Speaker 1: chonun yongkwapayu eemneda Speaker 2: Na Do TRANSLATION-I am an actor Me Too

I was browsing the internet as I have a tendancy to do around 1 pm when Susie, more fondly known to most as Mama Sus approached me with a proposition/request. Apparently the head of dormitories wanted a picture with some foreigners...or so we thought. After a tasty treat of pabpingsu, we rendezvouz'd around 445. Assuming this would be a quick endeavor, neither julienne nor myself brought our wallets for our evening class date with our taekwondo grandmaster. We took a few pictures outside of the dorm and thought we were finished. What we found was this was only the beginning of what became one of the more humorous experiences in Korea thus far. I was under the impression that the nice man wanted a few pictures with some foreigners. But to my surprise he asked to get into his van. "Wow" I thought to myself, "we're going on location!" This proved true. Now if only there were lights and make up. We arrived at a dorm on the university campus and wait for approxiately a half hour enthralled with the 1990's thriller Cliffhanger, starring Sly Stallone. Then the crew showed up. It became clear though the translation gap that we were to star in a commercial for the university. Our role was to reflect the diversity the univerisity had to offer. The camera crew, along with lights and korean actors showed up. They called action and we were off. Who knew I could become a yongkwapayu (actor) so early on in my career in Korea. It's also a wonderful thing I learned actor as a vocabulary word otherwise I would be at a loss as to my occupation here in Korea. We had many "Lost in translation" moments. American/english speaking actors being given directions in Korean with a translator telling us what to do. That movie hit a chord for sure yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately we had to bow out of a complimentary dinner with the crew due to our previous engagement with the Grandmaster and our assistant grandmaster whom we fondly refer to as granfmaster flash. From what I hear, It was quite the experience. Drinking games, wild stories, and offerings of prostetution for the guys. THIS MY FRIENDS is what happens when you move into the second round of drinking in Korea. A stage I have yet to and perhaps won't see during my time here. Supposidly the commercial is a promotional piece for high schools across the country and in Asia at large. They want to show Kangwan Univeristy as a diverse schools with lots of meegooks (americans). It's only week 6 here folks...what other crazy stuff can I do in 12 months? Prospects are good that there are many more stories to tell.

The evening proceeded to be fantastic. Dinner with the grandmaster gave me good practice on drinking etiquite and I had some of the best takalbi with dok that had cheese inside. We followed the dinner with some kickin noribang. 2 out of 3 nights. The addiction is getting out of hand. The crew of fulbrighters got decked out and hit up downtown chuncheon for some drinks and dancing. We wanted to hit up club harlem-American culture has no influence here clearly, but it was closed. We hit up our usual establishment which always proves to be a good time. Following the dancing, we hiked home in heals and found a farm on the campus which we then explored. All of this while carrying a banner we found on the road. Koreans love banners. They are everywhere, so I figured I hadn't really lived until I got one of my own. It now rests gently on my bed, and although I have no clue as to what it says, it is near and dear to my heart nonetheless. Perhaps my school will welcome me with a banner.