The year 2017 has been amazing for me, but to the world it has not been that good. America got an annoying orange thing as their president, there were multiple shootings, tornados, bombings, hurricanes and so many more other awful things that have changed people's lives forever. Let's hope 2018 will be better for our beautiful earth and it's inhabitants.
But before I start depress you guys with my writings, I would like to tell you about my 2017. There are numbers, there are places and there memories embedded inside this post. Sometimes it might get confusing and sometimes pretty boring, but I wish you enjoy it neverthless. So many things happened and there's I no way I could remember all of them, but these are the main ones. I also wrote something quite similar last year and you can find it here. Be aware though, it is written completely in finnish. I might translate it later, we'll see.

In 2017 I..

Travelled by plane 11 times
Travelled in total of about 22,328 kilometres
Got to see 3 new countries which are Germany, South Korea and China
Went to 7 new cities
Lived in 2 different countries, 3 if you count Finland
Learned the basics of 2 languages (which both I'm still learning more about)
Dyed my hair at least 5 times and 3 different colors
Almost failed 3 of my courses
Wrote 59 new blog posts, this one included
Got 1 new piercing
Used 5 different tootbrushes
Worked as a waitress in a German hotel for 3 months
Sang in karaoke 10 times
Met so many new people who became friends and who I wish stay as my friends for a long time
Read 3 books (which is really little but I've been busy)
Slept in 7 beds (not in a way you might think, in a normal way. As in I slept in 7 different rooms this year)

Bought 8 new plants
Watched way too much Netflix (I tried to check from my viewing activity how much it exactly was but I got bored halfway through)

Highlights of 2017

Germany
My summer internship in Berlin, Germany was one of the best summers ever (you can read about it here in finnish). It was filled with laugh, new places, achy feet and so many experiences. I became closer with one of my friends as I had to share a room with her the whole summer, I got to speak lots of English and a little bit of German and Spanish and I got meetso many amazing (and also not so amazing) people. I learned that working as a waitress is definitely not for me. And after my time in Korea I was happy that I got to see Berlin again.

South Korea
I spent 4 months in a different side of the world, studying a major that was not even mine and I loved it. My time there was filled with wonder and so many great people and memories. I will never forget my time there and I wish everyday that I could return to Korea once again. I learned to be more flexible and how to adjust to a competely new culture and what it feels like to be the only foreigner in a subway full of Koreans. There were sad moments, happy moments, normal moments and sometimes even magical moments. There were moments where I realized I was actually able to do this, to go to a different side of the world all by myself. If you want to read about my adventures in Korea, you can find them all here.

If you compare this to my last year's list it obviously isn't as long. But that's because in 2016 lots of different, smaller things happened and in 2017 few big things happened. And also I can't really remember what happened before going to Berlin as memories of Berlin and Seoul have completely taken over my head.

After leaving beautiful Korea behind, I met with my friend in Germany. Specifically in Berlin. This had been our plan since the summer, so that we got to see Berlin even during the winter time.
I arrived to Schönefeld airport in the evening, after 15 hours of traveling. Both of my flights were slightly delayed due to the weather conditions (it started to snow in Korea right in the morning and in Moscow it had apparently been snowing the whole day), but thankfully I still made it to my connecting flight from Moscow. It is definitely going to be last time I ever go to the Sheremetyevo airport as it was really not that good of an airport. There were only 4 passport control desks open, 4 security check points open and people from two different huge planes. I was already so tired by the time I reached Moscow that my head was hurting thanks to the exhaustion. At that point I just wanted to reach Schönefeld as soon as possible. Thankfully I finally got to Schönefeld, met up with my friend and we started to head to our hostel. However thanks to a booking mistake I made, we soon realized that I had booked a 4 person co-ed dorm room. But we really didn't let that get us down and after getting some pizza we just headed to bed. The first and most exhausting day was finally over.
On the second day we slept relatively long, and headed shopping. In the end we found ourselves from Potsdamer Platz near a really beautiful Christmas market. I wanted to buy glückwein since I got recommended to do so by my friend. But in the end I felt too sick to get it so I didn't get one of the prettiest glasses I've seen nor did I get to taste glückwein.. After strolling through the Christmas market for a while we headed to see Thor - Ragnarök.
On the third day we went shopping again and jet lag was really much present. I felt really sick but I kept it to myself as I wanted my friend to be able to do some shopping at least. Though I'm pretty sure she saw that everything definitely wasn't OK. Finally after hours and hours of shopping and me not buying anything, we headed back to our hostel. And shortly after that I realized I couldn't keep anything inside me. Not even any liquids. So I spent my night running back and forth the bathroom and pretty much just suffering. Apparently I had exhausted myself too much and that was my body's way of telling me to slow down.
For our last day I just got some rest for the beginning of the morning, carefully ate something and decided I was feeling much better. So we headed shopping once again for the last of the Christmas presents.
It was really nice to get to see Berlin and to return at least for a while. I however noticed that Korea and Seoul had made a really big impact to my life and I had even forgotten what it was like to spend the summer in Berlin. Of course I miss all those memories in Berlin, but if I keep getting stuck to those memories I probably wouldn't be able to live in the moment that well.

What is it like to be an exchange student in Korea? Well, like you could probably see from the title, I am here to tell you what it is like and a few tips to make your exchange semester/year in Korea easier!

People stare, a lot.

For me this took a long time to get used to. People stare. They actually stare a lot. Especially the older people. But after I visited Shanghai I realized that in Korea they really don't stare as badly as in Shanghai.

If you're not really that into K-pop or K-dramas you might sometimes feel a bit like an outsider with the other exchange students.

At the beginning of my semester this is how I felt. A lot of people kind of knew each other already because they had created fan chats on kakaotalk, outside of the exchange student groups. But you don't have to worry, you will find your people eventually. But be prepared that a lot of people ask you questions like "Do you like BTS?" or "What's your favorite group?". I do watch korean dramas and listen to korean pop sometimes, but I'm not that big of a fan. Or more like I wasn't that big of a fan. Now due to curiosity I have kind of turned into ARMY (BTS fans) trash and I also started liking a lot of different groups after seeing them perform live.

