Day 15- Oh! and Oh boy....

There comes a time in everyone's life when they have to accept that in order to get ahead in their field or class that they have to do something that makes them quite uncomfortable. For some, this would be the equivalent of giving a speech. For me...yeah, the answer is coming later in this post. I'll give you a hint in the meanwhile. This picture:

The history exam this morning went alright. Some of the questions were fairly ambiguous, but there were none that I felt completely clueless about. All together, I'm not entirely sure that I got an A, but I feel like I was able to do decently on most of the questions. The weird thing was that before the test, I was talking about the general flow of history to one of my classmates named Esther (she is Korean but goes to school in Vancouver) and another girl (Korean born Korean) asked me if I had taken a history course over Korea previously. Confused, I said that I hadn't. She looked surprised and said that I had picked up on the history. Huge ego boost there. The funny thing is that I tend to memorize things that aren't that important to my life and the things on the periphery really stick to my mind.

But on the bright side, I really know random stuff. Think of me of a Jack of all trades, master of none that are useful. But, on the bright side random knowledge of mythology and pop culture has come in handy from time to time. I'd love to go on Jeopardy! but doubt my abilities to win.

So, onto language class. We've basically gone over how to ask where one would want to go and what one would like to eat. Today was more of similar food related stuff. We learned how to order food at restaurants as well as various greetings and mealtime phrases. And then came the next part. Singing.

Ah yes, our teacher has decided that we are going to sing for class. Yes, singing. In Korean. I can barely sing in English, and now we are throwing Korean into the mix. The cherry on the top of this somewhat intimidating sundae of fear is that the song that we are singing is a Kpop (or Korean pop) song named "Oh!" by the girls band, "Girl's Generation." That's them pictured above. Cute as all get out, no? The almost laughable thing is that the song is about some girl (well, probably all of them) pining over a guy who they are too shy to talk to. Though quite frankly, I'm pretty sure most of the girls in the nine girl group could easily have their choice of men in Korea. So, the theme is not exactly a new one as far as pop songs go (or any music written for the past several hundred years), but the execution is what is rather...intimidating. The tone of the song is rather sweet and bubbly which is pretty much the antithesis of me. Here's a link to the music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGbwL8kSpEk . You be the judge.

This being said, I am one of three guys in a class of ten. Benji, Brian and I looked at each other nervously as we heard that this was the song (all of us knew the song from before- it's rather popular over here). In Korean and bubbly sweet. Gulp. We'll see how this goes. I have the song on loop so hopefully I'll pick up on its melody and some of the language. That being said, I'm not saying that it's a bad song (I honestly enjoy it). Though..it is rather...difficult for some reason for me to sing it. Thank goodness that I'm secure in my masculinity because otherwise this song would pretty much drain it from me completely. Haha.

I'm kind of uncomfortable about singing in public. It ranks up there with my other top fears (coulrophobia and monophobia, in that order) but I guess I'll have to go it. Sigh. I'm kinda laughing it off because the whole thing is ridiculous- singing a pop song for a language class, but I still feel uncomfortable singing. Kareoke is rough at first, though I get better about it as the evening goes on.

Tonight is the international party at a local bar (or club?) Viaerae (which I still would suggest sounds like a mythological beast or Final Fantasy enemy at the very least). It's supposed to be for all of the international students and basically offers free drinks and food to anyone. Though the catch (as mentioned before) is that you receive a playing card (ace of hearts, 7 of clubs etc) and if you go up to the bar with people of your same number of suit, only then can you get drinks. I think the idea of making people socialize like that is pretty cool, to be honest. But, we'll see how tonight goes. Should be interesting to say the least...

-Reven