Friday night series of unfortunate events; Meeting with 상생 기자단

Since the first day of school I have gone to classes, finished reading a book loosely based on the history of witchcraft trials in Massachusetts ("The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane" [I also finished "The Time Traveler's Wife" last week... can anyone tell I have a lot of spare time so far?]), sat in on random classes, gone to a business class that has a crazy professor and is so filled with males that the smell of cologne almost knocked me out (was it all the guys? just one guy? the teacher? it was so strong why are these boys like old ladies who put on too much perfume because their sense of smell is fading?), marveled at how cheap the books are here, realized how much America rips off college students, finally got in touch with Neda, Dixon, and Emma, *almost* finalized my schedule, and met many new people.

Korean language class is going well, the set up of the class is exactly like at Wellesley. So this either means Professor Eun-Jo Lee learned how to teach here, or there is a universal way of efficiently teaching Korean, or the Yonsei books we use force teachers to teach a certain way, or Yonsei is of better caliber than expected, or I'm just awesome. Maybe all of these? :D

I want to buy Yonsei books 5 and 6 and bring them back to Wellesley. Each is only 30,000 원, AKA cheaper than from the Wellesley bookstore by about $20.

Friday night I attempted to expand my I-know-you-by-face-and-if-I-focus-can-remember-your-name group by hanging out with my roommate's friends. While my roommate couldn't come because she had a special Vietnamese get-together she felt she shouldn't miss, I and five other girls left SK Global House *kind of* dressed up in order to eat at a "classy" restaurant in CoEx Mall (apparently there are some nice restaurants there?) for a girl's night out.

We left too late (some girls were late). The traffic was bad. The taxi driver might have taken the long way, we'll never know. CoEx was almost all closed. We ended up eating at a cheap place (still good food, but not "classy".) There is a lounge where we could just chill in InterContinental Hotel in the area, but there are two parts and we went to the wrong part. We had to walk back for about 15 minutes, and after getting slightly lost a couple times, found the lounge. By then we were afraid we wouldn't get back to Shinchon before the subway closes (it closes around 12:15 am. Wherever you are at that time you have to get off) so we took a quick peek into the lounge and had to leave. Some girls had high heels on and were in pain :( We got on the subway. The subway stopped early than expected, and we were six stops away from SK Global House. We had to get a taxi. Fare is more expensive after midnight. We finally got back to SK Global after a cheap meal and lots of (sadly) wasted time. I'm glad I met the girls though and that we got back safely!
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SATURDAY

Meeting with the 상생 기자단 and someone from 통일부 who is going to teach us about... stuff. (Not sure.)

10:30 am. Leave SK Global.

11:30 am. Arrive at place, meet 정환 오빠 at 온수역, 6 출구. Take bus and get to the meeting place, 서서울생활과학고등학교. Meet some new people who didn't come on the 3박4일 trip.

1:00 pm. Have been waiting with about four other people for 1.5 hours. Where is everyone?

1:15 pm. A few more people come. We have to begin. I don't know what's going on. I thought we were getting a presentation from a 통일부 representative?

1:16-3:45 pm. Talk about... stuff. Not sure. Momentarily meet some old guy, whom I don't know. Get a short presentation from another guy about the school we're in. Apparently the 상생기자단 (not necessarily all of them) are going to be teaching stuff about unification to the high school students attending the school we're in? The thing is, however, the school is some special school that has what amounts to a small museum on North Korean life in the bottom floor. So the students here get a special, in-depth, consistently talked about education on North Korea and unification issues.

3:46 pm. Return from tour of school. I don't understand why this school has specially compiled this stuff on North Korea, but it's cool. I hear people playing basketball... upstairs. Upstairs? Apparently gyms are often upstairs. Doesn't make sense to me, what with the pounding and screeching and thud of feet. Oh well.

3:47-6 pm-ish. I think the 상생기자단 are discussing how to revamp themselves. So many people were late by more than an hour, so many people didn't even come, people had the wrong time written down, people are concerned about their articles and if they need to reevaluate what they're writing... lots of discussion going on. Oh and 준영 언니가 저한테 이번 목요일에 인터뷰같은걸 하고십니 물어봤어. Apparently there is some big 행사 on September 9th in which many ambassadors are coming together to talk about North Korean and unification. (I wish I understood EXACTLY what is going on! Anyone who knows me well knows I am a detailed person. I want to know who these ambassadors are, why they are coming, is this an annual thing, can I meet other ambassadors besides the one I'm interviewing, etc? I guess I will get someone who knows Korean to e-mail 준영 언니 later X_X) Anyway, some of the ambassadors have agreed to be interviewed by us, the student reporters for the Ministry of Unification, and one of them is the German Ambassador. I will be interviewing him, asking English questions.

NOTE: Culture difference? I thought I would have to dress up but I was assured by three different people that in Korea, reporters wear really casual clothing, all the time. So no worries. As long as I don't wear flip-flops. Regardless, I'm representing America, the Ministry of Unification, my family, and Wellesley College, so I'm going to dress up anyway.

