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...

Week 3

This post is probably going to be long, especially since I haven't been writing things in chunks. So I might miss some things and I'm not sure how I'm going to structure this. You've been forewarned haha

I'll start by talking about the closest thing to culture shock I've ever had: going to a different all woman's university's fall semester festival. I was meeting up with one of my Korean guy friends on a Thursday night and on our way to meet up with his other friends, we were kidnapped by a mob of 10 women. In mid sentence this group of girls just runs up to us and starts using bad English telling us we have to go with them. Didn't really have much of a choice either, because they literally grabbed us and started running. Because of this sudden occurrence, my brain didn't properly make the switch into Korean, so I kept asking my friend what in the world was going on. We got escorted to this tent (i know this sounds incredibly shady, but the explanation is on its way haha), given a table, and was asked to order food and alcohol. While the girls all ran to get what my friend said, I used this opportunity to figure things out. Apparently, this university has this big festival in order to fund raise for it's different departments. So there are tents (the kind that are used for open houses, student org recruiting, or relay for life, etc) every where on campus and the different departments sell food and alcohol in order to raise money. So they actively try to grab customers. After you order, girls sit and talk to you. I don't want to really say that they are selling themselves, but in a way they are haha. Kind of like hooters I guess. Anyways, after getting the explanation and seeing how my friend was acting, I realized that he was planning on pimping me out. My brain still hadn't made the switch to Korean, but it was starting to, so I could kind of figure out what he was saying. The department tent we were currently at was the Art department (like oil paintings). My friend was talking to the girls at our table pretty much all about me haha. Then he put me in the worse position of telling them I'm a bboy. To add to my dismay, really crappy top 40 style hip hop was playing, which to them meant I just had to dance for them. I was trying to figure out how to get out of dancing on a hilly poorly paved parking lot type ground, when the next thing I know the entire freaking tent is chanting my name. And when you have a whole tent of women chanting your name, it's hard to say no haha. So I danced. Terribly, but they couldn't tell the difference. Besides feeling like I was some kind of famous person, I got free food for it. Which was dope, because I hadn't eaten anything all day. So slightly annoyed at my friend for putting me on the spot when I wasn't really prepared for it, I dug into my food, all the while having to drink because girls kept pouring for me. My friend's other friends showed up, so now we had a group of 7 guys on an all woman's campus, which made us prime targets. Especially with me in the group for them to show off. After introductions, chilling, and drinking together, we got bored with the Art Tent and they all wanted to take me to the English department tent. Go figure right? haha By this time I'm feeling pretty good. And whenever I drink and have an opportunity to speak in a foreign language, I do. So I found it pretty ironic that we go to the English tent at the point where I'm buzzed, meaning all I do from here on out is speak Korean. Which is dope, because I didn't realize my Korean had gotten so much better so quickly. But anyways, we're too big a group to get the English department girls to sit with us, so we see a table of all girls and just invite them over to join us. And they do. Korean drinking games ensue. I then realize that I know enough Korean to still be witty and charming and with my inhibitions gone, that's pretty much all I'm doing haha. It's a Thursday night, so we have to leave early because of classes the next day, and I couldn't miss the train. I got home by midnight and realized that in about 2 hours and going to only 2 different tents, I had both tents knowing who I was and I had 8 different girls' info. If I wasn't the Kevin Richardson that I am, then man-o-man would it be easy for me to be a total scumbag. So for all of you thinking bad thoughts about me, know that I'm better than that :P

I got in contact with a hip hop dance student org here that supposedly would enjoy having me join them. I practiced with them and found out that there are 7 girls and only 2 of them are bgirls. They're self taught and have a lot of potential, so I was rather impressed by them. They were also very welcoming and eager to have me join them at their practice. They definitely kept me busy though. For 2 hours straight pretty much all I did was teach. The non bgirls were pretty interested in what I was teaching as well, so it was pretty much like a little class. The most impressive thing to me, were the bgirls' work ethic. One thing that always bugs me as a teacher is when my students don't work hard. This definitely wasn't the case with them. They worked harder than a lot of bboys I know back home. I'm actually pretty excited at the potential of what I can do with this club. Something I thought that was funny; even though I just spent two hours teaching them and them asking me to join their club, I still had to fill out their application form and schedule an interview haha. This all happened monday night, which is the same night I session with my Korean bboy crew. Which meant I sessioned from 8-10pm then again from 1am-6am. Korean bboy crews practice incredibly intense. That night I told my Korean bboy friends about the bgirl club and one of them said they don't like Korean bgirls. I asked why and he told me because their work ethic sucks haha. Well that's normally the case for me too (for anyone that doesn't work hard really) but I told him that these girls did and he was somewhat skeptical haha. But they all seemed interested in the possibility of practicing with them (it probably helps alot that it would be in Ewha haha). Sessioning with the Koreans is pretty dope, but right now I'm not exactly learning anything from them. I'm still advancing my skill on my own. I think once I get closer with them, we'll start exchanging tips and hints. I did that with the Canadian bboy last time. I gave him some advice on backspin to 2000 and rollback 2000s, he gave me some advice on backspins and standing 2000s.

