During the first two weeks, there wasn't one day I didn't think about going to level 1. Every night I prayed for tomorrow, while every morning before leaving for school I prayed for the following 4-hour class. I knew the only thing I could do was preview and review every day. Also, I'm really grateful for having a lot of good friends to share my anxiety and giving me thousands of suggestions. I was thinking all the time that which decision was better for me: Should I stay here or just make it easier? Should I try the hard one or the easy one?
I knew it very clearly that I wanted to stay but I didn't know if I could make it. At that time, I really liked my classmates (now I still like them), and I wanted to know more about my friends, having more time to spend with them, having the same topic to talk to them. Besides, although I knew I didn't wanna have a lot of stress here, I still had to learn something in addition to experiencing Korean culture only. I wanted to maximize the value of my time spent here. I always keep in mind that my favorite professor told us, "Time is the most precious resource in your life."
One day, my friend told me, "Never ever think about the second choice. All you have is the only one, the best choice." It was exactly what I should do. It was very close to the midterm exam at that time, so I should just concentrate myself on it and give it a shot. I'm not the kind of person apt to give up, ever.
On the morning of my oral exam, I had the runs, but actually it seldom happened to me, so it meant I was really really nervous.
However, I am very thankful. Thank God for everything happened to me. I remembered when I told my professor about my life plan and my worries, then he told me, "Don't worry. God always have the best plans for you." I also believe so, and I hope I become the kind of person who is always grateful, thanks for everything.
During these days, I believe this more. Thanks for giving me good teachers(one of my classmates told me that she had worse teachers last semester and then she failed), nice classmates, and making people around me see the real me. Thanks for making Sara be my exam partner. This really helped me a lot. Every time we had to draw lots, I just prayed, "Please choose me the person who is the best for me. S/he doesn't have to be the best one in class, but best for me." As a result, even at first I wasn't satisfied with the result, I believed that it must mean something to me.
Futhermore, thank God for having me know so many amazing people, although there cannot always be good time. Even sometimes, you can get along with people well before long, but if you had to get along with each other for a long time, you wouldn't be friends. Although I'm not sure whether I'll still keep in touch with my friends who I met in Korea when this semester ends, the one thing I'm pretty sure is they already made my life more colorful, and this must still go on. I'm really a lucky person.
After the midterm exam, the language institute planned a one-day tour for us. Despite the place which was not that interesting (I don't like amusement parks at all because I cannot enjoy the roller coaster), I had a happy time with the lovely classmates.
We went to Seoul Land for our after-exam trip. The first thing caught my eyes in Seoul Land was this big ball, but I still don't know what it is for now though.
The person on the left-hand side is our grammar teacher. She has two boys. She's a very nice person, but sometimes I cannot understand what she's talking about, because she speaks a little bit fast to me sometimes. As a result, I hope that the person she wanna talk to in class is not me all the time.
The other person is Sara. Every minute as long as she's around, I feel so happy, because her smile does melt one's heart. Besides, she's really considerate.
One of the roller coasters in Seoul Land. I'd never try this I think. It makes me really dizzy and uncomfortable.
We watched a show in this theatre. Actually, I think it was quite boring, so.... I couldn't help but fall asleep...
It was such a good day. I don't have many chances to hang out with my classmates for most of them are not exchange students. In addition to Sara and I, all attending the trip were Japanese girls and they were so nice and cute.
This picture was take in Dokripmun(獨立門) subway station, on my way to Seodaemun Prison History Hall.
Upon knowing Seodaemun Prison History Hall(西大門刑務所歷史館), I wanna visit this place so much. But many people are not interested in something like this, let alone have to pay for this. Finally, I had a free day with beautiful weather so I put it into my schedule. I planned to go there before Geongbokgung(景福宮), which is one of the most famous tour spots in Seoul. I couldn't believe I'd never been there during this one or two months.
I have to say that the signs from Seodaemun Prison History Hall were very clear and good, even in the hall.
What a beautiful street. Although those places I know well are all beautiful, it's not the same.
A map outside SPHH.
"Yes, I am here!", I thought at that moment. I don't know why there were so many kids (maybe 6~12 yrs old) that day.
