The Last Letter from Korea

The Story of You, Part 2.
Jay K.



Ep6. The Last Letter from Korea

I can’t believe this is the last letter that I’ll write in Korea. It’s already been three weeks. I went to many places, met many people, and took many pictures. It is not easy to summarize three weeks of experience in Korea.

First, I want to talk about “people”. It was really good to see old friends. I couldn’t meet many because many of my friends are in military service. I thought that it would be awkward to meet these friends whom I haven’t met for more than three years. However, it wasn’t awkward at all. I was so surprised that they haven’t changed much. It was like high school days again talking to them. The difference is that we are all now college students and more matured and realistic.




[This is the stream "Chung Gyea Chun" that goes through the city of Soeul. It was restored by the current President when he was the mayor of Soeul. I believe this is the greatest accomplishment of President Lee]



Numbers… I met seven different friends, three of them are from Berkeley and another three of them are high school friends, and one of them is my online friend whom I’ve known since junior high. I stayed for 24 days in Korea. I bought 110 comic books (new and used), I am not exaggerating or rounding up; that is the exact number of comic books I bought. I bought around 15 books, and 4 CDs. I watched movie twice; one of them was Kungfu Panda. I went to the pro-gaming stadium twice. I bought two pairs of glasses. I spent so much money I cannot tell you how much I spent. I took so many pictures I can’t tell you how many pictures I took.

Sometimes I was too busy meeting people and going to places. I couldn’t have much chance to think thoroughly. I think that it is really good to have a time to reflect when you travel. Without such time of reflection, the trip is meaningless. Writing this essay hopefully helps me to think about this trip and reflect.

I always think that my essays are unorganized and especially this one; but I already told you guys that it is not easy to summarize. Spending three weeks in Korea, I again realize that visiting someplace and living there is quite different. When I visited Korea in 2004, I hated it. Of course,
I was happy to see people and coming back, but I hated the feeling of visiting. I felt the same feeling this time too. I want to live here. I don’t want to be a visitor. I don’t know whether you guys can understand this feeling.






[me and my friend who's serving the country now. I purposly wore the che shirt]




[Political Science building at Korea University]




[The pro-gaming stadium. Commentators are in the middle. It was awesome watching "live" game]

I want to stop here. It is ridiculous to summarize experiences in Korea. Just read other letters I wrote and look pictures I took. I feel like that Korea is changing and growing every day so that it is hard to generalize. I want you guys to visit here once in your lifetime although I don’t want to visit. This is the last letter from Korea, although that’s not true because I am already in China writing this letter. Noel, my roommate, is silently looking at his laptop’s monitor while I am writing this.




[These are from the National Museum of Korea]