#i woke up to a huge paragraph of text lecturing me and she called it a 'roommate intervention' like she hasnt been very clear that

[savethepinecones]

so so sick of being yelled at for being depressed

[seoulfulcity]

June 26, 2018: Libertas, Justitia, Veritas

안녕하세요,

It's orientation day, which meant that I was finally going to meet my group members and my buddies! The event was scheduled to start at 10:00 AM, so I was up and ready by 9:00 AM. I was in the shower when Sophie texted me to meet with her at the front of Frontier building, so I had just missed her. Nonetheless, I planned to make new friends that day - both during the orientation and at the after party when all of Group 3 meet at the barbeque place we ate at yesterday. It was a beautiful day to make friends!

Well, it was raining - heavily. The shuttle bus stopped at both CJ International and the top of the hill that leads to Frontier House, Anam Dormitory, and Anam Global, so we all had to walk up that steep road in the pouring rain - luckily, nobody slipped.

The shuttle bus dropped us off at the entrance from the dorm to the campus, just behind Inchon Memorial Hall, the location of the orientation. Oddly, the fountains in front of the building were on, even in the pouring rain.

I entered Inchon Memorial Hall and headed to the tables set up in the main hallway of the hall. In the prior years, the students had to line up based on their last names to check in, but this year was different - we just walked in and grabbed the brochures and the envelope with all the papers needed for the orientation. I suppose it's because this orientation was optional, so no check-in was needed.

I sat in the front and center of the big auditorium - seat G22. A crimson banner hung above the stage welcoming the 2018 International Summer Campus students to Korea University. The president updated the students in the auditorium that we would be starting late due to the weather to accommodate those who were running late.

The orientation started with a welcoming greeting from the president himself, introducing the school and the program to an auditorium filled with excited international students.

Then, he continued the welcoming ceremony to show a video of the invited guests who were not able to make it.

Nobody expected to see who was about to give us welcome greetings.

N.Flying, Yubin from Wonder Girls, BtoB, SHINee, iKON, and other K-Pop idols welcomed us.

Oh, my God.

Gasps echoed throughout the auditorium as everybody tried to hold in their excitement.

Choi Minho from SHINee told us to take care of our health in the scorching weather while making good memories in KU ISC while Kim Donghyuk from iKON told us to study hard and to listen to iKON when we're getting tired from our studies.

The videos are linked on the previous paragraph, but wow! I was and still am very impressed with Korea University.

A sexual assault presentation followed the welcoming greetings and then a security presentation. Group 3 still talked about the welcoming greetings even after all the presentations.

We were given a two-hour lunch break with the news that the campus tour with our buddies was cancelled due to the bad weather.

I met with the people from last night, together with their roommates and other Group 3 members. There was a total of about 16 people walking into one of the restaurants within the campus called Mom's Kitchen, just nearby Woodang Hall, drenched from the rain, looking for a table to sit. We managed to combine two tables and gather enough chairs to accommodate all of us, and we spent the whole lunch break getting to know each other. This was when all of us realized that about half of the students in the ISC program was from Singapore, since everybody we met was from Singapore. Even the Singaporeans themselves were wondering why there were so many of them in the campus. After Singaporeans, there seemed to be a huge population of Americans and Australians, followed by the Chinese and Koreans.

After the lunch break, the cheer squad entertained us for the next hour and a half with seven songs and cheers they perform during the Korea-Yonsei games, held every year in October.

Think of the UCLA-USC game, but bigger. Korea and Yonsei are the biggest rival universities in the country, and everybody tunes in every year to watch one school beat the other in five sports.

Side note: you know if someone is from Korea University because they refer to the rivalry as Korea-Yonsei, while Yonsei students refer to it as the other way.

Well, the KU cheer squad showed us songs that included the school spirit songs and "Yonsei Chicken", a song they perform to make fun of the Yonsei students. The cheer is a great example of how huge the school spirit is for the crimson, KU's official color. They even had a song chanting Korea University's motto: Libertas, Justitia, Veritas.

The orientation ended at 3:30 PM and Group 3 would not be meeting for a meal until 5 PM, so we had time to shower and get ready for another night of barbeque and soju.

We met in front of Inchon Memorial Hall and walked to the same barbeque place where the ahjumma (아줌마) was surprised to see me walk in to her restaurant again. The whole group had her restaurant booked - every single tables and chairs were taken.

I sat on the corner on a four-person table with Sophie and two other people I met during lunch - Thao and Thai.

