One more month!

It has been 3 months since I have been in Japan. I am very glad to have lived here, but very soon I will say goodbye to my friends here and return to my normal life in American. Recently, when I was asked to write something to put in my neighbor unit’s wall, I wrote “only friends remain.” When we all return home, all we have left in Japan are our friends. The following day, one of my friends in that unit had taken of picture of my note on the wall and said it was really moving.

I had actually tried to extend my study abroad by a semester, but unfortunately I was not able to. The semester overlap for Meiji and New Paltz in the fall semester. Thus if anyone is thinking of studying for a year, start in the fall. Plus, because I only applied for scholarship funds for one semester, I will not be able to receive the same scholarships if I try to extend half-way through this semester. Thus, really consider if you want to do a semester or a year before studying abroad. For everyone, I recommend a year because a semester will go by quickly before you realize that there is not much time left.

When in Japan, I recommend going to a nomihoudai and tabehoudai, which are all-you-can-drink and all-you-can-eat for a set price and set time limit. I went twice with people from Meiji who have studied abroad at New Paltz. The second time I went, there was another student from New Paltz there who was visiting Japan for two weeks. Both times I ate yakisoba, okonomiyaki and monjya. I will cook those when I come back home if I ever miss the taste!

With friends from Meiji and visitor

At nomihoudai/tabehoudai

Unfortunately, my bicycle was taken away last week because I parked it by the train station. Usually in Japan, they will give illegal parked bicycles a red tag. After a day they would just take the bicycle. However, they cheated by putting both tags in one day. I had to go about 30 minutes away from where I lived and pay to get it back. My front wheel broke on the way home too. Once again I had to repair it. The sad part is that the money I put in for repairs and fine is more than how much I paid for the bicycle.

Recently, one of my friends ended up setting off the fire alarm at 8PM by baking pie. The whole time the alarm was ringing, but luckily my headset blocked off the noise for me. I was surprised to see that the unit next door had smoke blowing out of their door. Later I walked into that unit and opened the microwave to see for myself the charred pie. Everyone in the dorm was outside, and for the first time, there was a small sense of togetherness. Unlike the dorms in America, we do not have official events to connect each other. Thus, other people and me appreciated the fact that my friend set off the fire alarm. My friend was really unhappy because her mistake made police and firefighters come as well as disturbing everyone else. I attempted to cheer her up by inviting her to do fireworks. It might seem like a joke to invite her to something related to fire, but I really meant for it to be a way to remember what happened that day in a different way. After some persuasion and good timing, she eventually agreed to do fireworks with me and our friends and was not longer sad over about what happened.

That’s it for now, look forward to my next post!

-Sampson Bui

Tomorrow is the day

June 11, 2013

Tomorrow is the day that I am leaving for Ecuador. For the past couple of days, it has felt like the days were limitless.. but tomorrow I am getting on a plane, stopping in Panama City, and then I am actually going to be in Ecuador for nine and a half weeks! There are many mixed feelings, so many things that have been going through my mind about this trip: What is going to happen? I am going to get along with my host family? Will I be able to speak Spanish as much as I want to while I am there? Will I like all of the food? All of these questions are rushing through my mind like rapid fire even though I have already thought about them multiple times.

At this moment, it doesn’t feel like reality. However, tomorrow is the day…

Before the Adventure

June 1, 2013

Making the decision to go to Ecuador was not only time consuming, but it was a choice that I knew was going to change my life. During the past few weeks, I have been back and forth about my decision to go to Ecuador.  The reality of the trip seems unbearable to comprehend. I constantly need to remind myself that this trip is going to be beneficial towards my future career as a teacher and also that I am going to grow from the experiences that I am going to have. I have traveled before, but never like this. The amount of culture shock is not going to be as dramatic as is the time away from home. There have been times when I have really regretted this decision, but normally it happened during the late hours of the night. Key note: Do not think about your trip during the night time because your mind wanders, especially the possible negative aspects of your trip!

One of the main reasons that I have decided to take on this incredible adventure is the teaching aspect of the trip. It was the main reason that lured me into signing up. I am an Elementary Education major with a concentration in Spanish and I have a minor in Psychology, so this is going to be so very helpful.  I am extremely looking forward to teaching students, becoming their teacher, taking what I will learn and carry it with me throughout my future career as a teacher in New York, or wherever I may be when I get a job. I am curious to see the differences between the cultures, and the ways of teaching in the classroom as well as the curriculum. I am almost positive that if I am going to be teaching, I am going to be working with the English department of the school that I am assigned too. I hope that is actually what is going to happen. Otherwise I am assuming that I will be happy any placement.

The idea of leaving home for such a long time is the only thing that is holding me back from being 100 percent excited. The rest of the feelings are filled with curiosity and a strong drive to succeed this new challenge!

