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...