Hey guys!
so it hasnt been a particularly eventful week but figured i should stay in touch anyway.
on tuesday in taekwondo class we played this game where you hop around on one leg, using a hand to hold up your other leg and try to knock down the team members. if you let go of the leg you are holding up you also lose. last team standing wins. we played against one of the teams and won! you wont believe it but they gave us 20,000 won (a little under $20) for winning! It was awesome. My team went out to eat afterwards. I thought it was some crazy Korean game but when i went to tell my CIEE friends about it they had all played it before. i still think its a crazy game though, despite not being korean.
yesterday instead of having korean class all of the morning students had a festival. We all got matching t shirts and paraded to an auditorium across campus to watch dance, music, and theatrical performances. it was a nice break. 20 hours of Korean a week can make your head hurt after a while. also later that day i scored while playing water polo in swimming class. so all around a good day.
swimming class can be pretty funny because the guys dont really want to initiate pool side conversation. last week was the first time i was the only girl in the pool. i thought oh well this will just be like any other week but i could really feel the difference being the only female in the room. normally i dont feel too much like a foreigner in that class because i have my friend Yeji. Without her there though I felt like a super outsider. It is also a unique position because the male/female power balance is thrown off. I know how to swim but the people next to me are struggling. It would be intimidating to talk to a girl who has the upper hand. Since Yeji and I are both girls and we both know how to swim it is easy for us to talk but some of these guys dont look me in the eye (which is an indication of respect in the hierarchical sense). Not to say they are rude or standoff-ish by any means. Playing waterpolo was great because we worked together to make plays and score. One of my favorite images from Korea came from this class actually. One kid was clutching not one, not two, not three, but FOUR kick boards while playing waterpolo. It was hilarious. he was just bobbing up and down, going after the ball, but sometimes just falling over because he was so buoyant. Another kid was using his kickboards to block shots and beat the ball out of people's hands. we had a good time : )
i actually have quite an exciting few weekends coming up. Lukas is coming on sunday. He will be here until next sunday. Then the weekend after that i am going to a waterpark on saturday. If you are familiar with groupon, they have a groupon korea too! it was originally around 50 dollars to go but we are getting in for $14. Not bad. And then the next day we are going bungee jumping. We realized we had procrastinated all of these crazy plans that we have to squeeze it into the time we have. I also am planning to do one trip to daejeon before i leave to say a goodbye to the lab boys. It was awesome to see Jungwoo and Inho the other day (even if Inho kept saying I needed to study Korean 5 hours everyday instead of 4....grrrr inho!!!) and I want a chance to say goodbye to everyone else. I expect I will be busy with Lukas the next week. I will probably be doing my homework whenever I have spare time but try to write soon!
see ya!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
TIna's Awesome Video
My friend tina made this video that captures my time here thus far.she did such a great job that i thought i should share it!
Akaraka!!!
hello!!
It continues to be a whirlwind of activity here in seoul. Last week was Akaraka! Akaraka is a Yonsei school pride festival. It starts off with Daedong Festival, which is when student clubs set up tents along the main road on campus. Its a long road....there are tons of tents! Each tent is set up as a 술집 (sul jiip), which literally means alcohol house. This is the word for bar in Korean. However it is very different from an American bar because you always order food, there is no actual bar, and everyone is at booths/tables. The atmosphere feels different. Anyway these 술집 along the main road are serving lots of alcohol and food. Street vendors also pull up their carts and people line up. Additionally they had set up four stages for student bands to play on! it was pretty crazy. We don't have a festival like this at Colby (especially since hard alcohol is now banned on campus)! I even think there were people designated to remove drunken passed out guys from the road. While waiting for my friend Emily, Tina and I had the privilege of seeing one guy "sleeping" on the pavement alone and then four guys with special badges around their neck came, each grabbed a limb, and brought him into the student center. lovely.
Anyway this went on for two nights. I personally was a fan of the tent that was selling drinks in a bag. They were all wearing doctors outfits and even had a "tequila syringe"! But the big show was Akaraka, on friday. There is an amphitheater on campus that started filling up at noon. Akaraka is first and foremost a Kpop concert. It is a surprise who comes but it is always very famous Korean groups. Secondly, Akaraka is a cheering fest. I have never seen anything like this before. 10,000+ people all saying the same thing doing the same dance, it was like a music video. I guess it doesn't sound as ridiculous as it looked but it was pretty hilarious. There are some parts where you put you hands over the shoulders of the person next to you and sway back and forth and then make big circle huddles or push and pull the person infront of you in a chain or gather in a circle and kick someone in the middle and there is a lot of thrusting involved...it was interesting to say the least. What really puts it over the top is the leaders on stage. They are so dramatic and have this flare with their arm movements. And on top of that...their outfits! First they are all wearing white gloves (mickey mouse-esque) and have shiny, bubbly almost cowboy outfits with lots of tassles hanging off. It is quite the sight. Every single Yonsei student knows these cheers (and there are a lot of cheers) so it is a good time.
However the main part was the singing (well at least I think and hope it was). It started off with student groups since people get into the amphitheater early because even if you have a ticket it can be really hard to get a seat. It is very competitive to get a ticket; under half of the students get one! Although i know several people who got in without one, i think it becomes a free for all at some point in the night. Anyway I had no idea so many famous singers were going to be there! I actually didn't know who they were (i haven't gotten THAT korean yet!) but once i heard the songs i was like oooooohh this song!!! Here is some of the songs i heard!
First on the stage was Dal Shabet:
Then G.NA (pronounced Gina):
then DJ DOC, actually a friend who spent a year in Korea a long time ago said this band was around then too!
Then came Supreme Team:
AND THEN THE HEADLINERS! 2NE1! (pronounced twenty-one)
and heres another 2NE1 track
so yea that was Akaraka. Pictures are on facebook if you haven't checked them out yet. It was a super fun night.
Im looking forward to the next two weekends. This weekend Jungwoo and Inho from Hubolab are coming up from Daejeon to hang out in Seoul! That will be awesome since Homecoming Day in Daejeon fell through. Additionally, Reed's brother and dad are coming to visit for a week starting this friday! We already have plans to take Reed's younger brother out in Seoul on saturday night to show him whats up : ) and then next weekend LUKAS IS COMING!! i cant believe its almost here! His cousin is coming with him too except just for the first three days of his week long visit. we are going to have such a good time, i cant wait!
I cant believe what little time I have left here. It has absolutely flown by. I am going to be really sad to leave Korea. I have made some awesome new friends that I have no idea how I am going to live without but I am also really excited to get back to all the people in the US that i cant live without! I got a job at Farrington (the farm i have worked at in the past) as assistant to the director and one of my best friends Daisy got a job there too! Mark and Matthew are going to be around, so will Natalie and Aaron and Lukas and other Cambridge people : ) I hope to get down to the cape a lot too!
I think I am thinking of home a lot recently because Jay died. I don't know why but I am taking it harder than i thought I would. I have known this was going to come for a while, and even knew that it was imminent. My heart just feels really heavy and I'm doing my best to hold back waves of tears in Korean class. He was such an awesome guy. He loved his kids and made them some of the happiest and greatest ones on the planet. I know I am going to do everything I can to make sure Eleanor and David know that for the rest of their life. My sports classes have been really nice to have though. When I read the email I had taekwondo later that day and we started kicking targets, which was a great distraction. It was my favorite taekwondo class, I had so much fun, even though I felt bad because I was hitting my Captain's hand instead of the target most of the time. and I also have amazing friends here who can make me laugh no matter what. they are unbelievably helpful. They make me realize how healing a smile can be. Im really looking forward to getting back so I can hang out with the Hardys. I have and will continue to think of them and miss them everyday. Until then, despite being thousands of miles away, I am lucky to have the support I do.
until next time, have a good week everyone!
It continues to be a whirlwind of activity here in seoul. Last week was Akaraka! Akaraka is a Yonsei school pride festival. It starts off with Daedong Festival, which is when student clubs set up tents along the main road on campus. Its a long road....there are tons of tents! Each tent is set up as a 술집 (sul jiip), which literally means alcohol house. This is the word for bar in Korean. However it is very different from an American bar because you always order food, there is no actual bar, and everyone is at booths/tables. The atmosphere feels different. Anyway these 술집 along the main road are serving lots of alcohol and food. Street vendors also pull up their carts and people line up. Additionally they had set up four stages for student bands to play on! it was pretty crazy. We don't have a festival like this at Colby (especially since hard alcohol is now banned on campus)! I even think there were people designated to remove drunken passed out guys from the road. While waiting for my friend Emily, Tina and I had the privilege of seeing one guy "sleeping" on the pavement alone and then four guys with special badges around their neck came, each grabbed a limb, and brought him into the student center. lovely.
Anyway this went on for two nights. I personally was a fan of the tent that was selling drinks in a bag. They were all wearing doctors outfits and even had a "tequila syringe"! But the big show was Akaraka, on friday. There is an amphitheater on campus that started filling up at noon. Akaraka is first and foremost a Kpop concert. It is a surprise who comes but it is always very famous Korean groups. Secondly, Akaraka is a cheering fest. I have never seen anything like this before. 10,000+ people all saying the same thing doing the same dance, it was like a music video. I guess it doesn't sound as ridiculous as it looked but it was pretty hilarious. There are some parts where you put you hands over the shoulders of the person next to you and sway back and forth and then make big circle huddles or push and pull the person infront of you in a chain or gather in a circle and kick someone in the middle and there is a lot of thrusting involved...it was interesting to say the least. What really puts it over the top is the leaders on stage. They are so dramatic and have this flare with their arm movements. And on top of that...their outfits! First they are all wearing white gloves (mickey mouse-esque) and have shiny, bubbly almost cowboy outfits with lots of tassles hanging off. It is quite the sight. Every single Yonsei student knows these cheers (and there are a lot of cheers) so it is a good time.
However the main part was the singing (well at least I think and hope it was). It started off with student groups since people get into the amphitheater early because even if you have a ticket it can be really hard to get a seat. It is very competitive to get a ticket; under half of the students get one! Although i know several people who got in without one, i think it becomes a free for all at some point in the night. Anyway I had no idea so many famous singers were going to be there! I actually didn't know who they were (i haven't gotten THAT korean yet!) but once i heard the songs i was like oooooohh this song!!! Here is some of the songs i heard!
First on the stage was Dal Shabet:
Then G.NA (pronounced Gina):
then DJ DOC, actually a friend who spent a year in Korea a long time ago said this band was around then too!
Then came Supreme Team:
AND THEN THE HEADLINERS! 2NE1! (pronounced twenty-one)
and heres another 2NE1 track
so yea that was Akaraka. Pictures are on facebook if you haven't checked them out yet. It was a super fun night.
