My HP mini bit the dust–thanks to a virus or two caught in Korea. They completely destroyed my computer and I had to uninstall everything back to factory default… so that now I can reload all my software etc. So, I am struggling with that constantly right now. The virus compromised our network and so I was up for 24 hours resetting everything. (be careful of trojan.zefarch and trojan.gen… together they are completely destructive… the most destructive I’ve seen in a long time. Despite having a firewall and internet security package (from Norton), and despite having the Norton tech remotely connect and attempt to fix my poor computer… it was a complete wash-out…)
I hate virus programmers. I also hate Windows for being so vulnerable to these kinds of attacks.
I’m trying to work on photo galleries for my Korea trip (to add to this site) but I haven’t found a decent plug-in yet. I’ve been working on a couple, but just can’t get them to work how I want them to. I might just forgo it all together and choose the best photographs from each week and make post for each. Seems much less bothersome than fighting with these codes and poorly designed templates. I’m sure they work if you have the bajillion hours to invest in setting everything up-which since my computer died-I don’t.
I am actually very behind on a lot of things. I have work to complete for a professor of mine (paid work–which all got infected and thus destroyed along with my computer), a 10 page paper to write, left over from last semester, and I start classes in less than a month!!!! Eesh!
Actually, the internet access I had in Korea sucked. It was very annoying. Plus the sheer lack of time generally…
Anyway, now I am home… finally. Struggling hard with jet lag. It’s taking a bit of getting used to, this being back in the US. I slept all day yesterday–partly because I managed to pick up some kind of bug, and partly because my computer had died and was refusing to do anything, so I was pouting. haha.
My last few days in Korea were spent at 연등국제선원 (Lotus Lantern International Meditation Center), in Ganghwa-do. This small island was apparently a place of refuge from Genghis Khan and his Mongolian hoardes (they couldn’t cross the water to get to the island, even though it’s only a few hundred feet away!!) There are many historical sites dotted around the relatively small area, but they are worth seeing.
View from my Room at Lotus Lantern
Taking a morning Walk
After the stay at Lotus Lantern, I headed back to Seoul for an evening (and a nice bed and long hot shower) before flying home on Monday. What a crazy adventure. I will be adding extra pages here with photos and various excerpts from my travels, as well as trying to update this more frequently now I’m actually back and connected!
And things are still going crazy. It’s one of the girls birthdays today (yes, it’s 2.36am and I am awake drinking 막걸리 … *ahem*) We went to Everland yesterday, and it was totally awesome. I didn’t expect it to be any good at all. The reviews sounded pretty disappointing–but it was definitely worth it. They have the steepest drop wooden roller coaster in the world, and that sucker gave me serious whiplash from the g-force. It was crazy… but I’m so glad I did it
We’re coming into our last week here–and I’m happy and sad. I’ve made some good new friends and I’ve learned a lot. But, I also miss my family a lot and can’t wait to get home. However, it has definitely lit a fire under my desire to learn Korean and become fluent. In fact, right now, there’s nothing that I want more (except to be at home with my boys).
Ach, okay it’s 3am in the morning and I am going to sleeep!!!!
This program is excellent–but, it’s also very tiring. Today is really the first time that I have had to just sit and relax and chill out. It’s so strange–being on the go all the time, I’ve hardly had any time to digest any of it!
The DMZ visit yesterday was a little bizarre. It was a group tour, and though our tour guide was very nice, it was full of Southern propaganda. They’ve turned the DMZ into a tourist trap and have movies telling how it’s a haven for wildlife and how it’s so great~! (…. ? …) and you can buy pieces of rusted barbed-wire framed to take home with you.
Prayers for Freedom
Personally, I find it a little disturbing. There are countless thousands of families still torn apart by the arbitrarily decided border (thanks, US). There are prayers and photos adorning the wire fence and the “Freedom Bridge”. To make these an “attraction” just seems wrong. Sure, I think it’s an important thing to remember–but saying cheese in front of a train pockmarked with bullet holes and gaping shrapnel wounds just seems… wrong.
It was kind of hard for me–I know my Mother-in-law had relatives still left behind in North Korea and no way to find out what happened to them. She died before anyone found out anything. In fact, there’s still no news. It’s really sad that so many people have to suffer like that. The prayers all over the fences and bridge were testament to that fact…
Our politics professor says that their are two thoughts on it here–one that the North Korean government should be forcibly removed–and the other that the North Koreans are brothers and sisters and therefore force cannot be used…
It’s really … strange being here and feeling that tension and sadness that so often isn’t expressed in either culture. It all seems so simple from the outside and it almost seems that most people ignore the situation and pretend that North Korea is that way because of some choice that was made… I think it’s an important thing to discuss. Both Tibet and North Korea are suffering daily and people just don’t want to get their hands dirty. So many people just don’t even understand the basics behind the problems. There are only two strictly Communist countries left in the world–and North Korea is one of them (China isn’t technically Communist anymore–it’s more Capitalist in nature).
