More updateage! I put up three more Flickr sets; I've linked to each one directly as I talk about it in the post.
But before you see the Flickr photos, check out my breakfast.
Yes, that is milk in my bowl, and no, I haven't added the cereal yet. Hooray for powdered milk.
A few weeks ago, there was Korean culture night, which was essentially a 2-hour artistic and taekwondo presentation, followed by food. It was cool. I got to play the Korean guitar thing, which I wish I could try again. It was like a cool mixture of harp and guitar, except sideways, with the dynamics of a harmonica.
In the flickr set, there's a picture of the professional performers playing them. There was also singing, a martial arts demonstration and dance.
I've put up two sweet videos recorded by Jordan, my American pal from Cedarville University.
Taekwondo, punching boards (Quicktime format, 7.2 megabytes)
Dancing girl (Quicktime format, 4.3 megabytes)
The dancing girl was probably in junior high; in my opinion, she easily had the best dance of the evening. So nimble. I apologize that this clip was recorded at 90 degrees. Pictures!
So, school school school, and then this last Thursday I slipped out of Law & Contempoary Issues a bit early to attend a dinner for international students. Apparently, some recent graduates and friends of the university had set up a scholarship for international students, so we had a big dinner to publicize it.
We rode a very crowded university bus to a wedding hall and buffet type place. They made the presentations and brief speeches. I thought President Kim did a very slick job of doing what university presidents do: thanking donors for money while simultaneously asking for more.
Then, we ate. And then, the sponsors decided to hang around since everyone was having such a good time, so they brought out the karaoke machine. A few people played and showed considerable talent, including the proprietor of the establishment himself.
John and I were thumbing through the book of available songs. I put my finger on "I'm A Believer" by the Monkees and we both just started laughing. So several of us agreed to do it. I walked up to the mike, demanded that the others stop being chicken and come up with me.
They did, and wow, we had the place hopping. Jordan backed down on singing along with me, but apparently he and the others had a nice snapping/dancing routine going. One guy even did an impromptu break dance at the song's climax. Good times.
I met Dr. Henk and we had a good talk. When I mentioned I was from 41, he specifically remembered Abu off the top of his head, so Abu, if you read this, you apparently made an impression on Dr. Henk.
So, the dinner was cool, and people kept on taking pictures.
And then...
The next day, Jordan and I decided to go to Kyungju. People are always telling me, "Oh, you have to Kyungju." So on Friday May 5, we did. We decided to just go despite not knowing how to get there, and also without a Korean native to accompany us.
We took a bus out of Pohang, which is a city of about 750,000, and went to Kyungju. From Korean history class (hrm), I happen to know that it was Korea's capitol city for a stretch of roughly a thousand years. It's certainly a good place, protected by mountains but flat and good for construction.
We rented bicycles and just started riding around. We found a cool park, explored the city a little, and generally didn't worry so much about not knowing where we were going. I definitely want to go back and actually see some of the things Kyungju is famous for, but as an introduction, it was a great day off-campus. Pictures!
So there you have it folks.
But before you see the Flickr photos, check out my breakfast.
Yes, that is milk in my bowl, and no, I haven't added the cereal yet. Hooray for powdered milk.
A few weeks ago, there was Korean culture night, which was essentially a 2-hour artistic and taekwondo presentation, followed by food. It was cool. I got to play the Korean guitar thing, which I wish I could try again. It was like a cool mixture of harp and guitar, except sideways, with the dynamics of a harmonica.
In the flickr set, there's a picture of the professional performers playing them. There was also singing, a martial arts demonstration and dance.
I've put up two sweet videos recorded by Jordan, my American pal from Cedarville University.
Taekwondo, punching boards (Quicktime format, 7.2 megabytes)
Dancing girl (Quicktime format, 4.3 megabytes)
The dancing girl was probably in junior high; in my opinion, she easily had the best dance of the evening. So nimble. I apologize that this clip was recorded at 90 degrees. Pictures!
So, school school school, and then this last Thursday I slipped out of Law & Contempoary Issues a bit early to attend a dinner for international students. Apparently, some recent graduates and friends of the university had set up a scholarship for international students, so we had a big dinner to publicize it.
We rode a very crowded university bus to a wedding hall and buffet type place. They made the presentations and brief speeches. I thought President Kim did a very slick job of doing what university presidents do: thanking donors for money while simultaneously asking for more.
Then, we ate. And then, the sponsors decided to hang around since everyone was having such a good time, so they brought out the karaoke machine. A few people played and showed considerable talent, including the proprietor of the establishment himself.
John and I were thumbing through the book of available songs. I put my finger on "I'm A Believer" by the Monkees and we both just started laughing. So several of us agreed to do it. I walked up to the mike, demanded that the others stop being chicken and come up with me.
They did, and wow, we had the place hopping. Jordan backed down on singing along with me, but apparently he and the others had a nice snapping/dancing routine going. One guy even did an impromptu break dance at the song's climax. Good times.
I met Dr. Henk and we had a good talk. When I mentioned I was from 41, he specifically remembered Abu off the top of his head, so Abu, if you read this, you apparently made an impression on Dr. Henk.
So, the dinner was cool, and people kept on taking pictures.
And then...
The next day, Jordan and I decided to go to Kyungju. People are always telling me, "Oh, you have to Kyungju." So on Friday May 5, we did. We decided to just go despite not knowing how to get there, and also without a Korean native to accompany us.
We took a bus out of Pohang, which is a city of about 750,000, and went to Kyungju. From Korean history class (hrm), I happen to know that it was Korea's capitol city for a stretch of roughly a thousand years. It's certainly a good place, protected by mountains but flat and good for construction.
We rented bicycles and just started riding around. We found a cool park, explored the city a little, and generally didn't worry so much about not knowing where we were going. I definitely want to go back and actually see some of the things Kyungju is famous for, but as an introduction, it was a great day off-campus. Pictures!
So there you have it folks.
