A meaningful Semester at RAC

Hello, I am DongHui Kim, an exchange student from Ewha Womans University which is in Korea. The exchange semester that I had for six months was very meaningful for me. I am very satisfied looking back all the six months. 

When I first arrived in Remagen, I noticed that it has a very beautiful nature and it is a quite city. It was the kind of city that I wanted to live that can give me a refresh. In Korea, everything changes so fast and people are busy all the time, and so did I live a very busy life. It is nice to keep my life busy so that I can make progress every day, but sometimes it makes me feel kind of empty inside and creates some kind of obsessions. There is little time to look back on myself and find a reason for ‘why am I doing this’ or ‘what do I truly want form this’. Studying and living here, I had an opportunity to think more about myself and had time to answer the unsolved question that I had in mind. The relaxing mood that Remagen gave, helped me think everything in not too anxious way. Also, talking with people from different culture and different countries widen my perspective to see the life. I always tried to find the correct way and the perfect answer for all the things, but having a conversation with different people made me realize there is no such things. I thought we all have different standards and different values in life, so I need to find my own and follow it. 

Moreover, staying in German and studying here, I could discover the new me that I did not noticed before. I found I am an active person that likes to go for a walk and exercise. I also found that I can cook, because in Korea I used to eat out or use delivery service all the time. And I found me enjoying giving presentation in class because here the presentation was a more voluntarily thing. 
Also, having an exchange semester and living abroad, I found that I can be an independent person. It is not a first time for me to live abroad or live alone, but it was a first time to live abroad and live alone at the same time. And living in Germany all by myself, I realized I was so used to the situation that everything is settled and ready for me. So, making a contract with the landlord, doing register and deregister in the Rathaus, and taking care of my insurance and taxes was a whole new thing to me. And besides that, there were so many things that I done by myself in my life for the first time. In Korea, things like this were done before I noticed or there was always someone to do such things for me. But here I could practice the things by myself and realized I do not have to be too scare about me in the new world.

Lastly, my exchange semester was meaningful because I met a lot of good people. I was expecting new experience from traveling before coming here, however because of the Covid19 I could not. But instead, I became good friends with many people that was not totally in my mind before coming here. I was lucky to have GoEun who came to Germany with me from Korea, and was lucky to have a friendly buddy, and other exchange students that I spent time with. Also, people that I became friends in the train, café and some places that I did not expected, led to a nice friendship I will not forget.

It was a nice six month that I had in Germany widening my perspective, finding a new me, and building a good friendship. I think all this experience will be a good driving force for me to go through the graduation year in Korea and heading to a future after it.