Last night I went drinking with some friends. We were waiting to get in this Korean style bar and outside a fight burst out. It was funny because while one guy was taking quite a beating, three cops walked by. They stopped, viewed the situation, had a little think and then walked away without a care in the world. The fight eventually got broke up by the respective fighters friends but they stared it out for a good while later. I was so surprised that the cops didn’t lift a finger. I guess the thinking here is drunk people sometimes fight and it’s best to let the situation defuse itself. I’m not sure if I agree or not.

Today, I took it easy at home, studied a little and drank a lot of coffee. Also, I received a tie as a gift from Asami (麻美) since tomorrow we will go to a wedding. I mentioned to Asami that I had no tie to go with a black shirt, so it was really thoughtful and kind of her to give me one. In return I’ll take that friend out somewhere because she likes to visit places she has never been before. Click the picture on the left for more detail.

I spent the day studying. After class I went to this place called Mindulle Yongto (민들레 영토). Everyone calls it Minto for short. We can eat there first and then study there too. However, the menu recently changed. The new menu is a little more expensive and there is still a 3 hour limit for usage of a table but you get a lot more food now. A lot of people go to Minto to study or for club meetings - you know that sort of thing. However, they also have a couple area with movies playing and cosy sofas etc. You get drinks included in the price which you can refill with whatever a number of times. I like it there but if I use the whole 3 hours and need more time I don’t like paying extra.

Afterwards we headed to an arcade and played through Sega’s Ghost Squad. We get through that game on one coin now but we have the card for the machine so we can play new mssion levels every time. It’s a nice distraction after a hard day’s study. In the evening I met some more friends for study and chat. We took some photos (click the pic on the left). That girl is my good friend and lanaguage partner. She’s called Boram (보람). She has helped me a lot in Korea. I’m very thankful to her.
Today I had a pretty productive day. I’m quite happy.

I was riding the bus home from church today and was doing too many things at once. I ended up dropping some things down the side of the seat. So I reached under and blindly searched for my things. I took a hold of something and squeezed it a little. I wondered if it was my ear phone case. Then it moved! It was the woman’s foot behind me. She looked terrified! I just nodded in apology and found my things another way. It was so embarassing. She must have thought I was crazy.
Oh the picture is of an interesting wall I saw in the Hongik University area (흥대).

It turns out there a few British people in the language school that I study at. They came a month ago on an University exchange program. We met up a couple nights ago to get to know each other. It was kinda nostalgic because they were trying some of the Korean drinks for the first time and learning the drinking games. The area was new to them and they were all so excited. It was me a year ago. Now I’m settled into life here and enjoy it all the same. I’ll be a good source of information for them since I got to know Seoul pretty well and my language is improving all the time.

The following night I met up with the guys I used to live with when I lived in international dormitorys. We started the night out by playing some games in the arcade but the place ws updated with new machines and in the process of moving machines around they damaged the ones we like. It was a bit dissapointing. Afterwards we headed to some bars and caught up with stories and jokes before making our way home. Today I fought off the slight hangover with some delcious Fukuoka ramen in Hongik Uni (흥대) area (see pic).

20061018 The hostess returns
New pics. My friend came back to Korea for a couple weeks on holiday from her air-hostess job based in UAE. She’s looking well and has really been enjoying her work. She had a dream to get this kind of job and realised it. I hope I too can achieve my dreams.
A few of us met up and had a quick birthday celebration for another friend before she rushed off to her actual birthday party. She lives on the other side of Seoul so she couldn’t stay long. Afterwards the remainder of us ate seafood syabu-syabu before heading to a bar to down a few beers, catch up and take some strange photographs.

In attempt to help my memorisation of vocabulary, I picked up some small vocabulary books from Muji while I was staying in Japan. Actually they turned out to be really useful. They are small enough to take on the subway with me and help time fly by in those moments of waiting. I’m on top of all the new words this term and so I’ve started making some more books for the previous terms words. I’ll need to pick up a few more of them though but when I looked for the Korean branch of Muji I failed to find it (but I did find a branch of Tesco - a UK supermarket). Afterwards I looked at a map though and it turns out I didn’t walk far enough down the street I searched on and so need to go back to that area. Anyway click the picture for some more pictures.

20061015 Chuseok
For Chuseok (추석) which is like thanksgiving day for Koreans, I headed out into the countryside to spend it with a Korea family. It was interesting to see the ritual of setting the table and respecting the dead. We also worked the fields and helped out anyway we could. It was a nice trip but for once it felt awkward being the foreigner.