Try to learn the hangul before going

I really wished in the beginning of my exchange that I would know the hangul, "korean alphabet", because it would have helped a little with everyday things. Besides hangul, I recommed learning the basics like "Hello","Thank you", "Goodbye". One of the resources I used when learning hangul was Korean Wiki Project. Of course I also learned quite a lot through my elementary korean, but lots of the time I didn't really listen during the classes.

Be prepared that you will be hanging out with mostly international students - unless you speak Korean

 A lot of exchange students I know didn't really get the change to meet that many Koreans, which meant that they usually hung out with other exchange students or international student. In our university we have e- and f-lounges, which are lounges for korean students to learn english and french. And that's how the native english speakers and native french speakers often made korean friends. For other's you either had to get to know the people in your classes or get to know korean through connections.

It's okay to feel homesick 

I had hard time accepting that I was homesick. After all, I was in one of the biggest journeys of my lifetime, why would I want to be somewhere else? But as soon as you accept that you're feeling homesick, the faster you will start feeling better. I promise that even though it feels awful in the beginning, it will get better.

Try to do something new every week

This is something that I really regret not doing. Usually I would just stick to the same daily routines and eventually it would have gotten boring. I definitely advise you to at least try to do something new everyday. Even if it's something small like going to the library for the first time, or eating something you have never eaten before.

You will probably gain some weight

Oh the harsh truth. You will eat a lot of new foods and you will probably snack quite a lot as well. And that means that you will probably gain some weight. And that is completely okay and normal and it happens to almost every single exchange student.

Remember to study 

I know, you've come to Korea to see the culture and to experience new things. But the thing is, that studying is actually big part of korean culture. A lot of times during exam periods I would see students staying in the library until the morning. They would take some naps at the library, get some food from the library's convenience store (who would have believed that there's a convenience store inside the library??) and just continue their studies. But I'd rather not recommend going that extreme. Just do as much as your home university requires you to do. In my case they only wanted me to pass my courses and they didn't really care about my grades that much.

When you go home everything is still probably the same, but you're not

Sometimes it will probably be hard to understand that even though you're gone, people home will just continue their lifes normally. And when you get back you would expect that things have changed as drastically as you have. But the harsh truth is, that most probably everything is just the same as it was when you left. It might be hard to accept at first that you now kind of have to return to the same old life you had before you went to Korea and probably no one around you won't really understand, because they have not been through the same things as you have gone through during your exchange in Korea. And they might not understand why you keep talking about your experiences there over and over again, but you can still message the friends you made during your exchange. Or if you're lucky enough, you can meet with them and talk about your experiences together and think about the good old days when you still were exchange students in Korea.

I'm back in Finland. What the heck. Everything feels still really unreal, I can't believe the adventure is already over. It felt just like a yesterday when I flew from Finland all the way to the other side of the world, to South Korea all by myself. Even though I hate to admit this, time really does fly.
My exchange semester has been one of the greatest and weirdest experiences in my life. I have made friends from different countries (though it seems that I have surrounded myself with mostly people coming from Germany), experienced a culture completely different from my own, felt homesick for the first time in my life and learned to be more me.
But what does the life have in store for me now? Well, first of all I'm moving in with my friend and I'm planning on going on Interrail next summer. And I continue my tourism studies, which honestly I am very happy about. Studying business in Chung Ang just made me realise how much I actually like studying tourism. Sometimes I was so confused because it just wasn't my major and I honestly couldn't care any less. I only wanted to pass my courses and get the needed credits. Besides studying and travel planning, I've been planning something else as well, something that kind of combines both of those things. But since I'm not quite sure about that thing yet, I won't write that much about it. I might write some kind of thinking of doing this thing, but still not quite sure so here's some reasons why I should do the thing and why I shouldn't - post. But we shall see.

When I was younger I wanted to be a vet, before that I wanted to be an actress and after that I was doing research on how to become a librarian. And just like when I was younger, I still haven't figured out what I want to be when I grow up. Even though I technically should already be a grown up. Right now I want to be a travel guide or a flight attendant, even though I'm deadly scared I'm deadly scared of flying and don't want to give up my nose piercing. What I want to do when I grow up keeps changing the same way it changed when I was younger. I can't seem to be able to decide what I want to do for the rest of my life. Some people keep telling that at my age I should start preparing to settle down and to start figuring out what I want to do with life. But my life is just beginning. Why should I, at the beginning of my life, already know what I want to do for the next 60 or 70 years?

The photos used in this photo are taken from my travels.

It's only starting to hit me that in two weeks I'm no longer in Korea. I honestly have no idea what to do when I go back to Finland. How do things even work in Finland? Do I bow when I go to the store? Do I even greet the worker at the shop? How do I go to school? How does finnish university even work? The other day I even forgot where I live in Kuopio, because I haven't been to my own apartment in over half a year now. I actually had to message my friend and ask her what my address is and what floor do I live in.. And I'm pretty sure she thought I was drunk..
Of course it's nice to go back again and get to eat Fazer's chocolate and proper breakfast again. And I get to cook again! If I still remember how.. I haven't been able to cook or bake since the end of May and it has slowly started to drive me insane. Who would have known that there would be a day when I wish I could cook to myself again. I honestly hated it so much before. Now all I can just about is what I'm going to cook first as soon as I get to my apartment on the 22nd. I can't wait to be able to eat whatever I cook myself.
Now that my return to Finland is getting nearer and nearer I just keep thinking about the things that I miss there. It's funny how previously the only thing I've missed has been my friends and my family, but now I've started to realize that I've actually missed a lot of other stuff. Like normal bread. Bread, that is not sweet but salty. I don't honestly understand how Koreans can eat the "bread" they sell here. It's more like a pastry than a bread. I've also missed cheap fruit and vegetables. Bananas are no longer going to pay me 5,000 won but instead just few euros.
And talking about money.. I don't have to change wons to euros in my head anymore. I can just instantly know the price and whether or not it's expensive. And I don't have to pay to withdraw money from my account! Nor do I actually have to carry cash around or go to the ATM to check how much money I have on my account.
There are so may things I've missed about Finland without even realizing it. But there are so many different things that I'm going to miss about Korea too. Like how my school building right next door and Juicy (oh my dear Juicy please come to Finland) and the subway and the big city and the people I've met here and so many other things. I will miss learning korean and speaking english all the time. I will miss being surrounded by people who have no idea what I'm talking when I speak in finnish. I will even miss those weird guys that ask for pictures with you when you're out with your friends. I don't even know why, I'll just miss them, even though I always found them creepy.
I shouldn't think about the things that I'm going to miss yet, I still have few weeks left. But I can't really help but think that soon I'm out of Korea and I might not be able to come back here in a really long time. My time in Korea has been just amazing, even though sometimes I really haven't felt like that. But it has. I don't really know when it will really really hit me that I realize that this might be the last time seeing most of these people and the last time of me studying abroad (thought at the moment I am seriously considering doing a double degree which would mean a year of studying in belgium).
It still feels so unreal, that after almost 7 months abroad I actually have to return to Finland.
In the beginning of this year I definitely would not have believed how big of an impact Germany and Korea would leave on me and how much would happen on my 7 month adventure.
I still can't believe I'm actually going home.

