My Piece for the day

23/12/2017             One from sometime in South Korea On Saturday as I woke up I knew it was probably my last morning in South Korea. There was excitement to be back home and meeting everyone but the sadness to leave Korea was still overpowering. Before I could think about it for too long, in a rush to be all done by 9:00, those emotions were forced to take a back seat as we shuffled through the diffent tasks at hand. That morning, among all the texts that popped up there were two in particular that caught my attention. Both came from friends I hadn't talked to for around a month. Subee is a friend from Seoul and I became friends with Sugandhi in Solan. One made me feel sad for leaving Korea while the other made me feel excited about returning back to my country. Around nine, Sujin came and I felt so glad to see here. All of us clicked  selfies with her. Then the taxi arrived and we left for the airport and said bye to our mentor with a hope to see each other aga

There was heavy snowfall in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province region yesterday. It is a pleasure to see everything around covered in a white blanket as you peep out of the window and are greeted with a beautiful view in the morning. Snow flakes were still falling silently as I went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Later, I also clicked some pics on my way to the Main Building where I had to meet Laylo and Sitora. We had planned to hang out and have lunch together. I was waiting for both of them when I also saw Sardor and other guys. We were just chatting when Azizbek began playing with snow and started throwing snowballs at us. Sardor, Osaid, and Sonnie also joined him. After a while, Sitora and Laylo also came there and we thought we would invite the guys too. We asked Jakhongir and he was trying to ask the other boys while they were busy and enjoying their snowball fighting. They were throwing snowballs at us too in between but we could easily dodge away without getting involv

Technically, tomorrow I have my last class for Financial Management and that's also the last class for  this semester.  Finally I am gonna be done with the Business classes. I can't say I am sad to say bye to these classes. I am relieved but I am also glad that I took these subjects here which I would have never learnt otherwise. This Monday, we completed the syllabus for the Finance Management and honestly it was one of the best classes. I think the last few chapters were the hardest but that was also when things began to make sense. It was like a play where it is simply confusing throughout the story. But, just you get into the last scene and move towards the end, all of a sudden it is making sense. It becomes clear just as they begin to draw curtains and finally you like it. Its still difficult, don't really like it but just don't hate it anymore either. From Friday, we will be beginning with the final exams. I have three on 15th and just one on 20th, so I

This year, me and Kalyani learned an important thing - "Sometimes, its OK not to be okay". Don't underestimate this simple statement. Sometimes being able to say "its okay" is all you need in the moment. I hate to admit this to myself, but at times more you try fighting it more you end up losing. Rather than taking some impulsive and stupid decisions; give it some time. Simply let it pass. I will be honest, I am a real jerk when it comes to emotions but then most of us are. So, thats ok too. i know what works for me but when comes to practice, I often forget it at the moment. Wandering for the solution for weeks and after weeks of hard work you realize the solution was just in front of you staring at you all this while. More often than not, that is typically me. Remember, 'Late is better than never'. So, once its done, I like to smile and move on. There are always better problems that await. Cheers to this beautiful Life with its unending list of

For too many days in a row, I had been sleeping too much and doing nothing. Then I realised there are only 25 days left for us to go back. I really don't want to think of anything else right now and won't waste even a single day anymore. It already feels like our exchange journey is almost over. I don't want to go so soon.  Our last month is all about project, presentations and exams. But I am trying to spend as much time as I can with the few friends I have made. Sometimes when I am with my friends, I suddenly feel bad that probably I will never get to see them again. From Today, I want to spend every single day left of my stay well or atleast utilising it for studies because this semester I am not prepared for my exams. I really hope I can gather a few more memories before I leave.

On Wednesday, we attended the Senior Recital in the College of Arts, in our University. We enjoyed various Piano Compositions by the graduating students. Sardor and his friends were invited by one of the students who also had a performance that evening. I was a bit confused when he asked me if I wanted to join.  I don't listen to instrumental compositions and haven't attended any such recitals before. I wasn't sure if I will enjoy it. But I wanted to see and give it a try so decided to join them. It was a little long for me towards the end as I don't really listen to such music but I still had a nice time and really enjoyed a few compositions.

