It has been almost a month; may the light fellowship gods have mercy on my blog-writing soul. No pictures forever. I will put some up some too, in mass, of course. Apologies to those requiring such, it has just been out-of-handedly hectic, especially after Thailand; talk about a change of pace.
Thailand was glorious as always. Three weeks of pure goodness. Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chantaburi, caves, rock climbing, Koh Chang, Ban Boong, and so much in between. It was mostly just great to see my brother, and hang out with some exchange students. Some of my favorite people in the whole wide world. I won't go into depth about Thailand, because I could rave for pages. All in all it was great. It is probably the most inspirational place I have ever visited and will certainly continue to be in my heart and travels for as long as I can walk. You guys get the idea.
Back to Korea;
By the grace of God and the universe, I was placed into the next consecutively corresponding level of Korean, level 5!! Not much to say about it really. The pace is still equally and painfully slow as it was before, which, as I have mentioned before, is only something I half-heartedly complaining about. It permits me to focus on so many other things as well. So, school is good. Sogang continues to draw very interesting characters that I am quite happy to learn Korean with, particularly, in my current class alone, a Muslim girl from Indonesia, a nun from Vietnam, and a Mormon from Utah. It gives last term's combination of Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, and Italy a run for its money. If there is anything that I am truly grateful for about Sogang is the vast range of people from different faiths and lands that I have had the pleasure to meet in a very conducive environment to tackle all the big questions, and in Korean, of course, for the most part.
School now has a video class; it is a welcome addition. Midterms are in a couple of weeks or so, and, as always, I shall be prepared.
On to other things:
I was originally planning to have a somewhat subdued and relaxed last couple of months here in Korea, but out of nowhere, I got super busy. Although grateful, I am slightly overwhelmed. However, I will pull through. No worries. The largest addition, lately, perhaps, is my participation in the production of Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Theatre is something that a mere year ago I was cursing, but I began to miss it, so here I am. I have also become a lot more involved with the church I have been attending throughout the year. Great place, great people, if I may say so myself. This is also something surprising to me, and maybe even those who know me well. A mere year ago I was also cursing organized religion, yet here I am. Go figure. My latest contribution was playing the voice of Jesus for the Easter play, in Aramaic of course, something that really tickled my polyglot fancy.
Also, a couple of weeks back I was contacted by a record label interested in my music and myself as an artist. So I have also been stressing about my music, getting into the studio and recording professional demos to send in to their executive board. I really have no idea, how this might work out, but it adds another beautiful layer of uncertainty to my life which is always bittersweet.
That's the status in a nutshell. There is of course, always more, in the nooks and crannies of life, but this is a good update. Keeping busy, and fighting off the flu, and trying to salvage my voice at least until I am finished recording.
Lastly, I just really want to thank the Light Fellowship and all of those involved in getting me here. Not only has my Korean gotten to a level unattainable at home in the States, not to mention an in-depth and up-close understanding of the culture, but it has also given me the chance to explore so many of my interests to a substantial and tangible degree. I often sit in awe and wonder thinking of all the wonderful things that have come from this year, and I just know that they would not have been possible without the Light Fellowship. And, if any Yalie is reading this and thinking about a Light Fellowship, an academic year, at least (because you can do the summer along with it too) is really the way to go. I can see myself coming back to Korea, and having it be a type of launching pad to Asia, and just to my future in general.
To close, I will try to be a little more on track with weekly blogs, and picture should soon follow. Thank you for reading. Shalom.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
3 weeks no see
Light fellowship is gonna kill me; not really. I just haven't found the time these last three weeks to sit down and blog. I find myself in Thailand. It is great, although I find myself getting stressed when I am not able to do anything productive. I am a freak of nature. I won't talk about Thailand; I will talk about the last couple weeks that lead up to Thailand.
School:
Finals were pretty decent. I am quite sure I will be moving right on up to level five this coming term. My last term in the land of Han (Korea's word that means something vague between regret and sorrow, and a bunch else). My favorite teachers were definitely those in level two, oh how long ago that was. Not much more to say really. This term may be my worst mark, given the amount of school I missed this term given illness brought about by the extreme cold, etc.
