Tsunami in Japan

There was a big earthquake (8,9 on the Richter scale) about 1000km from here in Japan today, which led to a massive tsunami. Earthquakes are very common in Japan, but this was the biggest in the last 140 years. Everything is okay in Korea though, and I wish all the best for the people in Japan. An alert in a japanese nuclear power plant 800km from here sounds a bit scary.

Thieves

I received a message from home yesterday, that somebody had stolen all the empty bottles from our front yard. There were maybe more than ten plastic bags of empty bottles, probably worth around 10-20 euros :) Bikes are still there, so probably somebody thought it's less of a crime to steal empty bottles. See you in court, bastards!

Back to Korea. I decided yesterday to let my beard grow the time I'm here. I'm waiting forward to see how I'm going to look like in 13 weeks.

A little by little I'm learning to use the chopsticks, and I had a traditional Korean meal last Sunday. It was very good, and people were barbecuing the food indoors. Each low table had its own barbecue, but the sitting pose was really hard for me. Basically you had to sit on a pillow on the floor. Maybe I should do some stretching.

Orientation day

Today we had an orientation day for international students in Pukyong National University of Busan. I received many guide books, but they were all in Korean. I also issued an alien registration card, bought a subway card and signed some official paper that was fully in Korean. Thankfully someone had an English version of the text and I could check what I had just signed. Finally I was given a small guide booklet in English, and there was some spaghetti with a strange but good sauce for lunch, not a bad day. And I'm slowly learning to use chopsticks.

There is a very strange habit here spending the whole day sitting in the lab. You can practically do whatever you want, but you should stay in the lab with your laptop. Days can be quite long, from 9.30am to 20.00pm, but as an exchange student I don't have to do that everyday. What is really bugging me, are the unnotified inspections at the dormitory. Basically someone can walk into your room anytime and look around. Usually they look for cooking devices like water heaters, since they are prohibited and considered dangerous.

Oh, and most of the courses I was supposed to take are cancelled for this semester. Well, more time to write my Master's Thesis. At the moment I'm on two courses.

The first week is behind, and the weekend is finally here. Jeh

Observations

I noticed today that local people are very friendly, traffic is chaotic and food is a mystery. I ate some interesting local food for lunch today, which tasted like fish but didn't seem like that, and I got lost to the center of Busan. After walking around more than four hours, I decided to go to the McDonalds instead of having a free dinner at the university. The diner is open 24/7, and BigMac with french fries and Coke costs only 5000 won here, which is like 3,5 euros, so I will surely visit McDonalds here again.

After reading the instructions of my dormitory, I am now aware that violence, gambling and robbery are prohibited. Damn. Someone could also enlighten me by explaining the following instruction: "Use supplies you need after you buy them by yourself".

Skype is working slower today since more people are moving in. I have also a problem with paying the dormitory fee. Last day to pay it is tomorrow, which seems like a bit too soon since I arrived here yesterday, and transferring the money from Finland can take up to five days. Oh, and the bill seems quite large: 1668770 wons for this semester :) obviously that's not much. It is only about 313 euros a month and it includes the apartment with water and heat, and three meals a day.

That's about it for today.