NOTE: This section was edited, hit me up personally for the uncut version haha. My classes are going really well. I'm meeting and making a ton of native Korean friends. Especially since all my classes have put us into groups. My biggest problem is remembering names. One of the quickest and easiest ways for me to make a Korean girls day is to simply remember their name haha. Another thing that doesn't really seem like a big deal to me, but is for them, is opening doors. The culture here isn't exactly "polite" in our way of thinking. What I mean is, usually people don't open doors for each other or if you bump into someone no one says excuse me or anything. They have other ways of showing politeness though, that most of us don't even think twice about, such as how you hand something to some one or how you drink in front of someone. I have a lot of homework though that's due pretty soon, which means this weekend isn't going to be as fun as originally planned. I have a paper due on Monday and a pretty big speech due (more on that later). One thing that is noticeable is the differing attitudes amongst my peers. I'm still trying to get a feel for the French. So far at first, they have all not been very welcoming to me, but as soon as one of us actually says hi to one another, they are incredibly friendly. I'm guessing it has a lot to do with the stereotype that the French and American's automatically don't like each other, so we're both weary at first. One thing that all of these IS groups have in common is that most only really care about having fun. I'm all for having a good time, but it's not a priority for me. Plus the amount of money wasted on going out every night is ridiculous. One thing I'm proud to say is that one of my new Korean guy friends told me that I changed the way he thinks about white guys. He told me he will no longer instantly think that they come to Korea for only one of two things: to make money or to get a Korean girl. He was surprised and impressed by the fact that I was actually wanting to learn Korean and the culture. And in a lot of ways I take better care than Korean girls than the Korean guys (that's a whole other post haha).

One really big thing that I'm concerned about is that I have been asked to be the US representative in a discussion on North Korean issues. The original person had a sudden conflict so he can't do it. My friend has asked me to do it. I really don't think I'm qualified, but I agreed. It's a type of debate styled after the 6 party talks (which is the name of the real gathering where treaties and polices with North Korea and 5 other nations were worked out and signed). As much as I love MSU, it's not really thought of as prestigious as say Harvard and other type schools. This is taking place at the Seoul City Hall Press Center, which is some giant press conference room supposedly. There's also supposed to be a lot of reporters and journalist there. I'll be giving about a 10 minute speech on North Korean Human Rights and I'll have my own translator. I'll be spending the weekend doing research making sure I don't make a complete fool of myself and my country. This is all going to happen on Wednesday. Wish me luck!

One thing that is a huge part of the culture here is dating. It's almost like you have less status if you're single. So because of that, anyone who is single is constantly being told they need to find a boyfriend/girlfriend. The same thing keeps getting said to me. My friends are being pretty adamant about me finding a girlfriend. One of whom is much more zealous about it than everyone else haha. He keeps wanting to set me up (match making, blind dates, and group dates are incredibly popular over here), but I keep telling him that that's one of the last things I'm concerned about. Supposedly summer is 'hunting season' and once October comes around you're screwed if you're still single. I've also been told that Christmas is the time for couples. And delving further into that, apparently it's the most terrible feeling on the planet to be alone on Christmas. Right now that's looking to be my fate haha. Oh, I'm not sure who remembers this from when I was here last time, but I pointed out how my name is pretty famous/well known here. The reason for that is Home Alone. There's an actual phrase in Korean that's something along the lines of "i'll be with Kevin this Christmas" as in you'll be all alone haha. Awesome. I'm either doomed, or I have the ultimate pick up line.