Today, after a long wait we finally got to enjoy our first snowfall of this winter in South Korea. I was delighted to see those tiny flakes falling from the sky and feel those cold winds on the face. But I forgot my cap in the room as I left in a hurry for the class in the morning. So I had to rush to my dormitory because my already numb ears had began to hurt a bit. But glad with the thought snowfall has finally began.

Today I spent most of my day studying Finance. I was hppy and thrilled that I had read and completed atleast one chapte from the book. In the evening, I went to meet Subee. I really wannted to meet her once before leaving. So, we decided yesterday to see each other in the evening today. Subee is a University Student, I first met during my Cultural Exchange Program with an NGO group called Youth Goodwill Guide (YGG). Later during the Chuseok holiday, she toured me around Seoul as a guide. That was one of my best days in South Korea. I had an amazing time with her and thats when we actually became friends. After that we stayed in touch and decided to meet again today. As usual, she had to meet me near a subway station ( Jongno - 3 - ga station). When we saw each other, there was a bright smile on both of our faces and we just hugged each other. We went to the Cheonggyecheon Stream. Luckily, today was the last day of the Seoul Lantern Festival that I could not attend because of my K

Today in the morning we met Sunaina and Priya. Sunaina and Priya are two of our Korean friends who can speak Hindi. I had heard a lot about Sunaina from Sheetal Di so I was excited to meet her. But when we actually met her, I was really impressed. All of us were like they look so cute when they speak Hindi. They actually were speaking pure Hindi and try not to mix even a single word of English when they speak Hindi. We were very glad to meet them and we promised to meet them again atleast before leaving.

Today we finally completed our Korean language course. In our last class we played Yut nori. Yut Nori is a traditional Korean game that is played with a set of four log shaped blocks. Each log is flat on one side and round on the other side. Along with the blocks there is a board and different coloured pieces for a team. Each player tries to complete the round and get out o win. Our team lost the game so we had to sing a song. We sang a small Korean song that we had learnt in the beginning.But I could not remember it so I was just standing and trying to sing a bit. After that some of us also wore the Hanbok (i.e. the Korean traditional dress) and took a lot of pictures that our teacher had brought for us. I also wore it and clicked a few pics. Although I have already tried the Hanbok before but I never miss a chance to wear it. I think it is very pretty and I love it. Later, as the other teacher had already informed us Park Mam came with our results and score cards. Elzar had secu

Today, we had the speaking test for our Korean class. Yesterday exam was an ok-ok exam for me but thankfully today it was easy and went amazing. Now,we are just waiting to get our final scores on Monday. To celebrate the completion of Korean language course, I just wanted to enjoy the remaining part of my day. Today, I also met our mentor after the exam after a long time and we spent some time with her.  After coming back to the dormitory I had some snacks and then saw the movie 'Dear Zindagi'. I really wanted to see the movie from a few weeks and today I had a lot of time so could enjoy it. After cooking dinner and finishing the movie, I went for an evening walk. I firstly stopped at a cafe to grab a cup of coffee. There wasn't anything urgent today so I had more than three hours at my leisure to roam around. On my way, I also stopped near the campus of Dong Seoul University too. I have seen it before but never entered the campus. Today I just wanted to look ar

I want to write and share a lot of stuff but I think, I am just being lazy to pen down my thoughts. Although I enjoy writing but still I find it hard to keep my self motivated enough everyday to write an article. Sometimes, I might really want to share something and want to write about it but I might just find it hard to put together all those thoughts and ideas and convert them into a writing. The worst part is if I don't write an article and procrastinate an idea, probably I would never write anything about it in the future either. Before I realize, its already replaced with a hundred other ideas. In the last one month there had been so many things I couldn't share and now I don't even remember a lot of it. But I guess someone has said it right one picture is worth a thousand words and that's why I love clicking pictures because I think they are a great way to capture moments and preserve them as memories forever. This one is my favorite for the day.

