By desansky0826
Annyeonghaseyo (Hello)! So far it is the end of two weeks here in Korea and my love for the country has grown. The first week of school went well. All of my professors speak excellent English and can demonstrate a wide array of knowledge in both English and Korean. The engineering courses here require a chapter reading a class, which is challenging due to the content, but is overall manageable. Being a girl in an engineering class in Korea leaves me in the minority. Most of my classes are 95% boys, but luckily I have my friend Sabrina from GWU here with me to attend them all. I have had no trouble making Korean friends in classes. I have mainly noticed that they won’t talk to you unless you talk to them first, but when you do talk to them they are very enthusiastic and friendly. The grades here work on an A-F system like the US. I have heard from previous students who went on this exchange program that there is no homework given in classes just midterms and finals. This turned out to be incorrect for my classes and I have to do chapter summaries, practice problems, and then midterms and finals.
Monday through Thursday I have school from 10:30am to 5pm. I usually try to go to the international student gym in CJ House at 8:45am because it is only open until 10am and then again at 6pm. It is quiet the struggle forcing myself out of bed to walk uphill to do some basic workouts, but the security guard from CJ House and I have now become friends because of this. Classes are usually an hour and fifteen minutes long, unless they are a lab course. At the end of last week we had a KUBA cheering orientation. At this orientation, the KUBA buddies took their time teaching us the cheers KU students chant at sports games. These cheers are usually aimed at the KU rival Yonsei University. They are hilarious including translations like “Yonsei gets drunk on beer” and “your mascot is a bird.” There were only 20 cheers that we learned out of the possible 100 cheers. Cheering was great but something I was not prepared for was the dancing. At least half of the cheers we were taught included fast-paced head banging and group jumping. The next day I was so sore that turning my head became an issue. At the end of this 2 hour event my new KUBA t-shirt was soaked in sweat, but it was a good time.
Additionally, this past weekend my GWU friends and I won three day club passes to go to Gangam. Yes, that is Gangam from the PSY song and it is considered the super-city part of Seoul. If I were to compare this to New York, Gangam is Manhattan and Anam, the area we live in, is Queens. We went all three days, met some fun people, and danced all night. We went to a club bar on Thursday, Club Syndrome on Friday, and then Club Eluis on Saturday. Korean clubs play typical house music in one section and then American rap music in another, such as Beyoncé or Rihanna. Dancing at these clubs was great and being able to recognize other international students there made everything even better. The clubs were about 5% international students and 95% were Korean; however this made no difference because everyone was really into having a good time. After a club we would typically go get food afterwards, and my friend John had an argument with our new French friend John Paul about America culture. The general perception of Americans from John Paul is that they are crazy, fried chicken-loving, gun owning, idiots. When I asked my KUBA buddy what Korean people thought of Americans she said that they think they are crazy, yet very friendly people. The consensus amongst others was also that Americans are crazy. This perception is not too bad and actually fits in well with the work hard play hard attitude of the Korean people. At least three times now I have seen Korean students sitting in circles in Hana Square, the science and engineering campus, taking shots of Soju after class at 5pm, which seems crazy to me.
This week the US ambassador to South Korea was razored by a political extremist against US-Korean joint military efforts. This seemed to be a big deal to CNN but to the Korean college students I asked, it seemed minor. They agreed that it was just an extremist protesting and not public thought. Currently, it is a Wednesday and I am sitting in a coffee Café called DaVinci and I had a garlic cheese sandwich. I tend to eat American food for lunch and Korean food for dinner here. The whole room is packed with Korean students getting lunch in between classes. They usually order food here family style so that everyone can share. A simple ham, egg, and cheese and coffee here in Korea is 3,500W like 3 US dollars, while in Carvings at GWU it is at least $5.50. The students are loud and happy. Shout out to my sister Yanina, I have not yet met a single Kim, but hopefully these stories satisfy what you call the DailyKim. Anyways, more adventures are still to come next week! Annyeoungkyeseyo (Goodbye)!