Week 5 South Korea

Published:

Countries

Regions


Isaiah Richardson

<i>"Hello" in your host country's language:</i> ์•ˆ๋…•ํ•˜์„ธ์š” <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> Computer Science <i>Demographics:</i> First-generation college student Biracial (African American and Caucasian) <i>Future career aspirations:</i> After I graduate I want to work in U.S. a little while as a software engineer, and then eventually move to South Korea and work as software engineer. <i>Top 3 goals for your time abroad:</i> While I am abroad I want to learn more about the Korean culture. Enhance my software engineer skills by learning about the different approaches to problem solving. Get involved in different student organizations.

Hello,

I am back with another exciting week in South Korea. I had been very nervous about this week knowing it was coming up because we had to register for classes.

Friday the 13th we had to register for classes using mileage points which I described last week. I split my mileage points evenly in hopes to get all my classes I wanted and needed. We did not know right away if we got the classes so we had to wait until Wednesday.

Monday and Tuesday there was so much happening. I took these days to look through possible second option classes just in case I did not get ones I wanted during the first round of application. Also, my friend and I were planning a trip to Busan and Jinju, South Korea. We had been talking about it for a few weeks and we finally started planning and decided we would leave Thursday morning after round two of class registration.

Wednesday was the big day. At 4:00pm on Wednesday we were able to see if the classes we put our points toward had been confirmed. I had only got Computer Science Data Structures, and a Korean Cinema class. I was frustrated and upset because there had never been a time that I was not able to register for a class, or not know if I was getting a class. Now I had to wait until Thursday morning at 9:00am for round two of registration which is a first come first serve basis. This was also the morning we had to leave for Busan. That night I finished looking at different classes I wanted to take and decided to go with Intensive Korean Language learning which is 6 credit hours, and also take Korean Pre-modern history. I was able to successfully get into both classes and I was finished with the most stressful part of my week.

Thursday morning after round two of registration, my friend and I took the subway towards Seoul Station where we would depart for Busan. We decided we would stay for four days and go there by Korea Train Express or KTX. It is one of the fastest ways to travel to Busan from Seoul, and it is a decent price! It was a very comfortable ride all the way to Busan. Upon arrival we had to take the subway to an airbnb which our host was waiting for us. Our first day in Busan we wanted to experience something new, so we tried โ€œYukhoeโ€(์œก์‚ฌ์‹œ๋ฏธ), which is a raw meat Korean dish. I absolutely loved it and was so happy I decided to try it!

Although this week was very stressful, it was also very exciting and fun. Next week I will update with what I did in Jinju and the different places I explored. I cannot wait to explore more of Busan and keep updating!