" 안녕하세요 부터 안녕 히 가세요 까지 이 여행이 너무 예쁘고 재미있었어요" From learning how to say hello in Korean to our last class today it had been a beautiful journey for all of us. I still remember (and I think will always do)  how the first week of Korean class was so scary for me. I used to feel like crying sitting in the class because there wasn't a word of it that I could possibly understand. I thought I would never be able to learn it. But our teacher never gave up on us and we began to learn things gradually. In the first week we began by learning the Korean alphabets, then words and   sentences.  My name is a bit long and sounds a bit weird in Korean. So, during the first couple of weeks, one of my teachers shortened my name to "나비" i.e. Nabi which means Butterfly in Korean. Now actually a few people call me Nabi here. I actually think its sweet (because of its meaning) and I like it. Coincidentally, even some of the things I bought or got here had pictures of butterfly on it.

I cannot be rude To The inviting roads How can I say no To a midnight walk Those nice street lights On interesting roads The strange faces And a peaceful walk What I described above Is my little version of A perfect plan When you have no plans You see That stone Its a nice little seat The river behind Is like cherry on cake I had just began to stare I was thinking to sit and stay The words had just began to flow The poem had began to form But damn it was cold So I decided to keep moving To stay a little warm To Explore the road a little more. Still an hour left before They will close the doors It suggests another turn I can quietly look around So here I leave you With a half done piece But before I leave I wanted to let you know If you are just like me & nd Feeling stressed You can give me a call We can go on a walk But once I am already set For a night alone Your company and presence Is not needed anymore Note: Its my first poem ever since

" If exchanges were easy everyone would do it". I read this quote during my initial days here and I like to repeat it in my head when I feel it is getting hard. The days here are often great which are often over before you realise but there are days which are hard as well. There are days at length when each morning I wake up confused. There is always so much to do that a lot of times I am clueless about what to do and what to skip. There are days when I am overwhelmed but I don't know how to let it all out. In the beginning there were days when it used to be almost frustrating for me to handle stuff. Somehow I could manage the days but in the evenings when I used to talk to my friends it would often get it all out on them. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn't completely interppret my feelings or express it to them either.  This would make me feel even more frustrated on the inside. But after the initial one month I realised was just troubling them with my i

Reading is a pursuit to be enjoyed, books are something to be loved. They are an ocean of knowledge just not a means to complete assignments and pass examinations. I have tried it several times before but I just cannot read a book simply because it  is prescribed in our syllabus. While attempting to read a book as a reading assignment, finally after a month of wasteful efforts I realized I just cannot do it. If I would have found that across a shelf in the library, I might have got curious and read it. But the problem was I was trying to read a book just because it was a reading assignment but thats just now how it works for me. I like to read books when I want to, the ones that interest me. For me, books are a means of knowing what I cannot always see, feeling what I might not get to experience myself and sometimes learning lessons my life was yet to teach. I have been in love with reading for a couple of years now. I just cannot express what I have learnt from books in a sentence

Yesterday we got our Mid Term scores for 'Development of Goods and Marketing'. The entire class got good scores. Me and all my Uzbek friends got the same score 26/30. Actually I wanted to read the book 'Rich Dad Poor Dad' from a long time and had it in a PDF format but could not find time to read it. But Sardor said I should definitely read it and since he had it in Paperback I asked him if I could borrow. So, he had brought the book for me on Friday. He asked me to tell him later how I liked the book. After our Korean class, we went to Itaewon to buy some Indian food ingredients. Itaewon is a region in South Korea which is mostly occupied by Foreigners. It is just the right place  to go if you are missing your home country and want to enjoy your country food, buy ingredients or go to clubs and party. In Itaewon, in the grocery shop we also met an Indian girl from Punjab. She came to Korea two months ago for her MBA and had recently began working in that store. She w

Today when I woke up in the evening for dinner, I realized Thursday is over and my another week in Korea is almost over and I have probably done nothing this week but just as I was about to write that down, I realized actually it wasn't that bad. I did had a few thing to look back and smile this week. Actually, for almost the entire week especially the first two days, I was sought of in a hangover of my trip to DMZ last weekend. It was really good, so many things but still it felt like in a blink my weekend was over. I don't know but after just those two days of my weekend trip with all those foreign students getting back to dormitory felt a little strange but all my stress, worries if any that was building up was gone after this trip. So here is a brief summary of this week so far -   From the DMZ trip, I had brought a small card for my Korean Language teacher with a stamp of her Zodiac sign. When we went to the Astronomical Observatory (which is actually in the mid

