EPIC BLOG

Many an epic happening happened to me my last couple of weeks in Korea. Therefore I was so caught up in the epic-ness that therefore I did not blog. Therefore, I shall create a series of sub blogs in the EPIC BLOG for your viewing pleasure.

"I AM A FAMOUS SINGER!"
So I'm friends with the owners of the Bebop Guesthouse that I stayed in for the first week that I was in Korea. Therefore, they are super rad, super chill Korean homies and I get to chill with them from time to time. (a favorite past time). In fact, they are so cool that they got an article published about them in a local magazine, which led to a book publisher asking them to write a book (they are currently working on it), and then they got approached by the local cable peeps to do a show! ANyWhO, Olive, one of the part owners invited me to come over and see when the TV crew was coming. So I get to the guest house and they had already been interviewed and now the cable crew is just chillin around the guest house. Therefore I thought they were just hanging out and taking some shots and just spending some time in the place. So I just chill too with my friends, the other guests, and the cable crew. Suddenly this guy walks in with fantastic hair, the skinniest legs I've ever seen, his own camera out recording, and declares, "I am a famous singer." The French guy, the German guy, the Austrian girl and I just sort of look at him and nod and are like, "ok, cool." Turns out, he IS a famous singer! In fact, he is the lead singer of the Kpop group 2AM. Jo Kwon! and turns out that he wants to make documentaries or something- therefore, they are making a TV show documenting him making a documentary. Among other things, I spent the rest of the night participating in a scripted documentary, eating kimchi pancakes, and being personally serenaded to by Jo Kwon. I also realize that I have my camera with me, so I start making a documentary of the documentary of the documentary, if you follow.

McDonalds At Your Door
It's four in the morning, where else in the world can you order McDonalds on the phone (free delivery) and in less than ten minutes hear a knock on your studio door? If that's not a happy meal, I don't know what is.

Take Me To The Riot!
So...apparently my school is not heated. In fact, the painting building was colder inside than it was outside, and dang, it was cold outside. Therefore, stay warm in my studio I wore three shirts, a sweater, a sweatshirt, my ski jacket, a scarf, a Vermont turtle fur warmest hat on earth hat, running spandex, and jeans. I also drug my easel next to a small space heater and drank hot water. Unlike the other hard core Koreans, I only endured a couple nights of this before I decided that staying in my warm room was the only way to fight the injustice of a school who cares not for the students therefore frozen fingers. (or maybe it was just super nice and warm in there...)

I Therefore Left The Riot
Actually I once thought that some sort of riot was happening in front of my school late at night when I saw maybe sixty bikes strewn across an open area and a group of people cheering and stuff. Turns out it was just the end of a bike race. Therefore, I was unimpressed, and left before the police could not show up.

Korean Hippies, So Rad
I had the privilege of following my friend Olive to her friends home. (almost in North Korea it twas) We first visited this amazing artist's town, I believe the spelling is Henryi? Then we jogged up to visit her friends home. IT was SO cool! Very traditional, floors heated by fire, buckets of cabbage for making kimchi, fruit hanging to dry, nature, and the like.

This Is A Really Hard
Oh bother, so many things to do, such a short amount of time. Therefore, what do you do? You plan the EPIC weekend of fun!!
A. Studio Party-dinner and kareoke! (Koreans!)
B. After the studio party, therefore hit the club! (Aussies! Americans! Kyrguzstan!)
C. Leave the club at 6 AM
D. sleep (but not for long!)
E. Next party-dinner and kareoke! (Everybody!)
F. Leave that party for a slumber party! (Mormons!)
G. Visit the Seoul Temple
H. Go to church-dinner and Nacho Libre after!
I. Pack up, lunch with MK, dinner with homies! goodbye presents! (Everybody!)
J. Say goodbye to Sukara, to Jack, and to the French!
K. To the Airport Bus! (made possible by the help of The Aussies! and Jack!)
L. Fly away home.
M. Therfore.

