Unforgettable Moments

Living life is just to experience it. Life runs orderly or in ad hoc is still unsolved mystery for me. I try to live orderly but circumstances do not let me to. May be everyone experiences the same. Each moment one should be ready to face some challenges.If one breaks through the challenges, he is ready to move in an order way for short period. Again another. It is somewhat order-ad hoc order-ad hoc in period.

I myself speculate to be with antagonism. I like to fly in the sky, build my home in the moon and want to stay alone in beach for months. It is only my fantasy as I can’t fulfill my desire in the same way as I hope. Every moment I have to compromise and struggle.

I haven’t been separated from my parents and family for such a long period। Oh! Korea, great! They have done a lot. I saw the peak of development when I first put my foot on my two years destination land. The airport was fully equipped with computerized surveillance system to monitor the activities of the visitors. The netted roads with clean and wide lanes all were new at the moment. It was the time of summer. There were yellow paddy fields on both sides of the road. The small mountains and the yellow paddy grains are my kins.

I am a kind of cool person who doesn’t care much about oneself for the oncoming circumstances. Though it was a kind of adventure in new world. I should be excited. It is my strange characteristic; I usually can’t express my excitement. It seems like everything is going normal. Sometimes my parents and friends worry with my behavior. They say that I can’t enjoy the moment. Any way my characteristics are developed from my childhood.

Going to the restaurant and asking for some food was a kind of battle in those beginning months. Particularly I am a non-beef eater and I use to avoid beef in my food. But eating beef is a kind of prestigious feeding habit here as it is expensive. Sometimes Koreans are kind enough to serve beef with the payment of amount sufficient to buy chicken especially for the foreigners like me. Me the poor guy; how can avoid it without knowing Hangumal.

Always carrying a diary and writing the names of the foods in my own language was my daily routine. One day I went to a restaurant and asked for fish. Because fish is my favorite food. “Please serve me the fish”, I asked her. She was surprised as she couldn’t understand. “Fishy fishy (in Korean accent)”, I again clarified. But she couldn’t get it. I took out my pen and drew the figure of fish. She smiled and said, “ah.................!”. This is really an unforgettable event.

At least I have avoided problem in dealing with waiters in these days. But I sometimes worry. If I were able to speak Korean well……. Any way I am not honest in learning Hangul. I don’t say I don’t care on language, but learning language needs interest, and necessity. If I would have strong desire and necessity I would have learnt more.

Koreans are good friends for me. Their country is highly modernized, and developed. But they still have preserved some social values which are difficult to find in most of the developed countries.

Every human are same. No differences in biological construction. Speciality is characterized by some of the simple differences.

Koreans are wise and hard working. They respect the elders. They have lot of formalities in their culture. They sit together for lunch and dinner. They share the food and dishes. In the beginning it was something strange for me. I have never shared dishes and food with other; even with my parents and my siblings. But here I did it first time. I didn’t care much about it because I was mentally prepared for the situation. Some day I talked about the dish sharing culture with my Korean mates. It was their culture which brought somewhat equal feelings among people. Otherwise I can’t imagine to share common dishes or to sit together in a sofa with my seniors especially in my office or with my professor or the boss if I were in my country. It is a kind of bad manner in case of our culture. But here the things are different. I felt bit freedom here because I can share a glass with my professor or I can frequently dance with his family.

One day my professor asked me, “Can you sing?” I said, "I can but I can’t sing in your language." He again asked, “Can you Dance?” I replied, "I can just try but I am not a good dancer as I have never danced before." Then he smiled and asked, “Then what can you do? You always study and write a poem?”

Oh god! He doesn’t know my homeland and my society. I was the guy who spent most of the time in urban area. I played football in a bare paddy field in the winter. That was the time when I was 14, or 15 years young boy. But as I completed my high school I rarely played. Sometimes I used to play volleyball in the university. I am a good Table Tennis player and a good player of Chess.

I like songs and dances. But I haven’t performed much in public places or in some occasions. Going to discotheque or night clubs is getting more and more popular in my country. But society doesn’t permit to do so because these places are most often considered to be the place for prostitution. I had never been to night club or discotheque in my life in my country. It is a strange situation to explain about it to my colleagues and my professor. So I realize they sometimes feel uncomforted of my behaviors.

I tasted alcohol for the first time in my life here. It is now a bit comfortable as I allowed entering one or two pegs of whiskey through my mouth. I don’t mind to join a dinner party whenever somebody offers me.

Every week my professor organizes dinner for all of our lab members. Most often there are drinking, singing and dancing. We use to go for trip with him. He is very kind hearted. Whenever he is free or he is alone in dinner or lunch time he invites us. His sociable attitude attracts me and makes comfortable to deal.

Without the companion of friends and professor I can’t imagine to stay in Korea. I am lucky in this case. Major part of my time used to be spent in front of computer. I remember those beginning days in Korea. I was the only foreigner in my lab. I felt like guest in the lab with every thing unknown. I was more conscious in talking with people or to use computers and stationery in the lab.

Usually in my country we used to have our separate group. When I was an undergraduate student, there were six or seven groups among forty students in my class. But I never liked such a groupism. It is natural to be together with the friends with common sentiments and behavior. But groupism to the extent where single meeting or dinner among the members is impossible is always unacceptable.

Thanks god. Koreans are nice person. In those days, they cared me a lot. They used to ask me for dinner or lunch every day or they offer coffee for me. How could I be adapted in new world without such friends? Impossible.