Thai told me before the dinner that he rarely drinks, and being the enabler that I am, I wanted to get him drunk. Minki-hyung (민기형) and Carolina, from the first night's dinner, joined us where we finished five sojus and a bottle of beer (maekju/맥주), playing different Korean drinking games, such as Titanic and the soju cap game.

Titanic is played where a shot glass is placed in a beer mug. Each person takes turns pouring as much soju into the shot glass as possible without sinking the shot glass down the beer mug. The person who eventually sinks the shot glass gets to chug the entire mug.

The soju cap game is very simple and it's done with every soju bottle that's opened. The soju bottle cap has an extra piece of metal, which is twisted and flicked off. Everybody takes a turn trying to flick off the extra piece of metal from the cap and the person who successfully does can choose two people to take a shot of soju.

Needless to say, all the asians in the table went home flushing that night - basically everybody but Carolina (Brazilian) and Sophie (Austrian).

Carolina went to the restroom when we drunkenly took this picture.

I skipped out on the karaoke (noraebang/노래방) with everybody else because of how much I was flushing; so that was the end of my night.

Wednesday, June 27, 2018: I woke up and got a haircut from a nearby hair salon called I'Hair that provided me with free drinks included with the price and headed to Woodang Hall to pick up my Korea University shirt and student ID.

That afternoon was the placement exam for the Korean language classes. Those enrolled in a Korean language course were to meet in the lecture hall in the sixth floor of Woodang Hall and had to write an essay about themselves. Those who did not know hangeul, the Korean writing system, walked out and headed to their assigned rooms for the oral part of the exam. I managed to write two paragraphs and filled the exam paper halfway with my basic Korean skills. Other people wrote the Korean alphabet and lyrics from their favorite BTS songs just so they turn in a paper that was not empty.

I headed to the room assigned for my oral exam, and those who have taken it told me they were asked to read off of a paper. Easy. If they were only testing me with my reading skills, then I would do just fine.

While in line for the oral exam, I met with other Korean language students - Marcela from Mexico and Peter from New York.

It was my turn for the oral exam and I was prepared to read the sentences she had on the table out loud. I handed her my written exam, and started speaking to me in Korean.

It was then I realized that she did not know how to speak English.

"아 좋아해요! 괜찮아요!/Ah! Johahaeyo! Gwaenchanayo!” (Ah! I like it! It's good!) She skimmed through my written exam and decided that I did not need to do the reading test since I already knew hangeul.

She went through the basics in a Korean 101 textbook.

"Where are you from? How is LA? What did you do before coming to Korea? How did you get to Korea? How do you compare LA to Korea? You like the weather in LA more? Why is that? Did your family go with you? Why did they stay? How did your family react when you told them you were studying in Korea? Why did you choose Korea? Did you study the Korean language just for this summer program or something else? How long did you study it for? Did you do it by yourself or through the school?"

It was a long conversation - basically, it was just me spitting out random Korean words with bad grammar hoping she would pick up what I was trying to say.

All I needed to say was "(Unknown Korean word here) 몰라요/mollayo” (I don’t know) to end that part of the conversation. She did not mind when I didn't know the word - she looked through her list and continued to interview me using the vocabulary of the next chapter.

"미안해요/mianhaeyo” (I’m sorry), I constantly apologized every time I told her I did not know what she was asking me.

"아니요! 괜찮아요!/Aniyo! Gwaenchanayo!" (No! It’s alright!) She reassured me that I was not being punished for not knowing the proper grammar structure to answer her questions.

I left the oral exam room feeling dumb. It was not until 2 PM the next day when we find out where we're placed. I applied for Korean Beginner 1-C, so I was hoping I'd be assigned to a class not any lower than that.

In celebration, Sophie and I went to Myeongdong that night where we tried street foods and ran in and out of K-Pop stores. That night was also the South Korea World Cup game against Germany, which South Korea won 2-0, allowing Mexico to advance to compete against Brazil. Unfortunately, South Korea was already eliminated by the time they were playing the game (yeah, I don't understand either). Seoul was loud throughout the entire game and I didn't need to watch it to know when the South Korean team scored.

But the memes of South Korea and Mexico took over online by storm, which was the best thing to come out of the World Cup, in my opinion.

