Posts

In Summary

Image
I got back to Minnesota from Seoul late last night on an uneventful flight with American.  Reflecting back on this experience, it was truly one of a kind and I would highly recommend it to any student in aviation.  The courses are a lot to fit into 3 weeks, but the professors do a fantastic job at it and assign minimal amounts of homework so that your nights are free to explore the city and make new friends.  KAU has a team of global buddies - KAU students that are there to help the international students get around town, find good food, and learn the local drinking customs, as well as help with any issues. During the 3 week course, we took two field trips.  The first is to Incheon Airport, consistently rated as the best in the world, the second to Korean Air headquarters where you see their flight operations center and some of the maintenance facilities.  There is an opportunity for a 2 week unpaid internship with Korean Air after the 3 week program.  You don't need to pay
Post a Comment
Read more

Food

Image
By request here is a bunch of pictures of some of the food I ate while in Korea.  This is by no means all of it as I'm not normally one to take pictures of food, so I forgot a lot of the time. World famous dumplings from Myeongdong Kyoja Octopus, noodles, rice, and a whole lot of vegetables with some spice from a place by the university. A do it yourself Korean BBQ place.  All you can eat for 12,000 Won ($10.20) A variety of fish cake with different cheeses and sausages Lunch while touring Korean Air Headquarters We found the one Mexican place in Hongdae as well.  A 24 hour restaurant in Busan that came in very handy after we unpacked at our hostel around midnight.  One very delicious slice of cake from A Twosome Place
Post a Comment
Read more

Busan

Image
A weekend trip to the beach city of Busan with an Italian (actually from San Marino), a German and a fellow American.  Took an evening bus on Friday and got back to the university about 11:30 on Sunday night.  I've been on better buses, but I'm also not going to complain for $45 round trip. Photo credit: Sonja Schweicker Base of Busan Tower World famous Busan Fish Market, inside is about 15 times bigger than the photo, outside was about 200 meters of stands. Sculpture Garden (on top of a rather large hill overlooking Busan. In case you're wondering, the spoon is at the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis, MN I'm still looking for the knife and chopsticks. Reasonably confident beer is allowed, just as long as you don't run with it while it's sunny. Busan Culture Village Seaside Trail Pretty sure the top warning is letting you know wave crests are slippery when wet, The bottom warning i
Post a Comment
Read more

Around campus and the town

Image
Using public transit is a must to get around Seoul, a city with a 9.9 million people and a metropolitan population of 25.6 million, thankfully the subway system is world class. Map credit: kojects.com/subway KAU is on the top left corner, light blue line, stop Hwajeon Several stations have over 5 entrances and exits to minimize the amount of pedestrians crossing surface streets, I've been to some stations with 10 entrances and exits.  The downside of this is very large stations.  If the train is 5 minutes away and you're 3 minutes away from the station entrance, it may not be enough time to catch the train as some stations are more than a kilometer long underground, but with trains about every 10 minutes, it's not the end of the world.   Everything on campus is within walking distance of the dormitory.  Campus is very calm and relaxing, with two adorable cats living in a garden by the dorms, and there are nightly pick up soccer and basketball games.  Ju
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 1

Image
About to finish the 1st week in Seoul and we've done a lot.  The first night we went out to Hongik University.  The district has a lot of inexpensive food and bars and it's filled with street performers. On Sunday, we took a trip to the e-mart, (grocery / department store) and got some snacks, breakfast food and picked up some supplies that people forgot at home.  In the evening we had an orientation to the KAU Program and the dorms, then went to the Sogang University district and found a bowling alley. Everything but the meat for Korean BBQ Photo credit: Judy Nguyen We've had lots of time to still go out and explore Seoul now that the classes are in session, including a trip to Seoul Tower, eating delicious Korean BBQ and gone to Itaewon, a more famous district for nightlife here in Seoul. View from the top of Seoul Tower at night Back alley entrance to Itaewon Yesterday was the 4th of July, and to celebrate a lot of the group went to a ball game.  It wa
Post a Comment
Read more