But I found this cool quiz and thought the results fit me.

I try not to do many of these things, as most aren't worth the time, but this one was kinda cool. Just be forewarned, the ads on either side of the quiz are, at least, PG-13 rated.

You Are the Investigator

5 You're independent - and a logical analytical thinker. You love learning and ideas... and know things no one else does. Bored by small talk, you refuse to participate in boring conversations. You are open minded. A visionary. You understand the world and may change it.

wowzerzit'sreallyreallyfreakingcoldoutsidehowcanpeoplelivethisway

::hides inside as snow continues falling outside::

And by the way, this shall be my last post until at least Sunday. Adieu, for the time being.

And with that, my first post from the frozen north begins.

What can I say... it's pretty up here. Miles upon miles of snow. It's at least six inches deep everywhere in this neigborhood, covering everything. It glistens, it looks great on roofs, it's lights up in the coolest ways when it covers bushes wrapped in Christmas lights.

It's like one of those little cozy houses blanketed in snow, then wrapped inside a frozen bubble and showered with glitter. Shaking one of those was like the feeling I got on a walk through the neighborhood after dark.

It's 15 degrees Fahrenheit here in northern Indiana, your breath hangs in the air, and ice has slickened all the roads. A quick Wal-Mart run for last minute Christmas presents (don't ask) turned into a foggy night affair like a scene from Batman Returns.

The drive up from Texas went smoothly. I was amused sitting in the car out front of the hotel, to see a long-bed pick-up heading up an icy slope. It started well, and then as easily as a kid on a playground slide, the truck fell back down, trying to brake. The driver nonchalantly turned into a driveway and took another route. They get so used to ice in a way they just don't have to in Texas.

So this Christmas truly has been a white one, the kind Bing Crosby used to sing about.

And about those snow globes.... I was trying to express a mental image above, but seriousness must give way sooner or later to comical Flash applets. For pure randomness (and for being the number one Google find for "snow globes") I present this random holiday link.

Continued best wishes this holiday season. :-)

I started this download of the latest version of Winamp at 100 k per second... and watched the speed accelerate past 120 k until my download was done seconds later...

::tears form in The Count's eyes::

I LOVE DSL!!!




Ahem, and on the subject of Winamp, I found this thread amusing. The thread author was indeed trying to be amusing, but I actually agree with him.

Hmph.

So my granny got me a gift certificate to American Eagle for Christmas. Cool stuff, and I'm very thankful for it.

I knew I could go to the nearby Longview Mall to shop around, but I was doubly delighted that all of their website was open for gift certificates as well. Too bad their home page sucks!

It's not suggestive, is it?

Come on, they might as well have written "SEX" in huge letters across the screen! >:-|

It's the Ludwhig holiday post!

Greetings! Happy holidays! Merry Christmas!

Having a good time. A slow time. Sleeping lots. Eating nice food, reading too. Moby Dick, for the 2nd time. Very nice, and appreciating it so much more the next time around. I was... let me think... 13 or 14 last time I read it. And I cheated so bad! I skipped significant portions from the middle, parts dealing with whale anatomy descriptions that had little or no narrative. Could I be blamed?

Perhaps not as a young high-schooler, but unforgivably as a sampler of fine reading. I'm going it again, and this time, I'll do it right.

Streaming music Rhapsody is a good thing. Evil henchmen and Rhapsody nazis Shroud, Slope and our dear-departed Moose introduced me to it. Any computer with an internet connection and clearance to install the client suddenly becomes a jukebox of my favorite music. Yay! Music = cool.

What's playing now? Josh Groban's new live-concert CD "Live at the Greek." Where's the Greek? Not in Greece apparently....

So my granddad has a Suzuki Samurai. It's a little 4-wheel drive jeep of a 2-seater. It's great fun! My little brother and I took it for 2 great spins around the little roads and blacktops around our house.

Sometimes the roads would turn from blacktop to complete dirt, and whipping corners at 40 mph, skidding stones from the back tires, was a really cool feeling. Ben had to remind a few times that I wasn't Indiana Jones. :D

Then pulling back into our quarter-mile dirt driveway, I could go off into the field, weave away from a row of hay bales and go bouncing over old tomato terraces. Through a ravine, over more terraces, and then spinning circles through a miniature valley in front of our house. Then back in reverse for a perfect landing in the garage. Woooooohooooo!

On another note, my grandfather has been in the hospital for several weeks now. I think, not sure, but I think he may be stable enough to come home for the Christmas at my grandmother's and see his grandkids open presents. He's feeble, but if I were him, I'd sure want to get away from hospitals and firm nurses.

