Some random pics of what's been going on so far... I didn't have my camera with me all the time, sorry for that.

The awesome campus of Korea University. In Austria, this would count as a small town, a small, medieval town. Funnily enough, even though they have the most perfect English lawn already, there's still at least 3 people sitting on it, picking weeds at any time.

Me, in front of the KU main building.

Incoming students & Buddy students outing the first night. Also pictured, the local brew of choice.

Slightly different surroundings, at the "Lovecamp" , near Hongcheon, Eastern Korea.

The first week: Sleeping under my own roof again, turning my back at illiteracy, embracing Korean culture (a little to hard?)

By the time of writing, this author is still busy recovering from last night's encounter with Korean culture, it's fluid components in particular. Drinking is indeed a very important part of daily life here (even in the daily life of non-exchange-students) and it is neither rare, nor despised, to see passed-out businessmen lying on the street outside a pub, or in the subway in the middle of the night.

Koreans finally proved a suspicion that I've been having for a while, in fact since I had first set foot into Asia, which was in summer 2008 in China. That the widespread belief, that Asians cannot drink, is a big, awful lie. The people who spread it, have either never been to anywhere in Asia themselves, or had reached near superhuman alcohol-tolerance-levels, which would make anybody who'd battle them drinking look like a wimp, regardless of this person's ethnicity.

I hope that clarifies things.

The massive proliferation of the local beverages of choice Soju (Rice-liquor, beware!) and Dong Dong Ju (Rice wine, "wine" is however understating the actual percentage of the stuff, also beware!) erases the least remainder of doubt on the subject.

Anyway. I might have underestimated the extent of drinking, but I came to expect quite a bit of it, especially after having participated (passively) in more than one authentic Chinese "Ganbei-Dinner". Ganbei is Chinese for "Bottom up" and equivalent to German Prost. At said dinners, besides ill-mannered devouring of enormous amounts of usually very spicy, very bony meat (these bones then go on the floor) "ganbeiing" is the main activity. And it's a potential businesspartner's ability to keep up that closes a deal in China. (Fuck ABC-Analysis, Fuck P/P-Ratios!)

Back to the subject. I expected a lot of alcohol to be in Korea, yes. What did however take me by surprise was the existence of "Lovecamp" a tiny, one-day, hippieesque Music-Festival on the Eastside of Korea, on a remote hill.
I wouldn't exactly call myself very much of a hippie. But I do like good live music. Plus, I had missed out on some good festivals back in Europe this year. Plus, I couldn't figure out a better place to experience Korean non-mainstream culture, hands-on. So "Lovecamp" it was.

There were maybe 100something people there, of which about 50% were Korean, 50% foreign, 100% free-spirits. With their drumcircles, bodypaint, soapbubbles, tie-dye shirts and outstanding friendlyness, they couldn't have been any more different from the crowds you'll see in Seoul.

Being there on a Monday morning on the subway is like attending a fashion show elsewhere in the world.
People are very much into fashion here, and I don't even wanna start thinking about how much time the average girl here devotes to looking pretty every morning. Even when they just go to school, or work, they look like they're out on a fancy date. Not only girls though. Guys here are way ahead most other nationalities, fashion-wise.
It's not only my own perception, but a shared notion that people (let's face it, girls) here are in fact more beautiful than elsewhere in Asia.

Maybe I'm just being superficial right now, but to an extent, Koreans are too. Jobs are (often) being assigned by looks, not qualification. It doesn't come as a surprise, that Korea is also famous for its many skilled plastic surgeons.

When I was stopping in Chongqing on my China-ramble a few weeks ago, it was big news at the time that a Korean surgeon was coming to town. Korea-fashion is popular all over China, and on my way to see the stunning Terracotta-Army in Xi'an, I passed by the "Cohesive Force Korea Hairdressing Saloon". Just one funny example of Chinglish (when the rules and structures of English grammar are being trampled upon) , which is not exclusively a Chinese thing, though.

Aforementioned "Lovecamp" had, very thoughtfully, put some info on their website saying:

World music festival, people enjoy the fun together.
We are ready to open the festival. But, If you want more food and drink that you can bring more special thing!
Remind it!
That place is on middle hill of mountain. so very cold at night time.
You come to bring sleeping bag or a coat.
Come if you want to get the tent comfortable sleep.

There's still room for improvement, just in case the founders of "Babelfish" and the likes ever get bored.

I should however not make fun of other people's poor English, with my Korean still being close to zero. I respect these people's effort, and I hope that by the time I leave this place, my "D-orean" will be at least somewhat able to keep up with their "Ko-nglish".
Having acquired the ability to decipher Korean script earlier this week (until I can speak of "reading" there's still a long way to go) is I guess a good start. I've turned my back on illiteracy, now it's time to wave goodbye to deaf-muteness too.

Speaking of that, tomorrow my courses at university start. It's been a while since I have actually been looking forward to school, but I am exited about it now.

Luckily I do no longer have to commute for 1+hr between my host's place and Korea University. I have my own roof over my head again now. With the help of one of our awesome Buddy-students (another one fixed my phone, even!) I signed a contract for a tiny, tiny hole-in-the-wall, that is blatantly overpriced. (By Austrian standards. To make it feel even worse, my standard, or "reference price" as we marketing people like to say, has been lowered in China, where supernice 2-bedroom apartments rent for less than € 100 a month.) I'm now residing in a place that is about the same size as my bed is back home. And I do not have an exceptionally huge bed, just a normal queen-size. Most people, could probably touch all 4 walls at the same time here.