Week 2

Well, for the most part I'm all settled in and rearing to go. If any obstacle comes my way, I'm setup to destroy it haha. I'm keeping real busy with trying to stay on top of things. I've established a pretty good routine for myself that balances Korean and Bboy practice. The trick now is figuring how to fit in the networking. I've met so many people and I can't remember half of their names. One issue I face is making sure I'm "known" by all the little cliques, but makng sure I don't get sucked in. Example: Most of the IS' like to party, a lot. I don't think that's a good use of my time and money. But I don't want to not have the option of chilling with them. So I make sure to small talk or w/e with them. I'm also trying to infiltrate the Japanese clique so I can practice my Japanese while here. That's going pretty well so far, mainly due to luck of just running into a huge group that couldn't speak English. So my options were Korean or Japanese and I threw both at them. One thing that's slightly bothersome is the fact that they're all girls (which is dope) but it means I have initiate ALL contact and followup. I've talked with my roomate some. His English isn't so great, but his Korean is really good. All he really does though is play computer games all day and night. I could try to get in with the Chinese guy clique, but that seems rather counter intuitive; playing computer games does nothing positive. I've got inside hookups thanks to my previous study abroad here 2 years ago. Which means I shouldn't have any problem hooking up with the native Korean clique. There's a hip hop dance club that an advisor gave a recommendation for me to. So I don't have to worry about being a foreigner AND a male. Just have to worry about speaking Korean lol. So to recap real quick, we've got the Peace Buddies (dope, but too easy to speak English), the Europeans (which can be further broken down), the native Koreans, friends from 2 years ago, and the Japanese. What I'm trying to point out, I guess, is that it's pretty tiring running around and making time to hang out with all these groups.

Now for the more fun stuff. I've done lots of exploring. Primarily shopping or meeting up for dinner with people. I've also gone to this really beautiful man made river park place. That was cool. I got convinced to go clubbing again, this time by a bunch of first time girls and one party girl. They had heard that I was a bboy, so they were pretty persistant in wanting me to go out with them. So while the party girl was...partying, I was lookinig after the newbies. Which actually turned out to be fun. Being the only guy in the group has it's advantages haha. Let's see, oh, I was also on TV at some point. While walking around one night, I got stopped in the street by some camera crew/interviewer and they asked me questions about what I liked to watch and why. No clue what it was for. Don't really care either lol. I just thought it was funny when they were asking me what my favorite tv show was and I listed them off. They had no clue what I was talking about haha. Ended up pretty much just saying I like comedy.

I also went to the UK Bboy Championship Korea Eliminations. That was sooooo awesome! One of my favorite crews ended up winning, so that added to it. Then to further add to it, I talked to one of their leaders afterward, Bboy Wing. He's the one that won the recent Red Bull BC One, which is a world 1 on 1 bboy competition. In other words, he's a sick sick bboy. They aired it on MTV at some point actually. But yeah, that was pretty awesome. He invited me out to their practice, so I'll be hitting that up. Pretty excited and nervous at the same time. After the competition, the crew that lost was upset so there was a callout battle outside the building (for anyone that cares, the final battle was Rivers vs Jinjo and there was a tie breaker overtime. If you count the callout battle then that's kind of like double overtime I guess). It was pretty intense. No music, no pads or anything on a dirty, brick walkway; just raw emotion. I took one of my friends with me and it was his first experience with bboying. He was pretty impressed and overwhelmed by it all haha. But it was good for him and opened up his perspective. Might have gotten him interested in it too.

I also had lunch today (sunday) with the family I tutored back in East Lansing over the summer. I got to meet the rest of the family too (the dad and grandma). They're really nice people and their place is really nice. They live in the rich part of Seoul, which adds to my experiences. Example: going shopping at ridiculously expensive department stores. They also invited over the woman I tutored's sister in law, her son, and 2 nieces (from a different relative). I also met another American named Kevin. I had heard about him from the woman I tutored. We referred to him as Other Kevin haha. So after hanging out with the main family, we got shown off to whoever else was available haha. I'm pretty used to it by now though. I'm constantly, constantly being stared at. Sometimes it's cool, sometimes it's weird. Cool example: girls saying I'm handsome in Korean, not realizing I know what they're saying and then I surprise them. Weird Example: Middle age man on the subway staring at me the whole train ride, then finally telling me my jaw accent was beautiful in English. Luckily my stop was next after he said that.

