SEP in Korea

Korea exchange in KAIST

[mykoreaexchange]

Korean Postage

Just got back my korea postage today. It took 7 weeks to deliver home from KAIST - I used the slower sea mail option. I was so worried I wouldn’t get to see my stuff again because 6 weeks have passed, thank god it arrived! Kudos to the reliable Korean postal service :)

[mykoreaexchange]

Foreign Food Fix in Daejeon

When you have stayed in a foreign country for long enough, you will need an occasional fix for some familiar food. Here’s a list of food I’ve compiled for the foreigners living in Daejeon based on my exchange stint in KAIST.

PlayBurger

Located just along the main road from KAIST to Homeplus, it’s quite easy to spot this burger joint. The restaurant serves a generous portion of burger with hash-brown and salads. Because the portion is HUGE, I always make sure I come here on an empty stomach.

HouseGrill

This place is raved with reviews and is widely considered as the best burger outlet in Daejeon. I would say their burger is as good as Playburger’s. But their fries here are really something else - it’s one of the best I tasted in Korea. A pity it is out of the way from KAIST though, so I only went to try it once. (for map directions, read here).

Unknown

Sorry, I didn’t get the name of this burger place. But this place definitely deserved to be mentioned here because it’s my favorite burger place by far. It serves burgers as good as Playburger and fries on par with HouseGrill. Granted, the portion may not be as much as Playburger but it’s still a decent amount. And the price is much more affordable too. This modest restaurant is tucked away at some alley in Rodeo Street (aka Gung-dong) near KAIST. Look out for it’s yellow signboard - you’ll know you are in the right place if you see some cute menu named after superheroes like Captain America.

Pizzamaru

Enough of burgers, what if you are craving for some pizzas instead? There’s a pizza joint near KAIST that’s quite popular among students. It’s located just across the street near Hanbit Plaza. For as low as 6,000krw, you get to enjoy one whole pizza. Definitely a value for money deal!

Unknown

What if you are craving for some Asian food instead? There’s Vietnamese Pho, Chinese restaurants around KAIST. Unfortunately, it’s quite hard to find some Singaporean food in Daejeon. With some serious food sleuthing, I managed to find a Chinese restaurant serving kway tiao to fix my craving. Again I didn’t note down the name and address of this restaurant but I remember it is located within Gung dong area near to KAIST. Ride along the route from KAIST to Gung dong. Look out when you pass by the intersection where the police station is located at. There is a grocery store at the opposite side of the intersection and this restaurant is just in front of the grocery store. You’ll be able to spot it by the banner outside its store which features this kway tiao dish as well.

[mykoreaexchange]

Now that exchange ended, it’s time to revisit the wishlist I have drafted before coming to Korea.

Amazingly, I managed to complete everything on my wishlist except winter sports. On top of that, I got to experience many other things I didn’t expect as well. Just gonna add them to the list here.

Uniquely Korea experience

Watch a live baseball match

Attend spring concerts in universities

Enjoy Music Bank show

Feast on Korean BBQ - cheap and good

Try on traditional hanbok

Do some e-shopping over Gmarket/Auction/Interpark

Hunt around for places that appeared in your favorite k-drama/k-variety

Live in a goshiwon

Go paragliding

Try maekju, makgeolli, soju and some hangover ice cream

[mykoreaexchange]

Expenses

I recorded all my expenses in Korea, and I thought I could share it to give an idea of how much it costs for an exchange in Korea. I consider myself a frugal person - I saved as much as I can on weekdays in school so I can spend more on weekends when I travel. Plus I lived in Daejeon which is considerably cheaper than Seoul. So take this into consideration when planning your budget

Food expense (per meal): 3,000krw to 10,000krw

Accommodation* = 620,000krw for 1 semester

*on campus KAIST

Public transport = 1,250 krw onwards

Travel = Varies

Air tickets* = 800,000 KRW

* to Korea + back Singapore

Total expenses* = 3,530,228 KRW == SGD $4,189

* personal expenses + air tickets

I thought it might be impossible to keep my exchange under SGD5,000, but I did it! As you can see, compared to other countries, Korea is really an affordable destination for exchange. And there’s much to see so you won’t miss out any fun too. I’m so glad I’ve chosen Korea to go for exchange!

5k is not really a small amount to raise on your own, unless you have your exchange fully funded from your parents or scholarship. For the ordinary folks like me, try to secure as much financial grants as possible. As far as I know, some universities have grants for exchange students, but KAIST doesn’t have one. The only one available is GKS - Global Korea Scholarship - which is a public grant distributed to all Korean universities for exchange program. You will be nominated for this scholarship based on your academic results - you can’t apply for it directly. The subsidy amount wouldn’t be enough to cover all your expenses, but I’m sure it can still relieve you a sum off your budget. So I would say go for it if you can!

