Category Archives: travel

Korea adventure – day #2: some university facilities

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Orientation day was on Monday July 2nd and for me, unquestionably, was interesting. The Office of International Affairs at Ajou University (AISS, photo below) has put a considerable effort into organising this summer school. Below is the photo of AISS team.

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At the time of the speeches I was touched by the following facts:

  • How Korea has transformed itself in a short period of time (more on this later)
  • AISS goal to have personalized attention (100% accurate!)
  • AISS goal to support learning, networking and an unforgettable summer together

AISS is looking forward to support the tomorrow leaders. All this increases the honour that I have to teach in this summer school!

The building where we had our orientation session, Jonghap Hall, besides to be pleasant, it has a new furniture system for me. Pay attention to the photos below:

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korea_post02_04The chairs are secure to the floor, and you can only pull them backwards, as due to springs the chairs are pushed forward automatically. New system for me.

Today I had my first korean food in Korea. The photo was taken once we all have our serving and it was delicious!

korea_post02_02 korea_post02B_1 korea_post02B_2 korea_post02B_3Also we tour the University Campus, and in this post I want to stress particularly on the Ajou University Hospital.

Today has been raining and before getting into the hospital those who have umbrellas should wrap them with plastic bags. In the next photo a student is placing the umbrella inside a device and then pull it so that the umbrella is wrapped with plastic. There are two sizes as umbrellas, concequently the device handles both: small or large umbrellas.

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Next photo you can see the student’s umbrella perfectly wrap. No dropping water from umbrellas inside the building!

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It was interesting to notice that the student who was giving us the tour got surprised that all of us, international guests, were amazed with the this new umbrella system for our eyes.

There are more new things for me in here. In this hospital patients can shop! There are stores, as if  it is a small mall at the underground level of the hospital.  In the following photo, which unfortunately is blurry, one can even find a Burger King (in the photo is the store on the far left with the sign in red).

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The following photos are at the lobby of the hospital. There is  a cafeteria and you can see patients with their serum walking around. I try to highlight that with a read circle in these blurry photos.

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On the right is the “front” desk or informs.

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Outside the hospital are considerable amount of wheelchairs. What a contrast with other locations where infrastructure is lacking, as I remember on some of my previous  hospital adventures.

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Summarising, the facilities of the hospital are impressive.

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And no all is digital! 😉 but still impressive.

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One cannot read the next photo, but it was taken to illustrate the different facilities inside the hospital building, including restaurants.

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Inside the campus all have a name, and that is how one offer directions.

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More tomorrow….

Korea adventure – day #1: travel

Yesterday I landed in Seoul, and by taxi I came to Suwon where Ajou University is located and where I will live for 39 days of my life. At the moment, it is warm in here with tendency to be hot. For example, last night around 9:30 pm, I read on the street we had  27°C. The humidity is present, as if I was in in Acapulco,  but without listening or smelling the ocean. At the moment I am in the adaptation phase, I will let you know how it goes 😉  Amazing planet we have! (with all its differences!)

This first post aims to summarize the journey from Joensuu to Suwon. I constantly marvel myself of the opportunity to use the mobility possibilities of our era.

Let’s see, I left Joensuu on a dry hot day (see photo, 31°C) by train on Thursday 27.06. at 12:17.

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At 16:32 I reach Tikkurila, then I took a bus direction to the airport.

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In Finland and Germany passengers mostly do self-check-in. This time I checked-in via internet, otherwise I often do it on those blue machines.

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My next destination: München, where I had an EXTREMELY important event on Saturday 29.06.   In this flight I had a window seat 16F of a A320, it was ok. The person next to me was following the rules very closely in the flight and despite that the aisle was not occupied (it was a line of 3 seats), she did not move to leave the middle sit free. Oh well, the flight is not long, approximately 2:30 hrs.

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On Sunday 30.06 I took my flight to Seoul, which took a bit more than 10.30 hrs to cross 8,508 km distance from München.

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I needed to take the next photo because it looks as a LAN party isn’t it?

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Reaching my destination…. Never have been this far east!

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Voilà, I land in Korea.  So glad that I know at least one of those languages.

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After landing, I looked for the exit. This automatic train took me to customs and then to the outside world 🙂

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The electric stairs on the photo utilise a voice to guide visitors and it call my attention the sticker on the floor, which indicates to be careful if you have high-hills or if the lace of your shoes are undone. I haven’t pay attention to this stickers before, I confess.

