Revolutionized Compliments... Complements

Well, this is officially my last week in Korea before I visit home. I took 2 finals on Friday, and I have 2 more tomorrow. I'm really excited to finish this term, probably mostly because I that just around the corner are all sorts of American goodies waiting for me.

I went to an event last night. A group called "B-LINK" approached me and my classmates at school and invited us to an event a while back. I believe I wrote a blog post about it. (The B stands for bilingual. Don't ask me what the other ones stand for.) They had a "Thanksgiving Potluck" yesterday. I went with a friend dreaming about turkey and apple pie. Instead, I got Turkish food and no pie. But hey, other than the Turks, who can say that they ate Turkish food for Thanksgiving? I consider myself lucky. Even though the entire event was in Korean, I still had Koreans coming up to me acting like I had no idea what was going on. I'm beginning to get more and more annoyed at how astonished Koreans are that I can speak English. Here's a sample of a conversation I had last night:

Korean: WHAT... IS... YOUR... NAME?
[Koreans aren't the only ones who yell and speak slower for foreigners fyi]
Me: Hi, my name is Joe.
Korean: WOW, YOU SPEAK KOREAN SO WELL!
Me: Not really, I'm just studying.
Korean: So, I'm curious about something. When you came to Korea, what stood out to you?
[At this point, I was thankful that I had graduated from the yelling/talking slow treatment]
Me: Well, I was really surprised by the-
Korean: WOW!!!! (To another Korean) He really speaks Korean well. His accent and intonation are really good too!

I realize that they are trying to compliment me... complement?... They are trying to say something nice, but it kind of comes across like I'm the student with the dunce cap in the corner who finds picking his nose a bit more interesting than the ABCs. They then started introducing me to other foreigners (who are actually at a lower level of Korean than I am) by saying, "Hey, even though this guy's an American, he can speak Korean really well! Try speaking Korean to him!" Thankfully, the other foreigners don't treat me with the same regard. We're all in the same boat when it comes to Korean, so me speaking Korean isn't really anything special to them since they are going through the same learning process that I am.

"Compliments" or no, I was still very pleased with myself by the end of the night. I had held down a table conversation with native Koreans for roughly 4 hours. I also revolutionized my view on speaking Korean. Before last night, I was (still kind of am) shaky when it comes to speaking Korean. I'm so worried about making a mistake that I often just find an easier way of saying something or don't say anything at all. The fool who keeps his mouth shut is considered wise kind of a thing. But last night when I told one of the Koreans that speaking was my hardest area when it came to learning the language, he said, "Why? Writing is by far the hardest. If you speak to me, even though you may have some mistakes, pronounce a word wrong, etc. I still know what you're saying. I have your face and gestures to go off of as well as your voice. However, if you're writing, I would have no idea if you misspell a word etc."

It got me to thinking that no matter how stupid I sound, I am definitely proficient enough to get my point across. For example, let's say I don't know the word "compliment." I do know how to say, "Say something good to someone else." Sounds a bit awkward, but there is at no point something a native speaker wouldn't understand. Unfortunately, this strategy doesn't work very well for the speaking test that I'm taking tomorrow. Go figure, but they would rather me use the correct vocabulary word.

I also taught a class of 14 geniuses on Friday. It was purely a listening class for the students, so they can't read the text at all. And the topic was on stem cell research. Keep in mind that these students are 4-6th grade. Not only did they follow along, but they totally got the information too. I was super impressed. Most importantly though, they are all very well behaved and respectful, which makes both of our lives so much easier. Luckily, I will be teaching this class every week when I get back from America. It's classes and students like these that make teaching worth every second.

This week I plan on scouting out a place to live starting in January, buying Christmas presents for the family, singing karaoke, having one last group meal with all of my awesome classmates, and boarding a plane bound for America on Friday at 10 pm Korean time.

The Aftermath

I'm not even sure anymore if aftermath is one word or two... But I would think that if I split it into 2, then it would be something like, "after math, you have to go to history." I'm just gonna stick to one word because I'm too lazy to type it into Google and check. This is what my English has become.

This week was fairly eventful. I was the MC for the play contest at my school. Everything turned out fine more or less. Since I basically wrote the whole script by myself, I got to pepper it with a lot of my humor, which was surprisingly appreciated by the audience and teachers. I'll translate part of our dialogue for you as an example of what my humor has degraded to:

Co-MC: Hey Joe, have you ever performed in front of people on a stage?
Me: Of course! Ever since I was a little boy, the crowds loved me. When you look at my face, don't you immediately think "ACTOR!" Brad Pitt has nothing on my looks.
[Insert whatever hand/facial gestures you find make the dialogue funnier, and that's what I did] ;)

My classes play went pretty well. I thought we would win a prize, because (since I also wrote our play) the script was witty, my classmates made some amazing props, and we all acted fairly well. I had a bunch of fun doing it though. I always enjoy events like that. I think it's a great bonding experience for the class unless they take it too seriously and start fighting... which happened. Luckily, things smoothed over, at least on the surface, and we were able to push through it.

After the play contest was over, I was hanging out with some classmates. I decided to drop by the police station to find out if they could fingerprint me there. I went with a German girl and an Indonesian girl. When we walked into the police station, everyone stopped what they were doing and just stared at us. I walked up to the desk, and the officer at the desk panicked and said in Korean,"It's a foreigner. Hey you! Come talk to him." Another nervous officer approached me, but before he said anything, I just started speaking to him in Korean.

"Hi, I need to get fingerprinted because I need to change my visa. Can I do that here?" Needless to say, he was a little bit surprised. All he could get out was, "Why?" Seeing as we haven't studied criminology in my classroom yet, I do not yet know how to say "an FBI criminal background check is required" so I just answered, "I just need it to change my visa." The Indonesian girl chimed in, "He has to send it back to America." Because she was the only one that looked Asian out of us, the police then ignored me and started talking to her. "We don't have the fingerprint cards here, but if you bring your own, then we can do them for you blah blah blah." What's the lesson I learn from this? No matter how proficient I get at this language, they will always prefer speaking to someone they believe is a native speaker.

I also went to a language exchange event this week. Some guy came up to me and my classmates in our school and asked us if we wanted to participate. It sounded pretty lame to me, but I figured that if I went with my classmates, it would at least be a little bit fun. Normally these events just turn into Koreans trying to practice their English. And if you want to practice your Korean, the conversation usually doesn't progress past "What did you eat yesterday? Was it good? What is your favorite food? WOW YOU SPEAK KOREAN SO WELL!" However, this event was all in Korean. It was really nice. I made some friends there, and I hope to back and do it again sometime soon. They had us doing some weird activities though...

