As my first week at Hanyang is coming to a close, I can easily say that the campus is more confusing than most. With 9 zones, 70 buildings, and 12 cafeterias, not to mention the many coffee shops and convenience stores on campus, it’s quite easy to find yourself lost.
Usually with the HISS program, comes around two thousand students from different countries and parts of the world, most people are looking for new friends to navigate campus with. This is a great way to make friends, and navigate campus alongside other students.
Hanyang’s campus is much larger than Drexel’s, and has multiple levels. Some buildings entrance is the fourth floor on one side, and the first floor on the other side because of the uneven land. Many pathways are dead ends, and lead to unexpected buildings.
Although there are many dead ends and hills, there are also many shortcuts, and you get to see amazing parts of Seoul from Hanyang’s Campus.
In order to get from one end of campus to the other effectively, it would take at least thirty minutes, provided you don’t get lost. However, the best way to learn the campus is to try once to navigate it by yourself.
On one end is the Hanyang University subway station, which can take you to different places in Seoul such as Myeongdong and Dongdaemun. The subway is clean, and extremely reliable.
On the other end, there is the women’s college, where classes like Ceramics are taught. The resident halls are located near the women’s college, so in order to get to Hanyang University Station, it would be about a 30 minute walk.
During the summer program at Hanyang, in order to maintain full-time student status you must take at least 12 credits. The summer program is three classes (that transfer into 4.5 credits each) from 9am-7pm, with a one hour lunch break from 12-1, Monday-Thursday. If you wanted to take only 2 classes, be sure to register for an online class at Drexel to have some extra free time during the week! As the subway system is really accessible, it’s still very possible to enjoy parts of Seoul at night.
The classes get right into it since there’s only 15 days of class. Although it’s three hours, most of them have let us out a little bit early. The entire program is in English, making it very easy to communicate with your professors and other students. However, a bit of conversation Korean is ideal for speaking with the locals.
Overall, my first week in Korea was a bit of an adjustment. With a 13 hour time difference, and arriving the day before orientation, it took a bit to get into the swing of things, but as long as you’re prepared to climb some hills and steps, meet new people, and learn some Korean, it’s been a really exciting experience.
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