Month: November 2023

Dealing With Homesickness and Affects of Abroad

Published on by stefaniepaikLeave a comment

When being in a new country alone, after the honeymoon phase of study abroad you begin to miss aspects of home; even mundane aspects of home like going grocery shopping. At Korea University, the quarters are 14 weeks long, so I am currently on week 10. Back home at DU, the fall quarter is done and winter break has begun.

Firstly I am lethargic from school because I would be done with school right now, enjoying the break. So a major change from US college life to Korean college life is not having days off to relax. Besides Chuseok, which is celebrated at the end of September, there are very few days off from school. After living through the newness of Korea and experiencing all of the items on my Korea bucket list I have begun to miss things back home. For example, I miss American chips. While this may sound strange, I miss American Cheetos, Doritos, and Lays because a majority of the chips in Korea are sweet; even garlic bread in Korea is sweet.

To combat homesickness there are numerous ways and it depends on what sort of homesickness you are experiencing, so I will just share what I have been doing. One way I am combating homesickness is by constantly going out and finding new experiences to enjoy. This helps because my mindset is to experience anything and everything because one day my study abroad will conclude and who knows when I will come back to Korea. So by continuously staying busy, I find myself not feeling as homesick.

Another way I combat homesickness is by regularly staying in contact with my friends and family. While this is difficult due to the time difference, we still talk about whatever. Denver is 16 hours behind Seoul so when it is morning for me, it is nighttime in Denver and vice versa. I will update friends or family about my day or anything on my mind.

I’m fortunate enough to be in a country that I have family in, so in that sense, I don’t feel lonely or don’t feel like I don’t have anyone to turn to. Another thing that I am thankful to have is the ability to speak, read, and write Korean. My friends who are new to the Korean language are having a more difficult time adjusting to society because they do not know Korean. Seoul is more foreigner-friendly and is fairly easy to navigate if you do not know Korean. Many restaurants and stores in Seoul will be accustomed to interacting in English. If you decide to travel outside of Seoul, the need to understand Korean is greater because those cities are less likely to accommodate English speakers. For example, my friends are I traveled to the seaside of Korea and my friends relied on me to speak to taxi drivers or order food.

If you decide to study in Korea, it is important to understand what you are signing up for and what culture you are walking into. Korea, while travel-friendly, is still a highly conservative and homogenous society.

Internship at Czech Childrens Hospice

Published on by jillianec516Leave a comment

As a first-generation student, every experience I’ve had in upper education has been different from what I thought would be my life after high school. Freshman year at DU, I would walk around full of gratitude over the fact that I made it out of my hometown and did something more. When I returned after the harder parts of cancer, it was unreal to be back on campus. Having my own apartment in Denver feels like such a major accomplishment. Now, being in Brno, those feelings of gratefulness and pride are especially beaming. 

I wasn’t necessarily taught about internships and what they do for you. In high school, I associated internships with opportunities mostly for students whose parents had a connection to some large company that would set them up with a job once they graduate. I wasn’t taught that some people get new internships every year or semester to expand their resume. I didn’t even consider doing one until this past year when I noticed everyone around me wasn’t working a part-time job anymore, but interning before they graduate. Doing an internship while studying abroad seems like it would add more stress to an experience you plan on enjoying, but it doesn’t. Most of my stress came before I started working- not being aware of hours, expectations, and nerves over joining a work environment in a language I had never heard out loud.

@ the dum
Posing in front of the office sign of Dum Pro Julii in Brno, Czech Republic. This NGO is currently building the first hospice building for children in the Czech Republic, set to open end of summer 2024.

I am privileged to be interning for communications and fundraising at Dům pro Julii, the first children’s hospice in the Czech Republic. As a cancer survivor, NGOs like Dům pro Julii have quickly taken precedence in my heart. Serious illness and death are sensitive topics for many people, it’s scary, traumatic, depressing, and hurtful. Especially when children are the ones being focused on. The first couple of weeks my supervisors were focused on teaching me about the importance of respite care and how their NGO functions, fundraises, and provides support for families under their care. The end of life deserves to be treated with compassion, and hospice doesn’t mean immediate death, there is still life to be loved and cared for after diagnosis of terminal illness. 

The organization’s motto is “At to Maji Lehci” which translates to “let them have it easier.” This means to try and help make the lives of parents and children easier while dealing with one of life’s toughest challenges. Parents and families of children with serious illnesses are heavily affected by the situation and take up the role of being a 24/7 caretaker nursing their child. It’s exhausting being stuck in that situation all day, every day, so care nurses and hospice workers help relieve that exhaustion by taking over for a few hours a day or week. 

I think working my first internship here in Brno is such a major step towards my professional goals. I want to be able to work for and advocate for patients across cultures and starting in a completely different country is a huge step towards that. It’s so valuable to me to work in an environment that is dedicated to helping others, and also keeps a positive attitude towards the world they’re doing despite the topic being one that’s taboo and depressing. 

Having an internship here in the Czech Republic (let alone studying abroad) was never something that was on my radar. More opportunities have found their way to me in the last couple of years and I do feel blessed. Doing an internship hasn’t negatively affected my ability to have free time to explore or study, and it has allowed me to be immersed in the local community more than I would by just going to school. I hope that over the remaining weeks, I get to learn more from Dům Pro Julii, and in the end feel like I have a strong connection to the work I did.