(Forgive me if my English breaks down in this section. What was said doesn't translate very well.)

 They asked us to pick a paper color that represented our spirit/mood/heart that day. Me, being the artistically minded person that I am looked at the colors very carefully. I saw blue and thought, "Hey, I like blue" and picked it. We then sat at a table where they told us to "draw anything we want, but it has to represent our what we were feeling." Although artistically minded, I seemed to be struggling in this area for a while. What is representative of anger? Draw a picture of someone punching another person? What is representative of happy-go-lucky? A smiley face? What is representative of depression? One guy standing alone while everyone else has a date? I guess I should have paid more attention to my feelings growing up. After staring at my blank blue sheet of paper for a while, I had an idea. "Hey, I like music!" (My mind usually only speaks to me in 4 word sentences that consist of "Hey, I like [insert noun]") So I drew music... sheet music.

After this exercise was done, they evaluated our artwork. My Indonesian classmate had drawn a tree with all different colors of leaves next to a park bench on a sunny day. They told her, "Oh, this is a beautiful picture! You have a very bright personality because you used all these different colors blah blah blah. Normally, people who only pick one color are a little bit dull. They are usually under a lot of stress, especially if they choose black." It was then that I looked at mine; I had drawn the whole thing in black. When they asked for my paper, I lifted it up like a 5 year old boy holding up the cookie that he was caught stealing. I disguised my apparent stressful/dull personality with my award winning copy-written Joseph Lee signature smile.

The next activity we did involved looking at different pictures of objects, picking 2, and making a story involving those 2 pictures. A pretty good language practicing exercise I guess. Involves creating and presentation in a different language. I was determined to do better this time. I would show them just how creative I was. There were 2 animals among the pictures we could select: a cat and a snake. I chose them thinking that I could come up with a decent fable. Unfortunately, we were then supposed to draw the 2 items we chose. Drawing animals: my worst nightmare. I thought the story I came up with was decent though. I created a fable of a cat and snake playing together one day when they saw a mouse. The then started fighting each other because both of them wanted to eat the mouse. In the end, the mouse got away because they worked against each other. Moral of the story: it is better to work together to achieve your goals.

After I told this to the person inspecting our work, I was rather proud of myself. Not only did I say it in Korean, I also made it up on the spot. After I patted myself on the back for a job well done, the Korean "inspector" followed up with "Joe, are you under a lot of stress right now? Normally stories involving fighting are caused by people under stress. You should probably go back home and rest a little bit blah blah blah." I guess I just come off as a stressed dude. Maybe next time, I'll write a story about a stressed guy that came to a language event, was told too many times he was stressed out, snapped, and wreaked havoc on the event. I can only imagine what they would say to that.

On a final note, I went over to my cousin's house last night and made real American brownies. Like from the Betty Crocker box mix kind of brownies. (Not sure what brand it was, but I remember seeing the box and recognizing it as an American brand name.) I currently am in possession of these brownies cause my cousin happens to be awesome and sent most of them home with me. This is literally the first American dessert I've had in almost a year! I'm so excited, so I'm gonna stop writing now and start enjoying this delicious chocolaty goodness with some ice cold milk! You now have permission to be jealous. If you want to, also feel free to grab a piece of blue paper and draw in only black to let your subconscious express itself.

A Degrading Cycle of Destruction

Honestly not much to write about this week. Life has been normal if not just a little bit more busy than normal. As my Korean improves, my English degrades. As my English degrades, I am constantly at a loss of words. As I'm constantly at a loss for words, I begin resorting to speaking like a 5 year old. As I begin to speak like a 5 year old, I realize that life becomes much more simple. As life becomes much more simple, I realize that it actually isn't, and so I resort to thinking about things as a 5 year old. And the cycle repeats. Or the circle... Or the big round thing...

This coming week, I will be the MC for a 'play contest' that my school is doing. Each class has to write a play and perform it for my level (level 3). My co-mc has graciously not done much and left a lot of the script writing to me. It involves writing an introduction for each play, and then a few other random interview questions. There are a total of 21 classes in level 3 which means introducing 21 plays. Anytime you feel like bursting into tears while reading this and thinking of the horrible plight I've been put in, feel free. I will even take condolences in the form of lighting candles or even holding a moment of silence. Honestly though, it hasn't been that bad. Truth be told, I would rather do it myself. It takes less time not having to bounce ideas off of someone else. I've also gotten quite a bit better at typing with a Korean keyboard. I do still have trouble when I'm typing Korean because when I think of the 'm' sound, my finger moves towards the 'm' key. However, the 'm' sound in Korean is actually where the 'a' key is. It begins to mess with your mind when you start switching back and forth.

I'm really beginning to miss the lack of instruments that I can play here: none. Thankfully, there's an actually piano at the church I go to, and they are more than happy to let me use it after the service. I've been a bit occupied these past few weeks, but I definitely plan on using it a lot in the future. I'm also really considering bringing my guitar back to Korea with me when I go home. I'm sure my neighbors won't really appreciate it, but hey, what's life in a paper-thin walled apartment if not interesting.

Occasionally, I keep you up to date on the music scene here in Korea. Anytime there's a super popular song, I try to include it in my blog post. Just in case, like 'Gangnam Style', a song becomes popular in the States, you heard it from me first. This particular song has been playing for about 3 months now, and it is rare to walk down the street and not hear this song playing at least from every other store front. This particular band is fairly new to the music scene. Minus the hair coloring, what they are wearing is pretty much the current suave style in Korea right now for the 20s age group... minus the tank top and the bow-tie. Tank top suits have a better chance of coming in style than bow-ties. Interesting plug: one of the band members is actually Chinese and graduated from the language program that I am a part of now. Who knows, today it's his turn. Next year, I'll be on the cover of a pop song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3dezFzsNss

The Leaves are Changing!

It's fall here in Korea... FINALLY. A break from the constant heat and humidity and an introduction to the harsh cold of winter. As a result, the leaves are starting to change. This year, since I'm not working full time, I can appreciate them a little bit more with... MOUNTAIN CLIMBING! Korea has a lot of really cool hiking trails that I'm just now discovering. My classmate and I are going to attempt a pretty difficult climb later on this week. We are going to leave right after class at 1 and try to make it up and down the mountain before the sun sets. We're going to have to book it, but it's going to be sooo worth it. I'm really excited about it actually if the tone is not coming across in the writing.