Often the best of my days cannot make it to the blog because they are also the most tiring ones. At the end of those days I really want to write and share but I just don't have any more energy left for a blog post. Rather than typing on the phone I grab my pillow and sleep. I think of writing the next day but then something else happens and it just slips away. But just not to lose it I try to take atleast all the notes in my diary.

You are hanging on a cliff holding on to a stone, firstly probably you will shout for help hoping for someone to be there. Desperately praying for someone to hear your voice and come there to help. I agree thats just natural human instinct. But what if there is no one, no one to hear your voice or to help you out. So what now.... There is a very simple choice you have. You can continue shouting until your body finally give up and you probably die. But there is another thing you can do, you gather all the strength you have got and carefully try climbing up yourself. I know its gonna be tough and I don't deny you may fail and that does mean you might die. But I still think its atleast worth trying. I didn't really imagined it just a small metaphor.

Yesterday I met and interacted with  Prof. Don Young Oh. He is a Journalism Professor in Gachon University. He was nice and also very fluent in English so thankfully communication was not a problem for me. He asked me about my plans and told me that I would need to learn Korean first to do masters in Journalism from Gachon. He also gave me some career tips and wished me to enjoy my stay in South Korea. We learned about numbers and how to ask for price and discounts in Korean. We also played Business later in the class and she ended the class around an hour earlier than usual. We enjoyed playing the game and teacher was also enjoying with us, so she just played with our group during most of the time. Avinash Bhaiya's and Sheetal Di's exams finished today. So all of us are dinner together after a week. We prepared 'Aaloo gobhi' with chapati for dinner. After dinner we played cards and then went for evening walk. After an entire week of exams it was great and just remi

Today was my best exam so far here. Actually the only one that was nice. I was just happy that exams are over but guess what back to Korean, tests  are On again. Haha. But was really in a mood to watch a movie after dinner. I could not download Dear Zindagi. I really want to see that movie. But I watched Ishq in Paris it was nice. Thats it just going to sleep. Sorry had nothing interesting to share today. Just enjoying my good moods for now.

For a long time, I really wanted to sit for an exam without reading a single page the day before. So yes I did that for the Strategy Management exam. After the exam, I texted Kate and since both of us were free we planned to meet up. She brought cookies for me and I really liked the one I ate. It was yummy.  For around an hour we roamed around a bit and talked about a lot of stuff from career plans to hobbies, Korean language and Indian food and a couple more things too. She told me she really likes Indian food and she goes to eat at Diwali twice a week with her other friends. Then she went for lunch and I left for my class. After the lunch, I met another teacher in the Global Centre. She asked about my country and was so delighted to know I was from India. She gave me tea which smelled really good. I loved it. She also gave cookies to me and Akira. Akira is a Malaysian friend of mine. I also met Alik today after really long and I was so glad to see him again. I also was very happ

시험이 안좋아요 히지만 마음에 들어요. Today I had my Finance exam, I might get a bad score but I am still happy with my performance. I did better than I had expected from my own self. More importantly I got the confidence I can do it. What I had to remind myself once again was I just need to calm down and I should not take them so seriously. It proved to be a great day for me and I really have a great news another trip set in motion for the weekend. In the evening The Imitation game was the perfect movie to end my day. 아주 좋아요.

