End of Spring

One of the greatest things in this world is impacting the life of another human being. It also happens to be one of the scariest.


I'm currently at the calm before the storm with regards to my final semester here in Korea. This week I have two days off due to holidays. Well, not really holidays. I have monday off because it's my university's birthday, and everyone has Wednesday off because it's election day. After that, it's finals and all the goodness that comes with them (end of the year papers/projects). In between this and my last blog post, I talked about all the performances I'd be doing. I shall now elaborate on those.

I ended up performing throughout the day for the global festival that my university hosted. Every university usually has a big spring festival, and during ours, the international students had booths to promote their home countries. Some countries even put on performances showcasing their culture. I ended up performing and working the booth. I also performed twice (first performance I did 3 rounds, second performance I did 2). However, the place where they put the international booths was in the back of a popular building. The big problem to this is the "in the back" part. No one goes there. Which meant we never really had a big crowd...ever. Add to the fact that I had a problem with the sound (played from laptop speakers?!) and you have an unhappy performing Kevin. The fact that I did a total of five rounds by myself being out of practice is irritating enough. Add really quiet sound and a very small crowd (least for the first performance. The second one they tried to fix the sound problem and rounded up more people), and I almost didn't do it. The second performance was alright though. Anyways, following the festival I had to go to the southern part of Seoul for another performance.

I was originally told that I'd be taking part in this next performance. Then I was told that I would just be a guest performer. Then I was told that I'd just be a spectator. Then I was told I could go out and dance at the end. All of this information was delivered to me in the span of less than a week leading up to the performance. Man was that annoying. When it was all said and done, I realized what the true story was. The person who invited me to this performance is someone well connected with the dance society of Seoul. I actually have no idea how or what this old dude does, but I do know that he knows EVERYONE. I first met him at my performance last semester with the ballerinas. He ended up getting my number from my professor of that performance. Anyways, basically what the truth of the story was, was that he invited me out to this hip hop/bboy performance more as like his ambassador, and at the end of the performance, the performers had an open cypher (where anyone was welcome to come out and dance). Only it wasn't really an open cypher. The only people that went out and danced in it were the performers and some of their crew members. However, I would have been much more inclined to jumping in the cypher had I not been dressed semi-formal. I was under the impression that this wasn't a typical hip hop style performance based on the information I had received. Turns out it was, and everyone except for the VIPs were dressed comfortably. As a result, I was on the other side of the table so to speak (I was part of the VIP section). It was very weird to be on that other side. It was also rather uncomfortable, and part of me felt like a traitor haha. Anyways, not being one to let things go to waste, I ended up trying to learn as much as I could from interacting with these rich old dudes.

Two of them were professional dance critics. One of whom was an asshole. The other of which was pretty cool. Another old dude was a retired actor, who had been in some famous drama back in the day. I don't know who two of the others were (never talked to them), and if you add me and the old dude who invited me then that makes a group of 7. Anyways, being curious as to what credentials these two old dance critics had, I went about trying to see what exactly they knew about bboying and hip hop. The jerkoff old dude ignored me pretty much the entire time, but the cool old dude talked with me. He also asked for my own perspective, since I'm an actual bboy. Being satisfied with the cool old dude's thoughts, and after a couple of free beers, I peaced out and headed to meet one of my friends for her birthday party. The performance itself was pretty dope, despite not being able to interact with the performers afterward (at least not in bboy Kevin mode. No one gave me the respect they would have had I shown I was a real bboy. Instead I was the Western VIP).

The next day after that, Friday (keep in mind I'm fairly exhausted and am starting to feel the onslaught of a cold), while I was out drinking with some friends, I got contacted by one of my former students and friend from State, Eric. Turned out he is on an Asian study abroad for Urban Development. I asked him if he wanted to battle because there just so happened to be some battles going on that Saturday. Seeing this as our only opportunity to battle in Seoul together, we decided to cancel any plans we had and head off to that. It was a 3v3 but we were a team of 2. Sall good though. We had a blast AND we made it past prelims into the top 16, despite being exhausted. Following our victorious adventure, I proceeded to meet the other Spartans on his study abroad and go out and drink with them. It was amazing getting to relax and kick it with Spartans again. Very refreshing. I ended up crashing at Eric's dorm (he was in the guest rooms, which means it wasn't really dorm size. lucky bastard) because of the curfew (most universities have curfews over here, my dorm does not. One of the reasons I picked it too).

Having been so busy with all this stuff and more, I realized I need to get back on track with classes. I need to utilize this week in order to be ready for finals. I'm starting to reach the end of my candle wick for one of my Korean classes. My teacher almost got her third strike. It was more like she fouled on two strikes. I missed Tuesday's class because I was sick. It was the first time I went to the health center (had a really bad cough). Interesting thing about the health center, I got everything for free (including medicine), except for my excuse for class. I had to pay about 3 bucks if I wanted that. Since classes here have an attendance policy I decided to pay up. I gave the slip to my teacher. Shortly after she points out that I went in the afternoon. I asked what's the matter, and she went on to point out the obvious, that our class is in the morning. I asked what's your point, and she asked me what I was doing during class time. Realizing she wasn't wanting to accept my slip I simply explained that I was sleeping because I was sick, and that after I got up I went to the doctors and then went back to my room. I'm not sure whether it was her realizing that if she proceeded down this path she would be dealing with an incredibly pissed off kevin or if it was me just sitting down to end the conversation, but I do know that it's possible she didn't accept the slip because I didn't go the same time as class. Which, by the way, is partly impossible because Korean classes here are the earliest classes in the University. So early in fact, that they start before the health center even opens. I don't know anyone who wakes up early when they're sick just to go to the health center unless it's a life or death situation. Most people I know try to rest until they're able to go to the doctor if needed. This is the same teacher that, when I questioned her quizzes, justified putting vocabulary words that were future chapter's vocab words in the sentences because it was in a book that no one but a handful of people used had they taken a certain class during the winter vacation...if that sounds confusing then I've made my point; it's bull.