Thursday, June 28, 2018: It was 2 PM and my Blackboard app finally updated. I was assigned to Korean Beginner 1-I with Manuel Lim. Whatever that meant. I guess I was smarter than Beginner 1-C. That night, I met with Valentino, Florence, and Wendelyn to Hongdae and visited a raccoon cafe called Maengkun (맹쿤). Minki-hyung (민기형) took the subway with us and dropped us off at Sindang Station (신당역) where we transferred from Line 6 to Line 2, which took us to Hongdae through Hongik University Station (홍익입구역).

Maengkun (맹쿤) required us to leave all our belongings in a locker and use the slippers provided. There were three options: option A was good for only one drink for ₩8,000; option B included a drink and the entrance fee to pet the raccoons and the dogs for ₩9,000 cash; and option C is the same as option B but with credit for ₩10,000. So, bring cash to save yourself from spending the unnecessary ₩1,000!

We got our teas and watched the raccoons behind a glass, since we could not bring our drinks in. I left my drink on the table and entered - the guys taking care of the animals on the other side of the glass door double checked that we didn't have anything in our pockets and let us in to play with the dogs and raccoons. There were about five raccoons and three dogs - a corgi, a husky, and a bulldog. The raccoons were getting vicious with each other, so one of them had to be dragged out into the cage outside the play area. Some raccoons would attack the dogs sharing the same food as them and they had to be separated.

Lesson of the day: go in the day since the raccoons get tired towards the end of the night.

We left Hongdae and went to a chimaek (치맥) place, where they serve chicken (chikin/치킨) and beer (maekju/맥주) called 썬더치킨 (Sseondeo Chikin) in Anam-dong, just next to the stairs by Frontier House. We started the night with the 3 beers (maekju/맥주) and one soju special, which they mixed in a long beer container - I'm sure there's a name for it, but as I've said before, I'm not much of a beer drinker so I don't know the culture surrounding beers. Valentino even showed me how to properly pour beer into our mugs to prevent excess bubbles.

Minki-hyung (민기형) joined us later in the night and we asked him to invite one of the buddies to join us, Hyunjic (현직). Hyunjic and I were born in the same year, so we established that night that I didn't need to call him hyung (형) and use honorifics with him; although I call him Hyunjic-oppa (현직오빠) instead.

To those who don't know Korean honorifics, a guy refers to another guy older than him as hyung (형), while a girl refers to a guy older than her as oppa (오빠); but in modern Korean culture, oppa (오빠) carries the same sexualized meaning as "daddy" in English; so Valentino and I liberally use oppa (오빠) to any Korean guys we're friends with.

We spent the rest of the night teaching Minki-hyung 민기형) and Hyunjic-oppa (현직오빠) California slangs like "hella" and the differences between "bro" and "bruh".

We took this picture before Hyunjic-oppa (현직오빠) stopped by.

I'm having a great time here in South Korea, although I still haven't found the time (and the weather honestly) to tour around Seoul. Maybe, this week I'd get the chance to. It's been raining all week so I find it useless to visit the temples and palaces when I could not even take pictures in front of them. Until then!

고마워요, Chris 「크리스」

[truthofherdreams]

people can surprise you (or not)

also on ao3

Wednesday

Dmitry starts his working day with opening the Google Doc From Hell, like a good boy. His colleague hasn’t written his notes from yesterday yet, but there is already a plan for today’s bullshit, and Dmitry dreads the worst. He scrolls down, before rolling his eyes so much he’s afraid they got stuck at the back of his head for a second there.

DAY 2: IGNORE HER

Women are needy and crave the attention of their partner. What is worse for them than being ignored for an entire day, their texts left on read with no reply, their email pushed to the side? A woman will go crazy in a matter of hours when the world stops revolving around her. Perhaps a flood of texts is to be expected?

Dmitry straight-up cackles at the paragraph. Is that guy for real? A glance to the top of the page tells him they both have the document opened in a tab right now, and the need to open the chat panel on the right just to ask his colleague if he has ever spoken to a woman, even just once, in his life… Yeah, the urge is strong.

At least he wrote ‘women’ instead of ‘females’? That’s… A start, Dmitry guesses? Not as profoundly misogynistic as it could have been? He’s just grasping at straws now.

Instead, he comments ‘A little short noticed, but okay.’ No need to broadcast the fact that, up until five minutes ago, he was texting Anya. Started texting Anya the moment he woke up, actually, because he didn’t want to get out of bed and he opened Facebook and there was a funny meme. A funny meme he wanted to share with her, for some reason. Because it would make her smile. Because he wanted to text her as early as eight in the morning, but ‘good morning darling’ sounded too cheesy. So instead he sent her a funny meme, and she replied with another one, and it was half an hour of this nonsense.