Anyway, I don’t want to rant about that for ever!
I want to go and visit one of the Buddhist temples today since we have some free time. I want to just have some quiet me time away from the group. I like all the other girls (mostly) but being with a group of younger girls constantly is tiring… I like hanging out in mixed company… girls are crazy
I finally made it to Korea!! There were so many delays and difficulties to get here (flights canceled, planes delayed, route changes. SO crazy. But, I finally made it last night and was met at the airport by Hye-mi and Destiny.
The view from last night's dorm room
I have to switch dorm rooms today–since there were only two of us here last night, we were in the same room. However, there are some Malaysian and Taiwanese students arriving tonight, as well as more tomorrow. So, I need to be shipped out to another room (we all have room assignments already–I am over in a different building with a Japanese girl and another Korea girl, plus I’m not sure who else!)
I don’t know exactly what we’re doing today. David (the program coordinator) is supposed to be picking up the Malaysian girls from the airport this morning and bringing them back here. Destiny and I went out for a walk to find breakfast–and realized that going out at 7am on a Saturday probably won’t lead to much food. We found a convenience store though, and bought some food and drink (I had coffee, mochi (쌀 떡) and dried squid (오징어), plus a Coke Zero).
I hope we can go watch the Korean Soccer (football!!) later. Korea is playing a game today–but I’m not sure what time. We might go to Seoul Plaza to watch, I don’t know. We’re just waiting to find out what’s happening now.
I went ahead and purchased flash my brain last night and it’s a really great piece of software. I love it. So far I’ve only downloaded some of the sets available online, to evaluate it before I go ahead and start making sets myself. The pic below shows viewing a set–not learning it–so you can see both English and Hangul. When learning you can view the cards in either language first before flipping them:
"Flash My Brain - viewing a set (can see both hangul and English)
There are sets available in many popular languages (Korean, Japanese,Chinese, Thai, Hindi, Sanskrit!) and it looks extremely simple to make your own sets. For those lucky people who own iPhones it’s available and ready to go there too—and can sync with your PC or laptop. All in all it looks like a great app. I wish I had an iPhone so that it was even more mobile than it is on my wee netbook here. But, I really do like that app so far. It’s nice looking, intuitive, and great to use.
Next step is to whip out my Korean text books and create my own set of cards!! Looking forward to that–finally combining everything in one easy to access place
Firstly, WordPress messed up and on my computer at least–didn’t post titles for my last two blog posts–even when I edit the post. So, I don’t know how to fix that!
So, I bought the last of the things I need–I also *thought* about getting my suitcase out of the basement… but made no attempt to do any of it!!! The party last night was super fun, but of course I didn’t take any photographs. (I even had my camera with me… but it’s a big ass canon rebel and all the cool kids have those flashy small ones…LOL).
I still don’t feel ready at all though. I have like zero money. Eep. I still need to get paid, but it probably won’t happen til Friday. Three days after I arrive IN Korea!!! Not good. So, totally freaking out! yes!
I’m looking at “Flash My Brain” right now… and it looks like REALLY great software!!
It’s available for most platforms (PC, Mac, iPod etc) and is far more intuitive and useful than other kinds of these programs I’ve seen. I’m going to download a trial if I can and possibly look into purchasing the software at some point, depending if the trial is as good as it looks…
I leave in 4 day~! Talk about crazy! We’re having a get together at my Korean professor’s house tonight–all the current Korean exchange students and us It could get a little awkward if a couple of other people show up (the girl who withdrew from the study abroad program (and blamed me) and her sister), since I haven’t spoken to either since it happened. I also haven’t spoken to my professor, and I’m more worried about that. The thought that she may have lost respect for me over this, just really fills my heart with dread.
However, my Korean friends are being really awesome right now and I’ve spoken to them more in the last couple weeks that I have in the past few months, so that at least should be fun… plus it will prepare me for Korea
I am really starting to feel anxious about the whole thing, as well as completely excited. I didn’t expect to actually be able to go–I thought I’d never get the scholarship, or something else would come up. I’m delighted to be able to go–as long as everyone is happy for me–and I’m worried that my professor blames me for 천희’s withdrawal, even though it was her decision.
Yes, I really am focusing on that a lot. Everything that happened breaks my heart and hurts me a great deal. She said “at least you still get to go,” like I’d made it impossible for her to come, based on the fact that I wanted to explore for two days. Just two days–and the hotels were already booked. It wouldn’t have been a problem. I guess I just don’t understand why, if it were such a “childhood dream,” that one small issue like that prevented her from coming…
Anyway, I need to just let that go and enjoy it myself. I can’t let this ruin everything… I can’t. I need to go, have fun, explore, learn, rejoice, enjoy, and smile~!
