I didn’t really do much of anything this week. I studied, finalised my ticket to go to the UK for Christmas, met some friends and that’s it. Yet somehow, I feel so tired. I feel like I have no energy and have seemed to have pulled a muscle in my leg. I need a break. A week or two without of relaxation and do some creative stuff. Thankfully my exams finish next week and I will travelling home for a month. I love Seoul life but sometimes doing intensive study and all the other things I do for three months at a time with no break can be exhausting. Next term I want concentrate on getting all my abilities in the Korean language to come together and be a hell of a lot more creative. I’ve been avoiding any serious design while I’ve been getting the lay of the land. I’ve found my inspiration now. It’s time to turn it into something visual.

I updated the site a little. Firstly I increased the depth of the grey since some of you were having trouble reading the site on your monitors. Secondly I updated the recent CD purchases. The last month or so I’ve been buying Lee Soo Young albums. Even though it’s not my usual thing I’m enjoying the orchestral music and her beautiful voice. I also updated the links to my other sites so that it’s just the sites that I keep updated. Finally and most importantly I moved the blog to a sub-domain so the URL is now dorty.reptaro.net. Please update your links and bookmarks and you’ll also need to resubscribe to the RSS feed.

20061119 Island park again
A month or so ago a Korean friend of mine went to Canada to study English. She recently came back to Seoul for the vacation period. Her reason for coming home so soon was she missed Korean food especially kimchi. Typical Korean haha. Anyway Asami, Donald, her (Eun-kyoung - 은경) and I went to Sunyuudo park (선유도공원). The park is actually an island in the river. I’ve been before but it was nice to go again. Like I mentioned before I like the feel of the mix of nature, industrial and urban vibe it gives off. Anyway after enjoying some coffee and Eun-kyoung’s stories of Canada we funnily fooled around in the park and I did some martial arts against a dusk sky which Asami captured (click the pic on the left). It was a lot of fun. The linked picture set explains our day better than I can with words so be sure to have a look.

For lunch yesterday I ate syabu-syabu again. I’m loving the soup you cook it in and the soft feel of the boiled vegetables. It’s really nice. I think that restaurant will become one of my frequented restaurants in Seoul. My other favourite foods right now include Tuna, vegetables and rice in a hot stone pot (돌솥 참치밥), Fish cutlets (생선까스), Spanish mackerel (삼치), Udon with vegetables and fried bits (야채튀김우동). The picture is of me pre-haircut.Well it would have been pre-haircut but I went along to the salon today to find out the lady who cuts my hair went to hospital. It’s probably not serious as Koreans will go to hospital even if they have a cold. I’ll call the salon in a few days to see if she’s okay and to get this mop sorted out.

Tomorrow I have to perform a short play in front of the whole of level 4 in the language school. Ah so scary. Basically each class was split into three teams and each team had to write a 4 minute play about whatever but it was required to make good use of vocabulary and proverbs (속담). Anyway In my class our team was selected as the best team not because it was particularly impressive in terms of the requirements but because it was funny. Our play is an introduction for a date between a 40+ year old guy and a 24 year old student (the third person is the date introducing guy). I play the girl and get stuck with most of the proverbs. It’s all about the date being a disaster for the guy. Wish me luck!

I haven’t really been anywhere to take photos recently so here is a collection of my daily shots. Seoul continues to be a nice place to live and is full of surprises. Oh the picture on the left was shot yesterday. Asami was so happy to be in an empty cart on the subway that she had to jump up for a picture. Indeed it is a rare site to see an empty carriage as far as the eye can see.

20061114 Killer kimchi
Syabu-saybu with Schona and Asami; playing pool with Schona and Asami; eating rice dishes with Asami, Junny and Markus in a restaurant with surprisingly nice artwork; drinking with Donald and Junny in a candle lit bar pumping out good tunes; Boram’s new hair style while in a post-hat thus messy state; drinking soju with Dong-Hyuk and Donald; a pepero gift and a pepero display outside a health & beauty store; my happy time with Ji-Hyun in a design cafe; a flower chocolate; and finally my handwriting in Korean.

