좋은 시간이었어요

This will be my last posting on my 3-week Korean language study trip. Life is back to normal but I am getting a lot more work-stress these days. Attending Korean lessons are now my best stress-reliever. It does make a different doing something that I like. As I wrote before I have more things to write about than I have the time. Recently, I have not been covering about my Korean study very much. There are many ideas sitting in my mind for quite a while but I think they will have to wait. With the end of this posting, I shall be taking a break from blogging to settle my work-debt and brush up on my Korean language basics. It has been such a wonderful time. I think this is perhaps the meaning of living one's life.

한국음식

Staying in Korean for 24 days, there are definitely more than 15 dishes of Korean food which I have eaten. However, I wasn't really into taking photos of food, so what you see here were as much as what I was willing to capture. Food is so much an indispensable part of daily routine. As such, I think I will have miss out an important part of my study trip if I do not cover something about Korean food. So here it is, pictures only because I am not good at describing how each food tasted. As I was working on this posting, I can feel that Pavlovian Conditioning is slowly taking effect on me. Just thinking and looking at the food makes me salivate.

덕수궁에 두번째 갔다

[1st Row] Junghwamun (중화문-中和門). [2nd Row] Seogeodang (석어당-昔御堂). [3rd Row] Desksugung Art Musuem (덕수궁미술관-德壽宮美術館)

I visited Deoksugung (덕수궁-德壽宮) for the second time as part of our study field trip. Deoksugung was not as big and built up as what I would think a palace should be. There were not more than 10 historical buildings in the palace. In term of size, I would probably call it a park. Deoksugung was set in the heart of the Seoul city. Walking in it, didn't give me a sense of going back in time as my view was often a juxtaposition of historical building with modern high-rise buildings in the distant background. If history is not considered, Deoksugung will be less of a palace but more of a park and it is really an exotic park that is worth a visit.

영화를 보기로 했다

Seoul Cinema located in between Jongno Sam-ga and Euljiro Sam-ga Station

Megabox Cinema (Level 5~6) inside Migliore shopping mall in Sinchon

하늘, 산과 호수

Singapore lacks both natural resources and scenery. This scene of sky, mountain and river at Chuncheon is extremely delightful to me.

City-dweller like me sometimes badly needs a place of serenity to escape to. In Chuncheon, I can sit by the river the whole day just reading book.

It is quite difficult to get an unobstruted view in Singapore. A view like this that stretches out to the sky simply open up both my mind and heart.

흰눈 보고 싶어

For my 3 weeks stay in Seoul, altogether I took 1677 photos. But I think only about 20 percent are usable. Of these, two-thirds were already posted. As it is, my photo reserve will soon be exhausted. Despite that, I will be uploading more photos in the coming weeks so that I can finish with them and move on to something else. I am starting this series of photo uploading with the theme "white snow". Though it is quite strange to be still talking about snow when the Spring has already crossed its halfway mark, I don't seem to get enough of it. It is warm tonight though it rains this afternoon. I have never slept better than when I was in Seoul. Perhaps it was the cold weather or it could be that I was stress-free. I miss the snow and the good sleep :)

한달만에

Picture taken inside "Canmore" fruit and dessert shop.

따뜻한 느낌

What is happiness? Happiness is a feeling of warmth. Warmth can be as simple as one warm light and someone waiting for you to return. It does help you to understand warmth better if the outdoor temperature is sub-zero degree Celsius.

홍대에 가봐

I was first introduced to Hongik University or Hongdae in my Sogang Korean Language textbook. My teacher told us that there are four famous universities in Sinchon area. They are Sogang, Yonsei, Ewha and Hongik. I have since visited all except Yonsei. No particular reason why I left Yonsei out. It was just because I didn't have enough time. As stated in a tourist brochure which I took from the Korean Tourism Organisation main office, Hongdae is one of the favourite hangouts for young Koreans. The streets in the vicinity of Hongdae are lined with unique clubs, performance, shopping and eateries. I visited Hongdae on a Saturday evening and I remembered vividly that I have to squeeze my way through the crowd to get out of the subway station.

Inside Hongik Univeristy campus

Hongdae's football field in early Spring

This slope leads out of Hongdae. There is no main gate at Hongdae.

A nice cafe called "Banana Swing" located beside Hongdae Flea Market

Another nice glasshouse cafe called "Avenue"

This is a noraebang. A nice hang-out after class.

춘천의 호수

Chuncheon in Gangwon Province is both a city of mountains and lakes. Lakes in Chuncheon are not lakes in the natural sense. They are formed due to the construction of dams. Picture above is Uiam Lake (의암호-衣岩湖). The Uiam Dam is over at the other end. The place where I took the picture was quite secluded. We got there by taking a taxi from Chuncheon city but we had some problem getting a taxi back. We waited for more than half an hour before an empty taxi came along the way. The lesson learnt is that if you want to visit some "exotic" place be prepared to take a longer time to return to base.