Post mid-term

YEAAAHYYYY... I am glad to live a 'normal' life again... We had mid-term exam in listening, reading, writing and speaking this morning - thanks for the mental support by the way :). I have been studying for about a week for this, actually non stop boooOOOOOring - and nothing much happened this week, maybe the most interesting to tell you about was that I went for shopping for a sports bra on Tuesday and the kind of cup noodles that I ate. Meanwhile during morning this week we still had class till 1 pm and in the afternoon back in our little rooms to study.

To be honest, the exam was not the kind of exam that I was expecting. We had about 40 minutes for every skill and it already went wrong with the first part, because I didn't have enough time to read and answer all the questions. Actually it is also the first time that I took an exam in the 'Asian' way, or should I say 'Korean' way : you have to perform a lot in a very short time and under quite some time pressure. This is really the first time I experienced something like that when trying to think of some answers, the teacher kind of 'ripped' the paper out of my hands, leaving some space 'blanco'... It's quite funny though... next time I have to read a bit faster I think. The same with the listening and the writing part of the exam. Not enough time. I liked the writing part the most, because I like to write. And during writing I find it easier to use my grammar than during speaking. During writing my mind comes to rest and everything becomes clear and very structural.. ... For those that don't know yet : I am a GRAMMAR FREAK... whoahahahahaha :)))).

For the speaking part we had to draw a number to see with whom we were going to have a roll play with and after that we had an interview. It went quite okay, not very good and not very bad, I just used basic grammar and things that I knew. I am still not good in making long sentences with complex grammar structures, but at least I can use some conjunctive particles to connect sentences.
While talking, I didn't really feel nervous. We had another teacher for the oral exam, and he was very friendly and kind. Felt like talking to a 'friend'. For the interview I had to explain about my backgrounds - my story of the Netherlands, Belgium and USA for the.... 100 th time here in Korea. And talk about my husband and what kind of person he is, about myself and what I am going to do this weekend after the exams......

Weekend plans
So, after the exams I hung around with the Japanese ladies - again, Eriko and Naoko, Yuka and Yuka - yeah it seems that I feel more comfortable among them than with the 'real' Chinese ladies from my class and by the way they the Chinese are much younger like early twenties and less, while as the Japanese ladies are more my age... Should I say... late 20's or should I already change the first digit into one more ;p... We went for lunch and the Ukrainian guy from our class joined us too. It was quite funny, because he wanted to start learning 'bad words' in Japanese, like he knows some now in Korean.
Waaaah... I was so happy and releaved that we can live a normal life again. Some other thing : I still did not get out of Seoul yet, so it is really time for me to figure out some travel plans with or without people to explore the rest of Korea.

(Just mobbed my room with a 30 by 30 cm small towel - those who know me know that I am a mess during exam period).

Tonight we are going to have dinner together, finally some beer and than probably my first 'noraebang' 노래방 (karaoke) in Korea. I really look forward to it. To relax. And enjoy. And tomorrow, Saturday, there is still the rest of the 'Hi Seoul Festival' to explore. I am going with Yuka from my class to attend some dance performance. And Sunday I am going to go on a 'field trip' with my class to a temple in Insadong... And Monday probably a music performance of a friend of my 'doumi' from Kyunghee University. Hmmm... it looks like I will be enjoying music during this whole weekend. 좋겠다 !!!!!
And you all know... how much I like music and dance = ^ ^ =