Narrative topic/ The greatest challenge I faced. /Minju Yeo

I think almost every high school students in South Korea has experienced one of the greatest challenge in their lives, entrance exam for universities. There was no exception for me, either. The greatest challenge in my life was being a senior of high school. I had to prepare for both the Korean SAT test, and nonscheduled admission, which gave me the greatest challenge of my life. First, I had to study English extra harder than other students. Nonscheduled admission for universities has many types. Among them, I had planned to apply for the special admission for English ability. In Korea, there are many opportunities of nonscheduled admission for the students who are good at English. In order to apply, students had to take authorized English tests such as TOEFL or TOEIC. Since I've always been so confident about my English, I tried to take the tests and watch for a chance of special admissions. However, my test results were much poor than I thought. At first, I was depressed and considered giving up the nonscheduled admission and just focus on SAT. If it had not been for my mom, I would have given up. My mom encouraged me and told me that she will always support my decision. With her great support, I decided to give it a shot one more time. After I had decided to achieve the goal at any costs, I had to study really hard since I had to study for both SAT, and English tests. I never wasted time doing things like watching TV or texting with friends. I just focused on studying thinking of my future. In the end, after all those patience, I could get a high score which was enough for me to enter a university of my dream. Also, I didn't have to take the SAT test, since I already got the enrollment form universities. Sometimes it was hard for me to endure all the pressure of studying and it burdened me. However, the challenge taught me a cliché, but a universal truth. No pain, no gain.

Opinion writing/ Best City to live in / Minju Yeo

I've been to many cities around the world. Among those amazing cities, I consider Vancouver as the best city to live in. It's an attractive city that shows people both the beauty of nature and charm of developed modern city. The city has actually been selected as the best city to live in the entire world. There are many reasons why I think Vancouver is the best city to live in, but I can think of three big reasons. First, the city has a great nature environment with fresh air. Vancouver is surrounded by mountains and forests. Therefore, the city is not only beautiful but also its air is very clean and nice. I could never forget the moment I went to the Stanley Park for the first time. I could feel the fresh air and breeze. Also, one of my friends, who was suffering from atopy actually got cured after staying in Vancouver for a year. I think Vancouver's fresh air is a strong advantage for people to live in. Second, the transportation system of the city is comfortable. It has all kinds of transportations, such as buses, subway and taxi. Other than these, there are other transportations which are only in Vancouver. For example, there is a kind of transportation system called Sky train, which its stations are located throughout the city. It's very fast and easy to use. I've always took Sky train while I was traveling around the city, and I felt no difficulty although I'm not used to it. Finally, the city has a great library system. When I stayed in Vancouver, I was impressed by its advanced system. In the city, there are hundreds of libraries. All those libraries in the city are connected by computer system. Therefore, you can borrow and return the books in any libraries located in the city. Also, libraries have many programs that promote children to read books. I remember that a library gives children a medal if they complete reading all the suggested list of books. I thought these kinds of programs are pretty good for the increase in citizen's reading. These are the three reasons why I consider Vancouver as the best city to live in. If I get a chance to live abroad someday, I will definitely choose Vancouver.

Jae-Hun Lee/ A special memory from your childhood/ Mon9AM

 

The first day riding a bike

 

I can remember when I got on the bike first. When I was seven, my dad taught me to ride a bike in front of my house. First, it was difficult to ride a bike, holding the center. I couldn't go more than five meters. So, my father grabbed the end of the bike and he pushed the bike behind me. Because my father was holding the bike, I was able to ride a bike. When I looked back at some point, however, my father did not hold the bike anymore. Naturally, I can hold the center, and thereafter I can ride a bike. It was very interesting moment when I was learning how to ride a bike. I usually ride a bike and sometimes, I can remember that moment, the first day riding a bike.

