my first travel essay

So few days ago I've been working on a travel essay as a requirement to travel course program that worldnomads held. It is said to craft 2000 characters about my own experience on a place, and because I was too over-excited, instead 2000 characters, I crafted 2000 words essay.

yea I'm that sloppy. I couldn't even differenciate between characters and words ;~~~~; I shed tears when submitting my essay.. not that because I was too happy but because I was really really sad. The essay become mess! Since the deadline is too close so I decided to cut off like half of the essay I wrote before. Forced it to fit the characters, and it looks AMAZINGLY TERRIBLE, it didn't reflect the theme at all.

I kinda losing the hope of getting this rare chance, but who knows, maybe the judges see something that amazed them, only... IF ONLY.

Well if you wanna see my mess essay for the submission, please do visit this site. And here's the original essay I wrote couple days ago. Enjoy and please leave a comment about the essay, I'd really really love to receive any suggestions or criticisms, it'll help me alot for my next project :)

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"A Local Encounter That Changed My Life"

Sometimes the one who doesn’t seem to care at all could be the one who care the most. This probably applied to Korean people as well.

Early in the morning, when the sun has just rising, men and women, mostly workers, walk passed by on their busy steps, focusing only to a thing on their hand, whether it is a worksheet, a newspaper, or a hi-tech gadget. They didn’t even notice other person’s existance, a typical big city’s society. 

Only it’s fascinating on how these people could change on the other times and happens to be your old friend, grandparents, your mom, or just nice strangers you will remember for a long time.

The people are so nice, they barely understand English but when a foreigner need a help, they will be there and try to help as much as they could. If things get too confusing for them, they will try to find other person to help. Sometimes you could probably get ignored by a person, but that’s not always because they don’t want to help, it could be because they are shy or afraid of foreigners, not that they think of you as a bad person, it is more because they don’t understand English at all and has no courage to even communicate with  foreigners. 

At first, I thought it’s only kind of habits from their parents, they do a lot of thing in a traditional way but I don’t think they do understand the story or the meaning behind all that traditions because in this modern era, It should be hard to live upon the traditions especially the teenagers as new generation find it not really interesting to learn a thing about the culture but then I realize that I was wrong. This isn’t only habit but Koreans including the new generations actually still part of  the traditions, they clearly understand why they have to act politely to the elders or even to someone whom only 2 years older, calling each other with the honorifics, and above all of those matters, they proudly introduces and presents their culture to other people especially foreigners. the culture still exist and up until now they keep it alive. 

For example, most of the times the friendly koreans people would insisted to talk to you in Korean language, no matter how much you tried to show or explain to them that you don’t understand the language. They will use another way to talk about their country, sometimes using body languages or just telling you several korean words that actually name of places you should visit. 

If you happen to say you love their country to a local citizen, be sure to see their reaction, you wouldn’t want to miss a good thing. They will get all excited and start to ask many questions about your visit and things. Their eyes as they’re talking would sparkles in such a great way and that’s actually the most beautiful moment I have been witnessing my own for my time being in Korea. 

Another thing that could make foreigners amazed is how Korean people appreciate foods so much. They tend to eat all the dishes that has been served at home, dinner party, or even at the restaurants. It could be impolite to have leftovers on the plate. I got scolded few times because of them. One time, at a local restaurant, the cooks came to me, smiling, but I still can see the sad and disappointment looks on her face. She asked me why I did’t eat all the dishes and wondered if her food taste bad on me. I feel bad about it, I just knew koreans can be overly sensitive over food matters, but honestly it is quite hard to finished  it all because the portion way too much for me. Apart from the politeness, it is also because the koreans respect and appreciate all the peasants, fishermans, and another workers that works so hard to get all ingredients and served it as a nice and tasty dishes for them. 

Oh, have I told you it is common thing to be scolded by an elders in Korea? But of course, there are reasons why the elders scold someone, mostly because the person accidentally act impolite in front of them or other people. I have experiencing this moment when an elder suddenly spread a korean chilly paste on my dish and not only that, he also mixed it up for me and whining the words I don’t understand, he probably mad at me because I didn’t eat the dish in koreans way. I’m surprised at that time because it is annoying when someone messes up my plate but then I realize that he’s just want to taught me on how to eat the dish on the right way for the great taste. So, even if it is wrong because he didn’t ask for persmission before but I don’t think that’s a bad thing to do either.

Earlier I said the workers seems to put on serious face right in the morning, but again on the other time, a different sight appears.  At night, you could see a group of workers walking together after long hours of work quite often , sometimes their tired faces covered with smile or laugh once one of them cracking jokes. A very heart-warming scene to see at cold autumn night in Seoul. According to a friend, in Korea, the workers love to hang out together for a drink, dinner, or karaoke once or twice a month. 

The more I get to know the people the more interesting it gets. A korean friend told me that it is true they live in the modern era but they can’t just abandon their own culture and tradition because what makes them today came from the way they live in the past. No matter how much life changes, the traditions will still remain in their life as part of their personality.  

There are many things in this world we knew but only some of them we could actually feel and appreciate, and Korean people direct or indirectly showed me the amazing little things in life that could give me warm feeling which I barely ever noticed before.