Im looking forward to the next two weekends. This weekend Jungwoo and Inho from Hubolab are coming up from Daejeon to hang out in Seoul! That will be awesome since Homecoming Day in Daejeon fell through. Additionally, Reed's brother and dad are coming to visit for a week starting this friday! We already have plans to take Reed's younger brother out in Seoul on saturday night to show him whats up : ) and then next weekend LUKAS IS COMING!! i cant believe its almost here! His cousin is coming with him too except just for the first three days of his week long visit. we are going to have such a good time, i cant wait!
I cant believe what little time I have left here. It has absolutely flown by. I am going to be really sad to leave Korea. I have made some awesome new friends that I have no idea how I am going to live without but I am also really excited to get back to all the people in the US that i cant live without! I got a job at Farrington (the farm i have worked at in the past) as assistant to the director and one of my best friends Daisy got a job there too! Mark and Matthew are going to be around, so will Natalie and Aaron and Lukas and other Cambridge people : ) I hope to get down to the cape a lot too!
I think I am thinking of home a lot recently because Jay died. I don't know why but I am taking it harder than i thought I would. I have known this was going to come for a while, and even knew that it was imminent. My heart just feels really heavy and I'm doing my best to hold back waves of tears in Korean class. He was such an awesome guy. He loved his kids and made them some of the happiest and greatest ones on the planet. I know I am going to do everything I can to make sure Eleanor and David know that for the rest of their life. My sports classes have been really nice to have though. When I read the email I had taekwondo later that day and we started kicking targets, which was a great distraction. It was my favorite taekwondo class, I had so much fun, even though I felt bad because I was hitting my Captain's hand instead of the target most of the time. and I also have amazing friends here who can make me laugh no matter what. they are unbelievably helpful. They make me realize how healing a smile can be. Im really looking forward to getting back so I can hang out with the Hardys. I have and will continue to think of them and miss them everyday. Until then, despite being thousands of miles away, I am lucky to have the support I do.
until next time, have a good week everyone!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
walking in the rain
Hey everyone!
its been a while!
Last weekend my program went on an excursion to Taiwan. It was soooo much fun. We had three awesome tour guides, went on the worlds fastest elevator, biked around, and saw tons of cool sights. But before any of that happened we got into a car accident! What would a study abroad experience be without a little metal crunching? Our enormous bus didn't sustain any damage, no one was hurt, and heard a taiwanese lady yelling like crazy until the driver threatened to call the police (since it was her fault) and then she suddenly had an urgent appointment she had to get to...
We went to an AMAZING dumpling restaurant. best dumplings i have evvvveer had. When we first walked in the lady asked us if we knew how to eat dumplings. we were just like...uh yea? turns out we didnt. first you have to make the sauce with proper ratio of soy sauce to vinegar (1:3) over ginger. you then dip the dumpling in the sauce with chop sticks then transfer the dumpling to this spoon and poke a hole in the dumpling so the broth on the inside streams out. put some ginger on top and ta da! thats how you eat a dumpling. we got a lot of different kinds and they were all so delicious (except for the veggie ones...).
Even though I should have been focusing on Korean because I had midterms the day after we got back i learned some Chinese! It was exciting because there are five people from China in my Korean class so i impressed them with what i learned. I have the character for person, big, item, and Daoist temple down. I can say "I am" (washer sort of, hard to romanize chinese!), and "thank you" (shye shye), and that "joo" means wish if you say it with one tone but pig if you say it with a different tone...yikes. Each word has 5 tones that change the meaning. It was Yuri's birthday on the trip and our tourguides were joking around saying that some people sing happy birthday to you with the pig joo instead of the wish joo to be funny : )
I had such a great time! you should check the pictures on facebook out if you want to see more : )
I am almost finallly done with midterms. All I have left is swimming which i am not too worried about. I had reading and speaking Korean on wednesday, thursday was Children's Day so we didnt have classes, and then friday I had written and listening Korean. I think I did well. The other people in my class are doing a bit better than me but all they have to do is this class and then they spend all afternoon studying Korean while i have five other classes I am running around doing but I think I am still getting the hang of it to some extent. I am the only person on my program in level one doing the morning class (9-1) while everyone else is doing the afternoon class (4-6) and even though we stared 6 weeks later than them we are waaaaaay ahead so whenever I am feeling less than confident in my Korean I know i understand more than them : P
My taekwondo midterm was...interesting. We all struggled a bit but I had fun. After the exam the professor calls me over and he is standing next to this kid who looks super young. He tells him to introduce himself to me and I can tell the kid is kind of struggling, trying to come up with the english words but ends up just thrusting his hand out and saying his name. I shake his hand and introduce myself in Korean and the professor then says so do you know him? I am thinking he wants me to speak English with him or something because at the beginning of the semester he made everyone standup and introduce themselves in english. I just say uh no, kind of like uh obviously i dont know him...how would i? hes not in this class...hes just some random guy who happpened to be walking by...
well turns out he wasnt just some random guy. The professor says something about silver medal and speed skating or inline skating. i didnt really catch everything so I walk over to the TA afterwards and say uh why did i just meet him? and she says that he is very famous, everyone in korea knows him because he got the silver medal. i continued with but why did just i meet him? apparently everyone else knew who he was already...and hes not even 21 yet! I have tried since to find out who this was online but i completely forgot his name...maybe there was a g in it? i asked my roommate if she knew any famous skater and she said she had no idea, so im still investigating but anyway still cool!
Last night I went out with my class to celebrate we were done with midterms. We had a fun night learning some dangerous Chinese drinking games that I have to bring back to the US. Later in the night we went to a club in Hongdae, an area known for clubbing. When we got out of the club we discovered it was pouring rain. A friend of mine from class luckily had an umbrella and we walked around and got some food, hoping it would stop. It tapered off and he took a cab back to his house and I figured I was kinda already wet so I would just walk home anyway (its about a 25 minute walk). I put in my ipod and pounded the pavement. Not one song into my playlist I reach a crosswalk where there is a guy standing under an umbrella listening to his ipod too. As soon as he sees me he comes on over and shares his umbrella with me as we wait for the light to turn. He ended up walking me all the way back to my dorm! He didn't speak any english so we spoke korean together the whole entire way : ) I know a whole lot about his family (he lives with his brother, and dad but hasnt seen his mom in 5 years because she owns a korean restaurant in japan but hes planning to visit her in a year) and what food he likes (bulgogi, like me!) seeing as that is the vocab i just learned. He walked me because the busses weren't running yet so he didnt have anything better to do anyway. i figured the least i could do was chill with him until the busses started running again so when we got back to my dorm we just chilled outside talking together. it was fun! definitely got a lot of korean practice in. And then we went our separate ways. yet another reason to love korea, a random person on the street, walked with me for half an hour because i was walking in the rain without an umbrella at 4 in the morning. Sounds kind of sketchy. If a man were to walk up to me with an umbrella in jordan (nevermind the serious lack of rain) i would a. ignore him b. run in the other direction or c. lead him to a fake house, never under any circumstances show a man where i really live. but in korea its ok. I wonder if my parents prefer this or walking around the slums of giza with two random guys we met on a bus?
tonight is a lantern festival/parade in preparation for Buddha's birthday on May 10th. We have no school that day so I am sure there will be lots of things going on but tonight is supposed to be epic as well. so keep an eye out for the pictures!
until next time!
its been a while!
Last weekend my program went on an excursion to Taiwan. It was soooo much fun. We had three awesome tour guides, went on the worlds fastest elevator, biked around, and saw tons of cool sights. But before any of that happened we got into a car accident! What would a study abroad experience be without a little metal crunching? Our enormous bus didn't sustain any damage, no one was hurt, and heard a taiwanese lady yelling like crazy until the driver threatened to call the police (since it was her fault) and then she suddenly had an urgent appointment she had to get to...
We went to an AMAZING dumpling restaurant. best dumplings i have evvvveer had. When we first walked in the lady asked us if we knew how to eat dumplings. we were just like...uh yea? turns out we didnt. first you have to make the sauce with proper ratio of soy sauce to vinegar (1:3) over ginger. you then dip the dumpling in the sauce with chop sticks then transfer the dumpling to this spoon and poke a hole in the dumpling so the broth on the inside streams out. put some ginger on top and ta da! thats how you eat a dumpling. we got a lot of different kinds and they were all so delicious (except for the veggie ones...).
Even though I should have been focusing on Korean because I had midterms the day after we got back i learned some Chinese! It was exciting because there are five people from China in my Korean class so i impressed them with what i learned. I have the character for person, big, item, and Daoist temple down. I can say "I am" (washer sort of, hard to romanize chinese!), and "thank you" (shye shye), and that "joo" means wish if you say it with one tone but pig if you say it with a different tone...yikes. Each word has 5 tones that change the meaning. It was Yuri's birthday on the trip and our tourguides were joking around saying that some people sing happy birthday to you with the pig joo instead of the wish joo to be funny : )
I had such a great time! you should check the pictures on facebook out if you want to see more : )
I am almost finallly done with midterms. All I have left is swimming which i am not too worried about. I had reading and speaking Korean on wednesday, thursday was Children's Day so we didnt have classes, and then friday I had written and listening Korean. I think I did well. The other people in my class are doing a bit better than me but all they have to do is this class and then they spend all afternoon studying Korean while i have five other classes I am running around doing but I think I am still getting the hang of it to some extent. I am the only person on my program in level one doing the morning class (9-1) while everyone else is doing the afternoon class (4-6) and even though we stared 6 weeks later than them we are waaaaaay ahead so whenever I am feeling less than confident in my Korean I know i understand more than them : P
My taekwondo midterm was...interesting. We all struggled a bit but I had fun. After the exam the professor calls me over and he is standing next to this kid who looks super young. He tells him to introduce himself to me and I can tell the kid is kind of struggling, trying to come up with the english words but ends up just thrusting his hand out and saying his name. I shake his hand and introduce myself in Korean and the professor then says so do you know him? I am thinking he wants me to speak English with him or something because at the beginning of the semester he made everyone standup and introduce themselves in english. I just say uh no, kind of like uh obviously i dont know him...how would i? hes not in this class...hes just some random guy who happpened to be walking by...
well turns out he wasnt just some random guy. The professor says something about silver medal and speed skating or inline skating. i didnt really catch everything so I walk over to the TA afterwards and say uh why did i just meet him? and she says that he is very famous, everyone in korea knows him because he got the silver medal. i continued with but why did just i meet him? apparently everyone else knew who he was already...and hes not even 21 yet! I have tried since to find out who this was online but i completely forgot his name...maybe there was a g in it? i asked my roommate if she knew any famous skater and she said she had no idea, so im still investigating but anyway still cool!