I was getting so stressed, was anxious and worried. Then Varsha Di came and just lighted up my mood. I am so glad she did. Finally I am feeling good. Its like I am sure I will atleast be able to pass this subject and thats more than enough. The slightest craze I ever had for finance is gone. I have no intentions of being an expert in finance or business so its ok. I know as an attitude this is not great but thats just how it is. I want to enjoy my stay here and want to cover up and quickly get on track when I return..... Cheers...☺☺☺☺😄

Tomorrow is my Finance Management Exam. In the afternoon I began to study but couldn't study much. I come from Journalism side and Finance has nothing to do with it. Initially, I thought I could do it but its harder than I thought. Actually I always had bren terrified of Accounting and related subjects. But when I took this class I got to know its not really that tough. The thing is I have never taken a single Accounting class in my life and here I am directly studying Financial Management. In the classroom I understand everything but when I sit down things on my own I am completely blank. I don't even have my business friends here who could explain stuff and help me out. There are days when I am so frustrated that I am on the verge of crying. I do feel like giving up. One day I was frustrated I had almost made my mind to ask the professor and if possible to drop the subject. But then I just don't want to give up. Its really hard but I really want to survive it. I can

I had been to library a couple of times before but didn't knew that we have to reserve seats if we want to use the study rooms. When I sat for studying, I wandered what those numbers are for. But then I just ignored it. I was studying when a girl came to me and showed me a slip. Seeing the number I could understand I was sitting at her seat. So, I nodded and left. But I still was clueless how to get that slip. So I simply went to the Library Desk, I asked him if I need any slip to use the studyroom on the groundfloor too. So he took me to the machines and taught me the entire thing. Its actually simple, we scan our library card, select the study room, select the seat no. according to our choice and convenience, decide the no. of hours we want to study and book one seat in any of the study rooms. In the study rooms they prefer and expect complete silence just like any other library but then they also have seperate sections for group studies. What I liked about it was that they h

Today on Govardhan Pooja my Mid Terms began with Development of Goods and Marketing Exam. I had studied once before sleeping yesterday. I wasn't very confident about it but I am glad it went well. Then we completed our homework before the Korean class. Today we also learnt how to wish Happy Birthday in Korean. In the evening, Savitri also came to our room in the evening. She is from Nepal and is pursing her Masters in Computer Engineering from Gachon. It just had been a month for her in Korea. She doesn't have a lot of friends here and even her roommate is Chinese and even don't speak English. She feels very lonely here so she asked if she could come to our room for some time. We were very eager and glad to welcome her. We chatted for a while and then she had to go to cook dinner. Then after many days I went for an evening walk. Now I am just planning to watch a hindi movie before sleeping.

Today students from all the Korean Language classes went to a Field Trip to the 19th Rice Festival, Incheon. In our teacher's group we were around a dozen people from India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Singapore, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. It was a perfect place to have a glimpse of the Korean folk and get an idea about its countryside. The Korean folk culture was beautifully depicted throughout the place. Rice cakes and Korean traditional food, display of Korean village farms and handmade art, traditional games, puppet play and street performances are a few of the many things you can enjoy in the Incheon Rice festival. Finally I also got to put on the Hanbok i.e. the Korean traditional dress. I was really eager to try on first. It is so pretty, I just love it especially the one for the girls. Our Korean teacher also took special care so that I could have something Vegetarian food for lunch. I also tasted Rice Wine for the first time today. We also tried making small brooms from  ha

Today I got to know something about Korea that I thought was really strange. Gambling is generally prohibted for Koreans. Hailey told us that there is a huge Cassino in Korea where Koreans are not allowed to enter. It is only for the Foreigners or Koreans that have an American citizenship. In case of many clubs the situation is completely opposite. Lawrence told us that there are a lot of clubs which are meant for Koreans only and Foreigners are not allowed there. I found it really weird because I don't think there is any such similiar thing in India.

After the morning class, I was left with another three hours at my leisure. So rather than procrastinating it any further, I decided to visit the Journalism Department and make an attempt to meet one of the Journalism Professors. I thought fourth floor In the College of Law was for Media and Mass Communication as it had boards for Broadcasting Studio. So, I wished a Professor and asked him if he could understand English. I showed him the slip which read my name and introduction in Korean. It told that I am a Journalism student and wish to see the department and interact with any of the Journalism Professors.  Since he was a bit clueless about how to help me, he took me to another Professor who teaches German and can speak fluent English. She connected me to a Kate in the Journalism department. Kate is a Korean student who has graduated in Journalism from Gachon University and now also works in the Mass Communication department. She showed me their studios and would try to fix an appoin

