170 | Day 03 - Your parents, in great detail
Okay, sure.
My dad's name is Keyyup Lee. (Anybody who's not Korean tends to have problems with that name.) His dad (my grandfather) was some sort of governmental person during the Japanese occupation of Korea and was thus a massively strict and stodgy old person. (My grandfather scares me still.) My dad grew up with three older sisters and sort of ended up having this massive 'you need to be the best!!!' mentality. He was academically pretty good, and got a scholarship into Seoul University, which is the most prestigious uni in South Korea -- so you know, he's pretty proud of being smart and stuff, and thus has high expectations for just about everyone. He was also apparently academically brilliant enough that he was excused from the mandatory military enlistment time (all Korean males have to serve in the army unless they have amazing excuses) and just got 13 months (I think) instead of the usual 21 months. After he graduated, he went to University of Chicago where he got a Ph.D. in economics (I think). Now he teaches Marketing (mostly) at Hongik University, where he has tenure.
He's sort of massively elitist in terms of studying and intelligence, and since I was little he's been saying things like "I'm smart, but you can be even smarter than me, so you need to be successful." He used to teach me math when I was younger but he was really strict and harsh, so I hated learning from him. (He also wanted to teach me two or three grades' worth material further ahead than I was learning at school.) He can be really nice and derpy at times (he used to stack like 20 Lego heads on a Lego body to make me laugh), but he also get angry really easily and really badly, and then he's just scary. He also used to beat me lolol but that's sort of general Korean culture so there you go.
My mom is Moonkyung Choi, she kept her last name instead of taking Lee. (Also a problem name for non-Koreans.) Her dad, unlike my grandfather on my dad's side, had a more posh lifestyle after the Japanese occupation, so my mom had a more comfortable lifestyle. There's some sort of nasty business with my mom's siblings that I still don't really understand. I think she has a sister and two brothers, but her sister (my aunt) got disowned by my grandfather sometime when I was in elementary school (???) so I haven't seen her in ages. The younger of my uncles also got disowned for a while when I was younger before being accepted back into the family, and currently the older uncle is disowned so I haven't seen him in ages. It's sort of weird and I'm not allowed to ask about it. Aaaaaanyway, my mom graduated high school and studied at Boston College, and then did her Ph.D. at University of Chicago (where she met my dad and then they got married and had me). After returning from the US, she took care of me for a while and then started teaching sociology at Kookmin University for a bit before transferring to a research project.
My mom's way more softhearted than my dad, and is a lot more sympathetic to me being a bit of a retard by the family's academic standards, haha. She's actually really really sympathetic and is the type of person to buy little gifts for the apartment security guards and give money to homeless people. (She enjoys stationary with pink bunnies and Peter Rabbit and tries to press them on me. I make so much fun of her for it.) She's also immensely intolerant of violence and such, haha. She can be pretty scary when she's mad (she's like 5-foot-nothing but you'd be surprised how scary a pissed off little Korean woman can be), but she's pretty good at controlling herself until she eventually explodes.
All in all, I've had a pretty lucky childhood. I had a pretty stable home and didn't have any huge crises. I guess my only gripe is that I have a really hard time connecting emotionally to either of my parents, since they're both huge academic (as well as most of my extended family) and I'm a bit of a black sheep in terms of my 'I wanna go write and draw, derp derp' feelings. I can't ever show them any of my creative works (my dad still wants me to be studying something 'smarter' and my mom wouldn't be able to stand any violence/brutality/cynicism) so I guess I feel a little bit unsupported emotionally speaking but I can live with that. I'm just complaining a bit pettily, really. My mom and dad are cool people on the whole.
Also my dad like five-foot-ten while my mom is like five-foot-two. Unfortunately, I got my mom's shorty genes. Sigh. ):
30 Days Meme
Day 01 - Introduce yourself
Day 02 - Your first love, in great detail
Day 03 - Your parents, in great detail
Day 04 - What you ate today, in great detail
Day 05 - Your definition of love, in great detail
Day 06 - Your day, in great detail
Day 07 - Your best friend, in great detail
Day 08 - A moment, in great detail
Day 09 - Your beliefs, in great detail
Day 10 - What you wore today, in great detail
Day 11 - Your siblings, in great detail
Day 12 - What’s in your bag, in great detail
Day 13 - This week, in great detail
Day 14 - What you wore today, in great detail
Day 15 - Your dreams, in great detail
Day 16 - Your first kiss, in great detail
Day 17 - Your favorite memory, in great detail
Day 18 - Your favorite birthday, in great detail
Day 19 - Something you regret, in great detail
Day 20 - This month, in great detail
Day 21 - Another moment, in great detail
Day 22 - Something that upsets you, in great detail
Day 23 - Something that makes you feel better, in great detail
Day 24 - Something that makes you cry, in great detail
Day 25 - A first, in great detail
Day 26 - Your fears, in great detail
Day 27 - Your favorite place, in great detail
Day 28 - Something that you miss, in great detail
Day 29 - Your aspirations, in great detail
Day 30 - One last moment, in great detail
My dad's name is Keyyup Lee. (Anybody who's not Korean tends to have problems with that name.) His dad (my grandfather) was some sort of governmental person during the Japanese occupation of Korea and was thus a massively strict and stodgy old person. (My grandfather scares me still.) My dad grew up with three older sisters and sort of ended up having this massive 'you need to be the best!!!' mentality. He was academically pretty good, and got a scholarship into Seoul University, which is the most prestigious uni in South Korea -- so you know, he's pretty proud of being smart and stuff, and thus has high expectations for just about everyone. He was also apparently academically brilliant enough that he was excused from the mandatory military enlistment time (all Korean males have to serve in the army unless they have amazing excuses) and just got 13 months (I think) instead of the usual 21 months. After he graduated, he went to University of Chicago where he got a Ph.D. in economics (I think). Now he teaches Marketing (mostly) at Hongik University, where he has tenure.
