An overview of money spent during my exchange to Korea

I’ve been keeping track of all my expenses in Korea to get a clear view of how much money was spent on what kind of things. In total, I’ve spent roughly 3.510.000 KRW in Korea,  which is about 2350 euro. Click the link below for a further analysis of my expenses. Tomorrow I will leave Korea (sadly), so the following is complete view of all my costs during my time here. 

[PHOTO BLOG] Seoul Lantern Festival 2011

From the 4th of November until the 20th, the Seoul Lantern Festival took place. It's a very popular event, with an enormous amount of gorgeous lanterns which are put into Cheonggyecheon stream. The types range from historical buildings to superheroes to fairytales and many more. I'll let the pictures do the talking from now on.

VIDEO BLOG: Daily commute in Korea

Since my dorm is about 25 minutes away from the university here, I thought it would be nice to record my daily trip to the university for future students and other people who might be interested. Click "Read more" to see the video.

Culture shock, or the lack thereof

I’m sure everyone has heard of culture shock, it is the difficulty people have adjusting to a new culture which differs greatly from their own. In general, people tend to go through four major phases when going through culture shock; the honeymoon phase, the negotiation phase,  adjustment phase and finally the mastery phase.

It differs per person whether someone goes through these stages and also to which extent one experiences these different stages. 

Short blog: Everything is going its course

It has once again been quite a while since my last blog. Since the last blog I’ve gotten the results of my midterms which have all gone very well; all my grades were above the average of the classes so I am very satisfied with my academic results.

Things are heating up

Things are heating up, in two ways. First off, we found out the dorm has floor heating. This is quite nice in winter I suppose, but due to the fact that they simply turned it on throughout the building without an option to turn it off is a bit less pleasant. Second, midterms are coming up: I’ll have two next week and one in the week afterwards. Besides that, I’ve made some decisions regarding my future in the last week.

My first month in Seoul

In the last few weeks, not much happened for me. Life is going its steady course and time goes quite quickly. I had my first exam in the morning, so now I also have at least a bit of an idea how the exam levels will be here.

Another week in Korea

Caribbean Bay

Today, I went to the biggest water park in the world: Everland Caribbean Bay. There I experienced firsthand what recreation in Asia can be like.

The first week

My first week in Seoul is almost over, so it’s a perfect time to talk about my daily life here and the living conditions! Let me start off by saying this: the Korean people are great! Although my communication hasn’t reached any further than the English-speaking people at the University (the average Korean doesn’t speak a word of English), they are all very open, friendly and eager to help in case there are any issues. I have not run into a single person who could be described as mean or even unkind, this includes the random people on the street. I was a bit worried beforehand that I would stick out like a sore thumb in daily life and while I guess I still do, I do not feel like I am seen as an outcast or that I get weird looks. Of course, I guess that’s something you can also expect from such a international city. It’s starting to feel more like home with each passing day.

Preparations

As I sit here at Schiphol in the early morning, waiting for my first flight of the day to arrive, I feel it’s a perfect time to write my first blog. In this blog I’ll go into my preparations and application, and the issues which arose during the months before my departure.