“Facing the Enemy”- A Trip to the DMZ and JSA

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Lena

Annyeonghaseyo!

Today, a friend of mine and I went went to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and the Joint Security Area (JSA). The DMZ is 240km long buffer zone separating North and South Korea. As the two Koreas are technically still at war, this area was created during the armistice agreement. The area is very surreal and full of contracts.

We booked to tour over Koridoor Tour which runs the USO (US army´s social and entertainment organisation), as it was recommended my by travel guide.

JSA

We get a quick briefing by a soldier when arriving in Camp Bonifas. Our passports were checked several times and we had to follow the instructions of the soldier. Our soldier guide was funny and showed a rather unbiased perception on the situation, which I was very happy about as I had expected an extremely biased US view on the matter. We changed into a designated bus to enter the JSA. The JSA is where the North and South have meeting and discuss important issues (there are A LOT of issues). We were able to see the North Korean buildings and soldiers. The JSA is the only place which you can `enter´ North Korea safely, you literally just walk across the conference room. One side of the table marking the South Korea and the other the North. We were only allowed to take pictures of the North Korean buildings and were prohibited from waiving or staring at the North Korea soldiers. In the conference room there was both an South and North-Korean soldier. Both standing in a very tense Taekwondo position. We were allowed to take selfies with the soldiers, I did not do so, as I thought it was rather inappropriate. The South-Korean soldiers have specific training and are chosen according to their looks. Sadly, the soldier we saw was not that handsome. We were told that the North Korean soldier stood there for 7-8 hours without moving; whilst the South Korean soldier could start to move as soon as the tourists had left.

We saw the two villages of the DMZ, Daesong-dong in the south and Gijeong-dong in the north. I do not understand why you would want to live in the DMZ, however we were told that the South Korean farmers get a lot of benefits from the government. Still, the number paid does compensate for the restrictions and the danger of living in a war zone. The DMZ ironically is the most militarized area in the world and there are land mines every where! No thanks!

We then drove to Dorasan station, which was build by South Korea in order to connect the South and the North. As relations have become more hostile since, the train station is abandoned and not in use. The hope for unification was constantly repeated ( I admit I think it is unlikely and many scholars agree) and the train is a symbol of this.

We had lunch and then went to the Dora Observatory

Dora Observatory

From the Dora Observatory we had a perfect view over North Korea. We saw Gijeong-dong (where no one actually lives, only for propaganda purposes) and the gigantic North-Korean flag. North-Korea made sure to build a taller flag pole than South-Korea (just to point that out). We also saw Kaesong Industry Complex, which is were North Koreans work for South Koreans. North Koreans are exploited, as they ear very little, but way more than in North Korea, so the jobs are very popular among the locals.

Third Infiltration Tunnel

The Third Infiltration Tunnel was built by North Koreans and discovered in 1974. It is 265 meters long and 73 meters deep. It is extremely narrow, and I pumped my head a lot (had my helmet though). The tunnel is, well its a tunnel.However it is interesting to see how much manpower the North Koreans put in building it and tiny the soldiers must have been (around 1,60 m tops). The implications are evident; malnutrition and lack of technology.

Visiting the DMZ is something everybody coming to Korea should do. It makes you realize how close the “enemy” is to Seoul. It also makes you realize how fragile peach can be, there are many incidences reported in Korean media about North-Korean aggression, seeing the DMZ makes you more aware of this. I personally wanted to go to the DMZ in order to be able to imagine a divided Germany. Even though Germany and Korea are different cases, both countries were/are divided. I cannot imagine how a divided Germany was, even if I know a lot about it. I hoped to understand the concept of a divided country more. Well, going to the DMZ did not help. The DMZ feels unreal. The atmosphere is peaceful and tense at the same time. The presence of the military is intimidating, whilst the beauty of nature is stunning. Close to the DMZ there is a theme park, there are festivals celebrated close to the DMZ, people live in the DMZ. All very confusing situations when you regard that the conflict between the North and South has not be solved.

As a German and a strong believer in democracy, I wish for unification of the two Koreas. (fun fact: Travelling would be some much easier!). However, the chances for unification become smaller and smaller. Korea has been divided for 70 years, hardly any South Koreans has relatives left in the North and the economic costs are high.

May peace prevail!

Note: I apologize for not adding any pictures, the blog was a problem with the format and I´m not that great with computers.

Last weeks in Seoul

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Lena

Annyeonghaseyo!

I´ve been rather busy the last couple of weeks. Time is passing by super quickly. I´ll only be in Korea for 10 (!!) more days.Can´t believe it. As the semester is coming to an end, I´ve got lots of group presentations and finals. Nevertheless, I´m still doing lots of fun things in order to use the remaining time effectively.

Japan

I visited Japan in two weeks ago. It was a fantastic trip. I decided to visit Osaka, Nara and Kyoto, as I´m interested in the traditional Japan and had to make a decision between eiter going to Tokyo or Kyoto. Flying to Japan is relatively cheap and very close. It takes 1.5 hours to fly to Osaka.

Osaka is a modern city which is famous for it´s great food. Not only is the food great, but so is the city itself. Here one can experience the “real” Japan and witness what Japanese people are up to in their everyday life. Osaka is a mix of modernity and tradition, like most of Japan. Osaka castle is the main attraction, and really forth a visit.

Next stop was Nara, which is very close to Osaka. Nara is known for having the largest Buddha statue and for it´s semi-wild deer that walk around the city center. Beautiful temples everywhere, Nara is basically a museum! Is stayed at a traditional Japanese house, thankfully I did not have to sleep on the floor. Neither sleeping nor sitting on the floor is very comfortable in my opinion.