Last night I went out with my class to celebrate we were done with midterms. We had a fun night learning some dangerous Chinese drinking games that I have to bring back to the US. Later in the night we went to a club in Hongdae, an area known for clubbing. When we got out of the club we discovered it was pouring rain. A friend of mine from class luckily had an umbrella and we walked around and got some food, hoping it would stop. It tapered off and he took a cab back to his house and I figured I was kinda already wet so I would just walk home anyway (its about a 25 minute walk). I put in my ipod and pounded the pavement. Not one song into my playlist I reach a crosswalk where there is a guy standing under an umbrella listening to his ipod too. As soon as he sees me he comes on over and shares his umbrella with me as we wait for the light to turn. He ended up walking me all the way back to my dorm! He didn't speak any english so we spoke korean together the whole entire way : ) I know a whole lot about his family (he lives with his brother, and dad but hasnt seen his mom in 5 years because she owns a korean restaurant in japan but hes planning to visit her in a year) and what food he likes (bulgogi, like me!) seeing as that is the vocab i just learned. He walked me because the busses weren't running yet so he didnt have anything better to do anyway. i figured the least i could do was chill with him until the busses started running again so when we got back to my dorm we just chilled outside talking together. it was fun! definitely got a lot of korean practice in. And then we went our separate ways. yet another reason to love korea, a random person on the street, walked with me for half an hour because i was walking in the rain without an umbrella at 4 in the morning. Sounds kind of sketchy. If a man were to walk up to me with an umbrella in jordan (nevermind the serious lack of rain) i would a. ignore him b. run in the other direction or c. lead him to a fake house, never under any circumstances show a man where i really live. but in korea its ok. I wonder if my parents prefer this or walking around the slums of giza with two random guys we met on a bus?
tonight is a lantern festival/parade in preparation for Buddha's birthday on May 10th. We have no school that day so I am sure there will be lots of things going on but tonight is supposed to be epic as well. so keep an eye out for the pictures!
until next time!
Friday, April 22, 2011
Need a hero?
Hi!
Today I had my second midterm. Its been a long week so I am looking forward to being able to sleep in! I have slowly been pushing what time I get out of bed for 9 am class to the very limit. This morning it was 8 50 and I still had time to spare but maybe I will be reenergized after the weekend!
On wednesday I had my bodybuilding written exam. Half the exam was about bodybuilding theory, like how muscles work, how to create a work out plan, some about the nervous system, the phases of weight lifting, how the body responds, etc. The second half was anatomy and specific exercise questions, like when you do this exercise what muscles are you working, or list 4 exercises that work this muscle, or what is the difference between these two exercises, etc. A week before the exam the professor posted online all of our previous quizzes and all of the exercises we were supposed to have memorized. Then one day before the exam he posts up a study guide and says the test will come from these question! I was mad at first because i had been studying very different material in a very different manner. but hey what can you do, at least he gave us the questions. Anyway I remember in class my professor saying that most of the kids have no idea what is going on during the class because it is all taught in English and that he was going to have a special review in Korean for one hour. I was thinking to myself, how can he possibly fit a whole semesters worth of lectures into one hour? I realized this meant that the Korean students were going to have to spend hours going through the copious amount of slides with dictionaries trying to figure out what these obscure workout words mean to see if they were the answer. that isnt super productive for studying for a midterm, especially when it was only one day away! I can scan through a powerpoint and find answers like its nothing because I speak English and it even took me about two hours! since i filled out the study guide with my answers I reposted it online so everyone in class could see it. The number of hits it was getting started to skyrocket.
The next day at the test I walk in and its all normal. I sit down next to some guy and we kinda just sit there, last minute cramming before we get the test. No one really says anything to me and the test begins. It was pretty easy, we had the questions after all. After the exam the guy next to me leans over and goes "Are you Elizabeth Lerret?" (that is what my name posts as on the website) and I just laugh (who else could possibly be named elizabeth lerret in this room....side note: almost all korean names have 3 syllables including family name) and say yes. He says thank you so much!! i would have failed with out you!! I just brush it off, oh no problem glad you did well..blah blah blah. I then stand up and turn around to see a group of guy just start clapping, and then another group repeatedly shouting I was their hero! My hero, My hero!! It was awesome. This would be the second standing ovation I have gotten in a sports class (the first being for doing a flip turn in swimming). And since I expect no standing ovations whatsoever in taekwondo I even got my friend Won seok (he was in my lifting group if you recall) to agree to help me for the midterm! so you give some you get some! It will be funny to see what the average score on the midterm will be. If you look at our weekly quizzes the highest average ever is 4.21/10. I think a lot more people did well this time, I even had a guy come up to me afterwards asking if he was pronouncing action potential right since on my sheet was the only place he saw it! Hopefully we get the exam back soon!
It has been a little difficult having Korean from 9-1 and midterms. I have to wake up early, dont get that time to study, and also am not doing my normal stellar job on our quizzes because I am spending my time studying for midterms. After next week though I am going to do some intense studying so I can be back ahead (does that make sense...back ahead?). I was studying for todays midterm every chance I got during class. It was Korean Traditional Society and Modernization. What amazes me is the study guides here! The teachers give us the test before hand. Its ridiculous...I could NEVER get away with the amount I study for a midterm here at Colby. At Colby you are expected to know everything we learned (rightfully so) where as here the teacher just picks at the end whats important. Whats the point of going to class? Whatever, not complaining. I don't want to spend that much time on it when I am abroad anyway. ANNNDD we dont even write in full sentences! My professors (professorSSS PLURAL!) specifically asked we only write bullet points. How you can you possibly explain why something happened with just one verb!?? But once again, after I got over the initial shock and I kept my mouth shut (thought I still remain appalled).
I do have some exciting news!! I am going to graduate in December! Over this past year I have done so much that my priorities don't really line up with what Colby can offer me anymore. I am thinking about becoming a language teacher for the time being and there is nothing geared towards that discipline at Colby. I could take education classes but they would all be entry level, whats the point? Additionally there is no Korean or Arabic studies. So I'm finishing up my credits and hitting the road! I don't have a perfect plan yet but I think I am going to apply to teach English in Korea starting in March (that is when the school year starts). Another thing I am thinking about is this joint program between schools across America and the Peace Corps where you can get your masters in whatever you want basically and do the Peace Corp together. Not sure if I am ready for that though. This is a big crossroads because the Peace Corp is in Jordan (aka Arabic) and teaching in English is in Korea (aka Korean). What language will I choose?! I want to do both but I should probably just focus on one at a time. Teaching English in Korea would give me some experience and I can see if this is something really want to do. But the Peace Corp is an amazing opportunity and I could get a masters too. I guess I can do both. Or maybe the hell with it all and I'll just go work with Ashley in St. Croix : )
Alright well we have NO INTERNET anywhere on campus this weekend because of cable work....i have no idea what I am going to do, stare at the wall?!? just kidding. but I do need to download everything I need for my Korean government and politics exam. Have a good weekend!
note to family: even though i graduate before dec 24, it is after thanksgiving, when we pull names out of the hat...sooooo i think that means i have one more year out of the grab....
Today I had my second midterm. Its been a long week so I am looking forward to being able to sleep in! I have slowly been pushing what time I get out of bed for 9 am class to the very limit. This morning it was 8 50 and I still had time to spare but maybe I will be reenergized after the weekend!
On wednesday I had my bodybuilding written exam. Half the exam was about bodybuilding theory, like how muscles work, how to create a work out plan, some about the nervous system, the phases of weight lifting, how the body responds, etc. The second half was anatomy and specific exercise questions, like when you do this exercise what muscles are you working, or list 4 exercises that work this muscle, or what is the difference between these two exercises, etc. A week before the exam the professor posted online all of our previous quizzes and all of the exercises we were supposed to have memorized. Then one day before the exam he posts up a study guide and says the test will come from these question! I was mad at first because i had been studying very different material in a very different manner. but hey what can you do, at least he gave us the questions. Anyway I remember in class my professor saying that most of the kids have no idea what is going on during the class because it is all taught in English and that he was going to have a special review in Korean for one hour. I was thinking to myself, how can he possibly fit a whole semesters worth of lectures into one hour? I realized this meant that the Korean students were going to have to spend hours going through the copious amount of slides with dictionaries trying to figure out what these obscure workout words mean to see if they were the answer. that isnt super productive for studying for a midterm, especially when it was only one day away! I can scan through a powerpoint and find answers like its nothing because I speak English and it even took me about two hours! since i filled out the study guide with my answers I reposted it online so everyone in class could see it. The number of hits it was getting started to skyrocket.
The next day at the test I walk in and its all normal. I sit down next to some guy and we kinda just sit there, last minute cramming before we get the test. No one really says anything to me and the test begins. It was pretty easy, we had the questions after all. After the exam the guy next to me leans over and goes "Are you Elizabeth Lerret?" (that is what my name posts as on the website) and I just laugh (who else could possibly be named elizabeth lerret in this room....side note: almost all korean names have 3 syllables including family name) and say yes. He says thank you so much!! i would have failed with out you!! I just brush it off, oh no problem glad you did well..blah blah blah. I then stand up and turn around to see a group of guy just start clapping, and then another group repeatedly shouting I was their hero! My hero, My hero!! It was awesome. This would be the second standing ovation I have gotten in a sports class (the first being for doing a flip turn in swimming). And since I expect no standing ovations whatsoever in taekwondo I even got my friend Won seok (he was in my lifting group if you recall) to agree to help me for the midterm! so you give some you get some! It will be funny to see what the average score on the midterm will be. If you look at our weekly quizzes the highest average ever is 4.21/10. I think a lot more people did well this time, I even had a guy come up to me afterwards asking if he was pronouncing action potential right since on my sheet was the only place he saw it! Hopefully we get the exam back soon!
It has been a little difficult having Korean from 9-1 and midterms. I have to wake up early, dont get that time to study, and also am not doing my normal stellar job on our quizzes because I am spending my time studying for midterms. After next week though I am going to do some intense studying so I can be back ahead (does that make sense...back ahead?). I was studying for todays midterm every chance I got during class. It was Korean Traditional Society and Modernization. What amazes me is the study guides here! The teachers give us the test before hand. Its ridiculous...I could NEVER get away with the amount I study for a midterm here at Colby. At Colby you are expected to know everything we learned (rightfully so) where as here the teacher just picks at the end whats important. Whats the point of going to class? Whatever, not complaining. I don't want to spend that much time on it when I am abroad anyway. ANNNDD we dont even write in full sentences! My professors (professorSSS PLURAL!) specifically asked we only write bullet points. How you can you possibly explain why something happened with just one verb!?? But once again, after I got over the initial shock and I kept my mouth shut (thought I still remain appalled).
