Onsen and Korean Week

I've realized that I barely have any time these days for free time with all of the studying I'm doing after my long classes. We have our midterm on Monday which came so quickly!! I am really nervous!
Last week was Korean week for the cultural weeks and I went to some of the events. It rained for most of the week so most of their events got pushed back but we went to the "Korean Idol" event on Thursday. I swear all Asians have beautiful voices because there were so many of them on stage and they could all sing so well. There was singing and dancing on the outside stadium here between the buildings. I stayed for a while before I had to go back and study so it was a good break from the day. I also learned how to make Korean food one of the days! There was a dessert pancake, spicy soup, mochi balls (a gooey ball made from pounded rice), and a rice snack square. I got the recipe for the dessert pancakes because they were absolutely delicious. This is one thing I love about living in the dorm on this campus- I am so involved in every event they have and I have learned so much about out countries and their cultures. Every Friday night is the final show which I went to with a couple of friends and it was very interesting. I learned that the Korean alphabet is made up of only three symbols- that's it! すごい！(cool!)
On Wednesday, a couple of the people in my program, one of their buddies, and I went to a "secret onsen." An onsen is a natural bath made of hot water that comes out of the ground. The locals use the hot steam that comes up from the earth as a natural bath and steam room. They make mini huts from reeds to keep the smoke in and either go in there or even cook things- we had pudding cooked by the steam of the earth! The only problem is it smells pretty bad from the sulfur but once you get used to it then it isn't that bad. We had to hike up a hill for about an hour- realized that we went the wrong way and hiked about half way back down before finding the right way. It was definitely a long walk and I felt the pain the next day but it was well worth the trip. It was a small area tucked away on the middle of the hill. There were a bunch of tubs there that were all different temperatures which was awesome- we went from one to another a few times before leaving. Beppu, the city I am in, is considered the capital of onsens in Japan which is pretty interesting and I'm glad I got to experience it. After soaking in the onsens, we went and got homemade udon noodles from a small restaurant on the way to the bus stop. I got home and passed out from the amazing bath and it made my skin feel so smooth. After the onsen we were supposed to go to a karoke party but it got rescheduled due to everyone having too much homework that day. I was looking forward to it though because karoke in Japan is very different than in America!