PSU Chronicles

Money makes the world go round, and even more so when I am waiting for my money to kick in. Like most students at Portland State, I have to apply to FASFA every academic year I am enrolled in. and while the deadline was months ago, I am still waiting to see how much I will be offered the upcoming year. Why? There is this step called “verification” I have been told that students are selected randomly to take this extra step in applying for financial aid. It essentially verifies that all the information that is provided is true.

I have been selected not once, not twice, but three times. At this point, it is no longer random in my opinion. Most students by now know their financial package for this fall term, I do not. My parents always file taxes in April and have the documents to prove it. Not only do I need to fill out extra paperwork, but I also have to turn in a copy of my parent’s taxes. However, there is a new system or process to being verified. PSU is now asking to turn a “tax transcript” instead. While this may be easy, it is complicated for me.

My parents don’t speak English, and thus any financial step or information they need to provide, an interpreter has to be present. Like any student with who has immigrant parents, this is part of our lives. This not only prolongs my financial aid distribution, but also holds me back from planning and estimating my living and school expenses.

I recently attended a Korean lecture about arranged marriages between Korean women living in Korea and Korean man living in the United States at the beginning of the 20^th century.  It was interesting to see the Korean history in pictures. At that time, Korea was poor, so Korean immigrants working the United States sent money home to their families.

In my grandparents’ period, they lost their siblings due to starvation and disease.  Even in my parents’ generation, it was common to report birth registration one or two years later than the actual birth due because the mortality rate was so high.

Korea has had very rapid economic growth since the 1970s. Nowadays, the younger generation has a wealth of resources. When I was a child, my mother told me to eat everything because the farmers worked hard to produce rice and food. But today, people in Korea have so much that they don’t feel like they have to eat everything on their plate.

Commissioner Amanda Fritz attends the opening of the Errol Heights Community Garden

As this academic year is quickly coming to a close, it is a
bittersweet for a first-time peer mentor. While my students have been challenging, it is very easy for me to see how they have grown over the past year and how they have been putting their learning into action.

Not only have students been making personal goals to live more sustainable lifestyles, a couple even took the initiative to submit a proposal for 2012 Solutions Generator program though the Institute for Sustainable Solutions. Their commitment to sustainability has now created a community garden in Errol Heights Park that will be a community asset for years to come.

As an aspiring teacher, this is what it is all about! While some of my
students will leave still unsure of what they have gained from their
FRINQ class, I see individuals who have thrived in their first year of
college. I look forward to hopefully seeing a couple around campus
next year and hearing about their experiences and successes.

Some friends of mine asked me what my favorite Japanese food is.

This is a tough question, because Japan is my home, so most Japanese food is tasty to me. When I thought about it really hard, two foods stood out: my mother’s home made Japanese curry and Okonomiyaki.

Homemade curry is very special for me, because it is so connected to my childhood memories. Because my brothers and I ate like pigs when we were kids, my mother needed to make curry in an extra large pot. My mother always made it with onions, pork, potatoes, carrots, and Japanese curry paste. She would serve it over rice, and sometimes (if we were lucky) she would add a sliced boiled egg.

Okonomiyaki is my other all-time favorite food. It is a Japanese savory pancake that contains a variety of ingredients such as cabbage and pork. Okonomiyaki is fried in a pan just like a pancake and then topped with Okonomi sauce (like Worcestershire sauce but sweeter), bonito flakes, and Japanese mayonnaise. Some of my American friends love
Okonomiyaki, and we often have Okonomiyaki parties at home.

I love Japanese curry and Okonomiyaki because they not only remind me of my family in Japan, but both recipes are also great for sharing with friends. I am living far from my family, but through cooking and eating with my friends here, I feel at home in this foreign country.

Life in the States is busy. But the life of a student is even busier, and not so easy, particularly for those students, and it is a high number of us, who do not keep an organized schedule, and especially do not eat well and ignore their health. As a result, life gets difficult and stressful, but it can be worse, if there are no family and friends around.

I tell you, when I first came to the States, at least during the first months, all I thought about was when do I return to my family. My culture does not encourage family members to stay away from their family roots for very long. In the States, however, that is not the case. Children may leave the family at an early age and travel around the country until they find their own place to settle in, at least for awhile. I do admire that way of life at times because the youth get to experience the world on their own. But at the same time I do not think that such a move is the answer to one’s meaning of life, as some may think.

It all depends on the circumstances, of course, and yes, I understand people want their freedom to live a happy life, but to me, as someone who has lived both Eastern and Western culture, freedom is meaningless if I live a disconnected life from my family. In fact, my freedom and happiness come as a result of my closeness to my family and each other’s support. And it is my family that makes me who I am and gives meaning to my life.