Tuesday was our first university visit to Hanyang University. My first impression was how beautiful the campus was. The landscaping was amazing, and Oakland was nothing (sorry) compared to the scenery and view. The only similarity between the two campuses was the hilly terrain. The Hanyang campus was even more so with all very steep hills and steps.

After being welcomed, we were given lectures on the university, the programs it has to offer, and a brief history of Korea and its people. Many of the programs mentioned from the school interested me like the four week summer school. The program is open to international students with courses in English, and I will definitely look into more because so far, I am loving Seoul.

Afterwards, we were given a tour of the campus by a few of the students who were very friendly to talk to. Walking up and down all the hills made me even hungrier for the food from one of the school’s cafeterias. It had Some of the best pork I have eaten in a while and was quite different from market central in the most positive sense. There were also many stores to get food and snacks on campus. The student body is roughly the size of Pitt’s, but only 15% of the students live on campus; most are in apartments nearby. We ended our visit with a walkthrough of the museum of the school’s history. Hanyang is Korea’s first engineering university and consistently ranks in the top 3 universities nationwide.

A few of us next went to a cooking class. There, we learned how to make tteokbokki, which is a common dish made of rice cakes and a spicy chilly pepper sauce heated and mixed with vegetables. It was simple to make because the rice cakes were precooked and it tasted pretty good, similar to what you would find on the streets. 

We then decided to go to Hongdae, a fashionable shopping and social area, and we had to take the subway to get there. The subways are fast, clean, and quiet, and it was not too difficult to navigate if you know where you are going and read the maps. 

At Hongdae, there were a lot of street performers either rapping, dancing, or singing. Dr Yun then took us to a restaurant where we ate octopus and cow intestine— very chewy, but delicious. A few of us then went to a karaoke bar where we sang songs (in English) until our throats hurt. We ended the night by shopping around and easily made it back to the hotel on our own.