(merkit hukassa)

Adventures in Korea

Monthly Archives: April 2011

2011 30/04
At 23:30 | By Leena Heikkinen | Posted in Engineering & design, In Korea, Seoul, Suwon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Rain… or is it 비

Now the mid term exams are finally over.I decided to drop one of the courses – Biological Wastewater Treatment turned out to be too hard for my mathematically incapable self. Other that that I only had one exam (Information Security) and I did fairly well (quiz: 31/40, exam: 56.5/65) – considering I only pseudo studied. The quiz took me 10 and the exam 20 minutes. I love the professor.

On the other hand my ecodesign courses make me sweat. The homework is hard and frustrating and we have a lot of presentations, but it’s exactly what I want to do when I start working. This is what I’m good at. So lately my days have been full of life cycle analysis and MET-matrixes.


Glee club, like the other clubs, was feeding their exhausted members during the exam week. That was our only club activity for that week.

Classes and clubs after midterms have been pretty empty – everybody is on the verge of death after staying up for two weeks in a row. Oh, I heard in Civil Engineering they have this one test that lasts for five days. It’s supposed to be a tradition but that just doesn’t make any sense to me. I guess it’s about construction legislation and strength of materials.


Olympic Park if worth visiting, especially in spring! (The second picture by Jehyung Ryu)

It’s pretty ironic that the weather was awesome during the test week, but a couple of days ago it started raining. I was hanging in the Olympic Park with my friends last Sunday and told them the strong wind we had that day is a sign of an upcoming thunder storm in Finland – and I guess here is no different. No wait, it is! This thunder storm is HUGE and has now been going on for two days. It’s pretty amazing. It stopped for a while yesterday just to give us an opportunity to celebrate Vappu (First of May, Labor Day) in advance, as well as Tha’s releasing from the hospital, Anouk’s graduation and Anouk’s and Cha’s birthday. Lotta even made donuts!



Oh, I almost forgot the cherry blossom pics! Here:

Tomorrow we are off to Taiwan for a week! (Flights and accommodation about 300 e) Yay! I hope it’s not gonna rain, but even if it does, I won’t mind! Yayyy! We won’t miss that many classes since I have Tuesdays off, my Wednesday classes are canceled because the guys in my class are going to military re-training (they call them in every year, different days for different majors) and Thursday is Children’s day – a national holiday.

Speaking of military, our friend Bom had to say goodbye to his childhood and freedom. He started his two years of military service this week. Here some goodbye pics:

But yeah, TAIWAN! ->

2011 25/04
At 2:31 | By Leena Heikkinen | Posted in In Korea | Tagged , , , , , , |

Am I making things up?

I just wanted to tell you one thing:

My life outside of Korea is so different I’m starting to doubt myself when I tell about it to my friends… am I making things up?

2011 17/04
At 23:59 | By Leena Heikkinen | Posted in In Korea, Seoul, Suwon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Feelin exhausted, creative, and very, very Finnish

Hi dudes!

Next week is the mid-term week and that means a lot here. Even though 벚꽃, cherry blossom, is awesome and everywhere, people are studying like crazy. It even affected my lazy ass and I’ve been studying too. It feels good, to use my little gray cells for something. I don’t take it as far as Koreans – they spend nights at the uni library and even have study group meetings all weekend – but I do use my spare time in the club room, studying, and often stay there until late night. Or… we might do this:

I was a bit concerned when I decided to study in Korea. I knew they are hard ass math freaks (which I surely am not). I thought I would have hard time trying to catch up. I was partly right – they have way better math skills than I do (which on the other hand is not that hard to achieve, I suck), but I also have skills they don’t. Creative thinking, that is.

My teacher (yeah, Mikko) once told me Finns are appreciated because of their ability to think creatively and outside the box. I didn’t really pay much thoughts on that, until now. I find myself being sometimes the only one in my class who can visualize past and future stages or possible variants. Or even draw flowcharts. Or suggest new things or improvements. And this is all thanks to Finnish education system – we do encourage students to think, not just swallow something that the teachers decide to pour in. But I wish teachers demanded more from us. Me – I only do what I have to do, I would never do more.

So sometimes in class I feel utterly stupid, but the next moment I might be the only one who has something to say. It’s partly because I’m years senior to my classmates and partly because I have been through more than they will in next ten years, but also because of the Finnish background. I do realize how little I know. I should study more. A lot. I’ve been lazing around too long. I’m kinda in the verge of finding my thing. Let’s hope I’ll figure it out soon.

Don’t worry, it’s not like I study all the time. I’ve gone to places. To do stuff. Here’s proof:

Picnic at Teletubby Hill. We made Finnish (universal) pancakes with Lotta. And ordered food – the delivery guys know where to take it if you ask them to bring it to Teletubby Hill.

