living,

Seoultastic experience

10:43 Lox 0 Comments

Beginning is always the hardest

South Korea is probably the furthest place anyone can think of. And nobody thinks they’ll get there at any point in their life, unless traveling is what you do for a living. Certainly I wasn’t thinking about getting there at any point, and traveling is not what I do for a living no matter how much I’d want it to be.
 
Somehow I did end up in South Korea for my placement year. Studying at Korea University has been one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had so far. Unlike anything I have been through, even though I did go through a major change when moving to the UK, going to South Korea has been more stressful. I have started my placement on the 1st of September. The long flight tired me out, but it did not damper the anxiousness and jitters. Before starting university we had an orientation week where we met our Korean Buddies (imagine student ambassadors). They had planned the whole week for us, helping us accommodate and get used to the country and language. We visited lots of places such as the Blue House and the Gyeongbok Palace. They took us to see Nanta, we had lunches and dinners. And the most amazing thing of them all we went to Lotte World (think Disneyland). I could go on forever about the amazing time we had whilst that orientation week. For now I will just talk about a day in my life.
 

Allons-y

Before I start, I have to mention I am a third year Biomedical Science student at Aston University. I will also specify that study placements are completely different than work placements, I am pretty sure everybody knows what going to lectures is like. And that you have enough free time (sometimes you do before exams only for it to be cruelly snatched away during exam time) for yourself. That is why I will incorporate a day in my life “lecture style” and a day in my life “skiving style”. A day in my life no matter what the day is, and no matter what I have to do that day, starts bright and early in the morning; got college and gym to thank for that. I would gym at least 3 times a week, thus I’d be up right before the sun, drink my coffee for that extra boost on the rooftop, watch the sunrise- and as romantic as that might sound the smoggy Seoul and the prospect of sweating on the treadmill killed every romantic streak that might have. I did enjoy going to the gym with my friends and enjoy the inbuilt TV on the treadmill. At least KBS Music (sort of like MTV in Korea) killed the boredom and Proustian effect of running on the treadmill.
 

Living situations

 

Our Livingtel (student friendly accommodation outside of campus) is not far from the campus at all if you like walking that is and if you study on the main campus it’d take about 10 minutes; if you happen to study on the science campus you either love walking (20-30 mins) or you pay 1,250KRW less than 1GBP which might not seem like a lot, but when you have to do this at least three times a day it becomes costly. Every house or apartment block in Korea has a rooftop with either a small garden like ours or weightlifting gear (actually wondering who uses those, haven’t seen anybody use them). Each flat occupies a floor and it has 9 rooms with en suite bathrooms and a small kitchen which is not useful if you’re Gordon Ramsay, but for a student who lives more on microwavable food it works out perfectly. In Korea it is polite to take your shoes off when you enter a flat and we had to abide by that otherwise we would have had a very upset manager on our case. The rooms were not extremely big, however, I was mostly out and about so that did not bother me at all. I know some people use their rooms to study instead of library, I did not. Korea has such an extensive range of coffee shops that I opted to study there instead of the library or my room.

Siri, wake me up at 6am

On a day when I actually had lectures I would get my shower after gym (no stinky allowed), eat breakfast (no fainting allowed) and set off at least 30 minutes before lecture. I have to add, I do love walking and I mostly chose my own two feet to take me to the university, I wanted to change my mind so many times though, because it is not only walking, but also ‘hiking’. Seoul is full of hills and mountains, and there are very few streets that don’t require your leg muscles in perfect shape.