Last but certainly not least on my trip was Kyoto. Kyoto is amazing. If you haven´t been there you have not seen Japan. There is such much (not exaggerating here) to see. Getting around with the buses is very convenient and I was able to see the most important sights in a rather short time. Even just walking around Kyoto is interesting as you will always come across a temple of palace of some sort! Kyoto is super crowded with tourists. When I was in Japan autumn was at its peak and the leaves looks so beautiful, therefore everybody was there! Even if the tourists sometimes were annoying (yes, I was one myself), one can escape the masses by getting up early and then being able to experience the true spirit of Kyoto.

Overall, the trip was amazing. I was there for 4 nights and was able to see the most important things. I traveled alone, which was no problem at all. Japanese are super polite and helpful. They will help you even if they don´t speak English, perfect when you cannot read anything on the signs. Travelling in Japan is easier than in Korea, as Japan has been exposed to tourists for a very long time and especially Kyoto is super tourist friendly. Since Korea now is my “normal” everyday-life, Japan did not seem that exotic. One thing that I noticed is that Japanese people are way more polite, love western things and are extremely fashionable. The amount of history and tradition is also very impressive. I definitely want to go back to Japan and visit Tokyo and see Mount Fuji. About money, Japan ist not that expensive as expected. Everything a tourist needs is affordable, so students can travel to Japan without any problems.

Even if Japan is beautiful, please combine your trip with a visit to Korea. We may not have so many palaces and temples here as in Japan (THEY DESTROYED OURS REMEMBER), but I think that Korea is very authentic and more exotic. It simply is very close to my heart.

Temple stay

After seeing so many temples in Japan and starting to run short of time, a friend and I decided to do a temple stay. In Korea it is possible to stay at a temple and experience the life of the monks there. Foreigners (non-Buddhists) do it for the cultural experience and Koreans in order to connect more to their religion and to solve their problems.

The temple was small and in the mountain (fantastic view!). Our guide spoke English and showed us around. There were only two guys and the rest women. The women were divided into two groups; one from for the adults and one room for the students. There were other exchange students at the temple stay as well.

We got told about Buddhism, very informative and without forcing us to convert. Then we had to do 108 prostrations, which was rather tiring and felt more like sport than meditating or praying. We had dinner at 5, really early but made sense when we were told that we had to get um at 4:30 in the morning (reminded me of the time that I was volunteering in hospital). After the prostrations, we had some free time. Later we met for the evening prayer, where everybody had to ring the bell and we did some meditation. Meditation is something that I have never been able to do, instead of thinking of “nothing”, I think about how my legs hurt from sitting in this uncomfortable position or how boring it is to just sit there with your eyes closed. Afterwards we made some bracelets and went to bed early.

Getting up at 4:30 was a slight pain, but doable. We did the morning prayer, it was rather difficult not to fall asleep for some people. Then to our surprise we would go an have some “rest”, we all slept until breakfast. For breakfast we had rice, which I can actually eat without complaint after being in Korea for about 4 months. The monk showed us how to eat and how to clean our bowls. This was rather complicated, as there is a specific ceremony. We had to clean our bowls with water and then drink the water, at first disgusting but Buddhism teaches us that we just think that it is disgusting but actually it is´t (aha).

We then had to clean our room and went for a short hike. The view was really nice and we meditated whilst looking over Seoul. t was quite cold so we didn´t stay to long. After walking back to the temple we had a traditional tea ceremony. We were allowed to ask the monk anything. He was really nice and answered all our questions. I was surprised that monks may have a family and that Buddhism is not against technology (THERE WAS A BEAMER IN THE TEMPLE).

Overall, the temple stay was a very good experience and made me understand Korean culture more. I did not find enlightenment or so, but I felt quite relaxed after the temple stay. If you are interested in Korean culture a temple stay is really good, as you gain insights about Korean Buddhism.

Today, I had my last lecture, Which feels very weird, but at the same time really good, as I can´t wait for university to be over with. At the end of the semester there is always so much to do, that you simply just want a break. Even if I am happy that I just have to write 3 more exams (I have 5 in total by the way) and I look forward to seeing my friends and family back home, I am very sad to leave Korea, as I´ve met great people and experiences so memorable things here.Before going back to Germany, I´ll go to the DMZ (border between Korean and North Korea), visit the opera and ballet and see all my favorite places in Seoul one last time.

10 more days to go…

Have a great Advent season, as Christmas is basically non-existent in Korea!

Trip to Stonehenge and a Weekend in Scotland

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Evgenia

Hello!

Last time I posted here, I mentioned that I was going to visit Stonehenge and Bath. So that trip happened a couple of weeks ago. Also, a week after that trip, I made another one. As it is obvious from the title of this post, the trip was to Scotland, where I spent 3 days.

Stonehenge

I believe that there is no need to explain what Stonehenge is. Most people must have heard or seen pictures of it. At least it is considered as one of the most famous sites in the world. 😉

This trip was organised for students by the same company that I went on a few trips with before. It took us around 2,5 hours to get to Stonehenge by coach. We had pre-booked tickets, so as soon as we arrived there, we went to explore the site. The ticket to Stonehenge includes an audio-guide and a bus ride from the visitor centre to the stones. Unfortunately, visitors are not allowed to come close to the stones. So we had to enjoy the view from about 10 metres distance.

Stonehenge is probably not the most exciting place to visit in Britain, but I really enjoyed it. So I would recommend going there just to see it with your own eyes. However, I must say that it looks bigger in the pictures. 😀

We were given around 1,5 hours to explore Stonehenge, which was enough to walk around, take pictures, and even drink a cup of hot chocolate in a local cafe. After that we headed to Bath, which was only around an hour ride away from there.

Bath

This town is named like that because many years ago the Romans found hot springs in that area, so they decided to build a temple and baths there. That is how the settlement appeared in that place. Nowadays, the town has a few wonderful sights. Among them are the Roman Baths, the Pump Room, Bath Abbey, Pultney Bridge, the Royal Crescent, and the Circus. My friend and I did not go inside the baths because the tickets were quite expensive, but instead we took a stroll by the river, visited other sights, and had lunch in a local restaurant. After a long and exciting day, we headed back to Coventry.

