12/29/2019 0 Comments SummaryI would definitely study abroad again and would recommend it to everyone. I have already recommended it to my friends who have asked me about studying abroad. I had such an amazing experience, I would not want anyone to miss out on it.
Here are some helpful tips if you are thinking about studying abroad: 1. Apply for the visa as soon as your adviser mentions it, especially if you are a Korean student going to Korea. 2. Try to find a place to live close to your school because commute can wear you down. 3. Set up a Korean bank account so you can use your debit card for everything. 4. BE PREPARED FOR THE WINTER WEATHER. 5. Make sure you know what classes you are going to take for the semester after you come back from studying abroad. 6. Download KakaoTalk, KakaoMap, KakaoTaxi, and Google Translate immediately after your arrival. 7. Make sure to bring your medication and vitamins because Korea might not have the same exact thing you're looking for. 8. Buy a phone in Korea, if possible. 9. Visit another nearby country or at least Jeju Island during your trip! 10. Make sure to have an amazing time (:
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12/22/2019 0 Comments reflectionThis was my last week abroad. While studying abroad, I have had many eye-opening moments. This was one of the first times I have had to be really independent and I thought it would be more difficult, but I think I did really well on my own. I actually enjoyed doing things on my own and immersing myself in the adult life. I believe I have grown a lot from studying abroad. I am a lot more independent, I get more tasks done, and I have become more responsible in a lot of ways. Throughout the semester, I have met some amazing friends from all over the world such as Australia, Germany, Boston, California, and Canada. They played a huge part in making my study abroad experience successful. Overall, my trip went smoothly other than my visa/citizenship situation. I also did not make any cultural mistakes because I am familiar with Korean culture.
12/16/2019 0 Comments EIGHTH BI-WEEKLY POSTMy mom flew in to Seoul to visit me! I was so excited to see her! We basically went on a long food tour. We are constantly eating different Korean dishes that would be hard to find in Hawaii since I will be leaving Korea soon. We ate one of my favorite soups, which has bean sprouts in it, which you mix your rice with. It is especially good with kimchi. I also ate fish and sea squirt sashimi. At the same restaurant they serve flower shrimp that is so fresh that it will move on your plate. One of my mom's favorite foods is cow intestine so we went to this gobchang restaurant near my house that is well known for it. We also went to a Korean barbecue place and ordered raw beef tartar that had a flower on it. Last Friday was my friend Michelle's birthday, so we went to a board game cafe because she wanted to play Catan. This is similar to PC bangs. They charge you hourly, per person and you can play any game they have there. We all had a great time and this is something I will miss.
12/1/2019 0 Comments Seventh bi-weekly postI got really sick these past two weeks again. Unfortunately, I had to go to the doctors. The doctor prescribed me medication and I had to get a shot. I am now recovering and feeling a lot better, but while I was sick I wasn't able to get out of bed for a while. I wish I didn't get sick again because the semester is coming to an end and I only really went out with my friends once to bowl. I haven't gone bowling in Hawaii so it was a different experience. The bowling area was dark and everything else was glowing. I had a lot of fun but now its time for finals again. I have been starting to study for finals, since my school has finals a week earlier than the other universities.
11/17/2019 1 Comment sixth bi-weekly postDuring these 2 weeks I had the opportunity to go on a trip to Taiwan with my friends! I was not sure if I should go because I would have a lot of assignments to catch up on, but I decided to go because I won't know when I will be in Asia again. The trip was for four days and we all had an amazing time there. On the first day we got settled into our air bnb and went out to eat spicy beef noodles. After we ate noodles we went to Shilin night market and ate some more! There were a ton of food stalls where you can try everything. Night markets here are known for their sausages, sweet potato balls, fried chicken patty, etc. Shilin also has game stalls where you can win stuffed animals. On the second day we went to Taipei 101 and the national Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall. We made it just in time to watch the guards change. After the memorial hall, we went to this restaurant known for their braised pork. It was so good everyone wanted more, but we decided to save our stomachs for later at another night market. Then, we went to Longshan temple and Raohe night market. On the third day, we went to Shifen to see the lanterns and rented scooters to see the waterfall close by. Then we went to Jiufen to see the spirited away inspired area. I love the movie spirited away, so it was really exciting to see the similarities. On our last day we wanted to try more Taiwanese food, so we ate dumplings, boba, and hotpot. I strongly recommend for students to visit Taiwan if you decide to study in Korea. Plane tickets were really cheap and you can see pretty much all of Taipei within 4 days.
11/12/2019 0 Comments FIFTH BI-WEEKLY POSTI have really began to appreciate the fall season here. It has been about 4 years since I have seen significant changes throughout the seasons. My campus is really nice because it has a lot of vegetation and you can see all the fall colors in it. Every time I'm on campus there are always at least a handful of people taking pictures. Last weekend I went to Gyeongbokgung palace and rented traditional Korean attire called hankboks, for pictures. I recommend going around this time because it has a lot of fabric and you can get really hot in it. I have also recently found this pizza place which I am really excited about because the pizza is not sweet. All the pizza places I have tried in Korea have a slightly sweet taste to it, which isn't bad but I like this place in Itaewon called Bonny's Pizza. Something that I could never get in Hawaii is delivery for food at 10pm. I think delivery for pizza would still be available at this time, but you can literally order any kind of food you want. This includes sushi, Chinese food, katsu, all kinds of fast food, pho, etc. In the picture below I ordered salmon nigiri and yukhae, which is raw beef with pear, sprouts, and an egg.
