The Era of Peanut

First, I was Christina. Then I was CJ. Then suddenly this summer I became Christina again. And now, I'm Peanut. Yes, my freshman-year nickname - slightly-spitefully chosen by my friends because of my mind peanut allergy - has become my internet persona, and this persona is taking off. Maybe not now, but very soon (let's say in a few months), there will be more people around the world who know me as Peanut than who know me by any other name.

In the last four days I have forgone proper nutrition, a decent sleep schedule, and time with the friends I've made who are still in Korea to immerse myself in the magic of the Korean StarCraft pro gaming scene and a new community of interesting and intelligent friends across the world who share my passion for this unique aspect of Korean pop culture and industry. Also, they really like pictures like these:



These are among the best Korean professional StarCraft gamers in the scene, and definitely among the top-paid, best-known pro gamers in the world. They are all between the ages of 12 and 28 years old and I believe these guys (BeSt, Jaedong, and Bisu are their nicknames) make upwards of $100,000 a year. They compete in games played in ultra-high tech "stadiums" which are unlike pretty much any entertainment venues I've ever seen before:




These places are tiny compared to normal stadiums - about the size of a large movie theater (not the whole theater, just one screening room). They hold about 100 audience members who sit in cheap plastic lawn chairs and can come and go as they please from the event because admission is FREE. There are usually two small soundproof booths with computers in them, one on either side of the stage area, with a huge screen in the middle (projection screen or LCD screen). There are usually 4-8 TV cameras stationed at various points in the room or held by moving cameramen to get close-up shots of the players or the audience. The focus, though, is clearly on the game and the players (e-sports athletes, I mean).

There are usually one or two of these matches happening every day here, and because I usually spend less than $5 for 2+ hours of wonderment at Korean culture, technology, and gaming prowess (subway fare plus snacks), I've been going nonstop. I think I've seen five such events in the past four days, which means 20-30 individual games of professional StarCraft (each event has two sets of matches, and each match is usually best of 3 games). Given that a game on average takes, say, 12 minutes, plus brief breaks in between, that means 5-8 hours in the past four days inside the stadiums themselves. Add in an hour round trip on the subway, and that adds up to 10-13 hours all told. Oh, and add in time spent after the events being a giggly fangirl with many other giggly fangirls (the others have MUCH better cameras though ... digital SLR) and waiting for pictures and autographs, and that's more like 11-14 hours. That's pretty much a full class schedule.

And it's so worth it. Not just the experience itself, which has been hands-down the most unique and interesting part of Korea so far (out of buddhist temples and shopping and stuff), but also the incredible appreciation and adulation I receive for it online. I've gotten 2 marriage proposals already. The enthusiasm I've generated for modern Korean culture in the hearts of English-speaking people across the world is incredibly gratifying. I was right - the e-sports industry is going to be HUGE for Korean tourism in years to come.

There are, of course, other countries with something that could be called an e-sports scene. The US and Germany are the most notable, followed by places as disparate as Brazil, Singapore, New Zealand, and China (see http://www.worldcybergames.com). But no-one and nobody can top the Koreans. In this arena, Koreans are always the favorites - so much so that in the World Cyber Games certain non-Koreans only call themselves the favorites with the understanding that they are always second-place to start with. Brazil has soccer, America has baseball and basketball, India has rugby, China has table tennis, and Korea has e-sports. I think this is as good an instigator as any for national pride. I am Korean-American, and my ancestors germinated a race and a culture that is DAMN good at competitive gaming.

Best of all for me, the Western market for e-sports is only beginning to open up. There are only a few people in the world (I'd say fewer than 10) doing professionally what I'm starting to do amateurly - traverse linguistic, cultural, and national boundaries by bringing e-sports and its golden child StarCraft to the English speaking enthusiasts all around the world. Based on the responses I've been getting online at SC2GG.com, an English-language clearinghouse and content generator for fans of the Korean StarCraft scene, I think I could make a killing in this world. The industry is already at the multi-million dollar mark, and soon it will hit the billion-dollar mark and become a multi-billion dollar industry. This is no longer about a bunch of nerds playing in their mom's basements anymore - this is capitalistic entertainment at its finest.