I've written enough for now. I could write for another hour and still not cover all the stuff that's happened this past week. My biggest problem at the moment is trying to figure out where I'm living over the summer. I found out I was waitlisted for the dormitory during the summer program. The reason being they're only accepting 20 students in the dorm...ridiculous. Despite this, things are going great and I have confidence that I'll finish things even stronger.

Spring

So summer is quickly approaching and for some reason I continue to have this pattern of being super busy one or two weeks, and then having some down time. I'm currently in the middle of two busy weeks. Last week was busy, and this coming week will be even busier. I have 3 big performances coming up (Wed and Thurs), but if you count how many actual performances I have on Thursday, then altogether I have 5 (4 being on Thursday alone). SO these next couple of days I will be back to sessioning like a maniac.

In other news, I absolutely hate my Korean class. First time in my life I don't like a language class. It's the format of it though that's the source of my woes. Especially my reading and writing class. There's no point in going to it. All you do is show up and listen to the teacher read from the book. Waste of time. The speaking and listening class isn't as bad, but I still want to pull my hair out.

My other classes are going well though. I destroyed a presentation in my premodern korean history class. And although my Culture and Religion in Modern Korea class is slightly redundant and boring sometimes, these two classes compliment one another fairly well. But the teacher for the religion class is just talking out of his ass like 70% of the time. It's still entertaining however.

I haven't gone to the gymnastics class in quite some time. Not just because I got busy, but also because there were times when the class didn't even meet. So I guess I used those holidays and canceled classes as my opportunity to simply stop going. I wasn't really in need of learning how to twirl a ribbon anyways.

I went "camping" a couple weeks ago on the holiday called "Children's Day." I say camping because it was a very camping like environment. However, it was also a picnic in a sense because we didn't stay overnight. It was an early morning to early evening expedition. A lot of fun though. It's also the first time I ever started drinking alcohol so early. It was nice to go out to a river in the mountains and just relax. I got to climb and play around, thus earning the title of "wild man" but I suppose this isn't much of a surprise to my friends that have hung out with me in the wilderness before. I attribute my nature skills to the native american blood running through my veins. But thanks to the fact I look nothing like a native, I got pretty sunburned hahaha. Sall good though. I need a good sunburn in spring if I am to survive summer.

My ballerina friend had her big spring performance this past week. She did an amazing job and it was interesting to watch. This time around, my ex professor (the choreographer) utilized a different western guy (also american though) in her dance. Unlike me, however, he has a masters in Ballet. It was somewhat interesting to see a male ballerina. But at the same time, it made me glad that I wasn't taking part this time around. The outfit that guy wore...good God. I can't see myself wearing anything like that. It was interesting to compare the two dynamics as well. Bboying is pretty much the complete opposite of ballet. And in ballet, the guy has more of an assist role (the girls do all the work). I met him at the after party and he seemed like a pretty cool guy too. And he definitely didn't fill any stereotype at all (not just dance, but white guy in korea too).

The after after party was at this mansion of a karaoke room. It was fun, minus the fact that I knew like zero songs, the odds of them knowing the English songs I liked were slim, and that I can't sing. I did, however, end up singing 3 songs in total. The first two I did a fairly miserable job of, but my finale was pretty good. I had to go to my failsafe song: Elvis Presley, Can't Help Falling in Love. Had to pull that one out of retirement. Pretty sure I killed it though. So I felt a little bit better by the end of the night.

On my way back home, I randomly ran into a professional bboy crew and found out about a competition that was yesterday. Got invited to come out and I made a pretty good impression on them (even though it was like 5am). I'll see if I have the time to follow up with them. I did go to the competition, and the crew that I am already friends with ended up winning. So that was cool all around.

The semester is drawing to a close and I'm not really sure how I feel about things. I think the main thing on my mind right now is "am I doing all that I could be doing?" Some things have popped up to annoy me recently (especially dealing with certain types of people), but on the flip side, some really dope and amazing things have popped up as well. So currently I'm focusing on those and trying to regain a solid footing in order to launch my attack on the remaining time I have left. I'm not at the final stretch yet, but I don't see it hurting me to get ahead of the race while I still can.

Week 1 of Spring Semester

It's been a pretty interesting first week to say the least. I think that's probably one of my favorite aspects about being over here; so many things can happen in a week.

I spent the majority of the week figuring out which classes I'm taking. The first week is very similar to that in the US; attend a multitude of classes you're probably not going to take, the professor reads the syllubus, and class ends early. My first day of Korean class was interesting as well. My name wasn't on the list for class, so I had to go directly to my teachers to find out which class I was in. I started off in building A, was sent to building B, then to building C, and then back to building B. That first day was more like a gym class haha. I was first placed in Level 4 Korean, which is the highest class. This class was composed of students who were actual Ewha students or exchanged students who had either been certified in Korean (which means they didn't even need to take the class) or had passed level 6 at their home university. Regardless, I didn't feel like this class was best suited for me. I've already skipped a level twice, and I figured a third time at such a key juncture would only be more of a hindrance. So I asked to be placed in Level 3, where, for the most part, I am happy. Other classes I'm taking are Japanese Conversation 2, Religion and Culture in Modern Korea, and Premodern History of Korea. I'm also auditing a Gymnastics class.

My Korean class is comprised of mostly Chinese students and then some Japanese students. I'm the only male and the only westerner. An interesting stereotype I have learned over here is that Chinese people are supposed to smell. The reason I learned this is because last semester I had a Chinese roommate, and the first thing I was always asked by my Korean friends was, "Does he smell?" I thought this was rather absurd when I first learned of it, but after taking this class, I have come to understand what this means haha. I have sat next to three different Chinese students so far and all three of them smelt bad. Two of them had/have this kind of bad Kimchi (fermented cabbage) smell, and two of them have awful bad-breath. So yes, one of them has both; a double whammy. Granted, I'm fully aware that not every Chinese person smells bad, but my point of this is to just illustrate my new-found (and hated) understanding of this stereotype. Two of my Chinese friends in this class does not have this problem and, in fact, one of them smells incredibly good haha. It's just yesterday I had the unfortunate problem of being seated between the double whammy and the bad Kimchi odor. All class long I was rather annoyed and hating life haha.