I just hope I have everything sorted out that I need.. or I’m in deep doo-doo!!!
So, I’ve been sick since Friday. Managed to catch some nasty inhalation bug from breathing in drywall/insulation dust at my job. It kind of sucks… at least my fever appears to have broken now… which is good. Since I have 9 days until I leave. I’m freaking out! It should be fun–but I have no money (I have a little, but .. yeah)… I need to find luggage, finish getting things sorted… print out all the papers I need (plane confirmation, hotel confirmations, everything…)
I haven’t done any work on my second job, I didn’t finish the big paper I needed to… in fact, I’ve pretty much seemed to not do much at all. My Korean seems to be seeping out of my ears daily. I’m out of the loop when it comes to the Korean students at my uni (I’m too old to be part of their group… which sucks but it is how it is, and I can’t change it)… I’m kind of nervous about going on the trip because of that actually. I’m automatically going to be the odd man out.
Korea is not widely known for it’s animated movies. However, in recent years there have been several films, which have caught the eye of the international audience with their delightful penmanship–both in imagery and storyline. I watched one of those movies today.
Yobi, the Five Tailed Fox (Korean: 천년여우 여우비) is a 2007 animated Korean film by Lee Seong-gang, the director of My Beautiful Girl, Mari. The film loosely draws upon the Korean folk tales of the kumiho. The kumiho (literally “nine tailed fox”) is a creature that appears in the oral tales and legends of Korea, and are akin to European faeries. According to those tales, a fox that lives a thousand years turns into a kumiho, like its Japanese and Chinese counterparts (the kitsune and the huli jing). It can freely transform, among other things, into a beautiful girl often set out to seduce men.
The legends tell that while the kumiho is capable of changing its appearance, there is still something persistently fox-like about it; its countenance changes, but its nature does not. In Transformation of the Kumiho (구미호의 변신), a kumiho transforms into an identical likeness of a bride at a wedding. Not even the bride’s mother can tell the difference. The kumiho is only discovered when her clothes are removed. Bakh Mun-su and the Kumiho (박문수와 구미호) records an encounter that Pak Munsu has with a girl, living alone in the woods, that has a fox-like appearance. In The Maiden who Discovered a Kumiho through a Chinese Poem (한시로 구미호를 알아낸 처녀) the kumiho was ultimately revealed when a hunting dog caught the scent of the fox and attacked.
Although it is typically depicted as a woman when it transforms into a human being, the kumiho in the tale of The Maiden who Discovered a Kumiho through a Chinese Poem (한시로 구미호를 알아낸 처녀) turns into a young man that attempts to trick the maiden in marrying him. However, this is the only case in which it transforms into a man.
Although they are considered as having the ability to morph into other forms, the true identity of a Kumiho was said to be zealously guarded by the Kumihos themselves. There are also legends in which these transformations are said to be involuntary.
Nine-Tailed Fox - Kumiho
In “Yobi, the Five Tailed Fox” the kumiho is portrayed as a child and somewhat playful and naive. One hundred years ago, aliens landed on a mountain near where a small, white five tailed fox lived. After being stranded on Earth for one hundred years, they are ready for a test flight to see if they can return home. The test fails as one of the aliens makes a mistake, and the other aliens tell him to leave.
The runaway alien finds itself taken in by a class of students at the foot of the mountain. There, a teacher named Kang trains students who don’t fit in at a regular school. To save the alien, the five tailed fox takes on the form of a human girl, and joins the school under the name of Yobi.
Staying at the school, Yobi becomes friends with one of the students, a boy named Geum-ie. She enjoys her time with the humans, until a fox hunter appears, as well as a shadow who gives Yobi a device which will allow her to become human by taking the soul from a human.
Yobi becomes exposed to the hunter, which makes her leave. Of course, the fox hunter tries to hunt her down. Geum-ie tries to save her, but goes down in a lake which makes Geum-ie’s soul trapped in a cage as a bird. Yobi tries to save him, but the shadow takes everyone’s souls. Yobi defeats the shadow and some ghosts tell Yobi that the number of souls in the lake is always the same and a soul can never go out unless a soul replaces it. Yobi replaces her soul with Geum-ie’s.
Some years later, Yobi’s soul is released. Yobi becomes human and Geum-ie is still waiting for her. Geum-ie’s soul is blue, meaning that he loves Yobi.
The movie was, for me, on par with a Miyazaki movie (think Ponyo, or Spirited Away) with a great storyline and incredibly beautiful artwork and music. Definitely worth watching!
July 26th, 2010 | 
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