Monday, August 30, 2010

Saturday, August 21, 2010

평소 생활

My Chinese friend Sung Bak, participating in the beauty pageant at our school. Take a second look... did you know its a guy? So is the person in the background.

This is a picture of when I went to Dongdaemun with Junya on Monday. As I get more accustomed to Korean life, I've been taking less and less pictures. Nothing in Korea really surprises me anymore.

The midterm exam went okay. I wanted to get all A's of course, but that's not possible. I don't know of anyone who did that. Overall, the test was much more difficult than the test at level 2. I guess I did better than my other American friends. Even Junya, who always got A's on reading and listening, did a bit worse this time. But the scoring isn't like a typical school. So even if you get a B or C, that's not something to be disappointed about.

We had the school festival and I was in the talent show dancing with some of my friends. It went okay, we got 4th place (since when do they have a 4th place anyhow?) I didn't have any illusions of grandeur and would have been quite fine not winning anything. But I was upset that my friend Zhu Xuan only got 3rd. She performed a traditional chinese dance that she has been learning for more than 10 years. I thought it was really good. The two groups that beat her out were not as good. They each had one person that could dance, but the others couldn't. I think I'll be getting access to the video next week so hopefully i can post it on here.

Other than that, I've decided to go to China during our school break next month (about 4 weeks away). But it might take me a couple weeks to get my Korean ID card (which i need to get the visa) and to get my tourist visa to China. But that gives me time to plan the details of my trip. A lot of my chinese friends in korea are going back to China during the vacation, and the ones that I've told my plan to have invited me to hang out with them in China. The problem is that China is as big as the continental USA and they all live in different cities. Zhu Xuan invited me to her hometown, which as far as I can estimate is about 300 miles south of Beijing. Hao Yue is going back to Beijing, and Fei Ya is going back to her hometown which is about 5 hours from Beijing. I think Min Rui might be going back too, but her hometown is right near Hong Kong, which would be quite far from everywhere else. I don't think Junya wants to go back this semester. Also, Zhangyan invited me to hang out in Shanghai and Suzhou. I don't have time to go everywhere, but I think Beijing and Shanghai are musts, right?

Next weekend our school takes a trip to Everland amusement park... all 600+ students at the Korean Language program going together. It will be cool, especially because we are going on a Friday I think, so it shouldn't be too busy. Also, we can stay later than the allotted time if we want, so long as we get our own transportation back.

Lastly, the finances are shoring up, especially with having just paid for enrollment for my next semester, and setting aside some money for the China trip. After I finish the next semester (mid December) I will need to start working. I'll be looking for a job in Korea or China. I have a couple months to ponder it still, but if I had to decide now, teaching at a Korean kindergarten sounds like a lot of fun.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

I wish I could say...

... no animals were harmed during the taking of the midterm exam, but I'm afraid that might not be the case. See below.

It's midterms Monday and Tuesday this week.
I'm not worried about my Korean ability, but I am a little worried about the role-play speaking test tomorrow. The girl I got paired up with has the strangest accent ever. When she speaks Korean it sounds like she's trying to strangle a cat with her voice. I can't understand half the stuff that comes out of her mouth. My strategy is to try to confuse her by asking complicated questions before she can confuse me. Here's hoping that I do well tomorrow and that there aren't any cats in the immediate vicinity of our school !