[Note; I realise this is a very text-heavy post. I'm basically just rambling and apologies for that.]
Yesterday was my last day with Dani (sad times :( ), so after seeing her leave at Incheon airport, I came back for a short orientation talk and to halls for the first nights' stay. Finally unpacked and did my laundry from the last two weeks holiday!
My room is... a standard halls room. I have a slightly bigger bathroom than I expected, with somewhere to actually stand for the shower to the side instead of being in the middle like my old Korean apartment or others I've seen here, so that's nice. However, I could definitely do with more wardrobe space, especially to hang things as it's really narrow and there's room for it to be about a foot wider. Also, it has pretty tiny drawers and shelf space I'll never use right at the top... so in that sense, I miss my one from my Derby halls where it actually had a decent amount of hanging space, shelves and big, wide drawers!
Only other thing is..... it's still hot here, but "summer" semester is over, so they've taken the air con remotes out of the rooms. It's 27 degrees in here and I have the blind down and floor-ceiling window/door wide open. There's a sort-of juliet balcony but it just has the air con unit on it. My room seems to have a sunny aspect though, so I'm hoping in the winter it will be good. I particularly like that my halls and classroom buildings are connected so in the horrible winter snow/ice/freezing cold, I don't even have to go outside. In between the buildings in a basement-ish area (it's all on a steep hill so it's ground level one side but still underground) is a decent sized convenience store and places to get food. So useful!
Class this morning was..... interesting. After the level test, I'd been put into level one but it really is too slow for me. The teacher this morning asked us if we could read hangul, all of us could but then she started teaching us the alphabet anyway. I think maybe the 6-level course would be better because it does go quicker and actually covers the whole of the first level books but the 8-level course is really slow and doesn't even cover all of the first level textbook modules. That could be good if you haven't studied Korean before but didn't suit me.
I asked to be moved up to level two so after the first two lessons, I moved classes. It was... definitely a step up. Others in the class seem to be about my level in that we know the vocab and bits of grammar but can't form the sentences particularly easily. Others seem to know the grammar points well, just their speaking isn't up to speed for level 3 but they could almost move up.
I think I'm going to struggle in that class, and am worried about the exams already but I don't want to be here and not pushing myself to be in the higher level class. I have the suspicion that I will probably not get good enough marks to do level 3 next semester so I will have to take level 2 again, but it's better than wasting my time for the next 4 weeks before we even start to learn informal language or past tense in level 1.... I covered those 2 or 3 years ago and really think I need to progress more from that beginner stage. Especially when I think of the cost that I'm paying to be here, it doesn't seem right to waste that time in the level 1 class. I'm still dithering over my decision but I'll just have to use my afternoons to catch up on what we're doing so I can stay up to speed.
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