Strengths and Weaknesses

My roommate is starting to pack her suitcases tonight. The semester ends in two weeks. Not sure if I am ready to see all my semester-long friends leave yet, nor am I willing to face the fact that I am halfway over with my time here in Korea!

Even if it is not me packing, it still pains me to know that my friends who are only here for one semester are starting to pack up their lives in order to step onto a plan to take them back to the reality that we all left behind in August when we left our home countries to come here to this magical and foreign place that we have called home for five months so far. 

My roommate packing symbolizes the passing of time for me here.  I had gotten into a comfortable lull while being here for so long. I have now have routines, I am comfortable with the flow and pace of the city--I am able to dance to the beat of Seoul and not feel out of place like I did when I first arrived. Dare I say that this place is starting to feel like home to me now, much like how I see Sewanee as my home as well?  This realization has also opened my eyes to the fact that I too am going to be leaving at the end of next semester. I too will be packing up my clothes, my life that I have created here in Seoul in to two suitcases and one duffel bag and stepping on to a plane to take me back to the States were I will have to re-familiarize myself to the beat of Charlotte, to Sewanee.

I am growing here in ways that even I can't explain, maybe later when I reflect back on my time here or from others when I see them again, but I am being changed by the city here. I hate having to face the reality that this is all temporary, that I can pack my life away into three bags and just jump onto a plane knowing that I may not have the opportunity to visit this magical place again in the near future. It makes every friendship, every experience that I am creating all the more special and important. 

I guess the true strength and self awareness that people talk about gaining while they are studying abroad is the ability to realize that the experience is temporary, yet it leaves a lasting impression on your soul and continues to resonate in your life for years to come. 

When I lived in Europe I got a small sense of home and connection to the country from being surrounded by the Grolier family that I lived with for the summer. Leaving Belgium and France hurt in that I knew that I was leaving behind a small part of myself and taking a piece of the country with me in my new found confidence in speaking the language. I was proficient in French to the point that I could talk to others in their native language and know what they were saying. On that exchange I became stronger in the way that I came back more confident in my abilities to reach out to others of different cultures. I came back from that trip having found my passion for languages, travel, and learning about other cultures.

I have been here for 5 months and am having my confidence that I found in Belgium tested. I have been thrown back into the beginning levels of a new language and am having to relive the first few years of my French training ( that I barred from my memory because they were that challenging and difficult) in the few months that I have been learning Korean. I am having my ability to adapt to different cultures (again skill I learned while in Belgium) being tested everyday that I leave the dorms; having to force myself not to jump when I hear the sound of a delivery scooter blasting its horn for me to move out of his way on the sidewalk; being able to understand what people ask me in Korean, but not knowing how to reply so remaining silent and letting them think that I don't understand; having to get used to the stares of the older Koreans on the subways and the streets because I am a pierced and tall foreigner ( I know they are staring because of curiosity and not malice, but it still a little off putting...).

I am being tested on this trip, much like I was in Belgium. And as I have been writing this Momo (my roommate) has already finished packing one of her bags. Maybe it is the lateness of the hour (I always get more dramatic at night) or the poetic writer in me rising up form her dormant sleep, but I can't not see it as a metaphor for the packing and closing of my first half of my year long adventure here in Seoul. As she leaves the room, leaving the other suitcase open and empty save for a few articles of clothing, I take that as the metaphor for the second half of this trip to begin.

One semester is already over and with it my learning chances. I had wrote before that I am not sure what I am really taking away from this semester until I think back on these times later, maybe while I am sitting in a class in Walsh-Ellot starting out onto the Central quad while my professor goes on about some political puzzle between two countries, but one this that I do know about this semester is that I have grown. I have also come to appreciate and become thankful for the years that I have put into French to get to the point that I am at today. 

Because having to go through the beginning of learning a new language is very difficult, no matter the language. And having to go through it again is hard enough, the only thing that is helping soften the blows is the fact that because I took French before, I am able to appreciate the mile stones more and know the timeline that I am falling on; the first time I understood a question, the first time I was able to write a simple sentence without needing the textbook, the moment were I was able to understand a line of dialogue in a drama--in a song, the time that I was able to read the chalk board in class and know what we were going to be talking about before the teacher opened her mouth, listing and following the chatter between a mother and child on the subway. All these moment are all the more sweeter because I know where they are on the time line of me becoming conversational in a language.

I am now at the point where I am becoming frustrated with not having the vocabulary and grammatical ability to respond. I want to speak, I want to talk to my Korean friends in Korean and not have to have them speak in English all the time, I want to be able to tell the girl on the subway that I really like her shoes and that I want to know where she got them, I want to tell the couple at the pizza shop that they are adorable together and that I wish that they stay happy together for a long time. I was not at this point in French until my fourth year. I went to Belgium in my sixth year.

