A snapshot of studies in South Korea
“It’s about my skin of the thumb feeling fresher air, my hair tasting saltier water, my stomach digesting something indescribable or my foot sweating differently.”
Oh, Korea! It’s seems that foreign peeps begin mumbling this phrase the 
minute they cross this right#your#own#adjective land of South Korea. I am still not sure, whether your tongue picks up the sound oh because Koreans wow every time they hear a piece of news or either because of its contrasts that are more vivid than the gap between black and white. Either way, oh Korea became all cozy in my vocabulary pretty quickly.
My very first out loud wow made an appearance not because of some typical Korean stuff. It simply happened here. By some mistake (or, as I believe, not mistake at all) during the first week of classes at Kyung Hee University I was sent to take a subject out of my study program. When I opened the classroom doors, one by one my new classmates were presenting their nationalities from places I’ve never thought could fit in one room. Ecuador, Nigeria, Iran, Laos, Guatemala, Philippines, Rwanda, Afghanistan and many more.
No one from the same country, same culture, same language, or at least similar taste of food. As I discovered later, it was quiet tricky to choose a dinner place for class gatherings as all of them shared very diverse diet habits (mostly imposed by their religion). Apparently, I was the only European here. Just imagine my surprise when lecturer was amazed to have a Lithuanian at his class. What about the rest of the world listening to your speech, professor?
Suddenly I felt a magnificent vibe dancing around us. How one could describe the feeling, when we rewarded each other with same different smile coming from mixed shapes of eyes, spoke one language accompanied with exotic accents and were sincerely thankful to our parents, rich husband or God to be here? I could scent myself smiling inside having this complete fullness: me, world, here, now, right, one. Do I know you? No, but so nice to meet you. It’s not only the words made from some approved letters that my type of society uses to be polite. It is so REALLY nice to meet you.
The reason I am sharing this non-Korean but still Korean experience, is for you and me to remember the feeling when we step out of the comfy I am local life back home and decide to open it for strangers. For you to stop waiting, for me not to look back. For us, just doing it, whatever that “it” would be. It is not all about pleasantness; I guess we can experience more of that back at mothers place instead of living with cockroaches (like I did while staying in Korean dorms). It’s all about moving along world’s borders to discover something that you never looked for specifically, but became so happy once you found it.
