Rap is My New Workout

July 3rd...

I thought the Finnish language was difficult to learn... but it compares nothing to Korean! At least the Finnish alphabet has Roman Numerals, which resembled some familiarity. Korean language is completely beyond anything that I have ever known. At the beginning of the week I was feeling pretty good about it. I had mastered all 14 consonants and 10 vowels. How hard could it be, right? Well, now there are dipthongs and consonant blends and structural rules that I like to say "don't play fair" because there is no rule to it. I find myself just writing, and rewriting, and rewriting again...just to feel as though I'm back at the beginning. Yesterday after class I decided to do my homework outside a little shop on campus. There was an elderly lady working the shop whom I typically smile and nod at. She came out to my table, said something to me in Korean, took all my homework, and then read through each part with me! First of all, I was just excited that she could actually pronounce the words I'd written (I can at least copy correctly!), but second of all...how nice it was for her to help this completely unaware foreigner. I decided to stop by again today, and she came out again just like yesterday. I think she likes me :) And I think I'll make our visits a habit...

Last night I met up with some of the other summer school participants and went to a local restaurant for chicken and beer (soju). I thought to myself...chicken! Yay! Food that isn't spicy that I can eat! ...Wrong! The ratio of chicken to water I consumed was about 1:10. Clearly, everything here is spicy. Except for my bananas, thank goodness there's no sort of red pepperish like seasoning anywhere near them! Oh, and they served the chicken with a big pair of scissors to cut it. Not a knife and fork. Scissors! The picture to the right is of one of the girls cutting the chicken.

Afterwards we went to a karaoke club with Mingu, a native of Seoul. It was amazing! It wasn't like the karaoke bars I'm used to going to. It consisted of multiple small rooms for groups to reserve and have all to themselves. There were probably ten of us there and we had a blast. It was definitely a multicultural experience, listening to songs in Chinese, Korean, and English. I will proudly admit that I sang my heart out to Queen, Aerosmith, N*Sync, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, and...Eminem. One of the guys came across "Lose Yourself" in the books, and jokingly dared me to perform it. Well, I'm always up for a challenge and I just so happen to listen to that song everytime I run (it's fast-paced!), so I accepted that challenge...and I'm not gonna lie, I did pretty darn well! I barely missed a word. I had the whole crowd going too...it was the highlight of my day for sure! I have definitely developed a newfound respect for rap...as it is completely exhausting! When do they breathe?! I was panting afterwards, but I got a standing ovation! I'm thinking of taking my new act to the streets here in South Korea...maybe make a little extra spending money. Who knows where I could go from there...this could be big. :)