My Japanese Conversation class seems like it will be a lot of fun, especially if my Japanese returns to me swiftly. This class has students who are either taking Intermediate Japanese or Advanced Japanese, so there is a very high level of skill and understanding exhibited by the students. I technically should be at the Advanced level, but considering I haven't studied Japanese, or even spoken it for that matter, in about a year, I have lost a lot of my speaking fluency. Therefore I went to check out the Intermediate class, but found it to be too easy and the class was taught in Korean. Which I found strange considering back at MSU they teach class primarily in Japanese at all levels. So, I decided to take the conversation class (which is a supplemental course) in the hopes of recovering my speaking skills. So far so good, despite a lot of frustration and fumbling on my part due to my brain being hardwired to Korean. However, the students and teacher are a lot of fun, so I'm not too worried about it. In a few weeks I should be on my way to a much needed Japanese recovery.

I'm auditing a gymnastics course because, well simply put, the list of offered courses lied to me haha. It's technically Rythmic Gymnastics, which, besides in Japan, is a female sport. The first half of the semester is comprised of the foundations of Gymnastics, whereas the second half is the foundations of Rythmic. What is that you ask? Ribbon dancing pretty much. And dancing/tumbling around with other various gay objects (if one were a man partaking in this that is). When I went to the first class, I had quite the interesting experience. Because it's a gym class, the orientation class was held in a different room (something I wasn't aware of), so after waiting there for 10 minutes, I went to the office and found out what was going on. So I arrived to class late (technically). But the funny thing here is what happened when I walked in. This course is supposed to be an English-Taught class (which is why it's listed for exchange students), but when I walked in to a large classroom full of native Korean girls (due to it being the first class, both sections were in attendance here) after having a difficult time opening the door, the teacher who had been speaking in Korean, and everyone else in the room for that matter, abrubptly stopped whatever they were saying and just stared at me. As I looked for an open seat in a classroom of silence, I wanted to make sure I was indeed in the right room. So I started to ask in Korean if this was gymnastics, but after starting in Korean I switched to English. The teacher, who is still staring at me in awe, simply nods her head and says yes. Still being uncertain as to why the atmosphere was so strange, I switch back to Korean to confirm that this was indeed an exchange student class that was taught in English. Again, in awe she simply said yes. So then I asked what was better to speak in, Korean or English. Again, still being fairly unrepsonsive, she said Korean. As I finally sit down, after a few seconds of more silence, my teacher snaps out of it and continues reading the syllubus and the class continues in Korean. For the most part, I spend the remainder of this short class (orientation remember?) pondering what just happened and why it's being taught in Korean. Now, I'm used to getting stared at, however I'm not used to a reaction like this from my professor. After my professor "snapped out it" to get back in the rythmn of class, she cracked a joke about being suprised about seeing a man walk in, especially a foreigner. After class, I decided to further investigate and talk with the teacher. She explained to me that she was first surprised that I was a guy, then when I addressed her in Korean, she was further shocked and didn't know how to respond to me. While trying to have this discussion, the majority of the girls in the class were incredibly interested in what I was doing there and were asking me all sorts of questions. The main one being which section I was going to take (they wanted to be in the same class as me hahaha). One girl was particularly brave and directly, right away, asked for my phone number in front of most of the remaining students haha. This illicited a funny response from everyone in there. After they all left, I was able to resume my conversation with the professor. She explained to me what the class really was and that her English wasn't that good, which is why she hoped to continue in Korean. Normally I'd be annoyed because that's cheating (the class is supposed to be taught in English not just to enable foreigners to take it, but, more importantly, improve the native students' English skills). However, I didn't care because it gave me another opportunity to practice my Korean. Towards the end, my teacher said if I were able to speak Japanese, then it wouldn't be a problem, because her Japanese is much much better than her English. So, despite knowing it would be showing off haha, I switched over to my rusty Japanese and spoke to her in that for the rest of our conversation. I got approval to audit the class in order to learn the very basics of normal gymnastics, which I hope to apply to my bboying.

