Today marks four months since I arrived in Korea, and in terms of study the first half of my adventure is over. I find it quite fitting that I’m writing this as the day makes way for the longest night of my stay: the exchange students with whom I have been the closest have gone back home to meet their families and to resume everyday life, and my Korean friends are either completely busy with the university or off travelling. This situation is a nice flashback to the first days in Seoul, before I met people here.
I don’t have any special pictures to include in the post this time: the city is grey, polluted and the weather is rather just very cold, no notable amount of snow to be had. The people are minding their business as usual, nothing special to do and/or capture there. The Ultimate Frisbee scene has put itself into hibernation mode, as it got too cold to play outside. And with nothing urgent on my to-do list till I start my South East Asia trip on monday, the last days are pretty much waiting for the flight into warmth to come and for my cold to go away. Well, I suppose I can give you a short summary on the past weeks and on the semester as a whole.
So a full semester of lectures has passed, including assignments, mid-terms, projects, finals and grades. Grades are good, not perfect but worth taking back, although it is far from trivial for me to actually apply for the credit transfer. All in all, i did not learn much from the three lectures, even though I invested at least some time into them – I certainly could have learned more (and therewith actually keep stuff in my head longer than I need for the exam), but there was no motivation to do so from my side, as the professors did not seem to care too much about our learning conditions. However, I am starting to value the quality of some of my lectures back at home much more, as I now have something to compare them to. In a perfect world, I’d take the SNU library with its study rooms and move it to my home university, where I listen to lectures with actually usable slides.
The Buddy program was awesome. I got to know so many people, and even though you understandably can’t build a deep friendship with more than a handful of people, it was always fun socializing with the most different kinds of characters. I will most probably take part in the buddy program of the following spring semester, just because it makes socializing with people so much easier. Interestingly enough, I didn’t really get close to more than one buddy, I’d also like to change that after my winter journey.
My Frisbee team is a chaotic but adorable pile of crazy people! However, there is one thing I totally messed up, preventing me from really getting close to them still: I still can’t do proper conversations in Korean! This definitely has to be changed, especially when considering that I wanted to have more contact to Koreans due to me being here for a whole year. On the other hand, I am better in shape than I first assumed to be after one semester: I still have less weight than when I got to Korea, my fitness and endurance level has at least stayed on an equal level and I didn’t suffer from any serious complications (yet).
The winter god has finally let loose on Korea, bringing it back to “normal” temperatures which can be compared with the coldest period of Karlsruhe winter; so I’m alright! I mean, even though last week has seen two-digit negative temperatures every night and nothing above zero degrees, The wind is the actual problem. But even that can be solved with the right clothing. So the biggest problem for me was the defunct heating system in the goshiwon. No warm water in the evenings, no heating. Showers became periods of immune system drills with a meditation-like state of mind, and sleeping became a joint effort of all available covers, bedsheets and scarf and gloves. Until the system got fixed a few days ago, I went to the library every day because it was the warmest place I could find in the whole district. Together with a small extern heating appliance, I am now able to warm myself up in the goshiwon again, but my desire to go to warmer places for a few days still got very strong in the last weeks.
Concerning travelling, sightseeing and other means of leisure time spending, I am “on schedule”. As I know most of the lifestyle-like stuff in Seoul already (including places to hang out, to enjoy nature, to eat/drink, to go out etc.), I will shift my attention to cultural sights in my second semester, digging deeper into history, art and the like. Also, there are some more places outside Seoul waiting for me to be seen. It has always been fun to spend time in Seoul, as long as you can get over the quite long subway-grinding times.
Christmas! Yeah, screw that.
Family and friends is the only thing I miss, especially some slow days with my family would be very soothing to my soul right now. Everything else about the biggest christian venue of the year – forget about it. If you find that christmas has become a fest hailing consumerism in Germany, then Korea is even worse. And don’t get me started with christmas songs… I can’t enter Cafés anymore without my own headphones or earplugs, as the christmas song ratio may go up to 100%, held over 24 hours a day. The most interesting aspect however is that in Korea, christmas is not a family revenue, but rather a time for couples and romance, just like valentine’s day but with santa and the like. So, given my natural talent with girls, there is absolutely nothing to be excited for this christmas for me.
All in all, the combination of this christmas craze with the weather, the lack of friends in my vicinity and the impossibility to see my family till next summer leads me to my current state of mind: Just get outta here, get into warm places, get yourself some time off (so something like a pause from my bigger pause from my studies in Germany). It’s almost two months of backpacking – you can’t really get off the regular path of a student more than that. Let’s see what it does to my view on the world, my stay in Korea, my studies and everything else. And let’s see what’s left to explore once I come back to Seoul mid february for the second half of the adventure!
I may post a picture or two while I’m off travelling, but apart from that the coverage will resume in march.
I wish you Merry Christmas and a happy new year!