너는 내일을 살고, 나는 오늘을 살아*

* = you live tomorrow, I live today.  One of my favorites - Younha, "Broke Up Today."

I never thought I would be terribly grateful to see the end of any school vacation, but it was almost with relief that I started my fall semester on Wednesday.  Not that I wasn't grateful for the opportunity to rest up and relax a bit after finals, but the combination of all of my friends leaving and having absolutely (and I mean ABSOLUTELY) nothing to do was a bit much.  Also, the weather has been atrocious (it has rained every day for about 4 weeks now; we had a typhoon yesterday that was so strong that the winds woke me up at 5am), which kind of ruled out any sort of exploring or outdoor activity that I could have partaken in.  I developed a kind of cabin-fever induced depression from spending upwards of 10 hours a day in my rinky-dinky apartment.  It almost boiled down to hysterical searches for illegal movie-hosting websites just so I would have something to do for 2 hours (movies watched: Ratatouille, Legally Blonde, Wedding Crashers).  Fortunately, I have been gloriously lifted out of my funk because (1) school started and now I am busy again, (2) divine providence has sent more musicians to be my friends, and (3) the internet phone connection to Jung Min Unni is amazing.  Let us take some time to briefly elaborate on these fantastic developments

1) School.  Having successfully completed Level 4 (by the way, prospective Sogang students can find my final report here - you'll need a Yale NetID to log-in and see it, sorry other readers!), I am now a student in Level 5.  I quote a past Fellow in referring to this as the "dreaded Level 5," so called because it is supposedly the most difficult level at Sogang.  Having only been in class for 2 days, it is already pretty obvious to me why it has earned this reputation.  The jump between Levels 4 and 5 is enormous.  I'm not saying that it's impossible to handle - but it definitely, definitely, definitely will require more time and dedication to perform well.  Whereas in Levels 1-4 the textbooks were accompanied by an English supplement that explained all grammar patters and defined all vocabulary in English, the Level 5 supplement is...all in Korean.  This includes all definitions, explanations, and example sentences.  When I first saw this, a number of colorful expletives came to mind, but it's actually not so bad - it just requires more intimate time spent with your electronic dictionary/cellphone dictionary/the AMAZING Eng-Kor dictionary available on www.naver.kr.  The speaking class is also largely focused on reading, which is new; I am terrible at reading, and so I am simultaneously grateful for the extra practice and terrified that my teacher will out me in front of the whole class for being abysmal at it.  Speaking of my teacher, she herself is mildly terrifying; I think I can count the number of smiles she's cracked so far on one hand.  Additionally, she speaks faster than any teacher I have ever encountered at Sogang, my other Level 5 teachers included.  This is probably going to be extremely beneficial to my listening, but it also means I break into something of a cold sweat whenever she talks.  It's cool - I understand her, it just requires a great deal more ATP (I don't know why I just referenced AP biology).  Rather hilariously, on the first day of class she gave a rather thorough self-introduction in the last 2 minutes of class; she didn't preface it with anything, she just kind of jumped in and was like, "My name is Park JinHee, I'm 34 years old, I'm not married, but I have a boyfriend, he's a foreigner and he's not in Korea right now, I've been teaching here for 5 years."  And then she left.  Okay.

Listening class has been replaced with a video class in which we watch 5-10 minutes of a Korean drama per day and then talk about how none of us understood any of it.  I will inform the masses of progress if I ever make any.

2) New Friendz!  So after Jung Min Unni left, I moped around for a day and a half and then decided I had to make more Korean friends.  Fortunately, I have some contacts that she left me as well as my dear friends from the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, who have been very, very good to me.  They invited me out to dinner on Tuesday, where I was given a sort of group therapy session on being alone in a foreign country, but it was lovely to see their concern and to know that they care about me and my well-being.  One girl, a cellist (am I destined to just find cellists?) named Jungran has been exceptionally, exceptionally nice - she used to live alone in Paris, so I guess she knows what it's like to have to completely build a new life from scratch.  She's made an extra effort to call me and include me in things and introduce me to people, and I'm honestly too grateful for words.  Especially because I am definitely NOT cool enough to be hanging out with her - she's the associate principal cellist of the Seoul Phil, is kind of a big deal (seriously - she's pretty famous here!), speaks perfect French, English, and Korean, is super fashionable, and has tons of friends.  I don't know why, but it always surprises me when people think I am interesting enough to be deemed hang-out-worthy, especially musicians who are 3+ years older than me.  What will they do when they find out that I'm actually a huge loser??

I'm also trying to make more friends at Sogang (am I a snob for always ditching the school peeps to hang out with my Korean friends?).  Interestingly enough, I have not met a SINGLE WHITE AMERICAN GIRL in any of my classes at Sogang - all of the Americans are dudes.  We'll see how this goes.

3) Old Friendz!  For the interested masses, Jung Min Unni arrived safely at Yale.  She called me last night and it was so nice to hear her voice and to talk to her (even if it was at 2:30am).  I realize that I am far luckier and far more blessed than I often think I am, and I am lucky to have a best friend who reminds me of that.  The amazingness that is technology literally puts her at just a phone call away (from my Korean cell!  I don't even have to use Skype!), and we're planning fun things for my November trip.  Looks like I might actually get to go to a Yale Philharmonia Concert (throwback!) AND the Yale-Harvard Game!  If you will be there too, let me know (I'm looking at you, Zehra Hirji!)

On the subject of the Yale Phil, I counted on my trusty Google Calendar, and if I was correct, I attended 27 concerts at Yale last year - 6 Yale Phil concerts, a handful of afternoon/evening chamber concerts, something like 10-15 degree recitals, and the Yale Cellos show.  For a non-musician who knows nothing about music and can only recognize one piece that was played out of all the pieces played in in all of those concerts (holla Schubert Trout Quintet!), that is borderline absurd.  I loves it.  Beeteedubs, I'm probs going to a trumpet recital tomorrow and a Seoul Phil show next week.  Yup.

I probably could ramble on for longer, but it's late here and I ought to go to bed; I'm a little sick with a sore throat, and since I was up late chatting and up early listening to a typhoon yesterday, I best be sleeping.