It's too exciting over here!

Hey, sorry about the big delay between posts. I know I keep saying every other weekend, but I am currently failing at that. I've been keeping really busy with Starcraft matches on weekdays and random activities on weekends. Fortunately, my classes are not big on homework and similar to my home university, they assign term papers and those combined with a midterm and a final will make up my entire grade for the class. I really like it being done that way because I can work on my papers a little at a time instead of just having to crap out a new homework assignment every night while procrastinating on a short essay due at the end of the class. It occurs to me now that I never even got to tell you about my classes, so I'll take care of that in this post. Also, I might start getting a bit more starcraft experience heavy (I'll try not to too much) because we're really trying to keep posts on http://starcraftcrew.tumblr.com/ on the short side so that they're easy to get reblogged.

International Trade Practices:
I like this class despite the fact that it's a little basic. It's the best I could do in terms of getting into econ related courses, so I hope I can get credit for it. At the very least, I am far enough ahead in credits that I can afford to have none of my classes here count towards my major (though I would REALLY like it if I could get that to happen). The professor for this class is kind of silly and has a really thick accent, but either doesn't notice or doesn't care because he just powers through words that he blatantly mispronounces. Every day, we're greeted with a really loud "HERRO EVERYONE." The class as I said is more basic than what I expected from a trade class, but I guess it will work out fine since I know about of the stuff that's we're going to learn.

Politics and Society of North Korea:
This was a class I came across when I was desperately looking for a class to add so that I could have the required 15 credits (I got screwed in registration and ran the risk of getting kicked out if I remained with only 12 credits. Now I'm safely full time at 15 credits). The professor for this class actually lives in Busan (about as far as you can get in Korea from Seoul; it takes about 3 hours on the train) and rides the train up every time there's class (and class is at 9am!). For this reason, he made the class only meet once a week instead of twice (one of the days was a one hour meeting). He suggested we work on our group projects in that time, so my group has gladly begun to do that. The class looks like it will be really interesting.

Philosophy in East Asian Literature:
This was the only class (besides my language class) that I successfully signed up for during the registration period. I'm always into philosophy courses (it's still my minor), so I know this class will continue to be interesting. Additionally, I think the professor likes me because I'm usually the most attentive person (and I sit in the back (I don't like having my back to a door and I like a wall to lean on)). He's actually a lot like the 'typical philosophy professor' so naturally I get along with him well.

Korean Language:
I was a little disappointed to land in the beginner beginner level because it felt like the hours I spent studying this summer were wasted. To anyone interested, I don't recommend Rosetta Stone. It was not particularly effective for me. We spent the first two weeks of the class learning the alphabet which was hell for me and two other people in the class because the three of us knew the alphabet, but not much else (the reason they just stuck us in beginner). More recently, we've been working on introductions and stuff which has been nice. The guy that knew the alphabet is struggling now, but me and the (Dutch!) girl that knew the alphabet are still finding this class kind of easy. Just last Friday, there were some games between our university and Korea University, our rival school. Everyone wound up skipping classes throughout the day to attend this. I was unable to do so because of a test in my philosophy class, so there were only two people (including myself) in my language class. Because we couldn't learn anything new in the class, we took a look ahead to what we'll be doing at the end of the semester. I now understand it, so I know for sure I will pass the class. I also started going beyond the scope of the class which impressed the teacher. She has actually said I'm a smart student to my face, which was a good way to build up my ego haha. We have two teachers, one does M/W/F and the other does a lot of just reading and pronunciation work with us on T/Th. I call the reading teacher the aegyo teacher because she (somewhat effectively) displays a lot of aegyo. Most of the guys like her better. I actually like the M/W/F teacher better because she's the one that said I was smart ^__^.

YonKo Games:
Each year, Yonsei University and Korea University have a sporting event that covers a weekend in which the two schools compete in Basketball, Baseball, Ice Hockey, Rugby, and Soccer. The main activity during the games though is not watching, but chanting and singing nonstop (literally, there were zero breaks at every game). I learned that the point of the YonKo games are not to see who can win more games, but to see how collectively drunk the student bodies of both schools can get. After the games wrapped up on Saturday, there was a big party on the Yonsei campus at which there was an open bar for two and a half hours until they ran out of beer. An open bar for college students....interesting idea. Needless to say, it was a quiet morning in Shinchon the next day. Unfortunately, I didn't meet any pretty girls at the street party T___T. I did go drinking with my Starcraft friends from Korea University though. I impressed them with my bottle opening ability (that was the first time I've done it in Korea, I'm more worried about hurting myself since I'm not drinking my usual crap-ton of milk each day). They insisted on getting a video of me doing it, so I obliged. I don't know why it's such an impressive feat. I later continued to impress them by chasing beer with soju. Again, something so mundane being found impressive is something that confused me. On the note of beer also, I had a Heineken last night (first time since coming to Korea that I've had non-Korean beer. Heineken is not my favorite Dutch beer (Amstel is) and don't get me wrong; Heineken is good and all, but it's not stellar. But it being my first foreigner beer in so long, it tasted like gold. Korean beer just doesn't stack up. I feel sorry for people here T___T.

