Summer semester

The summer semester officially started on Monday (yesterday). I only have 6 credits but still manage to spend 6 hours each day in class, Monday through Thursday. I am taking Contemporary South Korean Film and Korean level 2. The film class looks like a lot of fun.

My Korean class is a little interesting. I finished the first year book, which means that I move to level 2. I am one of only two people returning from spring and continuing into the summer. In level 2, I feel completely overwhelmed because everyone else has been taking Korean for either one year or several years...and I am at 3 months. So, my vocabulary is extremely weak compared to the rest of my classmates. I feel like I can understand the professor about 60-80% of the time, but I really struggle to speak correctly in class. I think I can really learn a lot in my class, but I will have to devote more time than I am used to...

On a good note, tennis is playing everyday for 4 hours and my schedule allows me to play. I can start at 10:30AM and play until 12PM, run back to the dorm and shower, in order to get to class around 12:28PM. Midway through the class, I can run (literally) to get some food and eat during the second half. We finish at 2:30PM, giving me precisely 15 minutes to sleep and 5 minutes to get to Korean. Korean class goes from 2:50PM to 5:50PM with two 10 minute breaks for naps. After I finish all of that, I get to eat dinner and start my homework under the supervision of 은주, the woman from bubble tea (where I still go everyday). It worked for one day, leaving me about 6 weeks more.

Funny story -- Aya, one of the women from Japan during spring semester, says that she needs to finish her English literature education by studying in an English speaking country. She wants to visit the most exciting state...Delaware! I think she has been there before and really loved it...poor girl, I hope the best for her naive soul.

On Sunday night, I got really lucky and received a last minute ticket to see South Korea play North Korea in a 2010 World Cup Qualifier in Seoul.

The first game they played was originally scheduled to be played in Pyongyang (the capital of North Korea). Leading up to the game, North Korea started making some ridiculous demands in order to allow the South Korean team to enter. Actually, if I remember right, North Korea made two very acceptable requests:

1) South Korea could only bring about 10 reporters. South Korea stupidly wanted to allow like 50 reporters and TV cameras to broadcast the game, but the prudent North Koreans felt that 10 reporters could accurately cover every aspect. Plus, nobody outside North Korea really wanted to watch it anyways. I think most the people that can afford TVs would have been at the game anyways.
2) South Korea would not be able hear their national anthem or raise their flag. North Korea claimed that neither had ever been heard or seen in North Korea...ever...despite Pyongyang falling to the UN for a brief time during the Korean War. Also, playing two national anthems with two different flags are both against the goal of national unification.

Like I said, the first game would have been fine if the stringent South Koreans weren't so obsessive about their reporters, anthems or flags.

North Korea also wouldn't negotiate on their terms. The game had to played in Shanghai...where there really wouldn't be anyone passionate about watching.

The second game was scheduled for Seoul. From what I understand, South Korea imposed no restrictions on coverage or flag-flying. In fact, the flag for North Korea was even on the same level as the South's.

This was also my first soccer game. I've been watching it a little since the Eurocup started. With so many Europeans, I was blessed with the chance to be the antagonist at nearly every opportunity...rooting for Russia the whole time (there weren't any Russians here...but there is now! I am so happy...I think this may be like the third Russian I have ever met). Ironically, Russia is playing in the finals against Spain -- two countries that were not represented by a single person for the whole spring semester.

Anyways, on TV, it would get boring pretty fast. It would also drag on...in fact, I really can't watch sports on TV anymore except for tennis (only exciting, close matches. I didn't watch Nadal destroy Federer because it wasn't even a contest) and when OSU plays football. I expected to be bored out of mind.

It was actually pretty fun to watch. I had a good time and cheered when South Korea had a shot. I also booed when North Korea approached shooting. The game ended in a boring tie...but...it sort of felt like neither team was trying too hard. The Europeans that I went with also echoed the same sentiments. The South Koreans took like 5 goal shots -- missing 3 by shooting about 8 feet too high and the other two went directly to the goalie...he literally didn't move.

The North Koreans had a couple shots, but missed wide once and kicked to the goalie the other times. I don't think either Korea is known to have a strong soccer team, but I expected a couple more close calls. Especially from the South Koreans.

Pictures below. I took a couple, but couldn't get much more detailed than this. My ticket was worth about $20 and was quickly approaching the nosebleed section.


The white jerseys are North Koreans. This accounts for the first time I have actually seen people from North Korea. I think this was during intermission.












