Mongolia

Greetings from Mongolia! I arrived here from Beijing with train, and it was much more comfortable than I expected. The first night I spent at a local girls apartment which was a real fortune for me. She happened to know some nomand people in the countryside and I was allowed to stay two nights with a real Mongolian family from the countryside. Nomands live in gers (big tents) in the countryside og Mongolia and live from growing cattle like cows, lambs and goats. They move around a few times a year and carry everything they own with them. My family had around 500 goats and lambs plus several horses and cows. Believe it or not, I actually milked both a cow and a goat which was one of the most difficult tasks I've done. The family consisted of an old grandma, a few sons, their viwes and several kids. We stayed in their ger a few nights and ate with them. The food was surprisingly based on milk and meat: for breakfast hot milk and milkbutter, other meals some meat mixed with rice plus hot milk and for snacs some yoghurt and milk tea. Now we are back to Ulan Bataar which is not exactly the most beautiful city with endless activities. Actually, the natural science museum is probably the only sight we have seen and there's not that much more options left... :)

Beijing

Greetings from Beijing! On my way here I met an old friend on the airport who knows the city like his own pockets, so he helped me to get oriented. On our first night we headed to a rave party, which was pretty cool considering the fact that I hate dancing and techno music. The city is extremely polluted, you can hardly see the sky. Furthermore, its hot which has lead the Chinese men to create a new fashion to roll their shirt above their fat stomachs or leave the shirt away. And this is on the crowded streets of the capital. We went to see the temple of heaven and naturally had Beijing Duck while in Beijing. (I also ate snake, frogs and Jak!) On the second evening we watched a kung fu performance and otherwise we've been just shopping (oh, I got so much stuff I don't need!) but I'll be back here to see more sights hopefully. Ok, now we will leave to Mongolia and I will put this text to internet from there because China has banned my blog and I can't enter it from here...

Time to say goodbye

Hi guys! The moment of goodbye has arrived - I’ve got my bags packed and I’m ready to go. I’ll leave in about an hour to the airport and my next destination is Beijing. On Monday I will continue to Mongolia and after that where I end up is a mystery for me, too. Most likely back to China. The four months here have passed extremely fast. I met awesome people and got some great friends as well as learned so much about Korean culture. I saw local family life and was part of the studying community with hours of group working and endless parties. It’s been a rollercoaster – really exciting including both ups and downs. I’ll definitely miss Korea. Anyway, I’ll try to write something in the blog during the rest of my journey, too. Take care!!

Johtopäätöksiä

Noniin, nyt on viimeinen ilta ennen lähtöä käsillä. Olen pakkaillut pitkin iltaa ja huomenna lykkään koko maallisen omaisuuden pahvilaatikoissa kohti suomea. Matka jatkuu Kiinan kautta Mongoliaan ja sieltä tuntemattomaan. Muutamia johtopäätöksiä voisin vielä aikani kuluksi vetää näin neljän kuukauden perusteella.

Perhe-elämä on tullut tutuksi ja naapuruston kotirouvien elämänmenoa on surkuhupaisa seurata. Naisen asema ei rehellisesti sanottuna ole häävi. Vaimon tehtävä on hoitaa kotia ja mies tienaa leivän pöytään. Nuorissa korealaismiehissä ei ole valittamista ;) mutta vanhempi sukupolvi on uskomattoman sovinistista porukkaa. Naisen kuuluu jäädä avioliiton jälkeen kotiin ja passata miestään. Eräänäkin aamuna perheemme äiti oli asetellut paahtoleivät isälle valmiiksi lautaselle ja hillo- ja voipurnukat viereen. Mies tähän tokaisi lysähdettyään pöytään: ”Mitä tämä on olevinaan? Mikesi leipääni ole voideltu?!” Äidit eivät juurikaan ota aikaa itselleen, vaan huolehtivat lapsista ja heidän koulunkäynnistään. Läksyjä tehdään esikoulusta asti monta tuntia päivässä ja kaikki lapsille tarjottava viihde on oltava jossain määrin opettavaista. Perheellämme ei ole televisiota, mutta lapsilla on monta hyllymetriä opettavaisia kirjoja. Oma suosikkini on ”Opi historiaa kakkapökäleen kanssa”. Videoita saa katsoa jos ne on tarkoitettu englannin opiskeluun ja joka aamu kuunnellaan englantilaisia lastenkasetteja. Myös harrastusten on oltava kehittäviä, veljeni käy esim. tiedekerhossa.