I do have some exciting news!! I am going to graduate in December! Over this past year I have done so much that my priorities don't really line up with what Colby can offer me anymore. I am thinking about becoming a language teacher for the time being and there is nothing geared towards that discipline at Colby. I could take education classes but they would all be entry level, whats the point? Additionally there is no Korean or Arabic studies. So I'm finishing up my credits and hitting the road! I don't have a perfect plan yet but I think I am going to apply to teach English in Korea starting in March (that is when the school year starts). Another thing I am thinking about is this joint program between schools across America and the Peace Corps where you can get your masters in whatever you want basically and do the Peace Corp together. Not sure if I am ready for that though. This is a big crossroads because the Peace Corp is in Jordan (aka Arabic) and teaching in English is in Korea (aka Korean). What language will I choose?! I want to do both but I should probably just focus on one at a time. Teaching English in Korea would give me some experience and I can see if this is something really want to do. But the Peace Corp is an amazing opportunity and I could get a masters too. I guess I can do both. Or maybe the hell with it all and I'll just go work with Ashley in St. Croix : )
Alright well we have NO INTERNET anywhere on campus this weekend because of cable work....i have no idea what I am going to do, stare at the wall?!? just kidding. but I do need to download everything I need for my Korean government and politics exam. Have a good weekend!
note to family: even though i graduate before dec 24, it is after thanksgiving, when we pull names out of the hat...sooooo i think that means i have one more year out of the grab....
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
I will get to class before 8 59 tomorrow...
hi!
so Emily and I were waiting for Tina when I wrote that last blog post. An hour and a half later we were about to walk out the salon door and I hadn't seen the two ladies who did my hair and I wanted to say goodbye. But lo and behold I turned around and there they were! One of them handed me this cute little plastic bag that had 3 mini tootsie pops inside and a piece of paper that said letter on it in English! It was so sweet. They even went down in the elevator with us to say goodbye. Once we were outside I opened up the bag and the note said:
See you next time~^^*
I enjoyed meeting~
-junohair Ewha Womans 3 shop
Hwang guy yeon_
it was in english! have no idea where that came from but it was so nice. theyre good people.
But man even in a hand written note Koreans use emoticons. My roommate said that when youre texting with a Korean they might be offended when your message isnt littered with them. Little did I know that emoticons were a whole other language I had (/still have to) learn. I sometimes have to show my roommate texts and say, "is a happy face or a sad face?" On the plus side my phone has soooo many fun symbols that i can text hearts to everyone (and do so regularly).
so the four hour, 9 am Korean class has started! and believe it or not i really like it! i havent been spending my time staring at the clock, were learning a ton, and I have a really cool group of people. I am actually the only American in my class, which was a big surprise to me. On the first day a guy from Sweden (the only other white person), turns to the guy next to him and says where in america are you from? (the guy is Korean but speaks english and is in a level 1 korean class so safe assumption not korean nationality). The guy just turns to him and says Im from Canada. I could not contain my laughter. Me and him are the only native english speakers so we clown around a little and make fun of each others countries, all in good fun (its canada, how can you not?). My class has plans to go out friday night already. Were going to have a great semester together.
although it is only the beginning of the korean class semester for me, im about to get hit with midterms in my other classes! I am going to have a very busy two weeks. I not only have to do a significant portion of reading (which seems to have fallen through the cracks a little bit), but have to practice for my practical examinations in my sport classes as well. There is one girl in my bodybuilding class who is a tiny thing. She can barely lift 2 kilograms over her head 10 times. I think a pushup would break her. Today me and two other guys (the rest of our lifting group) were helping her do squats, where I had her hips, Sam had her back and the Wonseok had her knees, and it was still a struggle! but you wont believe it...this girl is a black belt in my taekwondo class! I've seen her do crazy kicks and fight her way across the gym. what a discrepancy! She will definitely fail the midterm (since we have minimum weight to lift) but she is pretty awesome.
I am a little sad because all of the HuboLab boys are super busy with, you guessed it, HuboLab. It is nearly impossible to find time since they work so hard. However Jungwoo said that homecoming day (for Hubo alum) is May 14 so I think that is when I will be able to see everyone. He also said that there will be more time for hanging out in May so I have something to look forward to : )
Speaking of things to look forward to, our trip has been confirmed! We are going to Taiwan! I think we are going to have a ton of fun. Also it will be a lot cheaper than Japan (not that we have to pay extra for the trip but just for being there). I am really excited because a good friend I made in Jordan is from Taiwan! His mom owns a company and a cafe there and he has friends that he said he would hook me up with. I feel so cool being able to go around the world and have connections like that. Its going to be a great trip with all of the CIEE crew. Though were still an American mob, 17 is nothing compared to the 135 we used to travel around with in Jordan.
A big difference I have noticed from Jordan and Korea is the definition of foreigner. In Korea there are soooo many foreigners from all over the world. Everything but Arab representation believe it or not. Asking someone who doesn't look Korean (it is a pretty distinct look) where they are from is completely a legit question. In Jordan foreigner typically means American. There were a lot of travelers but not really long term foreigners, like us, that I saw on a regular basis. And just walking around town there were obviously tourists but I don't really mean that. When someone saw me, it was a pretty safe bet that I was American. Makes for a much different environment, more people and countries to learn about.
Anyway gotta go to sleep so i can get up in time for class. Even though I live in the same building as class I am always the last one there. And then i have to sit in the chair underneath the tv at a terrible angle of the black board and its just bad news. working on it though.
see ya!
so Emily and I were waiting for Tina when I wrote that last blog post. An hour and a half later we were about to walk out the salon door and I hadn't seen the two ladies who did my hair and I wanted to say goodbye. But lo and behold I turned around and there they were! One of them handed me this cute little plastic bag that had 3 mini tootsie pops inside and a piece of paper that said letter on it in English! It was so sweet. They even went down in the elevator with us to say goodbye. Once we were outside I opened up the bag and the note said:
See you next time~^^*
I enjoyed meeting~
-junohair Ewha Womans 3 shop
Hwang guy yeon_
it was in english! have no idea where that came from but it was so nice. theyre good people.
But man even in a hand written note Koreans use emoticons. My roommate said that when youre texting with a Korean they might be offended when your message isnt littered with them. Little did I know that emoticons were a whole other language I had (/still have to) learn. I sometimes have to show my roommate texts and say, "is a happy face or a sad face?" On the plus side my phone has soooo many fun symbols that i can text hearts to everyone (and do so regularly).
so the four hour, 9 am Korean class has started! and believe it or not i really like it! i havent been spending my time staring at the clock, were learning a ton, and I have a really cool group of people. I am actually the only American in my class, which was a big surprise to me. On the first day a guy from Sweden (the only other white person), turns to the guy next to him and says where in america are you from? (the guy is Korean but speaks english and is in a level 1 korean class so safe assumption not korean nationality). The guy just turns to him and says Im from Canada. I could not contain my laughter. Me and him are the only native english speakers so we clown around a little and make fun of each others countries, all in good fun (its canada, how can you not?). My class has plans to go out friday night already. Were going to have a great semester together.
although it is only the beginning of the korean class semester for me, im about to get hit with midterms in my other classes! I am going to have a very busy two weeks. I not only have to do a significant portion of reading (which seems to have fallen through the cracks a little bit), but have to practice for my practical examinations in my sport classes as well. There is one girl in my bodybuilding class who is a tiny thing. She can barely lift 2 kilograms over her head 10 times. I think a pushup would break her. Today me and two other guys (the rest of our lifting group) were helping her do squats, where I had her hips, Sam had her back and the Wonseok had her knees, and it was still a struggle! but you wont believe it...this girl is a black belt in my taekwondo class! I've seen her do crazy kicks and fight her way across the gym. what a discrepancy! She will definitely fail the midterm (since we have minimum weight to lift) but she is pretty awesome.
I am a little sad because all of the HuboLab boys are super busy with, you guessed it, HuboLab. It is nearly impossible to find time since they work so hard. However Jungwoo said that homecoming day (for Hubo alum) is May 14 so I think that is when I will be able to see everyone. He also said that there will be more time for hanging out in May so I have something to look forward to : )
Speaking of things to look forward to, our trip has been confirmed! We are going to Taiwan! I think we are going to have a ton of fun. Also it will be a lot cheaper than Japan (not that we have to pay extra for the trip but just for being there). I am really excited because a good friend I made in Jordan is from Taiwan! His mom owns a company and a cafe there and he has friends that he said he would hook me up with. I feel so cool being able to go around the world and have connections like that. Its going to be a great trip with all of the CIEE crew. Though were still an American mob, 17 is nothing compared to the 135 we used to travel around with in Jordan.
A big difference I have noticed from Jordan and Korea is the definition of foreigner. In Korea there are soooo many foreigners from all over the world. Everything but Arab representation believe it or not. Asking someone who doesn't look Korean (it is a pretty distinct look) where they are from is completely a legit question. In Jordan foreigner typically means American. There were a lot of travelers but not really long term foreigners, like us, that I saw on a regular basis. And just walking around town there were obviously tourists but I don't really mean that. When someone saw me, it was a pretty safe bet that I was American. Makes for a much different environment, more people and countries to learn about.
Anyway gotta go to sleep so i can get up in time for class. Even though I live in the same building as class I am always the last one there. And then i have to sit in the chair underneath the tv at a terrible angle of the black board and its just bad news. working on it though.
see ya!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Gettin my hurrr did
Hi everyone!
Right now I am sitting at a hair salon! I just had a great time getting my hair cut. I came here with my friends Tina and Emily but we got separated and I was on my own with non-English speakers. It was quite funny. The first step was shampoo. I had four people handeling me, all attemping to convey what I should be doing very slowly and with hand motions. It was quite a site, we all couldn't stop laughing at the situation. Frankly I am surprised no one here speaks English since I feel like almost everyone knows a litle but that didn't stop us from communicating. I got the best head massage while my hair was being shampooed and then it was time to head to the chair.
At first we were quiet. No talking just the snipping of the scissors and the glorious sound of my split ends hitting the floor. Another girl came over and was sorta just hanging out and that is when I started getting hit with the questions. I was doing pretty well, told them I was from the US, a undergrad a Yonsei, and was leaving in June. And then it got harder. They whipped out what looked like a mini ipad (a samsung version no doubt) and used the translator. Man that was roungh. I think I understood the Korean better actually. After a few rewording tries I got that they were asking me if I would come back for future hair treatments. But once we got off the subject of hair treatments it was much easier.
We talked about boyfriends (actually lack thereof), which got us on the subject of Black Day. Here there is Valentines's day, where the girls buy the guys chocolate. Then one month later is White Day, where the boys buy the girls candy. And then there is Black Day one month later. Where all the singles dress in all black and eat jajamyeong (noodles with black sauce). When she told me that she didn't have a boyfriend I was like oh! Black Day! I could tell she didn't quite get it so I said jajamyeong and then she we were laughing on the same page (well actually she pretended to cry but I thought it was funny). The other girl handler had a boyfriend though so we gave her evil looks.
