Everything new

My lack of posts has little to do with being inactive, but more to do with simple laziness. I get really good ideas when I am in class, or eating, or watching a movie, but when I have time at my computer, they just don't materialize.

Two weeks ago I went white-water rafting. I don't really know where I was, but it was really fun. It reminded me of rafting in Sunriver -- being essentially the same. The biggest difference was I didn't understand my guide's instructions on how to live through the experience. I was still able to navigate and contribute to keeping our raft afloat. I only brought two pairs of shoes with me to Korea: my regular shoes and tennis shoes. I wore my regular shoes and swam with them, but surprisingly, they still work fine.

I didn't take my camera for obvious reasons. One of the people that came with us took lots of pictures and had the guide keep it in a dry box. I've been passively pestering him to upload the pictures so I can relay them here.

A couple random cultural notes:

I am always surprised by some of the American pop culture that makes it to Korea. Every female university student that has gone to a karaoke room has been well versed with Avril Lavigne. Each woman has known "Sk8er Boi" by heart...despite the inability to correctly pronounce her last name. It usually takes a couple tries for me to understand what my friends talk about, and always involves singing part of the song so I can understand what they mean.

Right now, as far as I can tell, the most popular American TV show on in Korea is Prison Break. The main star, now with the name escaping me, is in a surprising amount of commercials. Koreans typically pronounce his name like "soccer player," so that means his name is probably "Scott Plader" or something. Like of all TV shows to bring to Korea, Prison Break is the most popular...

This isn't so much of a cultural note, but more of a difference between semesters. During the spring semester, my Korean class was a mixture of Korean and English. If we didn't understand something, the professor would explain it in English. This meant that if I had an idea of a word, it was best to wait and see how she would translate it so I didn't make mistakes. My professor this term doesn't do that. When explaining something, she only explains with Korean and will ask us what the English is if some of us don't follow the conversation. I feel really proud of myself when I can contextually discern what we are learning without needing English. Between the two different styles of teaching, I much prefer the second because it removes my tendency to try and translate everything we talk about. Even though I may only understand about 60% of the exact words the professor uses, I somehow end up understanding the contents of the conversation.

The sections that have been hardest for me are idioms. The only one I have confidence in is nagging, represented with the idiom of a mouth hurting. Confusing as hell for me.

On that happy note, I've been able to eavesdrop in cafes over the last few weeks. I may miss small details, but I can typically get the general picture. For instance, I don't know if the boyfriend cheats on the girlfriend or vice versa, but I do know there is cheating occurring. I am still embarrassingly limited on my ability to contribute to the conversation though...