Feeling American

When most people start their vacation, what does Juho do?
Goes to school.

The second half of my Korean adventure started on Monay as classes finally began at Yonsei University. International Summer School: pretty much me and 500 Korean Americans. For fairness’ sake, there are a few people from different Asian countries and a handful of white Americans. But no worries, everyone seems really nice and I’ve made a bunch of new friends already. And of course I already knew many of the intern-kids beforehand. A lot of the bad stereotypes have also been broken, because there are a lot of actually intelligent and opinionated people. Most students in the summer program are from really good school such as UCLA or UC Berkeley. It makes me a bit jealous though, once I start thinking that maybe I could have gone to a school like one of those. But then again, there’s always the Master’s Programs. Almost everyone else is living at the International House dorms. I’ve decided to stay loyal to Ted and stick around at his place for the rest of the summer. I think I’ll get more out of Korea by doing homestay and not just only hanging out with Yonsei kids.

I’m taking Comparative Asian Economies, Mass Media in Korea, Marketing and Management Strategy and Korean for Beginners. All my courses seem really good so far. Having Korean in the afternoon might become really tiring at some point, though. I have class every day from 9 am to 5 pm. No lunch break. Thank god for kimbap, which is like poor man’s sushi, so rice and other mixed ingredients in a seaweed roll.

It’s weird, but here in Korea I have this new-found American identity. I notice myself becoming more and more Americanized all the time. Maybe it has to do with the fact that all foreigners are just naturally assumed to be American here. But hanging out with people from the States all day probably has something to do with it as well. As soon as I start talking someone says “Wow, you have no accent in your English” (meaning that I sound authentically American :D), to which I respond “Well, I spent some time in the States when I was a kid”, from which they presume that I actually am “American” and treat me as an equal. Even a Swedish girl who knew that a Finnish guy called Juho was coming to the same party as her, thought that I was American after I introduced myself. Apparently I was missing the “Scandinavian coldness”.