Today our school organized our 4th, and last, CAU Korea Exploration Program (or shortly CKEP). We left early in the morning towards Paju, which is located at Gyeonggi province. Our first destination was Camp Greaves, former US base know as a filming spot of the korean drama Descendants of the Sun. Descendants of the Sun is one of my favorite dramas, so it was really interesting to go there. And we even got to wear the uniforms, take lots of photos and make our own dog tags. I wrote my name in korean (안니) and Korea 2017 to mine. Visiting the place honestly made me feel like rewatching the drama again since I don't really remember that much about it.

Me and my friend in our military uniforms

After Camp Greaves we ate our free lunch and headed to the 3rd tunnel. The 3rd tunnel is a tunnel digged by North Koreans and it was designed for a suprise attack on Seoul from North Korea. The North Korea however claimed they built it for coal mining, but that is not possible since there is no coal in the soil at that area. We walked down a really steep incline and the tunnel just kept getting smaller and smaller until you had to walk with your head bowed down. At the end of the tunnel we got to see the second barricade. Getting down there was really easy, but going back was a completely different thing. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos in the tunnel, and after coming up I was too tired to even take photos from around and just went back to the bus instead.

After the 3rd tunnel we started heading to the Dora observatory, where you could actually see one of North Korean's cities, Gaeseong and a village called Kijong-dong. It is also know as a propaganda village, since the North Korean propaganda music is played there and the city is empty. Unfortunately the view wasn't the best possible since there was quite a lot of fog. We could actually hear North Korean propaganda music being played from other side of the border. I've also heard that once South Korea got revenge on that by playing known south korean pop from their side's speakers. 

You can't really see it from this photo, but over there in the fog is Gaeseong and on the right is the propaganda village.

We only had 20 minutes of time to be at the observatory since our schedule was kind of tight. When we were done at the observatory our next destination was the Dorasan station. It is South Korea's most northern train station and the first station towards North. It is only used once a day for tourists travelling from Seoul to DMZ area and it was built in hope of the Koreas uniting one day. If the Koreas were to be united the trains would be able to come all the way from Europe to Seoul. I really wish I get to see Koreas unite in my lifetime and get to take the train from Russia, near the Finnish border, all the way to Seoul. 

The station is 205 kilometres from the North Korean capital Pyeongyang and 56 kilometres from Seoul. It is also located just 7 kilometres from Gaeseong.

Sometimes because of homesickness and feelings of loneliness I forget how lucky I am to be in Seoul. The other day I had the worst case of homesickness in my whole time here. All of my friends were either busy or I just didn't feel like bothering them, so I was just in my room. Bored, homesick and feeling kind of lonely. So I went out for a walk. I got lost and walked way too much with wrong pair of shoes, but I got to see so many beautiful views on my way. And it made me remember again how lucky I was to be in this beautiful city.
After walking for god knows how long, I ended up to a subway station and just decided to take the subway back home. Just the fresh air and the views I saw made my day so much better and made me forget about all the homesickness. Because I remembered again why I do this, why time after time I go to places where I know no one and leave my comfort zone. I do it because if I stay home, I wouldn't be able to see so many beautiful places, I wouldn't be able to meet people from all over the world and I wouldn't be able to experience the things I've experienced while being on my adventures. I am so lucky to be here, but sometimes I just seem to forget that.
That's all for today, see you next time.

The island is not that big so it doesn't take more than 4~5 hours to explore everything, making it a good day trip destination from Seoul.

Finally got around writing the part two from my small trip to Shanghai. The first part you can find here. 


On the third day of being in Shanghai, I got to sleep quite long. And that made me so much more happier.  Because we didn't have that much planned we just decided to go shopping. My goal was to find a backbag and a winter jacket. Well.. I didn't find either one of those. Did I find anything else? Nope. And why is that? Because I thought that I had no money left, but on my last day it turned out that I had completely forgotten about the money I exchanged beforehand in Korea.. You should've seen how pissed I was at my own stupidity..


On the fourth day, we got some breakfast at the hotel (best breakfast I've had in a while) and headed out. Truthfully I wasn't quite sure what our destination was, since my friend had planned everything out. When we arrived at the subway station we started having a bit of a problems of finding how to get to the destination: China Art Museum.
After wandering around in a shopping mall looking for a way out for almost an hour, we found our way out and towards the art museum. There was no entrance fee which was awesome, since I still thought at that point that I had no money..


After the museum we decided to jump into one of those tourist buses. It cost us 40 RMB (~5 €) which was really cheap to me. We got to see quite a lot and in the end we ended up taking two different tours that were both included into the price. But we kind of realized too late that we were nowhere near Shanghai Tower where we were planning on going to next. So we jumped off the bus and started looking for a subway to get to our destination. It took us a while.. And when we finally found the subway and got to the Shanghai Tower it was already dark.



