Life at SNU..

Date: Sep 5, 2007 10:51 AM

Hey,

My third day of classes begin today at 10 30 am (that's about 7 am in India).

Started working out!! ( i know.. unbelievable but true..;)..) the thing is that we dint sweat here due to the really cold weather.. so for some kind of perspiration, one needs to visit the gym at least one hour a day.. I hope to continue doing it without laziness re-conquering its dominant position in my life.. :D

You know what... I started learning Korean too.. :) .. Its really easy to remember all the all the consonants and vowels. So far, we learnt enough Korean to read and write. But the thing is that we don't have much vocabulary, so cant understand.. Back to square one... But its really interesting to learn a new language and the teacher explains it in a really nice way.. When i am in the Korean class learning the alphabets and repeating them after the teacher, i get reminded of the times when we started learning A for Apple, B for Ball ... Feels like we are 5 years old, again .. :) Its so funny when some one comes in, the teacher says "A" .. we repeat "AAAA" .. he says "O", we say "OOOO" .. Feels so nostalgic :)

About my campus.. Tried walking from the main gate to the engineering building last day.. will never try that again.. Its uphill all the way. But one positive outcome of that tiring walk was that i could get a hitch hiker's view of the extent of our campus. I must say, SNU has got a really huge and beautiful campus. Clad with mountains all around the college is created in a beautiful valley with couple of lakes and all. The campus is spread across various TALL buildings, Engineering Building 301,302, College of sciences etc.. Very well organized and well connected with both public transportation and campus shuttle buses plying between the various buildings very frequently.

Something more about sophistication in Korea. While roaming here and there, I came across a dark pathway. Really dark. I was wondering why there are no lights and decided to explore further. Only when i walked forward, the lights started getting lit one by one in sequence as i moved forward. And when i walked back, they started getting switched off one by one behind me too. Look at the method they have implemented to save electricity!! Simply Elegant...

As it is with any modern and developed nations, the living is quite expensive here.. Seoul is ranked the third most expensive city in the world after Moscow and London. (ref: http://www.finfacts.ie/costofliving.htm). Last year it was second most expensive city in the world. Without the stipend we are getting, its really difficult to survive here. The cost of things are at least 1.5 to two times what we pay in India. On contrary to expectations, electronics goods too are not that cheap here. When i came here, i thought that i would buy a camera at cheap prices. But i found that the prices for electronic goods are comparable to that on India. The only advantage i can think of is the quality factor.

Now something about the Internet. I can dare say that S. Korea is one of the most wired countries in the world with Internet everywhere you go. About about the blazing speeds.. I will quote an example.. To download a 700 Mb file using torrents from Internet (not Intranet), it takes somewhere between 20 - 30 minutes whereas back home i used to cry at incomplete downloads even after one or two nights.. Do i need to say more about the speed ? :)

I could not find ONE mosquito or even a house fly yet in Seoul. May be that's the reason, the diseases are really rare here. People are generally healthy and sound. If we have some communicable disease like Malaria, we would be asked to go back to our home country due to fear of contamination. The diseases people have here is limited to cold and fever in the worst case.

We generally have to have our breakfasts in the morning between 7-8 am, Lunch between 12 - 1 30pm and Dinner between 6-7 30 pm. This is one schedule all Indians here at Seoul has to get used to.

Going for class.. Lots to mail but li'l time.. Am down with cold as of now.. but getting better.. Will try to post some photos, but i don't have a cam :( ... will borrow my friend's and take some snaps..

Stopping for now..

Khamsa Ham Nida (Thank You.. in Korean.. :)..)

Adios Amigo,
Kiran