This semester is coming to a close in a few weeks. After exams end on the 20th, all the semester long students are expected to move out of the dorms on the 22nd. And with the passing of the semester, my frustrations and nerves grow. I am nervous to what is coming my way in the new semester and over the break, but at the same time I am frustrated in my Korean ability that I am looking forward to the new semester and the chance it will bring for improving my Korean. I want my Belgium moment here in Korea, where i get over my insecurities and am able to communicate.

So as Momo packs, I am wondering what strengths she has gained here in Korea and what  understandings she is going to take back home with her. What will I take back at the end of the year, have I already found my new strength, is it on its way, or will I even get it here during my stay or will it come when I land back on American soil at eh end of my adventure?

Holidays in the East

Now for a non-political post!


After the speech, I went back to the dorm and treated myself to a coffee from Caribou Coffee for being a good speech goer and because if is getting really cold here in Seoul. So when I got into the lobby of my dorm there was a gigantic tree in the middle of the floor. I also got two packages from home and a letter from my grandfather.

When I went up stairs to get my laptop and books to move into the study lounge to work on homework and final group projects, I brought the packages and letter with me. Inside there was candy, treats for my finals, some magazines (Seventeen and my sorority's mag the Angelos), as well as a few wrapped presents for Christmas ( and yes they are still wrapped and now put away with the package of Christmas presents sent by my grandmother a few weeks ago). But my favorite things had to be my grandfather's letter and the letter that my younger sister wrote me. There was no grad expression of love and no come back we miss yous, but they still brought tears to my eyes.

My sister had drawn some pictures for me and talked about how things were going back at home and that she and the family wished me a fun rest of the year and to enjoy Korea. My grandfather was just telling me about daily life at the family farm and what was gong on in hie life, and like normal wanted  me to think about renewing my interest in joining the armed forces. Normal things, but I still teared up. I have missed my family since I passed through security at Charlotte Douglas International Airport was back in August, but this is the first time that I had started tearing up when I had gotten something from them (even now I am getting choked up) or talked to them via Skype.

Family is a really important thing for me, especially around the holiday season starting at Thanksgiving and going all the way into the New Year; mot just my immediate family, but also my extended family, all the way to second and third cousins. To be here in Korea is a life changing experience and I am loving being here, but it is hard at times being removed from my family.My program had a Thanksgiving dinner and I had another one with one of my close friends that I have made over here, but it was just not the  same as being surrounded by my crazy family at one of the multiple AFGs that happened.

And looking to the future, I am going to be in Hong Kong with a friend form middle/high school for Christmas and back here in Seoul for New Years. Both new experiences for me, as they will be the first times that I have spent away form my family. It is weird, because with out my family being here, I have lost the anticipation form waiting for the dates. It is like the sparkle and shine from the holidays is gone, they are just days now.

But that is what they are here in Korea anyway (in Asia actually), from what I have heard about from my friends here in Korea. Christmas and New Years are more holidays targeted toward couples and you really only have major family time if you are really young and or do not have a significant other. Sure there are some families who celebrate like back in the States, but for the most part is just a couple holiday.

But I am not going to let that get me down. I am going to have a great time in Hong Kong and then seeing how Korea celebrates the New Year with the CIEE members who are staying over the break like me. And it is not like I am not going to see any family members over the two month break. In January I am going to visit my cousin who lives in Japan and am going to see *coughstealcough* her 5 month old daughter for the first time. Which is really cool, because I will be the first person on my side of the family to see her in person. Plus I will be able to cook and see Japan with a really close cousin of mine!

So the holidays here in Korea have been a little emotional, or lack there of in some cases. Here is hoping that everyone is enjoying being  with their families for the holidays!!

US VP Speech at Yonsei University

 I just back to the dorms from attending the speech made my the US Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr (yeah, did not know he was a junior either...).

Now, before I get to far into this, I just want to explain a little about myself to warn you all before you all start reading. I am going to be a little more critical than I normally would be when writing about a speech or event the I would attend. I am a registered Republican and voted against Obama and Biden in the past election (would have voted against them twice if I was of age the first time around). Now don't get me wrong, I am not going to give you a lecture on how the Right is superior and that the Left is just made up of disillusioned monkeys, because that is not right. Both sides have their strong points as well as their weaknesses. My personal beliefs and the goals that I have for my country just tend to fall closer to the side of the Conservatives more so than my fellow generational peers. So I did go into this speech with a critical and, I hate to say it, a slightly confrontational mind set about what Mr. Biden was going to be talking about. But I did not want to come across as the raging conservative that most people automatically think of when they hear that someone is a Republican. I did not wear any blue, and kept my red down to just a belt and my scarf, other than that I kept it neutral with a black dress and tights.

I had met up with some friends at the student union and sat with them while they ate lunch so that we could all walk over together. When we got to the venue at 12:30 there was already a group of people outside taking pictures of all the news trucks and police officers. We were directed to the entrance with our passports and tickets in hand. Inside we were subjected to TSA like screenings, but a little bit more intense; no liquids at all ( my friend's TSA approved bottle of Purrel was confiscated)and had to go through super sensitive metal detectors as well as a wand search.

