Sungwook’s personal story

Hometown

I was born and raised in Seoul, Korea until I go to study in U.S. I love Seoul more than any other cities. It is where my memories are alive and breathe (Korean expression). 99% of my friends, cousins are still in Seoul. It has more than plenty of rocking places and, everyday, new culture comes out and thrives. Foods are healthy and delicious. It is where I spent my time playing basketball all day in high school with my team. It is where I spent my one of the happiest time hanging out with a bunch of college friends and doing stupid things. I felt happy almost all the time and had no complains. I am very grateful to God for giving me such a great time.

I had been thinking of coming to U.S. all the time, though. I realized how precious those moments were after coming over to U.S. Not that Gainesville is a bad place to live but basically all of my other circumstances made me feel lonely and I had homesick together with my wife.

Travel

I love traveling. I became to love traveling, as I am being older. Traveling used to mean nothing to me and I preferred to hang out with friends for every single moment. Nevertheless, those days are gone and I am here in a giant country full of beautiful natures. I like to see beautiful scenery, find a wonderful place for sunset and walking in a strange city. Here are some of the pictures. One of the good things for doing Ph.D. is having a lot of chance to visit different places.

Followings are some of my visits (will post pictures later):

1. Seattle: This city is so similar to Seoul except there are much fewer people. Trees and mountains are especially feels the same. Cityscape from Space needle tower was awesome and better than the view from Empire state building. There is a great sushi bar cooked by Japanese cook in the west field shopping center. If you never tasted a sushi by Japanese, you definitely try that in your life.

2. Yosemite national park: I was expecting a great view but I was seeing an unimaginable view in Yosemite. I heard from many Koreans that I would not be surprised by the view as Koreans see plenty of great mountains in Korea. Yet, it was a fantastic view and I did my best to look around everything. In addition, the timing was good (early Jun). There was more than enough water in the waterfall. I wish I could spend at least two weeks inside the park and enjoy the walking there.

3. Chicago: I seem to like the big cities, yet New York was a disappointment because of rude and unkind people. Whereas, Chicago was a great experience. People were so nice and cityscape was the best. It looks like it has everything in the city, including a nice millennium park and less expensive parking fees. This may be a perfect city except the weather and small number of IT companies.

My Wife

I met this dream girl in a joint high school reunion. It is common in Korea, having a joint high school reunion between colleges for graduates from men only high school and women only high school. Both of my college and her college locate at the most famous college town called Shinchon in Seoul. Therefore, we could see each other very often. But the timing was not right as I had a few weeks left till going to Army. This mandatory military service for men takes 2 years and 2 months, and soldiers are not allowed to go out of the military base. Luckily, I passed the exam to become a KATUSA, so I was attached to the US Army base near Seoul. Unlike being in Korean army base, I was allowed to go out every weekend so we could date almost every weekend.

Not only she is beautiful and has great personality, she is also an intelligent woman. She graduated from one of the most prestigious college (Ewha women’s university) and an alumnus with my mom. She is the one who gives me a valuable advice for all my concerns. I share everything with her and honest about all. She is also from a great family and her two other siblings are a member of Mensa. She is the reason I became to love traveling, as she loves traveling around. Whenever we go somewhere, she is the one who plans everything. I wish I could learn her planning and organization skills. She traveled Europe for a month while in college with her musketeers. She also traveled around Japan and China. She worked in a PR company before but with her degree in Korean literatures, and she wants to be a writer someday.

Family

My father is probably one of the few smartest people in the world and he is the one of reasons I get to choose to study in Engineering. He was one of the top two students to graduate in applied physics at the Seoul National University but he has even better management and business skills. He is also a strong motivator. He used to talk about how great future will lie ahead of me if I focus on studying and learn to be like great people. Guess what. He is one of such great people and I am very fortunate to have a role model living with me.

My mom is very caring person and she has all the best personality. She was also one of the earliest people in Korea, who received a BA in music composition, graduating from Ewha women’s university, which was common choice for the best female students. I resembled her so much in many ways. When I discover some good classical music, they are one of her favorite as well. My movie and TV program preference is also similar to her. She likes sports and know very well as I am a huge fan of many sports.

I feel sorry to my younger brother as I used to beat him when we were kids. We are grown up now but I still feel like I need to protect my brother somehow. However, I know he is a better person than I am and he works a lot harder than me so actually it should be him worrying about me. My mom and I used to think my brother is not smart as he was not great in school. When teacher in middle school talked mom he scored the highest in IQ test in school, we were shocked. Later, he found he needed to study hard and earned incomparably high GPA than mine. He is currently attending Columbia University and I am hoping him to offer me a good job in the future… haha.

M.S.

To be honest, I did not adapt to the new environment well. I thought everything will be easy and actually studying was not hard at all, as I barely studied… haha. Instead, after I got married to my beautiful wife, I traveled around Florida every weekend. I was not a type of person enjoying travel before though. I was the person who insisted going out with my friends when all of my families going on a vacation to Thailand and Indonesia. Now that I changed and can not stand a weekend staying in a town. Orlando becomes a second home to us. We had been to more than 10 different beaches during two years.

Ph.D.

When I was about to finish my masters degree at UF, I had to make a decision whether to pursue Ph.D. degree or get a job. After intense search for an answer, I decide to study in Ph.D. program at UF. Since then, many good things had occurred to me. First, I will become a father coming Jun or July!! I wish the baby and my wife are both healthy after born. I cannot wait until her to come out to the world but I have to be prepared well to be a father. How? I need to do a research as hard as I can do now so I can help my wife as much as possible. Everybody says it is not an easy job to raise a baby and study well. I hope that it will be easy to me. Second… uh... well... what else can be good for studying? I met great adviser and lab members. They not only are extremely intelligent, but they all have great personality and kind to all of each other. They are always good even under extreme stress and I learn from them every day. I wish we can share more each other but we are all busy people in the end. I wish the best to them. Third, we won National Championships. Not a single...not double…we won two in each of basketball and football! It is great to be a Florida Gators.

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