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.