International Relations Office

I am Viktor Vasilenko, a student of Innopolis University. This year I took part in the academic exchange program with the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. It is my first trip abroad, and I am lucky to spend a whole semester in Spain.

Everything is different here: another university, different culture and people who enjoy noon breaks so much that can even afford drinking alcohol at lunchtime. The UPC’s Master's degree program in Artificial Intelligence is the only familiar matter here.  

When I received a confirmation of my successful admission to the academic exchange program, I realized that knowledge of Spanish would be a huge benefit. I avoid traditional methods of learning foreign languages at schools or with tutors. I started learning Spanish on my own a month and a half before my trip to Barcelona. My experience of autonomous studies of English helped me to develop certain learning techniques which were applicable this time. For instance, I use the Pimsler Language Program and memrise.com – an online language service. Besides, I work on vocabulary. I try to study half an hour each day, plus I spend half an hour on studying vocabulary. If I do not have enough time, I study twice as long next day.

I went to Spain alone. I do not have any friends in Barcelona. Frankly speaking, I decided just to go there and act ad hoc without making any contacts in advance. I knew that there are many Russians in Barcelona, at least two people are from Innopolis University. One of them spends his exchange semester at the same university as I do, and the other one - at Harbour.Space, a University for Technology and Design.

At the Barcelona airport, I was welcomed by the Buddy, a member of the same exchange program whose task is to help foreign students to adjust to a different cultural environment and get settled in a foreign country. During the first two weeks, I overwhelmed him with questions. The Buddy helped me to find accommodation – I rent a room in a three-room apartment. It is two times cheaper than living in a student hostel. The rent is 17 500-28 000 Rub. on average. Besides, you have your own private space and a chance to get in touch with interesting neighbours.

Spanish houses have a special planning: the kitchen is very small – it is only for cooking, and people usually have lunch at the living room which is rather spacious. At night, it is very quiet in the neighborhood where I live – like in Innopolis – so I get enough sleep even with my window open. There is an exit to the roof if you want to feast your eyes on gorgeous Barcelona or lay in the sun when it is hot outside.

I am blessed with very good neighbors! Eric and Paul are from Norway, but they grew up in Catalonia. Both speak four languages — Catalan, Spanish, English, and Norwegian. Paul is interested in politics and philosophy. He made a research on military and economic conflict in the New Russia (Novorossiya), so we have a lot to talk about in the evenings.  

Eric is also a UPC student, and he is the one who told me about castelles, or the human towers, that are traditionally built during festivals at many locations within Catalonia. People step on the shoulders and climb up and form 10 higher levels. A castell can reach a height of 5-storey building. Building castelles is very exciting! It is more a family activity: adult males form the lower part of the human tower are called pinya, while the upper levels are built by younger castellers of smaller height and weight. When I took part in the castell building for the first time, a 5-year-old girl climbed up to the seventh level of the tower. I was among those forming the bottom base of the tower and people stepped on my shoulders to reach the upper levels. The castellers have 3-meter long leather belts wrapped around the waist that help to sustain the weight of the tower avoiding extra tension on the back, and serve as an additional step for those climbing to the top.

Those who are interested in building of human towers gather in an old hangar rented at the expenses of the local municipality. The training area is equipped with mats and two-level safety nets. The latter have a round hole cut out in the middle to fit in the pinya, the bottom of the tower. In case of an accident, castellers fall on the first and second level of the tower which is safe enough.

It is interesting that during the training no one gives commands forcing other to start building the tower. The coach simply screams out in Catalan: "first level", "second level!" and so on, and people come up to the tower once they hear the level they build. Until then, castellers just walk around hangar and talk to each other. Being a member of the pinya, I made a part of the tower from the very beginning. Honestly, I understood nothing of what the coach was yelling out because I did not speak Catalan back then. So, I was doing what other castellers did. So far, I have taken part in this exciting activity just once, because I do not have enough free time.

I spend all days studying at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. There are only two programmes delivered in English. Meanwhile, everyone who studies at any of these has to choose courses and make their own curriculum. My program looks as follows: it consists of Robotics courses to 4/6 and of disciplines in Data Science, including genetics, and a mathematical course on Kernel-Based Machine Learning to 2/6. I enjoy the fact that students have an opportunity to decide what courses to take. In addition, you can select courses from the first and the second year of Master's degree programmes. I am particularly grateful to Sergey Karapetyan from the Office of International and Academic Cooperation of Innopolis University for his assistance in approval of my curriculum.

The UPC program includes many mathematical disciplines, it is hard to study and sometimes I feel awfully tired of all these theorems and equations. But when I make an effort and solve another complicated task, it makes me happy and studies seem more appealing. I am sure that mathematics will be helpful in the future. Last year Grigory Bakunov from Yandex visited Innopolis University with a lecture. He told that being a programmer in 1980-90s was easy — it was enough to learn any programming language. Now it takes a good knowledge of mathematics. I agree that modern software engineers willing to create something new need to make their own algorithms based on mathematics rather than programming.

