So, today was the day of the water park, Caribbean Bay. To those unfamiliar (I was until recently), CB is one of the largest water parks in the world and has both outside and inside components. It had a few tub slides that you go down in groups of four and some indoors tube and body slides and a Lazy river intertube thing and whatnot. Sort of standard as far as water parks go. Though to its credit, the one thing that it had that most water parks do not is a wave pool that generates a 8 or so foot wave every 5 minutes or so.
However to stay in the wavepool, one needed to rent a lifejacket. Yes, seriously. This prevents anyone from riding the wave in, which I was dissapointed and prevents most peoplee from crashing into each other. Boo. If there is no real chance of injury what fun is it? :P Oh, Disney's Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach..you have ruined me for all water parks. That being said, I had a great time anyways.
This was probably due to the people I was with. I was with Brian (actual spelling of the previous mentioned Brian's name) and his roommate June (he is in my Language class as well). We also tagged along with Jin (sorta the male RA who is the head of our floor) and these three girls (Inya, Claire and Hadin) who are both Korean and Hanyang Students. Unlikee Jin, they are volunteers but are part of the staff nevertheless. They are also 21 (which is young for most Koreans in the program) and were incredibly nice. I asked for them to each me some Korean while we were waiting in line for one of the tube ride and they were enthusiastic and understanding.
The tube rides took four people and there were eight eventually in our little party (Me, Bryan, June, Claire, Hadin, Inya and later Miranda and another kid whose name I cannot remember). So, CHI (Claire Hadin and Inya), realizing that they needed a counter weight for the slides to go somewhat fast, grabbed me quick and dragged me up with them. It's so nice to feel wanted. :) Haha.
The girls were really nice and just made me feel like part of the group. That's one thing that I have to give to Hanyang, not just because of the girls but due to Jin and a number of other staff at Hanyang..they definately make people, including introvert losers like me feel really welcome. Props, guys!
An interesting thing was that a huge number of Koreans at the water park were wearing MLB caps. It was especially jarring to see someone with a Yankees hat walk arm and arm with someone with a Red Socks hat. When Brian asked them about it, they basically didn't understand and walked away. Later I asked one of the girls in our group, Hadin was wearing a Giants hat and I asked her about it. She explained that she wasn't a fan, but apparently MLB hats are quite fashionable in Korea, even though people wearing it won't follow the team or in the case of Hadin even know the full name of the team on the hat (to be fair, it was the newer Giants logo with only a few letters on it). So, that was interesting to say the least.
Also...bandanas. No one could walk in the wave pool without having one, so I reluctantly forked over some won for a cheap bandana. Apparently the reason for having everyone wear bandanas or caps is so that their hair doesn't clog up the drain. Weird reasoning, I know, but it's their house, their rules. I respect that.
Went out for dinner that evening, which delayed me posting this until the following eveing. So...expect todays post sometime later on.
-Reven
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Day 5- And so the games...err...classes begin...
So, I'm sure you've been wondering and thinking to yourself "Sure, he's in Korea. But why? Is he just wandering the city and drinking and just going on fun field trips?" To which I would reply, "Not quite, but those are fun things as well."
Today was the first day of classes and I wasn't sure what exactly to expect. I have taken three years of college classes in the US, so I'm not exactly a stranger to the concept. What I didn't know was how class in Korea would be.
I'm currently taking two courses: Korean Culture and History and Korean Language. Both classes are on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday with History from 9 to 12 noon and the language from 1 to 4pm. This being said, it's going to be hard for me to talk to people from the US online as those time frames but hopefully I can catch you guys in my evening or something.
So, my day began at about 6 or so in the morning. I don't set an alarm- I'm woken up by the light from outside and good to go. I didn't sleep amazingly well, but I feel alright. I've become more accustomed to going without sleep as my "training" at US college has taught me. So, I ate a bit of breakfast with some people from my home college and took off to my first class: History.
The class room looked very similar to any US college lecture hall. Rows of desks that seat about 6 or so people. And in the class all of us white people sat in the front. Together.
The course itself will cover basically from ye olde Neolithic period (read: hunters and gatherers) to roughly present day Korea. The time of material is basically split with half of the time spent on ye olde Neolithic to Chosun dynasty (started around 1390 and lasted to 1890) and the other half on Chosun dynasty to present.
The teacher was a short Korean lady and seemed really nice and happy that there was such diversity in the class (yes, 5 token white kids out of a class of about 28, though to be fair a few people were from Japan and a one from Thailand). She spoke pretty darn good English and made the point that A) she expects everyone to participate and B) do so in English. She seemed to say that she didn't want anyone to be shy and hide in the rows of people.
The coolest part of that class is that 20% (yes, TWENTY) of our total grade is showing up to class and 15%(yes, FIFTEEN) is participating. So, I automatically have 35% in the class doing just what I normally would. When I read the sylabus and saw that, I felt like I had been wrapped in a warm snuggly blanket. Ah, the good old days...which is not to say that I'll be slacking off. No, not at all. Just...it's nice.
The impression that I got from the class is that any Korean person taking it seemed to be taking it for general education credit or something similar. The course seemed to be a prerequisite for studying abroad which they all seemed to be planning on doing (we all had to stand up and give a little spiel).
The strange thing was that on the class roster, only our first names were listed. This created some confusion with a few Korean Americans as they go by their American name rather than their Korean, even though on the roster they were listed by their Korean. For example, Bryan (mentioned earlier during the Korea Game night) has the Korean name Yong, but only has used it as a middle name. So, when the teacher was calling out for "Yong" he didn't think to say "Hey, that's me" until it hit him.
The one quirk about the History teacher I noticed was that she really has no tolerance for other people talking when she's talking. She flipped out on some Korean students for doing so whene another student was introducing himself. It was impressive on many accounts. I daresay the same mistake will not happen again. A few of the Korean American students basically chuckled about it afterwards and said the teacher reminded them of their mother in that short instance.
Now, for books...about that. Korean copyright law is rather...lax, for lack of a better term. Especially when it comes to textbooks. So, for the history class, instead of straight up buying the book, the teacher had us all walk to a copying center where we dropped off the textbook and could stop by a few hours later and purchase copied pages of the book for about W3,600 ($3.60). Now, anyone who has bought a college textbook in the US is probably foaming at the mouth reading this (and especially your humble narrator, who purchased *pages* not a book but *pages* of a zoology book that was only needed for one quarter class and couldn't be resold back to the bookstoree because it was only *pages* and cost roughly $120). I was awestruck. So cheap. So nice. I like.
So, after that a group of us headed to lunch: Miranda, Bryan, Jay(Korean American who can speak the language well), Jim and Campbell (another student from my college, an engineer). We decided on Popeye's Chicken. I've never had Popeye's chicken, have scarely seen restaurants but have seen commercials out the wazoo. So, I bought a chicken sandwitch, drink and biscuit combo for W3,900 ($3.90) and it satisified. Then, seeing as I was a bit lower on won than I thought necessary, I decided to find the bank to exchange the US that I brought over for Korean won. Bryan declared that he had nothing better to do so he followed me while Miranda, Jay, Jim and Campbell took off for other places.
Along the way, we noticed various things about the pedestrians which we had discussed before amongst ourselves. We noticed some interesting trends. First off, men and women both were normally dressed nice, usually for a date or better. Men usually wore collared shirts while women wear blouses or nice dresses. T-shirts? Not so much here. Also, men almost always wear long pants while women usually wear shorts or a skirt/dress or capris. The eyewear was interesting as well...seemed like both genders seemed to prefer European styles to US. Most everyone I've come across just on the street is dressed rather fashionable, whether in class, on the street or at E-Mart(let's compare this to the questionable characters that one could find at the local Wal-Mart, shall we?).
But at the bank, I noticed that it was very quiet and orderly. I was given a number (1030) upon entering and gestured to sit down at a given spot by the doorman- no words, just body language. When my number flashed on a monitor above a teller, I walked up.
It appears that money talks in all parts of the world. I showed her US dollars and she instantly understood my purpose there. The rate was pretty good (or so I was told by a few people not working in the bank): $100 US dollars for W118,588. Now the one thing I didn't know, but was sure glad my laziness suceeded was that I needed my passport for the transaction. I was carrying my backpack for classes and had the passport inside from after my voyage over. I conciously knew I was carrying it but didn't know it was needed for the transaction. Luckly, I had it so it was all good.
Korean Won in hand, Bryan and I headed over to our next class: Korean Language. Miranda also was in the class as was Phil and Benji, both of which are Korean Americans who go to Ithica University in New York and I had run into a few times over the last few days. Also in our class was Carolyn (remember her from World Cup night?) who I mentioned that I was glad that she looked better, to which she shook her head and said she wanted to forget that night happened.
So, first order of business in the class was the placement test. To which the response from us American born students was "Aha. Haha. Hah. Ha...wait, what?" There was a verbal component and a written component much to the dismay of most of the people in the class. See, unbenownst to our instructors, most of us did not speak Korean more than a few phrases. My extent includes being able to read most Korean and speak about 12 or so phrases. That's it. Benji and Bryan, being both Korean American, knew more phrases than me but hadn't seen the langauge in print very often. Others such as June (a guy) and Phil knew the language decently so they were not that concerned. So...yeah.
The teachers (one for the upper level and one for the lower) passed out the written part and then took two of us intimindated students out of the room for the verbal. I had to laugh- I was the first one to be called for the verbal. I was led out of the room and to the next class room over. The conversation went like this:
Instructor: Annyeong haseyo (don't know the spelling) (English: Hello)
Me: Annyeong haseyo (bows head)
Instructor: (starts speaking in Korean)
Me: Uh...I'm sorry.
Instructor: Eh?
Me: I kinda basically said most of what I know.
Instructor: Oh?
Me: Yeah, I know (I said the words here for:) Yes, No, thank you, I am an American, etc. But that's it.
Instructor: Oh...
So then she asked what I was looking for in the course. I said I wanted to learn Korean that was useful in everyday usage. She nodded and sent me back to the first room.
I sat down the the written test and laughed. I was totally screwed. I couldn't read anything. I could pronounce the words on the page but I couldn't interpret for anything. Thankfully I wasn't alone. Bryan and I were joking that we should answer the multiple choice segment randomly but decided against it as (if by some stroke of horrible luck) each answer was correct and we were bumped up to the intermediate section. So...my test remained blank save for my name. And it remained that way until I turned it in. Total ego crush. But I wasn't alone.
So, then the instructors split us up according to the verbal (seeing as most of the written tests were blank like mine) and the intermediate instructor took six people out, including Phil and June. This left Miranda, Carolyn, Bryan, Benji, myself and Nadia in the room.
Now, Nadia is from the Netherlands and prides herself on her ability to speak Korean. She took her being selected for the beginner class as affront, though the teacher tried to tell her she could be moved up in time. She(Nadia) seemed very full of herself and annoyed me as soon as she opened her mouth and whined that shee would've been better if she had known (we had a month's advance noticee) in advance about the test. I felt bad for our teacher. Some people can't take being put in their place...which was the case when we started going over vowels and after pronouncing 8 or so basic vowels as a class and later the individual rounds- Nadia was the only one who tripped up. Boy did she look silly.
No matter- I'll be doing plenty of tripping in that class, but man, my prework with the vowels before coming over to Korea really helped out. So, now I'm relaxing in my dorm, ready for the evening and waterpark visit tomorrow. Should be very interesting. Will write more later.
-Reven
Today was the first day of classes and I wasn't sure what exactly to expect. I have taken three years of college classes in the US, so I'm not exactly a stranger to the concept. What I didn't know was how class in Korea would be.
I'm currently taking two courses: Korean Culture and History and Korean Language. Both classes are on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday with History from 9 to 12 noon and the language from 1 to 4pm. This being said, it's going to be hard for me to talk to people from the US online as those time frames but hopefully I can catch you guys in my evening or something.
So, my day began at about 6 or so in the morning. I don't set an alarm- I'm woken up by the light from outside and good to go. I didn't sleep amazingly well, but I feel alright. I've become more accustomed to going without sleep as my "training" at US college has taught me. So, I ate a bit of breakfast with some people from my home college and took off to my first class: History.
The class room looked very similar to any US college lecture hall. Rows of desks that seat about 6 or so people. And in the class all of us white people sat in the front. Together.
The course itself will cover basically from ye olde Neolithic period (read: hunters and gatherers) to roughly present day Korea. The time of material is basically split with half of the time spent on ye olde Neolithic to Chosun dynasty (started around 1390 and lasted to 1890) and the other half on Chosun dynasty to present.
The teacher was a short Korean lady and seemed really nice and happy that there was such diversity in the class (yes, 5 token white kids out of a class of about 28, though to be fair a few people were from Japan and a one from Thailand). She spoke pretty darn good English and made the point that A) she expects everyone to participate and B) do so in English. She seemed to say that she didn't want anyone to be shy and hide in the rows of people.
The coolest part of that class is that 20% (yes, TWENTY) of our total grade is showing up to class and 15%(yes, FIFTEEN) is participating. So, I automatically have 35% in the class doing just what I normally would. When I read the sylabus and saw that, I felt like I had been wrapped in a warm snuggly blanket. Ah, the good old days...which is not to say that I'll be slacking off. No, not at all. Just...it's nice.
The impression that I got from the class is that any Korean person taking it seemed to be taking it for general education credit or something similar. The course seemed to be a prerequisite for studying abroad which they all seemed to be planning on doing (we all had to stand up and give a little spiel).
The strange thing was that on the class roster, only our first names were listed. This created some confusion with a few Korean Americans as they go by their American name rather than their Korean, even though on the roster they were listed by their Korean. For example, Bryan (mentioned earlier during the Korea Game night) has the Korean name Yong, but only has used it as a middle name. So, when the teacher was calling out for "Yong" he didn't think to say "Hey, that's me" until it hit him.
The one quirk about the History teacher I noticed was that she really has no tolerance for other people talking when she's talking. She flipped out on some Korean students for doing so whene another student was introducing himself. It was impressive on many accounts. I daresay the same mistake will not happen again. A few of the Korean American students basically chuckled about it afterwards and said the teacher reminded them of their mother in that short instance.
Now, for books...about that. Korean copyright law is rather...lax, for lack of a better term. Especially when it comes to textbooks. So, for the history class, instead of straight up buying the book, the teacher had us all walk to a copying center where we dropped off the textbook and could stop by a few hours later and purchase copied pages of the book for about W3,600 ($3.60). Now, anyone who has bought a college textbook in the US is probably foaming at the mouth reading this (and especially your humble narrator, who purchased *pages* not a book but *pages* of a zoology book that was only needed for one quarter class and couldn't be resold back to the bookstoree because it was only *pages* and cost roughly $120). I was awestruck. So cheap. So nice. I like.
