Korean translation, 년[neon,nyawn]: year



Korean translation, 년[neon,nyawn]: year




To whoever is looking at this blog, know that while although one of the functions of this blog is to inform others of my time here, I also use this blog as a way to document what I am doing in Korea for myself. I do this so that come a year, two years, ten, twenty from now, I can look back and remember some of the the amazing people I met, the places I went and the meaningful experiences I had.

Why am I in Seoul, anyways?

Why am I in Seoul, anyways? I'm studying language in Seoul for the year through the National Security Language Initiative for Youth operated by the U.S. State Department. While in Seoul, I attend a local Korean high school as a regular Korean student and have intensive language classes three times a week at an international institute in Seoul. My school is a digital media vocational school. Both in school and in many other settings, I am often the only American they have met and almost always the only Jew. As such, I have an important role, not only as an American or a Jew, but as The American and The Jew. Because of this, I have been prone to some alarming, but insightful questions. Like when it was drizzling outside, weather that does not necessarily warrant carrying an umbrella, but being asked by my host brother, "Do all Jews not use umbrellas?" I am constantly being put in new situations. I make mistakes sometimes. Like when I clearly asked for "not spicy," however later realized, tears in my eyes, that the woman's shocked expression when I ordered "meh-un tteokbokki" was not from my Korean ordering skills, but was because I had probably been the first foreigner to specifically ask for the spiciest food on the menu. These year as the non-umbrella-carrying-spicy-food-eating-American-Jew living in Seoul has been exhausting and exhilarating, but a year of experiences I will bring with me for the rest of my life. .

Countries, Campgrounds and Cellos

Achasan Mountain with school

  • It was a fall hike, something I had been wanting to do before the trees were completely bare. 
  • Beautiful Dangpun (leaves changing colors) 
  • Went to restaurant afterwards with Chekuk and Minsu to have bean soup (find name and insert)
  • Walked around sangwapsimni area with CK after 
Camping with Grace and her family at chungju pampyeolotokempingjang 
  • Four adults, three young kids, Grace and myself 
  • Cold, cold and cold 
  • Beautiful fields of radishes 
  • Chestnut trees
  • Grace and I bought s'more ingredients and made s'mores with the kids 
    • What we envisioned: us sitting around the fire with the kids, teaching them how to make s'mores (it was their first time), singing songs and being happy. 
    • Reality: kids screaming for more marshmallows, crackers getting crushed everywhere and constant, "marshmallow mokoshipo, mokoshipo!! Gadi oppa! Grace unni!" 
  • We wanted s'more s'mores and then sadly realized that there were hardly any crackers left. In addition to the fact that although the kid's spoke English fairly well, they didn't get the s'more s'mores pun. nunmul (tears) 
Ganghwado with Digitech students 
  • Island were the West opened the Joseon Dynasty to the West. 
  • Joseon Dynasty had a policy of no trading with other nations, but the West forced them into an agreement to trade. 
  • French only recently returned many artifacts to the Joseon Library 
  • Saw many forts that were used to defend the Island and that resembled the forts I had seen in Puerto Rico (but on a much smaller scale, Puerto Rico's forts looked more like castles than forts). 
  • Was so used to seeing and hearing American praise for their part in the Korean War, but this was the first time I saw the West disparaged. 
  • Was able to go to an observatory overlooking NK. 
    • First time going with Korean students my age 

    • I was surprised at their reaction to seeing NK just across the river. Whereas I was and am always somber and solemn when talking about NK and especially when I am standing at such close proximity to it, no one I was with seemed to feel the seriousness or sense of urgency or call to action that I usually associate with the observations. 
    • I spoke with the teacher and he told me that because they are young, they cannot fully internalize or comprehend the idea that NK was at one point family. It has been that way since they were born and was that way since he was born, but the younger generation is less inclined to push for reunification because the emotional connection to a unified peninsula is either vacant or quickly fading. 
    • Going to the border with Korean kids my age, the future generation, gave new perspective to the unification situation.

  • Ate kalkuksu, a thick noodle soup in a Ganghwado market 
Thanksgiving Dinner at U.S. Embassy in Seoul 
  • Went with Jun
  • Was able to meet everyone else's host siblings
  • Took some pictures with the Obama's 
  • Thanksgiving history presentation...in Korean. My slides were about the foods on the first Thanksgiving table. 최초의 추수감사절 식탁에 무슨 음식이 있었는지 아십니까? chwehchoeh chusukamsahjole siktak eh musun umsiki isosnunji ahsupnika?
Digitech Orchestra Performance
  • Seoul Digitech High School's Orchestra performance 
  • Had a male vocal ensemble (not Digitech) with around twenty or so men singing together on stage. 
  • The woman who runs the Orchestra program at Digitech is actually from Philadelphia. We have spoken a few times, but I had never had the chance to see her play Cello. Pro.
  • Songs from Les Miserables, Under the Sea and the finale: Beauty and The Beast 
Seoul Independent Film Festival 
  • When I think of "independent films" I envision sitting in the lot in Puerto Rico where we watched Monty Python on a white wall and a blurry projector. The SIFM was in every way shape and form different. It took place in Apgujeong, a posh neighborhood of Seoul, located near the famous Gangnam area 
  • Chateau Chocolate, a cafe we read about online, famous for their specialty chocolate drinks