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.