Will I be able to write again?

Yes, I am really shameless: it's been already a month since my last post, and I still "owe" you the explanation of the "semester opening party" we had with the students and professors of the EU Studies Department... and we have already reached the midterms!

Korea (at least non-confessional universities) is not like Spain: no Easter, but instead an infernal week with limited lectures and lots of papers to write and/or exams to prepare. In my case, I'll "only" have to do the following:

- A presentation of (not just 1 but) 2 articles on European integration theories, due in 2.5 hours

- A research design (introduction, hypothesis, literature review, etc.) of a country/actor applying one of the main IR theories, due on Friday

- A 4-5 page paper concerning "The EU and the World" (I'll deal with EU-Belarus relationships), due next Tuesday

- A 4-5 page paper concerning "The IR of East Asia" (I'll deal with Vietnam and its hedging against China), also due next Tuesday

- A 7 page paper for International Public Law, dealing with the status of warships off the coast of Somaliland, due next Wednesday

So, as you might see, I am quite busy. Of course, I should also study Korean: I have class every Monday morning, and I really feel ashamed when I see I don't remember much anything of what we did the week before... obviously because I NEVER review or practice at home. I always have other things to do, be it reading (usually), writing something or, of course, hanging out with someone and/or somewhere.

I have barely been out of Seoul, so far just to the DMZ (I posted several pictures on Facebook). There I had the chance to use my new camera and lens (a Nikon D7000 + a Nikkor 135mm F2.0 defocus control: both for just 2.05 million won, approx €1,300): they both work fine, I love them... but I feel I lost some of my "view" to take pictures. I guess I am just too stressed and sometimes too tired to focus on finding the right angles, the right moments, the right contrast... In fact, I guess I have taken some better pictures with my new Spanish mobile phone (in fact, a Korean model: Samsung Galaxy S) and its nice "Retro Camera" application than with my new, expensive reflex camera :-(

Sooooo... just some snapshots of what I have been up to lately:

- Reading lots of articles and book chapters in different parks (weather permitting); so far, my favourite is the Olympic Park, which I'll visit once again next Sunday, in order to see the final stage of the Tour de Korea (yes, they do imitate the French name... but I don't think you can even dare compare both races)!

- Been to live basketball, football and baseball games; the most special ambiance by far is at baseball games (also helped by the fact that I was there with true Korean fans), the true national sport... but I still don't like baseball!

- Hanging out a lot (and studying quite a lot too in their private seminar room, or "batcave" as I like to say) with my pals from the U-Peace program, that will go to Costa Rica next semester, but also with other nice people specialising in European Studies, as well as with other fellow foreign students. Not an exciting, party-all-day life at all, but we still manage to dine out often and have a couple of beers from time to time...

- Known that my internship can be prolonged up to 1 year. My fellow French student Antoine also wants to do it at the East Asia Institute, which is no surprise but makes things a bit more difficult for me. Still, the program coordinator, Dr. Ohn, will try to convince the head of the Institute to take both of us. If not, I am ready for alternatives, not discounting an earlier-than-expected return home. I shall write a post about my future plans when I have more concrete information (probably towards the end of the month).

- Enjoying life alone at my appartment many evenings and nights, as my flatmate Danny stays at his lab to work longer hours and sleep a bit there: yes, they have one or two mattresses, and yes, Koreans do work A LOT. Not just him: almost all of them. I am tired just hearing at the amount of sleepless nights they endure... no way we can "compete" with Asia, no way (and maybe no sense in trying, either)! Back to my flatmate, I am really enjoying my time here in part thanks to him: he's been extremely kind and helpful at all times, and we can also have a good time together (like yesterday afternoon/evening, when we had a nice Korean/Chinese fusion dinner with his girlfriend)... workload permitting! ;-)

- Noticed some improvement on my left food: after only a couple of weeks here, I started to feel increasing pain there. My flatmate's family accompanied me to a traumatologist and I knew it was not broken: just a tendinitis caused by my bad ankles and tendency to put all my weight on the forward-inner part of the foot. I began to be more careful when going up and down the hill to/from my appartment, and now I already have my old custom insoles. I never adapted to them (they were made when I broke my right foot, already 3+ years ago), but now it seems they can help. I really want to go jogging and to play some basketball, I need it! I would also love to have my racing bike here someday, but that's an impossible dream! Yeah, playing ball with my flatmate's lab team in the internal competition of Korea University should be more than fine!

