margaret's musings

My first week of classes at Yonsei University in Seoul has just come to a close, and tomorrow marks 2 weeks since I first landed in Seoul for the fall semester. The last two weeks have made me incredibly grateful for my summer experience at Ewha, as coming back to the Sinchon neighborhood felt so familiar that I haven’t even been nervous about spending 4 months abroad, a fact that would otherwise have intimidated me so much. I’ve been able to settle into my new routine easily because of this familiarity, and it honestly feels nice to be back!

– week 1

The first week I was here was a lot of shopping for necessities, figuring out school facilities, and readjusting to time zones. My room at Yonsei compared to Ewha is a little smaller, mostly because we have communal bathrooms in the Yonsei dorm I’m staying in compared to the private bathrooms at Ewha. Otherwise, the rooms are very similarly built & laid out, so I was glad to have stored some things in a locker in the Ewha neighborhood for the month that I was back in the US since I didn’t have to do a huge haul.

Of the more exciting things I did this first week: I went on a bit of a shopping spree with my roommate for non-necessities, after we had bought everything we absolutely needed, and unfortunately spent way too much money. We justified it to ourselves by saying we wouldn’t end up shopping as much at once when we have classes, which is kind of true, but I’ve definitely still been buying things at Olive Young since then. I got a digital camera for my birthday recently too, and filmed a bit of a shopping vlog of that day, but I have yet to edit it together…

On another day, I met up with a friend from my home school and we went cafe hopping in Seongsu! It was my first proper trip to Seongsu, and I must say I really did enjoy the cafes there. Every place we went had such nice vibes, and it was nice to catch up and to see a familiar face in Seoul. The next night she joined me and my roommate in Hongdae and we got Korean barbecue (again), as well as visited a cute stationery shop in Yeonnam that I definitely need to go back to.

My roommate and I went to a Yonsei party where we mingled and met a few other exchange students! (Entry was excluded only to people who were of drinking age, which I find funny because I’m still underage in the United States.) We also went cafe hopping the Sunday before our first day of classes, since we are both BTS fans and cafes around Hongdae were having Jungkook birthday events! We got a ton of free fan-made swag, and I also dragged my roommate to a Red Velvet Joy birthday cafe that was near one of the Jungkook ones as well as convenience store that was having a LE SSERAFIM lucky draw event for their new comeback… I deeply appreciated her humoring me.

Overall, though, those were the most exciting things that happened the week before classes started. I didn’t end up exploring Seoul too much, and rather stayed in Sinchon and its neighboring hotspots. I’m glad I did though, because now I have a really good lay of the land!

– first week of classes

This semester I’m taking 5 courses – one Korean language class, two classes on Korean politics/international relations, and two classes on Korean art history. I figured I might as well take advantage of study abroad and fully load my schedule with Korea-related courses. I’m definitely taking a lot of hours of class, but the coursework outside of the classroom is so much lighter than I’m used to, so I’m really looking forward to all of the free time I’ll have. Plus, all of the topics are super interesting to me, and I don’t think I’ll get a chance to learn about Korea in this much depth at least for the rest of my time in undergrad.

After the first week of classes and having had a normal lecture for each class that’s not just going over the syllabus, I’m really interested in what I’ll be learning in my course on modern art in Korea. My summer art history class was interesting, but it was for such a short amount of time that we didn’t get to go into depth on many things, especially not modern art movements. I’m really interested to see how artists responded to the events of 20th century Korea, specifically South Korea when it comes to the post-Korean War/military dictatorship era, and this course seems like I’ll get some answers to that! My political courses will also give me some more of that historical context, which I think will make for a really fascinating semester.

I’ve made a few friends in my classes, and I also met up with a Korean student at Yonsei that I met through a language exchange with my home school’s Korean courses. We got 찜닭 (jjimdak, braised chicken in soy sauce) and went to a pie cafe for dessert, and it was so nice to meet her in person for the first time! We spoke in Korean pretty much the whole time, which I was really proud of. I was surprised that I was able to hold conversation in Korean for so long (and that I was comprehensible). As an American, I know I often fall into the trap of assuming everyone knows about my culture, language, etc. when I don’t know much about theirs, and in countries like South Korea where education in English is very widespread that can sometimes feel less important. However, I learned a lot from my friend by being able to communicate with her in her native language where she could speak more comfortably, and it made me realize yet again how cool it is to be able to speak multiple languages – there is a whole new population of people I can speak to and learn from now!