CONTINUING ON...
I wondered why I can't interview the ambassador from America but apparently he/she? I must look this up... declined for some reason.

Anyway, this is a great opportunity for me as a representative of the Wellesley/BU team and the Ministry so I agreed to do it even though I'll have to miss class that day. I will get an official excusal note though. I just hope I don't get sick later this semester and regret that missed day when I was healthy...

After much discussion about how to change people's attitude about being tardy and how to make sure the articles are relevant and have the right 목표, (I admit I doodled part of this time because it wasn't really my business anyway) we finally left and I had dinner with three students (all of whom I didn't know before today! Yay new people!) nearby. I don't remember the name of what we ate but you have 삼겹살 or 불고기 that you cook in some sort of broth and then you drain the broth with the oil in it and you eat it with 쌈. The new girls I met: Esther, 나눔, 지현. :D

After going back to Ewha Station I got sidetracked looking for corn (like I always do). Today though, was different--I finally found the vendor that sells two cobs for 2,000 W! YAAAY now I will get my money's worth! Now I can try living on corn for a week and see if I lose weight like Gi Yoon said she did last summer! (HAHA just kidding. Maybe.) ^^

Skip to a few hours ago and I met a girl from Vancouver living in a single on my floor, named Sarah. It is through her, God bless her, I resolved my dilemma: what to do with the other corn cob?! I can only eat one at a time, I was too full! Thankfully, single rooms have fridges. My corn is in there right now. :) Wonder if it will be okay after being cold for hours... I also momentarily went to a billiards place with a couple people from CIEE to visit three other guys from CIEE already there about 1.5 hours ago and now I really want to play. And please note it is Korean pool (billiards), ladies and gentlemen, not actual pool. The one with two red balls, a yellow ball, and a white ball. Someday I will play since the place is just down the street and no one goes there so it is bright and big and clean and empty :D but I just wanted to visit tonight.
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Reflection 1: Even though there is the stereotype of Koreans being late for everything, which I don't fully subscribe to, I was surprised at how many people were late or didn't come at all to the meeting. I'm not surprised in that, with about twenty people to be accounted for, people are late, but 1.5 hours late? So late you don't even come? I was a little surprised. Albeit I don't know who the people we met were or how important this new project of teaching high schoolers is, but still.

Reflection 2: I was also a little surprised at how long the discussion went. I understand why it went that long and resigned myself to it, so I don't think I had a bad attitude or misrepresented myself or Wellesley in any way, but yes I didn't know we'd go until 6 pm. So the hours kind of dragged on.

Reflection 3: Probably mentioned this already, but I'm glad for my 상생기자단 friends. Even if they are having problems as a team and stuff, each person is still really awesome and nice and not your typical Korean, I think. I admit I was wary of Korean culture when I first came, thinking I'd be judged for my tan skin, my weight, my American-ness, my clothes, my lack of high heels, etc, but everyone is really nice. And yes, Korea does put a huge emphasis on looks, and yes surgery is rampant, but there are plenty of people who don't care.

Reflection 4: Although I'm comfortable enough on my own now, I wish someone from Wellesley/BU was there. I feel like everything I hear or perceive in Korea is incomplete somehow, because I don't understand 100% of what is being said, because I don't have the 100% right cultural context to take everything in, and because I am still developing my 눈치. So I did listen hard, but yes... lots of today went WHOOSH through my ears.

Reflection 5: Sometimes I hold hands with my friends who are girls here, if they initiate it, because the girls all do that here and it is really normal. What's funny is someone said (after the meeting) oh, in America, don't girls not hold hands? And I responded, yes, but we're in Korea... in America guys and girls hold hands, not really guy and guy or girl and girl (if they're just friends, I mean.) So, I guess it is PDA swap? Instead of the ability to casually hug my friends, I can hold hands and link arms with the girls and... high-five guys, I guess.

Reflection 6: I went to a billiards place with some friends for about half an hour, just to watch, and the ahjumma and ahjussi there loved my friend Phil so much that they gave him his own stick. And cooked potatoes for us. And were just super friendly (although I felt like the ahjumma maybe liked Phil a little TOO much... HAHA). Sometime I'll actually play, I'm better at billiards than actual pool.

Reflection 7: I like living in the city but I don't think I am as at home as I expected. Wellesley is not in downtown Boston, and my neighborhood in Utah is not in downtown Salt Lake. I think I like suburbia... not as noisy or polluted. Right now I wish I could go into the Utah mountains to pray for a day, and read in Snowbird... but I can't, and I have no idea where the nearest park is, or where to go besides a cafe to unwind. Oh, and BTW I found out the Coffee Prince cafe in Hongdae is MAD expensive, like 6,800 W for a cup of Americano (black coffee essentially) and that every person who goes in MUST buy something, no splitting, so... yes. Instead of actually spending a day there like I wanted to I guess I'll just take a brief look someday. Boo.

Current mood: Ambivalent.