T.Rae Travels : Host fam and first few days of school

So a lot has happened since the last post, and it feels like weeks since I first met my host family. My family didn't have a car so I took a taxi to their house, and our first meeting was very awkward (but I'm sure everyone's was). I won't go into details, but I was a little scared. It turns out they are really nice though! They don't speak any English so it is hard to communicate, but we get by. My little sister helps a lot because she really likes to talk and it helps alleviate some of the awkward silences around the house. But the first day I met my host family we went out for samgyeopsal! It was really good, but what I've noticed is that Korean mothers really like to feed you haha. She keeps giving me food, which is super sweet, but I get so stuffed I can't eat everything. She always asks if I like Korean food or not, and of course I say yes, but she thinks I don't like it because I can't eat everything they give me haha. Also, I've been eating bread for breakfast because they bought some for me so that I can have an 'American' breakfast haha. Also, the first night after we went out for dinner, my host mom bought me pajamas! I didn't know what was happening but afterwards I realized how sweet it was.

The first day of class was just a placement test, so before that started me and a few friends went to the ehwa women's university area! I am so impressed with how fast, easy and efficient the Korean subway system is- I can find my way around pretty well. Also, the Korean people I've asked for directions have always been very nice about telling a lost foreigner where to go. But ehwa was awesome- we shopped for a bit, coincidentally bumped into the hello kitty cafe, and then headed to school to take the test.

We also had coco curry for lunch and it was delicious! We got a level two on the spicy scale, but it was still really spicy. I'm terrified of what the level ten would be omg.

But the placement test was extremely hard- you had the option to take a beginner, intermediate, or advanced test and I took the beginner one along with most of the other nsliyians. It was definitely not what I would call beginner, but I guess the whole point of it is to show how much we have improved from the beginning to the end. After the tests we took a tour of the campus and then we went out for patbingsu! The Sogang campus is beautiful and clean (but then again, everything in Korea is clean haha). We went to a couple cafe before going home because we just wanted to see what it was like haha. It's a little taboo to eat alone here, and most people are in a relationship anyways, so all of the portion sizes are HUGE because they are meant to be shared.

I saw this at the subway station in the way home:

But today we got sorted into classes and then actually started learning! I'm in the beginner class, but a tad more advanced than the other beginner classes. We are basically learning vocab right now, which is fine by me. Before class today we had another orientation and then we wandered into this mandu shop in Sincheon! It was omg so delicious- we got a mandu sampler thing and 냉면 (idk how to spell it in English, but it's basically cold noodles).