SHINee Member Key's Reflection Essay On His 6 Weeks America Immersion Programme In 2004

At Daegu Airport....While waiting for the plane to depart, I did not say anything. Just remained silent rather awkwardly with my mother. America...Such a big country. This is how I felt as I stepped into that country, and also felt very nervous all the time.

After saying goodbye to my mother at Daegu Airport, I boarded the plane bound for Incheon. This 40 minutes felt like 3, 4 hours to me. What if I am unable to make friends...What if my host does not like me? But no matter how much I worry over it, it's no use. After boarding the flight at Incheon Airport, it was another 9 hours. HyunGun who was sitting beside me and also living with a family in America became my chatting partner during the trip.

Time always passes very slowly, it felt like it was two of the 9 hours instead.

At the airport that the plane landed at, I immediately saw people waving at us and asking us to come out quickly.

We then took a bus to some place. Reached Simi Valley and ate Korean Ramen. The remaining 8 people then went to CVC Tulare.

So I sat in the car for another 2 hours. Could not adjust to the time difference, and also did not sleep enough on the plane so I continued to close my eyes and rest.

Arrived at CVC. Mr Rory welcomed us happily. "Welcome to America!" He said that to everyone and also helped us to find our hosts. I don't know why but I did not see my host. My host's father is a basketball coach, and his mother is a bus driver. So I waited.

The first person I met was the host's friend, Pete. He was very happy to see me. Then I met my host's father. Because he's a basketball coach so he has a very tall build.

I went with my host to watch a basketball match, I don't know who is the basketball coach, but it seemed that my host's brother, Jon, was playing in that match. After that I said hello to my host's mother and brother before going to Taco Bell. Because I was eating something that is not avaliable at home, and it was really delicious, so I ate a lot.

My host's house is not very big. Pete and I have to share a room so I have to be quiet in whatever I do. I want a room that belongs to myself only, and it will be good if they can treat me nicer.

The school's official exams. Chris Yang Yun Ji and I were allocated to class 6-B. There were many students who were very happy to see us. As everyone of them were introducing themselves, I was not really listening but instead thinking of how I hould introduce myself.

After introductions, we all became closer friends. Right from the start it was Art lesson so I was very happy. So when I was in America, I used all my Art lessons to fold origami- That was really interesting. On the first day of school, I was yawning the entire day, because I still had to adjust to the time difference....

Friday was the day of the field trip. The place that I went to for the first time...----!! I really have no memories of it.

It's an Adventure Park? There was just things to play there and nothing else. I sat and also drove a car for awhile, quite interesting. Magic Mountain was also needless to say, very very interesting. Waited 1 hour for the 'X' but it only lasted 3 minutes. When I was playing that I was really scared. And somethat that I remember the most, even though I wanted to ride that VIPER but in the end I did not.

Then I went with my host to watch a movie. I don't know why but it took me a few days before I could understand that movie. But I felt that the movie development was not bad.

Then because it was really foggy, so I did not go for the field trip. I did not want to go to school too but I still went at 11.30, was late for 10 minutes.

Bought 2 sets of clothes at Outlet. There's only this in my daily life and nothing else, there rest are all about school. Also, as compared to field trip, the school's exams were even more interesting.

When the time came for me to part with all the kids, I actually cried unexpectedly.

Because Disneyland was far away, so I stayed in a hotel for a night before going there...I cannot think about it now, the moment I do, I will cry.

Slept at the hotel for a night and went to Disney the next time.

Disneyland was a disappointment for me. The Disneyland that I imagined to be very interesting is only made to cater to little kids. There is nothing much to it so I just took a few photos.

Universal Studio was quite interesting though. The most memorable was Jurassic Park, even though there were a lot of scary things but it was very interesting. We were screaming along the way so the camera did not capture our faces. Was very scared all the way.

Then came the day to return home...Boarded the plane, reached San Francisco and boarded another plane. The journey took 12 hours, I slept for a really long time so I did not feel that it was that long.

Arrived at Incheon Airport and boarded another plane to Daegu Airport. I have already met my parents now and sleeping at home now. Will continue to return to America in my dreams.

It was a very good opportunity, these 6 weeks were not long but in this period of time, I was able to experience and see many things.