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Three Instances of How I Represented PSU

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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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dww9UjJ4Dt8

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:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3ULhmadHkg

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

First week of classes, the British Museum, “Taboo” & snow!

I started my first week of classes with fellow students at Uni of Westminster on Monday, January 14.

Here, it is normal for a lecture to last for 2 hours (sometimes with a 5-minute break) and is followed by a more-intimate seminars. Many study abroad students here seem to have at least one weekday off and I only have one class per day from Monday to Thursday.

While it may sound great to some of you post-sylly-week Penn Staters, trust me, it is not what it seems. It means I have to put in more self-directed work, I have to do the readings and note-taking outside of my lectures. For each of the 3 classes I’ve been to so far, my mark (aka. grades) will be determined by 2 essays. Yuck. I normally do better with a bazillion weekly assignments that weigh less. …..And I am a procrastinator. I shall plan ahead and start thinking about this essay which is due in February……

On the bright side, all of the professors were nice so if I have questions I can always shoot them an email 🙂

Wednesday’s class was absolutely my favorite (don’t get me wrong, I adore my women’s studies class too)!!!! It’s called “Arts and Society.” It is a London Studies class specially designed for us study abroad students which critically examines the “visual culture” of London from 60s onward. It is a great way to get to know London in less cheesy, touristy ways. The class format is a one-hour lecture followed by a 2-and-a-half-hour field trip to London’s cultural landmarks.

This week we went to the British Museum! We were sorted into small groups with TAs and museum guides to explore different corners of the building. Our guide took us to the Ancient Greek, Enlightenment Era and Dying & Living rooms.

The Ancient Greek marble sculptures were such a delight to look at. The anatomical precision is just amazing. I felt a strong cultural connection between the ancient Greeks and contemporary college-aged Americans, particularly in what they value the most: athleticism, intelligence (now in the form of diplomas), hardwork and masculinity.

The Enlightenment Era was decorated like the interior of a rich person’s old private library with its rows of wooden cabinets. This was the time when modern natural science and defiance against religion (in the Western World, at least) were born. This also marked the time when ethnocentrism was most openly expressed without much questioning.

The Living & Dying room, in contrast, gave more contextual details of its objects, explaining how the items were made, who used them, when they were used, why they were used and how they were used.
It was interesting to see how other cultures interpret and observe milestone events such as birth, marriage, illness, misfortune and death.

After the class was over at 12:30pm, we were dismissed right on the spot. I was hungry by then but ended up staying for another hour and a half looking at other exhibits. I simply couldn’t get enough of the place!!!!!

The Egyptian mummies and sarcophagi were eerie but cool. The fragments of ancient Mesopotamian/Persian palaces and the reconstruction of the gates with a pair of winged lamassus were breath-taking.

There was a touch-screen interactive guide panel in front of a mummy that I thought was interesting. Through the panel, I could “slice” the bones and remaining flesh on the body to see what’s inside. I could also “flip” and “rotate” the body around. The panel also informed me that the mummy is a male who was stabbed to death in his shoulder blade and that due to the arid climate, his body was naturally preserved, with fingernails, hair, some skin and clothing intact. After playing with it for a few minutes, it was taken over by a bunch of uniformed primary schoolers.

Last night Carol, our local CIEE coordinator/director, took us to Brixton area to see the musical “Taboo.” It was candid and interactive. The musical greatly reminded me of “The Rockey Horror Show” minus the flying bread crumbs (that was awful, by the way. I will never forget.). There was lots of exploring relationships, cross-dressing and boundaries of homo- vs. heterosexuality.

And surprisingly, for the last 2 days, it’s been SNOWING in London!!!!!!
I woke up to a winter wonderland but both times I failed to take pictures that showed the snow clearly. I shall try a couple more times since the snow will persist for 3-4 more days 🙂
I have worn 2 pairs of pants (not exactly, because I have a leggings + jeans combo), 2 pairs of gloves and 2 pairs of socks on top of my regular winter get-ups but oh my!! It is still cold! I need a pair of comfy boots and a trench coat ASAP.
Lots of study abroad students around me have been sick these days, so everyone please take care and stay warm!

