WHEN Alessandro Ford first arrived in Beijing, he immediately had to sit down to give his eyeballs a break

“I had to physically sit down on a bench and look at my feet for three hours because I could not handle the new stimuli” the 18-year-old student told the BBC.

He was fresh off the plane from Pyongyang where he had spent four months as the first western student to officially do a gap year at Kim Il-Sung university, living in a basic dorm with communal bathroom in the world’s most isolated and secretive country.

While there, he was monitored 24/7 and grouped with specially selected students. Daily walks to his Korean language classes involved bowing at a 20-foot statue of Kim Jong-il and stilted conversations in English on everything from philosophy to Eminem and how much rent was.

“It was serious isolation, but it made me think about how North Korea lives as a country. I was isolated there for four months. They’ve been isolated there for 60-odd years,” he said.

Alessandro experienced a distinct split between those keen to hear about life outside and those not interested at all. One friend who had served in the army for 10 years gave him a grilling about everything from salaries to house prices and rent and seemed “baffled” by the idea that people choose where they live.

“When I first got there he physically grabbed me, put me down on my bed and said ‘tell me everything about your country’,” he said.

“They were so intrigued by this idea you chose your own house and you paid money for your house. So they would ask me how much does a house cost, what is rent? Overall they were fascinated by the outside world.”

It’s not your typical rite of passage for someone at an age where fellow students are more interested in cutting loose and having a holiday romance than debating North Korean political philosophy.

Alessandro said he was drawn to the country after visiting as a teenager and the trip was arranged with the help of his father Glyn Ford — who serves as an MP for the European Parliament and has visited there on diplomatic missions.

It cost around $6000 for four months including food and accommodation at the university that is the North Korean equivalent of an elite Oxford or Cambridge, but was still subject to weeks without hot water in -20 degree temperatures.

Alessandro said the visit provided an insight into the national psyche, with the general consensus that the American government was “evil” and “imperialistic” and had misled people into believing North Korea was wrong.

One student asked why Eminem rapped about drugs and sex rather than making music about his family and country. Others he hung out with remained virgins until they were married.

“From what I was told and from what I saw, North Koreans are more puritan. It’s a ‘no sex before marriage’ culture and sneaking around is not really done,” he told The Guardian.

Alessandro said he was monitored constantly during the trip and only granted short calls to his family overseas which became “quite suffocating” at times. He was also forced to choose his words carefully and didn’t dare address the notorious labour camps the country is condemned for, learning to work around them instead.

“If I chose my words carefully and avoided the major taboos (Great Leader mainly), I could ask about a lot of risky topics,” he said.

Hear the full story of Alessandro’s experience on BBC radio.