So, after that a group of us headed to lunch: Miranda, Bryan, Jay(Korean American who can speak the language well), Jim and Campbell (another student from my college, an engineer). We decided on Popeye's Chicken. I've never had Popeye's chicken, have scarely seen restaurants but have seen commercials out the wazoo. So, I bought a chicken sandwitch, drink and biscuit combo for W3,900 ($3.90) and it satisified. Then, seeing as I was a bit lower on won than I thought necessary, I decided to find the bank to exchange the US that I brought over for Korean won. Bryan declared that he had nothing better to do so he followed me while Miranda, Jay, Jim and Campbell took off for other places.
Along the way, we noticed various things about the pedestrians which we had discussed before amongst ourselves. We noticed some interesting trends. First off, men and women both were normally dressed nice, usually for a date or better. Men usually wore collared shirts while women wear blouses or nice dresses. T-shirts? Not so much here. Also, men almost always wear long pants while women usually wear shorts or a skirt/dress or capris. The eyewear was interesting as well...seemed like both genders seemed to prefer European styles to US. Most everyone I've come across just on the street is dressed rather fashionable, whether in class, on the street or at E-Mart(let's compare this to the questionable characters that one could find at the local Wal-Mart, shall we?).
But at the bank, I noticed that it was very quiet and orderly. I was given a number (1030) upon entering and gestured to sit down at a given spot by the doorman- no words, just body language. When my number flashed on a monitor above a teller, I walked up.
It appears that money talks in all parts of the world. I showed her US dollars and she instantly understood my purpose there. The rate was pretty good (or so I was told by a few people not working in the bank): $100 US dollars for W118,588. Now the one thing I didn't know, but was sure glad my laziness suceeded was that I needed my passport for the transaction. I was carrying my backpack for classes and had the passport inside from after my voyage over. I conciously knew I was carrying it but didn't know it was needed for the transaction. Luckly, I had it so it was all good.
Korean Won in hand, Bryan and I headed over to our next class: Korean Language. Miranda also was in the class as was Phil and Benji, both of which are Korean Americans who go to Ithica University in New York and I had run into a few times over the last few days. Also in our class was Carolyn (remember her from World Cup night?) who I mentioned that I was glad that she looked better, to which she shook her head and said she wanted to forget that night happened.
So, first order of business in the class was the placement test. To which the response from us American born students was "Aha. Haha. Hah. Ha...wait, what?" There was a verbal component and a written component much to the dismay of most of the people in the class. See, unbenownst to our instructors, most of us did not speak Korean more than a few phrases. My extent includes being able to read most Korean and speak about 12 or so phrases. That's it. Benji and Bryan, being both Korean American, knew more phrases than me but hadn't seen the langauge in print very often. Others such as June (a guy) and Phil knew the language decently so they were not that concerned. So...yeah.
The teachers (one for the upper level and one for the lower) passed out the written part and then took two of us intimindated students out of the room for the verbal. I had to laugh- I was the first one to be called for the verbal. I was led out of the room and to the next class room over. The conversation went like this:
Instructor: Annyeong haseyo (don't know the spelling) (English: Hello)
Me: Annyeong haseyo (bows head)
Instructor: (starts speaking in Korean)
Me: Uh...I'm sorry.
Instructor: Eh?
Me: I kinda basically said most of what I know.
Instructor: Oh?
Me: Yeah, I know (I said the words here for:) Yes, No, thank you, I am an American, etc. But that's it.
Instructor: Oh...
So then she asked what I was looking for in the course. I said I wanted to learn Korean that was useful in everyday usage. She nodded and sent me back to the first room.
I sat down the the written test and laughed. I was totally screwed. I couldn't read anything. I could pronounce the words on the page but I couldn't interpret for anything. Thankfully I wasn't alone. Bryan and I were joking that we should answer the multiple choice segment randomly but decided against it as (if by some stroke of horrible luck) each answer was correct and we were bumped up to the intermediate section. So...my test remained blank save for my name. And it remained that way until I turned it in. Total ego crush. But I wasn't alone.
So, then the instructors split us up according to the verbal (seeing as most of the written tests were blank like mine) and the intermediate instructor took six people out, including Phil and June. This left Miranda, Carolyn, Bryan, Benji, myself and Nadia in the room.
Now, Nadia is from the Netherlands and prides herself on her ability to speak Korean. She took her being selected for the beginner class as affront, though the teacher tried to tell her she could be moved up in time. She(Nadia) seemed very full of herself and annoyed me as soon as she opened her mouth and whined that shee would've been better if she had known (we had a month's advance noticee) in advance about the test. I felt bad for our teacher. Some people can't take being put in their place...which was the case when we started going over vowels and after pronouncing 8 or so basic vowels as a class and later the individual rounds- Nadia was the only one who tripped up. Boy did she look silly.
No matter- I'll be doing plenty of tripping in that class, but man, my prework with the vowels before coming over to Korea really helped out. So, now I'm relaxing in my dorm, ready for the evening and waterpark visit tomorrow. Should be very interesting. Will write more later.
-Reven
Monday, June 28, 2010
Day 4- Orientation and E-mart
So, today started off with Orientation at 9:30. Or rather all of us students were under the belief that it was at 9:30am. No, turns out the meeting actually was scheduled to start at 10am according to all of the material that they handed out at the meeting. So, why then the discrepency? My thought: they figured college kids would show up late so they wanted to make sure that everyone would be there. Well played, Hanyang. Well played.
So, basically we met our professors (ie we sat in an auditorium and the profs stood up and gave a 90 second speech about themselves) though that didn't take very long. Though the meeting lasted until about 11ish. We sorta hung around the meeting area and ate little finger foods for the next hour or so. Then, the campus tour began. We were split up into four different group and went off in different directions.
To put things into perspective the entirety of Hanyang's campus, and honestly Seoul in general, is very hilly. Some parts of it are basically at 60 degree inclines and on top of that a few select spots are basically torn up worse than Afghanistan. This being said, the next part will make more sense.
I was walking with my group and my roommate who had been there for the meeting thought the tour was boring and went back to the room. So, my roommate gone, I initially floated from person in the group to person but quickly I found a person to talk to. Libby (aforementioned, also student at my same university in the US) had a roommate who was Korean by birth named Miyoung who started talking to me and think I to myself "Why not?" So we chatted about foreign languages (she speaks four- French, Korean, Japanese and English) and how to say different things in Korean. Oddly enough she seemed impressed that I could read Korean and pronounce alright as well (I think that it's not really that helpful, but she was of a different mindset). She was very engaging to talk to and...easy on the eyes as well.
Though one of the things she did that impressed me the most was the fact that she went through this half hour long tour up and down the steep hills of the campus in 2 inch high heels. Now, being somewhat of a clumsy person by nature, I have to say I was damn impressed that someone had the balance and dexterity to take on those hills. It was just amazing, to be honest, and I'm not normally impressed by feats of physical ability. This was an exception though. She's not in any classes with me but she was fun to talk to. Hopefully I'll see her around.
In other news, I went with a group of people over to the E-mart (this included a few people from the group- Miranda among them). Now, what is E-mart, you may ask? Think of WalMart...except for a quarter of the size in terms of width and lenght...and add four floors of it on top of one. It's the same area- they just built up. There were a few interesting conventions, namely escalators...for shopping carts. Yes, you read correctly. Escalators for shopping cars. There are special grooves in the wheels that stop the carts from rolling and taking out the 20 or so people below. I took a few pictures, will post them later (that seems to be a bit of a chorus now...doesn't it? It'll be done. Soon.Ish).
Now, the E-Mart was not isolated- it was part of a huge complex that had a Krispy Kreme and a Coldstone Creamery and a few other stores (though their prices were quite high compared to the already high prices for the US). We ate at a traditional restaurant that involved us taking our shoes off and sitting on the floor.
While our joints were busy freezing up, we ate the soup- which seemed eerily like the "Sausage and Ham" soup had something similar to hot dogs inside it. Go figure, huh? Anyways, it was quite spicy and pretty good. Worth the W8,100 I paid for it. Speaking of, I need to find a bank. Soon. I'm running out of cash (I still have about W 30,000 or more which will last me a while yet, but it'd be nice to have more). But I spotted a few yesterday...the only hold up now is finding the time to go. Banks are open from 9-4:30 on weekdays only...I have class from 9-12 and from 1 to 4 except on Wednesdays. Oy. I'll make it work though. Have to.
So, I got back to my room and my roommate wanted to go to E-Mart and me being cheap wanted to walk. So, we made our way to E-mart and he bought what he wanted (a hanger for the room to hang drying clothes on- which as while we have a washing machine right by our room, we don't have a dryer). I offered to give him money for it, but he declined, saying it was alright.
After picking up some candy for June (aforementioned pharmacy buddy), which I had nothing less than severe bodily harm waiting for me if I did not, we went out to eat. We had some fried chicken and beer (which while not traditional Korean food, is quite popular). Both were excellent. Interesting thing though, when the bill came, I offered to pay for my half, but my roommate refused. He said that I'll pay him back when he comes to Cleveland and when we go out to dinner I'll pick up the bill then. I had a feeling that this was more of a figure of speech than anything, but I get the understanding: Deeds> Money. The idea and thoughtfulness of treating someone out to dinner is worth more than money...also pay it forward. Very interesting.
But for now, I'm tired and ready to fall asleep. Classes start tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it.
-Reven
So, basically we met our professors (ie we sat in an auditorium and the profs stood up and gave a 90 second speech about themselves) though that didn't take very long. Though the meeting lasted until about 11ish. We sorta hung around the meeting area and ate little finger foods for the next hour or so. Then, the campus tour began. We were split up into four different group and went off in different directions.
To put things into perspective the entirety of Hanyang's campus, and honestly Seoul in general, is very hilly. Some parts of it are basically at 60 degree inclines and on top of that a few select spots are basically torn up worse than Afghanistan. This being said, the next part will make more sense.
I was walking with my group and my roommate who had been there for the meeting thought the tour was boring and went back to the room. So, my roommate gone, I initially floated from person in the group to person but quickly I found a person to talk to. Libby (aforementioned, also student at my same university in the US) had a roommate who was Korean by birth named Miyoung who started talking to me and think I to myself "Why not?" So we chatted about foreign languages (she speaks four- French, Korean, Japanese and English) and how to say different things in Korean. Oddly enough she seemed impressed that I could read Korean and pronounce alright as well (I think that it's not really that helpful, but she was of a different mindset). She was very engaging to talk to and...easy on the eyes as well.
Though one of the things she did that impressed me the most was the fact that she went through this half hour long tour up and down the steep hills of the campus in 2 inch high heels. Now, being somewhat of a clumsy person by nature, I have to say I was damn impressed that someone had the balance and dexterity to take on those hills. It was just amazing, to be honest, and I'm not normally impressed by feats of physical ability. This was an exception though. She's not in any classes with me but she was fun to talk to. Hopefully I'll see her around.
In other news, I went with a group of people over to the E-mart (this included a few people from the group- Miranda among them). Now, what is E-mart, you may ask? Think of WalMart...except for a quarter of the size in terms of width and lenght...and add four floors of it on top of one. It's the same area- they just built up. There were a few interesting conventions, namely escalators...for shopping carts. Yes, you read correctly. Escalators for shopping cars. There are special grooves in the wheels that stop the carts from rolling and taking out the 20 or so people below. I took a few pictures, will post them later (that seems to be a bit of a chorus now...doesn't it? It'll be done. Soon.Ish).
Now, the E-Mart was not isolated- it was part of a huge complex that had a Krispy Kreme and a Coldstone Creamery and a few other stores (though their prices were quite high compared to the already high prices for the US). We ate at a traditional restaurant that involved us taking our shoes off and sitting on the floor.
While our joints were busy freezing up, we ate the soup- which seemed eerily like the "Sausage and Ham" soup had something similar to hot dogs inside it. Go figure, huh? Anyways, it was quite spicy and pretty good. Worth the W8,100 I paid for it. Speaking of, I need to find a bank. Soon. I'm running out of cash (I still have about W 30,000 or more which will last me a while yet, but it'd be nice to have more). But I spotted a few yesterday...the only hold up now is finding the time to go. Banks are open from 9-4:30 on weekdays only...I have class from 9-12 and from 1 to 4 except on Wednesdays. Oy. I'll make it work though. Have to.
So, I got back to my room and my roommate wanted to go to E-Mart and me being cheap wanted to walk. So, we made our way to E-mart and he bought what he wanted (a hanger for the room to hang drying clothes on- which as while we have a washing machine right by our room, we don't have a dryer). I offered to give him money for it, but he declined, saying it was alright.
After picking up some candy for June (aforementioned pharmacy buddy), which I had nothing less than severe bodily harm waiting for me if I did not, we went out to eat. We had some fried chicken and beer (which while not traditional Korean food, is quite popular). Both were excellent. Interesting thing though, when the bill came, I offered to pay for my half, but my roommate refused. He said that I'll pay him back when he comes to Cleveland and when we go out to dinner I'll pick up the bill then. I had a feeling that this was more of a figure of speech than anything, but I get the understanding: Deeds> Money. The idea and thoughtfulness of treating someone out to dinner is worth more than money...also pay it forward. Very interesting.
But for now, I'm tired and ready to fall asleep. Classes start tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it.
-Reven
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Day 3- Revelations and Rubber Courts
So, I didn't really sleep for the morning like I thought. I did, however, get to find two open computers will always be free to use in the business building. So, there was some exploring.
Lunch at the cafeteria was nice. For 2000W (about $2) you get roughly a 16 or so inch tray of pure good. There's a section for rice alone and then the cafeteria ladies put on various forms of potatoes and cabbage (kimchi- pickled cabbage is a famous dish of Korea) which by the time the whole thing is said and done is about 3 lbs of food. Yes, you read that correctly. Three.
Afterwards, I hopped on my computer and had a bit of an interesting conversation with someone important to me. Without getting into the matter, she basically called me out on something that I had been refusing to deal with and out of indifference allow certain things to happen. Please don't speculate on the subject matter. Unfortunately, I lost my internet connection right as we were getting into the matter and had to reboot my computer (it's how it works, don't ask) while she (according to the AIM messages sent after I had rebooted) thought I had disconnected because I was angry (which seemed plausible as it was a sensitive subject matter, though I have no aversion to discussion controvesial matters) even though I was not.
Her words rang true and it really got me thinking. What is is about our own personal weaknesses that let us conciously make a wrong decision over and over again, knowing full well that it's not healthy? Is it a sign of weakness of character(perhaps in my case)? Or is any personal weakness or shortcoming either bad or good (to quote Hamlet) but does thinking make it so?
While I can boarder on moral relativist at times, I am full well aware of my mistakes in the past and know where they will lead. I guess the only thing to do is figure out how to fix myself. If I know that I'm predisposed to a certain behavior when put in a certain group of individual(s), what should I do? Continue to go into the group and make the same mistakes over and over again? Or cut it off? Sure, it'd be painful at first, but maybe better in the long run? I'm speaking cryptically, but that's ok for now. It's just food for thought and I find myself biting into the idea of cutting off what bothers me.
These thoughts swam in my head like goldfish as I played basketball with some of the other students. I've never been good at basketball and while today was no exception, I enjoyed the feeling of comradery that I experienced. The court was weird though, made out of some kind of rubber. This decrease in friction wasn't helped by some rain from the previous night still being on the court. It provided a rather interesting hazard and more than one person went down to it.