I’ll start work when my coffee does

 

I would stop by one of the cafes and grab a coffee and usually I’d have my lunch from the convenience stores that pepper the city. The majority of my lectures were after lunch when my mind would start to fall asleep, especially after the gym session, thus refilling the battery was needed and brave the hills and the crowd and get to lectures. I would be there for a while and afterwards I would either head off to one of the cafes or home to study. Sometimes I would grab dinner with friends, or eat at home. The prospect of microwavable food does not sound very tempting for me so I mostly ate out. The menus would be extensive and you’d have a range of good, tasty and cheap foods (would not go over 10GBP for 3 people) sometimes we’d go out drinking or just to enjoy ourselves. Then we’d go back home and try to head off to bed. I say head off to bed (I’m talking about 12-1am)  but we’d end up goofing around for around 2 more hours. The exchange students I have met have been amazing and we have exchanged a lot of customs and had a good time finding out about each other.

Ready, set….relax!

 

Now, on a “skiving” day, that is where things get complicated. We’d go and try to visit places. Our knowledge of the language being limited though, I say try, we mostly got lost, or melted on the way there. Summers in Korea are worthy of the word ‘hell’. We’d go visit places like Myeongdong, Itaewon and Gangnam and spend all the money we’d have with us only to complain later we shouldn’t have done that. All in good fun though so it was all worth it. We’d eat street food and laugh at the overpriced imported clothes.

At the end of the day…

At night we’d go out clubbing (we’re still young and all that YOLO got to us) mostly in Hongdae and Gangnam. Clubs in Seoul are extremely expensive but you get your money’s worth. The music and atmosphere makes it all worth it. Plus, looking at it, the clubs look all fancy and good in any picture.
 

In the end I can say that, even though not expected, my experience in Seoul, South Korea and at Korea University has been an amazing one. I have only one complaint though…even after 4 months I still don’t know how to say ‘I don’t want any more drinks thank you’.
 

  Lox

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decision,

How to find yourself in unusual situations

16:01 Lox 0 Comments


 


Going directions

 
 
Long title, probably short post, but there is not much I would like to say at the beginning. I’m sure everybody knows what the idea of ‘unusual situations’ means. And I’m not talking about awkward situations like bumping into a flatmate as you are coming out of the shower and you are naked (I’m sure we’ve all been through that at least once). No, I’m talking about those ‘oh lord where did life take me’ types of situations that I’m sure we’ve all been through more than once. And it all starts with this simple action of making a decision. Now I know some people might say, no, making a decision is not simple. The act in itself is simple, it’s just as simple as picking up a ball, the process of it is not as simple though. That I do agree.
It’s hard to say not everything in your life is a long chain of decisions (I did not mention anything about wrong or right-they’re one’s individual decisions). Even as I am sitting my ass on a chair in my house bright and early in the morning (I kid you not, the sun is not even up yet) drinking green tea and attempting to be at least a bit healthy and cut down on the coffee (we all know this will not happen-once an addict always an addict) and regurgitating words in a sad attempt to make sense I made a decision. To sit my ass down drink green tea and write. Sounds wrong as a decision, however just as a friend said; that’s life. I made a decision when I woke up this morning before the sun did, I made a decision when I went to brush my teeth, I made a decision when- heheh let’s not get there and keep it PG (I’m talking about taking showers!). Does not have to be anything huge or life changing, something small is enough. Even something as small as brushing your teeth can become something big and life-changing.

Choosing a path or multiple

This is me trying to find excuses for my past decisions. I do not regret them, they were my decisions and my brain had thought about it before making them. At the time they sounded amazing, and some of them still do. Some of them might not have ended the way I thought they would and some of them did. Some of them made me want to crawl back into my bed and waste my life away, some of them made me want to jump for joy and happiness. But they were mine. And everybody protects what’s theirs. Good or bad, the consequences are mine as well. It might sound cliché-ish, but I did learn from them. Bad mistakes helped me grow as a person and as a human being in the society, gave me motivation to do better. Good decisions gave me strength and motivation.
 
