Dear Huskers,
When I started college in 2021, I was going to a different university that told me that studying abroad as a future educator would hardly be possible, if possible at all. So with that, due to some additional circumstances, I made the switch and came to University of Nebraska-Lincoln with the hopes of being able to be closer to my home in Omaha as well as be able to study abroad while pursuing my goal of becoming a teacher. Finally, my dream of studying abroad came true this past summer of 2024 when I went to South Korea from July 7th to August 8th. This program, Nebraska Abroad: Korean Global Wave in South Korea, was through UNL, and was led by a professor named Chris Heselton. Dr. Heselton had been to Korea before, so he often acted as a personal tour guide for me and the 9 other UNL students. We stayed at Dankook University in Yongin, South Korea where we took classes and got to meet tons of other students from around the world who were a part of the same international summer school program.
A typical day in Korea started off around 8:30 am when I would go downstairs to a coffee shop attached to the dorm and get a waffle and a caramel macchiato. Sometimes if I was running short on time, I would go to the GS25 which was a convenience store attached to the dorm that had tons of food and drinks. On weekdays excluding Fridays, I had my intro to Korean language class from 9 am till noon. My professor for this class was so amazing. She was a native Korean and her teaching was super engaging and fun. After this class I would grab a couple of friends and walk about 10 to 15 minutes down the hill to the entrance of campus where there was something similar to a mini town of restaurants and other businesses. There were tons of varieties of restaurants like Korean fried chicken, udon, gimbap, as well as a bakery. The udon place was my personal favorite because of its super cozy atmosphere and its cheap prices, like a giant bowl of udon for 7,000 won, which is about only $5 USD!!!! (Food in Korea was generally much cheaper and better quality than food in the U.S) After lunch we’d walk back and go to our next class which was Globalization of Korea from 1-4 pm with Dr. Heselton. After this class, sometimes my friends and I would catch a bus and go to a really awesome part of Yongin called Cafe Street that had tons of cafes, as the name would suggest, but it also had lots of unique restaurants and stores. About 20 minutes from campus by bus there was also a train station which we would use to get to Seoul or other places farther from campus. Public transportation in Korea was super accessible and cheap and it made it so easy to travel around Korea.
One of my favorite places that we got to travel to was Busan which we had to take a bullet train for 2 and a half hours to get to (aka the train to Busan without the zombies). Busan is on the southern coast of Korea so we got to go swim in the Pacific ocean! Being from Nebraska, seeing the ocean is a huge deal. We also got to go to an amazing place called Gamcheon Cultural Village which was SO beautiful! All of the houses are painted bright colors and the streets are lined with local shops, restaurants, and cafes. There was so much to explore here I feel like I barely scratched the top of the surface of this place. My favorite thing here was getting to experience a tea ceremony from a lady who had studied the art of making and serving tea for 20 years. She also happened to paint so I bought a water-color painting of hers for only $20 USD and its still my favorite souvenir from Korea.
During my time in Korea, most of the time I was super excited to go out and explore more, but that first week was definitely challenging at times. While fighting 14 hours of jet-lag, it felt super busy but it was really nice to be able to have things to do to keep my mind off of missing home. I always felt super safe in Korea, honestly a lot safer than I feel at home in the United States, but there were times where the unfamiliarity of the language, the culture, and the hot weather made it easy to miss home. It was hard to get out of my shell and try new things, but with the help of my friends I pushed myself to not have any regrets about not trying anything, which even led to me trying live octopus (⅘ would maybe recommend…?) Going to Korea has been my favorite place I have ever been able to visit and I am already so excited to go back someday. Studying abroad can be a huge financial decision, I get it, trust me, but going to Korea was the best decision I’ve made in college. I made such great friends during that short 4 weeks and I have so many memories that I will forever look back at and cherish forever. If you have any questions or worries about studying abroad feel free to email me at abennett16@huskers.unl.edu or dm through my instagram at alena.ray.benney. I would love to help you make the decision to go on potentially the biggest adventure of your college life!!
CEHS Global Experiences
