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...

Return ticket purchased

I just finished buying my ticket to return on August 30th. I leave Korea at 12PM, arrive in Tokyo about 2 hours later. I stay in Tokyo for 2 hours and then head for San Francisco. I stay in San Francisco for 2 hours and then head to Portland, where I believe my scheduled arrival time is 12:45PM on August 30th.

In conclusion, this trip actually only takes 45 minutes. Although it is exciting to be returning home, if I think about how much time I have left, I get really depressed. I wish I had more time...

Batman

Batman Begins: The Dark Knight comes out August 8th in Korea. I hate everyone that has seen it as of this moment.

God has turned his back on me!

On Friday, I asked the dorm office if there was anything we could do to limit the amount of mosquitoes that we get in our room. The boss of the dorm, who I really like, said she would bring some spray on Monday.

Fast forward to Monday and no spray. I didn't catch her Monday, so I asked her Tuesday to bring some. She finally brought the spray on Wednesday.

So I use it and go about my day. I get home from a really really exhausting day around 10:45PM and sit down. My roommate (I can't remember if I said I have a new roommate) was talking with a friend. It naturally comes up that we are being tortured by the mosquitoes.

Here is the part where God really wanted to get a good laugh...

I was pulling my socks off and noticed that my feet were itching. Yeah...I have a couple bites on my feet and ankles. I started counting out loud how many bites I felt like I had and I reached about 20ish spread throughout my body. In fact, on my left hand near my pinky finger, I have two bites less than a centimeter apart. Like seriously, what kind of sick bug would do that? Ditto on my right wrist. This is a conspiracy.

So here was the conversation:

Me: "(Expletive) I have 20 (expletive) mosquito bites all the (expletive) over my (expletive) body. Passon (my roommate), how many times have they bit you?"
Passon: "I don't have any."
(he has been complaining more than I have about the mosquitoes)
Me: "(expletive) kidding me? Then why have you been complaining so much?"
Him: "They fly in my ear and I don't like it."
Me: (thinking) "they fly in my (expletive) ear too."
Passon: "I just really don't like mosquitoes."
Me: [glared at him and rubbed my (expletive) legs].

Confused beyond belief

The mosquitoes in Korea are astounding sometimes. Allow me to elaborate:

Weather around Seoul has recently been probably 85 degrees and humid. It has been the kind of humidity where if you were to start sweating, the perspiration would just stay there until you got to an air-conditioned place. Therefore, my room has had the window and door shut nearly all day to allow the air conditioning to do its magic. Here is where the confusion starts...where the hell do these mosquitoes come from?

The window doesn't open and the door is open for mere seconds a couple times a day and yet, each day, my roommate or I kill at least 1 mosquito. Just today, I've killed 3. And they never appear in pairs -- which confuses me into thinking there is only one and when I kill it, there are no mosquitoes left. That isn't the case and this is all a cruel joke against me. And it isn't like they only bite while sleeping and then leave me alone, what they do instead is buzz around my ear to make sure I notice and then they fly off and hide. This tricks me into thinking that I could go back to reading or watching a movie until...BUZZ...they are back.

This isn't paranoia or anything, but I took out my trash because I thought that 1 mosquito could just keep coming back to life or something. Maybe the mosquitoes in Korea just are able to survive being crushed. I swatted one out of the air today and then crushed underneath my mighty foot. I felt proud -- like I was crushing a violent rebellion.

Update

I don't have too much that I can report. I am busy everyday for most the day and spend my nights going to Bubble Tea to do my homework and get some help from 은주.

I've been a little more lonely this summer semester. There aren't too many people that are on my "good" list as people that I actively seek to spend time with. There are 10 or so, but certainly not comparable to what it was last semester with 95% of the people on my good list. Nonetheless, I am still having fun -- I just really wish I could have convinced some people to stay for the summer to enjoy the time with me. I think I will get through it fine...

I think today officially marks the 4th of July. Happy 4th to everyone back home! Make sure to blow something up and/or burn your fingers in honor of the void that I have left with my absence.