So, I'm feeling somewhat tired. Perhaps I should nap for a bit before dinner and then hopefully reconnect with the aforementioned person so that she didn't get the wrong impression of losing my connection.
-Reven
Lunch at the cafeteria was nice. For 2000W (about $2) you get roughly a 16 or so inch tray of pure good. There's a section for rice alone and then the cafeteria ladies put on various forms of potatoes and cabbage (kimchi- pickled cabbage is a famous dish of Korea) which by the time the whole thing is said and done is about 3 lbs of food. Yes, you read that correctly. Three.
Afterwards, I hopped on my computer and had a bit of an interesting conversation with someone important to me. Without getting into the matter, she basically called me out on something that I had been refusing to deal with and out of indifference allow certain things to happen. Please don't speculate on the subject matter. Unfortunately, I lost my internet connection right as we were getting into the matter and had to reboot my computer (it's how it works, don't ask) while she (according to the AIM messages sent after I had rebooted) thought I had disconnected because I was angry (which seemed plausible as it was a sensitive subject matter, though I have no aversion to discussion controvesial matters) even though I was not.
Her words rang true and it really got me thinking. What is is about our own personal weaknesses that let us conciously make a wrong decision over and over again, knowing full well that it's not healthy? Is it a sign of weakness of character(perhaps in my case)? Or is any personal weakness or shortcoming either bad or good (to quote Hamlet) but does thinking make it so?
While I can boarder on moral relativist at times, I am full well aware of my mistakes in the past and know where they will lead. I guess the only thing to do is figure out how to fix myself. If I know that I'm predisposed to a certain behavior when put in a certain group of individual(s), what should I do? Continue to go into the group and make the same mistakes over and over again? Or cut it off? Sure, it'd be painful at first, but maybe better in the long run? I'm speaking cryptically, but that's ok for now. It's just food for thought and I find myself biting into the idea of cutting off what bothers me.
These thoughts swam in my head like goldfish as I played basketball with some of the other students. I've never been good at basketball and while today was no exception, I enjoyed the feeling of comradery that I experienced. The court was weird though, made out of some kind of rubber. This decrease in friction wasn't helped by some rain from the previous night still being on the court. It provided a rather interesting hazard and more than one person went down to it.
So, I'm feeling somewhat tired. Perhaps I should nap for a bit before dinner and then hopefully reconnect with the aforementioned person so that she didn't get the wrong impression of losing my connection.
-Reven
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Night 2(Morning 3)- Something there to remind me
So, tonight was the World Cup (well...hours ago) match between Korea and Uruguay. A group of people were interested in watching it in the city (there are huge TV screens around and whatnot). So, a group of about twenty went to watch it at City Hall- where it would be very busy and energetic but not have as good view of the game. I decided to go with people I had met this day- a few people from Ithica and U of New Mexico. We went to this other station that I believe was called Wangchimni (?) but I'll have to look up the spelling. It was walking distance from Hanyang about would allow a better view of the game than City Hall, so it seemed like a better choice in my mind.
Thankfully, one of my fellow students, Bryan, who I have sorta paired up during the day with was in this group so I knew I had someone to talk to and whatnot. We ended up in a bar because it was pouring outside and had TVs and ate dinner (my second in the day, though the first was really light). The dinner was this barbaque of sorts where there is a grill in the center of the table and beef and pork are thrown on the grill and the people sitting at the table are in charge of flipping the meat and cutting it up (with scissors) to make it cook to their desire. Cool concept. Also, we drank (there will be notes on this later), some more than others. The poison of the evening was beer (standard) and Soju (spelling?).
Soju, to those unfamiliar, is a kind of fermented wine alcohol. It tasted very smooth going down and had a bit of a kick of an aftertaste. It was alright- possibly not my first choice, but not a bad drink for the evening. It is drunk in shotglasses much like any liquor in the US. The closest thing I could relate it to is a vodka.
So, back to the game. Above is the picture of our party. The bar/restaurant was hopping. I have NEVER seem that many people excited and yelling at once for a sporting event. Ever. EVER. It was so paplable that every time Korea was close to scoring a goal, it was like a wall of sound that emerged for just twenty seconds at a time.
That being said, there was quite a bit of drinking as Korea was down for most of the game. One of our party members, a girl named Carolyn, was drinking quite heavily. She was smaller than me in build and stature and was drinking for twice her weight. Bryan tried to get her to slow down, but she didn't care. This would be a sign of things to come.
The game was interesting, mostly because of the excitement but came to a saddening close. The bar patrons, instead of getting angry, just took the loss like "Oh well, it was not a bad run." Anyone who has watched a Steelers/Browns game knows that fans of either team don't take losing very well, but these people just took the loss in stride.
I had a few patrons not at my table ask me where I was from. "USA," I responded "Migook." To which a few who were possibly quite inebriated, said "I like USA!" to which I responded (to their glee) "I like Korea." In fact, one female patron, probably in her late twenties came up to me and asked for one of her male companions to take a picture of the two of us. I'm flattered; it's nice being the token white guy. Or I'd be the guy they'd be laughing about later: "Remember that one guy? Oh my goodness did he look dumb." Either way, the attention was kinda nice, not going to lie.
Afterwards, we headed for a Kareoke bar (this was at about 1:30AM). Kareoke is different in Korea than the US. The setup is such that your party rents out a room for X Won for an hour. The room that the Kareoke is in is small, probably the size of a larger dorm room and is outfitted with couches, two microphones and a TV. No one else can hear you sing except for the people in the room. Neat concept. But, the same basic concepts are there- put numbers into a machine which displays the lyrics and sing along. A new twist though was that the TV/microphones scored you out of 100% on songs. Though, the scoring was dubious as during the songs where no one was singing directly into one mike, it still managed to get in the low 90s.
Anyways during this portion of the evening, Carolyn, who had drunk far more than her share was hardly verticle. While I didn't see what happened myself directly, she was basically helped out of the Kareoke room to the bathroom where most likely the usual happened: the veneration of the porcelain god.
At the point, we lost two people of our group who took Carolyn back to her room. It was around 2:30 in the morning and I was feeling a bit tired and such. But, the room was still good for another hour (the guy running the machine credited us the time that we lost due to people attending to our severely inebriated party member) so we stayed on, much to my sorta grumbling. I was tired.
But I sang on a few songs, though was only on the mic alone for one "Something there to remind me." There are a couple of inside jokes within my family with that song, so I just had to do it. 98% if you were wondering. Oh yes. Take *that* Singstar. :P There was a good selection of American and Korean music, but sadly, I didn't know much of the Korean at all, so we defaulted to American more often than not.
We left the place around 3:00AM, at which point I realized that my entry into the room at such a late/early hour may disturb my roommate. Sighing and hoping he wouldn' be upset, I sorta nudged the group back to Hanyang. However, there seemed to be other plans.
Out of the group of 8 or so of us, one kid got the munchies. And lo and behold if the whole group didn't have to stop to get him something to eat and wandered around part of Seoul looking for place that would work.
Interesting thing about Seoul, I've found, is that the city doesn't go to sleep at around 1 or 2 like in the US. No, the streets were alive with people eating and drinking and partying even until I got back to the dorm around 4 (more on how I got there later). But, everyone seemed to be awake and just going about their own business like it would be around 10:00 in a city in the US. Apparently, it wasn't just a World Cup thing that everyone stayed up for (the game started at 11:00PM local) but according to a few other group members, this was something that was done every night. The trade off is that the city is basically dead until noon.
So, moving along, after 15 or so minutes looking for a place for this kid to get something to eat, the tired/frustrated me and also Bryan (though I don't think he was frustrated, just tired) decided to head back to the dorm on foot as we departed. After about twenty or so minutes and one wrong turn when we got onto campus. Opening my door cautiously, I found that my roommate wasn't in. Wiping semi-invisible sweat from my brow, I crashed onto my bed and felt the urge to update this blog.
However, my connection wasn't working. I don't understand why it works sometimes and not others. It's frustrating. I asked a Korean kid in the lounge if he knew how to make it work and he embarked upon a journey to wake up a computer expect who lived in the dorm (which made me feel like a collossal jerk, though said expert seemed ok with it, oddly enough). He put in the same information that I had and nodded, saying that it was "ok."
I tried to log on after he and the other kid left, but failed. Groaning, I walked around the dorm. Possibly there were open free computers somewhere, no? After scouring the basemenet and finding a few nice study halls which had books and papers on every subject- I recognized calculus and organic chemistry- my search was in vain. The strangest book I found there, though I didn't open it (not my property) was on gaining an "American" accent. Interesting stuff. So, no open computers.
Feeling saddened by my misfortune and not wanting to bother the computer expert kid again, I rebooted my computer and the internet worked. YAY! Ahem. So, I finally got to send out an email or two and actually post today. I'm going to resolve to search for open computers on campus. I heard there some at the business building but stupid me forgot to take the map of the school that my mom printed out. Urgh. It'll be an adventure. But for now, I should rest. It's been a long day.
-Reven
Thankfully, one of my fellow students, Bryan, who I have sorta paired up during the day with was in this group so I knew I had someone to talk to and whatnot. We ended up in a bar because it was pouring outside and had TVs and ate dinner (my second in the day, though the first was really light). The dinner was this barbaque of sorts where there is a grill in the center of the table and beef and pork are thrown on the grill and the people sitting at the table are in charge of flipping the meat and cutting it up (with scissors) to make it cook to their desire. Cool concept. Also, we drank (there will be notes on this later), some more than others. The poison of the evening was beer (standard) and Soju (spelling?).
Soju, to those unfamiliar, is a kind of fermented wine alcohol. It tasted very smooth going down and had a bit of a kick of an aftertaste. It was alright- possibly not my first choice, but not a bad drink for the evening. It is drunk in shotglasses much like any liquor in the US. The closest thing I could relate it to is a vodka.
So, back to the game. Above is the picture of our party. The bar/restaurant was hopping. I have NEVER seem that many people excited and yelling at once for a sporting event. Ever. EVER. It was so paplable that every time Korea was close to scoring a goal, it was like a wall of sound that emerged for just twenty seconds at a time.
That being said, there was quite a bit of drinking as Korea was down for most of the game. One of our party members, a girl named Carolyn, was drinking quite heavily. She was smaller than me in build and stature and was drinking for twice her weight. Bryan tried to get her to slow down, but she didn't care. This would be a sign of things to come.
The game was interesting, mostly because of the excitement but came to a saddening close. The bar patrons, instead of getting angry, just took the loss like "Oh well, it was not a bad run." Anyone who has watched a Steelers/Browns game knows that fans of either team don't take losing very well, but these people just took the loss in stride.
I had a few patrons not at my table ask me where I was from. "USA," I responded "Migook." To which a few who were possibly quite inebriated, said "I like USA!" to which I responded (to their glee) "I like Korea." In fact, one female patron, probably in her late twenties came up to me and asked for one of her male companions to take a picture of the two of us. I'm flattered; it's nice being the token white guy. Or I'd be the guy they'd be laughing about later: "Remember that one guy? Oh my goodness did he look dumb." Either way, the attention was kinda nice, not going to lie.
Afterwards, we headed for a Kareoke bar (this was at about 1:30AM). Kareoke is different in Korea than the US. The setup is such that your party rents out a room for X Won for an hour. The room that the Kareoke is in is small, probably the size of a larger dorm room and is outfitted with couches, two microphones and a TV. No one else can hear you sing except for the people in the room. Neat concept. But, the same basic concepts are there- put numbers into a machine which displays the lyrics and sing along. A new twist though was that the TV/microphones scored you out of 100% on songs. Though, the scoring was dubious as during the songs where no one was singing directly into one mike, it still managed to get in the low 90s.
Anyways during this portion of the evening, Carolyn, who had drunk far more than her share was hardly verticle. While I didn't see what happened myself directly, she was basically helped out of the Kareoke room to the bathroom where most likely the usual happened: the veneration of the porcelain god.
At the point, we lost two people of our group who took Carolyn back to her room. It was around 2:30 in the morning and I was feeling a bit tired and such. But, the room was still good for another hour (the guy running the machine credited us the time that we lost due to people attending to our severely inebriated party member) so we stayed on, much to my sorta grumbling. I was tired.
But I sang on a few songs, though was only on the mic alone for one "Something there to remind me." There are a couple of inside jokes within my family with that song, so I just had to do it. 98% if you were wondering. Oh yes. Take *that* Singstar. :P There was a good selection of American and Korean music, but sadly, I didn't know much of the Korean at all, so we defaulted to American more often than not.
We left the place around 3:00AM, at which point I realized that my entry into the room at such a late/early hour may disturb my roommate. Sighing and hoping he wouldn' be upset, I sorta nudged the group back to Hanyang. However, there seemed to be other plans.
Out of the group of 8 or so of us, one kid got the munchies. And lo and behold if the whole group didn't have to stop to get him something to eat and wandered around part of Seoul looking for place that would work.
Interesting thing about Seoul, I've found, is that the city doesn't go to sleep at around 1 or 2 like in the US. No, the streets were alive with people eating and drinking and partying even until I got back to the dorm around 4 (more on how I got there later). But, everyone seemed to be awake and just going about their own business like it would be around 10:00 in a city in the US. Apparently, it wasn't just a World Cup thing that everyone stayed up for (the game started at 11:00PM local) but according to a few other group members, this was something that was done every night. The trade off is that the city is basically dead until noon.
So, moving along, after 15 or so minutes looking for a place for this kid to get something to eat, the tired/frustrated me and also Bryan (though I don't think he was frustrated, just tired) decided to head back to the dorm on foot as we departed. After about twenty or so minutes and one wrong turn when we got onto campus. Opening my door cautiously, I found that my roommate wasn't in. Wiping semi-invisible sweat from my brow, I crashed onto my bed and felt the urge to update this blog.
However, my connection wasn't working. I don't understand why it works sometimes and not others. It's frustrating. I asked a Korean kid in the lounge if he knew how to make it work and he embarked upon a journey to wake up a computer expect who lived in the dorm (which made me feel like a collossal jerk, though said expert seemed ok with it, oddly enough). He put in the same information that I had and nodded, saying that it was "ok."
I tried to log on after he and the other kid left, but failed. Groaning, I walked around the dorm. Possibly there were open free computers somewhere, no? After scouring the basemenet and finding a few nice study halls which had books and papers on every subject- I recognized calculus and organic chemistry- my search was in vain. The strangest book I found there, though I didn't open it (not my property) was on gaining an "American" accent. Interesting stuff. So, no open computers.
Feeling saddened by my misfortune and not wanting to bother the computer expert kid again, I rebooted my computer and the internet worked. YAY! Ahem. So, I finally got to send out an email or two and actually post today. I'm going to resolve to search for open computers on campus. I heard there some at the business building but stupid me forgot to take the map of the school that my mom printed out. Urgh. It'll be an adventure. But for now, I should rest. It's been a long day.
