I Believe

CATS!

Heard of the musical Cats? Yeah, it's only the most famous Andrew Lloyd Weber musical of all times (except maybe the Phantom of the Opera)! I saw it for the first time this week-end... and oh oh oh, in Korean! lol They translated that musical in about 20 languages, so I shouldn't be surprised... but still! ^^; It was quite impressive. Good singing, dancing, acting... pretty costumes and good atmosphere... I loved the song "Memory" (which is really famous...)

I went to see it with Yu-Won unni, who came all the way from Chuncheon to see me. After the musical, we headed to Myeong-dong and had Indian food (Tandoori chicken and curry!!! with Nan bread... delicious...). Then we headed to Shinchon for a drink and to find a place to sleep. We found several motels.... but they were love motels... so when we entered, it was sooo weird. Especially, the first one we went into... It was apparently a very pretty motel, so there was a line-up of people who wanted to sleep there... THe thing is, they were all couples... and they stared at us, the two girls just looking for a place to stay... I don't wanna know what they were imagining but you can imagine how hilarious and embarrassing that situation was! lol Anyways we had a good time and got to talk about lots of things. There's no doubt, that unni is awesome!

This week-end I'm gonna watch the opera Tosca with Ju-Na unni... I can't wait! ^^; GOtta enjoy while I can, cuz next week school starts again! Actually, I'm kinda looking forward to it...

Keumerz @ 8:57 AM< [[ 0 comments ]]

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

The Zoo, My Fair Lady, Chusok

Last week was quite busy... Let's see...

Wednesday, I went to the zoo with In-Sun unni. It was my first time to see those animals like elephants and lions and tigers... I am not such an animal person, but I gotta admit that the baby tiger was adorable... I was kind of surprised to see a raccoon in cage though... I mean, in Canada, we avoid them and they're in wild nature... but yeah it seems to be some exotic thing here. lol. There was also a water show with dolphins and seels. Such smart animals. They played their roles perfectly and did some pretty awesome jumps and tricks. I felt like a kid, seeing these things for the first time live... ^^; We walked around the zoo, which was huge, and we ate the lunch that In-Sun unni had made (some rice balls- onigiri) with her mom... The weather was beautiful too... What a nice day that was! Here are some pics:

Thursday, I went to see the Korean version of My Fair Lady, one of my favorite musicals. They made a very good version. The kept most of the songs and scenes (but changed the lyrics and dialogs to Korean). Well made, well acted... I really enjoyed it. Some parts I wasn't sure to understand, but thanks to the fact I know this musical by heart, my lacks in Korean weren't too much of a problem. I went there with Ju-Na unni, who kind of became my cultural friend, meaning that we have been going to and planning a bunch of cultural outings (classical music concerts, musicals, operas, going to fancy restaurants, etc.). Future chef, she appreciate good food, good wine and artistic performances... I couldn't have found better person to share this special experience with me... ^^;

This week end was the Chusok holiday (Korean Thanksgiving, kinda). Most people go to the countryside with their families or just organize family activities. Since I have no family in Korea, I went to the Han river with my friends and we had a picnic. It was quite nice. The weather was beautiful, the food was abundant and delicious... I also brought Songpyun (traditional food for Chusok) that my landlord had kindly made... We took a nap under a tree and played games... And... we rode bicycles! At the spot where we went it's about 3$ to rent a bicycle for an hour. Nice and cheap eh.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow and the following days.

Tomorrow, lunch with Ju-Na unni and Hye-Min unni, followed by a movie. Friday, tea with my beloved teacher. Saturday my beloved Yu-Won unni is coming to Seoul from Chunchon and we're gonna watch a musical and do a bunch of crazy girly things... haha. That unni is just awesome... Well all the unnis I've gotten closer to here are awesome, doubtlessly. ^^;

Keumerz @ 9:51 AM< [[ 0 comments ]]

Monday, September 8, 2008

The Adventures of Maki in Seoul

Hello everyone!!
I wonder if anyone reads this except Mina (thanks for reading the whole thing... u stalker! lol jk). But anyways. Last week-end, my friend Maki came from Yamaguchi (Japan) with a group of friends *much older than her* from the same city. They were staying at the luxurious President Hotel and offered me to stay with them, which was so nice! I feel a bit sorry and very thankful towards Murata-san (kinda the leader of the group) who generously paid most of my meals and the hotel fees for me... (Kansha itashimasu!) They had a very tight schedule, so as soon as they arrived, we got in business and had 삼계탕/Samgyetang (a small chicken in a soup). Then we watched the Guard ceremony at the Duksugung palace... Then, we went to 명동/Myeong-dong so that Maki-chan could do some shopping at the local make-up stores. ^^; Then, we had a delightful 밭빙수/Patpingsu (ice cream)... theeeeen we had dinner at that grill place. As the Japanese would say this trip was really "hanayori dango" (dumpling over the flower, meaning we privileged food over the arts)... Some pics of the food we had over the week-end:

At night, we went to the Chongdong theater to watch a traditional music and dance show called "Miso". Some parts were very artistic, some others very funny... Overall, it was very entertaining and visually stimulating. Here's a pic we took with one of the dancers (the hilarious guy):

