Korean cinema night

So, today went, as usual, much like any other - lessons came and went, I got an answer from Christine Walters about YA project, although I have not yet established what it is that I have to do for this coming year. Hopefully, she should be able to get back to me within the following week and let me know. Once there I also went to the dekanat to try and give them the papers about having paid for the dormitory. However, I was unable to do so as I failed to bring along the essential paper which they needed to stamp. Fortunately, the woman at the dormitory was quite understanding, as when i got back, she asked me for my papers, and I told her that I could get them to her on Monday. No problem there!

'kimbap' - taken off a korean food website

Almost immediately after getting back in, I went out again to meet up with all the others on my floor as well as some of the other Russian people and Ingrid, an American girl who also studies here. JungHeum had got us all tickets to the Korean film festival which is going on in Irkutsk for the next couple of days, so we went to that. We socialised with some of the other people there, and then, after a drumming thing which went on in the foyer, we went on into a large room where there was food for all of us - I managed to get to eat a bit of everything - including 'kimbap', a kind of korean sushi (given as I've never eaten sushi before, I felt this was fairly brave, but a step in a new direction of not being afraid to eat strange foods!).

The Korean musicians before the film

After the food, we were called into the cinema / theatre stage - firstly we sat through some traditional Korean music which was really good, and very enjoyable, despite the fact that I fell asleep during the second one and was awaken by a nudge from Ingrid. Sat through the rest of it, and then through some speeches by some Korean delegates in Russia, followed by the most bizarre film I've ever watched (K>Motions) - not helped by the fact that it was all in Korean with Russian subtitles. It was quite amusing, but also very odd, and I spent a large section of my time there just staring blankly at the screen and wondering what on earth was going on! Juan and Luís have invited me to go with them to Baikalsk tomorrow on a visit, but frankly I'm not entirely convinced - a communist era city with a large contaminating paper factory spewing dirt out into the Baikal is hardly going to be a pretty site - I intend to go at some point, but seeing as I went to Listvianka last weekend and may be going to Ulan Ude the next weekend, it may be best if I take one weekend off and go around the city for a bit - I'm quite keen to see the ice-breaker, the old Russian cemeteries and churches dotted around Irkutsk...