Why Is Everyone So Cool??
I am upset that everyone I met in Korea was so cool. Therefore, it made it difficult to leave. I would especially like to give shout outs to the following groups of people for taking such good care of me and making my life wonderful. Thank you to the LDS branch- where doing "Ok" was not acceptable until you were doing "Awesome," to MK, Olive, and Jin of the Bebop Guesthouse-for getting me started and seeing me through my entire stay in Hongdae, to the girls in my studio-for getting me a studio space, teaching me Korean, sharing their culture, and making memories, to the Kimchi club-for accepting all of us foreigners and being committed to having a fun time, to the other International Students-for so many fun memories, adventures, and misadventures, to everyone back home-who kept me going with all of your encouragement and good wishes. AND if you were not mentioned and think you should be, by George, you should be!!! Thank you!!!

Time To Say Annyong

awkalwalawllll;;;! today is my last day in the land of South Korea. I'm so sad to leave, but so excited to see the fam! and whatever friends I have left over! :) It was an epic last couple of weeks, therefore I shall write an epic blog all about it, this short blog is just to prepare you for the great things to come. Including: making it on korean cable TV, freezing to death, eating way too much food, more deep thoughts, maybe some pictures, maybe something inspiring, maybe you will even cry! that would be something. Maybe you are crying right now, just reading about the good things to come. It's okay, I get a little choked up meself. we can all cry a little I spose...but for now, I shall sleep, the Australians shall help me carry my luggage to the airport bus stop (bless them), I shall fly to Tokyo! (and sit in the airport for a couple hours), fly to San Fran (and sit in the airport for a couple hours), fly to SLC!!!!!!!!!!! and see Mom and John and cookie dough. :D plus I get to live December 15th twice! think about that! Annyong!!!

My Cool Friend Olive!

Sideways Sunset

The Bepob Guest House

Observations

I smell like Korean restaurants.
Smells of mystery waft up the stairways of the dorm from the boy's floor.
My scriptures smell like Shey because a sample of Clinique Happy Heart spilled in a pocket.
My life smells like teen spirit.

Another Day

"I'm sorry, but I don't drink tea because of my religion."
"Do you drink vinegar?"
"sure."
strong stuff.

Bummer

I hate leaving Korea. I have to do so many fun things and eat so many fun things and try to do my final projects. Mass scheduling problem.

Deep Thoughts

What on earth would you do if you lost a kid here?
"She has dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. She's short. She is wearing the school uniform and she has the school haircut."

American Wish List

I only have about two more weeks of being in Korea! I am muy sad to leave! It's been so great, and there's still so much to do...I am really excited about coming home though and seeing my family and friends!! I got to thinking about what I've missed while being here. The other day I made a list of what I am hard core excited for on my return to the U.S. of A.

1. COOKIE DOUGH!!!
2. carpet
3. food: asta la pasta pesto! TOMATOES, salad, CEREAL!!!!!!!, the brownies I make on Sundays, quesadillas, costa vida, whole wheat bread, cottage cheese, milk, real hamburgers, aggie ice cream.
4. I miss Cereal so much.
5. cell phones with T-9 and being able to call people that I know.
6. grandparents
7. kitchens
8. normal smells
9. hugs and snuggling
10. western accent
11. tall/stocky guys
12. louder people
13. No, really, I miss cereal, a lot.
14. being able to plug stuff in w/out using adapters and converters
15. my alarm clock
16. my fresh loafers
17. hot tubs
18. space, fresh air, stars
19. Mountains.
20. asking people questions in grocery stores.
21. Grocery stores!!!
22. hoodie sweatshirts
23. driving
24. paper towels in bathrooms
25. gooooood music
26. TV
27. granolas.
28 . the Logan Temple.
29. Like really, I can't wait to have cereal again.
30. I also miss trying stuff on in dressing rooms. (it's rare that clothing stores have dressing rooms-and if they do, the workers won't allow you to try things on if they think you will stretch the clothes out!! I kept wondering why they wouldn't let me in...)
31. drinking fountains.
32. seriously, I don't think you appreciate that cereal you are so casually eating every morning for breakfast.

What Do You Make Of This Email?

안녕하십니까 네스팟 관리자 입니다.
Madison Pope님이 사용하시던 Nespot ID가 사용기간 종료 (으)로 회수 처리 되었습니다.
새로운 ID 사용을 위해서는 다시 신청 하여서 사용하시기 바랍니다.

