Homesickness is like rain falling against your window pane.
Sometimes comforting, sometimes sad, sometimes close, sometimes far away.
How funny, but right this very moment, all the people
we love are living lives
whether we can see them physically or not.
Although you live yours, you grow and learn and tumble and thrive,
they too are tumbling through life elsewhere.
Your loved one's life don't stop because you stopped seeing them.
A few days ago, I picked out handmade Korean cards and wrote letters
to some of the people I love.
I wrote my brother who's 18 year old a birthday note.
I reflected on friendships I've not checked in on for awhile.
I thought about the fact that long distance friendships are like
long distance love. I know without effort and love and understanding
they fade because no one is static.
And we're all moving and learning and growing in our space and lives.
How funny. Homesickness is like rain on a window pane.
[Music Playing]
Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
So today I don't have any classes, but I do have an assignment due and some things
to do. I'm up early. I'm just having my breakfast and then I'm going to head out
to my favorite place I found in Seoul and do some work.
This video is also very kindly sponsored by my absolute favorite
Skillshare.
Guys, I love this platform so, so much.
I just love learning in Skillshare. It just enriches my life.
It is an online community with thousands of courses on everything from
productivity to minimalism. It is a space to meet other like-minded creative people.
I just love it. On my commutes,
I'm currently watching Chidera, AKA the slum flowers, Skillshare course all about
confidence, self-empowerment and earning your authentic voice.
It's been really helping me when I struggle with imposter syndrome at uni.
The first 1000 people to click the link in my description will get a free
trial of Skillshare premium for free. I can't tell you how much I love them.
And I hope you find a course that helps you out.
There are certain environments which makes studying not a chore, but an experience
so much so that I truly loved studying.
Welcome to my favorite place in Seoul.
This cafe was introduced to me by my Korean friend.
And it's so hidden away, it looks like an office.
Normally, it's incredibly busy with Korean uni students reading books or working,
but I got there right as they open just to show you around.
Part of what makes it so special is that you have
to take off your shoes when you enter
I wandered around in my socks and
and admired the shelves of books and listened to the soft piano music.
All the books were in Korean.
which motivates me to want t o learn more Korean.
And the whole atmosphere makes you feel like learning is special.
Like you're in this safe space and environment of like-minded
people who just want to sit quietly and read about the world.
Welcome to my favourite place in Seoul.
So, I'm in this cafe, my Korean friend took me here.
It's so hidden. It's by the river.
It's disguised as an office and no one would find it. It makes me feel at home
because you have to take off your shoes.
The first time I came here there was just Korean students
lying here, sleeping, reading books.
I'm currently just doing my to-do listing process to fully
plan the day of a good mixture of academic work and essay due today at 4:00 PM,
which needs to be written.
Another writing project I'm working on that has a deadline of a few days.
I'm going to write a lot. And then exciting backend and community stuff
on the research challenge that I am doing. The research challenge is quite
experimentitive, so I've only really advertised on Instagram.
But the community who've joined are so warm. It makes me so happy.
I have midterm essays coming up.
So I'm currently writing political science essay.
A Korean lady working here came over to me and asked where I got my water from.
It was a very proud moment when I knew the word for water bottle.
[music playing]
My ukulele has no idea what I am doing.
That was so stressful.
That was horrible.
I had no idea what I was doing.
There is a massive skyscraper which is the nearest post office.
So then I was directed to this basement underground Korean post office,
but I had no idea what I was doing.
Everyone was just in there waiting, and I had to get a number, but I didn't know how
or where I needed to get that number from.
And I was clicking on the machine, but everything was in Korean
and I'll try and translate it.
And then people are in the queue behind me.
Stress. So I built up the courage to ask a sweet looking man who
was waiting for his posts.
And I got out my translation app. I was asking him questions like, hi,
how can I buy international stamp?
But he was so helpful.
He helped me get a number and I was waiting in the queue.
Nothing is being sent to the UK.
All flights for posts have been suspended, which is really sad
because I put so much effort into writing
these cute letters. But hey, I guess it makes sense.
But then a testament to this beautiful country and it's lovely people.
Afterwards, I came out and I was just sort of looking a bit lost,
looking out around.
And this sweet man runs back up the stairs and he's like, hi, I know some English.
Can I help you at all with translation?
He's a student. He's been self studying English for the last two years.
And there wasn't really much he could do
because flights are suspended. But he was so lovely.
Yeah, it appears I will not be sending anything cute to the UK anytime soon.
I think I'm going to take a photo of them to send to my family, and then they can
have the physical copy in a few months.
I'm now going to head home and me and Gabi, my roommate are
cooking for the vegan cooking group tonight, which is exciting but stressful.
Cooking for so many people.
I only cook one night a week
and then all the other nights of the week, someone cooks for me.
I go, I get my food.
Today, I think me and Gabi are going to make Curry.
So, we'll see how that goes.
Also, this is Mapo-gu.
Mapo-gu.
I'm probably butchering that.
And so, I'm going to go get a bus, head home.
And it's been an eventful, productive, stressful Wednesday.
[music playing]
I'm just doing laundry so I got changed.
[music playing]
It's so beautiful.
Everyday is so beautiful.
I'm about to make Curry.
[music playing]
My amazing cook chef.
The head chef.
Oh, look at us.
[music playing]
This is so cool.
Midweek at university.
Hello, our room is a mess.
A very big mess.
It's a laundry day. We're just going to ignore it.
