STUDYING / EATING / SHOPPING

The last days in Korea went by so fast! I am back home now, trying to adjust to the time difference before starting to try to adjust to the life in Finland again. However, in Seoul we did so many things during the last few weeks, during and after the final exams, that it's hard to remember everything. My final exams were all crammed on the first exam week, 3 exams in 3 days, except for one already before the official exam week about Korean history and culture. I decided that even though I want to and need to study and prepare well for the exams, I will also enjoy the time left in Seoul and make the most of it. And I think I managed to do that quite well! I combined studying and hanging out in Gangnam cafes, studied together with friends and also took some breaks from studying too to do fun stuff. For example one weekend we finally visited the famous Hongdae clubs Nb1&2 owned by YG entertainment. I have to say that out of the clubs I went to in Seoul, Nb2 was by far my favourite. Even though your clothes and hair smell like cigarettes after that, I liked the general relaxed feeling and the hip hop music there. Better than the edm clubs, of which there's an endless offering in Seoul. Other than that during the last days we did some (okay a lot of) shopping, for example in Myeong-Dong, Coex and Ewha. I also went to have lunch with one of my professors on a Saturday with another exchange student from the same course. We talked about the culture and differences of Korea, Germany and Finland. The professor knew about Finland, having been there once, that it's cold and dark there, people "eat Rudolph" (meaning reindeer meat) and that there are ferry boats that go between Finland and Sweden that certainly have a culture of their own :D It was very interesting since in Finland I'd never imagine going to a restaurant to have casual lunch with a university professor. But in Korea it is not that unusual. We had three dishes that we all shared, another custom very popular in Korea but not in Finland.

 

One shopping place I still have to mention here is Express Bus Terminal. It was just a few subway stops away from us but somehow we never visited there, not before the professor we had lunch with told us about the underground shopping street there. We went there during the last week with my roommate and it's a good thing we did! The underground shopping street there is alltogether a little over a kilometer long, full of clothing, decoration and flower shops with quite cheap prices. I found a blouse and pants there, 10,000W (about 9€) each. The station also has a huge fancy shopping mall next to it, one we didn't explore that much, besides the typical Etude House haul for some cosmetics. After that we felt like we needed some fresh air and walked to Gangnam station. Keeping in with the theme of doing new things, we finally took the time to wait in line for Shakeshack, and American fast-food chain restaurant that neither of us had tried before. Apparently when something becomes a trend in Korea it happens fast and in full force. At the same time the trend might go away as quickly as it was born. It is  actually more of a fad. In Gangnam there is a long line to Shakeshack all day, from before it even opens around 11am, until the evening when it closes, and seats are hard to find once inside the restaurant and already waiting for your food. However it was nice to try it and the burger was actually pretty good. I heard something similar happened earlier with a Taiwanese cafe chain called Gong Cha in Korea, there was a huge hype around it that suddenly just died out. This is something a marketer could benefit from with the hype and large momentary profits, although it also creates a challenge when the life cycle of a product or service is short.

 

LIFE LATELY

Been a long time since I last wrote! It's been a busy few weeks here during and after the midterms. I've eaten a lot of good food & studied a lot in different cafés. I like studying there since it's quite common in Korea and I feel like I am more productive there than just at the dorm lobby or room. They also have nice atmospheres :)



Halloween here was super fun! We were at a big "haunted factory" party organized by Global Seoulmates, I like that name haha :D We decided to go with a purge-theme, even though our outfits turned out to be kind of diy, quick versions. Everyone at the party had really put effort on their costumes and we, for example, saw a Hillary, a Deadpool, another purge-group and many Harley Quinns.



Right after my last midterm last Wednesday we decided to visit Ewha Womans University area in the evening with Zarah and Sanni. The campus itself was really beautiful, putting our Cau campus to shame a bit I think. We ate at the Two meals restaurant we found there and did a bit of shopping, I bought a shirt, a knit and a winter jacket there since it's starting to get colder here now. I love the color of the jacket!

 

We also had a "social gathering" last Friday in one class where we had to prepare a costume and theme for our group (ours was rainbow) and make our own business cards. The meeting itself turned out to be having chicken & beer at a restaurant with our whole big class!




I think two of the best ways to explore a city are riding a bus in it, and taking long walks where you just wander without really a certain destination. We've been doing both here and, for example, one evening during midterms me and Zarah went for a short evening walk that turned out to be a 10km walk to Apgujeong. And last week when I felt a bit stressed because of my last exams, I went for a walk and found new areas I don't think I would have gone to otherwise. It's good that there are subway stations everywhere and after walking around you can just take a subway back, which is exactly what we've done! :)

 

Aand this weekend we had a second culture trip organized by our school to a traditional Korean village where we got to pick pears from trees, ride a tractor, and make Korean traditional toys and rice cakes.

 

So there you have it, kind of a quick recap of what life in Seoul has looked like the last couple of weeks! :)