We took midterms this past week. I've definitely had better scores, but I console myself with the knowledge that for most of them I just had some major brain farts. I just wish brain farts could be smelled, because in that case I would know when they're happening. My scores were as follows: Speaking 80.5, Listening 78, Reading 91, Writing 95.9. As usual, writing is my strongest point. And yes, the running joke that my listening needs improvement in every language blah blah blah. When my teacher gave my listening and speaking test back to me, she gave me a face like I had failed. She almost had me for a second. It doesn't cross the Korean mind that maybe a B or a high C is... I don't know, average and therefore acceptable? She kept saying, "Joe, I don't understand why your score was so low because you do so well in class." I'll add 'brain fart' to my list of Korean vocab words I need to know. Put it right in between 'stop staring at me' and 'why on earth are you walking so slow?'

I'm really enjoying the new church I'm going to too. It's very internationally focused. Trying to combine all of the cultures of the world under Christianity. It's a cool and exciting experience to see, and it's really giving me a heart for the people of the world. God has done a lot this year to show me how the rest of the world functions, and I will never forget all of the lessons I've learned and hope still to learn. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything else. I get to study a new language while learning about other world cultures and habits, and I also get to make friends with a lot of them. I like to think it has changed me for the better, but I guess I always like to think I'm changing for the better.

At church this week, we had a potluck. The idea of it was a combination of all of the different countries' harvest festivals: Thanksgiving... and all those other ones. (I'm so internationally savvy.) It was awesome! I got sooooo much free food that I didn't know what to do with it. So I quickly put it in my stomach and got more. I was going to take a picture of my plate as a representation of all the different food that was there, but my appetite shoved that thought aside a bit too quickly. I got to play a bit of piano after church today and fount out that I pretty much have nothing memorized anymore and have lost my ability to play by ear :( Oh well, nothing like starting from square one, right?

I was in Seoul with a friend and came across this temple with some kind of flower festival going on. I'm not much of one to stop and smell the roses, but this was something else. The way the had them arranged was just really cool to me. So now you get to at least pretend to enjoy the pictures. Actually, you don't even really have to pretend since I'm not there. Feel free to guffaw and cajole me all you like as you look at these pictures and experience complete and utter disappointment at both my writing and picture taking ability.

There and a While in Coming Back Again

I feel like I start too many of these with the word so, so I changed it to I to switch things up a bit. I'm going to go through things in an opposite time order as well. Or maybe just a mixed up time order... Pretty much whatever order I feel like recounting my escapades I guess. I'll start with yesterday.

I found out there was a fireworks show on the Han River yesterday, so I invited a bunch of my classmates to come with me so we could all watch it together. (A lot of my classmates are very new to Korea, so they don't have many friends yet. Otherwise, why would they hang out with me, right?) Ended up not being the night I expected, but definitely a night to remember. 

Since the show was going to start at 7:30, I thought we should get there by 6:45 so we could get a good view. Or rather my Asian female classmates. I tend to tower over people, so it really makes no difference to me. Had we known the trains were going to be tricky, we would have left sooner. Since the event was centered around one train station, I guess the city of Seoul thought it best that trains not stop there... We got on the train going there, and it skipped the station. "Odd" we thought, and got on the train going back the other way. Right before the doors closed, we heard over the announcement that this train was going to skip the station as well. (I think they were just messing with people who couldn't speak Korean. The announcement was probably something like, "Hey everyone, this train isn't going to get off at the next station, so why don't you all just step off and laugh at the foreigners with confused looks on their faces.") We were just fortunate enough to hear the "this train is not stopping at the next station" announcement. Unfortunately, however, not all of us were fortunate enough to hear that in time. Which then resulted in our group being split. 10 to 4.

Oh well, right? I didn't need 8 friends to watch it with anyway. 4 will do. So we asked the station master, just to be sure, and he said that the next train was in fact going where we wanted. After literally squishing into the train comforting ourselves with the one thought that it was only one station away, we finally arrived at our stop. By this time, it was 7:20. The Bob Jones inside of me was flipping out at this point, but I played it cool... as always. After 4 years of having to be a good 24 hours early to everything you do, being late makes you feel like you'll be hung at the gallows. If they are feeling benevolent, maybe they'll just use the guillotine. 

We were then met with the biggest crowd of people I've ever seen in my life. We couldn't even get out of the subway because it was so packed. The heat and stench were unbearable. Even though it was a good 60 degrees outside, it was probably closer to 85~90 degrees in the subway station. I now know that not only does heat rise, but stench does as well. I had a good view and smell of the whole thing. Luckily though, we picked up two more of our group while waiting in the subway. We spent a total of 12 minutes waiting in line to get out of the subway, which then put the time to 7:32

Finally, out of the subway and into... the real crowds. I wish it were light enough for me to get a good picture of just how many people were there. I now know exactly what it means to be "swept away by the crowd."  A good Calvinist would say that all things are predetermined/predestined, and that there is no straying from that which has already been set in stone. I think Calvin was stuck in one too many crowds and lashed out doctrinally. It didn't really matter where you wanted to go. You were just pushed a certain direction. However, we finally made it to the park.

Finally, a place where we can just stand and watch the fireworks... which by the way have now been going on for a good 15 minutes. After looking behind me, I realized that the "we" I referred had dwindled down to a me and one other person. Apparently the crowd had predetermined that one as well. I was fortunate enough to have the last member of our ill-fated party be someone from Hong Kong. She was able to explain a lot to me about all of the fireworks we were seeing. I had really never seen anything like it. I had no idea fireworks could actually make shapes like flowers, faces, and even letters. Apparently, the government of Hong Kong puts on an event like this 3 times a year, and the fireworks there make Chinese characters in the sky. 

There were a total of 5 different countries that put on firework displays with only a 5 minute break inbetween each display. The whole event lasted about 2 hours. The lamest one was definitely France. I'm sorry, but you American doesn't go to Germany and make schnitzel. The French fireworks were very... ordinary. Impressive, but ordinary. My Hong Kongese friend? Hong Kongan friend? (I seriously don't know how to say that.) Anyway, my friend from Hong Kong was not too impressed, so I took cue and waited for the big guns from Japan and Korea. 

I have to say that I really enjoyed the show, but getting out was another matter. The city of Seoul, once again, decided to play games and close down the subway station so that no one could go in. The police were even there to block the entrance. So, since we were on an island in the middle of the river, we walked to a bridge, walked across the Han river, and walked to the closest subway station there and took the train. For those of you who don't know, the Han river is HUGE. 