Thankfully for him, he always wakes up earlier than he needs and traffic is not a problem with his motorbike. So texting Anya didn’t even make him late to work, only in a good mood. As if the memories of last night -- making out on his bed, him half-naked, her still fully clothed, until she called a Uber and went home -- were not enough to have him in a good mood.

Except now he has a new text from Anya, and he can’t open it. Well, he can. He can’t reply to it, which is even worse. The idea of spending the day chatting with Anya made going to work more tolerable, if he has to be honest with himself. First, because she’s a fucking delight, and she makes him laugh, and she’s amazing. And second, well. Because if he shows how charming he is most of the time, it will make turning into an asshole once in a while less painful to her?

Straws. Grasping.

Fuck Gleb.

Dmitry closes his eyes and sighs, before he grabs his phone. She sent one of those cat-picture-with-a-comment-in-Russian-badly-translated-into-English things from Tumblr. Which, it’s adorable. He loves it. Especially because it’s two kittens kissing, with *тьмок* written in big white letters. It’s less a meme and more obvious flirting at this point and he can’t fucking answer because his boss is a fucking asshole. He hates his life.

He flips his phone so the screen is against his desk, closes the Whatsapp web tab he usually has opened, and goes back to the Google Doc. He needs more coffee if he has to go through all of this without quitting on the spot. As if hearing his thoughts, Vlad is suddenly at his side, two fuming mugs in hands. Vlad, his saviour.

“You look like you need some liquid comfort,” the older man says.

“I love you so much right now,” Dmitry replies without even an ounce of sarcasm in his voice. He moans a little at the coffee, even more so when the after-taste of whiskey hits him and Vlad smirks.

Vlad.

His fucking saviour.

“Don’t let them get you down,” Vlad says in hushed tones. “I… If you want, I may have some contacts in London.”

Dmitry’s eyes widen, just a little. “What.”

His friend shrugs, before he leans against the desk. Mug to his lips, to hide his mouth from wandering eyes. “Lily, she knows people. We can find you something, if you want.”

Dmitry’s mouth must be hanging open at this point. He picks it from the floor, and blinks in confusion several times. “You’d do that? For me?”

Vlad chuckles, his almost-but-not-quite Santa laugh, and puts a hand on Dmitry’s shoulder. “You’re wasting your potential here. All those idiots, they don’t matter much. But you, you’re not supposed to be here.”

“What about you?” Dmitry finds himself asking, because. Well. He can’t think of much else right now, to be honest.

Vlad’s only response is a shrug, at first, and for a moment Dmitry believes he will leave it at that. But the older man takes a sip of his coffee, before he replies, “I don’t mind. It keeps me busy, and that’s all I need.”

Dmitry blinks again. It doesn’t chase away the confusion. But then he remembers his nice little discussion with Gleb yesterday, and the threats, and his mood goes sour once again. “I need to finish this first,” he says with a glare at the screen. “I need this article. I need to finish it. I need… nerves of steel.”

Vlad squeezes his shoulder once more, as if he understands perfectly what Dmitry means behind this babbling nonsense. And perhaps he does, who knows. “I will tell Lily to ask around, okay? You can work on your resignation letter in the meanwhile.”

“You’re the fucking best.”

“Don’t I know it,” Vlad answers, raising his mug, before he goes back to his own desk.

Dmitry smiles at him, then to himself. He rolls his shoulders and cracks his knuckles, before focusing back on his computer screen. He can do this. He fucking can do this, and he will. And anyway, he has a paragraph to write, one filled to the brim with praises about his girlfriend’s video game skills. He can fucking do this.

 …

 Anya gets stuck in one meeting after another today, which is good for her brain, but not so much for her nerves. It’s stressful, to jump from a meeting to a professional lunch to a reunion about their annual budget, to a meeting with parents. Too many things to remembers, to write down, to check. She carries her professional tablet and her huge filofax everywhere she goes, a pen tucked behind her ear, but it doesn’t stop her brain from frying halfway through the day.

Thankfully for her, she gets a full hour break in the middle of the afternoon, just enough for her to hide in her office with a cup of tea. Closed door, switched-off computer, phone on silence. Nothing but boiling tea and some chocolate cookies.

And, apparently, Alexei keeping her company.