The Award Ceremonies

This is my moment of glory where I won MVP of the International KIMCHI party. Mainly due to excessive amounts of dancing without being under the influence of alcohol. Once again proving that one can be freakish and sober. I would like to issue an apology to Olivier for making us lose the beer competition. However, it was his fault for selecting me as his partner, and I think he did it just so that he could drink more beer. But wait, I was a really good cheer leader, he just didn't drink fast enough. Apology withdrawn. Note: I won a beanie too.

No Wait, This Is The Partyyy

Tis My Rad Professor

My Professor Is Rad

My Professor for Technique of Oriental Brush is super cool, and hilarious. She is always super worried about me, and takes really good care of me. Every class she brings me some sort of Korean food/treat to try, she's given me a cool traditional Korean CD, a really pretty necklace, catalogues from oriental painting shows...there was the stint that she was worried about my skin and brought me sunscreen, the time she was afraid I didn't have a jacket and offered me one...she takes me to lunch, she gets other students to go for lunch with me...wow. I tell you, these Koreans, they got your back.

Been There, Ate Way Too Much

So Chill

It's A Partyyy

What's Not To Love?

I can buy an assortment of ridiculous spandex for under $7.00. Including the black with metallic zebra stripes one that I like to sport. I felt the leopard print with gold sparkles was a little too subtle, but if you wanted something trendy, I would suggest the jean print spandex, although I would not recommend exercising in jean print spandex as it would not give the full effect of exercising in jeans-if you know what I mean. The only thing missing from this situation is: Adrianne Zollinger-Torgerson.

After

Then I got sexy Asian bang haircut!

Before

I grew out of my asymmetrical haircut and looked stupid.

Would you confirm?

I got a package and a note to go to a specific building, where I thought I was to pick up another package or something. After sitting around for a while, they sent me away, and I got this email about it.

Dear, Madison POPE.
Hi, there
I confirmed it for your parcel post.
The day when I received the parcel post is October 28.
And the day when I delivered with you is November 3.
The person who delivered the parcel post guards a certain dormitory where you live in.
According to his words, he tells you to have delivered it on November 3.
Therefore parcel post and the contents of the memo which I received through the guard on November 3 are equal.
And to conclude, The person who delivered memo and the person who delivered a parcel post are the person who is identical.
Please confirm it well once again.

Sincerely,
Min Gyesoon

Maybe it's just me, but I can't, don't, find that is to say that it is that this does for a certain because does make sense, it not.

Drawing Class

9:00 AM, (dead cat sculpture professor) Let's go to the cafe and eat cake for breakfast and Madison, sing us the 12 days of Christmas! That's what it basically boiled down to.

My First Oriental Painting

This was haaaaaarrrrd.
I call it, "stream to mordor." j/k.

"I Steal Things All The Time, It's Just Something I Do"-Creed

The Artist Kyungah Kim recently had a fascinating, or maybe sarcastic, exhibition. Well, it all "started when she realized the oozing hypocrisy behind the sophistication and the discrepancy between the original location of the artifacts and collections of the world-renowned big museums." Basically, it doesn't make sense for countries to display artifacts of other countries. And I don't think that sentence I quoted made sense either, but my good grammar senses are being dulled. So for the past ten years, she traveled the world, and stole stuff. She would steal a coffee mug from a Korean cafe, and replace it with one in France. Or she would take a salt shaker from one hotel in Hawaii, and replace it at another hotel in Hawaii, keeping the left over. She took pictures of the switches, displayed the stolen items, did some paintings, an instillation piece, and even a video. who does that? awesome.

Terrorized By The White Girl!!

My friend Marian was coming to meet me in my room. I ran to the bathroom, and I was about to walk out into the hallway when by chance, Marian had come walking by! It was perfect for a surprise attack! I was all geared to leap out and ambush, and actually started to, when suddenly Marian who was not Marian who was actually a very small Asian, started turning into the bathroom. The look of fear on her face! In mid-spring I turned my assault into a somewhat firm arm squeeze, ran past her, and collapsed onto the floor of my room laughing/giving myself a hernia. Every time I think about the look on her face... Just instilling some white fear, that's all.

Compliments?

"Your skin is very pink."
"You're getting cuter."
"You're working very hard today, are you all right?"
"You have a small head."
"Sorry, your eyes are so big."
"You're pretty today. What happened?"