Weekend in Scotland

Accommodation and transportation for this trip were arranged through the same company as my previous trips. So the only thing I had to do was to find interesting places to visit and create my own itinerary. Also, I should mention that all together, we were around 270-300 students from Coventry, Birmingham and Warwick universities going on that trip on 6 coaches.

Day 1 (Friday)

We left Coventry very early on Friday morning. The plan was to go to Glasgow for a few hours to do some sightseeing and then head to Edinburgh in the evening. It took us a little bit less than 8 hours to get to Glasgow. We arrived there around 2pm and were given 3 hours of free time to explore the city. I joined a group of Dutch girls to walk around the city together. We went to the Gallery of Modern Art, checked out George Square, which is the main square of the city, passed by the university, visited Glasgow Cathedral and Necropolis. The last two places impressed me most of all. The cathedral looked amazing and the view from Necropolis was fantastic. After that we returned to the coach and continued our journey to Edinburgh.

When we arrived in Edinburgh, we found out that the hostel that was booked for us was just horrible. The windows were broken almost in all rooms there and everything was extremely gross. But we could do nothing about it. Good that we had to stay there 2 nights only. After 2 hours of confusion connected with allocation of the students, I finally managed to find a free bed in a room for six. After dropping my stuff in the room, I went to have dinner in Italian restaurant with those Dutch girls. Also, a club night was scheduled for that day. So at night, we all went out to have some fun in a club in the old part of the city.

Day 2 (Saturday)

In the morning we were offered to follow a 1,5-hour guided tour around Edinburgh. I really doubted that walking with 200 more people would be a good idea (as it turned out later, I was right!), so I decided to explore the city independently. First, I had breakfast in a café and, then, my long and exciting day began. I went to St. John’s Episcopal Church and walked in Princes Gardens, after that I climbed up Castle Rock, where Edinburgh Castle is situated. The view from the Rock was marvellous, and I immediately fell in love with the city. Then, I paid for the ticket and entered the castle. On the territory of the castle, you can find a few museums and follow a guided tour. I visited almost all museums there, took many pictures but did not follow the tour. After 2 hours of exploring the castle, I decided that it was time to get going farther. Following the Royal Mile (the main street in the old town), I walked down to the Scottish Parliament and Palace of Holyroodhouse (the official residence of the Queen in Scotland). I did not pay to get in, just examined the palace from the outside. After that, I decided to go hiking in Holyrood park, which was nearby. The main sight in the park is Arthur’s Seat, which is a peak of an extinct volcano in Edinburgh named like that after numerous legends about King Arthur. The height of the peak is 250m. Getting to the peak of Arthur’s Seat was my goal, so I started my journey up there. I have no idea how much time it took
me to get to the top, maybe 30 minutes, maybe an hour. I really do not know, I was so overwhelmed by the view as I was getting higher and higher, so I was not paying attention to anything. When I got to the peak, I was on my last breath but it was definitely worth it. 😀 The view from up there was breathtaking! I could see the city and its surroundings in full view. I took around 500 pictures there and spent more than an hour on the top. But then, the sun was slowly setting, so it was also time for me to start getting down. When I got back to the old town, I found a restaurant to have dinner and rest a bit. It was still quite early to go back to the hostel then. Therefore, after finishing my meal, I decided to explore the city in the dark. Eventually, I found myself at the Christmas market. It was huge. They had a few attractions and many various stalls with souvenirs, sweets, drinks and street food. I indulged myself in a glass of mulled cider there. The atmosphere at the market was fantastic, it gave me a feel that Christmas was already around the corner.
When I felt that I had seen everything and taken enough photos of the place, I headed
back to the hostel to meet the others because a bar crawl was planned for that night. We went to 3 different places and ended up in a night club. After the whole day of walking I was too tired to party, so I left everyone and went to sleep.

Day 3 (Sunday)

I woke up quite early on Sunday. I did not have too much time for sightseeing that day because we were supposed to meet at 3pm at the hostel to get on our coaches and head back to Coventry. So in the morning I passed by the Christmas market again, bought a cup of hot chocolate for breakfast there, and continued my trip to Calton Hill, where Nelson monument is situated. This hill also provides visitors with a great view. So I let myself walk around and enjoy it. Later, I went down to the National Museum of Scotland, Grassmarket, and St. Giles Cathedral. After visiting those places, not so much time was left until our
departure from Edinburgh, so I decided to eat something. Before I went on that trip, one of my friends had recommended me one nice café in the old town, so I went there. I also bought postcards to send to my friends and family before that. So I signed them as I was enjoying my cup of hot chocolate in the café. After the lunch, I walked through the city once again, dropped my postcards in the mailbox, returned to the hostel and got on a coach.

The ride back was not smooth. Halfway to Coventry, the coach that I was on broke down, so all people from it had to squeeze into other 5 coaches. I was lucky because I had a seat, but a couple of people had to stand in the coach all the way back to Coventry. We came back to our town around midnight. Tired and happy I got to my room already dreaming about my next trip to Scotland.

Thank you for reading!

The sun is shining!

Posted on November 26, 2015 by Fanny Appelgren

Because my internet crashed weeks ago I haven’t been able to post the post I wanted about my stay here in Genova from October, so I will post it not. Better late than never? 🙂

The last weeks since my last blog has been bissy, in a good way. I try to plan my work so that a sometimes can go on trips, like a did for two weekends ago, I went to Florence, the city of beautiful art! I had really high expectations about Florence and of course I was more than contect with all the museums, places to visit, exhibitions, churches etc, but just to walk in as a city it was not really what I had expected.

Even if this was I the middle of October there was a lot of tourists. I had the opportunity to buy a special museum card so I didn’t have to stand in line, which saved me a lot of time, but still it was very crowded at the streets and in the restaurants. It was quite expensive to I think but definitely worth a visit. It was a special feeling to visit some of the famous places and in real life see so so famous paintings, statues etc. I felt really lucky to have this kind of experience. I went there over the weekend and I thought that I on Sunday morning should go to Galleria Dell’Academia to see David by DA VINCI. When I came there was so many tourists, even this early morning, but I thought: “I can’t leave Florence without visit and taking a picture of David, it is impossible”. So ofcourse I went in to this crowded place and got my pictures!