My family lives officialy in Kokomo, Indiana, but we love our Texas house and rent it to a recently married woman rather than sell it. She married her fiancee a few days ago, and so we have free reign in our old house while she's off on honeymoon. The day after Christmas, we're headed back to Indiana with my grandmother.

Shortly after we begin a 5-day vacation into the Northeast. We'll visit Niagara Falls (which I've never seen), and take in the beauties of New York (stop laughing Spork) on our way to Maine. We'll drive up and down the coast a bit, spend a day in Boston, and then come back through Pennsylvania. Nice to see a bit of country I've never been to before.

Then, all too soon, it will be back to campus for the apparently very laid-back winter IMPACT retreat of 2005.

I'm already missing school. :'-| It's just where I'm supposed to be, I really think. I hope I can act worthily there if I do indeed feel it is my current calling in life to be at LeTourneau.

So basically, yeah, I'm having a knock-your-socks-off good Christmas break. Now if only *someone* would get off my DAOC account!

And I hope and pray you have a smashingly great Christmas break too! Merry Christmas, yohoho and all that good stuff.

So tomorrow's fifth and last final marks the end of my first semester as a declared student of history and political science.

So far? I'm liking it. Still don't have a clue for a focused intention on a job, but I'm still exploring and the options are interesting me.

As a History/PolySci major, I'm required to take 2 years of foreign language. I thought Spanish would be a good one, since I had previous experience with it and since I do live in Texas, so I signed up for it.

Well, early this semester Mr. Morales had us (in Elem. Spanish I) take a placement exam. I took it, did my best, placed well enough for Elem. Spanish 2.

"Sweet!" thought I.

Mr. Morales looked at the score, said I could take Spanish 2. And thus the matter slept, until last week.

Apparently, an online placement exam isn't enough. They won't let me into the second part until I've got actual credit for the first. So I have to take the departmental CLEP exam.

After much muddled bureauacracy, which generally involved repetitive walking and taking a paper where it didn't need to be, Mr. Morales and I agreed on a time for the test.

He said it was no problem; it would be cake. Since it doesn't go on my GPA, all I need is a C, and it transfers in as if I had been in his class all semester.

"Sweet!" thought I.

I walked in at the pre-arranged time, and lo and behold, there was no special departmental CLEP exam. 9:45 on a Wednesday morning... sounds suspiciously like a final. Well, it was.

I simply had to take the Elem. Spanish I final... without having had the class. Should've been easy right, if I think I'm so hot I can test out of it? Right?



Well, after about question 5 I just started making stuff up.

A sample question:

"Ooooh eee oo ah ah, ting tang, walla walla bang bang."

To which I replied, "I told the witch doctor I was in love with you!"

Another sample question involved a picture of two guys playing volleyball. I answered something to the effect of, "Juan es loco, y Gustavo pase una voleibol." Can someone please tell me what that means?

"What's your name?"

"I'm Josh."

"What's your major? Where you from?"

"I study history. I go to LeTourneau University in Texas."

My new acquaintance raises an eyebrow. "What are you doing at Handong?"

That's the beginning of a few dozen conversations I've had with students of Handong Global University, a growing Christian college on the eastern coast of South Korea. In many respects, the school is very Western, with some classes in English, an English-speaking campus church and an American-style graduate law school.

Many of the students at Handong have traveled extensively, often to the United States, so they find it curious that an American student would come to Korea.

It's a similarity this college has with LeTourneau University. I've heard, deep from the recesses of Thomas Hall, complaints about Longview or the unpredictable Texas weather. Handong students complain just as often about Pohang and the constant wind. "It's not really Korea," they say. It brings up an interesting point: cultures are sometimes more ingrained than people think.

****************************

I arrived in Korea on March 5. It almost seems that Korea began in San Francisco, because of so many Asian passengers flying with me. At the airport in Pohang, I quite literally bumped into the other American exchange student that I know of, a guy named Jordan from Cedarville University. We rode to campus, and the next day, classes began.

Handong Global University has about 3200 students, and, as I'm sure many LETU readers are interested in knowing, a 3/2 guy/girl ratio. The largest academic department on campus is the English and international studies department. Most of the professors in that department are foreign, with an especially large number from Canada and the United States.

Korean students are generally required to learn English in addition to their Korean classes beginning in middle school, but many choose to continue business, English or international studies through college.

I've been able to interact with the department by becoming an English discussion group tutor. Native English speakers and especially Americans are in high demand to teach English. As of this writing, the classes are still being signed up, but soon I look forward to this sort of informal teaching.

