It’s been more than four weeks now that we are here in Seoul. After some orientation time most of us are becoming very comfortable in this interesting, diverse and HUGE city.
Fortunately the weather has been very good what was perfect to experience as many parts of Seoul as possible. We did almost every day a trip but still there is so much to see. Seoul is an awesome city. On the one hand it is very modern, has the fastest internet worldwide and everyone uses their smartphones all day long – everyone includes all grandpas and grandmas and great-grandmas and great-grandpas. On the other hand Seoul is very Asian and traditional.
You will find small and also huge buddhistic temples in the middle of the city between skyscrapers. The city is colorful and Koreans really carry on their tradition. You can see a few times a week people walking around in their traditional dresses. On a trip with our professor for culture and society we also tried on traditional dresses.
Being only nine students from all MHMK campuses all over Germany, we are one of the smaller courses compared to other. But to me that’s more of an advantage, because it’s easier to get to know each other and to organize group activities.
We are doing a lot of little trips which are organized by our “nanny”. Students from last year started calling him Magic Mike because he makes everything happen for you. We can say that the name absolutely fits. Apart from him also the other teachers are nice. Most of them teach us their skills beside their main job in their profession. Lucky for us – as most of us doing the specialization in Germany in advertisement – we have two courses that are about integrated marketing and entertainment marketing. The teacher is great and we really learn in all courses good stuff.
Our university, the aSSIST “Seoul School of Integrated Sciences & Technologies”, is located on a little hill, which needs to be climbed day by day as a morning exercise. But no need to worry: probably next year the construction infront of the building will be finished and everyone can get up by elevator again. The close area is during a normal day full of young students, due to many universities, who are hanging around, studying or just enjoying good food in one of the plenty restaurants or street-sold snacks. It’s very interesting to just walk around and discover all the unknown dishes sold by friendly men and women trying their best to communicate with you.
Talking about food, there is always something new to eat in this city, and everyone will find something that fits his taste. Seafood, meat, fish, vegetables and not to forget lots of rice and Kimchi (김치). In every part of the city you will find food sold on the street, if it’s fried Squid, fishsoup, pancakes, chicken or just different ricecakes – you will definitely find something to eat here. But you got to be careful, Koreans love to eat very spicy food.
Because Seoul is so enormous, there isn’t only one place to call downtown, but many. And everywhere are always many people on their feet. If it’s Insadong, Itaewon, Hongdae, Sinchon or Gangnam, there are various places to go during the day or night. The Subway network is very nice and simple, it took only a very short time for us to get comfortable with it and it’s the most convenient and fastest way to travel through the city.
If the evening ends too late you need to take a Taxi to get home or wait for the first subway in the morning. But taxis are very cheap and the drivers are friendly over here and even for girls very safe. By the way, to me, the city seems like one of the safest feeling I’ve ever been to, even though Koreans drink a lot and you see many drunk people in the streets at night. Even when someone just grab your bag you don’t need to worry. Koreans just want to help you carrying it and don’t spend any thought in stealing.
I hope we will bring and spread this attitude to Germany to make the world a little more Korean.
Whatever your thoughts on South Africa might have been so far – I can guarantee you that there is a lot you didn’t know.
The first thing I learned during my first few weeks at Stellenbosch University: South Africa is far more than you expected – and way less. The second thing I learned: South Africa is not the same as Africa and Stellenbosch is not the same as South Africa. But more on that later.
First, I want to reach out to all the new MHMK students that have to make the tough decision on where to spend their semester abroad. (A little side note: Please be aware that I am truly biased, as I have already lived in and loved this country for two months now.) Before I decided to study here in Stellenbosch, I had narrowed down my choice to a top three: South Africa, Mexico and England. Mexico would have helped me to expand my Spanish, England would have been close to home but South Africa? At first, that was a choice entirely made by my heart. It’s a beautiful country, on a continent I haven’t been to before and simply different. But mostly, living in South Africa will widen your horizon as to cultural differences and the exposure to poverty.