Today I decided to wear a Suit after many days. After our class, Laylo asked if it was an Indian dress and said it was beautiful. I was a little late for my Korean class, when I entered the classroom our teacher asked if it is an Indian dress and when I said yes she was really amazed. She said in Korean that it was beautiful and I was looking pretty. It felt so good when she praised. But a strange thing was I was wearing just a simple suit and nothing special. Sometimes when I do wear Suit, many people find it really beautiful and thats good to know. Even when I wore Suit for the first time in Korea Aizhan Appa thought it was really beautiful but none of us had brought a saree since we don't know to wear it. She said she really likes it and thinks its really beautiful. I really like the fact that a lot of people I meet knows so much about India, like something or the other about our country.  Its really a feeling of Pride and joy for me when so many of my friends actually wish

Kuddos for the half century. Today was our 50th day in South Korea. Coincidentally it was a day of halves for me. Half done assignment, half attendance and a half done preperation for Korean test. Today was something that I have began to refer as normal days. Not really good nor too bad, just another ordinary regular day added to my life. I attended two classes in the afternoon. In the evening, we just played cards after dinner and shared a couple of chocolates and  thats it.

Was just missing the process of capturing moments in the camera and preserving all my memories in words. So yes I do plan to write another post this weekend. But what I decided finally was to just write when I want to rather than sticking to the golden rule of atleast one post a day because I am not sure if I can do that write now. I think I am gonna make this one just like my other blog completely random and then write on both the blogs at different times depending on what my moods are like.

Honestly if I ever analyze there is always so much to do that I find it hard to cope up with everything. There is only a few thingsI can do. But what I decided was to do as much as I can and leave the other things. There is so much of our time that we waste and then complain we don't have enough time. I have tried to improve and be better at Time Management and have miserably failed too. What I ended up concluding is that you just don't learn major Life skills in a day. It takes time and constant effort. There is so much to learn and so many areas where I can improve and I am just trying to do the best I can. But even when I am not at my best, commit mistakes or fail I do react but I have began to learn that its ok. I try to learn my lessons and move on. As a Buddhist quote goes "You are already perfect but you can still be better". I read it in one of Mark's articles on www.markmanson.net but thought it was a good place to share the quote. I am not really su

Date - 29/09/2017 I didn't post anything in the last few days . was the final day because I just wasn't feling like writing and yesturday was really tiring. There had been a few things I want to share though. In this post I will began from where I left. Thursday was the final day of the Gachon Festival 2017. We had requested our teacher to leave us early for the day so after half time of the class we left for the function with our teacher. We listened to some of the song performces by Gachon students and left for our dormitory. All of us were most excited about the KPop concert that night. We ate Ramyon and went for the concert but the place was almost already full but we could find a place from where we could easily see and enjoy the performance. We saw a bit and then decided to go with some of our foreigner friends. Since we could not find a place to sit, some of our friends decided to leave. For the most part we were just roaming around and talking. Laurence introduce

Finally I got my first perfect score in a Korean test. We learnt about the dates and times in Korean. I also have to revise countings for my test tomorrow. There is gonna be so many of our memories from the Korean class itself. I think I am improving and I am feeling great about it. Today we did went to see things but there were some gaming competitions and food stalls in the ground. Since there wasn't much to do or see, we came back after sometime. But all of us (especially the foreign students) are really excited about tomorrow's main event. Talking of the food stalls it was really nice and there were a lot of people were having fun but I cannot personally eat a lot of things and then it was expensive and we want to enjoy it tomorrow when all of us would be together. I also saw a Korean movie Baby and me after dinner. It was the first Korean movie I have actually watched entirely since I don't watch a lot of movies. It was nice. Honestly I have tried watching Korea

