First Semester Complete!
The last few months have flown by, but now I finally get a breather! Now that it’s summer break, I’ll make up for lost time, and I’ll take a lighter course load next semester to not be in study-mode all the time. Before starting this program, I told myself that I wouldn’t let academics get in the way of the bigger picture of this unique opportunity to immerse myself abroad, but I wasn’t very good at doing that with the workload I had. It’s just so difficult for me to not give 100% effort for my assignments, even though I might’ve had a better time if I sacrificed time at school for more immersive experiences. I’m going to adjust my academic expectations next semester and schedule accordingly so I’m not stuck like this my whole time in Korea.
That being said, my Korean level has increased a lot because of the constant language exposure at school! Last weekend, I revisited a language exchange group that I haven’t been to in a few months and the Koreans there were shocked at the difference from the past few months. I don’t speak very often in Korean lectures when I’m not presenting something, but hearing so many different speaking styles all day has done wonders for my listening comprehension for difficult subjects. My university also has an international mentorship program where international students are paired with a Korean student within their department, and this helped a lot this semester. It made asking for help a lot easier knowing that someone was expecting and looking forward to helping the sometimes confused foreigner. I tend to just “figure it out” on my own instead of ask for help, but I’ve learned that attitude will only take you so far in Korean graduate school 🙃
Thankfully, I did manage to squeeze in quite a few fun experiences this semester. Until now, the weather has been excellent for riding, so I went on a few bike trips in addition to riding to school and around Seoul most days:
The highlight of the last few months was of course when Yoomin visited for work! She wasn’t here very long, but we crammed in as much good food and fun experiences as possible. Thankfully we’ll be able to see each other again later this summer while she’s working all around the globe.
School was quite a ride too. I gave five or six presentations in Korean, taught two game theory lectures, and wrote three research papers since my last update. I’m actually presenting one of them next month at another university and my professor wants me to try to get it published, so that might be in the works later over this summer break.
Beyond academics, we had some fun social experiences within my program as well. We had a few class dinners and an offsite “MT” (Membership Training) trip, which is a very unique aspect of Korean universities. Basically, it’s an offsite esprit de corps trip for the weekend full of icebreaker activities, presentations, food, and lots of drinking with your professors and classmates. I’m not a very big drinker, so trying to keep up with my classmates was difficult, but it was a lot of fun. Also, the alcohol definitely increased my Korean confidence a little too much…
I’m beyond excited for this summer break, and it’s going to be packed full of fun trips. The monsoon season is starting now, so it’ll be extremely wet, hot, and humid for the next month, but I’ll just dress and prepare accordingly to not miss out on this time I have off from classes. This week I have a few military obligations, so I’ll take my first trips down to the military base here, and then after that, I have the summer break to bike as much of Korea as I can and accomplish some of my non-academic goals here. I have a few photo and video related projects I’d like to work on, some Korean novels that I now have the brainpower and time to devote to, and I’m excited to more fully commit to my running and cycling clubs.
Until next time, 안녕!
-Sean