Category Archives: South Korea

Flying

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Finally I’m here, at incheon airport nearby my gate just sitting and waiting for boarding for my flight to start. I will have eleven hours in ahead simple fun in the plane. Have been missing long-haul flights, although so far I only had one before. But that was enough, I simply just felt in love with flying. Guessing it has to be in the family…

Last couple days has been busy and sad. Have been meeting with few friends in last days and it is always just hard to say goodbye to them. Even when I know that I am going to see them again later, but it’s just sad to leave them behind knowing that it is not going to be same to communicate with them online. I am going to miss sitting in Starbucks chatting, or smaller and nicer cafe drawing with iPad.

But it is also nice to just sit and relax in the airport, knowing that I have nothing to worry about anymore, specially as my packaging went late as always. I ended up putting last thing to my backpack just before I left and posting huge package of winter clothes in the morning. But it’s was so nice to get rid of them for now as otherwise, I would have been in big problems at airport to check-in my luggage…

Well it is going to be around 16hrs before I am back in Finland and couple hours more before I’m at home. This has been great year and full of experiences and I will post my experiences later. As well as missing posting from my winter vacation. I haven’t forgotten you my few readers, just been busy and lazy :)

Leaving…

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Opening my closet and starting to categorize my clothes and other stuff for the part that I can send back home b mail and which I want to put in my luggage makes me really realize that I am leaving soon. Too soon. It is weird that somehow leaving is just something abstract, something distant thing for me until I start packing. Same thing happened when I prepared my trip to here, I knew when I am going to fly, I had all ready, flight ticket bought, insurance, everything expect packing. And while I was enjoying my last week at work, even then I didn’t thought so much that I’m really leaving. I started to get feeling of that when on last Friday, last thing I did was returning my office keys. And then went to home and started first time to think about packing.

And same thing happened again. I knew couple months ago when I am going back to home. I knew it exactly after I changed my ticket’s date to last day of May. Still it was some distant thing until I really opened my closet and started packing. It feels weird after nine months to leave. Somehow I got used to live here, being one of the Seoul members, one of the foreign citizen’s around here. This city has been so friendly for me, starting from the immigration (which managed to get me in to the country faster than Finland), to the nearby Family Mart whose seller greets me happily every time I go there to buy night snack, to the Starbucks seller who always greets me happily when she sees me sitting there.

And today I had dinner with my buddy, who I saw last time for some period. I have always hated good byes, specially these kind that I don’t know when we are going to see again. We are sure that we will see each other again, but when and where… It was much easier to leave Finland, leaving friends and family behind as I knew that most of them are probably still around there when I get back. Some of them has switched city and some of them has escaped Finland back to their home countries, but most of them are still around there, waiting for me. But the people I have to say good byes here, they are going to stay here and I am leaving. And although I hope that I can meet them all again, I don’t know it for sure.

Last time I was in the same situation, leaving new friend behind and going back to home was in 2009 summer when I left Jordan after one month. I hated good byes already then, but spending only one month there make it easier, I didn’t get used to live there, being around. I didn’t liked leaving so much as everything was still fun and new for me, one month somewhere was just too short time. But nine months here, calling this city as home, feeling this place as home for nine months, it is all different. When I returned from my winter vacation, I was happy to land to Incheon, hearing familiar language and subway signals. I felt like I was returning to home, which I was doing. But now it is time for me to stop thinking this place as home and returning back to real home. And it feels just weird, and little scary. I feel that I am too used to see all the people around, all the noise on the street. Being happy as I don’t understand all the stupid conversations that people behind me on the bus are talking. And even that all the noise on the street drives me crazy sometimes, I know that I am going to miss it, I am definitely going to miss crazy and living city which has life even at night.

10 Days

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It feels weird to think that I have only ten days left here in Korea. And I have no idea where all the time went. My stories from my winter vacation are still in the first part the travel, somehow few months has passed and I haven’t managed to finish them.