I will continue to upload my pictures on Facebook and then on Tumblr (non-Facebook friends, you can still get a sneak peek on Instagram!). Have a good evening :]

Location: London, UK

Snow Day

It’s full blown winter here now and it’s starting to get a little chilly. Cold enough in fact for it snow down here in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was a record -1 degrees C and the coldest June day they have had in 30 years. Which means of course Kiwis are far from prepared for such weather, even if it is just an inch of snow. So campus was basically completely shut down for 2 days and the first day of exams in the two week exam period were cancelled. To celebrate this occasion a bunch of us had a snow ball fight out on one of the lawns and made a snow man.

I haven’t played in snow like that in a really long time.

Location: Lincoln, New Zealand

It has begun!

     Here I am, in Vienna! It is hard to believe that it has already been two full weeks. So much has happened and yet somehow, it seems like I have done so little. It is quite a strange sensation. I just know that I have a LOT more to do and see and experience here.
   Okay, so what have I been up to these last two weeks? Well, firstly, I spent my initial weekend in Vienna in a tiny little town nestled up in the mountains, known as Mariazelle. There we (the IES group) received our several orientations, met with most of the head individuals in the program here in Vienna, became introduced to each other and managed to simultaneously extract a little sampling of Austrian culture from the town. It snowed the entire duration of our stay, adding a certain eerie or gothic feeling to the scene. The main attraction of this city, the founding of which has been traced back to approximately 1150 AD, is the Basilica in the town center. Nearly a million pilgrims per year are recorded visiting the site, making this one of the most visited holy sites in all of Europe.
   Aside from the Basilica, the town was very low key, locals going to the town ski spot a few minutes out, but otherwise, it was a very sleepy sort of town. I have not experiences quite this atmosphere before.
   After our weekend excursion and break in, we drove into Vienna and dispersed, by way of taxi, to our assigned housing. If you are ever in Vienna and can avoid it, do not use taxi. They are quite expensive (as I suspect is the case in most of the world, but have you ever paid in Euro?) This is a fact that I constantly overlook when buying anything here. The simple fact that the Euro –> US dollar is not equal. The items with low price tags are not necessarily good deals. The matter becomes further complicated by the measuring method here. Have you ever bought meat in grams? Or dekagrams? Or drinks in terms of Euro per liter?
     I digress. My first week consisted mainly of trying to figure out the public transportation system, which is heavily relied upon. It takes me 35 minutes (on a good day) to get to school. I walk 5 minutes to hop onto the Stra�enbahn 43. Ride that about 15 minutes then hop onto the U2 which is about a 5 minute walk to and another 5 minute ride. Then I walk another 5 minutes or so to get to the school in the first district (or ‘Bezirk’ as it is called here). The transportation system is quite extensive, as you can imagine, I have gotten lost several times. Many of those times resulting in very extended (originally short) trips across Vienna. 🙂 Good times.
     The most interesting event so far has been the Austrian ball (TU Ball) that I attended just this past Thursday night. It was unlike anything I have yet experienced. I will write more about this and post some videos (if I can figure out how) on here soon!

Closing thought: I have only been here two weeks, but already I feel that I am being stretched as an individual. I have begun broadening horizons in ways I had not imagined. I am excited, but also nervous anticipating how I may continue to grow personally and in what ways I may come to better understand of myself and the world I live in. (and yes, I realize how cliche this sounds, but it is the real McCoy. Ask me sometime where this saying came from if interested)

Location: Vienna, Austria

The Final Countdown

Hei Alle!

As usual it’s been quite a while since my last post. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

– Our little PLU family has expanded! Two girls (Becky and Alison) from the University of Washington have arrived and are both teaching at Charlottenlund. It’s really great to have more native English-speakers at school! Plus, now Megan and I have people to sit with at lunch! Hooray!

