this is everything i didn't say

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i am two months into my exchange programme, and i left another two months till the end of it. this week is midterms week and after all the procrastination, i am finally settling down to study. except my hand hurts from writing all the notes and thus i decided to just start on another post since i have not posted in quite awhile.

i used to be rooming alone in a double room. but after one month, one night at 11pm, the hall office person came up to my room and told me that there was another international exchange student who was alone and we would be rooming together. im pretty sure that if we both had a choice, we would choose to stay alone. but now, i have a roommate from japan who is a fan of kpop. although we have limited conversations because of our language barrier, we still do try to talk a little bit sometimes.

as for school, i have successfully registered for three modules. in one of the classes, i have two friends and i am comfortable with them. i am thankful that one of them talked to me on my first day of class there. and for the other friend, it was an unexpected friendship as the prof put us in a pair for a group of project since we are both fluent in english. in my second class, there is another exchange student as well and we both sit at the back staring blankly whenever the prof speaks in korean. recently though, i have been talking to a local, whom i randomly told that her english handwriting is nice and the next lesson, she said hi to me. its still kinda rocky, but she's nice. unfortunately, in the last class, which is also the class which i struggle to catch up with because of the math involved, i do not know anybody and it is hard to talk to somebody, especially since most of the students in that class are in their junior year and they have known each other for like a long time. but i guess i'm pulling through. i am counting down though, to the end of the semester. as i have four days of school per week, i have 31 days of school left as of today, including midterms and finals.

during the first half of my time here, i am very very grateful for the singaporean faces that i have met here in korea. i met eunice for two consecutive days and i spent a lot of money when i was with her (yikes). and i went to seoul on the first weekend of april, meeting tricia kyla celine and racquel for like three consecutive days in seoul and busan. it was also that weekend when i met the seoul campus disciples, and it felt really really good to be able to hang out with people my age as we have more common topics to talk about. that weekend in seoul, i also met isa and yinghui who were on a mission to hunt victon down - we went to the han river and wanted to see cherry blossoms but the weather.... got us freezing our butts off. for the next half of the semester, i doubt that i will be meeting anymore singaporean faces here.

i have made a couple of other exchange friends here too - from china, taiwan, japan... we hardly meet because they are here for the korean language programme while i am here to take mods for my major, but i am grateful to have met them and got the chance to hang out with them as well. shoutout to haole - the same-aged friend with the same birthday month. we met because we were going to buy the korean textbook together and we just went together with a mutual friend but who knew that would be the start of me improving my chinese with her.

last weekend, i got inked. it's pretty wild, and personally to me, it was not painful at all. i got a small cross on my last finger inspired by chanhee (but it feels like it will fade quite soon because of the number of times i wash my hands), i got the words carpe diem on my inner left arm because it's a quote that's always at the back of my mind and i wan to remind myself about it. and on my right back arm, there is faith, hope and love, some things that i really want to hold on to in this life. it is quite a controversial topic to talk about - having tattoos, as a female, in an asian country. plus i have 10 piercings. this shall be discussed later.

two months in, and there are some things that i still cannot get used to here. the cultural difference is quite big, even though singapore and korea are both asian countries. from the weather to the road culture to the studying culture and recycling rules, i could write a whole post about the differences between singapore and busan. it is true - that being away from home makes you appreciate what you have back home. (like not having to think so much about where to dispose your trash, crossing the road when the light is green, knowing your exam dates at the point of course registration, and most importantly, actually understanding the spoken language). i will probably write another post about this if i'm not lazy and if i remember.

no doubt, i definitely miss the comfort of home. i can't wait for the school semester to end so that i can get out. but at the same time, i dread going home. it's a mixed feelings kind of thing which is really hard to explain. because of the studying culture here, i am looking forward to the end of the semester, but the friends that i have made here so far will definitely make it hard for me to leave this place. i may not be very consistent in updating my blog about exchange, but i am recording down in my personal planner what i do on a daily basis, though not in detail, for my own memories.

looking forward, i have three midterms at the end of the week which is really dreadful to me. but this weekend, i will be going to gwangju for the sbs super concert and i am really excited as it will be my first time seeing the boyz. in addition, they will be performing bloom bloom, one day before their comeback day!!! i have also managed to successfully buy <SGD$20 tickets to dream concert for next month anddddd i pray that the tickets will be delivered safely to me here at the top of a school located at the foot of a mountain in busan.

till next time x