Pagina's

26 oktober 2002

Korea October 2002

Saturday, October 26, 2002
The midterms are over! One of the major differences between my home university IBS and the Yonsei International Division (ID) is that there are no projects over here. At IBS, your grade for a certain subject is for 50% doing projects - case studies.

Thursday, October 17, 2002
I finally have a part time job! I will tutor English 3 hours a week to a managing consultant in the Seoul Finance Center (Gwanghwamun). And, I have received my first invitation for an (job) interview. As you may know it is mandatory for IBS juniors to do their 5-month internship abroad. I want to do it here in Korea. Meanwhile, autumn has arrived here in Korea. As you can witness yourself - I just uploaded a photo of the College of Social Sciences - to see the leaves turning here in Korea is a magnificent sight.

Monday, October 14, 2002
So how about my exposure to Korean culture so far? Well, it really has been a mind opener. Actually, it makes me think about the differences and similarities between The Netherlands and Korea. I definitely want to explore Korea more, in the sense that I would like to interact more with native Koreans. On the one hand I have really interesting classes (I would like to spend much time on reading the literature), on the other hand I also want to experience Far East Asia more. I have to study more now - midterms have begun! There are many different nationalities studying here at the International Division (there is a total of 25.000 students at Yonsei). Most students come from the United States - I guess about 75% - and are so called kyopos. Most of the students from the US are from California (UCLA, Berkeley). Most other students come from Europe, China, Japan and Russia. Other nationalities include for example: Australia, Canada, and other former Soviet Union countries.

Friday, October 4, 2002
The past three days I have been to the Mentors Club MT. During a MT (Membership Training) you will go camping - this time we went to Jeongsan, Gangwon-do province.
In Jeongseon-gun we went to see the Jeongseon Arirang Performance, Hwaam cave and Auragi. Arirang is the name of Korean folk songs - most Arirang have Chinese origins. The Hwaam cave used to be a gold mine. On Thursday we went for rafting. Even though it was cold and raining, it was much fun. On October 3 Koreans celebrate National Foundation Day, or Tan-gun day. On this day Koreans celebrate the founding of Korea in 2333 B.C. by the mythical demi-god Tan-gun.