(merkit hukassa)

Adventures in Korea

Tag Archives: you’ve got mail

2011 30/04
Kello 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 17/04
Kello 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 11/02
Kello 2:48 | By Leena Heikkinen | Posted in Before | Tagged , , , , , |

Leaving home

laksiaiset

(some of the farewell presents)

Whoa, dudes! I had the most amazing farewell party on Wednesday. Even the police dropped by (it’s not that anything seriously dramatic happened, the upstairs neighbor just didn’t like our mixed choir). I love my friends, even those bastards who “had something better to do”. Like work. Who works in the middle of the week, I ask ya? Anyways, thank you everybody! Now I feel like I can screw up and ruin my reputation overseas all I want, and come back like nothing happened.

This is my last night home (still a couple of nights in Finland though). I’ve been scanning the remaining documents, writing down addresses and doing things I should have done days ago. Like laundry. And packing. It feels ridiculous to pack thin shirts and sunglasses while the climate here in Yli-Ii is arctic. It’s minus 31 and getting colder. I just burned my hand with a door handle and if you’ve ever experienced minus 30 you understand why I say it burned. A freezing cold metal surface burns the skin just like hot iron. Stupid, stupid me! I wonder how the weather is in Korea right now? Should be some plus 4 degrees.

HOT NEWS:

viisumi2

(My visa arrived on Wednesday!)

Things to ponder:

  1. I’ve lost my mp3 player AND my headphones. Who was stupid enough to steal such crap? Was I wise enough to just lose them somewhere?
  2. I still haven’t made any plans for the first week – I’m thinking about the Korea Rail Pass, Pusan area and stuff, but can’t make any decisions. The least I should do is to get accommodation for the first night. Not a good idea to sleep in the park in wintertime.
  3. Tomi’s farewell party on Saturday and I should wear something red. Is plastic bag okay?
  4. DID I FORGET SOMETHING! I’m sure I did and it’s something crucial and I’m gonna die as soon as I step out of the plane. Yeah right.

Yes, thank you, I’m tired. Happy travels, me!

2011 27/01
Kello 19:18 | By Leena Heikkinen | Posted in Before | Tagged , , , , , , , |

How to apply for a Visa on drugs

Applying for Visa is hard. It’s even harder after being high on drugs for the whole week. Legal drugs, LEGAL! Good stuff nevertheless.

I got really, really sick on Monday night and the paramedics took me to the Oulu University hospital. I’ve been pretty much sedated ever since so my Visa application has taken few steps backwards. I was in no condition to form a coherent sentence, nor to fill difficult forms with too small blanks.

I finally got the papers from Ajou via Jamk on Tuesday. My dad brought them to the hospital next day but I was obviously too out there to ask for my passport and my passport pictures… and I was going under a surgery so obviously that wasn’t the day to do it. Today I got out from the hospital but didn’t still have my passport pictures with me, so I left the form-filling until I got home – where I instantly fell asleep after munching my long awaited pizza.

It was almost too late to send the forms today when my mum woke me up and told me to get to the business. I went through the forms and realized I should have asked for a Study Certificate from JAMK, so I send them an email and they promised to send it straight to the embassy. Then I realized I have two sets of forms in the envelope I got from Ajou. Hmm? Me and Lotta had been wondering where Lotta’s papers were, but the mystery was solved. They were together with my papers – addressed to my international coordinator (Lotta is majoring Tourism so another office handles her exchange).

So a priority mail to Lotta and a registered mail to the embassy with the Visa form, my passport, Letter of Acceptance and Invitation Letter from Ajou and 40 euros… and a registered return envelope so they will hopefully send me back my passport with the Visa.

They asked so many questions which make no sense to a Finn; such as: “who will pay for your trip?” – duh… me “Who will sponsor your Visa?” -duh… didn’t I just pay 40 euros for it? And then “your address in Korea” with a blank space so small my ID number wouldn’t have fit in it. I still scribbled my address-to-be there. Hope they can make something out of it.

Now imagine doing all this high on drugs. Luckily my mother was there acting as a voice of reason and toning down my illusions, which were rather… interesting – reading an urban fantasy novel on drugs wasn’t a best possible idea.

2011 20/01
Kello 18:28 | By Leena Heikkinen | Posted in Before | Tagged , , , |

Insurance & good news & not so good news

Three topics today:

1. I need to prove that my insurance covers my health care in Korea. Today I sent them:

  1. My insurance contract (pages covering travel insurance). Mine is part of my home and personal insurance plan from Pohjola.
  2. Terms of Insurance
  3. Copy of my insurance card
  4. Insurance brochure (just in case, since it’s clearer than terms of insurance. It actually tells what my insurance DOES cover… ToI just tells what the insurance doesn’t cover)
  5. Contract and receipt for travel insurance for the exceeding two months. Finnish travel insurances cover 3 first months by default and you have to pay extra to get more months. Two months were a bit over 90 euros.

