Day -35

I'm sorry. As I said before, this blog is supposed to be dedicated to me studying abroad in Korea for the year. I just realized that I never explained the reasons why I'm studying abroad. Sure, the Korean music and beautiful celebrities can account for much of my intent. That's probably the reason why I specifically chose to go to Korea. But most people seem to be scared silly at the idea of leaving for an entire school year. So why me? Why did I decide to, of all things, live in another country for almost a full year?

Here's how it all started. Back in November, I was pretty much set on going to Korea for summer 2010. At the time, it seemed like the perfect choice. I would be able to get away and have an exciting time (compared to last summer's borefest). The program was about 6 weeks, so I figured it would be a nice, long vacation even if I had to do school work. Perfect, right??

It wasn't until mi amigo Christina came back from the EAP meeting (I missed it) to tell me how amazing it would be to study in Korea for a year. This is how it went down.

"omg, I want to go to Korea for a year!!"

"lol k. Umm... I'm probably just gonna go for the summer."

"Yeah, there's more time to play and have fun. You could enjoy the city life, get internships at MTV and eat at food carts every night."

"orly??"

And that had me thinking the whole night. I sat in bed wondering, what if I really did go abroad for the entire school year? It was actually a scary thought at first. I didn't even consider it because I had the idea in the back of my mind that I needed to be at UCI or else I'd be behind. But then I thought again... "I'm a Sociology major! What in the world would I need to be at UCI for? And what in the world am I going to do here at UCI that'll be way more exciting than living in Seoul??"

If I've learned one thing since the beginning of my sophomore year, it's that love to constantly be in new settings. Sure, it's nice to settle in one place for a while. But eventually, I usually find myself bored. I haven't even left for Korea, but I think my decision to go for a year was the right one because I know I wouldn't be happy if I had to be at UCI for a third year in a row.

So the next step for me was to look at the requirements to go for a full year. It couldn't be too hard, right?

"o_____o"

Now if you knew me in freshman year, you'd know that I wasn't particularly fond of sitting in the library and studying for hours on end. I don't even remember even setting foot in the library during freshman year. Of course, this led me to have a measly GPA of 2.8. Sure, I was *sort of* close to the minimum requirement, but it was still not going to cut it. If that wasn't bad enough, it was halfway through the quarter and I already had mediocre grades on my midterms. It wasn't looking good for me, but the next day I sat myself down at the library and began an epic 5-6 week-long studying spree.

I don't think I had ever studied that much in my life before. But the more I studied, the more I wanted boost my GPA to even APPLY for EAP. It was a scary thought to know that all my hopes and dreams would be smashed into smithereens if I choked on an exam.

In the end, my grades were more than enough to raise my overall GPA. I applied. I was accepted. I was happy. Now I just have to get there.

And on top of that, all the library time during fall quarter changed my studying habits tremendously. Who knew?