[mykoreaexchange]

Food Delivery

There’s a takeout culture in Korean schools. You can find pamphlets sticking around the dorms on all all kinds of korean delicacies - jajangmyeon, naengmyeon, jokbal, fried chicken, etc. It’s all convenient and good but it’s all in Korean. I told myself I will try ordering food once while on my exchange here.

And I did! The Korean classes I took here proved to be useful for times like this. We managed to order the fried chicken that we have been staring at our dorm doors for a good 3 months. What a sense of accomplishment haha. And the chicken tasted damn good too. From then on I think we have been ordering food like almost every other week. It’s really useful during weekends when stalls are closed and you are lazy to walk out to eat. Now wouldn’t it be cool if they have an app for food delivery so foreigners like us don’t have to struggle speaking over the phone. Apparently they have one in Seoul, but not in KAIST. Too bad. You can just see it as a motivation to learn more conversational Korean here.

[mykoreaexchange]

Spring Concert (with kpop idols)

Spring semester is best for exchange - not only do you get to see the full bloom of cherry blossom, but also attend the spring concerts held around Korea universities as well. If you are looking forward to meet your kpop idols without traveling around, here’s your chance. Around May to June, many universities in Korea will be bustling with their spring concerts. KU has its ipselenti, Yonsei has its akaraka, and KAIST has its own, well, spring concert (mehh~, there’s not really a name cus we are not known for our welfare compared to KU and Yonsei)

This year, KAIST invited TWICE and GFriend to perform on stage. I was pleasantly surprised at the lineup because I wasn’t expecting much to be honest. Typically, you wouldn’t hear any official announcement on which idol will be performing - possibly to prevent overzealous fans from stomping the school compound. Indeed, on the actual days of performance, KAIST was flooded with people from outside. Be prepared to camp early if you want a clear view without hundreds of handphone screens blocking your sight.

I went to KU concert too - but got to pay for that one because it’s not free (yes good thing KAIST’s was free). But I got to say it’s worth the money because there are more artists to see and the atmosphere is way way way more fun. I thought KAIST concert was already fabulous until I saw KU’s. Words can’t  describe the atmosphere you got to experience it yourself! I would definitely advise exchange students to go join as many spring concerts as you can. This is one experience unique in Korea that you wouldn’t want to miss out even if you are not a kpop fan!

[mykoreaexchange]

It’s been a long time since I updated this blog. Was busy in the second half of semester and now that the exchange is over, it’s finally time to revive this blog. I don’t think I’ll bother catching up with where I left off since I lost track of all the weekend getaways I did and also because I realized exchange is best left to be experienced then told. So I’m just gonna post some general information that might be useful to anyone. Hope this helps!

[mykoreaexchange]

Outskirts of Seoul

This week I headed back to Seoul again. I’ve been wanting to go explore other cities but kept coming back to Seoul for some reasons. It just goes to show that Seoul has too much to offer.

Stop 1: Nami Island

Gapyeong Station - 1hr+ ride from Seoul

The Nami trees - neatly planted

Filming site for Winter Sonata

Stop 2: Lotus Lantern Festival at Jogyesa Temple

Lanterns Parade

In celebration of Buddha’s Birth

Stop 3: Jijimbang

Sauna room

Sleeping overnight experience

Stop 4: Everland

A theme park for kids

Rides for teens

And a zoo for nature lovers

[mykoreaexchange]

Internet Shopping

So I’ve tried buying things online from gmarket last week - the authentic Korean one, not qoo10. And since most of the stuffs sold on gmarket are domestic - that means no international shopping fees and cheaper price! Delivery of the goods was fast too! I received my cap just 2 days after I ordered it. At this point you might be asking what’s so special about online shopping in Korea. Well, aside from the fact that you can get your goods much cheaper and the cheap thrill of being able to do online shopping by yourself in a foreign land, there’s also the perks of being able to order kpop concert tickets yourself! So Gmarket was just a trial for me (and really because I need a cap) to order concert tickets later, which I did through another online site - Auction.

But before you get to enjoy the fun of online shopping in Korea, you will have to face the trouble of internet banking here. Do a simple lookup on the Internet and you can easily see a trove of complaints on Korea’s internet banking. You will need to set up a local certificate on your device first before you can do Internet Banking. And getting that done is VERY tedious, no thanks to all the instructions being in Korean and the technical complexity of doing so. I made 3 trips down to the bank just to settle my certificate. I never understand why a technologically advanced country like Korea still insist on such backdated systems. In my country, you will just be issued with a OTP token and that’s all you need for internet banking. And isnt OTP more secure than local certificates too? Oh well, I guess Korean banks ain’t keeping up with technologies like the private sector.