In total, at 2½ day I visited totalt 25 museum, exhibitions and churches, but YES it was difficult! J

I also had the opportunity to visit the Cinque Terre which are very famous here in the north of Italy. It is five beautiful small fishing villages which small colourful houses by the sea, fantastico! Usually iy is possible to walk between the villiages, it is not that far, but when I went some roads were closed, unfortunately. I had to take the train but it only took some minutes, but there was big problem with the trains that morning so I had to wait forever with of course A LOT of other tourists. Even if the tourist season starts to calme down, I thought there was a lot of tourists and it was not really suitable for this small villiages, but nothing to do with that. Instead I tried to make sure that I was one step ahead the groups! I became a little as a sport! The names of the villages are: Riomaggioare, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazze and Monterosso. My favourites were Riomaggiore and Manarola!

Now when I’m writing this I’m sitting on the morning train to Milano, and the surroundings has started to get some autumn colour, it is really beautiful! Thankfully in Genova we are stille blessed with good and nice weather most of the time. For some days now it has been a blue sky with any clouds and 20+. Belissima!

Ciao!

“Let’s go get lost. Let’s go get lost…”

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Evgenia

Hi from Coventry!

I have not been writing here for so long!

Actually, I have been quite busy lately. I had two course papers to submit this week. Also, I somehow managed to catch so-called fresher’s flu twice, and, of course, I was travelling.

This time, I am going to cover the part about travelling around the UK.

I guess when people decide to go on exchange, they do not think about the education in a chosen university or country only. Culture, history, places to visit, various attractions, food, etc. also play a significant role when selecting a destination for your studies.

Well, at least for me it was the case. When I was choosing a place to go for my exchange, I was also considering how interesting it would be to live in that country. As I love travelling and exploring new places a lot, I wanted to go somewhere where I had never been before. That is how I ended up adding the UK universities to my exchange studies application. I thought that it would be amazing to live, study, and travel in this country for a few months. Must say, I was not mistaken!

It has already been almost 2 months since I moved here. And I have already managed to visit quite a few wonderful places in England. Coventry has a very good location. It is right in the middle of England. So it is really easy to travel from here, and it does not take that much time to get to different parts of the country.

Alright….

The first trip (except the one around Coventry) I did in England was to Birmingham. But that one I already covered in my first post, so not going to write about it again :D.

The first weekend after I had arrived in England I went to London! I was absolutely excited about going to the capital. I went there by coach with a company that organises trips around the UK for students. It was a very short trip, though. We left Coventry at 7am and were back at around 7:30pm. The ride took approximately 2,5 hours, which with all the traffic jams in London was not bad at all. As it was my first time there, I wanted to see all major tourist attractions. First, we had a short guided tour around and, then, had a few hours to explore the city on our own. I met 2 girls on the coach, so we decided to explore the city together. (These 2 girls later became my travel buddies and good friends, too.) That day we saw Westminster Palace with its famous Elizabeth Tower that has Big Ben on it, Westminster Abbey, guard change at Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Somerset House, Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London Tower, Tower Bridge, and the London Eye. We did not use any public transport that day, just went on foot. After walking around so much, we got on our coach and headed back to Coventry. That day was amazing! The weather, my company, everything was perfect. And, of course, I fell in love with this beautiful city of London!

Only a week later I went to Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon by coach with the same company. The first stop was in Oxford. We went to Christ Church there. A very lovely place, which could be of a great interest to all Harry Potter fans because some of the movie scenes were filmed inside it. We also saw that famous university of Oxford. Looks nice and very old! However, in order to get in, you have to pay. So we did not go inside. We also walked around and did some shopping for souvenirs.

In the afternoon, we headed to Stratford-upon-Avon. The town is quite small and very cosy! The most famous thing there is a house where William Shakespeare was born. So if you consider yourself an admirer of his work, then it must be an interesting place for you. I personally enjoyed visiting both towns.

And the next weekend, we went on a day trip to Cambridge. One more town famous for its prestigious university. We visited Fitzwilliam museum, one of the university buildings, saw a Mathematical Bridge, and went punting. It was a lovely day in a lovely town!

In the middle of October, I went to London again to do more sightseeing and to celebrate my birthday. But that time I got to spend 3 days there, so I managed to see and do way more things. I was also well prepared that time. After having had consulted with a couple of my friends on what were the must see and do things in London, I created my own itinerary.

So very early on Friday morning I took a train to London. The trip took only 1,5 hours. The first day I did not see many new things in London. I went to see Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Tower Bridge and Westminster again but this time in the evening, when the illumination was on. So beautiful! Also, I visited China Town and had some Chinese food that day. It was really good!

On Saturday morning, I headed to the National History Museum. It was fascinating! So many wonderful exhibits. And the building is stunning. Later, I passed by Harrods (for those who do not know, it is a very fancy and ridiculously expensive department store). I did not buy anything and felt quite weird there. 😀 Later, I checked out Covent Garden, went to London Film Museum that was holding an exhibition “Bond in Motion”. As you can understand from its name, the exhibition was dedicated to James Bond films. 23 vehicles that were used in the films were exposed there. After the exhibition, I headed to see MI6 building. (You can see a connection between this place and the exhibition I guess. :D) I took a few photos and moved on. By then it was already getting darker, so I decided to go to Westminster to enjoy the sunset and the beautiful view there.