Once we got back, we met up with most of the members of our ill-fated party and went to eat Korean BBQ, and just talked. Since the most ill-fated portion of our group came much later at the expense of the city of Seoul's humor, they weren't able to really see anything because the crowd pushed them into a bunch of trees. Needless to say, the fireworks show was not the topic of our conversation last night. Rather, I tried to explain why US lawmakers shut down the government and why they fight over nothing. If I knew the answers, I might have been successful.

OK, let's go back a little bit more. Now rewind your brains back to September 19th. What were you doing that day? Maybe working? Nothing? Getting the booger that'd been bugging you? That day in Korea is known as Chuseok, which is their version of Thanksgiving. It follows a lunar calendar, so just incase you remember to pick your nose on September 19th next year, it's just like every other day. Sorry. Anyway, my friends and I decided that we would go to an amusement park, cause who would go to an amusement park on Thanksgiving day, right? 

Wrong. Whereas there were very few Koreans there, it seemed that we weren't the only foreigners with that idea. I had no idea there were sooooo many Southeast Asians in Korea. I saw maybe 10 other white people the whole day. Everyone else was from Southeast Asia or China. So, we spent our holiday walking around a park too packed to wait in any lines. "Hmmm... should we wait 2 hours for the little spinny ride? Nah, let's keep walking around and pretend like we're having fun." I went on a total of 3 rides that day. "Are we having fun yet?"

Luckily, they had a zoo there, which is hard to form lines for, so we mostly just hung out in that section and watched monkeys fling poo around. They even had exhibits for dogs. No joke. "The extremely rare Chihuahua is considered a pet in some countries. Notice how the teeth come back to reveal a mouth and tongue. These dogs also make delectable snacks if stewed properly." 

Now, fast forward to today. I played soccer with the Koreans like normal, but after we were done playing, one of the 30 year-olds in the group came up to me and wants me to meet with him every week so that I can practice speaking Korean to him/he's going to teach me how to speak better/hopefully I will suck less as time goes on kind of a thing. It's really really nice of him to take time out of his day like that to help me with this. I'm really grateful for the friends I've made there. Even though I can't communicate that much with them yet, I can tell that they are really kind and want to help me.

One More Week

I just finished the last week before finals. I'm on the verge of being able to get the scholarship again. It's within grasp, but only if a stretch my every bone in my body as if I were on the rack. I studied a lot yesterday and today. I would like to think I'm ready, but I know that's a joke. If it's one thing that Korean grammar has taught me, it's that you can study, study, listen to examples, make your own examples, but there's always gonna be that ONE exception that you overlooked. And that's what they test over. Vocab is just vocab. Some vocabulary words I understand, but can't quite make sentences with. Even if I have the English translation, sometimes what's a object in English becomes a subject in Korean. You just have to memorize/think like a Korean to be able to make sentences correctly. I'm always the most nervous about the speaking test, least nervous about the writing test, and do the worst on the listening test. In order to pull my grade up to where it needs to be for a scholarship, I need to get a 93 on speaking, 94 on reading, over an 80 on listening (notice that I've just given up pulling that one up to an A) and just not bomb writing.

I just got back from playing soccer with the Koreans I play with on Sundays now. One of them became an elder in the church, and so they all had dinner afterwards. (It's a very Korean thing where if someone gets promoted etc, they take everyone out for dinner.) So, they invited me to come with them. It was super great listening/speaking practice. At first, they were all going at normal speed (which to me seems like mach 12), but then they realized that my comprehension was suffering, so when they talked to me, they slowed it down a bit. Thankfully, they didn't do the yelling thing that so many Americans seem to be fond of when talking to foreigners. "Hey, where are you going? ... I SAID, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" I have since found out that people generally don't understand because you either slurred your words together or used an expression that isn't in there language. For example, tonight one of the men asked me (literally translated) "Meals how?" meaning what do I normally eat at home. It took me a few seconds to process that, but I eventually understood... I think. Either that or I stumbled on a great answer by mistake. Both are possible.

Other than that, not much is new. I'm getting super excited for the end of the semester. I'm ready for a short break from school. The semester officially ends September 3rd, but after exams, there's really not much we do. I definitely plan on continuing to studying during the vacation, but it will be nice to scale it back a little and not learn a thousand new words a day. I can't wait for the day when I listen to a conversation and understand every word. Maybe one of these days...

The Best Burgers in Seoul

 So, this week was pretty interesting actually. Thursday was Korea's independence day/end of WW2, so we had that day off of class. My teacher from last semester has been on me and my classmates for a while to get us to go to this one restaurant that serves burgers. Honestly, burgers here aren't that great. I don't know how you manage to mess up something as simple as grilling a piece of beef and putting it on a bun, but they seem do accomplish this on a daily basis. However, this burger place was quite different. I knew this immediately as I walked in and noticed they served Barq's Rootbeer. This place knows what's going on.

Definitely the best burgers I've had in Korea. They are even good by American standards. It's the rootbeer rule. Works every time. I also got to meet my teacher's little kid. She really wanted him to speak English to me. (Korean mothers are CRAZY when it comes to their children's education. I think it's magnified about 2 times that normal CRAZY to turn into CCRRAAZZYY when it comes to English education.) But much to her disappointment, the only 2 words he said were, "hello" and "teacher." I asked him in Korean how old he was, holding up 3 fingers. He didn't respond verbally, but reached over, grabbed my hand, and pulled up my remaining two. Satisfied with the result, he then noticed how big my hands were. This held him captivated the rest of the time. I got a picture of me and him as we were waiting to be seated.

*Korean age is calculated differently than in America. When a Korean is born, they are considered 1, and at the new year, they turn 2. So if you are born on December 31st, it is possible to be 2 years old at the age of 2 days.

Also, not sure if Dad knows that he has a plot here in Korea. We found this in the French area near the French embassy in Seoul.












I went hiking with my "cousin" here on Wednesday on a mountain right behind my school. It was a great day to do it too despite the heat. Normally, especially in the summer, you can't see the sky due to the cloud coverage/rain, but we caught it on a great day. I tried taking a panorama shot on my camera, and it turned out pretty well. You're looking at about 1/3 of Seoul. It's really hard to describe how incredibly sprawling this city is, and it gets significantly bigger every year.

