Annyeong haseyo (Hello!)
After talking to my advisor several times and plenty of email conversations with the Head of International Programs at Kelley in Oct of 2008 I decided to apply for Spring Break abroad. I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend spring break in another country instead of going to the warm beaches of the east coast. I knew I wanted to go to Korea, but I didn't know if that was the right time. Nevertheless, I went ahead as planned. Once the semester began in January, we started preparing for our visit to Seoul. I tried my hand at learning phrases from the language and acquainted myself with the food by eating at the Korean restaurant in Bloomington. Little did I know that sitting 7800 miles away, none of that would help.
After talking to my advisor several times and plenty of email conversations with the Head of International Programs at Kelley in Oct of 2008 I decided to apply for Spring Break abroad. I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend spring break in another country instead of going to the warm beaches of the east coast. I knew I wanted to go to Korea, but I didn't know if that was the right time. Nevertheless, I went ahead as planned. Once the semester began in January, we started preparing for our visit to Seoul. I tried my hand at learning phrases from the language and acquainted myself with the food by eating at the Korean restaurant in Bloomington. Little did I know that sitting 7800 miles away, none of that would help.
Just two days in to spring break, we had long forgotten the piles of work that lies on our desks back home. At 4:30 am on Friday (13th) March one could see the excitement and the euphoria in the bus en route to Indianapolis airport. 30 hours later on Saturday , all one could see was exhaustion and fatigue in the bus to Stay Seven Hotel, Korea. In those 30 hours of travelling we flew on three flights, played cards on another person's seat, hung out inside the aircraft by clogging the aisles and ate sushi at Tokyo's Narita airport. For most of us, who did not sleep, the travel was an excellent ice-breaker that gave us all a chance to spend time and get to know each other.
On the lazy Sunday morning after all the travel, we woke up to a nice breakfast at the hotel. We used the day to do some historic sight seeing. The city of Seoul has a beautiful blend between modern towering skyscrapers and old palaces and other monuments. Roaming around also gave us a chance to familiarize ourselves with the subway system, an expertise that would come in very handy for the rest of the week!
It was not too late before we realized that non-vegetarians were going to have a rough time finding food to eat. Korean streets and restaurants are full of various kinds of meat. In the last three days we have tried the weirdest food like silkworms and quail eggs. The only thing the 4 vegetarians in the group get to eat is kimchi and rice. However, that is when the life saviours McDonald's and Subway come in! There is nothing like having familiar food in a foreign land. Occasionally, the rest of us give in and get a bite of the "Big Mac"!
Over the 7 days spent their, we visited many companies in Korea such as Hyundai and Samsung. Looking at the fully automated robotic car manufacturing plant at Hyundai took us light years ahead of our time. There was no labor to be seen. The robots did their work on each unit every 57seconds. Looking back at our Hyundai visit, I now understand why so many people in the industry don't have jobs! Our visit to Samsung was similar. If you thought the iPhone was the coolest phone in the market, Samsung would have proved you wrong. We got to see phones with video conferencing and projector features. If that was not enough, we later got to know that the multimedia function on each employee's phone is automatically disabled as soon as they step into the Samsung vicinity. The reason? Privacy of their products and R&D departments. Clearly Korea and its industries are far ahead of their time.
It's always great to travel to another country where you can legally enter a club, and so we did. But that's all I am going to write about that!
On our last day in Korea, six of us went to the Dragon Spa and Resort. Entrance charges: $7! and then we had the entire day to relax and enjoy different temperature baths, steam rooms, saunas and scrubs. We definitely did not anticipate spending 5 hours at the spa, but it was completely worth it. Few of us got the best ever traditional korean massage for a mere $25 for 30minutes. It was a perfect end to our eventful vacation, preparing us rather well for the 30 hour journey back home.
It's always great to travel to another country where you can legally enter a club, and so we did. But that's all I am going to write about that!
On our last day in Korea, six of us went to the Dragon Spa and Resort. Entrance charges: $7! and then we had the entire day to relax and enjoy different temperature baths, steam rooms, saunas and scrubs. We definitely did not anticipate spending 5 hours at the spa, but it was completely worth it. Few of us got the best ever traditional korean massage for a mere $25 for 30minutes. It was a perfect end to our eventful vacation, preparing us rather well for the 30 hour journey back home.
My visit to Seoul was an eyeopener. I have travelled to over 15 countries in the past 10 years many times spending just a weekend in one place. This trip however, made me realize that the fun of travelling comes from immersing oneself into the culture we visit. Talking to the people there, eating their food, walking down the local streets and spending time trying to learn more about them. I have the rest of my life ahead of me and it's better late than never to change the objectives of my travel. Such is the brilliance of college experiences.
The best part- I don't graduate for another two years and until then, the experience continues.
