Global Field Trip

The whole trip started at 12am at the Main Gate. Attendance was checked and a group of about 100 students was going to participate. We started to walk through Hoegi and ended up at the station. I have never seen so many foreigners in the subway at the same time, and we were definitely too loud in there.   After two hours we arrived to the station where our camping area was located. A 20 minute walk didn't bother anyone because we were all so excited. We stayed in a big guesthouse that had two big buildings, one for the ladies and one for the gentlemen. Bags were left in our rooms before we gathered in one of the buildings where we were divided into 6 different teams. The teams were named based on the colors of the shirts so here are all the 6 teams: Blue: The Jumping Smurfs, Red: Hot Kimchi, Purple: Super Sexy, Orange: Soju Time, Green: Gaeguri (frog in Korean) and Pink: Pink Attack. I was a part of the blue team. Together with the team we decorated our shirts and we had to come up with a song.

There was a small field outside our guesthouse, a perfect place for outdoor games. We had many laughs about the fact that 50% of our team was from Finland and Sweden. For once, these two countries are friends and we are all on the same team. We played a lot of games and I must say that we had an awesome team with a good team spirit. After the outdoor games we were all hungry and could't wait to get some Korean bbq. Around the table I had time to talk with some new friends from all around the world. That's the thing I like about eating here in Korea, because there is a lot of people from different countries, with different backgrounds, opinions and stories. After the food, we all started to clean up before walking down to the beach. We had a campfire with fireworks, beer and soju. It started to get cold so we went inside to play some more games. The only problem was that people were getting too drunk so it was impossible to keep the groups mouth shut, so it was time to reveal the results. Say what, we actually managed to win the whole thing! All smurfs were jumping in the air singing the smurf song. We won a big bottle of vodka that we shared with our teammates and that's when the party started.

I must say that is was a successful trip and a nice way to spend the weekend. I think there will be a similar field trip next semester and I can't wait for that one! Here is all the pictures, enjoy!

Here we come!

In the guesthouse

The IFCC Members. What would we be without you?

Jongyoo has a hard time to get attention.

Here is our team - The Jumping Smurfs. We really had a good time while we were kicking some ass!

All had a good time and I must say that it has been a while since I played these kind of outdoor games. 

One of the funniest things with being a part of an exchange group is that everything happens so spontaneously. One person starts to drum on the table and everybody follows, Jongyoo crabs a mic and here is the result. 

Korean BBQ for dinner with beer and soju. 

 The campfire and fireworks were beautiful. 

1/10

Crazy as it sounds, but I am counting. Today it was exactly one month since I arrived to Seoul and I must say that time flies. Thinking back to everything that I have done so far, it's amazing how much I have experienced already. There is still a lot of adventures coming up and I have 9 months left to enjoy everything here in South Korea and Asia overall.

Christa, working at the International Office in Arcada told us about how our mood changes during our time abroad. The theory she had, was that whenever we arrive, the first 2-4 weeks will be awesome and everything will be fun and exciting. Suddenly, when you start to realize that you are actually "stuck" in a new country, nobody understands you, unfamiliar language and everything is complicated - you will start to get depressed, you will miss home and everything is not a dance on roses anymore. After this, there will be a phase when you start to solve the problems, build yourself up and learn to survive and appreciate the good things in the new country. After a lot of thinking and after this first downfall, the sun will start shine again and it much easier to start enjoying the exchange.

I must admit, that this sort of depression has hit me and very badly. I know that if I wouldn't be this strong, I could easily have given up, bought a ticket and head back home. The reality is, you can't always have a good time and be on your best mood. You need to be down sometimes to realize how high you have been. If you are always happy, you won't appreciate it until you get really sad. I'm happy that this first phase of sadness is over and now I can actually start to continuing having an amazing time here in South Korea.

At the Love Fence in Insadong

In South Korea it is so common for couples to do all these "too" cute things together. What I have seen so far, it's popular for couples to wear the same outfits, so that people can clearly see that they are a couple. There is a lot of photo booths where couples go to take their pictures together, locks that can be locked on a fence with the couples names on it and a lot of other stuff. A thing we came across today was this sort of Love Fence. In a small cafeteria you could buy yourself some fresh juice or maybe an ice cream, get yourself a badge and write a little note to your loved ones or whatever you feel like writing. The whole cafeteria was filled with badges and in a way it looked so pretty. This cafe don't have to invest time or money on the decoration, when their customers does all the work for them.

