Are you looking for my new blog from New Zealand?
Take a look at http://monkeyshow.wordpress.com then :)
Busy days
June 2, 2008 at 12:06 pm (Angst)
Damn, my course load was worse than I thought – especially now because most of the deadlines are during this and the next week. One presentation a day start to be a norm and there’s at least one exam every week. Plus other group work and stuff. So all this keep me pretty busy!
There’s actually only two real school weeks left before the summer vacation. Even though I can’t wait to be done with all the studying, I’m going through pretty controversial feelings: the university here, all my friends here and even the fruitseller ladies downhill will be gone so soon. And you never know, maybe some day I’m going to return or then there are new roads in live to go… But at first I need to survive through all the damn assignments and think more about life in general afterwards.
And yes, there has been a lot of cool things happening here, too. I have some pictures and nice stories waiting – I’m gonna put them online right after finishing my history essay :)
안녕하세요!
May 22, 2008 at 3:32 pm (Dormitory, Technical)
지금 한국어 쓸수 있어요.그래서 아주 행복해요. 이밤에 오빠가 windows cd를 줬어요…
기분이 촣아해요!
multilevel Finnish – Chinese cooperation ;)
May 20, 2008 at 6:07 am (School)
I’ve been pretty busy recently with my studies and I’m back in that normal one-presentation-or-a-group-work-meeting-a-day-plus-all-the-normal-classes -routine. At least I’m not bored anymore here!
Anyway, one big part of my workload is to study more or less about the economic situation in China with Yuchen although we haven’t even started yet. I already spent few weeks glancing at that topic but its so damn wide that I just feel that the more I study the less I know. Therefore our strategic goal is do something else, like Lumene mud masks:
k’ttee k’ttee (that’s what a Korean would say right now)
Btw, next month there is a Finland – China Cooperation Seminar held in the University of Joensuu and Kuopio. The schedule looks really interesting, but its my bad that I can’t participate since the event takes place as early as from 9.6. to 11.6.
Tae-kwon-do!
May 14, 2008 at 6:22 am (School)
Wow, somehow I managed to gather my courage to go back to our tae-kwon-do class.
It was so great! I just can’t realize why I didn’t go earlier, why?!
This time we did some easy joint locks (damn, I love them) and Sam Jang and Sa Jang a couple of times. Eventually the new students don’t know those well enough yet and we old ones have already forgot everything. We did also some ukemi practice and, since my ukemis were anything but straight, I ended up playing tag with Tim and chasing him with my uncontrolled rolls.
The guys were planning a tae-kwon-do performance and I was asked to join them. Actually, I’d rather be lazy and skip that but on the other hand my body is becaming round and soft way too quickly here, so some extra excercise wouldn’t be too bad. The performance also takes place on 6th June and I’m not totally sure whether I’m going to visit Busan that weekend or not. Anyway, I refuse to participate but I think I still can sign up on next week class, too!
Fresh, green and on sale
May 9, 2008 at 4:30 pm (Angst, Mad Cook, Thoughts)
Howdy,
Surprisingly there’s nothing new here. I’m just getting really bored and it doesn’t help that before last Tuesday I wasn’t able to withdraw any money from our old dear, Sampopankki (that’s the damn Finnish bank I’m having troubles with). I also didn’t have any cash left or neither money in Daegu bank, so I was totally broke and trapped at dormitory for a couple of weeks. I’m still pretty pissed off because of all the this and just looking for a way how to make money transfers outside Europe again. Right now its impossible – great!
Anyway, I’ve been following Finnish news recently trying to tune in on that life you live over there. Stockmann seems to famous for its “fresh food policy” which means selling old stuff with extra price and new dates. Well, I ran into same strategy here – that new food store I’m visiting almost every day apparently unpacks old veggies, cuts off the bad parts and then repacks them. Actually there’s nothing to complain about – its fresh and in good shape what you finally can buy there but a couple of times I’ve bought some broccoli that is clearly outdated.
I think I’m not the only one who discovered this, but unlike the Finnish Stockmann, the shopkeeper here took an action to solve the problem: when I grabbed a bag of broccoli today, the clark insisted to see the package and changed it to another one which was in a better condition. I also got some discount and friendly service. Cool.