But I really don’t know where the time went so fast. It is not so long time ago when I returned back to Korea and started my last semester here. And now it is already the last days here. Well, of course my time here got much shorter than initially I planned, I actually even leave before final exams starts here, in other words, in the middle of the semester. But luckily I have good reason for that, after long wait and uncertainty I did manage to get summer job, which starts June 1st. So obviously I have to get back to Finland before that. But not to waste any time here, I am actually flying back on May 31st, scheduled landing to Finland is May 31st 23:59, and it is more than likely that I will land in Finland same day than my work starts. Let’s just hope that plane is going to on time, otherwise I will miss my first day :D

This spring has gone really fast. I haven’t been traveling around Korea none at all, although every time I think to go somewhere, I just realize that either it is really difficult to go there, no instructions at all how to get there or just typical tourist place. And what I have learned so far is that if someone suggest some place that is must to visit, well, its one of the places to stay as far as possible as it is usually always huge tourist place. And specially here in Korea, it means that it is full of other people. Definitely not my style of place then. And I have also managed to start getting all local flu’s around here, nothing serious, but just feeling enough sick sometimes that haven’t had any motivation to go anywhere, just relaxing. And of course trying to be a good student and actually study something (although my complains about local courses will follow later…). All this has lead to point that I am leaving Korea and mostly I have only seen Seoul. Not bad thing of course as Seoul is one of the reasons I wanted to come here. I have heard that southern Korea has beautiful nature, quite likely, but knowing Koreans, well, it’s far from nature. I have seen some photos from mountain where they have built stairs, which all stairs having a sign counting all the stairs. Nature? Yeah, right…

And coming from the country where it is difficult not to experience real nature all the time, seeing local nature where all the trees are planted, everything is built, it is sometimes beautiful, but not enough. Parks in Seoul looks beautiful at first, specially now in the spring when all the flowers blooms, until you realize that every park has exactly same flowers, and we are talking mostly about red, white and pink azaleas. Nothing else.

After all I do feel weird, I am in one way got used to live in Seoul, in big city, but then, I am already waiting to get back home. Back to Finland. Where you can smell rain, always. And where you can go to shower and get nice warm water all the time. Well, I have ten days left here, and not sure what I’m going to do, I o have couple course final projects due before I leave (as I really don’t want to do anything back in Finland) but otherwise, I guess I just visit last major tourist places in Seoul and start packing.

Korea Bye Bye – China Hello

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This is my last posting from my Korean apartment for a while, and definitely last time I update my blog from Korea for this year. Reason, my winter vacation started already couple weeks ago and now I am finally leaving to explore Asia, or at least China. I got today my passport and Chinese visa back, which was expected, I got my 6 month double entry visa. 6 months is quite useless for me as I am planning to use both entrys during these next two months, I am going to be in China more than one month and my visa only allows me to be 30 days at one time in China, so I have to escape to Hong Kong in the middle. How horrible… :D

As usual, I am packing in the last night. This time is luckily little bit easier as I have decided to travel lightly, I learned from my Shanghai trip that it is just useless to carry all extra stuff that you think that you might need – you don’t need those. This time though it is a little bit challenging as I am planning to travel to some southern countries as well, which means that from the northern ~0ËšC temperature to around +20ËšC, so I have to carry my summer clothes with me as well. But so far looks quite good, I just need to pack my toilet stuff and towel in the morning and that’s it.

So goodbye Korea for a while, see you again in end of February! And hello China!

(I try to keep updating my blog often during my trip, as well as posting photos to somewhere. As usual, Facebook updating might be a little challenging, but I try to update that as well :D ).

