Shi Heung Cultural Programme Essay

Hello readers. My name is Amelia Kow and I am a year 1 FASS student in NUS. As a student that is

involved in the Language Preparation Programme (LPP) for Korean, I was presented with the

opportunity to take part in a 3-week immersion programme at Kyunghee University, Seoul and was

able to take part in a 2 day 1 night homestay programme at Shi Heung city with my extremely lovely

host Christine! Though the time that we spent together was short, this homestay was one of the

most memorable experience that I had in the month that I spent in Korea.

Knowing that I am a massive bookworm and book-hogger at heart, Christine first took me to the

local library to have a look around. She even read children’s stories to me like a mother!

We also went to the supermarket to get our ingredients that we needed to cook lunch back at her

home, and I had the chance to try out many different Korean food (even dog meat!). After that we

went mountain climbing to burn all those calories away and took a stroll around the vicinity as well.

We walked through this extremely beautiful and serene park as we made our way to the mountain’s

base.

And we finally made it to the top after about 30 minutes climb!

I was greeted by this amazing view and glorious weather at the peak of the mountain.

I even had my first experience providing meal service at Christine’s church that day and even made

several friends there with the other church-goers as well as students, which was definitely an eye

opener for a free thinker like myself.

Although the time spent together was extremely short, I was really grateful for this opportunity to

have met so many amazing people and to spend time with them experiencing the Korean culture

and language. I am very thankful for Christine for being such a great sport and for making sure that I

am comfortable in my surroundings by constantly looking out for me. It was a pity that we could only

spend such a short amount of time with each other but this is definitely an unforgettable trip where

I forged many friendships.