Date - 26/09/2017 Today it was just a usual day but I was finally very happy with the way I spent my day. I woke up a little early today and went for the morning walk. There was so much of my blog posts that were pending so I posted a little in the evening yesterday and completed my posts on the Cultural Exchange Program today in the morning. Since there wasn't nothing really important that had happened on the last two days so I skipped it and wanted to start afresh from today. In the Strategy Management class we got a treat from our Professor for keeping perfect attendance and good response in the class. She was very generous and we were definitely very happy about it.😁😁 Gachon Festival started today. It is the annual fest of Gachon University that continues for three days. Major event for the day was Taekwandoo Show from 17:00 - 19:00. Our class finishes at six so we couldn't see the entire thing but we saw a part of it while coming back to our dormitory. We were impre

Date - 23/09/2017 Today, I felt so good when I entered that room. We were greeted by the Youth Goodwill Guide Staff from Hi Seoul Youth Hostel. They were so cheerful and friendly you can feel tje positive vibes in the place as soon as you enter the place. Hi Seoul Youth Hostel is an organisation that provides foreign students in Korea with free tour guides and organise programs for them to let them know more about the Korean Culture and traditions. Youth Goodwill Guide is a group of University and high school students who volunteer for helping the foreign students and organise such cultural programs. I think it is so inspiring when kids of our age are volunteering and giving their weekends to foreiggn students like us. We were divided into four teams and began with the general introduction with our team. We were four girls in my team. Two of them were from Indonesia Amanda and Mita and Julie who is a native Korean. Julie is a young volunteer in Youth Goodwill Guide. The name of ou

Date - 23/09/2017 All of us were asked to prepare a speech about our country's culture and national holidays beforehand. So in the last segment of the Program, we sat with our other friends from our countries,  discussed and gave some informal presentations about our cultures. We were around 25 people in the room. There were Korean volunteers, some participants from Indonesia and three students from Singapore alongwith the five of us. Indonesian students talked about their Independence Day and Labaran. These are two of the major national holidays. Flag hoisting is the main event on Independence day and they organise games like Sack race, etc for the children throughout the country. In Singapore there are four races and all of them celebrate their own festivals. But the major three groups are Chinese, Malays and Indians. They were Chinese so they told us about the Chinese New Year and other Chinese festivals they celebrate in Singapore. Indians in Singapore also celebrate Diwali.

Date - 23/09/2017 Today we went to Hi Seoul Youth Hostel. We woke up a little late as it was a Saturday. We quickly got ready, had our breakfast and left in the subway for Yeongdeungpo-gu Office. We reached there in around 1 hour but then we weren't sure how to reach the Venue from the station. We had searched and also saved the Screenshot for the way but we got confused as we had to go on foot ahead and we were standing clueless on that street. Since we don't have a Korean Sim right now, none of us even had an Internet Connection. When you are already getting late and you have lost your way not a great feeling. If being in a foreign country counts you can add that too. But when you are with your friends worry is not even the last thing on your mind. We were rather laughing at our situation and simply tried to find the way together. We asked a few people, some could not understand our language so we tried showing them the address on the phone but some people just didn't

Date - 22/09/2017 Today we went to the Seoul South Korea Immigration Office for our Alien Card Registrations with our mentor. The Korean class had already been cancelled because our Teacher had a meeting in the evening. But today all of us were tired so we ate outside in an Indian restaurant tonight.

Date - 22/09/2017 Today we tried Gimbap for the first time. It is a famous Korean Vegetarian dish. In Korean Gim means Seaweed and Bap means rice. The leaf is placed in round shape and filled with a layer of cooked rice and the innermost part is filled with sliced vegetables. For me Korean food is like when I have my first bite, I love it but then I feel it tastes a little weird. Korean food is strange and strangely delicious but I just can not complete a single dish alone. I am still trying to develop a taste for the Korean food. I can be really picky when it comes to food but here I don't want to miss out any chance to try any of the Vegetarian Korean dishes available.  😉😊😊😊😊

Date -21/09/2017 Today we had a fire drill in our dormitory. We were informed about it in advance during our inspection and were asked to be present in our rooms at that time. There was a fire alarm and we had to run out of our rooms (no use of elevators) and rush to the sports ground. But honestly it wasn't really a drill. All the students assembled in the ground and there they gave us some instructions and demonstrated the use of Fire Extinguisher. The instructor spoke in Korean so we couldn't understand anything. Although Sheetal Di told us the basic PASS rule for using the fire extinguisher. Pull the pin Aim at the base Squeeze Swirl all around.

