Archive for September, 2006
To my surprise - when I opened the newspaper today - I saw my fellow fifth Floor residence (i-House) illustrated in the report on Yeon-Go Jeon! You can find them in the left corner at the picture as depicted above (click on the picture to enlarge). They are all body painted and wearing blue wigs.
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Sorry for not posting any new entries lately but just to notify you I am still alive and rocking! As you can imagine life is in full swing now since school has started. This means I am twice as busy as before since I also have to keep pace with the usual parties and other social activities. This weekend it’s Yeon-Go-jeon! What’s that?
“Each pair of private universities shares a long tradition of sport rivalries. In Japan’s case, the bi-annual baseball games between Keio and Waseda and the intercollegiate events in rowing and rugby. In South Korea’s case, every year, the five sports of baseball, basketball, ice hockey, rugby, and soccer, are played by the two bitter cross-town rivals.
So intense and nationally renowned is the rivalry between the South Korean top schools that the supporters of Korea University identify the games as the Annual Yonsei-korea Games. Though both exclusive private universities are serious about their rivalries, they acknowledge their mutual interests as leading universities in their respective nations and in the greater community of East Asia. Both universities have therefore made efforts to cooperate and strengthen the bonds between the schools.” Source: Wikipedia
Here are some short movies of Day 1.
Baseball
Basketball
Going off now! Tomorrow there is another big day, day 2 of Yeon-Go-jeon! Which means the massive final party at the streets in Sincheon! I promise to write a more elaborated update on all the formalities here in Korea next week. Also sorry for not replying your e-mail, I will do that ASAP promise! BTW. In order to participate in all the festivities this weekend, we had Cheer Training last week to practice the Yonsei songs and dancing moves.
Annyong haseyo! Where can I start? Cause so much happened during the first official week at school. The courses I had chosen didn’t disappoint me at all, they all met or even exceeded my expectations. Although Korean language is really demanding since it is everyday and I lack any linguistic talent. Alright, enough about the academic part of my stay here!
The last couple of days and next week is all booked with random and kick-off parties. The kick-off are organised on behalf of the Yonsei Graduate School for International Studies (GSIS) which runs several programmes.
One of the benefits as Yonsei exchange student is that you can take graduate courses in all different programmes including the MBA programme. As I am taking courses in three different programmes I hung out this week with future diplomats, politician and business leaders of both the international management programme (IMP) and programme for international cooperation (PIC). Next week I will hang out with future finance geeks of the international trade and finance (ITF) programme. The aim of these kick-off parties is to get to know your fellow classmates and professors in an informal way.
The people at the GSIS are all very international orientated, from a wide variety of countries including many Koreans! Because the majority of people in my classes are Korean I got a nice jumble of people around me at the moment. Plenty of Koreans and many other nationalities and I am still meeting new people everyday. Yah! BTW I just came back from M2 which is a European style (progressive house music) nightclub! I had a blast and apparently there were many famous Korean models and actresses. lol
Last Wednesday I went to Korea - Taiwan, they were playing qualifications for the Asian Cup which is similar to the qualifications for the European Championship. It was awesome to be at the stadium, although for next time I have to learn the songs by heart. BTW Korea won easily with 8-0. See the videos below!
This week I also met my Korean mentor, as exchange student you can sign up for a buddy (mentor). It’s a similar system as at ISN-Amsterdam the Netherlands. The privileges of being a mentor is that you get invited to all the interesting parties in town and the exchange student is given the opportunity to mingle with the locals.
Is there more in store? Yup, but I can’t tell you the big news right now since it is not official yet but hopefully I can inform you next week!
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I am still alive! Sorry for not posting any entries for the last couple of days but I was quite busy with many notable things. So let me start off.
In comparison to home university (Leiden University) and Yonsei University it is possible to try out different courses during the first week. Thereupon you can withdraw and change your initial course schedule. In light of this I had my first official class last Friday, International Political Economy. Basically it covers the disciplines on how the world works both political and economical wise. As I am in Asia the course has an Asian perspective, US-Korea relations, Japan-Korea, Europe-Korea, East Asia-Korea -relations. The first lecture was about Grand Strategies and the World Economy. In particular I like the following quote of the Prof. “You will not use the acquired knowledge in this course when you start your working career since you will be too busy with technical and managerial stuff, but ones you become a leader you will remember the important topics on world issues as discussed in this course”.
Unfortunately I cannot take this course anymore since it interferes with Korean language, however I will buy the reader anyway. Cos in my view it is essential stuff to complement any kind of business knowledge. Tomorrow (Monday) my first full school week starts! I enrolled to the following courses. Global Organisation and Leadership, Seminar on Chinese Economy, Strategic Management and Global Competition, and Korean language, in total 15 credits which is maximum for a Graduate student according Korean standards.
Today I came back from the MT weekend organised by the Graduate School for International Studies. We went with approximately 75 people to the country side of Korea it was about a 2-3 hour bus ride. I had a blast over there and met (again) plenty of interesting new people. Pictures are coming soon! Stay tuned Party People!
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