TOUCH KOREA TOUR -Day 5: buzz KOREA Awards Day (Seoul)

The final leg of our Touch Korea Tour sponsored fully by buzz Korea and Korea Tourism Organization brought us to the Lotte World. Anyone can enjoy Korea by signing up with buzz Korea or Korea Tourism Organization and can become part of their awesome campaigns. Hurry up and sign up!
 

buzz KOREA (http://www.ibuzzkorea.com/eng/) is an online community platform that allows users to share and upload content about Korea and its tourism. buzz KOREA members share their blog posts, photos and videos about their stories and experiences to help others discover the hidden attractions of Korea.

The “Touch Korea Tour” campaign (http://www.ibuzzkorea.com/touchkoreatour/eng) provides participants with the opportunity to tangibly experience Korea in person. Participants of this tour travel throughout Korea, exploring the various attractions and sights of the country. In turn, they help spread other travelers find unique destinations and activities to try. 

kicked off by visiting Lotte World - world's largest indoor amusement park in Seoul, had fun on roller coaster and other rides and after having lunch -  Samgaethang - ( I'll do a seperate post on this) left for 2012 buzz KOREA Awards at "Beyond Museum".

They were covered by "allpop dot com" and Korea dot net among others.

It was an  important day for us since we were heading for 2012 buzz Korea Awards to receive our awards. The venue was “Beyond Museum”. 

Excellent arrangements were made by Korea Tourism Organization. 

Performance by the honorary ambassadors of KTO: miss A and 2PM was electrifying. We also enjoyed the performance by PSY (junior) too on the famous song: Gangnam Style. 

This program was hosted by Ricky Kim – actor/model. 

Part of these awards was hosted by a famous comedian...(pic. above)..
Blogs and other SNS winners also got awards. I won the award for “Communicator of the Year”. 

We were interviewed by media personnel and journalists from Korea and abroad. 

2PM and miss A made guest appearance and also performed some of their famous singles....... 

A Malaysian and an Indonesian blogger were both part of the Touch Korea Tour : Fun Team and during dinner, I got to know Erry Andriyati - she gave me a very pretty gift too- a souvenir from Indonesia. Hey Erry ...thanks (pics. of Eerie are below second from left). She told me that she couldn’t believe this to be real.

The prize money was huge and she would like to save it for her kids education and btw. she has a son and a daughter.

We left for dinner and were later joined by Ricky Kim. He is a very down to earth and modest person….a guy next door. I love the way, Korean K-Pop actors, singers or stars in general are so sweet with their fans.

One of our friends Naoko from Japan - brought this fan's FAN to cheer Thaekyon of 2PM.

PSY junior was so cute, he appeared in the song with PSY and when I called him to come near us, he actually did and even posed for me...^^ (pic. below).

By the way, I found out that miss A's SUZY (수지) is super popular from boys to men...:-) She is actually very cute.

 Overall, we got to meet some really wonderful people from around the world and this was the biggest reward and award to be a part of buzz Korea and KTO. When I started blogging a little over a year ago – I never had thought that I’ll experience any such thing through blogging and that too about my life in Korea. Recognition of our work feels really food..

I started this blog for a break from studies or research. I’m so thankful to Korea Tourism Organization and buzz Korea for appreciating the SNS community and the bloggers in particular.. 

There is no other country like KOREA and I’m thankful to them from the bottom of my heart for taking so good care of us for an entire week, giving us a chance to stay in Five-Star hotels and experience some of the most fantastic food and tourist spots which I would have missed out otherwise. 

I’m really thankful to the staff of KTO and buzz Korea who were very thoughtful of every single detail as well as individual needs of the participants. THANK YOU buzz KOREA and Korea Tourism Organization – Love YOU!

Tips for Students in Korea

There are a few things I would like to recommend to students who are already in Korea or are planning to study here:
1) Learn Korean, try your best and do NOT take it for granted.
2) Korean language proficiency can open many doors of opportunities which you'd miss otherwise.
3) Hang out with Korean students or the lot who do not mind speaking Korean - it is hard to find such people because the natives indulge themselves in practicing English - more often than not.
4) Choose a major - which interests you & you are passionate about.
5) Korea is becoming more diverse in the choice of schools for kids from Pre-school to High School - which wasn't true a few years back... therefore, if you have kids - it should not be a big problem to find a school of your choice and in your budget (for people in doctoral, post-doc or research programs).
6) Get yourself enrolled in extra curricular activities - martial arts, music, painting and many other choices provided by the Korean government, NGO's or universities themselves.
7) Stay positive.
8) No matter what religious background you have or what sort of baggage of restrictions you have in terms of food choices or interaction with people - Korea has it all.
* Itaewon (Line6) is an area where you can find all sort of groceries from around the world-including 100% Halal food @Foreign Food Store. This store also owns Foreign Food Restaurants located on the same street. Itaewon has the highest number of halal food restaurants in Seoul and the cost is reasonable.
* Haehwadong(Line 4) -has a street market every Sunday specializing in Filipino goods-give it a shot.
* Dongdaemun (Line 2,3,4,5) - has pretty much everything from huge shopping malls to street markets. It is also considered as the center of whole sale vegetables and fruits markets as well as an area specializing in clothing, footware, leather products and the biggest socks making center in Asia.
* Jaegi Dong" near Cheongneangni (subway line no:1) is another interesting place to explore. It has fruits and veges usually sold in a slightly bigger quantity but at a really low rate. In such a case you can split the price and the produce between freinds. This area is the main supply center to the entire Seoul.
9) You can also volunteer - there are many options like orphanages, old age centers, foreign community centers, translators, teaching positions for the underprivileged children at various schools, cultural exchange teachers and so on. Options may be available within your field of study as well.So stay informed.
10) Avail the option of internship - both paid/unpaid as well as domestic/international- which is provided by almost all universities during the term breaks. It is a good way of networking as well as future job prospects.
11) Seoul's student neighborhoods and areas of activity are:
- Sinchon (line:2) center of learning with four major universties (Ewha, Yonsei, Hongik, Sogang) with a student community of about 200, 000 bustling with a great number of restuarants, cafes, clubs, book stores, libraries and shops.
- Second area is again Haehwa : it has International Student Hostels etc.so again, it is good for the people with budget & a willingness to try fusion culture.
- Another area is Gangnam (line 2) and Sadang also on line 2....a huge number of students hang out there - a real treat indeed.
- Seoul has about 56 universities in all and the list is long. All university localities have their own distinct culture and budgeted outlets...do your research.
12) Seoul in particular and Korea in general has the highest number of Womens' universities and among them Ehwa is considered as one of the oldest women's university of Asia. If you have reservation to study in a women's university then there is a plenty of choice for one to choose from.
13) There used to be an option of National Insurence but now it is being replaced by AVG, ask your admin office - it is important because medicare is very expensive, one trip to a doctor would cost you minimum 50 dollars (US). If you do NOT have any health insurence than you have a choice of 'absolutely free' medicare at any of the Migrant Centers in and around Seoul. Please call first before heading out. Oriental medicine, dentistry and general medicine are the areas that they cover.
14) Last but not the least, contact:'Seoul Global Center for Foreigners (SGC)'. It is the best source of information and on top, they are extremely efficient. You can either visit SGC personally (it is located near the City Hall on line 2, exit 5)or can check their website at http://global.seoul.go.kr


ENJOY YOUR STAY AND ALL THE BEST!
¸...¸ ___/\_____ ____
,·´º o`·, /__/__/\__//____/\
```)¨(´´´ | | | | || ||l±±±± |
¸,.-·²°´ ¸,.-·~·~·-.,¸ `°²·-. :º°