Spring(ing) in(to) Seoul: The One and Only Mid-term Exam

So I had a very peculiar mid-term exam today that lasted 6 hours (10am to 4pm). I initially thought that I should treat it as a 3-hour exam (like those back in SMU) and leave by 1pm to get lunch but 1pm came and went. 2pm crawled by without pausing at all and before we knew it, it was already 3pm. As I've told some of my friends, I don't even sit at my desk/in front of my laptop for more than 4 hours at a time so today's experience was really.. hardcore. I didn't even leave for a toilet break hahaha lest I lose the comfortable sitting/typing position I was in (ah, inertia). The exam was clearly designed to be a 5/6-hour paper - the instructions page actually revealed that it was meant to be a take-home exam report - and although the professor had mentioned that we could leave for breaks at any time, hardly anyone left. I finished the paper around 3.10pm, spent the next half an hour reducing the word count and zoomed out of class (for high tea) by 3.40pm. You would imagine that most of the students would be done by then but surprisingly, when I left at 3.40pm, more than two-thirds of the class was still typing away at their laptops. There was this one caucasian guy who finished his paper around 2-ish pm though - thumbs up to him! (or is this just badass behavior haha)

This exam was also very intriguing for many other reasons, namely: we were expected to type our exam report on Microsoft Word (and then submitt it through an online portal), we could use the internet, we could access our notes in soft-copy, we could basically do anything we wanted to on our computers, the professor never showed up (teaching assistant was there instead), and we could leave for unlimited toilet/lunch/destress/pull-hair-out-in-frustration breaks. The only things we couldn't do were talk in the classroom or use our phones (collected by the teaching assistant before the start of the exam). I don't think the phones were confiscated to prevent communication between/among students/outsiders though since we could have done that through email or the desktop mobile apps - my guess is that the professor didn't want the exam questions to be leaked and hence, decided to confiscate the phones (I arrived at this conclusion because I really wanted to take a photo of the exam questions midway through the exam.. but couldn't do so). The no-speaking-in-class rule was pretty absurd though - there's no way to stop students from talking outside of the classroom during breaks so I don't get the logic behind restricting conversations in class. One could prolly leave for a 1-hour break and go discuss all 3 exam questions with one's exam kakis in detail - there's absolutely nuffing the teaching assistant can do. The best part today was the professor who was MIA throughout the 6 hours - I spotted a typo in the exam paper 5 minutes into the exam and asked the TA about it. The TA said he would message the professor but he never got back to me - cheat my feelings -.-! Around 2.30pm, more people started to alert the TA about the typo and it was only then, did the TA reveal that.. bravo! he couldn't get in touch with the professor to inquire about it. He then proceeded to read the sentence in question and asked us hesitantly, "do you think this is a typo?" I was just like... (=__________=)" You ask us, we ask who?!

If you're wondering whether the law exams here are difficult, I would answer in the affirmative. The questions were definitely not easy (why do you think we needed 6 hours to tackle them haha) and if one didn't prepare for it by studying the course materials, I think it would be quite difficult to even churn out a decent response. In fact, even though I did revise, I had problems answering one of the questions. D: I totally wasn't expecting this on exchange (why so exhausting?!) but pheww, very fortunately, I only had this one mid-term exam. AND IT'S OVER! GOOD RIDDANCE!

After the draining exam, I had to go rest my brain and feed my stomach so I ended up in Macdonalds for lunch/high-tea/early-dinner. I had their signature Bulgogi burger with a small pack of fries and mineral water (4000W in total; more worth it than a set) and as usual, it was yummy! My only grouse is that they don't serve chilli sauce at their fast-food outlets here.. much less stuff like curry or bbq sauce haha I haven't visited most of the fast-food restaurants here yet - just 2 visits to Macdonalds and I got a Bulgogi burger on both visits - but I think I should (despite the unhealthiness) because we won't get to try all these unique flavours back home. Perhaps one visit to a fast-food outlet every fortnight?

Then I trekked back to my dormitory, zoned out in the lobby for 20 minutes, rested (more like paced around my room listlessly and washed my face) in my room for 20 minutes before my doorbell rung. Time to go out (read: drag weary body, mind and soul) out again. It was my idea to go watch the Lantern festival today (came up with the idea like three days ago so I didn't expect this level of mental exhaustion) but it was pretty enjoyable overall to hang out with friends. I didn't get to watch the entire parade in the end because my friends were Christian and lost interest soon after.. but oh well, at least I got to watch at least 40 minutes of it! We lounged at Caffe Benne after dinner - I had a sweet potato latte (meh, once is enough) - and had a leisurely stroll back to dormitory.

Lotus Lantern Festival (연등회 연등축제)

The Lotus Lantern Festival is held every year on April 8th (lunar calendar) in honor of Buddha's Birth. The festival is preceded by hanging of lotus-shaped lanterns across Seoul for several weeks, and officially kicks off with lighting of the Jangeumdang, a large lantern that symbolizes Buddhism and Buddha's Birthday, at the Seoul Plaza. The celebration continues with a wide array of Buddhist programs and activities, before ending with an impressive lantern parade in the heart of Seoul.