Sakura. I tend to use that word more than the English or Korean translation and so does everyone else here it seems. Anyway this week they fully blossomed and yesterday started to fall. It’s be hard work doing anything recently. I’m pretty ill and should stay in and rest. I’ve been going outside for a couple hours just to be active but I really should rest the rest of the time. Anyway:

20060416 Grand Children
We went to Children’s Grand Park one day. I kept saying Grand Children’s Park and that confused the hell out of the Japanese kids, they repeatedly asked “Isn’t the name strange?” Then it came to light that they thought I meant it was a park for grandchildren and thus a little strange. Anyway, it was really nice as the Sakura was out in force and was relatively quiet due to it still being school days for most people. The park is big and nice to have a picnic or whatever. There are various attractions like animal shows, temples, a zoo and more besides. The Zoo had some really interesting animals but it all seemed a little cruel with the tiny amount of space they had. Some animals looked bored. It was nice to see tigers, elephants, lions, giant birds and so on but it was also depressing because of the conditions. Still, it was a nice afternoon.

20060415 Killer kimchi
More random pics from the last week or so. First up is a lunch that a girl made for me. It was truly scary having to try to eat those mini squid things. However, not too bad once I ate one. Strong flavour though. Monika and Erin follow. They’ve been great friends to me recently but unfortunately Monika has returned to her home country. A digger floating in the sky. Yes, a truly strange site. They placed it on top of a building like so and it has been digging through the building the last few days. Quite strange. Then Hwangsa, yes that yellow dust hurt us all here and has been blamed for the increase in illness recently. I went to a concert and checked out one of my favourite Korean bands - Underwear band and a Japanese band - Mono. Both very good but I think Mono lack that something special. Finally there are some pics of the first Korean girls I met in my time here. I hadn’t seen them for a month or two so it was nice to catch up with them.

Sakura and that
Sakura has been adding life to the grey of the city recently and the parks are particularly stunning now. Here are some various pictures of the trees and some of my better friends.

Ah yesterday was a nightmare if I went outside. Basically Hwangsa (황사) hit Seoul badly. It’s dust/sand flying over from a desert near China I believe. It was horrible to breath in and sometimes got in my eyes. A lot of people sensibly were wearing face masks. The parked cars all sported a new yellow tint as the sand settled upon them. Yeah, a lot of people I know that went out for the day soon gave up and went to a coffee shop or somewhere else to pass their time. If you look at the picture on the left, that misty appearance you see is the sand in the air and yes… that is a giant tee-shirt on the side of a building that reads when translated, “dream of the Korean flag”.

20060409 Flowers and river
So we went to Yeoido (여의도) to see some sakura and other blooming flowers. It was really nice but unfortunately we went a little early. The flowers are yet to be out in force. I’ve promised to go again though with someone else so hopefully I’ll get to see this park at it’s prettiest time. I hope we get weather as good as that day. Since it was really warm, we took a walk down to the river too. The river isn’t exactly clean but it is nice to look across and feel the scale of it all. The park is actually on an island in the river.

20060402 Class byebye
I finished level 2 of the Korean course successfully after taking an extra listening test (just to confirm I’m level 3 material). I scored particularly highly on the writing test. Anyway these photographs show me with the friends I made this term. A lot of them I probably won’t see again, some I’ll remain in contact with and others I will see next term. It was a wonderful term but very busy and thus I had little time for design projects and other activities. I start next term this week and hope to get a teacher and friends as good as the last lot.

20060402 Killer kimchi
Ah another set of random pictures. First up is Monika who became a good friend too late. She gave me great advice and looked after me well. However because of work she had to return to Germany. Ninja! Yes we now have a restaurant run by people in Ninja suits. Wouldn’t it be cool if they left you food without you noticing and when you attempt to pay the bill they hand you back your wallet that they sneakily stole. Next is me and Fumi, a super cool Japanese girl. We get along well and I hope to see more of her next term. Next up is a few pictures from a friends leaving party. Then some fountains in the city hall area. Following them is me and Yejin (a language partner that turned good friend) enjoying a day out together. Next is me with an April fools joke applied to my back. Sneaky. Then some pictures in and on the way to a club that played some seriously good break beats. Finally some artwork and the camera shy girl I viewed it with. Ah this paragraph flows really badly. Am I forgetting English living here?

So I returned with from the place of the rising sun? Doesn’t the sun rise most places? I should look up why they call it so. Anyway Japan was lovely. Fukuoka was a great city and the surrounding area was beautiful. I stayed in three different houses all together. Fukuyama was nice. I explored many islands there and must say that Miyajima was particularly impressive. So beautiful! The gate to the temple of that island is built in the sea! It’s an odd site.
I travelled around with my Japanese friend Ryo. Unfortunately he doesn’t speak English but we communicated in Korean for the most part. Everyone who gave us a place to sleep and showed us around were really nice, generous and helpful people. They made our trip so much better by removing the need to work out how to get from here to there and show us stuff that tourists usually miss. It was a great trip!

Oh I can’t leave you without pictures and of course I was overly snap happy so here is a few sets of selected pictures from the 600 pictures I took.