I also experienced something called a "Meeting" for the first time. I've said several times now that dating is an incredibly popular part of the culture here (especially going on various kinds of blind dates). A Meeting is essentially a group blind date, and it's pronounced just like "meeting" in English. The term is technically what we call "Konglish," which is a mixture of English words with a Korean meaning (another example would be Hand phone, which means cell phone). A Meeting isn't a full on blind date however. One of the guys kind of knows one of the girls and together they introduce their friends to each other. The goal is that someone hits it off with someone else and they exchange numbers and starts dating. If that doesn't happen, then at the very least people can enjoy a fun group activity (people aren't paired up, it's more like a free for all haha). Anyways, one of my acquantances and his friends were going on a Meeting, and on the girls end one more girl wanted to join, which meant the guy's side needed another. My friend asked me hahahaha. I found this particularly hilarious because this group of acquantances of mine are all around 30. I think they were all born before 1980. Which meant all the women were going to be near this age too. Knowing full well what I would be getting myself into, I confirmed, double, and triple checked with my friend if he really wanted me to be their 4th guy. He said yes and that it wasn't a big deal. So of course, I was down for picking up this unique Korean culture experience. I only had the expectation that regardless, I knew that I was going to enjoy this. Before everyone else arrived, I asked my friend one last time if he was alright with me being here and that, although I don't normally lie, if it helped his and the other guys' cause, I would used my most guessed Korean age (27). He told me no and to just be myself, not worrying about anything. So, having the green light, I most definitely was myself, which didn't bode well for one of the girls, because as soon as we all met, she pissed me off. She started off by basically saying to her guy friend (she was the "known" person on the girl's side and the guy she said this two was the "known" person on the guy's side), "Really? You brought a foreigner? What are we going to do?" Moron girl didn't realize I spoke Korean, nor did she have the common courtesy to ask. So I decided to see how deep they'd dig their hole and then watch them try to climb out of it later. I saw no problem doing this considering so far nothing they said was directed directly at me. It was all just statements and comments. I didn't actually say anything until one of the girls finally asked one of the guys if I could speak Korean. This time I jumped right in and answered for myself. This caused a kind of awe effect and, for a moment, I became the center of attention, until, as I had previously guessed, they asked me how old I was. One girl, 26 and the youngest of the group, was showing quite a bit of interest in me. As soon as I told them my age, and after first having to tell them multiple times I wasn't lying to them, the youngest stopped talking to me hahah. She also happened to be a graduate student at the university I'm studying abroad at. When they heard this, Moron girl decided she wanted to further push my buttons by trying to indirectly insult me (my University is a woman's university for those of you still unaware). Finally having enough of her, I directly said, while making eye contact, "Therefore what?" right after she had said "Therefore." I knew full well what this phrase and how I said it implied. Me saying this caused my friend to choke on his drink hahaha. This pleased me greatly. Especially when right after this event, I turned to my friend and asked, "Was I too direct?" and he said, "Yes," which only caused me to laugh out loud. So now that I had effectively killed off the 2 girls on the left side of the table, I had grabbed the attention of the older girls of the group on the right side. I kind of thought this to be interesting. Why, after finding out how young I am, and after someone so young said such a blunt thing to his elder, did they start talking to me after being so quiet in the beginning? I'm going to guess that it was because of my Korean skills and the fact that I was so "daring" to put it in a complimental state hahah. Anways, after kicking it with the oldest girls of the group, the left side of the table seemed to have been failing miserably. I don't blame them though; they had to work with Moron girl and Young, dumb girl. Suddenly that side of the table said they had to go, and after convincing the side of the table that me and the "known" guy was working (the guys with the most social skills too might I add), they all left. I didn't bother to walk out with the girls, so I don't know if anyone exchanged numbers. My goal at that time was to relieve my bladder to be honest hahah. Despite the disaster that was this Meeting, I thought it was a pretty dope experience. Especially since I was able to handle my own in Korean. None of the girls could speak English, whereas all of the guys could, despite the "known" Moron girl having studied abroad in the States (that's how the two "known" people knew each other actually; both are muscians that studied abroad at the same university). Sad that her English was worse than all of the guys'.

I'm going to go study for my quiz before class now. I found it rather humorous that at 7pm the night before our morning class, my Korean professor sent out a text to our entire class telling us we were going to have a quiz. That's kind of cheating, but better to at least have that little heads up I suppose, then having a full on pop quiz haha. Oh, and it turns out Korea's wheather is more like Michigan's than I thought. Last night we had a snowstorm, and now the ground is decently covered. Awesome...

Kevin's Overdue Return!!!

So yeah, apologies on not updating this thing sooner. I didn't update during my winter break once, and now I'm facing the start of my spring semester. The amount of insight, perspective, and experience gained cannot be put to words on this blog, nor do I intend to even try. So intead, I will just list some of the things I did.

Went to Busan for a day to see a traditional musical performance
Went snowboarding for the first time in my life. Was pretty good for a first timer
Increased my Korean by leaps and bounds
Entered the Korean dating culture
Translated a couple documents better than a few "Professional" translators
Saw a college graduation ceremony
Saw traditional story telling (by the best story teller in Korea)
Went to a Korean Theme Park
Attended New Years Eve at Seoul's City Hall. Reminescent of what it'd be like to attend Times Square in New York
Modeled for Ewha University
Had a sudden performance for a friend of mine. Watch it here (not very good, I'm out of practice): www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ety_NZaDDhk
Got to meet my homestay family from 3 years ago
Completed all of my goals I set out to do before heading to Korea and more actually

Now that you're slightly up to speed, I'll just get right back into the present. Next week classes start. Yes, it's spring semester, and yes, that's kinda late to be starting right? Well the winter break here is similar to our Summer Break, which means you can take classes, which is what I did. So this is almost like a 3rd semester for me. This time around I'll be taking Korean and Japanese simultaneously, learning Japanese in Korean. I'm hoping to rewire my brain so that I directly think Korean-Japanese and cut out the English middleman. I still need to pick my remaining classes. I'll either go the history route, the cultural route, fun activities, or a combination of two. Not sure what I'll do. I'm leaning towards a history class and two activities

All the new international students have returned, as well as the handful of students that are continuing their study from last semester. I was pretty much the only person who stayed in Korea during winter break. So now there's over a hundred new people I have to meet. It's just I'm lazy and don't want to go through the whole ordeal of "Oh HI! Where ya from? yeah yeah, that's cool, alright yeah." Plus it makes you look like a jerk when people start to talk to you about being nervous or excited about coming to korea and you can't really respond the same because you've been here for half a year. So I either smile or offer what advice I can depending on who I'm talking to. There's also the problem of which International group to hang out with. Currently there's the old group and the new group. And soon, that new group will break up into their own cliques. I already had a hard enough time keeping up with all the International Students from last semester, especially since I spent most of my time outside with native Koreans. More groups means more effort that I'd much rather put into learning to be honest. But, I learn a lot through hanging out with IS' so despite this complaint, I'll still end up powering through per usual.

It's nice to experience a normal change of seasons. The end of February marks the end of Winter here, which means Spring can already be smelled in the air. March is indeed best fit to be the month of Spring, not May like in Michigan haha. Soon the rainy season will start and, despite the acidic rain, I'm looking forward to it.

My grandmother always told me I was an old soul. With all the perspective I've already gained from being out here so far, well, there isnt' a term that really matches where I'm at now. The average age people guess I am is 27 over here. Awesome. Either I look like a 30 year old dude, act like a 30 year old dude, or a combination of the two. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out when I return home (I'm currently 21 for those of you unaware). Over here I can easily pull off the young professional, hanging out with my buddies that are business professionals or professional ballerina friends. The majority of my friends are several years older than me, a pattern that seems to follow me no matter where I go. Back home, the majority of my friends have left Michigan due to Michigan's........insufficiency for lack of a better word haha. It's also just a matter of time before I, too, leave Michigan. My translation skills aren't requested in the mitten so, yeah.

