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, Post 2, Post 3
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!
In-Country Post #2
안녕!
Wow so much has happened over the past two weeks! I’ve made so many new friends in my classes, and eaten a lot of good food with them! Guys the food here is so accessible and cheap; it’s amazing! My school did a club fair during the first week of school, which was really cool! There are so many cool clubs; I’ve joined some cultural exchange clubs. At the fair my friends and I also got tickets to see the school’s musical, which actually happened a few days ago. It was really good, they performed “Something Rotten”; it was completely in Korean, but it was easy to follow and a really enjoyable watch 🙂
I got to watch a couple light shows recently, which was really cool. My friends are really big NCT fans, and since they recently had an anniversary there have been two light shows, which I have been dragged to. But I won’t complain too much because they were actually really cool. Speaking of NCT! My friend and I went to a baseball game (for Kiwoom Heroes vs NC Dinos) and NCT Jasmin threw the first pitch; my friend was freaking out, it was actually pretty funny. But omg Korean baseball games are NEXT LEVEL; there were fan chants for every player. It was difficult at first but I think I got the hang of it about halfway through.
That same weekend my friends and I went to the Seoul Fireworks Festival, which was REALLY cool. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. It was really crowded and we weren’t even in the main park that the event was being held, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. And as I was walking to meet up with my friends I realized that the park we went to was in the same neighborhood that I used to live in! I had a lot of time to kill before my friends got there so I went on a walk to my old apartment and went to the playground my brother and I used to always play at!
While I have been having a lot of fun the past couple of weeks, I won’t lie this past week was really difficult on me. While studying abroad is a lot of fun, I think it is also important to talk about the difficult aspects. I got really homesick this past week, but honestly I think I was just really overwhelmed and missed my dad.
Two of my classes are taught pretty much completely in Korean, which is very mentally taxing. It’s gotten better as the classes have progressed, but it was difficult for a few days. I’ve also, unfortunately, been sick for the past week and am only now starting to feel better. So I’m sure that didn’t help lol.
But overall I am having a great time! My friends and I have gone to a lot of good cafes and been to MULTIPLE pop-ups for k-pop groups (we actually have a problem)! I have a lot of fun things planned for the next couple weeks, so look forward to hearing about that!
In-Country Post #3
Hi! I have done so much over the last two weeks!
One of the most notable things I did over the past two weeks was going to Oktoberfest! It was so much fun. I went with a friend from Germany, and it was also her first time going. We got to put on dirndls (traditional German dresses), which was completely free! There was a small gallery of different cities in Germany that we walked through. We ate a German pretzel from one of the food vendors and listened to a performance from a German band that came all the way to Seoul for the festival! We had a lot of fun, and I would recommend it if you ever come to Seoul in September (especially since it was free)!
That weekend I went to a nearby palace with my roommate and friend! We went to 덕수궁 (Deoksu Palace). It was really cool! The buildings were really pretty, and most of them had info signs to accompany them. Inside the palace, there was a really cool art gallery featuring influential artists in Korea’s history, showing how their art evolved over time and its significance. The art gallery was really cool and, because we went in the evening, by the time we left the gallery, it was already dark. The palace was really pretty at night!
The next day, my friend and I went to the other side of the Han River, did some shopping, and went to a café to study. We did that for a few hours, and we both got a lot done. A few days before, she saw an Instagram post about busking events in the area, and a group we both like was doing one! So, after studying, we went to the Han River, where they were performing, and watched their busking for their new album! The group was Close Your Eyes; I really like their music, but I don’t know too much about them. I listen to their music a lot, but I hadn’t heard their new album yet, so watching their performance kind of jump-started my interest in them again.
This past weekend was Chuseok, which is kind of like Thanksgiving in Korea. We had a few days off, but honestly, I didn’t do that much. I went to a Spider-Man pop-up, ate some good food, and spent time with my friends. And then most recently, on Monday, my friend and I went to Suwon for a light show. The light show itself was a little boring, but the park it happened in was really pretty! There were lights in the trees, which kind of made it feel like a fairy tale. We ended up just walking around the park and grabbing something to eat, but it was still really fun.
Yonsei University (the university I go to) and Korea University are rivals in sports, and every fall they compete in a variety of sports. The games themselves start tomorrow, actually, but last week both schools held a joint cheering event to build excitement and morale, called 아카라카 (Akaraka). Basically, both universities joined in one big venue, at Yonsei, and both sides had their own cheers, as well as joint cheers. Honestly, I didn’t stay for the whole time because I had dinner plans, but the time I was there was quite fun.
This coming weekend, I have a lot of fun stuff happening! I’m going to two of the sports games this weekend for the Yonsei-Korea games, AND I have a concert for one of my favorite groups, as well as Psy’s free festival in Gangnam, where more of my favorite groups just happen to be performing! So look forward to hearing about that! I’m very excited!