Halloween Update

Aside from a few small foreign parties, Halloween isn’t really celebrated in Korea. And given my dislike for the foreign parties, I haven’t attended any. Thus, no Halloween pictures. Sorry fellas.

Life has recently consisted of presentations, class, and football. What this basically means is that aside from continuous updates on  what is happening at football practice or what position I was in when I fell asleep in class, there isn’t too much to talk about. However, given it has been about a week since my last update there is enough to cover for this entry to be fairly interesting.

This week has seen my personal stress levels rise, as my American upbringing is finally starting to lead to culture clashes with the Europeans. In addition, due to football and me being me, I’ve been fairly tired and thus even more irritable. And to top everything off, I haven’t been hanging out with my Korean friends as much as I’d like, due to how busy I am and how busy they are. I think I’ve mentioned before that I really enjoy seeing my Korean friends and typically hang out with them more than the Europeans, so the shift over the past week I’m sure didn’t help the situation. Things are starting to return to normal, luckily, and now I’m seeing the Koreans more which makes me incredibly happy.

As far as school goes, the only really exciting thing, or at least could have been exciting, was a trip to the Korean Exchange (KRX). Unfortunately, KRX was pretty dull. We went to hear a conference on a variety of exchange topics, from oil to bacon, but they were dreadfully boring. The bacon talk was completely reading what was on the slides, with no extra explanation and not even a hint of passion. On top of that, after every sentence he would take a small break and allow a lady to translate into Korean. The next talk, which I left before, was on Japanese oil trade I believe, and I was told that the slides were in English, the presentation in Japanese, and the translation into Korean. I’m glad I missed it. We were also given a short tour of KRX, which is now basically empty as almost everything has been automated. The tour was the best part by far, but not what I was hoping for. It was basically a museum tour. There were no business men, nobody yelling or fighting for a better location, just smooth automated emptiness. My next field trip is to a prison in a city just north of Seoul, so hopefully that will be a little more exciting… but only a little. Perhaps enjoyable is a better word to use when referring to prisons…

Over the past week it has also become increasingly apparent that everyone is really adjusting to life here. A lot of the Europeans (shockingly in some cases) are getting Korean girlfriends or are dating other exchange students. People are starting to make their own travel plans just for the weekends. Of course, while everyone else now has a girlfriend, I’m still single. Still flirting, still meeting new people, but still single. On the other hand, my travel is increasing pretty rapidly. This weekend I’m going just outside Seoul for a thing called m.t. or membership training. It has nothing to do with any kind of training as far as I know. Rather, it is a chance for members of a club or group to spend the weekend getting to know each other better. I’m looking forward to it. The following weekend I will be traveling to Kyeong ju (although I’m sure I spelled it wrong), one of the old capital cities. A friend from one of my classes invited me and some other foreigners to go. It should be a good experience, especially going with a Korean. I’m also working on plans to go to the DMZ in the next few months.

On a different note, the weather has become markedly colder again after a brief warm spell. I’m very happy because now all the leaves are starting to change colors and everyday it’s becoming more beautiful. I can’t wait to get outside Seoul and into the mountains because at this point they should be really incredible.

I’ll try to give updates a little more regularly now that my presentations and midterms are over and I’m starting to become more active again.  I think that I should have quite a bit to talk about over the next few weeks.

Seoul Football Champions!!!

The SKKU Royals are now the Seoul University League Champions! Yesterday we won our game 21-0 against Han Yang. It was a great game for us, me included. Not only did I get my first tackle, I also helped in a fumble recovery and even got to play a few minutes at wide receiver. No plays were passing to me, but I got to play which is a start. After the game was the award and trophy presentation ceremony, followed by a lot of celebrating. Up next is the National Championship tournament, starting sometime in November. No practice this week because of midterms. Also this week I think I am going to order my team letterman jacket. Wide Receiver #32 baby!

In slightly related, but not really, news, Seoul has gotten very cold since Friday. I don’t know exactly how cold, but when I can see my breath I consider it cold. I’m actually kind of happy because I really like my cold weather clothing.

In a last bit of news, the team photographer, a former team member, made me a Korean name. I’m proud to say that I’m now Song Seon, with song pronounced with the o like in own, and Seon like son or sun. I guess the meaning for Song is somebody with great prosperity, and Seon is honest and a good heart.

