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.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
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...
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...
Saturday, February 27, 2010
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
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
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