I came to Handong expecting most students to speak English quite well. That's a slight exaggeration. Many do, but there are many others who speak it quite poorly. I showed up at the auditions meeting for the campus' rock club, and decided not to come again, despite my interest, because the only English I heard from the club was one student's rendition of "One Last Breath" by Creed.

Another comical example is that I've heard more than one Korean student describe themselves as "unique." I've had to stifle a laugh at their pronunciation: "I am a eunuch person."

Beyond speech mistakes, there are naturally a few other cultural differences. Forks are non-existent in the cafeteria, so my chopstick skills have come a long way, having to pick up rice.

The most difficult food to pick up with chopsticks is a mixture of seaweed and carrots. It's very slimy and wants to slip right off the chopsticks. Kimchi, a traditional Korean food of pickled and spiced cabbages, accompanies essentially every meal, including Domino's pizza.

Shoes are not to be worn in the dormitory. A series of cabinets are provided to store your shoes when coming inside.

Handong has some similarities to our school. Like LETU, students enjoy eating together and absolutely will not permit a foreigner like myself to eat alone. The International House, where I stay, is the newest dormitory, and like LETU's Davis Hall, houses men and women on different floors.

Classes usually begin with a devotional, but are not required to do so as at LETU. A typical class load is 18-21 hours, with 18 hours being the required minimum. Compared with American schools, that is a heavy load, but Handong students still seem to have plenty of time for fun.

My roommates enjoy watching movies and playing sports. One them, a sophomore from the Dem. Republic of Congo, enjoys his favorite show "24" and plays soccer every weekend. My other roommate, an ex-medic for the Korean army, plays tennis and the Korean version of Counter Strike, called "Sudden Attack!"

Students wear western clothes, but I was interested to note the little differences. For guys, pink is the fashion color for spring. Actually, my Korean roommate has pink shirts, pink blankets in his bed and a pink scooter that he drives around campus. Needless to say, Jordan and I won't stop kidding him for that. Girls seems to like high heels or boots.

****************************

Handong's surrounding landscape is beautiful. It's mountainous, with towns or farmland filling the few flat areas. The land is covered in short pines, so even in winter the hills are evergreen. Campus is just a few miles from the ocean, which I see on the occasional bus ride into town.

Pohang is a town of a few hundred thousand, packed very tightly into numerous small houses or apartment buildings. The country's largest, world-famous steel factory POSCO is almost its own city: a massive complex of pipes, smoke stacks and huge buildings near the ocean.

Pohang has lots of neon signs at night, with tiny shops and alleys leading into areas with small street vendors. Road traffic is very heavy, but broad sidewalks and well-maintained street signals keep the pedestrians safe.

English class selection at the university is rather limited, but I managed to find 16 hours that will transfer. My favorite class is Korean history, which many students find dry. I can understand their reasoning, since talk of Wiman Choson or the Three Kingdoms simply doesn't excite most people, but for me, the teacher makes all the difference.

Prof. Duvernay is an American who has lived in Korea for many years. He married a Korean and many local students say he is more Korean than they. His excitement and understanding of students are infectious; when he sensed students becoming bored with lectures he mixed up the class to have "tedious Tuesdays" for lecturing and "fabulous Fridays" for more interesting activities.

This last Friday, Prof. Duvernay took us to a sparsely used side of campus to demonstrate one of his favorite hobbies: traditional Korean archery. In practice, it is not so different from the archery I practiced at Boy Scout camp, but I did get to fire a homemade bamboo bow.

Prof. Duvernay, of course, put any of the archery students to shame by popping arrows through the target with a 50-pound-draw bow. I am, of course, interested in what he intends for the future fabulousness of Fridays.

It is tempting to say that life in a new place is fun and easy all the time, but honesty compels me to say that is not true. Coming alone is hard. I've met many people, but remembering so many unfamiliar names is difficult.

People routinely greet me by name and I grin with a “Hello!” in response, but I think, "I have no idea who you are." Or, when I do remember a face, I think, "I know who you are, and I care about you!" but that seems to lack sincerity if you don't remember the name.

****************************

On the other hand, the novelty and freshness of Handong is exciting. This is a new university, still building, growing and finding its place in South Korea. Professors come from across the world to teach here, not because the pay is wonderful (in fact, professors had to work without pay a few years ago, during a short financial crisis) but because they genuinely care.

I can see in the attitudes and styles of a few of my professors that they do not look out at a classroom of students and see another day at work. They see a mission field, and that added factor lends earnestness to their teaching.

My other American teacher, Prof. DeVries, teaches American Society from Historical Perspective. He grew up in a tiny town in South Dakota, and with a few other details about his background, I was interested in what had brought him to Handong. The university's motto is “Why not change the world?” and rather than shrugging at that, Prof. DeVries does it.