Its funny we could get along so well/communicate without English because of the setting. It really shouldn't surprise me at this point but I really thought it would be a routine, stare at the mirror silently haircut because of the language barrier. But this lady was awesome, not scared to try and talk to a foreigner and it made for a great time. It ended with them telling me how beautiful I was and me telling them how it was all them, they did a great job. I have nice flippy bangs going on now. And my friend Tina is going through a series of god knows what kind of dyes. I think there is some pink, blue, and purple going on....we'll see what happens.
Anyway I will give you guys a real update soon! There just happened to be a computer here while were hanging out with Tina and her bleaching hair. See ya!~
Right now I am sitting at a hair salon! I just had a great time getting my hair cut. I came here with my friends Tina and Emily but we got separated and I was on my own with non-English speakers. It was quite funny. The first step was shampoo. I had four people handeling me, all attemping to convey what I should be doing very slowly and with hand motions. It was quite a site, we all couldn't stop laughing at the situation. Frankly I am surprised no one here speaks English since I feel like almost everyone knows a litle but that didn't stop us from communicating. I got the best head massage while my hair was being shampooed and then it was time to head to the chair.
At first we were quiet. No talking just the snipping of the scissors and the glorious sound of my split ends hitting the floor. Another girl came over and was sorta just hanging out and that is when I started getting hit with the questions. I was doing pretty well, told them I was from the US, a undergrad a Yonsei, and was leaving in June. And then it got harder. They whipped out what looked like a mini ipad (a samsung version no doubt) and used the translator. Man that was roungh. I think I understood the Korean better actually. After a few rewording tries I got that they were asking me if I would come back for future hair treatments. But once we got off the subject of hair treatments it was much easier.
We talked about boyfriends (actually lack thereof), which got us on the subject of Black Day. Here there is Valentines's day, where the girls buy the guys chocolate. Then one month later is White Day, where the boys buy the girls candy. And then there is Black Day one month later. Where all the singles dress in all black and eat jajamyeong (noodles with black sauce). When she told me that she didn't have a boyfriend I was like oh! Black Day! I could tell she didn't quite get it so I said jajamyeong and then she we were laughing on the same page (well actually she pretended to cry but I thought it was funny). The other girl handler had a boyfriend though so we gave her evil looks.
Its funny we could get along so well/communicate without English because of the setting. It really shouldn't surprise me at this point but I really thought it would be a routine, stare at the mirror silently haircut because of the language barrier. But this lady was awesome, not scared to try and talk to a foreigner and it made for a great time. It ended with them telling me how beautiful I was and me telling them how it was all them, they did a great job. I have nice flippy bangs going on now. And my friend Tina is going through a series of god knows what kind of dyes. I think there is some pink, blue, and purple going on....we'll see what happens.
Anyway I will give you guys a real update soon! There just happened to be a computer here while were hanging out with Tina and her bleaching hair. See ya!~
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
OYYY!!! (taekwondo screaming sound)
Hi everyone! I have just gotten back from taekwondo class and am taking a breather before hopping in the shower so I am presentable at a boxing meeting we have tonight. Taekwondo is soooo cool. There are about 8 black belts in our class so they all went to the side to work with one TA while the other was helping us improve. I kept seeing them do all these high kicks out of the corner of my eye! Took a lot of work to stay focused on my moves but its not that hard since it is so much fun. It is all taught in Korean but I hear the same words repeatedly and am beginning to know what action is associated with them. The funniest part is the little definitions i make up in my head to remind me. For instance the word for one of our hitting moves sounds a lot like tomahawk (i have no idea what it actually is), which reminds me of an axe so i think of the swinging axe motion which is similar to the arm motion. Each class i get less and less of a step behind, which is awesome!
This weekend Emily, Tina, Jonathan, Reed, Queree, and I had a good time hanging out with Heri. Heri works at Season 3, which is a hof we frequent. It has sparkly booths and shiny things hanging down from the ceiling, so quite the sight. It is a nice place to go, get some food, drink some soju, and just hang out together. Heri is always working there so she has gotten to know us. She doesn't really speak English but we somehow formed this relationship with her. One night she texted me and asked if we could all go out together! We were so excited because since she is always working we wanted to be able to spend more time with her. So we all went out, had a crazy night. Very oddly she kept insisting that with us she wasnt married. Not really sure how to take this one... But she did say that the reason she liked us is because we seemed so honest, and pure. She said there is this perception that foreigners are snobby and sleazy and that she was so surprised when she met us because we weren't and that we changed her perception. That made me so happy to hear! One of my main goals is to promote a positive American image and this is concrete evidence that we are making progress. We ended the night at about 6 am after a long noraebang (노래방, karaoke) session. It was a great time : )
A different night Reed, Emily, Tina and I were out and all of a sudden I heard Spanish behind me. I was really confused because when I turned around it was a table of all Koreans. When you go out to bars though it is not uncommon for tables to interact (expecially since we're foreigners). Korean drinking culture is alllllll about the games and a funny and common penalty is to go take a shot with someone at a different table. So anyway, it isn't weird that I just turned around and joined their table and started talking to them. Turns out they had all met in Guatemala because of their parent jobs. Most of them spoke English, to varying degrees, some didn't at all but since they spoke Spanish we communicated just fine. I was shocked to say the least. I have been told that Koreans are rather good at pronouncing Spanish, (both phonetic languages? similar sounds? i dont know..) who knew? Before long we had completely merged tables, were having a good time, and exchanged numbers. But just another typical night : )
Last Wednesday we went to a really cool performance called Nanta. You may have heard of it because it has traveled all the way to Broadway it is so popular. It is a cooking/drumming/comedy show. Its more drumming than anything but they use knives, vegetables, pots, pans, whisks, and what not to make the beat. And everything is infused with comedy. It was entertaining and they were really cooking on the stage! it smelled soooooooo good. The premise was that the owner of a cooking company gives these three cooks and extremely difficult menu to whip up in an hour for a wedding when the owner's nephew comes and the owner assigns him to the cooking team, but he has no idea what he is doing. The whole performance ends with an epic drumming session. Definitely recommend.
My bodybuilding class is getting pretty hard! The frustrating thing is that what we are quizzed on is not what we learn in class. My professor posts powerpoints of 35+ exercises for each muscle group (so far we have arms and shoulder) and we have to memorize all of the exercises and the muscles they work. In class we never use muscle names, right now we are learning about energy systems and lactic acid build up. I guess I wouldn't mind it if we were learning in more steps. Like first we learn the muscles, then we learn the work outs but it just seems like a lot and we are all in the dark pretty much, its just what you can figure out on your own. I am really enjoying the class though. Since I am not even getting Colby credit for it there is absolutely zero pressure to pass but also since im the only white person i dont want to look lazy. but its a one credit class (a normal class here is 3)!! come on. I think the professor is awesome though, I am lucky he is teaching such a low level class or I definitely wouldn't be learning this much.
Tomorrow we find out if my program is going to Japan or not. We are planned for a 4 day trip April 29 - May 2. Suzanne, out resident director, is planning another trip just incase Japan falls through. We don't know where this other trip would be but if I had to guess I think it would be Jeju. We need visas for China and there is no where else that is close. I am hoping Hong Kong and then I could see LUKASSSS!! (who i miss terribly) but its a hike. I really hope we can go to Japan because i have been to Jeju and don't really think it would be fun without the warm weather. Plus I like all the memories I have there with Danielle, Peter, Bob, and Loan. How could you possibly top that trip? Especially traveling in an American mob on a tiny island...I dont know. Going to Japan would be fun because there are two Colby students there that I know who have an apartment in Osaka (which is where our trip is planned to go) so it would be awesome to have a local connect. We will see, fingers crossed.
This is my last week of no 9 am classes. I am a little worried because I am increasingly turning nocturnal. I have no issue with just staying up till 5am and sleeping till 4pm. I have to set an alarm for my 1 pm classes, even my 3 pm classes. I have never been like this! I am hoping this Korean class is going to whip me into regular human being time, but more likely I will just get used to sleeping a lot less. Oh well, im young, i can deal with it.
Lukas is coming at the end of May, which is REALLY EXCITING!! i miss him so much!! He left half way through August last summer and has been in China/Hong Kong the whole entire time. I definitely talk to him the most out of anyone since we gchat or skype almost everyday but I can't wait to see him in person! Him and his cousin are traveling around when he is done with school. Stop 1 is Seoul and Stop 2 is Japan but he might just do the whole time in Korea, a lot is up in the air regarding Japan. Anyway I am going to compile a list of places they could stay. I just cant believe were finally going to hang out after all this time....10 months! aish! but i still have 2 more months to wait...until then i will be doing my thing!!
until later!
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Feeling Chicken?
It would appear my crazy lifestyle has finally caught up with me; i am miserably sick. Good news for you guys though because maybe I will actually post now. And if I had to get sick I guess now would be a good time. My Korean class starts April 1st and is everyday from 9-1. Up until now I haven't had to get out of bed until 12 30 at the earliest, which has translated into staying up all hours. But alas, this will certainly not fly when I have early class everyday and perhaps being sick will slow me down enough to actually go to bed and have a routine to some extent. And I think it is enough time that I won't be sickly my first full week. Even right now my roomate is sick and we are just sitting here taking turns coughing, sniffling, blowing our noses, and chugging water. Quite the sight.
But anyway classes are going well. I am in a perpetual state of soreness and have been taking an ungodly amount of naps. My body is just getting used to this crazy physical schedule I have...5 scheduled works outs in 3 days! ay ay ay! Not to mention the lifting I am theoretically doing on my own but we don't even have our book for body building so I'm gonna ease into it.
In swimming class the other day a Korean girl turned to me and noticed my necklace and said oh is it arabic? and my face just lit up!! i was stunned! as if i couldnt be surprised anymore she then proceeds so sound it out and then figures out it is my name! I was amazed! Turns out she lived in egypt for 18 years so she knows a tiny bit of arabic. I am so excited I have a class with her.
Also a funny thing in swimming class happened that reminded me of where I am. We had all gathered at one end of the pool and our professor was going to explain something to us. There was a bench and one guy sat on it but all of the other guys were hitting him and the professor yelled at him! I instantly knew he was the idiot who didn't give the only seats to the three girls in the class. I think it was more of a gender thing than a foreigner thing, but you never know. But everyone was just so appalled that he hadn't given it to us, and even though there was more room on the bench we were the only ones who sat on it. In my bodybuilding class too we often have pair exercises/stretches, like crunches, and the TAs won't let males and females be partenered with each other. I was surprised because it was the young college students who were enforcing this. But at the same time in my taekwondo class we do the same thing and the TAs don't say anything about male/female partners, and we do much more "racy" exercises than in body building. I guess it really depends on the person, his/her upbringing, how deep the Confucian values penetrate for their family and their life. Although I can confidently say every Korean operates on Confucian values.
