Why to study in Poland?

During mine time here in Poland - I had been always asked on why I choose to study in Poland. I guess the chances been high on why did you choose to study in France, Spain, Greece and not in any other 25 or 30 ERASMUS countries.

I guess as you only can choose one country and one city and one university in it (if multiple choices available). So did I just go with my finger on the map and pointed blank into Poland? No. It was a bit of thinking behind it on what I shall get out from it - as you notice before I spend a good time in South Korea. I really wanted to get to know a bit better our (Eastern) European neighbours. After all the impression is positive - did you actually knew that during the financial crisis Poland had still a growth rate to the real GDP and that youth unemployment is relative low to other EU member states.  Did you knew that MNE's enterprises have part of there head office in Poland or operating service industry of there company within in Poland such as the accountants for Phillip Morris. Did you knew that Poland was not a country for 150 years, but still kept most of their culture?

I guess some parts of it I could knew before coming, but I did not done any research at all on the nation I would spend my exchange semester. As in regards to South Korea - I knew fairly on what is going to happen to me Karaoke Bars every day and shopping 24 hours.

I guess we mainly know Poland for its work force which is willing to work hard and recently also aware that they are the hosts of Euro 2012. 

It was also a final reason on choosing Poland due to the Euro 2012 - to experience from the host nation itself  the atmosphere - I did not knew that Krakow is not a host city and that they would even host the English football team. I just arrived here and found everything out what will happen in the end of the semester of June. 

The first reason to choose the country and city - is due to the high standard of the university in Poland. The university is described one of the best business schools in Poland with leading graduates and professors from the nation.  What I did not knew that Krakow alone has 23~25 insitution including one of the oldest Jagiellonian. You notice my information of Poland and Krakow was really low - I guess in a kind of sense is good (and bad) as you do not have high expectation on what will occur to you in this nation. I guess those of you whom now read it will be a bit more aware of the situation in Krakow.

In the end I guess it was a wise choice to come here and learn the answers of above. 

Football and Study

Today I had token a walk around campus and decided to have a look onto the football match for a while. I don't really like to play and watch football for a long period. I guess out of solidarity I shall had at least once watch the a game which had been set up by the exchange students whom played against KNU schools students.

I could not stay to long for the match as later on we had a meet up on Skype (even we all live on campus) to discuss the exams question in Strategy. I see strategy never has a right answer, it is a debatable question if a theory will work - it can be supported with evidence of research of probability that it works in practise. Therefore the study debate on Skype we had was basically among the theories a Korean company can use and how to apply them. 

Thursday

Today was the first farwell saying. Just lets skip the day time. In the evening after class I joined up a bible study group another one from IVF, the attendance is mainly by member of staff and doctoral students. Is a very small group and conducted in English by an American. Next week he would not be here in Daegu and therefore it was the last bible group for this semster, but the last one for myself. It was a pleasure to know this people.

The days are also getting now colder and colder. Not as cold as we would experience in the UK, but from warm temperature as I was reporting having BBQ in the mountains end of November and now is starting hit zero degrees is not pleasant anymore. 

Tuesday

I guess if you had been a loyal reader to my blog - I can stop here. You can comment below and give suggestion what has happen today.

Rather in the evening I had met up with friends for a cup of coffee/tea and afterwards we just headed back to the campus. I bought some manderins of the vendor who stands by the university under a negotiated price. Its good that he stands on the other side of the street, as he is aware I must cross and he must sell. So I got it for a good value and shared with my friends who decided to do some late night studies in one of the buildings which is left open through the back door. 

Monday

Today I have taken a bit of rest. As the class for Strategic Mangement had been postponed. I used also this time to prepare for the final examination and sort out the accommodation in Seoul. I had decided to stay in a homestay family - the cost would be similar as staying in a hostel for a month and actually a bit more. Due in the host family I don't need to be worried of anything, I will get breakfast and dinner. On top of it I may will learn more about Korean culture, as I will stay past the lunar new year period. I guess I look more forward to it then starting the internship. It shall be one of the highlights of the next year (2012).

Other then that I had a walk around the campus and been amazed on how fast the Korean workers are working. They have completed the new street really fast - I thought it would be finish next year. Koreans are really fast workers.

Tuesday

Most of you already know what occurs on Tuesday. 

I actually don't want to believe it would be less of them day by day and wish I could spend more of this days here in KNU. 

Unlucky times do run and sooner or later I will need to return back to my home institution for final studies before finding myself settle into some good work.

Later in the evening I attended the IVF meeting, and given a small "Love Thank" speech. I really wanted to do it, as coming to all the meetings along I want to share my Thanks to a member of the group who helped me to over come the language barrier of the society. We also had been watching the original movie tape, which was done very professionally. 

Happy Camping

(25th - 27th November)

Today was the day to go to Happy Camp! I was feeling better again - as some remember I been last week to Haeinsa temple (My friend actually has some good picture from it if you like to see it). 