I won’t lie: Most of us MHMK students who are here now have struggled to leave the people we love so far behind. But none of us regrets this. And in my – truly subjective – opinion, you can always go to Madrid, London or Milan. But when will you ever go to South Africa again? And I don’t mean a two week vacation. You’ve got to live and experience this country if you aim to understand it.
Let’s assume, you have made the decision to study in South Africa (well done!):
Studying in Stellenbosch means, that you will have a lot of paperwork to do before all the other 2nd semesters even think about it. But most importantly: start your visa application early! Read the list of requirements now, not when you get the letter of admission from Stellenbosch (yes, you need a x-ray of your lung and your criminal record certificate, which might take a few weeks).
This year, we had our last exam on Friday, July 11th, and had to leave for South Africa on Sunday, July 13th (you might recognize this day – I’m still grieving that I missed it). This meant that we didn’t have a summer break at all and hardly found time to pack, amongst all the studying. But hey, therefore our classes end on October 24th – and we’re off ‘till March! A lot of time to travel Southern Africa.
The flight takes forever. But one big bonus of South Africa is it’s time zone: I don’t know whether any of you has ever lived in the US or Australia or in any other distant part of the world but the one killer of communication with home is time difference. It’s hard to squeeze in a time to skype with your parents when you’re 9 hours apart from each other. South Africa, however, lies within the same time zone as Germany.
Upon arrival at Cape Town International Airport you will be picked up by Stellenbosch University and already meet a few future classmates. During your drive to Stellenbosch you will already cross the borders of two entirely different worlds: from the world metropolis Cape Town to townships that accompany you all the way to Stellenbosch. Once you’re here, you will often hear that “Stellenbosch is a bubble”. Remember one of my first sentences? South Africa is far more and far less than you expected. This is where this comes in. South Africa is not Africa – you won’t find vast savannahs and elephants stomping around. But South Africa has its very own, beautiful nature that will take your breath away. Stellenbosch is famous for its wine farms that are scattered on the feet of all the mountains surrounding the university. Your will find Stellenbosch very European: the elegant buildings, the people, the language (mostly Afrikaans), the university itself. Although there are palm trees around the campus, you don’t feel like you’re in Africa. But this is Stellenbosch, a little bubble in South Africa.
During your first week here, you will mostly meet internationals – the locals won’t show up until Sunday, the day before classes start again. An exception are your Matie Buddies – local sutdents that volunteer to help you around in Stellenbosch. Most of them are really excited to meet you and you will find it easy to become friends with them. What will make or brake you in Stellenbosch is finding friends: don’t make it too easy by simply staying amongst MHMK students or fellow Germans. Without locals you won’t be able to experience South Africa.
The other thing that’s important is safety: from my experience so far, crime is very present in South Africa. In Stellenbosch, however, you will mostly encounter theft. Yes – my phone got stolen during the first week I was here. But it taught me to be more careful and not to underestimate South Africa. Stellenbosch seems safe and it is safer than most cities in South Africa. But never walk alone during the night, stay with friends and don’t take expensive phones or your credit cards with you when you’re going out to party.
During orientantion week, you will get introduced to SU (Stellenbosch University), its campus and student organizations. Altough many things you’ll be told are common sense, listen closely when it comes to activities and clubs, as you don’t want to be late to join a society. My advice for this week: get a Matie’s bike right away! Otherwise they will be gone. Bikes are your easiest way of transportation (no, you won’t need a car in Stellenbosch) and Matie’s bikes are the only ones that most probably won’t get stolen. But there are not a lot of bikes and they are gone fast.
The university really tries hard to make you feel welcome: they will take you to the V.A. Waterfront (a must see in Cape Town), the beach and will organize a Welcome Dinner for the Internationals. This Welcome Dinner will show you the South African mentality: live your life. And the before we even knew we were up and dancing on the dancefloor – not only before the dinner was served, but as early as 6 p.m. This is South Africa.
