2014 EICSC: Hyebin Limb, Geoge Mason University, USA

Ewha International Co-ed Summer College was a life-changing experience that I hope to relive again or let anyone else experience. Although this program’s name includes “international”, I was nonetheless surprised to see students all over the world from the United States to Singapore. Even though all of us had vastly different cultural backgrounds, we all seemed to ‘click’ during the first few days. My first impression of this program was how beautiful Ewha’s campus was even in the center of South Korea’s busy capital, Seoul. When I first arrived at Ewha on move-in day, all the staff, and even the students on campus were accessible and friendly and finally, as I entered my dorm room, my jaw dropped as I felt as if I would be living in a hotel room for the next four weeks.

As I went to the Lee San-Bong Hall for the welcoming ceremony, my Peace Buddy enthusiastically greeted me. Peace buddies are students of Ewha Woman’s University who voluntarily help the international students during the program. Although Hye-Ri (my peace buddy) and I contacted through email and even exchanged pictures of each other, I was surprised to see that she recognized me from the 200 other attending students. I felt so welcomed to the program as she invited me to lunch and even dinner with her.
After being briefly introduced to the program as well as the professors who would be instructing us for the following four weeks, I knew that I would be in good hands.

As I began to explore around Ewha’s campus, I was amazed at how beautiful the campus was. The buildings and dorms were recently renovated which gave the campus a fresh and modern vibe. Also, the campus cafeterias and convenient stores had quiet delicious food. *TIP: every person visiting Ewha must try EWHA SARANG, which is known to have the most delicious kimbabs in Sinchon. However, the street food and restaurants outside of the campus is what made students explore the different types of food ranging from dukbokki to bingsoo. Ewha, which is located in Sinchon, has an exciting nightlife where lots of students would go out after a long day of classes and studying. You can also take the subway, which is a 3-minute walking distance from the main entrance of the University, to the Gangnam area, which is famous for the best nightlife in all of Asia. Ewha was quite lenient with our free time and gave us the opportunity to explore around; therefore, aside from Korea’s nightlife, some students even took the opportunity to travel by plane to Jeju Island during one weekend.

The classes offered at Ewha International Co-ed Summer College range from Business, Art, Music, History, Korean language, and many more. Throughout the four weeks of classes, I realized that the professors at Ewha made a painstaking effort to get to know you and have a personal relationship with you. I eventually became close with my professors and because of that, classes became easier and more exciting. One of the classes that I took, Korean Language, definitely improved my Korean. I come from a Korean background, and my family members could tell a difference in my speaking as well as my vocabulary. Ewha makes a big attempt to help you use what you learn in class to use in everyday life. The professors put lots of time and effort to engage the students into the class work. We definitely had to put in lots of effort to receive the results we wanted; however, it was always exciting to wait for the weekend due to the well planned out field trips. The most exciting field trips included Everland and the DMZ.

I am thankful that Ewha International Co-Ed Summer College gave me the opportunity to experience a real foreign study abroad. They gave the opportunity to explore Korea and live like a Korean for a month. I did have some friends at different summer program universities in Korea but they did not have the same experience as I did. Those students at other universities were not exposed to experiences that would benefit them to the real life of Korea due to limited time to explore Korea as well as diverse field trips that also exposed different aspects of Korea, and even professors instructing in a way that taught students that would help them to live the everyday life of Korea.

I made the best decision of coming to Ewha International Co-Ed Summer College this year. A big thank you to all the staff, students, Washington DC Chapter of Ewha who made my summer one of the best I have ever had. Reminiscing back to those four weeks, I will definitely make an effort to at least study abroad in Korea again, or even spend a couple more years there in the future.