What now?

It's my last Sunday evening at the campus dormitory in the middle of Seoul and I'm going to have dinner after writing this (while listening to Mansun). I'll try to briefly explain some things I've been up to and what's going to happen next.

Also, like 100% of my readers think, I'll try to keep this post brief.........

3. Do
- Problems - Freelance writing - Next

- Problems 

It's been snowing, but the snow's gone already as opposed to in Helsinki(!). Still, I've had a lot of problems with three things: my bank, buying flights and... finances.

First when I came here I found out that I have a limit with international bank transfers. It was a mess trying to get the transfer here in any case, but they didn't have to make me send them an sms from my phone to verify my identity for any sum that exceeds the limit. Why? My phone doesn't work here. So I did get my money later in three separate transfers with a handling fee for each and after I spent some time to figure out the limit but I would've preferred not to deal with this crap.

Now I've been struggling with, and would still be if it wasn't for my parents, my bank sending me new passwords to my old address. Long story short, I was confused for a long time why my passwords didn't work anymore and needed to plead for some in-family loans which I'm not that comfortable with. Also... I've tried many ATM's and my visa electron doesn't seem to work here. I guess I'd need to go ask for some more information somewhere.

The second problem: I've been trying to book flights somewhere for a while now. But they just can't make it easy, at least not for me. I can't book the flights from the local Philippine bank even if they say so at Cebu pacific air. My visa electron being useless I've also got a visa from my local bank. Which doesn't work for them. I did try to locate their office but only found it after visiting the Philippine bank where I got some instructions by chance. And I also did ask for help but I'm not the only one short on cash with this international bank transfer shit going on. I know that still in the 1980s they needed a month to get money from the U.S. to Thailand but with Internet here I would expect more.

As for the finances, I dealt with a lot of stress during the year with the finances of a project. Basically what I should've done was to get somebody to deal with the finances for me but that's of course easier said than done and I ended up doing them myself - for the most part. The outcome is that I'm actually still dealing with some of the implications of lack of structuring the whole financial side of the project. Because I'm definitely out of my comfort zone when it comes to negotiating about money. Now there are some people I know that might get worried if all's right. But don't worry.

So the conclusion with my problems is: I'd be a lot easier off if I wasn't such a wuss when it comes to asking for favors, for help or to just plain contacting others. I simply tend to over-analyze the others' reactions to do that when it's not yet too late. Because I like psych, I'll narrow the reasons for this down to two: my personality type and the environment in which I grew up. But this post isn't about psychology so I'll leave it there.

It's like watching a sloth.

- Freelance writing (sounds pretty cool huh)

I've been going to some activities made possible by me being a member of the World Students in Korea blogging group. They want me to write about these events, so I'll do my job and briefly mention them.

At the beginning of December we had a kick-off event at the national museum. It consisted of getting to know the project, each other and a tour around the museum, but frankly I would've preferred not to wake up at 7:30AM for it. I'm a student! I have the right to sleep late!

The main purpose I applied for the blogging job was to network and I certainly achieved that in this limited period of time. The other event we were invited to and which I attended was a conference about fair society and global leadership.  For more detailed information about the conference, head on to my fellow blogger's site. Why do the job twice, I say. My 2 cents: the sessions were very interesting for a management student like me, but even more so were the discussions I had with some of the speakers.

The conference was held at a pretty grand hotel and everything else was just as grand. The speakers were experienced professors not only from Korea but also from e.g. the U.S. Here's one thing about Korea and English, by the way: if Koreans want to learn it, they only think of the U.S, U.K. and Australia. Because how could they speak English anywhere else, right? The root to this is that you couldn't even study in English here 10 years ago - we're talking about a developing country (in a way). H eh.

But this is not the reason I'm a now freelance writer. Woo! (See below)

- Next

Tomorrow I will work on some articles about Korea to get them published in a newspaper or two. I'll also have two final exams but they're not that big of a deal as they're going to be a piece of cake and the grades really won't matter anyway. Here the courses last for a whole four months and have two exams, mid-term and finals. And ohhh, I will also go book my flights if they let me.

I'll finish my finals (5 in total, as that is the number of courses I have) by Friday. By then I aim to have gone to visit the outdoor shopping places to get some souvenirs. I will also have applied for my dream job: a member committee position in AIESEC in Finland. I'll know whether they accept me by the end of January.

After the finals I'll be residing at a Korean friend's home and in the Philippines (if I get the flights). KLM will take me back to Finland in the end of December.