I'm home now, and I hope you enjoyed my little updates. I had an incredible time, and returned with fond memories from a beautiful country with a kind, outgoing, and welcoming people.
I thought you would enjoy this final list of various experiences to savor and to avoid should you ever travel to Korea, wish to laugh at or with me, or just hear a few last stories!
THINGS TO AVOID:
1. Toilet Slippers: These are rubber slippers that everyone is meant to wear while in a home bathroom. Before walking into the bathroom during the homestay, I took a moment to consider whether or not to wear these, as I was not totally convinced by the concept, and they looked far too big. But, throwing caution to the wind, I decided to immerse myself in all aspects of the culture, and so I slipped my feet into them. Recall that all the water from the shower leaks under the shower door, and you will not be surprised to hear that I went sliding down across the floor, the toilet slippers staying grounded for only a second, and before I knew it, I had righted myself once again, slightly disoriented and slightly farther from the part of the room where I had been just moments before.
2. Taking a run while jet-lagged: At 6:30am on our first morning in Korea, my friend Sarah and I took a run around the campus. Since we were still tired, plus had jumped 14 hours into the future, we decided to just take a short 30 minute run. We made a big deal about remembering each turn so that we could make our way back, but got caught up in our explorations and found ourselves turned around. We passed the same security booth 5 times, each time running past from a different angle, with confident smiles on our faces and polite nods to the amused guards. If you hadn't guessed, we did make it back, just a half hour later than expected, but we knew the campus and that area of Seoul inside and out afterwards!
3. Allowing the person next to you to lift up the arm rest on a 14 hour flight: On the flight home, my goal was to speed through my summer reading work, then rest and chat. I was in the middle seat in the middle section of the plane with a slightly larger woman on my right. She asked if she could lift up the arm rest between us, and I said yes. Big mistake. She proceeded to turn around to talk to the person behind us, slowly taking up more and more of my seat until I was practically sitting on the lap of my friend next to me. By the 10th hour, I had had quite enough of this, and when she put her neck rest on my lap while she bent down to look for something in her bag, I quickly and casually put the arm rest back down, and all was once again right with the world.
EXCEPTIONAL EXPERIENCES:
1. Hiking a mountain in line with a large group of people: Huge groups of hikers are not normally my thing, but somehow it still felt peaceful to hike in the middle of a crowd of fully equipped hikers, all out enjoying their surroundings and spending time with friends doing what they love to do. The shared appreciation for nature extends between cultures, and even though we were the only non-natives there, other hikers took the time to point out trails to favorite destinations that we might not have otherwise found.
2. Being taken by the hand and led into a place of worship: I had just come across a mountain temple on a run, and was standing outside looking in. A woman approached, waited while I took off my shoes, and led me inside. We sat together in the temple, sharing the silence and finding a connection, however brief, through this meditation.
3. Discovering the city just as it wakes up, and discovering a friendship at the same time: No experience parallels a run along an unknown street, looking ahead as the road before you opens up through the morning fog. I moved fast, eager to discover what I might find, whether it was a temple, a village, a smell from a dried fish store (causing an increase in pace), or a pedestrian smiling and applauding as I passed. I formed friendships with those that I ran with, and developed a strong bond with my original running partner who I shared many similarities with and who was my perfect traveling partner as well.
4. Receiving a Korean name: Near the end of my homestay experience, Yejin and her friends wanted to decide on a Korean name for me. We were all riding on the subway, and as they swung back and forth on the handles, they pondered different possibilities, until they finally made their decision and started to jump up and down and cry out with delight. My name in Korean is Eun Sol Park, or "Silver Wind." Park is Yejin's last name, and they said that Eun Sol signified someone who is beautiful, smart, who has secrets inside, and who has many opportunities ahead. I was so touched by this, as I was by their hospitality and kindness while I stayed with them, but it still took me a while to adjust to this name, as we discovered as I failed to respond to it several times on the street, to their enjoyment as they called it out loudly next to me!
5. Hearing wisdom from my sponsor: The representative from the Korea Foundation spoke to us on one of our last nights, and if the trip wasn't a gift enough, he passed along knowledge to us as well. He ended by offering us a "heartfelt improvisation:" that the more rain there is, the more the rice grows. Hear this for what it means to you. To me, the message I find in it is that sometimes we are showered with goodness and opportunities, and other times we must face a thunderstorm, but either way, we grow and come out stronger, and our harvest is all the more abundant.
My journeys in Korea, although short, were very meaningful, and I returned not just a more confident traveler, but also strongly influenced by the experiences I had, the people that I met, and the elements of Korean culture so graciously shared with me. I am so grateful for this opportunity and for all that I have discovered about myself and my own culture through what I have experienced of others and theirs. Although Korea is a half a world away in distance, through shared experiences and understandings, we can become zero miles apart.
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