 

SON NA RAE/ A CHALLENGE I FACED/ MON 9-11

THE UNIVERSITY’S REFUSAL

 

 ‘Sorry, your name is not on the list.’ I felt I was left alone somewhere in the isolated island. This one sentence was only result from all years of my effort to enter the college. So, for a while, I used to express myself as a loser. One of the difficulties was my family issue. I had been a black sheep of my family; for long, they had to endure my hysteric anger caused by Korean SAT, and they were spitting in their hands to revenge me. Missing their long tip, they couldn’t touch me at all. Because I had no guts to face them, I pulled the bedclothes over my head, crying the whole week. And the next challenge was my friends. Those who succeeded to entrance exam could not be happy in front of me, because my appearance, which lost over 5 pounds, represented my words-I envy you, don’t you dare to boast it, or something like this ugly comments. It was obvious that, out of them, those who got the entrance admission were the winners, and the rest of them were the losers who have the twisted and crooked mind. I was no more who used to be, and I hated myself. And this hurt me the hardest. During my lifetime until that moment, I had been proud of myself. I believed I was so called jack-of-all-trades. No matter what the others say, I loved myself so much. In hindsight, I should have been the last person that judges me by the admission paper, but for that time, I was resentful of myself. One night of the days with handful of resignation and sprinkle of disappointment, I got a call from my aunt. Before I complained about where and how I am, her remarks made me gain my feet. She said, ‘God wanted you to lower yourself, because, if you, having so beautiful face, succeeded at one go, you must have been very arrogant.’ Come to think of it, she was right. I needed to be humble, and realized these times of crisis can be reversed into the opportunity. That night, I decided to try one more time before my family. All of them cheered me up and supported, then I could really hear them, and plucked up my courage again. From the very start, I should have remembered that, the study was not for others, but me. There is no reason to care about others whether I succeed or fail.

 

 

ChaiHyeon NAH/Narrative paragraph/Mon 9-11am

My First Scuba Diving

 

  Last winter vacation, I went to an island called Bali with my family for 10 days. It was located near Indonesia, so the weather was hot when we arrived there in December. This beautiful island was full of fresh fruits and crystal blue seas. My family enjoyed our holiday having delicious foods, swimming, and reading books. One day, my father, sister, and I decided to try something new, and finally decided to learn scuba diving in the deep sea! It was my first time to do scuba diving so many equipments of this activity was very uncomfortable in the first time. And there were many things to learn before we actually go into the water. We had to learn some simple sign languages to communicate in the water and how to equalize the pressure in the deep sea. When I could finally dive into the sea, I was really amazed to see how huge it was the sea! It was a lot deeper than it looks on the surface. And there were so many colors. All different kind of fishes had different colors and the corals also had strong orange, red, or clean white colors. It was amazing and I still cannot forget the feeling of my first scuba diving in Bali.

Youn Hee KIM/An Embarassing incident for me/Mon9-11

It was one year ago, on February. I was expecting to come to Seoul because I had to attend an orientation of the French department. The day of the orientation, my mom planned to drive me to Shinkyungju KTX station. It was a snowy day but we took the car. As it was not snowing that much, we thought that it will stop to come down. Of course, my mom drove carefully. However, the weather got worse and worse and the snow continued to fall, even much more than few hours ago. We didn't know the route so we were depending on the GPS Navigation. There were traffic jams because of the snow and all the cars were crawling like an earthworm. When we were waiting for the traffic lights, the GPS told us to take a left turn. We followed the way but all the surrounding were fields and farms. The streets were so narrow that we felt danger. Also, the snow fell continuously. My mom got afraid because it was her first time driving through the snow. She took a corner and there was a path which led us to a little tunnel right ahead. Suddenly, we heard a bang! We didn't even recognize that the car hit the wall of the tunnel. It was an unexpected crush! We got scared and my mom decided not to keep go on. She checked if there was nothing wrong with the car – there were some cracks on the front bumper. She turned off the car and we went back home. We didn't try to find any other means of transportation and we took a rest for the rest of the day. From this day, my mom never drives on a snowy day and I always give advice to others not to drive when it's snowing or to be careful on a rainy day. It really was a dangerous experience!

Sora Kim/something that happened to me while I was on a trip/Mon 9~11

Terrible public transportation

 

 

           Last winter vacation, I traveled to Gangneung with my friend. We stayed 2 days and we had a great time. I visited traditional market. There were lots of interesting traditional foods. They were delicious. And we spent a lot of time to see the deep dark blue sea. We loved the cozy and peaceful atmosphere in Gangneung. But the last day of trip, we had a really bad experience. Before we went to Seoul, we decide to eat lunch. We didn't have a car so we had to take a bus towards bus terminal. After we ate soft tofu, we were going to bus station. We started to wait the bus. But after an hour, the bus didn't come. We were starting to be nervous to miss bus schedule. An half an hour later, we began to be angry about terrible public transportation in Gangneung. We wanted to take a taxi but we didn't have enough money. Eventually about two hours later, the bus came. Fortunately, we didn't miss the bus but we were so cold, tired and angry. And I made up my mind that I'll never travel to Gangneung without a car.