There's update two for ya. Enjoy!

First Week In Korea

So I'm in Korea and things are pretty fantastic. Other than a long plane flight with 4 layovers (Det, Chi, LA, Tokyo), I have no real complaints. I found out when I got to my room that I don't have a single, but I'll just have to deal with it. I met my new Peace Buddy (person the University I'm staying at matches you up with) when I arrived. She's awesome! Her name is Sein (she tells people like Saddam HusSEIN, but really it's like Say EEn). Even though she's young (19), I don't get irritated by her hahaha. She speaks three languages and is a Freshman at Ewha. So she's not too familiar with things herself. Leads to a more enjoyable exploration in my opinion.

I didn't mention this to anyone before I left, but about a week before departure, I got an email notifying me that Korea just recently had a big swine flu outbreak, so all the orientation dates were slightly changed. Also, when I landed in the airport, they had a quarantine thing setup and a pre screening booth where guys were wearing masks. One of them checked behind my ear with some kind of light stick thing. It wasn't a big deal though, not much of a hassle. The reason I chose to have my buddy pick me up at the airport was because I figured it'd be more convenient than taking the bus. We ended up taking the bus....So I spent an extra 30 bucks for nothing in a way. But the whole bus ride I talked to Sein about quick histories of ourselves. So it helped a lot. After getting my stuff to my dorm, I went out for ice cream with some of the other Peace Buddies and International Students (from here on out i will refer to them as IS).

Most of the IS's right now are German and French. There's a pretty good deal of Chinese as well and some Japanese. There are a hand-full of Americans. Since almost all the Germans are blonde haired and blue eyed, everyone thinks I'm German at first. It's pretty interesting having a majority of Europeans around (there's also people from Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Finland, etc). I'm jealous of the fact that Europeans can, for the most part, speak multiple languages. The IS's I've been hanging out with the most are German. My roomate is Chinese. I have yet to really get a handle on how he is.

I went out Friday night to a bar and a club, although not on purpose. I was just about to enter my room for the night when I got overwhelmed by Germans to go out. So, needing to make sure I network and not be a shut-in, I went out drinking. It was pretty fun and I got to meet some new people. I was going to end it after the bar, but then I ended up getting stuck with a Frenchman and Phillipino who couldn't speak any Korean whatsoever and who needed to get to the club. I ended up helping them out and taking a taxi with them. It was pretty cool because I talked to the cab driver during the whole ride (like less than 10 min lol). I asked him if he liked being a cab driver and that led to talking about culture. Our conversation ranged from where I was from to American vs Korean cigarrettes and how guns are pretty easy to get in the US and how you don't have to worry about them in Korea. The coolest part about all this, was there was only like one sentence I didn't understand he said, so it made me feel pretty good. I had gone to the bank the day before and felt miserable because my brain relapsed and my Korean was terrible. I somehow managed to get my account taken care of. Anyways, I went to my first Korean club and it was...a club haha. Lots of people, hot, and grimy. Plus it was in Hongdae and I don't like Hongdae. Hongdae is one of the major clubbing districts in Seoul and it's filled primarily with Korean Americans. The sucky kind. The kind that in the US are spoiled punks and when their parents let them stay in Korea they act like they're hot stuff. Only they're not. So being in a place I didn't really like, I decided to do what I normally do in a situation I don't like; make the most of it. So all I did was dance lol. Went up to the main stage area by the DJ and just vibed out. No one could really dance, so I mainly just danced by myself and earned props from random people. And it made the Germans love me more haha. Only problem was it was way too freaking hot. So I left early (early in Korea when it comes to clubbing is 3am believe it or not). Most the time people stay out until 6am ish. Screw that. I don't like clubbing.

I recently have been getting contacted by my friends from 2 years ago who are in Korea. I met up with Heejung Nuna on Sunday. So she spread the word pretty darn quick about me being here. It was awesome seeing her again. She's living in a nice place working as a tutor and getting ready for either Med School or Graduate School next semester. We gave each other full updates on what's been going on in our lives the past two years. I guess I'm as famous in her family as she is in mine haha. She lives about 40 minutes from where I live, so I can't necessarily visit her whenever I want. I'm going to try though. Especially since I need to refrain from spending too much time with Sein. I realized that tonight actually. The buddy program has changed a bit (more strict), so I don't want to get her into any trouble. Plus it's way too easy to speak English with her. And that's the last thing I need to be doing; giving me an easy out and speaking English. I've been meeting people left and right though, so as long as I don't just go introvert, I won't have any problems making friends.

