Relief

I finally booked flights to Seoul and back to Finland! A sip of cold cider after sauna and I can finally take it easy with preparations. Almost everything has been taken care of except for travel insurance and one final e-mail to KMU international services informing them of my arrival schedule. And of course planning trips around South-Korea and Bali where I'll be heading for christmas with my good friend Sonja who'll be spending the autumn in New Zealand.

When the final admission certificate arrived from Keimyung just before midsummer I felt extremely stressed due to all the paper work that had to be done. Two weeks and the paperwork is done, and I still had time to enjoy traditional midsummer at summer cottage in Central Finland and a superb weekend in extreme heat in the extremely beautiful Savonlinna.

Basically the most difficult thing with preparations is the visa applications. The Visa can be applied via traditional mail, but is quite complicated with all the annexes: original admission certificate from the receiving university (with your signature!), original student certificate from home university, visa handling fee, passport, and registered mail envelope for returning the passport. My brain capacity just felt too small to remember all this.

I've also sent confirmation and medical self-evaluation forms to Keimyung, and visited the occupational healtcare for getting a medical certificate from a licensed health professional stating that I don't have pulmonary tuberculosis and hepatitis B :). I've also been wondering about my finances during the trip. Jut for precaution I've given my mother rights to my bank accounts.

Now, I'm just going to concentrate on my Lonely Planet -guide, and plan my first holiday (five whole days!) since 2005 which I'll be spending in Seoul before heading to Daegu on the 29th of August.

H