Guess it’s time to wrap up these updates! The past three months felt like forever but also like they went by in the blink of an eye. I’m back in NZ now, savouring the last few days of warm weather before it gets cold again. I say that, but it has just started raining pretty heavily (and…Continue Reading Final Update
When I arrived in Korea I didn’t really have any expectations in regard to making friends. Obviously, I wanted to make friends but I also know that is easier said than done. I am someone who values quality over quantity in friendships and would rather invest time in one person instead of in shallow friendships…Continue Reading Queer in Seoul
Time indeed went very fast on this trip. A few weeks before returning to New Zealand, I visited Gyeongbokgung Palace with another friend from Auckland. Surprisingly, the tour took shorter than we expected. There were two exits, both near a different tourist attraction. One was right next to the National Folk Museum and the other…Continue Reading Final Weeks + Going Home
I feel like we just arrived but somehow 3 months have passed. So much has happened and yet I feel as though there is so much left to do in Seoul. It’s a strange contradiction of emotions. I don’t want to leave but I’m so ready to go home. I’ve loved my time here in…Continue Reading Reflecting on the last 3 months…
I’ve always found that in the lead up to a significant event, I never really feel that said event is actually going to happen, until it finally does. It was much the same for me in the week leading up to our departure. While I was very aware that our final week in Seoul had…Continue Reading The departure and our return
Everland Theme Park Since the Lunar New Year was the only holiday we got during our exchange, we decided to make a trip to the Everland Theme Park since it is outside of Seoul. This was an amazing experience; we did not realise there would be so many incredible animals; it was like a whole…Continue Reading Lunar New Year
As a 34-year-old mature student, I came to Korea with a mix of excitement and nervousness. I was eager to experience something new and challenge myself, but I was also unsure of what to expect from the culture and the academic environment. However, my time here has exceeded all my expectations and has been a…Continue Reading Finding Beauty and Balance in Korean Culture and Study
In our Korean language study abroad programme, we had the opportunity to apply for the Doumi programme. The Korean University’s Doumi programme pairs and connects new students in our language study programme with Korean students from the university. During this Doumi programme, local Korean students become our ‘Korean Buddies,’ helping us get comfortable with the…Continue Reading Adventures of my buddy programme
Time has flown fast, and we’ve reached the end of the epic year of 2022! In the meantime, I became much more familiar with my classmates, and some of us went together to Everland on Christmas day. To celebrate new year’s, the same group of friends and I decided to see the new year’s celebrations…Continue Reading What An Experience!
As I begin counting down the days in our final week in South Korea, I’m consciously cherishing many moments and experiences that I know I won’t be able to have when I return to New Zealand. There are so many aspects of life here that I love, but I’ve tried to distil these down to…Continue Reading What will I miss?