Our first plan was to arrive just before sunset so we would get to see the sunset, but since we got lost earlier we were a bit late. But the night view is not that bad either. There were so many lights and seeing Shanghai from waaaay up high made me realize how big of a place Shanghai actually is. The Shanghai Tower is world's second highest building and I'm so happy we went to see it. I definitely recommend going there when visiting Shanghai. My friend told me that the better known Pearl Tower was apparently not worth the money but I don't really know about that since I didn't go to Pearl Tower.
After spending few hours at the Shanghai Tower we decided to head back to the hotel since I had to wake up quite early the next morning for my flight back to dear Seoul.

Oopsiedaisie, almost a month went by without a single new post. Well, let's just say that life has been kinda busy. But yeah, let's get into the post now without further ado.
I went to Shanghai last Thursday for 5 days to see my friend, who is there as an exchange student for a semester, and came back this Monday. It was really interesting to get to see a completely different culture from what I've gotten used to here in Korea. Sometimes I was really confused, because I'm already used to Korean culture and their manners. I've divided my Shanghai trip to two different parts, because I feel like it would be waaaay too long as a one post.

I learned how to make gifs so I turned my snapchat story from Thursday into one, just for the heck of it.

On Thursday when I arrived my friend came to get me from the airport and had to wait for me an hour longer than expected because the lines in the customs were so fricking long. I couldn't reach her in any way because my Korean phone didn't work and my Finnish phone refused to send her text messages for some reason.. And of course the wifi at the airport only worked if you had a Chinese phone number. Not such a good start to the trip, to be quite honest :'D.
When I finally got through customs and got my luggage my friend guided me through subway to the subway station near the hotel. Well... Apparently there's two same hotels with a same name :''D. And of course we ended up going to the wrong one.. Thankfully the "wrong" hotel called us a taxi and we finally got to the right hotel, which wasn't that far away thankfully. After getting my stuff to the hotel we just went to eat and after that straight to bed because by that point I was already exhausted.

On the second day we headed to one of the most magical places on earth, DISNEYLAND!! I've never been to Disneyland before so I was really excited about it. Even though we arrived quite early there was already a lot people queing up for the rides. We had to queue for each ride at least 40 minutes.. And I'm not a really patient person.. But we survived and got into at least the most popular rides. My favorite one was definitely the Tron one and in the end we ended up going to that one twice. We left quite early because I was already sick with the flu when we came there and by the end of the evening I started to feel even more sicker. So it was better to leave early than stay longer and to get sicker.

Alcohol. People love to hate it or either love to drink it. It is a social lubricant for people like me, a bit shy and kind of not good at talking. Here in Korea people work really hard, which means that they also have to party hard. Right? Well, not really. But I've noticed a lot of people like to let their steams out by partying. And because Koreans drink quite a lot they of course have many drinking games. And as I am Tourism Managment student, who are apparently known to party a lot, I felt kind of obligated to write about this. So here we go.

3-6-9
The first drinking game I'm gonna tell you guys about is called 3-6-9. It's a counting game and the more intoxicated people are the more harder it is.
You don't need anything special for this game except a big bunch of people and alcohol (or water if you don't drink alcohol). Literally any kind of alcohol is good enough.
So you start with one person saying the number one and the second saying the number two. When it's the third person's turn, instead of saying number three they must clap. If instead of clapping the person says three, they have to drink and the game starts from the beginning. The same rule also applies to numbers six and nine. Whenever there is either three, six or nine in the number, the person has to clap intead of saying the number. If you get to thirty that's when it gets a bit more complicated. Since every number from 29 to 39 has one of those numbers you just have to keep clapping. Usually at this point someone will make the mistake of saying the number instead of clapping and they have to drink.

Baskin Robbins 31
This is yet another counting game. In this game the dreaded number is the number 31. You start counting from the number 1 and go all he way to the number 31. The person who is the number 31 has to drink. However one person can also say 1-2-3, and then the next person 4-5-6. However the max. number of numbers you can say is 3.  So you can either say 1, 1-2 or 1-2-3. There's also some kind of dance and a song involved, but I don't know enough about those to give the instructions.

Have or have not 
This is a really good game for getting to know the people you're playing with. At the beginning of this game you raise five fingers just like you were about to give someone a high-five. Go around in order and say something like "I've never lost my phone while drunk". And the people who have done that thing, fold a finger. Then the next one says and it goes on until one of the players has no fingers left. That person loses and has to drink. I was taught that the loser has to drink their whole drink, but you can do however feels the best.

And those are the ones I've heard most about. I might make an updatet list later on if I find someone who teaches me more drinking games.

But that's all for this time, see you next time!

I don't know if anyone noticed but I put my blog private for a few days, because I wanted to make some changes without people getting annoyed with me :'D.
So what are those changes then Anni?
First of all, I archived some of my older posts because I just feel really cringey whenever I see them in my blog and I feel like they aren't the way I really want them to be like.
The second change is that I have decided to change the whole blog into English. Why? Just because. I feel like I can express myself better in English than in Finnish. I will leave some of my old posts (that are in Finnish) to the blog under the tag 'in finnish'. I realize that some people who have so far been reading my blog are mostly Finnish which means that this might not be as fair for them. And I'm really sorry, but this is just how I like writing now.
That's all of the changes I've made, there's only two major changes but still the blog changes a lot.

TL;DR suomeksi: Eli olen päättänyt muuttaa blogin kokonaan englanninkieliseksi, sillä tunnen voivani ilmaista itseäni paremmin englanniksi. Jätän osan vanhoista suomenkielisistä postauksistani kuitenkin blogiin ihan suomenkielisinä, sillä en jaksa/halua niitä kääntää.

See ya next time,

What is it like to study at my korean university? What university do I even go to? Those are the things people might be wondering about. That's why I'm writing this post.
So, I study Business administration in Seoul at Chung Ang University (충앙대학교). I'm going to be here for one semester so until 18th of December. So far it has been really easy for me to study here, since I only have four courses and school only 3 times a week (Mon, Tue & Thu). I have two courses from general studies and two from my own major. In Finland I study Tourism Management but since CAU doesn't offer tourism managment studies in english, I have to study business administration. But it doesn't really bother me, since I have to take some business courses in Finland as well.