I was especially struck by a moment in our last class, when he spoke, clutching five large volumes on societal issues, with a basic timeline of western civilization on the board behind him.

I'm sure he never planned that pose, but I was impressed by the image of this man speaking with obvious passion about the roots of American society in western civilization. “He cares,” I thought, “About bringing this to Korean students who haven't heard much of it before.” He was there to make a difference.

So why am I at Handong? I came, at least initially, for the cultural experience, and though that is a worthy enough goal, it seems very self-centered. God has a way of changing us and our expectations, either in new situations near home or across an ocean.

Perhaps in this new foreign exchange agreement and others like it, God intends to change our schools into more globally-minded, and Christ-centered, institutions.

If you would like to see more pictures of the campus and the surrounding landscape, please visit the "flickr" link off of my blog at http://ludwhig.blogspot.com/.

Yay @ fire alarms at 6:30 in the morning.

And alas, had it been a real fire, about 90% of Thomas Hall would have burned. Ah well, being cold, alive, and in the rain is small consolation.

... on the next night and I just finished writing that blasted exegesis!

*Finally!*

OK, so I didn't spend all that time doing just this. There was a Thanksgiving meal (or two!) thrown in here or there, and yes, I did go see my granddad in the hospital today, but still... sooooo glad to be finished!

Wooohoooo!!!!

::does the I-Finished-My-Exegesis dance... however that goes::

And now for sleep.

Hey hey, it's Thanksgiving day at 11:22 PM and I'm writing an exegesis! Heck yeah!



OK, so at this point I'd rather just throw my laptop at the window and bang my head on the wall. At least this is a *really* awesome passage I'm exegising (is that even a word?)... Hebrews 10:19-39. I won't list it here for you; you have to go look it up for yourself. Or get a hold of me when I get back to school and I might let you look over the completed paper. Hah!

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Over the weekend of March 31-April 2, my Korean roommate Calvin and I traveled to the coastal city of Pusan. I hadn't been able to travel outside of the Handong area before, so it was a welcome relief from campus and a chance to see "real" Korean culture.

Handong has so many international students and so many distinctives of its own that living strictly on-campus and going to school does not present an accurate Korean living experience.

So, after scribbling through a history quiz in order to make the school bus to downtown Pohang, I dashed back to grab my roommmate and off we went.

The bus ride was about an hour and a half, near the coast but rarely in sight of the ocean. I noted all the traditionally-roofed buildings not far from Kyungju, a medieval capitol of the Korean Unified Silla kingdom.

Pusan itself is a larger, coastal city on the south side of Korea. It was a major military site in the Korean war, and has a number of Korean War-related museums and memorials that I hope to visit another time.

We met up with another Handong student, Mike, and immediately set out to see the town. One of the popular "hanging-out" areas was lined with tiny shops lit by neon signs. Food vendors set up shop in the streets, which were small and apparently intended only for pedestrians. Scooters and low-horsepower motorcycles have pedestrian street rules in Korea, so more than once I was beeped at and nearly run over by an intent driver.

The sheer pace of the city was constant. Pusan is quite crowded, and on a weekend night these areas were filled with movement and noise. I enjoyed the frenetic jostle through people-filled streets, but I considered it tiring even in comparison to London.

Americans take for granted that every business has its own parking space; many businesses in Korea are packed very tightly onto multiple floors of an office building, or connected to the street by a flight of stairs down into a basement.

It was already late, and after a week of classes Calvin and I were tired. Calvin leads youth worship every Sunday at a small church, so we rolled out some pads and slept there as he usually does on the weekends.

The next morning, we went to Yongdosung Park, which was more sidewalks than grass, but was still a worthy visit. Pusan is situated on and around the sea-side mountains, and the park was built directly on one of these mountains, so we ascended as soon as the park opened with a series of escalators.

The view from the top was impressive, with a full 180-degree sweep of the city, the port, the fish market and the sea. The top has an amphitheatre area, where a national TV unit was filming a rehearsal for a singing talent show. I didn't get on TV, but a drunk fellow probably did, who stood in the "performers only" area and clapped along in his very own time signature.

I accompanied Calvin to the apartment of his students, a pair of bright middle schoolers. He teaches them English every weekend and I was able to help quiz them and converse with them.

At the first meeting they were extremely shy, as 90% of the schoolchildren are around foreigners, but after the second meeting they became comfortable with me and were much better at speaking. (As a sidenote, the other 10% of Korean schooldren embarress their schoolmates by exclaiming, "Hi!" to the foreigner and waving vigorously. There is always one in every bus load of children.)

