얼음 썰매???

"Ice sledding???"

My friend Meng Ju planned a trip for this weekend to the Ice Fishing festival in Gyeongsangdo that myself and about 25 other Sogang students joined. We paid a little extra too to do snow sledding and...ice sledding? Hehe, the thought sounds pretty dangerous, but it was pretty different from what we expected when we actually got there (more on that later).

I had to wake up at the early hour of 6:30 to get to the bus on time, but unfortunately, for some reason I didn't hear my alarm at all, so I didn't wake up until Meng Ju called me at 7:30 asking where I was. I quickly tossed on some clothes and dashed out the door, without showering or even brushing my teeth (gross, I know), to catch a taxi to Jonggak where we would take the bus. After a 3-ish hour bus trip we arrived at the festival, where several tents were set up (actually, to be honest, I'm not sure why they were there...) and multiple people were gathered at spots with fishing lines.
We staked our spots and began to pick at the ice with our ice picks, a task that left my hand still tired today (writing down grammar and vocabulary today was pretty painful) and that was rather futile because of how thick the ice was and because there were ajusshis driving a large ice drill machine around to break the ice for us. Either way, striking the last bit needed to break into the water and cause it to rush up was a very fulfilling feeling!
John being silly and sliding on the ice.
Jonghyeon striking at the ice.
The ajusshis going around with the ice drill.
As I had expected, none of us caught any fish. After all, we didn't really have any real bait--what we received were little vaguely fish-shaped pieces of plastic and also the holes that we drilled were likely single columns of water that didn't house any fish as we were able to hit another ground with the "bait"...Either way, the experience was fun and afterwards we ate delicious VERY fresh (watching the ajummas cut the heads off the trout and gutting and cutting up the squirming bodies was quite gruesome) trout for lunch. Despite not catching any trout, I have to say ice fishing is an experience I probably won't get again any time in the future, although, to be honest, it's not much more exciting than normal fishing (sorry to any fishers out there ^^).
Afterwards, we flocked to the snow slope to "sled" down in inner tubes, which was a lot of fun and was very much a nice flashback to childhood hehe. No matter how many times we went down that slope, we never tired of it hehe, but eventually we decided that before heading back to Seoul, we should probably try the "ice sledding."
Just before we took off.
It turned out to be a lot less freaky than we thought. Most importantly, it wasn't on a slope, nor was it really "sledding" hehe. We got boards--either one person boards where we got picks to glide around on the ice or two person boards to glide around with picks or to have someone else push you around--and skidded along the very solid ice. As another flash back to childhood, we played tag on these "sleds," which was very fun and which everyone enjoyed (disregard the fact that our ages ranged between 20 and 50 hehe).
Two person sled!
Shabby single person sleds hehe!
After that fulfilling day, we gathered back to the bus where the ajusshi bus guide yelled at us for coming back at 3:22 when we should have been back at 3:20...not only that but a fight actually almost started when for some reason our bags had been moved so no one was able to return to their proper seat. Us Sogang kids weren't the only ones on the bus--there was also a family and some other Korean people who were on the trip as well, and when the ajusshi told us to just sit where our bags were, the family explained that they wanted to retain their seats so that their family could sit together, to which the ajusshi repsonded "why can't you all just sit where your bags are?" The argument escalated and eventually led to cursing and name calling from the ajusshi and one of the family members, which then led to walking outside the bus and people holding the bus ajusshi and the man back from striking each other. Eventually, the ajusshi was just moved to another bus (I'm guessing from the same company) and the man returned back and apologized to everyone for creating a scene.

This brings up a point of one aspect of Korean culture that's very hard for me to get used to. That the merit of age allows one to push others around. As we had also learned in our textbook, if an adult does you wrong, you can't say anything back, even if everyone knows they were the one who did wrong. If you do, you're seen as impolite and will be looked down upon. Maybe it's because of growing up with an American background, but I still personally think that respect is something to be earned, and although I agree with the culture of respecting one's elders (having grown up in an Asian household), I don't think that age gives the right to wrong someone else. I thought the ajusshi was being very obnoxious in not letting us sit back in our seats (apparently he had been the one who moved the luggage around) and was also the one who began the cursing and name calling. Although I do think patience is a virtue and that the man shouldn't have retaliated (as it inconvenienced the rest of us), I do think that the ajusshi was wrong in using his age as a reason to yell at us (another sentence he had yelled was "why are there so many young people on this bus???). After the almost-fight, I heard bits and pieces from the conversation from the family behind us about the ajusshi abusing his age as a status, not being fair, etc. To give other examples of this situation, often on the street or in the subway, ajummas will push past people without even saying a word, not even "excuse me" or giving any warning, a gesture that causes me to get annoyed and think again of this culture point. Maybe it's something I'll never get used to, or maybe I need to open my eyes more? I don't know. I understand it, but it is a tough one to get used to for me.