Kim Ji Su/ how I met the most important person in my life.

 Every cloud has a silver lining

 

The most important person I have right now is my boyfriend. IT has been a nearly a year since we first met. It all happened last year. I was having really hard time at that moment.

I've just broken with my ex-boy friend and the trip that I've planning for months has been canceled because my dad's sudden change of mind. I was really depressed because it seemed that my first summer vacation in college was about to turn in to a night mare.  

Then one of my friends, who pitied me, recommended a society. Its purpose was to go on a trip and have fun with various university students. I thought there was nothing to lose so I signed up for it. I applied to the trip to Yang Pyeong. On the day to Yang Pyeong, several students gathered up a little bit early at the bus station including me. As we were waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive, a tall boy came up to me. He was so tall that I had to lift up my face in order to see his face properly. It was a late summer afternoon and cool breezes were surrounding us. His hair was blown about by the wind and a scent of perfume prevailed through the air. His tanned skin glowed in the sunlight, making him look like covered in milk caramel chocolate. He gave me a bright smile that instantly caught up my mind. We got along well on the way to Yang Pyeong. We chatted and chatted as if we were old friends who haven't seen each other for a long time. Eventually, that day turned my whole summer vacation from a night mare to a summer vacation that I would never forget. I guess every cloud does have a silver lining.

Lee Myungjae /My grandmother/ Mon12

My Grandmother

 

 

    I don't have many memories related to my grandmother. She passed away from cancer more than 10 years ago, so I remember her voice or look not very well. However, I cannot forget the short moment we had long time ago. When I was in elementary school, my family suddenly got a phone call that grandmother got cancer in her stomach. My mother ran to the hospital right after the call, but the rest of my family couldn't visit her for some time because we lived very far from her place. When the whole family finally came to visit her, the bad disease had already spread out most of her body. When we came in her hospital room, there were almost all relatives of my mother's side. I felt great to see my aunts and uncles who lived far away, but because I was so shy that time, I wanted them to welcome me and talk to me first. However, I soon got disappointed to find that they only took attention to my younger sister. They stroke her head and said, "You really pretty little girl. How have you been?", "I'll give you some money. Buy and eat some snack" Actually, she was the youngest girl among the whole relatives and since my parents had her quite late in their marriage, it was natural that relatives considered her very cute and precious. Even so, I didn't understand why all the people did so kindly to her but never found me beside her. So upset, I lay down on a sofa at one corner of the room and started to read a comic book. It wasn't funny at all, but I didn't want to show myself again. After a while, my mother found me and said loudly, "Oh! What are you doing there alone, my girl!" Suddenly my face turned red, and I came close to burst into tears because her words made me more frustrated. Then other relatives got the situation quickly said in embarrassment, "We gave money to your sister because she's younger than you. Don't be upset." I said, "I'm not upset." and the situation wrapped up there. But I still didn't understand their words. Some time passed by, and most relatives went out to have dinner. Then, my grandmother, lying in the bed, suddenly stood up and said to me in a small voice, "Let's go out." So we started walking along the corridor. When we walked some time, she suddenly stopped and slipped something into my hand from her patient's gown. That was a creased 5000 won bill. She said, "I'm sorry but that's all I have at the moment. Get something delicious." I realized that she had cared about me since she knew I was upset. I was so moved and felt like crying right away. On the way go home, in a car, I put out the bill and looked at it again and again thinking of her love. Few weeks later, my family was told that she was gone in the end. Now, 13 years has passed since her death, but her love always remains in my mind. I wish I could see her again, even a very short minute, and say that I really thank her and love her.