Pu Han San- We Climbed A Mountain-word

We All Knew This Day Would Come

The bathroom that my floor shares has one available Western style toilet, and a squatter. I am one of the three whiteys on the floor, and interestingly enough, all the Asian kids usually go for the squatter, so there hasn't been too much of a problem there. However, I was just waiting for the day when the Western toilet would become...out of order so to say. Well, if finally happened. At any rate, it's better than the boys bathroom, Olivier tells me that they smoke in the jon and that when you shower, sometimes they hock lugies, and if you are unfortunate enough to be downstream, the lugies drain into your shower stall. At which point Olivier starts yelling.

Urine Paintings and Dead Cat Sculpture

My professor is planning on boiling urine in ginormous glass vats for 30 hours and then making a series of demon paintings on sheets. The glory is that the pee will glow in the dark. He also used dead cats for casting one of his sculpture projects. He is actually American, but he is from New York, so I guess that could explain things. In one of his classes a girl stapled a cup of week old coffee with a straw to the wall, and called it her homework, which he explained, is brilliant. One time he left the room and when he came back, some kid was lighting his assignment on fire. He teaches drawing classes, but there is actually no drawing, just watching cartoons, lectures on the history of Michael Jackson, and learning to break dance.

Frodo Lives

Oriental Painting i ridiculously hard, but I think it will be profitable when I do a series on Mordor, which I wasn't planning. Until now. When I did a billion paintings of rocks and streams and suddenly realized that my room had turned into a barren wasteland of black and white rocks and streams. Maybe they will start growing orcs.

Pop Goes Japan!

To get to the 6th Floor

You should go to the building next door and get on the elevator. Take it to the 8th floor. Walk down the hall until the 8th floor becomes the 6th floor. There you go.

White Children, Run For Your Lives!

I've been stopped on the street to be photographed, thrown into group and individual photographs with random strangers, interviewed for a documentary, and am now paranoid of people taking pictures of me with their cell phones. Oh man. It's sort of cool to feel famous, but at the same time, it's like, hey, why doesn't this happen to me in America?? As soon as I get back I'll be lame again! tragic. Oh well, at least I was complimented the other day on my small head.

Campus Wars

Hongik University's campus differs from USU in several ways.

1. I nearly get run over by speeding mopeds at various times of day when walking to class.
2. For every western style toilet, there's at least 1 to 2 squatters.
3. All the girls wear 2 to 4 inch heels despite the fact that the major walkways are unevenly laid stones of various sizes coupled with wooden boardwalks.
4. I take certain routes to class to avoid smells of the sewer...
5. Sometimes in the morning random music plays from mysterious speakers.
6. The t-shirts get me everytime though, the t-shirt of the week was definitely won by the boy who displayed the following in huge text, "Make Love, Not Babies" but I did like the t-shirt, "I need all the friends I can get" and also, "Marc can't be always right." It's true though, sometimes Marc is wrong.
7. When I run into people I know, our conversations usually turn into games of charades, and often end awkwardly.
8. What is clearly missing here are the longboarders, the quad, and the people who give free hugs on "Free Hugs Day." However, I do enjoy what I have dubbed, "the forrest of feng shua." It runs through the middle of campus. You can pop in and out of it on various paths and enjoy bamboo plants, trees, bushes, streams, ponds, birds...quite nice.

I'll Probably Get Some Carpet Burns

So...come to find out I'm at the Harvard of Korean Art Universities. Also, many of the students study for two or three years at institutions just to get into the school. On top of that, the semesters are different, so everyone is in the second semester of their school year. This means that when I ended up nabbing a studio space with the seniors at Hognik, I actually nabbed a space with the graduating seniors. Although I'm a junior, I wasn't technically an art major until this year. I took a few art classes my freshman year that inspired me to not give up on art. When I transfered back to USU I had missed the deadline for applying to the art program, but pretended to be an art major by taking a few more classes until I got accepted into the program in the spring. To summarize, I'm sort of behind. Sort of really behind, especially when you add in me late bloomer tendencies! And here I am attempting to paint amongst the graduating seniors! haha, yet again I find the greatest way to get ahead in life is to be the greatest Poser who ever lived (see also: heather peng) and ride along on the wings of champions (actually it's more like clamping onto someone's foot as they drag you across the carpet-like you do to big people when you are a little kid-or to Morgan at the Last Chance Dance in high school until he says to the guy that your with to, "get your date off me."). I've tried to run with the philosophy that to get better at life, hang out with people cooler than you. Yeah you feel like an idiot most of the time, but you might make it.