 
Elementary Korean language
Just a basic Korean course. We have one 95 minute class once a week, on Mondays. So far we've just been studying hanguls and some basic words. I have my midterm on this course next Monday and I still haven't learned the hangul perfectly.. It looks like the whole weekend is going to be full of stuidying. On this course we have midterm and a final exam, which also has an oral exam.

Business Communication
This course is one of my favorites. No exams, just two or three quizzes and quite a lot of assignments. At the beginning of the class the professor explains how to do a thing and then we do the thing. For example how to write a negative message or how to tell directions. Then we do an assignment on it and after we're done we discuss it either as groups, pairs or with the whole class. Quite an easy and interesting course.

Marketing
Also one of my favorites. The professor in this class mostly just lectures, sometimes ask questions and suddenly might just say "okay i'm done" and the class is over. At first his teaching method annoyed me but now I've gotten used to it. This course is actually really easy for me because I've already taken 3 courses of marketing before (2 in vocational school and 1 at my home university). Sometimes the teacher has a really bad english but I'll manage. Two exams and a big group project.

Contemporary Korean Popular Culture
Quite a boring course to be honest. It sounded really good when I chose it, but it ended up not being the way I expected it to be. We just learn about how Korean popular culture became the way it is these days and how hallyu wave started. It could be more interesting, but so far I'm not really interested in the K-Pop history. However I do believe it's going to be more interesting after the midterm, since we start learning more about cinematic history. Two exams and maybe one group project, not quite sure.

At the beginning of the semester I had some other courses as well, but I ended up dropping them. I am now doing the minium amount of credits needed, but it's okay. And I know for certain that as soon as I get back to my home university it is going to be really hard and busy, since I have to start completing my project studies and the courses that I have missed while being in Korea. Thankfully I still have three more months to just relax.

Okay, that's all for this time. If you want to get a notification to your email whenever I post a new post, you can find a subscribtion box from the right. See you next time!

Me and two of my friends have started a habit of going to a new cafe every Wednesday. Last wednesday we went to a sheep cafe called Thanks Nature Cafe in Hongdae and this week we ended up going to a cat cafe. And because I love cats more than life itself I, of course, had to write a post about it.

The cat cafe was called Cat Cafe Playground and it is located in Myeongdong. The entry fee is 6,000 won (~ 4 €) and it included one drink. Not that bad if you ask me. The cafe had probably close to 30 cats, many different breeds and sizes. Some cats had collars that told something about them e.g. yellow meant that the cat was on an diet, red that the cat might sometimes bite etc. Some of the cats also had blue collars and at first we didn't know what those meant. However we found it the hard way.. It apparently meant that those cats get upset stomach and throw up, if they are fed a bit too much. And how did we find that out? Well, let's just say that we apparently had given too much food to one of the cats and it decided to return the food to us..

Last friday our school organized us a trip to see Doosan Bears vs. SK Wyverns game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium as part of our CKEP (Cultural Korean Exploration Program). The trip was completely free and the competition to get there was quite intense. I myself signed up for it as one of the first people and thankfully I got a spot. I don't really like baseball but I heard that Korean baseball game is something you really have to experience. The atmosphere at the stadium was amazing and I ended up staying until the end of the game, even though the bus back to the school already left at 9pm.


I was also cheering Doosan Bears to win. We got inflatable sticks from our school, and we just beat those together instead of clapping. Below there is a video showing the atmosphere at the stadium. Like you can see in the video, right in front of the audience there is a stage where someone was telling us how to cheer at that moment and what to sing or yell. Sometimes cheerleaders also danced on the stage.

In the end we ended up losing to SK Wyverns 11-4. Of course it's sad, but truthfully speaking Doosan Bears did play really poorly. 

Homesickness.  It might just suddenly suprise you in middle of the day. Even if you are out having fun, homesickness can just suddenly appear and ruin your whole day. I miss Germany. I miss my friends in Finland. I miss the summer nights in Berlin. There are so many things that I miss. Sometimes I feel really lonely here. I have gotten new friends from all over the world but I still feel so lonely. Of course I've only been here for a week and I'm probably just feeling the culture shock. This is so different than in Western countries. But that's what I came here for, to see and experience a new culture that is different from my own.


I believe that when I get used to life here I won't feel so lonely anymore. However sometimes the loneliness just appears, especially when I see my friends in Finland having fun with each other or when no one has time for a video call because of the time difference. But everything is gonna be alright. Today I thankfully have stuff to do so that I don't have too much time to think about what people in Finland are doing. 

Lupailin aiemmin, että avaisin vähän paremmin viisumirumbaa. Itselläni varsinkin viisumin hakemisen alkutaipaleessa tuntui olevan paljon ongelmia, sillä Etelä-Korean lähetystön sivuilta ei löytänyt kauheasti mitään uusinta tietoa. Onneksi he olivat kuitenkin merkinneet sähköpostinsa sivuilleen, joten otin heihin yhteyttä sen kautta useammankin kerran.
Hain siis itse tosiaan D-2 opiskelijaviisumia, eli en tiedä kuinka samanlainen se on muihin viisumihakemuksiin verrattuna. 