Searching Christmas

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Being abroad during the Christmas is not something easy. I though beforehand that it might be a little bit challenging, but the truth is that it is more challenging that I expected. Not only the thing that I am so far away from my family and everything familiar, but also that here in Seoul, there is no such a thing as Christmas, at least not in a way I know it.
For me Christmas is about relaxing, peaceful feeling, quietness, family. And on top of all, food. I am not sure when the best part of Christmas Eve changed from opening presents when I was kid to current, when I eagerly wait for Christmas dinner to start and enjoying all the good food. But in here Christmas is a holiday for couples, it is time when couples are spending time together, not families. I liked in Finland when everything quiets down, that after afternoon there are no cars driving on the streets at all, no trains, whole country stops and everybody are just relaxing and enjoying quiet times. Here, nothing stops, contrary even more peoples were outside walking and shopping.

But few days ago when I realized that it is almost Christmas and didn’t felt like that at all yet, I decided to go search for some Christmas feel by looking some Christmas lights in the city. Well, found some. And some more. And even some more. And all these were in the same small bush… I got a book from a friend that explains in funny way of Korean culture and habits and one thing the book mentioned is that Koreans can be described by using word ‘extreme’. And that was true at least what comes to Christmas lights. Honestly, I got blind. I have never seen as many lights at the same time. There were just too many lights together. In a small tree, it was just endless amount of lights. Small lamps right next to each other. It was bright, but the nice peaceful feeling that I get from Christmas lights from back home was just somewhere far, far away. I felt like everybody were just competing who can put more lights in the smallest bush they can find… Luckily there were couple, but just couple, trees with really beautiful snow flake lights. Those looked really peaceful and calming.

Wasn't quite sure how umbrellas has anything to do with Christmas...

Snow flake lights

More snowflakes

Got blinded

There's an empty spot... Not anymore...

Christmas lights

End of Part I

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Today I had my last final exam, which also meant last study related thing for me on this semester. (Okey, I still have one Korean class tomorrow, but I don’t count that). So I think it’s time to sum up this semester and studies (and life) here.

I really can’t believe that my semester is over already. It feels like I just landed to Incheon yesterday, chosen my courses for coming semester – and, now it all gone. And still I have been here three and half months already.

Studies

In the beginning of semester I ended up to choose in a hurry (more or less) courses that seemed interesting. My selection was Mass Media, International Relations in Northeast Asia, Korean Language for Foreigners I, Modern Korean History and Advertising and Promotion Strategy. Mass media started by professor speaking only Korean for the first ten minutes unless she realized that I was sitting there and made huge conclusion that there might be non-Korean speakers in the English-speaking class… nd course didn’t got any better from that point. Professors English was quite bad and her preparation for course was just horrible. It has been a long time since I have seen such a bad course or teaching, I’m not even sure if I have ever encountered anything similar before. During the time I noticed that that course is more than useless for me and just decided to drop it. Definitely not worth of wasting time there – especially as lectures were in the morning :D

Other courses were much better, luckily. About Korean learning, I have wrote earlier here. Modern Korean History was good enough, I haven’t been taking any history courses at my home university, so I don’t know if this was any different from those, but I doubt that. It was a little bit boring teaching, as it is always when teacher is just speaking in the front and that’s all. In the first half of the course we had student presentations in the beginning of the class, but after mid-term those just disappeared. I luckily was among the students who didn’t had to keep any presentation.

Advertising and Promotion Strategy was also good course, professor was interesting and his teaching style was vivid. It was enjoyable to sit on the class and listen. And we needed to do advertising critic/analysis and then make our own story-board (in a group), which was fun. Only bad thing about the course was that the textbook we used was too american point of view – so in the end I wanted to come to here to learn about local markets, marketing, and I ended up to course that most examples was about US markets. ell, I guess that there’s not so many English books about Korean or Asian markets.

The best course was definitely International Relations in Northeast Asia. The whole course was about student presentation, in every lecture we had two presentations about some topics. As usual, some pairs made really good job, others didn’t achieved as good. But after all presentations we had discussion, which meant that mostly the professor was talking more about the topic. And similar way as in the end, last year in Jordan Intercultural communications ended up to be giving a lot of information about Arabic culture, this course ended up also to be most useful about local cultures and problems around here. It was interesting to hear and learn about views of US present, about North Korea, and how locals see other world.

