Namsan Tower

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Jaylyn Briggs

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Jaylyn Briggs

<i>"Hello" in your host country's language:</i> Annyeong <i>Home Institution (your U.S. University/College):</i> Western Kentucky University <i>Expected graduation year:</i> 2023 <i>Destination city & country:</i> Seoul, South Korea <i>Program provider:</i> Yonsei University <i>Major/minor:</i> Interior Design / Administrative Business <i>Demographics:</i> First-Generation, Black <i>Future career aspirations:</i> I plan to use my major in interior design to create a furniture collection connecting traditional Korean style with modern American at the interior design firm Danaham, located in Seoul, South Korea. <i>Top 3 goals for your time abroad:</i> 1. Language expansion 2. Experience South Korean culture first hand 3. Travel and explore South Korea

This week was the Halloween weekend here in Korea. I was surprised to see that it is a holiday that is celebrated here because it’s very popular in America but other countries hardly celebrate it here. Many restaurants and stores had up decorations for the Halloween season. Also on Halloween day many Koreans dressed up in costumes and I even saw little kids in costumes. Me and my friends dressed up as characters from a popular American movie. On Halloween day the streets that are popular for college students to visit were very packed that you could hardly walk through. But, Halloween is very different in Korea because there are no haunted house attractions to visit unless you are at an amusement park. I also got to visit Namsan tower also known as N Seoul tower. It is one of the most famous attractions of Seoul. It is located on Namsan Mountain in the center of Seoul and it is the second highest point in Seoul standing at 236 meters tall. It is a great place for sightseeing because it is so high that you can basically see all of seoul. But it is kind of frightening being that high in the sky with all the glass windows. I got to visit there with a few of my friends that I met here in Korea and some friends from my home university. After we left Namsan Tower we had lunch at a traditional Korean restaurant that was very delicious. We had kimchi stew which is also known as kimchi jjigae. We also had bulgogi, bibimnengmyun and lots of side dishes as well. It was actually very inexpensive so we could have many things and just share them with each other. It was a very nice day because the weather wasn’t too cold and the leaves have started to fall here in Korea. This week I feel like I can explore Korea more and live a normal life because the restrictions for how long places can stay open have been lifted. So now I have more time to go out and now the days are longer because everything isn’t closing at 10 pm. So now it would be better for me to take a trip to Jeju or Busan because I will have more things to do there and not just waste my time by only being able to visit one place each day that I am there.