Post - Conference Blues

The Friday before Conference, my Korean TA was espousing us in Korean the greatness of Conference, of receiving personal revelation and listening to the words of the prophets. But sadly, our test was still on Monday, rather than letting us enjoy an uplifting weekend and then gearing up for school again. Apparently, we must stress out this weekend as well, forcing us to make decisions about cutting Conference so that our grades don't get cut. Now, I understand that many LDS students face this decision every six months, but I feel the Brigham Young University ought to make the week before General Conference a holiday. I mean, we don't get a spring break. We ought to have some kind of a relief from studies, but alas, the Lord's University thinks not the same way I do.

Now, understandably, I could have studied in between sessions. But Dantzel and I had the apartment all to ourselves on Saturday, and not wanting to do anything, we sat around the apartment, eating leftovers, listening to Conference and just sitting there on the couch. Dantzel was much more productive than I was; she knit an entire scarf that day and wears it proudly.

Sunday we watched Conference with friends, which of course, involved friendly revelry between sessions. Then we ate dinner at Dantzel's parents' house, then had to walk to Troy to pick up a bag I left in his car and by the time I got home, it was midnight.

So now I am studying Korean until the wee hours of the morning, and I'm wondering if I'll perform well at all.

The Korean textbook is a strange array of symbols and runes of which I have a hard time of putting together. Explaining Korean in English just doesn't work; I think I'd understand the book better if it tried to teach Korean in Korean.

The thing is, the Korean I know is sullied and dirty, filled with slang and idiosyncrasies unique to my family. I pronounce words with a slightly different accent, and I don't know if it's a product of my mother's Seoul accent, or if I just learned Korean incorrectly. I also use a different grammar structure than the book teaches, one that is ingrained and intuitive, and is hard to uproot. The worst part is, I'm not even wrong. It's just different, akin to the English difference of saying "I went to the store" and "I did go to the store." They convey the same message, but just in slightly different ways. But I wonder if it's enough to get points docked during the oral portions. In other words, I may lose points for being too authentic.

It's just been a weekend of irony.