Days 21-25: A week full of food, realizations, cultures...

October 28, 2010


Day 21 (Monday, October 11, 2010):


And the second week of classes begin! I had a lecture from 9am-11am and then another lecture from 2pm-5pm. (Yay for 3 hour lectures...)  My second lecture always has a screening for the last hour or so, but it almost always goes over the 5pm frame, so being the good student that I am, I've been leaving early! On this particular day, I had an arrangement to meet with my International Exchange partner; I had missed the actual International Interchange night because I decided to something else. I contacted my partner in advance and we scheduled to meet up with one another on this day instead!

The International Interchange event is basically something that the International Society here at Cardiff arranged for Internationals to get to know one another. Prior to the event, we were asked to fill out a form online indicating which languages we are fluent in and which languages we would like to learn. I put down that I speak English and Korean natively and wanted to learn Spanish (I really would have liked to practice the Spanish that I haven't practiced since high school). Our partners were emailed to us the night before the event - I was matched up with a Korean student and a Chinese student and sadly, no Spanish-speaker. :(

Anyway, so I met up with my Korean buddy at City Centre where we headed to Starbucks to chat! She is a postgraduate student studying business. She was really fascinated to hear about the fact that I was a Korean raised in America (since she was born & raised in Korea). We talked about our families, the Korean culture, what it means to be a 1.5 generation Korean living in Los Angeles, the differences between London and Cardiff...and it was really nice. I think she felt a different kinship just to meet another Korean so far away from home (and the size of Koreans here is...really small).

Day 22 (Tuesday, October 12, 2010):


I ended up missing my first lecture for my Media & Gender module this day (one of many to come). I had a massive headache and just could not get up! I did make it to my first Tele-fictions seminar, which was lovely. I met up with Alana at the SU for lunch...and I can't really remember what I did the rest of the day, but in the afternoon I met with my Study Abroad girls to go to dinner!

We went to Wagamama, a Japanese noodle chain restaurant. I ended up ordering some sort of fried rice with a bunch of different things in it; others got noodles. Everyone seemed to really enjoy their meal. I noticed that there were some differences between a British-fusion Japanese noodle restaurant and what you'd find in America. It was definitely less authentic here in the UK than in the US - they had fried soba noodles, which I had never seen! I was always under the impression that soba was meant to be eaten not fried, but I might be wrong.

Yummy Asian Food!

A really awesome pat of the meal was that they gave cups of green tea for free with every meal order! This free deal helped me save my money and not order Sake...hehe.

We ended up going to this Crepe place (I think they called it a Pancake House or something) for dessert. We got into this awful habit of always having dessert after dinner - BAD for the wallet and BAD for the health! But oh-so-good for the taste bud...

I ended up getting a nutella and banana crepe while the rest of the girls got some good Welsh ice cream.

Day 23 (Wednesday, October 13, 2010):

 I was supposed to go to the Medieval Village with Alisha and Alana on Wednesday but that ended up being canceled because the girls had some problem with their schedule. I ended up meeting Joanna (a British Asian yay!) at the Woodville Pub for dinner. At 7pm, I went to the CU meeting at Julian Hodge. The CU had a "fayre" (fair) with all the different ministries it supports! There were some really cool outreach projects, and once again, I felt that the Christian fellowships at Penn should really get a move on with this whole outreach thing. I ended up signing up for  Revive, which is this really great ministry that works with churches in the Valleys of Wales where there is extreme poverty and high unemployment.  I am not exactly sure if I'd be actually be able to do Revive since I'm only here for 3 months, but I really would have loved to get more involved if I had been an actual student here at Cardiff.

When I was at CU, I got a call from Elmira (one of the study abroad girls from America) who felt really sick after her volleyball practice and wanted to rest at our place (since Talybont is so close to where all the sport people practice). I directed her to my flatmate Alisha who let her in - I came home to find them having a cuddly chat with some tea. Elmira ended up sleeping over and (from what I can remember), all three of us had some interesting chats, which is always lovely.

Day 24 (Thursday, October 14, 2010):

I had my first Writing with Light seminar this day, where I was utterly surprised to find that we had not needed to do the readings. In fact, the readings did not even come up! This seminar was more like a supplementary lecture where we were able to put to practice what we learned earlier in the week. 

I was supposed to meet up with a British friend that I made, but that didn't work out, so...I really can't remember what I did (probably came home and napped).