A First Time for Everything

So, I got fed up with just sitting in my house doing nothing, so I decided to go out for a run today. After running for about a mile to a mile and a half, I was approached by 2 Korean men. They invited me to play soccer with them and their soccer team, to which I instantly accepted. Were I in any other country, I wouldn't have gotten into their car to drive there, but Korea is just that safe. The thought did cross my mind though... "I would never do this in America." And I would be lying if I said I wasn't coming up with a plan just in case. 

Luckily, they really did just want to play soccer. They had me introduce myself to the group in Korean, which was met by "ooooooo"s and "aaaaaaaah"s after every sentence. (You'd think they'd never seen a foreigner speaking Korean before.) All I said was, "Hi, my name's Joe. I'm from Chicago. I'm 23. Last year I taught English here in Korea, but this year I'm currently learning Korean at Yonsei University. They thought I was fluent, which they quickly discovered was incorrect. 

I had a first though. After about 15 minutes of playing, I suddenly had the urge to throw up. I've never exercised to the point of throwing up though... It totally took me off guard. And the fact that I had to communicate everything in Korean made it even a bit more comical. Were I not spewing acidic liquid out of my mouth into the storm drain, I would've been laughing. I think it was just a combination of being incredibly out of shape; my diet consisting of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bananas, and ramen; and being a bit dehydrated. All I could say to the "leader" of our team was:

"Uhhhhh. Hey, I need to rest now."

"Oh really? Why?"

"Umm.... I throw up"  [insert gag] (I'm allowed some bad grammar under the circumstances.)

[Turning to the ref] "Hey, he suddenly got the urge to throw up. Stop the game a sec."

[Everybody stares and laughs at me]

OK, maybe that last one didn't happen. They were really kind about it though. They gave me my out. The Korean guys that picked me up told everyone else that I had already been running for quite a while before I came to play. It was also pretty hot outside today; 32 Celsius which is probably in the upper 80s to lower 90s. A little embarrassing, but I made a few Korean friends from it, plus they want me to come back every week, so I chalk it up as a win. I even taught them the English word "throw up." I've just gotta remember to start running everyday now. I still can't believe that happened... They thought I was a heavy drinker, which I quickly tried to disspell. If I were them, I probably wouldn't believe me though.

I ended up going back on the field, which probably wasn't the smartest idea, but hey, I'm still young, right? I played for another hour or so until I realized that I really was dehydrated on account of starting to see dots. So after the game, they wanted to play another, but I stylishly excused myself, went back home, and will never get out of my bed again.

In other news, nothing is new. Drinking water slowly; trying to recover. Class is class. Work is work. Study is study. Sleep is zzzzzzzzzzzz

[Context Is Key]

I realize that my posts are becoming more and more infrequent. It isn't necessarily because I'm strapped for time (although sometimes that may be the case). It's mostly just because there's not much interesting going on from my perspective. Most of the pictures I take go up on facebook, and I'm becoming less and less of a clutz in Korean. The opportunity for me to regale you with horrendous mistakes is dwindling. The mistakes I make now are either a result of "I didn't quite understand, but I'm gonna respond anyway" or tense errors (using past instead of future etc). I don't consider the last one to be a huge mistake seeing as most people understand anyway. I've dealt with enough people in English that are exactly the same. Obviously, I'm going to continue working on it, but writing a paragraph on "I said came instead of come" doesn't make for the best read.

The more Korean I learn, the harder and harder it is to translate it to English. I find a lot of it poetic in the way it conveys ideas. For example, "please let me know [fill in the blank]" in Korean would be something more like, "Please give me knowledge about [fill in the blank]." I am now also in the stage where I can understand a whole lot, but I don't remember quite how to say it when I speak. So, for example, instead of saying, "The people elected a president." I would say, "The people did the thing where they choose a person who is above them." Understandable? Yes. Raise eyebrows? Yes. Takes me a long time to put the sentence together? Yes. Have I ever said that? No.

I got my midterm grades back. Speaking - 88.5, Writing - 93.9, Reading - 88, Listening - 82. My teacher actually trolled me about my grades. (For those of you who may not know what "trolling" is, or why I used quotation marks there, please keep reading. Trolling is a relatively new word invented in an online context to refer to teasing or making someone's life difficult for no other reason that to obtain pleasure from it. And I don't know why I used quotation marks there.) Anyway, after we all got our grades back, she was going over certain mistakes we had made on the tests. Surprisingly, she was very open with who got good/bad grades on certain things. (I know that in college in America, a teacher sharing grades is illegal.) When it became my turn, she looked over the scores and said the following. "Hmmm. I heard from your teacher last term that you normally test better on the final [than on the midterm]. [I was kind of surprised] to see your scores [were so low].  I guess we'll wait for the final [to see if you're really that good]." I put brackets in because she didn't actually say that, but since Korean is a very high context language, I just want to make sure you get the full implication of what she was actually saying. 

After the whole class, including me, laughed for a bit (which was good because I needed time to form a retort) I responded with, "I'll show you [what I can do on the final]." Granted, not the wittiest of comebacks, but at least it has motivated me to try a lot harder. 2 of my classmates beat me in scores by a little bit, so that's also another motivating factor. I'm going to do my best to get another scholarship, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. If I can keep listening at a B and pull the other 2 up to A's, then I should be OK.

I've finally been invited to a soccer group that plays every Thursday. Maybe from there, I can stem off into playing more days. I guess it depends if I'll be able to walk the next day or not. I've been inactive for so long, I'm not sure exactly how my body will react to the sudden demand. I just went for a run today and wasn't much pleased with my fitness. I did make it about half a mile before my mind started, "Hey, you don't wanna run past these people. It will make them feel awkward. Why don't you just walk for now? The sidewalk is too narrow here anyway."  

I'm also seriously considering trying to get a part time job working in a Korean company like a hotel or something else. A lot of companies want people who speak English to teach the staff, and it would be a great opportunity for me to practice Korean as well as make a little spending money so I can upgrade my meals from ramen to something a bit more substantial. We'll see how it goes I guess.

2 Days of Solitary with 2 Birds and a Stone

Not much new this week. I haven't worked all week, which means I had the whole week to study. And believe it or not, I did study quite a bit. This week definitely came at the right time. We've been learning so much vocabulary recently, it's hard to keep track. I find it really amazing at just how much our brains can store. If you think about the amount of vocabulary you have stored in your brain, it's kind of amazing. And then your brain remembers how to use each specific word in certain orders to convey certain meanings. Language really is an interesting study. Unfortunately, the theory is much easier than the actual day to day.

