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#Became more outgoing and proactive; lived like a local in Paris #Started studying French; interacting with a variety of people #Everything about Paris is lovely; freedom outside Korea
Before I started the project and even after I came to Paris and began the project, I was often told I needed to change my personality. It wasn’t easy to change the personality I’d had all my life at once, but with a lot of help from the guests and staff, I was able to make a real effort to become more outgoing.
- France, Paris, Gap Year Stay / Choi Jonghun, gap-year participant / 8-week gap year |
Currently in South Korea,
60,000 middle and high school students drop out each year; 346,000 people in their twenties are just idling with no dreams; and the one-year turnover rate after employment has entered the 40% range,75% of university students are dissatisfied with college life, and more than 80% of workers say they do not feel happy.Many people tell others to dream, but to address this problem that lacks realistic methods and support, we want to bring the ''gap year'' to South Korea.
''Gap year'' (Gapyear)refers to a period for setting the direction forward by either combining studies and work or taking a break to engage in various activities such as volunteering, travel, internships, education, or starting a business,and it is a culture encouraged in the United States, Europe, Japan, and elsewhere.
Stepping onto Paris — the place I had always wanted to visit at least once before I die!
While receiving consulting from Gap Year, I was encouraged to join the <France Paris, Gap Year Stay> project. But I wasn’t financially well-off, so participating in the project felt like a heavy burden. The gap year stay had no separate participation fee, but I didn’t have round-trip airfare or even minimal living expenses ready, and I hadn’t fully made up my mind.
Still, since I had always wanted to visit Paris at least once, I decided somewhat hastily to join the project on a ''let’s go this time'' impulse. By working about a month unloading delivery boxes, I was able to create the conditions to go to Paris.
Being able to step onto European soil for the first time and live in Paris — a city I had wanted to visit before I die — I endured the roughly 13-hour long flight gladly, eating the in-flight meals.It was amazing that France is 8 hours behind Korea (7 hours behind during daylight saving time), so despite a 12-hour flight I arrived on the same day — I found that so astonishing. My heart pounding, I headed to the accommodation and began life in Paris with the warmly welcoming guesthouse family.
When I first arrived in Paris I only took the subway straight to the accommodation and didn’t quite feel it, but as time passed and I wandered around outside, I realized I was in Paris. The first time I went out everything was new and fascinating: manually operated subway doors, people playing instruments on the subway, Parisians jaywalking so easily that it’s rare even in Korea, people openly expressing affection for loved ones in public spaces, and the preservation of the beautiful old buildings. All of these things about Paris were simply lovable to me.
When I first came to Paris I didn’t have any huge goals or specific things I wanted to accomplish, but over time I developed things I wanted to do.Since I was staying a while, I wanted to learn more about Paris and, more broadly, France, so I started studying French little by little. At first I couldn’t say a single thing and didn’t know much, but I gradually learned how to read bit by bit and came to recognize simple words, so I could quickly look at a menu and figure out what ingredients were in a dish.
Living in Paris naturally made me curious about the local food, and with bakeries on almost every corner I developed a strong interest in bread. Bread that I rarely ate in Korea, I ended up eating more than one a day in Paris — I was basically a bread lover.
The personality I wanted to change naturally changed as I spent time with people.
Besides the life of going out and sightseeing, there was life inside the guesthouse as staff. On days I wasn’t completely off, I took part in evening activities. During those evenings I hosted cheerful wine parties with guests who arrived in the afternoon, chatting and creating a warm atmosphere. Since I wasn’t very good at approaching people easily, it was hard at first, but gradually I discovered a new version of myself who could naturally approach people, laugh, talk, and chatter.
I had many conversations with guests on various topics, mainly asking how their trip that day had been and what they planned to do next, and offering feedback when possible to continue the conversation. Staying in one place for a long time built up my experience, and I found it fun to share information with guests. Sometimes I became close with guests and ended up traveling together the next day, which gave me many good experiences of quickly befriending people I had just met.
For the first time, I even wrote letters — I wrote one every time a guest left the house. At first letter-writing was very difficult, but as time went by, if I couldn’t give a departing guest a letter I felt disappointed. I would write while recalling the memories we’d shared, hand them the letter, and when they checked out and left I felt so empty.
Before I started the project and even after I came to Paris and began the project, I was often told I needed to change my personality. It wasn’t easy to change the personality I’d had all my life at once, but with a lot of help from the guests and staff, I was able to make a real effort to become more outgoing.
Enjoying Paris as a local, not as a tourist.
After staying in Paris for a while I realized that even the Paris I had fantasized about is, after all, a place where people live.At first I enjoyed wine and cheese, ate bread often, had kebabs, crepes, and various desserts, thinking how wonderful it was, but eventually that life naturally became my routine. In other words, the life ordinary for Parisians became my daily life as I stayed long-term, and I was grateful to be able to enjoy it like a local.
If someone asked what I liked most about staying in Paris, I’d say I loved the look and feel of the old buildings you see down any alley, but if I had to choose one thing it would be looking at the Eiffel Tower. Not just on clear or cloudy days, but I wanted to see it day after day. Perhaps that’s why many people see pictures of the Eiffel Tower and, enchanted by it, want to come to the City of Art, Paris.
Of course, life at a guesthouse may not be as free as you imagine. Except for one weekday off, there are working hours each day and sometimes fixed shifts, so you may not be able to go out when you want. In my case I worked in the afternoons, which left me a bit disappointed because I was curious about Paris’s nightlife.
