More pics of the DMZ. The flags of the countries that had some say in the ordeal. Me, lightheartedly, mocking the guard, and a close up shot of the building on the North Korean side that for a long time was only a facade of a building, the power of communist propaganda.

These are all DMZ pics from my visit back in October. Pictures of guards by the famous pagoda. And the blue buildings, half in N and half in S Korea, where the diplomatic meetings that decided both places fates in relation to each other are made.

The first pic is Shaonan and Mashuika in the foreground, a good chinese friend of mine and a girl from Mongolia, respectively, and in the background. A swedish lady who is married to the Israeli ambassador to Korea. We didn't get along very well. Speaking of ambassadors, I am good friends with the son of the Argentine ambassador to Korea; we met in Japan. How small the world is. Also, speaking of a small world. One of the things I really like about Sogang is the number of cultures that come together to learn Korea. I had never met anyone from Bangladesh or Uzbekistan and now I have a person from each of those country in my class, very refreshing.

Next picture, good friends of mine. Two middle-aged Japanese ladies. Chie and Mizue. We go out every once and a while for karaoke and drinks. They are kind of like older sisters. They are a lot of fun, and I am picking up a lot of old women Japanese idioms, haha. it's strange, I don't ever really get along to great with people my age. I always joke that I am an old man stuck in a young body, fortunately too.

last pic, is the front part of the Sogang campus. This is the gate I walk through every morning.

This is my speaking class during second level as well with my favorite teacher at Songang. Mr. Im. He is a great guy. This is the guy that hooked me up with fourth level, and skipping third, we've been to karaoke together, and he loves hanging out with out class, great guy. Also notice the crucifix in the background, nothing like a Jesuit college in Korea.

This is my second level writing class. 9am to 10 am every morning form September through the end of November.

Back in Korea Again

It has been way too long. However, I have also been way to busy and away from working computers and internet. My time before Mexico was filled with getting caught up with all the new downpour of information in level four, and making sure my level 3 knowledge was to par. Mexico was glorious. One of the shortest holidays I have spent in Mexico, but still felt like an eternity, in both good and bad ways, and ended at that right time, so that I could get back here and continue to soak in Korea.

I saw a new side of Mexico City that I had never gotten the chance to explore before, that is, most of the actual city. In Mexico City I have a very sweet, however very insufferably overprotective grandmother, and I swear my age decreases by five years whenever I am at her house. Well, it seems that 19 is finally an age where I can try out my city legs and explore, and I was astounded by the amount of art and culture that I knew Mexico City had to offer, but that I had never really taken advantage of. So in my two weeks there, I saw as many museums as possible, checked the all the films that don't make it to Korea, and spent a lot of time with my little sisters and my wonderful mom of course. A perfectly restorative holiday season.

Now back in Korea, the weight of the midterm is upon me. I am actually not too concerned. The only thing that is going to be somewhat of a challenge will be the sheer amount of new vocabulary. I have been endowed with a superb memory, however, so all should be well. The test is this coming Tuesday. The grammar is pretty straight forward, and it is mostly stuff that I had figured out on my own a while back form sheer deductive reasoning. I find that that is the only way one can really learn a language. I mean that's how a small child learns a language. And whenever, I think of Japanese, the non-native language that I dominate the most, I can remember certain instances that were the basis for my understanding and assimilation of various words, same as with certain words and concepts in English or Spanish. That is the beauty of language, it isn't book smarts that matter, but life smarts.

The way I have been explaining it lately is that just like any other essential ability that all human beings possess, language is a survival mechanism. If you check out a recent book about the human genome project, published a few years ago, called, I think, Genome, it dedicates an entire chapter to the language gene. It is a gene that turns off after a certain age, and that is where the myth of sponge like child comes from. My theory, although, I'm sure that someone has already figured it out, is that the only way to really learn another language is to make that language necessary for your survival, and I believe that that gene will turn back on, for sheer subsistence. That is precisely why I only take up a language if I am able to fully envelop myself in the language or culture, ideally for the period of at least three months to an entire year. With this kind of time period, the language creates a viable linguistic foundation fit for survival in the brain, and from that point on, the rest of one's life, one simply polishes out the language, if one wishes, to accomplish less practical, however equally worthy exploits, poetry, literature, etc. In my case, I think that I have delayed the turning off of that gene in my own DNA, due to several things, being raised bilingual, and not having a time ion my life where I wasn't arduously learning a new language. Well whatever all this jibber-jabber may be, it may most likely be a justification for my facility in learning languages, something that makes me less friends than one would think.

Anyway, thanks to my leaps in Korean, that I also fail to understand at times, I am in fourth level now, and the next few days will be filled with fair amounts of studying. I am going to do something I haven't done ever, and that is go to a study group, a Korean language one, of course. I can't get ahead of myself, and I shouldn't underestimate the impending test either, who knows, I may see myself writing in a few weeks that I am repeating 4th level. I hope not, but I would be where I should have originally been, so no harm done I suppose.

One last thing. My honeymoon period was over in about a month. The time leading up to Mexico, I was in the worst part of the cycle of the love-hate relationship that is studying and living abroad. However, coming back, I have been seeing things in a different light (no pun intended). I am making very suitable progress, I have a good set of friends, and despite the terrible cold and continuous snow, I am accomplishing most of the things I hope to accomplish on a day to day basis. And my documentary is due out on national TV this month, so I'll see if I can't find a way to put it up on YouTube, and if not, Light Fellowship will definitely be getting a copy. Hasta Luego.

