Leonel Cisneros- Blog Abroad
Blog #1
June 2026
My First Two Weeks - A Lobo Abroad
Hi! My name is Leonel Cisneros, but you can just call me Leo! I am currently studying abroad in Seoul, South Korea, as of writing, for a month this summer. I am taking two classes, the first one being Korean Language and Culture (Basic), and the other being Cultivating a healthy body and mind with meditation. These classes both last two weeks, which are broken up into two sessions. I am living in their dorms called Namsan Dormitory, and they are a big change from UNM for sure. Each dorm has its own bathroom, but the shower does not have a curtain or glass to protect from water going everywhere. So everytime me or my roommate shower, we have a designated “floor towel” to clean the floor so we don’t slip!
Culture Differences
Coming from a mixed household, I was familiar with a few cultural expectations here and many that were completely unknown to me. For example, my mother drilled into me to take off my shoes as soon as I entered the door, so when I have to take my shoes off, it's just another day. A really big shock/positive here, however, is the walkability of the city. There are sidewalks and places to walk everywhere, and every single corner has a convenience store filled with drinks and snacks. A crazy culture shock to me, however, is the priority that elders receive everywhere. They take priority on public transport. They don’t like tourists, and they cut in line constantly. It's so different in how the social and cultural aspects are compared to those in the United States.
Activites
I have done quite a few activities since being here. I’ve seen an 11-story mall filled with every type of store and food you can think of, hiked up a five-mile trail to reach N Seoul Tower (photos included), and seen my very first theatrical show, which I sadly did not get photos of. I'm only two weeks here, and the activities are never-ending. There is something to do every day here!
Blog #2
Class HardshipsJuly 5th, 2026
Hi everyone! It’s Leo again, and let me tell you that I have been BUSY. I just finished the very first session of my four-week time at Dongguk University in Seoul, and they do not mess around here! As I mentioned before, I took the Korean Language and Culture Basic class. What I failed to understand, however, on my first day in class was how far behind I was compared to my peers. While I knew that the schooling would be stricter and vastly different from what it was in America. I underestimated it VASTLY. The teacher only spoke Korean and moved extremely fast. The craziest part was that my class was so far ahead on the first day that the teacher skipped many of the presentations of the basics of Korean, and I was lost for many days. But we did do very fun activities like making traditional origami hanboks! To make up for it, however, I have been watching and studying Korean YouTube videos in my free time to catch up with my classmates. So long story short, class has been a struggle!
Activities
On a positive note, however, I’ve been to one of the most popular shopping and food streets in Seoul! It's called Myeongdong, and it’s beautiful. There are so many different places to shop, from stores that are familiar, such as Nike and Adidas, to local brands that, in my opinion, are so much better to shop at. The street food is also very Pinterest-worthy, but with that, the food quality itself is okay at best. It's cheap, very accessible, and fun, but not worth it after the first two nights you visit.
Activities Cont.
Another place I visited with friends was the Gentle Monster headquarters right here in Seoul. Gentle Monster is a luxury eyewear brand that produces exhibits at locations to promote their product (pictures below!) The specific exhibit they had was a giant garden that promoted different vegetables that were so adorable. It was 4 floors in total, all showing different exhibits and products to buy! I would recommend this place to anyone because it's like a free museum that can be interactive if you love glasses!
Blog #3
UPDATEJune 30th 2026
Hi everyone! It's Leo again! It is now my fourth week here in Seoul, South Korea, and the start of the second session here at Dongguk University! It was rough the very last week of the first session because some friends I made were now going back to their home countries. While it is very sad, I am still very grateful and happy I was able to meet them! The last nights we spent together were full of sightseeing, like watching the Han River at night, and partying till the sun came up in a different district! Going into this new session comes a new class as well. So now I will be studying Cultivating Healthy Body and Mind with Meditation. I am super excited for this class and learning how to meditate!
