Last time I already warned that my next update might take a little longer (and I turned out to be right), but here it is.

During the last weeks I started my courses and travelled around some more. I visited a UNESCO cultural heritage site in Suwon, namely the Hwaseong fortress. Even though it took quite long to get there, the journey was definitely worth it. Furthermore, I also went to the biggest Chinatown in South-Korea (in Incheon), and visited a traditional Korean neighbourhood in Seoul. But maybe one of the nicest things I experienced in South-Korea so far was a 2-day long sports competition between Korea University and Yonsei University; the so-called Ko-Yon games.

These games have been held since many decades, and the rivalry between Korea University and Yonsei University is really intense (luckily in a relatively friendly way). Together with our buddy group we visited a baseball, rugby, and soccer game. During these matches Korean supporters never seem to be running out of energy (they cheer, dance, and sing before the game starts, but even during the game they just continue). Even though most non-Korean students (like me) did not exactly know what was going on all of the time, we just tried to cheer just as much as the Koreans anyway. It was really funny to see that paying attention to the sport matches seemed to be relatively unimportant to most people. What was also really nice is that some streets around the campus served free food and drinks to all students during the Ko-Yon Games. I think I am lucky to be here during the fall semester, since, according to the people from the buddy program, this is their biggest university event of the year. Furthermore, I think chances are very small to experience something like this on my university in the Netherlands.

Of course there is also some work that needs to be done, but I can say that my studies here are definitely taking less time than what I am used to. The papers we have to write are relatively short and the amount of required readings is not too much as well. But maybe this will still change throughout the semester. Off course I hope it does not change (even though I really like most of my courses), so I will have a lot of time to do other things as well :)

Jeroen van Bommel