It's end of week.
I'm a little bit drained and dead.
But also
I'm just feeling so grateful today.
It's just been an amazing day.
Intellectually, thought provokingly,
experience wise, thinking about Korea, learning about Korea.
My God.
So today, I went to a co-curricular, which is what my university runs optionally.
Once a week, they have some kind of city experience, which teaches you an aspect
of the culture or about a history, or you learn about a specific company or
get experience, just something to do with the city that we are in.
We have to go to at least one
because we write an assignment based off of one of them
at the end of the semester about what we've learned culturally, that
kind of thing. But they're amazing.
And I want to go to as many of them as possible.
Today's one was only available for 10 students.
And I got on, Korea: A Path to Democracy.
The Road to Democracy. 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM was this hectic schedule day
throughout the city with an incredible tour guide, learning
how South Korea became South Korea as we know it today.
We started at Seodaemun prison.
This prison was used by the Japanese in colonial times against Korean
liberation activists.
I don't know if you know, but Japan colonized Korea.
It was extremely brutal.
It caused so many issues in their country.
So many human rights issues.
It also paved the way for the civil war and what now has become
North Korea and South Korea.
But wow, this prison was heavy.
We went down into the prison. We heard the stories of prisoners.
We saw some of the torture methods.
I'm not going to detail the torture methods for you because I felt physically
sick when they were describing them.
The use of lighting, the use of space, the use of the coldness, the use of
dummies to illustrate what it would have been like, the atmosphere, the sounds,
the stories they were saying, it was such a haunting experience which painted
what it would've been like to be a Korean activist taken into this prison.
One of the main points of the day is just, wow, like the struggle that
this country and it's people have been through to get to the South Korea that
I get to experience today is immense.
We toured the palace, we learned about the Joseon dynasty.
We toured particular churches which were particularly important
in the independence movement. And all that was amazing.
And I learned a lot through this tour and speaking to people and
asking people questions.
But what really solidified the experience,
we had a two-hour discussion and debate around certain questions about
democracy, transition to democracy,
what does a liberal democracy mean?
What isn't a liberal democracy?
One of the main discussion points was this trade-off between prioritizing
economic growth with prioritizing social rights.
Like to what extent is this autocratic
regime the way to go in a country's early development compared to fighting for
democracy and social rights early, having to wait for long term growth
and long term education, et cetera.
Also, one of the main things I've been thinking about today is like, How history
is always told from the perspective of the winners. Like in history textbooks,
which are approved by the government and often shape the national identity
and form of nationalism that they want.
We have selective amnesia where a country selectively forgets less favorable
aspects of his history to prioritize the certain national identity,
the way they want history told, et cetera.
And like I come from the UK and the UK has the darkest history,
particularly the colonial period.
Why on earth is that not taught to us in schools?
What?
Coming to this university with people from everywhere and having to say,
Oh yeah, like, yeah, we didn't really cover the colonization of your country.
It just wasn't really mentioned.
They just didn't feel it was important to educate us on it, you know.
How the world came to be, how so many countries
had their countries stolen from them,
people killed, people absolutely massacred around the world.
Like, you get such a bloody history and they hide it so well.
I learnt about the shooters and sort of
uncontroversial aspects of history like the slave trade, but just not the UK's
role in it. Like, it's just disappointing.
I wish my country owned up
to it's horrible history more and taught us more about it.
Like for example, speaking to my German friends today, it seems that Germany does
a pretty good job about educating students about the Holocaust, about World War II,
about nationalism and how it went really wrong, how it is so important to shut
down that ideology for future generations.
I'm going a bit off topic, but education is just so essential in how it shapes
your worldview, your perspectives on your identity, the identity of others.
Why don't we do a better job in the syllabus? I just...
UK Government, please. I remember signing a petition last year.
I think 250,000 people at least signed a petition to get colonial history
on the curriculum of UK history.
What happened there? Why did nothing happen?
Okay, it's nearly midnight and this is just a...
I don't know, I'm just chucking thoughts at you and around a mortar. But yeah,
days like today made me feel like damn Jade you know absolutely nothing.
You need to learn so much more about the world.
This country has been through hell to get to where it is today. To have the
kind of democracy that it has today even if that democracy system has issues.
Also how mindblowing the South Korea in just 60 years
came from a literal civil war, came out of the Korean war,
a lot of economic issues, poverty, et cetera.
And in 60 years, it has become this major powerhouse city,
a hub of economic development in East Asia.
It's insane. Like this place has been through so much.
People aren't starving anymore.
Meat used to be a luxury. People couldn't afford every day. Now meat is cheap.
People can have meat.
Who am I to come in and say, please stop eating meat now, you know.
South Korea is finally got out of war and colonization and issues.
Like let people enjoy this economic development.
Thank you so much for being here. Have a wonderful evening.
And I invite you to think about your country
in the context of the history lessons you had. How was your story told about the
world you know. Who was telling that story?
What were their motivations in terms of the national identity they
were trying to create, for example, then maybe go do some digging.
Okay, have a wonderful day. Bye!
Wow!
How do you feel about your new Korean look, Duc?
Bougie.
Rich. Wait, stand up. Give me a catwalk.
Oh, Oh, Oh.
You know, I'm available.
You look so cute. Every time we've gone past a barber shop, Duc
has been like, should I do it?
Shall I get a Korean haircut?
Yeah, you look so good.
Guys, I went to Canam to do a haircut the Korean style.
Love it.