건배!

"Cheers!"

Normally a word used when saying cheers to drinking beer or liquor but in this case what we said when we said cheers to our 갈비탕 kalbi tang that we ate for lunch--Suwon is famous for its kalbi!

Backtracking a bit for why we were in Suwon, today was the graduating class trip! That is, us Level 6 students and the Level 7 students took a bus with our teachers to 화성 Hwaseong Castle in Suwon as our trip. Although it's been fairly cold lately (I had to wear my winter coat yesterday and the day before, which I should not be doing in the middle of April...), today the weather let up a bit and we had a nice sunny day with a gentle breeze (what in Korean would be 산들바람). We didn't walk around the entire castle wall (a decent 5-6km) as it would have taken a while, but we took a decent walk, enjoyed the breeze, saw some very pretty areas, and had yummy kalbi tang! Afterward, we went to Yungneung 융능, the grave for king 정조 Jeongjo who was one of the rulers of the Choseon Dynasty.

The story of the king's father's death is pretty gruesome, as apparently King Jeongjo's grandfather put his own son to death by burying him in a rice bin for several days. Talk about being buried alive @_@! Granted, he was apparently a very unfavorable ruler, but even so, I dunno if anyone deserves to be killed by their own father! Would filicide be the right word? Aside from that story though (and apparently according to a professor who I told I was going to see Hwaseong Castle to, there were a lot of murders around there some time recently, the story of which was made into a movie) the place was quite peaceful and pretty. I'm not the biggest history buff so I enjoyed the landscape and absorbing the atmosphere more than the actual story, but it was a pretty good feeling to understand most of what the tour guide said (with several historical words that we don't know though, of course). Granted, she probably dumbed down the Korean a bit taking into account the fact that we were foreigners.

Some pictures :).
The East Gate, decorated with the dragon, who protects the East in Korean castles. The tiger protects the West, the phoenix the South, and the turtle the North.
The part just outside the gate is built as such to prevent an easy attack to break down the gate.
A hole to shoot through...although now you just see cars XD.
Winding road, and cherry blossoms!
It'd probably be really nice to live around here and go to this park just to relax or to walk around ^^.Sorry, I can't resist the Engrish :)!
Because jumping pictures are awesome :D!
건배ing the kalbi tang!
Patterns make for excellent pictures hehe (Kevin, Meng Ju, Jennie, and me).
Kana and 곽 선생님 (our next door teacher ^^).
Me and a cannon (and Kevin behind).
Hehe we like having fun ;D (Me, Kana, Meng Ju, Apple, and Casey).
Contradiction much?
Heading towards Yungneung, the king's grave. Pretty flowers on the way :)! (Kana and Meng Ju).
Yungneung grave.
Also, today marks exactly one month before I head back to the States. Wow! Talk about time flying by. I can't believe I'm already this close. It'll be quite the experience to adjust back to the Western world, New York, and Yale ^^! For now, time to make the most of my last month here :)!

바람을 쐴 겸 잘 됐다

"And we can get some fresh air too"

A line from one of the dramas we watched in video class, and what we decided to do for this (short) vacation. For our vacation, as midterms were near and we were only allotted four days of rest, we decided not to go anywhere far. Instead, we headed down to Yeouido Park to rent some bikes and go biking. For some reason, I've always had a little bit of a fear of speed, especially when first trying out something (skiing, driving a car, as here, biking, etc.) so my paranoid self was worried about falling off the bike and breaking some bone as I haven't biked for a few years, but after a few minutes, I was used to the feel of being on a bike again and began to feel the exhilarating adrenaline rushing through my veins.
Looks like Manhattan :D!

When you're living in a city, it's really easy to forget nature--a solace that the tiny patches in cities known as parks allow. It was also nice how much Yeouido Park reminded me of Battery Park, a small riverside park (just like Yeouido next to Hangang) near my home. It was also the first time I'd biked with a fairly large group (there were at least 10 of us I believe), and as the inverse law of movement goes, we moved quite slowly due to being a large group. Very often, Henry, Kevin (who was on rollerblades), and I found ourselves ahead, due to, well, our friends lagging behind to take pictures! I thought I took lot of pictures (as can be seen by my blog), but our friends took the cake! I guess the stereotype about Asians loving to use cameras everywhere they go is quite true hehe. We even ended up losing them at one point because we had biked far ahead while they had stopped to take multiple fun group pictures.
These were fountains near the bike rental place that we went to. As we started to take pictures, some of the fountains just began to shoot up with no warning, soaking us all! T_T

And for something that's (almost) off topic, I am so addicted to Soondubu 순두부 (a spicy casserole with silken tofu) as I think I order it anywhere between 1 and 3 times a week @_@! Why it's remotely related is that we went to a restaurant after biking, which had soondubu that sadly disappointed me :(. I think my favorites will always be the ones at Dolkkemaeul Tofu House, the small restaurant across from school, and the Rotary restaurant near Sinchon Station :).
Another notable event from the weekend, other than studying fiercely for midterms, was seeing Hyunseok, my mom's friend's sister's son (phew, what a mouthful), for his birthday! The people in the picture are his family :D.
Yummy Italian food~
Cake at the end.
On the left is Hyunseok and in the middle is Heesoo, my mom's friend's son who's come to Korea to study in Korea University (and is Hyunseok's cousin).

