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Culture shock, please.

2006-09-22T09:06:00.000+09:00

In my last entry I said that I would write again about a week after I arrived in the U.S. It's been a month since then, and I'm sorry to those that actually asked me why I haven't written yet.....this blog has ended much like it began, hasn't it?

Because I experienced very little culture shock when I was in Korea, I thought that maybe I would get hit by reverse culture shock instead once I returned home.

Honestly, I haven't felt anything...and I'm not sure why.

Differences are blatant between Korean and American culture, but perhaps they aren't prominent enough to cause a stir within me. It's funny, I think I actually experienced more of a culture shock when I moved to Chicago from my rinky-dink town in rural Illinois.

Disappointing really...I kind of wanted to get a little freaked out...haha. Most of Korea is very modernized though, and since I spent most of my time in these modernized areas (Seoul, Suwon, Busan...), I guess I didn't experience much culture shock simply because my style of living in Korea wasn't much different from that here. I think if I had spent time in a developing country instead, I would have experienced the shock.

So, do I think I've changed since my trip? I think I have. I'm not a completely different person, but my way have thinking has been altered. I think it's impossible to fully understand how other nations view the United States or why other nations operate the way they do unless you step outside of your own...and I don't think I realized this until I returned here. It's easy to get trapped in an American bubble, and to think that we have good reason to be doing what we are "to make the world a better place." Don't get me wrong though, I didn't return an Anti-American (seems like a lot of U.S. students who study abroad do), but my perspective of the world has broadened, and I think that I'm able to create a more informed opinion now about what's currently going on in the world.

I know some of you are wondering how my Korean is now. I'm sure it's died a little, but it's still there. I can actually have converations with my mom in Korean now! I don't think I realized how much I improved until I came home and started talking to my mom. Since my mom has known my speaking and listening level since I started learning the language a couple years ago, she was able to give me feedback on my improvement since before I left. Although I knew my Korean improved, it was nice to recieve affirmation from her.

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So....if I could, would I do it again? Of course. Would I do things differently? I don't know. I do know that this summer has changed my life though...I finally got to meet my family, I improved my fluency, and I learned sooo so much about the world, people, and myself. I suppose I got more than I bargained for...and I am dying to go back.

One more blog before I go...

2006-08-19T21:09:00.000+09:00

I'd like to say that this entry will be short and sweet, but that would be a lie...because more has happened in this past week than in the previous weeks combined. So sit back, enjoy the pictures, and try to read the text in between them.

Sooooooo...last Saturday my cousin Eunkyoung and I went to Min-soke-chone, the Korean Folk Village. I could write pages on what I saw and experienced there, but in short the village was filled with traditional (sorry, not sure what time period exactly) houses, temples, shops, and farms, as well as traditional Korean performances..and it was amazing. Eunkyoung and I were actually fortunate enough to catch a couple of the performances, and OF COURSE I have posted the videos below...right underneath the plethora of photographs.

Stepping into one of the village homes.

Attempting to make rice into fine powder...and of course failing. I realized later that I was actually pushing the wheel in the opposite direction.

Sitting in front of a government building.

The outside of the Korean Drama Museum inside the folk village (that's right, a whole museum dedicated to Korean dramas...YES).

Eunkyoung being a princess.

One of my favorite photographs. A shot of the traditional Korean drum performance Eunkyoung and I saw.

Taking a breather on the bridge.

Where's my KIMCHI?!?

It seriously took me about 15 minutes to get into this thing. By the time the picture was taken, I was no longer making this face for show.

And the films...
This first one is of a traditional Korean drum performance.

This one is of two girls performing flips on a traditional Korean see-saw.

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On Monday, Eunkyoung and I took a trip down to Busan (the second-largest city in South Korea, and also the largest harbor city). Here are a few pictures from our brief stay there.

Of course, Busan's got the best seafood in South Korea. We actually had the chance to see one of Busan's huge open fish markets.

Say it with me now..."I'll never let go Jack!"

Actually had the chance to cruise around in an 'ocean taxi' for 15 minutes. This is just a picture of the boat cruisin next to us.

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When Eunkyoung and I returned from Busan, we joined the rest of our family for our big family vacation to see the major sites in Korea that I had yet to see. First stop: the DMZ.