P.S. You might have wondered, what the caption “Buy a donkey” was supposed to mean. I won’t leave you in the dark any longer: it was the first South African phrase we learned when we got here. Correctly it is spelled “Baie dankie” and means “Thank you”. One might argue that “braai” is the most important word a foreigner should know while in South Africa, but that will have to wait until my next post – as I have already exceeded my word count by far.
I’m off, living South Africa!
It’s been about four weeks now, that all of the MHMK Students arrived in San Diego.
After a short Orientation Week at the National University, we had another week off and could relax on the beach, enjoy the warm weather and discover the city.
The National University (NU) is the second-largest private University in California. The university has five schools and one college, including the School of Business and Management, School of Education, School of Engineering, Technology and Media, School of Health and Human Services, School of Professional Studies and the College of Letters and Sciences.
Most of the Macromedia students are enrolled at the School of Business and Management. The NU provides a special program to study. So that’s why we have just one class per month. It isn’t that bad, because you can concentrate the whole month just on one subject, but four weeks are a short time and so you have to learn a lot in that period. Because we are so many German students, we just have the classes together and weren’t mixed up with other international students. In our eyes this is a little bit sad, but the NU organizes a lot of activities, where we can meet other international students, i.e. a trip to the San Diego Zoo or a fishing trip.
Now I want to introduce San Diego to you. San Diego is the second-largest city in California and is also named as “America’s finest City”. The city is multifarious and there is a lot to discover and to do here. San Diego is famous for some attractions like the Balboa Park, its fascinating Zoo and especially Sea World. Besides the extensive beaches and the harbor, you can see a lot in the different districts.
Every district has its own character and style. In Oldtown you can meet a lot of Mexican people and it’s also a historic park. As an other example the Gaslamp Quarter is located Downtown and is in a way the “Kiez” of the city. There you can find a lot of nightclubs, bars and restaurants. You can also see the beauty of San Diego during a harbor cruise. Then you have the chance to enjoy the view on San Diego’s skyline. Additionally you can meet some cuddly sea lions and get some interesting information about the city.
The great thing besides the perfect weather is the attitude of the inhabitants. Everyone is very laid-back here and this is very contagious. You feel always very relaxed and the stress you’ve felt in Germany is forgotten. With the sun in your face and the ocean in front of the apartment every day feels like vacation.
We all are very excited to stay for the semester in San Diego and are as safe as houses that we will have a great time here.
I would like to start my post by saying that Thailand is not a perfect country and you won’t find any illuminated Buddhist culture here.
Au contraire. You are probably going to encounter dishonest taxi drivers and unpleasant salesmen. That is, however, exactly the reason why this is a special place to be. If you get to know the Thai culture and meet enough people, you will lose all kind of prejudice, find some incredibly nice Thais and probably realize a lot of your own way of seeing the world and your culture. I cannot imagine a country that would make me notice more how cultures affect people’s way of thinking, behavior, and interaction. From this paragraph on, I’m going to give more practical information about our first weeks in Bangkok.
As last year, we only have classes with the other guys from the MHMK, so mostly German students, but from different parts of Germany. It does not mean, however, that you have no chance to meet Thais and people from different parts of the world. In the CU iHouse, where I am living, and in many other residences as well, the students meet and go partying together. In the iHouse we are a large international group of people who meet everyday at least for dinner.
In the Gym you can meet a lot of people as well, including a lot of Thais. The Gym is free and well-equipped but there is nobody supervising so you have to know how to use the machines. Nevertheless, there are some classes you can take part in. Most of the girls from the MHMK go to yoga twice a week. Other options include gymnastic and boxing, but the class plan is in Thai and it is difficult to find out where and when the classes are hold.
