2014 EICSC: Julian Lee, Georgetown University, USA

Ewha Experience

Believe it or not, this was going to be the fourth time in my life so far that I was going to visit Korea. This was no ordinary visit because I was going there not only to see some family there, but also to take part in a co-ed summer school program experience at Ewha Womans University. This institution happened to be just across the street from my grandmother’s apartment, and was the very same university that my mother studied in and graduated from. At the end of the day, though, this 2014 Ewha International Summer College session provided me a unique experience.
While I devoted one of the two daily classes to improving my proficiency in Korean, I decided to ensure that the other class was one that would be unlikely to be available at my home university, or a typical American institution for that matter. So I decided to take a course on contemporary Korean culture, and to be honest, the class was quite interesting. The professor gave us a good crash course about how modern Korean culture became so unique in its own right today, and I learned a lot about K-pop musicians and Korean drama TV shows and why they became popular outside of Korea as well.

Life outside the classroom is also not without some excitement as well. Despite some technical issues and a shared bathroom, I was able to make myself at home at the dormitory, which looked neat and smooth. Most of the other students who participated in this program with me came from a roughly diverse array of countries, including the US, Europe and Southeast Asia. I had a few opportunities to get together with other fellow students and engage in fun excursions deep into the streets of Seoul, including a dinner out at a tasty barbeque restaurant and a trip to the ALIVE Museum, where all the “exhibits” are fictionally exaggerated scenarios that one could literally place themselves in and capture on camera, yet deceive the human eye for laughs.

And speaking of excursions, there were also some field trips that I enjoyed with other students as well, including a trip to see a wordless martial arts play at a theater, an outing to Korea’s biggest amusement park, complete with roller coasters and a safari, and a visit to the infamous demilitarized zone that separates South Korea from North Korea. I honestly found these activities to be interesting and meaningful.

I would like to say that I greatly appreciate being granted a scholarship to fund my tenure at Ewha’s summer school, which gave me a unique experience that I would not find elsewhere, and that I find memorable at times. Thank you for your support, and I hope to excel in my endeavors.