Introduction

안녕하세요! I’m a U.S. student who just completed my freshman year in college. In this blog, I will chronicle my experiences and observations as I travel and study in South Korea this summer, from May through August. My mother is Korean, but I don’t consider myself to have had a great deal of exposure to Korean culture, and I’ve never visited Korea before. This past school year, however, I started studying the Korean language and also watching Korean dramas (I think I’m an official K-drama addict now). As I became increasingly fascinated with the language, culture, and history of my mother’s homeland, going to Korea as soon as possible became one of my principal goals.

For the latter half of May, I will be traveling around Korea with my parents, starting with Jeju-do and then completing a circuit of the mainland with HanaTour. By the middle of June, my parents will leave and I’ll begin the Intensive Language Program at the Ewha Language Center, which is run by Ewha Womans University [sic]. While studying at Ewha, I’ll be staying with a Korean family I found through Korea Homestay (korea-homestay.com) – more on that later.

If there’s any Korea-related subject that you are particularly interested in reading about (e.g. famous sites, cuisine, music, dramas, etc.), just let me know by commenting on a post, and I’ll do my best to follow up!