A lot has been going on since I last put thoughts to keyboard, here are some in no particular order:

1) I was inspired by a blog about eating dark chocolate
I'm a fan of chocolate, dark chocolate to be specific. And to be more specific, the 72% variety. So when my good friend blogged about the nuances of enjoying a piece of dark chocolate, I must say I was inspired.

2) Sent in my letter of acceptance to Duke Law School

3) Applied for a tourist visa to China
Do you know that a tourist visa costs over $130 for an American to get a visa!?!?!? Highway robbery I tell you! Anyways, I also secured the hotel for my trip, the Westin Beijing Financial Center. Looks pretty cool, it should be fun, except neither my friend or I can speak any Chinese, but I suppose if we did it wouldn't be as adventurous right?

4) Finished reading "Blue Like Jazz," "Rules for Revolutionaries," and "I Isaac Take Thee Rebeka"
So I tried reading Blue Like Jazz once before and couldn't get past the first couple of chapters. I'm not quite sure the reason, but I really disliked the book. I mean, really, really disliked it! Anyways, so I thought I'd give it another shot and I must say that in the couple of days it took me to read it, I fell in love with Donald Miller... Well not with him, but with his writing style and the book. If you've ever wondered what becoming a Christian is like from a non-christian's point of view is, or if you've never considered yourself a Christian, or if you sometimes find yourself wondering if after death comes an eternity filled with pools of vanilla wafer pudding... (don't know why I threw that last one in there?) This book is for you.

5) Visited family

6) MC'd a Music Competition at the Korean Language Institute
Not so bad?

Had a rough night, thought I'd sit down and put some thoughts to keyboard. Why is it that life is so hard? I mean, it's not that hard except that we have to deal with people. And if we didn't have to deal with people, I don't know how many of use would consider it worth living. Have you ever wondered if God was just playing a cruel joke on us? I mean think about it, we're creatures that crave and desire community more than probably any other animal in existence, and just about every problem we have, comes from the communities that we crave. Then again, I should probably point out that the highlighting moments of our lives also come from the communities that we live in. When friends gather at Peter Piper for a little shoot-out tourney or when two finally get engaged (it was only a matter of time), or even when you just get to share some late night chicken and laugh about swallowing gum (I guess you had to be there). Anyways, maybe it's not that cruel of a joke after all. Don't they say everything is relative? Perhaps we wouldn't recognize or appreciate the good aspects of the communities we live if we didn't have to occasionally, (or even daily) have to deal with the nonsense.

On to other things, going to visit family tomorrow, going to China in three weeks... Let the good times roll...

Just sitting here in 수원 with some time to kill before meeting up with a friend for lunch so I decided to put some thoughts to words. Several things have happened since I got back this week, including jet lag. What the hell is up with jet lag?! I thought I might have finally beaten it last night, but nope, 4:00AM this morning I was bright eyed and bushy tailed. My intensive Korean class is becoming just that: intensive. From what my teacher tells me, upon graduating level 2 of Yonsei's KLI program students will know about 50% of what the "average" Korean knows with regards to the language and grammer. Now while that might sound very impressive at first, let's remember that the majority of Americans have somewhere around a 5th grade reading level.. (a little less impressive huh?). I'm also taking three online classes through ASU so I can ensure my timely gradution prior to entering law school. (probably a good thing)

I got to see several of my relatives last night, including grandparents, cousins, and uncles/aunts. Also found out that my cousin Benny and his wife Jinny (whom I mentioned previously here) are expecting a baby in about 7 months... wow, that was quick.

On the law school front, still waiting...

Other than that, perhaps a couple of intersting things to talk about after next weekend, but until then, I'll just be studying korean, intercultural communication, technical writing, geology, and reading one of the many books I brought.

Oh yea.. and of course I can't finish the blog without a picture of the all new macbook air... (now that's sexy!) I'm willing to bet the good doctor gets one soon ;)

So.. I should be studying for midterms, but instead I'm blogging. And of course it has nothing to do with not wanting to put my nose in the books.. but more because I care about everyone who's interested in "all things, me and korea." So here goes.

First, I had a chance to go to 용산 (Yong-san) a few weeks ago. It's a huge 8 story mall (of sorts) that specializes in everything electronic. I picked up an HP printer for $48 while my housemate - Hiro picked up a new cell phone. You'll also see that there was a car display in the court of the mall. YES that's a DAEWOO sign.. and YES, the red car is a DAEWOO... (hmmm, never seen that in the states)







Here are some pictures of my Korean Language Institute class... There are 14 of us, when everyone shows up... It's always a good time.





I mom and grandma are in town this week... so we visited a bunch of family in 강릉 (Gang-neung) which is my mom's hometown. My grandmother's oldest brother's widow was there (86) with her son (who's youngest son is getting married in two weeks), my grandmother's youngest brother (65ish?) and his wife, her youngest sister (74ish?) her next younger brother (78ish), his wife (68ish?) and then my grandmother (81) my mother and I were all there... We ate a lot, drank a lot, and I sat around clapping while all the older folk sang traditional songs from their childhood.. All in all it was a good time.