A shot of the family with North Korea in the distance.

My aunt and me in a re-creation of a North Korean elementary classroom.

The best shot of North Korea I could take. It was chilling to even get this distant glimpse though. I wonder how soon it will be before I can actually step inside the country..

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After the DMZ, we all headed off to Sokchon, a harbor city located in Gangwon-do. While there, my family and I went to the beach...however, the weather wasn't too great, and although we all planned to stay in Sokcho for a few more days, we were forced to leave early due to a coming storm.

Before we knew of the coming storm..

After Sokcho, we went to a nearby mountain with cable cars. However, due to the bad weather (really rainy, lots of fog), we couldn't really see much. Oh well, at least we took some more pictures of the family, haha.

Sporting some sexy raincoats.

My aunt being hilarious.

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After the mountain, the lot of us headed to Gosu Grotto in Gosu-ri, Danyang. The rock formations were absolutely INCREDIBLE...as you shall see.

Amazing.

Only Eunkyoung and I would wear sunglasses in a cave.

On our way out.

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The LAST place we went to on our big family vacation was Gu-insa, the origin of the Tien-ta order in Korean Buddhism. Before we arrived there, my aunt and cousin told me that we would be visiting a temple as our last stop. I was expecting a single large building with statues of Buddhas and praying monks. Instead, what I saw was more like a hidden village consisting solely of temples nestled within the mountains, with hundreds of people and dozens of monks walking around and praying together. Unbelievably beautiful.

My first glimpse.

One of the many temples. All we as beautiful and intricate as this one.

Many of the temples were heavily decorated with colorful ribbons, promising good fortune.

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Well this is it, my last blog entry before I leave to go back to the States. I would prefer to close this entry with something a little more profound than, "It's actually really late here and writing this entry has made my really tired," buuuuuuuuuut...that's what I'm going to do. HOWEVER, this is NOT the last entry. Once I've arrived home, I plan on writing once more...a reflection entry about my stay in Korea and how well I've adjusted to living in America once again. So stay tuned everyone. I might even post some more pictures.

Recent Grad

2006-08-11T18:33:00.000+09:00

So today was it...my last day at SNU. Our graduation ceremony was held in the same auditorium that the speech competition was held in. The ceremony even resembled the competition in that it seemed more like a variety show than anything else...so of course, I've uploaded some more videos for your viewing pleasure.

This isn't a video, it was the stage for our graduation. Yeah, it's not that cool, but I'd hate to waste the picture.

Here is a video of one of the girls in my class (Yuiko) playing traditional Korean drums. Really amazing.

And another of a girl doing a traditional Korean fan dance. Also amazing.

AND...

All of my fellow graduates

Me with one of my teachers, Mrs. Kang

Me with another one of my teachers, Mrs. Kim

<--Me with my aunt and cousin Eunkyoung

Although I bet I've probably improved in my Korean more than I think (at least I hope so) I don't think I've improved as much as I should have..or at least as much as I wanted to. I really do need to come back here. I don't see the purpose in only becoming partially fluent in a language. Perhaps I'll take my third-year off and come back here to study Korean for a year...??? That idea is very up in the air right now, but the more I think about it the more it makes sense to me...and the more fun it sounds, haha. We'll see how my parents feel about that. My class was rather difficult for me, and I'm sure the reason why class was because I was not at the same level as my classmates. So how did I place into the class? My writing. My writing skills are strangely more advanced than anything else. I think if SNU's language program was broken up by each individual skill (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) I would have faired a lot better. I actually heard of another Korean university in Seoul that offers a Korean language program which is broken up this way - Sogang University. So if any of you out there are planning on studying here anytime soon and have uneven language skills like me, I would suggest looking into this school instead of SNU. Of course, if your skills are along the same level (or your listening and speaking are better than your reading and writing), than SNU would also be a good choice.

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Well asides from my graduation, some other interesting things have been going on in my life. Like....my trip to the National Korean Museum in Seoul! Ok, so maybe a trip to the museum doesn't sound like the most exciting thing...but I guarantee that after you scroll through these pictures, you are gonna wish you were there. Or at least you should.

So first...