We were on the balcony with a side view of the platform and the windows to our backs. We were seated around 1:15. Well we were sitting there for a really long time. The doors closed at 1:30 and the speech was suppose to start at 2, but at 2:15 we were still waiting. One of my friends sitting next to me, who is also looking into the State Department, and I passed the time guessing and finding high ranking officials down on the floor and making jokes that the speech delay was really a show of power form the US to show the other countries that the US was the hegemonic power in our alliance and that by delaying it, we were displaying our power (all jokes, but I still thought it was slightly funny). I had noticed that the police outside on the street had doubled and had started to line the street. because my attention was on the window adn everyone else  was focused to the floor, I was able to see the brigade of security cars and also Biden's car drive up around 2:30 pm. Man there were so many cars! There was about four or five security cars with I don't know how many SWAT guys (or the Korean equivalent, like 3 police cars, 3 cars just for Biden and his posse, and then a mini bus with reporters that followed him from where ever he came from (the Embassy maybe? Meeting with the Korean President?).

The speech started at 2:45 an opened with a introduction from the President of Yonsei University, a very very short moment of silence for the late Nelson Mandela and Biden apologizing for being over 20 minutes late for the speech. I had already knew that he was going to address in his speech because of the growing tensions between Japan (a US ally) and  China over a set of island to the South of Korea, added to the fact that the US has been sending more troops and military tech to Japan over the years. It was pretty much a talk to reassure the continuation of the US-ROK alliance and continued US presence in the regions with lots of "Go USA" and " Korea is so greats." It was really dis-jointed and jumped form one point to another with out any real flow between the points.

It was really:   peace, love, and flowers-> military is the key and the US will defend our allies with military power-> peace, love, and flowers-> economy growth-> Non of modern Korea would be possible with out the US-> military power-> Nelson Mandela and peace-> Women's rights-> his family-> Irish blessing-> closing.

 If you really want to know more in depth about what he said, you can read my notes below (if you can read my sloppy cursive) or I am sure that there is a copy of the speech on YouTube soon:

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I was mostly wanting to go down to the floor and network with all the Department officials and Embassy personnel. There were people there from other foreign embassies as well, even a few generals, even on form Mexico! I even walked down the stairs with a few high profile people who were speaking French when we were leaving the gymnasium. I did not want to interrupt their conversation, but it was really cool being next to all those high ranking people in the International Relations sector of the world.

After the speech, a few of us CIEE members waited off to the side to wait for Biden to leave/look at all the high ranking people get into their cars. We also got to see the extent of the security for the event--guys there were snipers on the roofs of the surrounding building, SNIPERS!!! There was even a scuffle across the street form us between two guys, nothing really serious, but I did see some of the security guards pulling apart two groups of people. When Biden's car drove past, he waved to us. Now this may not sound like much, but we were off to the side by a tree, hard to see, but I think it was because we were a group of foreigners right by the exit or the parking lot and also standing near the One Star Mexican General (plus my friend was waving) that we caught Biden's eye and he waved at us.

Like I said, he is not my favorite person and I may disagree on some of his and Mr. Obama's domestic and International policies, but this was a one in a lifetime experience. I am glad that I got the chance to attend, because back home in the States, it is almost impossible to attend a speech that intimate with the country's leaders with out pulling on some major contacts.

Weekly Snap Shot

So thought you all would want another quick update on how I have been doing here in Seoul.

• The semester is coming to an end and all of my professors in a made rush for grades have assigned group projects and essays to replace final exams, so I have been really busy working on papers and finding information for group projects. Classes are still going well, but I am just trying to survive all the papers that I have to do. thank goodness that I am a strong writer...

• One the 1st of December, Kaitlyn, Dat, Brandi, Brandi's friend, and I all went to the Speak Show Turn Up Hip Hop festival. It was so much fun. the Opening DJ was playing some really good clubbing music that we were ale to sing along to. We may or may not have made fools of ourselves, because we were the only ones that were dancing during the pre-show. The concert it self was amazing, and there were so many good acts, but man was it long! Four hours standing in a crowd really took a beating to my back and legs (on top of the fact that I was still sore  from my all night clubbing escapades form the night before--I left the dorm at 10 and did not get back until 5:30...) so to say that I was tired and sore was an understatement! But it was totally worth it because I got to see the rap line from Block B do their thing. Their stages were a mix of their own mix-tapes and also a few collabs with some other artist as well as a performance of No Joke (the all rap song off of their full length album released last year)

• I have been getting over a cold. Truthfully I think it was just my body revolting against the few all nighters that I had pulled in a row, combined with the change in the weather here in Seoul. It has been freezing to pleasantly cool, back to freezing for a while now, and I am not sure if my body was ready for all the drastic changes.  But after three days of sleeping early and napping combined with inhaling all the soup and Vitamin C in a 10 mile radius, i think I am starting to feel better. Actually tonight I have some beef and mushroom Juk (thick rice porridge) and then got miniture sized shot glass of drinkable Vitamin C adn am feeling so much better. Now let's hope that this is almost over, finals are in a few weeks!

