| Title | [외국인 학생 활동 보고서 - 인도트랙 바리베띠앙 팀] Alveera | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writer | 로컬리티센터 | Date | 18-08-14 14:44 | Read | 3,877 |
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Experiencing Korea through 2018 Locality Summer School Program
I am from Delhi, India and am currently a Masters student at the Jawaharlal Nehru university. Our centre at the Jawaharlal Nehru university has been in contact with HUFS for a few years now and thus, we students get a chance to be here and experience all that we have read in books about Korea. At first, when I got to know I would get a chance to visit Korea I was extremely happy, but I was not sure how it would feel like because I didn’t know anything about Yongin. I searched about HUFS Global Campus and felt that it looked more like some European University more then being Korean. I was all excited and kept on talking about what all I wish to do in Korea. But, later as the time came by I became nervous day by day, but talking to my teammates helped me relax as they all seemed to be friendly and kind, also whenever I exchanged messages with the locality school, the reply always seemed welcoming and not cold, which gave me a feeling that all the people I meet will be kind. Also, we faced no problems while applying for the visa as we received all the required documents on time from the Locality summer school program staff. It was a one week program but they gave us the liberty to extend our program a week more so that we can meet our friends and see Korea as much as we want, this seemed to be a kind gesture because if we did something wrong the people related to the locality summer program would be in trouble but they trusted us and gave us this opportunity, which made me feel more responsible. The last few days before coming to Korea, were way to busy due to a few programs at our own university, due to which I was always tired and occupied and couldn’t get the feeling to going to Korea till I reached the Airport. It was only during immigration that I realised am finally going to Korea and even though I was excited about it due to tiredness it was impossible to express it but after reaching Korea and seeing my teammates I felt all happy and energised. I exchanged money only after coming to Korea but it was only due to the support and love they showed that I was never worried about being stuck without money at the airport. They were so loving, and comforting that even after being more than 4000km away from home it felt like home.
Finally, I was here, we took the subway from Incheon airport to Seoul and from Seoul to Yongin we took the 1150 bus. It took us about 2 hours to reach Yongin After reaching Yongin, the first thing my teammates treated me with was Shabu-Shabu which I eat for the first time in life and I really loved the taste and enjoyed it a lot, along with the rainy weather. After coming to HUFS, we( Indian students) were showed our rooms which were on the 6th floor I loved my room and especially the view from it. Since, our rooms were on the sixth floor we could see the campus and mountains, the rooms were clean and looked more like a resort room to me. The first day were about knowing my teammates more, and discussing about the locality program. It was also difficult for me to sleep that night, the time gap between India and Korea is about 3:30 hours, seeing my own watch and the wall clock in the room made me feel nostalgic and I really struggled a few hours to sleep, also I kept thinking about meeting teachers and other students involved in the program, I don’t really know when I fell asleep, but it was just about feeling happy and confused at the same time.
By this day, I was comfortable with my surroundings. I had no problem with the time-lag, it felt peaceful while sleeping, and seeing the weather it never felt like it was Summer in Korea. The weather, the people, everything felt comforting and made me wish that I could stay here. I was also surprised to see that my team-mates had prepared a gift for me which seemed to be the best gift of my life. They gifted we music cd and other things related to the boyband BTS. I remember they asked me about my favourite k-pop band before the program saying that they were asking it because of some work related to the program but when I leant it was related to gifting me something I would like, I felt thankful and was extremely touched by their sweet gesture. Because of the love I have received here at times I feel sad about going back, but at the same time it gives me strength to work harder and gain what I wish for. This day was even special because I saw a rainbow after a really long time and it made me wish to be as bright and colourful and embrace all that comes my way in order to be as bright and beautiful.
The third day of our program started with our class with Professor Jin Kyung Park who came all the way from Seoul to take our class. She taught us about the growing ICT industry and about the effect of Hallyu. It was wonderful to meet her, as as she gave me great advices regarding my future studies and also said she would meet me and help me more if I like when I visit Seoul after the program. This made me feel blessed, and also realise how kind Koreans are and that they willingly help anyone out of their own will whole heartedly. We had lunch together with Professor Jin Kyung Park, where she talked about how we could create stronger chances of getting scholarships.
