Return to Seoul
I took Brand Management course in my exchange semester where the professor asked every student to come up with brand slogans to advertise the country they came from. Some worked in groups, but I was the only one from South Korea so I had to struggle alone to think of something creative and catchy.
“Seoul, Modern and Traditional Soul of Asia”
What I came up indeed was not creative at all, because I merely combined words from already existing ad slogans. I thought Soul of Asia was a brilliant idea like Malaysia, truly Asia. Although I do admit that my slogan applies to a few other fiercely developing countries in Asia, nonetheless Seoul is a mixture of tradition and modern technology. Maybe the feeling of always changing or the word “dynamic” to describe the country is the result of these ongoing procedure of the two sides pushing and pulling each other.
As a citizen who has lived in Seoul for almost 18 years, I know more than enough about the city. But it was a great pleasure to come back after 4 months of long vacation. Of course Vienna and other European cities were great, but I was getting a little bit tired of so many adventures and wanted to be cuddled[?] in familiar environment with Korean FOOD! (I now understand better when people say its bittersweet to ~. I felt just the same before leaving Vienna) I had to miss WU ball and ski trip, but I was determined to come back by then.
A couple of days before my arrival, a LOT of snow hit Korea recording unprecedented amount in 100 years. The city was covered with white snow and news reporters were busy delivering live news about the current situation in XX,YY area. I was briefly stuck in traffic jam too on the way from the airport. It was ok though. Bearable. My dad picked me up from Lotte Hotel where I shievered in cold for 2o minutes because airport limousine was much faster than my dad’s expectation. My mom was preparing one of my favorite dish, Kimchi-jjigae, and I squaked with joy! I showed them my pictures from Europe after dinner and we talked about a lot of subjects including my brother passing an exam and my mom’s new haircut. Somewhat trivial but very happy-to-be-home moments :)