Tarvitsin yllättävän paljon kaiken maailman dokumentteja ja papereita viisumihakemukseni liitteeksi ja tässä on lista niistä kaikista asioista, joita sen viisumin hakemiseen tarvitsin:

• itse viisumihakemus. Sain pohjan sähköpostilla lähetystöstä, kun sitä en löytänyt pitkänkään etsiskelyn jälkeen. Lopulta se olisikin ollut siellä ihan näkyvällä paikalla heidän sivuillaan.. (mukana tuli olla yksi 3,5x4,5cm passikuva)
• Recommendation letter.Tämän pyysin meidän kv-vastaavaltamme, allekirjoitettuna ja leimattuna. 
• Proof of enrollment. Luulin aluksi että ihan pelkkä ote opintosuorituksista riittäisi, mutta jonkin aikaa mietittyäni tajusin ettei se ole sama asia, joten kävin hakemassa tämänkin opintoimistosta ennen Saksaan lähtöä (tietenkin allekirjoitettuna ja leimattuna).
• Todistus siitä, että olen suorittanut ensimmäisen vuoden opintoni, allekirjoitettuna ja leimattuna.
• 54 € (otin siis ihan normaalin opiskelijaviisumin, jolla pääsen kerran maahan)
• Valokopio passista
• Itse passi
• Palautuskuori (valmiiksi maksettu kirjattu kirje) (tämän laitoin, koska muuten se olisi pitänyt hakea Helsingistä)
• Todistus siitä, että pystyn elättämään itseni Koreassa. (Tähän riitti kun sain koululta vaan paperin, jossa luki että saan Kelalta tämän ja tämän verran rahaa, lainaa tämän ja tämän verran ja koululta liikkuvuusrahaa tämän ja tämän verran. Tietenkin leimattuna ja opintotoimiston henkilön allekirjoittamana)
• Visa issuance number. Kouluni Koreassa lähetti tämän minulle kesäkuun lopussa. 

Today marks my 5th day here! School started on monday and so far it's been really easy. But easiness might be because it's "shopping week" which means that this week people can drop and add their courses. I dropped one of my courses already because it ended up being too hard for me. I'm studying Business Administration here, even though in Finland I study Tourism Management. The course I dropped was Global Business and it was Master's course. Maybe it was better to drop it and take Business Communications instead. Hopefully it's a little bit easier. I actually have really easy schedule because I'm only taking 5 courses here. 

I haven't really had that much time to explore because of jet lag. Thankfully I'm starting to slowly get used to the local time. Sometimes it's really annoying to live in a different time zone than most of my friends since keeping in contact with them is really hard. But I'll manage, the world won't end if I can't contact my friends in Finland all the time. But that's all for today, I was just thinking of updating you guys a little about the life here.  

Kun itse valmistauduin Chung Ang Universityyn hakemiseen en jostain syystä löytänyt yhtään mistään tietoa asiasta. Englanniksi löytyi erittäin vähän ja suomeksikin löytyi pari jotain vanhaa blogia. Joten ajattelin, että mikäli joku joskus haluaa sinne opiskelemaan niin kirjoitan step-by-step mitä itse tein ja miten kaikki miulla sujui. Varoitan jo etukäteen, että tästä tulee tavallista pidempi postaus.

Tämä kaikkihan siis tosiaan alkoi helmikuussa 2017, jolloin tuli sähköpostia vaihtoon lähtemisen mahdollisuudesta. Kaukokaipuu oli niihin aikoihin ihan huipussaan (ja on kyllä vieläkin, tuskin siitä koskaan tulen pääsemään eroon) ja tietysti pelkkä ajatuskin vaihdosta kuulosti aivan järjettömän mahtavalta. Viikon verran mietin, että mihin ihmeeseen mie nyt oikein lähtisin vaihtoon. Ensin mietin Skotlantia, koska sinne halusin mennä suorittamaan alunperin koko tutkintoni. Se ei kuitenkaan jostain syystä tuntunut enää oikealta. Pikkuhiljaa päähän alkoi muodostua ajatus Etelä-Koreaan lähtemisestä. En edes ole varma mistä se lähti, se vaan jotenkin putkahti päähän.

Minähän sitten tietysti aloin kirjoittamaan papereita pari päivää ennen deadlineä ja sain ne saman päivän aikana lähetettyäkin eteenpäin. Jonkin aikaa siitä tuli sitten ilmoitus, että vihreät palavat, jatka vaan hakuprosessissa eteenpäin. Täyttelin sitten mobility-onlinen kautta ihan älyttömän monta lomaketta ja juoksin niihin vuoronperään allekirjoituksen kv-vastaavalta. Koska olen menossa vaihtoon Euroopan ulkopuolelle, pääsin myös täyttämään tukiraha-anomusta (tukiraha oli 1 000 euron suuruinen) koululle. Siihen piti laskea ja eritellä kaikki mahdollinen mitä se reissu tulee maksamaan, kertoa miksi halusi vaihtoon ja mitä uskoi hyötyä uskoi vaihdosta olevan. Kaikki tietenkin englanniksi. Tukiraha-anomukseni hyväksyttiin seuraavana päivänä sen lähettämisestä. Miun piti myös kirjoittaa motivation letter, ottaa virallisen näköinen valokuva, täyttää kaikki tietoni järjestelmään ja kirjoittaa Learning Agreementiin alustavasti mitä kursseja halusin ottaa. Kursseista tulen myöhemmin kirjoittamaan paremman postauksen, kunhan pääsen ne aloittamaan.

Kun olin vihdoin ja viimein saanut paperit valmiiksi, vein ne opintotoimistoon ja he lähettivät ne eteenpäin. Pian tämän jälkeen tuli ilmoitus, että host university oli hyväksynyt hakemukseni ja sieltä tuli ihan mukavan kattava tietopaketti sähköpostilla. Tietopaketissa mm. kerrottiin koulun omasta hausta, asuntolasta (jonne muuttaakseen tarvitsee tuberkuloosi-todistuksen), viisumin hakemisesta, kursseista, lentokentältä hausta ja kaikesta muusta tärkeästä.

Tämän jälkeen hakeuduin terveydenhoitajalle juttelemaan rokotuksista. Terveydenhoitaja käski sitten ottamaan yhteyttä kotikunnan terveyskeskukseen rokotetietojen saamiseksi. Soitin sitten sinne ja pyysin rokotetietojani. He lähettivät rokotetietoni minulle postissa. Siitä sitten sain ajan rokotelääkärille, joka antoi reseptit aivokalvontulehdusrokotteeseen, japanin aivokuumerokotteeseen sekä lavantaudin rokotteeseen. Kaikkia noita oli onneksi paikallisessa apteekissa, joten noudin ne vaan sieltä. Kävin samana päivänä ottamassa aivokalvontulehdusrokotteen sekä ensimmäisen erän japanin aivokuumerokotusta terveydenhoitajan avoimella vastaanotolla. Toisen osan japanin aivokuumerokotteesta otin päivää ennen lähtöäni Saksaan. Lavantautirokote oli puolestaan suun kautta otettava, joten sen pystyin ottamaan omatoimisesti Saksassa. Koulu onneksi maksoi minulle takaisin ottamani rokotteet, koska ne maksoivat 350 €.. Kuluista voisin myöhemmin myös kirjoitella lisää.

