Study Abroad in South Korea

Alexa LaBroad

have been by my side throughout it all and will now stay with me forever.
How lucky I am.

Global Engagement Center

Fall 2014
Project Summary
I had the opportunity to study abroad in Suwon, South Korea for the
semester of fall 2014. I studied International Studies at Kyung Hee
Universitys global campus, taking courses primarily in the field of
international law. Throughout the semester I collaborated on a research
project with a Korean classmate on the situation for environmental refugees
in Tuvalu, providing legal recommendations and solutions in both our
presentation and paper. My time in Korea taught me a lot about cultures
different from my own; I ate the most amazing Korean foods, sang at
noraebangs (karaoke rooms) with my friends, and spent my days with a
diverse group of international students coming from Belgium to Colombia.

Project Highlights
Highlights from my study abroad semester included:
Enjoying sannakji (live octopus), boshintang (dog soup),
beondegi (boiled silkworm pupae), raw whale, pig heart, and
other exotic foods.
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Visiting traditional folk villages and palaces such as

Gyeongbokgung and Namhansanseong

I believe that my time spent abroad and experiencing these moments with
my friends from various countries throughout the world has given me a new
perspective on the U.S. and foreign culture and society. The varying
perspectives from a diverse student body in my courses was extremely
enlightening and Im grateful for the opportunity I had to grow as a person
and associate with so many wonderful people.

Our group of KHU Fall 2014 exchange students (minus several)

representing Belgium, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, Colombia, the
United States, Germany, Finland, Sweden, France, and more.

From My Journal
December 25, 2014
Today is Christmas and it has been one unlike any I have celebrated before.
Christmas day began at 6:00 this morning with loud banging on my hostel
door courtesy of Renaud. We had overslept and had to quickly navigate a
complex and unfamiliar subway system in Tokyo to make our flight back to
Incheon in Korea. When we arrived back in Seoul, we met up with our
closest friends from our time at Kyung Hee University. We had a nice dinner
of samgyeopsal and then went to a cozy caf for something to drink. As we
all lounged on the leather seats with hot drinks in hand, I couldnt help but
have a bittersweet feeling about it all. All of us had had such an amazing
semester together and shared unforgettable moments, but in the days that
would follow, we would all be saying goodbye for an uncertain amount of
time and it just didnt seem right. Thats the amazing thing about studying
abroad; you can connect with others so quickly and so deeply. Despite
differences in language or kilometers (or miles), we all shared a need for
human connection. So in closing this Christmas night, I want to share a
quote by A.A. Milne courtesy of a good friend of mine:
How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.
Tonight Im grateful for this opportunity that I have had, to the kindness of
all those whose beautiful countries I was able to see, and for the friends who

A beautiful, traditional building from our hike to Namhansanseong in

October.