The general definition of a campus tour is that high school students look around university campuses receiving kind information from college students.

The campus tour recently done by this reporter is little bit different than the general one, because the tour has been done with the Kookmin Trio, who have some experience and understanding about college life. But, why was my expectation that they know a lot of things wrong? I found as we left for our real campus tour that they have a lack of knowledge about the real campus although they were bound in the campus area. I would like to share the tour reports of these guys in the same way as the uniformed high school students visiting other universities.

The campus visited by the Kookmin Trio.

Participants of Campus tour - Jo Eun-hye (Public Administration, ‘08), Seo Seung-beom(International Studies, ‘11), Yun Jun-gi (Administrative Policy Studies ‘11)

How to get there?

1. Ehwa University- Take bus 153 and get off at Shinchon Station (expected time 50 min)

2. Yonsei University- Take bus 153 and get off at Yonsei University bus station (Expected time 45 min)

3. Hongik University- Take bus 110B and get off at Hongik University Station and walk for 10 min, or get off at Yeonhui Samgeori and transfer to bus 7612 to Hongik University Station.

ECC (Ehwa Campus Complex)

The first thing that the Kookmin Trio faced when they stepped onto Ehwa campus, was the long 3D building of ECC. In comparison to our university, that building can be treated the same as our multipurpose building, where we find a reading room, coffee shop, convenience store and large book store. They were quick to express their feelings with the word “wow”. The theater called ‘Art House Momo’ can be found on the 4th floor through entrance 3. The place which is also called ‘Ewha KB Seminar’ is being used to show art movies and independent movies which are not usually easy to find. Two theaters are in operation and you can watch movies between 11 am and 8 pm. You can check the timetable on the website, www.cibeart.co.kr.

Museum

A museum is located in the right side of the ECC building. There is regular exhibition of valuable pottery and porcelain with proportionate size and level, and it holds a national treasure on 1st floor which has been collected by donors and displayed.  I think it is better to have detailed look at everything since it is free of charge. The show time is from 9:30 am to 5 pm. Remember that the museum is closed on Sundays and other public holidays.

Ehwa loves Kimbap.

Although it was hard to say “let’s have kimbap” to the Trio at Ehwa, they were satisfied with its taste. It is totally different than that we have been used to eating in the past during our leisure time up until now. What kimbap did we enjoy? We can feel a warm heart in Kimbap literally through the name. The café located in the underground 1st floor of the Posco building offered this Kimbap for a very cheap 2000 won but with excellent taste, and it also offers a variety of menus such as seasoned rice wrapped in fried tofu , cheese kimbap, tuna kimbap, and so on.

The historical court of Yonsei University

The second place the Trio visited was Yonsei University. They were so exhausted since the campus was so huge, though they did not take any real look through it. In the middle of the tour, somebody said The Myeongwon Folk House at our university popped into his head, pointing out a similar one called The Yonsei Historical Court. Sukyeong Won is configured in a T- shape, where houses called Jeongja Gak, Seoksu and Widespread House exist naturally and harmoniously. It was beautiful in a different way than ours.

Open air-Theater

During the festival period, the unusual scene of a blue wave from the cheering group was obvious.
The main place for this festival is in the open air theater. We can say that it's too wide a place since it has a capacity of 8000 people to sit, and if everybody stands, almost 25,000 people can easily enter. They Trio were discussing inside the big and evacuated open air theater whether there were names of the donors carved on granite similar to theirs.

Theology building

It is easy to recognize this as a theology building with the help of the front stained glass, although one is not informed where the new science and the school of integrated science are located. There are lecture rooms, a prayer room on the underground 2nd floor and a worship room on the 2nd floor inside this building. Everyone can enter the worship room after getting permission from the room administrator. The Trio prayed for a solemn atmosphere of their whole day trip from the comparatively nice atmosphere of the worship room.

It was more crowded inside Hongik University than the crowded near street nearby, with students exercising and working there, even though it was the weekend. If you go a bit ahead at either the main gate or the back gate, a small jogging trail raises up into the cool and fresh air. There are so many sculptures showing their individuality which cannot be cut out from the list of things inside Hongik University, standing between tools and a bamboo forest where we can take a rest. Although it was the weekend, students were working with the pungent smell of paint reminded me of the appearance of undergraduate students of our art school. The art creations of students are kept freely both inside and outside of most of the buildings. Buildings such as 와우관, being used by the students of the construction department and the building of the business school, explains a lot about the atmosphere.

Paul & Paulina

At the end of tour to Hongik University, 3인방, who were hungry found the “Paul & Paulina” bakery shop as the first delicious place to eat. As it was a reputed shop, there were so many people waiting in line in front of the small shop. There is no time to hesitate in choosing your bread. Only the displayed items could be bought. The requests of the first visitor who wanted to customize the bread were politely refused. The bread was so soft and warm - softer than that I had ever eaten before. Although the working hours are from 10 am to 7 pm, the line of customers booking orders continued to come. So, it would be better to go there first before visiting Hongik University.

Way to Paul & Paulina - If you turn your head toward right from the main gate of Hongik University, you will see a street between Nescafe and Starbucks. Paul & Paulina is located 50 m ahead of that street.

Alcohol was the things that released the tiredness of the Trio. As you will see from the name of the store, it is really located in a semi-basement. If you think about that atmosphere, cocktail test rises.
You can't hear the simple order sounds such as ‘Here’ Ring’, when placing an order. Placing an order is only possible if you produce “Ppyororong” sounds holding a magic stick.  If you press the heart button, it produces ‘Ppyororororong’ sounds with a rotating bright light, which does not seem abnormal.
We pressed the button again and again with a laugh. Although the server looked at us, it was hard to control ourselves.

Way to Half Basement Lounge - Get off at Hongik University Station, metro line 2. Use exit 8 and enter onto 7 Springs Street, and keep going around 100m. Then you can see the sign ‘Brother, It’s Me’ ,형님저여요 in Korean. Walk onto that street and then you will find it on your left side.

Words from participants of the campus tour

Jo Eun-hye - Since it is not far from the school, I used to go to Shinchon after finishing my classes. But it seems to be travelling far away, because I never entered that nearest school. Although it is not good to go outside for getting some fresh air as a last year student, I really want to go for this kind of campus tour. It creates a better excitement and stimulates our lives.

Seon Seung-beom - It was a different tour than the tour that I did with our college brothers and sisters during high school.  I did not have any special feeling about our school when I began to go to school last year. But when I visited other campuses, I automatically compared the scenes and buildings with our school. It was a good opportunity to raise affection toward our school.

Yun Jun-gi - When would I have had this kind of opportunity to go around Ehwa University except this time? I thought that there would really be only women at Ehwa University. But I was wrong and surprised when I saw man hanging out there. This time, I discovered a lot of delicious restaurants near Shinchon.  If any friend requests me to recommend restaurants near Shinchon, I would be able to recommend to them delicious and proper restaurants.

The thing that this reporter was thinking about during the campus tour plan was how to spread the news that: “It was great tour with the Trio”. But the answer was enclosed in the simplicity of a university which can be felt only by a direct visit. The reason is that each university located in three different places of the Shinchon area having different atmospheres was there. Let’s go there once, keeping time and study faraway from our minds for a moment.

I am able to explore unusual activity which could not be felt by me and the Kookmin family.  Members of Kookmin University, or anyone who wants to participate in a campus tour, feel free to send me mail. Let’s go there together....