While many of my friends back at home enjoy their spring break, I began the first week of classes here at Hanyang University! One major difference is that they follow a different class schedule. Students meet twice a week and in some cases once a week. That being said, students and professors meet for a longer period of time. What I like about the professors, is they like to engage with the students. Even though we learned about a certain topic, the professor explains where we would encounter this in the real world. The courses I am taking are all interesting and fun! I do not feel this sense of nervousness since most of my courses have other international students. Even though there is so much to do around the campus and in the neighborhood, I have to make sure I still focus on my studies. This is a responsibility that I hope to improve while I am here!
This first week also involved a orientation for exchange students to get to know one another. The games that the students played were fun to watch. During this orientation, I met many students from the United States, Canada, Singapore, The Netherlands, Germany, Indonesia, Australia, and more! Each one with their own story of why they picked South Korea as their choice of studying abroad. This is where we also met out buddy who would make our stay at Hanyang University easier by introducing us to the culture, and showing us different places to visit while I am here. Once the orientation ended some of us went to have dinner! Even though it was just Monday night, everyone was having a blast and it did not feel like a Monday! People are laughing with one another and talking about Korea life. In my opinion, the food is inexpensive and I love it! I could eat twice as more here then what I would eat back at home. Once we had finished eating my buddies and I went to a Karaoke place to sing and unwind from a day of learning. There are so many things that you could do here in Seoul and never imagine that it was a school day. Not only that but this Friday is a welcoming party where all the exchange students will meet once again to celebrate our first week at Hanyang University! This is another chance to make new friends and to build long lasting relationships.
