First Week

With little to no sleep having battled my jetlag all night long, i woke up to my roommate ushering me out to our welcome day at SKKU. We walked on up to the grand 600th Anniversary building, only across from our dormitory. We had a series of talks through the morning describing the procedures we would have to go through over the next two weeks to secure our courses and place in Korea from the co-ordinators, before welcoming us to the university in a lovely, humble manner. Most importantly we had to register for an Alien Card, which permitted us to stay longer than 90 days in Korea and i assume allows us to re-enter the country if we leave for any short trips through our stay.

We were also reminded of a series of rules for the dormitories, which seemed bizarre and reminded me of the differences between typical Western culture and Korean culture. Namely, we aren’t allowed any alcohol or ‘of the opposite sex’ in the building at all, or we are allocated penalty points. There is also a curfew between 1 and 5am, except Saturday and Sunday, which will be difficult to manage. I heard from one exchange student that his friend usually waits under a nearby bridge with a couple of beers until curfew is over and he was allowed back in, which is advice i don’t think i will be taking.

I then met with my buddy, Danny, and we all went to coffee with some other students and buddies. This was really lovely. Danny bought us coffees and we sat there chatting with everyone for around an hour, which was great to break the ice, and find out where everyone is from, why they chose Seoul and what they study. It turns out that most of the students are Chinese or German, with a few Scandinavians and Americans, and a tiny minority of Brits. But everyone speaks good English so far so I’m in my comfort zone. The University has put in a huge effort so far and i’ve been really impressed by the support they’ve given us. I am a bit worried that SKKU is more academic than creative, and am apprehensive about starting my design modules. As for the buddy system, i’ve loved getting to know some Koreans as they can be shy and difficult to approach, but they are so easy to get along with and have much the same interests as we do.. (getting bevved wheey).

#skkuexchangeblog