Text log 112419
I’m just gonna dive right into what’s been happening these past two weeks~
I saw my second live professional match of Starcraft last night =D and it was fantastic – even for going alone this time. It was the GomTV studio in the Gangnam district, so there was a much smaller audience than the last venue. I was shown quite a few times on the big screen and on the English and Korean streams, which brings me to my first way of representing Penn State:
Here I am on the stream (with maybe over ten thousand of fans around the world watching) cheering for one of the players (named “MMA”) with my signature as “~PSU” and also being acknowledged by the casters. I knew the Penn State Starcraft club would be watchingㅅ_ㅅ
If I look a bit tired in the photo above~ =/
…it’s because I was hiking for the first half of that day. Next, here’s how I support THON in Korea:
Sorry it’s more of a triangle than the four diamonds =/
..
This is pretty awesome~ The photo above on the left is a rock formation seen to resemble Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus. 0.ㅇ
Thursday afternoon was the exchange fair here, where exchange students got to chat with Korean students looking to study abroad. It was great representing my University, but it was really frustrating having four girls from Ohio State next to me representing their own school, while I was alone >< Here’s my third way of showing my Penn State pride:
It says University of Arkansas, but that’s the one next to me
Here’s something you’ll never see advertised around a Penn State dorm.
This was a party poster in my dormitory (dorm name: Gonzaga).
Alcohol is completely banned in the dorms here, but for one day, the university allowed an exception.
Even some Korean professors came to drink some soju vodka ~~ Hard-workers like to enjoy soju after their work days.
Also, I find the accidental juxtaposition of what’s above that poster kinda funny ^_^
November 18th was the first snow “첫눈” of the season here ; *it*was*beautiful*
Also last week, I went to an underground bar for college bands to play. Mind you that these bands were playing songs that middle school bands play like Wake Me Up When September Ends. It was a total noobfest, but I enjoyed myself.
What I found interesting was that each of the bands had at least two girls as musicians. I have two reasons behind this trend: 1. Female sex appeal is better ; 2. Parents here force their kids to learn to play an instrument (guitar, piano, traditional Korean instruments).
My three favorite things to do in Seoul:
3. Baseball games
2. Starcraft pro-matches
1. Jazz clubs
Vietnamese and Indonesian food that I’ve had earlier this semester:
Two weeks ago, I bought a Girls Generation (Korea’s most popular KPOP group) concert ticket online for only about $100 (make fun of me all you want~ xP) – tickets sold out within seconds. This is a huge deal for me because – as crazy as this sounds – I thank two sources for how I fell in love with Korea’s culture a year and a half ago: Starcraft and Girls Generation.
The show is the night before I return to the States, so this is my going-away present, to me / from me =D
Let’s talk about KPOP boy groups — you know, like Backstreet Boys, but Korean and post-90s.
SHINee is the same label as Girls Generation, so that means they’re all about idols and focus less on quality of music. Boy groups – especially SHINee – dance better than the girl groups. If you learn about East Asia, you may have heard about the very feminine boys, maybe called 꽃미남 or “flower boys.” The guy in the video with long hair is one of them.
I’m only gonna talk about KPOP boys once – because I don’t like boy groups :3 – so here’s another:
G-Dragon is the most popular member of the most popular boy group 빅뱅 Big Bang. They’re from a much more respected label that makes popular groups that often end up being anti-KPOP in that they don’t make their members cute.
When I first saw this music video, I thought it was going to be another “Gangnam Style” only not as popular ; KPOP usually isn’t this funny :3
Alright one more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfUlE2LlGro
Boy groups are completely different from girl groups socially since there is no pressure on the male population to look like their idols, unlike the girl groups.
One more month from yesterday until I fly back. I can honestly say that this semester is going at about the pace as I predicted.
This blog has been brought to you by the letter 남 “Nam”
and
남양 몸이가벼워지는 시간 17차 Tea bags
Location: Sogang campus
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really like you last comment about
남양 몸이가벼워지는 시간 17차 Tea bags
if you know what that means,
your korean skill is really good
haha
I am so jealous that it snowed where you are! The forecast here in Paris was for some snow last Thursday, but like every weather person out there, they were wrong. Darn it!