Snow! And a Letter from the Frontlines

Today was the first snow of winter! I woke up and looked out my window to see big fluffy snowflakes. It snowed on and off today, but later it warmed up so most of it melted. It was still beautiful.

I had my final exam for my North and South Korea class today. It was an essay comparing and contrasting the two Korea's economy. It went very well, I like essay exams because it is not muscle memory, but analyzing information and organizing it into a paper. I am so glad that class is over because I did not enjoy the teachers methods of presenting the information for the class. I won't go into details, but it seemed that he was more interested in criticizing the Korean students english rather than teaching the subject. I will be more careful about the classes and teachers I choose next semester.

Oh, today I got a letter back from the Korean soldier I wrote to. I don't know if I mentioned this in an earlier post, but one of my exchange partners has a friend currently serving his required two year term in the army. His name is Sang Hoon and is a Marine serving near the border. In fact, he said that he is stationed not too far from where the attack occured two weeks ago. My exchange partner asked me if I would write him a letter because he wanted to write an English speaking person, I guess to keep his English up until he returns to school. I wrote him a letter about a month ago, and today she gave me his response letter. It was super cute, he sent the letter on this Marine stationary that has this funny saying on it: "Love is a game. Easy to start. Hard to finish." Really strange thing to have on army paper, but I got a kick out of it. It was really sweet, I had written that I really appreciated his service to his country and keeping it safe. He wrote back that I shouldn't worry about the growing tension between the two Koreas: "Don't be afraid. I should defend our country against the enemy." He finishes his service this Christmas and will be back at Soonchunhyang in the spring. I am excited to meet him and to hear more about life on an army base that can see into North Korea. I'm sure he has some very interesting stories, especially from the last few months.