2018 has come. For the new year, CBT is introducing a new series. This semester, we will welcome exchange students at CBNU to describe their daily lives and adjustments to life in Korea and CBNU. We hope that you can show how exchange students adapt to Korea.
  Gamonwan from Thailand is going to tell us about her Korean adaptation period. I hope everyone will welcome our new friend Gamonwan.

  Gamonwan: Sawadika! Hello. Nice to meet you. I studied Korean at Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok, Thailand, and I will be coming to CBNU as an exchange student in the first semester of 2018. My Korean name is Yeon-ho. I have been interested in Korean trends since I was in elementary school, so I majored in Korean to learn more about Korea. I want to learn many things through being an exchange student at CBNU, including Korean culture, society, and traditional music. Also, I want to meet many Korean friends. Please look forward to my arrival in Korea!

  #1. 18.01.22 ~ 18.01.28
  Last week, I received my standard admission paper from CBNU, so I have less time to prepare than other exchange students. I am going to live in Korea for one semester, so I looked up the weather in Korea and prepared warm clothes as I expected it would still be cold when I arrived in Korea. Also, I will bring various Thai foods like Thai royal ramen, Thai milk tea, and bento. I prefer watching Korean multimedia rather than reading books about Korea because I can see my favorite k-pop star through Korean broadcasting and because listening to Korean is helpful. Also, I had a part-time job teaching Korean in Thailand, so I have not had enough time to come to Korea.

  #2. 18.02.07 ~ 18.02.11
  Luckily, before coming to Korea, I became a public relations officer for the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) at the Thai International Travel Fair #22. In Thailand, I donʼt know much about Jeollabuk-do, Korea yet, but I am very happy to be a KTO North Jeolla Province PR officer and to be able to tell people about that area.

  #3. 18.02.16
  Happy New Year! Today is the Korean New Year, and in China it is the Lunar New Year. Our family gathered together and offered sacrifices to our ancestors. In the early morning, memorial rites were performed for the gods, the ancestral gods, and then for our ancestors. Also, after burning the silver foil and the gold foil, my relatives ate lunch together, and then the older relatives gave the children money. On such a good day, I hope you are doing well, healthy and happy!

  #4. 18.02.24
  We had a graduation party in our department on the 24th. Everyone from the first grade to the fourth grade gathered together and had a nice party. Itʼs already my last year of school. I still feel like I just got into college. I have been thinking about seeing my friends again in the future, so I tried to remember all my past precious moments tonight. Iʼm leaving for Korea in two days, and Iʼm really busy because I haven’t finished my tasks yet. Also, I feel nervous about studying abroad because I have never lived in a different country, but I have planned to study abroad gradually with confidence, so I'm also looking forward to going to Korea.

  Gamonwan's first episode of the series describes her life in Thailand and her preparation as a Korean exchange student. I wonder if other exchange students’ preparation processes were similar to Gamonwan’s. Learning about different exchange students’ preparations and comparing them will be one way to get fun out of this article. She made a variety of preparations to come to Korea from Thailand and even became a PR officer for Jeollabuk-do. Were her expectations about Korea the same as the reality of Korea? Was it really very cold for her in Korea? How did she feel when she came to Korea? In the next episode, she will write about her first weeks as a Korean exchange student. We look forward to sharing her story with our readers.