A time when I truly did what I wanted without worrying about others’ eyes.
When I stayed there it was both after the terrorist attacks and the off-season, so there were fewer guests. Because of that I wrote posts to promote the guesthouse and sometimes took care of its facilities, and I even had the experience of installing a wooden floor for the first time. Still, the owner helped me a lot with conveniences so there was no problem staying there, and the staff I worked with filled in many of my shortcomings, so for someone who would have been almost alone in Korea, I was very grateful just to have people living with me.
Moreover, the Korean meals the aunt at the guesthouse made morning and evening were, sorry to my mother, tastier than the food at home, so I didn’t even miss Korea. I ate so well that I think I gained about 1 kg each week. Sometimes the owner even made castella for us, and made a Monaco so we could try a local drink, and we even had fun wine parties — overall my time in Paris was very good.
What was really wonderful was simply being outside Korea — that environment itself was great. When I was in Korea everything felt difficult, maybe because of what people around me thought. My parents and even close friends did not look kindly when I didn’t attend school well or when people said I might stop going to school,After coming to Paris I realized that instead of living by others’ standards like in Korea, the time spent going where I wanted, eating what I wanted, and doing what I wanted was truly important, and I was able to spend a happier time than anyone.
Dreams aren’t created at school, and it seems absurd to think that just studying blindly hard will make you into something. Of course, even as I say this I don’t necessarily have a dream or a strong desire to become something, but these days I’m happier than when I lived my life doing what others told me. I think my life is gradually changing through both short and long travels and my Paris gap-year stay.
When I asked locals and foreigners I met here how they came, many said they had stopped or quit what they were doing and came. When I later asked, “What will you do when you go back to your home country?” they would say, “I’ll go and build it up again,” so easily, and I was surprised at how casually they said that.
Koreans seem too conscious of others’ opinions to think that so easily,Now, if I return to Korea I think I can live more freely as I want without worrying so much about what others think. And if I find someone I like, I’ve gained a lot of confidence to express it without holding back.If I had always lived like other people and just followed the flow around me, I think I would have become one of the very unhappy people by now.
Many unforgettable, precious memories in Paris
The kebab shop near the Gallieni house where the guesthouse was, the supermarket I frequented, Auchan, the crepes I ate on the street, Paul where I would pop in for bread when bored, the Eiffel Tower that cheers me up every time, the subway doors that open manually, the aunt’s meals that were more delicious than the food I ate in Korea and the main culprit for my weight gain, the cozy guesthouse, the warm staff and kind owner, good guests, Montmartre hill full of tourists and sights, Amorino gelato, carnets of single-use tickets, the word “sortie” for the exit, the Black French men at Trocadéro who would show the Eiffel Tower calling out “un, deux, trois,” and the musicians in the metro.
The castella and Monaco the owner made at the wine party, guest Jihyun who went to the Louvre with me, the guests who went with me to the travelling stone attraction, the huge 12 churros freshly fried there for 5 euros, a pastry I thought was a chocolate bun but that was called an éclair, the lively Saint-Ouen flea market, Parc Monceau where I could see Parisian everyday life, the mille-feuille I ate at Pain de Sucre near République, Pierre Hermé where I went for famous macarons and ended up buying a cake, Café Les Deux Magots on Boulevard Saint-Germain where I tried to feel Parisian but trembled at the price, the quiet garden near the Louvre called Palais-Royal, Fauchon’s madeleine at Place de la Madeleine, and the atmosphere of the Madeleine Church that was hard to capture in pictures.
The bakery at Opéra Garnier that first made me feel I was really in Paris when I arrived at Opéra station, Stohrer’s baba au rhum and baba au chantilly soaked in rum, a haircut that cost 44 euros at Saravy, the Paris night view from Montparnasse Tower, the racecourse in Paris I discovered by chance, a Korean supermarket I found in Paris, the giant Ferrero Rocher displays around Easter, the beautiful Place des Vosges, the falafel in Le Marais at L’As du Fallafel that smelled strongly of Middle Eastern flavors, the staff Eunbin and Juyoung-nuna I lived with, the excited moment seeing frost outside the plane window on the 12-hour flight, the time I paced not knowing how to get from the airport to the accommodation, the moment I first received my plane ticket, and the time I packed my suitcase early in the morning and headed to Incheon Airport — I don’t think I’ll ever forget any of these moments.
They say if you step on Point Zero you’ll return to Paris; I’ve never stepped on or even seen Point Zero, but someday I will return to Paris. Probably when I’m back in Korea buying bread, drinking wine, eating cheese, eating kebab, or having crepes, I’ll miss my memories of Paris terribly.
My gap year is
Experience★★★★☆
Actually it was my first time staying abroad this long, and it definitely has a different charm from a short trip. If I get the chance, next time I’d like to live abroad for a longer period.
Learning★★★★☆
Living at the guesthouse I learned how to deal with guests, and by walking around Paris I got to know how people here live.
Environment★★★★★
The living environment was so good — the aunt’s tasty food, the kind staff members I lived with, the owner, and the nice guests — that I didn’t feel nostalgic for life in Korea; I think I had a wonderful time.
Safety★★★★☆
I think it’s similar wherever people live. There weren’t any particular dangers during my stay, but crimes like pickpocketing targeting foreigners do occur, so it’s good to keep a bit of vigilance.
Leisure★★★★☆
Outside of working hours I mostly went out of the accommodation and spent my free time.
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