So, after a little bit more than a month everday normal life has reached me in Korea. Student life and clubs also reached me ... I volenteered in helping the SSEG (SKKU Speaking English Group) out as a "tutor". In return I get some korean phrases :-D
Now life consists out of going to lectures, going to some places to kill time and staying in the room like shut-ins and watching some shows or doing homework.
Also we got some projects going on:

• Programming a compiler for a mini-c language
• Building and designing a device for capturing eye-movement of a car-driver
• Writing a essay about network security and present it

I am pretty excited about the compiler and the device. That will be cool stuff to do and I will keep you updated, as soon as we get started for real ;-)

Yesterday I picked up my Korean Registration Card, which practically is my ID in Korea and validates, how long I am here, and that I am legally here :-D
Well, today I got a korean phone number (you need that ID for it). Luckly the buddy of my roommate helped out to find the right shop, otherwise I think we would have been lost. So now I am a fully integrated korean, with Kakaotalk and Co.

Well ... I screwed up, but now the photos are really available :-D

This week was the first week with real classes and also first assignments. We still haven't formed teams for all classes we need to, but as it seems the exchange students are more likely to work together ... but for one team we have an korean mate who joined the ship :-D
The classes themselves seem nice, and the professors make the content as thrilling as they can. Still some students manage to sleep in class ... Also we are the only students to be recognized as foreign students ... maybe we have to adapt more.

Today we went to the zoo at Seoul Grand Park. The whole area is huge ... and we didn't get to see all of it. Next to the zoo is an amusement park and also a (normal) park. Also there is a horserace range and I think it is a indoor waterpark... not quite sure yet.
The photos of the zoo are in the fotostream found in the links-section.

In the links section on the right you will be able to find a link (of course) to my Flickr album with all photos :-D

Well, the last few days were full organizing and classes. We finally got all our classes together with all hurdles left behind. We attended nearly all the introduction classes and I think we are able to say it will be quite an interessting semester.
Also, we applied for the "Alien registration card", which is basically a card saying that you are legally in Korea. Having the visa is not enough :-(

Oido
Yesterday we had a small trip to Oido, which is a costal town. At the street following the coastline there are many restaurants located, which serve fish. And with many I mean a lot: They are packed next to each other, up the whole street.
Luckily we had a nice "tourguide", a member from SKKU HI-Club, which helped us finding our way to and around the town. We also were accompanied by to senior students of SKKU. They guided us into one of these restaurants and we had some typical food. One of the dishes was some "korean pizza", which is not acctually pizza ... this one consisted of seefood (clams and calmari) and vegetables mixed wich egg (I think) to keep it together. The main dish was a kind of stew: a soup with noodles inside, accompanied by a variety of seafood (different clams, crabs, octopus, ...).
After dinner, darkness spread and we headed out to do some cliché stuff, like shooting fireworks and lighting spark sticks :-)

Norebang (kor. 노래방)
After the trip the group split up and some went to a Norebang. Now you must think, what the heck is that. Its Karaoke. And its awsome. You rent a room with some people for a amount of time (normally one hour) and then you can sing/yell/shout/scream/rap to your hears content. In the room there is a karaoke-machine (of course there is) and several microphones (of course there are). For the choice of songs, there is a book with all songs the machine knows. Each song has its own number. Once you enter a number its in the playlist and then you can just go.
Some songs we sang:

• Oasis - Supersonic
• Beatles - Yellow Submarine
• Rammstein - Du hast
• ABBA - Gimme Gimme Gimme
• Falco - Jeanny
• And so on

Now is the second day of the active student life in Suwon Campus ... and we still have not cleared out, which classes are available for us. There are several issues coming with this problem:

• The class has to be in english... not all are
• It has to be something, which we didn't already cover (not as easy as it seems)
• The class has to be in our major (as it seems, a computer engineer can not take software lessons)
• Some require students to take another class the semster before
• The practical part is in korean
• The class should not be too full already
• It has to be interessting for us :-D

All that combined leaves us little choice and a high tension... We have to fixate 6 courses on friday and only 4 are yet in my curriculum. There are some classes, which are second choice, but I would prefer the otherones :-D

Yesterday we have been to the Hwaseong fortress in Suwon. The fortress was build around 200 years ago. The whole complex has a lot of green and a lot of stairs.

It is surrounded by a fortress wall and has several secret gates, which where used to get in cattle and food. Uphill is the comando post from which you are able to see the whole valley.
Downhill there is the palace.

Its quite well maintained. There is a walk through the whole building and courts. Most of the rooms are locked but some are open and decorated.
On the right side of the palace there also is a shrine containing the painting of the late king of this fortress.
For more information read the entry on Wikipedia :-D

The past days there were some events for incomimg exchange students. The first one was a opening ceremony with a brief introduction of the campus by the people we only had email contact with.
All in all there are about 300 foreign students in Sungkyunkwan through the exchange program from over 30 different countries.
Afterwards the HI-Club introduced itself. It is a club by students to help foreign students to get used to the new environment. They assign a korean buddy for each exchange student and form little groups for activities planed by them.
We also got a tour by the HI-Club trough the old Sungkyunkwan campus (it is over 600 years old) and it was quite interessting. As the tour was finished we arrived at the International House with a buffet waiting for us (nice).
While eating, we talked to some other exchange students and found out that quite a lot mexicans are at the campus we are staying and also lots of brasilians are attending here to. We also found out that it seems we are the only ones doing the full semester, all other ones don't...
After having our bellies filled, we formed little groups and introduced eachother. The HI-Club members told us then that we will have the planned activities in these groups and that there will be a welcoming party in the end.
There were two welcoming parties this week. One organized by the HI-Club and the second one organized by all exchange students of all universities.
The first party was korean style with food, beer and soju (korean national drink). There were games and it was very easy to get to know other students and HI-Club members. Basically lots of fun.
The second one was more a western disco with free drinks ... no koreans invited and only exchange students, but it was too loud to event start a conversation and just groups of people knowing each other ... it kind of sucked.
So for the next time, I will remember: only attend to korean parties :-D