There are two “styles” I want to cover over this blog post. Let’s start with school.
“Class Style”
As you may or may not know, I go to a liberal arts school in Vermont called Middlebury College. I’ve noticed that my experience at Middlebury differs from those who go to large universities in cities through my friend’s stories of struggle. I don’t find it too difficult at my school. The classes I take as an English major consist of lots of reading, discussion, followed by many essays.
At Ewha, though, classes are very different. In my 17th and 18th century English Lit. class there, we had pop quizzes, no essays, and a in-class midterm/final. I also took a religion class, something I don’t take at Middlebury. My religion class was so difficult for me, because the quizzes and midterm were short answers (something that I am comfortable with) and fill-in-the- blank.
The fill-in-the-blanks didn’t have a word bank, so it was expected of me to study each word from the book we’ve read and try to write what the professor wants me to write. Call me spoiled, but I am not used to having all of that. My life was just reading and essays. But I understand; the classes at Ewha are 4x bigger than my regular seminar and professors just don’t have time to grade so many papers.
This is something I hope to grow stronger in next semester. My friend told me I have to handle this before the real world, and I kind of agree. We have to do a lot of things before the real world, and I am grateful to be doing some of it now.
“Seoul Style”
Like I said, I’ll be discussing two “styles” in this post, so here’s the second one: fashion.
I remember wearing a t-shirt, athletic shorts, and Rainbow sandals out during my first weeks in Seoul. That’s something I wear often in the U.S., because it’s comfortable. But I didn’t feel comfortable wearing that in Seoul, because everyone is so fashionable there.
I never know where the people of Seoul are going, but they look like their ready to be on camera.
My standards on fashion are so different and low, though, so my insecurities are more of a me-thing. I gave into these insecurities though and bought trendy clothes so that I could fit in with the crowd. And I think a lot of people in Korea want to fit in with the crowd. I’ve noticed that people have similar hairstyles, similar clothes, similar makeup. Not saying that they’re all the same, but it’s enough to think Maybe I should look like that. That’s something I don’t like to do, to feel insecure about the things I like, so I really want to embrace my individually next year.
One thing I did like though, was that this winter, padded jackets were a huge trend in Korea. I ended up buying one too and it’ll serve me well in Vermont.