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