 

 

AnYeonju_Narrative

Germany and the lost wallet

 

Two years ago, I went on a trip to a country where I had always wanted to visit: Germany. My German trip started in Berlin, and I went on to Hidelberg, Strousbourg, and finally, Munich. It took a month. Just like what it was in my dream, Germany was wonderful country; I fell in love with the citizen’s kindness, beautiful museums and architects, and well-preserved historical sites. Although I don’t speak German, still there was no problem to travel around the country, because almost every person there spoke English. I felt comfortable and safe as if I had been in my home country. However, on the last day of my trip, while I was waiting for my train at a station in Munich, I experienced the worst thing that a tourist could ever experience in foreign countries. I went to the station’s public restroom where I need to pay five euros for use. I needed to take the money out from my wallet. I inserted the coin into the machine at the gate of the restroom. Since it was the first time that I used a pay restroom, I was a little bit excited going into in. The facilities were very clean and it smelled of vanilla in there. I could not stop looking at everything in the restroom in admiration; I was just marveled at the good manner of culturally advanced society, which was reflected in a station’s restroom. I used the restroom with great satisfaction. I went back and take a seat in the waiting room. After a few minutes, I was frightened. I found myself without my wallet. I tried to calm down and think where I misplaced it. I couldn’t easily remember it, so I went back to the spots where I had visited in the station. There were only twenty minutes left before the departure of my train. When I passed by the restroom, I could remember where I had put my wallet: in the restroom. However I couldn’t go into it, because I didn’t have five euros to go through the gate. I found a clerk and told him about my situation. Fortunately, and likely to any other Germans I met, he understood English, and told me that a lost wallet which had been found by a citizen is kept in the office near the restroom. I went to the office with him, showed my passport to prove that was mine, and got my wallet back. Surprisingly, the one hundred euro bill was still in my wallet. I couldn’t stop thanking the clerk and an unknown German citizen that found my wallet and gave it to the office. It was the most frightening experience so far in my travel history, but, on the other hand, this experience confirmed my belief that Germany is an advanced society.  

Eun Dana/Narrative paragraph/Mon9-11am

A challenge I had to face.

 

Have you ever been so stressed and discouraged that you just wanted to quit everything and give up? During a lifetime, people face many difficulties. At the moment, we feel exhausted and helpless but through those difficulties, we learn and grow. I had to face a challenge when I was sixteen, when I just came back from the United States. In sixth grade, my family and I left Korea for the U.S, and came back three years later. So I basically skipped Korean middle school curriculum but I never thought that this could be such a big problem for me. When I entered high school, it hit me. I used to go to a foreign language high school and the students were very competitive and prepared. High school curriculums were difficult to follow without the knowledge of preceding studies. Grades were poor, pre KSAT scores were terrible and I just could not see the future. It was not that I did not try, I did. But I just could not beat the ones that came prepared so well. As time passed, I felt more depressed and discouraged. Then one day, my English teacher came up to me and recommended preparing for university in my own way- to make the best use of my strength, English. Of all the subjects in high school, one that did not betray me was English. After that, I searched for the method that could suit me. I prepared for university doing things that fit my type of entrance. As I got many achievements like TOEFL scores and awards, I found my courage back. Now, I am a student at HUFS and I feel very proud to be a student here.

wansoo cho/something that happened to you while you were on a trip/ mon9-11

When it rains, it pours.

 

 What did you do during the last winter vacation? Probabley some of you might went to trip. Was it good? It's just as well if you say 'yes'. Unfortunately, I'm not. It was my first trip with my friends and It didn't go that well.

Have you ever heard of rail road? It's vacation event from Seoul Metro. You can take trains whatever you like for a week with a cheap price. My friends and I expectantly decided to make a 5days schedule and distributed it to one by one. One of my friends take the AnDong as his place which is the first destination of our trip and he was supposed to search information like transportations, train time, tourist attraction and so on. That's the beginning of disaster of our trip.

One day before we trip, suddenly the friend called me he must stay home because of his grandmother. He said blah blah blah, but my ears were already closed and didn't want to hear anymore. I was really angry and at the same time, also worried about our trip because we didn't have anything about our first destination. We were out of time and had to go AnDong  in a defenseless state. But unexpectedly, things seemed to go well at the first time. We ate delicious AnDong JJim Dak(chicken) and went to HaHoe Village. However, one of our members plunk down on the ground  complaining his stomachahe. I was at a loss and called 119 for an emergency measurement. What matters worse, because of poor weather rescue workers couldn't find us easily. It was literally pouring.

Can you immagine the result of our trip? We just went back home and spend a boring vacation. Because it was my first time with friends, disappointment was really huge. During the coming summer vacation, I hope to achieve sucessful trip.