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