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.