...these may look like ordinary Korean artifacts, but they aren't. All of the above are North Korean artifacts borrowed directly from Pyongyang. AND..and...all of the artifacts in the North Korean exhibit were strictly prohibited from being photographed by direct order of the North Korean government. Yes everyone, these photos are exceptionally rare...so enjoy them and please don't report me to Kim Jong Il.

After I was finished secretly taking the above photographs, my cousin Eunkyoung and I went on this stint where we had to interact with the artifacts we were photographing.

My aunt's attempt. Didn't turn out exactly as I planned, but still..it's hilarious.

...I'm hoping this didn't turn out to be one of those "You had to be there!" situations.

Me in front of one of the displays.

Me in front of a re-creation of some Korean cave art.

And the whole gang.

See...that looked fun. The only downside about the whole day was that it was excruciatingly hot. It seems as if the heat is all anyone can talk about right now.

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Although class is now over, I can't guarantee that I'll have the opportunity to update more often...but I will try. Tomorrow I'll be going to Min-soke-chone (the Korean Folk Village) and Sunday I think I'll be going to Pusan. I'll write about the trips when I can.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Gotta love...

2006-08-03T23:38:00.000+09:00

...these bulk entries. I can't believe it's already been over a week since I last posted. Again...a lot has happened since then. Bare with me please.

So, last Thursday my school had its annual presentation day, where students of various levels studying at the SNU Korean Language Program had the opportunity to show the rest of us how well they are able to speak Korean. I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting, but the day turned out to be more of the variety show type rather than your ordinary speech day. Here's a video of one of the most popular performances (sorry, no subtitles). The song she is singing is currently very popular in Korea.

When our teacher asked our class who wanted to give speeches for last Thursday, I immediately thought to myself "No way could I do that...my speaking skills are too elementary to speak in front of a large group of people." I was very humbled when I noticed that several students from the lower levels had the courage to get up in front of the rest of us and give us their speeches. These students' speaking skills were less advanced than mine, and yet they still found it in themselves to give a presentation in Korean in front of hundreds of students.

I've realized since coming here how uncomfortable I can get when I don't feel completely confident in what I'm doing. Since I don't have confidence in my Korean skills, I often find it very difficult to use my Korean outside of the classroom...simply because I don't want to appear ignorant. When learning a foreign language, this sort of mentality is severely detrimental...and I'm happy to say that I have found the ability to slowly get over myself and start trying more...even if I do look a little stupid in the process. My new motto: Look stupid now, get fluent later. Even if I don't become fantastic at using Korean once I leave (which I won't), at least I've learned that "looking stupid" isn't necessarily a bad thing...actually, sometimes it's necessary to achieve your ultimate goal. You just have to try. Whether you are initially good or bad at whatever you are trying to do isn't important...what's important is that you are trying. Once you leap over that hurdle, you can start to improve.

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This past weekend me, my aunt, and my 4 cousins went to Everland, the largest and most popular theme park in South Korea.

Me, my cousin Eunkyoung, my aunt, and my two little cousins, Sédeen and Yédeen.

An arial shot of Everland's daily (nightly?) parade.The whole family (this time with my other cousin Ho-Young) at the entrance of Everland.

Another great shot of the parade.

All of us decked out and ready to leave. I look like a fool.

The day was more for my younger cousins than for the rest of us...but I still enjoyed myself and rode my fair share of roller coasters. The heat, however, was nearly excruciating. Ever since 장마 (Rainy Season) ended, the temperature in Korea has soared. Friday it was 93Â° F! The heat wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to stand it in for so long waiting for the bus...or be in a bus jammed with people every morning for that matter. Oh well...I only have one more week of that anyway.

And speaking of that, I can't believe I only have one week left of class. These past 9 weeks have seriously flown past. I feel like I just got here, that it's far too soon to leave, and that I haven't learned, seen, or experienced enough (although I have learned, seen, and experienced a lot). Being in a foreign country for only 11 weeks is strange..it's just enough time for you to feel comfortable, but not enough time to really find your place in your new surroundings. I would love to come back here..soon. I have not had enough of this place.