I started Sunday at the Brick Lane market. There I got myself a birthday cupcake and a smoothie :D. Later I checked the surroundings and found lots of amazing graffiti there. The next place on my list was the British Museum. The museum is enormous! There is so much to see. I got tired after 2 hours there so decided to move on. The underground train took me right to Camden Town – a district with a vibrant atmosphere that is full of various markets, interesting stores, music venues and numerous food places. I had sort of dinner at a street food market there, and also bought a small souvenir for myself. In the evening, I planned to go to the London Eye. So after finishing my meal, I headed back to the city centre. I was super lucky because the queue for the tickets was pretty short. The view from the top of the London Eye was fascinating! It definitely was worth the money!

So, that was the last thing I did in London during that trip. So the next morning, I got on a train and headed back to Coventry for my afternoon class.

My next trip was to Liverpool – the Beatles city. We saw Museum of Liverpool, Titanic memorial (the ship was assembled there), World Museum, Liverpool Cathedral and went to the Beatles shop. This city was a bit different from all other places that I had visited before. Still it was really nice.

During the Halloween week (yes, in England they seem to celebrate Halloween the whole week) I went to Warwick Castle with my English friend that I had met in Sweden last year. Warwick is situated only 40 minutes away from Coventry by train. So again, it was really easy to get there.

The castle was built in 1068 but it is still in a very good condition! It was also nicely decorated for Halloween. We went to the Dungeon there to listen to the history of the plague in Britain. It was kind of a scary place, I must say. But we had lots of fun.

And the last trip I went on so far was to Manchester last weekend. We checked out the Football Museum, Manchester Cathedral, very beautiful John Rylands library, Town Hall, and went shopping. We also wanted to see the stadium but there was a game that day. So we did not dare to go there.

That’s it for now. My next trip is going to be to Stonehenge and Bath this weekend. I’ll write about it here later for sure. Guess it’s going to be fun.

Thanks for reading!

Jeju Calling

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Lena

Annyeonghaseyo!

I´ve haven´t been blogging for a while. I was busy revising for the midterms. Autumn has arrived in Seoul and it is beautiful. There´s a lot going on in Seoul in this season. Last weekend a group of friends and I visited Jeju island. I´ll tell you all about this amazing trip.

Jeju is a Korean island, around 1 hour by flight from Seoul. It is rather small and very popular amongst Koreans,Japanese and Chinese tourists. In summer the beaches are crowded with tourists. We went off season, so we basically had the island for ourselves.

We arrived in the evening and took the bus to our guesthouse in Seogwipo.

Day 1

On our first day we hiked up Korea´s highest mountain, Hallasan (1950 m). Weather was great, not too hot or cold. We had to hurry up as we had to reach the base by 12:30. We walked really fast and arrived one hour before the deadline. Hiking was fun and relaxing, as not as many people were there. It was less exhausting as Bukhasan, as less steep. To get to the peak it is around 9 km. It was cloudy when we were at the the top, but the atmosphere was great. We were above the clouds. When we walked down it was foggy, it was rather spooky: perfect for Halloween ;). We were tired after all that walking. In the evening we went to a sushi buffet, super yummy and visited the market.

Day 2

Next day: more walkin. The weather was amazing: sunny and warm. We walked along the Olle trail. The trail took us along the coast and to some waterfalls. It was really nice and easy to walk. The view was very impressive. We had a jeju specialty for lunch: Jeju black pork barbeque. It was very good and gave us strength to keep on walking along the 13km trail. Jeju is all about the nature, so walking/hiking is a perfect way to see the natural beauty of the island. In the evening we went to the market. The market offered cheap and tasty fruits and other food. Jeju is famous for its Tandarines, you can see them grow everywhere.

In the evening we went to see the Korean punk band Crazy Nuts at the Jeju Music Festival. We found out about it just a few hours before the concert. It was very interesting and free, even if punk music is not my favorite.

Day 3

We got up really early! We took a taxi to Sunrise Peak in order to watch the sunrise (as the name implies). Unfortunately it was cloudy so the sunrise was not that visible. The atmosphere was great anyway. As we had started our day so early, we had a lot of time. We took the ferry to Udo, a tiny island 3.5km away from Seongsan-ri. We rented bikes and bilked around the whole island. The bike way is 15.9 km long and very nice. I´d advice everyone to either tour the island by bike or borrow a scouter, way quicker and more fun than walking. Udo is very beautiful, has amazing beaches and cool lava cliffs. In summer it is super crowded, when we were there there was hardly anybody. We had lunch and then drove back to our hostel, as it started ti rain and we were really exhausted.

We took a nap and then went for some dinner. We had a really nice last dinner in Jeju.

Overall, Jeju was amazing. It is very different compared to mainland Korea. Jeju has palmtrees. Jeju is interesting for people that enjoy nature and being active. You can also only go for a beach holiday, but Hallasan is something you should absolutely NOT miss. I don´t think that I´ve been this sporty on a trip, It was a great experience and the group was simply amazing. I had such a good time. Jeju is an absolute highlight!

Studying at Coventry University

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Evgenia

Hello!

After a couple of weeks of classes at Coventry, I can finally tell something about the education here. In general, educational system in Britain seems to be quite similar to the one we have in Sweden but, of course, it has some differences. So in this post I will try to provide an overall overview of what it is like to study @ CovUni.

Same as in Sweden, students don’t have too many classes a week. Students are expected to complete most of their studying in the library or at home using books and online resources. Most students here are supposed to take up 3 modules that make up 30 ECTS in total. Everyone (at least among exchange students) is free to choose modules that they would like to study, and then they have to complete their timetables themselves. However, unlike Sweden, where students have different timetables each week, here it’s fixed and doesn’t change from week to week. Students just need to choose their modules and complete timetables wisely in order to make the most out of their exchange studies here. (For example, I completed my timetable the way that I always have Fridays off, which is wonderful because I have long weekends so I can travel. 😀 )

All modules at my faculty consist of lectures and seminars that take 4 hours of guided studying a week – 3 hours for lectures and 1 hour for a seminar. So students have to spend only around 12 hours a week at the university. During lectures all you have to do is to listen and make some notes (you don’t even have to write a lot because lecturers always have all important information in their presentations that are available online). There’s no discussion or questions from a teacher at the lectures, so students are not expected to say anything. Also, documentaries or other movies might be shown during the lectures. However, they are not followed by any discussion. Seminars are, on the contrary, very interactive, therefore everyone is expected to contribute to a discussion. Also, students usually have to prepare some readings or perhaps even some sort of a presentation for this kind of classes in advance. Some students might also find field trips in their timetables but, unfortunately, they are unavailable for the Erasmus students (apparently you have to pay for those in advance).