At 6pm, the CCCC English Fellowship had a "welcome party" at the Chaplaincy - oddly enough, this reminded me of RCF back home. The main difference was that people here were much more willing to serve each other (yeah, we really need to work on that), but I hear that RCF has gone through some magnificent changes in this semester alone, which I am looking forward to joining when I get back in the Spring. GOD IS GOOD. ALL THE TIME. :)

It was also interesting to essentially become a freshman all over again. Since sophomore year in RCF, we were being trained to be an upperclassman so in welcome events like this, we were expected to bring food, readiness to be friendly (haha) and prepare a skit usually. It was nice to just observe and receive (that sounds really selfish...haha). I kept recalling our Ice Cream Social for the freshmen last year...

Another main difference! People in the States are more concerned with "classes", as in Class of 2012, 2013, and so on. People here don't really associate themselves with their graduating classes (not at all actually). So there is less of emphasis on "class unity" as we stress so much at Penn (and in RCF). I think a part of this has to do with the fact that people here have a great emphasis on their "courses" since it is much more rigid than our "majors and minors" system and depending on their course, the amount of time before graduation differs. It's a different system, but I do miss all the class-specific activities Penn would sponsor (I kept getting emails for Amy Gutman's 2012 Halloween Party and was massively jealous even though I usually never go to those events).  I also miss using the words "Freshmen", "Sophomore", "Junior", and "Senior" - sometimes these words slip out of my mouth, and people here look at me like I'm crazy!

Day 25 (Friday, October 15, 2010):

I have a 9 o'clock lecture in the morning on Friday (yuck...) but it's Tele-fictions, which is one of the more interesting modules so it makes it tiny bit easier to wake up in the morning. I was supposed to go to morning prayer at 8 in the morning, but that did not happen because I woke up with a massive headache.  I was proud to have made it to the 9 o'clock lecture, since I tend to miss class a lot in general (I can't even count how many I didn't go to at Penn last semester). 

After my lecture, I had a seminar for my Media, Racism and Conflict module, which was good. This class is looking to be very structured and such - here, we signed up to form groups for student-led seminars. I ended up being assigned in the first group to present (more on that on Day 32, a week from October 15th)!

I ate lunch at the Woodville Pub with Alisha and Alana - Alana and I ended up getting dessert (SUCH a bad habit). We got their Belgium Waffle which is so. darn. good. 

I ended up going to the Big Tesco's afterwards to buy some stuff for my WEEKEND TRIP which was to...BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND!! More on that on next update...

Sorry for this text-heavy, little-picture update...but I promise the next update will have lots of pictures from Ireland!

Days 8-10: Enrolment, Pubs, CU, Cultural Differences

October 4, 2010

Oops. How did I get this behind in updates? Must hurry up and try to catch up...

Day 8 (Tuesday, September 28, 2010):


It's seriously getting to a point where I can't remember what I did unless I look through my schedule book...and even then I'm not exactly sure! Well this day, I was supposed to have gone on a day trip with Alisha (we were thinking Bristol since it's close by), but due to scheduling (or "timetable" as they call it here) and class (or "modules") issues, we had to scrap that plan for another day. I ended up not going to the JOMEC enrolment session as advised not to by the assistant in the office...only to receive an email later saying that I "urgently" need to schedule an appointment with my "personal tutor" (an advisor as we'd call it in the States) as I had "failed to attend" the session on Tuesday. Oops? I had to take care of some "timetable conflict" (scheduling conflict) in the morning...and then Alisha, Alana and I checked out the Local Companies' Fair where we were bombarded with ads and flyers. I honestly can't remember what we did the rest of the day...this is kind of sad, I just checked my text messages and I remember now!

Alisha, Alana and I went to the Uni Hall Pub...where we were joined by Elmira, another American study abroad student that I had spoken to prior to coming here. We each had our first fish and chips (YAY) which was absolutely delicious!

First fish & chips...served with "spirals" (curly fries) and peas - photo credits to Alisha - I didn't take my camera

Afterwards, we proceeded to play Jenga - we quickly discovered that Tipsy-Jenga is the best thing ever!