ACTIVITES
Our very first cultural activity of the new session is called the traditional cultural market experience. This will show us a traditional market that was featured on Netflix, and be able to eat the food that was shown! My first initial thoughts when we first arrived were that it was crazy hot throughout the whole place! Major kudos to the people working there and providing us with food! The most popular dish there that we were fed was beef tartar, also called Yukhoe in Korea! It's finely sliced raw meet usually tenderloin, that is topped with a raw egg on top. While it may sound gross at first, it actually tastes really good and nothing like anything I've tasted in the United States! We were also served a variety of food that is shown in the photo below!
HOME
Homesickness has started to set in as I start to miss certain things in the US that they don't have here. For example, I am a big chip eater and love eating Hot Cheetos! Unfortunately, they don't have anything even remotely close to that, so the cravings have been intense. Besides that, I also miss my pets at home and my very comfortable bed (The dorm room beds are nothing to be impressed by). As my time is slowly coming to an end, I am sad to leave but also happy to go back home. I will see you all next time!
Blog #4
Hey everyone, it's Leo for the second-to-last time! The second session has been going great, and I’ve been able to meet many amazing people and still do so many things here in Korea! Some, for example, include going to a cafe called CAFE POKPO that overlooks a waterfall! Another amazing thing I did was see the Gyeongbokgung Palace, which was beautiful! I’ve seen all these places with new friends I have made from session two (most of them are from the United Kingdom!). I also have been very much enjoying my new meditation class with our teacher, who is a Buddhist monk! July 14th 2026
One of the things I think I'm going to miss most when I return to the States, and specifically New Mexico, is the public transport system. Here in Korea, they have subways, buses, and taxis galore everywhere! It's also very walkable everywhere throughout the city, which means I can go to very famous places in a thirty-minute walk. While I do enjoy my lovely vehicle, Seoul’s public transport system will always have my heart.
More cultural activities that we were able to do were a traditional temple stay, where we visited a temple and learned its culture and history and were able to make white lotus flower lanterns! The tour guide barely spoke English, but was extremely funny, so it made up for it. The very last cultural activity we did was called Lotte World! It's the biggest indoor amusement park in the world and also has an island in the middle of a lake with more rides and a castle! I was able to do around seven rides in total while I was there, but unfortunately it started to rain outside, so I was unable to do the bigger ones that I really wanted to do.
As of writing this, I have one more week left of me being in Korea, and my time is coming to an end at a very alarming pace. I can safely say that this trip has been nowhere short of life-changing. For both my peers here at the university, we will not be coming back the same people we once were. For that, I am always going to be eternally grateful to my friends, professors, and Seoul itself for the experience it was able to gift me.
Blog #5
Hey everyone! For the final time, it’s Leo! I have finally made it back home to the United States, to the loving New Mexico, where it is not humid, which is such a nice change. The trip back home took me around 20 hours because of layovers and many complications. (LAX is evil and they hate me). Going through immigration was very simple and easy, but I only had an hour to get my luggage, go through security, re-check my bags, and run to my terminal with just a minute to spare. Besides that, the very first thing I did when I arrived back in New Mexico was get Taco Bell! I heard about the Cyclospora virus or the “Diarrehea lettuce” being spread around. HOWEVER, my cravings for Taco Bell were so intense that I needed it :). July 28th, 2026
There are a couple of things that I'm already missing back in Korea, like the prices! A McDonald’s meal in Korea costs $7.50, while here it can be up to $ 14! Another thing as well is how much you walk in Korea. Every day I would walk anywhere from 15-35 thousand steps. This could be a burden to some, but I genuinely enjoy walking and being able to soak in all the new environments and your surroundings. The very last thing that I miss is the public transportation. The whole system in Seoul is surrounded by its many different modes of transportation, like subway, bus, and taxi. Every day I would use one of these multiple times, and it was great!
Being back at home is very comforting and very much needed after a long trip. My stay in Korea is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life, as so many good things came out of it. I was able to experience so many things and meet so many fantastic people. I hope these relationships last a lifetime, and I will always be thankful to UNM for allowing me to be able to embark on a journey like this one. Goodbye everyone! Study abroad and experience life in other places!
