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...