- Planned a trip from May 5 to May 10 (both included), but not yet sure where to go. Gyeongju has a lot of numbers, and then also the small islands off the southwestern coast (not Jejudo... that will come later, a weekend with some friends hopefully). I should really buy the tickets soon, as they might sell out (both May 5 and May 10 are national holidays)!

- Known there will be a "field trip" for the EU-ICP program students (that's me!), with all expenses paid by Hyundai (btw., one of my options for the internship...)! Just two days, one night, but interesting nonetheless!

And sure I am missing a lot of things... but I just had to summarize a little bit! I promise I will post again once the midterms craze is over, surely with some pics of the Tour de Korea finale and maybe some more details about the "experience" I had buying my new camera and other stuff...

Cheers!

Essential Korean

Like I guess some other foreigners, I was sometimes puzzled to read some "expressions" on Facebook or on SMS. Things such as "kkkk" or "ㅋㅋㅋ" (which is actually the same, anyway) made me think "WTF is going on!". Google Translator is not very helpful, just translating it as "blah blah blah", so I decided to do some little research and... tada! Here are the main "abbreviated expressions" Koreans use in their short messages!

ㅋㅋㅋㅋ/ㅋㄷㅋㄷ/ㅎㅎㅎ = kkkkkk. lol/rofl/lmfao depending on how many ㅋ
(in sc) ㅎ = help
ㅈㅈ = gg
ㄱㄱ = gogo
ㄴㄴ = nono
ㅠㅠ = qq
ㅡㅡ= -__-
ㄱㄳ = gogosing
ㄹㄷ = ready
ㄹㄹ = rm (in sc)
ㄴㅅ / 낚= rj (in sc)
ㅂ = back (in sc) (get back) (dont go)
ㅎㅇ/ㅎ2 = hi
ㅎㅇㅇ/ㅎ2ㅇ = hiyo
ㅂ2ㅂ2 /ㅃㅃ= byebye
ㅇㅋ = ok
ㅇㅇ = yea yea
ㄱㄷ = wait a sec
ㅉㅉ = tsk tsk (kicking your tougue sound)
ㄷㅊ = stfu
ㅅㅂ/18 = shit (mostly as in aww shit)
ㅄ = retard
ㅅㅂㄹㅁ / ㅅㅂㄴㅇ= shitface/fuckface/fag/fucktard/dooshbag/fucker, etc.. kinda reminds me of 섊 (ole skoo way to say it rofl)
ㅈㅅ = my bad
ㄳ= ty
ㅅㄱ = (after you meet back in channel kinda like gg (in sc only)) other ways to use but hard to explain
ㄲㅈ = gtfo
ㅁㅊ = fucking...
ㅎㄷㄷ = gee (same key input too rofl)
82 = hurry tfu
凸/ㅗ = fu
ㅊㅋㅊㅋ = grats
웃 = person lmfao jk

Quite a scare...

... and no, I am not talking about Japan. Of course, I have been a bit worried about the overall situation and the possible consequences a major radiation fallout could have for neighboring Korea (Seoul, although on Western Korea, is less than 1,200 km away from Fukushima). However, no major meltdown has yet occured in the troubled power plant and, still, Japan's East coast winds almost always blow east or southeast, so we seem to be safe (more info on the relative safety for Korea, even if a major fallout occurs, see this article at the Chosun Ilbo).

So, and not implying I am not deeply worried about what could happen in Japan, mostly for their citizens and how it could affect their future, my latest worries were more personal. Indeed, they were physical... yes, I feared I had a broken bone in my left foot. Again, a stress fracture, like the one I had in my right foot 3 years ago. The symptoms were awfully similar: persistent pain when walking, now lasting more than a week with no improvement, a slight callus below the painful area, a clear change in the way of walking...

In fact, if it weren't because I had already dismissed similar symptoms 3 years ago, thinking -- thanks, too, to the opinion of a physician who did not even want to take some x-rays of my aching foot -- it was just severe tendinitis, I wouldn't have been too scared. But I was, so I decided to visit a Korean doctor.

Good for me, my flatmate's brother and mother were available to help. They brought me to a nearby small clinic: I have an insurance, but it will just refund me the money when I send them the original invoice, so I had to be ready to pay. No, there's no free for all, public healthcare system in South Kore: however, it is highly subsidized by the government, both if you have your insurance and also if you don't... as I came to testify today.

