Ayla Kickhofel
USAC Korea: Seoul – Undergraduate Studies – Yonsei University – Academic Year 2026
Major: Modern Languages & Linguistics (Korean)
Minor: Applied Linguistics
Jump To: Pre-Departure Post, In-Country Post #1
Pre-Departure Post
Hi everyone! 안녕하세요!
My name is Ayla and I’m a junior majoring in Korean Language and Culture and minoring in Applied Linguistics! I’m very excited to be studying abroad for a WHOLE YEAR (!!!) at Yonsei University in South Korea! I’ve known for many years that I wanted to study abroad, and I always knew I wanted to go to Korea! I lived in Korea for about four years as a kid, across multiple cities (Dongducheon, Seoul, and Daegu), so I naturally gained an interest in Korean culture. Honestly, I debated heavily between where in Korea I wanted to study abroad; because I already lived in Seoul I kind of wanted to try somewhere new, but ultimately, I landed on Yonsei because of their Korean language program. I really want to take this opportunity to improve my Korean and become more confident in my speaking skills!
Honestly, I procrastinated a lot on starting to pack (crazy, I know – I’m going to be gone for a year x_x). I started packing only about three days before I left. I was pretty nervous packing, solely because I have to pack FOUR seasons of clothes into two suitcases and I am a CHRONIC overpacker. I am bringing two of my film cameras with me! So, I am excited to take a lot of film photography! I really like street and nature photography, and I think Korea is the perfect place for both of those!
I’m currently writing this from my mom’s couch in Las Vegas, so I’ve already done the hard part of leaving my dad, friends, and, especially, my dogs (oh, how I miss my dogs…). All summer it all felt so far away, so I wasn’t that nervous. But it crept up so fast T_T.. I worked pretty much every day the whole summer, so maybe the days just blended together lol. Luckily, before I left, I went to visit my family in Florida for a few days!
I spent a lot of time with my friends in the last couple of days before I left, and on my last day in Maryland I went to a crab restaurant with pinball machines and an old arcade (my family’s favorite place for goodbye parties)! I NEEDED a good crab cake before I left lol.
For the last two weeks before I leave for Korea, I have been spending time with my family in Vegas. I went to go see the new Spiderman movie with my mom and little brother (IT’S SO GOOD – HIGHLY RECOMMEND)! Thankfully, most of my mom’s side of the family lives in Vegas, so I get to spend a lot of time with my family before I leave. I am very grateful that I got to spend a lot of meaningful time with both sides of my family before I embark on this new adventure!
I’m really excited to experience Korea as an adult and see how much has changed since I was a kid! While I’m abroad I plan to travel across Korea and definitely visit the towns I used to live in. In fact, some people in my program and I have started planning a group trip to Jeju, which I am very excited for! Over the year I plan to go to a LOT of concerts. I already have my eyes on a couple music festivals 🙂 I am a huge fan of music and concerts! I love a good live performance, even if I don’t know the performers.
Please check in on my blogs throughout the next year! I plan to do a lot of fun stuff!
다음에 또 봐요! (See you next time!)
In-Country Post #1
Hi guys! I have officially been in Korea for two weeks! I have done so much in such a short period of time, and I have eaten so much good food! After I landed, I actually went to the US military base in Pyeongtaek to stay with a family friend for a few days before moving into my dorm. Everything was so Americanized on base (obviously), so it didn’t really feel like I was in Korea yet lol. For the few days I was there, I got to see some people I haven’t seen in almost a decade, including one of my brother’s old teachers from when we first moved to Korea as kids.
The day before my move-in, my mom and I moved to a hotel in Gangnam and spent some time in that area so we would be a little bit closer to the school for move-in. It finally started to feel real after coming to the city. We ate some good food, and then I had to make sure I had everything ready for moving in the next day.
After I moved in, I had a week before classes started. In fact, as I’m writing this, today was only the first day of classes! I did a lot over the past week and met a lot of new people. I’ve been trying to put myself out there more and make more of an effort to make friends. Right after moving in, I met up with some people from my program; we got lunch and went shopping for some necessities for our dorms. I feel very lucky that a lot of people in my program seem to want to be friends with each other and will actively suggest things we could go do in small/medium sized groups (my program has a lot of people, so it would be hard to get us all together). I’m a pretty introverted person, so I was really nervous about making friends here, but it was really easy to make friends (thankfully)!
One of the days before classes started, my friend and I went to Yongsan and explored a huge mall there. There was a HYBE Entertainment x Weverse pop-up event that she wanted to go to, so we went to it and explored the mall. On a different floor, there was a Studio Ghibli pop-up and a Marvel and Star Wars pop-up event! And if you know me, you know I love Marvel, especially after the new Spider-Man movie came out (which I saw for the second time a few days ago). We also went to go visit the actual HYBE Ent. building after the mall because it was in the area. We couldn’t go in, but it was kind of cool to see it in person.
One of my most recent obsessions since coming here has been photobooths! They are EVERYWHERE!!! It’s so addictive. And I’m looking forward to taking more with my friends! If you follow me on Instagram, almost all of my stories over the past couple of days have been photobooth photos lol. And trust, there will be more. Now that classes have started, I am looking forward to meeting new people and putting myself outside of my comfort zone. I have already met so many different people from all over the world and across the US.
안녕!