Three Rooms

Since I came to Chicago, I have almost spent all my time in my apartment. Of course, I visited various and famous places and buildings as soon as I came here. After then, my life in Chicago has been the same routine: home, school, and gym. Whenever I am bored here, I feel the lack of three places in Korea: the PC room, the book room, and the karaoke. The PC room is the place that people can play the computer games. The book room is the place that people can borrow comic books for a small amount of money. Lastly, the song room is the place that people can sing songs. These three places are clear in my mind, yet I have not able to enjoy them since I came to the U.S.

I have some memories about the PC room where I spent my school days with my friends. The PC rooms started at first when I was a middle school student. At that time, the computer game, StarCraft, was the biggest success in Korea. The trait of this game is that people can join online and play the game together at the same time. Because of this game, people made the game league, and the game league became one of the most popular sports in Korea. Nowadays, the online system is basic, but it was a brand new system more than a decade ago. For these two reasons, people were very interested in the PC room. My friends and I also went to the PC room for a hideout whenever we finished an exam and played the game all day long. We were able to have some food and talk about everything going on in our lives. This is the way that we released our stress and pressure from school life. However, I think Americans who are about the same age and students prefer video games. Even though they like computer games more than video games, they just play the game alone in their house. I do not like this way because I cannot feel excited if I play the game alone. I want to go back and play the game with my friends together.

One of my hobbies is reading books. I like reading various genres of books, but most of all, I enjoy reading comic books. I want to read all comic books that I can. The problem when I was in Korea was that I could not buy all of the books that I wanted to read. That was why I used the book rooms in Korea. Most book rooms contain books of various genres, but most books are comic books. If I wanted to read some comic books, I could borrow the books and pay a small fee. This fee is very inexpensive about three to five cents. During my school vacations, I borrowed ten or twenty comic books at once, and I read all the books all night long at home. Some days, my friends and I went to some book rooms that have desks and chairs, so it was possible to read there. Those book rooms had a time-limit system. It means that we could read every comic book the whole day if we paid about five dollars. I was very happy on those days. However, The United States does not have this place or the comic books that I want to read. Sometimes, I try to get the comic books online, but it is very hard to get them. Now, I am waiting to go back to Korea, so I can enjoy reading those comic books once again.

Finally, many Koreans enjoy karaoke. There are many reasons that people look for the karaoke. In many companies, after people dine together, they want to build their new friendship more closely with their colleagues or new recruits. Also, Korean families use karaoke to build harmony. In my case, I often enjoyed this song room if I had a lot of stress, or I felt depressed. Once I went there with my friends and sang songs until I was exhausted, and I was able to relieve my stress. Spending this time together, people can deep their relationship among the people and relieve their stress. Compared to America, people just sing songs when they want. I saw many people who sing songs on the street, gym, and hallway in the school. They do not care about what others may think. I think some Americans enjoy singing songs by themselves, but Koreans enjoys singing songs for their friendship and harmony.

In conclusion, these three places were my entertainments. Through the PC room, I could make the memories with my friends, through the book room, I could feel happy, and through the song room, I could relieve my stress from my life. Even though I miss those three places, I now need to find new entertaining places because I am in Chicago. The new places I hope to find will give me new experiences, new happiness, and new people. I will have new experiences like my memory of the PC room, I will feel new pleasure like reading the comic books, and I will have a good time with new people like the karaoke with my friends. I hope to find my replacements.