Day 9 (Wednesday, September 29, 2010):


I had to take care of some module stuff again so I went to the JOMEC building to sort out some issues and sign-up for seminars (the equivalent of "discussions" or "recitations" in the States). I had a few hours to kill before my next event, and I ended up going to a cafe that has already become my favorite and writing a blog entry there. Around noon, I headed onto a CU event - the CU here in Cardiff hosts an International Cafe every Wednesday afternoon - a great place to meet new people and get to know other Internationals! I got to meet new people and chat up some people I had met last week, which was very nice. Afterwards, I got directions to a Korean/Japanese market near/on campus (we don't really have a campus) and I finally found it! I had been looking for it all week after passing near it by chance. Honestly, I stepped in and almost cried. I thought I wouldn't miss Korean food so much, but I really do crave it! AHH! I bought some non-smelly food for the sake of my flatmates (so pretty much just ramen) but I think I'm going to go back to buy some seaweed and gochujang to make bibimbab. I would love to have some spicy food!! I chatted with the nice Korean owners in Korean for a little bit - it was awesome just to be able to chat with adults in Korean again (I know, I know, despite the whole "I don't like Korean people" thing, it was still a taste of home just by encountering some Korean adults).

I got back to my dorm just to leave again to Tesco's with Kristin (seriously, I go there so often). She ended up buying some very needed groceries and I bought some food as well - on the way back, we ended up stealing a "trolley" (shopping cart) ;) Well, we had to insert a pound to get the trolley out in the first place, so it wasn't really stealing! I'm not exactly sure what Kristin did with the trolley afterwards, but it was funny to see everyone watch us as we rolled the trolley right into our dorm premises.

After Tesco's I headed over to meet up Izzy, one of the British friends I was able to make through CU. We were trying to figure out where to grab dinner and ended up settling at this Falafel place...where we encountered this super creepy guy who was hitting on Izzy so we ended up heading out. Then we tried sitting on the steps of the business school when a cat came upon us and both of us flipped out! That was quite a memorable meal!! Afterwards, we headed to the CU main meeting for a time of worship and meeting new people! After the CU meeting they had "open house", where CU members opened their houses up for tea...that was more mingling and very lovely :) I met really cool new people, and it's always very nice to be surrounded by native British people as opposed to other study abroad students (although I <3 my study abroad group)!

Day 10 (Thursday, September 30, 2010):


I realize that these entries are getting extremely long because I keep updating them in masses, but I still think it's important for me to update on a day-to-day recap method because this is really for me to capture my experiences abroad. I am so forgetful that it's ridiculous how much I don't remember - this way, I'll have it in writing!

On Thursday, I had my main JOMEC (my department here in Cardiff) meet-and-greet session that I had to attend. In the morning, Alisha and I headed out to grab a quick bite at the coffee store and then headed on to the Societies' Fayre. "Societies" pretty much are equivalent to "clubs" back in the US, but the main difference is that many societies require you to pay a fee to join. It's slightly more formal as there is an entire process to join a society whereas back at Penn, joining a club is as easy as attending meetings and getting on the listserv. I ended up signing up for the CU and the Korean Society (I am craving Korean bad SO badly) - everything else didn't seem to catch my eye. I then headed to a very quick 2nd year JOMEC session...

After the JOMEC session, I rejoined Alisha and Alana who were eating at an Italian restaurant in City Centre. I am becoming OBSESSED with Irish Coffee:

Such deliciousness. I am definitely going to miss being able to have Irish Coffee down the street!

We wandered around City Centre for a bit where I ended up doing some major shopping (sigh...). I bought a new pair of boots (I know, I know) but they ended up being a worthwhile investment as they're waterproof and comfortable! Those two characteristics are NECESSARY in the UK where we do so much walking and it's constantly raining.

After City Centre, we headed to Uni Hall, where Alana, Elmira and Dee Dee are staying (all Internationals) - we ended up at the Pub again where we played games!


Whew. I'll end tonight's updates for now here - up next is my weekend in London & some more traveling!

On a side note, I can't stand that there are people screaming out my window every single night. I really hate being woken up every night at 3am/4am by giggling girls. They literally party every single night here and while I am totally a proponent of partying MODERATELY, I seriously wonder if people here know how to have fun without drinking. But then again, we are living in a primarily freshmen-dominated dorm and freshmen are always annoying no matter where they are...it just takes a year or two for them to realize that they don't need to be partying every night - you can "live it up" in other ways. I'd much rather have a slow night in with a close group of friends than be out in a packed club with strangers. But I guess freshmen will be freshmen. Don't they get tired??? I guess I must be old now...hehe.