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On Tuesday my teacher had our class act out a Korean play. It was set a long time ago and was about a humble farmer who purchases a mirror (something which he had never before seen or heard of prior to his purchase)and brings it home. Hilarityensuess when his wife accidentally walks into a room where her husband is gazing into the mirror and mistakes the mirror for a picture of the farmer's supposed mistress. The wife calls in her mother-in-law to take a look at the "mistress' photo", but when the mother-in-law looks into the mirror she exclaims that the woman is too old, and must be her own husband's mistress instead. Eventually everyone starts fighting over the mirror, the mirror breaks, and the farmer explains to his family that it was actually a mirror and that they were looking at their own reflections.

So anyway, here are some pictures of my classmates and me wearing traditional Korean dress, and following is a video of my group's performance. Just so ya'll know, I am the mother-in-law.

Me and a few of my classmates right before our final performance.

Another picture of my classmates. The girl on the far right is the only other American in my class. Hey Reneé!

Our reward for doing such a great job...pizza...

...and ice cream...ahh

There's one in every class.

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And that's all for now.

A little substance...

2006-07-26T20:23:00.000+09:00

I said earlier that I would write a more substantial entry soon...and here it is. No pictures today though...hm, at least my dad will read this.

I've realized that I've actually written very little about my class, which is funny since it was the main reason for me coming here in the first place. Although my class was quite intimidating at first, recently the 4 hours spent in class every day has become much more comfortable. Still difficult though, but I can tell that my skills are improving...slowly, but it's happening.

I've noticed that most of the students in my class are awesome when it comes to listening and speaking Korean, but struggle a bit when it comes to writing. For me it's the opposite. Writing (although by no means easy) is a lot easier for me than listening and speaking. Listening is the most difficult for me....I suppose it's because I have so little control over the skill. Writing difficult? I can write slower. Reading? Read slower. Speaking? Speak slower. But when it comes to listening...I can't exactly make everything I hear go more slowly...or repeat itself for that matter. It seems as though the best way to improve the skill is simply surrounding myself with Korean speakers...and drilling myself as often as I can.

I actually found this AMAZING website that has short dialogues and clips of Korean dramas on it to improve the listening skills of those willing to learn. The url is http://www.teenkorean.com . If any of you want to learn Korean, go here. It's an incredible resource.

Before my first day of class, I thought that there would be a lot of American kids with Korean parents in the class (like myself). Wrong. There is only one other American in my class (luckily she's my age) and the rest of my class is filled with 5 Chinese students (1 from Hong Kong), 4 Japanese, 1 Russian, and 1 Mongolian. The age range is also not what I expected. For some reason I just figured that most of the students would be college-aged...but the age ranges from 17 to 33. We all look about the same age though. It appears that most asians age amazingly well.

It's been 3 days since my little cousins have started staying with us...and so far things are going really well. The dog still scares them...it barks whenever it hears them. I think the dog is starting to get used to them though...hopefully anyway.

The girls have been incredibly patient when it comes to having conversations with me...which is wonderful...but I'm afraid that they are getting really bored. All they do is watch TV, do their vacation homework, and run from the dog. But they act like they're ok. Today I watched TV with them for a little bit (an English program) and we tried to help eachother with some translations. I now know how to say "magician" in Korean...sweet.

Ok, well it's 9:00pm over here...which means it's time for me to go to sleep. Class starts at 9:00am, but my morning commute takes me about an hour and 45 minutes...so I gotta wake up early. I know...absolutely insane. It seems that Suwon is a lot further away from Seoul National University than everyone thought. I've gotten used to the long bus rides though.

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Well, I hope that was substantial enough. I promise to have pictures for the next post ;)

Sorry...

2006-07-24T19:55:00.000+09:00

So it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post...so obviously a lot has happened since then. Before I get started on what ya'll have missed, I just want to take some time to apologize to my dad for not updating more often. Sorry Dad.

Last week I met up with one of my friends from Chicago at Kangnam (an area of Seoul) for an early dinner. Before I arrived my friend told me that this area was really trendy and sort of a fashion hot spot, so I wasn't too surprised when I noticed that there were a couple vendors selling some discounted clothing in the subway station. But...but, I was surprised to notice that there weren't just a couple vendors in the station...there was an ENTIRE MALL. Yes, a huge shopping mall inside of a subway station.

Needless to say I did quite a bit of shopping inside the station. I don't know what I'd do with myself if I had to stop there everyday.