Since I now am able to have a somewhat vague thought process in Korean now, I practice using it when I can. It is definitely helping with memorizing new vocabulary. I write down example sentences with the new vocabulary I've learned. I get the examples either from class or an online dictionary. The association of the word to a situation helps the memorization as well as speaking. 2 birds with one stone?

My language blunders are definitely decreasing. I was able to have about an hour conversation with a Chinese girl in my school. The only real blunders had to do with misused transition words (so instead of and, but instead of so, etc.) I guess the biggest embarrassment is how much better she is at Korean than I am, which of course gives me renewed vigor to study even harder. It's a good thing I'm not competitive or anything.

I'm finding my overall retention is increasing as well. Now that I'm familiar with some of the Chinese roots, words in the same family come a lot easier. I'm even starting to remember things I only hear. Sometimes though, I can't get over how juvenile some of the words sound when literally translated. For example, ventilation (which my landlord so courteously taught me) literally translates to "Change/exchange machine." I was able to pick out the Chinese roots and then got stuck at "Change machine." I then pretended to get it and be on my merry way only later to look it up in the dictionary. The wave of "OOOOOOOOOHHHHHH" hit me pretty hard.

I've been sick these past two days (Saturday and Sunday). Not sure exactly what's wrong, but if it persists, I'm going to the health center at my school to let them take a look. Pretty sure it's some kind of bacterial infection due to the white spots on the back of my throat. Either way, this too has cleared my plans for the weekend and allowed me to study. YAHHH! or not.

I also got another scholarship! Once again, it was for half of the tuition cost. So I essentially have take one free semester there. The dude who gave a speech after said that we were the top 3 percent of students in the school for grades, attendance, participation, being nice to others, and something else I didn't understand, but I'm sure had to do something with just being generally awesome. Maybe most likely to rule a 3rd world country? OK, here's the Joe Lee translation. Words in brackets are guesses. "The above person during the 2013 spring semester of Yonsei language school tried very hard and showed great [improvement] in his Korean ability [through this] this excellent student is awarded 840,000 won. [Man, this guy sucks. I guess we have to give him something though.]

Even though I've made all of these strides in the language, I still feel incredibly inadequate in social situations. It's like climbing a mountain with no peak. I look at natives and realize I will never be that good or natural. This experience has really given me a great respect for those that come to America and learn the language. Some of them with no actual academic training in the language at all. I can't imagine trying to do that with Korean.

I Can't See Clearly Now... It's Still Raining

This past week has probably been my busiest one yet. I worked a full week in addition to school/minimal study. I can't imagine having to do this every week. I would only be able to retain about half of the info I need. I now have a renewed compassion for those that work full time and do school. At the end of the day, your motivation to study is far surpassed by your desire to sleep. Especially when learning a language. There's not much reasoning that goes on; studying involves pretty much just straight memorization. It's kind of hard to get excited about studying, unless your geeky like me. I'm beginning to see patterns in different words (etymology) but it can be really frustrating at times. It might be a Chinese root or a Korean word, and I have no real way of knowing... So at this point, it's still just memorizing.

My Korean is getting much better though. If the person is patient enough, I can have a conversation with them. (Tell stories, my opinion on things, etc.) Normally, I like talking with other Asian classmates because they are in the same boat as me but have the Chinese background advantage. Nothing too deep of course, and it takes me a while to be able to actually switch languages in my head. Basically nothing translates from this language to English. It's really tiring, but a new way of thinking.

My biggest challenge is still speaking. When I write in Korean, I have time to think, but when speaking, that time is greatly reduced. Since the languages are so different, I can't think in English and speak in Korean or else my brain might explode. So it forces me to think in Korean as I speak. However, I find that when I think in Korean, it is like my brain is enveloped in this nebulous cloud of mist. I'm literally not thinking anything. There's only this nothing-like blankness. The more I practice, the less hazy it gets, but it's definitely a long way to sunny days.

This week during teaching, I surprised two of my students, and the look on their faces was priceless. They came early to class as I was setting things up. They were talking in Korean about where they wanted to sit, and I finished preparing and just sat down and listened. "No, I don't want to sit there. I want to sit here. I hate it over there." At which point, I decided to jump in in English with a "Why?" Both of them just turned to me and were stunned out of words. After about 10 seconds of staring, one asked in Korean, "Teacher, do you speak Korean?" At which point, a Korean staff member walked in. They went crazy trying to explain to her that I spoke Korean, but I pretended like I had no idea what they were saying, and I just was doing some work on the computer. The Korean staff member told them they were being silly and to sit back down. I've never seen so much confusion on the face of a children before.

Apparently, I can hang with the Asians when it comes to playing ping-pong. After tutoring one of my students yesterday, he invited me over to his house to play with him. His house ended up being a mansion in the middle of one of the richest sections of Seoul. There was a fountain and everything in his yard. (I instantly thought that I was undercharging him.) He beat me 5-4, but I did have a small handicap due to the fact that he had only one good paddle. Next time, I won't be so generous.

Yes, I Am That Popular

Sorry. It's been a while since I've written one of these. I've been pretty busy on the weekends recently. I promise I will try to make up for it with incredible wit and style, would you expect anything less?

2 weeks ago, we had the singing competition at my school. It was actually quite enjoyable. I had to take a bit more of a major role in the actual performance due to lack of class participation, but who ever said I didn't like stage time? One of my classmates filmed it and put in on a private channel on youtube. Unfortunately, it's gonna stay private. My ego's already been hurt enough this week. I will say this about it though, when we walked up on stage, I could hear Chinese girls saying (in Korean), "Wow. They're so handsome!" and the performance ended with me throwing my fedora into the crowd. I'll just let your minds create the best situation possible from that and bury what actually happened.

I got interviewed at the end because I was the class president. I randomly met the MC last week, so he told me what questions he was going to ask me. He wasn't too creative, so he asked me to just try and be funny with my answer. The song my class did is about a certain area of Seoul, so his question was whether or not I've been there. Of course, the answer could just be "yes" and that's the end of the "interview." So I decided to go a bit further due to my performance high. I said something similar to, "Yes, and if any of you want to go contact me and we'll go together." The next day, my teacher was really disappointed with me, but I had no idea why. When I finally asked her, she said, "You didn't give out your number. If you had given your number, you would be going on a date tonight." Oh well... maybe next time

I went to a pretty interesting market the other day with my language group. You buy tokens like at an arcade, and then you go around and spend them on different dishes from different stores. It was really cool. I found my restaurant there though. Literally, the sign reads "Lee, Joe Restaurant." Normally, I would say it's just coincidence, but I've been quite the celebrity in this country recently. You never know...

