STUDY ABROAD DIARY: Seoul, South Korea
I will be a sophomore at Rice University this fall. This will be my second time studying in Seoul! I came last summer as a part of the NSLI-Y program. If you have any questions about that program or about study abroad in Korea, feel free to ask me!
I will use this blog to document my studies at Yonsei University and all my adventures this summer. Last summer was the time of my life; I hope this one tops it! The journey starts June 18th! ^^
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Hi! I guess if you read through my blog a little, you’ll get a glimpse of what life is like as a study abroad student in Korea. I think studies are about the same, nothing particular. If you’re not from a large urban city like me, then you’ll probably find Seoul (assuming that’s where you’ll be) to be full of adventure. There’s always a lot to do, although my favorite part might have been just sitting in cafes. The night life is pretty upbeat; Koreans really know how to get their party on. :P It’s definitely a great experience, so I encourage you to step out of your comfort zone a bit and embrace being a stranger in a strange city. From someone who has been in those shoes multiple times, I’ve never regretted anything! Let me know if you have any more specific questions, good luck!
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I am American, but if you were actually wondering about my ethnicity, I am Chinese :)
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Hello Blanca! I’m so glad that my study abroad blog can be a resource for you even a year after I finished the blog. To answer your questions:
1. I don’t believe YISS to be a very competitive program. I could be wrong but I don’t you should have any problem getting in.
2. Best part of the trip is definitely the people you meet. Definitely live in the dorms on campus even though it can be a bit costly. I went through CIEE, which provided me with a smaller group of friends that I am still very close with. If you can find anything like that, I would definitely recommend it! YISS is huge and it can hard to find a friend group to plug into. :/
3. No Korean knowledge is required before the program! If you’re planning to take a Korean language course, Yonsei has courses ranging from beginner I to advanced III, so no worries. But if you are a quick learner and want to get the most out of your summer, it might be worth your while to learn the Korean alphabet and some basic vocabulary. The beginner classes spend a lot of time on alphabet and basic vocab/sentence structure (stuff I think you can pick up easily on your own).
4. I’m not sure I understand the question. If you mean in order to learn Korean, then Chinese is definitely useful but it’ll take you longer to learn Chinese than Korean so there’s really no point. If you meant in general, Chinese is an increasingly important language in the world so it would be good to know if you want to go into anything international after college. If you were going to learn both anyway, I’d go with Chinese first :P but honestly, if you don’t have interest/passion for it, it’ll be hard to really learn a language well. So I say go with what you’re more interested in!
Hope that helped, feel free to ask me more questions! :)
#cupcakemaster512 #south korea #study abroad #faq #questions #korea #summer #yonsei
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I think my summer study abroad cost around $6-7,000. It’s a bit harder to fund in the summer since you can’t get any financial aid or use your regular scholarships toward summer studies. I got a scholarship for $1,000 and had to put up the rest with a loan. I think I also got a bit of the pell grant, though I am not too sure.
I’m pretty sure you can be in any US college but some programs have specific schools they are affiliated with that will make things like transferring credits and such a bit easier. Just do your research and know if your school is affiliated with any programs and how that affects you.
Let me know if you have anymore questions! :)
#laughing-ish-away2011 Yonsei International Summer School (YISS)
Camera guy loved following me and my friends around so I see myself quite a lot in this video actually. LOL Lots of good memories <3
This is exactly how ramen gets made at my host family’s house. Exact same stove, exact same pot.
(Source: aegyobitch, via unicornofthesea)
View of Seoul from Namsan Tower (N Seoul Tower). Breathtaking isn’t it? I love this city so much. <3
쌈지길 Ssamjigil is a small market in 인사동 Insadong known for having many cute shops and handmade crafts. It is also distinguished for being organized like a spiral, you have to walk around the first floor to get to the second and to the third and so on. There is also a sticker picture store where you can take sticker pictures in traditional Korean clothing! I really think it is a must for a trip to Korea. :)
A street in Bukchon, a neighborhood of Hanok houses (traditional Korean houses) in Seoul which you can get to by subway on Line 3 at Anguk Station.
Me in front of the part of Yonsei University that was used to film the Korean drama IRIS!
So nothing much happened the last day except shopping. I went to Myeongdong twice to buy masks for my mom and then went to Edeh (I think this romanization looks so weird but I guess Idae looks even weirder) to shop around and bought a shirt and then went back to Myeongdong and got a purse for my mom. I was pretty tired by the time I got home so I made dinner and packed some more and just skyped my mom before I slept.
Monday morning I got up and packed and skyped my parents again since my dad just got back from China. I went to Apgujeong to eat some Ox Tail Soup for my last meal in Korea and bought a card for my host family. I tried to leave earlier but it ended up not happening because… well, it’s me. But since I planned to leave earlier than I was suppose to, I wasn’t late at all. I had to walk to the bus stop with my luggage in the rain though, since I didn’t have any open hands to hold my umbrella with. Sat at the bus stop for a while and stood up every time I saw an airport bus (LOL I felt like an idiot but I was really nervous about missing the bus) until finally mine came. Loaded my luggage onto the bus and slept most of the way to the airport after the scenery got kind of bland.
The plane ride was not that bad actually. I sat next to a senior from U of H who had been studying abroad in Beijing for the summer. He was pretty nice but I slept through most of the flight and only woke up for the meals and towards the end when it was like 1pm in LA so I decided I shouldn’t sleep anymore.
Coming back to LA this time wasn’t as bad as last time. Last time was harder for certain reasons but also I think because it was right after senior year, I still wanted to spend more time abroad. But this time after a whole year away, I just really wanted to go home already. Sure, I’ll miss Korea and everything but I’m sure I’ll be back again in the next few years, even if it’s only for a week or two.
So this concludes my experience abroad. Thank you to everyone who has followed me through my journey! I hope that my blog has perhaps motivated you to study abroad yourself. It truly is an extremely life changing and rewarding experience. I might continue to post some pictures if I want to share them, but this concludes most of what this blog was for. If you would like, you can follow me at my personal blog: abovethecloudss.