Exams… Well, it’s too early to talk about them now, I guess. All I know is that I have to write course papers for my modules. Most of my course papers are due the period of time between the middle of November and the beginning of December. Other than that, I will also have traditional in-class exams in January. But I think I will write about it in more details when I know more about it. 😉

Semesters here are shorter than in Sweden. Studies for autumn semester usually start in the beginning October and finish in the middle of December. Then students have a three-week Christmas holidays, that are followed by a two-week exam period that lasts until mid-January. After that spring semester begins. But already in the beginning of May academic year is over.

It’s worth mentioning that attendance is a very important thing here. Students must attend all lectures and seminars. Teachers literally check if you’re present or not at each and every lecture or seminar. In case a student misses several classes, he will come across some problems with the university staff. (So far I have attended all my lectures and seminars, so I don’t know what exactly they do to those who skip classes. Hopefully, I will never know about that by my own experience :D) It feels a little bit like being at high school, though. Well, students can do nothing about it, so we just need to make sure to always sign a registry form when we go to a class. In case a student gets sick and unable to attend a class, he or she should notify a teacher about it in advance in order to avoid problems.

Despite all the hassle with attendance tracking, the atmosphere in the classes here is pretty informal. (Just like in Sweden.) Teachers often joke around and may talk about everything with students. Also, the staff here is very international. Coventry teachers are coming from various countries from all over the world.

I guess, that’s it about education here for now. Just one more little thing about my studies here. During the first week of studies, one of my teachers decided to change timetable for his module which led to a clash in my timetable. So I had to withdraw from that module and pick something instead. Unfortunately, I’m not taking Journalism anymore. Instead, I’m following a history module (The Making of Modern America) now. The new course seems to be pretty interesting as well.

So I guess, everyone should be aware of unexpected changes that might occur even after the beginning of a semester and look for some other modules to have a backup plan just in case 😉 .

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day and don’t forget to apply for exchange studies!

Wonderful Time

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Fanny Appelgren

It might not have happened a lot since my last blog, but I have to say I really enjoy my time here in Genoa. The weather has been great today, hot, sunny without any cloud in the sky, absolutely perfect, took a cup of caffe at my terasse and enjoyed the view and sun, belissima, real life quality!

I’m doing my internship at two places, in a school and in a cooperative and I like the change in the work. Something in common for both places is of course the children, between the age of 6 to 15 in total. Every one is unique and all have their own experiences and personalities! I have to take the bus to the school, usually when I start at 8 am I take the bus 7:15, at latest, and by then the traffic is okay. If you wait to 8 à clock, the traffic jams are horrible! Not worth waiting for so long time for being late on a bus full (and then I mean really full) of people. No, my neighborhood is very quite in the morning, sleeping for a long time, so I think it is really nice to go out to the bus when most of the people are still sleeping and the Foccacerias are just opening. The smell of this lovely new fresh baked bread is like heaven, irresistible.

I have bought a tv for some company and for watching movies. There is a big library here called Berio where it is possible to rent movies for free, especially older Italian movies, really good! a good idea when I want to practice my Italian, I can have the subtitles or language on Italian! Right now I’m watching a chines history movie, great, but the only language was Chinese and the only subtitle available was Chinese or Italian, thought Italian was the best option…. 🙂

Tomorrow I will take the train to Florence and stay there over the weekend, I think it is going to be absolutely perfect and I’m really excited!

I will post some pictures from the Rolli Day event and hopefully after the weekend, I will quick upload pictures from Florence!

Ciao!

Chuseok

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Lena

Annyeon!

In this post I will talk about Chuseok and what I´ve been up to the last week.

Chuseok, is Korean Thanksgiving (full harvest moon). It is one the most important holidays.Chuseok Day was celebrated on the Sunday 27th of September. Monday and Tuesday were off. So basically a 4 day weekend 😉 Traditionally, people go back to their home towns or visit their grandparents. You eat sweet/differently coloured rice cake (songpyeon). It is a time to spend with your family and to worship your ancestors. Most of my Korean friends, relaxed and ate a lot (sounds like Christmas and Easter to me).

Even though many things are closed on Chuseok, it is a great opportunity to travel. Many places offer special performances or activities for tourists. Chuseok is the only day that Seoul is not crowden. SAs everybody was going home, travelling somewhere by train was not very attractive. I stayed in Seoul, as there is a lot to do here!

We visited Jongmyo Shrine in the morning, hardly anybody was there. Then we went to the Namsangol Hanok Village close to Namsan Park. There were many activities offered just for Chuseok. We watched a Taekwondo performance, it was amazing. As we are in Korea, they even “danced”, did Taekwondo to music 😉 The Traditional villages are always interesting, as there is a lot to see and my can try out some things. We even had our personal tour guide, who showed us around. Afterwards we walked up to Seoul Tower. Namsan Park is a huge and beautiful park in Seoul. I´m always surprised how green Seoul is. Seoul Tower is popular amongst both tourists and locals. Everybody was there. Couples buy locks and hang them at the fence. The view is spectacular. We didn´t go up the tower, as it is rather expensive and many people said that it is not really worth it. You see enough from the mountain itself. We watched the sunset over Seoul. That evening I went clubbing at Itaewon. Koreans don´t really dance. It takes a lot of animation to make them move (girls and boys). Nearly only foreigners go to Itaewon. We took a taxi back, as Seoul does not have night buses.