– On March 17th our school had its ski day. This is very common here in Trondheim. The entire school (students and teachers) loaded up on buses to Mer�ker. Fans of the blog (or people who can actively use the scrolling function of their browser) may recognize Mer�ker as the place I nearly died attempting to learn how to downhill ski. Needless to say I was a bit anxious about this trip. Our teachers had been telling us/warning us/secretly plotting against us about ski day pretty much since the day we arrived at Charlottenlund. After my adventures downhill skiing (and on the evil chairlift/ people-mover) I was not too keen on finding a pair of downhill skis to borrow. I asked around to see if anyone had extra cross-country skis but to no avail. Each teacher was responsible for manning an activity so I decided to go sledding (or sledging as they call it here). Of course the day of the trip I had about four teachers tell me that I could have borrowed their extra cross-country skis. Too late. : (

Becky and Megan getting ready for their cross-country skiing adventure!

Overall the trip was awesome! We had absolutely incredible weather (very different from the last time I was in Mer�ker). The sledding hill was more like a sledding cliff so I did not participate. I ended up just hanging out with students who did not feel like participating in any of the activities. It was really great to talk to some students who I would not have normally had the opportunity to interact with. Megan and Becky (one of the teachers from UW) were able to get cross-country skis and let me borrow them for a little bit to try. I actually really liked cross-country skiing! I wish that I were able to get skis earlier in the trip because it would have been a blast to go skiing every weekend. This is one activity that I think I will try to continue next winter back in the States. For lunch we sat around a large grill and cooked hot dogs. Interestingly enough this trip was BYOHD: bring your own hot dog. I figured that if the school had enough funding to send 400 students and their teachers on a free skiing trip they would provide lunch, but whatever. Here in Norway we eat our hot dogs (or p�lse as they are called) wrapped in something called lompe, which is kind of like a potato tortilla. Super delicious. It was super fun just hanging out with all of the teachers and students.

– Ski day also fell on St. Patrick’s Day! St. Patty’s Day is not super-popular here because no one is really of Irish decent. However, Norwegians are always up for a party so it is celebrated. Megan, Becky, and I went to the only Irish pub in town (Cafe Dublin) and paid an exorbitant amount of money for green beer but it was fun regardless.

Becky, myself, and Megan celebrating our Irish heritage in Trondheim. (Please remember we had been outside all day! =])

– This past Monday (21 March) my supervisor from PSU visited Charlottenlund to observe me teach. I think it went well! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a good report so I can officially become a certified teacher!

– This past Friday Megan and I finally made it to the Ikea in Trondheim! We literally pass it everyday going to school so it was fun to finally go. I LOVE Ikea (I think its fun to go through all of the mock houses) and it was Megan’s first time so we had a blast walking through the store. The Ikea here in Trondheim looks exactly like every other Ikea I’ve ever been to but instead of the just the furniture names being in Norwegian/Swedish, EVERYTHING is in Norwegian/Swedish. We had a late lunch at the cafe…the food was delicious! We took the free bus from Ikea back into town, which was super convenient. Fun fact I learned from that trip: it’s actually pronounced EE-KAY-AH. Who knew?

My new friend I made in Ikea. Who says vegetables can’t be fun? =)

– For the past week Norway has been experiencing some of the most miserable weather I’ve ever seen. I’ve named it the snowicane or snowpocolypse (mainly because I am a big How I Met Your Mother fan). We have experienced all sorts of precipitation: rain, snow, sleet, hail…everything. Oh, and gale force winds. Awesome. I think that the worst part is the fact that it will be snowing/sleeting sideways and then 10 minutes later be sunny. Ten minutes after that it will be hailing. Sideways. The pictures below are from my room in Steinan. They were taken less than 10 minutes apart.

– This upcoming week is my last week here in Trondheim. It’s really bittersweet. I’m excited to go home and see my friends and family but I’ve become quite attached to my life here. Charlottenlund is one of the greatest schools that I’ve ever had the opportunity to see/be a part of. I know that there is no school quite like this in the States: the teachers have a lot of autonomy, the students have a lot of personal responsibility, the teachers and students have open communication, there is no dark cloud of state and federal standardized testing looming over everyone’s heads. It really is a wonderful place to teach and go to school. I’m really going to miss everyone that I have met and worked with, both teachers and students.

