Goodbye Midterms

Yesterday was the last portion of the whole midterm experience, the speaking test. Part of it was working through some scenarios with a partner, in Korean of course, and the other one was a one on one interview with the teacher to sort of the a self-evaluation of my progress. My teacher basically had to say that my fluency is good, and that I just need to work on sounding less and less like a Japanese speaking Korean, and more and more like an actual Korean, mostly things having to do with certain nuances in pronunciation and intonation and what not.

Today I also secured a couple of tickets for my next trip. I was planning on going to Australia, but since it is high season the ticket was pretty pricey, so I am going to wait until May when off season is at its nadir. So for now, I will be going to Thailand around my brother's brithday, and then off to Japan. I was invited to go on a rotary club ski trip so the covered costs of all the skiing accoutrament should balance itself out with the cost of the ticket, and it will also be a nice dose of nostlgia taking me back to the high school exchange student days.

The weather report here in Seoul: friggin freezing. it was minus 9 degress celsius today, don't know what that translates to in farenheit, but, pretty much, ridiculously cold. I am spending a lot of time indoors, however, since I have made a ton of new friends as of late, I have been going out a lot at night. I am very happy to continue making friends from all over, and allowing people to keep my prejudices at bay and my mind as open as possible. I'll put up some pictures as soon as I can. Not much else is going on. I payed my final Sogang tuition today, and that will put me through the end of May, and after that, I am planning on embarking on a South East Asian Oddyssey and after a long long while I shall once again be stateside. I had considered staying all the way through September, but I think nine months will be enough for me. I am also seriously considering doing my sophomore year in Beijing with Yale's PKU prgram, so I wanna get a nice quality summer wit the fam in before I head again to traverse the globe, it is also my brother's senior year in college coming up, so I want to be there for him to be the helping hand that I never had when the wild time that is applying to schools comes around.

So I have pretty much decided, a bit different from my original plans, to underachieve a little this summer. For once in my life. A lot of things have influenced my decision, and I am not 100 percent sure. It is still so tempting when I recieve all the IEFP and UCS emails from Yale, crammed with amazing opportunities, but the way I see it, opportunities come and go, and plans are allowed to change, but little sisters that are 3, turning ten, and a brother who is about to embark on life only comes once in a lifetime, so I forego arduous personal statement writing, and relentless recommendation seeking to enjoy my first relatively stress free spring, and consequently, summer. However, I do still need to apply for the PKU program. Whatev. I guess that what I'm saying is that I am finally opting to not try not to complicate my life more than I have to.

Wow, the above paragaph came out a little melodramatic. Thank you for reading.