I got my own one. The hard part was to decide where I should put it. 

Surprise Birthday Party

Today is the day that we all have been waiting for, especially Nhung and Wai Kit. A bunch of students has been running around in Seoul searching for birthday gifts, cakes, gift cards and finally we managed to get together two really good birthday presents for them. We planned a surprise party at a nice restaurant.

In Korea, everything has to be cute, so we had to get them some party hats!

We were all waiting with excitement and I was probably the one who was giggling the most before they arrived. Before they came to the restaurant, we all sat down and learnt how to sing the happy birthday song in korean. It wasn't actually as hard as I thought that it would be. Here you will see a little video when we are all singing. 

After the song we were all attacking the food table. Oh lord, I have never seen that much meat in my entire life. You can chose from pork, beef, bacon, chicken, sea food and much more. After that you will be deciding the side dishes you would like to have. I mean this is probably the best dinner I have ever had. Eat as much as you want, whatever you want and also preparing it yourself, amazing! Jani almost burnt the house down, but I guess someone has to be responsible for the entertainment.

Trisha was being adorable as she always is. She went to a store and bought this beautiful and delicious cake. You all might worry why there is only to candles lit? The fans were working pretty well and they also blew all the candles out before Nhung and Wai Kit did.

Trisha is enjoying the cake as you can see. A lot of things koreans do are quite funny, but here is one. Even the birthday cake has to be eaten with chopsticks! That's so cool. 

Here is Nhung and Wai Kit. They were so happy with their gifts and the dinner and both of them agreed that this was their best birthday they have ever had. 

Back to School

Chuseok is over and finally all students are back in school. My last days of Chuseok was really relaxing. I didn't do anything special so that's why it has been quiet here. In this post I will let you know what I have been upto lately.

 First of all, If you are thinking about going abroad as an exchange student and you hate to deal with a lot of papers - don't apply! Before you leave you home country you have to visit your bank, the embassy, the university and many other places and make a lot of copies and deliver to different offices. When all this is done, you still have a lot to do when you arrive. First of all you need to visit the immigration office and apply for the Alien Registration Card. From KHU you will receive a Student ID Card. This card has to be with me wherever I go.
In the picture you will see four of my cards according to my studies. Up on the left is my Student ID Card, Up on the right is my ISIC International Student ID Card, Down to the left is my Alien Registration Card and the last one is my Studentcard from Finland.

A thing that I didn't have in mind before leaving Finland was this. I knew that everything would be written in korean and also that the koreans language skills are not the best. When I have to do simple things as printing a few pages, this window pops up. The basic settings are easy and since I couldn't manage to get any help, I had to click my way to the right ones. Before printing, you have to create an account and charge it with money. One black and white copy is 50krw (0,035€). Really cheap I must say!

Can you imagine what I saw this weekend? Baby rabbits! An old grandma were sitting on  tiny chair with her small bunnies trying to sell them at Dongdaemun Subway Station. She used a fan to avoid the bunnies for getting too hot. I was looking at them for a long time and after a while I felt really sorry for them. If the grandma won't sell them, she will probably have them for dinner in the future. Argh, I don't even want to think about it. If they would allow animals in the dorm, I could have take one with me. 

My sunday evening was spent with Natalie from Holland. A lot of delicious dishes on our table. The funny thing you order a main dish and it is always a nice surprise what you will get with it. Usually you get kimchi, pepper paste, garlic and soup with whatever you order basically. 

I told you in a earlier post that fruits are something that is really expensive here in Korea. Talking about something cheap that I found today, makeup! I found these eyebrow pencils for only 1,000krw each! (0,70€). Back home, I can pay uptil 17€ for one pencil so this was definitely a bargain! Before I leave from South Korea, I will buy a billion of these!
South Korea is very well known for their cosmetics and you will see cosmetics stores wherever you go.

