South Korea – Gordon
Student: Gordon
Course: Bachelor of Health Sciences
Program: Winter Abroad T3 2025
Describe the city you were living in: the landscape, the culture, the weather etc.
During my time in Seoul, the city landscape was vibrant surrounded by tall department store buildings and variety of restaurants within a close walking distance from my accommodation place. Public transport in Seoul was very accessible including taxi, bus and subway services where they were scheduled on arriving on time very consistently.
Korean culture was very active with tourists and locals engaging in late night clubbing in the popular areas of Hongdae and Itaewon to visiting various tourist attractions such as Korean Demilitarised Zone where it broadened my knowledge on the historical tensions between North and South Korea. The weather during both the mornings and evenings was very cold especially as I travelled there during Winter. Some days reached as low as -10 to -15 degrees celsius.
Describe a normal day in your life overseas: your university, your work placement or your study tour?
A typical day during my time abroad in Seoul started with waking up early and walking to university for class where I would grab something light to eat during the allocated in-class break time. The class duration would end around lunchtime, and I would grab lunch at the student cafeteria with some friends that I made through the program, where we would spend time catching up together.
Depending if much coursework was allocated on that day to complete or if there was any work that I missed out on completing the other day that I had previously set for myself, I would use that opportunity to head to the university library or head back to my accommodation place to finish off the remaining work. Otherwise, I would spend the rest of the day in joining different groups of friends to visit various tourist attraction spots that I had not visited yet during the program.
What's the best/most memorable thing you ate?
Hotteok (Korean pancake filled with brown sugar syrup) from a local street food vendor on the second last day of the program that was recommended by one of my friends abroad!
What's your one piece of advice for a student who is preparing to study abroad? How should they prepare?
Making sure to download some necessary software apps on your phone before going on your study abroad trip (you can watch a couple travel videos on YouTube for this) such as for transportation, currency exchange, etc. For me at least, there were some apps that did not work effectively in South Korea as opposed to in Australia like Google Maps where I had to download an alternative one specifically for South Korea. I would also recommend to study a couple of basic communication phrases/sentences beforehand to equip yourself better if you are planning to study abroad in a country where English is an uncommon language to communicate. It will make your navigation around the city much easier.