This broccoli is from Wikipedia
The good service is, I think, the biggest single thing I’m going to miss in Korea. Whatever you’re buying – food, clothes, electronics, bank services, you name it – you’re always treated as the Most Important Person In the World. I was told that that’s because of the high competition (yes, there are no big supermarkets, only smaller shops to buy stuff). But an another reason is definitely the overall culture: in Korea people are still important as human beings, not only as money-making-robots.
Oops, I did it again!
May 2, 2008 at 12:27 am (Daegu, School)
Long time no entries and all I can accuse is the damn spring, the damn weather and the damn mid-term exams we had during the last two weeks. Anyway, I just finished my last essay for the International Trade Theory class last night and hopefully submitted it to the right email address and that means that I’m free again!
Besides the exams which are a bit more demanding in Keimyung International College than the test in the University, the weather in Daegu is another issue. Now it’s great, like nice sun is shining all day long and the temperature gets over 30 degrees every afternoon but in the beginning of this month the weather varied like crazy. Every second day seemed to be freezing cold whereas the next was always really, really hot. Well, eventually that made me catch a cold and since I didn’t really rest enough, I was ill almost for two weeks. Then, right after I got better the exam period started, ugh… Life is harsh ^_^
Today we’re going to have a barbeque party here in Keli house and I really hope they have some veggies for me to grill, too. Anyway, sounds great to finally relax and maybe hit the bottle semi-secretly with the guys! (I bought a bottle of out-dated grape juice from E-Mart some time ago and it’s still waiting for The Righ Moment)
I’ve fallen in love with all those vegetables here (and I’m eating them way too much) but, you know, they are so juicy and sweet here now that I can’t resist having just another pile of fresh things. I’ve never ever had anything like this in Finland. <3
(Jenn, If you are reading my blog, thanks so much for the packet you sent here! You are probaply the sweetest person I’ve ever met! The stuff really hit the spot and I think the energy bars were THE THING to help me recover! Anyway, you should have put a warning on the atomic fireballs – THEY are way too hot even for me :D)
Second round in the course lottery
April 7, 2008 at 12:33 pm (School)
Heini wanted to know my score in this semester’s course lottery. Now, after one month of hard studying it’s good time to evaluate what I got. My game didn’t go that badly, which is great and gives me a lot of motivation to study here and I’m also looking for new opportunities to continue my studies back home. I even sent my application for my major subject to Lappeenranta Univ. of Technology (let’s hope that my letter will be there on time!)
Anyway, this is the shared 1st place of my favorites:
- Korean language practice 2
We’ve been going throught a lot of that same stuff we did last semester, but this course concentrates on speaking and interaction more than grammar of such boring things. We have the same teacher the other group had earlier and she tells funny stories in Korean very often. That’s the most efficent language course I’ve ever attented. I really love the classes and so do everyone else – even Azad seems to be studying seriously now! - Principles of international business
This course introduces the basics of doing international business. The professor is an American who had been living in Thailand for a while before coming to Korea and he tells a lot of good examples from real life. Although the classes are held in the evening (which makes everyone sleepy and super-tired) they are usually bearable. Last time the professor show us some hotrod car racing movies from Youtube and that WAS related to the topic! I think this is the best course I have.
- Business, society and the Individual
We are talking about business ethics here. Usually we have few cases that we discuss in groups and then we have powerpoint lecture torturing every now and then. Anyway, I like philosophy and it’s amazing to talk about ethics with people from different countries and cultures.
2nd place:
- Theory of internationa trade
That’s pure maths. The approach to international trade theories on this course is extremely mathematical. It’s kind of boring, especially because the pace we are going on is really slow. Still, we have plenty of time for general bullshit (if it anyhow related to the topic) during the classes.
Time-wasters:
- Korean history
Even though Mr. Finch [Pfinz'chi] strickes back with Korean history now, the jokes are the same and there’s nothing I’m learning in the class. It’s a pity since I’d really like to study Korean history, but I just can’t stand anymore that attitude that “everyone from Europe should know British history and speak Latin fluently”, blah. He also assumes that I know everything about Vikings and stuff like that. Honestly, I don’t even know if there were Vikings in ancient Finland. I though that they lived in Norway or Sweden.
- International management
Surprise, surprise: international trade theories again! This time not so well presented and mostly all the stuff is pretty outdated. We need to keep a presentation about one company, and other students’ presentations are the only reason to attend the classes for me.