Eventually, everything settled down and we made our way back to Seoul, where we had dinner together at a delicious samgyupsal place and then finished off our night at noraebang, where we karaoked our voices away ^^! It's trips like these that really allow for bonding time with Sogang students from the other classes :).
The 8 color samgyupsal (the last one was brought a bit later)!
Kana, Pei Wen, and Henry doing the Abracadabra dance.

휴학

"Time off from school"

So I've been here in Seoul now for almost half a year, a full semester and a bit more, and it's been nothing short of fun, educational, and an eye-opening experience. Study abroad has been one of the biggest turning points in my life (a topic which we discussed in the first chapter of Level 5) and is something that I believe that every college student who can financially and temporally do so, should do. Not only have I been able to immerse myself and learn about a new culture and language (I know I've probably said this like 50x in my blog lol), but I've been able to actually take time off from the hectic life of Yale (though I'm pretty busy here too, but in the sense of learning this language and this lifestyle) and figure myself out a bit. One of the most common questions I get here is "So what do you want to be?"--a question I've given several answers too and become more concrete about as I live here and realize how much I value education in all fields and how much I would love to pass on knowledge as a job--so I most often say I want to be a professor. Interestingly, being a professor is a very respectable job here in Korea, whereas it's a "no money making job" to many Asian American parents, including my mother, who does not want me to teach for a living. Alas...(another word I've probably used about 50x in this blog).

I've also become more sure about which track I want to take in my Linguistics major and been able to think more clearly about what classes I want to take when I get back. Hanging out with my Japanese/Chinese/Taiwanese friends has also given me both a motive and solidified my eagerness to improve upon my Chinese and to take up Japanese, a task that will be difficult within my remaining years at Yale, but that I think would be very rewarding, not to mention a great reason and way to keep in touch with the wonderful friends I've made here.

Considering I haven't finished this experience yet, and have not finished my time at Yale yet, I'm not yet sure if I would consider this my "best time at Yale"--I guess we'll see the answer to that in a few years ;). My time here though has definitely added to my Yale education by "extending it." The opportunity to take a year off to JUST learn a language not only gives me some time to stop and think, but also to actually get to learn the language. The problem with learning a language among taking other classes at Yale is that you don't get to focus all your energy into it and there aren't really people around for you to practice so you're going to hit some barrier inevitably, but actually living in Korea has helped me surpass that barrier and become comfortable with speaking Korean, to the point where it just comes naturally out of me now and I don't have to think too much when I speak it (for a lot of conversational topics...harder topics being an issue, as I mentioned about the plateau in my last post)--it almost comes out like English to me, though not even close to as fluent of course haha. But yeah, to be able to take a year off to learn Korean will not only allow me to be able to get to proficiency (hopefully) in Korean before I graduate but also to take the opportunity to learn a new language (Japanese? Chinese?) when I go back. Yay for Light Fellowship!

Now, on a totally unrelated note, I have no idea why Seoul has been so cold (luckily it seems to be starting to let up a little bit this week)! Up to this week, almost every day for about a month, the HIGH has been lower than freezing. Especially in getting used to the Celsius scale, seeing negative numbers is pretty disheartening, but I know it's really cold when I see a temperature like -21 C, which is negative even for Fahrenheit! Ironically, my friends and I yesterday were playing around with the weather application on my computer--seeing how cold it was in different places--and we found out that Juneau, Alaska is a similar temperature to here now...as is Stockholm, Sweden. Good thing winter will pass in a little more than a month!

산 넘어 산

Once again I've reached the point where I sigh and think to myself once again that language is a never-ending battle. It's that annoying plateau of language learning where you don't feel at all like you're improving, alas. The proverb in the title means "Mountain after mountain," the Korean proverb for life, etc. being a never-ending battle. Of course, you can apply it to basically anything--just finishing my interview midterm yesterday, I felt so relieved, but then of course remembered that there's still the presentation next week, and then the final...and then Level 6!