On this week's episode of "Language Blunders" we have an attempt at saying, "I'll ask my Korean friend where to book a plane ticket for a cheap price, and I'll get back to you." But what ended up coming out was, "I'll bite my Korean friend and get back to you." Also, I've found out it's next to impossible to understand older people in a foreign language. Mumblers, the lot of them! I honestly can't tell sometimes if they're speaking Korean or not. So, what usually happens if an older person speaks to me is a pause, me trying to guess from nonverbals/situation, and then just saying, "I don't know" and continuing on.

I also got my hair cut/styled last week. Surprisingly, there were no glaring language blunders. The stylist wouldn't stop talking either, so I definitely got my share of practice in. She was really nice though. She asked me if I miss my family, and I told her, "I call my parents _______ a month." to which she responded, "How many times a month?" If tipping were a thing in Korea, she would definitely have gotten one. The guy helping her told me that he saw all the Spider Man movies and wondered if America were similar to those.

I also went to a break dancing contest last night. It was really cool. Unfortunately, they make it look much easier than it actually is. Last time I try that gymnastics thing where you stand on your hands and spin your legs around. Doesn't turn out so great.

 If you wanna hear what it sounds like when a Korean tries to say "wolf" listen to this new song that just came out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAal8xHfV0c

Cooking with Karaoke

This week was really busy for me. I worked 4 days, school, cooking class, and worked on an extra curricular activity. It makes me really appreciate the days off that I have. The busier I get, the more I realize how awesome Sundays really are. As a kid, they didn't really mean much to me, but now I really cherish them.

On Tuesday, I have what would literally translate to "Song Competition" but I like to just refer to it as "that thing we have to do." OK, I lie. I'm actually really looking forward to it. Any chance I can get to perform! My whole class is memorizing a Korean song and will perform it Karaoke style in front of all of the other classes in level 2 (probably around 200 people). Needless to say, I have been listening to/singing this song pretty much every day this week. We purposefully picked a more ridiculous song so that WHEN it fails, it at least looked on purpose. Personally, I just see it as an opportunity to act ridiculous in front of everyone. I'm going to have one of my friends film it so that when this launches my career as a professional singer, I can sell the original for millions. Based on my history from last year, I usually have great success when performing in front of people.

Here's the music video. It was made a few years ago for Korea's SNL equivalent.... People don't actually dress like this lest you get the wrong impression.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N8c1t1QTDI

On Wednesday last week, my school offered a cooking class for $5. I figured why not learn something I'll never do anyway. So me and a Russian girl from my class signed up together. We actually had a lot of fun. After donning the apron that was "2 sizes too small" they brought in an actual chef to teach us (which means that she was speaking way too quickly for any of us to understand anyway). Luckily, we had a visual demonstration as well. After "listening" to the history/reasoning behind the different ingredients, we watched the demonstration and then went to making it for ourselves.

After we finished, I moved over to do the dishes while my partner was finishing up the last touches on the meal. However, I guess it's taboo for a man to do the dishes in Russia. (In the best Moose and Squirrel accent you can muster) "Joe, you know, I think dishes is for woman. You no do." To say that I argued would be a lie. The head chef ended up coming around and complimented us on our work. She said it was art (and something else neither of us understood). I'm gonna just go with something positive.

Our school had a big festival this week. For 3 straight days, there was a huge party on campus. I went after the cooking class to check it out. It was a lot of fun. They had a lot of student bands try to sing, and a few that actually did. At the end, they had an actual professional come and sing. Instead of pay for the tickets, my friends and I just sat outside the "designated area" which ended up being fine anyway. We just didn't get to mosh with everyone else :(

I did meet a Japanese guy from my language school though. He's actually going to be the MC for the "Song Competition." He spoke absolutely no English, which was actually nice for a change. Since all of my classmates speak English, that's what we speak to each other purely out of convenience/laziness/inability to speak Korean. However, speaking to Koreans can be really intimidating because they speak very quickly, use vocabulary and grammar we haven't studied, and slur their words together. So, when I meet someone who doesn't speak English, but is also learning Korean, I really enjoy talking with them. We both sound like idiots, but it's OK.

Other than that, all I've been doing this week is work and study. I had my last day teaching at a certain academy this week. One of my students wrote this on a card to me for my going away present. Really sweet. B for effort.

Honja Joe

Unfortunately (from your point of view) but very fortunately from mine, nothing really interesting happened this week. I didn't even get any pictures of anything really. So, I will just try to regale you with some of the funny things that happen to me here. I did, however, actually clean my apartment!!! Spring cleaning came a little late this year, but hey, better late than never. Deep cleaning... gotta love it. I'm staying really busy though. Between being class president, studying, and working, I have very little energy/motivation to do anything else.

They call me "Honja Joe." [ "Honja" is a Korean word that would translate to alone/solo. My classmates call me that sometimes in reference to me never really hanging out with them. Most of the time, I just have other things to do, and the others... well let's just say there's some truth to the honja-ness in me. Sometimes, I really just want to be alone. I spend all day with people, and sometimes I just wanna sit in my (now clean) apartment and enjoy some good quality time with my friends me, myself, and I.

Korean is the same. It just keeps building on itself. Learning a language at this speed is like trying to build a house of cards in a hurricane: once you've set up the base and start building on it, you realize the base vanished, and you have to start over again. Soon, I'll actually be able to go out and actually be able to speak to people. Once I get to that stage, I can start really improving my speaking. At this point, I can pretty much understand people, if they are speaking clearly that is. If they are mumbling/anything happens to impede my hearing at all, I'm totally lost. In your native language, if you miss a few words, it's OK because your mind knows what goes in the blanks based on probability and common phrases. Take all that away and you have no idea what's said. Imagine hearing, "Hey man, how's it ________?" and not knowing what goes in the blank.

As a result, funny situations occur. A wise woman once told me that learning a new language is just an excuse to publicly humiliate yourself. I couldn't agree more. 2 weeks ago, I went into the convenience store to buy a drink before I started teaching. I gave the man my card to pay, but something was wrong with the machine, so he was trying to fix it. In general, foreigners don't know a lick of Korean, so Koreans just don't even bother speaking to them. (I guess after enough blank stares, you just get tired of it.) So the man just started mumbling to himself about how the computer wasn't working. I thought I would shock him with my Korean prowess. I said, "Oh, don't worry. I have siblings too." (Really, I meant to say "cash" but I got the words mixed up. In my defense, they are somewhat similar. hyon gum vs. hyong jay.) Needless to say, the man was surprised, I just wish I knew it was at my lack of Korean prowess. So, he gave me a look that said, "um... ok." and went back to trying to fix the computer. I thought that he must not have heard me. (Sometimes, when I speak Korean, I speak a little bit too softly because I am more unsure of what I'm saying/accent/pronunciation etc.) So, after mentally checking my pronunciation in my head, I said it louder. "Um. I have siblings. SIBLINGS." The poor man didn't know what to do. Luckily, he saw that I had cash in my hand and just took it. Later on, I realized my mistake.