Date - 20/09/2017 Today was Deepika Di's, Aizhan Aappa's and Anu Manhotra Ma'am's birthday.  Deepika Di was my senior in Shoolini. She was one of the seniors I have always admired and looked upto. Wishing her a happy birthday was one of the first things I did today. She is intelligent, confident, classy, beautiful, helpful and a sweetheart. I haven't known her for a very long time but it has been a great experience to know her.  I got to know about Aappa's birthday through facebook. I wasn't sure what to do. I was thinking about it all day. I had just planned to gift her a small choco pie which I had but then did not felt like gifting that alone.  I just thought that probably a letter with some birthday wishes would seem nice. I don't have any clues about Kazakh so I took a little help from Google.  I just wrote happy birthday in Kazakh and the entire message was in English. I also wrote Happy birthday in Hindi in the end. She was very happy and delight

Date - 19/09/2017 Today Sheetal Di was just coming back from her class when she was greeted by an unknown Korean girl. She asked Di from which country she is from. Knowing that Di is from India she further asked if she knows Hindi. Since Di knew Hindi she insisted on talking in Hindi. Di was just way too happy to speak in Hindi. The name of Di's new friend is Sunaina. When Di asked her about the reason for having an Indian name, she told her that it is difficult for many foreigners to pronounce a Korean name. But when she used the hindi word 'उच्चारण', Sheetal Di was really impressed. Sunaina told her that there is a group in Seoul where they teach Hindi. Probably all of us will meet her next tuesday when she would also come with her other friends. All of us really want to meet her. Amidst so many foreign language speakers, we are just happy to find people who can speak and understand even a bit of English. So you can well imagine the delight of meeting a Hindi speaker

Date - 18/09/2017 Today my day began with the Korean homework. Since I hadn't studied during the weekend, I had to do my homework as well as prepare for the test today. But my first class was in the afternoon, so I had a lot of time to do it. When I went to my Financial Management class, Laylo had already been waiting for me. Even I was looking forward to meet her today. Today in the Korean Language Class our teacher recorded our conversation like role play. My partner was Lee Jia Lin. She is from Singapore and sits next to me in the Korean class. She is confident, cheerful and very helpful. Whenever I cann't understand something, she always helps me out. I really enjoyed doing that role play with her. I had done my homework very carefully and I was glad finally there were no mistakes in it today and I also performed better in today's test. Every tiny step seems like a small mile stone. It gives you that further motivation to work hard and also improves our self confid

Date - 17/09/2017 Today I had planned to study but as usual  not really studied. I rather utilised my holiday to rest and relax. I jotted down some important Korean words in a diary and whenever I get time I will try to write all the important new words I learn for my reference. In the evening, we went to buy groceries from a nearby store. We also opened our pack of Rasugullas we had ordered with the other stuff from an online site for Indian food in Korea. Having some Indian Sweet dish here is definitely a treat for us, although we are having proper Indian food for meals. So no problems with the food. But search to find and try a few vegetarian things is still On. I talked to some of my Indian friends today. Weekends are always the best time to have some good conversations and catch up. Swati Di is another student from Shoolini ( my home University) who has went to Taiwan for  a Student Exchange Program this semester. Although we are in different places but sharing our experiences

Date - 16/09/2017 Today we went to the Hongdae Street. There was a lot of street food available but most of the stuff was non - vegetarian. Beef and pork are commonly used ingredients in a lot of Korean dishes. At one stall, a man was selling really big ice creams which was around the double size we find in India. All my other Indian friends ordered Choco-vanilla flavour and I ordered the Yogurt- strawberry flavour. For the first time I tasted a sour ice cream. It was really yummy. While coming back we went to Diwali. It is an Indian restaurant near our University. Last time when my friends went there they served it with a sweet sauce. We have seen that in the Korean dishes and we just don't like it. They really did not like the food. But this time we asked them not to put it and food was nice. It was a nice day and this Saturday, we have already decided our plan for the next weekend.