But as I learn more and more Korean, I realize more and more how much this proverb applies to language learning. After realizing how no matter how much vocabulary I learn and try to remember, there are still countless loads of vocabulary to learn, not to mention separate their meanings (another annoying thing about learning vocabulary in foreign languages--having difficulty separating subtle means of words and not being able to "feel" the differences like I can in English). But I've also realized how language learning is never-ending for English too. I don't know if other people had the same experience as me, but I definitely remember reading books in middle/early high school and not knowing a lot of words. Of course, flipping through the dictionary was tedious, but I realize that, and studying vocabulary for the SATs were the tricks that really multiplied (maybe not multiplied...but adding a lot to) my vocabulary. My language partner got me a Korean (elementary school) dictionary for Christmas, which was really nice of her and has been helping me with my vocabulary. I won't lie, it's pretty frustrating to search for definitions of Korean words, only to be bombarded with more Korean words I don't know! But I remember back to when I did that with English dictionaries and just grin and bear it hehe. As frustrating as it is to feel at a plateau like my sentences are still awkward, my vocabulary not enough, my listening subpar, etc., the best philosophy is probably, as I just said, to grin and bear it (grit your teeth if you translate it into Korean 이를 악물다).

I have just a few pictures to upload this time--a few from when our class went to make "knots" (a funnily vague translation for 매듭) near COEX Mall and a few from when Hiroko and Naoko and I went to World Cup Park once again to prepare for our presentation. Bear with my camera, which, alas, due to the harsh winds of Hallasan, had its filter destroyed, leaving me with a lens that gets soiled easily, so you'll see random pieces of dust :(.
As expected, Korean knots not only look difficult to make, but are actually quite difficult to make. Not only do I lack finger technique, but the strings are also extremely small, making it hard to weave them through the holes. But, with the help of friends and the teachers, we all were able to make one (somehow)! And here's our first class picture, yay! Left to right (first row to second row): Nomin from Mongolia, Anastasiya from Russia, our teacher Oh Seungeun 오승은 선생님), Hiroko from Japan, Jennie from US, Naoko from Japan, Yu from US (but born in Japan and lived there to 6), Miyuki from Japan, Pei Wen from Taiwan, and me!
Yummy Omu Rice with fried chicken stuffed with kimchi.
I know, I take way too many food pictures hehe.
The sun sort of beginning to set at Noeul Park (노을 공원 - Sunset Park)--with a creepy person art sculpture on the left.
Hiroko and Naoko walking the snowy roads.
The (sort of creepy) sculpture.
Pretty park--I'd love to see the actual sunset some time--maybe when it's warmer haha.

시야 視野, 시각 視覺, 입장 立場

All words for "point of view," "field of vision," etc. that kind of idea (each with different nuances of course, but basically my main point in this post is the idea of perspective.

But wait, a post without pictures? Gasp! Impossible, isn't it? Haha. Well to be honest, this week was frigid again so I didn't really go out very much at all and thus, no fun pictures to post!

But I'll be responding to the weekly question!

"What do you think of this parable as it relates to your experiences overseas?"

Once a frog that lived in a well bragged to a turtle that lived in the Sea.

"I am so happy!" cried the frog, "When I go out, I jump about on the railing around the edge of the well. When I come home, I rest in the holes inside the wall of the well. If I jump into the water, it comes all the way up to my armpits and I can float on my belly.
If I walk in the mud, it covers up my flippered feet. I look around at the wriggly worms, crabs, and tadpoles, and none of them can compare with me. I am lord of this well and I stand tall here. My happiness is great. My dear sir, why don't you come more often and look around my place?"

The turtle from the Sea hesitated and said:

"Even a distance of a thousand miles cannot give you an idea of the sea's width; even a height of a thousand meters cannot give you an idea of its depth. In the time of the great floods, the waters in the sea did not increase. During the terrible droughts, the waters in the sea did not decrease. The sea does not change along with the passage of time and its level does not rise or fall according to the amount of rain that falls. The greatest happiness is to live in the Sea."

After listening to these words, the frog of the shallow well became ill at ease.

~*~

I'm thinking this parable has to do with point of view, perspective. A lot of us, especially Americans I think, are prone to be very ethnocentric (hmm, considering how many ethnicities we have in the States, could we really say ethnocentric? I dunno if there's a special word...nationcentric? Hm) and forget that the world out there exists. Tourists are tourists and since we're a melting pot, we've got it all. Especially coming from New York, one of *the* cosmopolitan cities, everyone definitely has the idea that they're so open-minded and know a lot. And with international cuisine, international people all over the place, tourists left and right, etc. what could we be missing from the rest of the world? After coming to Korea, clearly a lot.

