What a beautiful landscape! not doubt of that, but the weather was even better! Korea in August (when I arrived) was really hot, and Hey! I'm from a Tropical country! Korea is hot and humid but thanks God the temperature started to decrease at the end of September, 17°C to 12°C and fresh air everyday, even though it lasted a couple of weeks before winter came.
The trees start to change color from green to red, yellow or brown.
Slowly the mountains around the cities seem like dying. From my University I could see Suri mountain with some brown-ish spots spreding along while weeks passed by, until it was completely bold.
The best place to enjoy the fall foliage is Nami Island. I went there with my friends; the view was impressing and the colors incredible. Even though it was crowded because of its popularity, there is still a lot of space to enjoy a beautiful afternoon.
Well, something very important before you go to Nami, it's to check the weather, unfortunately it was raining that day and was really cold, but we enjoyed a lot.
Also, you can go hiking to any mountain in Korea
Or just stay in Seoul and visit any park nearby. I went to Yeuido Park and took amazing pictures of the sunset.
Since summer it's too hot and winter too cold, I think from middle September to the end of Octuber it's the best time to come to Korea and enjoy without worring too much about the weather, just bring some sweters or buy them at any market here ^^
This is the shortest post I have ever wrote haha, I don't have to much to say, I hope you enjoyed the pictures.
I might say I enjoyed it a lot, taking seven courses wasn't that hard at all but kept me busy for some weeks, not to say that taking four in my country it's quite hard but I survived.
I had the opportunity to share some classes just with other foreign students but also I took classes with Korean students.
What I was really curious about was if Korean students study hard almost everyday to keep up with the grades (as it is said everywhere since South Korea education system is one of the best ones around the world). Well I'm not sure at all, maybe because our classes together were not very difficult but what I can say is that they are also absent in classes, arrive late, forget to do homeworks, some are very lazy to cooperate with the group projects (like in any other country) and some others quit school...
The grading system is hard, between all the students in the class, a very low porcentage will receive an A, some will have a B and so on, it does not matter if everyone participated the same, at the end the professor will have to choose the best students to give the A's. It's not like in my country (Costa Rica, if you forgot), your score is the reflexion of your effort during the quater, everybody start the quater with a 100 and you have to keep the points by doing homeworks, participating in class, good projects, etc; so it can be that everybody got 100 at the end (-.- almost impossible) or that everybody reproved the subject (it can happen xD)
Koreans learning English. Like in almost all non English speaking countries, it is a must to learn English. Korean students take very frequently the TOEIC test to see which English level they have and also because it is a requirement to gradute. (at least in the Korean University I'm attending). *TOEIC is similar to TOEFL
My University has this special program "i-chat" in which foreign students have weekly meetings with Korean students to practice English, the best part of it is that they are not closed to English speaking nationalities, which give me the opportunity to be here in Korea. People from Germany, France, Denmark, Spain, Mexico, Taiwan and a lot more countries can come and have chats in English. It gives opportunity for both parts to improve their English skills, but also it gives a very good example of open minded and globalized University.
*In Korea, just people from English speaking countries can be teachers, closing doors to the rest of the world and making even more difficult for Korean students majoring in English to find job in their own country (my opinion)
Also being part of the University festivals, clubs and parties made the experience of being in Korea much more different and exiting... I did loved it!
So, semester finished and I received my grades transcript which I'm very proud of :D
Time came and I made my decision to stay another semester in Korea, I guess I feel really attached to this country and being apart from my country some more months won't kill me. Also the effort I made to be in Korea will be more worth it if I stay more time and learn more things won't kill me either :P . No regrets! I will enjoy more my second home :) only thing I'm worry about is to survive winter in Korea :S
Thank you guys!! and Prof Ahn and my lovely buddy Bora <3
I'm sorry.. I've been busy and couldn't update this blog but here we go...
Incheon Korean Wave concert 2013, it was one of the best Kpop concert in my life, a lot of KPOP groups together indiferently from which enternainment company they are from... which groups? Holly.. they were so many that is impossible for me to remember all of them, so I'm posting the original poster of the concert so you can read all the groups that participated. Shame JYJ were not invited and that Shinee and Infinite were away..
How I got my ticket? It was actually for free, well not exactly but yes hahaha. Foreigners have a lot of advantages while being in Korea, one of those advantages is that all the VIP zone was reserve for us. How to get the tickets? Easy! They had some missions from which you could choose one. Missions were. 1. take a picture of yourself in a famous place in Incheon, 2. bring the purchase ticket of any meal you had in Incheon over 5,000 won ($5), and the last one (and the one I chose) 3. Show the reservation in any acomodation within Incheon (hotel, motel or hostel). As you see it was part of a campaign to promote turism in Incheon and the introduction to the Asian Games Incheon 2014, I personally think it was a really good idea and the missions were not very difficult, so everyone could have a chance to participate.
So, actually, you get registered with your personal details (including date you come and leave Korea) and the mission you want to acompplish. Second step: Come to Korea (if you are not here). Third: work on your mission, and last but not least: wake up early and go to the place (previously announced) to pick up your ticket.. oh I forgot.. enjoy the concert!!!.
It was pretty long (but nobody complained about that :P), but very well organized, and as they promised us we had the BEST seats just some steps from the stage. I had the EXO boys standing less than one meter from me, common almost every idol was that closed xP (don't hate me)
It was really AMAZING seeing how the fandoms got organized to show their love to the idols. I have to say "Beauties" (B2ST) you are AWESOME!, I really loved your project. They used the Flash lights from their cellphones and perfectly wrote BEAST in the ocean of people, it was really beautiful and I can bet the guys really liked it ;)
Good thing I chose the mission 3, the concert ended very late, so there was not subway to go back to Seoul, so, the fact that I reserved a room in a motel near was of big help ;) I could see hundreds of people leaving before the concert ended trying to catch the last train, shame! It should has ended earlier.
Anyways, the concert ended with all the groups coming back to stage and singing together, throwing some towels and other things (I was bussy taking videos kkk)
I have more than 200 pictures and of very bad quality (due to emotion and other girlish things haha) but you can find a lot of pics on internet. Something I want to complain about is that most of foreign fans they bring their super powerful cameras, one standing next to the other one and sometimes getting on the way so at the end nobody can see, HORRIBLE!, it make you look like paparazzis and you know what the idols see?
Actually they see NOTHING!!! you blind them with your crazy flashes x(
If you go to any of this concerts, Enjoy!! take some pictures to keep memories, but don't try to record every move of all the idols, you will miss the fun :)
My favorites? Beast, BAP, Exo, 2AM, MBLAQ, SUJU and all the other boy groups ;)
I got a video of the end, enjoy!
Best part of the concert is sharing with friends ^^ thanx Maryam, Yetza and Elias :) Oh I forgot! Some of the Quiz on Korea 2013 participants went to the concert! ^^