After I ate dinner with my friend, my cousin Eunkyoung arrived and we decided to look around for a while before going home together. There were many street vendors selling ...well...practically everything, but what caught my eye the most was all the food. Everything smelled amazing...and tasted amazing too..although most of the food I tried was really spicy.

Spicy food is something you have to get used to in Korea though. I don't think I've had a meal yet where I wasn't eating something spicy.

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This past weekend I met some more of my family members.

All of us stayed at my Great Aunt's house for the weekend, which is located in Kawondo, a rural area of South Korea that is about 2.5 hours from where I live in Suwon. The landscape was absolutely breathtaking with acres of forests and mountains. On Sunday morning most of my family members and I went to Daejongdae, a small monument located near the side of one of the mountains in Kawondo.

After our little hike up there my family and I did some fishing.

And then we returned to my Great Aunt's house to cook what we caught. So good...

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I feel like this entry sounds a bit rushed since I'm trying to talk about so much in one posting. I promise to try and write more often so that my entries have a bit more substance.

I'm guessing things are going to be getting quite interesting over here (in my house) soon since we (my aunt, 2 cousins, and I) currently have another one of my other aunts and her 2 daughters (who are about 10 and 13) staying with us. I asked Eunkyoung how long they would be with us (expecting her to say about 4 or 5 days) and she said they'd probably be here for about a month...so I'm pretty sure I'll have some amusing stories to regale all of you with for the rest of my stay here.

So far, our little dog actually bit one of the girls...and the dog hasn't stopped barking since the new additions arrived. Right now we have the dog locked up in one the rooms...I don't know what we are going to do with it for a whole month.

Stay tuned.

Highlights

2006-07-09T21:28:00.000+09:00

A lot has happened this past week. I know how a long post can sometimes scare people from reading the whole thing, so I'll break things up by day and add plenty of pictures to hold your attention.

monday
What happened on Monday wasn't exactly a "highlight" but it's worth noting. I was really sick on Monday (indigestion) so I ended up missing class. A word of warning for anyone who is considering living with a Korean family while they study in Korea...DO NOT GET SICK. When my aunt realized that my stomach hurt she started violently massaging my arms and back, and shortly after began to pound on my back (HARD)...to help the food go down...or something. After the back pounding she pulled out this needle type device and pricked both my thumbs, squeezed out some blood, and told me I could go back to my room and sleep. I sort of wanted to run away by that point, but I was too tired and ended up just going to bed.

And yes...my stomach still hurt after all that.

Pros and Cons of Korea - Con #1: Traditional Korean medicine

thursday&friday
On Thursday and Friday I had my Korean midterms. It wasn't too pretty. I spent a lot of time studying for the tests, but I don't feel that confident about how it all turned out. Having my cousin Eunkyoung home is a real blessing, but at the same time the 2 of us use English to communicate with eachother...so I think that alone is really hindering my listening and speaking skills. The tests have helped me to realize that I must force myself to use Korean outside of class more often. I came to Korea to learn Korea...and I need to stop cheating myself.

friday night
After a long week of midterms and thumb pricking, I was happy to hear that my aunt, Eunkyoung, and I would be spending the night at the 찜질방 (jjim-jil-baung) aka sauna. At least...I was happy until I realized that I was going to be naked, showering and bathing with 50 other naked Korean women at the same time in the same room. I actually tried to make it appear as if I wasn't uncomfortable while we were in the shower room...but I'm not sure how well I pulled it off considering that I'm really just not that used to being naked in front of a large group of people.

Honestly, it wasn't that bad since no one was really looking at anyone else. After we cleaned ourselves up, my family and I went upstairs to relax in some of the many sauna rooms.
My aunt and me. Those things on our heads are our towels made into ram's horns (apparently, it's popular to sport ram's horns in the sauna).
Some of the rooms were hotter than I expected. In one of them the floor was completely covered with tiny round rocks. My aunt danced on them for a little bit, exclaimed that they weren't that hot...and then I gracefully leaped onto them, slipped, and almost fell on my face.

The outside walls of the rooms were decorated with colorful stones placed into intricate designs of sea creatures. It was really beautiful.

Before we went to sleep (fyi, it only costs the equivalent of $5 for one person to spend the night in these saunas), the 3 of us ate THIS.

