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. .

Cards

Postcards: sent postcards to my siblings. As I wrote them, I thought about how long it had been since I had seen them. It made me realize how much I miss them in my daily life. Why doesn't R come in my room and lie on my bed to talk to me while I do homework? Why doesn't J talk to me nonstop about camera lenses and why can't I hear N's singing from the bathroom. Why can't I go to Z's room to talk about schools and why can't I find it in myself to criticize my parents for things they did or didn't do anymore.

Thank You Cards: sent thank you cards to PBVS administration. 

KB Card:  I was walking to the subway station and found a credit card on the sidewalk. I remember learning about hashavet aveida, returning a lost object, in Talmud. Can you hide yourself from the object to avoid the responsibility to return it? What about if the cost of returning it out values the object itself? How do you know if the owner will not come back to the same spot to look for it? I decided to take it and send it to the address it had posted on the back. While at the post office today I successfully sent the card. Mitzvah points 

학생 카드, Student Transportation Card: finally got my hakseng card. Discounted subway fares are going to be a huge plus.

A minimum fare card: K and I once went to a cafe. We were about to pay at the register when a man offered to pay for us with the request to pay it forward. As I was talking to the customer service man at the station getting my student card, a foreign woman's card didn't have a enough money on it to go through. The man took her card and said," 200won." As the woman rummaged through her purse to find two spare coins, I remembered I had that exact amount of change from the post office. I quickly took it out of my pocket and handed it to the man. The woman, who looked like she could Middle Eastern, looked at me and said, "really?"

Hope the credit card gets back to its owner safely. 
Cards ready to be sent



Silvia by Miike Snow