This weekend I'm heading to Pusan to see the Proleague Grand Finals, where the who's who of competitive Korean StarCraft will be plying their trade to thousands of fans. One of Korea's most popular girl bands will be performing at the halftime show. Did I mention it's part of a huge beach festival? It's a tradition that's been happening annually for all of five years, and I can't wait to be a part of it.

Best. Summer. Ever.

Failure, part II (of god knows how many)

I spent about 7 hours total trying to find the StarCraft Proleague playoffs today and came back completely empty-handed.

It turns out that there are TWO e-sports stadiums (stadia?) in Seoul, one at Yongsan and one at COEX. The MSL finals were at Yongsan yesterday and the Proleague playoffs were at COEX today. Guess which stadium my friend and I set out for at 11:30 this morning? After a delicious lunch (kalbi tang, which totally brought me back to my childhood) and a few hours of wandering around the I'Park mall at Yongsan (their electronics department is AMAZING and spans 4+ floors), we finally figured out that it was the wrong place and headed over to COEX, which was kind of far away. If I'Park is like Boston, COEX is like Manhattan, and it took a lot of map-scrutinizing and being overwhelmed by the density of people to even find the place we guessed was maybe probably the stadium. It was locked, so we wandered around a bit more trying to find an e-sports merch store and of course we couldn't find one. I got back to my dorm around 6. I know I'll be able to see another game sometime soon, but my poor friend is going back to the States this week and won't get another chance. I was so excited at the prospect of making signs and getting to be on TV, too! Pictures later.

Livin' Large, Korean-style

So before I get into my big revelations (they just keep coming, man), I'm going to post some pictures, because everyone loves pictures.

This past Sunday I met my lovely aunt Eunyong for the first time. We had an amazing traditional Korean meal in Insadong, which is the old-timey tourist counterpart to the modern Western Itaewon:


This is Dalgi (hard "g"), Korea's kind of nationalistic answer to the Hello Kitty bunch (the grudge against Japan rears its ugly head again). I'm going to get some Dalgi gear at some point. Yes, its head is a strawberry.

My aunt insisted on buying me something from the little shops there after I gave her some presents from my family, including Grace's new CD.

The tiny pretty package it came in ...

Earrings!

Here are some pictures of the electronics I've picked up here. I don't really go for cute and cheap souvenirs (Dalgi aside, I mean) - I prefer things that run on batteries and that help make my life easier in some way.

My awesome electronic dictionary - Korean->English and English->Korean. All the menu options are in Korean (as well as the user manual), so there's the added benefit of forcing me to learn a few useful Korean terms if I want to navigate it. It also has games and 2mb of flash drive space, plus it came with headphones and a mini-USB cable.

As you can see, it is very portable. It runs on AAAs and only cost $90. It's pretty much become one of my new best friends.

My sweet LG cellphone. I'm only renting it and it's secondhand, so it only cost me $50, including a $20 deposit which I'll get back if I don't lose it or break it by the time I leave (this is somewhat uncertain). It has a special emoticon menu easily accessible while writing text messages that contains 92 unique ascii emoticons split up into 5 categories: Happy, Blue, Amaze, Animal, and Extra. I gave myself a break and changed the default language to English.
Here's also a couple pictures of me and some friends dancing at this bar called The Grand Ole Opry in Itaewon which only plays country music and has an honest-to-God Confederate flag on the wall. In the middle of the bar there was a grand ole raised wooden platform for dancing:


I got the blue skirt for $5 on the street. Korea is amazing!

Edit: Hey Jue, can I hit you up for a better skin for this blog? I had to take out the cool old paper background because it wasn't wide enough to accommodate my tables.

High Times with Army Boys!

Since it seems more than one person actually enjoys reading my blog, I guess I owe it to all two or three of you (thanks, Peter!) to keep on keepin' on. Zak doesn't count because he gets daily updates on the crazy things that happen to me anyway (sorry Zak ^^). I've also been inspired out of my negligence by Jue and Dave, who both blog about fascinating/hilarious/profound things. Check them out!

Last night I walked around Itaewon, the area around the US Army base in Seoul. My friends Michelle and Jennifer had both been there before (Jennifer's a regular, since her family is military and they live pretty close to there), but it was my first time visiting this miniature oasis of Westernness. Seoul is a pretty cosmopolitan city in general, but this was the first neighborhood within the city I've been to that truly incorporates its KFCs and Coldstone Creameries into its own cultural fabric without seeming self-conscious about it. The three of us first tried to find this Austrian cafe Jennifer knew to have dinner, but after the high prices on the menu discouraged us (although the lovely Austrian maitre d' didn't) we headed over to a cheaper Mexican place nearby.

