Korean High School Admission (Part 2)

The next part of the admission process is over and another waiting game begins.

Quick recap of this month:
Week 2. Part 1 Submission of documents online (3 days)
Week 3. Result for the qualified ones and submission of personal essay the next day (2 days.)
Week 4. The interview.

We were scheduled to be there at 12 o'clock which is just super fine with me as the official driver, moral supporter/parent. :D We had time to cook and eat hoteok as brunch (not necessarily the best choice for nutrition but all for setting the good mood for a possibly stressful hours ahead.) I had my gears packed: 3 screens, papers, and snacks. I knew we will be in for a long wait.

We got to the premises almost on the dot, drop the kid off and found myself a good place to park. There were already a lot of cars in the field/parking lot but not as full as it was during the "orientation." As few minutes after we got there, the morning set started to finish and leave.  I didn't bother to go inside for the next 2 hours since there were a lot of other parents going in and out of the building just waiting.

Much more than the interview that got us there in the first place, I was keen on working on my monthly plan, writing and figuring out my new Ipad. lol. Kidding aside, I knew it would be another few hours of hanging so gotta keep myself busy. I chose to stick inside the car but when I finally felt cold and needed a break, I went in to get some hot drinks. There were still a few more parents waiting inside near the heater, and inside the gym while some are milling about with younger kids in tow. I just can't stand sitting around with them while waiting for the interview to finish. I headed out for a walk to warm myself up.

I found a nice little hill behind the school with about a hundred steps to the top. It took me a minute to go up but almost two to go down. I had to stop in the middle as I've realized that it's because it's steep and I had to be more careful as I take each step while looking down. There's more "fright factor" in every step. Unlike heading up, my focus is on what's at the top.

It's time to head back to the car even if I still wanted to explore since my battery is almost gone. I had no idea when my kid will finish and call so better find a way to charge. It still took almost an hour's worth of me making a rough template on the "good notes" app. All is good for the day except for the blog writing that I didn't get around to as there was not much call to write for me. ;) (This came later day.)

My kid finally emerged from the building around half past four and he was, of course, hungry. We both were. I got a bit of quick run down of what happened at the interview in the drive back home but we left more details for later. We hurried home to cook rice and salmon for dinner with an hour or so before my husband got home around half past six.

So here is what we got from the kid.

The phones were collected and they were made to wear graduation gowns over their clothes. Only some papers were allowed while waiting. Unfortunately, kid didn't bring any book. And the gowns, I figured it's to keep any bias towards outfits and all. Hubs also thought the same. Pretty neat.

There were two rooms. One for the similar question and the next is for the more random ones.

There were 4 questions.
1st Q. They were given a few minutes and a sheet of paper to write down their answers. This, I think, is to jump start the interviewees to answer questions and calm the nerves. I really had no idea if P had to calm any nerves since he said that he fell asleep while waiting for hours. :D

2nd to 4th Qs. The basic oral questions which can sometimes be actually fun for both parties. As an interviewee, you have to think on your feet, be creative while being honest and leave a good impression. As an interviewer, it's interesting how different people will behave in such circumstances and how varied their answers will be for the same questions. I find interviews pretty interesting, generally speaking, as long as it is not an oral-quiz-kind of interview. That reminds me of something else that I really don't want to rehash right now.

Back to the present interview, the kid emerge not feeling very confident on how it went. It was all a very new experience for him. Some questions were from real life while some were a bit philosophical.

One question was about the country's declining population, and another from his self-introduction essay. He was pressed to come up with a "career type" of question and his answer totally had both me and his father trying to suppress our laughs. We instantly thought about the time when we were stressing out over his essay. Writer.

But who knows? The next three years of his high school life might be a revelation on what he can do, whether it be writing, public speaking, or something. I'll leave at that.

We got a few days to wait for the final result on this whole thing and I can now start on the "lists" and financial part of this next phase. One day at a time.