MEET STEPHANIE

Stephanie studied abroad in South Korea and United Kingdom during the Spring and Summer of 2017.

IF NOTHING ELSE, DON’T FORGET TO PACK: 

Travel documents!! Things like your passport, hotel reservations, flight tickets, train tickets, etc. are obviously very important. I also recommend google-mapping places and saving screenshots because finding your hostel in the middle of the night by yourself with almost no navigation after a 14 hour journey can be pretty nerve-wracking (and expensive since international data rates are crazy). Trust me on this.

ON SECOND THOUGHT, YOU CAN LEAVE AT HOME: 

Don’t bother bringing school supplies with you, like notebooks, pencils, etc., as they’ll weigh your bag down and they’re pretty easy to find once you get to your host country. An exception would be a folder to hold all your travel documents.

WHERE TO LIVE: 

I stayed in a student flat (University Hall) when I lived at Bristol, which was nice because we each (6 of us) got our own room and bathroom and shared a kitchen. At POSTECH, I lived in an all-female dorm with a communal bathroom and living space. Housing in England was comparable to dorm prices at UIUC, but campus housing in Korea was crazy cheap (around $100/month).

BEST PLACES TO EAT: 

In Bristol, two places I would always eat at were a Japanese restaurant called Bento Boss and a dessert restaurant called Kaspa’s. My favorite food to get at Bento Boss was their chicken udon and Kaspa’s was known for having amazing sundaes, waffles, and milkshakes.

FAVORITE CULTURAL ACTIVITY: 

My favorite cultural activity was the “Gogul Templestay” during my summer in South Korea. It consisted of us traveling to a local Buddhist temple and learning the ways of the Korean Buddhist monks that lived there. This included learning sunmudo (a type of martial art), practicing archery, and a very intimidating ceremonial lunch.

BEST PERSONAL HIDEOUT: 

I really liked my room in my flat in England. With my own private bathroom and a small collection of snacks, it was easy for me to occasionally relax with a movie or TV show for many hours without even having to leave my room.

FAVORITE PLACE TO STUDY: 

I really enjoyed studying at “Beacon House” at the University of Bristol. It was connected to a cafe and there was a lot of light, but it was usually pretty hard to find a place to sit.

MUST-TRY LOCAL DISH: 

“Mulhui” (Ù¼╝ÝÜî) is a raw fish soup very famous in the southeastern part of South Korea, especially in coastal cities like Pohang and Busan. It’s a spicy cold soup made with fresh raw flounder.

BEST PHOTO OP: 

My favorite photo op was at Gyeongbokgung ( Û▓¢Ù│ÁÛÂü) palace in Seoul wearing traditional Korean hanbok. This historical palace was also right in front of the house of the South Korean president (the “Blue House”).

BIGGEST FAIL: 

I took a trip to Amsterdam with a friend during spring break (FYI: spring break is 3 weeks long for most British universities) and we were trying to find our way to a museum not too far away. After 20 minutes of walking we realized we were walking the complete opposite direction.

BEST PURCHASE: 

My best purchase was definitely my T-Money card in Korea. Korea’s public transportation is cool in that most public transport (buses, metros, and some taxis) uses the same card anywhere in the country. T-money cards are cheap, come in many (mostly cute) designs, and are extremely useful for getting around.

MOST INTERESTING CLASS: 

This one’s gotta go to “Politics of Performance” at the University of Bristol, which I took as part of my minor in Theatre. The class was centered around how theatre has been shaped by history and political turmoil and the content as well as the unique perspective was super interesting.

BEST PART OF THE PROGRAM: 

This is a hard one, but I would say meeting new people was overall the best part of my year abroad. It was so cool to be able to talk to people from so many different countries and get a better perspective of the world.

MOST MEMORABLE TRIP: 

I was lucky enough to go on many fantastic trips, but perhaps my most memorable was a 6-day trip to Spain. A friend and I toured Madrid and Salamanca, taking in all the beautiful and historic scenery that we could.

BEST LOCAL EVENT/HOLIDAY: 

I really enjoyed celebrating Chuseok (ýÂöýäØ) during my time in South Korea. This fall harvest festival is comparable to Thanksgiving in the US, and consists of wearing traditional Korean clothing, called hanbok (Ýò£Ù│Á), and eating traditional Korean foods like songpyeon (ýåíÝÄ©), among other activities.

FAVORITE LOCAL WORD/SLANG: 

I’d say my favorite local word/slang is the Korean word “daebak” (ÙîÇÙ░ò). It kind of translates into “awesome,” and I would occasionally overhear my Korean classmates saying this.

IF I COULD DO IT OVER AGAIN… 

I would probably make more of an effort to join a club and befriend locals, especially in England. Unfortunately since I arrived at both universities in the middle of their respective school years, it was a little hard to join clubs so I ended up hanging out mostly with other international students (which was still cool, though).