My roomate and I have gotten to know each other better. He's actually a pretty cool guy. We're on a comfort level in terms of jokes and information sharing that I'm on with you guys, so it's nice. He's a Ravens fan and I like the Ravens, so we stay up on Sunday nights to watch them play which is also fun. We're going to do that again tonight. It's nice to have a way to watch some football over here, especially since I can then sleep in since I have no class early on Mondays.

I went to the GSL Finals a few weeks ago and it was quite an experience. They had the 10 "all star" players lined up for autographs before the mini tournament. All foreigner fans got instantly moved to preferred spots in the line, then preferred seating, which was really cool. I got autographs from several players and got to chat with a couple too. I joked around with Jinro from TeamLiquid and found out he's actually a pretty nice guy. Also, interacting with BoxeR was quite amazing. When we went in to actually get our seats, we were placed in the third row. There were only press and family members in front of us. When the finals started, team IM sat in the section next to us. My friend was on the aisle and across from him (across the aisle) was NesTea himself. It was pretty cool and the finals were really great TvT.

A couple weeks later, I went to the OSL Finals with my BroodWar friends and some guys I met online from TeamLiquid.net. It was a cool enough experience and the guys from TL were nice, but a few of them really wanted to get absolutely drunk during the matches. I didn't have any interest in doing that because I came to watch BroodWar (they didn't really know anything about it). I've actually found that being a white guy that likes BroodWar, I'm a dying breed. The finals were absolutely amazing and way more intense than the GSL Finals. I was glad I got to go to this because there might never be an OSL again unless the BroodWar scene can find a way to survive in the troubling times it is going through.

General Starcraft viewing is going well too. I found out that Moletrap (english SC2 caster) likes BroodWar and I've run into him at some events, so I've gotten to talk to him a bit more which has been cool. I'm also glad I met him more because I admittedly didn't really like him when I lived in the states. Now that I've gotten to know him a bit (and this is true with all the code A casters), I really like them. They're cool guys. And I like to think they like having a regular visitor to the studios that actually kind of knows his stuff. Most people just pop in once and want autographs and pictures and we never see them again. Can't blame people for being like that though, I was there in my first week. Some players and coaches are recognizing me too, probably since I stand out in a crowd and I'm there quite literally every day. Watching BroodWar has been fun too because I hang out with people that really know the game, so it's nice to have someone that can help me to spell it out. In the semifinals match, I attended with my friend that teaches here. The match actually happened to be on the same day as the birthday of my favorite BW streamer on TeamLiquid (and he's my only way of watching BW matches live back home) so I wished him happy birthday on TeamLiquid and said I would get a sign on stream for him. I wound up actually getting it on the stream much to my surprise. And during each match in the OSL, the winners of the day will autograph a keyboard bag after they win. The bag is then given to the person with the best sign at the end of the day. There was just one winner today, but I got the bag. And it was Jangbi's autograph (current OSL champion), so even better! I was going to buy a keyboard bag while I was here, but not now that I got that sweet one. I was really happy.

In other news, stuff is going pretty well here. I'm really liking it. I of course miss talking to everyone more regularly than I currently do and not having game night kind of sucks, but I can replace it pretty easily with stuff here, so that is always fine. No girlfriend yet, but who knows, maybe one will come someday soon. It took a trip to Korea to learn how badly I actually had 'yellow fever' >___>. So before I sign off for this post, I'll leave you with the short list of things I really wish I had brought.

1: Compass:
I still have trouble finding north sometimes due to cloudiness or  tall buildings preventing me from determining the location of the sun. When I can actually see it, I always know which way I am facing, but sometimes it is just not possible. And the worst part is that (like all things in this list), I had a compass in my hand all ready to pack, but I wound up deciding not to bring it at the last minute.

2: PokeWalker:
With this, I figured I wouldn't be walking very much and I didn't want to risk losing it. Turns out I would likely have not lost it, plus I'm walking at least 2-3 miles each day (then running a mile every other day to stay in shape for frisbee) so having that PokeWalker would have really come in handy since I'm just grinding my pokemon up to higher levels in my free time (when my internet dies randomly).

3: A frisbee:
I jokingly said when I was packing that if I couldn't find a frisbee on a college campus, then it wasn't meant for me to play frisbee while I was here. I of course thought I would have no problem finding one in a store. Turns out I was dead wrong and they're super hard to find. I spent 6 hours today looking for one and about 3 hours last Thursday doing the same thing. I'm going to have to give up and order one online because I need to be throwing so that I am tournament ready when I get back to the states. At the very least, the running is helping me a bit. I also play soccer with the Germans occasionally, which is a good way to keep some coordination up I guess.

Ok well thats it for now. Until next time, peace out!