Why not?

Allright... I've already been one week in Seoul so it's more than about time to do this!


It all started in January when I was looking for some new places to go for my exchange studies. It's not mandatory to go for exchange at my university, but based on everything I know it's more than beneficial for you as a person and as a professional. So why not? Having made the decision I had some criteria for the university I was going to choose:

1. Outside Europe

because I probably won't have as good a chance at spending time in another country so far away anytime soon... well, maybe through AIESEC but still, it's different. You know. I want to grab the chances as they come across me.
So I ended up choosing South Korea out of all the options because I couldn't go to the university in Canada I was planning to, as my university didn't have places there for this year. And I knew practically nothing about South Korea so that makes up a taste of adventure. Not that I knew anything about Taiwan (alternative choice as my exchange country) either but South Korea's branding probably had clinged better amongst the people I discussed my choice with.


2. As little hazzle as possible


I had two very busy semesters before this so I wanted to use as little time on preparations as possible. Besides, you're still going to need to get the visa and do the finances.
I didn't feel like finding out about TOEFL or the like. I know my English is good if not absolutely great, so no way I'm going to pay anyone for a stupid test and anxiously wait for the results. Luckily, I just needed to have my English courses completed with a good grade.

3. Flight after mid-August

I organized an international conference (ScaLDS 2010) for AIESEC in the beginning of August so I wanted to get as much done before my flight as possible. Weell, not everything got done by then but it still would've made things more complicated if, say, my semester started one day after the conference. The possibility of flying only August 27th was just about perfect.

So these criteria kind of crossed out more or less almost all the universities. Now, I'm not saying that South Korea was a bad choice - ultimately, out of all the countries I think I would've ended up here in any case - but as you know, it's often nice to have as many alternatives to choose from as possible. Besides, in the beginning I was disappointed by not being able to go to the place I initially wanted to go to.

But human psychology is interesting. Not long after that I had gotten myself pretty hyped up about this semester. After getting the results of admission April 1st I still needed to do the following though.

• Visa: Not a problem. Just go to the embassy with the needed papers and in 2010 with 40 EUR.
• Funding & budget: Hanken, my university, grants its outgoing exchangers a scholarship. I also received the scholarship (900 000 KRW) from Sogang to cover half my accommodation at Gonzaga Hall (campus dorm,) and the Finnish state gives its students grants for living and studies. You can ask me if you want to see the budget.
• Packing: see here for a nice guide (in Finnish). I modified it for more academic purposes and had pretty much no stress with any last minute stuff.
• Medical examination report: I didn't do this on time. You should. I visited a private practise and got my vaccinations for hepatitis simultaneously. Anyway, it seems like you could even do it here for a nominal sum of a couple of euros.
• Flights: I booked mine in June for 630 EUR at KLM (return ticket).
• Something else... I'll update this later

And as for the mandatory "hi, how are you?": For once, my already high expectations are being met. Let's see if I keep on enjoying my time here as much as I so far did.

Until further reading!