On a side note... my grandmother was pretty upset about my attempt to grow some facial hair.. and barely spoke to me on the 2 hour drive from Suwon to Gang-neung. (except to tell me I looked like a homeless old man). When we got to her younger brother's house (where we stayed) first thing she told her brother was to grab me a razor... So much for attempting facial hair for the next 3 weeks... Oh well... I'll just look like I'm 12...


Until next time...

Thought I would post a semi-brief general update about some goings on. I spent part of the weekend back in Suwon (about an hour and half by subway from my house) I met my uncle (my mom's mom's late-brother's son) and his youngest son and fiance. It was a great meeting, we met up for dinner at a So-Kalbi restaurant (marinated beef short-ribs). The beef from Suwon is legendary and holds the title as some of the best beef in Korea. Afterwards my cousin and his fiance took me to a local bar that he enjoys and we chatted over drinks for a couple of hours. My cousin works for SK Telecom as a Sales Manager and bride-to-be works at a local high school teaching english grammar.

An interesting topic of conversation was the university my cousin graduated from: Korea University. If you will recall my last post, Korea and Yonsei are huge national rivals. I could see that he held on to the rivalry when I mentioned that I had attended the Yon-Ko games recently. He paused and then corrected me, "You mean the Ko-Yon games!" ;)

Regarding my intensive Korean class... it's going well, It is definitely going to be some work. 20 hours a week (four hours a day) is longer than it sounds! I sent an email to ASU requesting to have the credit transfer re-evaluated from 6 credits for the class to 12 credits. My current exchange structure stipulates that I take at least 12 credit hours from Yonsei. Unfortunately, if I really want to excel in this course and attempt to skip level 2, I think it'd be best for me to be able to focus solely on the course. I'll keep you posted.


On the law school front I've just updated my lawschoolnumbers.com account with the recent emails from Columbia, Yale and Harvard. Columbia sent me an email stating that I had forgotten to attache a resume, I have forwarded it to them in .pdf form via email. Yale has my completed application and advised me not to contact them, but that they would contact me when they have reached a decision. I just received an email from Harvard stating that they had my preliminary information from lsac, and would let me know when my application package was complete.

Well that's about it for now... until next time

It's been another great couple of days, lots going on not only with Korea but with law school too.  I spent all of yesterday hanging out with my aunt, her husband, and my cousin hong-won in Kunsan where I was born.  Although I didn't get a chance to visit the infamous St. Vincent's Hospital because it was raining, I'll probably go back in a couple of weeks to check out some more of the sights and sounds.  My aunt and uncle own and operate a chinese language school that teaches to korean natives, from what I hear right now it's pretty trendy to learn chinese and then study over there.  She's offered to teach me chinese, might have to take her up on it.. then again I suppose I should wait and see how my korean progresses.. (on a side note, I just figured out how to reconfigure my blogger to english.. whew! bout time!)  

suwon

So suwon was quite the experience, we went to the korean costco which was cool.  It was quite the place, there was more free food than you could sample and every department had what sounded like an auctioneer.  The person would yell out discounts and people would swarm in like flies to buy whatever it was that was the blue-light special of the moment.  The sea food section was quite... different and extravagant and the sushi.. ummm well I think that I need an entire blog just for that.. but don't worry I'll update it.  Other than that, I couldn't get over the fact that my cousin was such a good look'n kid.

salesmen around the world

So my laundry's done and now I'm getting ready to head to Yonsei and have my final check out.  I also got a handphone yesterday, the number I'm still not quite sure of because it hasn't been activated.  I'm amazed to see that some things are pretty "international" like the fact that wherever you go, many salesmen still "bend" the truth.  So my aunt is helping me buy the handphone yesterday and she asks the salesman why the phone is free?  He starts telling her about the way it works and how the phone company provides a kick-back.  At some point he tells her that this is the best deal ever and that he wouldn't lie.  When he glances at me, I kind of grin and told him "all salesmen are liars."  He pauses for a moment and then laughs.  He agreed but said that his strong consciounce wouldn't let him do it. (riiiight, these are the ones you really have to be careful for).  So he tells us that we'll receive a phone call around 8PM that will give us instructions on activating the phone.  --> Come 8:30 my aunt calls and he says it's not going to be activated but to wait until today and give him a call.  I'll skip the part where he didn't apologize and then told my aunt to return the phone if she wasn't happy.  So I just had my friend come over and call.. the guy said he was too busy and to call back .

law school 102

So today I'll submit most of my law school apps.  It's a weird feeling and I know there's not much I can do at this point.. what's done is done.  I had a good chat conversation yesterday with a long time friend I really don't talk to all that much anymore.. But it was good.  She told me how she's an over-analyzer (most of you know that's me in a nutshell) and that she has a hard time "letting-go."  I told her that I'm always working on the same issue and that for me, I've found that if I focus hard enough then I'm able to overanalyze the things that warrent that type of thing and let go the things that don't. "sounds like you're well on your way then," she replied.  "Only every other day," I replied .  Well maybe I'll try to make this a good day.  I already had amazing qt this morning, an enjoyable conversation about fan blades and frogs, ate breakfast, did laundry and now I'm heading out to school.  I think my goal for today is to get all the applications finished up, and forget about it.  I mean I could always go out and drink so much I forget I even applied to law school.. but then who'd clean the sheets?