Bye Bye Seoul

One of those couples ...

Well I'm leaving in 16 days now, and so I need to write what I'm feeling now... Kind of weird, I truly know that I'll miss lots of things here, the life, the city, every single accommodation such as that super clean and efficient and never on strike subway, all the convenience stores opened 24/7, rice (yes, it's possible, and i'll repeat it if you want I'll MISS RICE and btw i'll intend to buy a rice cooker as soon as possible) and chopsticks (of course)  anyway i'll even miss the university, all its buildings, stairs, its hilly roads, its hair dressers, coffees, conveniences stores ....

BUT on the other hand there are SOOOOOO many things that I'll definitely NOT miss AT ALL like Kimchi (well I never liked it), its stupid couples wearing the same clothes, its sputum, its cold weather, the dorms, the bathroom of the dorms, the kitchen of the dorms (ha, no i forget I did NOT get ANY kitchen), the boring classes every tuesday and wednesday, the way that korean do NOT speak english (even student), the fact that they're SUPER shy and do NOT want to speak in english with you and prefer let you in a deep shit than tryin' to help you (sometimes)

Anyway, like I said in the beginning (and this article didn't help me at all to find out for which way I have to swing) it's a weird feeling, because I deeply know that when I'll come back to france, after the first weeks of rediscover of what's really food and bla and bla and bla, I'll miss living that life at 300km/h, I'll miss discover a new country every month, I'll miss being in holidays for 5 months, reality will be boring but I'll take the risk to be bored :)

4 days of Rachios Fiesta

Every year spring comes, and the lions roar. After the harsh winter weather and the brutal mid-term exams comes the excitement of Hanyang University’s annual festival, the Rachios Fiesta. From the 17th to the 20th of May, the entire campus came to life, and was vivid with youth, passion, talent, creative ideas, performances and events.

It all started late afternoon Wednesday. By 5pm, the open air theater was crowded and it was impossible to find an empty seat, let alone set foot on the grounds. The eve celebration started with the rooting ceremony of Hanyang University. The HYU rooters conquered the stage, making it known to the entire school that the Rachios Fiesta started. The performances of Girl’s Generation successfully put Hanyangians in the mood to enjoy and celebrate. 

While these special events and performances were prepared for the festival, there were other interactive activities prepared by student bodies on the Culture Road, and Bar Road. The Bar Road which extended all the way from the parking lot next to the Graduate School Building and all the way to the Humanities Building was opened in late afternoons, welcoming guests to home-made snacks and meals, with varieties of liquor. Each department and major prepared their bars to come together with classmates, graduates, and even professors. Some of the bars such as that of Sokna, which is one of the bands of HYU, performed in their bars.

During these four days, students came to school, attended class, and afterwards spread throughout the campus interacting in games and events prepared by clubs and departments. With the evening breeze, they moved on to enjoy performances or went to the Bar Road, to participate and enjoy some drinks with their friends.

As time goes by

Trying to continue to tell you asian stories or at least what's happening in my seoulite life.

So first, I need to write something about my crazy trip to Malaysia (probably the next article will be entirely devoted to that subject) and also to the life here in Seoul, which is always moving and changing.

I went back to Seoul last Sunday, and for 5 days, I've been doing soooo many things

I've been to a baseball match Seoul Bears vs. Eagles (from ??? couldn't understand, everything was in korean, sorry folks ...). The Seoul team is also sponsored by Doosan which is one of the biggest korean compagny. Also the bears are the most supported team in all Korea (especially Seoul). Baseball is kind of a national sport here, I mean it's almost like soccer in France. So this game was really nice because I saw all the supporters always singing and shouting "doosan whoohouhouuuuuuuu. That was quite funny.

Then, from May 17th to 20th, there is the Hanyang Festival. Crazy korean could be the best word to define that festival. During the day almost everything is all right and still normal. People are going to school, they still look like "normal" students, but after 4pm, they become totally unleashed and wasted HAHAH so funny.

Students having dinner (& soju) in Hanyang

So the festival is all about foods, drinks, and concerts. That so great, because there are lots of kind of tent circus, where students sell grilled sausages, cocktails, kimbap and other korean food, fruits .... there are also plenty of tables, in order to let the students eat there all together. The atmosphere is so different from the one which exists before and after the festival.

Also, concerning concerts, there is a kind of competition between the best universities of Seoul to have the most famous stars on stage. This year, I'm proud of it (yeaaaah) I have to say (and it's not that subjective because I also talk about that with korean students) that Hanyang univ. was beyond my expectations. There are lots of famous singers in Korea, but Hanyang gets the best : Girls' Generation.

In fact, it's easy, K pop is ok, I mean it's not that bad, and it's sometimes really funny, briefly I like it. I don't know a lot of korean groups, but the fact I know girls' generation. So attend a free concert in Hanyang of Girls' generation was really crazy.