Back in Korea

After 3 glorious weeks of Thailand I finally made it back to Korea, and I was greet by an unexpected, if not pleasant, surprise. I actually didn't get back into school until two days into term, not because I planned it that way, but because I came down with something when I came back, due to temperature change? I am not really sure, but there seems to be a stomachal side to it that is still lingering. Anyway, to the surprise. So I was sitting in class today, trying as hard as I could to stay interested in what we learning, all material that I knew and could comfortbly use in conversation and what not, and after class was over today, my former taecher came up to me. He asked me sort of jeering, how easy level 3 was, and I sort of gave him a borede-to-death look, and he then asked me how I would like to jump into level 4, and consequently, I was beaming. So he arranged for a quick interview for me, no pesky paper test or anything, I had it, and I was even asked if I wasn't of Korean or Japanese decent or whether I had grown up around the language, I was quite flattered. Anyway, without a doubt that teacher that interviewed me, arranged for me to start level tomorrow, and I couldn't be happier, nothing I dislike more than a classroom that is moving too slow.

I got my report card back today too, and as one may expect, it was slightly over satisfactory. It was quite a peculiar little report card; it had a portion where it graded you on Global Tasks, and I did really well on that section. It was sort of an elementary school report card, with hand written teacher comments, boxes to check with either, Poor, Fair, or Excellent, quite nostalgic.

I'll talk a little more about Thailand. Ayatthuya, the former capital of Thailand was quite nice. No Angkor Wat, which I didn't get to see ultimately, but still nice. I did a lot of drawing/sketching during this trip. I used to draw a lot before I started getting preoccupied with other things around the same time I started doing the whole world travel thing, but I have gotten back into it as of late, and I hope to keep at alive as something I do, and not just have turn into a " I used to". This fellowship has been quite remarkable that way. Not only am I really learning the Korean language to an extent not possible at this rate, or any rate at all really, in the States, not to mention learning about the culture as well, but I am also having a lot of time to do many of the things, of all magnitudes and sorts, that I ahve been meaning to do for the first time or again for quite some while. So this is truly the "year off", "leave of absence" ecperience that I was hoping for and much much more.

After Ayatthuya, I hitched a ride to Chonburi, about 45 minuted from Bangkok. I spent about a week or so in this area, a lot more than I had expected, but there was just so much to see and do! I didn't make it to Angkor because I got caught up Island hopping, Koh Lan, Koh Sichang, etc, and it was glorious. I felt like I could spent the rest of my life on those islands, although I also got island fever soon there after, I am quite bi-polar about those kind of things. I went clubbing some as well, and the only way I can describe the nightlife, at least what I saw, it was like that Disney movie Pinocchio where the bad boys are on that island with no rules and then drink the beer and subsequently turn into donkeys, total chaos, and everyone looks so young, there wasn't even a cover for most places, it was still fun though. At one place my friends and I started dancing in the bathroom area to get out of the way of the chaos, and it ended up being quite nice, cooler, etc.

After my own little exodus out in the Chonburi area, doing the beach thing, checking out a giant hill with a lasered image of a giant buddha, atving through a vineyard ( It was quite beautiful), jet skiing, etc. I made my way back to Chantaburi to see my bro again. He had had a grand ol' time with the other exchange students, and it was great to see him again. My last couple days with him before going back were very realaxed and quite nice, especially after my crazy week and a half alone, I even kayaked almost every other day for chrissake, great week and a half, still exhausted though.

Impression of Thailand: Very Awesome. Definitely settle down someday material for me. I am a person that has a poignant, however profound understanding regarding the invetability of globalization, however, I truly shudder at the fact. There are few things that make me as sad as the shape globalization has taken. Anyone who knows me well, has probably heard my rant about why and what not, but that is precisely why I liked Thailand so much. I felt like it was country that was at least putting up a respectable fight. Obviously not being bellicose or anything about it, but standing their ground at least. Of course there are certain historical circumstances, and what not, but the same cannot really be said about say, Japan or Korea. Anyway, I don't want to get started, because I'll never stop writing, I need to get some sleep, to fully recover form this bug I have got. In short, I really like Thailand; it's a good place. Of course, me enamoration with the place is quite young and naive, given I have only really been a vacationer there, no substantial to way to gauge how one views or reacts to the country and all its nuances and intricacies. As I always say, live there or don't go at all....that's an exxageration, I admit, and I really don't say that.

Finally, today I was able to make it out to the jaw-dropping Van Gogh exhibition that they hauled into the Seoul Museum of Art from the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam today. Van Gogh is some pretty powerful stuff up close, I'll have to go back in in a couple of month to re-absorb it. That is one thing that the "developed" or "trying really hard to catch up with the developed, ahem the US" has, at least, access to fine art, culture, etc, cosmopoltanism....The only problem I feel is, particularly in the East, is that their own unique culture is being indelebly and terribly affected and tainted forever by the desire to be Western, or up to par, as good ol' Nietzche mentioned, it is not "progress" the Germans needed at the turn of the 19th century, it was to strive towards a self-regulating culture that belonged to Germany, and Germany alone, still interacting with others, sure, but THAT was what was more important, more important than progress. Anyway, we all know how that ended up, Nietzche sort of predicted a lot, in an interesting way, interesting guy. Anyway, I have been reading a bunch of Nietzche lately. That's another thing this "time off" has afforded me, a lot of time to read, I have recently come off a fad with Dostoevsky. It has been good, and I have plenty more stuff to get through in the coming months. Anyway, there is an update for now. I will be headed off to Mexico City on December 19th for winter break to see my mom and sisters; I can't wait. I'll try to put in another post before then, if not, next time from the DF. Adios.