He's sort of massively elitist in terms of studying and intelligence, and since I was little he's been saying things like "I'm smart, but you can be even smarter than me, so you need to be successful." He used to teach me math when I was younger but he was really strict and harsh, so I hated learning from him. (He also wanted to teach me two or three grades' worth material further ahead than I was learning at school.) He can be really nice and derpy at times (he used to stack like 20 Lego heads on a Lego body to make me laugh), but he also get angry really easily and really badly, and then he's just scary. He also used to beat me lolol but that's sort of general Korean culture so there you go.
My mom is Moonkyung Choi, she kept her last name instead of taking Lee. (Also a problem name for non-Koreans.) Her dad, unlike my grandfather on my dad's side, had a more posh lifestyle after the Japanese occupation, so my mom had a more comfortable lifestyle. There's some sort of nasty business with my mom's siblings that I still don't really understand. I think she has a sister and two brothers, but her sister (my aunt) got disowned by my grandfather sometime when I was in elementary school (???) so I haven't seen her in ages. The younger of my uncles also got disowned for a while when I was younger before being accepted back into the family, and currently the older uncle is disowned so I haven't seen him in ages. It's sort of weird and I'm not allowed to ask about it. Aaaaaanyway, my mom graduated high school and studied at Boston College, and then did her Ph.D. at University of Chicago (where she met my dad and then they got married and had me). After returning from the US, she took care of me for a while and then started teaching sociology at Kookmin University for a bit before transferring to a research project.
My mom's way more softhearted than my dad, and is a lot more sympathetic to me being a bit of a retard by the family's academic standards, haha. She's actually really really sympathetic and is the type of person to buy little gifts for the apartment security guards and give money to homeless people. (She enjoys stationary with pink bunnies and Peter Rabbit and tries to press them on me. I make so much fun of her for it.) She's also immensely intolerant of violence and such, haha. She can be pretty scary when she's mad (she's like 5-foot-nothing but you'd be surprised how scary a pissed off little Korean woman can be), but she's pretty good at controlling herself until she eventually explodes.
All in all, I've had a pretty lucky childhood. I had a pretty stable home and didn't have any huge crises. I guess my only gripe is that I have a really hard time connecting emotionally to either of my parents, since they're both huge academic (as well as most of my extended family) and I'm a bit of a black sheep in terms of my 'I wanna go write and draw, derp derp' feelings. I can't ever show them any of my creative works (my dad still wants me to be studying something 'smarter' and my mom wouldn't be able to stand any violence/brutality/cynicism) so I guess I feel a little bit unsupported emotionally speaking but I can live with that. I'm just complaining a bit pettily, really. My mom and dad are cool people on the whole.
Also my dad like five-foot-ten while my mom is like five-foot-two. Unfortunately, I got my mom's shorty genes. Sigh. ):
30 Days Meme
Day 01 - Introduce yourself
Day 02 - Your first love, in great detail
Day 03 - Your parents, in great detail
Day 04 - What you ate today, in great detail
Day 05 - Your definition of love, in great detail
Day 06 - Your day, in great detail
Day 07 - Your best friend, in great detail
Day 08 - A moment, in great detail
Day 09 - Your beliefs, in great detail
Day 10 - What you wore today, in great detail
Day 11 - Your siblings, in great detail
Day 12 - What’s in your bag, in great detail
Day 13 - This week, in great detail
Day 14 - What you wore today, in great detail
Day 15 - Your dreams, in great detail
Day 16 - Your first kiss, in great detail
Day 17 - Your favorite memory, in great detail
Day 18 - Your favorite birthday, in great detail
Day 19 - Something you regret, in great detail
Day 20 - This month, in great detail
Day 21 - Another moment, in great detail
Day 22 - Something that upsets you, in great detail
Day 23 - Something that makes you feel better, in great detail
Day 24 - Something that makes you cry, in great detail
Day 25 - A first, in great detail
Day 26 - Your fears, in great detail
Day 27 - Your favorite place, in great detail
Day 28 - Something that you miss, in great detail
Day 29 - Your aspirations, in great detail
Day 30 - One last moment, in great detail