[mykoreaexchange]

Midterms are over

Yay! Finally time to go out and play. Wanted to head out of Daejeon but ended up stuck here because of some last minute schedule changes, damn. But still, decided to make the best out of this precious weekend as far as I can.

1. Student Mobility Fair

This is the student exchange fair for KAIST students. I was asked to present and provide information of my school to the KAIST students. Many exchange students participated spontaneously to the event - I thought people would just try to worm their way out of this, I was wrong. Many people are willing to give back and share their exchange experience with others. I interacted with a few students myself and share with them information on NUS. Hopefully it helps them! I remember the time when I was preparing for my exchange and hoping for a first person contact I can consult on school life in KAIST. But there wasn’t any. Maybe NUS can emulate this by asking the exchange students in NUS to share their school experience too.

2. Movie - Captain America: Civil War

Went to catch the movie after exams in the lotte cinema. Was supposed to watch it on Wednesday but ended up watching it on another day instead. For the benefit of all foreigners, every last Wednesday of the month is designated as Korean Culture Day. You can enjoy half priced movie tickets along with free entries to most major museums/palaces. Come to think of it, that’s probably why I didn’t need to pay when I went to Gyeongbokgung last time, it was just nice the last Wednesday and I wasn’t even aware of it. So lucky haha :)

3. Baseball Match - Eagles vs Kia

Managed to get free baseball match tickets thanks to my HK friends. And my first baseball match goes to Daejeon home team - Eagles! It was a novel experience - as soon as we step into the stadium we can feel the euphoria from the crowd. If you don’t already know, baseball is like the national sports in Korea, every Korean is crazy about it. Even kids are engrossed in the match. Not sure if I am lucky or not but the match extended till almost 4 hours before it ended. I had pretty much a full crash course on baseball rules that day. Thanks to this I got a memorable first baseball match experience. Oh yeah, Eagles won that match that day!

4. Night Cycling

If you ever ran out of things to do in Daejeon, try night cycling. The expo bridge along the river has the best night view in the city. I’ll let pictures do the talking here:

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Hardwork

It’s 2:30 am in the wee hours, but you can still see people awake studying for exams. It is true that Koreans generally work very hard. Not just students. In the streets you see the elderly ahjummas pushing carts and working in the harsh weather. You’ll see people of their kind doing all sorts of jobs - clearing garbage, construction workers, and university graduates serving food. That’s an unusual sight in SIngapore, where usually the locals shun these low level jobs and choose to outsource them to foreign labour instead. There’s a strong stigma against these jobs back in my home, but it seems people don’t discriminate against these jobs here. Hardwork is what the society value, not your line of work. Here, it is customary to greet the cleaning ahjummas or security guard ahjussi out of courtesy. How nice would it be if Singapore can have such culture as well.

I used to think that meritocracy is the root of why we have become an apathetic society in Singapore. But somehow, Korea managed to pursue progress without eroding values. I am still figuring out the difference here. Maybe it’s because of different standards of meritocracy. Koreans do not have an explicit policy on meritocracy, but rather based it on the traditional value of hardwork that is deeply ingrained in the Asian culture. Perhaps it is by falling back to these traditional values that Korea managed to preserve its values while going forward.

[mykoreaexchange]

Cherry Blossom Week

I decided to stay in Daejeon this week to catch the last of cherry blossom. KAIST was really beautiful this week with lots of cherry blossoms and there is also a whole stretch of flowers outside the campus area. Heard that cherry blossoms only last for 2 weeks and I didnt want to miss it, so I really took lots of photos and videos (thanks to the handphone mount I bought from Daiso - a good investment indeed).

Flowers blooming along N11 road

Kids having fun roaming around the campus

Flush of flowers atop hill

Night view

Withering flowers by the end of the week :(

Besides flowers, there were also cherry blossom festivals celebrated within KAIST this week. There were performances from students as well as outside band. I attended the festivals (unfortunately there were no idols invited but) they were really awesome with the stage settings and the atmosphere. It’s said to be the only music festival within Spring Semester in KAIST so don’t miss it!

Student Performance

Games and music

Band Performance

We also went bike cycling around Daejeon this week. Now that Spring has come, the view around Daejeon was really nice. We also found some familiar Singaporean food around Daejeon and it was a warm welcome after the long Korean diet. 

A rare sight in Korea - Hor Fun! (Gung Dong area)

The Gapcheon River is flowing!

Night view of the “Helix Bridge”

[mykoreaexchange]

Business and Technology

Rather than just jotting down my weekend adventures, I thought I should also write down my thoughts during this exchange as well. Afterall SEP isn’t all about travelling only. So just to get started, I’ll start with some observations relating to my major - technology!

