As I write this I have been back in the US for a few months. Being back here is weird. I am loving being back with my family, but I am really starting to miss my friends and life back in Korea. it does not really help that I see them talking over social media about thing and realizing that I am no longer apart of it, that there is nothing I can do about feeling left out (because I am not there obviously), but it still stings.
It is like there is a constant ache in my chest that I am slowly learning to live with. Everything can relate back to Korea. All the differences between my two countries is glaringly obvious, but at the same time interesting.
Food: American food is blander and does not have as much flavor in some regards to Korean food. I guess it is more like the Korean food has the tastes of the individual flavors, but they all blend with the taste of the dish in general, where as American food really is mono-flavored but has notes of flavors, like the tangy-ness of mayo or the creaminess of cheese. Korean food is also fresher and more colorful.
People: Not going to lie, the first things that I thought of when I landed in Dallas was that the people here in America were bigger. Now I am not saying bigger in the sense of weight (even though Americans are a little heftier than their Korean counterparts) but rather the people were bigger in the sense that there was more diversity. Different skin tone, hair, clothes, facial structures. Everyone was so tan and so laid back and casual than the people that I saw in Incheon. There was so much diversity that when I looked at a crowd of people, everyone stood out and screamed for my eyes to look at them. Where as in Seoul, even though everyone was different, they wore similar pallets, the dark hair kind of blurred together in a soft calming way that was not as "harsh" on the eyes.
But the main thing that I realized was small talk. In Seoul, I did not have many strangers talk to me. Usually it was just a person trying to practice their English, but it only really lasted for a few seconds and then we went back to our own little worlds.
Social Interaction: One thing that I have had to deal with, now that I am back at school is that my way of interacting with others has changed. I am very aware of age and experience levels of everyone that I come in contact with, be it professors, fellow students, workers, etc. I have always been very polite person (in my own opinion), but after being in Korea for so long, I can now actively see myself changing my behavior depending on who I am interacting with.
Also the whole "small talk" thing is still a little weird for me. With sorority recruitment coming up, I guess I am going to need to practice with that, but I think I have gotten more shy about talking with people that I don't really now. I guess it comes from the fact that I am not really sure what to talk about; all of my American pop culture knowledge comes form two years ago, my school has changed and teachers that I took my sophomore year are teaching different courses or on sabbatical.
But despite theses differences, I am still glad that I was gone for the year. It really gave me insight to a culture and world that most people don't get to experience with a semester long exchange. I got to see all the seasons of Korea, got to experience all the major holidays. Would I change my mind about going for a year had I known that I would be having difficulty readjusting back to the US and my university, no. I believe that I made the right choice and would do so again in a heart beat.
