Quick Tips I learned from my study abroad journey:
- watch travel or student video-logs or read blogs about South Korea before you go to prepare yourself for any culture shock or to get an idea of what to plan - if your university has opportunities to join a group or buddy program, do it and try to network with the people at the events to make more friends! - if you are not feeling well, do not hesitate to go to the hospital for consultation as your body may get sick easily while learning how to adjust to being in a foreign country - before the semester, make a list of where you want to go in general (ex. places to visit or experiences to have) - before traveling to specific places around the country, plan out where you want to go, how you will get there, what you will do, and how you will get home so that you spend less time figuring out what to do once you get there - begin packing your luggage about 2 weeks before you leave (at least pack the clothes or things you know you won't be using anymore) - create a system that works for you for keeping track of your budget and spending - diversify what you do abroad with educational, recreational, social, and historical events - when planning what classes to take, have two to three classes as back up just in case you do not get into the class you want or need - finalize your flight going home at least mid semester if you have not booked round trip (to try to get a good deal) - be open to new experiences while always being conscious and careful of your surroundings - when deciding travel plans try to go with a friend as it is safer and could be more fun! - make the most out of your time but also remember to have calm/rest days as balancing your classes with adventures may be fun but also take a toll on your body and mind
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Pre-departure from South Korea
I had never realized how stressful packing and moving was until I had to move out of the dorms and head to the airport at the end of finals week! I stayed up until 4:30 am on the day of my flight in order to continue packing (By then it would have been my third day of packing. Because I had too many things, I had to ship some of my clothes through the Post Office on campus. International shipping from South Korea is surprisingly very affordable! Although I wanted to avoid having to ship things home, it ended up being inevitable because I had many winter clothes that could not all fit into my checked-in luggage. This was the case for nearly all of my study abroad friends as they all had to ship items to their home countries before leaving as well. As a Korea University student living in the dorms, shipping items was actually convenient for me because I could walk to the post office within 15 to 20 minutes carrying my bags full of what I was shipping. Although it was difficult to make multiple trips back and forth with all my items, it was doable and the staff at the post office were very helpful! Remember to ask for the regular shipping form because it is cheaper and they do not put the form outside on the tables with the rest of the forms! Thoughts while flying: Right now, it is 2:32 AM as I am writing this blog post on the airplane from Seoul to Hawaii. I cannot seem to sleep so I want to be a little productive by writing out my thoughts. The nighttime mode is a little weird because my screen is red, but I do not want to bother the people sleeping around me. Perhaps I am awake because I am anxious and am excited to go home? Or maybe my body is readjusting to the time differences or is recovering from the late nights this week due to exam week, getting ready to go home, or from having goodbye dinners with my friends before we all separate into our lives before we met. This flight was a little expensive, but I chose it because of its timing as I am going back home to attend the UH Manoa graduation! Someone very important to me is graduating and I would not miss it even if it means postponing or ending my study abroad experience early! Just as quietly as I left home to study abroad (I only told my immediate family and a handful of people about leaving to study in South Korea because I wanted to surprise them) I also flew back home quietly by not telling everyone I was returning. This is it, its finally here: FINAL’S WEEK! Although I am excited to finish the academic semester and wrap up the my study abroad program by completing my final exam, I am also very sad about the fact that my study abroad experience is coming to an end. Goodbyes and endings are typically not easy for me.