20061015 Killer Kimchi
Pictures from a few nights out drinking, a park in the city and a giant tomato.

I’ve been using Shure E Series E2c earphones for a few months now. They fit deep into the ear to help cancel out background noise from the environment. They really work superbly well. I often use the subway to get from place to place and these earphones do a good job of cancelling out other peoples conversations and most of the train’s sounds. I can listen to music at a safe volume unlike the earphones that came with my iPod. I had to use the Apple earphones the other day while on the subway and it became apparent how inconveinient standard earphones are now. I soon found myself turning the volume up to an unsafe level to avoid the roar of the train and other environmental sound. I genuinely missed the Shure earphones. My only problem with the Shure earphones is that if I play quieter songs I can hear the sound of my footsteps echo through my body (so no good for when I go running). It’s a strange feeling and I sometimes struggle to adapt to it. However, usually most of my music isn’t terribly quiet so it’s not really a problem. Oh, another thing is that I tend to need to rely on my eyesight more when you using them. In Seoul the drivers here have no respect for traffic laws it seems and often jump red lights and drive incorrectly down some roads. I have found myself not looking when I should since I usually rely on my ears before crossing the street. I’ve almost been hit a few times - most frequently when a car sneak attacks from behind on streets without a predestrian walking areas.

I’ve been a little slow updating this month. Actually the photographs reminded me a lot happened this month including a great trip to Japan. No wonder I haven’t had time to update this. Anyway here goes:

20061008 A new city park
Last week some Korean friends, my roomate and I went to a park in one of the newer cities in Seoul. The park welcomed us with huge space and a wonderfully large river flowing by. It was quite impressive. We all goofed around a little in the park and had a delicious picnic.

20061008 Island park
Near Dang-san station (당산역) there is a park in the middle of the river. I’d often see thsi park on the subway ride home. So I finally decided to get myself over there. Wow, it was really nice. There are beautiful gardens, a nice mix of industrial styling amongst the usual modern design, and a beautiful view of the river. Really a nice place to relax on a day off.

20061008 Japan dino
One rainy day in while on a trip in Japan, we headed over to the natural history museum. It had a really impressive dinosaur exhibition to wander around. As a child dinosaurs were fascinating to me so this brought back many memories and I had a good time feeling that feeling of wonder again.

20061008 Japan food
Some pictures of the delcious food I enjoyed in Japan. Including tempura, okonomiyaki, kushiyaki, yakiudon, kakigouri and ramen.

20061008 Japan space world
We had a fun filled day at the Space World theme park in Fukuoka. There were some impressive rollercoasters, simulation rides and some fantastic shows. You can read more in a previous entry.

20061008 Japan things
Photographs of Fukuoka’s cityscape, friends and any other random photo I wanted to share.

20061008 Ki is older
My Korean friend, Ki, celebrated his birthday by receiving his birthday cake in his face and forced to drink a bowl of something nasty. We had a great time and rounded the evening off in a club with a kinda industrial theme.

20061008 Killer kimchi
Photographs of Yonsei’s KLI writing contest, drinking in the side streets of Seoul, classmates, bag, drinking with Korean friends, Japanese ramen shop and more.

20061008 Liyoung is older
Liyoung (one of my chinese friends) had a birthday party that we celebrated in a bar after spending an hour finding a bar with enough seats on a Saturday evening in a busy drinking area of Seoul. It was a fun night helped a lot my snapping crocodile that made people drink more.

20061008 Namsan tower
One sunny afternoon I took another trip to Namsan tower. My friend had never been there so I decided to take her late afternoon, a few hours before sunset. That way we could see the day time view and the night time view. It worked out as planned and was very impressive.

20061008 World Cup Stadium
Last week I took the time to watch Seoul FC. The standard of football in Korean is very much lower than European standard but it can still be fun to watch. The stadium is pretty impressive and was built for the Japan/Korea World Cup originally. I went along with some Korean friends. A fun evening.

The first week of new classes was interesting. My new class mates seem nice but most are a fair whack older than me. I also like the teacher quite a lot. She’s all up for helping me with my problems so hopefully I can develop a good student-teacher relationship and learn a lot.
Tomorrow we have an essay writing contest which I really don’t want to do because I don’t have an idea good enough to win nor have I had the time to research anything decent. I have a story in mind but it might get lost in the culture gap between Koreans and Westerners even though that’s exactly what my essay is about. It’s okay though. I want to write it quickly, had it in, leave and go to a coffee shop to study other things.
This week a good friend came back to Korea so I’m quite happy about that. He’s someone I can talk natively too or Korean with when we want to practice. He’s started back on the same level as me in school so we can help each other out too. This term looks better already.