"Sorry To Baffle You Miss Pretty"

So I've been enjoying being the recipient of text messages from my Korean friends. Except this morning I didn't really know what to do when I received the following text from one of my guy friends, "Hi depressing morning...same week..same papers..(am I doing well? I'm not a robot..)" I was sort of in a bad mood, so I replied with the first witty song lyric that came to my mind via Jacks Mannequin. Therefore I sent the following, "You're not an orphan."

They Never Cease To Amaze

Why, just this Friday, I went down to the dormitory cafeteria for my breakfast of rice and sodium, and walked into a Christmas wonderland! There were red and green balloons hanging from the ceiling, snowflakes, santa clause decals...the whole shebang. I think it had to do with the Christmas themed dorm party that night, but I'm still confused.

"Merely Existing Is A Point of View" - Ben Fred

I would say that I know what's going on about 50% of the time, but I'm getting used to it. It's only a downgrade of about 20% since in America I seem to know what's going on about 70% of the time. The other 30% of my brain could be called the Oblivious Wonder. That's another story, at any rate (as Mr. Littizette would say) I'm starting to wonder if reality is even real. Today, as I was walking to class I had that song, "more than words" stuck in my head. I got to class, dropped off my stuff, then walked down the hall towards the bathroom to fix my hair. I stop because I can hear the song, "more than words" playing. What?!?!? So I follow the sound into the exhibition hall and there is a video project accompanied by the song "more than words." The fact that this song is in Korea, in the exhibition, and in my head, is only enlarging the Oblivious Wonder. All I can do is stare at it, leave, and think about it all day. The title alone.

Leggings and Toilet

For my oil painting class our professor gave us a list of subjects/themes that we could choose from for our next painting project. A fellow student kindly translated the list for me, here were some of the choices...

1. Oh, being in existence
2. bread and frog
3. faster, higher, stronger, and white fear
4. Haeundae (a sea) in the nostrils
5. A cigarette butt and Damien Hirst
6. love which is piled up and added
7. apple and all of the scientist
8. leggings and toilet
9. black and vegetarian
10. cross in the red neck tie

Oh, being in existence!

I translate Ebonics and describe Twinkies

The International club here is called KIMCHI. From what I gather, it's a way for everyone to work on their English and internationality-ness. or whatever. Last week some of the Australian students interviewed students to see if they spoke English well enough to be in the club. They meet every Wednesday to debate different issues. Anywho, I showed up this week along with two other Australian boys. They split the three of us up into separate groups of five or six. This week we were talking about a Korean-American rapper who grew up in New Jersey and became famous in Korea. Apparently he said some controversial things about Korea to a friend in his Myspace and had to fly back to America. So I was reading some of the text that he had posted and asked the students if they understood what he was saying? They didn't, so I had to explain some of the following text, "wassup foo. watchu bin doing...still having pissy fits boutchur rapping? korea is gay...I hate Koreans, I wanna come back like no other...friggin a n e ways yea..." well, you get the picture. One girl-"What is friggin?" I also explained "whack" "illest rapper" "dass pretty dope" It's a good thing that I have so much smack talk stored up yo and knowledge of American slang. The article also talked about anther slang word for "Asians in the U.S. who make great efforts to assimilate the mainstream American society." Otherwise known as a "Twinkie" (yellow on the outside, white on the inside...get it? also see: "banana"). "What is Twinkie?"

Know Your Onion!

There is quite a large amount of international craziness going on here! For example, my American friend Marion's parents are Vietnamese, but she is always assumed to be Korean. Another boy I met was born in Boston, his mother is French and his father is Japanese. When he was five he moved to France, came back to the states for college, and now works in Japan. My other friend was born in Korea, went to high school in the middle east, moved to Australia, and is now back in Korea. Come on Vamanos! Where have I been all this time?

Phat Sunday

Sundays here have proven themselves worthy of being excellent Sundays. I go to an English speaking branch. It consists of some families, about 15 or so young adults-mostly graduates teaching English here, couple missionaries, some young married couples, some random groups I have yet to meet, etc. I truly feel that I have just been absorbed by the members. Everyone is so friendly and so loving. There is a high turnover rate of people coming and going, so as soon as you get there, you get welcomed in and loved as soon as possible. I've only been here three Sundays, but it truly has been wonderful. I'm so grateful for how much I've been blessed.