This was an action shot. I thought I might be able to time it right and see a goal being scored. The goalie is from North Korea. Again, the red jerseys are South Koreans and the white jerseys are North Koreans.

The Long Goodbye

Bob Seger has this song that I've really come to love called "The Long Goodbye." Although it has little to do with friends leaving Korea, it seems justified here...

All my closest friends in Korea are leaving in the next two weeks or have already left. Ashley, my BFF and I have made dream plans of how easy it will be to get together once we are back home -- despite her living in Oklahoma/Texas. My other BFF, Ben, is from Ohio...I've been a little more realistic with that one. Many people are also taking this time after classes to travel around. One of my favorite French people, Florian, had his parents come and then they are going to visit Japan. It has been really weird to witness the dorm this quiet...also to have to mentally filter through my cell phone to figure out who is still here and who isn't.

A quick note that I found odd: when I first arrived, I didn't really hang out with many Americans. I was mostly with Europeans. But as the semester unfolded, I found that I was actually evolving to spend most of my time with Americans. I ended the semester split with my group of friends being half-Americans and half-Japanese. It was really interesting to filter into the community that I did. I really wanted to spend more time in the Korean circle, but they study so hard and rarely live near the University. Most commute between 20 minutes and 2 hours each way to attend Ewha. That coupled with 12 hours of daily studying means it is harder to spend in Korean circles than international.

As stated in my previous post, I've been spending my time after finals trying to see as many people as I could before they left. Literally, I've had a couple days that go from lunch with one friend, to coffee with another, to dinner with another, to bars with a larger group that had several people leaving. Even with all my efforts, I've missed a handful of people.

Below are pictures from the last couple weeks. I've had fading batteries for a while (I really wish my camera used lithium ion...) so I've been taking less of them. One of the Americans told me he has taken over 3000 pictures (he also takes them of nearly every meal). I nearly have 400 pictures taken...it makes me feel like I need to work harder.



The Office of Global Affairs gave us a graduation party, complete with certificates in a velvet holder. It was really cool. In the back left is Ben, mentioned earlier in this post. In front of him is Ashley, also discussed above. In the middle is Yu from Japan, proudly holding his certificate. Yu is really fun to confuse because he says "huh?" a lot. The really short woman in front of me is Maki, from Japan. Maki looks really scary when she glares at people, she has ran up to me and "meowed" before and then ran away, and she playfully beats her boyfriend. For the record, I told everyone that they weren't allowed to leave...but nobody listened or is listening to me.



This is a picture of me and Aya. Aya is from Japan and was in my Korean class. Some mornings, it would just drag on for hours and hours so I would need entertainment. I would usually turn and glare at Aya until she noticed. The first couple weeks, she looked surprised and uncomfortable, even breaking the traditional Japanese socialization and asking me why I glared at her. But eventually it became mutual and that became the way we communicated boredom. Aya was also the best student in the class and she didn't miss a day until the final weeks. When the teacher asked us where she was, I made an educated guess and said she might have been kidnapped. After that, if she missed a day or was a few minutes late, I would send her several text messages making sure she wasn't kidnapped. The thing we are doing with our hands was taught by our Hong Kong friend who said it meant embarrassment or frustration. It is supposed to look like a sweat drop. I think I said something really awkward before this picture so we could try to get in the embarrassed mood.


For my Religions in Korea class, we went to a Buddhist temple and toured with a guide that spoke English. This is called a "water fish" in English despite the fact it is a dragon. If I remember right, this fish is hit with a wooden stick to symbolize the enlightenment of all swimming creatures. To the right of this picture is a giant drum that is banged for all living things on the ground to gain enlightenment. To the far right is a giant gong that was for all flying beings to gain enlightenment.






These 3 Buddha statutes were probably 12-15 feet tall and about 6 feet across. If I remember right, the one in the middle is the first historical Buddha, Siddhartha. To the left is Amida (I am probably misspelling that) Buddha. I've forgotten the name of the one to the right. The only difference between them is their hand gestures. In Buddhism, a Buddha is simply someone who has achieved Enlightenment, making for thousands of Buddhas. A good analogy to Christianity is to consider a Buddha as a Saint and not equivalent to a central figure.

My professor is also unable to distinguish by simply using hand-gestures as a guide. If a temple were to put Amida Buddha in the middle, then the sect would be Pure-Land Buddhism. This is also the case with any other Buddha in the middle. Pure-Land Buddhism would also likely put Siddhartha on the right. These temples also have a lot of food and rice at the alter in front of the Buddha statues and also on the left and right walls. Therefore, there are tons of birds inside eating all the food. One of the women with us was scared of birds and would gasp whenever one flew by. I thought it was funny.

