It is crazy how it is Week 7 for my exchange semester already! I am almost halfway through the spring semester, so I am getting a bit sad. I feel like I just got here, so this week I really wanted to do a lot before I had to study for midterms. However, the week did not start off too well. My roommate went to Busan the past weekend and came back with Covid-19. Since we both live in the dorms, the RA forced me to go into a quarantine room which did not really make sense. I did not know why I had to quarantine even though my roommate was one that tested positive. I was very upset because I had planned fun things for this week. My roommate was supposed to be transferred to a quarantine facility for a week, but they did not come to pick her up until the next day in the evening. So I was exposed for quite some time. I have mentioned it before, and my stance remains the same. The management at Korea University is terrible.
My RA told me to take a covid test to which she sent me a specific location to go to. 
When I got there, I waited a long time. I think I waited for almost an hour to only be told I had to pay 30,000krw because I did not have the national health insurance. I was a bit confused, because I paid for the USC Study Abroad Health Insurance. In the end, I had to go home without getting tested because I had class. I emailed the Marshall IEP director to figure out how to use my insurance, but found out I had to fill out a lot of forms to get my payment reimbursed. I thought it was too much complicated work, so I gave up and just decided to go back the next day and pay to get tested. I came back negative, but my RA still wanted me to pack my bags for one week to move into a quarantine room. I was told they will disinfect my room, but that I cannot come back for one week which does not really make sense? I am negative, yet I was not able to go back into my disinfected room……
Korea University management never made sense ever since I got here, so I am not even surprised anymore. 
Anyways, I went out to Seongsu to meet up with a friend the next day. We went to Seoul Forest Park which is another popular destination for cherry blossom viewing. It is going to rain the next day, which means all the flowers will fall so we really had to go on this day. My friend and I grabbed coffee before heading over to the park as we knew we needed some energy boost for our long day ahead. It was really crowded just like the time I mentioned on my previous blog, except this park was much bigger so it felt less crowded. My friends and I brought our polaroid so we got the chance to take some really cute pictures for the memories!
Afterwards, we just walked around Seongsu and grabbed dinner at an Italian restaurant which served pizza and pasta! We mainly just spent the rest of the night walking around the aesthetic neighborhood and enjoyed the scenery. There was a lot of people as many, just as us, were coming from the Seoul Forest Park. The lines to enter cafes were so long we decided to skip it this time even though we really wanted to go! Seongsu is a really trendy and cute neighborhood with many artsy cafes. I will most likely be coming back next day on a less busy day to enjoy the cafe scene here. It started getting chilly at night, but not too cold to the point we had to wear a jacket so today’s weather was really great!
That's a wrap for today's blog, see you in the next blog when I have to actually start prepping for midterms season!