T-shirts of the Week

A guy-front, "I have a crush on you" back- "crush on"
A young girl, "This is my dream So Hot."
A dude on the subway, "I supplement my personality with witty t-shirts."
A girl, "Elvis Lives"

Chance of Rain

Introduce Yourself!

Today I had Technique of Oriental Brush (freshman class). I wasn't planning on taking this class but by an act of fate, I ran into someone who told me that the Professor spoke English. Hot dang! So today was our first day of painting. We use 1. Rice Paper 2. BIg oriental looking soft hair brushes....3. Indian Ink (black ink). The Professor is so nice, she gave a short lecture and then explained it to me in English afterwards, then helped me get started. Suddenly she was like, "I encourage them to talk to you and work on their English, why don't you introduce yourself?" Then she got the attention of the entire class (maybe about 30), and told me to give an introduction. So I'm all like, "sup, yo foos. I from the states y'all." then I flashed the peace sign. No, I'm totally kidding, I did the normal name, from America, USU exchange student, I'm nice so talk to me... thing. Anywho, I give my brief spiel, and then the whole class gives me an applause! I go back to work, but the next thing I know, there's about five students surrounding me and asking me questions and talking to me. They were so cute! Then they started showing me how to hold my brush the right way, and how to get the ink soaked in it, etc. It was awesome! Afterwards, the professor took me out to lunch, and it was so great! These Koreans I tell you, they will kill me with kindness.

Today

American: Adored or Ignored

It's generally either or here. I'll roll with that.

My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down

I buy an American candy bar or an ice cream every day, for my own sake. I tried out the cafeteria in the dorms today. Breakfast is a bowl of frosted flakes, toast, hard boiled eggs, and kimchi. At dinner there was a ginormous self-serve vat of endless rice. This was paired with some strange patty and a gelatinous glob of bright yellow....something. Paste maybe? It also had red and green treasures mixed in. It was also cold. There was also Kimchi and some soup. At $3.50 for breakfast and dinner everyday, who could ask for anything more?

Catchy Phrases

A guy walking around campus in a T-shirt that reads, "Michigan State Mom"
Another fellow student's T-shirt, "I love math!"
A little girl's T-shirt, "I Like Boring Things."
Girls Tee, "Mercy" and "I Am Not Your Hero."
The Apple Store is called "Frisbee"

Psychedelic Drugs and Nomadic Hippie Villages

So...having completed the first week of classes, I can now say that I've sat through about five or six hours of Korean lecture. Granted, most of my classes are studio art classes-meaning more work, less lecture, but the first day of any class is usually devoted to explaining the syllabus and then giving everyone the DL on the history of the subject, etc. Anywho, to be quite honest with you, I really didn't get a whole lot out of it. English cognates are about zero so I can't even follow a single thing. It all went over my head. In a gigantic title wave. In one lecture, out of all the Korean characters written on the board there were two English words: Zen and Ecstasy. I can only conclude that the entire lecture was about achieving zen through psychedelic drugs. Cheeky little professor...My installation class was a little more interesting. We talked for an hour and a half (I stared blankly) then we watched some videos, had a break, and the rest of class was a slide show of a Nomadic Village in France? that our professor had lived in. Why I looked at pictures of scantily clad hippies doing yoga and greeting nature I may never know. I've developed several coping skills through this process (it's been pretty rough, hearing sounds that don't mean anything, for hours on end!)
A. think about your goals and aspirations.
B. rap silently in your head.
C. slip into a coma.
D. daydream about summer.
E. think about boys
F. think about how you are sick of boys!
G. Start over with A.

To-Do

1. Buy new power converter to replace the fried one (overwhelming power of 1,875 watts of blow dryer! *note-cool smoke).
2. Go to class, see if professor speaks English, ask if I can stay.
3. Wander Aimlessly, find new streets.
4. Find a place to slack line.

