Author Archives: Euntae Chung

My Summer break

Posted on by Euntae Chung
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After first semester at the International Study Center at James Madison University, there was one month summer break. I could go back to Korea and meet my friends and family. But I had been here for just three months, so it was too soon to go back. So I decided to go visit and stay in my relatives in New Jersey. This trip made my heart flutter.  Because this trip was my first travel outside of school, so I was excited and expected other aspects of America that I haven’t seen yet. I only stayed in University campus so I couldn’t say I experienced various part of America.

Also New Jersey is accessible to New York; I always looking forward to go to New York. New York is one of the famous and popular cities in America. One day while staying in America I want to visit and see why other people are so crazy about New York and what is so special in New York.

First day in New Jersey, honestly I was confused about the changed environment and meeting new people. My relatives there, they born in America and raised here, so apparently they are more American culturally. I can’t say they are American though, because they are also highly influenced by Korean culture too. So we have in common things and understand more easily than any other ethnic group that I met in school. But at first moment these in common point makes me stressed out. Since I came in America I had a language complex and the language problem was big issue for me. One of my desires was that I wish I could speak English fluently and automatically. So I was envious of the way they talk and sometimes feel small the fact that we are same Korean but our language was different. But later on I was getting used to getting involved with friends in there, and it was really good experience that I could learn more American culture and English. Also I could improve my English, I was exposed to English all day so English become more easy and I feel more confident when I am using English than the first beginning month in America. It was huge benefit to me, not only I could learn and improve English but also I could be comfortable in Korean culture too.

I finally went to New York and I was so excited that I could see in real what I only saw on pictures or television before. As I heard of New York that the place always fast and active, it was really true. There were always crowds and people looked busy for something. People in New York, they didn’t even hold the door open and they seems they only cares about their business. Seoul where I lived in is crowded and people in Seoul are hurry in something also, but New York has some special atmosphere that makes New York special and it was great to experience it. I had a wonderful time in there. I went to Broadway to watch musical ‘Mamma mia’ and walked around Central Park, Soho streets. I also went up to the highest floor in Empire State Building at night. It was nice to look down at New York’s night view.

I spent one month in New Jersey as one year. I met so many nice people and visited wonderful places in America. The most happy thing about this break was that I could saw various parts of America and feel that.  I wish I have chance to travel around another region in America in future. I can’t wait for next break to go look around.

Adjusting to foods in America

Posted on by Euntae Chung
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I want to talk about the food in America how I feel. Before I came to USA, one of the common advices what I heard most was watch out foods. Do not go to junk food restaurants then you will gain weight as fast as you can. In fact most of my international friends in America they said they gain more weight after they came here. Not only people came from another countries but also some Americans looks overweight. I can easily see obese people in the street. When I was in Korea, I barely saw the people who are that much overweight but since I came in here I can commonly see those people even though I am staying only in campus. I can understand why these happen in America and why obesity is the serious issue in US.

Typical Korean meal is rice, soup and Korean traditional food which called ‘kimchi’. These are the most basic and essential part of our meal and another side dishes are added such as meats or something else. But even if there are not that much foods for side dishes in the table, the soup and rice what we always eat are already nutritious and well made foods. The process of making the foods are not that simple.  Each of the foods need many nutritious ingredients and several stages are needed. However compared to American foods and my country’s, American foods don’t seem very complicated to cook. It’s very simple and fast made foods are common. And Americans prefer manufactured food so they can cook fast and easy. Of course in Korea manufactured food is popular but I think the problem is that they eat those food too often. In my opinion food has to be made by true heart but those fast foods don’t have that.

And another thing is the food in here are too salty or sweet to eat for me. Especially deserts like cookies or cakes are hard to eat even one bite. I can feel the sugars inside the food. Also I think the food in America has very large quantities. I went to ‘Smoothie King’ and I ordered small size of drink. When I got my beverage I was surprised about the size, because the small size in here are same as middle size in my country. Not only the Smoothie King but also another restaurants has large portion sizes to eat for me compared to restaurants in my country.

I am not vegetarian and also I am not the people who hate junk foods and fast foods. I really enjoy those meal sometimes but I think in America, too often it becomes the main dishes. But I think the foods we are comfortable with are also cultural and I can’t change the facts. Wherever I stay, and whatever the foods are, the important thing is my attitude and my selection of the foods. Now I’m trying to eat rather than fried foods cooked with bad fats such as trans fat, I find some fresh vegetables and eat well-balanced nutritious foods.

Do you have ideas on how to stay healthy and eat good foods?

My Dormitory Life

Posted on by Euntae Chung
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There is lot of changes in my life since I came to US. One of the big change is that I am living in the dormitory and share the room with roommate. First I was concerned about what if my roommate steals my stuff and invades my privacies and so on. I thought how can I live with total strangers and share the room. Even sharing the room with closest friends there are conflicts and annoying things happen because of different lifestyle. And for me I have to live with different nation, language and don’t know exactly what kind of person she is. On the other hand I think positively: if I share the room and stay all day with her then we become closer and closer and we can be  best friends with each other. 

With two sides of my mind I finally got to the room, and noticed my roommate was Chinese. I was really glad, because I expected that my roommate would be Asian like Japanese or Chinese. I thought living with Asian is more comfortable to adjust because we have more in common than non-Asians. Fortunately the thing what I worried about like stealing my things or invading my privacies did not happen at all. However there are, of course, some uncomfortable situation has occurred. For example we are sharing the bathroom so if someone is using then I have to wait for my turn until she gets out. It is not a big of the deal when I’m in normal situation but when I need to be in hurry it will be annoying. And another thing is when the bed time. Roommate and I have different sleep time so if I get to bed earlier than my roommate I have to leave the lights on because she is still in desk. Adversely, if she get in bed earlier than me I have to be careful about my behavior not to disturb her sleeping. Not only these things but also there are lot of things to consider such as opening the widows, turn the airconditioner, watching movies, talking on the phone, cleaning the rooms and so on.

It is not just my own place so I can’t act and stay as I am in alone. I have to regard my roommate’s situation and what she will think. I think that is the way not to make conflicts. And another way to avoid the conflict is talk directly what I don’t like about it and what I want my roommate should fix. Unfortunately I couldn’t do that because I thought if I tell her about that then it will cause more serious conflicts. But I realized that if you don’t have those conversations with then it can cause emotional conflict in myself about my roommate. So it is right way to talk to each other.

Sometimes I want to be alone in room. For me I like to stay alone in the room and feel free. I restrict in my behavior when someone is with me and that is different from what I am really like when alone. And I think everybody has different aspects from social aspects and the aspects when you are alone. Sometimes I want leave out and feel free but when I am in room that time are not allowed because of roommate. So to be honest, at that point I didn’t really enjoy a lot living with my roommate. So sometimes I considered living off campus.

But now my roommate move to another room and I am staying in the room by myself.  First time I was good but I getting feel like I’m in the island of silos. We had a chat and sometimes we order a delivery foods and eat together and go to restaurant to eat, go to shopping. Although I did not feel comfortable, we stayed with each other long time and we can observe each other’s feelings. The other day I was suffering from the homesickness, I didn’t told about it but my roommate recognized what I felt and she encourage me and I feel thankful to know about that. And now I really miss my roommate. Without family and friends in strange place, roommate can be a good friend if I made a good relationship with her. Now I regret that I didn’t try actively to get close with her.