-Reven
Day 2- Walking around and misnomers
After going to sleep, I woke up when it was light outside feeling moderately refreshed. A-ha, thinks, I. It must be around eight or so in the morning- there's going to be some time to hang around the room until my city tour at noon. So, not having a phone or anything of the sort by which to measure time, I open my laptop to find (to my dismay) that it is 5:45...AM. Oy. So, I groan and my roommate has yet to stir. Hopping back into bed, I'm trying to get to sleep and it works to a degree. Around 9:00AM, my roommate stirs and we chat for awhile. Again, it isn't the absolute best form due to our language skills. Though, I'm picking a bit of Korean up along the way.
Now, today at noon was supposed to be the tour of Seoul, the city. This was somewhat of a misnomer for reasons I will go into later. So, after taking about a half hour to go the quarter mile to the plaza near the subway station, we stop to eat this sushi like dish (the staff had brought it with them) which was all well and good, except for the fact that we (the thirty or so students) only spent fifteen minutes eating and just sorta sat there for the next twenty or so before we were led onto the subway.
Now, as a disclaimer, I haven't been on subways often and as such am also not accustomed to being very close to large numbers of people all at once. This combined with my poor Korean language skills made me nervous about being in public, not to mention being in a very large city (I live in the suburbs). This will be relevant later.
So, we hop onto the subway, and it has been years since I've been on a subway (last time was on a Metro in DC) so keeping my balance was tough as there was not enough handholds for people and I sorta just had to chill there. By the second or so stop, I met the first person in the nation of Korea who pissed me off. Yes, it was an American.
She walked on amidst the crowd of people and the following conversation occurred.
Her: I'm getting that you seem a little uncomfortable.
Me: Eh. (It's true, due to the aforementioned reasons, so as a result, I'm just looking around at the different people getting on and off)
Her: Hmph. You have a nice day.
Me: ???
She doesn't exit the subway, she just stands sorta by me. I'm confused. My thought (and this is based on the latter comment) is that she thought it was a racial reason why I was uncomfortable. The following conversation occurred a stop or so later:
Her: I'm guessin' you're from America?
Me: Yeah.
Her: I'm from Atlanta. What do you think of our president?
Me: Huh? What about him? He has a really difficult job...
Her: You need to LEARN to LOVE your president.
Me: Oh. Yeah, I mean I-
Her: You have a nice day!
Me: (sigh- exits the subway)
Wasn't sad to leave her there in the subway. She had some kind of axe to grind and I appeared to be the closest target. Guess she dealt with her stress or whatever it was. Just annoyed me was all. I was sincerely just anxious about being in a huge city for the first time and her shooting her mouth off did not make me feel any better. In fact, the only sincerely annoying person I met today was her and she was American. Connection? Nevertheless, I'm not going to sing praises to a politician nor anyone else I feel indifferent about.
So, eventually we got to a plaza which is called Gwanghwamun Square. We met up with this interesting tour guide guy, whose name was not told to us, or if so, I cannot remember any great emphasis being put on it. So, let's just call him Mr. Park. The Square was an interesting area to say the least. Park led the group of us around one of the side parts of the plaza, which had some kind of almost gutter by it, though upon closer inspection it was more like a small inches deep trench, that was made up of different blocks. As we neared the one end of the plaza, the blocks had years inscribed on them along with words that I could not read. Park explained that every year Korea remains a country, they add another block in the trench and carve in it the world events of the year. Neat concept.
Also, in addition to that, there were two statues, one of this guy Admiral Yi Sunshin. He was this great Korean navel hero whose innovation stopped Japanese invaders by redesigning their boats. Back in ye olde 1500s, the Japanese basically had Korea up against the wall navally and this admiral had the idea of completely covering up their boats, giving them a roof of wood with spikes and nails, so that no invaders could board it during an attack, called appropriately a turtle ship. This innovation caused him to push back the Japanese invaders.
The second statue was of King Sejong, a man from the late 1300s. He was an emperor who enjoyed writing. So, as a result, he decided to create Hangul (the Korean language) as the Chinese language was too difficult to read and write for the common person (thousands upon thousands of characters). Instead, King Sejong determined that the new language would just have twenty or so characters (which were solely syllables) which were derived from five or so brush strokes and make up twenty or so letters and could be used for a large combination of final syllables. I'll go into the whole speech/grammar part later, when I start speech/grammar classes.
To top it off, there was a museum UNDER GROUND the plaza about the two men that were above it. Pretty cool, in my mind. It was dark and cool. There was a replica of a turtle ship and a few other cool things. There were also a few shooting games that one could play, mimicking what it was like to be on a Korean war ship. It was quite fun. There was also a rowing simulator game with a 1400s style oar where the player had to row fast enough to "catch" a ship ahead of him or her.
We walked a bit further to the cultural art museum. There were a few cool things there, foremost of which was a Cadillac from the early 1900s (1910?) that was used by an Empress. Also a few stranger items were placenta jars, which, I can only assume were used to collect the placenta of the children of an emperor. There was an explanation, but it was entirely in Korean. :(
After plowing through the art museum in the middle of downtown, our guide bid us farewell. And so did the staff members.
Staff: So..yeah. Have fun now!
Us: Huh?
Staff: Yeah, go do whatever.
Us: Um...like go back to the dorms or what?
Staff: Sure. Just you know how to get back to Hanyang, right?
Us: Not really...
Staff: You'll figure it out! Bye!
Us: ...
So, it was around 5 PM, the tour was over. Now, for this to make sense, you need to understand Seoul is a HUGE city and as such for a tour of the city, the group of us were expecting a tour bus or something of that ilk. Now, we had been on foot walking since noon or so and had seen three or so sites of the metropolis. "Tour of Seoul?" I think not. But it was pleasant, though it was around seven or so when I got back to my dorm room and we had been on our feet. A lot. I was with a group of people from my university:
Miranda- Did not say much, except for the occasional snarky comment
Libby- A popular type, has the "princess" vibe going off of her. She didn’t talk much, but seemed annoyed at the whole turn of events
Nancy- Pleasant enough girl, but complained often when we got back to the university and couldn't find the dorms. To be fair, we had been on our feet for the past seven or so hours, but yes, we get it. You too are tired.
Jim- Dating Nancy. Seems like the Student Government/frat type. Pleasant enough though.
I didn't say much on our walk back. Neither Miranda nor Libby were that chatty either. I was tired and I honestly don't know these people well enough to open up about anything. Though only really Nancy noticed that the three of us weren't talking when she paused after arguing about directions with Jim but I really didn't do anything to remedy that.
So, tonight though, will be the Korea/Uruguay game. Need to figure out what colors to wear (and more importantly NOT to wear). Red seems to be a safe bet for Korea though. Will write more later.
-Reven
Now, today at noon was supposed to be the tour of Seoul, the city. This was somewhat of a misnomer for reasons I will go into later. So, after taking about a half hour to go the quarter mile to the plaza near the subway station, we stop to eat this sushi like dish (the staff had brought it with them) which was all well and good, except for the fact that we (the thirty or so students) only spent fifteen minutes eating and just sorta sat there for the next twenty or so before we were led onto the subway.
Now, as a disclaimer, I haven't been on subways often and as such am also not accustomed to being very close to large numbers of people all at once. This combined with my poor Korean language skills made me nervous about being in public, not to mention being in a very large city (I live in the suburbs). This will be relevant later.
So, we hop onto the subway, and it has been years since I've been on a subway (last time was on a Metro in DC) so keeping my balance was tough as there was not enough handholds for people and I sorta just had to chill there. By the second or so stop, I met the first person in the nation of Korea who pissed me off. Yes, it was an American.
She walked on amidst the crowd of people and the following conversation occurred.
Her: I'm getting that you seem a little uncomfortable.
Me: Eh. (It's true, due to the aforementioned reasons, so as a result, I'm just looking around at the different people getting on and off)
Her: Hmph. You have a nice day.
Me: ???
She doesn't exit the subway, she just stands sorta by me. I'm confused. My thought (and this is based on the latter comment) is that she thought it was a racial reason why I was uncomfortable. The following conversation occurred a stop or so later:
Her: I'm guessin' you're from America?
Me: Yeah.
Her: I'm from Atlanta. What do you think of our president?
Me: Huh? What about him? He has a really difficult job...
Her: You need to LEARN to LOVE your president.
Me: Oh. Yeah, I mean I-
Her: You have a nice day!
Me: (sigh- exits the subway)
Wasn't sad to leave her there in the subway. She had some kind of axe to grind and I appeared to be the closest target. Guess she dealt with her stress or whatever it was. Just annoyed me was all. I was sincerely just anxious about being in a huge city for the first time and her shooting her mouth off did not make me feel any better. In fact, the only sincerely annoying person I met today was her and she was American. Connection? Nevertheless, I'm not going to sing praises to a politician nor anyone else I feel indifferent about.
So, eventually we got to a plaza which is called Gwanghwamun Square. We met up with this interesting tour guide guy, whose name was not told to us, or if so, I cannot remember any great emphasis being put on it. So, let's just call him Mr. Park. The Square was an interesting area to say the least. Park led the group of us around one of the side parts of the plaza, which had some kind of almost gutter by it, though upon closer inspection it was more like a small inches deep trench, that was made up of different blocks. As we neared the one end of the plaza, the blocks had years inscribed on them along with words that I could not read. Park explained that every year Korea remains a country, they add another block in the trench and carve in it the world events of the year. Neat concept.
Also, in addition to that, there were two statues, one of this guy Admiral Yi Sunshin. He was this great Korean navel hero whose innovation stopped Japanese invaders by redesigning their boats. Back in ye olde 1500s, the Japanese basically had Korea up against the wall navally and this admiral had the idea of completely covering up their boats, giving them a roof of wood with spikes and nails, so that no invaders could board it during an attack, called appropriately a turtle ship. This innovation caused him to push back the Japanese invaders. 
The second statue was of King Sejong, a man from the late 1300s. He was an emperor who enjoyed writing. So, as a result, he decided to create Hangul (the Korean language) as the Chinese language was too difficult to read and write for the common person (thousands upon thousands of characters). Instead, King Sejong determined that the new language would just have twenty or so characters (which were solely syllables) which were derived from five or so brush strokes and make up twenty or so letters and could be used for a large combination of final syllables. I'll go into the whole speech/grammar part later, when I start speech/grammar classes.
To top it off, there was a museum UNDER GROUND the plaza about the two men that were above it. Pretty cool, in my mind. It was dark and cool. There was a replica of a turtle ship and a few other cool things. There were also a few shooting games that one could play, mimicking what it was like to be on a Korean war ship. It was quite fun. There was also a rowing simulator game with a 1400s style oar where the player had to row fast enough to "catch" a ship ahead of him or her.
We walked a bit further to the cultural art museum. There were a few cool things there, foremost of which was a Cadillac from the early 1900s (1910?) that was used by an Empress. Also a few stranger items were placenta jars, which, I can only assume were used to collect the placenta of the children of an emperor. There was an explanation, but it was entirely in Korean. :(
After plowing through the art museum in the middle of downtown, our guide bid us farewell. And so did the staff members.
Staff: So..yeah. Have fun now!
Us: Huh?
Staff: Yeah, go do whatever.
Us: Um...like go back to the dorms or what?
Staff: Sure. Just you know how to get back to Hanyang, right?
Us: Not really...
Staff: You'll figure it out! Bye!
Us: ...
So, it was around 5 PM, the tour was over. Now, for this to make sense, you need to understand Seoul is a HUGE city and as such for a tour of the city, the group of us were expecting a tour bus or something of that ilk. Now, we had been on foot walking since noon or so and had seen three or so sites of the metropolis. "Tour of Seoul?" I think not. But it was pleasant, though it was around seven or so when I got back to my dorm room and we had been on our feet. A lot. I was with a group of people from my university:
Miranda- Did not say much, except for the occasional snarky comment
Libby- A popular type, has the "princess" vibe going off of her. She didn’t talk much, but seemed annoyed at the whole turn of events
Nancy- Pleasant enough girl, but complained often when we got back to the university and couldn't find the dorms. To be fair, we had been on our feet for the past seven or so hours, but yes, we get it. You too are tired.
Jim- Dating Nancy. Seems like the Student Government/frat type. Pleasant enough though.
I didn't say much on our walk back. Neither Miranda nor Libby were that chatty either. I was tired and I honestly don't know these people well enough to open up about anything. Though only really Nancy noticed that the three of us weren't talking when she paused after arguing about directions with Jim but I really didn't do anything to remedy that.
So, tonight though, will be the Korea/Uruguay game. Need to figure out what colors to wear (and more importantly NOT to wear). Red seems to be a safe bet for Korea though. Will write more later.
-Reven
Friday, June 25, 2010
"Day One and counting..."
So, after having been up for the past 30 or so hours, I fell asleep last night after getting in. The flights were kinda rough. Basically, I woke up at 4:30 to fly out of *** airport at 9 to take a four hour flight to LAX to wait a few hours (2 to be exact) to fly our 12.5 hour flight to Inchon airport in Seoul. Thankfully, the movies on the second flight were not bad at all. My reviews:
Shutter island- Not bad, very intense. Had a number of good twists but a bit depressing in the end. Good story nevertheless.
Percy Jackson and the overly long title- Actually decent- basically kid finds out he's a demigod and has to deal with it and the fact that Zeus had one of his bolts stolen and is ready to declare war against the other gods. So, said kid (son of Poisidon) has to figure out where the bolt went and is accompanied by a few friends along the way. The action was quite standard, but there were a couple very funny moments involving Medusa's severed head (the hotel scene, if you've watched it) played by Ms. Uma Thurman.
How to train your Dragon- If you haven't seen this yet- see it. NOW. Tried watching it in German at first, but didn't like the new voice actors as much.
Now, once I touched down, I thought to myself "Oh boy, how is someone from Hanyang going to find us?" Thankfully, as Miranda and I exited the plane, we saw a student carrying a sign for ONU. "A-ha!" says I to myself "That's where we want to go." So, the student's name is Suckyung Lee and she was quite nice. She was our guide back to Hanyang, which was needed immensely (at least on my part). We took a bus, which was supposed to be an hour trip. This being said, an hour trip on a Friday night in a major city totally slows down traffic. So, about an hour and a half later, Miranda and I checked into our dorms (we are in two different buildings).
I met my roommate, Yeonho. He's twenty five, so a bit older than me, and an engineer to my pharmacy. He seems really nice. I was a doofus and forgot my sandles (and a towel, oy) back in the US and he was kind enough to let me use a spare pair of his sandals. Though it is a bit difficult for us to communicate. He is Korean by birth and lives there as well and as such speaks some but not a lot of English, where I, being an American, speak only English with barely any Korean. Thankfully pantomine goes a far way and it's all good. I'll post pictures of the room later.
-Reven
Shutter island- Not bad, very intense. Had a number of good twists but a bit depressing in the end. Good story nevertheless.