Before I forget, this past week I was busy with presentations, but I think they all went fine. Otherwise no big news. Like I said, this week is midterms and I have one Monday and one Tuesday. No other plans yet, aside from lunch with the football guys. I think it is safe to say that I’m getting a very different experience and education than what all of the other exchange students are. I think I’m one of the few that spends more time with Koreans than with other exchange students too. I love it.

Hongdongji Play

Today my friend from Kazakhstan and I were treated to an incredible experience. One of my friends from the festival graduated with a major in set design and is currently working on a masters in theater production (or something like that). As such, he has quite a few friends in the theater world here in Seoul. Thursday night he invited me and a friend to come to a play that one of his friends is in, so I invited my Kazakhstan friend because we were planning on meeting to discuss a presentation anyway.

We met him at Dongdae Ip Gu, and then travelled to the National Theater. Like I said, the football team has my camera so unfortunately I don’t have pictures, but it was very nice looking. There are actually three different theaters there. He picked up the tickets for us and after that we went in and watched.

The play, called Hongdongji Play, is kind of a fusion between traditional Korean play and modern play styles. It featured a great use of satire and humor, large puppets, and wonderful music all performed by actors. The play was in Korean, but there was a monitor on the side that had English translations of everything. The translations were perfect, going so far as to change the jokes a little to make sure that they made sense in English also. Truly, it was the best experience I have ever had at the theater. The play was very unique compared to anything else I have ever seen, and it was incredibly well performed. I highly recommend checking it out if you can, though I’m not really sure when showings are, or how to get tickets.

After the play we met two of the actors who also were the people that reserved the tickets for us. They were both very nice, but as always they were nervous about speaking English. However, they were both really happy to meet foreigners and really wanted to meet again. They also assured us that next time would be a better experience because they are funny guys and it will show next time. They’re also starting a new play in late November, so I should be going to see that also. I invited one of the guys to play football with us if he wants to try it, but I’m not sure if he’ll try it or not. All in all, it was a good night with a great play.

Going to the Championships

The SKKU Royals are going to the championships, and I couldn’t be any more thrilled. I’m still only playing kick team, but I suspect that I’ll be getting some time at split end (the left wide receiver) soon. Or at least I hope. At least I got a hit in this last game, though not the tackle. Tackle went to the guy right behind me who luckily had my back. It really felt good to finally get a hit in though. This next game they’ve told me that I have to get a tackle, so the pressure’s on.  The championships go from November to January.

Of course, after the game was dinner followed by drinking followed by more drinking. This time I realized I hit my limit and stopped relatively early. However, we got lots of great pictures on my camera. Unfortunately, the football team has my camera at the moment so they can put the pictures on the website. I’ll be getting the pictures up on Facebook once I have my camera back, and eventually I’ll get them onto Photobucket.  However, that probably won’t be until Thursday at the earliest, for reasons I’ll go into below.

This week is going to be hell for me. Tuesday is a 20 minute presentation on Korean social stratification, followed by a full class presentation/discussion on Wednesday about Globalization and Social Welfare. I’m not looking forward to either one, but once they’re finished life should be much more peaceful.

Ballal Han Festival

For the past two weeks I’ve been helping out with a school festival, organized entirely by students. This was the festival that I did the modeling for the poster for. Pictures are up on Facebook.

I don’t really feel like going into too much detail because the festival was four days long and it would take hours for me to type about everything. I’ll simply say that I thought the students did an incredible job, and for the organizers I think it was a very big learning experience. Dealing with sponsorship issues, advertising, organizing, etc. led to a lot of stress for them, but the did an incredible job in pulling it all off. We’ll see what the students thought once the results of a survey come in, but I was quite impressed.

The festival featured concerts by students and professional bands, movies, a cafe with tarot card readings and other small performances, some guest speakers, and 3 different plays. The cafe did very well, making a profit after the second day which makes me happy because that’s what I spent the most time working on.

In other news, the last game of the season is played tomorrow, and if we win we move on to the  Seoul city championships. Unfortunately, our two main quarterbacks are both injured, but I think our replacement will be ready and fine for the game. He’s fast, strong, and good on his feet, and he has a good arm. One of our main defensive linemen, an incredible player, also has a leg injury but I think he’s planning to play anyway. Our kicker, one of the injured quarterbacks, is also going to be doing kicking despite a broken thumb. These guys constantly amaze me, and I really hope we win tomorrow for their sake. I’ve been moved to wide receiver, which means that I won’t get any play time again because I’m still learning the plays and techniques. However, I think I’m improving on the kicking team so I at least get to be a little excited for that.