So it’s Pepero Day. Pepero is sticks of biscuit covered in chocolate. I guess it’s a day thought up by Lotte to make a ton of money or something. Maybe there is some kind of story behind it but none of my Korean friends seemed to know anything. One did say that she thinks it’s a day for single people. You know with it being 11.11 (Nov 11th) and the number being one suggests a single person in a kind of visual way. Outside all of the convenience stores here in Seoul there are pepero displays with pepero gift sets and regular pepero on sale. Even the health and beauty stores were bundling pepero with other items bundled in a neatly packaged set. Korea seems to have a lot of days like this. There is white day which is like valentines day but the girls give the gifts; there is black day where a person who didn’t receive a gift on valentines day or white day can eat Chinese noodles in black sauce (짜짱면 - I think that is the spelling); also there is blue day apparently but I don’t have any information on that. I spent the day with a friend in Hongik Uni area (흥대). We walked around the market in the park and some of the shops after spending some hours in a coffee shop with a design theme. Click the picture on the left to see more photos from my day.

This week was nice so far. I had a speaking exam on Tuesday (postponed to this week due to the teacher getting married) that I was a little worried about but it went really well. I spoke to the teacher as if she was a good friend. Because of that, I’ll probably get some minus points since I used daily speech at times which I guess you can call a kind of lazy speech but I understood and answered all questions. It was a satisfying result all the same.

This week I ate syabu-syabu in Shinchon (신촌) for the first time in a long time. While eating we had a discussion about where it originates from. The name is obviously Japanese but my Chinese friend insisted it was from China. After a quick research session it seems it’s a dish originally adapted from a Mongolian dish by the Japanese. So I guess it’s fine to call it Japanese food. Anyway it was really delicious and would be even tasty if I could eat the meat. Also this week I went drinking on a school night (the pic is a drinking buddy and close friend - Junny)! Oh no! I tend not to drink on school nights recently as being tired in class the next day is really uncomfortable when I’m trying so hard to learn. However, it was nice to just chill out in a favourite bar with some good friends while listening to good music, having fun conversation and taking in the arty atmosphere.

This weekend is looking busy too. I have to squeeze in running by the river; design for various projects; homework including exam preparation; check flight ticket costs to London; possibly shopping; meet a fun and interesting new friend who’s name is Jihyoung (지현 - I know too many people with that same name) and more besides that. Hopefully, I’ll get a decent night sleep in there somewhere too.

I didn’t take many photos the last few weeks due to exams but here is a selection of what I did take. Nothing special this time but some memories and interesting things. The photo on the left is me (purple) and if you click it you can see of some good friends from school (posing with our hoods for fun photo purposes).

20061105 Killer kimchi
Colourful drinking; Kelly’s birthday in class instead of an exam; Japanese ramen restaurant, interesting wall in Hongik Uni (흥대) area, Welsh leek and potato soup with bread, wine and orange juice; studying in Starbucks; the hooded, most terrifying, biggest gang of the KLI language school; omurice restaurant; interesting packaging for a tie by The Shirt Studio from Japan and the tie that was inside; the Han river (한강) and a bridge at night; Fancy taste Migo style; through a bottle; an Autumn leaf.

This week was tough because I had a lot to do besides studying hard and taking exams. I feel absolutely worn out. In fact, I am. I need to take a break but I think this weekend will be very busy too. Ah, I’ll need to stick it out for another week and keep next weekend to myself. Anyway, exams went well. I felt relieved and happy because I scored over 80 points for most exams. My listening wasn’t so good again but it was expected. A week ago, I got advice from my teacher to buy a KLPT (Korean language proficiency test) book and study the problems in it. She said that she thinks I don’t have a listening problem but am failing to deal with the exam’s problems well or I am thinking too much about the answers. She continued to say that if I practice exam style questions, I’ll probably learn what I should be listening for. So I went to Kyobo Book Centre (교보문고) today and picked up the intermediate level book (see pic). I figured I shouldn’t dive straight into the advanced level book since listening exams really are that much of a problem right now. I’ll study this book every other day at least as I strive to listen well. Still, I’m happy exams are over.