I Could Have Taken a Taxi, but That Would Have Been Easy

Instead, I opted to drag over 50 lbs of luggage through humidity and hills on a twenty minute walk to my new dorm. Twice. But I got the job done! Unfortunatley, in my state of being an overly sweaty person, I met my new room mate for the first time! "Hello, I'm the sweaty American!" wow. At any rate, my roomie is named Mi-Su. She is a ceramics graduate student-yes apparently I'm living in the graduate dorms, how very officail of me-she is 27 years old, and no speaky Englishy much, and I no speaka Korea. This is beautiful, it will help me learn Korean! We tried using a Korean to English translator online for a while. About half the time it kept coming up with completley bogus English sentances, so I ended up cracking up instead of communicating. She seemed to understand the translated Korean. Highly suspicious.

American Shout-outs

Today I was walking opposite a group of older Koreans on a walking path. They looked pretty tired, but all smiled at me, and one dude-looking especially sweaty- just flashed the peace sign. Sometimes as I'm walking people will spurt some random English right as we pass. I'll hear stuff like, "looks good" or "hey Jesus" in my ear. I've also found that I'm in the secret society of white people-few and far between, whenever you see a fellow blondie, there's always a smile exchange. *note: T-shirt of the week: a menacing nun with her fellow nun cohorts that reads, "Sisterhood Satan."

Week One of Korea!

It went something like this.
1. Mom drops me off at the airport. I am a little offended by the rest of the family. They all came to drop me off when I got shipped to Boston, but nowadays, no one cares when you go to Korea!
2. I fly to San Diego.
3. I only have 15 minutes before my flight to Korea leaves! To the international airport!
4. I have to run!
5. I have to run onto the plane!
6. Why am I such a sweaty person?
7. Out of all the Asians flying to Korea this day, I get seated by another American exchange student going to study in Korea! Her name is Sada. She is from Nebraska (fields) and she is splendid.
8. They play only four terrible movies so I watch 17 Again, and the Disney Channel. I decide that Nick is the best looking Jonas, but I can’t whole heartedly decide this because he reminds me of Forrest Bodily, who is my 5th cousin and primary wet willy giver.
9. 11 hours later…I am in Korea!
10. I am met by two students who take me to the Bebop Guesthouse!

The Bebop Guesthouse
This place kicks! The Bebop guesthouse is free toast and eggs for breakfast, a collage of indie movie posters, super friendly and helpful workers, friendly travelers, good music, and overall-just super chill.

The Swine Flu-it will get you every time.
I arrive on Wed, I'm supposed to move into my dorms on Friday, but receive an email telling me that I can't move into the dorms until I've been in the country for seven days. This is so I will not infect the school with the Swine Flu. However, I will work on infecting the guesthouse, and spreading it throughout the city as a whole! bwa hahaha! and the nations, I think I've met people from 9 or 10 countries in the guesthouse alone. At any rate, it works out fine since I get to hang out at the Bebop! My new favorite place.

Is it Beach or B****?
Today’s lesson in English is helping my French friend Magali pronounce beach when she is worried that it is in fact sounding like the b word. I demonstrate what each sounds like, and then we practice the words together!

A siege of foreigners!
I have been conversing with people from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, America, France, Germany, Finland, Ireland, England, Denmark, Russia, and Israel!


Turns out the world is small after all
I think I am the only American at Hongik until I meet Marion! When I ask her where she is from, she says, “California.” I’m all excited! West coaster! So I tell her I’m from Utah and then she says, “I was born and raised in Utah, in Salt Lake! I just go to school in California!” If that doesn’t set you off on a mind trip, I don’t know what will!

Weekend Warriors
I get all my school business done by Friday, and hit the town with Magali! We go to an awesome cafe and then wander around "The Fringe Festival." We see some video art, an insane drum circle, and a ridiculous amount of drunk foreigners. A Korean musician starts talking to us so we go to a bar together, (I drink water) and then get into a club for free (techno madness, and everyone cheers for us when we start dancing). It's after 3 in the morning at this point and I am so happy to finally head back home! The city scene is still going strong, these people never quit!
I spend Saturday night recovering from clubbing- that stuff always stresses me out. ha. I hang out at the Bebop where my Japanese photographer friend shows me his work, I chat with a French dude, 2 Austrians and and another French boy come in for a moment-are wildly entertaining-I fall in love with all of them, I get to better know my Korean friend/part owner of the Bebop, I chat with Magali, and hang with some Korean girls. A lot can happen when you stay in one place.
Sunday! I go to the English speaking LDS branch! It's awesome!