That’s pretty much it for now! I’ll try to get in another post before I head back to the good ol’ US of A!

Location: Edgar B Schieldropsvei 42-18 7033 Trondheim Norway

Røros Winter Fair and a Literal Trip to Hell

Hei Alle!

I’m trying to play catchup here so let’s go back, back, wayyyyy back to February 15. On that day our supervisor, Randi, arranged for us to go and visit the R�ros winter fair. R�ros (pronounced something like rUH-ros)is located about 2 hours east of Trondheim in the mountains that separate Norway and Sweden. R�ros is a UNESCO World Heritage site so I was very excited to see what it was all about. Plus we got to play hooky from school, which is always fun. (Although writing substitute plans is not, as I found out.)

Randi picked Megan and myself (as well as the two other teachers, Hester and Marlise) early that morning and we were soon on our way to R�ros. The scenery was absolutely beautiful (as always) and Randi gave us lots of fun information along the way. R�ros used to be an old copper mining town. Every February the miners would trek back into R�ros from the surrounding areas to drop off what they had mined. There was a large celebration in the town square in front of the smelt house. Although the copper has long since run out people still celebrate this time of year. Men and women travel with horses and even reindeer from all over Norway and Sweden to come to this festival. Remember, it is still winter here in Scandinavia so the trip is quite treacherous. In fact, two carriages actually were lost along the way to R�ros but were thankfully found the next day.

We traveled through many small towns on our way to R�ros. Each town/municipality (or kommune) has its own symbol. It was really fun looking at all of the symbols and hearing the backstory behind them. Before we knew it we were in R�ros. It was a beautiful quaint town literally stuck in the mountains. It was mobbed with people for the fair and there was a cute street festival going on. It reminded me of the street festivals you’ll find in the States during the summer. It was so weird to see them with snow on the ground.

Speaking of snow, it was cold. Like REALLY COLD. Like, -12C (10F) cold. We were outside for a LONG time waiting for the carriages to arrive. There was a cute pre-parade show with local singers and dancers. My personal favorites were the local Norwegian rap duo (adorable, although that probably wasn’t quite what they were going for) and the local upper secondary school dance performance. The school performed the local traditional dance and it was really fun because all of the townspeople joined in at the end. Unfortunately it was absolutely mobbed so I wasn’t able to get good pictures of the parade. It was really fun, but painfully cold. We somehow managed to survive the nearly 2 hours outside for the parade. We then decided to walk around a bit. I managed to get split from the group (as usual) so I took a few pictures. My mentor teacher, Ove, offered to let me bring the school’s Canon DSLR (really fancy) camera so I used both my point-and-shoot as well as the school camera:

After enjoying the fair for a bit we drove another hour to Randi’s cabin. It was such a beautiful drive! Unfortunately my camera was in the trunk so I could not take pictures =(. We essentially drove along a HUGE lake. However you would never know that it was a lake because there was at least 3 feet of snow on top of the ice of the lake. It was incredible to see this gigantic tree-less area in a heavily wooded area. It felt like we were on another planet. When we got to the road that Randi’s cabin is on we found that it was closed due to too much snow. However, Randi had a Honda CR-V and the snow looked loosely packed so we decided to try off-roading. Bad idea. We got stuck. Way stuck. There was so much densely packed snow that the bottom of her car (i.e. the axles and whatever else is down there) were stuck in the snow. Try as we might, 5 women were not going to get this car out. We tried for about 30 minutes and finally flagged down a snow plow (the biggest one I have ever seen) to pull us out. Thank goodness for good samaritans!

We ended up going to a nearby hotel for a late lunch. It was a charming place that served some traditional Norwegian food…like reindeer burgers! I had to try one. (To all of my Rudolph-loving friends, I’m sorry. Santa has another 10 months to figure out who will lead his sleigh Christmas Eve.) It was delicious! It wasn’t nearly as game-y as I anticipated. I would definitely eat it again. I managed to get a shot of the hotel and surrounding area at sunset. Beautiful! (The big white area with no trees is the lake.)