Michelle	Jennifer
Mmmmm ... chicken quesadilla!	the menu, a conglomeration of Spanish, English, and Korean

The food was relatively expensive and had much smaller portions than we were all used to given Mexican food in the States, but it was worth it. I still miss Anna's burritos, but the craving is a little bit more bearable now.

Then we headed over to this bar called Gecko's, and when I stepped inside I thought I'd gone through some kind of portal back to Boston because it was your typical East Coast classy pub. Dark wood all around, comfy high-backed chairs around round tables, darts boards, white men ... very familiar, although there was a noticeably higher percentage of Asian patrons than you'd normally see. Interestingly, I felt very foreign.

We met some nice Army guys training in Military Intelligence - two from Florida and one from Iowa, and all around 20 years old. Smart (but not bookish) guys who liked to laugh, drink beer, and who brimmed with good ol' devil-may-care American bluster. Two of them appreciated Michelle's growing homesickness for her native Seattle and American cable programming while one had ambitions to start up a social networking website and a restaurant in Thailand. They readily shared their pitchers of Cass (gross watery beer) with us and bought us a few other drinks too, since we were a rather attractive trio of expats. The American military doesn't have the best reputation in Korea, but like most of these kinds of situations it seems like a case of a few bad pieces of kimchi spoiling the jar rather than a malaise affecting the whole outfit. I had a lot of fun talking with these guys and learning about their experiences, and was pleasantly surprised when I dropped the H-bomb (revealed that I'm a Harvard student) and they weren't put off. Stop holding your breath, Dad - nothing untoward happened, and after a while the three of us were on our way back to Jennifer's house to spend the night.

Overall, I liked Itaewon's uniqueness and startling diversity of ethnic foods, as well as the perspectives of the expat population there, but it wouldn't be a place I would want to hang out in all the time. I like Korea for what it is, and being in Itaewon reminds me too much of what it isn't (namely, America). If I ever get sick of Koreans and academics, though, I know where to go to get some Taco Bell.

It's Friday morning right now and I'm getting ready to go on one of this program's most anticipated field trips: the Boryeong Mud Festival! I've never been covered in mud before (well, not for fun/therapeutic purposes), so I'm really excited about this trip. I'll bring my camera!

Finally, here's a funny sign from a clothing shop in Itaewon:

Lessons in Humility, or C. Kelly presents "Trapped in the Phone Booth"

Korean phone booths are very well made.

This was one of the major trains of thought running through my tired mind as I sat on the floor of a phone booth just outside my dorm at Ewha University, wondering how I'd found myself in such a cliched situation. There was no handle on the inside of the door and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to escape, since the door was one of those folding/sliding ones that opened inward into the booth. I went into the phone booth intending to call some of my relatives in Seoul and tell them I'm here and only discovered I couldn't leave after I discovered that the pay phone didn't take coins. Asian pay phones tend to take special cards that you load money onto, and of course I don't have one of those yet. I don't have a cell phone yet, either, and as my Korean vocabulary is very limited, I couldn't figure out how to call collect or what the emergency number was. Also my dorm is at the edge of campus and it was 9pm, so cars and passerby were few and far between. Thank god I had a lighter and some tissues. I ended up lighting a tissue on fire as a car approached and they stopped and let me out after I almost burned myself, dropped the flaming tissue, and stomped on it a few times. I hadn't been panicking, but after half an hour I was starting to resign myself to spending part or all of the night in a mint-green 4'x4' cubicle with a stupid useless pay phone for company.

It was definitely a "... And you go to Harvard?!" moment, but in my defense, I've only been in this country for 4 days and I can barely communicate in the language. It's been about half an hour since I was freed from my little cage, and I am definitely not attempting pay phone calling again. It's been at least a year since I've used a pay phone, and probably at least 5 years since I've used one in the States (last summer I went to Australia with my choir).

Moral of the story: always carry a lighter, or a cell phone, or both. Actually, just steer clear of phone booths, period.

No more philosophical thoughts tonight.