Percy Jackson and the overly long title- Actually decent- basically kid finds out he's a demigod and has to deal with it and the fact that Zeus had one of his bolts stolen and is ready to declare war against the other gods. So, said kid (son of Poisidon) has to figure out where the bolt went and is accompanied by a few friends along the way. The action was quite standard, but there were a couple very funny moments involving Medusa's severed head (the hotel scene, if you've watched it) played by Ms. Uma Thurman.
How to train your Dragon- If you haven't seen this yet- see it. NOW. Tried watching it in German at first, but didn't like the new voice actors as much.
Now, once I touched down, I thought to myself "Oh boy, how is someone from Hanyang going to find us?" Thankfully, as Miranda and I exited the plane, we saw a student carrying a sign for ONU. "A-ha!" says I to myself "That's where we want to go." So, the student's name is Suckyung Lee and she was quite nice. She was our guide back to Hanyang, which was needed immensely (at least on my part). We took a bus, which was supposed to be an hour trip. This being said, an hour trip on a Friday night in a major city totally slows down traffic. So, about an hour and a half later, Miranda and I checked into our dorms (we are in two different buildings).
I met my roommate, Yeonho. He's twenty five, so a bit older than me, and an engineer to my pharmacy. He seems really nice. I was a doofus and forgot my sandles (and a towel, oy) back in the US and he was kind enough to let me use a spare pair of his sandals. Though it is a bit difficult for us to communicate. He is Korean by birth and lives there as well and as such speaks some but not a lot of English, where I, being an American, speak only English with barely any Korean. Thankfully pantomine goes a far way and it's all good. I'll post pictures of the room later.
-Reven
Thursday, June 24, 2010
"What a crazy random happenstance!"
Before I leave my house for the *** airport, I'd also like to mention something that I had neglected to up until this point: I'm not traveling alone. Another student from my university is coming with me. Her name we'll say is Miranda. I'll go into more discussion of later, but just thought it'd be worth it to point that out now. Also, have the Gummy ship music from the KH series stuck in my head right now. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing, but I'll take it. Talk to you all in a bit.
-Reven
-Reven
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
"It's the final countdown!"
Sooo...yeah. Horrible puns aside, we have a few hours left before I leave the country for Seoul, South Korea (Yay), but this entails me waking up at 4ish in the morning to get ready (boo...). But my flight is at 8:50am, so I'll definitely early for my flight (Yay) but will be waiting around for a good few hours or so (boo). I'm seeing a theme here, aren't you?
Most of my stuff is packed up and I'd go into a detail about my inventory like I said I probably would earlier, but I've since decided that it really doesn't matter and you (the reader) probably don't care that much. So, if anything, I'm flexible. Or too lazy to inventory everything that I packed. You pick.
So, the game plan is this: I'm leaving *** airport (censorship is great, no?) at 8:50am for LAX. I'll land in LAX sometime around 11 am, then take off for ICN (Incheon International airport in Seoul) at around 4pm, then arrive the following day around 6pm or so. It feels like Groundhog Day (with Bill Murray) except I'll have lost a day. Ker-sigh.
I'm excited for this trip. Though the reactions to me going on this trip have been in one of two categories: "Please don't get shot and die" or "Don't get a girl pregnant while over there." Ahem. All things considered, both are equally unlikely to happen in my mind, which is to say no cause for concern on either end. (cues dramatic music). But that being said, I've probably just signed my death warrant. Ha ha. (please laugh here).
Well, now that the plan has basically been laid out, the only thing left to do is do it. Updates are pending...
-Reven
Most of my stuff is packed up and I'd go into a detail about my inventory like I said I probably would earlier, but I've since decided that it really doesn't matter and you (the reader) probably don't care that much. So, if anything, I'm flexible. Or too lazy to inventory everything that I packed. You pick.
So, the game plan is this: I'm leaving *** airport (censorship is great, no?) at 8:50am for LAX. I'll land in LAX sometime around 11 am, then take off for ICN (Incheon International airport in Seoul) at around 4pm, then arrive the following day around 6pm or so. It feels like Groundhog Day (with Bill Murray) except I'll have lost a day. Ker-sigh.
I'm excited for this trip. Though the reactions to me going on this trip have been in one of two categories: "Please don't get shot and die" or "Don't get a girl pregnant while over there." Ahem. All things considered, both are equally unlikely to happen in my mind, which is to say no cause for concern on either end. (cues dramatic music). But that being said, I've probably just signed my death warrant. Ha ha. (please laugh here).
Well, now that the plan has basically been laid out, the only thing left to do is do it. Updates are pending...
-Reven
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
"Spontaneity has its time and its place. "
Yes, the above quote is supposed to be ironic. Points to anyone who can figure out its source.
So, good news on a number of fronts. First off, congratulations to the South Korean team for making it into the next round of the FIFA World Cup! Out of my own curiosity, I was hoping they would make it into the next round as I would be able to be in a country that cares about football/soccer and is really enthusiastic about it during the World Cup. Personally, I've never been entirely interested in soccer. It's fun to play and all, but I don't see how riots could break out after games. But this being said, I'm very interested to see what it's like when the South Korean team faces off against Uruguay in a few days. Should be interesting. I'll be sure to keep you all posted.
Second up is playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl this evening with a good friend of mine. I'm somewhat addicted to that game, I confess. I'm not entirely sure why I enjoy it as much as I do- it's not an especially good fighting game, but it is admittedly very fun to attack your friends with your favorite Nintendo mascot. And also, with the inevitable craziness that often occurs in multiplayer gaming, it makes for a fun evening and then some.
Also, received a new form from Hanyang regarding a few special events, field trips if you will. AND I TURNED IT IN RIGHT AWAY. Ahem. Just want to point that out. I'll go more into detail about them as they approach, but here's a brief overview:
-Tour of Seoul- June 26- includes visiting Gwanghawhumun SSquare, GyoungBok Palace, the Blue House, National Palace Museum, and a Korean Folk Village. Sign me up!
Caribbean Bay OR Everland- June 30- Respectively one of the biggest indoor/outdoor water parks in the world and a theme park that includes a zoo. I was heavily recommended to pick the water park over Everland, and that'll probably happen. Cedar Point and Walt Disney World probably have spoiled me for theme parks all around.
Baseball game- July 3- Between LG Twins and Lotte Giants who are two rival teams, according to my information. Supposedly the environment is very different than US baseball, so I'll just have to see for myself. My information packet also (oddly) stated that "if you like beer, you MUST go!" Hah. Some things do cross cultural lines, now don't they? As to what is actually meant by that, I'll just have to find out.
International Party- July 9- Basically the school rents out a popular bar in the area around the school for all of us foreigners! Yay! The bar's name is Viaerae, which just sounds cool, almost like some kind of mythical beast with numerous heads.
NANTA Performance- July 10- It's hard to tell exactly what it is to be honest. My packet refers to it as a mixture of non-verbal comedy, cooking and guests from foreign countries and also THE most popular show in Korea. Perhaps some research on my part is required.
Sports Day- July 14- Basically this sounded like a field day type event; students competing against other students in various sports. We'll see if it's any different from elementary school field days...
Boryeong Mud Festival- July 17-18 (yes, overnight)- My packet explains this as a "famous event for both Koreans and foreigners living in Korea." Also, as the name may suggest, it takes place in Boryeong which is two hours away from Seoul. There appear to be many events revolving around mud and the theme of mud including mud jousting and mud wrestling (oh, the comments will begin...) amongst other stuff. Will have to do more research into that before I actually go on said trip, but the concept of it has me intrigued. Hmm.
So yeah, that's my basic itinerary. I should be attending all of the above events and post pictures at some point. Sounds like I have a rather full month or so ahead of me.
With a little over twenty-four hours before I leave, I guess I can best describe my emotions towards the trip as excited but slightly nervous. Even with the itinerary, I'm not really what to expect on my trip. But, I guess that's half the excitement, no?
-Reven
So, good news on a number of fronts. First off, congratulations to the South Korean team for making it into the next round of the FIFA World Cup! Out of my own curiosity, I was hoping they would make it into the next round as I would be able to be in a country that cares about football/soccer and is really enthusiastic about it during the World Cup. Personally, I've never been entirely interested in soccer. It's fun to play and all, but I don't see how riots could break out after games. But this being said, I'm very interested to see what it's like when the South Korean team faces off against Uruguay in a few days. Should be interesting. I'll be sure to keep you all posted.
Second up is playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl this evening with a good friend of mine. I'm somewhat addicted to that game, I confess. I'm not entirely sure why I enjoy it as much as I do- it's not an especially good fighting game, but it is admittedly very fun to attack your friends with your favorite Nintendo mascot. And also, with the inevitable craziness that often occurs in multiplayer gaming, it makes for a fun evening and then some.
Also, received a new form from Hanyang regarding a few special events, field trips if you will. AND I TURNED IT IN RIGHT AWAY. Ahem. Just want to point that out. I'll go more into detail about them as they approach, but here's a brief overview:
-Tour of Seoul- June 26- includes visiting Gwanghawhumun SSquare, GyoungBok Palace, the Blue House, National Palace Museum, and a Korean Folk Village. Sign me up!
Caribbean Bay OR Everland- June 30- Respectively one of the biggest indoor/outdoor water parks in the world and a theme park that includes a zoo. I was heavily recommended to pick the water park over Everland, and that'll probably happen. Cedar Point and Walt Disney World probably have spoiled me for theme parks all around.
Baseball game- July 3- Between LG Twins and Lotte Giants who are two rival teams, according to my information. Supposedly the environment is very different than US baseball, so I'll just have to see for myself. My information packet also (oddly) stated that "if you like beer, you MUST go!" Hah. Some things do cross cultural lines, now don't they? As to what is actually meant by that, I'll just have to find out.
International Party- July 9- Basically the school rents out a popular bar in the area around the school for all of us foreigners! Yay! The bar's name is Viaerae, which just sounds cool, almost like some kind of mythical beast with numerous heads.
NANTA Performance- July 10- It's hard to tell exactly what it is to be honest. My packet refers to it as a mixture of non-verbal comedy, cooking and guests from foreign countries and also THE most popular show in Korea. Perhaps some research on my part is required.
Sports Day- July 14- Basically this sounded like a field day type event; students competing against other students in various sports. We'll see if it's any different from elementary school field days...
Boryeong Mud Festival- July 17-18 (yes, overnight)- My packet explains this as a "famous event for both Koreans and foreigners living in Korea." Also, as the name may suggest, it takes place in Boryeong which is two hours away from Seoul. There appear to be many events revolving around mud and the theme of mud including mud jousting and mud wrestling (oh, the comments will begin...) amongst other stuff. Will have to do more research into that before I actually go on said trip, but the concept of it has me intrigued. Hmm.
So yeah, that's my basic itinerary. I should be attending all of the above events and post pictures at some point. Sounds like I have a rather full month or so ahead of me.
With a little over twenty-four hours before I leave, I guess I can best describe my emotions towards the trip as excited but slightly nervous. Even with the itinerary, I'm not really what to expect on my trip. But, I guess that's half the excitement, no?
-Reven
Monday, June 21, 2010
"We're all alright/We're all alright!"
So, good news! I received notice from Hanyang that they got my newly completed forms. The contact person assured me (to quote her exactly) : "Don't worry about it ! everything is okay and [sic] person who help you are going to treat you ! :)"
So in the end, the mini heart attack was for nothing, right? Whew. And the little emoticon at the end of her email made me feel that much better. Still, I'll have to double/triple check anything and everything before I leave. But that's something best suited for tomorrow. Tonight, I'll have to sleep to get my mind in the right place before the mass packing and thinks of that ilk.
-Reven
So in the end, the mini heart attack was for nothing, right? Whew. And the little emoticon at the end of her email made me feel that much better. Still, I'll have to double/triple check anything and everything before I leave. But that's something best suited for tomorrow. Tonight, I'll have to sleep to get my mind in the right place before the mass packing and thinks of that ilk.
-Reven
"Rut Row Raggy...."
So, I opened my email this morning, as is my usual custom. Nothing out of the ordinary at first. But upon reading further I found that I had somehow neglected to fill out/send in forms for Hanyang that applied to my HOUSING and PICK UP AT THE AIRPORT. I had received basically the "This is your last warning" of reminders and those two things are basically of the utmost importance. My jaw hit the floor.
To make this statement make sense, I must clarify that when I am hit with some incredibly unfortunately news, I do not swear or curse. No, words are only used when I have time or mental capacity to be upset. Instead, in these situations, I usually groan or make some kind of noise that barely registers as human.
A sound emanated from the back of my throat like a musk ox being put through a garlic press.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."
Yeah, had everything else in order for this trip *except* for two of the most important things. Go figure. After apologizing profusely to both the woman who sent me the "This is your last chance!" email and forwarding the appropriate forms to the project director, I can only hope that everyhing will work out. If not...ho boy. In any event, I have faith that it'll work and that I'm not the first stupid kid to forget to send in the forms past their deadlines.
Minor heart attacks aside, everything else seems to be all in line for my trip: I've got my passport, some school supplies, clothes (though not packed), a phone that works in Asia (thank you, you know who you are!) and a general inventory of what to bring. I'll probably list my inventory later on today or whenever I pack it, just so you have an idea of what I'm bringing over and what I may neglect to bring (as that will probably come up).
Short post, yes, but an important one. Now, pardon me while I breath into a paper bag to calm myself down...in...and out....and in....and out...whew...
-Reven
To make this statement make sense, I must clarify that when I am hit with some incredibly unfortunately news, I do not swear or curse. No, words are only used when I have time or mental capacity to be upset. Instead, in these situations, I usually groan or make some kind of noise that barely registers as human.
A sound emanated from the back of my throat like a musk ox being put through a garlic press.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."
Yeah, had everything else in order for this trip *except* for two of the most important things. Go figure. After apologizing profusely to both the woman who sent me the "This is your last chance!" email and forwarding the appropriate forms to the project director, I can only hope that everyhing will work out. If not...ho boy. In any event, I have faith that it'll work and that I'm not the first stupid kid to forget to send in the forms past their deadlines.
Minor heart attacks aside, everything else seems to be all in line for my trip: I've got my passport, some school supplies, clothes (though not packed), a phone that works in Asia (thank you, you know who you are!) and a general inventory of what to bring. I'll probably list my inventory later on today or whenever I pack it, just so you have an idea of what I'm bringing over and what I may neglect to bring (as that will probably come up).
Short post, yes, but an important one. Now, pardon me while I breath into a paper bag to calm myself down...in...and out....and in....and out...whew...
-Reven
Saturday, June 19, 2010
"O Father, Where art Thou?"
So, Fathers Day is tomorrow in the good ol' US of A and it got me thinking. What exactly does our western society think of fathers? In the past (read: 1950s or earlier), the father was traditionally the wage earner, the man who "brought home the bacon" so to speak. But, that's changed a bit in recent times. As the single mom is much more common in these days, women in general have to be the wage earner, the caretaker and all of that good stuff for their families. By comparison the ex-husbands tend not to be the caretakers of the kids and sorta fade into the sunset until taking the kids on the weekends. So, in a sense the kids wind up just knowing their mom and that guy who happens to be their father. As my parents are not divorced, I cannot speak for kids of divorce, but only what I've personally experienced in dealing with my friends who do have divorced parents.