I can't think of anything else to write now... if you have any requests, then post a comment or something. Plus it'll help motivate me to actually write this thing, since it'll show me that people actually bother to read what I write haha

Random Korean things with a brief update

Hey everyone! I've got some downtime this weekend (aka I'm bored), so I figured I'd try and get something written. These past 3, 4 weeks have been pretty demanding/busy for me so I'll briefly touch base on that and then talk about random things.

I had my two dance performances this past Thursday and Friday. Thursday was the hip hop event and Friday was the Modern Dance event. I wasn't worried at all for Thursday because all I would be doing is bboying. And because of having practice everyday for my Friday performance, rather than being worried about bboying, I was worried about my body giving out on me haha. Some days I had multiple practices or rehearsals (especially towards the end), which I was really starting to feel. But because of all this running around, I was able to enhance the friendship with the people in these groups and my Korean speaking jumped tremendously. The Thursday performance was fun and a complete success as was the Friday performance. However, the Friday performance and the experiences leading up to it had more of an impact on me due to how "different" it all was to me. With regards to how the actual performance went, I was told I did a great job, but until I see the video of it, I'll know whether or not my own personal standard was met. However, besides the huge increase in my skill and knowledge from partaking in the modern dance piece, I also met some of the leading choreographers and dancers in Korea. That was crazy to me. I didn't know they would all be there. I thought this performance was going to be small scale (that's what I was told) and in a way it was. There wasn't a huge number of people that came. However, it wasn't a small scale dance done by dance students. It was a professional dance piece and all the people that did show up were important people in the art world of Seoul. I was the only one that 1. was still an undergrad 2. wasn't a professional dancer. So meeting and drinking with all these people was pretty dope.

Actually making the dance was pretty awesome too. It was a "research based dance" which meant we had to do research on the story, then interpret it, then start putting it together. We had our "choreographer" (my professor) overseeing the whole process and putting pieces into place. So I had to read up about the Russian myth of The Firebird in English, then discuss with the other dancers in Korean what I found out and thought about it. Then I watched variations of the Modern Ballet of The Firebird. Then discussed what we thought about it (again in Korean). Pretty much every time we practiced, something was changed or different. And at its core, it was an improvised dance piece. In other words, it was supposed to be freestyled. So we had these plot points setup, but how we got to them was entirely up to the dancer. At first, it was tricky because the other dancers' and my style were complete opposites. So we worked on syncronizing our energies. Once we got comfortable with that, it became pretty fun. Not knowing what exactly we'd be doing though, didn't bother me that much. I mean, I was used to it in a sense thanks to the nature of bboying and freestyling. But what was a little frustrating was the constant change in the story that was being made. It was hard to get the proper mental image of what I was suppose to be expressing. For example, my role changed an insane amount of times and our dance piece ended up very loosely following the original myth. Thanks to this experience, my freestyle skills and stamina increased the most. A lot of bboys claim they freestyle, but in all honesty, I never experienced this level of it before. And because of it, I never really had to practice for my bboy performance.

Here is the link to my solo in the Hip Hop performance (you can follow that to the other part I dance in):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2mS3REPLwc

So that's what I spent most of November working on. From here on, it's getting all the things for my Finals ready. I've got a presentation on bboying and a research paper on a former President of South Korea I have start on.

Random Stuff:

I don't know what's going on with the marketing campaign of McDonalds in the US, but over here, they had a huge change in things. The new slogan is "Mac Tonight" and all the employees' uniforms are "urban." In other words, they all wear "popper hats" or those golf hats (hats that grandpa had) and the urban scarfs (black and white checkered scarf tied around the neck). They wear black pants and tshirt that says Mac Tonight on them. And the final kicker is that they're starting to deliver. Yes, over here, you can now get McDonald's delivered.

It's gotten pretty cold over here, safe to say that winter has arrived. An interesting thing about the heating systems here is that it's through the floor. This dates all the way back to the old days in Korea, but how they heat a room is by heating the floor. This is the first time I've actually experienced it, but it's actually pretty cool. Your feet never get cold haha.

November 11th is kind of like Valentine's Day over here. Except it's called PaePaero Day. PaePaero's are the Korean term for Poki Sticks. And for those that don't know what those are, well think of a slim wafer/preztel type stick dipped in chocolate. I ended up sparing several ladies out here from experiencing the day without receiving any haha. So I got some bonus points for that. I normally don't partake in such things unecessarily, but I saw it as a way to show that I was aware of what's going on (the day itself and the fact that several of my friends would get depressed if they didn't get a box of these stupid things haha).

Speaking of snacks, the custom over here in the dance world is to give the dancers chocolate for the performance (not flowers like in the US). So I decided to stick to US tradition on this one and got the ballerina's some flowers.

As I've mentioned several times, age is huge over here. This annoys me because it's under the assumption that just because someone is older than you, they know more about things than you. You have wonderful Confucianism to thank for that. So pretty much right when you meet someone, a typical question asked is how old are you. And at that moment, you're fate is pretty much sealed with that person. For the most part, I can be exempt from all this because I'm a foreigner, however, I do my best to try and put my own spin on it. For example, I've always been told to respect those older than you. And I do. But I don't believe in instantly putting a barrier on a relationship because of age. I put more importance on behavior. So if someone is really trying to be my friend (regardless of age) I prefer keeping communication relaxed, open, and equal. I think I've been pretty successful at it. If someone is older than me, I wait until they are the ones that ask me to stop speaking so formally. This doesn't really apply to older adults for me though. I, too, would feel weird talking to someone a lot older than me informally. I just think it sucks how servant like a relationship can be over here just because someone is one year older than you. I know I'd be pissed. Especially if that person is a lot less mature than you.