My favorite thing about studying abroad is the freedom I had to roam the cities, explore South Korea’s rich culture, and discover so many new and historical wonderful places by myself. I truly felt safe here as I quickly became comfortable navigating throughout the city even to the point where I am able to read the subway line map and get to my destination or chosen station without using my Metro app. Pro tip: this may be a good skill to get when you have spotty or unreliable internet connection (as I had have issues with my internet disconnecting suddenly as I do not have a South Korean sim card per my carrier’s advice). It may be safer to unlock your phone before traveling abroad so that you can get a sim card and phone plan in South Korea for the data. Some things I would consider doing differently include taking advantage of the dormitory facilities by using the gym and study rooms more frequently. I would also modify the way I organized my budgets because although I would keep track of my expenses I incurred and activities I did throughout the day, it became difficult to keep track of everything that I did especially when I visited multiple places on certain days. For example, when refiling my T-money card sometimes I had to do it in a hurry because the subway would be arriving and I did not want to be the reason my companions and I missed its arrival especially if we had to be somewhere by a specific time. Therefore, I would often reload the machine and as soon as it was done, I would rush over to scan through the machines and go to the subway sections, sometimes forgetting to list down how much I spent on the transportation. Simple things like this would happen throughout the semester, making it difficult to keep track of every little detail of my day. How I feel about the semester ending: Looking back, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to study abroad in South Korea. Initially during the application process I admit that I was very hesitant about the program because I was worried about so many things like how I would navigate around the city, how would I be able to handle the classes of a nationally ranked and recognized SKY university, how would I make new friends, how would I deal with the language barrier when doing daily activities like eating at a restaurant, and also I was worried about how I would feel mentally and emotionally being away from my family and friends for so long (longer than I have ever had gone on a trip for. Therefore, I thought that the one semester would be very long and possibly too long for me. HOWEVER actually being on this study abroad changed my mind fairly quickly. By the end of the semester I even thought about how I could see myself doing this again for another semester! My favorite things about studying abroad: Without a doubt, my favorite thing about studying abroad would be the independence I had and confidence I gained in myself! Because I wanted to make the most out of my time during the semester, I developed the habit of making a list of the places and sights that I wanted to visit. While it was fun to travel around and explore with my friends, I quickly learned that you should not always wait for the opportunities to come to you but you must be willing to grab them even if it means doing it by yourself! By this I mean that all of my friends and I had different schedules and often what happened was when we made plans as a group, we would postpone them and push them back because not everyone was available. However, there are many activities that you can do and places you can visit by yourself! Therefore, instead of waiting for the perfect times to go somewhere I decided that you just have to go! Of course, I still made plans with my friends according to when we would all be free but for many of the adventures I had, I went by myself! This is such an accomplishment for me because I may have been very dependent on the company of my family and friends and thought they were necessary for my to go anywhere or do anything. However, I have gained a newfound appreciation of being independent and making decisions for myself! Learning to live in a shared space with a roommate and suite-mate was also something I learned to appreciate while abroad. At first, I was worried about having a roommate because this would be my first time living in a dormitory so I did not know what to expect. I did not know how we would interact, set boundaries, or even if we would be able to develop a friendship. Luckily, I had a great roommate from Texas! Although we did not talk every day (due to difference in schedules and personalities), whenever we did talk, our conversations were very natural and not awkward. South Korea is relatively a very safe and traditional country and you feel it more the longer you live in the country. I enjoyed this because the feeling of being safe while traveling is important to me (especially when I went to different areas by myself). Throughout the semester I would be keeping up with the news and events back home and it is scary to think how the state is slowly changing to have such negative and shocking situations going on. However, I did not feel that uncertainty at all throughout my time studying abroad. Classes: While abroad I took three business courses with the equivalent of: BUS 312 Marketing - my professor was a visiting professor from Canada, therefore her teaching style was different from my other professors who had been teaching at Korea University Business School for many years. Something different about this class was that it included a self assessment of participation every class in which we had to rate our contribution to the discussion from a scale of 1 to 4 (with 4 being the best rating to describe thought provoking statements or questions). I had not had to self assess my participation for every class before so I thought it was interesting. Although I did my best to contribute a thought or idea in every class, it was challenging at times because there were about 40 students in the class and we only had 1 hour and 15 minutes to try to say something in addition to professor's lecture. BUS 314 Financial Management - Although the concepts and material we covered in the course were detailed and difficult, my professor tried very hard to help student to understand the lecture in a fun way by included humor and real world examples while explaining the financial formulas and measures. In this class, majority of the students were female South Korean nationals. The structure of the course mainly included lectures and two examinations. Therefore the only other factor that made up our final grades were attendance points. International Business - This was the only course that I had where majority of the students were foreigners. The structure of the course included pop quizzes, class discussion on case studies, two group projects and presentations, and a final essay format examination, |
AuthorJust a person who is excited and grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the Korea University Student Body! CategoriesArchives
December 2019
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