Korean Aerospace Uni - International Summer Placement, anyone?

I saw the email for this from the engineering dept, and after NEARLY getting onto the final list for StudyChina for 3 weeks in China in Easter, I thought 'I've got nothing to lose'

Anyway... they didn't ask for much, I expected nothing back but this morning I got send an acceptance/congratulation email for getting accepted on a place for the Korean Aerospace Uni International Summer Placement this year.

Has anyone else been accepted on this? I wasn't sure what to make of it, is it worth it?
It'll come out to about £1500 without spending money, so I'm not sure yet.

Reply 1

PDizzle

Where abouts in Korea is it? I don't know anything about the programme but I have travelled to Seoul before and loved it. If you can afford it I would say go. I bet it would be a real amazing experience.

University of Leeds

Leeds

Reply 2

sticky0wl

Original post by PDizzle

Goyang, if that means anything to you?

I just checked google maps, and it's extremely close to Seoul!

I think the only thing holding me back is fear, and also I guess I don't know if the money is too much. It's about £1500 for everything, without spending money.

Can I ask you, how much spending money you reckon I would need for that amount of time? Considering my food is paid for as well, but I might like to eat out occasionally but not ever day.
Also, the flights I found were ranging from £465 to £550, is that about right?

Terrified hahah. But excited, I have 10 days to make a decision!

Also, is it pretty safe?

Reply 3

PDizzle

I went there with work so food was paid for also as were my flights. I haven't been yo Goyang so can't say much about that.

However, when you are there it was pretty cheap. I just did some checking and the current exchange rate is 1629 Korean Won to the pound.

To put that into perspective (figures taken from lonely planet and Numbeo as it was about 8 years ago I was there) a street food meal or fast food is ranging between 1000 and 5000 KWN. that is anything between 61p and £3.07. For a middle of the range meal for 2 people you are looking at 40,000 KWN which is £24.55 and for a high end meal you are looking at 70,000 KWN which is £43.95.

Local beer is about 3000 KWN or £1.84 and a coke is 1560 KWN which is about 96p

Subway tickets are currently priced at 1150 which is 71p.

So from that you can probably see its fairly cheap.

Don't let fear put you off. It really is a fantastic country to visit. I have always said when I get the opportunity that I will return. Seoul is one of my favourite places I have ever visited. I never felt unsafe there and I believe they actually have very low crime rates. Obviously I wouldn't recommend walking on your own in an unknown area in the early hours of the morning but I would say that about any country also.

If you can afford it I would definitely say go for it. I do always hold the attitude though that "it's better to regret something you have done than regret never doing it at all". Now that's not to say you will regret it but if it were me I would beat myself up forever for not taking the opportunity to experience something new.

Here are the links for the latest information I found.

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/city_result.jsp?country=South+Korea&city=Seoul - I had to do the search for Seoul but as this is the capital city I would imagine its priced above other cities / regions.

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/south-korea/money-costs