But it's good for 4 months. The location is more than convenient, with only a 5 minutes walk to KU. Besides, unlike many of my colleagues, I have my own bathroom (luxury!), fast internet, and some very basic food included. Rice, eggs, noodles, and, most important, Gimchi. What else can you ask for?

The first day: Crossing the yellow sea (or West Sea, according to Koreans)

Sunday, August 23.; 6 am:

I force myself to rise from the surprisingly cozy bench in the waiting room of Shanghai Pudong Airport (is it really cozy? or is it just my standards that have declined substantially the past few weeks? ) after 2, maybe 3 hrs of sleep.

Despite my whole body aching a bit (- probably the latter was true) i cannot help but smile as my thoughts wander off to the past weeks, the last few days in particular.
These have been turbulent, and exhausting, but hilarious, enjoyable and truly unforgettable at the same time.

(At this point i should perhaps mention that i've spent the last month backpacking through China, as a prequel to my upcoming exchange semester in Seoul, South Korea.)

Applying what i have learned at Business School the past 2 years, I thought I might get more value for my flight into the region, which i had to take anyway, if i do a little bit of travelling beforehand.
There's always a way to rationalize a decision, that way too many people didn't consider rational at all.

Maybe it wasn't, I can't blame my critics, really.

A 20 year old college girl, who has never really travelled all by herself, doesn't speak any mandarin, can barely carry a heavy backpack, doesn't have a lot of money at all, ignored all the advice from all the well-meaning people, didn't listen to her parents either, maybe, if this girl heads off to explore new territories anyway, that's nothing you should call rational.

However, it has never really been a major objective of mine to go down in history as an exeptionally rational person.
I'd rather not go down in history at all, but have an awesome time doing so.


Let's get back to the point.

I stretch, and laugh, and shake my head thinking of the crazyness of the last few days spent in Shanghai:

How I met a Texan mother and her 9-year-old daughter, who didn't have a place to stay, which made me feel compelled to take them along to my host Cindy's place.

How i wanted to get my heavy luggage back, which had been sitting in the closet in the flat of 2 Australian guys who i had been staying with at the beginning of my trip a month ago.

How these particular guys proved not 100% reliable, as they both went off travelling and made me find their flat empty, and locked.

How I needed all my Shanghai-"Guanxi" (friends who make things possible), and the help of the local police, to get into the flat of the Aussies without their know to get my luggage back.

How my application to stay in the CJ International students dorm at Korea University had been declined 2 weeks ago, thus basically making me a homeless right after landing in Seoul.

How this problem was solved at an internet-café at very last minute, thanks to an American guy, who accepted a last-minute Couchsurf*-request, even though I couldn't tell how long I was going to stay at his place.

*Couchsurfing: an online network, similiar to facebook, but for travellers, that makes it possible to find people who live in the place you're about to go, who host you, and usually also show you a good time. It is however common to state your departure date.


All these things in my head, I cannot help but feel thoroughly optimistic and positive about everything that might come my way today. Whatever it is, it'll be a piece of cake.

I was correct in assuming so. I check in, get on a plane, take a little nap, have some food served (which surprises me due to the fact of this being a 1 1/2 hr flight), look out of the window, and suddenly, hey, there's Korea.

It's beautiful. I'm not a big patriot, but it looks a bit like Austria, from bird's view, and thus I find it very pretty. (And it's hard to deny that Austria's pretty, i guess)

We land, and i notice with amusement that people here don't clap. I like that. As a paying customer, i consider it a very essential feature of that particular service, that I'm being dropped off alive.

I walk out of the airport (the officer at the passport control looks at me very carefully, and has to compare my, very old indeed, passport-photo to my face 3 times. Can't blame him. All Westerners look the same.). It's sunny, 26°, a soft breeze blowing. After the polluted, humid, sticky heat of Shanghai, i feel so happy that I'd like to hug somebody (but I don't).

I get onto a clean, uncrowded, airconditioned bus, that has elaborate english announcements and displays.

It's been decided: I LOVE THIS PLACE

My current host Joe picks me up at the busstop, and after having coffee, we head off to a "PC-Bang", that's how they call internet-cafés here, to find me a more permanent place to stay.
Reluctantly, I begin to face the fact that I'm not in China anymore, but in the most expensive city of the world (housing-wise).

After I almost fell asleep at my computer (which is however perfectly acceptable in the Korean culture and happens all the time) we're taking the subway to a huge electronics-mall to find me a 2nd-hand-phone. I don't really remember anything of that clearly.
Zombie-like, i walk behind my host, he does the talking, I pay. We bought the oldest, and cheapest phone available. Unsurprisingly, it's still the fanciest mobile communication device i ever had. This isn't Austria anymore, we're in Korea, and people here like their technology, a lot.

This being my 2nd day in a row withouth more than 3 hrs of sleep (Friday night coincidentally turned into some sort of cocktail-tasting-session, except that my newly-found Shanghai-friends and I didn't just taste them, but down them, way too quickly, one by one) I should seriously call it a day.

However, I'm not the kind of girl who spends the first evening in a new country wallowing in jet-lag-self-pity (1 hr time difference is a poor excuse anyway) , and neither is Joe a host who let's his guests do that.

So, we go to Hongdae, a lovely area around a couple of universities, crowded with fashionable people who're having a good time, watching the occasional spontaneous street performances there, and enjoying a beverage or two at the countless tiny hole-in-the-wall bars that the streets are full of.

One specialises in serving cocktails in plastic-bags, very much alike the ones that are used to store human blood in hospitals, and we have a Long Island Ice Tea there. And another one for the road.

By the time we actually call it a day, i might add that i consider it a very successful one.

Typical Seoul sidestreet... they love their neon lights here. The motels pictured are "Lovemotels". No, the Koreans are not as prude as their reputation.