Jinho's American Life - 우당탕 미국유학 이야기

First picture is when we left Colorado, and second picture is after a few hours in New Mexico. If you have ever driven in New Mexico, you probably know the fact that New Mexico is beginning and ending with wasteland. When I was seeing vast wasteland, I remembered Korean people who live in a very small land. We can't imagine that vast wasteland in Korea. 

The size of land is not the only important thing for a nation;however, it is true that the size of land affects the power of a nation. Thus, if only 'Gando(間島)' or 'Manju(滿洲)' were still our land. (Manju was a part of Korean territory long long time ago, and Gando is a part of Manju, but the people in Gando still preserve Korean language and culture. The lands belong to China now.)

Whereas I envy Americans, I can't just ignore their efforts to possess lands. Let's summarize American history of territory.

1. They took  Native-Americans' lands through various ways, such as friendship, conciliation, threat, or slaughter.

2. They purchased Louisiana from France. (1803) 

3. They took or bought Texas(1845), California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming(1848) from Mexico.

4. They purchased Alaska from Russia(1867). 

This is what I remember about American history of territory. They are amazing. They have really tried to broaden their territory. At that time, Koreans even were not able to protect their land. Another American culture shows their tendency to like land.

This is a typical american board game, Monopoly which is known as burumabul in Korea. The goal of this game is buying all lands. We can see their same tendency to like land with their sports. Their favorite sports is football. To explain about the role simply, this game also has same goal which is earning lands. Football players run to opponent's land with the ball and say that is their territory.

Because they have these thoughts, there is the U.S. Actually I drove all day at that time, so I don't have many things to say about my journey. Next story about White Sands National Monument is coming soon.