Family reunion and arrival to Anyang

On Sunday, I was welcomed back by the extended Byeon family. The grandparents along with Uncle Josh's family joined us for dinner at home. We then opened the presents I brought from America. I brought games for the kids and shoes for Imo and my Korean mother. Everyone was excited to try the new games and the shoes were modeled with a lot of flair!

Jinyoung is now in middle school  and is still her calm thoughtful self. Eujin also hasn't changed.....he is still bombastic as a seven year old. It was fun to see how much they have grown yet how much they are still the same kids I played Jenga and went to Nami island with.

On Monday, I made my way from Seoul to my school in Anyang. Anyang is a suburban region just outside of Seoul. It is about 40 minutes from downtown by subway, which is much closer compared to the two and a half hour epic journey from SCH in Asan.

Anyang University is a school of about 8,000. It is located on the outskirts of Anyang city on a mountain overlooking the suburban area. It is also a Christian university, which makes it the first Christian university I have attended. The founder of the international student program at Anyang also created the international student program at Soonchunhyang, so I am curious to see what is similar and what is different.

Anyang

When I arrived, I went to the international student housing. The housing for international students at Anyang is a bit different from any housing I have experienced in my academic career. While I have lived in traditional "community" dorms in the USA and lived in a large suite style dorm at SCH, the housing at Anyang is a literal house where about 26 international students hold residence together. There is a kitchen, four bathrooms, six bedrooms that board anywhere from three to seven students, and a common area. In my room, I have two roommates: Emily from Missouri State (also from St Louis!) and Winnie from Tainan, Taiwan.

My room

The common room in the house 

In our international student house (the larger house of two for international students at Anyang), there are students from the USA, Finland, Spain, Mexico, Taiwan, Turkey, and Germany. It will be quite an adjustment to live in a cozy space with so many different people, but I like the sense of community this type of housing brings.

The kitchen

In the past two days, I have spent a lot of time with the returning and new students from Anyang. It's been quite interesting being on this side of the experience again as a "newbie" yet feeling very comfortable in Korea. We went bowling downtown Monday night and Tuesday we toured the city to get more acquainted with the area. We also went shopping on Tuesday at Emart for groceries, which was very exciting. It is nice after three years of school to be able to cook for myself in the place I live!

Tomorrow is orientation for the new students. I am curious to see how it differs from the orientation I experienced at SCH.

Hello from Korea!

I am once again blogging from the Land of Morning Calm! While I am a bit late on this first post, I will be more prompt as the semester progresses to share what I experience and learn in this last semester of undergrad.

 I arrived on Thursday evening at Seoul/Incheon after 22 hours of travel time. I flew from St Louis to Denver, Denver to San Francisco, and finally San Francisco to Seoul/Incheon. It was an exhausting day, unfortunately I have lost my ability to sleep straight through a 14 hour flight. However, I was able to catch up on a list of movies I have been wanting to watch. My favorite in flight movie while flying to Seoul was Argo, which was absolutely fascinating regarding the Iranian hostage crisis situation.

 When I landed, I was greeted by my Korean parents. Hyesun and Kyunghye were working so they would meet me at home later. As we drove to Seoul from Incheon, I was surprised that my prior expectations of feeling jubilant to be back in Korea were not apparent in the way I expected. For me, Korea feels like home in a different way than Missouri feels like home, so I felt more at peace than over the top, going to an amusement park type excitement. It feels very natural to be back in a constantly changing, fast paced culture. I was not expecting to have such comfortable emotions to the experience of entering Korea again, which causes me to wonder how things will be different this time around in my studies and experiences over course of the semester.

           Ancient Joseon Korea meets modern globalization in the form of Dunkin Donuts.

 When I arrived at the Byeons home, I was completely exhausted and didn't stay up in time to greet Hyesun or Kyunghye. I was able to meet their grandparents, who have recently moved in with the family from their country home in Busan. They are very sweet and were eager to cook me my first meal in Korea Thursday night. I woke up to greet Hyesun and Kyunghye, my Korean sisters who lived with my family in high school. We spent the morning chatting and catching up about all that has happened in the last year. Kyunghye is now in university studying to be a teacher. She loves the college life and is working two part time jobs to save up for a trip to Europe. Hyesun is working in a new job and was finishing a large project upon my arrival. Their younger brother Seungyoung is currently studying for the college entrance exam, the Suneung, which means that he will be gone studying from 7am-11pm.

 Friday evening I had dinner with one of my closest friends from SCH, Soko. Soko and I met while I was an exchange student and she began her graduate studies. She was an exchange student at SCH in her undergrad, upon completion of her studies in Mongolia she returned to SCH for graduate work. She is currently writing her thesis and working in Russian/Mongolian town in Seoul. We had dinner in one of her favorite Russian restaurants in Seoul with one of her friends. It was fantastic to catch up with her and to hear about her plans for her thesis.

 On Saturday morning, I met Patty, my Taiwanese teaching-assistant from when I volunteered to teach at a summer camp in Taiwan two years ago. It was perfect timing because she was flying out of Korea after a two week vacation back to Taiwan to begin her college classes again. I also met her friend who went to high school with her at Concordia in Chiayi. We caught up on all of her recent adventures (including a trip to the Gobi desert) and her studies in university. We also had the chance to reminisce about memories from the summer camp.

 Saturday afternoon, I spent time with another friend from SCH, Csilla. Csilla and I met when we both rode the bus from Seoul to SCH for the first time in our first semester. Since our time in Korea two years ago, Csilla has completed her studies in Hungary, worked for the Korean consulate in Budapest as a translator, and is now attending a university in Korea on scholarship. We talked about our reactions upon returning to Korea a second time.

 Today will be a large family reunion with Uncle Josh, Imo, Jinyoung, and Eujin. It should be quite an interesting evening as I see how the infamous Eujin acts now as a seven year old. Tomorrow, I am planning to travel down to school to move into my student apartment in Anyang.