Mar. 8/9

Today and yesterday were a hodge podge of laziness and then rededciation. I was still getting over the ride home from Haeinsa yesterday, and I needed to do laundry, etc. All in all, it ended up being a good relaxing day, just what I needed before classes start.

That's pretty much all I'm going to say about sunday. Mainly just a rest day.

Mar. 9

Well, I started class today. The first task was to take a Korean proficiency test. I did really good on the grammar, or at least, I felt like I did. I did incredibly bad overall, though, because even though I know how sentences should look, I know not the vocabulary I should. It was all well and good, though. I am pretty confident that my course and a half here will make me be leaps and bounds closer to my goal of being fluent in another language.

Goals. That's going to be a theme of this note. Let's hold off on that for just a little bit though, while I recap today.

Anyways, after being completely and utterly stupefied by the proficiency test, there was an orientation. A very nice lady explained to us our probable schedule and let us know that the next day classes would start in earnest (I really want to make a joke about how I hope Earnest doesn't mind, but that would take too much thought right now).

After the test of doom and the orientation, we made our way back to the dorm until our culture class. I found a lot of cool things using StumbleUpon, and it's one of the reasons I am trying to rededicate myself the right way.

Culture class was pretty good. I am going to love that class. Discovering the unspoken laws and the customs and historical reasons for an entire population's actions and outward attitude is really interesting to me. there might be lots of people in there our there might be only me and Kayla. The teacher isn't sure yet. We will find out next week though, that's certain.

After class we ate our dinner and trudged back to the dorms wehre I had a less than stellar night in the table tennis arena.

So back to goals. I firmly believe that I am incapable of sticking to my goals unless I write them down. Since i have no really good medium with which to do this, Im going to use Facebook to try and keep myself to my Korea-related goals.

Ultimate Goal (Stretch)
=Become reasonably proficient in Korean by the time I leave
Small Goals which will help achieve the stretch goal (short-term)
-Learn 5 new Korean Words a day
-Pass my current Korean Language Program with High Marks
-Study Korean for 1.5 hrs a day (outside of class)
-Use my language buddy to help conversation skills
-Every week hold a real conversation with 7 people (in Korean) [1 a day?]
-Write a paragraph in Korean about a current issue in Korea every day

Ultimate Goal (Stretch)
=Reach 2000 level status in table tennis by the time I get back
Small Goals which will help achieve the stretch goal (short-term)
-Practice at least 3 times a week
-Practice good form every time I play
-Win one of the monthly tournaments offered by the table tennis club
-Use good manners and etiquette, allowing me more practice time with club members

Ultimate Goal (Stretch)
=Gain a healthy appreciation for Korea and its culture
Small Goals which will help achieve the stretch goal (short-term)
-Pass my Culture class with High Marks
-Make a cultural visit to a famous site in Korea once a week
-Visit every UNESCO World Heritage Site in Korea
-Use my language buddy as a chance to learn about the culture

Ok, so some of the short term goals are less concrete than they should be. Oh well. I can definitely reach them I think. These are just the ones for this trip and the ones I hope to achieve by the end, not the ones I hope to achieve on the timeline of my life.

For Now,
Aron Huckaba International Vagabond