AUTUMN AGAIN

We're back... and it's already autumn again. It took me a while to write. Well now some news from the country of forever kimchi. People still eat a lot of kimchi and I started to eat less. Is it a good thing, or a bad thing? Who knows?! ;) 

For the past months I've been trying to find my way in this Korean academic world. I must say it's far more scarier than I thought it would ever be. First of all, my level of Korean is not good enough to study my major (It's actually far from not good enough!)... If you would compare last year with this time... It would be like going from learning how to express "I would like to go to the movie theater, how can I get there?" to "How can I explain Kim Soo Young's poetry through Heideggers philosophy?" Yes, I must be crazy to be wanting to study modern Korean literature after just one year of language school! But it wouldn't be a challenge if it were too easy, right?! ;) I have  to admit that the first weeks were like hell and I wanted to go home straight after the first day the courses started. Luckily it got better after some time... But still, some days I sit and think "what am I doing and what the hell am I trying to proof here?"... That crazy foreigners also can study Korean literature from scratch just after one year of Korean? That it's the experience that counts not the seriousness of all this? Hmmm... Yes maybe. One thing is for sure, if I will be able to graduate from this major, I might be the first Belgian person to do this... ever. And my Korean will be damn good. So we're still going for it... with the low and the highs. Good that I still have a whole bunch of nice friends... 고마워! :)

Korean autumn is as beautiful as always, but last time I enjoyed it more. The weather got very cold all of a sudden, nevertheless still sunny. Let's see if we can reach the top of Gwanak mountain this weekend. I'm planning to go for a hike with a few friends. It would be great to see the colorful autumn scenery before it will start to fade away into that awful greyness.

Like some of us have noticed my Facebook profile is not visable anymore but my head is cleared out and can see well again. I started to like mailing more... and you can always Skype me or send me messages by any smartphone instant messaging app.

Love and some autumn sunshine for all of you wherever you are!

Lara - 라라