Korean people in general have a lot of emotion (you can see it by how freaking dramatic all their shows and movies are). But they don't often express it. So it gets bottled up and suppressed. And you can see that whenever something little pops up and someone explodes over it. How this is different from what I've learned about the Japanese is that the Japanese are even more indirect about communicating than Koreans. Less explosive so to speak. It's an interesting dynamic, that I would really like to experience more firsthand by going to Japan.

Korean males. And by this I mean my peers. For the most part, I'm not a huge fan of college Korean males. They try to come across as very masculine, yet they appear/dress incredibly feminine. This causes a fairly big insecurity. Now how is this different from say an American male? Well, we're at least more direct in our communication. I guess an example I could use is the frustration guys get when they ask their girlfriend what's wrong, and the girl expects them to know what's bothering them or that they should be able to properly guess. Except this is switched. It's the guys that do that. Yes, I am fully aware that this is a generalization. Yes, this doesn't pertain to all Korean college males. But just like how there are tools in the US, there are tools out here in Korea. And I'm just pointing out how they're a little different in dealing with their insecurities.

Distance: I find it funny that to a Korean, 45 minutes is long. I understand why (you can get from one side of the country to another in 4-5 hours). But to the Americans here, traveling is so easy and fast. Plus, you don't have to do anything during the commute. That's why we usually have no problem going to some random place. Ex: I was helping my friend with an english paper, but we needed to meet again in order to finish. I told her I could go out to her. She was suprised at this and had the mentality of "you'd take 40 minutes to come out here just to help me finish my paper?" It costs about a dollar for me to do that, plus I like riding the subway because of all the people watching you can do. Plus we'd be meeting in one of the biggest malls ever, which means there'd be a bunch of things we could do after.

Ajuma's: Or middle aged Korean women. Despite having one of the strangest styles out there, they pretty much dominate anyone in society. They can yell, push, command anyone to do whatever they want pretty much. It's pretty funny. The other day, as I was trying to get to the theater I was performing at. I couldn't find the bus I needed to take on the map. One Ajuma saw the flowers I was carrying and said they were pretty. I thanked her, then used this as an excuse to ask her for help. She said that the bus I want wasn't there, but her eyes were bad. So she yelled at a younger looking ajuma walking down the street to come over. So then she began helping me. Then another ajuma (who would probably be the middle of the 3 in terms of age) came over and wanted to know what was going on. I was now helpless. These 3 women were arguing amongst each other trying to find the best way for me to get to where I wanted to go. Finally, when a decision was made, I was told precisely what I must do and then they threw me on a bus and told the bus driver where to drop me off. While on the bus, my professor called to see where I was at. When I told her what bus number I was on she started to get worried that I'd never make it to the theater haha. But I told her not to worry and it was kind of out of my hands. Ajuma's came to my rescue, regardless of whether or not I had a say about it haha.

Apparently Koreans don't usually split the cost of a meal (don't go dutch or w/e it's called). So if I were to have dinner with someone, then one of us would pay for the whole thing. And then next time or for desert, the other person would take care of the bill.

Which reminds me of another Korean dance custom. I don't know how this one is in the US, but over here, the choreographer buys the meals for the dancers. So after practice for my modern dance, I pretty much got to eat whatever I wanted. It was quite amazing.

I think I'll end here. I can't think of anything else at the moment. Thanksgiving is coming up and I hope everyone has a fun, relaxing Thanksgiving. I won't be doing anything over here (maybe I'll hit up KFC or something), so be sure to make up for my absence by either eating more or relaxing more or both haha.

Month long Update

So I know it's been over a month since I last updated this, but I've been busy with a lot of things. I will try my best to fill you all in on all that's happened, but I doubt I'll be able to in its entirety. The format will be in areas of my life; hopefully making it easier to break down.

School: My midterms were done back in the beginning/mid of October. I think I did fairly well on them. I never got the scores back though. I only know that in one of my classes I got the 2nd highest mark (my gender studies class). I don't really care about my Korean test score because that class can't transfer anyways. I have two big projects in the beginning of December due. One is on the "President" of South Korea during the 70s, Park Chung Hee. That's pretty much a 10 page research paper. The other is a presentation and paper on Bboying. Needless to say I'm not very worried about the latter haha. I do have a partner for that one (an incredibly cute partner I might add), making things even easier. This past week I haven't really been doing any homework however (that'll be explained next), at least not homework in the typical sense of the word.

Dance: This part of my life has suddenly taken over my life it seems. All of last week and the next two weeks I have dance practice every day. Before, I was barely finding time to practice myself due to class, homework, and networking. But through those these, several opportunities have arose. I have two upcoming performances: one bboy, one modern. The bboy one I'm not really worried about. That one is with the hip hop student org I joined. The modern one however, has me slightly anxious. That performance is with Ewha's dance department. I'll be performing with several modern ballerinas and modern dancers. I'm the only male and the only one with no "real" dance training. My gender studies professor asked me if I would perform with some of her best dancers. I figured why not? Should be fun right? I've also been invited out to various dance performances at actual art theaters, which is something I've never really witnessed before (unless you count the performances of past lady friends in middle school and high school haha which I don't btw). Despite being the completely odd man out, I must say that I thoroughly enjoy taking part in it. All of us had to first do research on the dance work (Firebird or bulsae in Korean), then discuss what we found. From there, we discussed how we were going to interpret the work and how we'd piece it together. Then we presented it to my professor (the one in charge and the official choreographer), who then fixed it to match her vision and the original one. It's still in a constant state of tweaking as well. I think that's been the most interesting part for me. As a bboy, I hear "freestyle" a lot. As in, we don't choreograph our moves, we just do what we feel. Well in Modern Dance that's called Improvisation. And in all honesty, they do it in a way that blows the majority of bboys out there away. In the one week I've practiced with them, I've learned more about my inner freestylist than if I were to just break on my own or even study under one of the dopest freestyling bboys. Oh, and did I mention I'm doing all this in Korean? That's the reason I don't mind the lack of completing my minor korean homework assignments. Discussing a Russian Myth, then interpreting it, then turning it into a dance work all in Korean is a homework in and of itself. Every practice I go to, my brain gets fully immersed in Korean language. Yes, sometimes it's frustrating (mainly when I'm really really tired, like the past 3 days), but it gives me the opportunity to escape the "English Bubble" that surrounds me as an international student. And when I hang out with the dancers after practice or go to a modern dance performance, I have to keep my brain in Korean. Again, it's mentality draining, but that's the whole reason I'm out here in the first place.

