Yonsei Newsletter interviewed a student, Biyie Bi Ekang J.E. Muriel (26, Political Science), who made a very impressive presentation about Gabon on International Graduate Student’s Day. Currently Muriel is in her first semester of Integrated Masters & Doctoral Program. She came to Korea in 2000 accompanying her father, who is the ambassador to Korea of the Republic of Gabon. She remembers the moment when she arrived in Seoul: "it was so cold that I wanted to go back to Gabon. Now I am quite used to cold weather but still I prefer hot weather." Since then, she had studied at French High School located in Seo-Rae Village at Banpo (the "French village" in Seoul) for three years. "After I finished my high school program," she explained, "I did not want to return to Gabon. I became so attached to Korea that I decide to continue studying in Korea." Yet her life in Yonsei was not that easy. "I even sent my application for this university with my friend’s help. She took me to Yonsei University and accompanied me all the time. At that time I did not know Korean language at all," she said. Although freshmen are not allowed to take their first semester off, she got the exceptional permission due to her language problem. Instead she attended KLI. "The first year was so hard," she recalled. "Oftentimes, I was the only foreign student in class so it wasn't easy to evade everyone’s attention. But things got improved." Now she enjoys her Korean life fully. "At the beginning I could not eat Korean food except Kalbi. I did not like spicy food. Thanks to one of my close friends, I got to know how to taste spicy food like Sun Du Bu (Tofu soup)." She is the eldest child of 10 siblings. One of them is studying in China, another in Ghana. Muriel makes her visit to Gabon every two years. She also said that she addresses senior students in words like "Uenni, Oppa" (honorific terms to seniors in Korean), which shows her perfect adaptation to Korean culture. Overall, her bright and positive attitude seemed to make her life abroad more amicable.