We have three American professors and an Australian. They are all really good! We cannot complain about the education quality here. Besides the Thai culture class, all of the professors give us insight on the Thai and Asian culture as well as on their topics: economics, marketing and entrepreneurship. In the last entrepreneurship class, for example, our professor taught us Buddhist techniques to stay calm in stressful situations.
The Thai culture for Communication Arts class deserves a special paragraph. We still have a lot planned: visits to museums, a visit to a temple where we can learn to meditate and a trip to the famous festival of lanterns. This is going to provide us with great topics for the next posts. Already in the first month we went to see some temples a few hours away from Bangkok and a very peculiar kind of performing art called “shadow play”. It is a mix of dance and theater, where the Buddhist monks that have preserved this kind of art dance while holding enormous figures that represent the story. With traditional music in the background, another monk tells the story and makes the dialogs.
The story is an Indian tale about the king Rama. If you travel around, you will see the same Indian story repeating itself in many countries. Before I came to Bangkok I’ve been to Indonesia and I’ve seen the same story being represented in a completely different way, with another body language, another music style and maybe even another meaning. The entire Southeast Asia is a wonderful place to see how cultures heavily interact with each other but still remain themselves.
The partner university also gives us opportunity to interact in a deeper way with Thai society. In this first month we had the chance to go to an English Camp, where we could teach English to children who live in the interior of the country, and to go to a higher part of Thailand to plant trees. The trees had mushrooms growing with them that can later turn into food for the local community.
All this trips were super well-organized and fully paid by the university. Even though it is a good initiative, there is still a lot to criticize with regards to the effectiveness of those initiatives. Sometimes the trips seem to be more to appear good then to actually do good. This is something we can learn here too: Thais are always worried with their image; living here you should deliberate on until which point is image really important and what kind of person you want to be.
Clara Leal Wegenast
Hello everybody!
This year we are around 23 students from the Macromedia University that will spend a semester abroad at the California State University Channel Islands.
The CSUCI is a public university located in Camarillo midway between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. The uni opened in 2002 as the 23rd campus in the California State University system. Our first two weeks at university were quite exciting. Getting to know american students, new professors introducing us to interesting subjects (Marketing, Macroeconomics, Intercultural Communication and Entrepreneurial Management) as well as trying not to get lost on campus. So far our university experience has been great, but it will definitely be more work than back home.
But let me scroll back to the beginning when we arrived. Most of us arrived in California quite early before uni started, either to enjoy and travel around or to take care of important things such as buying a car. Having a car is essential here, not only to get to university but also everywhere else. Some of us were quite lucky and found a good second hand car (we all searched through craigslist) but others had to visit several not so funny areas in Los Angeles in order to have the choice between several shitty cars and decide which one was less shitty.
Most of us live in Oxnard in very nice houses or apartments near the beach. Oxnard is the most popular city in the Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is listed as one of the wealthiest areas in America, with its residents making well above the average national income. In 2013, Oxnard was ranked as one of the safest cities in America with violent crime rates well below the national average. It is very useful that we all live so close together, not only can we meet very easily but we also share our cars driving to university. There are only two of our houses which are only two streets apart! That was such a great coincidence when we found out! 😉
The university is going to get harder as the semester passes by, so for now we enjoy our long weekends as best as we can. Last weekend we drove along the beautiful pacific coast way down to Los Angeles, making a short stop at the Santa Monica pier. In Los Angeles we drove through Beverly Hills, Bel Air, the walk of fame and the Rodeo Drive. Others went for a 5 hour hiking tour, visited Santa Barbara or the Sequoia National Park where you can admire one of the largest trees on earth. This weekend we spent the day at Malibu beach which was also great fun and time to relax. Unfortunately Oxnard does not have many bars or clubs, so we make our own parties at home. Though soon we are going to a bigger city nearby called Ventura, where there’s lots going on at night. We also have e a trip to Las Vegas in mind…let’s see how well that turns out..;)
Well, that’s it for our first blog post! I hope you enjoyed reading !
Greets from California!! 🙂