I love LA (we love it!)

Ten points for the first person who gets the reference in the title.

I'm back in the states now, after almost three months abroad... Hearing English in public on a consistent basis is a little unsettling, but I'm sure I'll get used to it within a few days. The weather in LA has been amazing lately--sunny and in the low 80s. I guess it's true what they say: there really is no place like home.

I've had some time recently to think over my experiences this summer. I didn't realize it at the time, but I think my favorite part of learning Chinese in China was the opportunity it afforded me to speak informally with the locals, regardless of location or situation (e.g. in restaurants, at the bookstore, on the bus, etc). For one thing, I find it remarkable that I'm even able to do so now, since my Chinese was nowhere near conversational before this summer, as my language tutor can probably attest to. In addition, I found Chinese people to be extremely friendly and willing to converse about anything, from Korean celebrities to environmental issues--all without the close-minded attitude that I originally expected.

And, people aside, the city of Beijing is so obviously rich in culture and history that I feel like I could live there for the rest of my life and still not understand it all. I don't claim to know what the future holds for me, but I would not be surprised if I ended up back in China, either for further language study or for work. The country calls to me... as corny as that sounds.

So, I guess this is goodbye for now. I'll be leaving for Yale tomorrow, and after that I'll probably be busy with moving in, job training, and new classes. Hopefully though, I'll get another chance to use this China blog before long. 再见！

Fadtastic

Greetings once again from Seoul, Korea, where the trends are plentiful and the conformity is high. I had an interesting experience today that I'd like to share with future Light Fellows coming to Korea for language study. I saw a girl in her teens on the subway wearing loose-fitting jeans and a black sweatshirt, with her unaltered hair in a simple ponytail. Like the rest of the passengers, I couldn't help but stare, the unspoken sentiment reflected in our gaping faces being, "What is this girl thinking, looking so unpresentable in public?" Only then did I realize how much just one week in this country had altered my mindset. To say that modern Korean society is extremely shallow would, of course, be a generalization--but it would also be fairly accurate. The younger women here, by and large, cannot be seen in public without high heels, the latest popular style of apparel, a name-brand handbag, and hair that has been dyed, highlighted, straightened, permed, or all of the above (try to figure that one out). The men are either in shiny suits, "hip-hop" wear, or tight-fitting clothes that wouldn't fit my younger sister. Oh, and they carry purses.

I generally don't like to talk about other people's appearances, since it's easy to start sounding judgmental and haughty, but a phenomenon this widespread is something that I can't pretend doesn't exist. Does it stem from a desire to appear rich and westernized? Is it self-perpetuating, despite having uncertain origins? Does it make a difference whether the brands they buy are fake or real? Most importantly, in long run, what sort of impact does it make on the progress of society? My good friend Jason Chu wrote a much more insightful post about all this on his own blog; what I have to offer to people coming to Korea for the first time, particularly Light Fellows, is this piece of advice: if you don't dress to match the very latest fashion fad, if you look like a foreigner, if you give off even the slightest air that you're not part of this society, then be prepared for awkward stares and whisperings behind your back. Trust me, I know.

On a happier note, I've finished all the shopping for souvenirs and gifts that I had originally planned to do, so I should have total freedom during the next two days to explore the city and
see the sights. I'm very excited to go back home; I've been away for almost three months now, which is the same length as the stretch of school from the beginning of fall semester to Thanksgiving break--that is, too long. If I experience any reverse cultural shock back in America, it's going to be a weird Korean/Chinese mixture. I guess I'll see how that goes.

And finally... Pictures! I haven't taken that many in Korea, but that's okay since the other Light Fellows here have done a fine job already. (Go Tyler!)

China


Bungee jumping at Ten Crosses. Credits to Cathy for this awesome photo.


Yum, scorpions!


王本星 with a bandage on his nose after Gustavo accidentally smacked him. I think it's a very becoming look, don't you?


Andy and Guo Laoshi. Andy's thoughts: "The program is already over! Let me free!"


For all the flak that Mu Laoshi gets, I thought she was actually a very awesome person.


Prizes. I haven't opened that electronic dictionary since the day I got it. Hrm.


Me with David and Victor, two of my best friends in Beijing. I'll miss their quirkiness, matched only by my own.


The other James Kim of DSICP, thinking about how much he plans to party back in Korea. Or just sleeping. It's hard to tell.


Aww. Yuan Laoshi and Bao Laoshi, two of my favorites.