We began our trip back to Trondheim after lunch. We made two pretty cool stops. One was in a town called Selbu, which is where the “Selbu rose” knitting pattern was designed. If you’ve seen a Norwegian sweater, you’ve seen a Selbu rose. The big tourist attraction in town is the giant troll statue at a gas station. Obviously I had to get my picture taken with it.
Our last stop of the day was to a town pretty close to Trondheim. In fact, it’s where the Trondheim airport is located. The name of the town: Hell. Now, I LOVE the fact that there is a Hell on Earth and it has, in fact, frozen over. No word on whether or not it is possible to get a beer in hell (sorry, Tucker Max). As you can tell, I love good (or bad) puns about Hell so I managed to snap a few pictures even though it was dark. My favorite is below:

We finally returned to Trondheim at around 8:30pm. It was a really great day! It was a lot of fun to see more of S�r-Tr�ndelag and do some traditional things. This is a trip I won’t forget!

Location: Edgar B Schieldropsvei 42-18 7033 Trondheim Norway

One more hurdle to go

Snow. A word I WILL NOT hear in S�o Paulo, the city where I am supposed to be flying to in about 15 hours or so. Unfortunately for me I am still in the United States, praying for mother nature to cut be some slack and let me arrive safely in a country where winter translates to about 50 degrees everyday. Since the last time I wrote, I have found out who my host mom is, what she is like and have even google-earthed my address.

My first surprise about my host mom was that she not only speaks fluent English, but that she used to live an hour away from me when she was married here in the States for eight years. We have communicated back and forth since before Christmas and she seems eager to have me at her home which I am VERY grateful for.

What I know so far of my living quarters is that I will be in an apartment in the city with my own bathroom and view of Ibirapuera Park. As an added bonus, my apartment building also has what my host mom says is a “piscina ensolarada” or sunny swimming pool. No words can describe my excitement at the moment. All I need now is for mother nature to cooperate…

Below is a picture of the street I will be living on. It seems quiet and safe, which is all I ask for

Location: Home

what do you mean I come home in 2 weeks?

As my countdown to home is quickly approaching, even faster approaching are the deadlines for assignments. And I have seen the light at the end of the tunnel – two of my five final assignments were turned in (and might I add before the due dates) TODAY!!! This leaves me with two more turn-ins (one completed and ready to turn in tomorrow, and one still in the works), and a presentation next tuesday, and then its so long England, hello Pittsburgh!

I would be lying if I said I was sad that home was coming soon… seeing as I have been counting down since the first SNOWFALL (YES snowfall… about a week ago) since I am so sad to be missing the Christmas season!!!!! My family and I have been skyping very frequently, planning all the fun things we will do when I get home, which adds to my excitement!

So with about a week of real work and school left, and since I have finished the majority of my work, I am planning to spend my limited days in England doing everything I know I will miss. This Friday, my friends Heather and Becca will accompany me to London for a fun-filled day of Christmas shopping! We plan on going to Harrod’s (a huge department store), a fun toy store we found, and a Christmas market set up in Hyde Park! I am also planning on starting to pack come next week, seeing as I need to figure out how I will fit everything back into my suitcases.

I have decided on Christmas gifts for my host family, and am very anxious for my host mom to see her gift: a certificate for a massage at the spa (with a card that reads: “This massage is surely deserved to relieve you of all the stress of hosting ME for over 3 months! WELL DONE!”) I think she will not only appreciate, but have a good laugh when she reads the card 🙂

So, until next blog, Peace, love and 2 WEEKS!!!!

(Also: I keep trying to upload pictures and unfortunately the internet seems to be chaotic due to the weather and will not allow me to, but next time I get the chance I promise pictures of the alps, my last trip to London, and the SNOW in BOGNOR!!!!)

Location: bognor Regis, United Kingdom

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