This is a good place to take note of this, but birds fly lower in Korea. Never back home did I feel like the bird flying at me might actually run into me. But here, I duck because they fly directly at my head and then pull up like a foot ahead of me. When I told one of my American friends, she said it was because I look like a tree.

Update coming soon

I finished my last final tonight. It wasn't too hard, but mostly had to fill up space.

Where I've been: I've had finals this last week and then spent the rest of my time trying to see as many people as possible before they leave. Amazingly, there were people leaving yesterday (the day after their last final). My best friend leaves the 20th and I am very very sad about that. It all happened too soon.

I can take this space to rant. I hate mosquitoes. Nobody told me there would be so many around here -- like I literally open my screen door for 3 seconds and there are mosquitoes in my room. I wake up everyday with bites -- it is awful...

Summer plans

I have some good news on my end, some bad news (probably) for everyone else.

I am going to stay at Ewha for the summer semester.

Since I didn't receive the scholarship with the State Department, I've been trying to find a way to continue learning Korean while I am here. The next best option was to extend my stay through the end of July (when the summer semester ends). Besides having a great time here and depressed at how short it has been, I also need to make a solid argument that my Korean study should satisfy my language requirement for my B.A. If I did the math right (which is often a statement made before I am proven wrong), OSU requires 24 credits of a foreign language to receive a B.A. After this semester, I will have 13.5 credits of Korean. This falls drastically short of what I need, meaning I would need to finish a second year of German when I got back (after taking a year off and learning Korean).

I think that even the addition of the summer semester will leave me a little short. However, it will be better to get as close to 24 as possible, and then compensate the difference with the study abroad experience.

The summer semester starts June 24th and ends in late July. At the end of August is a big tennis tournament between universities and I told the tennis team I would participate if I were still here. In the back of my mind, as I spoke, I hoped I would be here, since I was unsure at the time. I think the first week of classes at OSU start September 29th, leaving me essentially 20 days of moderate free time (I think I need like 10 days to get ready for the next term...but I am trying to downplay how much I need to do). In those 20 days, I would like to see if I can travel a little around South East Asia.

I've made some friends in Cambodia that told me I should visit them. I've been wanting to see Vietnam and Thailand, coupled with the Philippines. Singapore also sounds really fun. I haven't investigated prices or anything, but I am simply dreaming at this point.

I think that covers my plans for the summer.

Everland

It has been a long time since I last wrote. I originally started the last post on Thursday as a reminder, but then stopped short and finished on Sunday.

I haven't been to an amusement park since I went to Lotte World back in February. Additionally, Everland is considered to be the best amusement park in Korea. I will just say this now...I went two weeks in a row.

The first time: Because I am American, I have grown used to conversations going like this:
"Let's get together in like two weeks." "Yes, that sounds fun. I'll call you." I think this generally means a suggestion to be handled in the future. I don't think this is traditionally a solid plan. But, to Koreans, that is very literal. That means that you will get called the night before the two week mark to confirm that the plans will proceed. With that in mind, I had that exact conversation roughly three weeks ago with a Korean friend. Three days before the two week mark, when I asked her if she had plans for the weekend, she said "Everland on Saturday. Do you remember?"

I had completely forgotten, but was thankfully free.

The plan was to meet two friends in Suwon at 2PM on Sunday. I thought 2PM was awfully late to get started and it was. According to my friend, Jin-Na, the best way to get to Suwon was to take the subway (1.5 hours), meet them at 2PM and then take a bus to Everland (1 hour). It is pretty far away for Korea, figuring that it took me four hours by bus to go down the whole country.

So we met up and proceeded to Everland. We arrived at 3PM...those people who know me can understand how excited I was to be at an amusement park, and subsequently, how surprised my Korean friends were at my childlike trance.

There isn't too much I can say about Everland as an amusement park because the rides were pretty standard. There were a couple roller coasters and the normal rides that most amusement parks have. I was quickly drained of energy by the evening. Don't get me wrong, it was amazingly fun, but it is hard to write about amusement park rides.