Korean ability wise, all is more than well. I have finally hit that "oh I get it phase" in Korean, where less and less do I have to put things together in Korean before I speak, and I can just express myself naturally. It really did happen from one day to the next, and it has been noticed by all those around me. It gives me a lot of satisfaction to finally feel like I have a level of Korean that will indelibly stay with me, just like knowing how to ride a bike. It is becmoing intuitive rather than just rehearsed and memorized.
Other:
The whole documentary ordeal has finished, and it has simply sparked a new, and final, era of my Korean sojourn. Candy, the lady who directed the documentary, has become something close to an adoptive mother to me here in Korea. The funny thing is that I always manage to find one, or they manage to find me, everywhere I go.
So she took me to Everland, Korea's Disneyland-esque locale, and I spent some tiem with her son, and have spent some time at her home. It makes me realize how much I wish I had a host family. If Beijing works out for me next year, I am very glad that I will have a Chinese roommate; I also hope we get along. My track record with roommates, though short, is not stellar. I also got to go to the concert of this Korean indie tock group that was the subject of another documentary. It was really great, because it took place at this underground club, where all the good music in Korea happens. Lord knows that what is on the radio is 20 years behind and not very insightful.
Another great thing about Candy is that she believes in all of my crazy aspirations like 10 times more than I do. Which brings me to the next wild development. Candy one day asks me if I wanted to meet a producer friend of hers, saying that there was a possibility I could meet some of my favorite directors before I went back to the states, guys I wrote papers about last year!! I said of course.
The day of the meeting, in what stated as a somewhat akward conversation, Cansy said she wanted to be my manager. She said we'd go 20/80 on everything. I naturally got giddy. I really don't know if anything will come of this, but I am open to anything, especially if it means making my experience here in Korea more interesting.
The producer who we met and I hit it off immediately; she is a wonderful lady and has the virtue of understanding my eccentric nature a little better than most. So this meeting led to a very intense week leading up to Thailand and gave me a taste of what it will be like through May.
On Thursday, I went to a Valentines day party at Korea's nicest hotel, ran into Bjork, whom I saw in concert later that week, and enjoyed a great performance by a former Broadway star turned Universal records signee, Sojeong Lee. She played Miss Saigon on Broadway for several years. I didn't bother Bjork, because she was with her family, and I know that she is not to keen on fans messing with her privacy;plus, I have aggravated a number of other celebrities in my day.
Later in the week, I had the privelege of having dinner with my new producer friend and Miss Saigon and got a lot of great advice. I am not doing the week justice, but it was definitely one of those defining weeks, especially the fact that it totally made me feel like I was supposed to be in Korea this year. My existence in Korea will continue this way through May, I presume, going from socialite party to socialite party and meeting important people ni Korea. Regardless of whether it leads anywhere, it is great experience. The day before Thailand, I went to an opening of some new offices of some bank, and a bunch of famous people, which I obviously don't are famous were around, and I got to meet many of them; I was more amused by the Picasso posters that lined the room. In other words, the last couple months of Korea are going to be a number of things, and boring is not one of them. And no worries, school is still, and always will be a priority.
I know it's jumbled, filled with gramatical and spelling mistakes, slightly stream-of-consciousness, etc. But if you did take the time to read it, I greatly appreciate it. Brief on Thailand coming up, and smoe impressions of Korean lifestly that I have been cooking up. Sawadee!
School:
Finals were pretty decent. I am quite sure I will be moving right on up to level five this coming term. My last term in the land of Han (Korea's word that means something vague between regret and sorrow, and a bunch else). My favorite teachers were definitely those in level two, oh how long ago that was. Not much more to say really. This term may be my worst mark, given the amount of school I missed this term given illness brought about by the extreme cold, etc.
Korean ability wise, all is more than well. I have finally hit that "oh I get it phase" in Korean, where less and less do I have to put things together in Korean before I speak, and I can just express myself naturally. It really did happen from one day to the next, and it has been noticed by all those around me. It gives me a lot of satisfaction to finally feel like I have a level of Korean that will indelibly stay with me, just like knowing how to ride a bike. It is becmoing intuitive rather than just rehearsed and memorized.