Also tomorrow is the SKKU international day and the SKKU alumni day, which is going to have some very famous artists performing including IVY. I doubt I’ll be there because of the game, but in the small chance that I will I’ll be sure to write about it.

I’ll move pictures from facebook to photobucket soon so that readers can take a look. Just probably not today. Still have football practice and have to put more money on my phone.

Busy Busy Busy

Small update, just in case I can’t update later this week. Monday through Thursday I’m working in the Movies section of a school festival so I’ll be doing that from about 8pm to 1am or so. I’m not completely sure on the times. In addition, I also have a presentation Thursday afternoon, so I’ll be working on that in my very rare free time. The presentation is 10 minutes on the free trade agreement between the US and Korea. Shouldn’t be too hard, but it will take time. There is also, as always, football practice. This week, we’re just practicing Wednesday and Friday, since today (Sunday) we had a game, which we won. If we win our next game I think we move on to the Seoul city championships, followed by the national championships. Also, I should, finally, be picking up my laptop, hopefully with only about 30,000 won in taxes.

 Basically, this week is crazy for me, so don’t expect updates until next Sunday because I really don’t know when I’ll have the time. Oh, and in case I forgot to mention it before, dinner after the festival is over is definitely a go. Coupled with the win today, I’m incredibly happy.

Field trips

Both of my classes dealing with Korea have now had field trips, and both in the same week. I’ve had to cancel lunch plans twice because of that, so already I’m not too happy about them. However, I’m even less happy because both field trips were pretty bad. Tuesday we went to the Korea Museum of History or something like that. For 40 minutes. No wonder I can’t even remember the name. Traffic in Seoul strikes again. If a teacher ever tries to take you on a bus for travel, insist on taking the subway. There was a stop right across the street from the museum and we honestly would have had at least 30 minutes more in the museum, probably closer to an hour more.

Today, Thursday, we had another feld trip, this time to the Bank of Korea Museum, and we actually got a tour of the museum which was nice, but the planning of the trip was less than stellar so we spent more than an hour looking for the meeting point and waiting for others to show up. The Bank of Korea Museum was much better than I was expecting though, so that was nice. They actually managed to make a museum about money fairly interesting, with lots of examples and some interactive areas. I wouldn’t say it’s a must-see, but if you have some free time in Myeongdong I’m pretty sure it’s free so why not go check it out? No pictures, as always, but this time it was due to the rules, not because I forgot my camera. The museum even gave us a parting gift, a small notebook, and I left with a good impression.

To touch on the last update a little more, I had to cancel all the lunch plans I mentioned because of the field trip. I rescheduled the plans for today, but again had to cancel because I thought the field trip was on Friday, not today. Maybe next week I’ll have better luck. Unfortunately next week I think I’m going to be very busy as I have a presentation on Thursday, the festival that I mentioned before, football practices, and probably a few language exchanges. The festival is going pretty smoothly so far. Tuesday night we worked from about 7pm to 4am on chairs for one portion of the festival, and I got lots of time to talk and flirt with the girl I mentioned. She has even agreed to dinner once the festival is finished so I’m pretty happy about that. Yesterday (Wednesday) they were working on more chairs and some stages, but I wasn’t able to help as I was in football practice from 12-3 and 5-8, with a seminar and lunch/dinner between. I’m definitely feeling the practices today. I have bruises, I’m sore, I’m tired. I basically feel like I did when I was first starting with the team. So I guess that’s a sign that I’m improving or getting more fit.

Tonight I have a language exchange followed by my roommate’s birthday celebration. Tomorrow I think I’m doing more language exchange or maybe just catching a movie and lunch, followed by football practice at 5 as always. Saturday is luckily a day off, so I’ll probably be working on homework or maybe helping with the festival, or ideally both. Sunday we have a game, and I doubt I’ll get to play outside of the kicking team, if even that. Luckily the game is in Seoul this time so I may actually have time in the day to do something else.

Computer still hasn’t come in, and I still haven’t heard any updates on the tax issue.