The next day, all the foreign students got an opportunity to meet the Professors of HUFS and talk to them about various affairs like future plans, social and cultural understanding, or just sharing the program experience. It was really a learning experience, interacting with them and getting suggestions was both enriching and encouraging. After interacting with Professors for about 2 hours all of us want for lunch, and talked about the plans we had for the rest of the day. After resting a bit, we discussed upon the In-depth research project and completed our assigned work in a few works. The evening was really special, as quiz competition and a few traditional games were arranged for us. We played various games like, gonggi, gaegichagi, and tuhodoanchegi, sugeondorrigi. It was really nice to know about these games and have lots of fun. The hour passed by real quick. After playing these games we moved on to having quiz competition. It was the first time when I had so much fun in some quiz competition. At first, our team though we will end up with nothing since we were a bit awful in the start but towards the end we geared up and finally finished with being on the 3rd place, after fairing bad on the tiebreaking question. We received USBs as gift. By the end, even though we were left tired we were happy. That day we slept quickly, after preparing for the next day, as our 2 day trip to Seoul was awaiting us.
The next morning, we woke up early and left for Seoul. Each team traveled separately. We reached our guesthouse after 2 hours of travel. The guesthouse was actually Hanok, near Gyeongbokgung. I was all exciting after seeing the Hanok it real after reading about it in books, but I had to calm down my excitement as after leaving our luggage there we went to the Gyeongbokgung palace. Before going to the palace, we went to a hanbok rent shop. All of us, selected the hanbok of our choice, which we could decide only after 15-20 minutes as all the hanboks were very beautiful. The lady in the shop helped us get dressed and also did our hair. After wearing the hanbok, we went to the Gyeongbokgung palace. After reaching the palace, I suddenly felt like someone has pulled m inside a Korean drama. I was all excited, especially because many scenes from the korean drama Goblin kept on playing on my head. I also observed the palace well in order to understand the importance it must have held during the period of Joseon dynasty. It was extremely gigantic and held some sort of mesmerising charm. After experiencing the Gyeongbokgung palace, we went on to the Gwangjang market, situated in Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea. The market was all about korean street good. The thing I noticed there was that most of the food stalls were owned by old Korean women. This was something which I witnessed for the first time. This working culture is somewhere missing in our country, seeng old women work such rigorously one can easily understand how healthy lifestyle Koreans lead. I hope such small but important things are encouraged upon in my own country, India. Through this program I was learnt and observed a lot about Korean culture and I really feel grateful about this, as it would have been i m p o s s i b l e t o understand the true nature of Korea without visiting the country.
After finishing on with the guided tour of Seoul program, we geared up for the remaining days. The next day we focused on the project: Find your own local spots in Korea. We started by visiting visiting the Kakao and line store situated In Hongdae, both the stores were colourful a n d f u l l o f irresistible things, which made me buy a few things. After that, we went to a Noraebang, we stayed there for like an hour and sang lots of songs. At first I was really bad at it but gradually improved, and I hope the next time I visit one I will fair better. After the noraebang we moved on to board game cafe. We played a lot of games like, halls galli, monopoly, jengga, da vinci etc.
As all of us were hungry by then and since it was already lunch time, we decided on explore “Tukki”, and I can say it was wonderful because it was the first time to actually make tteokbokki and eat it. I am thankful to my teammates for making really delicious tteokbokki, had I been alone I would have just wasted the whole thing, being a first timer. After that, we booked Kakao Taxi and came to Hanok gil. The street was magical as busking seemed to be the main attraction. We went to Cacadew cafe and spent some good time talking, later we explored the street and took lots of pictures. At night time, we visited Gwanghwamun, and even saw the statue on King Sejong,the great, seeing the statue in reality I must say it is much more spellbinding. From there, we walked our way to the hanok we were staying at, and then at night we had lots of fun time partying with other meets at well, and this ended our day. The last day both the Indian teams decided to see around Seoul together. We started with taking the subway and going too the Coex mall, in Gangnam-gu Seoul. The most impressive thing for me was the “Byulmadang Library”, it seriously was a paradise for a bibliophile like me. We had lunch in Coex itself, and spent a lot of time talking as it was our last day together probably. We came back to the university in the evening and prepared for the next day.
The last day, was only about creating memories. After waking up our team went to have breakfast together and then we packed our bags as we were needed to leave in a few ours. We went for the farewell ceremony, each team had prepared presentations and various video and photos embracing their one week journey. We all received gifts and certificates. For me, it was a surprise to received a special gift, which made me feel emotional about the whole journey reaching to an end. Finally, I got letters and gifts from my teammates, which made me cry as I couldn’t have ever imagined that such bound can be created within just one week.
After this program, for the rest of days I have planned to see around Seoul with a few of my Indian friends, who are from my own university( JNU, New Delhi). I am also planning on visiting DMZ, and I wish to do some shopping before returning on the 16th of July. Our journey through his locality school may seem short but it had a long lasting effect in our hearts. For me, it will always be special, whenever I will talk about my first visit to Korea I will be reminded of all the wonderful people I meet. I hope to see Korea again.
Alveera Khan
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi, India
India- South Asia Team A
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