Tag: Jane Lee

Even though I know I mention this nearly every week, it wasn't until this past weekend that I realized that my time in Korea is really almost done. In less than 2 weeks I'll be done with finals and in about 4 weeks I'll be back at GW. While taking the bus to school, I've had some thoughts that I thought (haha) I would share.

1) At SNU, there’s a person guiding traffic at the crosswalks for students to cross and it makes me feel like I’m back in kindergarten. Especially with everyone wearing their long parkas looking like children. Me included.

2) Sometimes I forget I’m in Korea and am fascinated by the immense number of Koreans around me. Then I realize I probably look like a foreigner to them but I also am a minority back in the US #identitycrisis. I realize this is actually a larger issue under the surface but even being in the US since I identified rather strongly as Korean (especially given that I'm Korean-American), it's interesting actually being in Korea and being perceived as "foreign".

3) Sometimes, I think there’s so much pressure to make the best of your time abroad but only in one sense - going out, discovering your new city and making new friends. Which I guess I’ve done to an extent but looking back at the past 3 months I’ve kind of just been wondering where the time has gone and what I’ve done with it. Especially because I have all my relatives here and yet even being in the same country let alone same city as some of them kind of still feels like it doesn’t matter because I haven’t seen much of them. Is it because I’ve never spent much time with them so it’s just awkward? I don't know.

...continue reading "Some closing thoughts"

By jlee4946

With nearly 3 months in Korea coming to a close, I think I can narrow down 5 of my favorite things to do here.

1. Coin Karaoke (코인노래방): As you may well know, karaoke, or noraebang, in Korea is extremely popular. However, something that's been of fashion or "유행" here is coin karaoke, where you go into the booths that can cozily fit 3 people and each song you sing is about $0.25, although some of them are $0.50. So even if you sing 20 songs, that's still only $5 and over an hour's worth of entertainment. Affordable and enjoyable, best of both worlds!

2. Claw Machine (인형뽑기): My favorite thing to waste money on in Korea doesn't even guarantee an end product. It's the stuffed animal claw machines that I rarely see in the US anymore. In Korea, however, there are entire rooms dedicated to these claw machines, in addition to a variety of selection at arcades. For me, the problem is when I first grab the stuffed animal, I do really well. I bring it really close to the drop box. But then that's where I struggle and spend 1000 won bills (similar to $1) one after another.

3. Street market (시장): So when I got notified that I didn't get a dorm assignment at SNU for the semester, I found a place to stay in a place called Nak-Seong-Dae (낙성대). At first, I was honestly kind of peeved because dorms are SO much cheaper, SO close to campus and just convenient as an exchange student. However, I'm so thankful now that I have my own place in Nakseongdae. There's a street market less than a 10 minute walk from my house filled with traditional Korean foods such as rice cakes and street foods such as spicy rice cakes, fish cake, kimbap, etc., fresh baked bread, even Japanese takoyaki, baked chestnuts, fresh fish, butcheries, sashimi and family owned restaurants. It's such a unique experience walking down the street with grandmas smiling at you that give you a few more pieces of spicy rice cake or people shouting out different prices for fresh fish.

...continue reading "Top 5 Things to Do"

Something that I've felt from the first day at Seoul National University is how crazy smart everyone at this school must be.

If you aren't familiar with how college applications work in Korea, basically there's this one test that you study for your entire high school career, called soo-neung (수능). It's kind of like the SATs in the US, except far more difficult and important since it's literally only given once a year so if you don't do well and want to re-take it, you have to wait an entire year. I've looked at the practice tests for the English portion, and honestly I don't even know what they're talking about. Additionally, unlike the US where nearly every school boasts about their holistic approach to scanning applicants, Korean universities rely heavily solely on the soo-neung score.

This is a topic that has been on my mind a lot recently, since this year's soo-neung was supposed to be last Thursday and all the convenience stores had huge gift selections to I guess either celebrate or console the kids that just took it. Unfortunately, there was an earthquake in the southern part of Korea the day before so in an unprecedented fashion, soo-neung was pushed to this week; this actually presents a greater problem because I've heard many high schoolers book legendary trips for after taking probably one of the most important tests of their lifetime but now they probably have to pay $100s to reschedule their flights and hotels...

