Another month gone with no update, BUT I went to AMERICA in August!
I'm not sure what I thought it would be like to visit after a whole year away, but it was generally the SAME. (EXCEPT I got to meet my nephew, Avery, who was non-existent when I left last year!) Even the stupid MVA was packed with people on a random Thursday afternoon in the middle of the month. My first time driving after a year felt a little strange, but after the second time, it felt normal again..which is good because I spent a lot of time in my car during the 2 weeks I was there. Because my time was so limited, I found myself just running around trying to meet up with individual people which was kind of exhausting. It was nice to get to catch up with so many people though, even just for an hour or two.
After being in the states for just a couple of days, I found myself starting every sentence that came out of my mouth with the line, "In Korea...~" It was totally obnoxious, but I couldn't stop. Although I didn't really experience a huge "culture shock" when arriving in Korea, I experienced a sort of "reverse culture shock" when returning to America. Walking through the immigration gate in Detroit, the officer casually asked me, "how are you?" to which I responded "pretty good, how bout you?" Number 1) I was not good. I had just gotten off a 13 hour flight and was going on my 22nd hour of being awake. and Number 2) Why is this stranger talking to me? and why can I understand what he's saying?
I had a 4 hour layover in Detroit so I walked around the airport in search of food for a while. I was thinking to myself..I should find a "fast food" type place because it will be easier for me to order. Then I remembered, they ALL speak ENGLISH here duh. Also, the people in the Detroit airport all looked generally dumpy. I've gotten used to seeing skinny Korean people who look nice 24/7 (i.e.: Korean Air Flight Attendants who look perfect for 14 hours straight).
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| catching up with girlfriends |
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| of course I had to make a trip to Seacrets. |
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| I'm an aunt! |
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| family! |
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| my parent's new dog Igloo taking over my bed |
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| cutest nephew Avery! |
The main things that were AWESOME about being an American in America were:
-meeting my nephew!
-being able to read things in detail on the backs of stuff in stores such as TARGET and WALMART!
-being able to easily order food at restaurants and converse with the servers/not having to yell out across the room for some help
-being able to ask someone/anyone a question if I need to
-not getting mistaken for a true Korean and being given the Korean menu instead of the English one
-not getting stared at when people hear me speak English on the phone or in public
-eating A LOT of FOOD!!
Anyway, I had a great time at home, and I was not looking forward to coming back to school in the least. Luckily I had a few days to recover before school started. Now I've been back for about a week and a half, renewed my gym membership and am starting to get back into the swing of things. BUT next Mon.-Weds., I have Chuseok break! I'm going to Muuido with some friends this weekend and then I'll be in Seoul with SH's family for the holiday. Happy Chuseok yal!