We spent fifteen minutes just playing in front of this camera/TV. It was fantastic.


Sunny, once again unsuccessfully trying to hide from the inevitable.


Pretty fireworks #1.


Pretty fireworks #2 + random person with camcorder.


Pretty fireworks #3. It reminded me of popcorn.


After the fireworks, we were all exhausted. Fortunately, the subway was empty enough to rest on the seats like this.


More sleeping on the subway.


Carol, skillfully enjoying her 牛肉面-flavored ramen and watching women's handball at the same time.


Action shot!


A real fuwa and several... hunniebunnies?


The Bird's Nest. Where's the Olympic flame?

Korea


Tyler, eating Korean food like nobody's business.


A bowl of sundubu straight from heaven. No joke, quite possibly the best sundubu I've ever eaten in my life.


The obligatory patbingsu. Pretty, and delicious! Koreans sure know how to make desserts.


Tyler singing his heart out at karaoke.


"We love karaoke, yes we do!"


Jason came to hang out and sleep over in my hotel room, so we went to watch a movie. Here he is making friends with Wall-E.


There was a rose garden on the rooftop of the cinema building. Pretty flowers for the win.


The stuff on the petals is rain, which isn't quite as romantic as dew... Close, though.


Clearly explaining something very important.


Chillaxin' on the rocking bench thingy.


We got swept up into a huge protest against Lee Myung Bak afterwards. It was intense.


Breakdancers in front of a department store. They put my skills to shame.

That's it. See you back in America, probably!

糟糕

I had hoped that having left China, I would no longer have the occasion to say "糟糕" (zao1gao1), which means something to the effect of "disaster" or “terrible." But my experience coming home tonight was pretty much the very definition of 糟糕. Here's what happened: after meeting up with Tyler and Andy (two Light Fellows studying at Sogang--more on that later), I decided I should head home since it was getting pretty late, and the subway would be closing. I was at Sinchon, and my destination, Euljiro-4-ga, was perhaps seven stops away with about fifteen minutes left. I though I'd make it, so I took said subway; it turns out, a 1:00 am closing time actually means all the trains stop taking passengers at 12:55 am. Consequently, the rest of the passengers and I had to get off at Euljiro Ipgu (three stops away) and go upstairs to call a cab. I was there for about half an hour before I realized that the taxi drivers only slowed down if there was a girl in the vicinity, and even then, they only picked up the prettiest girls.

Left with no other choices, I ended up walking all the way to my hotel--probably a twenty minute walk normally, but thirty minutes for me because I was tired, sleepy, and couldn't figure out if I was supposed to turn at an intersection or keeping walking straight. I arrived at the hotel sweaty, disoriented, and with a grudge against Seoul taxi drivers. On the bright side (if this story can be said to have a bright side), I did get to see the parts of the city that I usually miss during my commute because I'm underground. I'm not really sure it was worth it. Oh well.

In other news, my first few days in Korea have been relatively eventful. On Tuesday, my first full day here, I checked out COEX and unsuccessfully shopped around for some fobby clothes. For dinner, I met up with three other Korean Yalies living in Seoul, ate some heavenly pho and gelato, and watched a movie (눈눈이이). Yesterday, after hanging out in Apgujeong for a while, I met up with three prefrosh, ate sushi, took sticker pictures (oh the horror), and watched another movie (X-Files--I didn't even know this existed). Today, I went to Sinchon to meet with Tyler and eat dinner, which ended up being amazing sundubu. Afterwards, we met with several upperclassmen, though besides Andy, they ended up going to different places. Tyler, Andy, a Japanese lady in their year at Sogang, and I went to a noraebang (karaoke room just sounds silly) and sang our hearts out, then went over to a bar to chat. After that, as you know... 糟糕.

I never realized how much studying Chinese would help me with Korean until yesterday, when I was speaking with my uncle and he started dropping words like 전세계 (全世界, whole world), 모정 (母情, motherly sentiment), and 일반 (一般, common). It's actually more likely a sign that my Korean is just very bad, but nevertheless, I'm glad my Chinese is actually useful for something still. Another interesting phenomenon that I never noticed before was the abundance of Chinese characters in everyday Korean life; from the subway to billboard advertisements, Chinese characters are everywhere--albeit in traditional. The practicality of this practice is obvious: because Korean is nontonal, many Chinese words become perfect homophones in the Korean language, and the characters become necessary for easy differentiation. I've heard that many people support the completely abolishment of Chinese characters from the Korean lexicon. I wonder how that would work out.