Itse hakeminen sinne kouluun tapahtui sitten netin kautta. Ennen sitä kuitenkin koulun piti lähettää Chung Angiin nomination letterit tai jotain sen tyylistä. Kun ne oli lähetetty ja hakuaika alkoi toukokuun alussa, koulu lähetti minulle salasanan ja käyttäjätunnuksen internethakemukseen.Täytin kaikki siellä päässä ja luulin, että ne tulisi lähettää vielä paperisenakin, mutta luulin väärin.

Kesäkuussa tuli sitten ilmoitus, että minut oli nyt virallisesti sinne hyväksytty ja pystyin aloittamaan viisumirumban. Koska en ollut Suomessa koko kesänä, lähetin passini ja tarvittavat asiakirjat postissa äidilleni ja hän lähetti ne sitten Helsinkiin Etelä-Korean suurlähetystöön. Tarvittavia asiakirjojahan siis olivat se hakemus itse, documents proving personal finance for stay (joka oli siis koululta saamani todistus, että saan Kelalta rahaa ja koululta rahaa ennen reissua.), suosittelukirje ammattikorkeakoulultani, visa issuance number, todistus koulultani että olen suorittanut ainakin yhden vuoden opintoni, yksi passikuva (kokoa 3,5 cm x 4,5 cm), passi, valokopio passista, valmiiksi maksettu kirjattu kirje (jossa merkittynä palautusosoite) sekä 54 euroa käteisenä. Ihan kamalasti kaikkea, joista kaikki eivät tainneet edes olla tarpeellisia.. Kun viisumi oli myönnetty he lähettivät sen takaisin äidilleni, joka sitten lähetti sen minulle postin kautta takaisin Saksaan. Kirjoittelen varmaan myöhemmin paremmin tästä viisumirumbasta, sillä itse en ainakaan hakiessa löytänyt mistään kunnollista tietoa kuinka kaikki hoituu Suomessa.

Saksassa minun täytyi hankkia itselleni tuberkuloositodistus. Ennen kuin lähdin Saksaan otin yhteyttä Suomen suurlähetystöön Berliinissä ja kysyin onko mahdollista hankkia se todistus jostain päin Berliiniä. Heistä ei ollut totta puhuen kauheasti apua, joten otin suoraan yhteyttä erääseen medical centeriin ja kysyin heiltä neuvoa. He vastasivat, että pystyivät minulle sen hoitamaan ja pääsinkin sitten hoitamaan sen ihan vain kävelemällä sinne terveyskeskukseen. Kun tuberkuloositodistus oli hankittu otin siitä varmuuden vuoksi kopion ja laitoin talteen, jotta voin toimittaa sen asuntolalle muuttopäivänä.

Toivottavasti tästä tulee olemaan hyötyä jollekulle tulevaisuudessa. Mikäli on kysymyksiä, niin kysykää ihmeessä kommenteissa tai sähköpostilla.

Heipparallaa, ensi kerralla kirjoittelenkin jo Koreasta!

Germany and Berlin are now behind. I came to Finland for a 5 days to suprise my little siblings and to show people that I'm still okay. It feels so funny, for some reason, to be here because everything is just like when I left even though I'm not the same Anni that left for Germany in May. I know, sounds so cliche but I'm not lying. I feel like I'm more open and maybe a little bit more grown-up than I was before leaving. 

Even my little sister was so shocked when I just casually talked to her about everything because earlier I was more closed. I even told her about the bad things that happened in Berlin. Yes, some not so good things happened in Berlin as well. But those are the things I don't want to remember about Berlin. I want to remember the feeling of exploring a new part of a city, the moment when I was insanely happy, that moment when I got to let go after a hard week of work and that feeling when I realized I can actually survive on my own. Those are the things I want to remember when I'm old. Even though right now the bad things keep popping up from time to time when I think about Berlin, I know that in the end I won't remember those. In a little time all those bad things will feel like nothing. Time will heal the wounds.


The day after tomorrow right about this time my flight will leave from Helsinki-Vantaa towards Korea. I have to confess, I feel really nervous. But at the same time it doesn't feel real yet. I've just came back from Germany and I'm still so charmed byt it and now I'm going to a yet another new enviroment. Somehow it feels really amazing. If someone had told me few years back that when I'm 20, I would work in Berlin for a summer and then go to Seoul to study for the rest of the year, I would've not believed them. Few years back I would've never been brave enough to go abroad, let alone all by myself. Life couldn't honestly be any better right now. 

I've finally bought my flight ticket from Helsinki to Seoul and from Berlin to Helsinki. So scary. My work here ends already on the 14th and then I have 10 days to rest and panic about Korea. On the 24th I will be flying from Helsinki to Seoul and on the 25th I'm in Korea at 8am and my airport pick-up towards the dorm leaves at 10am. 


The thought about leaving Berlin feels really sad at the moment and too unreal. Soon I won't be here anymore. Soon I'm all alone in a new country, getting used to the new timezone, concentrating to studying and finding a completely new friend group. Berlin has maybe been a little too safe for me because I've had my friend with me all the time at the same hotel and on top of that some people from my university, who I've been able to hang out with and have fun with. 


Even though leaving Berlin is sad, I'm kind of happy to go to a new place. I already know that Seoul will be an amazing place and that everything is gonna be alright. Besides, I'm returning to Berlin in December. Yes, I already have a trip planned. In December, right after my semester in Seoul ends, I'm going to Berlin for a few days and I'll meet my friend there.


