Visa and Classes

Good news! My Korean Visa is now in my hands! The process to get it wasn’t too difficult, but it was nerve-wracking because I was so afraid I would forget something important! I did forget to sign my certificate of acceptance from Sogang, but I was able to sign a copy and then fax it to them, so it wasn’t a big problem.

I also scheduled my classes last night! I’m taking a 12-credit hour korean language course, and then a 3-credit hour course that has something to do with Korean, i don’t really even know.

Making Progress!! ^.^

Asiana Airlines Crash

Yesterday, a plane landing in San Francisco crashed. It seems two people have been reported dead and 181 injured, which is miraculous considering that the plane was carrying about 300 people. I was texted by both my mom and my friend who I just booked Asiana plane tickets with. I'm so glad to hear that it seems the human damage has been minimal and I'm not concerned at all about my flight with Asiana, it seems they have a good record. This incident sounds like human error, which is something that can happen in any plane, any car, any bicycle, you name it. But I'm incredibly sad for the two victims of the flight and hope that all the injured recover quickly.

Please keep the people of Asiana Flight 214 in your thoughts.

Application Process

So just talking a little bit about the program I'm going to be participating in...

I'm doing a year-long exchange program between OSU and Sogang University (which is in Seoul, South Korea.) That means that I'll pay my tuition to OSU but then all the living and travel expenses separately while I'm attending Sogang. In return, a Sogang student will pay his or her tuition to Sogang, but then attend OSU and pay his or her living and travel expenses while in the US.

Basically, in order to become a participant in this program, all I had to do was fill out an application on the OSU website. I was accepted by OSU fairly quickly, but then I had to apply again this time for Sogang. Basically, students apply to their own school first and their school accepts them if they have the necessary prerequisites and high enough grades. Then the students have to apply to the foreign university. This is because there are different numbers of students who want to study abroad at each university. For me, the application process was not very stressful because my advisors told me that there were a lot of students at Sogang who wanted to participate in the program than at OSU, so Sogang was limited to how many students they could send by the number of OSU students who wanted to go. For my specific program with Sogang, I think there are only 3 girls who applied, including myself. Which was great for me! But I bet it really sucks for the Sogang kids.

For the actual application to Sogang, I needed to send in my transcript, a paper application, some passport-sized photos, a copy of my passport, and a current physical with TB test. So all in all, there wasn't a whole lot to it. Unfortunately it did take quite a bit of time for Sogang to process the applications. We were told that we'd be accepted by the middle of May to middle of June, so of course me and the other girls were all ready at the end of May to get our acceptance and work on visas and plane tickets and what not! So of course, we waited around for 3 weeks until they came in the third week of June. V.V'

But after that, one of the girls who is in the same program as me bought plane tickets together (so that we'll be able to fly together) and now we're working on getting our visas and finding an apartment! yayyyyyy~

Culture Shock!

I don't leave for Korea until August, but I wanted to make a post about the culture shock that I've experienced just being here in the US so that I can compare once I get to Korea.

The biggest culture shock for me was  living with my two friends from China during May. We all took a one-month may-session class, and I was so lucky that they happened to have a spare room in their apartment and were willing to take me in! I was very close to both of them before moving in together. Wenxi is like an older sister, and Kai is my best guy friend in the world. Being so close to them and being familiar with Asian culture, I was not expecting to experience any culture shock, but I definitely did.

I came in realizing that they have different habits and ways of living than I do, and I'm fine with that, i think it's great. I figured they'd do things their way and I'd do things my way, but I underestimated the pressure I'd feel to conform. Which is silly, because they're my friends and they love me no matter what, but when you're  used to doing something a certain way, I guess it's hard to accept that it's not necessarily the right way, and that there is no right way.

From my first experience, culture shock didn't hit me right away, it was something that just slowly built up out of little, silly things. For example, I drink ice water and I also drink water with dinner, and I've been told so many times by my Chinese friends that that's unhealthy.

Also, my friends were both good cooks, so they always tried to cook for lunch and dinner. (I can't really cook, so my job was dishes.) At first I would try to eat lunch with them because they went to the effort of making it and it was always so delicious, but I'm just not used to eating a large lunch. I'm used to cereal for breakfast, a bagel for lunch, and then something substantial for dinner. I finally had to tell them that I couldn't eat lunch with them any more because I would get so full and it would make me sleepy and I'd end up taking a two hour nap in the afternoon!

Another experience I had was that my friend had a bad heachache. She was complaining about it all day, so finally I asked her why she doesn't just take advil or ibuprofen. Her view was that she didn't want to because there was probably a reason why she had a headache and her body was trying to tell her something. This is something I've never really considered. I've been prone to headaches since I was young and we've never found something specific that causes it, I'm just sensitive, so I'd rather take an ibuprofen then deal with a bad headache. But once again, this isn't something that makes me right or her right, it's just different views and different habits.

The last big shocking difference that I'll mention here happened when I was walking with my two roommates from our apartment to the bus stop. It was sunny outside and I was wearing a tank top and had forgotten to put on sunscreen before I left the apartment. I always carry sunscreen in my bag during the summer so I took it out and put some sunscreen on my shoulders and chest/neck area. Kai commented that, "If you do that in front of Chinese guys, they'll be shocked." I was confused, but both he and Wenxi agreed that putting on sunscreen in public the way I was was a bit risque. I even asked another Chinese friend about it the next day because I couldn't believe it and he agreed and said that you should go to the bathroom to put on sunscreen. I suppose if I'm ever in China (and even probably next year in Korea) I'll be conscious of this and excuse myself to someplace private to put on sunscreen, but this was a view that was extremely shocking to me. I'll admit that I couldn't help but judge this as ridiculous, but it is just a culture difference and I have to remind myself of this so that I don't let myself get offended. I've never been described as a very laid-back/open person, so sometimes when my friends from other cultures describe me as such because I put sunscreen on in public or because I sit in an un-lady-like fashion, it's very strange to me. (Though I'll admit to being very open with Kai and Wenxi because we lived together and they're like family to me. And in my family, that tends to include changing clothes in front of each other and walking around in nothing but underwear and oversized t-shirts and booty shorts.)

That's all I have to say about culture shock for now. I'm sure there will be many more posts on it yet to come!