My recent freak-out has been rationalized and now contained. I feel much better about things and am ready to move on.

Yesterday, I made my third attempt to find the vegan buffet at one of the SNU dining halls. For whatever reason, I have a terrible time navigating the campus. It is very hilly, and the main thoroughfare goes around the campus rather than directly through it; I can’t find anything in the middle. The buildings are labeled not by name, but by seemingly randomly assigned number. There is some order to the placement of buildings, but for the most part, I find it to be bewildering. Moreover, not all of the buildings have the numbers prominently displayed on the sides. I managed to walk right past the building and take a long, round-about tour of the campus instead.

[On Monday, I had offered to be a participant in a linguistics graduate student's study after seeing her flyer on the bulletin board outside my classroom. I accommodated her schedule and got to campus several hours before my class starts. Only once I got to the study room did I see her last-minute text messages saying that something had come up and asking if I could reschedule. Nope.]

Ugh! I spent about 30 minutes walking around the campus looking for it. I stumbled across some sleepy humanities students:

And I tried to use this pretty pond to orient myself. Alas, no luck.

Finally, I found it!

On my prison-style tray, I had a bean paste soup, sweet rice drink, rice + beans, acorn jelly + seaweed soup, salad, sweet & sour tofu and mushrooms, steamed squash, some green thing, and a pile of seaweed with spicy sauce. There were actually three kinds of soup, and I was distressed that my tray didn’t have enough compartments for all the bowls. Unfortunately, this didn’t keep me full for very long, maybe too much liquid?

The buffet was 5000KRW, so I probably won’t go there daily. (Plus, it’s up a hill….) Still, it’s nice to know it’s there.