Living

In three and half months I am started to get quite used to of living here. This is definitely different place than Tampere or Finland but not too much. What I mean with this is that normal daily life is easy enough. Things works pretty much in similar way, you find products you need where you expect mostly, snacks, drinking, food, go to nearby convenient store or supermarket. Beer, alcohol, same thing. Medicine, go to pharmacy. And so on. Want to eat something, well this is part that differs the most, if you want to eat something, it is easy to go to restaurant. Depending what you want, it is either cheap or even cheaper… I have ability to cook now at my apartment, but I haven’t been cooking so much, all the time, first, as I am sometimes too lazy, and second, it seems that it is actually cheaper to eat outside than make yourself. Well, when I cook by myself, it means that I use much more meat for the meal than I get in restaurant, which probable explains the difference. But I really like being able to cook – mostly my morning now contains instant coffee (coffee maker is still on todo list) and toast.

For coffee lover and addict as I am, this place is just amazing. I have never seen anywhere else as many coffee shops as Seoul has. This place is full of them. And I have even seen two Starbucks in the same block, distance between those was less than 20 meters. Some places are more expensive than others and the atmosphere differs also more or less. I personally like Starbucks, not only as I can get a lot of coffee at one time (gotta love Ventiâ„¢…) but also cause its atmosphere is pretty much for working and studying. Most people I see there are either working with their laptops or having a book in front of them. Its nice place for studying or working, when you just start to hate library and its quietness (seriously, I get feeling that even my breathing is too laud in there, it’s quieter place than morgue). Other places feels much more for meeting people, and I would prefer those places over Starbucks if I just want to hang with friends.
Coffee tastes also different in different places, I am still searching for my favorite place, but have to admit, I really like Flanel Coffee’s Hazelnut Latte. It is sweet but not too much and tastes good. Bonsol Coffee around here is really popular, but it is too sweet for me. Finding a good Latte without anything is still under searching, school coffee shops offers lattes for really cheap (I think it is about 2100KRW ~ 1,40EUR), but it can be tasted, not as good as elsewhere. Don’t know why actually, but it just tastes different. And as coffee lover, it is kinda funny to notice that I miss little bit bad tasting basic Finnish coffee, not because how it tastes but because its simplicity. Here the normal coffee is americano, which is just not for my taste. I need sometimes just caffeine, and for that, finnish coffee with milk is easiest way to deliver that. Juvenes Ala-Kuppila and big coffee… Not such a bad thing after all :D

Final Exams

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It feels weird to realize that all my classes for this semester is over already. And that I am currently in University library to write my final paper for one course and that weekend is full of studying for my final exams. And after Tuesday, nothing. End of studying. Holiday. Vacation. 진짜?
I feels like it was just yesterday when my plane landed to Incheon, when I met my buddy and chose my courses for this semester and now it’s all over already. Time really has flied so fast.

Studying for final exams is really something different from Finland. In my home university I got bad habit not to care too much of exams, as there I can always try couple times if I don’t get good grade. And as usually the courses I took had essay exams, which are quite easy for me to answer. But here, first it is one shot, either you get good grade or not, but no new chances. Second, I still feel that studying here mostly is just learning facts and answering by memory. Korean History course has a little bit something that is closer to Finnish essay questions but luckily, the answers are expected to be much shorter. But this all affects to me that first time maybe ever, I am really studying and also a little bit worried about exams. It is so different when I know that I have only one shot to try and that’s all. No backup plans, no extra time, no nothing.

So in other words, don’t expect many updates before Wednesday… After that, well, I have decided that on my winter vacation I really start to travel around. At least in Seoul. Time really has passed so fast that I haven’t even understood that, and suddenly I am in the situation that first semester here is over and I have no idea what I have been doing here, expect I haven’t been outside Seoul almost at all. Nor travelled anywhere else. Well, winter vacation is going to chance that, that’s for sure. I am not quite yet sure where I end up, but so far I know that I will spend some time in China, when and how long and where, not sure yet. But most likely I am going to be in China during Spring Festival.