“You mind?” he asks, even if he doesn’t wait her answer to enter her office and throw himself on the couch she keeps there for informal meetings. His messenger bag falls to the floor, and Alexei puts his arm above his eyes, ever the dramatic boy. “Library hours are exhausting.”

“Tell me about it,” she replies with a roll of her eyes.

She doesn’t necessary miss university, but after a day as full as hers, the idea of just sitting in a lecture hall and take notes, all the while chatting with her friends… well, it makes her nostalgic, just a little. She doesn’t miss exams, though. Not that Alexei has a lot of those anymore, spending his days between the library and seminars with clueless undergrads.

She sighs a little, before grabbing the cookie box and throwing it to Alexei. It lands on his chest and he huffs, then shoves two of them in his mouth. Gross. Anya makes a face, even more so when he grins at her, before she frowns.

“Did you get into a fight?” she asks.

The bruise is barely there, and she would probably have missed it were it not for the way Alexei stretched his neck to look at her above the armrest. He rolls his eyes, then smirks. “If you can call it a fight.”

It takes Anya two seconds to understand. Then to glower at him. “Are you purposefully not taking your meds to show off hickeys?”

Alexei doesn’t even look sorry, which is what makes her mad. He simply shrugs, like it’s not important, not dangerous. “I’m fine, okay? Find some chill.”

“Find some -- Alexei! What if something happened?”

“Stop being such an Olga about it!”

He sits up, to give a little more power to his glare, but it doesn’t have much of an effect of Anya. Not when she remembers him being thirteen and stupid, showing off in front of his friends by jumping into the ocean from a cliff. His leg had hit a rock at the bottom of the sea, and what would have been a nasty bruise for any teenager turned out to be two weeks at the hospital for him. She still remembers him, pale and sweating and whimpering, before the meds kicked him and knocked him out. She still remember how purple and ugly the bruise on his leg looked. She still remembers it all too well.

“Stop being so reckless with your meds!”

“I’m fine, okay!” And then, because he’s Alexei, his mood switches in about half a second and he smirks at her. “And speaking of hickeys…”

Anya’s hand goes straight to her neck, a blush burning on her cheeks. She put some concealer on this morning, if only to look nice and proper at work, but Alexei never misses anything. Not even the hickeys Dmitry branded into her skin despite her breathless, laughing protests.

Alexei sits cross-legged on the couch and shoves another cookie in his mouth, still smirking, raising his eyebrows at her. Sometimes, Anya wonders why exactly she considers him her best friend, because he’s nothing but insufferable at best. He can play the annoying little brother part too perfectly for his own good, truth be told.

“That’s none of your business,” she says in her ‘drop it now’ voice.

Not that Alexei cares much about that, mind you. “Maria says you two are a thing now? Like, proper couple, not just the bet thing.”

Any can’t help it; she glances at her phone. She refuses to be that clingy girl who’s upset about a boy not texting her back, even more so when there is a logical explanation to it. She’s not stupid, she can draw her own conclusions as to why Dmitry suddenly stopped texting her after nine in the morning. She won’t make it weird. It’s not because she decided to flirt with Russian memes. It’s just, he’s busy. She’s busy. They’re busy. It’s fine, really, she won’t make a mountain out of a molehill.

“Don’t change the subject,” she snaps at Alexei. “Take your meds or I’m telling Olga.”

Alexei crosses his arms on his chest, chin tilted up, like the little brat he is. “You’re not the boss of me.”

“Take your meds or I’m telling Nana.”

He doesn’t move, at first, but hesitation flashes through his eyes. Anya doesn’t look away from him, defiant, waiting a few more seconds before she stretches her hand as if to grab her phone. She doesn’t need to go that far, though, because Alexei reaches for his own phone first.

He goes through it for a few seconds, before putting it to his ear. Anya listens intently as he makes an appointment with the nurse for his injection in two hours’ time. Good boy. It doesn’t really make his glare go away, not that Anya expected it too. He can be mad all he wants, but at least he will be safe. That’s all she wants for him.

Anya relaxes back in her chair and takes a sip of her tea. With a smile of her own, she says, “I only have twenty minutes left before my meeting, so choose quickly. You can sulk or I can tell you about my date last night.”

She glances at her phone to play it cool -- no text from Dmitry -- while Alexei’s frown turns into a grin. Too easy.

 …

 Dmitry can follow the rules, but he knows how to find a damn loophole when he needs one. He’s going his brains about him, after all, and so he dutifully waits until midnight. Day three, right? No more of that silence treatment bullshit.