10/27/2019 1 Comment Fourth bi-weekly postI am finally done with finals! I used my free time to go to the PC bang where you can use gaming computers for really cheap per hour. If you sign up for a membership, the rates are as low as a dollar per hour. The thing I like most about it, is that you can order all kinds of food from your computer and the employees will bring it to your table. Most of them are open 24/7 so you can visit the place anytime. Other than going to the PC bang, I have not been able to do much these two weeks because of school and I also caught a cold. The great thing about pharmacies here though is that you can tell the pharmacists your symptoms and they have medications for almost everything.
10/13/2019 0 Comments third bi-weekly postThese past two weeks have been pretty busy for me. I went to a 2 day festival where the most popular Korean rappers/artists performed. It was one of the best festivals I have ever been to. I had the chance to see almost all the Korean rappers I listen to like Jay Park, Gray, Sik-K, Ph-1, Dumbfoundead, Crush, etc. I also met Dumbfoundead and had a short conversation with him until he had to leave to prepare for his performance. After the Offroute festival, I had to get ready for my midterms so I have been spending most of my time studying. In Korea, exams make up the majority of your grade since there is almost no assignments. I have my first one on tomorrow, two on Friday, and my last one next Tuesday. Hopefully, I will do well on all of them! It also has been getting very cold. The lowest the temperature has gone so far is 49 degrees.
9/29/2019 0 Comments Second bi-weekly postI have officially finished the first month of the semester. This also means that midterms will be coming up in about 2 weeks so I have started to study for them. School has been going well, there are barely any assignments to complete because the classes are so heavily lecture based. When I am not doing school related things, I go out with my friends. We went to a raccoon cafe in Hongdae where there were actual raccoons you can play with! The staff are very strict about jewelry and having items on you so we had to put them all away in a locker. I could understand why they were so strict because the raccoons like to dig through your pockets and try to take things. There were also really cute dogs in the cafe. Later on in the week I went to Gwangjang market, where they are known for street food. Netflix has a documentary on famous street food around the world and one of the mandoo stalls in this market was featured. We happened to come across it and had some amazing kimchee mandoo. The most exciting thing that I had the chance to do was going to the rapbeat festival. Rapbeat festival is a music festival featuring famous Korean rappers. All the rappers appearing at the festival have about 30 minutes each to perform. I love listening to Korean rap so I was speechless when I learned that most of my favorite artists were going to the festival. (DPR live, Beenzino, Zion T, Reddy, etc.)
9/15/2019 0 Comments First bi-weekly postThe first two weeks of school have finished and I am more aware of how very different it is from the American college educational system. Your grades are very heavily weighted on exams and usually make up about 85% of your final grade. My school takes attendance very seriously and for some classes, being absent 3 times means you have failed the class for the semester. Moving onto more positive things... my university offers a wide variety of authentic Korean food that always comes with some type of side dish and soup ^^, all usually under 7,000 won ($7.00). Other than school related things, I have been a tourist and have been eating a lot! My friends and I went to the famous Noryangin fish market, where you can eat seafood for cheap compared to the prices you would pay in Hawaii. It was fascinating to see all the different types of seafood alive. You can ask the salesperson how much and which type of seafood you would like and they take you upstairs to a restaurant where they prepare it for you. I have had Sul-bing about 5 times now, which is a desert place, very well known for their shave ice. I also spent a relaxing night biking along the Han river. Although I have just started school, I actually had a 4 day break because it was Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving). So my friends and I decided to make the most of our break and go to Incheon for 2 nights. We booked a hotel on Wolmido island, which was on the boardwalk right next to the amusement park. We went to several parks, Chinatown (where black bean noodles were invented), and lit fireworks at night :D! Today, we took a day trip to Suwon, which is known for the Hwaseong fortress, where we went on a hot air balloon ride and ate chicken on the fried chicken street. I want to end this blog post by saying that I was a little worried about starting my life in Korea even though I am Korean and am almost perfectly fluent. There have been some cases where people would not understand what I'm saying because I might have a slight accent and there are many different ways of doing even everyday things here compared to the U.S. Also, there are not many students studying abroad that are of full Korean ethnicity. However, I would especially encourage those of you that are in a similar situation as I am to study here, because I now feel more embraced with my culture and am experiencing what my life would have been like if I have lived in my home country all this time. Even though you feel like you might already know what that may be like or you feel a little discouraged, you will regret it if this is what might be holding you back from taking this journey.
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Pre-departureIn order to prepare for my upcoming semester in Seoul, I had gone to the embassy a month early from my departure date for my student visa, which was August 4. However, I could not obtain one even though I have been an American citizen my whole life because my father got his citizenship after I was born. I had to go through a very long and difficult process to acquire a Korean I.D. Please contact me if you have any questions about this process (especially if your ethnicity is Korean), as my other Korean American peers went through the same situation. My email is [email protected]. Other than preparing for documents to enter the country, I prioritized packing, making sure I had all my necessities packed a few days before my departure date. I went to the doctor to get refills for the medication I will be needing for the months ahead. I also called my bank to let them know I will be living in Korean until the end of December so I can freely use my cards without any foreign transaction fees. My number one tip would be to prepare for these types of things for the new semester as soon as the current semester ends! |