The speed of my thinking/speaking is definitely improving. Korean children especially have the habit of stopping dead in their tracks when they see me. I guess I'm just a little too tall and white for them. Since foreigners usually don't speak any Korean, some Koreans have developed the habit of talking about them right in front of them. Adults usually have a bit more tact, but kids are horrible with this. "Oh look! It's a foreigner!" *cue silent awkward staring* Last year, the only comeback I could do was, "Oh look! It's a Korean!" but that seems just a bit under par for me now. Last week, as I was making the walk of shame back to that same convenience store, 4 kids saw me and said, "Oh look! A foreigner is coming!" Surprisingly, I instantly thought of a response, "Why are you calling me a foreigner?" Lucky for me, right before I said it, I noticed one of their mothers standing right behind them, so I thought it probably best to just pretend like I didn't understand Korean. I knew the convenience store owner would back that story up.

This sparked a question in my mind, "What can I say to kids that do that?" Normally, just speaking anything in Korean is enough to shock them into silence/shame. However, I want something that will also shame them in their own language. So began my quest of insults. After days of pondering and searching, I just asked a Korean. Here's what I'm saying next time (when no mothers are present), "What? Is this the first time you've seen a foreigner?" The Korean that told me this said that if someone were to do that to him as a kid, he would literally have just ran away. If I'm feeling especially cranky, I guess I can pull out, "What are you looking at?" (which surprisingly translates almost directly. The Korean literal translation would be "look what?")

I don't really mind when kids do this to me. In the end, kids will be kids. When adults do it though, it's kind of offensive. Unless of course, they're of the female persuasion, and what they're saying isn't bad. As I'm dozing on the bus, I hear 2 girls across the aisle talking about me:

Girl 1: Oh, look. It's a foreigner. He's not bad. You should go try and speak English to him!
Girls 2: No! I don't know English well enough. I wouldn't know what to say.
Girl 1: You can do it! Just think of the sentence before you speak it. You can do it!
Girl 2: Nooooo! Don't make me! Stop!

I would be lying if I said a big grin didn't slowly creep across my face. Half of me wanted to just be like, "Oh, you don't have to speak English, I can speak Korean." But at the same time, that's about just as far as the conversation would've gone. I would've been met

with surprise and a whole lot of Korean spoken too quickly for me to understand. It's what I call setting myself up for a fail, and as the convenience store owner knows, I do it all to often.

Luckily, I've actually found a study buddy. One of my other classmates is actually serious about learning Korean, so we have begun studying together after classes (when he or I don't work). He has a very similar story to mine. He taught in Korea last year, liked it, and now wants to explore the Korean language. It's refreshing finding people that are more along your wavelength.

One of my classmates finally picked up on the notion that I look like a Roman, so he drew this of me in class. The artist is an 18 year old British "chap." He's taken it upon himself to be my fashion conscience. "Joe, the Roman look has been out of style for about 2,000 years now. Try changing the hair if you can't change the nose." My response, "Et tu, Brute?" Growing up with 3 siblings, it doesn't feel like home if someone isn't ridiculing you about something.

If you're into this sort of thing, here's some easy listening Korean music. This band has a pretty nice sound. Their name is "busker busker." I learned this week that a busker is a street performer. Not sure if I'm crazy or if it's just an uncommon/non-American word. Either way, I'm now wiser. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXV7dfvSefo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SKunZTZzXc

Busy Week/Weekend

I did so much this week that I'm actually really surprised I accomplished it all. The phrase, "Time flies when you're having fun" is definitely true, but it also flies when you aren't having fun. It just flies, and when you're busy, it soars. This week was midterms for my school. I did OK, but I definitely could've done better had I "screwed on my thinking cap" before some of the exams. I did really good for a Westerner, but when I compare my scores to my Chinese friend, I realize how far I have to go. When I look at my score, "Booyah! I got a 90% in speaking!" When my Chinese friend looks, "Arrrrgh! Why did I get a 96%?" (Two different cultures)

This weekend was really cool though. On Saturday, I went to a baseball game. Not only is this the first time I've done it in Korea, but it's also the first time in a very very very long time since I've gone to one. Unlike America though, Korean baseball games are really exciting. There are cheer leaders that lead the crowds in cheers. It's very much like how BJ societies do it. Every player has their own song that the crowd chants when that player goes up to bat. The entire crowd gets into it, which makes it a whole lot of fun. 

My Chinese friend told me about a food festival that was going on today in Seoul. She went on Saturday and told me in no uncertain terms, (translating from Korean) "It's really good. Hurry up and go with your friends. The Vietnamese food is really good, so you had better eat it or else..." My initial thought to this was "of course communists are gonna stick together." I was right. The Vietnamese wasn't that great compared to the selection before me. Of the 50 or so countries represented, I probably tried stuff from about 20 of them. At this point, I'm so stuffed, that if this blog is cut off in the middle, it probably means that I exploded and hit "publish" with my last dying breath. 

I'm gonna try and recall all of the different countries I bought something from, but I'm probably leaving a few out: Vietnam, Thailand, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Chile, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Kenya, South Africa, England, Bangladesh, and a few others I can't remember. It was AWESOME!!!! I've never seen/heard so many languages and cultures in one place. It really opened my eyes as to how big and small the world is. Seeing all of these different cultures and looking at their similarities and differences was just really cool. It's probably the coolest thing I've done here to date. 

Now, I have to gear up for the week to come. I've been seeing my Korean improve a lot recently, and it's giving me more and more motivation to study. I am now able to talk to people on a very basic level if they keep the conversation simple enough, talk clearly enough, and speak slowly enough. It's a lot of ifs though... It reminds me of someone who thinks because he learns one self-defense move, he can fight anyone. "OK. Punch me. No, not like that; you're doing it wrong. You have to punch me with your right hand. There you... No no no. Aim for my face. Yeah, like that. Now watch this!" 

 FYI, the last picture is the baseball stadium BEFORE everyone got there. The game was really packed.