I plan on trying to join some of the student clubs here. That should make things more fun and help with the Korean. There's a hip hop dance club that I'm going to look into. I don't know if they'll want a bboy, but you never know. Also, there's a korean sword fighting club. I don't know the difference, so I'd like to see. I walked into the student union today and got heavily recruited for a bunch of random ones haha. Like one was a musical another was bird watching. I might actually go to the bird watching one. They made the best case haha. I'm still looking into bboy crew practice spots. It's been a little difficult because all the sites and forums are in Korean and my Korean isn't that great. This Saturday is the UK Bboy Championship Korean Eliminations (competition to see which crew from Korea will go to the UK to rep). It's free and I plan on going. Hopefully I'll make some contacts there. At the end of September is the R16 Korea World Championships. This isn't an elimination, but the final round of R16. So the best crews from around the world will be there. It's going to be sick! This one costs like 18 bucks a ticket though. Not bad at all.

Lastly, I took my Korean Placement test Friday afternoon. After the written part, I felt terrible and depressed. Right after was an interview, which made me even more anxious. But I think because I already felt like crap and didn't think it could get worse, I talked really freely and thus pretty well. I tried my best to charm the interviewer so as to make it less scary. So this time around I did the opposite of how I normally do (well on the interview, bad on the test). I ended up placing into Level 2, which is intermediate. I think the first week is review because we're learning stuff that I literally learned 2 years ago the last time I was here. If it doesn't pick up, then I might have to ask to be moved up. We'll see. The first week of classes is just like in the US; you don't really do much because people are still sorting things out. There's also a period to figure out which other classes you want to take. Because Korean is 9 freaking credits (I have class everyday from 8-11am. Yes, class starts at 8am every morning), I can only take up to 3 other classes. To make things more frustrating, a lot of classes I want to take, I can't because they're in the same time slot as my Korean class. The 2 I know for sure right now are: History of Modern Korea and Dance, Gender, and Sexuality. The two I have to pick between (or neither) is Ecotechnology and Textile Design Coordination. The Eco one is about using environmental friendly technology. The textile one is a fashion class haha. I was hoping it'd be about design your own things (like furniture, clothing etc.) but instead its designing the designs that go on those things (so like the designs on sofas, wallpaper, prints on certain clothes. Not actual clothes or furniture). It was quite humorous. When I walked in people thought I was lost because I def don't look the part of a fashion major. To add to the humor, I straight up asked if I could even do the class because I literally know NOTHING about fashion. And because the Korean academic school year starts in the beginning of the year (unlike ours where it starts in the fall), this was like class II (so more advanced). At first the teacher said she doubted it, but I was welcome to check it out. By the end of the 3 hour class, I had her wanting me to stay for the whole semester haha. Not only do I provide a man's eye, but apparently I understand the concepts really well without even knowing anything. The first day you start your first design called a 5 star. Which is essentially wallpaper or something for a couch or pillow. Those patterns that are just one thing but repeated in a way that makes it look complex. Anyways, I had no freaking clue what to draw, but the premise was pretty simple. I had to make a picture that could be easily symmetric and/or geometric. The key to my success is Dante. She said before you draw your design, think of what it would go on. So I thought wallpaper. But the typical thing that is drawn is some kind of floral pattern. Well I don't know nothing about flowers, so I thought what can I do? I thought about Dante and then Trains and "Uncle Kevin play trains?" And so I drew a train station with train tracks that perfectly intersect and repeat. I was told I had to add more to it for more detail, so I thought, 'what else does Dante like?' Coal cars and trucks. So I added that. And the teacher was incredibly impressed by my design hahaha. So I thanks to Dante, I designed wall paper for a baby boy. We'll see if I actually keep the class though. It's not really appealing to me other than the fact that it's a chance to learn something I won't otherwise try learning and all the other students are native Koreans. So it might help me with the networking thing I want to do.

Well I hope that was a good enough update. Hopefully it'll appease you guys for now hahah. I'm loving it here and doing well. My main concern is forcing myself to get over my insecurity of speaking Korean wrong. But the way things are going, I'm pretty darn certain I'll be improving by leaps and bounds. Oh, I have some videos, but I'll post those later. Peace