Well back to group projects. Will try to start updating more!

Dinner Parties and Bread Pillows

So I was lucky enough to be invited over to one of the Seoul Mates' house this past weekend for a dinner party. In total 5 of us students went, while 4 of the Seoul Mates were there. We were gong to meet up at exit 2 at the subway station that was near YuJeong (Seoul Mate host)'s apartment. Now let me tell you all about the subway system here in Seoul. I love it and it is very easy to understand (unlike the bus system *shutters*), but sometimes it takes a lot longer than you think it does, especially if you have two different trains using the same line (ie express bullet trains verses the normal All Stop train). Well long story short, I missed the all stop train the first time around and had to wait awhile until it came again after the express train had come and gone. Never felt so much like a salmon swimming upstream then I did when the express train let off all those people who had to transfer to the inner circle line, very glad that I was able to stand on the other side of a column while they  all poured out around  me.

I eventually made it to the station I needed to get to and also met up with my group of friends at the exit we needed to be at (thankfully, because I have no data on my phone at the moment, so not outgoing text/calls for me). When everyone was there, we left the subway and walked to the corner grocery store by my friend's apartment and bought meat, sesame leaves, beer, soda, and other foods for our dinner. It was not that back, split between everyone there, we only had to pay about 5000 won per person (about $5).

our poison for the night, mostly stayed to the soda and Max

After getting the food for the night, we went to YuJeong's apartment to start the festivities. When we got in, we left our shoes by the front door like custom and then made ourselves comfortable in the living room area while the Koreans all started to cook our dinner. We helped them out by bringing the finished dishes to the table and set the atmosphere for the event. We all were talking and swapping stories. I even played DJ for the night!

I made a new friend for the night! We named him 빵이, or in English "Bready"

Dinner was amazing! We had the meat rapped in the sesame leaves with hole grilled garlic bulbs with rice and also an odeng soup that YuJeong had made that was so good! For those of you that do not know what odeng soup is, it is a presses fish cake that in cooked in a broth with onions and radishes for a long time until all the different flavors are blended together to make a great warm soup that is not to strong in any one flavor.

the meat that was also grilled with the whole garlic cloves, the lettuce/sesame leaves, and the Odeng  soup with rice

After dinner we cleaned up the table and the dishes and started playing Card Against Humanity, aka Apples to Apples the rated R version. Let's just say that it is a little  awkward playing with non-native speakers, because every now and then we would come across a phrase or word that they did not know, and all of us native speakers would just look at each other and silently ask who would be the one to explain what was gong on (for example it really hard to explain what "Queefing" is to a non native speaker). Even though truthfully even I had no idea what some of the card were saying, but I knew that in the context what they were getting at.

We played for a few rounds, until most of the card were in the discard pile. But unfortunately our night had to come to an early end, because the last train was running at 11:30 that night.  So since we had to get the last train, we all speed walked through he neighborhood to get to the train station. It must have been really funny to watch us. There we were 5 people all speed walking/jogging in a  line through the side streets in the dark just laughing as our breathes were puffing in the late night cold--like little penguins in a row!

We got the last rain and then had to run like mad-women through the transfer station so that we could get the last train that would take us to Ewah station (we were on the other side of the Han, so it would have been a little pricey cab ride). Well we got to the station on time after having run to the wrong side then sprint to the other side. Note for the future, never sprint in the subways after you have had lots of soda and a few beers while you gorge yourself on grilled meat and later chocolate brownies!!!

It was a great night, but it was also a great honor to have been invited. Here in Korea, it is really rare to be invited to other people's home. There is not real thing here as a sleep over among friends and dinner parties for friends. It is a real western idea, and not really a thing here in the Land of the Morning Calm. But to be invited really showed me how close I was considered as a friend and that they really wanted to get to know us in a more relaxed manner. Really hope that I can get the opportunity again!
 
고마워 유정 언니!

photo by YuJeong. I had such a great nigh!!!

Buzz Korea Awards

 So I am going to talk about my time attending the 2013 Buzz Korea Award ceremony. I was invited a few weeks back by my fried David, whom I meet at the filming for After School Club that I did way back in September (He is the really tall guy who was on my team during the games). His friend was up for an award and was able to get us in to the event for free, meaning we did not have to apply for tickets and were able to just go in.

We were going to meet up at Wangsimni station, but we had a little mix up of communication because they were at a different part of the subway than I was. I waited around for about 20 min and even called a friend of mine (the wonderful Kaitlyn) to be my ghost writer on Facebook to see if we could get in contact with them, before I decided to go top side and find a cafe so I could use their WiFi. I ended up getting a small hot chocolate from the Dunkin Donuts in order to get the WiFi password and eventually was able to find out where they were and meet them at the platform. I meet up with David, Yin Suen, and Hibaq (more ASC film mates) and their friends from their university here in Korea. We eventually made it to Jamwon station were we go off the subway and were able to take the free event shuttle to the location of the award ceremony.