I know I promised photos in the last post, but I'm way too tired to be bothered with resizing and uploading right now. My next post will have photos for sure, plus a commentary/critique on the superficiality of Korean people. Good night.

A hectic (but awesome) final weekend

Wow, I'm done. After eight long weeks of intensive Chinese study, worrying about tingxies, studying shengci, struggling to understand the locals, experimenting--many times unsuccessfully--with Chinese food, ad nauseam, I have finally graduated from (the equivalent of) second year Chinese. In retrospect, I'm glad I spent as much time as I did studying rather than going out to party or even just exploring, because honestly, such opportunities presented themselves naturally and, in the end, still allowed me to both dramatically improve my Chinese and familiarize myself with the city. Final verdict on DSICP? Definitely the way to go for a Light Fellow studying second year Chinese, but only if he/she has the discipline to study hard at least some of the time. (This is assuming that said Light Fellow is actually interested in getting better at Chinese, which I discovered isn't necessarily true.)

On Friday after our final written and oral exams, we had a closing ceremony/party in the restaurant downstairs. I think the best part was the slideshow: Zhao Laoshi did a really good job putting it together, and it showed many of the most memorable moments from the summer. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that most of the photos he used were mine, I probably would have gotten a little teary-eyed. Shhh. Afterwards, we had a few skits and performances by students (including "Dui Mian De Nu Hai Kan Guo Lai" by the second year Yalies and "Bu De Bu Ai" plus a dance routine by me and my roommate). At the very end, they gave out various awards, and I ended up winning a really really nice electronic dictionary/MP3 player/video player/handheld game console. Then we took photos and said our goodbyes. I don't like goodbyes. Alas.

That night started off a little rough and slowly but surely got better. A bunch of us went to The Place (there's a place in Beijing called The Place, don't ask me why) to watch the opening ceremony, but once we got there we were told that they wouldn't be showing it on the main screen in front of the Place, so we hurried to Tim's Texas BBQ to watch it on a smaller TV. We ordered food and watched the ceremony, but found out an hour later that our food wouldn't be coming. So we walked back to The Place, got some Indian food, went outside, sat in a big circle, and watched the rest of the opening ceremony, which they were showing on the big screen after all. Interestingly, during our meal, a news reporter came and interviewed us, so we might have ended up on Chinese TV. Afterwards, we took the new subway line to the stop closest to the Bird's Nest (the main Olympics stadium) and watched the amazing fireworks show. Serendipitously, an area right next to where we were standing was also part of the show, so I was able to take some beautiful, up-close photos. Stay tuned for those.

Saturday was yet another new adventure. The awesome Carol Yu was able to secure tickets for women's handball, so all of us met up at the same subway station as the night before and walked over to the venue. We watched two games: the first was Romania versus Kazakhstan, and it was not very interesting, since Kazakhstan basically got slaughtered. But the second, Russia versus Korea, was incredibly exciting, not only because I'm Korean, but because of the history of the two teams--Russia was the 2007 world champion, and Korea was the 2004 Olympic silver medalists. As fate would have it, the game ended in a draw. It felt more like a victory for Korea though, because they were trailing by a lot with just ten minutes remaining and managed to pull off an awesome scoring streak to tie it up. After the game, we went to the far east side of Beijing for a farewell dinner with some of Carol's church members, since she was leaving for Hong Kong. The food there was tasty, especially the supposedly really spicy fish that I actually didn't think was that spicy. After dinner, we were all tired, so we took a cab back to CNU and I knocked out almost instantly.

On Sunday, I checked out and headed over to Devin's place to spend the night, since I foolishly had bought airplane tickets for the 11th rather than the 10th like everyone else. We hung out most of the day, just shopping and visiting random places in Wangfujing. The next morning, I took the airport express subway line (which, annoyingly, had no convenient space for really big luggage) to Terminal 3, where I passed through customs surprisingly smoothly and got on my plane--not back to LA, but to the Land of the Morning Calm: Korea.

And that is where I am now. My uncle owns Hyundai Residence Hotel here in 충무로 (Chungmuro), so he gave me a room with a really nice view of Seoul, in addition to spending money for the next two weeks. He even bought me laundry detergent and made arrangements for the restaurant down the street to give me free meals. It's nice to have good connections, sometimes. Also, although I'm technically done with my own Light Fellowship, I plan to continue blogging while I'm here, since I'm still in an East Asian country (and, at the very least, I'll probably end up meeting with some of the Light Fellows here). Photos and a report on my first few days back in the motherland coming up shortly. Bye bye!

