Friday, July 25, 2008

FAST FRiends





So a lot have happen in this short amount of time, but I’m going to try to give just the main things. That random week ended pretty fun I hang out with a few of Won’s buddies. We ended up getting into one of the hottest clubs in Seoul called Volume. It was pretty fun but after that night I really started to get tired of the club scene. Saturday was ok; I went on a double date with Jaewon and one of the girls I met on the train the day before. Date started off really good but didn’t end so well. All I’m going to say is don’t play Korean soju games if you’re American. Sunday I went to church and hung out with my bible study group. We went out for some food and shared prayer request for the week. I really have to say meeting the people in my bible study has made an impact in my spiritually. I didn’t expect coming to Korea to meet a great group of people who all have a strong relationship with God.

The night I came home from church I went talk to the girl next door Natasha. She is 26, forth generation Korean and from Kazakhstan (you know Borat) so she has a strong Russian accent. We ended up having a long conversation about her country, music, my art work, and American Idol. Monday, Natasha and I texed back and forth for awhile so we decided to have dinner together. While at dinner she told me she was working on a thesis which is totally in English. I found that really impressive considering English is her third language. So the day she finished, I made her dinner to celebrate. She was mad impressed with the cooking skills. To pay me back for cooking for her she took me to a Russian style restaurant. Before that day I didn’t even know places like that excised in Korea. The food was pretty good, and at the restaurant I met her best friend Natasha, who is Russian and also 4 percent Korean. Yo this girl was funny; she has such a warm personality and can dish out jokes. I like when a girl is confident in her self that means a lot to me.

Also that week I met up with my friend from the dormitory, Hangil. He just had a trip going to Japan, and was in Korea for a few weeks hanging out with relatives. So we decided to go to the Seoul National Arts Center. It was so cool and the center was featuring two new galleries the Magnum Korea (photography show) and Pixar in Seoul. Both galleries were great, but the Pixar gallery really inspired me. There was a really interesting puppet animation called a zoetrope, which gave me a good idea for a senior project. A zoetrope is a device that produces the illusion of action from a rapid succession of static, simple pictures put in the inside of a cylinder. So when we look at the image it appears to me moving when actually it’s many images moving around in circles. The Pixar gallery did this process with toy story figures, making it look like they're moving in front of the viewers face. I want to do the same thing but with my break-dance figures. I can’t wait to get back and start making this contraption.

For the rest of that week lots of random crap happen. On day I decided to chill out side and I saw two dudes with cool hats heading to the dance studio. So I asked what style of dance do they do and one of the dudes (spark K) was like, "Pop Lock mane). SO I was like, "Word, Me too". SO he invited me to join them for a Pop session. After dancing for like an hour they asked me to join there crew. YO those dudes were so good, and I learned a lot from them. One day they brought a few girls to meet me and I ended up teaching on of them how to do the usher slide ha-ha. Also on that day they told me they got us a gig at MB2. It was some hip hop showcase and they wanted to give me a solo. Only thing is its going to be in the month of Aug and I will be back in America by that time. They were kind of disappointed but they understood.

As for the dance group things have been going really well and I’m almost got the routine done pat. One day after practice I was heading up stairs to my room and I wanted to play the piano on the second floor of the apt. So I asked if I could play for a min, after figuring out was I was talking about they lady said sure. I’m telling you I played for like 2 or three mins and When I looked around there were a group of like 5 or 6 girls pulled up chairs to watch me play. One of the girls (Kyla) could speak English so start asking me my story. After I gave her a little bit of history I asked what where they doing in the music studio and she informed me she was a model, and so was all of the other girls I was playing for. I couldn’t believe it but then they all stood up and "WOW" they were all tall and gorgeous. Kyla ended up getting all my Information and informed me she may be coming to Chicago and if in town she wanted to chill.

The next day Yung, Daegou (they guy whose place I'm staying in) and I took a trip to this water park called Caribbean bay. We were originally supposed to go to Jae Ju Island but Yung and D couldn’t afford it, so we settled with the water park. It was so much fun, and the girls were all banging (slang for really hot). Caribbean bay has this feature where you into the huge pool and they make artificial monsoon waves. They also had some crazy water slides. When it was getting closer to closing time we got on this one water slide like 5 times in a row, the employees were laughing at us. That night we sleep at this place this called a Jim Gil Ban. Basically it’s a community sleeping area with a bath house, TV, computers, sauna, and rooms with different temps. The only problem is you have to sleep on the floor. I also got a really good massage for like 40 bucks (and mom if you’re reading this it was for 100 mins). The whole experience at Jim Gil Ban was so cool and some of that night felt like a dream.

As for this week things have been pretty much the same, hanging out with Jaewon, Won, Natasha and Jake, meeting new people, going on dates, partying till 5am, and hitting up the Hookah bar. I've also been pretty sad because my Korean journey is coming to an end, so I have been thinking of what I want to do before I leave. These last to weeks have been so fun and I've met more people then I have mention on this post. Meeting more people is fun but also makes it harder to say good bye. I really thank God for this opportunity to come and see how others live and enjoy life. Well it is now Sunday and this is the start of my last week in Korea, I’m not sure what will happen but I will give your all the highlights.

WELL I must head to Church.
AHn Young

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You a fan of Jabbawockeez? How'd you hear of them?

My friend, Ben Chung, is in it. I watched every minute of Randy Jackson's america's best dance crew. We were in the same youth group long long long ago. He's a really good guy.

-esther kang
(saic)

Anonymous said...

Elgin,

Loved the pictures! WOW, I am so proud of you. What an amazing trip. :)

Aunt Pam

Anonymous said...

You saw your Website well.
It's me~ a ra hahaha
Do you arrive in a house well?
um.....I have lot of many question.
but,, I can't make well English.
so sorry,,
anyway,, We are friend?? I think,,
good bye~ see ya ^^

V. Yen said...

Hey hey! That's a LONG DIARY! Although I haven't read them all ( you know, if you write them in Chinese, I would..) Just want to come here and say hi and glad that you added me on your list!! See you soon back in Chicago! ( now I will try to write in English more so you can share it with me!)