I received various text message during the day to make sure to wear warm clothes - and I replied back if there would be a lake for swimming. 

We had met up with Keimyung University in the South East of Daegu before going on the charted buses to the south. I do not know until today where I was and therefore you can not find a pin point on the map. (Also in reminder please select second page - you must now scroll down or download the KML file if you have Google Earth).

When we arrived after around one hour journey we had some small food and introduce ourselves. As it was already 10pm we gone all to bed and would meet tomorrow each other again.

It was a very cold night indeed in the mountains and when we woken up and had a walk after breakfast we could see that the small pond actually had some ice. It was a bit cold to walk outside, so good that it token place indoor the event where we had various activities going on. In the afternoon after lunch we actually have gone outside and as the hall has no window I was very surprise to see that it was warm. We did not needed our jacket anymore. The temperature feeling was like late spring. 

In the outdoor we had played some funny games, such as running like Spider Man or X-Man, throwing chopsticks to one end and the other.

After playing the games - most people gone back to the houses to take a rest. My friend and me decided to go for a walk around this small village to experience the real Korean culture. 

Along later this evening we had an International night as most from us come from different country we would perform a show or a dance from our country. As I had been the only international of KNU to the event we perform a Korean dance style.

It was a very good ending of the Saturday where we also had the activity to paint a t-shirt for ourselves on what we have learnt in the camp.

In the next day we had been wrapping up on what we had learned through out this weekend and for lunch we had BBQ. Yes BBQ end of November. It was an amazing cultural experience, as I had BBQ in Taiwan before. I been aware that Asians are health concious but combine health concious with Korean culture it is not a good combination. I never seen in my life before so many times a BBQ going on fire. I told them not do it fast - enjoy it take it easy it will get warm soon.

After all it was a very good weekend. 

Wednesday

I have meet up with my group to prepare further for the supply chain module, but the rest of the day I did not have done much any exiting. 

Therefore for this day is nothing to report.

Team work

Today after lunch I had met up with my Team mate for Supply Chain to work on our case study. We had decided on who will concentrate on which issues of the case study. Instant studying very hard in the coffee shop we had discussion on Korean music culture and comedies. I shown him also some YouTube videos of UK comedy. 

Also not to forget on this day Santa Claus has visited us in KNU campus near my dorm. If you look carefully you can see that Santa Claus is a modern person wearing youth style shoes. Even Santa Claus needs adapt himself to the local community.

Study - again!

Yes it is Thursday - Study time.

Today was just again one of my busy date to study from early in the morning until the evening.

In the evening I had joined up a new Christian fellowship group in KNU campus - which is conducted in English by an ex-American soldier.  The fellowship consist of students and professors of KNU. It is a great experience to study with them on campus for two hours and get to know new faculty in the university.

Study Time

This is very surprising  for most of you who followed the Blog for a while now - that also a Wednesday states study time. It is just because now most team works has started for some of the module due that the final exam period is slowly approaching and for Strategic Management we had a few case study.

This time I spend to work on a few cases studies for the university and meet up also later in the evening with my friends to get a balanced into my life.

Study times

Today is again the busy date of school studies - I am sure those who follow me skip all my Tuesday and Thursday nows - only if I write a fancy title.

But today a class was cancelled due to that the professor had a meeting so I token the time to go into the town instant sitting in my room until next class.

As I already token today all my text book with me - I could take this opportunity to go into town. There was a kind of celebration or graduation going on those who passed the "Red Cross" Training.

In the evening I gone to IVF but today was nothing special to report on.

Rainy Day

It was a rainy day in Daegu - it may also leads to positive. As next week is mid-term and it could give me some time to study more instant of travelling around. As it is really not a pleasure to walk outside in Korea in the rain with one hand a camera and the other hand an umbrella. 

Before the studies I also have meet up with my friends for some lunch in the Students Union Restaurant to get a change from the canteen food. We had planned to do actually a picknick- due to the weather it was moved inside a restaurant. As KNU campus has so many parks where you can relax and hang out with your friends.

In the evening I gone to the volunteering, and we had played a few funny games with the children for one hour. It was a good ending of this week to have a bit of fun - as all the week had been mostly concentrated on revision and preparing for the exams next week. 

Thursday

Today just had been various classes and revision time. It is the last classes before the exams it was time to ask deeper question to the professor and understand on which formulas to use.

In Logistic I have in my notes the formula

W_c=(Q*x3)+(Q*x2xft²)

but in my text book the formula states:

W_c=(Q*x2x3xft²)

The second one is correct. I just still feel the top one would be more correct - but it still has a small mistake as it multiplies to high.

There was then nothing special for this day - just gone back to my dorm after all the classes at 7:30pm.

Group work and Birthday

Today we had group our group work meeting - but the internet connection had failure and we could not connect with our partner from Hungary we needed to move the international meeting over to Wednesday.