This weekend, I’m hanging out more with my roommate – we have plans to go to some fun neighborhoods around Seoul! I’m also going to have to start thinking about what I’ll do during the Chuseok holiday, since I’ll have the 16th through the 18th off for the traditional holiday… I’ve heard staying in Seoul is the best, since lots of people will be heading home elsewhere in the country to visit family for the holiday? Maybe if it’s not too hot still I’ll go hiking, and see what holiday events are happening around the city.

Overall, I’ve had a good time here so far! I’m still obviously experiencing some culture shock, but like I mentioned earlier, I’m really glad I came for a month over the summer so that I already know how to deal with the things that make me uncomfortable. Looking forward to meeting more people, to when the weather gets cooler, and to hopefully learning even more about Korea 🙂

Welcome to my blog!

I figured as I set this up for my future study abroad experiences, I’d share a bit about my last trip to South Korea. I participated in the Ewha Womans University EISC program, where I took a class on Korean art as well as a language course, for 4 weeks.

I’m so grateful that I was able to get the opportunity to get to know Seoul for a bit before my fall study abroad program, where I’ll be studying at Yonsei University. I know a bit of what to expect staying in South Korea as a foreigner, and it helped me feel more prepared to stay in the country for a semester later.

While I definitely experienced some culture shock, I had a blast over the summer! I visited various historical sites around Seoul as part of one of my classes, and spent way too much money in classic shopping neighborhoods like Hongdae, Apgujeong, Seongsu, and Myeongdong. I even took a day trip outside Seoul to Nami Island, right outside Gapyeong, where me and some friends ziplined onto the island in the middle of the river (and I conquered my fear of heights).

One of my favorite places to visit in Seoul has to be the National Museum of Korea. So much Korean history is held there, and it is honestly super educational if you don’t know much about Korean history. Before I left for the summer, I visited the newly-renovated Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., and found out that the oldest extant book printed with metal movable-type in the world was printed in Korea in the 14th century. When I visited the NMK for my art history class, I found a small portion of an exhibition on the first floor that was dedicated to the history of printing in Korea – but unfortunately, the Goryeo dynasty-era Jikji text is held in France rather than Korea. Still, it was interesting to see how Korea played a role in East Asian printing technologies, as often what I hear discussed are Chinese printing methods or Japanese woodblock prints.

Over the summer, I learned a bit about how to approach living abroad. Especially in a country like South Korea, a place which is either romanticized for its pop culture or antagonized for its treatment of foreigners and strict beauty standards, I made an effort not to lean too much into one assumption or the other. At first, I was in a bit of a honeymoon phase, but I really began to notice the isolation that naturally comes from being (and looking like) a foreigner. My biggest worry when I’m abroad this fall is feeling that isolation more, since I’ll be there for much longer.

But I think I began to approach that feeling by not catastrophizing about it, or making assumptions (‘everyone around me on this train hates me just for being here!’), and rather caring less about what strangers might think. I’m definitely someone who is very self-conscious, and studying abroad has forced me to confront that feeling and stop viewing myself in the 3rd person as much since it only caused added stress.

I also made some amazing friends, which made me feel a lot less isolated in the face of my mini-existential crisis! My best memories are of study cafes, after-class noraebangs, injeolmi bingsu sharing, and K-pop album purchasing, and I am so grateful for everyone I met while I was at Ewha.

I also got to see a K-pop concert while I was at Ewha – my first K-pop concert in Korea! ARTMS, one of the post-disbandment LOONA groups, was kicking off their world tour at Ewha’s Samsung Hall, so I got some relatively-last minute tickets and had an absolute blast! Korean concerts are very organized, and I was able to get merch and drop it off at my dorm before the show started. The venue was pretty small, so of course everyone sat down the whole show but people even shouted to have conversations with the members since it was so intimate. I ended up being 2 feet away from Choerry, and it was a really great setlist – I never learn the fanchants and ended up singing along to every song, but I don’t think I took away too much from the overall effect of the fanchants…

Anyways, that’s a recap of my summer in Seoul… nervous but looking forward to being back for the fall!