Final part of my update.
I can't believe this is actually happening.
I've been wanting to since diploma. And you know what's even more unexpected? I'm going to South Korea!! I'll be doing a non-credit mobility program to Changwon National University (CWNU) during the summer and I'm spending 3 weeks there!
I feel like I need to at least start off by sharing how I landed this opportunity for myself.
Every year around February, my university usually starts looking for students who are interested in going for an exchange program or a credit mobility outbound to other countries. I've known this since my early diploma days and as you'd expected, I was interested in that... but I didn't apply for it.
The reason to that is because the only universities that are listed this year were 3 Indonesian universities and 1 French university. Don't get me wrong, I would love to go for either of them bcos it's all about the different experiences and culture that makes it interesting... but deep inside, I knew that those are not where I wanted to go. Somehow I still had hope that if I ever joined a mobility, I'd want it to be Korea. But at the same time, I didn't think it was possible because my university only partnered with one Korean university (at least that's what the website says).
Another main reason is that if I go for a credit outbound, I have to take up the whole semester oversea meaning I have to see if the subjects that is offered match with my course. Except that there is one important subject that would not be offered by a foreign university, which is a project-based subject that I had to take every semester because I am a direct entry student. Read here to know more about that particular subject. Therefore, if I go for the credit outbound, I'll have to extend my semester and graduate later than my friends, which ruins the purpose of me becoming a direct entry student in the first place.
It's a complicated reasoning but those are the main reasons. Then right when they closes the application and announced it on my faculty's mobility page, they made another announcement for a different mobility program. At this point, I was shocked because I thought they only had one kind of mobility every year. So when I heard that the other programs were to Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea, boi was I thrilled. The Indonesia and Vietnam programs run for a week as a non-credit outbound and they both happen to share the same dates.
On the other hand, the South Korea one is a totally different program, even though it is also a non-credit outbound. Each university are only allowed to send 2 students throughout the program that would run for 3 weeks. They even listed a rough itinerary of the cultural events that are being held, unlike the ones to Indonesia and Vietnam.
The interesting part is that all 3 programs have a less than a week deadline from the announcement date. Which means, not many people would be aware of it. Being the selfish me, I kept it to myself and applied lol. But what did you want me to do... they only wanted 2 students huhu.
I applied by writing an essay of "what is my determination to go there". If you know me, I have a good amount of Korean-related activities and achievements before this, so I mentioned them all hahah. In the end, thankfully I got it!
What I like about this mobility program is that I only had to cover for my own expenses and some other extra costs like SIM card, whereas the main cost which is the program fee, flight and insurance are either covered by CWNU or UTeM. So basically, I don't even have to pay much for this trip. My only concern is the halal food but I'll make do with whatever I can to adapt.
Another thing that I am excited for is the classes. Since it is a non-credit program, I won't have to stress on getting good grades for the classes. And mind you, the only classes we are having is the Korean Language class. As someone who had joined a Korean Speech Contest and even taking a Korean class as a third language this semester, I am very excited for the classes!! We'll have 3 Korean classes per week for 3 hours each day. I really wanna know what level am I at hahah.
This program is a summer camp filled with their cultural events. Besides, the language classes, we are also having Taekwondo and Kpop class. I feel like this program is made for me... Also, we are going to a baseball stadium on one of the days! Like bruh, I mentioned about it in my application form that I am a softball player and since Korea is famous for baseball, I would love to see it live while I'm there during the baseball season (it's currently in-season) but I didn't think they would really include it in the new itinerary. I don't even know if my university or CWNU who chooses the participants, but I'm liking it already.
On top of that, the university that I'll be going to is closest to Busan so we're also having a field trip there. Can you believe this is a university-level program which would cost me nothing? I know it's not as glamourous as the universities in Seoul but I'm going to Korea again on October so that would be an only Seoul trip. So technically I'll be going to 2 different parts of Korea in the 2nd half of this year.
I'm spending my July in Changwon/Busan and my October in Seoul. I am currently very... extremely... tight on budget, but I need to make this work. I have to, it's like a dream come true!
There's all my updates for now. Thank you for the read. I will be updating more about it soon, insyaAllah.
Dropping by,
Melynn.