I had passed this place before when I had visited the Han River before, and was really excited that I was able to go inside this time. The event location was inside of a lounge, cafe area that was built of a floating block in the river, connected to the shore by a long gangway. Since we had to split up the group because of room on the shuttle bus, the first group and I went inside and checked in and got our tickets/wrist bands. After checking in we were ushered upstairs and let loose upon the buffet while we waited for the awards start time. There was a really good all-you-can-eat Korean buffet that had a lot of the traditional food and drinks like bibimbap, ddeokgalbi, and even some traditional rice cake desserts. There was also an open free bar that was serving jager bombs and Orange Juice ( I am thinking that Jagermeiser and Red Bull may have been sponsors because we were also allowed to take full cans of Red Bull if we wanted--found that out later after it was too late). Our other friends arrived a little after we got our food from the buffet and it really turned into a party-- and by party I mean that we all stuffed our faces full of free gourmet Koran food and super delicious western desserts until we literally could not eat anymore.

free Jagerbambs

My dinner, the first plate of about three

the mouth watering sweets and free coffee

Thankfully, before I went back and stuffed my face with more cake and macaroons, the staff members come over and told us that the awards were starting and that we needed to go back to the second floor and head into the auditorium (same floor where we checked in on). The hall was like the size of any small ceremony hall. When we had checked in we were given wrist bands with table numbers and seat numbers, so we split up to go find our tables for the night. I was at table 8 (there was a total of 20 tables I believe) so I was really close to the stage.

the program for the evening

The MC for the event was Ricky Kim, a really famous model and actor here in Korea ( he is from Hawaii originally so he was perfect for the all English award show!) and is a major hottie if I do saw so myself.

 The show started up with a few opening words form the Director of Buzz Korea, Mr. Shin. and then lead on to the performance by female group Dal Shabet. They performed about 4-5 songs and then at the end of their stage, they had a drawing from a questionnaire that the guests filled out when they checked in. The winners were given a signed copy of their new album. My friend David was the first winner that they called, which is funny because he was the one that was telling us to go downstairs and fill it out while we were all enjoying the buffet--I did not go down, I was too busy stuffing my face and taking pictures! 

My friend David

After the opening dance performances, there was the actual awards ceremony. The awards were given out to bloggers and people who actively promoted Korea and the Buzz Korea website. I really did not know any of the winners, but it was still cool to see the get awards for their blogs and activities. After the awards were over, there was a drawing for three winners from the audience to win some really cool things. The three prizes were 1) a necklace and earring set from a really poplar TV show here in Korea (the Master's Sun) 2) A signed sports jacket from ZE:A's new clothing line  3) and a backpack that was worn by a popular idol in some TV show. Non of us in my group won anything but we still had a great time cheering on the winners and holding our breathes to see if we won.

After te drawings, we had a performance from 8 of the 9 members of the boy group ZE:A (Kwanghee was at another schedule and could not make it).

You sing it Kevin!!

The one on the far left is also acting in a really popular drama right now in Korea called "Heirs"

They were really good and performed about 4 songs as well as two encore performances. They also had a give away of signed CDs, but to win these the fans had to go on stage and be one of the top dancers from the fans in order to get a CD. One of the girls who was in our group (who is French btw) went up on stage and worked it! Sadly, she did not win, but everyone said that she should have been one of the three winners that were chosen to get the signed CDs.

After the ZE:A performance, the awards where done and we were asked to start heading out the back where we would be able to get cake and also our goodie bags (I think they are referred to as "Swag Bags" nowadays...). My group staid back and were one of the last to leave, because we wanted to thank David's friend for inviting us and it also allowed the crowd to thin out for us.

After collecting our swag bags, with was a box filled with generous sized samples of Korea Beauty products, we caught one of the free shuttles back to the subway and then headed back to the dorms.

the venue as we were leaving

Remember when I mentioned that one of the girls was French? Well she had meet up with three other French girls at the event who happened to be heading in ht same was as we were. They were talking up a storm on the subway, and i was able to follow most of it. But the cool thing was when the rest of the French group got off and there was one of the girls left, I struck up a conversation with her about her time here in Korea and such. My French still flowed like water with a few hiccups, where some of my Korean would pop in, but I was really happy that I was still able to talk to people in French. Even though there are a lot of French speakers here at the dorm (they tend to hang out amongst themselves or the other Europeans, not really meshing with us Americans) I have not really gotten the chance to talk to any of them and practice like the way that I would like to. Hopefully soon, there will be a small pocket of them that will stay so I can practice my French over the winter break!

I'm Still Alive

So as you all might have seem, I have not updated in a while. I just have been really busy with midterms and group projects that I have not really had all that much time to update on here and in my personal journal that I have here with me (ohh, don't you all want to know what I write in there! So much stuff that I don't post on here!!! jk). But I am going to be updating in a format that my friend uses on her blog and it seems to work for her. I promise better posts in the future!!

