Pear blossoms in the drizzly rainy season
NC
5 days ago
For as long as I can remember, language learning for me mostly stayed somewhere between imagination and daydreams. To break the stalemate, my mom chose Ewha Womans University for me, and I decided to give myself one month to fly to Seoul and join Ewha Womans University’s three week short term language program. This wasn’t just a study trip, it was also a mini study abroad experience about putting things into practice and living independently. When applying for the language program, my mom had looked everything up on the Creatrip website, so we decided right away.
Since it wasn’t my first time stepping onto this land, and I come once or twice every year, I adapted to life here very quickly. Ewha’s language program schedule is really solid, every day from 2:00 PM to 5:30 PM, not the kind of all day classes that wear you down, so we still had plenty of time to experience life in Korea. Over these three weeks, the daily high intensity training in listening, speaking, reading, and writing quickly switched on my Korean mode. Because I was in the very beginner level, I had to learn the 40 letters in just three days, the teacher basically turned it into a crash course. What left the deepest impression on me was the speaking interaction in class, the teacher really encouraged us to express ourselves, and even if our grammar was wrong or our pronunciation wasn’t accurate, they would patiently slow down and repeat it several times.
Besides language classes, we also took two culture classes. The first was a group outing for the whole language program to watch a Korean cultural performance and visit an exhibition. The second was Taekwondo, and in just a few hours I was honestly amazed. They were both activities I’d never experienced before. Putting on a Taekwondo uniform, practicing basic vocal shouts, and breaking wooden boards made me feel it was totally worth it.
As for accommodation, I also booked the school dorm through Creatrip. It’s up on a mountain, but on regular days there’s a free shuttle bus that stops at the main gate and at the three way intersection. On Sundays there truly isn’t any, so you have to walk down and back up the hill. Some people call Uber, but if you don’t like walking and a bit of uphill climbing, you might really struggle, because it’s literally deep in the mountains. I specifically searched up posts beforehand, saw how hard it was to book, and got really nervous, but then Creatrip emailed me to make the payment! No effort needed at all. It’s two people per room, and I thought the space was pretty large. The roommate I met was also great, but it depends on which room you get. Our room was near the far end, so it was really far from the bathroom, and there wasn’t any water source in the room, which was a bit inconvenient. Downstairs there’s a restaurant and a drink shop, plus a CU convenience store, the facilities are all very complete. You can check the cafeteria menu in advance to see if anything interests you, but I thought it was pretty good. One meal is 5,300 Korean won, and they have breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The owner at the drink shop is also really friendly, and when she sees you’re an international student, she’ll even put on a little show for you. CU restocks regularly, and it’s basically exactly the same as what they sell outside, except they don’t have limited edition items.
After class, I often walked to Hongdae or Sinchon, because aside from the main street, Ewha is pretty quiet and a bit run down. Hongdae and Sinchon are genuinely lively and stay open later. I hit my exercise goal in no time. On the way from Sinchon to Hongdae there are also lots of supermarkets. After getting back to the dorm, I would usually still go to the gym to use the treadmill and stationary bike.
One more thing I’m really grateful for, after we were halfway through the language program, a lot of classmates needed to pay a little less or withdraw extra money because of exchange rates and various agency related issues, and Creatrip handled it extremely well!!
