Aaand 꿑!

It's official, our Sogang days are behind us. All in all, it's been a great experience, I've met some good friends, and while my Korean is still not where I'd like it to be, it's vastly improved from when we first started. I've come to realize that this is going to have to be an ongoing process and I need to accept that I'll probably never be fully fluent. The best I can hope for is to be functionally fluent, with an accent that'll always sound a little off to normal Koreans. But I'm okay with that.

Birth Father came in town the other day and we were able to have some serious conversations with him. My reason for studying was to reach that level, so I feel like this year was well-spent.

So here's the mandatory picture with my Level 4 class at graduation.

Our speaking teacher is in the middle with the Japanese beer we gave her as a thank you present.

I'd say after Level 4, there seems to be a lot of turnover among the students at Sogang. It's probably because if you start at Level 1, reaching Level 4 means you've spent a year studying. So, a lot of the people who started at Level 1 with us are returning to their hometowns.

We attended a going away party for one of Mark's friends from Turkey.

It's kind of a strange feeling to know we'll probably never see some of these people again as their hometowns are miles away from ours. Leaving Poly, it just didn't seem so final since most of the teachers were from North America, so I always kind of assumed we'd reunite at some point. But when people are heading off to Russia, Turkey, Taiwan, Japan... it'll be a bit trickier to meet up. I guess that'll just give Mark and me and major incentive to earn a lot of money so we can travel the world and see these people once again. :)

Anyway, thanks Sogang for the memories, friends, and the Korean skills~ I'll never forget you. ^^