Calvin showed me a few notable sites in Pusan: their International Film Festival, an impressively lit bridge overlooking a beach and the "world-famous" Pusan fish market. I walked through stall after stall of fresh fish, squid, octopus, pig head and even some related squirmy things unknown to me.

People love to eat any of these, but especially fish, quite raw, and restaurants proudly showcase the freshness of their fare by putting the splashing aquariums at the front window.

I had not tried sushi in the United States, but my concept of raw fish was taken to a new understanding when Calvin explained that live fish were cut up and consumed while still moving. I could not abide the smell of the place, but many Koreans think it is a very nice smelling, something like walking into your favorite restaurant.

Needless to say, Calvin and I ate elsewhere and I was impressed with the food. It is very spicy, so much so that Calvin questioned my polite "Yes, it's good!" by commenting that my face was very red. To compound the problem, Koreans often save water for the end of the meal rather than during it.

Despite this, I enjoyed a good deal of pork, mustard-type leaves, bean paste, kimchi, spicy noodles and seaweed vegetables in vinegar. We also tried a few street vendors, which was tasty, but probably in the nutritional league of a hotdog stand.

At my request, we visited a pair of Buddhist temples. I walked inside a few of the shrines, looking closely at the statuettes and even got to spend a few minutes watching a few people pray and meditate in the central building. The temples have several common elements: a bell, several shrines, rows upon rows of candles and, today, a tourist office.

My personal favorite was a smaller temple near the top of a particularly steep mountain. A spring at the top fed water down through the temple area. Especially on a fog-filled morning, it was very peaceful.

That night, I walked for a few minutes along the beach with an umbrella. It was raining, and I recalled that the last time I'd touched the Pacific was two years ago, in Los Angeles. I walked down to the water and it came up, like a dog pouncing on you when all you wanted was a little pat.

The bay overlooked a large multi-lane bridge with alternating color lights. The reflection from the bridge cast an unnatural glow on the clouds just above.
The next morning, I attended Calvin's church.

Both services were in Korean, but I was nonetheless interested to see the church's emphasis on children's ministry. Overall, I considered the experience not substantially different than an American church.

On Sunday evening, we returned to Pohang and another week of school. I was tired, but thankful to Calvin for kindly hosting me for the weekend.

If you would like to see more pictures of Pusan, please visit the "Flickr" link off of my blog at http://ludwhig.blogspot.com/.

Last night I saw Interview with the Vampire. Fun movie. I watched it alone at my computer with my headphones on because no one else in my suite really wanted to see it. My roomie Schmorgan said it was "really messed up." Well, I will admit to a very small, well-contained fascination with vampires, so I couldn't resist.

Who would've thought Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and a young Kirsten Dunst could make such a happy little vampire family? The 200 year span of the movie was really cool, and Antonio Banderas makes a great French theatrical vamp. I couldn't help thinking of cute 'lil Puss-N-Boots though. :D

And now for the gratuitous quiz...

Take the quiz: "Which Interview with a Vampire character are u?"

Lestat
Lestat de Lioncourt is a vampire made in Paris, France a long time ago.Lestat was born into a royal family. Although he family was not very rich, he was not poor.One of Lestat's amazing feats before becoming a vampire is that he killed a pack of wolves with a sword without anyway to escape when he was around 20.Lestat made Gabrielle, his mother, Nicholas, this didn't work so well because Nicky turned crazy afterwards and killed himself by jumping in fire, Louis, a New Orleans planter, and Claudia a child whose mother was killed by the plague. He was almost killed twice by Claudia.

because I ran out of cranberry juice!

Must... go... to Wal-mart...

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Well...

It's nearly 3 AM on a Sunday night and I'm going strong. Caffeine is a wonderful thing.

It started when I slacked doing... something, I can't remember what. Anyway I have two tests today, in just a few hours in fact. One I had completely not studied for, the other I had made only laughable efforts at learning.

Geoff (Schmorgan) and I went to Whataburger at 11:30... didn't get back 'til 12:30. And then my RA Slope came in the room and we figured a line-up of songs for our next AcoustiCafe jam-out.

We have an *awesome* line-up and I'm very excited. I think our performance kinda sucked last time, mostly due to lack of group practice but I enjoyed it and I think it would be great to go back and hit it again with a better line-up and much better on-stage presence. Kinda silently & nervously starting each song worked the first time, but never again.

Which all goes to say I should study now. Ha.

I'm already liking a blog just for the ability to go post something when I want to avoid doing something more immediately productive.

Hmmm... now isn't that interesting...