Next day I visited Deoksu Palace, one of the palaces right in the center of Seoul. It was free admission and there was a free traditional Korean music performance. A mix of jazz and in my opinion, strangely sounding singing. The atmosphere was great!

Monday, was still a holiday and people started to come back to Seoul. I did some shopping in Gangnam and went to the Hanok village in Seoul. We had REAL italian pizza. I was very happy. Korean pizza is extremely sweet and always contains corn (for whatever reason). The restaurant was very authentic, but as we are still in Korea we got a side dish (pickles).

On Tuesday we were super active. We hiked up to Bukhansan mountain (836 meters). The weather was amazing and everybody was there. I´ve never hiked with so many people! Hiking is a national sport in Korea. There are extremly many outdoor stores. Especially people over 60 wear outdoor clothes and go hiking every weekend. You always see hikers in the subway! The mountain is inside a national park, very close to Seoul. We took the subway to get there. There are various paths you can walk, but we wanted to hike up to the peak. On our way we saw two temples and the scenery was beautiful. It started getting very steep rather quickly. To the peak it is only 3.6 km or something, but that means UP UP UP. The path was a combination of steps, steps made of rock and literaly “climbing” up the mountain. I´ve done some hiking before, but never was it soooo steep for such a long time. Appropriate shoes and lots of water is a must! The last bit to the peak was super scar. There was only a rope that you could hold on to. This alone was scary, but having lots of people around you made it worse. People were pushing and trying to get up first. When we were finally at the peak, the AMAZING view made us forget the tedious walk up. We had lunch there. In Germany, (Austria and Switzerland too), there´s a place to eat and drink on every hiking route. This is nonexistent in Korea. You bring everything yourself. Many koreans drank rice wine. We didn´t as we were a bit terrified of having to walk back down again.

Hiking was a very good experience. I plan to do this again. Bukhasan National park has a lot to offer.

Wednesday,I had a free day too. I visited the Hangaram Art Museum, as I did not intend to do lots of walking (if any in fact). I went to the Modigliani and the Chia exhibition. Both were great.

Thursday: I had uni.

Chuseok was really nice, even though I did not leave Seoul, I saw a lot of new places and enjoyed myself a lot. Living is such a huge and vibrant city really is amazing. Deciding what you´re going to do is quite tricky.

Weather, autumn has arrived in Korea. This means that evenings are chilly and it is not as hot during the day. Average temperature so far was 22 Degrees, so still warm compared to Sweden. The leaves are slowly changing their color.

That was my Chuseok summary. Have a great week!

First Week in Coventry

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Hello! How are you doing?

After half a year of preparation for my Erasmus exchange semester in the UK I finally arrived in Coventry a week ago. The past week was full of different events. I’m going to tell about it here.

On the way to Birmingham

Arrival

It all started on Friday, September 18^th. My trip to Coventry was not a very short one. First, I had a two-hour flight from my hometown of Saint Petersburg to Copenhagen airport where I was supposed to change planes. Then I had to wait 3 hours there until my next flight. (I was so close to Malmö! I really wanted to get on a train and visit the city where I was living for a whole year.) After wondering around the airport and looking for a plug adaptor, which I found almost immediately, it was finally time to board the next plane which took me to Birmingham. The flight was 2 hours long again. After going through border control, which wasn’t that long and scary as I read on the internet, I took a taxi to a hotel where I spent my first night in Coventry because I couldn’t access my dorm that day.

The next morning I took my suitcases, checked out from the hotel, and headed to my dormitory. Luckily I had GPS navigation on my mobile phone so it wasn’t hard to find my way there.

Accommodation

Finding accommodation in Coventry was kind of a problem for me. Even though Coventry University arranges accommodation for exchange students, it is quite expensive. So initially I didn’t want to apply for it. Instead, I was hoping to find something myself. Unfortunately, it turned out almost impossible because most of the contracts for rent here are signed for 6-9 months minimum, while I needed a place for 4 months only. After several unsuccessful attempts to arrange accommodation myself, I realized that I had no other way but to apply for the university accommodation and accept the cost of it. I got a room offer in just a couple of days after sending the application. Then I paid rent for the whole stay at once, and was happy that I didn’t have to worry about it anymore.

Place where I stay in Coventry

Singer Hall of Residence

It’s called Singer Hall of Residence. There are around 50 blocks. Almost all blocks have 3 floors, and each floor has a flat with 6 single rooms, 1 kitchen, 1 shower, 1 bathroom, and 1 toilet. I share a flat with 5 girls – 4 of them are Dutch and 1 is French. So far we get along pretty well. 😀

The location of the halls is really good. Singer Hall is situated almost in the city centre, it takes around 7 minutes to get to the university from here. Living here also guarantees a free membership for a sports hall. (I have yet to check out the place, though.)

In general I am really content with the place where I live but there’s always a ‘but’. When I moved in, I found out that the kitchen was unequipped. There were no plates, no cups, no cutlery, nothing at all… So we had to either bring everything with us or buy it here. And as we are here for 4 months only, buying new stuff didn’t seem appealing at all. Oh well… we had no choice. At least we didn’t have to buy a microwave and a kettle – they were provided. So the first weekend in Coventry I spent unpacking and shopping for necessities in IKEA.

My room

On the territory of Singer Hall, you can also find a communal area, where the reception, postboxes, and a laundry room are. Unlike dormitories in Sweden, you have to pay to do your laundry here. And yeah… it’s not cheap.

Freshers’ Week

Saturday was an official arrival day for freshers and exchange students. It was also the first day of the Freshers’ week – a week full of parties. On Saturday there was a “Welcome Party” for all new students in a nightclub somewhere in Coventry. However, no one among people I know went there. Everyone was just exhausted after traveling.

