Personal Narrative: My Korean Cultural Experience

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It is very difficult to get a complete cultural experience in a different country than the one you are trying to experience. At the end my very last thought before leaving was "This isn 't what Korea is really like" that is all I could grasp honestly. There was about three or four main experiences that stood out to me the most. I picked Korean culture because I didn’t see anything else I could honestly get involved in. In downtown Los Angeles there are little areas that pertain to a certain culture. Most of them begin with little but for Korea it was Koreatown. Going into this I knew little to nothing about Korean culture. My basic knowledge was based on the divided country. I have seen the very crude movie The Interview that touches on the …show more content…
I did the best I could with what I had and tried my best to research where to go, to get the most of the town. I made a couple stops on my trip, the Koreatown Galleria, Lee 's Noodles, and one unrelated California donuts. I was going to a stop at the Daiso shop I read about online but unfortunately I accidentally locked my keys inside my car.

My day started like any other day woke up at 5 in the morning for work, but today I finally got someone to want to embark on this journey with me. I had done some research all week but I was researching Koreatown, not Korea. I believe my experience was controlled but the need to be immersed in the culture and finding the right places to do so. The first stop at around 12 pm on a Thursday afternoon was the Koreatown Galleria. I will try to explain this the easiest way I can. The basement level was a wholesale market the second floor was an actual market where every day folk buy their groceries, the third and fourth floor was the mall, shops and food court. Automatically I felt judged. my different signifying features made everyone around me uncomfortable. I felt
…show more content…
There multiple shops of the chain but this is the only unique spot to get these donuts.The donuts unique in all ways with special additions a donut just does not need! My absolute favorite is the maple bacon bar. they also have a panda donut and a green tea donut that try to stay true to the surroundings of the shop. I mention this sidebar because we walked there from the noodle place. It made me feel more at home and comfortable in a neighborhood I didn 't know. Besides the walking around the driving around really opened my eyes as well. It was difficult to look around because it is still Los Angeles and I was honked at many times. I noticed a couple of things the buildings were decorated not just murals but advertising and such. I have seen this before in Mexico, so odd to see how this is not something normal in American design. Not only the building art but the architecture as well. Most buildings were simple one stood out to me with a Korean inspired roof. To my surprise it was a Mexican restaurant. The town is adapting to the majority culture in the environment. In American architecture it is often not seen to design a crazy building or something of the sort unless it is an art museum. I cannot say this is all of American architecture but certainly for Los Angeles. I was recently watching a show called extreme homes. Basically where they challenge the laws of architecture and there was only one American

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