• I am really loving the street food here. So far my favorite is the waffles (warm waffles with flavored cream and sugar!!). But we also have dumplings, chicken, hoddok (fried dough disk with nuts and spices inside), ddokbokki (chewy rice cakes in a chili sauce), and french fried covered hotdogs (yes they exist and I had one--so good!!!)

• I have been to a total of 3 Simply Kpop recordings (was interviewed by Eli for ep 88, adn introduced ep.82) , have been on an Arirang radio show for an interview, one live recording for After School Club, the Seoul Concert for the YouTube Music Awards, and two showcases--> Block B and VIXX!!

• School is going really well and I have group projects in all of my classes except for Korean. For my Traditional Korean Society and Modernization class I had to do a group project on Korean Dating Culture; for my Pacific Alliance class we are talking about the US-Australian Alliance and how Australia's growing economic dependence on China may interfere with the strategic alliance they have with the US; for my North Korean class we are going to be presenting on the Inter Korean Relations (past and present).

• Korean is going great. I am able to respond to my teacher and answer her questions, but have yet to really use it all that much out side of class (other than restaurant/ordering Korean). I am really able to read and write more so than speak at the moment. I have been getting frustrated because since I am conversational in French, I feel like I should be so much farther ahead, but I have to keep reminding myself that I have only been studying it for about 4 months now (vs 7 years).

• The weather here in Seoul is starting to look like winter. There is still lots of color around, but ti is really really cold here. You need to dress in layers and always have a sweater/coat on. I actually ended up getting a face mask to wear over my mouth/chin area and after one day of wearing it in the cold I think it was a good buy. When I am out int he cold, it is my chin that freezes over first, so with this, I am really warm because the warm air that I breath out warms up my chin! Plus it looks really cool!
  
  
  
  
  
  

• The semester is coming to an end and all my friends are starting to think about packing and heading back home. Since I am staying here over the break and not flying back to Charlotte, I am thinking of visiting a friend of mine in Hong Kong for Christmas and then later in January, going to stay with my cousin in Japan for a week. Other than that I am going to be here in Seoul for the whole 2.5 months that we have off ( I plan on bugging all of my Korean friends to hang out with me/all of my fellow foreigners that are staying here). Maybe I will do more kpop shows...

• I have really started missing American food and also my mom's cooking. Because we do not have an oven in the dorms, I am not really able to cook all that much. I have really been abusing my cooking board on Pinterest looking at all the foods that I am not able to eat over here and pinning the recipes for when I get back to the states. And now that Thanksgiving is right around the corner, I am really starting to miss home and my mommy's cooking. I would give anything to have Uncle Chuck's gooey mac and cheese with a huge bowl of my mom's cornbread dressing. Ahh I am making myself hungry right now.  We are having a Thanksgiving dinner with my program, but I am not really sure how authentic the "fixins" are going to be here, but I am intrigued about what a Korean Thanksgiving is going to be like.

I will be putting up a longer post about the Seoul Lantern Festival later. Hope the new format is ok for you all to read and understand. I might be doing this again if I get anymore behind on my posts since it helps me talk about a lot in a short amount of time.

Later!
SPF

MU:CON Seoul 2013

Sorry for all of you that waited so long for this post. Alright here is my blog about attending the MU:CON Seoul 2013 Showcase!

I had entered into a drawing to get free tickets to the show (only offered to foreigners) and got in, so I went over to Gangnam pretty early so that I would have plenty of time to get lost and also figure out how I was able to pick up the tickets that I had won, because all I got from the MU:CON people was a text message and an email; nothing about where to pick up the tickets or how to go about doing that.   I really did not know where the Gangnam Beyond Museum was, but was very pleasantly surprised to find out that it is in the same area as CUBE and JYP Entertainment (for those of you in Seoul). 

So I got there and stood in line behind the five people who got there before me.  At this point I was still under the assumption that the showcase started at 5, but after standing in line for about 30 minutes and there was no one else there and the staff members were still setting up tables and lounging around I later tapped into someone’s unprotected Wi-Fi (I have come to love the people that don’t lock their Wi-Fi, also Cafes …) and was able to see that the showcase actually started at 7, so I had another 45 minutes to wait. I was pretty hungry because I had not really eaten al day in order to make sure that I had enough money to get back on the subway to the dorms (I am getting better at my finances now…). But I did not want to leave form my spot in line because as we were waiting, more and more people were starting to line up behind me. 

When the ticket counter finally opened up, we all got our tickets (they had a slight problem with mine because I never got the bar code via SMS…problems of not having a smart phone…), given free bottles of coconut water,

 and were let into the venue. It was a small open area that had the stage and sound booth set up. Since I was standing room only, we were brought in and told to stand behind to rope they had set up a foot or two away from the stage. There were not that many people, maybe about 50-75 at the absolute maximum. Since I was one of the ones who had gotten in the front of the line, I had a pretty good spot right at the front of the group, touching the rope. Unfortunately they created an area for press in the front, so there was some moving around for us in the crowd and I was replaced in the very front. All was good though because I still ended up being pretty close. I was behind two really short Koreans and was standing right next to the main camera (which was really good!).