It's interesting though, how much views differ here in Seoul and in New York. In Seoul, if you're not Asian, you're automatically a foreigner (I wonder if that will hold true in 50 years or so...when "foreigners" begin to actually be born in Korea and grow up, having the culture, knowing the language, basically being the "American-Asian"/"American-Korean"--if they're Ameican, that is), if you're Asian you can blend in for a bit but once you hold a conversation, you're a foreigner, and it's so easy to spot a foreigner just by a slight difference in accent. It's interesting though, because I don't think I've ever recalled using the word "foreigner" (or if I have very rarely) in New York. Because SO many people have accents, but you pretty much assume everyone to speak English, and if they can't, well then they have to deal. That's what happens when English basically becomes a universal language. But it's definitely interesting that we don't really use "foreigner" or talk about "foreigners." Of course, we do use "tourists," but that's used even for people not from New York.

Okay I'm going to cut quickly to a different topic that popped to my head because of the English becoming a universal language line. Recently, I was walking with my friend Kana and I made the observation of virtually every sign here also has English. It's pretty interesting that you will see English in basically the *whole world.* And also the fact that a lot of people grow up learning English and most people can read Latin letters, it's not a strange sight even for non-English speakers to see English anywhere they go. Although there must be something frustrating in thinking of this "dominating language." Turn your view and imagine if all of a sudden English were eliminated and everything were in say...Chinese. How would that feel? What I'm trying to get at is how do non-English speakers feel when everywhere, including their home country, has signs in not only their own language but this hegemonistic language? I'm sure most people don't think of it that way, but the feeling must be very different (I'm being so vague about this "feeling" thing but I really don't know how to explain it, more technically I think it's called qualia...but don't quote me on that). So if the world were suddenly all Chinese, and maybe you know how to read some basic characters but everything else is basically nonsense to you, even in your own country (with your native tongue above that Chinese though). Interesting thought experiment eh? Also, in thinking about how at all the big schools (at least) in Korea, there are at least some classes offered in English (about some nonlinguistic topic, like science classes, or economy classes) and in thinking about how many international students we have, think about how many nonnative English speakers have to go through HUGE textbooks to write a paper, to take a class, etc. I (and I'm sure many people I know) couldn't even fathom reading a textbook in a foreign language, it overwhelms me enough to see a whole webpage in Korean--although I'm getting more used to it--but think about how many people do it for English. Now I'm just rambling, but I think changing your perspective allows to imagine (at least for some time) how the feeling of not being a native English speaker, just by the mere state of English virtually being a universal language, differs so much.

Anyway that was a bit off topic, but back on topic, what I'm trying to say is that as the frog can't even fathom what the turtle has seen--the sea is so different, so much more vast, how could the frog's imagination even conjure up what goes on in that mysterious sea?--it can attempt to, and I think that's what opportunities like the Light Fellowship give us. Just like typical New Yorker thought, I myself assumed myself to be very open-minded and know a lot but experiencing a culture in its actual sphere--not just reading about it--실감 實感 ("real feeling") as they call it in Korean, has not only opened my eyes to the new culture, but also begin to understand how *Koreans* see us, see the rest of the world.

So there are versions of this parable that add the detail of the turtle being so large he can't even fit more than his fin into the frog's well. This adds a whole new dimension to the parable. The turtle can't appreciate the frog's cozy abode. In other words, sometimes you can be so open-minded...that you can be close-minded. Now since this is a public blog, I'm not going to bring up personal experience, but I'll say that I've had this kind of experience before, where sometimes I feel I'm so open-minded, that I'm close-minded. Just as the turtle condescends to the frog, thinking his large, vast sea is a much greater pleasure than this cramped well, I have before been too stubborn to understand "more close-minded people."

Not everyone has the opportunities or the background of the turtle, who grew up in an open area, so you can't really blame the frog for drawing truths from its surroundings. In time, I've come to understand more people who have different thoughts, that might generally be considered "close-minded." Of course, I don't have to agree, but I can at least understand. Korea is probably one of the more conservative East Asian countries--sex is a taboo topic (although the pop market seems lately to be focusing on using sex appeal), celebrities get fired for having "deviant" sexualities, views of foreigners (read: white people) and black people are very skewed and stereotyped, there are certain ways you have to treat and respect older people even if they are rude to you--and though I disagree with all these views and sometimes find it frustrating to be in a country where many people do hold them, I've come to understand that this society is *different*.

I think there's a proverb that relates to this directly...it's not coming to my head, the closest are "Old habits die hard" or "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" but I don't think that quite captures what I'm trying to say. Basically, people's views are based on society and media, something that requires exposure to be changed.