 
 

 
I am young and I am bound to make more decisions that may be good or bad, I will take them in stride and day by day enjoy whatever consequences these decisions might bring. I have gone through different stages of my life and I have learnt new things every day. About myself, about the world, about a certain subject. I am a curious human being (no kidding, I am a human being therefore I am curious by default). I have never shunned this trait, I have never repressed it. I have embraced it and I have harvested it as much as I could. I love learning new things-about anything really. It does make me feel small and insignificant but I know I am taking a step towards those who are significant. I am a human being therefore I am also selfish. Selfish; because I am not learning new things to change the world or to be a revolutionist. But because I WANT and NEED to know; for my own satisfaction. I could lie and pretend I am an observer and a listener just because I want to help others, because of the goodness of my heart I want to help everyone. As I pointed before, that is a total lie. I have and feel the insatiable need to learn and know.

Drifting through life-me style

I have started small, without a plan in life, but then again who does (and if you do I envy you). My plan as a kid went through all those stages where I wanted to become a princess, a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a firefighter (so what if I am a girl?). Then I grew up, and realized that life was not that simple, good things happen, bad things happen. Things that you might’ve wanted to happen, happened or not. Things you might have not wanted to happen happened or not. And that came down to all the decisions I have made. One of the biggest decisions I had to make was when I turned 18 and finished high school (or college-depending on where you’re from). I had to decide what I wanted to be in life. Now, I know it is not a permanent decision, and you could start university and have a job that has nothing to do with it. But my background taught me that if you have a degree in X subject you should go for that. Thus I had to make a decision quickly. That was my own fault leaving it to the last minute. But I made a decision, and that became one of the biggest decisions of my life. I wanted to be a doctor when I was little? Fine, we shall become a doctor.

What I did (do not do this at home)

I decided to take a different path than just going straight into Medicine. I decided to apply for lab work, aka Biomedical Science. I also decided that I would brave the world by myself and I would leave my home country and go for the UK. Why? I felt like I could do more there. I felt it. I was not certain of it. I was hunting in the dark. But as your eyes get used to the dark when going to the toilet in the middle of the night and crashing into the door a few times, I got used to the unknown, and it became more known than my own country. It became my home. I did not realise it would set me back a bit and it would take longer to become a doctor by doing that, however I knew what I was getting myself into in a way. I did not start out as clueless; my parents are both doctors so I had a fairly good idea of what being a doctor means. And I knew that it would be hard and difficult, but in my mind the pros outweighed the cons. Now I am in my third year (placement year-actually doing things year I might call it) this is not my final year however, and I still have an important decision to make. Medicine or no medicine? Practice what I am doing at the moment or not?

Placement year or the art of the unknown

A few months ago, I had to make another important decision in my life. My placement year, take it or not? Would it be useful or not? Would I just be wasting time? I considered all the factors, and I decided that yes, a bit of experience in my field wouldn’t hurt. That it why I decided to take on a study placement. Yes, I know, you wouldn’t call that experience in the field. Choosing a placement abroad though, is an experience in itself. And I decided to make that decision and take the study placement abroad. Not anywhere close to the UK. I would be moving again. This time to Seoul, South Korea. Only for the year though. But a year is more than enough to change a person. A year when you think about it in advance does not seem like a long time, if you do think about a year in the past and how much you’ve done during that year you’ll realise that it is indeed a very, very long time. Needless to say, South Korea was the last place on Earth I thought I’d get to before I turn 50 years old. Thus I found myself in the position of a not uncoordinated person that tries to find the bathroom in the dark, but of a blind person that is trying to find the needle in the haystack.

Getting your stuff together?

There are many things to consider when choosing the path you want to go for in life. You could mull it over and over again. It would not prepare you for what it is to come though. You could weigh the options pros and cons however much you’d like. You’d still be caught by life playing ‘think fast’ with you. And there is nothing you can do about it but take it in stride and enjoy it. The good, the bad (the evil hehe) everything serves its own purpose. Your decisions are important though, like the steering wheel on a brakeless car. You choose whether or not you’d like to crash into that pole or continue on maybe find a way to stop that car before it crashes into something.

 

                                                                                                   LOX

                                                                                                                 


 

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