About one week ago, Sogang University held its annual cultural festival and we foreign students were, of course, expected to participate. I chose to take part in the Hanbok Fashion Show, of which photos can be found here (along with some photos of myself I took in a coffee shop because it seemed like a waste not to take photos when someone had put professional make-up on me ):

 http://neavanille.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=8

We started preparation at around 9 AM with the fashion show scheduled at 2:30 PM, and I didn’t know until approximately 2 PM that I was even going to walk! We ran hopelessly out of suitable hanboks, so the majority of girls didn’t get to participate (horribly incompetent management on Sogang’s part here – they had us register a few days beforehand so they should have known how many of us were going to show up, and prepare enough hanboks for all of us). For about 5 hours, the others girls and I just sat around, chatted (I made several new friends that day and had it not been for them, what ended up being a memorable experience would have deteriorated into an infinitely boring and dull day dragged down by the first 5 hours of sitting around and sloooowly, one-by-one, getting our hair and make-up done). Something that was quite entertaining during the dressing-up process was sneaking looks at the boys next-door who we all felt looked an amazing lot like soldiers or samurai in their curious-looking hanboks.

When it finally came to walking on the stage, I felt it was very thrilling to be watched by so many people, and ended up flashing the crowd peace-signs and making love signs (that’s when you raise both arms and touch your head with your hands, causing your arms to imitate the form of a heart). Later, I ended up dancing (uh, headbanging) on the sideline while we were waiting for some of the other participants to finish their walk, and from what a couple of people told me, I got more attention than the people on the stage. I guess they’d all seen girls walking around in hanboks close to a millionth time, but seeing a girl dancing and shaking her booty in a hanbok might have been somewhat of a novelty.

 In other news, I have mid-terms on Friday. I can’t believe time passed so quickly, and that half of my first term at Sogang is already over! I expect to ace mid-terms and get an A. School is still ridiculously easy, although it has gotten a lot more interesting lately.

The temperatures here are rapidly going south and autumn has long since completely taken over. The blanket I bought 3 months now is much too thin now and I find myself freezing at night. Girls no longer wear mini-skirts on the street (a tragedy, I suppose) and Shinchon is quite empty at night these days while it was consistently bustling at 3 AM throughout the past couple of months. I guess a lot of college students are settling into a quieter life now that summer is over and winter is inevitably going to take over.

Just as well, more time to watch dramas. ;D