Lastly, I've started my Korean linguistics classes with my teacher, which has been fun, as part of it is review of some of my linguistics classes but in Korean. It blows my mind how much you can apply these same principles to different languages (except that they may be backwards or turned around or whatnot, such as in Korean). And then just seeing all the Korean examples and how everything relates to each other--phew! Crazy :) (linguistics geek end).

시원섭섭하다

"To be bittersweet"

One of my favorite words in Korean that we learned in level 5. 시원하다 means "to be relieving, refreshing" while 섭섭하다 is "to feel sad because of separation." So when you put them together, "to be bittersweet" is probably the best way in English to capture this feeling. A feeling that occurs pretty much at the end of every school year and especially at graduation. No different will I feel at the end of level 6! While on one hand it'll be relieving to think "Ah! I'm finally done with my last level at Sogang!" it'll be extremely sad to part with the friends that I've encountered and gotten close to over this year. Two of my Japanese friends, Hiroko and Naoko, felt the same as they left back for Japan last Thursday. As expected, it was a very tearful goodbye, but very feel-good as well, as we all put our hands together in the last moment, agreeing that we would definitely meet again!
The stars of the night! 누나들 얼마나 보고 싶다~Never forget Level 4 friends!

Two days after was Shaun's wedding, which, as most weddings go, was filled with a feel-good atmosphere and loads of hope. It was much longer than our teacher's wedding but still rather short, as Korean weddings go. The food was delicious and the procession very inspiring. Congrats to Shaun and Jiseon! :)
Groom and...
Bride with her father!
Adorable ring bearer and flower girl!
Shaun reading his vow in Korean.
And Jiseon reading hers in English.
Rings being exchanged.
And the bow!
Tossing the bouquet.
It's funny how I've already been to two Korean weddings and not a single American one yet! (well, I went to one when I was REALLY young so I don't remember...). It'll be interesting to see how they differ!

So, to answer last week's weekly question! "What is your marker for success on this fellowship? More vocab? More friends?"

Tough question, but really I'd probably have to say every little thing I *have* accomplished here! The fact that I have made friends from multiple nations who could last a lifetime and who I will miss dearly when we all depart has already been one marker of success. Not only have I learned from them how different and yet similar people from completely different parts of the world can be, but just by merit of meeting them, I've gained an urge to learn about their cultures as well. Alas, time is short and the world is large. What can be done? But we'll see, eh? ^^

Educationally as well, I have definitely gained a lot from Korea. Having focused all my energy into this language for the year, I've reached a level surpassing any other language I've ever learned, including the ones I speak at home (as I do not speak to my parents about "advanced topics" such as politics, the economy, etc. so I very much lack those vocabulary words and advanced written grammar patterns), leading me to feel a little ashamed about my noviceness in those languages as well hehe. As a Korean phrase goes, 배워도 배워도 끝이 없다 (you learn, you learn, but there's no end)! Although I've learned quite a large number of vocabulary and grammar pattern, even just living everyday life, watching Korean dramas, hanging out with Korean friends, and especially looking at practice TOPIK exams (a Korean standardized exam designed for foreigners to assess their level of Korean--but really it's an assessment of writing skill and memorization of vocabulary and grammar patterns, as well as inference skills), there's a humongous wealth of more vocabulary and grammar to learn. Overwhelming, but a bit exciting at the same time!

Another sign of success! I've been working on two projects lately ^^. One being translating my level 5 teacher's book, which is a Korean self-study book for English speakers (woo! my first translation job =]) and the second being translating Sogang's Level 5 grammar reference (which does not have an English version yet) and revising the Level 4 one! I've started a bit on both projects and even though I knew of how vast the difference between Korean and English was, it's very interesting to actually see it in action! Not to mention, it makes me feel like my learning of Korean is finally coming to fruition in actual work ^^. As compensation for helping in revising the Sogang grammar reference books, I'm receiving 20 hours of a class on Korean linguistics (국어학), which will start on Monday. Exciting! :)

So success? Living in a foreign nation for an extended period of time while making cherished friends and getting comfortable in a foreign language --I guess I now kind of know how my parents felt when they first moved to America ^^ (except the fact that I'm a student and they were working).

Lastly, a completely random picture, but why on earth would anyone name their coffee ship this???