독도, Halloween, and Love Notes

Hello!

I'm updating in less than two weeks this time!!

Midterms are over and thank goodness! I thought I was going to die. Not really, but I was seriously worried about my grades.

The Korean-Japanese Modern Relations exam was exceedingly specific and difficult, and as such the average grade was in the 70's. Awesome. In case you were all wondering, no, I was not a shining star and did not exceed the average. Guess I'll just have to work harder in the future! Luckily the midterm doesn't actually count that much in that class. Phew.

I got a solid A on my Korean language midterm, which is awesome because that's what I really have to accomplish while I'm here.

The Korean Traditional Music midterm was SUPER easy (seriously 5 short-answer questions and 20 multiple choice) and afterwards the professor unpacked a bunch of 뗙 and coffee that her husband had bought in Germany (but was made in Brazil[?]) so we had a little party. It was delicious and a lot of fun. She let me take an extra rice cake home with me, too. There were three types: injeolmi, mochi, and just like...a square-shaped one with stuff on it whose name I don't know. Anyways, yeah, easy midterm, and I think I'm the only person in the class who bothered learning the names of everything but it didn't matter because she didn't have it written in Hangul anyways (**grumble** that actually made it more difficult**).

On Sunday the 23 I had speaking practice in Insadong, and while I was there my friend Benjamin/Gunhee (can't decide which name I like better) told me about a thing called 독도보홍단 (Dokdo Bohongdan - basically Dokdo program) that allows 30 teams of one foreigner and one Korean native to go on a foreign relations trip to Dokdo, and island that is a disputed territory between Korea and Japan as a result of the fallout from the colonization of Korea by Japan and World War II (Japan's name for it is Takeshima). He told me that he wasn't sure when the deadline was.

On the 25th he called me to tell me that the deadline was THAT NIGHT at midnight and that I had to HURRYYYY and apply if I wanted to have even a chance (apparently hundreds of students applied for it already and were just barely going to squeeze in). He sent me the application and it was in the wrong format (US microsoft word can't handle Hangul sometimes) so he reformatted it and sent it again. I couldn't understand the Korean so he translated it and sent it again. I finally filled it out (the end was two essays) and then he had to translate it all back into Korean (including my essays) and then send it in. He finally emailed in everything by 11:45. It was a close call. He told me not to get my hopes up so I didn't, but on Saturday he called me with the news - WE GOT IN!!!! He made sure to let me know how intense the competition was and how most of his friends didn't get in at all. The trip is three days from November 13th to 15th and two nights, and they're giving us free clothes including shirts and shoes (...? shoes, why?) and there's a 6-hour orientation on November 5th. I'm so excited!! I told me Korean-Japanese Relations professor and he got REALLY excited and asked me to take a lot of pictures and make a presentation when I got back. I will have to take a lot of good notes so that I can remember all of it!

Another thing that follows is that after the trip I have to open up a social networking communication line talking about Dokdo to spread the word to other countries, which means I have to open a new blog, open another twitter, and also a tumblr to profess the facts and verités about the property claims issue of Dokdo island. It'll be fun - maybe I'll become a famous representative!! Just kidding. Also I'm worried that my Japanese friends will be mad at me.

Oh and the best part is that the trip - transportation, housing, food, lectures, clothing, etc. - is all FREE!!! It's like a $1,000 value. I'm so stoked.

Anyways, that's the big Dokdo news.

On Tuesday night (since my exams were finished) I decided to go out for just a little bit with my friends to celebrate. I ended up coming home at around 5 in the morning with absolutely no voice because I'd been singing noraebang on top of having a small cough. It was great. I met some new people and did some good bonding. Anyways...

...now onto - Halloween in Korea!

Traditionally, Halloween has never been celebrated in Korea until recently, and it's really just an excuse for stores to deck out their shelves with jack-o-lanterns and for college kids to dress up in crazy outfits and, of course, drink ridiculous amounts of soju, beer, "tekira" or "hwohdca/podca." I told Bomi and Dayoung about Halloween and they thought that bobbing for apples sounded hysterical, and when I mentioned trick-or-treating, Bomi exclaimed "I saw that in a movie once!" When I heard her say that I think my brain exploded. I went trick-or-treating every year from when I was a little kid in a flower costume 'til I was a high school junior in a Zombie Housewife costume (with the exception of when I was 15 and stayed in to study for my Chemistry exam and pass out the candy). When she said that it was probably the scariest moment of my Halloween. No lie. Anyways, for my halloween costume I had several ideas, one of which was being "sexy Ahjumma." To those of you who didn't know yet, Ahjumma style has a very particular je ne sais quoi to it - if you click this link you'll know what I mean. They're basically a stereotypical Korean middle-aged woman. My korean professor told our class that Korea has three genders - male, female, and ahjumma - just to illustrate my point. [Photo Courtesy of Eric Sellgren's photo blog.] I decided against it, however, because I'm growing a little tired of only having worn costumes with the adjective "sexy" at the beginning since my frosh year of high school, so I decided to be a fairy this year! Yes, I did bring fairy wings with me to Korea, don't ask me why.

Anyways when I told my roommate, a New Orleans native, that I was going to be a fairy she told me that it just wouldn't do, and that I'd have to be a hip-hop fairy. As a very non-swag person, I had to ask her what the heck that even meant and basically I ended up wearing a little white club dress with a white 59Fifty and my white nikes along with my lavender fairy wings and super awesome eye makeup. Much camwhoring ensued.

For Halloween, the Yonsei Global program threw a party at Club Mansion in Hongdae. It was pretty fun - the music was all techno/house music, though, so dancing involved a lot of jumping and weird hand gestures, but it was really fun. After that we took to the streets and roamed around finding awesome costumes and just having a good time. I finally ended up getting some AMAZING samgyupsal for a pretty cheap price and getting home around 5am. One of the best costumes of the night was this really kkangpae-looking dude wearing a traditional female hanbok and a fake giant braided hairpiece (gache) à la Chosun dynasty. So hilarious.

Anyways, that was all good and fun, and then I woke up early the next morning to meet my friends down at 10:30 at the Hyundai department store to grab a taxi together to go to 와우산 공원 (Wausan Park) to play some badminton. We never actually ended up playing badminton because all of the jangs were full, but I learned a lot of traditional Korean games and had a good time running around and trying out all of the cool Korean workout equipment (some of it was just hilarious and fun). That evening for dinner I had some cheap pizza and watched a comedy show on the giant LCD screen in the seating area and was actually shocked that I understood and was laughing at some of the jokes. SO COOL!!!!! AHHHH!!!

Anyways now I'm here on a Monday after my first class of the day and finishing up this post for you guys. Tonight I'm going and tutoring for the girl who asked me how to say breasts in English, and I'm anticipating it because last week her mother gave me permission to scold her, because she's been acting up lately. She's apparently been doing a lot better in her English class, though, so her mom is really pleased with me and thinks I'm awesome. The little girl likes me a LOT, evidence being that for the past two times I've been there she's written me a little note that says "I love Janet teacher!" with a picture of us together, and during the lesson she doodles pictures of us skipping and holding hands and playing on the playground. I'm not sure how to react but I think it's adorable. I just wish she would start drawing arms on the doodle of me. Hahah.

Anyways, that's all! I'll upload some pictures soon and give you updates on the Dokdo island trip later!!

Love,

Janet <3 <3 <3