Other:
The whole documentary ordeal has finished, and it has simply sparked a new, and final, era of my Korean sojourn. Candy, the lady who directed the documentary, has become something close to an adoptive mother to me here in Korea. The funny thing is that I always manage to find one, or they manage to find me, everywhere I go.
So she took me to Everland, Korea's Disneyland-esque locale, and I spent some tiem with her son, and have spent some time at her home. It makes me realize how much I wish I had a host family. If Beijing works out for me next year, I am very glad that I will have a Chinese roommate; I also hope we get along. My track record with roommates, though short, is not stellar. I also got to go to the concert of this Korean indie tock group that was the subject of another documentary. It was really great, because it took place at this underground club, where all the good music in Korea happens. Lord knows that what is on the radio is 20 years behind and not very insightful.
Another great thing about Candy is that she believes in all of my crazy aspirations like 10 times more than I do. Which brings me to the next wild development. Candy one day asks me if I wanted to meet a producer friend of hers, saying that there was a possibility I could meet some of my favorite directors before I went back to the states, guys I wrote papers about last year!! I said of course.
The day of the meeting, in what stated as a somewhat akward conversation, Cansy said she wanted to be my manager. She said we'd go 20/80 on everything. I naturally got giddy. I really don't know if anything will come of this, but I am open to anything, especially if it means making my experience here in Korea more interesting.
The producer who we met and I hit it off immediately; she is a wonderful lady and has the virtue of understanding my eccentric nature a little better than most. So this meeting led to a very intense week leading up to Thailand and gave me a taste of what it will be like through May.
On Thursday, I went to a Valentines day party at Korea's nicest hotel, ran into Bjork, whom I saw in concert later that week, and enjoyed a great performance by a former Broadway star turned Universal records signee, Sojeong Lee. She played Miss Saigon on Broadway for several years. I didn't bother Bjork, because she was with her family, and I know that she is not to keen on fans messing with her privacy;plus, I have aggravated a number of other celebrities in my day.
Later in the week, I had the privelege of having dinner with my new producer friend and Miss Saigon and got a lot of great advice. I am not doing the week justice, but it was definitely one of those defining weeks, especially the fact that it totally made me feel like I was supposed to be in Korea this year. My existence in Korea will continue this way through May, I presume, going from socialite party to socialite party and meeting important people ni Korea. Regardless of whether it leads anywhere, it is great experience. The day before Thailand, I went to an opening of some new offices of some bank, and a bunch of famous people, which I obviously don't are famous were around, and I got to meet many of them; I was more amused by the Picasso posters that lined the room. In other words, the last couple months of Korea are going to be a number of things, and boring is not one of them. And no worries, school is still, and always will be a priority.
I know it's jumbled, filled with gramatical and spelling mistakes, slightly stream-of-consciousness, etc. But if you did take the time to read it, I greatly appreciate it. Brief on Thailand coming up, and smoe impressions of Korean lifestly that I have been cooking up. Sawadee!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
The Deserted City of Seoul
This is the first time I have opted to stay in Seoul during a break. As many of you may now, we are currently in the midst of the Chinese New Year. I am glad that none of my plans panned. Reason being, that experiencing the same city that is usually bustling be nothing more than a ghost town is something I definitely wanted to experiencing before this sojourn came to an end.
It has been hard at times, even, to find places to eat. Another predicament, although I view as a sweet turn of fate, is the fact that my cell phone has run out of credit, and it is even impossible to recharge cell phone minutes while Korea welcomes the year of the rat. It has been quite refreshing to be cut off, while at the same time feeling relatively alone in one of the cities with the densest populations. It has also shed some light, although very meager, to a project I hope to undertake this summer. Recently, I have been reading a lot of wilderness literature, everything from Gurdjief's final work to Thoreau's Walden to Into the Wild by Krakauer. All of these have sparked a keen interesting, in precisely that, the wild. I have been hiking on the weekends and doing calisthenics to get in shape for the wild. Korea has some wonderful mountains. I am also very excited for Thailand in a couple of weeks. There will be a lot of nature and climbing. The superficiality and hopeless consumer society of Korea is beginning to grow very very old for me. The mountains are sufficiently redeeming though.