I study with fellow exchange students from South America, Mexico, Europe, Turkey, China, India and Japan. In contrast to Innopolis University, the faculty members at UPC are mostly local professors and PhDs. Apparently, they are not native English speakers, and the core language used at the University is not Spanish — 60% of Bachelor's degree courses are delivered in Catalan. Master's degree programs are taught in English. I had to adjust to accents of local professors in order to understand them.

The Buddy Program includes special events helping students to connect with each other. Our Buddy group have already visited the National Art Museum of Catalonia, organized an evening of national cuisine and took part in a quest on the history of Barcelona in the center of the city. Sometimes it is hard to focus on studies here. Barcelona is famous for numerous festivals taking place every week. Besides, there are 10 social network groups for exchange students that post information about parties and get-togethers. I attend some occasionally. People just come to relax, enjoy music and dance. We have fun, talk and make friends.

So far, I have spent 70 hours on learning Spanish and built up my vocabulary. I keep learning Spanish and Catalan which makes an integral part of all areas of life in Barcelona. I can easily talk to the locals, ask them how to find the nearest café or a subway station or learn the price of a product in a store.   

Speaking of the latter, most of goods here are 2-3 times more expensive than in Russia. In terms of money, a lunch in a local café or a small restaurant will cost you 300-600 Rub. The price of the unlimited travel card for 3 months is 7000 Rub., and a bottle of milk is 100 Rub. A student should have at least 50 000 Rub. to feel comfortable.  

Spanish daily routine is different from the one in Russia. All stores or service centers are closed on Sundays — people enjoy the holiday. The locals prefer riding motorcycles and bicycles to other means of transport which is natural considering a hot climate and weather conditions.

"Am I not on the list? How come? I could not register in the system containing information about all exchange students. Later on, I found out that it was a sort of a system failure. It is still hard to believe that this kind of errors can happen in such a well-developed country like South Korea. Anyway, I could not log in the system. No registration means no opportunity to book a room in a student hostel, and no accommodation in Korea which I hoped for. Documents were all ready, tickets purchased, and my suitcase was packed full of items for every occasion. Still, I was very worried at that moment.

My name is Anastasia. I am a 4th-year Bachelor's degree student of Innopolis University. At the beginning of this academic year I went to South Korea as a participant of the academic exchange program. It is my first semester at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of Seoul National University (SNU) where I study Computer Science and Engineering.

When people ask me why I have decided to make such a long journey, I often answer that I am driven by curiosity, desire to gain knowledge and compare studies abroad with education in Russia. I have heard a lot about advantages of academic exchange: it is a chance to live in another country and meet students from various parts of the world, explore different cultures and traditions. So, I decided to try it at first hand.

I have chosen Seoul National University for several reasons. First, SNU is among the top-30  universities of technology. Besides, it has been supporting academic exchange programs for many years. I have never been in Asia but heard that Asian programmers are highly skilled. This was a perfect opportunity to check my knowledge and skills.

Before taking a 6,000 km long journey, I studied information about Korea on the Internet. I had watched a dozen of videos about Korea and its capital, studied handbooks and travel tips. Before visiting a new country one should learn about its traditions, culture and lifestyle in order to adapt to the local environment. I was astonished by Seoul and a bit upset with the "dog issue". Those who are interested in Korea will eventually come across the fact that the Koreans eat dogs. 

The capital of South Korea made a strong impression on me. The city is a unique combination of skyscrapers, royal palaces, underground and above-ground railway system and huge stores with endless raws of shelves.  

Upon arrival, my first task was to find accommodation - which was not a piece of cake by the way. On a couchsurfing website where local people offer a place to stay for travelers I got in touch with young people from Seoul. They were very kind and promised to help me with accommodation. The plan was as follows: I was going to spend a couple of days at my new friend's place and keep looking for other options on the Internet. Meanwhile, pictures of apartments and rooms posted online and offers of real estate agents including prices were far from reality. However, I was lucky: my friends helped me to find a suitable room and the owner even gave me a discount - for the beautiful smile as she said. 

I know people who believe that academic exchange is fun. Indeed, it is exciting but not easy. In addition to two regular lectures and a home assignment once a week we get a laboratory task that takes as much effort as a month-long project. Besides, we have a three-hour practice and tests on assembler, machine code, hardware and operating systems. Luckily, at Innopolis University I had a course in Operating Systems by Professor Giancarlo Succi which helps me to deal with the last of these.

I am writing this message trying not to fall asleep as long as I wait for a lecture  of Professor Berhard Egger. He teaches System Programming, the most difficult of the three courses that I have chosen for this semester. I knew that these courses will cost me sleepless nights if I want to get good grades.

The material is quite complicated but the Scandinavian Professor often illustrates it with interesting and curious facts. Sometimes he tells about unusual ways of killing your laptop. Now I know that programming skills can help you to build a "fork bomb", a program that continually replicates itself to consume CPU time and the system memory. 

I get the highest scores for all tests and laboratory tasks but it seems that I spend more time on it than Korean students do. Exams are even harder. I do not know the results yet, but I worry about it. At the exam, I had a question on a topic that we did not discuss during the classes. The score for the correct answer is 25% of the overall grade. Local students finished the exam in 20 minutes while their exchange fellows were still scratching their heads. At that moment, I was working on the second question out of seven.   