Check that: I entered the clinic at 2PM. Gave some basic personal information, sat down, ready to wait... 2 minutes later, my name was called. I enter the doctor's room, a traumatologist who spoke perfect English. Of course, he is more than willing to take some x-rays of me. We go there, 2 shots... and, just one minute later, I am called again to the doctor's office. Fortunately for me, no fracture whatsoever was visible. Yes, that middle finger is my "main weakness" and there should be a nice tendon inflamation around the area, but nothing was broken... at least for now.

Anyway, he prescribed me an injection and some painkillers. Did I say an injection? Yeah, I don't really like them, but I had to take it. One minute later, I am there, with my pants down, ready for the painful needle. Thirty seconds later, I still have to feel the pinch, but the nurse tells me she's done! How? What? In fact, the only thing I noticed is that she patted (I would not use the term "slapped" here) my ass... and it looks like she did that while administering the injection! Spanish nurses, please take note: it's not just about plunging the needle in there, patting and relaxing the muscles while deviating the nervous' system attention makes the pain disappear!

In any case, the treatment was over. I had been there for 20 minutes. And I had to pay... 30,000 won, which is roughly €20! I can just try to imagine how much I would have payed for a similar treatment in a private clinic in Spain with no insurance... yes, sometimes you have to love South Korea!

So, now that I know I am healthy, a busy weekend awaits me. I want to do some relaxing tourism while advancing my university tasks. Therefore, I plan to go to a park and read, while also walking a bit through several streets I really want to see. And yes, I still have a pending post from last week, the big party... I won't forget!

News and more news

Hi everyone! It has been about 10 days since my last post, and that's not because I hadn't meant to write: on the contrary, it has been such a busy and incredible week that I did not have time to post anything decent! I will just try to make up for that now, a quiet Thursday morning (no class today, but lots of things to prepare for next week) at home... although I am not alone: my flatmate's brother (he's got a 1-week leave in the middle of his 20-month compulsory military service) and mother are here. Anyway, let's go with the stuff.

First thing I want to tell, is that I finally made a decision on one of the courses I would take, to the surprise of many of my Korean colleagues (and also to the relative dismay of one of them, who really wanted to share a course with me and now he won't): I'll take a Proseminar on International Relations, conducted by a young and allegedly tough Korean professor, instead of the Introduction to IR course with the oh-so-cool and prestigious Korean-American professor, recently imported from the U.S. and who loves showing his unrefined sense of humor every ten seconds or so. Of course, everything seasoned with some nice doses of arrogance and belief in a certain racial superiority... yes, I did not like him at all, that's why I chose the course offering me more work, but also more reward.

The other courses I am taking are International Public Law (with a very good American professor), International Relations of East Asia (for which I have to prepare a presentation already due next Tuesday) and The European Union and the World, both conducted by Dr. Daewon Ohn, the Vicedean of the Graduate School and the person responsible of my arrival here. On top of that, I am also auditing two courses on Friday, one on conflict (causes, tipologies and resolution) and another on research methodology for the social sciences, something that can be quite useful towards a future Ph.D!

Second piece of recent news: I also started learning Korean. After our polite complaints, the Graduate School (namely Dr. Ohn) decided to hire a teacher for us and "create" a new Korean course. It's every Monday morning, 9AM... not the most convenient schedule for me (both for the time and because I have another class on Monday afternoon, and one which will require quite a lot of presentations). Moreover, the first class was a bit hectic: the teacher goes way too fast ("bali bali", as they always say around here) and the other 3 students are already a bit proficient in Korean (in fact, one of them is a Chinese Ph.D student who's been living in Korea for 2.5 years now) and have more free time to study (i.e. they take less courses) than I do. The combination might well prove being fatal, but hopefully I will manage to stay competitive enough (just to follow the rythm, even if barely) and to make sure the original syllabus is respected (i.e. that they don't accelerate beyond control due to the "proficiency" of the other students).

In any case, I am lucky I have found some very nice people in the U-Peace program (a joint Master's program of my university, Hankuk, and the UN University in Costa Rica). They are just starting now, very friendly and willing to learn survival Spanish for their upcoming trip to Costa Rica. Yesterday we were learning both languages for 3 hours with 2 of them, Bin and Saeha, it was really fun!

So, apart from my lively academic life, what else has happened around here lately? Well, let's start with last Tuesday, March 8: I attended a live basketball game! For those of you who are my friends on Facebook, you have surely seen the pics. For the ones who haven't, here's a brief summary and a couple of pictures to give you an idea of the overall experience.