Need to get to sleep, going to Everland tomorrow, Korea's largest amusement park. Time permitting, I will title my next entry: The four types of people at Sogang, should be pretty hilarious, until then.
It has been hard at times, even, to find places to eat. Another predicament, although I view as a sweet turn of fate, is the fact that my cell phone has run out of credit, and it is even impossible to recharge cell phone minutes while Korea welcomes the year of the rat. It has been quite refreshing to be cut off, while at the same time feeling relatively alone in one of the cities with the densest populations. It has also shed some light, although very meager, to a project I hope to undertake this summer. Recently, I have been reading a lot of wilderness literature, everything from Gurdjief's final work to Thoreau's Walden to Into the Wild by Krakauer. All of these have sparked a keen interesting, in precisely that, the wild. I have been hiking on the weekends and doing calisthenics to get in shape for the wild. Korea has some wonderful mountains. I am also very excited for Thailand in a couple of weeks. There will be a lot of nature and climbing. The superficiality and hopeless consumer society of Korea is beginning to grow very very old for me. The mountains are sufficiently redeeming though.
Need to get to sleep, going to Everland tomorrow, Korea's largest amusement park. Time permitting, I will title my next entry: The four types of people at Sogang, should be pretty hilarious, until then.
Monday, January 28, 2008
A Wedding and a Preview
School has slowed down a little, at least till finals, at the end of February. We also have a short break coming up next week for the lunar new year. We'll get about 5 days off.
I had a great weekend, and have been having very good weekends as of late. I think it's because I have finally become more accustomed to all of it, and most of it has become second nature, but fortunately, new experiences are not in short supply.
This weekend after my usual weekly dose of nightlife on Fridays, R&R on Saturdays, and church on Sundays, I decided to crash a wedding of one of the members of the church. Crashing makes it sound so uncouth. I just happened to go without being invited. I simply love weddings. I had also yet to have gone to a Korean wedding. This was an interesting wedding though. It was a Mexican-American G.I. getting married to a half Korean woman. The service was beautiful, with music, and dual narration, Korean and English, on behalf of the bilingual pastor. There were also two receptions. One Korea, and one more American/Slightly Latino in nature. It was a pretty typical wedding, but they get me every time.
Of more note, however, is where the second reception was held. Yongsan garrison, a massive U.S. military base in the middle of Seoul, you come in through the gates, and you fell like you are in small town America with everything to your local Baskin Robbins to American style parks. I had never been, but it surely exceeded any sort of expectations I had had. Getting in was a bit of a a problem though, for me at least. It is more than understandable, particularly after seeing a film like The Kingdom last year. It was a only a problem, though, because I had not RSVPed to the wedding, and therefore was not on the clearance list. I mean, how could I right, I wasn't even invited. I was trying to pull an Owen Wilson ala Wedding Crashers, but I'm sure they never tried to get in to a military wedding. Well, I lacked the appropriate identification, e.g. a passport, or alien registration card, so I simply went home and came back with my passport, and I even made it back in time for the slide show. Something that really boosted my confidence is the fact that on my way back to the base, I struck up a non-stop, fairly interesting conversation with the taxi driver, and when he asked how long I had been in Korea, he couldn't believe it; these little instances really are the extra little logs that keep the engine going sometimes. It is also quite interesting, but I have become a lot more confident in class this week, speaking my mind more openly, and to my pleasant surprise it is coming out very satisfactorily. Regardless of the frustration that plagues the learning a foreign language most of the time, one just needs to be receptive to the small hints that signal to progress, and thank goodness, lately they have been plentiful.
Another thing I really give thanks for right now is that I chose to do and academic year in Korea, for a reason that I stated as far back as my personal statement for the fellowship; that I wanted to experience all four seasons in Korea, and oh boy, do they have four seasons, almost as finely delineated as a picture book, split relatively evenly, except for an exceptionally short Fall. I say this, because, now that I am in to my third or second and a half season, depending on how you look at it, season, the experience has completely evolved, owed partially to my own personal growth, but also on the change in my environment, something that directly derives itself from the changing seasons. Trivially speaking, Winter will bring along some skiing for next week, the same way that fall brought me plenty of pleasurable hikes among the flaming foliage, and summer made me wish I had an air conditioner in my room. However, there are also countless subtler changes as well. All I really want to say with this longwinded paragraph is that I feel it is imperative to spend an entire year in any country anyone tries to understand at a deeper level.
