Friday, June 1, 2012

How it started

Hi,

If you are reading this, either you might be very lazy or you are interested in Korea or travels. What a good thing, nice to meet you :)

My name is Katherine and I'm from Costa Rica, if you don't know where it is located, I invite you to google it, it might be useful. The reason why I'm writing this blog in English, well first: more people can understand and be part of this, but the main reason is because I need to practice my writing skills (that's what my professor said, I don't like her by the way... she is a very bad teacher). Anyway, I hope I can add a Spanish translation in some post, and very later on, write just in Korean. That is my goal.

A little more about me: I'm on my twenties, Majoring in English teaching and translation, but I wanted to be a Veterinarian. I'm a dog lover, I still live with my parents (Mom's food, more savings :D ) Guess in the last couple of months I notice I'm crazy about visiting different countries, which worries me because it's an expensive hobby I might say.

Now about me and Korea

Well, I can't remember very well when all this craziness and obsession about Korea began but I do remember when I was a kid that my grandmother used to watch an Asian drama, she even cried watching it!! I used to sit down beside her and watch it as well, but I don't remember its name, I think it was Japanese.

After that, some other things related with Asia start happening to me. I continued watching dramas in a national channel, I swear I watched the Korean drama "ALL ABOUT EVE" more than 6 times!! and I just LOVED IT!! that's  when I investigate about the country it came from, I remember I love their names!! SungMi was one of them. I know you won't believe me but at that time I considered to adopt a Korean baby, I do still want to do that , but now it means more for me... I was years far to start liking Korea as I  do right now..

I have to mention I liked Anime, I watched a lot of them, my favorites uhmm Kaleido Stars, Full Metal Alchemist, Inuyasha, Dragon Ball and more. But I guess now I like more "real" things and also I don't have time to watch anime any more. I'm not fan of it now, that's it.

December 2010, after having a love deception I wanted to distract my mind, I ended up following my friend's advice and started watching "Boys Over Flower". -Oh Yeah! you loose me since the first moment, I know you understand me, I couldn't get over KimHyunJoong, what made me look for his band SS501 (yes, I'm TripleS). After that drama and the greenish feeling of being SS501 fan, more and more and more dramas and Korean groups started to make me a full KPOP and Dramas Addict, that's when my computer's memory started to loose the fight against hundreds of GB of information (not just my computer but also my smartphone).  I also lost that fight, but I don't complain about it at all.

After watching my first episode of BOF in its original language, Korean, I became crazy about it, "I have to learn Korean" that's what told myself. Guess I was really lucky, by the time I finished the drama I called the Korean Embassy and some Korean courses had just started weeks before. I did the impossible to get into one of them, and without even caring they had already 1 month of classes, I tried to keep up with my classmates and here I am! Five semesters of Korean classes after and with an almost 2 level in TOPIK (thanks to my bad composition skills TT.TT).

I had to say, Korean it the easiest language between Asian languages (the ones with weird alphabets), but as you know, to learn a new language means you need to commit yourself to study hard and to practice a lot, also you need a lot of time for that, which is very difficult, so in resume, yes! Korean it's difficult, but when you get into it you just love it and forget about all the rest.

After language what is next? I think it's food. Not to say I love Kimchi, kimbab, bulgogi, tteokbokki, japche... and the list goes on... the ones I don't get used to are: the ice cream with those sweet beans on it, and the soy soup :S

And the culture... but this topic it's related with another experience I had, so there would be a full explained post for that.

So, this is it, my story. Until now, 2 and a half years later I have traveled to Korea once, I went to one KPOP concert and I'm about to leave again in 1 month to spend a semester there. (Too happy about that)

This post was started last year by this time, but could not finish it until now. Sorry

I have a lot to write, JYJ's concert in Peru I went to, my trip to Korea, the contest, and my next experience.

 I hope you like my adventures in Korea.

Thanks :)