Had some beers with the girls. These are the “side dishes” to go with the drinks (we already ate the mozzarella sticks). These and 3 l of beer cost us 27000w – 19 e.

Went to see cherry blossoms in Seoul, with a friend. This is from Yeouido Park and the general area around.


Of course my camera battery ran out right before we found the cherry trees. But I got a snap from the campus instead, right in front of the Dpt of Engineering

The weekend before our Current Issues course (from which I dropped out) made a field trip to Seoul. So I managed to see the palace I missed on my first week.

In Chinese horoscope I was born on the year of Pig, so I took a picture with this fellow:

In front of the Tourism Bureau Something we saw these dudes, replicating a traditional Korean wedding. Their hats are very fancy and mesmerizing

And we had a party and went clubbing with the professor… but that part of culture we knew fairly well already. The club, btw, was very crowded and full of guys. Dancing guys. Guys don’t dance in Finland.

YEP. Heippa!

PS. I got a package from a dear friend. Salmiakki <3 But now I miss her and Finland even more.

2011 06/04
At 3:01 | By Leena Heikkinen | Posted in Engineering & design, In Korea, Suwon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , |

“But you should see the other guy…!”

I was in a fight, look:

Just kidding. I went to get rid of my wisdom tooth, but they took out two. With the painkillers (I even managed to find a pharmacy and get my prescribed medicine) it cost me 300 000 won. Maybe 250 euros_ Thank you Visa. (Message for my mom: kantsii kohta kertoa paljonko oon velkaa ennenko mennee rahat risasiin hampaisiin) They even gave me an antibiotic shot – after allergy tests. They never bother with tests in Finland. I like Korean system. So efficient.

And my life is a musical! I’m not sure if I already mentioned this, but when I need to get stuff done I go to my Club’s room in New Student Union Building (Yes, building. They have not only one, but two student union buildings – for clubs and student activities. In Finland we barely have a basement cupboard for the student union). There is always somebody – people doing their homework quietly, playing piano, chatting. Then suddenly someone starts a song and people join, singing harmonies, spontaneously. When the song ends they just keep doing what they were doing like nothing happened. And that happens all the time. (Well, it’s GLEE Club so that explains.) Yes, I too join spontaneously now that I know the songs they sing.

And I got my work done too… sat there for whole day working on my mind map and flowcharts – which apparently overwhelms my classmates. They told me Koreans are not good with holistic views but details – in which I suck hard. My mind works in pictures, so I need to process everything through flowcharts and mind maps to actually understand. Tomorrow I have a presentation and I’m still a bit confused.

I took some very random pictures. Here goes:

My Biological Wastewater Treatment handbook. Very heavy, very big, and very boring.

Wrist bands from Everland and Big Show. And Pizza ads.

I’m bored of orange juice and allergic to nestle IceTea, so I switched to this. It’s good, but the pink one tastes like childhood antibiotics. Yuk… YUK!

One very cute Lotta and our dorm room. Check Lotta’s blog too if you haven’t already. In Finnish or in English.

And a postcard to my friend who has her birthday soon. Hope it gets there on time. Yes, that’s only one word there. Saying happy birthday. So Happy Birthday Kemppu <3

PS. I bought PhotoShop smudge effect from the cosmetics store nearby. It’s just foundation, but it gives the exact same effect that photoshop. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

2011 04/04
At 0:33 | By Leena Heikkinen | Posted in In Korea, Seoul, Suwon | Tagged , , , , , , , |

Julius and different kinds of pools

My Finnish friend who is studying in Japan came to Seoul for vacation and of course we needed to meet. He was very much the same as back in Finland – it was good to see him again. We went venturing Myong-dong and N Seoul Tower. Here’s evidence:



Lately I’ve been horribly busy with studies. I dropped two of my six courses coz I didn’t have enough time to do the homework. Even now I should be working on an ecodesign project. Basically I’ve been relaxing by playing pool with my friends. My skills suck and the old guys try to peek under my skirt, but it’s fun. There are tons of pool places around the campus, but only one has the normal pocket ball table – here they play four-ball.

Another kind of pool that has been very relaxing is in Jimjilbang – Korean public bath. A variety of tubs with fantasy colored water in different temperatures, very hot saunas where you sit on the floor (comfier than in Finland, IMHO), massage tables, a common area where you can take a nap, several different steam rooms and even an ice room. Apparently the fancy jimjilbangs in Busan even have strawberry milk baths… Well, we went to the nearest jimjilbang (6000w, 4,5 e) with Lotta today and boy it was smooth! So relaxing. It’s gonna be our Sunday tradition from now on.

What else? The magnolias are blooming. Soon it’s the cherry blossom season. The weather is awesome (17 degrees), except for the yellow dust.  And we got our university baseball jackets. Cool, eh?

Anyways, ask me questions and I’ll answer. Toodles.