50 years ago, racism was rampant. Nowadays it's died down in a lot of the US, fortunately, although many people will still hold there views of course. It's sad, but a generation has to die for views to change. 50 years from now, who knows what will change? I'm sure views will be very different in Korea as well, I've already noticed that a lot of Koreans in this generation have very different views from what I've read about Korea overall (probably observations from the past generation).

I guess my thoughts were kinda all over the place haha, sorry for the ramble :). If I were to make two comments about this parable, though, they would be that the part that I've read in other versions about the turtle's fin I think is a key detail to this parable ;) (being the turtle and so open-minded is one perspective, but keep in mind that it's hard for a turtle like you to fit in and understand a frog's well) and that the Light Fellowship is an amazing opportunity to give us the chance to see what it's like to be the turtle! Come to Asia! ^_^

새해 복 많이 받으시고요!

"And Happy New Year!"

Something I can actually say now that I'm here for a year!

If there are two places I never get tired of, they're 남산 Namsan and 청계천 Cheonggyecheon. Both are two of the "must-see" places in Seoul, but regardless of how cliche they are, I've visited them both ad nauseum. As it's been winter, we haven't walked up or down the mountain (really icy and slippery...don't really wanna fall down several stairs) and the weather up there is pretty chilly but seeing a great view of the second largest city in the world (or eighth, if you don't count it as metropolitan area) from a mountain in the middle of the city is pretty breathtaking. Not to mention taking the cable car never gets tiring! There's also something sweet, yet a little bit creepy about seeing the multitude of locks up there (couples go up to Namsan, write some lovey-dovey message on a lock [and some of these we're talking industrial-size ones!], lock it on the barriers, and then throw away the key--ironically there's now a sign that says "Don't throw away your key!" in order to protect the environment haha).

I thought this was a nice picture--I don't have a picture of the city this time (I figured I've already posted enough of those from this blog haha)
I have yet to go up there!

As for Cheonggyecheon, I've always been a big fan of finding a bit of nature in a big city. Although Cheonggyecheon isn't exactly natural (being restored from being fully concrete a few years ago), it's still a great place to go when you wanna get away from the crowded city. Not to mention it's in the middle of the very chic-looking Gwanghwamun, where all the government buildings are, so the atmosphere's really nice. In the summer, you can enjoy walking in the cool stream water and even though it's all frozen in the winter, it's still nice to just wander the path (and see awesome huge icicles behind the waterfall). Okay, now I feel like I'm talking out of Chapter 2 of our textbook (about famous places in Seoul).
HUGE icicles!
Always something new at Cheonggyecheon, as you can see.
I set the shutter speed really low as to capture a lot of light, but in the process of doing that the flowing water got a pretty interesting effect haha.

Also, thanks to Tim, Ming, Simon, and Elliy visiting, I can finally say I've been to the famous palaces of Seoul: Changdeokgung and Gyeongbokgung!
Entrance to Changdeokgung.
The Secret Garden.
Tea in Insadong! Mm mm cinnamon ^^.
Going to Gyeongbokgung two days later, the most famous of the palaces.
These guards did not laugh or show any expression, like those guards in Britain whose names I can't remember!
So much snow!
And as for remaining adventures...
Ssamzie Road in Insadong, where there are lots of souvenir shops and tea shops.
Sundubu at my favorite Sundubu place with Simon, Ming, and Tim (I dunno if I introduced them properly!--Simon was a former China Light Fellow, Tim is my friend from NY, and Ming is his friend).
Red Mango for patbingsu! Which is not in season for other stores :(. This sounds quite propagandous hahaha.
Sannakji! Freshly cut up squid so the tentacles are still moving!
We were shopping around Ewha University and came across this interesting shirt...Engrish never fails to amuse me.
So at Gwanghwamun to promote awareness about global warming there was a lot of stuff up about Antarctica. And for some reason, there was this place where you could experience the cold harsh winds of Antarctica...keep in mind that that day it was in the single digits!
So there was a Light Festival near the statue of King Sejong. This was something called "Fractal Turtle Ship 프랙틀 거북선" made by the most famous artist in Korea. It's made from televisions...neat huh? ^^
The televisions as you can see.
Another cool light art.
This is the type of modern art I can appreciate :D!
King Sejong approves of this Light Festival!
One of the first and possibly the first time I've ever seen a celebrity. This is apparently 고수 Ko Su (I dunno who he is though...). There was quite a lot of screaming and intense following, including paparazzi who just pushed me out of the way when my friends and I were trying to walk away...

Ah! Midterms on Monday :(!