My dad has been asking me a lot of questions about food since I am no longer in a homestay and fending for myself. There is a restaurant called Ddalgi (딸기, means strawberry) right next to our dorm that we frequent. It is super cheap and super good. I always get bulgogi (불고기), which is marinated beef, over rice with a raw egg. The egg gets cooked because it is served in a stone pot (dolsot, 돌솥) that is ssuuuppper hot. It doesn't taste eggy at all, more of just makes the rice and meat not dry. Its my favorite. There is also a really cheap restaurant in the Korean Language Institute, which is connected to our dorm underground. They have soups, sweet and sour chicken, pork cutlet, curry, whatever. So we go there a lot as well.
Sometimes we make our own food. In the basement of our dorm is a conveinence store that is open 24/7!! Its the greatest. I have precooked rice and huge thing of soy sauce in my room that i can just throw in the microwave whenever. Also in the basement is a hgue room that is equivalent to eight kitchens so we have resources to cook. All too often we eat ramyeon (라면), Korean ramen. Its instant noodles but more flavor and some of them are real spicy. A tub of ramyeon is only 1,000 won ($.88), so a pretty sound economic choice. Some people put eggs in there ramyeon too but not my favorite. Another favorite for cooking is mandu (만두), aka dumplings. Some you can even just nuke, pretty nice.
However NOTHING beats the meat buffet. You pay one flat rate (6500 ~ 8000 won, $5.77~$7.11) and sit at a table with the grill in front of you and just goooo to town. There is an area with all of the different kind of meats, an area with all of the banchan (반찬, side dishes) like lettuce, bean sprouts, sauces, kim chi, noodles, rice, rice cakes, everything you can imagine. You just take whatever you want and bring it back to your table. The catch is you have to pay for what you don't eat, pretty good system. Jonathan and I go there after boxing and eat pounds of meat. I have no idea how they make a profit but it is actually heaven for me.
I will leave you all with a less pleasant culinary thought. At one bar we go to there is "the hammer game." Each person gets a nail but the hammer has a really skinny thin head, more just like a line. The nail goes into this wood table and you go around attempting to hit your nail. The last person to get his/her nail all the way in loses. On St. Patrick's Day we were playing and we made the penalty for losing was a shot titled Mexican Chicken. I lost. Unfamiliar with Mexican Chicken?
tequila.
raw egg.
tobasco.
But anyway classes are going well. I am in a perpetual state of soreness and have been taking an ungodly amount of naps. My body is just getting used to this crazy physical schedule I have...5 scheduled works outs in 3 days! ay ay ay! Not to mention the lifting I am theoretically doing on my own but we don't even have our book for body building so I'm gonna ease into it.
In swimming class the other day a Korean girl turned to me and noticed my necklace and said oh is it arabic? and my face just lit up!! i was stunned! as if i couldnt be surprised anymore she then proceeds so sound it out and then figures out it is my name! I was amazed! Turns out she lived in egypt for 18 years so she knows a tiny bit of arabic. I am so excited I have a class with her.
Also a funny thing in swimming class happened that reminded me of where I am. We had all gathered at one end of the pool and our professor was going to explain something to us. There was a bench and one guy sat on it but all of the other guys were hitting him and the professor yelled at him! I instantly knew he was the idiot who didn't give the only seats to the three girls in the class. I think it was more of a gender thing than a foreigner thing, but you never know. But everyone was just so appalled that he hadn't given it to us, and even though there was more room on the bench we were the only ones who sat on it. In my bodybuilding class too we often have pair exercises/stretches, like crunches, and the TAs won't let males and females be partenered with each other. I was surprised because it was the young college students who were enforcing this. But at the same time in my taekwondo class we do the same thing and the TAs don't say anything about male/female partners, and we do much more "racy" exercises than in body building. I guess it really depends on the person, his/her upbringing, how deep the Confucian values penetrate for their family and their life. Although I can confidently say every Korean operates on Confucian values.
My dad has been asking me a lot of questions about food since I am no longer in a homestay and fending for myself. There is a restaurant called Ddalgi (딸기, means strawberry) right next to our dorm that we frequent. It is super cheap and super good. I always get bulgogi (불고기), which is marinated beef, over rice with a raw egg. The egg gets cooked because it is served in a stone pot (dolsot, 돌솥) that is ssuuuppper hot. It doesn't taste eggy at all, more of just makes the rice and meat not dry. Its my favorite. There is also a really cheap restaurant in the Korean Language Institute, which is connected to our dorm underground. They have soups, sweet and sour chicken, pork cutlet, curry, whatever. So we go there a lot as well.
Sometimes we make our own food. In the basement of our dorm is a conveinence store that is open 24/7!! Its the greatest. I have precooked rice and huge thing of soy sauce in my room that i can just throw in the microwave whenever. Also in the basement is a hgue room that is equivalent to eight kitchens so we have resources to cook. All too often we eat ramyeon (라면), Korean ramen. Its instant noodles but more flavor and some of them are real spicy. A tub of ramyeon is only 1,000 won ($.88), so a pretty sound economic choice. Some people put eggs in there ramyeon too but not my favorite. Another favorite for cooking is mandu (만두), aka dumplings. Some you can even just nuke, pretty nice.
However NOTHING beats the meat buffet. You pay one flat rate (6500 ~ 8000 won, $5.77~$7.11) and sit at a table with the grill in front of you and just goooo to town. There is an area with all of the different kind of meats, an area with all of the banchan (반찬, side dishes) like lettuce, bean sprouts, sauces, kim chi, noodles, rice, rice cakes, everything you can imagine. You just take whatever you want and bring it back to your table. The catch is you have to pay for what you don't eat, pretty good system. Jonathan and I go there after boxing and eat pounds of meat. I have no idea how they make a profit but it is actually heaven for me.
I will leave you all with a less pleasant culinary thought. At one bar we go to there is "the hammer game." Each person gets a nail but the hammer has a really skinny thin head, more just like a line. The nail goes into this wood table and you go around attempting to hit your nail. The last person to get his/her nail all the way in loses. On St. Patrick's Day we were playing and we made the penalty for losing was a shot titled Mexican Chicken. I lost. Unfamiliar with Mexican Chicken?
tequila.
raw egg.
tobasco.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Never a Dull Moment
Hi everyone!
First of all, Korea is totally fine (earthquake wise). We didn't feel or see anything fortunately.
Life continues to be great. This past week I have caught up with two friends, Max and Cheol. Believe it or not Max and I met on a roof in Jordan. When we started talking it just naturally came up that I was going to Korean next semester and he was too! Max is studying at Seoul National University, which is number one in the country (Yonsei is number two). Max came to Sinchon and we had Galmaegisal (갈매기살), which translates to seagull meat. It's not actually seagull meat, despite my friend Yuri's insistance, but rather just a specific cut of pork. You cook it over a fire right in front you and have all the fixins (lettuce, different sauces, bean sprouts, onions, etc.). Afterwards we got waffles with ice cream (nothing unusual for me and Emily). It was great to hang out with Max! We mixed it up with a little arabic, he got to meet two of my CIEE friends, Emily and Tina, and he is just such a funny guy, we had a good time : )
Cheol is a friend from the Hubo Lab last summer in Daejeon. However, he graduated with his masters in January so he isn't in the lab anymore but in Seoul! You would think I would see him more than Jungwoo who is in Daejeon but Cheol is super busy working on starting his business so I saw him for the first time last Wednesday. He brought a friend from high school and a girl he had met through sean and alex (the guys from drexel working in hubo). None of us knew each other except for Cheol so we had a great night of getting to know each other. We had one of my favorite dishes; its chicken and hot sauce and rice cakes and noodles and cabbage all cooked together in a dish infront of you. We then went to a different place where we had pomegranate makkoli!! Makkoli is a rice wine but I didnt know that fruit could be added to it. Actually our server brought the pomegranate to our table, squeezed it right there, and then poured it in. I learned a lot of Korean getting to know you/drinking games. The girl Cheol brought, Queree, and I really hit it off! We spent the whole night laughing together. I needed a cultural exchange partner for a seminar and she said she would be mine! I am really looking forward to hanging out with her more : )
Jonathan is a CIEE guy from Austin, Texas. It is a little spooky but him and I appear to be exactly the same person except for the fact he is a boy and from TX (I hope my dad is jumping off a bridge considering he wouldn't even let me apply for college in TX). Anyway, Jonathan and I went on an intense hookah bar search, since I knew they existed in Korea because I had been in Daejeon (and if it's in Daejeon it MUST be in Seoul). Love that wireless internet. We went to a place in Hongdae (the clubbing district right next to Sinchon). It was so exciting!! It cost 10,000 won ($8.80) which is about three times the cost in Jordan but hey, still cheaper than the US. We got cherry and mango (aka cherrango), which was super tasty. Oh i just thought of another difference between me and Jonathan: he can blow smoke rings : (
Classes are beginning to get into full swing. We had out first time in the pool and I have never felt greater! Didn't realize how much I missed it! It is a swimming 1 class so a lot of it was getting comfortable in the water, like playing rock paper scissors under water and who ever wins gets to take a breath! that was fun. We also did a lot of swimming back and forth but since it is a large class and there is only five lanes we have to swim across the five lanes, so not a very long distance. Regardless it was great. The professor came up to me and said I could swim and that I didn't need to take this class but I just said I loved swimming and wanted to anyway : ) And now that I think about it the last time i remember being in a swimming class my parents abandoned me and i sat on the side of the pool crying the whole time. So i am sure there is more that I can learn.
Oh man...we had the first body building class, which was assessments. We went out to the soccer field and did jumping jacks, push ups, sit ups, sprints, squats, stretches, you name it. At the end of the class he told us we were all really out of shape and it is a huge problem because we are sports majors (well for the majors) and as a result instituted minimum requirements to pass the class. 50 push ups, 50 sit ups in a minute, benching 80% of our body weight (i think there will be a different percentage for girls), and certain running times. It is nice to have a challenge to push towards. I think the whole class was sore the next day, despite it was supposed to be an "easy" class.
Directly after assessments I have to get to the exact opposite side of campus in ten minutes, and it is a BIG campus. I was running, had already mapped out the fastest route, and was still five minutes late to class. I came in sweating, completely red and chugging my water bottle, great impression for my teacher. I actually have to make the same run to get to body building but that professor has been letting us out a few minutes early so I can make it in time. Never a dull moment...
I also signed up for the boxing club. I had no intention of joining the boxing club, I was just perusing club day with my friend Jonathan. When we walked up to the tent I couldn't say no to the look on the guy's faces, they were soooooo excited at the thought of me boxing. It will be fun for sure. We had our orientation, which was a 20 minute presentation in Korean but me, Jonathan, and another CIEE student Reed got english version afterward. This is going to be my strangest, but probably most fun, semester ever.
Right now I am about to go get some food with CIEE people, Emily, Tina, Reed, and Jonathan and then go to the COEX aquarium. I have already been there but it is just so awesome I am excited to go again. Of course this involves getting dressed so I need to get on that! Hope everyone is well, whereever you are!
