well. They also invited me on a weekend trip on the 24-25th of September. We will go to Anmyeongdo, a small island on the West coast of Korea, around 2 hours by bus from Seoul. I will tell more about it in my next blog.
In class, Korean students are still very shy. It’s mostly the European students answering questions from teachers, because the Korean students seem afraid to speak up and share their opinion with the class. Maybe this has to do with a loss of ‘’face’’ when they answer the question wrongly? This is very different from European students, because most of them like a bit of interaction in class instead of only listening to the teacher and not really having to participate. In Korea, teachers really have to point out people to answer a question because no one raises their hand.
On Tuesday I had the wrestling match, which I was very nervous about. Our team, Hanyang University, won and we celebrated it by eating dinner together at a Chinese restaurant. We ate black bean noodles (jjajangmyeon) which is actually a Korean dish, extremely spicy chicken, fish soup, and fried rice. It was all very good and I was happy to try new dishes. When I first came here I really had to adjust to eating rice/noodles every day, but I really like it now. For breakfast I still eat toast and egg, however lunch/dinner are always Asian food. I think I will really miss it the Netherlands, however in the Netherlands I really miss the cheap food and veggies, and cheese. Those kind of foods are really expensive in South Korea.
During the Chuseok break, a girl from the HvA visited. Her name is Ellen and she studies in Daegu, which is a few hours away from Seoul. We went shopping and going out together, which was very nice. Because she is Asian, a lot of people spoke to Korean to her and told her she looks like a Korean or Japanese, which was quite funny sometimes. Maybe we went out a bit too much because I have not a lot to tell about during daytime.. I will have a nice story next week because I will go on the weekend trip. See you next week.