Email to Dennis Kim

This is an email that Torie and I just sent to Mr. Dennis Kim, I hope that he doesn’t mind that I am posting it on my blog. I forgot to ask if it was okay, but it takes so much to write. As the letter says, lately I am trying to study the language as much as possible. I really think that I need to understand the language to understand the culture. Does that make sense? I will write more ASAP, possibly later tonight.

If anyone decides they have nothing better to do than read my blog today, Friday, October 07, 2005, and they live in Cannon Falls. Either tell the football team that I say good luck, or if you’re on it, good luck! Congratulations Jordan and Whitney as homecoming king and queen. Steph, Jordan, and Travis, I wish I was there to pay three dollars and dance with all of you. Enjoy your dad, or if it’s finish by the time you read this, I hope you enjoyed it.

The email….

안녕 하세요,

Thank you so much for helping send Torie and I to Korea. She is here to write this email with me, but since it's my computer, we're using my email address.

First of all, so I don't forget by the end of the email, how do I renew my visa? It was issued for 2005/07/15 until 2005/10/15. I only have one week left before it expires, and I don't know how to renew it. Next week, which is already calling it close on time for me at least (Torie's visa lasts until early November) we are going to the immigration office to register. We have to wait until our sisters are done with midterms, so that they can come with us as interpreters. We also need to go to the Cheif of Immigration Office to register with them.  

School is going very well.  We are taking easier classes this term, and just trying to soak up as much language as we can.  Our classes are: Gym, Music, Japanese, Art, Chinese Calligraphy, and English (to help with the classes).  We also have a class of Korean everyday, just Kim and I, in the library.  We are being taught from a native Korean speaker, in is his first year of teaching, but things are going really well.  His class feels like the shortest because we are always learning something.  

We also take Tae Kwon Do almost everday at a really nice gym.  It is called Cho Taekwondo Academy.  It is very close to school.  Both Kim and I are yellow belts with a white line.  

Somethings here are hard to get use to.  We are never quite sure if we're being overly polite or rude.  In the first few weeks here, Torie would say 감사합니다 instead of 고마워 for everything, like when waiters would put some water infront of her.  Kim never knew when to bow at Tae Kwon Do.

It is difficult sometimes to separate your time between studying and having fun. But sometimes it will creep up on you when you are studying, that you are having fun.  And sometimes when you are having fun, you are still learning.  

Sometimes, Kim says, it is nice that her host family all speaks English.  Sometimes it is not.  Kim often is studying, and always has a korean book in hand. Kim's mentality is to figure out the Korean way of life.  She won't say the word until she knows it.

Torie is often found wondering the streets.  She always picks out a 'theme song' for the day, singing it when she thinks nobody is around.  She goes out there to soak up the Korean life. She will constantly butcher the Korean words, just trying to get them out.  

At school, everybody is busy studying for mid-terms, but we have found a variety of older people (and cute little Tae Kwon Do boys) to keep us busy.  We have been taken to the palace, Yonsei University, a Janese prison, and many other historical and fun sites that the city has to offer. It is both our hopes, to go out and visit the country before we leave.  Kim is going to Everland on the 15th, and is very excited about it.  We also might be going to go see the Women's Tae Kwon Do Championships.

When we both arrived, our sisters here were like seeing eye dogs for us.  Now we are both venturing out into the Korean world, trying to get our identities.  Life is difficult to get used to, but we wouldn't trade this experiance for the world.  

From this side of the ocean, (14 hours into the future),
Kim and Torie