Basically the insurance covers just sickness and emergency treatment, but what else would I need during five months? I hope they are okay with the documents and I don’t need to do any more rain dancing and shadow boxing or any other magic tricks.

2. My international coordinator (JAMK) told me she received my information package and sent it to me today! JAY! I’ll finally get my Letter of Acceptance and can apply for Visa. Niiiiiice!

3. I still haven’t received my student number and other information I need for housing application. The deadline is tomorrow 17.00 Finnish time, so I’m a bit nervous. Especially knowing how strict they can be with bureaucracy in Asian countries.

2011 12/01
Kello 15:58 | By Leena Heikkinen | Posted in Before | Tagged , , , , , , , , |

Now it hit me

“You’ve got mail!” said my email app. Or would’ve said if it was able to speak. Good grief, I’d go crazy if it was. Anyways, Ajou sent me an email stating I should get tested for tuberculosis, get a health insurance, reserve housing, wave my light saber, do a rain dance and practice yoga. The health insurance part I got covered ages ago, hope they’ll accept my all-mighty Finnish insurance of win.

They also suggested I might be interested applying for visa. WELL YES! The ever-so-slight problem is they are sending the Letters of Acceptance this week. Gee, thanks!  For the letter to arrive to my school will take at least 3 workdays and for them to forward it to me will take another two days. Then I’ll send it to the embassy – 2 more days -, they process it – one week -, they send it back – two more days. If everything goes right.

I ordered books from Lonely Planet (LP Korea, LP Seoul and Korean Phrasebook) for 40€. Quite a good bargain, but I have mixed feelings about travel guides. You see, it would be lot easier (and less to carry) to buy a smart-phone with travel guide applications. Then again, the tech-freak I might be, I don’t trust the smart-phone technology yet and I find it huge waste of money to buy crap. I might change my mind if I find something fancy and blingy (with English OS) from Korea – the land of Samsung and LG.

Be as it might, I’m excited and bit scared now. I haven’t learn the language yet. I haven’t even started, to be precise. But I got some info about vegetarianism in Korea ( from this nice guy of Internets, thank you!) Good news is – I’m gonna get thinner. Bad news – I’m gonna get hungry. Seems to be quite hard to find vegan or even vegetarian food over there.  So better eat a lot now!

2010 15/12
Kello 23:38 | By Leena Heikkinen | Posted in Before, Language | Tagged , , , , |

More about language

Korean language has so many similarities with Finnish language it’s scary. Both Finnish and Korean are agglutinative languages – meaning we twist and turn all words insanely, remove something and add some crap instead, use no space bar and happily think it’s natural and totally okay. It makes non-native speakers crazy.  I was just tutoring my Chinese flatmate for her Finnish exam and I have to say Finnish grammar drove me crazy too. What the heck is plural partitive or reciprocal pronoun? Pitäkää tunkkinne – as we Finns say. But I’m glad I’m not a native English speaker, it’s a great deal easier to learn Korean with Finnish background.

If you Finns want to learn Korean, you probly should start with Kanjikaveri‘s website. That was a great help when I started to learn Japanese and his Korean grammar pages look good.

Oh, I finally got confirmation from Ajou, that I’ve been granted free housing on campus and that I was actually accepted into the University too. So maybe I’m really going. Next step is to start doing serious paperwork, apply for study grants and watch Korean drama (it’s called language training)!

2010 28/11
Kello 20:09 | By Leena Heikkinen | Posted in Before | Tagged , , , , , |

Farewell party

We had my farewell party yesterday, combined with my new flat mates’ house warming party.  Thanks, all you who participated. Too bad I couldn’t talk with you all as much as I wanted. Leave me your address in the comments or email/facebook it, and I’ll send you all the weird and questionable postcards I can find.

I would post some pictures from the party, but for some reason there appears to be Kim Jong-il in every single one, shadowing my bright future in S.Korea. And posting pictures of him would be, if not entirely inappropriate, at least tasteless. Right? I’ll post some on /b/.

Also, as we played spin the bottle last night, I was dared to tag a set phrase in five different locations around S.Korea, and as the code of netizens says: “Pic, or didn’t happen.” I’ll hide the evidence somewhere here and there.