Yeon-Hee's Great Adventure

So, Kick-off week is pretty extravagant over here and I’ve been keeping myself quite busy. There’s so many things that I’ve done recently and I still have so many more things to do. It’s great that there are so many options and I’m really having the time of my life right now. Here’s a list of a few things that I did this week: [1] participated in relay races and games at Slottskogen (Swedish Students vs. Exchange Students), [2] went on a walking history tour of Göteborg, [3] saw a great film at Göteborgs Film Festival, [4] went to Göteborgs Stadsbiblioteket and got a Library card, [5] got free food and drink at the welcome night thrown by the city of Gothenburg at City Hall, and [6] met with a group of musicians ready to start up a funk band...

[1] Slottskogen

So, playing relay races in Slotskogen was a lot of fun. We played crab soccer for one of the events and I was quite sore for a few days afterwards. After the relay games were over, we went to some student building and had free pizza and played a music quiz game. The exchange students and the Swedish students mostly stayed in separate groups, but I decided after a while that I would go introduce myself. So, that night I met and spoke Swedish with 10-12 Swedish students (all studying in the Social Science department). It was good to meet them all and good to get my ears acquainted with the pace of modern Swedish in Göteborg and try to figure out, in my head, what was causing disconnection for me in understanding. I decided it was mostly the pace, a bit of the dialect, and also my lack of knowing huge amounts of slang and other difficult vocab words. Still, I am so glad that I watched so many episodes of Andra Avenyn before coming to Göteborg. Sadly, I have no pictures from that night, but it was fun nonetheless.

[2] History Tour

So, yes... the history tour was pretty fun. We started at Gustav Adolfs Torg in front of City Hall and walked west toward Järntorget, then south on Linnégatan and through the Haga district. Then we went through Vasastaden and down Avenyn ending our tour at Götaplatsen, which is the amazing cultural center of Göteborg. It was a very beautiful and sunny day outside and I have a few pictures to share!

[3] Poppy Shakespeare

There was a film festival happening for about 5 days here in Göteborg and I was only able to make it to one film, but it was one of the best films I have seen in a long time. It was called Poppy Shakespeare and this film was from Great Britain. Apparently, it was based on a book so I think I’ll look for it in the library sometime. To sum it up, this film basically investigates the state of the minds of people and shows how thin the line can be between sane and insane. It really sent me into a deep reflection on my life, my decisions, and my future. I would highly recommend this film.

[4] Public Library

I went to Göteborgs Stadsbiblioteket the other day to get a library card and that was a good time. I walked up to the counter and was like, “Hej, jag skulle vilja ha ett bibliotekskort.” Then I showed the lady at the counter my American passport for identification and she was super surprised I could speak Swedish. Then I was like, “jag läste Svenska i två år i USA.” She still figured I came from somewhere other than the US, which is true, so I ended up telling her I speak Koreanska också. I then proceeded to tell her that I’m an exchange student and gave her all the necessary info to get a card. Then I was like, “har ni en karta av den här biblioteket, eller...” and she said, “nej, tyvärr inte,” but she was super nice and explained to me where things were located before sending me on my way. I came back to the library a few days later and checked out Einar Haugen’s: The Scandinavian Languages, among other books... some that I’d already read, but wanted as a reference for my classes.

[5] Welcome from the city

I went to a welcome reception thrown by the city of Gothenburg for the new exchange students and it was great! They served food and drink in a beautiful reception room and I had a good time. I missed the speech that was given by the mayor before the food was served because of a band meeting, but the reception was awesome, nonetheless. I'm realizing now the pictures I took here aren't that great, but here's two of them:

[6] Funk Band!

Before the welcome reception, I met with a group of exchange students that are thinking of starting up a funk band. I am very, very excited about getting involved with music while I’m here and I hope that this project goes well. It’s so amazing though. Through Chalmers, bands are able to rent instruments and rehearsal space for the semester for only 1500 SEK (~$188). We’re planning to have about 8-9 members in our band, so that’s an awesome deal! I checked out the drumset they have in the rehearsal room and it is great! I think it was a Yamaha Custom Maple something with Sabian cymbals. There was even a Pearl double pedal on it! That is such a luxury... I hope I’ll... use it, maybe.

Adjágas is a group of Sami "yoikers" from Norway. I stumbled across this cd in Stadsbiblioteket here in Göteborg and it was very inspiring music. The tonality and voice quality of this group is a little different than the music familiar to western ears. This type of music uses the pentatonic scale which is different from the more popular heptatonic scale of popular Western music. It has a mournful quality to it, and even in songs of rejoice it sounds rather--- sad. Maybe this represents the repression of the Sami culture, similar to that of the Native American tribes.

If you cannot read these pictures, they read: "...Adjágas is a state between sleeping and waking. It is where you get in touch with issues and messages that are important to you. It is also said that the sami learned yoiking from the alda people that live in another world parallel to our own, in the Adjágas state of mind. Adjágas is a celebration of the ancient art of yoiking and a search for what the future will bring..."

This really is beautiful music that gave me a new respect for the Sami cultures here in Scandinavia. It also reminds me of traditional Korean 'pansori' music, which I also like to listen to from time to time. Here's another example of pansori.

For those of you that are familiar with Korean traditional song: "Arirang."
Here's a couple versions from different regions in Korea:
Jindo
Bongwha
Kangwon
Kangwon (modern version)
Milyang

and the more familiar:
Joe Hiashi style version

You see, even though I decided to go to Sweden instead of Korea for my study abroad trip, I'm still finding out a lot about what lies in the roots and in the foundation of myself as a person.

Here, as an extra special treat... here's the refrain and one verse of a Jindo Arirang I wrote today: Yeon-Hee's Jindo Arirang (short)