Eräs suunnattomasti ärsyttävä asia on korealainen tapa työskennellä. Töitä tehdään hullun lailla, mutta työskentelytapa on uskomattoman tehoton. Panos mitataan työhön käytetyn ajan perusteella, ei tulosten. Ryhmätöitä tehdessä saatetaan viettää useita tunteja yhdessä vääntämässä muutamaa sivua tekstiä viilaamassa pilkun paikkoja kaikkia miellyttäväksi, kun yksin saman homman saisi valmiiksi muutamassa vartissa. Priorisoinnista ei ole tietoakaan, yleensä asiat aloitetaan mitättömistä sivuseikoista, joita hiotaan tuntikausia, ja lopulta huomataan itse tärkeimmän asian jääneen viimetippaan. Töitä ei voida koskaan saada valmiiksi hyvissä ajoin, vaan viimeinen yö on aina vietettävä koululla tai tietokoneen äärellä aamuun saakka. Ulkomaalaisten kanssa samaa ongelmaa ei koskaan ole tullut vastaan, mutta muutaman korealaisen tytön onnistuin lukukauden aikana suututtamaan, koska viimeisellä kouluviikolla olin lähdössä matkalle perheeni kanssa. Olemme kuulemma yliopistossa enkä ymmärrä asian vakavuutta, kyseessä ei ole mikään vitsi. Muutamaan otteeseen jouduin menemään 6:30 aamulla koululle viimeistelemään tai valmistelemaan ryhmätyötä ennen klo kahdeksan luentoa, ja tähän luonnollisesti 1,5h koulumatka päälle.

Voisin kirjoittaa loputtomiin, mutta aika loppuu kesken, yritän lisäillä jotain tekstiä myös loppumatkan aikana... Pärjäilkää ja pian nähdään!!

Relationship with professors

People in the university have a very strange relationship with their professors compared to Finland. The professors bring us for dinner and we might go and have a beer together. They even call students to their private phones to make sure that they have understood the tasks on the course. You can imagine how shocked I was when during the first weeks in Korea I answer my phone and there is my professor asking my opinion about the course webpage!! This Friday however, was the strangest experience ever. Our professor brought the whole class to all you can eat and ALL YOU CAN DRINK buffet instead of making a final exam and naturally paid everything. The grades would be given based on how much you can drink. The professor showed example and poor Asian students could not say anything against the authority. Me and another Finnish guy were the only ones walking out of that restaurant, others were either crawling or carried.

The photo above is from the party and below is my communication class.

Small weird things

There are a lot of small weird things in Korea that never stop amazing me. Here are a few examples that pop into my mind right now:
Coloured dogs: Having dog as a pet instead of a meal is nowadays more common. A small white poodle is a must, but like it would be not enough to dress it up in cute outfits the trend is to colour them! You can see poodles in all rainbow colours and the hip style is to colour the ears and tail leaving the rest of the body white. (The dog in the picture was owned by an at least 85-year-old lady.)
Toilet culture: Many of Korean toilets don’t have locks on the doors, so a common custom is to knock on the door before entering. If it’s occupied you should knock back. Also in toilets with locks it’s polite to knock first. What shocked me too is the amount of floor toilets: many places still have a hole on the floor instead of sitting model. The ladies room is also equipped with places for make upping because otherwise no one would be able to reach the sinks. The girls put makeup on constantly!
Tooth brushing: Koreans brush their teeth all the time. When you enter the bathroom someone’s always doing it, and it’s not strange to do it even in the hallways of school. Because of social pressure, I feel obliged to brush my teeth after every meal, too, and always carry a travel size toothbrush and paste with me.
Masks: Koreans are really into fashion, but they have a habit of wearing surgical masks when walking on the streets. There are a few reasons. First of all, Seoul is really polluted and there is yellow dust coming from China every now and then. You can’t really ever see the sky because there’s always a pollution cloud over the city, but during yellow sand it gets even worse. Another reason I hear sometimes is that the people are sick and don’t want to infect other people. That’s something I can’t really understand because they still eat from same portions and share the drinks..
Strange combinations in food: I never imagined having cabbage or potato pizza (picture) before coming to Korea. I also didn’t expect finding rice in hamburgers. And furthermore, seeing a toilet paper roll in restaurant table and using scissors instead of a knife when eating never stops amazing me. (I never realized that there are actually people who have no idea how to use knife and fork..)
Incredibly expensive cafeterias: Having dinner in Seoul is pretty cheap but going to the cafeterias is so expensive. It’s normal to pay 5 dollars for a coffee, but I just had a tiny cup of tea that cost 9 dollars!! I also went to a waffle café and ended up paying 26 bucks for a waffle!!
Living home: Everybody here lives at home as long as they are not married. You meet men in their middle 30s still happily enjoying the time living with their parents. The consequence is that you also often see parked cars shaking all around as soon as it gets dark, hahaha.
Boys carrying handbags: A common habit here is that the guys carry girls stuff whenever they walk on the street, so you see men carrying handbags all around. Even when I walk with my male friends they insist to carry my handbag because it’s too heavy.