Halloween: I went to 3 halloween parties. I would have gone to 4, but on actual halloween I met up with Nuna and ended up missing the train. So once again I was stranded with Nuna and once again it was at the Coex Mall. We found it rather humorous that the exact same scenario from 2 years ago played out once again. But we were able to catch up on a lot of things going on in our lives, cleared up some old misunderstandings, and even watched a movie. Although it was The Time Traveler's Wife. It was the last movie playing. It marked the first time I ever went to a theater and watched that kind of movie. I usually have to get my dose of romantic movies from the netflix choices of mother and sister. Speaking of which, this is for Janelle: Eric BAAAANA!
So halloween. The first time I went out, I was a vampire and went to a party at a neighboring college (Yonsei). I must say that my vampire costume was pretty freaking amazing. At the club, there were a couple of "bboys" dancing and, my friends knowing I was a bboy and anxious for any chance to finally see me dance, threw me at the other dancers. I saw "bboys" because in all honesty one was a club breaker, one a beginning ish bboy, one a very beginner bboy, and another a popper. I was fairly tired, slightly intoxicated, and didn't want to battle, especially against this crowd. So rather than it being me directly smoking these guys, I more like let my presence be known. The club breaker tried to battle me after he saw me housing (I can't house well at all). Not liking his attitude, I smoked him. He didn't go out again haha. The popper, I pushed my hip hop dancer friend out to take him on, plus I wanted a break. Then some bboy from Cali went out (the semi beginner) and my friends pushed me out again. How I know he was from Cali is because he approached me afterward to talk to me. Right after I told him I was tired and was going to go sit down for a bit, he pushed me into the center so I had to dance again. I ended up throwing 5 rounds total if you count the house round I did. 5 rounds at like 3am in a club with no warm up sucks for those who are wondering. After he pushed me out, I no longer had sympathies about smoking him earlier. Some might ask, why did you have to dance? Well one, I'm a bboy and I like dancing. Two: everytime I get pushed out in the center of anything around here, usually girls start screaming (in the good way haha). Three: I don't like punking out. I think I did a fairly good job of repping Ewha at the Yonsei party haha.

Two days ago was Ewha's International Party, which was pretty much a halloween party thrown by the Peace Buddies for us International Students. This time I went as the Phantom Of the Opera. This party also had a contest called Mr. Ewha. It's like a talent show for the guys. At the request of my Peace Buddy, I entered. There were 4 of us total and we were told to have something ready for a brief performance. I wasn't too worried because I planned on dancing. I brought my usb with a few mp3s on it and figured I'd be fine. My hip hop dancer friend did the same but he also was planning on rapping. Another guy was Danish i think and he planned on singing, and the 4th guy was last minute, drunk, and from Belgium. The reason I say planned is because the DJ couldn't play our music because he had no way of reading usbs....which we were told to bring. So they decided to wing the format. Had all of us dance to whatever the dj spun. Not very fair for the non dancers but, okay w/e I thought. Then they decided to add another part to it. A singing part. This actually had me suddenly nervous for the first time in a long time. I don't sing. And especially not in front of people. And especially not with any music to accompany me. I've only ever sang in front of my close friends. The last time I sang in front of a mass of people was in Elementary Christmas Concerts. So yeah, I was nervous. As I said before, I don't like punking out, so I went all out. Powered Through. I ended up singing the Phantom of the Opera hahahah. So quick sidenote on what was going on throughout the contest. There were two main groups: asian girls and europeans (most of whom men). My friend would occasionally get his name chant by all the western guys in the club. I would get my name screamed our just a bunch of screams by all the girls in the club. The other two guys got screams from their fellow Europeans. Based on this, it's not easy to tell who would win. The key thing though, was the voting system, which was incredibly flawed. They used one of those instant kodak cameras to take our pictures and then people would stick up stickers next to our pics as their vote. The problem lies in the honesty of people. In other words, people could either A) vote once B) grab multiple stickers and vote multiple times or C) move people's stickers around. And since the whole event was being run by Korean girls (the Peace Buddies) there wasn't much they could enforce haha. And from what a bunch of different people said to me, all three options were being done. Shady? Yes. But at least the drunk guy didn't win. That's what we were afraid would happen as a result haha. I ended up getting second place, much to the dismay of a lot of the asian girls haha. My friend got first. I had several europeans tell me if I had gone out with them drinking then they would have voted for me. I'm sorry, I didn't know this was a campaign? And I don't like dropping 50 every night to get plastered. I don't even like getting plastered, especially not when I'm with people I don't know. But my individual victory comes in winning the female crowd and knowing I almost won fairly (lost by 5 votes). This was also a blatant reminder of how things really work haha. I think that's why I'm slightly erked by it. I don't care about the 2nd place thing. We all got the exact same prize haha. And it was my friend who got 1st. I think it's just the growing list of things that are being done by certain people that is causing me to be more aware of..."things."

Field Trip: After midterms, I went on a field trip to the southwest part of Korea. It was a joint field trip with Yonsei University International Students to a small fishing village. The whole point of it was to experience the rusticness of living in such a small village. And rustic it was. No real showers, 15 people in one big living room. 14 in another. But it was a lot of fun. I got to see some beautiful scenes, met new people, became closer with others. I went clam digging and caught the most clams (America!), used a net to catch fish. I ate the most seafood I've ever eaten probably in my entire life (lots of variety too). I also visited a Buddhist Temple from the ancient Paekche kingdom. What makes this one different is that Paekche Buddhists were directly influenced by the Indian Buddhists, not the typical statues and beliefs you see normally in East Asia due to Chinese influence. This also marked the first time I took a lot of photos haha. It was a lot of fun and a great experience.

