BoingBoing, one of my favorite websites, just posted a photo-essay by Bob Harris on his recent trip to the DMZ, the empty strip of land separating North Korea from South Korea. Nana and I have been wanting to take said trip for some time now, but work keeps getting in the way.
Check it out: Link.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Taking the GRE in Korea: Continued
Well, despite all omens to the contrary, Nana and I successfully took the GRE yesterday. And by "successfully," I mean that we (read: Nana) found the place, they let us in, and neither of us got violently ill during the exam (though it was touch and go for a while there).
This is nothing less than a minor triumph for us, representing a year's worth of accumulated wisdom about living in the ROK. Here are just a few of the lessons we would not have known this time last year:
1. Always find the place a few days before you actually have to be there. It takes much better Korean than either of us have to find a location on the fly.
2. The right hand never knows what the left hand is doing--if any one part of an organization tells you something, confirm it with every part you'll come in contact with, ASAP. This is why we didn't rest with ETS's admissions ticket solution (previous post)--we had to call the test center itself and confirm with the actual proctors that they would let me in with an e-mail from ETS--and even then, they almost didn't let me in.
3. Never depend on the Korean post office. My admission ticket was supposed to arrive last Tuesday. I'll be surprised if it gets here at all.
4. Don't eat Korean food before a test. EVER.
As for the test itself, I'm pretty sure we didn't do as well as we might have--we were both nursing pretty hefty colds--but hopefully we did well enough.
Now it's time to track down my admission ticket for the Nov. 8 literature subject test. The end is in sight (as are more frequent blog posts, I promise)!
This is nothing less than a minor triumph for us, representing a year's worth of accumulated wisdom about living in the ROK. Here are just a few of the lessons we would not have known this time last year:
1. Always find the place a few days before you actually have to be there. It takes much better Korean than either of us have to find a location on the fly.
2. The right hand never knows what the left hand is doing--if any one part of an organization tells you something, confirm it with every part you'll come in contact with, ASAP. This is why we didn't rest with ETS's admissions ticket solution (previous post)--we had to call the test center itself and confirm with the actual proctors that they would let me in with an e-mail from ETS--and even then, they almost didn't let me in.
3. Never depend on the Korean post office. My admission ticket was supposed to arrive last Tuesday. I'll be surprised if it gets here at all.
4. Don't eat Korean food before a test. EVER.
As for the test itself, I'm pretty sure we didn't do as well as we might have--we were both nursing pretty hefty colds--but hopefully we did well enough.
Now it's time to track down my admission ticket for the Nov. 8 literature subject test. The end is in sight (as are more frequent blog posts, I promise)!
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