On Sunday, when I came back to my new home after a trip to IKEA, I came across some extremely cheerful people who were collecting residents of Singer Hall for a pub crawl (another event of the freshers week). Not being a fan of that kind of having fun, I decided to skip the event and have a quiet evening reading a book instead. As I heard from some other exchange students later, the event went well, and everyone was amazed by how much the Brits could drink. 😀

Induction Week for Exchange Students

The first week of the university was an Induction Week. So on Monday morning all exchange students headed to the university to listen to information about the upcoming semester in Coventry. Finding the building where the first lecture was taking place was a bit of a challenge. The university is quite big and we just didn’t know where to go. After some time walking back and forth between the university buildings, our group of lost exchange students, which by then grew from 3 to 10 people, eventually managed to find where to go.

During the day we attended several lectures where we were welcomed at the university, told about how to use the library, how to enroll, and were also given some general information about living in Coventry.

In the evening there was another party for freshers that I decided not to attend. But again I heard that it was fun.

Societies Fair and Enrolment Problems

On Tuesday morning we had some more lectures. This time we received information about different modules and courses that we could study at Coventry as exchange students. All the courses were in the faculty od Business and Law. I picked some courses in the departments of social sciences and languages. I chose 3 different courses: Journalism, Ethics and Democracy, Foreign Policy Analysis, and A History of International Crime.

That was also a day for the non–EU exchange students like me to enroll to the university. Not everything went smooth with it, though. Unlike EU students, who could do enrolment online, I had to go to the Student Centre and enroll in person. For some reason the system didn’t want to let me enroll, so I had to consult the university staff several times. Only after the third attempt I finally managed to enroll. After the enrolment, I was able to collect my student ID – a card with picture (probably the worst picture I’ve ever had) that proves that I’m a student at the university here and allows to use the library facilities.

Erasmus Exchange Society

In the afternoon, the Societies Fair was held outside of one of the university buildings. At the fair lots of various societies were presented. A society is a group of people who have some common interest and usually meet up once a week to do whatever they like to do. Coventry university has more than 100 societies for each taste. I noticed several religious societies, societies for crafts lovers, bakers, musicians, dancers, scientist, mathematicians, and many others. So everybody can find something interesting to do here. All we needed to do at the fair was to leave our contact details at the society stalls that we found interesting, so the representatives of those societies could send us emails with more information later. Personally I left my email address to several societies. Among them were rock society, baking society, photography society, Erasmus society, a society with an interesting name and not very clear purpose ‘International Disaster Concern’, and some other societies that I don’t even remember now. However, to become a member of a society you have to pay a fee that ranges from 2 to 15 pounds. Obviously, I am not going to join all those societies, so I still have to choose what exactly I want to do here.

Trip to Birmingham

Birmingham New Street Station

As I eventually managed to enroll on my course, I didn’t have to go to the university on Wednesday. (There was only one session about enrolment that day). So I decided to join some other exchange students and go to Birmingham.

We decided to go there by train from Coventry. It took us around 15 minutes to walk to Coventry train station, and then 25 minutes to get to Birmingham city centre.

Birmingham Council Hall

First, we went to check out a big shopping centre, which was right in front of the train station there. But later also explored the city. We walked to Town Hall and the city library. Even though we didn’t really get to see much of the city, I still liked it a lot. So I will definitely go there again.

Also, Sports Fair took place on Wednesday. This time different sports that student could take up at the university were presented. As always, a lot of different things were displayed. Coventry University students are very lucky to have such a wide variety of activities. Among some typical kinds of sport, like football and basketball, very unusual ones, like skydiving, were presented. But as I’m here for one semester only, I don’t see much sense in joining any of them.

International Party

As I’ve already mentioned above I’m not really a party person, but on Thursday I decided to go out and have some fun. Moreover, it was an international party – a wonderful opportunity to meet new people from all over the world. The party was held in a night club. Students were given flags of their countries, so everyone could tell where the others were from. There were actually quite a lot of Swedish people at the party. I can’t say I met a lot of new people there, still I had fun and enjoyed the party a lot.

Overall Impression after a Week in Coventry and Some Other Comments

Today is Friday, so it means that it’s already been a week since I arrived in England. It also was the last day of the orientation week. Today we had a chance to sign our learning agreements as well as arrival forms. Without a doubt, the last week was a wonderful one (even the weather was nice most of the time here!)

Coventry Cathedral

As for the city… well, it looks nice and old. There’re a few things to see and do. Also, it’s located in the middle of England, so it’s quite easy to get wherever you want to from here.

I like many things about being here. I like that everything in Coventry is in a walking distance, so you don’t need to buy a bicycle or use busses. I also like that my new university provides so many opportunities to its students not only to study but also to be active even after their classes.

Of course, not everything is perfect about Coventry University. For example, organisation of the events for exchange students is not brilliant. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as ESN to bring all exchange students together at Coventry University. So Erasmus students should be proactive themselves, search for information, and join events for freshers when they feel like partying and meeting new people.

Societies Fair

Also lack of information about events that were taking place during the first week from the university staff caused a bit of confusion among exchange students in the beginning. But, of course, one person can’t control everything. However, if we really needed to know something, we could always email a person who was responsible of the exchange students, and she would answer all our enquiries rapidly.

There were some other things about the UK that seemed a bit weird to me in the beginning, too. For example, sockets, separate taps for cold and hot water, and peculiar left-hand side traffic that was driving me crazy in the very beginning. Now I guess I am getting used to those things, though. At least I know where to look when I cross a road now. 😀

To sum up, I like being here. Despite all those small unpleasant things that I mentioned above, I do not regret coming to Coventry. I am sure this semester is going to be very interesting and full of unforgettable moments.

And if you actually managed to finish this, then I just want to thank you for reading!

Study Abroad with Malmö University

Spend a semester abroad during your education!

“Facing the Enemy”- A Trip to the DMZ and JSA

Last weeks in Seoul

Trip to Stonehenge and a Weekend in Scotland

The sun is shining!

“Let’s go get lost. Let’s go get lost…”

Jeju Calling

Studying at Coventry University

Wonderful Time

Chuseok

First Week in Coventry

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