We went to see a game between Seoul Knights and Ulsan, both pretty average teams of the Korea Basketball League. I can't say the quality of play was high: they both showed lackluster defense, not really polished offensive skills, too many isolation sets (with not-so-talented players taking the defenses 1on1)... and unfit American players who grabbed every single rebound available (yes, Koreans, even tall ones, don't fight for the rebounds)!

However, the game itself was probably the less important thing there: a KBL game is the Asian magnification of the "family experience" of NBA games, but without the star power in the court. So, who's the star there? Of course, our friend, the male cheerleader: a guy who did not stop for a second, stomping his feet to make everyone shout "DEEE-FENSE!", igniting the crowd with his chants and phrases and showing a very peculiar dressing style.

Of course, he was not alone: the usual team of female cheerleaders was also there, as were a bunch of guys dressed as cans, pots, donkeys and a red, Korean copy of Megaman. I wondered which is the worst job: acting dressed as a soda can or as a donkey... Timeouts and pauses were a real freak show, with the cameras catching glimpses of the sparse public available (the arena was pretty small, and I'd say it was only at 40% of its capacity, and I also guess a lot of the attendants did not pay their tickets... just as we didn't!) and the weird guys throwing basketballs and other presents to the stands. Anyway, I can't say it was the best basketball game ever, but I had quite a lot of fun, it was an enjoyable experience... and really worth it for the price I paid (free ticket, reasonably priced pizza slice and nachos as dinner)!

Oh, yeah, something else also happened that Tuesday: I had the chance to become a movie star, but I refused. Well, actually not a star, more like an extra... and the conditions offered were quite grueling: a 24-hour stint, departing Seoul at midnight and getting back home a full day later, including 16+ hours of shooting out in the cold, attired as Nazi soldiers in Stalingrad for a meager €80. A French pal of me went there and said it was not "the best experience", but he was still pleased with the outcome and he's going to another shooting session tomorrow.

How did I get such opportunity? Well, I was just getting ready to meet the people who'd come to the basketball game when a pretty Eastern European girl approached me saying I was what she was looking for. After my initial surprise, she told me that she was a (very stressed) head hunter for Korean movies and TV shootings, specializing in Western-looking extras... and they needed "spare" Nazi soldiers for the day after. It was tempting for the experience, but I felt tired (the night before had been a bad one) and a bit ill (I caught a low-intensity flu last week), so I politely declined, also offering my services for future occasions. I think she called me yesterday (I guess for the same shooting my pal Darius is going to), but I failed to hear the call... maybe next time! :-)

Hum... quite a long post... and still a lot of things to say! Why don't I continue this evening? Yeah, I think I'll do that: there are a couple of very interesting things I still want to tell you all... including a very special "start of the semester" party with my fellow European Union Studies students... and all the concerned professors! And no, it was by no means a very formal party! Maybe this picture will serve you as a decent sneak peek into how it went...

More on that later! Cheers!

Situation in Japan

A new post was underway for a few days, and it's almost ready (warning: it's a long one!), but first I think I need to focus on the situation in Japan.

To me, it's not the tsunami and the earthquake, but the radiation emanating from an ever-growing number of damaged nuclear reactors. What can it mean to Japan? What can it mean to the wider region? We still don't know, but things don't bode out too well: officials are incapable of cooling the affected reactors, partial meltdowns have already occurred and a full meltdown migh happen soon, with the underlying risk of a big explosion (and not just a hydrogen one destroying the outer building) or destruction of the protective structure higher by the hour.

Anyway, I just wish the best for the people of Japan... and hope things get under (relative) control before it's too late!

From the top of the N Seoul Tower

Lasting impressions

Hey, what's up? It's taken quite a lot of time for me to post again. Yes, to tell you the truth, I expected that: this first full week here has been hectic enough, specially being in "course tryout mode", i.e. attending several lectures a day to choose the ones I like the most.

And know what? Now we've got a problem: I like too many of them, and the ones I prefer are the ones my professors back at Barcelona won't accept. I shall take at least one subject related to the European Union, maybe some international relations (I attended 3 lectures, an introductory seminar, an introductory lecture and a seminar for PhD students which, oddly enough, seems to be the more "relaxed" of the three)... but not research methodology or peace studies. However, yesterday I attended both these lectures and they were so interesting, so useful... that I decided to audit them, even if I don't get a grade (and the corresponding credits).

