One month in Korea and thoughts before orientation.

By:

Brandon Morrissette

Published:

Countries

Demographics

Majors

Regions

I was privileged to be able to live with a Korean family before my university’s move in date. I say this because one can not seriously immerse themselves into another culture through books, television, or the classroom.
There is one particular day I would like to share. It began waking up early in the city of Daegu. My host father was taking me to nearby Cheongdu in order to pick some peaches. Cheongdu is a rural place with a mostly elderly population. It is off the beaten path for foreigners such as myself. It is absolutely beautiful, everything was green. The sun shone bright on the vast open space full of peach trees in-between the mountains.
My host father then took me to a restaurant followed by a cafe. The dish was kimchi jigae. When the meat and kimchi were gone, my host father filled my soup with 4 bowls of rice. 1 or 2 bowls would have been adequate. However, I did not say no. In this culture one shows love for another by force feeding them. My stomach looked like a watermelon, however, I was really happy.
Following that the family and I got together and went to a jimjilbang, which is a public bath. Men and women were separated. After that, the people including myself got completely naked. There were about 50 naked men sharing the facility. As a westerner, this was really odd and embarrassing. My host father washed my back in the shower. After this experience I feel no more shame.
Following the bath, the family and I went to a Buddhist temple. It is located on top of a mountain. The fresh air and the sound of running water was relaxing. At the top, we prayed to a Buddha statue. We also visited educational facilities and payed respect to sa ri. Sari are little stones left behind after a monk is cremated.
The day concluded at home. After dinner my host mother put tiny painful needles into the pimples on my face and back. Sometimes it felt like the needle would come out the outer side of me. Within 24 hours every pimple or zit were gone.
Pictures of this day will be uploaded, make sure to check them out please!

Brandon Morrissette

<i>*BASAA Scholarship</i> Anyong friends! I am Brandon Morrissette. I study Finance at Plymouth State University. In the past before college, I worked in the hospitality industry. I was born and raised in a small rural town in the far northern part of New Hampshire. I will study two semesters at Korea University in Seoul. My goal from this experience is to be able to read, write, and speak Korean language at a fourth grade level. I want to travel to all places in Asia. This is because at work I met many friendly, interesting people from that continent. I chose Korea in particular as the result of gentle persuasion from my Korean friends. My favorite academic subject is economics. When I am not studying for my classes, I enjoy learning about Buddha and Confucius. I intend on doing many temple visits. In Korea, I look forward to being reunited with a co-worker who is really dear to me and that I have not seen for 5 years. In addition to seeing old friends, I look forward to meeting many new ones. I also look forward to eating delicious food in Korea. It is possible that I love food because I did not have the best food when I was a growing up. After study abroad and graduation, my goal is to financially support my whole family.