It's called 팥빙수 (paut-bing-su)...and it's amazing. From top to bottom, it had chocolate syrup, ice cream, pineapples, cherries, candy, marshmallows, red bean paste, and ice shavings. I could seriously live off of these.
For a while I thought this concoction was going to be the highlight of my week (asides from bathing alongside 50 naked Korean women of course)...but my weekend turned out to have a lot more in store for me than I had planned.

saturday
On Saturday my aunt, 2 cousins, and I drove 2.5 hours to visit the rest of family in 춘천 (Chuncheon).

I was so happy to meet pretty much everyone on my mom's side of the family...but at the same time it is difficult for me to cope with the fact that I haven't been able to meet so much of my family until now...and I was only able to spend one night with all of them. I really hope to see them all again before I leave this summer. I would really like to have the chance to improve my speaking skills in these remaining weeks in order to go back and have longer and more complicated conversations with all of them.

sunday
After we left my great aunt's apartment on Sunday, the 4 of us went to a boating resort and rode some crazy floaties pulled by speedboats for about an hour and a half.

The first one we rode was called the FlyFish. Two people lay on their backs on the floaty and hold on to these straps to the sides of them with both hands. When pulled by the speed boat, the device flies up into the for a few seconds, crashes back down, flies up again, etc. SO FUN. I was screaming from excitement practically the entire time. The second floaty was called a Banana Boat and it was also very fun...but a bit scarier than the first since I felt like I was about to fall off the entire time I was riding it. Still fun though.

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Lessons learned this past week
Judging by the midterms taken last week, I need to study more. Well, maybe not more, but better. I need to find some other method of studying that helps me to cement all the information taught to us in class. I have a plan mapped out already, but if anyone out there has any helpful suggestions, I'm very open-minded at the moment.

While I am here to learn Korean, this weekend also helped me to realize that making time for fun and family is equally important. I want to do well in my class, but I'm not going to slave away over my homework. I'm here to not only learn the language, but to learn about my heritage and to enjoy myself (can't forget that this is my vacation).
I hope I keep this in mind during my remaining weeks here.

pictures!!

2006-07-01T18:40:00.000+09:00

Woo! Finally got some photos uploaded...and there's a little surprise for everyone at the end of the post.This is me and my cousin Eunkyoung's friend, Edi. We are one of those big swinging boat rides at this mini amusement park in Suwon. I wasn't too composed.

haha, I don't know. Eunkyoung told me that this was a popular pose for Koreans. I don't think it beats out the peace sign though.

Yeah, it doesn't.Eunkyoung and me being cute.Eunkyoung and my aunt. This was taken at the Noraebang, or Karaoke Bar. Karaoke is really popular in Korea. Too bad they aren't as popular in America...then maybe my rendition of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" would have been less scary.

Ok, so that's all for right now.

And here's your surprise ;)

Tada!

2006-06-29T23:04:00.000+09:00

Ok...so it may have taken close to 5 weeks, but I've finally created my "Summer in Korea" blog.

Of course, a lot has happened since I first arrived here. I've gotten lost like...4 or 5 times...but have somehow always managed to find my way back to my aunt's apartment. I've (thankfully) made some friends in my Korean class. And I've probably humiliated myself in more situations than I can remember....but really, I'm loving it here.

It's funny. This is basically my first experience in a foreign country (Canada doesn't count) but for some reason I've experienced little culture shock. Of course, this is excluding dinner from a couple nights ago, when I ate raw lobster for the first time. The lobster that was still moving and I pretty much thought I was going to cry. But yeah, excluding that, I've been pretty cool with everything. Maybe it's because I know I have to be - there's no turning back now, right? Whatever the reason, I'm glad that I've adjusted so well.

Well, I need to do my homework (I usually have a lot) so I better get started on it. I promise my upcoming posts will be more detailed, insightful, and entertaining than this one...so please check back once in a while to see what's new...k?

And here's a perk. I promise to post a video of that lobster moving. It literally got up and crawled off the plate...and that was after I took a piece from it!!

So scary.

Hello World.

2006-06-08T22:28:00.000+09:00

Since I already wrote a novel-long email to my sister, I'm keeping this entry short to prevent carpal tunnel. In case you all are wondering though, this place is amazing.