Back To School
Today (which is Sept. 1st) I started my first day at Hongik University. This week will be trying out classes and seeing which professors speak English and are willing to work with my embarrassing inability to speak Korean. Most of the classes that I'm taking are mainly studio art classes (less lecture) so it should work out all right. hot cha.

Also, the craziest thing that happened to me today after an Oriental Water Color class. As I passed a stairway, I saw the looks of nature at the top. Following this lead, I found some nature at the top! I saw a trail so I started scouting it out. I walked on it for a while and turns out, I find this huge forested park! It's full of hiking trails, play grounds, a temple...all sorts of crazy! Just what I need to escape the city! It was totally awesome. I also got especially excited when I realized that I'd just had a trippy Narnia experience!

Korea is wonderful so far. Even though I don't speak the language, I've still been able to get around. Most everyone speaks at least some English. The people are so friendly and willing to help, I've been so blessed! :D

ALASKAN CRUISE

Seattle, WASHINGTON: Impressions
Aug 1, 2009
Hippies! the 90’s lives! We (all of the 9 Pope siblings+spouses+some grandparents+cousin Chelsea+me) embark on our Alaskan cruise.

Ketchikan, ALASKA: Zip lining
Aug 3, 2009
We ported in Ketchikan and peaced out of our cruise ship. The cruise offers on land “excursions” that you can sign up for, overpay for, and thence enjoy! I signed up for the zip line course through the canopy of the rain forest. Not bad. I got to zip around to seven different bases in the treetops and cross perilous swinging bridges. One cool thing-I felt like I was in Twighlight, the part where Edward and Bella whip around in the tops of the trees, not the part where Edward sparkles in the sun for several minutes. At any rate, the forests of the Pacific Northwest are awesommme.

Juneau, ALASKA: Invasion of the Sea Kayak
Aug 4, 2009
So Kevin, Rodrigo, Heidi, and I signed up for sea kayaking. Kevin and I were in a kayak together, and Heidi and Rodrigo commandeered another kayak together. We got to paddle around for a while and enjoy a splendid view of the Mendenhall Glacier. We also saw seals and eagles. It was super fun! Heidi and Rodrigo have to add a little pressure to the paddle when they started getting passed up by the mom and the six year old girl, which was not something that they would stand for.

Skagway, ALASKA: What happened here?
Aug, 5, 2009
We took a lovely train ride through beautiful beauty. It was very beautiful. We then had a half day to wander around town, look at the tourist stores- which were exactly the same as the ones in the other ports. I do say, Alaska is quite beautiful.

Prince Rupert, British Columbia, CANADA: What happened here:?!?
Aug 6, 2009
Welcome to Canadia! At Prince Rupert, you have six hours to do the following:
1. Look at the two tourist stores.
2. 2. Buy six issues of National Geographics from the 60’s, late 70’s, and ‘89 for 54 cents! Salvation Army! Prime for valentines, birthday cards, and motivational posters.
3. Go to the open aired market. Six booths! Look to buy some sweet Canadian wooden jewelry. “what kind of wood is this?” “I don’t know….they’re imported….from Thailand.” uh….
4. Take pictures of clovers until you evacuate the area due to an old drunken man pissing into the street onto a jeep tire.
5. Buy mom real maple syrup candies, and eat one of them.
6. Take pictures of someone’s lost pair of underwears, decomposing in the litter.
I must say, I always did suspect that there wasn’t a whole lot going on in Canada.

Pacific OCEAN: Day at Sea
Aug 7, 2009
Cruises are all kinds of crazy! The best thing to do is enjoy the endless supply of free ice cream, lose all concept of time, and go dancing with Kevin and Rodrigo until 3 in the morning.

I'm getting around to it...

Here goes a massive blog post. Ketchup!

Jackson Hole, WY!

This summer commemorates my third summer season in Jackson Hole. Anybody who wants to be anybody in Jackson cannot look like another tourist. To blend in as a local you must do some of the following:
1. Get a dog. or two. or three.
2. Get a bike.
3. Drive a Subaru, actually, don't drive at all! use your bike! but if you must drive, take the Subaru.
4. Outfit: visor, sunglasses with Croackies, biking jersey, Patagonia shorts, Chacos, also-always be chomping on some sort of bagel/granola bar/coffee.
5. Call everyone by their questionable nicknames.