...continue reading "Academics in Korea and SNU"

By jlee4946

As long as I can remember, I loved the metro (or the subway or WMATA or whatever else you want to call it). But I always hated taking the bus. Actually, more accurately, I'm scared of the bus. They're both forms of public transportation, but the main and most important difference is that the metro stops at every stop while you need to tell the bus to stop at the correct stop. As a result, I would always just take the metro even if it took longer than taking a bus.

However, things changed when I got to Korea and my roommate nonchalantly mentioned that to get to school everyday I would have to take 2 buses. I take the town bus #4 then transfer to #2. Now at first glance this doesn't seem too hard, but as my friends know from my daily Snapchats of me just barely missing the bus, this bus journey can take anywhere between 10 and 30+ minutes.

Nowadays, I don't mind taking the #4 bus because much less people take it and I can always get a seat. But the #2 bus is the one that apparently the entire school takes. During busy hours, it gets to the point that honestly, if you lose your balance you wouldn't even stumble because there are so many people squished together. It gets to the point where since the doors don't close if people are standing on the steps, people literally hang off the bars that are meant to just be held to stay balanced to ride the bus.

Okay, so you say, "Well yeah, it's Seoul with 10 million people." Alright, so it is. But something I genuinely worry about is if you're standing on the bus and the button to stop the bus is too far, what are you supposed to do? Do you try and reach the closest one? Do you ask someone to push it for you? But what if everyone around you has earbuds shoved into their ears? And better yet, if you're in the middle of a crowd, how are you supposed to get off when the doors open??

...continue reading "Overcoming fears…taking the bus!!!"

Hi everyone!

This week I wanted to talk about something that's a little more personal.

My parents immigrated to Boulder, CO for their graduate studies and that's where my brother and I were born and raised. Although that means I grew up without ever really having family nearby and only saw my extended family 4-5 times when we took family trips to Korea, my parents did their best to raise my brother and me in a traditionally Korean household. That meant Korean food, speaking Korean to my parents, celebrating Korean holidays, etc.

When I was younger, I didn't really have a problem with saying that I was Korean when I was in the US and saying that I was American when I came to visit Korea. Because for me, that's what I was - Korean and American, just situationally I would identify with one more than the other based on what I knew people assumed.

However, now that I'm older and have a more solid understanding of my identity, there have been scenarios that have been more difficult to answer during my current stay here in Korea. At first, based on the way I dress and do my make up and hair, people could definitely tell that I was not from-from Korea. But they recognized that I was Korean, because when I walked into stores or cafes, the employees would greet me in Korean. Now that it's been a little over a month in Korea though, I've figured out how to assimilate more and as a result, came across some more unique circumstances.

...continue reading "Korean? American? Korean-American??"

By jlee4946

Having been born and raised in a traditionally Korean household, there weren't too many things that were culturally shocking when I arrived in Korea. However, since this is my first time really living in Korea for an extended period of time and not staying with relatives, I've gotten to know what it really is like living in Korea. I didn't think there would be such a difference but I now have many things to thank my Korean roommate for.

One of the biggest differences for me personally is the complexity of dealing with trash in Korea. For one thing, there are no trash cans around the city! People just carry their trash all the way home. And some stores/restaurants even have signs saying not to throw away trash that you brought in from outside. Though somewhat annoying since my bag ends up holding all my trash, at first I thought it was a positive thing because maybe people would feel more responsible with throwing away their trash instead of littering. I commented on the lack of trash cans when speaking with a Korean friend from Seoul National University, and he seemed surprised, as though he never really thought about it. But in his case, he remarked that maybe if there were trash cans in public, there would be even less trash on the streets which I thought was interesting since his view of it was so opposite from mine.

But wait! I can't just come home and put my trash from my bag into the bin. I don't live in the school dorms so I'm not sure how it works over there, but people here are really good at recycling. Maybe I've just been slacking off in my recycling habits back at home, but in the US I sort my trash into recyclables, such as plastic and cardboard, and then everything else is just regular trash. And the trash bags in the US are those huge white or black ones that fit over the huge rectangular plastic bins that you and your roommates watch fill up, hoping someone takes it out eventually.

...continue reading "The Unexpected Struggle"