Girls' Generation in Hanyang

Calendars are for careful people, not passionate ones.

Long time no see ....Time runs so fast, and I didn't write anything for such a long time ...So many things to talk about. Maybe I should probably begin by the very beginning, and the early days of March.

Hanyang

I began university courses on the 3rd of March, and I have to say that's quite interesting. I take 4 courses a week (basically spattered between Tuesday and Wednesday). So, concerning the courses that I decided to take, they are similar as the ones I used to have in France : Economics, International Business, Marketing ect ...

But the fact is that in Hanyang University, courses turn into something really interesting : professors get such a new way to speak about business, always talking about time as the precious thing that you can get in your all life. So in this way, no time to sleep, no time to eat, time should only be used to study and make korea a more powerful country ... wow

So I take courses of International Economics, Marketing Management  on Tuesday and then, on Wednesday I have International Business and Fashion Business. As you can see, courses seem to be sooooooooooo cool, but they're juste talking about normal things I already learned at school :

In International Economics, we're talking about the things we learned in high school. Then in Marketing Management w're for instance studying SWOT, BCG Matrix ect ....

But the fact is that's not boring at all because teachers are introducing their subject differently, with another approach, so that's still interesting. Also I cannot get boring of ONLY 2 days at school a week obviously ...

Hanyang Dormitories

I'm living in Hanyang Dormitories because it's really cheaper than living in an appartment in Seoul. That's also super good because that's basically ON the campus, so I thought time to go to school is reduced to the strict mimimum (but at that time I didn't figure the size of the campus out yet ...)

What's to say about the dormitories .... haha long story ...

First : no kitchen AT ALL, that means that you cannot cook at all. There's just on fridge for all the dorms and sometimes, when you put something in, next day you cannot find it again (people coming back from parties are usually starving to death and turn into good robbers) so basically you do not put something in that non sure fridge ...

Then, we also get two different dormitories, on ONLY for girls and one for boys. So, no boy is allowed in the girls dormitory but the fact is 4 japanese guys are living on the first floor of our dorms ... Also, there's a guard who is watching everything you can do in the public areas of the dorms through numerous cameras.

Also, there's something such as a curfew from 00:30 to 5:30. So for Hanyang, that should implies that students should NOT come in the dorms during that time ... hahaha is that a joke ??? so now, Hanyang students developed news ways to open the dorms doors : putting a flat paper between the 2 doors, then going up and up to reach the cell in order to activate it and open the doors. All that operation should be really quiet because in addition the guard is sleeping next door ... but that's fine, touch of spy games in the night ...

Concerning my roomate, in my application form I wrote NO FRENCH PLEASE in bold, red, underligned 3 times but the fact is despite of everything, my roomate is ... french ... but not just french, from MY business school. So basically I know her a little. And I think that's a little bit bad because I speak french all day and all night long.

English Lessons

I got plenty of empty time so I can do lots of stuff outside the University. I decided to give some english lessons to earn a little bit of money. So I found 2 people who were interested in learning english  with me. I was first really afraid (can I really handle it ?) because, well english is not my mother tongue. But anyway, I have to say that's good, I meet that people every sunday for 2 hours and we read newspapers and talk about recent world activities. Good for them, they learn english, good for me, I have to speak english and pay attention not to do any mistake.

Ballet lessons

Due to loooooooooots of empty time I also decided to take some ballet lessons, because I do not want to turn into a "thing" which spend her entire day in bed, geeking on facebook or doing any useless thing else. Just a waste of time here ... so to motivate myself I decided to take 4 ballet lessons a week in order to keep me awake and dynamic. Courses are really great, even if sometimes that's a little bit hard. I mean the professor is korean and all the other dancers are korean. So even if the teacher always shows us the gesture first sometimes I don't get the entire explanation ...

I take theses courses outside of the university because the university does not offer ballet lessons. I find the dance studio were I'm going on the internet and then, with the help of my Hanyang mentor, I went there to registrer myself.

Nutshell

Anyway, I enjoy so much Seoul, and life here is really so exiting. In the next few days I'll try to post some new articles because you should be aware of the crazy seoul day&night life

Ah, and at last but not least, not not not at all actually :) I'm going to Thailand in 3 days, to visit Bangkok and Krabi ... I cannot dream of a better life for now ...

Already 1 month in Seoul

I wanted to post some pics about Hanyang for a long time so here they're. Hanyang is so different from french universities ... Hanyang has its own subway station and owns tons of buildings, huuuuuge buildings.

And I didn't mentionned yet the 3 football fiels, the 'Olympic gymnasium' yeah yeah, the athletic stadium, the fitness room, the the numerous convenient stores and coffees ...
HAHA sounds goooood !

I took these pics by night but I will post some others with day light as soon as possible ...