Even so, also in families where just the father works, or even with both parents working, the children seem closer tied to their mother than to their father (a slight majority of the time) even when the parents are working the same hours and see their kids about the same. Why is this? Why would kids be tied closer to their mothers than to their fathers given the same exposure?
So, I got to thinking: what exactly does our society teach us about fathers? To figure this out, I decided to analyze various stories/movies that I had watched in some capacity and guess most American Midwestern young adults have seen at some point in their childhood and look for the parental influence: (WARNING: SPOILERS POSSIBLE, but unlikely)
First up, the mainstay of most young children's media: Disney Movies.
The Beauty and the Beast- The Beast didn't seem to have any parents- even the servant were more so advisers than parents. Belle, on the other hand had Maurice. Maurice was a cool guy, though often portrayed as dopey, foolish and just out of touch. He cared for his daughter, but just seemed clueless and ineffectual. Ouch for parenting there.
Aladdin- Again, nonexistent for Aladdin (unless you count the Prince of Thieve story, which included his absentee father) while Jasmine has the dopey dad. Weird.
The Lion King- Mufasa seemed like a really cool dad and nice guy, guiding Simba along the path. AND voiced by James Earl Jones. Win. But he dies (in quite possibly one of the most heart wrenching sequences of my youth) and isn't heard from for a good part of the movie. What's the message we are supposed to get from this? Dads are cool but you need to get used to them not being there from a young age? Though, Mufasa does reappear later on to give Simba a much needed kick in the bum to "man"...err..."lion" up to the job and kick Scar out. I'm mixed on my opinion of this- sure Mufasa seemed like a good dad, but the story kills him off quite early. Why is this? (other than The Lion King ripping off Hamlet)
The Little Mermaid- Ho boy. Rebellious teenage daughter + overprotective father. Well, we all know how this story goes. I do have to give Triton props for actually being a father figure in a mostly female driven movie (don't get me started on that mimbo Eric) but his parenting skill can be called into question when his daughter runs away, though he does pull the noble dad sacrifice by making his own bargain with Ursula to let Ariel go. Though this plays right into Ursula's hand and this along with her running makes him seem ineffectual. This same sort of father/daughter relationship reappears in Pocahontas sans magic and merefolk.
Ouch. So Disney movies of the 90s weren't so kind to dads (if the dads are actually present in said movie). TV shows were kinder by far:
Fresh Prince of Bel Air- Uncle Phil was often the butt of a number of jokes, usually weight related. However he is always the person (or Geoffry) that Will or Carlton or whomever turns to when they screw up, although he is quite often mocked.
Smart Guy- Floyd Henderson really had his work cut out for him. Head of his own business, widower and had three kids in high school. Well, four if you count Mo. Still, in spite of being in a couple of the goofier plot lines, he still is the go-to person whenever TJ or one of his other kids had a problem.
Even Stevens- The father, Steve, isn't really that present as much as the other characters. Not so much in the foreground as Uncle Phil, but just kind of there.
Lizzie McGuire- The dad was present though, more often then not, part of a goofier plot line with the younger brother, Matt. The mother was the one who often was the advice giver, though it's possible that my memory is betraying me.
That 70s Show- I don't care who you are- Red Foreman is the reason to watch this show. He's a bit of a hardnose (and that's putting it kindly), but it's apparent that he cares for Eric and Kitty and perhaps a bit much for Laurie (total twit, that one).
The Simpsons- I'm divided on this. Homer is hardly an ideal dad- he's about as bright as a 30 Watt bulb, he's lazy and drinks often in excess. However, he's nearly always had a job, always attempts to spend time with his kids and has a cool father/son dynamic that is rarely seen in TV or otherwise(when they aren't strangling each other- though that is part of *any* father/son relationship). While his brain is not really always engaged, his heart is always in the right place.
South Park- Most of the parents are clueless, the fathers especially, but that, I suppose is part of the satire. Gerald is not too bad most of the time though.
Boy Meets World- While Cory's parents were always supportive and fantastic, there was always one person that the cast would turn to with problems in their personal lives. That's right: George Feeny. Quite frankly he is the wise old man that is omnipresent in literature of all forms. He'll scold and cajole, sure, but he always gives the advice that the protagonists need to hear. Come to think of it, Matthews brothers had three solid parent figures on the show and arguably one of the most stable family environments ever seen on TV.
Interestingly enough, the stable family environment seen in Boy Meets World isn't really seen in the comic book hero universe that a number of people in my generation have gotten into. Bruce Wayne had both of his parents murdered in front of him as a child (though Alfred stands in as father figure). Peter Parker loses his parents, gains father figure, Uncle Ben, and loses him early on in his life. At least the X-men have Prof. Xavier to look up to or the future would fairly bleak for young superheroes.
Though the fathers, aside from those listed above which are mostly from the 90s-ish, do seem to be pretty much absent from pop culture or ineffectual. So, where have all the fathers gone? And what's going to happen to the late 80s/90s generation of kids not necessarily having one to look up to?
That I cannot answer, but I guess I just want to give a shout out to my own dad, my grandfather and my uncles for being the father figure(s) in my life that isn't necessarily present in popular culture. Thank you.
-Reven
Even so, also in families where just the father works, or even with both parents working, the children seem closer tied to their mother than to their father (a slight majority of the time) even when the parents are working the same hours and see their kids about the same. Why is this? Why would kids be tied closer to their mothers than to their fathers given the same exposure?
So, I got to thinking: what exactly does our society teach us about fathers? To figure this out, I decided to analyze various stories/movies that I had watched in some capacity and guess most American Midwestern young adults have seen at some point in their childhood and look for the parental influence: (WARNING: SPOILERS POSSIBLE, but unlikely)
First up, the mainstay of most young children's media: Disney Movies.
The Beauty and the Beast- The Beast didn't seem to have any parents- even the servant were more so advisers than parents. Belle, on the other hand had Maurice. Maurice was a cool guy, though often portrayed as dopey, foolish and just out of touch. He cared for his daughter, but just seemed clueless and ineffectual. Ouch for parenting there.
Aladdin- Again, nonexistent for Aladdin (unless you count the Prince of Thieve story, which included his absentee father) while Jasmine has the dopey dad. Weird.
The Lion King- Mufasa seemed like a really cool dad and nice guy, guiding Simba along the path. AND voiced by James Earl Jones. Win. But he dies (in quite possibly one of the most heart wrenching sequences of my youth) and isn't heard from for a good part of the movie. What's the message we are supposed to get from this? Dads are cool but you need to get used to them not being there from a young age? Though, Mufasa does reappear later on to give Simba a much needed kick in the bum to "man"...err..."lion" up to the job and kick Scar out. I'm mixed on my opinion of this- sure Mufasa seemed like a good dad, but the story kills him off quite early. Why is this? (other than The Lion King ripping off Hamlet)
The Little Mermaid- Ho boy. Rebellious teenage daughter + overprotective father. Well, we all know how this story goes. I do have to give Triton props for actually being a father figure in a mostly female driven movie (don't get me started on that mimbo Eric) but his parenting skill can be called into question when his daughter runs away, though he does pull the noble dad sacrifice by making his own bargain with Ursula to let Ariel go. Though this plays right into Ursula's hand and this along with her running makes him seem ineffectual. This same sort of father/daughter relationship reappears in Pocahontas sans magic and merefolk.
Ouch. So Disney movies of the 90s weren't so kind to dads (if the dads are actually present in said movie). TV shows were kinder by far:
Fresh Prince of Bel Air- Uncle Phil was often the butt of a number of jokes, usually weight related. However he is always the person (or Geoffry) that Will or Carlton or whomever turns to when they screw up, although he is quite often mocked.
Smart Guy- Floyd Henderson really had his work cut out for him. Head of his own business, widower and had three kids in high school. Well, four if you count Mo. Still, in spite of being in a couple of the goofier plot lines, he still is the go-to person whenever TJ or one of his other kids had a problem.
Even Stevens- The father, Steve, isn't really that present as much as the other characters. Not so much in the foreground as Uncle Phil, but just kind of there.
Lizzie McGuire- The dad was present though, more often then not, part of a goofier plot line with the younger brother, Matt. The mother was the one who often was the advice giver, though it's possible that my memory is betraying me.
That 70s Show- I don't care who you are- Red Foreman is the reason to watch this show. He's a bit of a hardnose (and that's putting it kindly), but it's apparent that he cares for Eric and Kitty and perhaps a bit much for Laurie (total twit, that one).
The Simpsons- I'm divided on this. Homer is hardly an ideal dad- he's about as bright as a 30 Watt bulb, he's lazy and drinks often in excess. However, he's nearly always had a job, always attempts to spend time with his kids and has a cool father/son dynamic that is rarely seen in TV or otherwise(when they aren't strangling each other- though that is part of *any* father/son relationship). While his brain is not really always engaged, his heart is always in the right place.
South Park- Most of the parents are clueless, the fathers especially, but that, I suppose is part of the satire. Gerald is not too bad most of the time though.
Boy Meets World- While Cory's parents were always supportive and fantastic, there was always one person that the cast would turn to with problems in their personal lives. That's right: George Feeny. Quite frankly he is the wise old man that is omnipresent in literature of all forms. He'll scold and cajole, sure, but he always gives the advice that the protagonists need to hear. Come to think of it, Matthews brothers had three solid parent figures on the show and arguably one of the most stable family environments ever seen on TV.
Interestingly enough, the stable family environment seen in Boy Meets World isn't really seen in the comic book hero universe that a number of people in my generation have gotten into. Bruce Wayne had both of his parents murdered in front of him as a child (though Alfred stands in as father figure). Peter Parker loses his parents, gains father figure, Uncle Ben, and loses him early on in his life. At least the X-men have Prof. Xavier to look up to or the future would fairly bleak for young superheroes.
Though the fathers, aside from those listed above which are mostly from the 90s-ish, do seem to be pretty much absent from pop culture or ineffectual. So, where have all the fathers gone? And what's going to happen to the late 80s/90s generation of kids not necessarily having one to look up to?
That I cannot answer, but I guess I just want to give a shout out to my own dad, my grandfather and my uncles for being the father figure(s) in my life that isn't necessarily present in popular culture. Thank you.
-Reven
Thursday, June 17, 2010
"Billy? You're driving the spork into your leg."
So, party last night was pretty good. Or I guess, it'd be better be called a "get together." I still struggle to differentiate between the two terms. But they seem relatively similar, except in volume of people (though I'm not sure the cut-off between the two, except for that a party would be "larger").
On a strange note, I ended up matching the hostess of the event on three different color levels- robins egg blue, black and khaki. This was completely unintentional, though funny in retrospect. There were games of beer pong 'a plenty and eventually (as in 12:30am) a bonfire. To be honest, I've always liked watching fire, though out of the traditional elements (fire, water, air and earth...no, not "heart" Captain Planet!), I find myself less bound to it than the rest. The same couldn't be said of one of my friends coughKatjaGeistcough. Ahem. Amateur pyro like her- she'll go places.
Unfortunately, I had to leave early (read 1ish) but fortunately the reason was legit- I was seeing the Bodies exhibit- my aunt's treat. She works for hospital in coding and figured (correctly) that I'd really be interested in going. So, she was amazing and decided to take me to it.
Now, in case you are unfamiliar with the exhibit (don't know what cities it has been to), the basic premise is that of an Anatomy lab. Basically people have donated their bodies to science to be used as models. I have to say, I was very impressed. The bodies were amazingly dissected (I'm still getting over how well whomever dissected the cardiovascular model did the mesenteric arteries), though admittedly, I'm a bit of an amateur at the dissecting thing. However, I can appreciate work well done.
Against my dad's fears (see an earlier post, probably Saturday or so) that the whole thing was morbid, I honestly found it to be amazing. It did remind me of opening up my anatomy atlas (yay Anatomy and Histology, BIOL 124!) and seeing everything up close and personal. The weird thing, is that as the skin was completely removed from the models, I did not even think "Oh, I'm about a foot away from a dead man/woman who has his/her chest cavity completely open" but rather "Whoa...it looks exactly like it does in the lab manual. Cool." Maybe that's a personal thing.
An odd thing that I have to point out is that the eyebrows and eyelashes of the models were still intact. They were not as noticeable as it would be on a living human being, but when I was closer to a model and examining his biceps brachii, I noticed it. As a result, every model thereafter, I had to check- did it have eyelashes and brows? Strangely enough, yes. I'm curious as to why this was- whether the roots of the respective hairs are that deep or was this some effort to further humanize the models? Either way it was just a tiny oddity that I wish I would've asked to have explained.
Other cool bits included a horseshoe kidney (both kidneys fuse into one horseshoe looking kidney), a section of the brain after a stroke and a human body that was completely cut on the transverse plane. The transverse plane (for those of you who weren't forced to take anatomy) is one of the three planes of the body that divides the body into superior and inferior parts (read: if you cut some one's head off by swinging a sword parallel to the ground, you've dissected them on the transverse plane). So, it was a cool effect, which instantly I associated with an MRI, which, lo and behold, the video screen above the body was showing a video CAT scans and MRI. Win.
So, it was a really cool experience. If you think that such a display is disrespectful to human life, I assure you, the subject was handled maturely and the bodies looked to be treated with dignity- no obscene poses, just the occasional sports pose to demonstrate which muscles would be working. I highly recommend the exhibit if you have the stomach and interest (or vice versa).
In other news, I'm expecting a call tomorrow morning from a recruiter from a hospital system and hoping that I can really set some internship up for August (after Korea) or (even better) next summer. Wish me luck!
-Reven
On a strange note, I ended up matching the hostess of the event on three different color levels- robins egg blue, black and khaki. This was completely unintentional, though funny in retrospect. There were games of beer pong 'a plenty and eventually (as in 12:30am) a bonfire. To be honest, I've always liked watching fire, though out of the traditional elements (fire, water, air and earth...no, not "heart" Captain Planet!), I find myself less bound to it than the rest. The same couldn't be said of one of my friends coughKatjaGeistcough. Ahem. Amateur pyro like her- she'll go places.
Unfortunately, I had to leave early (read 1ish) but fortunately the reason was legit- I was seeing the Bodies exhibit- my aunt's treat. She works for hospital in coding and figured (correctly) that I'd really be interested in going. So, she was amazing and decided to take me to it.
Now, in case you are unfamiliar with the exhibit (don't know what cities it has been to), the basic premise is that of an Anatomy lab. Basically people have donated their bodies to science to be used as models. I have to say, I was very impressed. The bodies were amazingly dissected (I'm still getting over how well whomever dissected the cardiovascular model did the mesenteric arteries), though admittedly, I'm a bit of an amateur at the dissecting thing. However, I can appreciate work well done.