We still have analysed the case study and discuss on which tasks everyone shall do before meeting up on Wednesday to solve the issue. I taken the rest of the time to study and then in the evening we had another small birthday party just outside the dorm. One of our friend had his birthday.  He had been asked by the French students to come outside and have a small celebration.

The day did not had else much to offer, even though it was Monday.

Team work

Today I had two team works. I have joint the Korean challenge project. Therefore I meet with my friend and his friends after class to discuss on where we shall travel. We needed to finish the proposal by Friday afternoon time.

We come up with many ideas in a brainstorm and shall think more deeper by tomorrow on how we shall solve it to try to visit some unique places here in S Korea. It is very hard something to find which is unique excluding it is in the north east of Korea or south west of Korea. This is my opinion that this areas would be very unique.

The next group meeting was with my course work. We had finish our assignment and just did a few adjustment and check the grammar of the report. We just stayed together for about two hours to complete the assignment to put all three component into one.

After my last meeting I have joined up with my friends at North Gate to relax and going for some chicken. We have invited also some of our friends that we would be a big group. I have invited the prospective students of Northumbria and did not knew that actually we are already in the same class.

Yes, in Korea or in the English spoken class people usually do not really chat after or before class. That why it can be sometimes hard to meet up with new people. Excluding you start the innovative to talk to them.

We had a great night  and learn more about each other, especially our new friends who we might already seen in the class room..

Dorm (Library) Day

Today was actually holiday but I had one group assignment and needed to prepare for my Korean quiz. I have been now suddendly left alone as I had been travelling with my girlfriend around Korea, but now not anymore. I token the time to study and prepare for the group meeting in the afternoon.

We have a group meeting with a Hungarian students in Hungary - it was difficult to connect as we did not had communicated very well and the technology suddenly also in Korean given up to support us. At least the students had done some part of the work before we even started and shared with us on Google Docs. We used this as a template and decided to meet up back again on Wednesday to complete the assignment. Everyone of us will be focusing on one area of the topics.

But, let me discuss of Korean style group work. I will surely take this back to my final year of university. It is so relax and still the power of achieving a high grade. The most important aspect that we are truly working as a team and everyone is taking care of each other. Today a team member has bought coffee for all of us - and next time somebody else shall purchases something for the team. I think this is truly team work instant coming back to the next meeting with all the homework done. It is to make sure that everyone understand on where we stand  with the work.

KNU AO Society

A new week lets see what kind of challenge it will hold this time, but first of all I shall study. As I have a small quiz tomorrow in my Supply Chain class.

It will be open book and my first exam in Korea, so I have no idea on how it will look like. I presume it will be solving the supply chain in a mathematical and logical approach. Therefore I concentrated my studies on learning and understanding the formulas as the quiz will be only 10-15mins long.

As it will be open book exam, I did not study to memorize the formulas as I will be able to open the books.

In the afternoon we have token the time to explore a bit of the area on where I study and found a nice market. It seems market are nearly in every street corner, and I ask myself do they actually mange to sell it. In my head is full of raised question of supply chain inventory management level. Do they know it on how to calculated it or will be lost of the food wastage? As everyone has so much and everyone is selling the same products. Who will eat all the food or who will it purchases - as market is going to close soon.

After we had return back to university, we had made our way to the KNU AO first society meeting for new members. We had been warmly welcomed to the society. They had shown cased us the instrument they have and which once we can learn to play. The format is very informal of the meeting and very sociable.

Afterwards we had a meal and alcoholic beverage to find more out of ourself and able to introduce ourselves to all the members. It is a good way of welcoming new members into a society. Standing up and saying "Hi" my name is ___ and whatever else you like to mention.

Exploring Daegu

My girlfriend did not seen yet really Daegu, excluding Bu-ku (North) area where my exchange university is. The last time we had been to Daegu City centre, it was closed due to the Chuesok Holiday. There had been not much interesting to seen excluding the parks, but the food vendor and museum been closed.

I token her to the places which I had visited here on my arrival with my English friends.  We had a look around the town - there is just no more activities in the town as used to be during the IAAF Games. As all the tourist have gone home - the activities in town also have stopped.

Therefore we just had gone to buy some small gifts for family and friends.

Group Work

It is back to Monday and I have my Strategic Management class. We had been told that we will need to give presentation and analysis various case study. The professor has now been kind to Group B which I am in and we only need to focus on the case study. We still have pre-spoken that I meet up with my team today – so we just went for some lunch to get to know each other a bit better that we can achieve the task set by the university.

In the later day my girlfriend and me had meet up with the Christian fellowship and went to their place. We meet their leader who himself studied abroad in America and spoken very well English. We just had a nice talk in their centre, and he needed to leave for a meeting. We stay a bit longer and played table tennis. As dinner time was a little bit too early, before we gone into the neighbourhood for some tradition Korean dishes.