The showcase started off with two International acts: Ming Bridges (from Singapore)

 and Olga Stelmakh (from Russia).

 Both of them were pretty good, a little too pop-y (Ming) and slightly too folky (Olga) but I would listen to them if they were on the radio, but may not actively go out and get their CDs. But the funny thing was, they both kept staring at me. By now I feel like I should tell you that I was the only westerner there, so whenever the international acts were on they would talk to me because I was the only one that was able to understand them and react to what they were saying (They both had accented English).  So I tried to be very active in listening and tried to sing along the best I could while they were performing because the Korean audience members were not reacting all that much. 

After the two international acts were over, the next artist was Lim Kim. Now let me get this out there. I have seen her perform about five times now, four times during the Simply Kpop filming and now for this, but Miss Kim has the emotional range of a wet tissue.  It may be the concept that her company gave her, but I just don’t see the emotion in her performances and in real life. She has a great set of pipes, I am not arguing that (I think she is one of my favorite solo female singers—means a lot because I usually don’t listen to many female artists), but she is like a freaking doll when she is present on stage. I hate to admit it, but I love to watch her background dancers and see what expressions they have during the dance. I really like the main guy dancer because he is really laid back. From my position in the crowd, I could see the staging area for the next acts and watched him goof around with the other dancers before they went on stage; he also did this during the breaks in filming for Simply Kpop.  Just a random side note that maybe showing how many of these things I go to, but I notices that Lim Kim was missing two of her dancers (one of the guys and one of the girls). She only had two sets and the guy and not the three couples that she had for Simply Kpop…

Miss Kim the beautiful doll. I really want to have her stylist buy me clothes, I am in love with all of her stage outfits!

Any who, back to the event. After Lim Kim left, the next stage was Tasty. Tasty is a two man dance/pop group here in South Korea under Woollim Entertainment (Now a branch of SM Ent.) and are well known for their dancing skills. Well, let’s just say that the Twings (Tasty fanclub) showed up in full force and was cheering and waving for the whole stage. And rightfully so that they would cheer, the boys were great. The thing that really stuck with me though was how tall there guys were and the fact that they sweated a whole lot (they really go all out in those dances—hard choreography too!). I mean I knew that they were tall for Koreans (well truthfully they are Chinese-Korean, but you know what I am saying), but actually seeing them on stage, I was able to see that they are actually 6+ feet tall! After their stage and the screaming stopped, I started to rub my ears to try to stop the ringing and got the attention of the press filming ajusshi (“older man” in Korean—still respectful) and he joked with me about fan girls and asked me how I was liking the showcase so far, all in broken English and Korean by the way. He was a nice guy…

Anyway, after Tasty came Rainbow, a girl group from South Korea. They were good, but I truthfully had never heard any of their songs before. Their stage was good, just a little too cutesy for me.  Most of the guy fans were ecstatic and one of them, (a younger guy, maybe high school) who was first in line to get tickets, was really into them. He had even made signs and was screaming his heart and feelings out. 

After Rainbow came the act that I was really looking forward to seeing—a collaboration piece between Phantom (Korean hip-hop/R&B group), The Geeks (Korean hip-hop/light rap group), and S4 (a band that I follow and like from Indonesia).  But first a little background on why I wanted to see this stage:

Way back in fall of 2012, I was reading an article on one of my kpop news sites and came across an article about Hyuna being featured in a song for a new group out of Indonesia. Well I looked at the video and loved it! It was very similar kpop, with the bright lights, eye catching costumes, dancing beats, and slightly cheesy storyline. The only difference was that they were singing in Indonesian, which with the rolling sounds and sensual way that it rolls of the speakers tongue (much like romance languages in my opinion) I was hooked. So what do I do being a well-connected SNS personality? I of course hooped onto twitter and found their accounts and let them know that I really liked their song and that they had found a new fan. Well that led to their youngest tweeting me back and asking where I was from, one of their singers dm-ing me to thank me for their support, their manager kept retweeting my posts about how much I loved their video, and their leader following me for about 8 months (idk why he stopped following me—I guess I am a boring tweeter…idk).  So when I got the chance to see their stage live I really wanted to go see it, thus why I applied for the tickets. 

S4 was the first of the group to go out on stage. They sang their ballade song, Mungkin, first. Really beautiful ballad on my headphones, but in real life gave me the chills (even now Jeje’s voice is playing over in my head and I am getting feels). After Mungkin, they got into position and started to perform their debut song She is My Girl. It was really funny, because as they were performing, I was singing along with them and I was getting so many looks from the Koreans that were around me. They were all probably thinking where the heck I had come from, because they had heard me talking to the camera men and I was definitely American, but here I was singing along to the Indonesian song like it was my native language ( I might have heard the song one to many times).  

