High School Life, From a Foreign Exchange Student's Perspective

I have been here in South Korea for 132 days now, and the lifestyle here is very harsh for high school students. Heck, even for middle school students.

Every student here competes each other very intensely for better test scores to get into better universities. My high school starts around 7:30 and techinically ends at 17:00, but the students stay to self-study until 22:00, which is the time when the school closes. Then they go home, study some more, sleep late at night around 2 or so, then wake up and go to school again in the morning and arrive before 7:30. They also study 7 days a week, from Sunday to Saturday. But on the weekends, they go to school only around 9:00 until around 16:00 or so.

Therefore, they have absolutely no time for me. Some of my friends who study abroad in America before feels so bad for me, as they had a lot of fun in the States, but here, all they do is study and they cannot show me a good time here. But I manage. I spend time with my home-stay family and have fun with them and neighbors. I also hang out with college friends once in a while, who I have met from other people and friends.
But sometimes, when I have absolutely no one to be with, I play online games by myself or with my family and cousins back in the States.

If you plan to study abroad here as a high school exchange student, well, do not expect much. But hey, don't take my word for it. As long as you make a lot of friends of all ages, not just your high school classmates, then it'll be a great experience! Or if your classmates just doesn't study, then you can have fun with them! But it wouldn't be so good on their part...
As for other level of educations, such as middle school or college, I can guarantee that your school life there would be much better compared to high school life.
Still, I like the choice of studying here as a high school student.