Park Ji Ho

Anticipation is maybe the best part of travelling. The story of a man, who chose to stay in his room dreaming about a journey rather than exploring the brutal reality in the book “The Art of Travel,” comes into my mind. Unlike the man, I chose to step out and start my journey around the United States. My first train from Chicago was to New York.

Reality is indeed different from expectation. My expectation of New York City, known as the number of city in the world, had been big – the fantasist picture of “I LOVE NY” t-shirt, the dynamic depiction from the Hollywood movies, stories from my all time favorite series, How I met Your Mother, and the finale of the American Dream in New York’s nightlife. Since I have lived in Seoul, Hong Kong, and, recently Chicago, each of which has its own culture, atmosphere, and pride, New York City, the concrete jungle where dreams are made of, seemed to be the ultimate destination of my urban experience.

As always, reality seldom wins expectation in my life. The “hyper-crowded” streets, dirty subway, and high price level were the realities of NYC. More than half of the people I saw on streets were tourists, and others seemed very stressed. New York, just like Seoul, Hong Kong, and Chicago, was not perfect. There were aspects that people might dislike and I personally hated. However, my seven days of stay in the city gave me some sense of the romance of “New Yorker.”

Everyone was a free soul in New York. Nobody cared about what I wear, eat, or do. Pink high-heels on a black suit, drumming performance in the subway, students with paint all over their clothes jumping around with some jazz music, and Halal food at the park during lunchtime are things I found in New York. The most important thing in New York was myself. This might be considered too “individualistic” to some people, but this kind of mentality combined with the concrete jungle of buildings showed the romance of New York.

What I loved the most about this city were its public parks. Central Park and High Lane Park were one of the most impressive urban public space I ever saw. First, I was impressed with the size of the Central Park. It reminded me of the Olympic Park in Seoul, but I loved the Central Park more. People were reading books, taking a nap, and eating lunch. I could feel the freedom in the middle of the city and the comfort that people were enjoying. I myself pretended to be a New Yorker, reading my Kindle and napping on the grass.

High Lane Park next to the Chelsea Market was brilliant. I respect the designers’ creativity of transforming an old railroad into amazing park. Most of the public spaces I saw in Seoul were just modern and decent, but I saw that spaces can be creatively renovated to preserve its historic significance and antique looks. We should learn from this idea and stop bulldozing places for “the benefit,” like what happened to Cheonggyecheon.

In the urban sociology lecture I took in Northwestern, we discussed what and how the representative tourist spots represent the city. Each place has a value of New York City. Central Park represent the happiness of a brief chilling time of a busy urban life, Statue of Liberty shows the history of immigrants and the American dream, Times Square is an aggregate of commercialization and extravagance, Empire State Building expresses the success and pride of the nation, and Wall Street symbolizes the power of money. These values of New York are all squeezed into couple of representations. The culture, which incorporates the values, of the city starts from these spots. Everyone visits these places when they first come to New York and learn about these values. Although New Yorkers do not visit these places everyday, the values are already spread out in their New York lifestyles. I believe that this is the significance of these so-called “tourists’ places.”

All these values combined, New York creates its own unique ambiance. Some people love it, but some don’t. Although the city showed me different views from what I expected, I tried very hard to feel and appreciate those things during my short stay.

My favorite course of this exchange semester is IEMS 225, Principles of Entrepreneurship. I have always been interested in entrepreneurship, but I never took any class that teaches it. I guess it is quite ironic to “teach” entrepreneurship; it’s like teaching bravery or love. Although its credit might be worthless because of my curriculum, I decided to take it at the last minute.

And it was a right choice. I met a lot of people, including our professor Mike Moyer and TA John Kang, and other classmates. Not all but quite a few lectures, especially the guest lectures, gave me an insight in sales, presentation, and start-ups. I felt some lectures were obvious and boring, but one or two insights I got in this course already paid off everything.

The first day we had to tell why I am interested in entrepreneurship, and my answer was “I believe that entrepreneurship is not only for business, but also for my way of living. I always tried to take an entrepreneurship approach in selecting my options in life, which made my life much more dynamic and interesting.”

And yesterday this awesome class went to IDEO Chicago office. One of our classmates’ mom is working for IDEO. I was particularly thrilled with this field trip, because IDEO is the company I want to work for!

IDEO is a design consulting firm that does all sorts of design starting from product to service. It is known for its creative process of consulting, and I had the chance to see that process.

Amy, who was working in user research, greeted us and gave us a short presentation about the firm and some cases. She was working on a kidney transplant equipment. I saw some articles before that mentioned IDEO involving in some medical areas. She introduced us to the working process of IDEO, which usually involved making prototypes and role playing simulations. She brought us to project rooms which had actual prototypes and tools to make them.

IDEO is the place where people actually make things to see if it works, rather than discussing them on table. I really respect the hands-on design process, since it really helps designers to identify what the real problem is. Usually, many people cannot even address the problem. Prototypes helped designers to situate themselves as users and customers, so that they can go through the experience.

Nevertheless, this does not mean that the process lacks research. They go through intensive research with people from diverse background. I was curious how they can manage the diverse people and projects.

And the culture in the office was just amazing. People seemed happy and enthusiastic about their works. I loved how Amy pointed out IDEO has a bit more fun mind than a business mind, which made a perfect balance. At that moment, one designer rode the toy scooter (쌩쌩이) across the office and made us all laugh.

It is the place I always imagined, where there are people, creativity, and fun. It felt like being in a youth hostel. I want to work in this kind of environment.

I must work in IDEO someday later or make something similar myself, especially in Korea to spread this kind of corporate culture, which you can never imagine.

Travelling to a new place is an awesome experience, especially when the weather is perfect and when you are seeing one of the world’s most beautiful scenes. However, I learned that it is better to have someone who can feel the experience and emotions together. Niagara Falls was gorgeous, watching it alone, but it would have been more beautiful if I had seen it with people I love.

새로운 곳으로 여행을 가는건 항상 멋진 경험이다. 특히 세계에서 가장 멋진 자연광경을 완벽한 날씨에서 보는 날이면 말이다. 하지만 나는 이 경험과 감정을 함께 나눌 수 있는 사람이 있으면 더 즐겁다는걸 배웠다. 나이아가라 폭포는 정말 멋졌다. 하지만 사랑하는 사람들과 함께 봤으면 좋았을껄이라는 생각이 들었다.