Speaking of understanding at a deeper level, I have recently caught wind of an underground youth movement that is going on in Seoul's more bohemian areas, a movement called: Korealism. It is quite playful, but in my opinion, very relevant as to the current evolution of this country with a new generation coming up. I have read some of the literature, a weekly publication with poetry and prose, and spoken to some of the zealots, briefly though. I can't say much about it, yet, but it was very refreshing to find this sort of cultural and intellectual curiousness in a youth that is at best extremely confused, and at worst, completely oblivious and completely entangled in consumer society, driven completely but what they see on television. So I will continue to delve into this movement, this so called Korealism, when I get some more time, I may even upload some of the poetry. Some of it is written by expats, in English of course, and give a fair amount of decent insight of what Korea is actually like in a relatively terse fashion. Some of the works in the weekly really hit the nail on the head in my view. So hopefully more on Korealism later. One of the people they mention in their manifesto is Ko-leopatra, someone's alter-ego within the movement. Like I stated before, they are very playful, and have a great sense of humor about it, but I have been impressed by the quality of both the material in the publication and the overall ideas of what these revolutionary youngsters are talking about.
Lastly, after the long and arduous ordeal that was my documentary, it has finally come to completion and thus broadcast fruition. The premiere/preview event is this coming Friday, the 31st, the people form the network, crew, people, my friends will be there, and I am actually a bit nervous about it. The channel that ultimately bought it was Korea's Success Channel, a cable network dedicated to documentaries and anything and everything inspirational. They actually cut me out of the original documentary and gave me my own 30 minute spot on the channel, that is just how weird I am I guess. The documentary's name translated into English is: Designing Life, Adam Young, a bit corny, but it is Korea, after all. So that is all that is new in life. Coming up is, finals next month, a trip to Thailand, I cancelled Japan, I am seriously falling in love with South East Asia, any who, some possible shows coming up. I spent that past couple months writing more material, and by the end of this month I should have at least 10 viable originals. If you'd like to check them out, check on the "My Music" link, and it will take you to my myspace music page. Thanks for reading, and if you happen to listen to my tunes thanks for that as well.
I had a great weekend, and have been having very good weekends as of late. I think it's because I have finally become more accustomed to all of it, and most of it has become second nature, but fortunately, new experiences are not in short supply.
This weekend after my usual weekly dose of nightlife on Fridays, R&R on Saturdays, and church on Sundays, I decided to crash a wedding of one of the members of the church. Crashing makes it sound so uncouth. I just happened to go without being invited. I simply love weddings. I had also yet to have gone to a Korean wedding. This was an interesting wedding though. It was a Mexican-American G.I. getting married to a half Korean woman. The service was beautiful, with music, and dual narration, Korean and English, on behalf of the bilingual pastor. There were also two receptions. One Korea, and one more American/Slightly Latino in nature. It was a pretty typical wedding, but they get me every time.
Of more note, however, is where the second reception was held. Yongsan garrison, a massive U.S. military base in the middle of Seoul, you come in through the gates, and you fell like you are in small town America with everything to your local Baskin Robbins to American style parks. I had never been, but it surely exceeded any sort of expectations I had had. Getting in was a bit of a a problem though, for me at least. It is more than understandable, particularly after seeing a film like The Kingdom last year. It was a only a problem, though, because I had not RSVPed to the wedding, and therefore was not on the clearance list. I mean, how could I right, I wasn't even invited. I was trying to pull an Owen Wilson ala Wedding Crashers, but I'm sure they never tried to get in to a military wedding. Well, I lacked the appropriate identification, e.g. a passport, or alien registration card, so I simply went home and came back with my passport, and I even made it back in time for the slide show. Something that really boosted my confidence is the fact that on my way back to the base, I struck up a non-stop, fairly interesting conversation with the taxi driver, and when he asked how long I had been in Korea, he couldn't believe it; these little instances really are the extra little logs that keep the engine going sometimes. It is also quite interesting, but I have become a lot more confident in class this week, speaking my mind more openly, and to my pleasant surprise it is coming out very satisfactorily. Regardless of the frustration that plagues the learning a foreign language most of the time, one just needs to be receptive to the small hints that signal to progress, and thank goodness, lately they have been plentiful.
