It’s the end of my fourth week here in Busan and it ended with a typhoon after a week of perfectly sunny days. It’s been in the 70’s all week and I don’t think it’ll get above 80 again the rest of the time I’m here. Pray for this Texas girl who is used to summer till mid-end of October.

Classes have been interesting here so far. My studio class is still presenting me some challenges but I’m working through them. My film class and world studies class have been great so far. Both the professors are from America and have been in Korea for 10+ years teaching. They teach interesting subjects and are always to keep it kinda light and fun during class. Which for a world studies class, which is probably gonna turn pretty political at times, will be really good. My Korean language class is a little difficult, still working on memorizing words and learning pronunciations. I can recognize characters on ads and boards now on the street, and I can say the vowel but the consonant sound just doesn’t quite come to me.

I have a hard time studying in my room. I did back at Tech too, but then again I didn’t always study so much as work on studio constantly. Here I don’t have to work on studio constantly, so it’s throwing me off. Trying to work on finding places and study habits that will help me get everything down that I need to.

This week I also went exploring in the Nampo district. It’s down in the South Port of Busan and not far from Jagalchi Market. I went in search of a coffee shop/postcard cafe but was unable to find it. I did however come across Busan Tower in Yongdusan Park. It was a really pretty little park area that had an outdoor theater set up where there will eventually be community performances this fall and little art shops set up that we’re selling canvases, postcards, notebooks, and more. The main road right underneath the park is full of chain stores like adidas, Nike, converse, and also tons of restaurants and beauty stores as well. Plenty of coffee shops and even some street performs were down there too. I found a restaurant down one side street where they had Udon Dumpling Soup and it’s the best thing I’ve had here yet. It definitely took me over 30-45 minutes to try and eat it though because Ben though I’ve been here a month now, I have not quite mastered chopsticks.

Wednesday I went to the graduate exhibition for the architecture department. Graduate student put their final projects on display, other studios put their work out as well, and professors spoke about the semester and the graduating class. It was really special to also see this video they made with the graduating group talking about the memories they’d keep from Dongseo and the impact the professors and faculty all had on them. That night some student from my year in a different studio took me to dinner for Korean BBQ and taught me how to use chopsticks a bit better and some more Korean words. More than my brain could handle during one meal. I had a great time getting to talk to them and meeting people from another studio though.

The international film festival here is Busan is coming up next week! I’m really excited to go and maybe see some actors and actresses and just see what to a city when a great big annual festival comes to town.

My friends and I also found Costco yesterday and braved it. That was the most crowded I have ever seen a Costco ever. The parking was above as well, so there were escalators in the front entrance taking people up to the parking lots, while there were also people gathering their things in bags to get out and take a bus back.

I’m excited for the end of my first month here and can’t wait to see as the leaves change and fall comes. Hopefully get out and do some hiking. Find some mountain top views. I have an address too, so if you ever wanna send me postcards or letters let me know! I’ll give you my address!