Two things worth mentioning:
1) I think the normal policy in America is that if a friend works someplace, special treatment is generally forbidden. A friend of mine used to work at Subway and he would give me free sandwiches if nobody else was working. But if his boss or coworkers saw him, he would likely have been disciplined. I feel that Korea is the opposite. Jin-Na's sister worked at a popcorn stand and gave us free popcorn. Jin-Na's sister's friend worked at this restaurant and we received a heavily discounted meal (mine was free), and that was done by her boss. Her sister's friend brought us sodas before we even ordered our food. Finally, because of our connections, the chef made me my own specialized vegetarian dish...and then we got free cake.
2) I've been joking with my friends here about how weird it will be to go home. We all feel that we will have heavy cultural shock on returning home. As evidence of this, most the restaurants at Everland had dishes for about $8. When I saw the price, I felt it was too expensive to eat there. I am also giving up tipping.

The subway usually stops between 11PM and 1AM, with different times on weekends, and I have yet to confirm any precise time. Therefore, we had to leave the park at 9:30PM to make sure that I could get back without needing a cab. They suggested I take a bus that would take me, literally, a half-hour away from Ewha. So I figured that the bus would be like an hour and a half, to equal the time it took me to get to Suwon and then from Suwon to Everland. How wrong I was -- the bus was only 35 minutes. Why couldn't she have told me that and we could just have met outside Everland? It was also about half the cost to just use the bus.

Because I didn't get to ride everything, I was itching to go back. I asked my best friend here, Ashley, if she and her roommate wanted to come Saturday morning (May 31st) and spend the whole day there. They were both in. We got started a little later than I wanted, but made it to Everland around 1PM. I felt my inner child reemerge from his cave. We had a great time, but we were pretty tired by 8PM. Korean weather has started to turn awful. Although I am unsure how hot it is, the humidity creates a general malaise. Walking up a flight of stairs on a humid day makes most people wipe sweat off their foreheads. I am unaccustomed to looking outside at the clouds and looking for a white shirt to hide my eventual sweat.

Before I left the USA, I met with some people that gave me advice on Korea. They half-jokingly said that Koreans do everything opposite as Americans. For instance, the emergency phone number in Korea is 119 (I think. It may be 199. I should know this...). The afternoon at Everland was fairly mild compared to what I expected on a Saturday afternoon. There were no lines longer than about 20 minutes and the most popular ride was only about 50 minutes. We naturally assumed that as the day wore on, people would probably start heading home, or be riding less when it approached dinner time. Therefore, we delayed riding the biggest roller coaster because we wanted to wait for a time when the line was only 20 minutes long. For some reason, that doesn't happen in Korea. As the day continued, more people came in. At dinner time, the roller coaster's line was the longest of the day and there were no seats in the several dining areas. I was flabbergasted! Why would there be more people coming into the park at 8PM than at 3PM, when most rides closed at 10PM? I still don't know.

When I was there the first time, because I was with Koreans, no strangers conversed with me. When I went the second time and was with foreigners, kids would talk to us directly (in English) or would talk about us to their friends or parents. It was really funny to have this little 7 year old kid walk by, holding his mother's hand, and say in Korean "Mommy, that is a foreigner." We all understood him and waved, saying hello in Korean. That reminds me, when kids are busy with something and see us, they will often stop and stare. For instance, when this other kid was crying in Everland, she stopped crying and just stared at us.

Back to reverse culture shock. One of the few things I found to eat without meat was a chicken salad, where I could easily pick the chicken out. I grumbled as I paid about $6.50 and $2.00 for my drink. My salad had a good pineapple-mustard dressing...but...it wasn't spicy at all. I couldn't understand why it tasted good, but at the same time, made me wishing it had something more to it. I reached the same conclusion that I have the last 5 times I had mild food...food tastes weird if it isn't burning my tongue.



This is near the entrance of Everland. Lotte World is owned and managed by a food company called Lotte. Lotte makes ice cream, soda, snacks, chips and many other things...I think they also make milk. Everland is owned by Samsung, but surprisingly, the Samsung name isn't written anywhere.










In the European part of the park. The girl in the middle is Ashley and the girl on the right is Chiara. Chiara is Italian and expressed her frustration that Europe looks nothing like the section of the park. This was followed by her point that Europe has many different countries and cultures. I took advantage of that and mentioned how the flowers looked exactly like Europe, the giant bees were similar to the ones in Europe, and the classical Greek statutes were in Oslo, London and Paris.






This little store sold bright children's clothes. There are even toys above the name, including a teddy bear.













Everland has an animal section where they have tigers, polar bears (a little sad because it was in an outside enclosure), camels, bats and so forth...and they also seem to have Jackass Penguins. The Korean actually is pronounced Ja-Ka-Ss-Paeng-gwin...this is not a mistranslation.