Finding my way through the paperwork was harder than the actual move

Getting the visa paperwork started in the middle of nowhere

I remember sitting in a small, crowded office in Korea, staring at a stack of forms for my visa. Everyone told me that if I just followed the checklist from the university, it would be simple. It wasn’t simple. I spent about three weeks just trying to get the right stamps on my documents. The fees kept adding up, reaching somewhere around 300,000 KRW just for the translations and notary services. I felt like I was running a marathon before I even boarded the plane. My friends who went to Vietnam or Malaysia for language training seemed to have such an easier time with the entry requirements. I kept comparing my situation to theirs, wondering why my host university in Australia was being so specific about every single medical record.

The airport bank branch experience

When I finally got to the airport to exchange some currency, I realized I had forgotten to check the exchange rate properly. The Busan Bank branch at Gimhae Airport was actually quite helpful, though. It’s funny because I usually think of airport banks as just places to get ripped off, but the staff there were surprisingly patient with someone who looked as lost as I did. They were handling so many different types of travelers—tourists, business people, and other students like me—that they didn’t even blink when I asked basic questions. It was a weirdly calm moment in the middle of a very stressful morning.

Adjusting to the reality of campus life

Once I arrived and finally started classes, the whole ‘study abroad’ dream felt a bit less glamorous. My courses felt way more intense than I expected. I was taking an introductory psychology course, and the volume of reading was just endless. I remember staring at an AP Psychology textbook I’d brought with me, thinking about how I used to be so confident in my academic abilities back home. Now, I was struggling just to keep up with the weekly journals. It wasn’t a sudden crisis, just a slow realization that I wasn’t quite as prepared for the independent research style as I thought I would be.

Dealing with the local environment

There was this one time I had to navigate the local transport to get to a grocery store that was actually affordable. It took me about forty-five minutes on the bus, and I ended up getting off two stops too early. Walking through a neighborhood I didn’t recognize in the middle of the afternoon was kind of unsettling. I kept thinking about those brochures that talk about ‘cultural immersion’ as if it’s always this fun, transformative experience. In reality, it was just a humid Tuesday afternoon, my feet were hurting, and I really missed the convenience of the corner stores in Seoul. I eventually found the place, but the prices for produce were so much higher than what I was used to that I just ended up buying some bread and a few apples and heading back.

The lingering question of staying or leaving

Sometimes I wonder if the whole F-2 visa pathway or the push to attract international students is really meant for people like me, or if I’m just part of a larger statistic. I see these programs talking about ‘settlement-oriented’ education, but I haven’t even figured out how to balance my budget for the month. I had a brief conversation with another student about whether we’d try to stay after graduation, and we both just sort of shrugged. The future feels like this huge, blurry thing that I’m supposed to have a plan for, but right now, I’m just trying to make sure I don’t fail my next project submission. I’m not sure if I’ll ever feel fully settled here, but I suppose that’s just how it goes for now.