Against my dad's fears (see an earlier post, probably Saturday or so) that the whole thing was morbid, I honestly found it to be amazing. It did remind me of opening up my anatomy atlas (yay Anatomy and Histology, BIOL 124!) and seeing everything up close and personal. The weird thing, is that as the skin was completely removed from the models, I did not even think "Oh, I'm about a foot away from a dead man/woman who has his/her chest cavity completely open" but rather "Whoa...it looks exactly like it does in the lab manual. Cool." Maybe that's a personal thing.
An odd thing that I have to point out is that the eyebrows and eyelashes of the models were still intact. They were not as noticeable as it would be on a living human being, but when I was closer to a model and examining his biceps brachii, I noticed it. As a result, every model thereafter, I had to check- did it have eyelashes and brows? Strangely enough, yes. I'm curious as to why this was- whether the roots of the respective hairs are that deep or was this some effort to further humanize the models? Either way it was just a tiny oddity that I wish I would've asked to have explained.
Other cool bits included a horseshoe kidney (both kidneys fuse into one horseshoe looking kidney), a section of the brain after a stroke and a human body that was completely cut on the transverse plane. The transverse plane (for those of you who weren't forced to take anatomy) is one of the three planes of the body that divides the body into superior and inferior parts (read: if you cut some one's head off by swinging a sword parallel to the ground, you've dissected them on the transverse plane). So, it was a cool effect, which instantly I associated with an MRI, which, lo and behold, the video screen above the body was showing a video CAT scans and MRI. Win.
So, it was a really cool experience. If you think that such a display is disrespectful to human life, I assure you, the subject was handled maturely and the bodies looked to be treated with dignity- no obscene poses, just the occasional sports pose to demonstrate which muscles would be working. I highly recommend the exhibit if you have the stomach and interest (or vice versa).
In other news, I'm expecting a call tomorrow morning from a recruiter from a hospital system and hoping that I can really set some internship up for August (after Korea) or (even better) next summer. Wish me luck!
-Reven
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
"I cannot believe my eyes/How the world is filled with filth and lies..."
So, this is part of my effort to keep blogging every day so that when I go overseas it won't be that unheard of to write something online every day. I've heard that once one does a certain habit for 21 days in a row, it becomes ingrained. So, good news, right?
Anyways, the above quote is from Dr. Horrible's Sing along Blog. My sister introduced me to it and it is incredible. I don't normally get into musicals so quickly but this was an exception. Though, I hesitate to call it a musical as the total video lasts a little over forty minutes. Without spoiling too much of it, the premise is that Dr. Horrible is a bit of an incompetent supervillian scientist type who is struggling to make it into the League of Evil as most of his plots fail or are foiled by his arch nemesis, the jerkish superhero Captain Hammer.
Now, Dr. Horrible is not a supervillain all of the time, and when he isn't trying to get into the League of Evil, he's a guy named Billy who is trying to romance a woman at the laundromat named Penny. The plot thickens when one of Dr. Horrible's devious plans goes awry and almost puts Penny in harm's way. While Horrible is trying to prevent Penny's death, Captain Hammer swoops in at just the right time and saves her. And, so a romance and love triangle begins. Much hilarity ensues. Musical number.
Now, it may sound a bit unoriginal for a premise (sans the music) but the execution is amazing. I'm pretty sure most of the writing was done by Joss Whedon and it is up to his usual calibre of work, which is to say, superb. Neil Patrick Harris is incredible as Dr. Horrible and although he is the card carrying villain, he is clearly the protagonist and very endearing. Oh! As a bonus, the guy who plays Wolowitz from The Big Bang Theory is fantastic as his sidekick. I wasn't too familiar with the rest of the cast prior to watching, but they are also great. I urge you to check this out. Be warned, though: the musical numbers are VERY catchy and you may find yourself humming them for days/weeks after. Allow me to be your cautionary tale.
Aside from that, a lot of today was basically just running around- did some running in the morning, took my mom out for lunch for her birthday and returned some stuff to my roommate, Jack, that he had forgotten to take back with him. He's the one responsible for all of the Mass Effect quotes...so blame him.
Tonight should be interesting- a party of sorts. Hopefully I won't be more awkward than usual. :P
-Reven
Anyways, the above quote is from Dr. Horrible's Sing along Blog. My sister introduced me to it and it is incredible. I don't normally get into musicals so quickly but this was an exception. Though, I hesitate to call it a musical as the total video lasts a little over forty minutes. Without spoiling too much of it, the premise is that Dr. Horrible is a bit of an incompetent supervillian scientist type who is struggling to make it into the League of Evil as most of his plots fail or are foiled by his arch nemesis, the jerkish superhero Captain Hammer.
Now, Dr. Horrible is not a supervillain all of the time, and when he isn't trying to get into the League of Evil, he's a guy named Billy who is trying to romance a woman at the laundromat named Penny. The plot thickens when one of Dr. Horrible's devious plans goes awry and almost puts Penny in harm's way. While Horrible is trying to prevent Penny's death, Captain Hammer swoops in at just the right time and saves her. And, so a romance and love triangle begins. Much hilarity ensues. Musical number.
Now, it may sound a bit unoriginal for a premise (sans the music) but the execution is amazing. I'm pretty sure most of the writing was done by Joss Whedon and it is up to his usual calibre of work, which is to say, superb. Neil Patrick Harris is incredible as Dr. Horrible and although he is the card carrying villain, he is clearly the protagonist and very endearing. Oh! As a bonus, the guy who plays Wolowitz from The Big Bang Theory is fantastic as his sidekick. I wasn't too familiar with the rest of the cast prior to watching, but they are also great. I urge you to check this out. Be warned, though: the musical numbers are VERY catchy and you may find yourself humming them for days/weeks after. Allow me to be your cautionary tale.
Aside from that, a lot of today was basically just running around- did some running in the morning, took my mom out for lunch for her birthday and returned some stuff to my roommate, Jack, that he had forgotten to take back with him. He's the one responsible for all of the Mass Effect quotes...so blame him.
Tonight should be interesting- a party of sorts. Hopefully I won't be more awkward than usual. :P
-Reven
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
"Insert witty title here"
Busy day today- had some running around to do. Literal and figurative.
I've been trying to work out, not especially to lose weight (though I wouldn't mind losing a deal) but just to keep my body physically functional. I've been doing about twenty minutes of running/jogging in the morning book ended by about ten or so minutes of walking and weight lifting in the evening. Sadly, the latter hasn't been working out but the former has been fairly constant, which is fantastic.
I love the endorphins one gets by running. Nature's best little high. I'd write more, but I've been meaning to get some sleep- more than my 5 or so usual, so...yeah. Sorry.
-Reven
I've been trying to work out, not especially to lose weight (though I wouldn't mind losing a deal) but just to keep my body physically functional. I've been doing about twenty minutes of running/jogging in the morning book ended by about ten or so minutes of walking and weight lifting in the evening. Sadly, the latter hasn't been working out but the former has been fairly constant, which is fantastic.
I love the endorphins one gets by running. Nature's best little high. I'd write more, but I've been meaning to get some sleep- more than my 5 or so usual, so...yeah. Sorry.
-Reven
Monday, June 14, 2010
"Once, there was this kid who..."
So...yeah. I'm still nervously counting down to Korea (incidentally, "Counting Down to Korea" sounds like an amazing band name- mental note) and I have about 9 or so days left. I'm not entirely sure what to expect, or if I should be expecting anything in particular. I know so little Korean that it's embarrassing, though I'm able to read the characters and stumble through reading the words (of course, I'd have no idea what it meant, but...I can read it). And I'm going to a country where English isn't the primary language. I find it ironic, in a sense, that I live in a country where I believe that citizens should speak English (though there is no official language in the US) and I'm going to another country and hoping that the people I run into will hopefully speak my foreign language. I do appreciate the irony- I try not to take myself too seriously in that regard.
I've read up on a little of the culture and have a feel for basic social conventions, which I don't want to go into, lest I find that the book had not properly depicted what I will experience. Maybe another day I shall put down what I know/knew prior to going. But I'm tired, even though it's early for me tonight.
In other news, the FIFA World Cup is running. I really have never been that interested in soccer (exercise induced asthma combined with being overweight as a kid kinda made it the worst of all sports for me) but I talked to a friend of mine who lives in Korea currently and will also be attending the same University that I will be going to in a few days and he is over the moon as Korea (the ROK team or "South Korea") qualified and won their first match. He said that he'll have to show me what it's like to be in Korea during a World Cup. Now, the US has been in the WC a great deal and I can't think of many people know that are that interested in it. So, I'm intrigued what it's like to be overseas in a country that is incredibly interested in soccer/football. I mean, there have been riots after games in the past, which while it wasn't in Korea, I'm sure the enthusiasm level has to be similar. This being said I'm going to have to follow the WC a bit closer and right now I'm pulling for Korea just to see what happens. Why not, right?
Also, on the news front, it appears (as of this morning) that both the Republic of Korea (South) and Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North) are both appearing before the UN over the battleship sinking (I mentioned this a few posts ago, check it out). So...yeah. Both sides haven't really changed position- ROK is still upset (understandable) and the DPRK is still claiming they had nothing to do with it. Ugh. So...yeah. I'm going to have to check up on the news and see how that goes as well. Oy. Well...here's to an early evening and hoping that everything turns out well!
-Reven
I've read up on a little of the culture and have a feel for basic social conventions, which I don't want to go into, lest I find that the book had not properly depicted what I will experience. Maybe another day I shall put down what I know/knew prior to going. But I'm tired, even though it's early for me tonight.
In other news, the FIFA World Cup is running. I really have never been that interested in soccer (exercise induced asthma combined with being overweight as a kid kinda made it the worst of all sports for me) but I talked to a friend of mine who lives in Korea currently and will also be attending the same University that I will be going to in a few days and he is over the moon as Korea (the ROK team or "South Korea") qualified and won their first match. He said that he'll have to show me what it's like to be in Korea during a World Cup. Now, the US has been in the WC a great deal and I can't think of many people know that are that interested in it. So, I'm intrigued what it's like to be overseas in a country that is incredibly interested in soccer/football. I mean, there have been riots after games in the past, which while it wasn't in Korea, I'm sure the enthusiasm level has to be similar. This being said I'm going to have to follow the WC a bit closer and right now I'm pulling for Korea just to see what happens. Why not, right?
Also, on the news front, it appears (as of this morning) that both the Republic of Korea (South) and Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North) are both appearing before the UN over the battleship sinking (I mentioned this a few posts ago, check it out). So...yeah. Both sides haven't really changed position- ROK is still upset (understandable) and the DPRK is still claiming they had nothing to do with it. Ugh. So...yeah. I'm going to have to check up on the news and see how that goes as well. Oy. Well...here's to an early evening and hoping that everything turns out well!
-Reven
Sunday, June 13, 2010
"And behold, I am with you always..."
So, over the last few days especially, I have felt kinda crappy. Just being honest here. So, how come? Ah, therein lies the kicker. See the thing is that I've had a hard time with several things: my faith, my abilities as a pharmacist (intern currently, but still) and my hope of a future long term relationship.
In order of least bugging me: abilities as a pharmacist. I go to a very competitive school for pharmacy and let's just say that I am astounded every day at the intelligence of people in my pharmacy class. I truly have the privilege of being around some of the best and brightest people I know. This is not that I especially like all of them, but I do have a great deal of respect for them. I mean, a number of them are presidents in wide assortment of clubs and organization and still are able to do incredibly well in class, while I'm (occasionally) left in the dust. Thankfully, I have a few really good friends who have stuck by me the last couple years at school and together we've made it through really well. Also, I'm going to thank someone especially important to me (but since I do not want to use actual names, I'll just give her a pseudonym as well)- "June." June is a pharmacy student a year ahead of me in school and she's been incredible- she's shown me old tests and talked to me about how to approach classes and teachers. She's really been a Godsend and I'm truly blessed to know someone as nice and amazing as her.
What concerns me the most is my ability to find a job and do it well. I've been decent at schoolwork and studying for exams and stuff of that ilk, but it often concerns me that I won't be able to properly utilize it in the workforce and look like a complete and total fool. I mean, just having a knowledge base and being able to be a successful professional are two different things. And I'm just concerned that I will only have the former rather than the both. I suppose that's just a level of insecurity that I will only be book smart and not be able to "think." Perhaps that's putting it vaguely. Maybe a better phrase would be that I'd only know facts and be unable to analyze and apply. Yes. That's it. My entire aim of getting into the health care profession is to make a difference. Screw the money- that's not that interesting to me. I just want to help people, as cliche as it sounds, that's my aim. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I want to.
Next up on the hit parade of uncertainty is the whole prospect of finding a long term partner. At a graduation party, a kind woman from my church asked me if I had found a girlfriend yet. To which I replied (possibly a bit too bluntly) that I hadn't found anyone worth the time, money and effort just yet. Of course, this was prefaced by a wry smile and a slight laugh afterwards, so hopefully she didn't I was too callous. Perhaps it's a blunt way of putting it and more severe than I actually feel (I can do that occasionally when speaking).
As much as I disdain the whole practice of dating and (especially) marriage, perhaps it's a bit of a reaction formation (Psych 101, anyone?). I don't know if I've actually stated this in this blog (maybe?) but my cycle of bitterness generally lasts a week, culminating in a dream (I rarely dream- or more properly, I don't remember my dreams very often) in which I find myself with a female that I care about in some clearly long term or marriage situation- usually just me and some female whom I care about watching TV on a couch or something. Yeah, my romantic dreams are a bit lacking in the PG-13/R department, sorry to disappoint. So, despite my outwardly projected bitterness/indifference, I'm a romantic at heart. So, now that's cleared up, the problem is finding someone who I would actually want to share that with.
But isn't that always the issue? I know I'm not the first young adult angstily whining about not having a relationship, and I damn well sure will not be the last. I'm not looking for *a* relationship, but *the* relationship. Important distinction, or so I think. The problem is finding someone who A) shares my same religion (hello, Orthodox Christian ladies!) which is quite the religious minority B) have compatible life goals with me and C)splices well with my personality and skills (ie where I would be weak, she would need to be strong, and vice versa- we'd have to make a good team). But, after numerous setbacks (including one or two particularly rough ones this past school year), I had lost hope. But, considering how huge this world is, probability dictates it'll happen sometime. That's a bit of a relief, even though judging by the people I've meet at college, it will not happen *any* time soon. But, I'm getting better at accepting that somewhere out there, another person wants the same things I do and somehow, someway we'll cross paths. Which leads me to my third point:
So, I've been reading the Bible, legit reading it cover to cover (made it through Genesis) is my goal. And quite frankly, God comes across as a bit petty and cruel in some parts ie Babel, destroying the world by flood (instead of doing something to help the "wicked" people repent change their ways). Sarah's jealousy left me a bit disconcerted that I had not heard of it before (though I still like the name). Likewise, Jacob's trickery and the bigamy of Abrahan, Isaac and Jacob (which are very clear no-no's thereafter) really are jarring. The part that literally made my jaw drop was after the part with Lot leaving Sodom (and he offered his virgin daughters the the crowd of men surrounding his house! But that, which shocking wasn't the worst) with his two daughters, the latter of whom get their father drunk and have sex with him on two following nights. Holy. Crap. Incest *and* bigamy? Oh my goodness.