Weather: This one is for dad. The weather here is entirely fall now. Pretty much the same as in Michigan only not as cold. Although last week there were 2 days were you could feel winter in the air. What I mean is when you go outside and you feel that "bite" in the air. It was pretty cold, refreshing, reminded me of home, and was a sign that winter is approaching. The trees are all different colors. And there are often fall rain and thunder storms. I've said this before, but storms here are different than in MI. You don't see the lightning bolts, but you see all around you light up like a giant camera flash. The thunder sounds more like real drums, rather than booms. So when you first hear it, you're not sure if it was thunder or someone dropping something/construction (whereas in MI you ask if it's a big truck or a plane, maybe that can help with the sound difference?)

I hope that covers enough for now. Sorry for taking so long for an update. You could always just hit me up on skype though. Even if I'm not on, I will still see your message and get back to you.

Week 4

So once again I got lazy and didn't write any mini updates like I had planned. Oh well. My practice with Jinjo got canceled so I've got time to kill. Byaaahhh!


So this past week was pretty huge. I was the US representative on a panel for North Korean Human Rights along with a guy from China, Japan, and South Korea and 3 girls from South Korea and one girl from the Ukraine. The conference went very well and surprisingly I wasn't nervous at all. I was more nervous about having to speak Korean all day than giving my speech (I had a translator, so my speech was in English). I will say that I went to simply say "hello" in Korean, but my brain relapsed, so I looked like an idiot haha. It was a good icebreaker I guess though. Because everyone laughed and I just decided to forgo anymore Korean and jump right into my speech. I have it on video, so I will upload it for family to see (the blog only lets me add 100mb, my vid is over 600. I'll see what I can do). I can't use Youtube over here due to name copyright laws. After the press conference, there was a festival with a stage and entertainment outside. The whole time we were treated like VIPs. It was pretty crazy. After the festival, I went out drinking with the Japanese and Chinese rep as well as the people in charge. So I got a new experience of drinking with older people. It was pretty fun, plus the bill was on them haha. The other big thing was that I got selected to be the US representative for my university, Ewha, in a group called Ewha Global Campus Leaders. The group is kind of like Ewha's international poster boys and girls in some aspects haha. We're responsible for promoting Ewha to international visitors and taking care of VIPs that come in from around the world for business, academic, or research purposes. Depending on where you're from, you're responsible for the VIPs that come in from your area (so for me, the US). Besides that, we also get photos taken of us to be in brochures and stuff to show off Ewha's diversity. I see it as a way to network more and potentially get MSU to expand it's exchange programs. I think if I were able to get an exchange agreement between Ewha and MSU, then I would feel like I contributed in a more meaningful way. Right now MSU only has one exchange program in Korea and it's with one college for only one duration. I think opening up their Korean exchanges would help the MSU Korean program grow as well. Perhaps even making it so that Korean at least becomes a possible minor. Right now, MSU only has Korean listed as a Less Commonly Taught Language. I can't get any degree or specialization in it. Which is why I have to make sure I stay on top of my Japanese while I'm out here.

The other big thing I did, was I went to the R16 World Bboy Championship. That was the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed! The amount of innovation and talent was mind blowing and inspirational. It was unlike anything I had ever seen in person or on the internet. Some of the best crews from around the world competed and I was 4th row right in the center (which was pretty much front row, especially if you saw how huge the venue was). To add to the dopeness, I got to meet Bboy Storm!!!! Who's that you might ask? Only one of the greatest bboys of ALL TIME!! He's a legend. He pioneered and innovated a lot of moves that are used today after bboying died down after the media was done sucking it dry in the 80s. Storm kept it going in Germany and is usually always one of the judges for world events. He's also an amazing Locker and Popper. I got to chill and talk with him back stage after the event. Pretty amazing! All Area Crew from Japan ended up winning the whole event. They beat Top 9 from Russia in the finals. Second place won 8 grand and first place won 15 grand. I went up on stage afterward and met the Japanese bboys. They have such sick style and power. They're also very very short haha. I briefly talked to them in Japanese (said good job and whatnot), then peaced out. Quite an amazing night. Was very motivated by it.

I also am a new member of this bgirl club here called La-ohn-Sa-ohl. I think it might be trying to say Lone Soul. I'm not sure. I'll have to find out haha. Sessioning with them is pretty funny. They're typical bboys/bgirls. They goof around and have a fun time while working hard. They're pretty excited to have me join up and already have a lot of plans and ideas for using me. I'm going to try to make the most of it and use it as motivation to make sure I stay on top of my game. For example, they wanted me to go for over a minute. That's insane yo! I talked her down to one minute and told her I'll be playing with the crowd haha. A typical bboy set runs about 30 seconds. 1 minute burns man. That's just a one minute solo. I'll still be involved in the rest of the show which I've been told is about 10 minutes. Awesome. There's one girl that stands out the most to me. Her bgirl name is Sayz (pronounced Sehz, like the grammatically incorrect word for Said. In Korean it's Sejeu, pronounced seh-juh. Korean's don't have z and have a hard time saying the z sound. They use ch/j for it. Korean doesn't distinguish between ch or j). She works harder than most bboys I know and already has a solid foundation to start from. I feel that if I work closely with her, I can get her to smoke a lot of bgirls, including all my students back in the US haha. In fact, this club has a lot of potential and I'm really looking forward to working with it, helping it grow, and growing from it.

This is actually kind of a short update. I'm tired so too bad haha. I'll end it by saying how I'm CONSTANTLY HUNGRY ahhhhhhhh. Man oh man. I never stop eating and I'm never full! Korean food tastes dope, but it still can't touch American food when it comes to being satisfying. I miss being full :( I think for Thanksgiving (which is this weekend, the 3rd of October) I'm going to go to McDonalds and eat until I enter a food coma. I have nothing better to do for the holiday and I'm sick of being hungry all the time. I miss Mom, Dad's, and Leo's cooking. And my god what I'd do for a large pizza...