01/12/2008: "Last weekend of pure freedom"

Well, it's my last weekend before the new semester starts. I feel like I should be making the most of it, but then I wonder.. what does "make the most of it" mean? Should I relax with a vengence? How does one even do that, anyway? Instead, I'm up at a resort/vacation house/timeshare with my family. Overall, not a bad experience, but I feel kinda like I'm missing out on something (my stuff back home!), and I'm really not a fan of the hotel experience generally. While this isn't a hotel per se, it definitely has all the fixings of a hotel, including the fake, plastic cactii (.. as an aside, I wonder if this is related to living in Arizona. I suppose other, non-south-western states probably don't have a penchant for plastic cactii), the simple furnishings, the paintings that are made to imitate art but lack any real feel to them.. that sort of thing.

But on a plus side, I have internet access. Score one for Jason. When traveling, my laptop also serves as a substitute DVD player and all sorts of other things. Markedly convenient, I tell you.

In other news, I finally have my ticket for Korea. I e-mailed my teacher and let them know that I'll be missing a day of class to go to Korea, bought my ticket, and all should be settled. I'll be in Korea for a whole 163 hours (it's an 18 hour trip, by the way, and a 16 hour time difference. I arrive 2 hours in Arizona 2 hours after I leave Korea when I come back.. kinda funny). Roughly the same amount of time I was in England and, oddly enough, the temperature in both places is almost exactly the same (England is 1 degree colder during March, on average). Tentative plans include.. I have no idea! But ideally, no zoos. I have a firm embargo on those things

As for my Korean studies.. it's going okay, I guess. Korean, like Japanese, has a basic alphabet and more complex characters. For my purposes, my goal is to just learn the basic alphabet, and it's coming along pretty well. I can write words, people's names, stuff like that. I can read, albeit slowly. I rarely have any clue WHAT I'm reading (my vocabulary in Korean consists of 3 words/phrases: "Hello", "Goodbye", and "I love you". Seriously, that's all I know in Korean), but it is progress. The goal is to be proficient at the basic writing system so I can at least use a dictionary and recognize signs/place names. Reading a menu is a plus, even if I don't know what I'm reading. I also want to know some basic phrases and structure, so I've enlisted the help of some Korean students in addition to my book. Good times.

Why bother? Simple: I feel I should at least know something before going to another country, even if I'll have a native speaker of Korean with me at all times. It's the least I can do. If not, how can I complain to people here to learn English? Gotta watch out for hypocrisy!

I've also started making plans to meet people in Japan. While it's still 6 months away (only 6 moooonths! It's too soon..), it's good to at least give people a heads up now to let them know I'll be in the country. I have Tokyo well-covered, Chiba, and Nagoya, I need to try to get in touch with some people in Osaka and some other cities south of there. I want to visit at least 5 or so places before I start working.

Anyway, I should get going. Not that I have anything to do here.. I just should so I can feel important and pretend I'm doing stuff. At the very least, I can play another 1-2 hours of Uno with my brother and sister.

(ironically, that's the one thing that I need to bring to Korea.. but the three of us [Hyunji, Risa, and me] played hours and hours of it.. so I guess it kinda makes sense)


Jason