Student Spotlight - Ethan "The Last Week"

Our last week started off great. On monday we had our “tournament” for PUBG that we had been practicing for since last week. We played 3 games and my team and I did great, who consisted of Matthew and Angie. We then had free time for the rest of the day and I headed on over to the pc cafe at LoL park and I had a blast. We then had to wait till the next to see the results of the tournament. I was now ready for the rest of the week.

(picture from the pc cafe at LoL park) 

Tuesday started off with a little ceremony with prizes! My team ended up getting second place and we each got a box of little strawberry pies and 3 cups of ramen. I then also got MVP for getting the most eliminations in all three matches combined and got a new computer mouse (with colorful lights of course). After that, we got a presentation from Cari Cakes (@caricakez on instagram) and talked about networking and getting a job in Korea. We then had a moonlight tour at Deoksu Palace. It was great and we learned alot about Korea, and then it started to rain pretty bad and we had our umbrellas close to our heads. We then headed back to the hotel.

Wednesday started off with a tour of the Gen.G headquarters which was cool. They showed us some office rooms and a prestation room as well, where some of the Gen.G academy students also trained. They also told us that we had a presentation tomorrow where we needed to make Gen.G a better company. We got our groups together and started brainstorming. Our group had an idea. It would be called GGA Wellness, and it would help GGA students with the stress of competing and doing some outdoor activity. We had to go so we got some lunch and did some shopping before heading back to the hotel where we finished up our presentations and headed to bed.

(some trophies from Gen.G headquarters) 

Thursday started off with our prestations and ours went great (I even dressed up nice for it!). Joseph Baek was there and he is the executive director of GGA academy. He gave us feedback on our presentation and all went well. We then had lunch and as a classic american business man would do, I went to mcdonalds (mainly due to time constraints but it just lined up). Let's just say it was quite interesting. So instead of the big mac being in a box, it had paper wrapping with a cardboard sleeve holding it all together. The cup was a regular dining cup instead of a paper one, and the french fries were the same as in America. But after that we had our last Korean class and we all took pictures at the end. We went shopping (again) and then had free time for the rest of the day. Overall, it went great and we just waited till tomorrow, as it was our last day.  

(me with the Korean teacher, she was very kind!)

As our last day comes around we have our last “class” where we got free drinks and fill out a rolling paper, where there is a spot for everyone and you write nice things about other people. It was a nice way to end the last class. We then had a farewell lunch at 2:00 instead of a farewell dinner at 7:00 because we needed to take the COVID-19 test to get home anymore. We went to a chicken wing place which was amazing and we had freetime for the rest of the night, so I headed back to the pc cafe and played counter strike with some friends. We then finished packing up for our flight home. 

(picture with Sky, our awesome tour guide!)

This is it, the flight day. As I woke up, I realized that my roommate already left and I had the room to myself and it was nice. I then finished packing up and got dressed, then took one last good look at the room before I left then headed down to the lobby. Once I got down to the lobby I saw that they were filming a movie outside. I didn’t know what movie they were filming but it seemed like a lot of equipment for a single shot. We then got on the bus and headed to the airport. Once we got there, we had to use the confusing self check-in kiosk, then had to wait in a long line to put the tag on my luggage and get it put in the plane. Then I rushed through security (which thankfully no one was there) and ran to the gate. Mainly because they dropped us off pretty late. Well anyway I had some time to go to the Dunkin Donuts and got myself a pokemon donut and a twist. We then got on the plane and headed back home. 

Overall, the trip was incredible. We learned lots about the esports industry and about Korean history as well. It's definitely an experience that I'm not going to forget and it's definitely an experience that I learned alot from, from networking to the business structure of Gen.G, It gave us an insight into the esports world, and gave us lots of memories as well.