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It is already mid-October and already exactly 2 months since I've departed from South Korea. Even though we are living the age of instant communication, I still miss talking to a lot of the international students, who attended Ajou University, in person. Personally, I have never had so much fun in my whole life. Living abroad in a whole new environment is thrilling. The smells, the tastes, the encounters.
Ajou's summer school for international students officially commenced on July 3, 2006. This was the first time I met my Modern Korean History teacher and Beginning Korean Langauge teacher, both of whom were female. My modern Korean history teacher is a graduate student at Harvard University majoring in Asian Studies. The faculty at Ajou couldn't of picked a perfect candidate to teach the class. She was very dedicated to teaching us Korean history. Before entering the class, I took an Asian Modern Cultures (ASIAN 459) course at San Diego State University and learned a lot about Korea. However, I didn't know much about Korea's history past the 20th century. My Korean history teacher taught us everything from the Japanese occupation of Korea up till the "Sunshine Policy" of President Roh. I had little knowledge of Korea's own struggle for democracy under militarist rule of President Chun Doo Hwan. Furthermore, I thought the only bloody protest in Asia during the 80's was the Tiananmen Square massacre but this was proven false when she lectured about the Kwangju student uprisings during the early 80's. Boy, the South Koreans really earned their democracy after the fall of the Choseon dynasty. From almost losing their entire Korean identity to Japanese assimilation during the occupation to dividing family lines during the Korean War of the early 50's then to the militarist style presidencies of Chun Doo Hwan and his incumbents in the time of the "Miracle of the Han River". South Korea's struggle for democracy is one that is truly unprecedented! Especially in an era where we now live in with the communist north threatening with nuclear armament. As for my Korean Language teacher, she was very nice as well but her accent made her hard to understand especially when she tried to lecture us. What's funny is that Garrett usually tried to hit on her unintentionally. Especially when asking for her age. haha   The class that I was looking forward to every week was the Wednesday Korean culture workshop. In the brochure that ISEP gave me, it stated that we would do Korean activities as salmulnori and taekwondo. We did none of that. In fact, it was almost like we took another academic class in arts. The lecturer got a lot of criticism from a lot of students who thought that lectures were too long. To be honest, they were very long but at least they were very informative. Personally, I love Korean culture so I guess I am kinda biased. However, the events scheduled were pretty lame. The first week we went to a couple of museums in Seoul. My favorite one was the National History Museum of Korea, it was enormous! There was one week I didn't attend because me and my roommate JP overslept, which we kinda were thankful since it wasn't interesting and wasn't organized very well. I believe it was the Korean cinema one. The best trip was to the Suwon traditional wedding ceremony at the Suwon traditional village. I got to actually see a mock Korean wedding as it was done in the Choseon dynasty! It was absolutely beautiful. Furthermore, the village itself is a spectacle. From hemp trees (YES, you read that right!) to lotus leaves, it was a dream come true for anyone who loves nature and get away from the hustle and bustle of Seoul's crowded metropolis.   In late July, I quickly signed up for the DMZ trip. For 48,000 won, I thought we were going to actually visit Panmunjeom, the area where you can actually view the North Korean soldiers up close. However, this wasn't the case. Unfortunately, we were only shown Imjingak station, the 3rd tunnel, and the viewpoint where you cannot take pictures beyond a yellow line (which is crappy since you can essentially take a photo of the telescopes in front of you and no view). I believe no Americans were allowed in Panmunjeom unless I had some kind of clearance from the U.S. and S.K. government. While at the observatory deck, I couldn't believe that I was actually staring at North Korea, a mere three kilometers away. A South Korean soldier kindly let us use his telescope to view certain landmarks in the distance: the wreckage of a train from the Korean War, a "propaganda village" that is home to the tallest flagpole in the world, and the Kaesong industrial complex. To my surprise, the actual border isn't what it's like in the movies. I actually viewed a serene landscape made up of lushious greenery and trees. However, hidden beneath the peaceful scenery lie unearthed landmines and inconspicuous snipers ready to fire at any defector, which brings you to the grim reality of the situation between the two countries. Ajou University's summer program was everything I expected and more. Although there were a couple of disappointments, Ajou University's Office of International Affairs did a great job welcoming us into their institution. New this year was the assimilation of regular semester Korean Ajou students which was a great addition. The Korean students who joined us for the summer gave authenticity to the experience in Korea. Not only were they a huge benefactor in studying Korean language, but they also make life-lasting friendships that help me visit Korea solely to see them once again. What was ironic was that Ajou University wasn't on top of my priority list of universities I wanted to attend to in South Korea. When I applied to study abroad via ISEP, I actually wanted to study at Yonsei University, one of Korea's most prestigious universities, kinda like Harvard. After finding out that I wasn't accepted at Yonsei University, I was very bitter. However, after meeting with JP's friend, Michelle, who actually got accepted at Yonsei University, she told me that most of the students were Korean-American and were from the numerous UC campuses in California, that's not good. Where's the international flair??! Ajou University's 60+ students during the summer were from all sorts of different countries from around the world. From Indonesia, China, Hong Kong, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Russia, Japan, the Netherlands, Canada, and France. Furthermore the dorms had prior international graduate students that even mixed the melting pot to a large variety including: Uzbekistan, Pakistan, India, Vietnam, and the Philippines. By studying abroad in Ajou University, I got the best of what South Korea has to offer and unintentionally in the process I got to enjoy it with people from all parts of the world. It certainly doesn't get any better than that! 
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