Another thing I really give thanks for right now is that I chose to do and academic year in Korea, for a reason that I stated as far back as my personal statement for the fellowship; that I wanted to experience all four seasons in Korea, and oh boy, do they have four seasons, almost as finely delineated as a picture book, split relatively evenly, except for an exceptionally short Fall. I say this, because, now that I am in to my third or second and a half season, depending on how you look at it, season, the experience has completely evolved, owed partially to my own personal growth, but also on the change in my environment, something that directly derives itself from the changing seasons. Trivially speaking, Winter will bring along some skiing for next week, the same way that fall brought me plenty of pleasurable hikes among the flaming foliage, and summer made me wish I had an air conditioner in my room. However, there are also countless subtler changes as well. All I really want to say with this longwinded paragraph is that I feel it is imperative to spend an entire year in any country anyone tries to understand at a deeper level.
Speaking of understanding at a deeper level, I have recently caught wind of an underground youth movement that is going on in Seoul's more bohemian areas, a movement called: Korealism. It is quite playful, but in my opinion, very relevant as to the current evolution of this country with a new generation coming up. I have read some of the literature, a weekly publication with poetry and prose, and spoken to some of the zealots, briefly though. I can't say much about it, yet, but it was very refreshing to find this sort of cultural and intellectual curiousness in a youth that is at best extremely confused, and at worst, completely oblivious and completely entangled in consumer society, driven completely but what they see on television. So I will continue to delve into this movement, this so called Korealism, when I get some more time, I may even upload some of the poetry. Some of it is written by expats, in English of course, and give a fair amount of decent insight of what Korea is actually like in a relatively terse fashion. Some of the works in the weekly really hit the nail on the head in my view. So hopefully more on Korealism later. One of the people they mention in their manifesto is Ko-leopatra, someone's alter-ego within the movement. Like I stated before, they are very playful, and have a great sense of humor about it, but I have been impressed by the quality of both the material in the publication and the overall ideas of what these revolutionary youngsters are talking about.
Lastly, after the long and arduous ordeal that was my documentary, it has finally come to completion and thus broadcast fruition. The premiere/preview event is this coming Friday, the 31st, the people form the network, crew, people, my friends will be there, and I am actually a bit nervous about it. The channel that ultimately bought it was Korea's Success Channel, a cable network dedicated to documentaries and anything and everything inspirational. They actually cut me out of the original documentary and gave me my own 30 minute spot on the channel, that is just how weird I am I guess. The documentary's name translated into English is: Designing Life, Adam Young, a bit corny, but it is Korea, after all. So that is all that is new in life. Coming up is, finals next month, a trip to Thailand, I cancelled Japan, I am seriously falling in love with South East Asia, any who, some possible shows coming up. I spent that past couple months writing more material, and by the end of this month I should have at least 10 viable originals. If you'd like to check them out, check on the "My Music" link, and it will take you to my myspace music page. Thanks for reading, and if you happen to listen to my tunes thanks for that as well.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Goodbye Midterms
Yesterday was the last portion of the whole midterm experience, the speaking test. Part of it was working through some scenarios with a partner, in Korean of course, and the other one was a one on one interview with the teacher to sort of the a self-evaluation of my progress. My teacher basically had to say that my fluency is good, and that I just need to work on sounding less and less like a Japanese speaking Korean, and more and more like an actual Korean, mostly things having to do with certain nuances in pronunciation and intonation and what not.
Today I also secured a couple of tickets for my next trip. I was planning on going to Australia, but since it is high season the ticket was pretty pricey, so I am going to wait until May when off season is at its nadir. So for now, I will be going to Thailand around my brother's brithday, and then off to Japan. I was invited to go on a rotary club ski trip so the covered costs of all the skiing accoutrament should balance itself out with the cost of the ticket, and it will also be a nice dose of nostlgia taking me back to the high school exchange student days.