So far, it is hard to figure out the level of Korean programmers, but they are far more diligent than their foreign colleagues. Meanwhile, it is a Swiss and not an Asian professor who is in charge of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. 

According to the global rankings, Seoul National University is a leader among all other Korean universities. I know some people who had been trying to enter SNU for 5-7 years, but they never did because of tough selections. 

Seoul National University is like Innopolis University - students cannot combine studies and job. I spend full 5 days  with short breaks for sleep and meal on a single laboratory task as part of the System Programming course.

Speaking of food, at first it was hard to use chopsticks and spoons — the only table-ware available in the student cafeteria at SNU. But it was half the battle. The real challenge was the local food. It is so spicy that sometimes I try to hold my breath not to burn down the building. Fortunately, there is water on each table to save lives of novices like me.

The Koreans are experts in cooking rice. They boil it, fry it with vegetables, make wine and sweets of it. Korean cuisine is full of surprises. Once I tried a snail soup served at the university cafeteria. Some time later in a local barbeque bar I tasted bugs in marinade sauce and a beverage made of sprouted shoots which looked like a vegetable soup. 

I usually have lunch with my friends who I met thanks to the SNU Buddy. This organization assigns a local student (Buddy) to a foreigner, thus helping the latter to adjust to a new environment. During my stay in Korea, SNU Buddy has organized an overnight trip to an island, rafting, paintball and weekly theme games. One day we got together to collect oysters and mussels on the ocean shore. We released some of them back into the ocean while the rest were used to cook a seafood soup.

A trip to Gyeongbokgung, the main royal palace of the Joseon dynasty, was the most remarkable event for me. For people wearing hanbok, a traditional Korean clothing, the entrance is free of charge. So, we decided to rent it. The price of these wrap-around dresses is up to $5000.  You can rent one for $30 but we had a group discount and got them for $15 a piece. 

I often compare Russia and Korea. Indeed, everything here is more up-to-date, but I do not think that this country is far ahead of us. Meanwhile, I am glad that Wi-Fi covers the whole country. I am not going to tell you about talking toilets with heated seats and a bunch of buttons. I would rather say that daily appliances are more advanced here in terms of technology. The Korean underground is equipped with screens indicating location of trains. In summer, each carriage has a different level of conditioning which passengers can see on the carriage and choose the one with a comfortable temperature.

The university offers its own bonuses: each classroom has a small charging cabinet suitable for all kinds of mobile phones. Also, you can view the menu of the cafeteria online and book a seat in the library. 

Speaking of the infrastructure, the university includes 50 buildings, and there is a free shuttle bus running across the campus. A student card (not to be confused with the bank card) confirms that you study at Seoul National University, and serves as a universal means of payment accepted in public transport, stores and restaurants.

Daily routine in Seoul is full of surprises. For example, elderly people lead an active lifestyle and use modern gadgets as much as young people do. You can see them chatting on smartphones or taking photos with friends. In the evening Seoul parks offer dance events and gymnastics for elderly people where they enjoy the Latin American music.

I often communicate with students from France and Germany, but I cannot say that I have found any true friends here. Everyone is crazy about programming. In fact, nobody is interested in communication as it is. 

In Korea, most of programmers are male like in Russia but I do not feel any special attitude conditioned by this. However, when I go out I know I am in the focus of attention. People take photos with me and make compliments. I was twice offered to become a model! It is funny but some even hang out of cars to look at me. No one stands aloof when I pass by - women, men, and children turn their heads. It is nice to feel special at every event or a party. This is exactly how club owners treat foreigners who come to their places. You attend parties for free, get your meals at the expense of the cafe and receive invitations to shows of Korean DJs.

Sometimes I go to explore the city together with my friends. As I said, I mostly communicate with students from France and Germany, but I enjoy spending time with young people from other countries as well: Kia Young from Singapore  who is a local student, Benkhun Djadamba from Mongolia and Katya from Moscow. 

Walking across the city you cannot but notice that people here are stylish. It is interesting that girls always cover the upper part of their body. Sometimes it looks bizarre: they wear a long-sleeved jacket with a cutout dress or combine tiny shorts with a pair of black ones that look like underwear. Here is another interesting detail: most of the couples here are dressed alike. For instance, they choose colors that match, put on similar shoes or wear identical accessories. 

The Koreans love computer games. Gamers are treated like celebrities, parents are proud of them and girls want to date virtual athletes. I attended two finals of the Starcraft II, but it is not very popular among the local people. The majority is fond of the League of Legends and the Overwatch. In Seoul computer clubs and cafes are at every corner: people enjoy eating and playing at once.

One of the most interesting details of Seoul is that it is a very crowded city. I compared it with St. Petersburg, and it turned out that the Korean metropolis is 2.5 times smaller than the Russian one, but the population of Seoul is 2 times bigger. Most of citizens speak English, so I do not have to learn Korean. Recently, I had a nice conversation with a bus driver. So, if you know English, you will feel comfortable here.

I miss home and Russian food and feel happy when I get a regular chicken for dinner. Still, there is no time to feel sad: I enjoy the warm weather outside, good people around me and my life packed full of exciting events!