倒数第二的 (Penultimate)

As is evident from the title, this will probably be my second to last post about my adventures as a foreigner here in Beijing. I have three full days left: the final examination and closing ceremony tomorrow, then the weekend before I leave on Monday. Time is zooming along now--with every passing day, I realize more and more how much I will miss this city and its people. During my (final) 1-dui-1 today, I was telling Yuan laoshi how much more 热情 (warm/welcoming) and 友好 (friendly) Beijing people were than I expected, and I ended up using about five new grammar structures, which made her laugh with delight. It was a good way to wrap up two months of intense and incessant Chinese study.

In other news, I've been rather busy lately trying to do all the shopping for cheap stuff that I should have done during the first seven weeks. I went to Liulichang yesterday, and successfully managed to buy a guitar plus its travel case for about $38 (an example of how much my haggling skills have improved--the shopkeeper originally asked for around $60). That wasn't even the best part of yesterday, though. During the taxi ride there, I had, for the first time in my stay here, an actual, meaningful conversation with a Beijing taxi driver.

A little background about the 出租车司机 (taxi drivers) here: their Beijing accents are particular fierce, and, as far as I can tell, they don't close their mouths when speaking. It doesn't help that they all listen to the same radio program--some sort of monologue spoken in heavily accented Chinese. Fortunately, my driver yesterday was younger, and thus had not yet been too heavily influenced by all this. We started out talking about what I was doing in China, and ended up discussing anything and everything under the Beijing sun, from his wife's recent pregnancy to Olympics ticket scalpers to underground Christianity. Most remarkably of all, there was not a single word he said that I did not recognize, though, admittedly, there were certain words which I had to ask him to repeat before I realized what he had said. I was actually a little sad when we arrived, and we had to say our farewells. Perhaps we'll meet again in the future--the world is getting smaller and smaller, after all.

I haven't posted any photos recently, so I guess I'll do that now. First, a question for the office people back at Yale: for those of us Light Fellows who have opted to keep a blog, is there a set of standards by which you judge the quality of our blogs, and which we must have followed in order to not have to write a final report?

And now, my (possibly) final set of photos from China.


Random photo of two laoshis. Guo Laoshi is really tall.


Micah (BK '10, I think) surprised at something during the dinner with Zhou Laoshi and Dean Gentry.


Zhou Laoshi! I don't know if it's just me, but he seems to have gotten older. Teaching Chinese 115 must be stressful.


Unripe mango slices in Sprite (and a rose petal for no apparent reason). Peter and I ate almost all of this.


The main gate of Beijing Zoo, made famous by the Chinese 115 lessons on how to give directions. Embarrassing story: I asked a local how to get to the zoo, and he gave me a strange look before walking away. It turns out, I was right in front of this gate. Sigh.


标语! Two of them, actually. I like the second one: "I line up, I yield, I happy"


Very few things in my life have made me as excited as seeing this sign.


Living the good life.


This monkey was crying, but I'm not sure why. He probably saw my face.


Red panda. Not quite as cute as giant pandas, but close.


This lion bears a striking resemblance to me on weekday afternoons.


Hippo! (河马, or, according to Shirley 水牛 [water cow].)


A baby kangaroo, all alone. I wanted to be his friend.


Wow, S-T-U-D to the max.


Kung-fu/ballet performance. This place is called the Red Theater, imagine that.


Yay, Yalies.


Not an uncommon sight to behold in our dorm building lobby.


This car had an Olympics logo on its hood. It's not a taxi, so I have no idea what it's for.


On our way to Silk Market #2 (which we never found), we came across Man Shop.


And his good friend, Lady Shop.


Chinese McDonald's look exactly like American McDonald's, except they're all underground. And they have coconut pie on their menus. Blegh.


Derek and Victor sleeping on the way to Ten Crosses.


Someone's feet sleeping on the way to Ten Crosses.


Ten Crosses's crazy rocking bridge, which we decided to cross because we're crazy.


Manmade waterfall. I forgot to play around with my shutter speed. Next time, next time...


The platform from which we bungee jumped. High? Yes. Scary? Quite so. Worth it? Oh yeah.