The weather report here in Seoul: friggin freezing. it was minus 9 degress celsius today, don't know what that translates to in farenheit, but, pretty much, ridiculously cold. I am spending a lot of time indoors, however, since I have made a ton of new friends as of late, I have been going out a lot at night. I am very happy to continue making friends from all over, and allowing people to keep my prejudices at bay and my mind as open as possible. I'll put up some pictures as soon as I can. Not much else is going on. I payed my final Sogang tuition today, and that will put me through the end of May, and after that, I am planning on embarking on a South East Asian Oddyssey and after a long long while I shall once again be stateside. I had considered staying all the way through September, but I think nine months will be enough for me. I am also seriously considering doing my sophomore year in Beijing with Yale's PKU prgram, so I wanna get a nice quality summer wit the fam in before I head again to traverse the globe, it is also my brother's senior year in college coming up, so I want to be there for him to be the helping hand that I never had when the wild time that is applying to schools comes around.
So I have pretty much decided, a bit different from my original plans, to underachieve a little this summer. For once in my life. A lot of things have influenced my decision, and I am not 100 percent sure. It is still so tempting when I recieve all the IEFP and UCS emails from Yale, crammed with amazing opportunities, but the way I see it, opportunities come and go, and plans are allowed to change, but little sisters that are 3, turning ten, and a brother who is about to embark on life only comes once in a lifetime, so I forego arduous personal statement writing, and relentless recommendation seeking to enjoy my first relatively stress free spring, and consequently, summer. However, I do still need to apply for the PKU program. Whatev. I guess that what I'm saying is that I am finally opting to not try not to complicate my life more than I have to.
Wow, the above paragaph came out a little melodramatic. Thank you for reading.
Today I also secured a couple of tickets for my next trip. I was planning on going to Australia, but since it is high season the ticket was pretty pricey, so I am going to wait until May when off season is at its nadir. So for now, I will be going to Thailand around my brother's brithday, and then off to Japan. I was invited to go on a rotary club ski trip so the covered costs of all the skiing accoutrament should balance itself out with the cost of the ticket, and it will also be a nice dose of nostlgia taking me back to the high school exchange student days.
The weather report here in Seoul: friggin freezing. it was minus 9 degress celsius today, don't know what that translates to in farenheit, but, pretty much, ridiculously cold. I am spending a lot of time indoors, however, since I have made a ton of new friends as of late, I have been going out a lot at night. I am very happy to continue making friends from all over, and allowing people to keep my prejudices at bay and my mind as open as possible. I'll put up some pictures as soon as I can. Not much else is going on. I payed my final Sogang tuition today, and that will put me through the end of May, and after that, I am planning on embarking on a South East Asian Oddyssey and after a long long while I shall once again be stateside. I had considered staying all the way through September, but I think nine months will be enough for me. I am also seriously considering doing my sophomore year in Beijing with Yale's PKU prgram, so I wanna get a nice quality summer wit the fam in before I head again to traverse the globe, it is also my brother's senior year in college coming up, so I want to be there for him to be the helping hand that I never had when the wild time that is applying to schools comes around.
So I have pretty much decided, a bit different from my original plans, to underachieve a little this summer. For once in my life. A lot of things have influenced my decision, and I am not 100 percent sure. It is still so tempting when I recieve all the IEFP and UCS emails from Yale, crammed with amazing opportunities, but the way I see it, opportunities come and go, and plans are allowed to change, but little sisters that are 3, turning ten, and a brother who is about to embark on life only comes once in a lifetime, so I forego arduous personal statement writing, and relentless recommendation seeking to enjoy my first relatively stress free spring, and consequently, summer. However, I do still need to apply for the PKU program. Whatev. I guess that what I'm saying is that I am finally opting to not try not to complicate my life more than I have to.
Wow, the above paragaph came out a little melodramatic. Thank you for reading.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Midterms and a somewhat late reflection on last term
I have gotten through midterms. I did much better than I had expected. Now I just need to get through my speech. Which I believe needs to be 20 minutes long. I need to turn in a script of the speech tomorrow, and I will be presenting it next Tuesday. I believe I will do a speech on the Beatles. a very universal subject that I believe everyone in my class will be able to appreciate, and I also wanted to choose a lighter topic for once.