The scariest thing (for me) was not that these stories were in the book (though that was pretty close) but why on earth I was just reading them for the first time? Why had these stories never come up in Sunday school? Because they were scary? Yes, true, true. But, it was disturbing reading them as a 21 year old. So, after reading these slightly less lovely bits, I'm determined to finish.
As much as my faith has basically been damaged by the past year(s), I'm still able to stand by it and am willing to die for it as odd as it sounds. Even though I blantantly disagree with stories and sections of the central book of my faith, I still stick by it. Is this due to fear of being alone if I go off? No. I guess, my logic, horrible as it is, is that I can't possibly be the first person to have these questions and to stick with it. So, even though I may or may not find the answers that I'm looking for, I can rest assured that I'm not alone.
So, I guess that's the theme of this post. I'm not alone, I guess, even though it sure feels like it. I'm not sure exactly what led me to this mind dump. I guess having doubts about the three above subjects for weeks on end and realizing that in the end, I'm not as alone as I may think. Here's to the new week.
-Reven
In order of least bugging me: abilities as a pharmacist. I go to a very competitive school for pharmacy and let's just say that I am astounded every day at the intelligence of people in my pharmacy class. I truly have the privilege of being around some of the best and brightest people I know. This is not that I especially like all of them, but I do have a great deal of respect for them. I mean, a number of them are presidents in wide assortment of clubs and organization and still are able to do incredibly well in class, while I'm (occasionally) left in the dust. Thankfully, I have a few really good friends who have stuck by me the last couple years at school and together we've made it through really well. Also, I'm going to thank someone especially important to me (but since I do not want to use actual names, I'll just give her a pseudonym as well)- "June." June is a pharmacy student a year ahead of me in school and she's been incredible- she's shown me old tests and talked to me about how to approach classes and teachers. She's really been a Godsend and I'm truly blessed to know someone as nice and amazing as her.
What concerns me the most is my ability to find a job and do it well. I've been decent at schoolwork and studying for exams and stuff of that ilk, but it often concerns me that I won't be able to properly utilize it in the workforce and look like a complete and total fool. I mean, just having a knowledge base and being able to be a successful professional are two different things. And I'm just concerned that I will only have the former rather than the both. I suppose that's just a level of insecurity that I will only be book smart and not be able to "think." Perhaps that's putting it vaguely. Maybe a better phrase would be that I'd only know facts and be unable to analyze and apply. Yes. That's it. My entire aim of getting into the health care profession is to make a difference. Screw the money- that's not that interesting to me. I just want to help people, as cliche as it sounds, that's my aim. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I want to.
Next up on the hit parade of uncertainty is the whole prospect of finding a long term partner. At a graduation party, a kind woman from my church asked me if I had found a girlfriend yet. To which I replied (possibly a bit too bluntly) that I hadn't found anyone worth the time, money and effort just yet. Of course, this was prefaced by a wry smile and a slight laugh afterwards, so hopefully she didn't I was too callous. Perhaps it's a blunt way of putting it and more severe than I actually feel (I can do that occasionally when speaking).
As much as I disdain the whole practice of dating and (especially) marriage, perhaps it's a bit of a reaction formation (Psych 101, anyone?). I don't know if I've actually stated this in this blog (maybe?) but my cycle of bitterness generally lasts a week, culminating in a dream (I rarely dream- or more properly, I don't remember my dreams very often) in which I find myself with a female that I care about in some clearly long term or marriage situation- usually just me and some female whom I care about watching TV on a couch or something. Yeah, my romantic dreams are a bit lacking in the PG-13/R department, sorry to disappoint. So, despite my outwardly projected bitterness/indifference, I'm a romantic at heart. So, now that's cleared up, the problem is finding someone who I would actually want to share that with.
But isn't that always the issue? I know I'm not the first young adult angstily whining about not having a relationship, and I damn well sure will not be the last. I'm not looking for *a* relationship, but *the* relationship. Important distinction, or so I think. The problem is finding someone who A) shares my same religion (hello, Orthodox Christian ladies!) which is quite the religious minority B) have compatible life goals with me and C)splices well with my personality and skills (ie where I would be weak, she would need to be strong, and vice versa- we'd have to make a good team). But, after numerous setbacks (including one or two particularly rough ones this past school year), I had lost hope. But, considering how huge this world is, probability dictates it'll happen sometime. That's a bit of a relief, even though judging by the people I've meet at college, it will not happen *any* time soon. But, I'm getting better at accepting that somewhere out there, another person wants the same things I do and somehow, someway we'll cross paths. Which leads me to my third point:
So, I've been reading the Bible, legit reading it cover to cover (made it through Genesis) is my goal. And quite frankly, God comes across as a bit petty and cruel in some parts ie Babel, destroying the world by flood (instead of doing something to help the "wicked" people repent change their ways). Sarah's jealousy left me a bit disconcerted that I had not heard of it before (though I still like the name). Likewise, Jacob's trickery and the bigamy of Abrahan, Isaac and Jacob (which are very clear no-no's thereafter) really are jarring. The part that literally made my jaw drop was after the part with Lot leaving Sodom (and he offered his virgin daughters the the crowd of men surrounding his house! But that, which shocking wasn't the worst) with his two daughters, the latter of whom get their father drunk and have sex with him on two following nights. Holy. Crap. Incest *and* bigamy? Oh my goodness.
The scariest thing (for me) was not that these stories were in the book (though that was pretty close) but why on earth I was just reading them for the first time? Why had these stories never come up in Sunday school? Because they were scary? Yes, true, true. But, it was disturbing reading them as a 21 year old. So, after reading these slightly less lovely bits, I'm determined to finish.
As much as my faith has basically been damaged by the past year(s), I'm still able to stand by it and am willing to die for it as odd as it sounds. Even though I blantantly disagree with stories and sections of the central book of my faith, I still stick by it. Is this due to fear of being alone if I go off? No. I guess, my logic, horrible as it is, is that I can't possibly be the first person to have these questions and to stick with it. So, even though I may or may not find the answers that I'm looking for, I can rest assured that I'm not alone.
So, I guess that's the theme of this post. I'm not alone, I guess, even though it sure feels like it. I'm not sure exactly what led me to this mind dump. I guess having doubts about the three above subjects for weeks on end and realizing that in the end, I'm not as alone as I may think. Here's to the new week.
-Reven
Friday, June 11, 2010
"Fyed!? Fyrd ev ed ec risyh?"
"Wait! What if it's human?"
So, I was talking to my dad just a bit ago about going to see this Bodies exhibit. The basic premise is that there are plasticized bodies of people that are posed both as anatomical dummies and as art. Interesting to me. My dad thinks it's morbid. I can see his point.
I mean, those bodies basically had a soul (if you believe in that, I do), hopes, dreams and aspirations at one point in time. But, to me right now, they just are bodies- shells of what once were. I mean, one wouldn't get all in an uprorar over using cadavers for medical school. To me, it's like looking under the hood of a car- except I know how bodies work and cars baffle me still. Seeing as I'm going into the medical profession, I should be able to see skinned bodies, just muscle, adipose, bones and nerves.
Though this is not to say that when treating a person in the medical field that one should just look at the body...mind and soul are necessary too in my opinion. Hell, the mind and how it perceives stimuli can entirely impact how a person feels pain, anger, regret...all of those things. Very important to consider all variables when treating someone medically, in my mind.
Now, funerals are an entirely different matter than the exhibit. Same basic idea- dead body in the prescence of living, but the meaning is different entirely. Personally, I'm not a fan of funerals as I understand the religious significance that is usually paired with it. But I don't know if I want a funeral of my own. Personally, I'd be dead anyways, so it's not like I could come back and harass my surviving members about what was wrong or right about my presentation of death. A number of funerals I have been to have been quite somber, which makes sense as the attendants have lost a loved one. But I'd want my funeral to be a celebration of life (which it's supposed to be according to the Church, I think). Possibly the required funeral rites as deigned by the Orthodox Church in America and then possibly a party afterwards- two drink minimum. Possibly music/dancing. I think people would enjoy that. Hell, it may even get people to show up. :P
But I'll reserve my final opinion on the exhibit until I actually see it. Until then, hopefully, I'll remember to write on a more regular basis.
-Reven
So, I was talking to my dad just a bit ago about going to see this Bodies exhibit. The basic premise is that there are plasticized bodies of people that are posed both as anatomical dummies and as art. Interesting to me. My dad thinks it's morbid. I can see his point.
I mean, those bodies basically had a soul (if you believe in that, I do), hopes, dreams and aspirations at one point in time. But, to me right now, they just are bodies- shells of what once were. I mean, one wouldn't get all in an uprorar over using cadavers for medical school. To me, it's like looking under the hood of a car- except I know how bodies work and cars baffle me still. Seeing as I'm going into the medical profession, I should be able to see skinned bodies, just muscle, adipose, bones and nerves.
Though this is not to say that when treating a person in the medical field that one should just look at the body...mind and soul are necessary too in my opinion. Hell, the mind and how it perceives stimuli can entirely impact how a person feels pain, anger, regret...all of those things. Very important to consider all variables when treating someone medically, in my mind.
Now, funerals are an entirely different matter than the exhibit. Same basic idea- dead body in the prescence of living, but the meaning is different entirely. Personally, I'm not a fan of funerals as I understand the religious significance that is usually paired with it. But I don't know if I want a funeral of my own. Personally, I'd be dead anyways, so it's not like I could come back and harass my surviving members about what was wrong or right about my presentation of death. A number of funerals I have been to have been quite somber, which makes sense as the attendants have lost a loved one. But I'd want my funeral to be a celebration of life (which it's supposed to be according to the Church, I think). Possibly the required funeral rites as deigned by the Orthodox Church in America and then possibly a party afterwards- two drink minimum. Possibly music/dancing. I think people would enjoy that. Hell, it may even get people to show up. :P
But I'll reserve my final opinion on the exhibit until I actually see it. Until then, hopefully, I'll remember to write on a more regular basis.
-Reven
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
"Only those who try will become."
Today I recieved an email from the Korean teacher at the university I am going to. He said in the email that there will be placement test to sort those of us incoming students into Intermediate and Beginner Korean learners. I appreciate the sentiment. Though, this being said, I find myself slowly backing away from my Korean book, for if by some fluke (and stranger things have happened) I end up in the Intermediate, I am going to be ticked. This is mostly because I can have the ability to give off the front (this is unwittingly, by the by) that I know more about a subject than I actually do. It's kinda scary and has gotten me into trouble a couple of times (and pulled me out of the fire a few times as well).
Though that is quite unnatural for me to do. I am, by nature, quite an overachiever. It's been somewhat unhealthy in the past, especially high school, but a number of people would suggest that I've mellowed out since then. So, why do I do it? I guess I just don't believe that doing anything less than my best is acceptible in my mind. Which, when taken in large doses can lead to quite a deal of self deprecating, which I like to do in joke form. As a matter of fact, that is probably the one topic that is never taboo- making fun of ones self. Basically, it helps me blow off steam and gives people a chuckle. Win-win situation.
I'll probably expand on the quote above later, but for now, I'm tired and have to get up early...perhaps tomorrow...
-Reven
Though that is quite unnatural for me to do. I am, by nature, quite an overachiever. It's been somewhat unhealthy in the past, especially high school, but a number of people would suggest that I've mellowed out since then. So, why do I do it? I guess I just don't believe that doing anything less than my best is acceptible in my mind. Which, when taken in large doses can lead to quite a deal of self deprecating, which I like to do in joke form. As a matter of fact, that is probably the one topic that is never taboo- making fun of ones self. Basically, it helps me blow off steam and gives people a chuckle. Win-win situation.
I'll probably expand on the quote above later, but for now, I'm tired and have to get up early...perhaps tomorrow...
-Reven
Monday, June 7, 2010
"Outside the dream world, life can be harsh, even cruel, but it is life."
So, I have not written in awhile. I'm not entirely sure why that is. But I will be better about that in the future. No real gems from me today/tonight, except for the fact that I realize that I cannot "fix" people nor help people who haven't asked for help.
This being said, you may wonder what inspired it. I really don't want to get into details, but the long and short of it is that one of my friends is getting married to someone she has known for only a few months (and he lives two hours away from her- though I think they talk on the phone most nights). Everyone else in her family supports it (I think it's a religion thing) so if I were to confront her, it would do nothing but make me feel better by getting it off my chest. Thus, I cannot fix how my friend feels about her upcoming nuptials (a few months from now) and confronting her wouldn't help anything.
Next is a female friend who was introduced to me by a mutual third friend. This female friend was (is? by all indications, this is true) interested in me. We go to different colleges but were able to talk online a good deal. She was nice enough to talk to online and for a time, I felt the same way as her. However, the more I talked to her, I became aware of how immature she was. I tried holding a reasonable debate with her and she just wasn't listening to me and it was the fact that she didn't listen to me (not the not agreeing with me- I'm fine with people not agreeing with me) nor try to firmly justify her own opinions that just made me realize the relationship was going nowhere. I can't fix that. It just got frustrating that as pleasant as she was to talk to initially, whenever our conversation got even remotely deep she loses her credibility. I can't be with someone who cannot deal with philosophical/ethical questions. So, I just need to recognize that the relationship isn't going anywhere and move on. While she talks to me online, I never will see her in person.
The only person I can really change is myself. So, to quote Maya Angelou: “If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.” So, with the first friend, I need to change my attitude. But as for the second...I won't run into her physically and by editing my settings on AIM/Facebook, I won't have to deal ever. Win.
-Reven
This being said, you may wonder what inspired it. I really don't want to get into details, but the long and short of it is that one of my friends is getting married to someone she has known for only a few months (and he lives two hours away from her- though I think they talk on the phone most nights). Everyone else in her family supports it (I think it's a religion thing) so if I were to confront her, it would do nothing but make me feel better by getting it off my chest. Thus, I cannot fix how my friend feels about her upcoming nuptials (a few months from now) and confronting her wouldn't help anything.
Next is a female friend who was introduced to me by a mutual third friend. This female friend was (is? by all indications, this is true) interested in me. We go to different colleges but were able to talk online a good deal. She was nice enough to talk to online and for a time, I felt the same way as her. However, the more I talked to her, I became aware of how immature she was. I tried holding a reasonable debate with her and she just wasn't listening to me and it was the fact that she didn't listen to me (not the not agreeing with me- I'm fine with people not agreeing with me) nor try to firmly justify her own opinions that just made me realize the relationship was going nowhere. I can't fix that. It just got frustrating that as pleasant as she was to talk to initially, whenever our conversation got even remotely deep she loses her credibility. I can't be with someone who cannot deal with philosophical/ethical questions. So, I just need to recognize that the relationship isn't going anywhere and move on. While she talks to me online, I never will see her in person.
The only person I can really change is myself. So, to quote Maya Angelou: “If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.” So, with the first friend, I need to change my attitude. But as for the second...I won't run into her physically and by editing my settings on AIM/Facebook, I won't have to deal ever. Win.
-Reven
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