I’m Sunny, 21, an exchange student at Drexel University.
On January 9, 2023 the winter quarter of Drexel University and my first day of school as an exchange student began! A mandatory orientation was scheduled at 10 a.m. at the intercultural center, so I left my apartment near 9. Since I left the house bit early and took septa which got me to campus in about 15 minutes, I had quite some time before the orientation. So I decided to do a quick tour of the campus.
The first thing I realized about Drexel was that there were a lot of food trucks on campus! There were varieties of food including halal, pizza, burgers, and even Korean food! Students would order food from the truck and take them inside the campus or dorms. There were also tables and seats outside. It seemed to be very convenient, especially when you have a short time to eat in between classes. The prices were relatively affordable and the food looked good enough in terms of both quality and quantity. I have to say that price in general in Philly is much more expensive compared to Korea so eating out too often was not good for my wallet. So I thought the food trucks would be helpful to students.
Like many other universities in the US, Drexel University also seemed to be very spread out alongside the city and even mixed up with some buildings of Penn. In Korea, we normally have a strict boundary of the University campus with a front gate and some side gates of the campus. But Drexel buildings seemed to be one with the city of Philly. Though this made finding my way to my first classes a bit difficult, I felt that this was what makes Drexel campus more lively. It was also true that accessing restaurants and cafes were much easier this way.
What I love most about Drexel is definitely its buildings. It looks okay from the outside view, but it is marvelous if you go inside the building. They vary from being antique to being brand new and trendy. I really love the western antique building styles – I am ignorant of designs so please excuse me for generalizing old building designs – so I fell in love with the main building of Drexel right away. The walls, lights, stairs, and artwork were all so very beautiful that I thought it must be a museum for a second. I loved how the building also had places for exhibitions of student works inside, with photographs and paintings. Such aesthetic features of Drexel made me even happier to go to school here.
The bookstore was also a fun place to go. Book store here was a combination of bookstore, school goods shop, stationery store, and snack bar – meaning it was a place to be. They literally seemed to have everything students need and I was also pretty shocked to see so many kinds of clothes with ‘Drexel design.’ I vaguely remember that my home university had a school goods shop but it was pretty small, and no one really bought clothes there. But I saw many students actually wearing the Drexel hoodies, jackets, and t-shirts.
I was very excited to experience different university culture and can’t wait for more.
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