I am well into my second term at Sogang, after skipping a level, and it is going well, but I never really wrote any closing words about my first term at Sogang.
The first term at Sogang was an interesting mix of old and new for me, material wise. After having come off of a summer with zero Korean, my Korean was nowhere near the level it was in May of 2007, so through a stroke of fate, I was put into level 2, which, now in hindsight, I believe was the best possible level for me at that point. The beginning of the term was mostly review for me, but then we finally started moving into uncharted territory, and it is very true that in the Sogang program, level 2 is the keystone that holds all of your Korean together, so it is a very important level to have done well. I ended up completing the level with a final percentage somewhere in the 90s, can't remember exactly now. I had great teachers, all very special in their own way, however my favorite was my male speaking teacher, I still go downstairs to say hi to him everyday.
I also had a great class. I made 10 friends and 2 enemies. The enemies came about on their accord. I did nothing but be myself. And, honestly, the only source of stress last term came from these two individuals' antagonism towards me. However, I a not one to really let this sort of thing worry me, so it was not much more than a footnote concerning my first term at Sogang. I was indeed bored most of the time, so my this is the reason my teachers, realizing this, encouraged me to skip level three and move right in to the next step in Korean language study at Sogang. The jump between 3 and 4 is huge, day and night. However, given the fact that the first three months in any new place are the hardest, having a relatively easier time at school was very beneficial in making sure that the foundation I created for the rest of my stay in Korea was suitable. Now, school has become a much bigger part of my experience here, just given the new challenges of fourth level. We are actually reading real things now, talking about real issues, debating, and there is simply a much higher level of competency in Korean which makes the class atmosphere a lot more engaging. I am not going to lie, it is still often a little slow for me, but I continue to find ways to challenge myself if Sogang won't do it for me. I am half way thru my second term, so about half way through my entire experience here. It has been a remarkable journey thus far, and I am very excited about what lies ahead.
I am well into my second term at Sogang, after skipping a level, and it is going well, but I never really wrote any closing words about my first term at Sogang.
The first term at Sogang was an interesting mix of old and new for me, material wise. After having come off of a summer with zero Korean, my Korean was nowhere near the level it was in May of 2007, so through a stroke of fate, I was put into level 2, which, now in hindsight, I believe was the best possible level for me at that point. The beginning of the term was mostly review for me, but then we finally started moving into uncharted territory, and it is very true that in the Sogang program, level 2 is the keystone that holds all of your Korean together, so it is a very important level to have done well. I ended up completing the level with a final percentage somewhere in the 90s, can't remember exactly now. I had great teachers, all very special in their own way, however my favorite was my male speaking teacher, I still go downstairs to say hi to him everyday.
I also had a great class. I made 10 friends and 2 enemies. The enemies came about on their accord. I did nothing but be myself. And, honestly, the only source of stress last term came from these two individuals' antagonism towards me. However, I a not one to really let this sort of thing worry me, so it was not much more than a footnote concerning my first term at Sogang. I was indeed bored most of the time, so my this is the reason my teachers, realizing this, encouraged me to skip level three and move right in to the next step in Korean language study at Sogang. The jump between 3 and 4 is huge, day and night. However, given the fact that the first three months in any new place are the hardest, having a relatively easier time at school was very beneficial in making sure that the foundation I created for the rest of my stay in Korea was suitable. Now, school has become a much bigger part of my experience here, just given the new challenges of fourth level. We are actually reading real things now, talking about real issues, debating, and there is simply a much higher level of competency in Korean which makes the class atmosphere a lot more engaging. I am not going to lie, it is still often a little slow for me, but I continue to find ways to challenge myself if Sogang won't do it for me. I am half way thru my second term, so about half way through my entire experience here. It has been a remarkable journey thus far, and I am very excited about what lies ahead.
Friday, January 11, 2008
PICTURES!!!! AT LAST!
After three months of being unable to post pics, I was finally able to. 50 pictures, two per week, chronicling my activities as a Light Fellow, enjoy! And now that I have figured it out, there will be around two per week through June of this year, for all who read my blog, Thank you!
Adam
Adam
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