Midterms and Volunteering

It's Spring in Korea and you know what that means! CHERRY BLOSSOMS and most importantly.... MIDTERMS.

It's been difficult to update recently and we wish we had more time to update, but for the past week we have been preparing for midterms! Midterms are always a stressful, but here in South Korea students start preparing weeks before and spend their nights in the library getting little sleep. It's amazing to see how dedicated Korean students are! We've seen so many students holding all night study group sessions all around campus. They practically live in the library! Luckily for us, some of our professors decided midterms weren't necessary and so we only have a few, but we've run into some difficulties. The difficulties of living in a country where English is not their first language.

 While all our classes are held in English it does not necessarily mean our professors speak perfect English, in fact some may speak very little while others speak it well and others are in between. At times some of our professors choose to switch from English to Korean, but I believe this happens in many countries. The problem with this and at least for us at the moment is that sometimes we get lost in translation. For us at least it has led to more stress. Sometimes it is difficult to understand what our professors are trying to convey and  we just simply can't understand their questions. This is definitely the case at the moment, but aside from that we also have news to share ! We recently volunteered to teach English to Middle school children!

Last week we met with the staff and tomorrow (Monday) we will begin teaching! We're definitely nervous, but also really excited for this experience. When we met with the middle school staff we also met some of the children participating in the program. We were told that the kids were really looking forward to the program and when we met them we realized it was true! Many of them we're yelling "TEACHER, HI ! IT'S SO NICE TO MEET YOU! YOU'RE SO PRETTY!"  This definitely made us less nervous, but now we're working on our lesson plans for tomorrow and we will definitely keep you updated on our teaching!

We have so much to share from the past weeks so when things calm down and go back to normal we will upload pictures of all our recent adventures and focus on making posts about our daily life in Korea, such as places to eat, the night life in Korea, as well as dating in Korea and our experiences! We''ll leave you with a few pictures we've taken of the Cherry blossom trees on campus !

There are so many cherry blossom trees around campus!

There's a forest on our campus right next to our dorms! We go through it every morning to get to class! 

The DMZ

It is hard to imagine that with everything going on at this moment between North and South Korea it be possible to take a trip to the JSA and to be honest who would ?! The answer might be surprising, but many people would and that includes us! As I discussed in my previous post, life in South Korea has not been affected by the North's threats, not even the DMZ. We found ourselves on an hour long bus ride to the JSA on the very day that North Korea declared a state of war on South Korea. (Take note that tours of the JSA and DMZ are scheduled days in advance.) At that time we had not heard of this until our tour guide informed us that there was a 5% chance that our tour might be cancelled, yes only a 5% chance. He informed us that it was common for tours to be cancelled, but that on this day the chances were a little higher. Before coming to South Korea one of the things we looked forward to the most was going to the DMZ or the Korean Demilitarized Zone. The experience is hard to describe, but we can say that there were a mix of feelings. It was definitely an exciting experience, and at the same time it was serious, but most of all it was fascinating. Throughout the tour we were closely monitored by the soldiers assisting the tour and there were many rules that included things you were not allowed to wear to how to act during the tour. It actually took a long time for us to make it to the actual demilitarized zone because there were so many check points that consisted of soldiers stopping the bus to check your passport and make sure you were wearing appropriate attire for your visit. Also during the tour we were only allowed to take pictures in certain areas and only when they said it was okay to, they are so strict that breaking a rule resulted in the cancellation of the whole tour! Aside from that the tour was an unforgettable experience.

It felt surreal when we finally reached the 38th parallel. There were no North Korean soldiers in sight that day, except one who kept looking at us with his binoculars.

Inside there were two South Korean soldiers and they were like life sizes dolls who did not move whatsoever. While inside we got the opportunity to stand in North Korea for a few minutes! It was awesome!! 

This is known as The Bridge of No Return. At the end of the Korean War,  Koreans were given the opportunity to cross the bridge to which ever side they wanted, but once they did they were never allowed to cross back. 

At the JSA gift shop you can find North Korean money !  

North Korea

Recently the situation between North and South Korea has been escalating and this has caused everybody back home to worry for those of currently abroad in Korea. We've received many emails from family, friends, professors, our study abroad department and so on, and so we thought it was important to create a post regarding the situation at the moment.

We've noticed that the news back home has been bombarding everyone with overly exaggerated stories of the situation. On a daily basis we receive emails from many people with these news stories written in a way that make the situation seem worse than it actually is! In South Korea life is going on as usual and it seems that South Koreans are immune to North Korea's recent actions and statements. Many of our Korean friends and professors have been very open about their feelings towards the current situation and have admitted that they are not worried whatsoever. This is due to the fact that this is nothing new to the Korean peninsula and both Korea's have been in dispute since the end of the Korean war (which has never technically been over.) As a result the majority of us foreigners residing in Korea at the moment feel the same way and we're going about our days normally, but we do want to mention that even though we feel safe we are taking precautions in case anything is to occur and we have not completely dismissed the situation. 

We believe that for anyone studying abroad there are always many risks that we must be prepared for and in our case at the moment it's political unrest. There are many ways of taking precautions and you can do this way before you leave to your destination!
 The first thing we did was sign up to Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). It is a free service for U.S. citizens traveling or living abroad and by entering information about your trip it allows the State Department to be of greater assistance in case of an emergency as well as providing you with information sent by email and other sources from your nearest embassy. For us this has been the best thing we did before coming!  Receiving daily emails about the situation has really kept us informed of how the situation is developing or if there are any precautions we should take.
Here is a link to the website: https://step.state.gov/step/
The next thing we did was create an account with International SOS which provide medical assistance,  international insurance and security services. We created this account because our university has a membership with them, so it would be good to find out if your university does  too or look for similar options!
Thirdly, once you are in the country it is always a good idea to make copies of all your paperwork and this includes passport, visa, insurance, any legal document of importance that could be used in case an accident occurs as well as giving your friends and family an address, and number where they can contact you at all times.
Lastly, KNOW WHERE YOUR NEAREST EMBASSY IS LOCATED. It is so important to know where your embassy is located because if something does occur the first thing you want to do is go to your embassy!  

Aside from this, with everything going on we managed to take a trip to the JSA !  I will definitely post about it later.