First of all, Korea is totally fine (earthquake wise). We didn't feel or see anything fortunately.
Life continues to be great. This past week I have caught up with two friends, Max and Cheol. Believe it or not Max and I met on a roof in Jordan. When we started talking it just naturally came up that I was going to Korean next semester and he was too! Max is studying at Seoul National University, which is number one in the country (Yonsei is number two). Max came to Sinchon and we had Galmaegisal (갈매기살), which translates to seagull meat. It's not actually seagull meat, despite my friend Yuri's insistance, but rather just a specific cut of pork. You cook it over a fire right in front you and have all the fixins (lettuce, different sauces, bean sprouts, onions, etc.). Afterwards we got waffles with ice cream (nothing unusual for me and Emily). It was great to hang out with Max! We mixed it up with a little arabic, he got to meet two of my CIEE friends, Emily and Tina, and he is just such a funny guy, we had a good time : )
Cheol is a friend from the Hubo Lab last summer in Daejeon. However, he graduated with his masters in January so he isn't in the lab anymore but in Seoul! You would think I would see him more than Jungwoo who is in Daejeon but Cheol is super busy working on starting his business so I saw him for the first time last Wednesday. He brought a friend from high school and a girl he had met through sean and alex (the guys from drexel working in hubo). None of us knew each other except for Cheol so we had a great night of getting to know each other. We had one of my favorite dishes; its chicken and hot sauce and rice cakes and noodles and cabbage all cooked together in a dish infront of you. We then went to a different place where we had pomegranate makkoli!! Makkoli is a rice wine but I didnt know that fruit could be added to it. Actually our server brought the pomegranate to our table, squeezed it right there, and then poured it in. I learned a lot of Korean getting to know you/drinking games. The girl Cheol brought, Queree, and I really hit it off! We spent the whole night laughing together. I needed a cultural exchange partner for a seminar and she said she would be mine! I am really looking forward to hanging out with her more : )
Jonathan is a CIEE guy from Austin, Texas. It is a little spooky but him and I appear to be exactly the same person except for the fact he is a boy and from TX (I hope my dad is jumping off a bridge considering he wouldn't even let me apply for college in TX). Anyway, Jonathan and I went on an intense hookah bar search, since I knew they existed in Korea because I had been in Daejeon (and if it's in Daejeon it MUST be in Seoul). Love that wireless internet. We went to a place in Hongdae (the clubbing district right next to Sinchon). It was so exciting!! It cost 10,000 won ($8.80) which is about three times the cost in Jordan but hey, still cheaper than the US. We got cherry and mango (aka cherrango), which was super tasty. Oh i just thought of another difference between me and Jonathan: he can blow smoke rings : (
Classes are beginning to get into full swing. We had out first time in the pool and I have never felt greater! Didn't realize how much I missed it! It is a swimming 1 class so a lot of it was getting comfortable in the water, like playing rock paper scissors under water and who ever wins gets to take a breath! that was fun. We also did a lot of swimming back and forth but since it is a large class and there is only five lanes we have to swim across the five lanes, so not a very long distance. Regardless it was great. The professor came up to me and said I could swim and that I didn't need to take this class but I just said I loved swimming and wanted to anyway : ) And now that I think about it the last time i remember being in a swimming class my parents abandoned me and i sat on the side of the pool crying the whole time. So i am sure there is more that I can learn.
Oh man...we had the first body building class, which was assessments. We went out to the soccer field and did jumping jacks, push ups, sit ups, sprints, squats, stretches, you name it. At the end of the class he told us we were all really out of shape and it is a huge problem because we are sports majors (well for the majors) and as a result instituted minimum requirements to pass the class. 50 push ups, 50 sit ups in a minute, benching 80% of our body weight (i think there will be a different percentage for girls), and certain running times. It is nice to have a challenge to push towards. I think the whole class was sore the next day, despite it was supposed to be an "easy" class.
Directly after assessments I have to get to the exact opposite side of campus in ten minutes, and it is a BIG campus. I was running, had already mapped out the fastest route, and was still five minutes late to class. I came in sweating, completely red and chugging my water bottle, great impression for my teacher. I actually have to make the same run to get to body building but that professor has been letting us out a few minutes early so I can make it in time. Never a dull moment...
I also signed up for the boxing club. I had no intention of joining the boxing club, I was just perusing club day with my friend Jonathan. When we walked up to the tent I couldn't say no to the look on the guy's faces, they were soooooo excited at the thought of me boxing. It will be fun for sure. We had our orientation, which was a 20 minute presentation in Korean but me, Jonathan, and another CIEE student Reed got english version afterward. This is going to be my strangest, but probably most fun, semester ever.
Right now I am about to go get some food with CIEE people, Emily, Tina, Reed, and Jonathan and then go to the COEX aquarium. I have already been there but it is just so awesome I am excited to go again. Of course this involves getting dressed so I need to get on that! Hope everyone is well, whereever you are!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
3 weeks in 1200 words!
wow it has been waaaay too long since my last post but i guess that is just a testament to how fast my life feels now! Classes started last wednesday and the week before that was jam packed with orientation activities. There hasn't been a single moment where I have doubted coming here, i am having that much fun. Although maybe that means I am not challenging myself enough but I am ok with that for now.
Yonsei is located in Sinchon (pronounced Shin-chon), an area with lots of bars, restaurants, noraebangs (karaoke), food stands, and shopping. Man for the first two weeks of orientation I think I went out every single night!! More noraebang in the past two weeks than in my whole entire life. We even went to a DVD bang (bang means room, pronounced more like bong) where you are in a room with a really big couch about five feet away from a huge screen. We watched the original Grudge 2 (aka Japanese version). I am lucky to have such an awesome group of people on my program. It's funny, it took us weeks, even months, in Jordan to get as close as me and my core group here just because we didn't have alcohol in the mix. Just the facts of life, its a social lubricant, not to mention carrying your friends home brings us that much closer. Man I was so excited to start classes to have some stability!
My classes so far are AWESOME. I am soooo happy I decided to take those sports classes. So far I have gone to body building and swimming. Both times I walked into a room of about 30 Koreans, with two other females in the room. Almost all Korean names have three syllables so when the professor is taking roll he goes "blah blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah, elizabeth lerret, blah blah blah, blah blah blah..." it's pretty funny. I like being the only foreigner. I will have no choice but to make Korean friends (not that I wouldn't choose to but it makes it a lot easier to escape the international bubble). Plus the attention amuses me and gives me a further push towards interaction.
For each of my class meetings in bodybuilding the first hour will be theory, that is memorizing bones and muscles, nutrition, how exercising works, bodily effects, rumors and myths, and whatever else the professor throws at us. We will have a quiz every week. The second hour is our practical time where we are in groups and hit the gym. I am really excited. I get to learn all of the cool medical/biological stuff without having to write a lab report! a dream come true. The professor was working hard to warn me that this class is not just gym time and specifically for sport majors but that just made me even happier. He actually did one of his PhDs at Harvard. Additionally, he asked me infront of the class where I was from, and obviously I said Cambridge, MA. A girl a row infront of me whips around and says she went to Matignon! I was shocked. So we can have come cambridge pow-wows in that class sometime.
So far I have been using my unscheduled time to hang out with my friends in Daejeon. Last friday I took a bus and my friend Jungwoo picked me up at the bus stop. We checkout the lab (and General Tso, the new lab dog), picked up Jeongsoo and went out to meet up with Alex and Sean, two guys from Drexel I met at the Atlanta conference after Korea last year. Even Taejin, who is always either playing starcraft or out with girls, left a girl to come say hang out with me, which if you knew taejin feels pretty monumental. did you know that Korea has this service where you call someone up and they will come drive your car for you if you are too drunk?!? its brilliant!! makes it that much easier to stay safe. the next morning jungwoo and i drove back to seoul so even though it was only 13 hours in Daejeon, it was probably my favorite 13 hours so far. I missed those guys like crazy!
Actually Jungwoo has a friend from high school that went to UMass Amherst! Last night the three of us went out to dinner and we ate pig heart, stomach, and intestines (and god knows what else was in there). The heart and intestines were reallllly good. The stomach looked like black brain coral and it was ok, just not my favorite. Micheal was suupper cool. He works for Samsung doing sport management-y sort of things and travels a lot to go to sports events around the world. I had a great time so I hope we chill again.
Just last night I stayed up until 8 am finishing a Korean drama. My god those things are addicting! This one is called Secret Garden. It is about a rich, snobby president of a department store who falls in love with a poor stuntwoman. On top of getting her to stand his presence, family and class issues, they end up switching bodies every time it rains. I had quite the emotional night watching the last 7 episodes (and they are all a SOLID hour+). I laughed, cried, smiled, squeaked into my pillow. There is a total of 20 episodes that i have watched in maybe 4 days. My roomate woke up this morning when I was watching the very last two minutes. she is learning all too well about me : )
My roomate's name is Jinsol and she is super chill. Actually I thought she wasn't coming until April so I was making no effort to keep the room clean (classic...). I came home one day to see the door open and boxes and the first thing out of my mouth is just "I am soooooooooooo sorrrrry." The room was a mess but secretly in my head i was so thankful i had done laundry that morning because it was strewn every which way across the room. But regardless we get along really well. She even said that I could come with her when she goes to visit her family in Gwangju. That would be really awesome since I haven't really seen Korean family life besides being at Jungwoo's house for an all of ten minutes.
I am a little annoyed that my Korean class doesn't start until April, but I signed up for that. It really isn't a problem, I just wanna impress my Korean friends and start attempting to talk with them in Korean. But since I will have class for four hours every day I know I will learn quickly.
When I first got here, everything I experienced was in contrast to Jordan. But now these experiences are standing on their own as I get more used to being here. wow i have been here almost a month! i cant believe it! i hope the rest of the semester doesn't go this fast. but if that means having less fun...fat chance : )
Yonsei is located in Sinchon (pronounced Shin-chon), an area with lots of bars, restaurants, noraebangs (karaoke), food stands, and shopping. Man for the first two weeks of orientation I think I went out every single night!! More noraebang in the past two weeks than in my whole entire life. We even went to a DVD bang (bang means room, pronounced more like bong) where you are in a room with a really big couch about five feet away from a huge screen. We watched the original Grudge 2 (aka Japanese version). I am lucky to have such an awesome group of people on my program. It's funny, it took us weeks, even months, in Jordan to get as close as me and my core group here just because we didn't have alcohol in the mix. Just the facts of life, its a social lubricant, not to mention carrying your friends home brings us that much closer. Man I was so excited to start classes to have some stability!