But, to see the four of them live on stage and there in person was just amazing and such and awe inspiring moment. Here were these guys that I have only seen through my computer screen in real life in front of me. The feeling was different from the times that I saw the k-idols because unlike them, I had actually gotten to interact with S4; I talked to them via twitter, they had retweeted my posts to show their followers—I knew them on a “closer” level than the k-idols I had only ever seen through videos on YouTube. You guys understand what I am talking about? And I think they recognized me (other than the fact that I was the only white girl there in the crowd and they had retweeted my tweet about being in line only a few hours before they had gotten on the stage) because during She is my Girl, Firly, the leader, made eye contact with me and winked (that or it was in my general direction because I was standing next to the camera…).  

 

The Four guys in position for their Ballade song

LtR: Arthur (vocalist), Firly (leader and main dancer), and Jeje (main singer)

LtR: Jeje and Alif (youngest member, singer, and dancer)

After S4 did their songs, The Geeks came out and did their stage. The Geeks are a hip-hop/R&B duo here in Korea and have a relatively big following amongst my age group. They were alright; I had never heard any of their songs before, so it was hard for me to really get into the song though. But the next group, Phantom was really cool.

Phantom is an older group (age-wise) for the Korean music scene; and is a really good hip-hop/rap/R&B group. I had actually heard a snippet of their most recent song. But I definitely liked their stage a little bit more than the Geeks’ stage.  Phantom has three members and all of them really liked that I was there; because they wanted me to sing along with the crowd (they made eye contact and motioned for me to sing along).

After their solo stage, Firly, the main singer in Phantom and the two guys from the Geeks came out to do a collaboration of the song Moves Like Jagger by Maroon Five.  I had a really fun time during this stage and I think the guys did too! They were dancing all around the stage and looked pretty glad that I was singing along with the whole song and not just the chorus like the rest of the audience.  

~*~*~Rant Start~*~*~*~*~* 

Ok I know that I keep mentioning that I may have been one of the few people who knew English and really gave reactions during the stages. I am not trying to say that the Koreans in the audience were not responsive, but a lot of them just stood there and enjoyed the music. I have found that most Koreans are like that even in the clubs. They go there to enjoy the music but don’t really participate in actively allowing the music to move them. There was no dancing or anything in the audience during the showcase. I even started to do shoulder pops and mini torso waves during some of the songs because I just had the sudden urge to dance, but had to stop myself when I was given some weird looks by my neighbors.

~*~**~*~*~*Rant over*~*~*~*~*~

But the joint stage was really fun and all I wanted to do was to dance along with the guys on stage, but was limited to small body waves and shoulder pops because the crowd was really dense around were I was. 

Noise Mob

After the joint stages and another hip-hop group named Noise Mob (pretty good, may not go out and get CD, but still good)

, I was introduced to the Soul Dive. Seoul Dive is a three man hh/rb/rap group. They were really good too! They really interacted with the audience, probably one of the groups that did it the best out of all the artists. They also really liked that I was there because one of the singers kept looking right at me and would point his mic in my general direction to get me to sing along with the song. At the end of their stage, they all jumped off the stage and started to give the people high-fives, but when they got to me they interlocked fingers and held on for a few seconds, where as they only hit hands with the others in the crowd.

Really cute guy in Soul Dive

The guy in the glasses kept interacting with me when he was singing. He was the one who would stare at me until I started to sing with the corwd.

Soul Dive. This guy initiated the holding hand fives that the group gave me

The last group that performed was Dok2 and Beenzino. 

 I really enjoyed their stage, even though it was very similar to their stage at the AOMG Launch party that I went to the night before. But man, the Koreans here really like their hip hop.  I know that I stated before that they are not really big into dancing at shows and doing anything other than enjoying the songs and maybe moving their hands. Well Dok2 and Beenzino had the whole crowd singing along and moving their hands up and down (I got bumped in the head a few times…tall people problems). It was so strange to see the Korean girl next to me all dresses up in a very cute pink flowy skirt with a cream sweater sing along to every word about how the “Bitch best check my profile” and saying every cuss word and sexual hint that was scattered in the verses. But like I said the stage was really good and fun because people were actually (finally) actively cheering and participating in the experience. 

Beenzino

Dok2 (Pronounced Dok-ee; 2= EE in Korean)

But after the show, we all headed out into the now (thankfully) chilly Seoul night and went back to our homes here in the city.  I kind of wish that I had gone out after S4’s stage so I could  have had a chance to meet them outside of the showcase, because I know that some of my friends who went to the free show the day before got to see the international acts and talk to them.  But unfortunately once their stages were over, most of the artist went off to do whatever they do here in the city.  But still it was a great show and I got a list of new artists that I need to start listening to more. Plus I was able to stock up on all the extra coconut waters that they were giving out!