[ISEP] Placement Confirmed! I'm going to South Korea!

Today I received my e-mails from ISEP regarding my placement. Ewha Womans University accepted my placement so I'll be studying in Seoul, South Korea for the 2014-2015 academic year. I'm so excited and I just want to scream and tell everyone. Hehehe

I guess it's time to start doing more research now that I know for sure that I'm going!

[Research] Airlines and Travel Sites

So, obviously, I'm the kind of person who does A LOT of research before trips and such. Because of that, I'm already researching how much it's going to cost for plane tickets, kind of luggage who be best to buy, baggage allowances, and what type of stuff that you should definitely take to Seoul. Trust me when I say I've watched a lot of YouTube videos. lol

There are two good student discount travel sites that you should check out when you're deciding your flight abroad. STAtravel.com and StudentUniverse.com

Researching Universities and Courses (Ewha Womans University)

To get ahead of everything, I already started researching the course that I can take at Ewha and Korea University. I haven't even met with the coordinator yet and I'm already doing this. Hahahaha~ I guess I'm just too excited?

Ewha Womans University only admits female Koreans but both male and female international students. They have two international dorms for undergraduates. The first dorm is older and has common bathrooms, which means they have larger rooms. The second dorm is newer and has private bathrooms in each room, making them smaller. When researching this, I thought that I would definitely want to be in the newer dorm with the private bathrooms. After all, I couldn't imagine sharing a common bathroom with everyone on the same floor. However after reading many accounts from others, if you have a private bathroom, you are in charge of keeping it cleaned and stocked. I don't know if I'm just lazy but that doesn't sound appealing to me. The common bathrooms, I heard, are very clean since there are staff who clean frequently. Plus, you are forced to have more interaction with the other exchange students. Which I desperately need. I'm hoping this abroad experience will help me get over the shy exterior I have.

Anyways, these are the classes that I am considering:

• 10619 - Religion and Culture in Modern Korea
• 10833 - Understanding World Heritage in Korea
• 11027 - Pop goes Korea: Korean Media and Culture
• 11116 - Introduction to World Music and Culture
• 21643 - Public Speech and Presentation
• 22195 - Macroeconomics
• 22218 - Microeconomics
• 22240 - Marketing Management
• 22250 - Financial Management
• 10145 - Tennis
• 10504 - Korean Ceramics I
• 34012 - Business Writing
• 34120 - Basic Painting
• 34613 - Organization Theory and Development
• 34618 - Foundations for Business English
• 35674 - International Political Economy
• 35688 - International Business Law
• 35981 - English Composition
• 36003 - Introduction to International Politics
• 36004 - Introduction to International Business
• 36134 - Principles of Economics
• 36178 - International Marketing
• 36402 - Public International Law
• 36789 - International Law and Global Society
• 37412 - Introduction to Programming
• 37431 - Culture of Everyday Life in Modern Korea

I know this list seems really long, but this is for two semesters since I'm applying for the academic year. Also, they say that you should pick more classes than you will take as schedules change and classes get dropped.

But anyways, these are classes that I thought were interesting and should have the credits transferred to FHSU. Plus some of these are required for my degree anyways so I have to take them no matter what.

Boring Background Information

The past couple of years, I've been dying to visit Seoul in South Korea. Yeah, my interest started out like a lot of others back in 2011. Korean dramas and Korean pop. But my admiration for Korean culture has expanded from these two very small parts. Now, I am so interested in learning all that I can and experiencing it for myself.

This year I began attending Fort Hays State University as an online student. I picked this university because I had heard so many good things about it and offered so many different degrees that could be completed entirely online. I picked my major as International Business and Economics. One, I love to travel even though I haven't had that many opportunities to do so. Two, I began to love the business side of companies. I worked at a pharmacy and began doing more with the actual business portion and marketing. That's when I realized that I didn't want to become a pharmacist anymore and do something with business. When I did my research, International Business and Economics sounded perfect to me.

Two weeks ago, my university sent out emails to tell the students about an upcoming fair. It was the study abroad fair. This is when I learned about the opportunities I had to study abroad through the ISEP program. And I can't tell you how excited I was to learn that South Korea was included in the countries that had agreements with my university! Finally, I had the chance to visit South Korea without giving up time for my education. I just had to take it.

Unfortunately, it's too late to apply for the Spring 2014 semester so the study abroad coordinator at FHSU suggested that I apply for the Fall 2014 semester and I made the decision to go ahead and do the whole academic year. A year in South Korea! Who could give up that opportunity!

There are five universities that are with the ISEP program for exchanges. Ewha, Korea U, and Yonsei are all in Seoul which is where I would love to go. Ajou in Suwon while Keimyung is in Daegu. I would gladly go to one of those universities if I'm unable to go to the first three. After watching tons of videos on YouTube and reading blogs about these universities, I decided that my first choice is going to be Ewha.

After exchanging emails with the study abroad coordinator for FHSU, she has told me that for our university, the deadline for the next academic year is January 15, 2014.

Soon, I'm going to schedule an appointment to meet with the coordinator on campus to discuss the whole application process. 

All I know is that I want to get this all done as soon as possible and properly. I am going to apply for all the universities in South Korea so I know that I'm going to have write essays for each one. That's going to be fun. hahahaha....