First Impressions and “Seoul Searching”

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The 14 hour flight to Korea was surprisingly short; I was able to sleep at least half the way, and it was super comfortable. If only. . . In all seriousness the flight crew was extremely polite, and once we touched down immigration/security were accommodating and helpful in getting me to the meeting area that Dankook had established. Getting in around 430, I found the welcoming committee (around ten Dankook students who, thankfully, were fluent in English). Although we had to wait for other flights (some of which had been delayed an hour or two) and got to the campus around 830, I had a surprising amount of energy (despite little sleep on the plane) and a group of fellow students (around 8 in total, myself included) went off to explore the town, the size of which I would compare to Syracuse (a bit more compact). Although none of us had an appetite at the time, we did manage to sample some of the convenient store snacks (7-Elevens in Korea have some really interesting options for food).

Day 2 and the morning of Day 3 were reserved for orientation, but several groups decided to venture out to Seoul. First of all, the public transportation buses have features that you would find in “charter buses”: nice seats, televisions (nice flatscreens at that), window curtains, and controllable air conditioning. The ride was roughly 35-40 minutes, and soon we found ourselves in Myeong-dong (a section of Seoul that I would say is a miniature and again, compact, Times Square). Food (both in restaurants and street vendors) was delicious and fabulously inexpensive; the photo of food shows a meal that I purchased for only 8,000 won which would equate to around $7.50. I was also brave enough to try a packet of dried/roasted squid,which coincidentally is now my favorite street food (so far).

Restaurants in Jukjeon have been very patient (so far) in helping the foreigner students in deciphering the few menus that don’t have pictures/ Romanized spelling of items (which for the most part are cognates of American food). A key difference here that I have noticed is while the food is very spicy (which back home I can handle without a problem), the meat is almost always sweet. It was quite a surprise when I bit into “Koreanized” fried chicken and found that the meat was neither savory nor salty. As a “foodie” however, I am quite excited to discover more novel flavors!

Tomorrow I begin teaching Korean college students, so stay tuned, I will report back soon on my progress!

Korean phrases I’ve learned so far: Hello, Thank You, Goodbye, and “Can I have a water please” (the food is SUPER spicy, and yet sweet at the same time)

Photos: The view of Jukjeon (town where Dankook University is located) from the top of campus;  Delicious Bibimbap; view of Myeong-dong; Statue of Dankook’s mascot.

Mid-term

It’s already been two months since I studied abroad. I know that the school semester has already ended back at New Paltz. I hope my friends back in the States enjoys their summer break. There is still two months left of my semester, meaning my summer vacation will be only be two weeks long to make up for my long winter break. I have also just took some midterm exams and have some papers to work on. As of right now, I am mentally preparing myself for coming home.

I have not been updating this blog recently because a lot of things have been happening. My mood was also terrible for a while until a week ago. You can sort of tell how I felt by how looking at how messy my room was. I have cleaned my room, and the way it is now reflects how I feel now.  I am fine and will continue blogging! I expect a lot of happen by next week, so expect another entry soon.

As for life in Japan:

I bike to Don Quijote or “Donki” almost everyday by myself or with a friend sitting on the back to buy various things. Donki is a chain store in Japan that sells various things for probably the best prices in Japan. It helps to think of it as a Walmart. I just recently bought a mahjong set from there to play with my friends here. The irony is that we play mahjong with Chinese rules in Japan because none of us are familiar with the Japanese rules. Donki also sells fireworks, so my friends and I occasionally light them.

My favorite store in Japan!

The best supermarket chain in Japan is Seiyu. Usually, I go to the Seiyu a station stop away from where I live to buy groceries if I am looking to save some money. They reduce the price of meats that have been sitting for a while, so I tend to buy those and use them right away. Based on my experiences, Seiyu also sells the cheapest bananas in Tokyo! Fruits in general are very expensive in Japan because people have to subsidize the farmers.. For example, one apple costs around $1.50. One of these days, I will visit the country-side of Japan and buy fruits directly from farmers because they will be cheaper. Until then, I will be eating tons of bananas.

Rakuten is my recommended place for online shopping in Japan. You can use the website in English and other languages, but since the site uses a translation machine, you might not always get what you searched for. I learned from my Language and Culture class that the CEO of Rakuten has made it mandortory for their employees to speak English. The idea is that doing so would allow for Rakuten to expand its business and profits. Perhaps I might still use it when I come back home.

If I am not cooking at home, I am probably eating at my school’s cafeteria because it is cheap. The food there tastes better, but is much more limited than the food we eat at New Paltz.  The ladies serving the food at my campus are also very stingy, giving only one piece of meat or taking back rice because they gave a bit too much. The food at my school’s other campus tastes better and is cheaper than the one I go to unfortunately. They are all run by different companies. The choices are usually some form of Japanese noodles such as soba or udon, some form of Chinese noodles, Japanese curry, Halal style curry, pasta, and two different types of rice dishes. After a while, eating at the cafeteria gets tiring because the food is not accompanied by yogurt, or fruits. Also, it is starting to seem expensive because they are not giving enough meat! Although I always complain about Hasbrouck food, I appreciated the freedom that the dinning hall offers.

My seminar and me meeting up for dinner at the school cafeteria~

Ah~I am looking forward to coming home.

-Sampson Bui