It's a historical restaurant and also nowadays office. However, it was closed on that day :(
The ticket for adult costs 1,500W. It's a very very good price!!!!! If I were an author of a Seoul travel book, I would definitely mark this place as a must-go.
The ticket.
Seodaemun Prison was the biggest prison in Korea during the Japanese occupation. It was built to suppress the Korean patriots who were fighting for national sovereignty. It is a historical building operated as a prison from 1908 to 1987.
Seodaemun Prison and Independence Movement. Seodaemun Prison was started with a capacity of 500 people in its initial founding. However, around the March 1st Independence Movement in 1919, more than 3,000 people were in this prison.
Some historical relics.
The model of Seodaemun Prison.
The prisoners in Seodaemun Prison at that time.
The Blueprints.
Some historical photos of this prison.
All the prisons in Korea in 1936.
Seodaemun Prison after independence.
The shoes prisoners wore, and the stick used to wash clothes.
I don't know why we have to walk on the left-hand side here... normally Korean people walk on the right-hand side...okay, NORMALLY they walk on both sides.
Map for nationwide uprisings of the righteous armies.
Martyred general of the righteous army.
Weapons
Gyeongbokgung in 1910
Some pictures about medicine at that time
Shackles
Handcuffs
To be honest, I didn't know why every March 1st is a national holiday until I went to the hall.......Before I came to Korea, I knew little things about this country. Not until did I come here, I've started to know this country. Everything has its double sides though. In the good part, I seldom had any stereotype about Korea; as the bad part, every time when my friends talked about K-POP and Korean dramas, I felt lost.
Korean flag
A women, called Kwansun Yoo, was a great patriotisc Korean.
Memorial hall, full of the pictures of victims, or I should call them fighters, under the Japanese suppression.
I really knew nothing about Korean history. The Korean Provisional Government was founded in Shanghai!!!
It's so interesting to see how people mixed Chinese words and Korean words together in one sentence.
I didn't know there was (or 'is'?) also the communist party in Korea.
The model of dead-body pick-up room/
Almost finished the first part of this hall.
The water torture, making you feel drown in the water. Actually, every time I saw something about slaughter and suppression, it reminded me of the Nanking Massacre in China in 1937.
Underground torture chamber.
The fingernail torture.
Sufferings from torture.
The box torture--a torture by putting an individual inside a box stubbed with sharp nails and shaking the box to torture him or her.
I think those people who came up with these ideas to torture people are geniuses in some way but with twisted minds.
The narrow room torture--a torture in which a person was put in between narrow walls so that they couldn't sit down or stand up properly.
A super big Korean flag.
The mountain was stunning! Just like in a ink and wash painting.
Ideological conversion education for prisoners. Although this kind of thing is terrible, I really admire people who can do to this to others. Regardless of morality, they can perform their knowledge in psychology very well! This reminds me of multi-level marketing in Taiwan.
A diary written in prison.
The place where they could write some letters.
Monitoring location.
Ink cell, the room was as dark as Chinese ink.
Be saved
Used when in emergency.
Working for over 10 hours a day in this prison to produce textile and clothes delivered to all the prisons in Korea.
Kuansun Yoo
Leper's building, but it was closed.
Via looking at this place nowadays, it's really hard to imagine the difficult time they went through.
A teacher asked all of the students to stand there and mourn over those heroes. I think this kind of situation would never happen in Taiwan...We don't do it this way when we visit a place like this.
It was said that patriots in the course of being dragged to the execution hall grabbed this tree and wailed with deep resentment for their unachieved independecne, so the name of the tree is Wailing Poplar.
Execution building
It was a little bit creepy when I stood in front of this tunnel. This was for slipping dead bodies secretly after execution.
It was a sports facilities for prisoners and looked strange.
This is where Kuansun Yoo was tortured to death.
The walls are for preventing escape.
The next tour spot was Gyeongbokgung and I tried to walk there (but I failed...).
Dokripmun Park
It was like a fair in a elementary school.
It's really a challenging thing to force myself to pretend that I like someone who I don't like actually. So, I need time only for me to recharge myself from time to time.
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