Feels so weird that soon I won't be seeing my friend in 4 months. Huhhuh. So in short I'm soon leaving Berlin and it's sad, but at the same time I can't wait for my new adventure in South Korea and I kind of can't wait for school to start. 

Oon taas lähiaikoina ruvennut haaveilemaan uusista matkakohteista, joihin haluaisin seuraavaks matkustaa. Nykyinen matka ei ole vielä edes puolessavälissä ja jo olen miettimässä uusia matkakohteita. Pitäisi elää hetkessä, mutta välillä se vaan on niin vaikeaa. Vaihtoehtoja on ihan järjetön määrä ja valintojen tekeminen on vaikeaa. Ihan vaan ajankuluksi ajattelin sitten kirjoitella ylös paikkoja, joihin tällä hetkellä suunnittelen tulevaisuudessa meneväni. Tää sai osittain inspiraation siitä, kun tänään juttelin työkaverin kanssa ja hän sitten kertoi asuneensa vähän ympäri Eurooppaa ja mie tajusin että mie voin ihan oikeesti myös tehä näitä asioita vaikka en meniskään koulun kautta. Voin ihan oikeesti vaan kiertää ympäri maailmaa, asua eri maissa ja työskennellä siellä sun täällä ilman että koulu on tukemassa siinä takana. Jotenkin hauskaa että kesti näinkin pitkään tajuta, että ei se koulun loppuminen tule olemaan maailman loppu vaan enemmänkin uuden alku.

Berliini
Ihan selväähän se on, että haluan vielä palata tänne. Viikoksi, kahdeksi, kuukaudeksi tai ehkä jopa vuodeksi. Tää kaupunki on niin ihana ja tällä on niin paljon annettavaa. Tuntuu että miut on siunattu, koska oon tavannut täällä aivan älyttömän ystävällisiä ihmisiä ja negatiiviset kokemukset on jäänyt aikalailla nollaan. Haaveilin että pääsisin tänne vaihtoon, mutta se ei ikävä kyllä ole mahdollisuus ihan vaan koska meidän koululla ei ole täällä yhteistyökumppaneita. Asuminen Berliinissä kokoaikaisesti houkuttelisi myös, mutta saa nähdä. Ei sitä tiedä mitä tulevaisuus tuo tullessaan.


Bryssel
En tiiä oonko maininnut jo täällä asiasta, mutta meidän ammattikorkeassa (Savoniassa) on mahdollista hankkia double degree eli kaksoistutkinto Belgialaisen BBI-Instituutin kanssa. Tää tarkottaa basically sitä että opiskelet vuoden BBI:ssa ja sitten kun valmistut Savoniasta niin valmistut samalla myös BBI:sta. Kaksoistutkinnon mahdollisuus sai miut myös alunperin hakemaan Savoniaan, mutta sitten se jotenkin jäi vaan ajatukseks. Nyt oon kuitenkin taas vakavissani ruvennu miettimään asiaa ja vuosi Brysselissä houkuttelis niin paljon. Mutta sitten se tarkottas sitä, että oisin vuoden päästä lokakuussa taas lähdössä.

Malta
Mie en oo koskaan käynyt Maltalla. Oon nähnyt vaan kuvia ja haaveillut kuinka joku päivä pääsisin sinne. Meri kaikkialla ja historian havinaa nurkan takana. Loma tuonne olis täydellinen, mutta myös pidempi reissu houkuttelis. Osaan jo kuvitella miten herään joka aamu ja pääsen näkemään kauniin meren. Aah.


On niin monia paikkoja joita haluan vielä nähdä, mutta jos oisin laittanu ne tähän listalle niin tää ei ois ikinä loppunu.

Nyt on virallisesti tultu kuukausi oleskeltua Saksassa. Huhuh että meni nopeasti! Tuntuu ettei kuukauden aikana ole tapahtunut läheskään mitään ihmeellisempää, mutta kun paremmin miettii niin onhan tässä paljonkin tapahtunut. On tullut nähtyä paljon nähtävyyksiä, on tullut työskenneltyä ihan jumalattomasti ja on tullut nähtyä Saksan kesän monet eri puolet.
Koti-ikävä ei ole vielä sen pahemmin iskenyt mitä nyt välillä vaan tulee ajateltua miten mukava olisi olla tällä hetkellä Kuopiossa tai maalla perheen luona. Varsinkin kun töissä on tavallista rankempi päivä, tekee vaan mieli heittää hanskat tiskiin ja lähteä takasin kotiin. Täällä sitä kuitenkin vielä ollaan ja loppuun asti aion ollakkin.


Koreastakin on kuulunut nyt ihan mukavan verran uutisia tämän kuukauden aikana ja ensi viikolla (jos vaan muistan) käyn viemässä passin viisumihakemuksineen postiin, että saan passin vaan mahdollisimman nopeasti takasin. Ei tunnu hirveän mukavalta nimittäin olla ulkomailla ilman passia 😅. Varsinkaan silloin kun jos en kanna passiani mukana tietyissä tilanteissa niin voin siitä mukavuudesta saada sakot.. Ärsyttää etten tuota viisumia muulla tavalla oikein hankkia kun kuulemma en voi Saksastakaan sitä hakea kun siellä päässä se vain hylättäisiin samantien.

Heipä hei taas pitkästä aikaa :'D. Töissä on pitänyt aikalailla kiirettä ja aamuvuorojen jälkeen energiaa ei riitä suurinpiirtein mihinkään, joten en ole kauheasti muuta jaksanut tehdä kuin katsoa Netflixiä :D. Mutta mitäs tässä 10 päivän aikana nyt onkaan tapahtunut...
Yhtenä päivänä kävin ainakin turisteilemassa DDR-museossa sekä Berlin TV Towerissa. Hieman oli siellä muuten erilaiset maisemat kuin Puijossa. Samalla satuttiin myös hieman extemporena lähtemään opastettuun jokivenekyytiin. Oli aika hienon näköistä joelta katsottuna nähdä vähän kaupunkia. Ja opiskelija-alennuksella ei maksanut kuin vaan 10 €, joten ei sinänsä paha.