Students here in KAIST seem to be more technology savvy than our Singaporean counterparts. I saw many people using Slack and Trello - and it’s not just computing students, I see business students using them too! Frankly, I haven't seen any of the NUS students (outside SoC) using these agile tools yet.

And that brings me to the next point - why? Korean business students don’t just study business course, they call it business and technology management. I attended some business courses and I actually learnt much about latest technological trends - Alipay, mobile payment, cloud computing. Compare that to our business course back in Singapore, I don’t think our business students know these. There’s still a gap to be filled between business and technology in our education. That’s why we don’t see much of our (business) students using Slack and Trello. They are stuck with Excel sheets and Powerpoint - the traditional communication tools. In today’s business environment, business cannot be separated from IT. The fact that our education still segregates business courses from technology courses already put us one step behind our Korean counterparts.

[mykoreaexchange]

Seoul Getaway - DMZ

This week, I went back to Seoul packed with a full itinerary - as if to cover up for the previous weeks where I am stuck in Daejeon. Went to Gwangmyeong Cave, DMZ, and also went to catch the Yeouido cherry blossoms along Hangang River. Overall, a well worth 3 days trip spent in Seoul.

Day 1 - Gwangmyeong Cave:

Colourful lights in the cave

Golden Waterfall

Running Man has been here before!

Day 2 - JSA Tour

We went to the JSA amidst some political tension between N and S Korea. Earlier this year, NK has just fired long range missiles over the sea. And just last week, sabotaged SK communications by jamming GPS. Also, SK was engaged in talks with US and Japan while we are on the trip. I have been following the news closely since I signed for the trip, praying that nothing would go wrong in the trip (safety and money-wise). Luckily everything went on as per normal and we were able to catch the JSA tour in full. Here’s some photos from the trip. There’s not a lot since we are only allowed to take photos in designated locations, which makes the experience all the more precious I guess.

DMZ - Joint Security Area

The Conference Room - even the mic lines mark out the 38th Parallel

Bridge of no return - exchange of POW

Imjingak - Freedom Bridge 

Day 3: Yeouido Cherry Blossom

We managed to catch the early blooms of cherry blossoms in Yeouido along Han River. Thought it was a pity that we didn’t manage to catch the full bloom but guess what - a pleasant surprise awaits us when we go back KAIST. The whole school is blooming with cherry blossoms! There are even more flowers here than in Yeouido and the view is so breathtaking that we got outside visitors coming to our school to view the flowers for once! Seriously, I think KAIST deserve a spot in the top viewing places for cherry blossom alongside Yeouido and Jinhae. For once, there’s something to look forward to starting the week :)

It’s Spring time - cherry blossom!

Catching the flowers in Yeouido

More flowers back in school

A hill full of flowers in KAIST!

[mykoreaexchange]

It’s week 4 in KAIST and homework is piling up quickly. My socket programming assignment is killing me - they just dump the work at you expecting you to know how to do it. Or maybe it’s just the computing mods. Shouldn’t have taken 6 mods in the first place. But oh well, I guess I can use the time this week on these assignments since I am not going for the field trip. And there’s quiz to study for again next week. I feel like I study harder here than in NUS lol. But no matter how busy I am, I made a promise to myself that I’ll keep my weekends free for play and traveling. Afterall, I’m just here for exchange!

[mykoreaexchange]

Daejeon, again

Stayed in Daejeon for another week again because I didn’t manage to get into the ISO trip to Hadong. So it was another exploratory trip for me to find out more about Daejeon. I used the time this week to make a checklist of all the food and places I want to go during my exchange here. And since I’m trapped in Daejeon this week, I decided I might as well go for food-hunting and some bike cycling around Daejeon. I managed to discover a few new places around KAIST - Gung Dong, Lotte Departmental Store, and I even went in to explore a nearby university as well.

BBQ Buffet at 10,900 KRW per person!

HouseGrill - one of the best burgers in Daejeon

Street Performance at Jungangno

Chungnam National University - the neighbouring school to KAIST

[mykoreaexchange]

Daedunsan Provincial Park

This weekend we went for the Daedunsan field trip organized by KAIST Buddy Program. We set off to trek the Daedunsan Mountain, which was a one-hour ride away from KAIST. I didn’t think much of it until I saw the height of the mountain when we first reached. It was high, 878 meters high. That’s more than 5x times the height of the highest hill in Singapore. Unfortunately the cable car service was not operating that day, and we had to trek all the way up and down the mountain. We took about 2.5 hours trekking up and another 1.5 hours down. It was really exhausting, but the spectacular view on the summit was so worth the journey!

Mt Daedun from the ground

The treacherous journey up the mountain

Suspension bridge across peaks - Geumgang Bridge

Not challenging enough? Try the elevated version - Samseong Stairway

Mountain cliffs - Ain't No Mountain High Enough

The breathtaking view from above