Day 162: My Dad in Korea

So it's the second day of my father being in Korea and boy has it been tiring taking him around places in Seoul. Fun, of course, but tiring. 

He arrived on the 17th of 2011, this being his first time outside of the United States of America or Thailand. In essence, he is lost in a foreign world with no real mission other than to explore and look around. I feel and hope that it will be therapeutic for him after the lost of my mother to see the world outside of the confines of the only two spheres of influence he has ever known.

Yesterday, getting to Incheon airport was a breeze because of the train and underground system. I thank Korea everyday that transporting oneself around the country comes with such ease. The ride was around an hour and a half going to the airport and back from it. My father is a many of few pieces of luggage so I didn't really need to help him too much with what he carried to America - items which were mostly for me like dried fruits which I missed dearly.

The first night he got here he was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt with a peace sign the colors of the U.S. flag. He has no fashion sense inside this greatly dressed society of fashionistas and well-dressed men. I hope he doesn't feel too out of place. We ate 된장찌개 and 순두부백반. Both were delicious.

He's also become good friends with the Underwoods here, who I find to be two very humble and heart-warming individuals. I am so glad that they've taken him in for a couple of days while he's here.

I also need to lose some weight. I've been gaining quite a couple of pounds and I want to be able to fit into some nice Korean clothes before I head to Thailand.

That's all for now. I am wondering what I should do tomorrow when I go out sightseeing with my Dad. And I have a lot of sudden work that has popped up! It is maddening. I was also complimented on my accent today - ahaha. It's all the small little compliments that continue to push me to learn Korean.

Things to do: Linguistics worksheet, study for Integrated Korean Intermediate II 결혼 Quiz, create and practice presentation for Asia Extreme and Asian American Cultural Politics, find out what to do in Seoul tomorrow and try not to think of homework as I enjoy walking around with my dad.

Day 156: Getting things Together

So, this post will be more of me putting things together than anything interesting here.

I've decided that for the rest of the semester I will have certain goals in my mind to make the best of my stay in Korea. They will help me put things in perspective and help me get control of my life.

1. Study Korean diligently and properly, going over vocabulary and reviewing words I don't know from the textbook everyday for at least an hour - use listening practice dialogues for Integrated Intermediate Korean II
2. Every Sunday create a list of sentences and examples I write down in my word notebooks for Korean
3. Finish my CLS scholarships and look for opportunities outside of CLS, like Sogang's language program if i don't get in; Print out the application and give it a once over before sending it; this needs to be done pretty soon!
4. See if I can audit a Japanese 102 class with Professor Kitamura so that I can continue learning Japanese back at William and Mary for the Spring semester
5. E-mail the hello WM program to see how many times we can meet per evening to go over my Korean so I can continue learning it back at school
6. Get in the good reigns of Ann Reed who I will make my Linguistics major advisor
7. Be on top of my Linguistics game during the classes I'm here at Yonsei. I can't skip any more of those classes or I won't be getting a sufficient enough background to flesh out the classes I'm taking next semester
8. During my free time I should be practicing making sentences with my Korean and practicing them out loud
9. I'm currently taking the following classes right now: Intermediate Korean II, Introduction to Linguistics, Korean Grammar for International Learners, and Asia Extreme and Asian-American Cultural Politics. All of them are total bullshit except for Intro to Linguistics and Intermediate Korean II. I'm really glad to be in those classes.
10. I'm going to go to the Seoul Lantern festival with my dad, perhaps go to the Costco which he wants to explore later on because he finds it interesting how different Costcos and grocery stores work around here (ask Henry Kwon if you don't know where the Costco is) I need to find more things to do when he gets here:
11. I can only charge my phone on weekends, I just found that out. I need to charge my phone on Monday before dad comes on Thursday. I need to wear red and print out the airport map so I have a good idea of where I'm going. I also need to charge the extra T-money with around 10,000 won so he can get around.

On a really different note, the new Wonder Girls song "Be My Baby" is super addictive and I'm also becoming really fond of rookie group Double AA and their new song "Because I'm Crazy".

This post doesn't really make sense, but I typically don't anyways. But I guess life is like that... you can do what you want when you want.

Day 154: 오랫만입니다! 그런데 행복하게 읽으십시오!

So it's been about eighty days since my last blog post. That has been quite a long time and I hope that if I have any readers out there things you're still keeping up with me. I don't think I write very well or in a humorous or bantering manner so I bet I'm still really boring. Sorry guys for being lame :)

I've explored a great deal in Seoul, going to places like 명동 and 동대문 where I've have lots of fun shopping, eating, and exploring the different sights and sounds that are the capital of Korea's 서울. Seoul is a vast metropolitan area connected through an elaborate 지하절 system, moving its inhabitants quickly and effortlessly everyday from early in the morning to late in the evening. There has been so much to do here, but I think the hardest thing about the life of an international student who doesn't know what they're doing in a foreign country is navigating yourself around the country to find things that you want to do. Its been a big problem for me finding things around here that are fun, different, and interesting, in contrast to the typical international student night life here.

It mainly consists of drinking at clubs and bar hopping which is good fun and all but wears down your wallet and may grow old after a while. While at Yonsei I wanted the opportunity to contribute myself to Korea and do things for the local Yonsei community but a majority of the programs here are participatory gatherings and not clubs dedicated for a collective purpose. I guess, what I'm trying to say is that I haven't seen a group where foreigners and native Korean Yonsei students come together to achieve a common purpose. There are instances of intercultural and international mixing but they are few and far between and there continually exists a giant physical gap between the international dormitories and the dormitories that house the native Korea students. These are one of the issues that stem the division between international and Korean worlds.

Even the programs here built for fostering intercultural friendships like Global Angels, which is a volunteer group, and Yonsei Language Exchange, which is a language exchange group, seem like they need more work.    I won't be specific, but a 30,000 won fee to volunteer and a language exchange partner who doesn't respond to texts or doesn't prompt for meetings can dishearten someone. I'm not stuck in a rut because I can always have another positive venue for which to contribute things but it's just been hard to be generally satisfied here.

So I've tried contacting volunteer agencies to see if I volunteer some of my time. I have a lot of free time. But, it seems that no one has contacted me back in response to my e-mails. It has been a really big kick to the gut to feel this way, that you have no outlet for which to contribute your time.

My classes too feel inconsequential in comparison to the learning and aptitude of my home university classes. Yonsei is known to be a top-ranked Korean school but I think the international classes and classes which are taught in English (options that only international and exchange students can take) are far easier than American counterparts. But I type these statements with a grain of salt as I'm only here for a semester and not a year so I can't really give a broad expansion on what classes here are like. I bet you that the native taught Korean classes are far more difficult and live up to the academic reputation that Yonsei university has.

It's been a slightly depressing reflection so far of my time here.