My classes so far are AWESOME. I am soooo happy I decided to take those sports classes. So far I have gone to body building and swimming. Both times I walked into a room of about 30 Koreans, with two other females in the room. Almost all Korean names have three syllables so when the professor is taking roll he goes "blah blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah, elizabeth lerret, blah blah blah, blah blah blah..." it's pretty funny. I like being the only foreigner. I will have no choice but to make Korean friends (not that I wouldn't choose to but it makes it a lot easier to escape the international bubble). Plus the attention amuses me and gives me a further push towards interaction.
For each of my class meetings in bodybuilding the first hour will be theory, that is memorizing bones and muscles, nutrition, how exercising works, bodily effects, rumors and myths, and whatever else the professor throws at us. We will have a quiz every week. The second hour is our practical time where we are in groups and hit the gym. I am really excited. I get to learn all of the cool medical/biological stuff without having to write a lab report! a dream come true. The professor was working hard to warn me that this class is not just gym time and specifically for sport majors but that just made me even happier. He actually did one of his PhDs at Harvard. Additionally, he asked me infront of the class where I was from, and obviously I said Cambridge, MA. A girl a row infront of me whips around and says she went to Matignon! I was shocked. So we can have come cambridge pow-wows in that class sometime.
So far I have been using my unscheduled time to hang out with my friends in Daejeon. Last friday I took a bus and my friend Jungwoo picked me up at the bus stop. We checkout the lab (and General Tso, the new lab dog), picked up Jeongsoo and went out to meet up with Alex and Sean, two guys from Drexel I met at the Atlanta conference after Korea last year. Even Taejin, who is always either playing starcraft or out with girls, left a girl to come say hang out with me, which if you knew taejin feels pretty monumental. did you know that Korea has this service where you call someone up and they will come drive your car for you if you are too drunk?!? its brilliant!! makes it that much easier to stay safe. the next morning jungwoo and i drove back to seoul so even though it was only 13 hours in Daejeon, it was probably my favorite 13 hours so far. I missed those guys like crazy!
Actually Jungwoo has a friend from high school that went to UMass Amherst! Last night the three of us went out to dinner and we ate pig heart, stomach, and intestines (and god knows what else was in there). The heart and intestines were reallllly good. The stomach looked like black brain coral and it was ok, just not my favorite. Micheal was suupper cool. He works for Samsung doing sport management-y sort of things and travels a lot to go to sports events around the world. I had a great time so I hope we chill again.
Just last night I stayed up until 8 am finishing a Korean drama. My god those things are addicting! This one is called Secret Garden. It is about a rich, snobby president of a department store who falls in love with a poor stuntwoman. On top of getting her to stand his presence, family and class issues, they end up switching bodies every time it rains. I had quite the emotional night watching the last 7 episodes (and they are all a SOLID hour+). I laughed, cried, smiled, squeaked into my pillow. There is a total of 20 episodes that i have watched in maybe 4 days. My roomate woke up this morning when I was watching the very last two minutes. she is learning all too well about me : )
My roomate's name is Jinsol and she is super chill. Actually I thought she wasn't coming until April so I was making no effort to keep the room clean (classic...). I came home one day to see the door open and boxes and the first thing out of my mouth is just "I am soooooooooooo sorrrrry." The room was a mess but secretly in my head i was so thankful i had done laundry that morning because it was strewn every which way across the room. But regardless we get along really well. She even said that I could come with her when she goes to visit her family in Gwangju. That would be really awesome since I haven't really seen Korean family life besides being at Jungwoo's house for an all of ten minutes.
I am a little annoyed that my Korean class doesn't start until April, but I signed up for that. It really isn't a problem, I just wanna impress my Korean friends and start attempting to talk with them in Korean. But since I will have class for four hours every day I know I will learn quickly.
When I first got here, everything I experienced was in contrast to Jordan. But now these experiences are standing on their own as I get more used to being here. wow i have been here almost a month! i cant believe it! i hope the rest of the semester doesn't go this fast. but if that means having less fun...fat chance : )
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Back Again
I have arrived in Korea for round two! My flight left Boston at 6 am so I did my best to stay awake so I could sleep on the plane. Normally I don't sleep on planes because its so hard to get comfortable! but this ride absolutely revolutionized how i fly. I will never ever ever ever EVER get on a plane again without a. neckpillow and b. noise canceling head phones. I had tried out the headphones earlier (the hardys gave them to me right before i left) in my room to see what this canceling was all about and noticed it a little bit but didnt really see the big deal. i put them on before take off and was listening to my music peacefully until i took them off for one reason or another and nearly jumped out of my seat! I thought i was going to go deaf the plane was roaring soooooooo loud. I had no idea until i had taken them off how amazing these things are. And they are multifunctional, I spent those 7 hours sleeping like a baby and then the following 14 hours turning them on and off, amused by the enormous volume difference.
I arrived 2 days earlier than when my program starts to see friends from last summer. It seems that whenever there is a long period of time where I am just sitting (aka a 21 hour trip to seoul) that I always go through rollercoasters of emotion. I was nervous to be on my own in the city, excited to get back to the neon lights, dreading the inevitable seafood i will encounter, sad for the lack of arabic, scared to be leaving again for so long. I was grateful though that it was light out when i arrived (4 pm) because I had to catch a bus to get into Seoul proper and locate my hostel. I have caught a bus from the airport once before and even stayed at the same hostel before but on the plane i was anxious about getting there. I knew exactly what i was going to do but i just wanted to magically be in the hard matressed bunk bed instead of the blundering around to find a. ticket booth b. bus c. correct bus stop to get off at and d. finding hostel after getting off. I knew the steps i had to take, the questions i had to ask, and such but my stomach was still somewhere between butterflies and knots. Once off the plane, I got my ticket and got on the bus without any trouble and this sense of ease totally enveloped me. As soon as the bus started moving everything was alright.
I wasn't really sure what it was going to feel like returning here. When I left Korea i was so sad because i thought these were actually the nicest people in the world and I was going to go to an Arab country where they were going to try and swindle me for all of my money (danielle, who i met the first time in korea, is lebanese and that is all she told me before i went...thanks lol) but now that i have just come back from Jordan i think they are the nicest people in the world. I didn't know what my gut reaction to returning would be. But the feeling of ease really just stopped all debate. i definitely made the right decision coming back. i was so happy and relaxed that I knew this was going to be a rockin semester. My excitement continues to build up till oreintation starts monday morning : )
Although the feeling of ease was a great morale booster i would have to say internet access was definitely a close second. i am sooo happy i have my ipod touch. i can get internet just walking down the street. Actually getting off the bus was interesting because as soon as i looked up I immediately recognized my surroundings. The first thing that popped into my head was a memory from the summer when danielle, peter and i came to seoul to party and then go to the dmz. It was the morning of our DMZ tour and we were supposed to meet peter at 7 am because he was at a different hostel. well me and danielle were late (actually just me) because getting out of bed was much harder than anticipated due to the previous nights (/mornings!) activities. Anyway we had 15 minutes to make a bus that was picking us up from a decent amount of blocks down the street and decided to run the distance instead of take the train because it would probably be faster at that point. We are running down the road (it may have been more of a hurried stumble) and there is this one building with a sign on it that just stuck out so strongly in mind for no reason (my memory attaches to weird things) and lo and behold i look up getting off the bus yesterday and that is the building. it was starting to get dark and so i just started walking in one direction from the bus stop, then decided it was the wrong way and walked in the other direction and decided that was the first way was the right way so kept walking and then took a turn when i should have gone straight, regardless i needed a little direction. those suckers in jordan cant even get internet on a college campus (not that maps exist there anyway but anyway) but here i could just whip out my ipod, google map the hostel and even watch my pin representation moving along in the right direction. I am definitely a child of the future (although increasingly it seems like the future is now!) because for me my security blanket is beign able to have the internet in my hand, especially in such a foreign place. I can fix any problem with my ipod and a wifi connection.
I arrived 2 days earlier than when my program starts to see friends from last summer. It seems that whenever there is a long period of time where I am just sitting (aka a 21 hour trip to seoul) that I always go through rollercoasters of emotion. I was nervous to be on my own in the city, excited to get back to the neon lights, dreading the inevitable seafood i will encounter, sad for the lack of arabic, scared to be leaving again for so long. I was grateful though that it was light out when i arrived (4 pm) because I had to catch a bus to get into Seoul proper and locate my hostel. I have caught a bus from the airport once before and even stayed at the same hostel before but on the plane i was anxious about getting there. I knew exactly what i was going to do but i just wanted to magically be in the hard matressed bunk bed instead of the blundering around to find a. ticket booth b. bus c. correct bus stop to get off at and d. finding hostel after getting off. I knew the steps i had to take, the questions i had to ask, and such but my stomach was still somewhere between butterflies and knots. Once off the plane, I got my ticket and got on the bus without any trouble and this sense of ease totally enveloped me. As soon as the bus started moving everything was alright.
I wasn't really sure what it was going to feel like returning here. When I left Korea i was so sad because i thought these were actually the nicest people in the world and I was going to go to an Arab country where they were going to try and swindle me for all of my money (danielle, who i met the first time in korea, is lebanese and that is all she told me before i went...thanks lol) but now that i have just come back from Jordan i think they are the nicest people in the world. I didn't know what my gut reaction to returning would be. But the feeling of ease really just stopped all debate. i definitely made the right decision coming back. i was so happy and relaxed that I knew this was going to be a rockin semester. My excitement continues to build up till oreintation starts monday morning : )
Although the feeling of ease was a great morale booster i would have to say internet access was definitely a close second. i am sooo happy i have my ipod touch. i can get internet just walking down the street. Actually getting off the bus was interesting because as soon as i looked up I immediately recognized my surroundings. The first thing that popped into my head was a memory from the summer when danielle, peter and i came to seoul to party and then go to the dmz. It was the morning of our DMZ tour and we were supposed to meet peter at 7 am because he was at a different hostel. well me and danielle were late (actually just me) because getting out of bed was much harder than anticipated due to the previous nights (/mornings!) activities. Anyway we had 15 minutes to make a bus that was picking us up from a decent amount of blocks down the street and decided to run the distance instead of take the train because it would probably be faster at that point. We are running down the road (it may have been more of a hurried stumble) and there is this one building with a sign on it that just stuck out so strongly in mind for no reason (my memory attaches to weird things) and lo and behold i look up getting off the bus yesterday and that is the building. it was starting to get dark and so i just started walking in one direction from the bus stop, then decided it was the wrong way and walked in the other direction and decided that was the first way was the right way so kept walking and then took a turn when i should have gone straight, regardless i needed a little direction. those suckers in jordan cant even get internet on a college campus (not that maps exist there anyway but anyway) but here i could just whip out my ipod, google map the hostel and even watch my pin representation moving along in the right direction. I am definitely a child of the future (although increasingly it seems like the future is now!) because for me my security blanket is beign able to have the internet in my hand, especially in such a foreign place. I can fix any problem with my ipod and a wifi connection.
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