The last week in march

I’m here since on month and the time runs to fast.

This week I visited the Seodaemun Prison. The Prison was build when the Japanese invaded Korea. The museum shows the struggle of the korean people for freedom and peace.

The entrance fee for the museum is 1.500 won and is really cheap in comparison to the aquarium and other museums. An other good thing is that you can learn about the korean history and understand better their lifestyle.

traditonal clothes of south korea

Wall with pictures of the people, which died in the prison

Fighting for freedom

Prison warder

clothes of the prisoners

Communication between prisoners through knocking signs

Karaoke, Fishmarket and other stuff…

Hi this week was fun, I tried new things and saw a lot of stuff and I want to give you a small overview what you can try out.

Today we went to the fish market in Noryangjin. We went there with some korean that we met yesterday, the help us a lot, because is really hard to order a living octopus when you can’t explain your self. First we looked around to find a good one and then we decided  to take 9 small one. We paid and went to a restaurant, were the prepared the octopus. When we received the plates, the octopus moved and was really hard to grab with the chopsticks and he tried to escape. After a long fight I finally had one and I put it in my mouth. It started to grab my tongue and didn’t wanted let it go. The korean guy said that we must first chew it and then swallow it.

The octopus it self tasted like nothing, the only strange thing is when is moving in your mouth 🙂

The next thing what I tried, was karaoke in korean style. We booked a room and looked for english song, in the time we started to sing korean songs, with strange sounds, but it was really funny, because everyone wanted to tried it and nobody could sing, expect one, is was fun.

On Sunday I went to visit the national  folk museum of Korean in  Jongno-gu The museum itself is a big palace with stone statues and a temple in the middle. There is the chines zodiac to, were you can see

which sign you are, from dragon to ape.

The other thing what I saw on this day, was president Obama, driving with a big car caravan through the district, because there is the nuclear summit from the 26^th to the 27^th.

The life of a student in seoul

I’m not only South Korea for the sightseeing, but also for my studys. The University what I attend for one semester is the Chung Ang University.

Before I came to Korea, I asked my buddy, how big is the campus and what size is it in Korea. He said is small and not so big. But when i saw it the first time and he said to me, that every faculty has it one building with 11 floors. In comparison to my university, we have one building with one floor, and that’s everything.

The campus it’s self has a lot to offer. There a lot of shop and restaurants in the near where you can eat and on the campus itself are cheap places, where you can eat a burger and korean food for less than 2000 won.  This week the started do offer club activities, you can join a club and can do a lot of different things. For every member more the are really happy and you hear them clapping, when some one signs the list.

The class and the courses are different. I attend only english class, because I don’t speak korean but the teacher have a really bad pronunciation, and sometimes you don’t understand what the want to say. The other thing is the explain the stuff two times, one time in english and the other time in korean, because not all the other students can speak really good english. Also when the teacher starts a lesson, he tells first that it class is not so interesting and we could leave when we want, and his english is not so good. It is not good to hear that in every class what you have, that the teacher him self says that his class sucks.

On the other hand, we have a lot of group projects. We make a short scene of a tv series and we watch old black and white movies to understand Korea better.

The best course in the moment is the korean class, is only strange that for two days we try only to make the right sounds, and sometimes its sound like, that we are going to puke. But I hope that after the four months of stay in South Korea, I can have a light conversation with Koreans.

Resumè of the last week

Now I found the time to write down my experience and tell you about the other days and strange information for South Korea.

After the days were I beat my jet lack, I started sightseeing. I uploaded some picture. Excuse my chaos, but this is the first time that I write a blog and is more complicated than I thought.

Ok, now back to the hot spots, where I went. First I visit the royal palace of the Korean king, when Korea was invaded by the Japanese. The Name is Geunjeongjeon. The entrance fee is 1000 Won and is near the city hall. Is a great place to start sightseeing, it’s not too big and you can take good pictures. After we left the palace, we went to the shopping street of Myeongdong. Here you can eat street food and taste some Korean sweets, everything fresh handmade. I found nothing, what I could buy, because everything was pink, or there was a Pikachu on it.

The next destination was the fish market,is really big and you can buy living fish and squid. You can also buy a small octopus and can eat it alive. I don’t know that I want to try this, but mabey at the end. (certainly I make some good pictures)

The other places that we went, was the coex, a big shopping mall and the aquarium. Was nice, but nothing special. You can do it when you don’t know where to go.

Now the night life, the`re to big streets where you can go out. One is Hongdae and the other one is Gangnam.
In Hongdae you can go to octagon, is a new night club and the music is good. We went to the octagon be for midnight and didn’t pay entrance fee. What I saw from the korean dance style, was not much. But was good for me because I’m not a good dancer either.

I can say this was the first week for me.

Some pictures of Seoul

This gallery contains 28 photos.

My first days in South Korea

Hi Guys,

I’m sorry that my first post took so long. The reason is that I was really busy in the first week of my new exchange student experience. However, I will now tell you about my first days in South Korea.

My flight to Seoul took around 10 and half hours. I had a direct fly for Munich to Seoul with Lufthansa. The seat in the economy class was big enough and the food was good. The only thing that I have to critics is the entertainment program. The movies were old, and there were not many genres to chose from.  I couldn’t sleep much, and I was exhausted. Before we landed the stewards told us that we should not take picture of the airport, because they could be used for a terrorist attack.

Before I could enter South Korea I had to go through a check out. I had to show my passport and received my student visa, which allowed me to stay for more than 90 days.

After the passport control I left the check out and met my buddy for the first time in person. He brought me to a bus stop, and we took a bus to my university for the coming semester.  We drove along the Han River which divides Seoul in the north and the south. Seoul is a little gray because of the cold weather, but in the warmer months is going to be green.

After 50 Minutes we arrived at our designated bus stop, and we went to the campus. We had to climb a hill to get to the dormitory, which was on the top of the campus. We did a check in, threw my stuff in to the room, and left for the bank, where I opened my first South Korean account.  After this we bought some sheets and a pillow and started a speed tour through the campus. During this  I wanted to go to sleep because of my jet lack, but I fought against it, and for the first days I went out until late.  Through that I met a lot of people and befriended me with the other exchange students.

The second day was not so busy. I met my buddy, and we went to a shopping center to buy a camera, because I want to shoot some pictures of the campus where I lived. For the first time I took the metro and I found it perfect and an easy way to travel around the city.
The next days I didn’t do so much, I only slept and went out a dozen times with the other exchange students.

Those were my first experience in South Korea, but don’t worry there is more to come and I will write everything down.