Update

Hello again! It's Masha~
Now that our winter vacation is over, many of us are preparing to go to our spring host families.

Winter break was pretty enjoyable, albeit a bit hectic. Nonetheless, I've found that living in Seoul really matches my rhythm of life. Among the things that I did over this winter break, there are a few worth mentioning.

First of all, with less time in school and more time to focus on my Korean studies, I found that my language skills have really improved over this time. Just yesterday I went to see a movie with a good friend of mine, and could easily follow the dialogue- even tearing up a bit at the saddest parts and laughing at the funniest parts!

7번방의 선물(The Present in Room 7); I really recommend watching it!~

Secondly, I was able to enjoy Lunar New Years with my host family and their large extended host family. At that time I visited  the my family's ancestral grave and also had a large feast with all of the family members! The day before I even made mandu with my host mother and host aunts!~

They looked good, and they tasted even better!! 

Lastly, after all the initial business of our winter schedule, I decided to to take some quiet days to relax, have some leisure time, and enjoy. I even found a new cat cafe while walking around the other day! :)

Since my host family doesn't have pets, it was nice to play with cats again, and the coffee was pretty good too ^_^

Well, that's it for me, bye!!~

Winter winter winter

Hey everyone! It's DiMitri again!

January was definitely an interesting month. I found myself spending a lot more time at home this month, surprisingly. I spent a lot of time with my host siblings (who are ADORABLE), and I talked a lot with my host parents. I found that in the past month we've corrected a lot of the stereotypes we had about each other's cultures, and I learned so much about Korean culture and Korean people.

Daniel here! Sorry I have no pictures at this time because besides work I haven't  really been up to much. January is my favorite month. Not only is my birthday in January but it is also the first month of the year. This is also the time of the year when everyone makes their New Years resolutions. Obviously my first resolution was to lose weight. It's just got to go. Secondly, I told myself that I would work harder at Korean. Up until now, I realized I was taking this whole scholarship for granted. My mindset was" Oh, I'm in Korea for free I want to have fun!" But this isn't the reason for the program and it's surely not the reason my mom was thinking, so I have been doing my best to accel in Korean. Because it's January, I believe it marks the half-way point on our trip. It's hard to believe this much time has passed. By now, all of our Korean knowledge has expanded exponentially and we have a better understanding of Korean life and culture.

Now that we are on break, I hope we all get to have a fun New Years {again}. Anyone going out of town? My only plans are to get all this winter break work done and finally have time to get together with a friend and go to the movies and practice my Korean. One more thing. I'm really excited about our song activity. I think it is cool that we are creating a song that will set the tone for future NSLI-Y Korea programs. AndI also like how we picked out group names! How cute. So I guess that is all for now.

3NIGMA OUT!