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So spoiled I am with my western european alphabet!

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I need to put  together this photo with the one I took in Dubai some years ago, it is amazing to look to a “familiar” screen and have NO idea what it says!

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Ajou University reserved a taxi to pick me up at the airport. Unfortunately, my Korean language skills are none, so there was no real conversation with the driver. However, hidden with the haze he pointed me out a large bridge, which later we crossed. It seems Samsung build it….

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The taxi driver had a lot of ICT gadgets, inclusive the GPS that looked as video game, isn’t it? I particularly got interested with, I suppose, the possibility to pay via RFID.

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My first impression is that there are considerable amount of white cars. No surprising the brands more often seen were KiaHundai and he busses Daewoo

It is a contrast when one is arriving from the land of Mercedes Benz, BMWs, Volkswagen and Audi, for example. International brands seem to have its local presence strong. I need to pay attention to which car brands are popular in Finland. I am no so certain about this, somehow I have the feeling is a little bit of everything.

However, what I did notice is traffic is a common universal fact in metropolis.

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I notice that some cars have an interesting device on a rear…. Something to research what is that for….

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Once in my destination, I could stop noticing that high buildings are a landscape constant across all my path, but more about this later.

I will close this post sharing a photo of our world, which I found at the student caffeteria, and shows me a world from another perspective 🙂

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muac

week 2 of 2011
from Distrito Federal, Mexico

Days keep on being busy, but I escape and assist to the  MUAC (Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo) , which it is a GREAT museum with FANTASTIC expositions.

Due to the lack of time, I  only visited carefully two exhibitions: Expectografias: memorias e historia, and the art of   Cai Guo Qiang: Resplandor y Soledad. Both exhibitions were very rich and impressive, highly recommended.

Below is a video that I found of Cai Guo Qiang when he did his gunpowder work for the MUAC, you will see how innovative and impressive his work is:

work hard and play hard

In the last weeks I had worked as crazy  but also  I had the opportunity to be in Lappland, Joensuu, Tampere, Bahamas and Orlando, and in each spot the main focus has been: life, learning and games.

 It will be needed some time to diggest all these, but in brief to bring together industry and academia towards a similar goal besides to be a must (from my perspective) it is full of  richness. Yes, I have much to share, the FDG2009, was a learning experience in all senses. In the last days (weeks) I have seen collaboration between individuals in amazing ways, and the interaction with systems (between human-human and human-machine) very innovative, “pervasive“, immersive. In few words, I was shaked to wake up and realize that our “progress“ goes faster than I was thinking in my small brain. Yes, there is much to work and to do, I am slow in my own process, but persistant in the path. However it is room for everybody and every idea. Life and things are constantly moving and evolving… nothing is static!

“The future is today and tomorrow is just one dream away”  this is one of my BIGGEST learning experiences, which I knew, but sometimes I forget or I need some reminding about it. The are different worlds, but we have the most important elements: time, imagination and mind, then let’s go for it!!!

I wish all the individuals in this planet listen to themselves and work together towards believe in themselves, in  their friends and family and harmonize all that “magic” with our amazing and surprising plannet. Every corner of this globe is just a wonderful spot full of surprises!

More details of this will come soon, just reporting from „Rock& Roll Coaster“ leeet’s rock!!!!!  Now to keep on my last hrs of Mickey Mouse’s overdosis! 🙂

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mexico mágico

After almost 4 years I am visiting the land that saw me born, fed me in my first years and offered me my basics. You know after crossing the Atlantic Ocean, I felt I MUST come in here. Actually, I shouldn’t let pass so much time between visits.

With all its chaos it should be admitted that México is a chaotic – non understandable but magical land. And between a busy and nice agenda, I want to share you some information:
(click on the picture if you want to look at it in bigger size)

– One of our avenues is Revolución. As you can imagine in a metropolitan area of approximately 25 million persons to find 8 lines streets just in one direction is common, and it doesn’t imply that the traffic improves. However sometimes you can find space between red lights.


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– In Mexico is a fact that you can eat a different dish every day for more than 365 days. But I will not talk about dishes yet. By now, I want to share ingredients. Here one of the vegetables’ stands in one mobile market.


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From the same market the stand of oranges (20 oranges for 30 pesos ~ aprox. 2 euros) I am an addict of orange juice!!!


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– The Popocatepetl , magnificent volcano.


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– I am very proud of my manzanita because it is able to connect via modem to the internet. 😉