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!~
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