Spring Semester | Cafe Adventures, Festivals and Many Other Activities

To be honest, I have no idea where to start. This semester has gone by way too fast. I thought I still had a lot of time left, and suddenly I find myself packing my suitcases preparing to leave the dorms. The last couple weeks I spent with my friends, who came to visit me in Korea, traveling together in Korea. I will write another post of the last days later on, when I find time again to work on the blog.

The spring semester was the "Asian nightmare" for me. By this I mean that I experienced the pressure of the Asian school system, and I had barely any time anything else except studying. Most of my courses had weekly readings, altogether worth of a novel a week. Plus I had various assignments throughout the semester. So my mornings started with studying and I kept studying till around 8pm or even later depending on when I had dinner.

          Of course though, I did not only study. I did my best to attend KUBA activities and see my friends. But I still felt that I missed out on a lot of things. That's the only regret I have. I got good grades when I only needed to pass them since it's only pass or fail at my home university. I could have gone out more and relax a bit more. I was just scared of failing the courses because the professors seemed to have very strict policies on the course assignments and the exams scared me since they required a lot of details. Well, I tried my best to enjoy my stay. I could not have done anymore.

            One thing that really made me feel thankful of my new friends was the fact that I was able to communicate with new people in Korean fluently enough. I learned a lot this semester thanks to the KUBA buddies and the new friends I made in my Korean class. I think I've grown a lot during my stay in Korea, and finally this semester I realised how long way I have come when it comes to learning Korean; I realised I actually can speak Korean fluently enough to have daily conversations with people, talk on the phone with my friends, talk to the ajummas (old Korean ladys) in the market or a restaurant. I gained so much confidence. I know I'm still not perfect and I have many more things to learn, but I've also already learned a lot. :)

Instead of all the stress due school I want to focus on the happy memories I made with my friends. Lot of things happened and we had a lot of fun with the new KUBA group, and sadly I wasn't able to participate in all of them. I took so many pictures this semester and I was in so many pictures taken by my friends I already lost account. Looking back reminds me of all the fun times we had. To be honest.... There are some events I already forgot ^^' That's why I'm happy I have these pictures.
         I especially loved the sudden, spontaneous trips to coffee shops or restaurants with my friends. Also I ended up going out for dinner almost everyday since I was too busy to cook myself. And of course to cope with the stress we would sometimes spend two hours in a karaoke room (노래방) singing.

International Students' Festival ISF

School events this semester included again International Students' Festival (ISF) which I sadly missed. It was similar to the one held during Fall Semester so I add some pictures here, since it seems I haven't introduced it before. In ISF international students, with the help of KUBA buddies, can set up booths to introduce their own culture by offering food, drinks, games and many other activities.
           We also had many small activities with our Korean buddies during the weekends. For example we visited the Chusa Museum (추사박물관) that introduces the traditional art of calligraphy. There we were able to try out calligraphy ourselves and also making traditional rice cakes too. We also visited Gyeongbokgung (경복궁) palace wearing hanboks (한복, trad. Korean costume), went ice-skating and visited Seoul Rose Festival... The list goes on and on. They are all dear memories to me, but it would take forever to go through everything.

Chusa museum

calligraphy

the type of tteok aka rice cakes we tried making

not entirely correct way to accessorize 

Gyeongbokgung

Rose festival

Rose festival

One of the biggest events this semester was the school festival that culminated in the Ipselenti which is a sort of concert combined with sports cheering (very important during the Korea University - Yonsei University Rivalry match in the fall semester, more about it here). In the afternoon the school stadium was filled with students cheering and enjoying the performances of the students and also visiting artists. Artists included alongside popular singers in Korea world famous TWICE, a K-pop girlband.

Din Din performing at the school festival week

Hong Jinyoung

Roy Kim <3

Dressed properly in KU colors for Ipselenti

People gathering for the main event of the school festival - Ipselenti!

TWICE

Soon after the Ipselenti were the final exams which also marked the end of semester. It was difficult to say good bye to many of my new friends but then again it's easy to keep in touch nowadays thanks to the social media, as one of our Korean buddies said. I will miss all you guys! You can be sure I'll be following what you are up to on Facebook and Instagram.

Studying for the finals

Gift from my KUBA group <3

This has been a long update on the Spring semester. My intention is to write more about my last weeks in Korea and returning back to Finland. Also I'll write about my own thoughts on the exchange year in Korea. This means we'll see in the next post. :)

xxx