Independence Day

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On Monday we celebrated our 93-year-old Finland. For me Independence Day hasn’t been so special day,I have always liked it though, as it is nice to live in Finland and be Finnish, but more it was nice holiday in the end of the year, before Christmas, meaning also in the middle of all final exams in the school (and specially in the university). Not so much celebrating expect spending some time at home, and probably going to see fireworks in the city center.

This year was different. First, this was first time I was celebrating Finnish Independence Day outside of Finland and that made a huge difference inside in my mind. This time it felt something, it was really Finnish day. And as I was in Seoul, I got invitation to reception which was kept by Finnish Ambassador. So at six pm I found myself from metro station, taking taxi to Ambassador’s home with my friend. For next two hours I was enjoying good Finnish style of celebrating. It was little bit weird though, after three months and after pretty much not spoken Finnish or heard it at all for the whole time, suddenly I was in the room that was full of Finnish people, and suddenly I understood what people next to me were talking.

At reception food and other offerings were great, and it was really nice to meet other Finnish people as well. Somehow it did end up that mostly I was talking with other exchange students, but in the end the director of Cargotec’s Korean factories came to talk to us. I guess that there were also few other “big” names, but maybe next time…

After two hours official reception ended and guests left and tried to find taxis. As usual, I and my friends needed to wait for taxi for a while, one taxi even stopped and when he saw us, just left. No idea why we did look so scary or what… In the end we found taxi (surprisingly many taxis were driving in the area though as it was quite far away from anywhere and I guess that people in the area mostly have their own cars and/or drivers…). The night ended to celebrating Finnish independence day little bit more, which included some Soju and in the night also some Karaoke…..

Culture

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I have been way too lazy for the past month (or almost two). Do I decided stop wasting my time for doing nothing and start exploring at least Seoul. Some time ago I founded Seoul City Blog which lists events happening around Seoul. From there I spotted that in Seoul Arts Center there is going to be National Geographic Exhibition and decided to go to see it. So this weekend for a time for great photos.

Finding Seoul Arts Center was easy, getting off the right metro station and then just following good signs. But after we got there, there were small problems. They did advertised exhibition and nice enough, put even arrows so we knew which direction to go. But, that was all. There was a some notice putted on the posters but only English word there was “Notice” and that’s all. Well, after a while looking around we found a desk that looked like ticket selling point, asked for NG tickets and then we learned that those were sold outside. Well, good enough, short walking to outside and then realization that Seoul is a big city, there was a long line for buying a tickets. It started to look like that we weren’t going to get inside to see exhibition anytime fast. But then we got lucky. After queuing for a while, couple foreigners stopped to us and asked if we want to buy their tickets as they run out of time. And at that point I remembered the small fact that Koreans like queueing (clearly), in Expo, they were letting people inside Korean pavilion only certain amount of people at once, in Lantern Festival, same thing, and as you might guessed, same thing here. So after waiting to have a chance to buy ticket, then it was required to go to outside of exhibition entrance to get queuing number to get actually inside. And a this point buying tickets from those two foreigners who had already both tickets and queueing number started to be more than great opportunity, so we bought them and left a queue.

It still meant that we needed to wait about an hour to actually get inside. But when we got in, it was worth it. I knew that NG photos are one of the best ones of nature but seeing those there, they were just great. One after another, just amazing photos. And it was nice to spot a photo from Finland (from Lapland, with Aurora Borealis and snow of course). Some photos were of course much better than others, my favorite was definitely one really cute photo with polar bear with it babies. One really funny photo was a photo of bear who was getting its dinner by just waiting salmon to jump to its mouth :D

All photos were just great and I’m happy that I spotted this opportunity and more, that I took and used this opportunity to see great photos. Seeing all these photos also gave me a little bit more motivation which hopefully leads to better photos. Not NG level but who knows…