Dreams Fulfilled - Blog Post #1

South Korea! I’m going to Korea!

A personal dream of a lifetime is coming to fruition. There is so much to be excited for: new friends from around the world; so much to learn about language, culture, and economics; opportunities to travel, explore, and better understand myself as an individual. The linguaphilic side of me that meets in the center of my personal and academic interests is actually the factor that most drives my excitement for this experience. A fortunate event that arrived just in time for my last year of college that will allow me to gain the requisite knowledge to better teach in Korean (as I hope to do after the completion of my Masters degree).

I’ll be spending 34 days in South Korea and spending most of my time in Ulsan for a university program as well as in Seoul for other such purposes outside of the programs standard time (notably, missed art and historical locations, a concert, shopping, nightlife, and the opportunity to be more culturally and linguistically immersed in the society that is South Korea). I don’t think I have ever seen a one-month summer program that can compare the diversity and level of condensing information into a limited time as the University of Ulsan’s UIP Summer Program. This is pretty appealing to me, no need wasting time when it could be spent experiencing.

As far as the act of traveling to and navigating around South Korea is concerned, I am quite confident. I feel that my previous experiences in China have really helped prepare me for this moment. The similarly urbanite culture, high speed in its nature, seems to contrive an unrelenting excitement within my very soul – it quite literally brings tears to my eyes. In the words of the band Panic! At the Disco in Get Me Out of My Mind, “I think I’m ready to leave; I’m ready to live; I’m ready to go!”