While I go crazy trying to figure out why my Nook refuses to open any of the PDF books/articles I have in there and that I have to read urgently, I will let you know about several "culture shocks" that happened to me in the few days since I arrived. Wow, it's already been more than a week... and I failed to learn any Korean in the meantime: I am now just able to read most of the alphabet, but I still can't say much beside the "hello, thank you, goodbye" stuff. After receiving some bad news about the prospects of learning Korean at University (they just offer that very intensive, 20-hour a week program... and you have to pay almost €1000 for that!), I might go to a private school on Monday and join their monthly 6-hour a week courses. Not cheap either (some €150 a month), but I should at least give it a try!

Anyway, back to the main subject of this post: cultural shocks. To make things more agile, I'll just give you some bullet points, coupled with a couple of pictures. Let's go...

- No thrash containers on the streets whatsoever. Neither are there centralized dust collection systems in appartments. How do they manage? Easy: you put all your stinky rubbish in as many containers as you need (yes, they do recycle), leave it rotting inside your appartment for a few days and then take it out on Saturday evening for it to be picked up. Of course, it saves resources and money, but now I avoid getting too close to the dustbin box in my appartment...

- Fried chicken and beer has become a national passtime among young people. In the very genuine Asian style, there are even streets almost completely devoted to such art, offering you the invaluable image of heaps of pre-fried chicken next to shop windows, waiting for some grease-loving customer to devour them... Although the image can sound and seem disgusting, if you go to the right place (i.e. chicken fried almost on the spot) it's decent enough: I played some ball with my flatmate and his lab colleagues yesterday evening (btw., they want me to play for their lab's team in Korea University's internal basketball league!) and afterwards I asked him if he wanted to eat in such a place... so we went! The chicken was obviously greasy, but far less than Spain's KFC. Meanwhile, the meat seemed decent enough and reasonably tasty, so I'd say the poultry used was not the worst available. The price? Maybe a tad high for Korean standards: we paid KRW 19,000 (about €13) for 8-10 pieces of chicken and two beers, of course coupled with some salad (healthier than the regular french fries you get in Europe or America) and another Korean side dish (banchan).

 

- Love for soju: they are not very tolerant to alcohol (they lack some enzymes other races do have), but Asians drink to death. Koreans are no exception, and their rice wine drink, soju, a nastier and less tasty version of the Japanese sake, is their favourite one. In fact, the main soju producer in South Korea is the world's biggest single alcoholic beverage producer in terms of volume. Of course, with such charming ads, who could resist to soju?

- Death machines for exercising. No extra comments: it's meant to be some kind of old fashioned step machine, but it was really dangerous! I just set one foot dare and it began furiously swinging back an forth. I set the second foot, and things went from bad to worse. I still don't know how I managed to jump out of this evil machine relatively unscratched (I just hit my left knee, which still today bothers me a little bit)!

 - No, it's not the local Nazi council: just a buddhist temple/center. In fact, the swastika was in no way invented by the German nazis, but just reused from its buddhist past. So don't be afraid if you ever come to South Korea or Japan and see lots of swastikas: the skin heads you'll see coming out of such buildings are probably less aggressive than the ones we are used to in Europe!

- Next up: love motels. In a society in which public displays of affection are forbidden, in which traditionality makes it almost unthinkable that you sleep with your partner at his/her parent's from time to time and where even university dorms are stricly male/female separated, the so-called love motels come to the rescue of passionate lovers who want to enjoy some forbidden pleasures. Well, I am not sure I would enjoy it too much, only thinking about the place itself... I can assure you that the building itself was pretty run down, the main entrance was the best part of it. Anyway, to me it's quite fun that you can see it in the middle of the street (even if it's not a main one but more like a back alley), no hiding whatsoever!

 - Although the streets are pretty clean, there are almost no dustbins to be found. Yes, you find some from time to time, but you have to walk for quite some time with junk in your hands before you can "decently" dispose of it. I guess that Spain would be a much, much dirtier place if dustbins weren't as ubiquitous as they are nowadays!

- Finally, the typicial monothematic Asian streets do also exist in Korea. While in China I enjoyed a peaceful walk along Beijing's toilet street, last Tuesday I had the chance to stroll along Seoul's professional kitchenware street. Not the only one I've seen, though: one can just take a bus and enjoy the sights of several "specialised" streets, all around the city! Oh, by the way: Tuesday was a National Holiday, but I'd say that 50% of shops were open (as this photo testifies). Holiday? Not working? What is that? I guess that's one of the reasons why the 21st century will undoubtedly belong to Asia!

And that's it for today. I'll now deal with a short translation I was assigned on Thursday and then go out with a couple of French pals. We plan to visit the National Museum and then the N Tower, from the very top of Namsan park. I'll surely post some pictures! Later!