 Back to today, Tuesday. I came to school and I met my friends after a week of Chuseok holiday. I must say, that I have adorable friends here in Korea. The first thing that Ludo asks me when he sees me in class: "Meri are you hungry? I bought you some chocolate from Japan". The "chocolate" he brought was green. I suppose that it is green tea chocolate. After my last lecture Sol comes running and apparently she also has something for me. Some sort of sweets, she didn't even know herself what it is exactly but I will find out later when I try them. I'm so grateful, so small things can lighten up your day. I bet I owe a few people some small presents and I actually managed to find a little gift for Trisha today, so I bet she will get it tomorrow in school.
School is fun, but not to forget, Midterm is coming up after a few weeks and I have to say that I am a bit nervous about it.

Friday at Everland

I actually had butterflies in my stomach and it was hard to get some sleep last night. After 3 hours of sleep it was time to make myself ready for the amusement park Everland. The plan was to visit Everland and the waterpark Caribbean Bay, but since I was the only one that had bikinis, we decided to only spend our day at Everland. All four girls, Natalie, Belle, Jane and myself, met up in Gangnam and from there we all had breakfast before heading to the bus. The trip took about 40 minutes and all four of us were clapping our hands of excitement while getting closer to the park. When we arrived, we were all amazed.

 The spectacular view of the high mountains and the amount of people standing outside the entrance. I couldn´t believe my eyes. All of sudden I felt like I was five years old again. Immediately when the main gate opened, everybody started to run. I am speaking about everybody, the kids, grandmas, everybody were in a hurry. We were all laughing and wondering "Why in the world are they running for?". It turned out that everybody was in a hurry to get to the zoo. (I uploaded a few pictures and videos on my Instagram account, so if any of you are interested to have a look, visit my account @mersikka)
Over this national holiday Chuseok (Thanksgiving) all foreigners in Seoul has a huge opportunity. The normal price of the entrance to the amusement park is 43,000krw (30€) but over this holiday we are all happy to be foreigners. The line to the Group ticket line for foreigners took us 5 minutes and the entrance for us was only 25,000krw (17€). How amazing doesn´t that sound?

South Korea is definitely the country of sweet things. The "hotdog bagel" I had for breakfast today actually had sugar on it. Can you imagine that? 

Am I in Korea or in Holland? Hard to say. Anyways, Everland is separated into different areas. In these pictures above you see the European Adventure. In this area you can experience the worlds steepest roller coaster called the T Express. In the European Adventure area there was a street that was actually called Holland Village. They were selling a lot of sausages and there was more beer than you could ever drink. The funny thing was that they were selling korean beer.

I have to say that I was amazed with all the decorations. In Everland the Halloween Holiday has already started. You could see pumpkins everywhere and it was beautiful. I have to give a big hand to those guys who have made this happen.

Natalie, me and Jane. 

After walking through the European Adventure everything turned Korean again! There was a field where you could play traditional games and as you see this brave young man trying to prove to the world that anything is possible. He was just adorable and I am so in love with the picture so I actually made it to my new background picture on my iPhone. There is even more. Everland is not just an amusement park, there is also a huge zoo. You will see the most beautiful animals on this planet and something that is amazing, is that in Everland you will be able to meet an elephant who can talk. That is actually true, this elephant can say a few words like "Hi, Yes, No, Sit down" and I can´t remember the rest. I mean wow, I could go on and on about Everland all day.

Sorry guys, it´s not over yet. Since Everland is probably the biggest amusement park I have ever visited, I started to feel a bit tired. The distances between the attractions and roller coasters was probably too much for our feets to handle. There was actually a lot of solutions to this problem. You could easily take a Sky Cruise from the beginning of the park and go all the way down to the European Adventure. Once again, I have to say, that the view was spectacular!

Look who I ran into today. There he is, the one and only - PSY! 

Well, this post has to come to an end. I had an amazing day with the girls and I would visit Everland anytime. It is definitely worth the money and I will have so many good memories from this day. 

For more information, visit their website. 

Everland and Caribbean Bay

Since I don´t have a hometown in Korea and not really used to celebrate thanksgiving, I need to figure out something else to do during the days off. So, tomorrow actually, I will be visiting Everland and The Caribbean Bay. Everland is an amusement park and it´s the biggest in Korea. Now you will get really jealous, but the Garibbean Bay is the worlds biggest waterpark! Oh yes it is, and I will be there for the whole day! I can´t wait. For more information about the resort, you can read more about it here. 

Tomorrow I will tell you more about my awesome day. Happy Chuseok everybody!