Today I had lunch with my friends (Jenny, Nisha, and Grace) from KU at MND cafe and walked around Ehwa University after. One thing that I wanted to do while abroad was to explore other universities and see how their campus is different from both my home institution and my host institution. One thing that made Ehwa University different from KU was that the University centers a lively and bustling area of restaurants, cafes, accessory shops, and fashion shops! In addition, many tourists were walking around the campus to take photos at the iconic
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It is currently Midterm Season at Korea University! Prior to Midterms week arriving, I was very excited for it because I wanted to see the intensity of how people study here and how challenging the exam format is. This post will focus on how I handled exam week and some things that I have noticed while prepping for my exams: Typically, in this University, exam week usually entails of one day dedicated for your examination for each class, meaning that there is no lecture class for the other day that you would normally have instruction. Of course this varies depending on your professor and course structure. There are some professors that will host a review session during the class before your exam. For example, if your normal class days are Monday and Wednesday for a class, then the professor may have a review day on Monday and the exam will be Wednesday. This was the case for two of my courses. My first exam was on Tuesday, October 22. To prep for this exam I experienced studying at cafes near my dormitory (specifically near Anam station). Pro Tip: If you are looking to study at a cafe during exam season, be sure to go early as spots fill quickly and people usually stay until closing! Cafes like Holly's extend their hours accommodate students studying by opening for 24 hours! I mainly studies here with my friends. The energy in the air was very intense as you could feel the stress flowing from the students as they studied. I think that one of the contributing factors as to why many students 'crammed' and studied this way is the education structure that heavily weighs exams in South Korea. Because there are typically no other assignments (in class and as homework) offered throughout the courses, everyone feels the desperation to get high marks on the exams! Today after I finished with class at around 1 pm I met up with a friend (Niki) to go to the Anam Hospital together because we had both gotten sick. Prior to the visit, many of our other friends had gotten sick and I had noticed that many people on the subways and also in my class were also sick. Before my coughing got worse, I wanted to see a professional to understand what I was sick with and how to treat it.
One great thing about Anam hospital -other than the fact that it is very close to my university- is that there is a department where you that does consultation checkups for international patients and you would not need an appointment to go. After walking in, I waited until one of the nurses was available and once she was, she created a profile for me for the hospital's database as it was my first visit, told her what was wrong, did a blood pressure test, then was given an appointment time of 1:30 pm . Another great thing about this hospital visit was how quick and efficient it was! The doctor was ready for me at 1:28 pm and my consultation with her ended at 1:35 pm! It was a 7 minute checkup in which the doctor asked me questions, looked at my throat, did a respiratory check with the stethoscope, prescribed medication, and described what each would help me with. It was the fastest appointment I had ever been to, which I did not expect it to be. After waiting for my friend to finish with her appointment, a worker helped us with the post consulation part of the visit. She guided us to the third floor and acted as our translator for payment process of getting the prescriptions and taught us how to pick them up at the pharmacy. From the time of the payment to the time that the prescription was ready totaled about 11 minutes! I expected to wait at least half an hour to an hour for them to be ready as I was given 4 types of medicines (including one pain killer, two pills for my cough, and one anti-bacterial gargle rinse bottle.) After my doctors appointment I went to the bank to activate my student ID card. Although it is not required for foreign exchange students to open a Hana Bank account, at orientation they had stated that it was highly recommended. Therefore, after picking up my card from the Global Services Center, I went to the bank to activate it and get it fixed (for some reason my card had someone else's photo on it and was told that the bank had to fix it). |
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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