At night, we met one of Maki's friends (whom she met in China when she went on an exchange): Wang Tae-Woong. It was interesting, cuz Maki was talking to him in Chinglish and he was replying in Chinese... And when they didn't get it, I had to translate to Korean or Japenglish... We could start our version of Esperanto with Asian languages! ^.^

The next morning, we woke up early, had some Juk (okayu), then went to the 창덕궁/Changdukgung palace (beautiful). Some Korean friends of the Japanese group joined us for our tour of the city: 경훈언니/Kyung-Hoon unni and the beautiful 이쁜유원언니/Yoo-Won unni. We went to Insadong and Myeong-dong together for food and shopping. It was quite nice to go around with them. They of course speak Korean and on top of that they speak excellent Japanese. I was amazed to hear them. I became a bit closer to them and we planned to see each other again in their hometown (춘천Chuncheon, 2 hour by train from Seoul). Maki's friend joined us later on too for dinner and 떡볶이/ddukbokki.

Yoo-Won unni stayed at the hotel that night and in the morning we all went for... Seollongtang soup. It was a bit heavy in the morning, but it was good! Then we went to E-Mart and Myeong dong (again!)... for souvenir shopping. It's kinda sad that we didn't go to Namsan tower (once again sorry to Murata-san who had planned so many things) but being all together was a lot of fun... Such good memories together!!! So good, that our beautiful Yoo-Won unni cried when we all parted! 완전 귀여웠는데... I didn't cry, but I sincerely hope I'll get to see all those people again (altogether too!)

Some pics of our happy times together:

Keumerz @ 6:38 AM< [[ 5 comments ]]

Thursday, September 4, 2008

What a Riiiide!

I went to 롯데월드//Lotte World (kind of the Korean version of La Ronde) tonight with my Korean oppas and unnis... Here's a pic of us (Left to right: Sang-Hun oppa, me, Ju-Na unni, Hye-Chan oppa and Hye-Min unni)...

Yeah, I can already hear my mom yelling at me for riding rollercoasters which have been forbidden to me by my doctor back home.... The doc was right, I'm having a major migraine right now. My head hurts like it hasn't in suuuch a long time... and I'm gonna have to take my medicine and sleep it through... But it was SO worth it! Every second on those rides was worth it. Oh my God. At first I was uncomfortable and rather scared... but the more it goes, the crazier it gets, the more fun!

We started with the Viking, some kind of huge Spanish gallion that swings from left to right going higher and higer, kinda like a pendulum. Before it started off, Ju-Na unni told me "You have to scream or it's gonna get super scary, trust me". At first my reaction was like "I can't scream... I'm not the screaming type anyways..." But the gallion went higher and faster and my heart started beating like a drum, I thought I was gonna faint or something... All I could hear was people screaming and unni telling me "Scream Keum Yeo ya, Screaaam!"... In the end I couldn't hold it back, I screamed my lungs off. It was a great feeling, really. I was so relieved when it ended, but god it was awesome.

Then we went on some boat ride which wasn't so scary but who seemed to bring back some scary memories to Ju-Na unni... And we headed to the outside playground and lined up to go on the Gyros something. Same principle as the Viking except that this time on top of going higher and higher, it spins! It went sooo high I thought I was gonna fly to the sky... and it spinned so much, my head wanted to get off my neck. Everytime it went down it looked like we were gonna crash... Sensitive hearts, don't ride that one! Crazy! Gotta admit it was scary but exciting (and it gave me a hell of a headache)!!

Then we took a short break, had a little something to eat and headed for a few less scary rides... I like the one which goes just up and then goes down as if the platform we're sitting on is being dropped like a heavy weight on the ground. I did it twice. And my favorite of all, seriously, was... the Roller Coaster. God... I dreamt of riding a roller coaster for so long. It was a short ride, so we did it twice! ^^; Up, down, upside down, in the dark, in the light... Except the fact that it was making me dizzy, it was such a great feeling. I just loved it.

Ju-Na unni really had a great idea. Oh and Hye-Min unni which I met today really seems like an awesome person... Everyday seems to be getting better and better...
완전 재미있었어. 언니들, 오빠들 고마워~

Keumerz @ 10:53 AM< [[ 0 comments ]]

Monday, September 1, 2008

On VacatioN!!

Hello everyone! I wonder if anyone still reads this blog... but anyways, I'll update it today with some pictures and news and a funny dialog.. haha.

So what happened in the past few weeks? Long story short: I went to the sea with my friends, went around Seoul with my parents, took my final exams and I finally moved out from the university residence into a room which is about as big as a closet.

1) Trip to the sea (At Anmyondo):

We (4 guys, 2 girls) left on Saturday morning after going grocery shopping and drove for a few hours (thanks to traffic). We dropped our stuff off at the pension and got ready to go to the beach itself. At first the weather wasn't so great, but it cleared up and we were able to see a beautiful sunset. Strangely enough, while in the cities the girls are not afraid to wear super short shorts or skirts, they don't seem to like to show anything when they go to the beach... meaning that even if they wear a really nice bikini, they just keep it under their shorts and t-shirt while they take a swim! ^^ Quite different from Greece, huh.

After swimming for a few hours and playing games (and losing two balls to the deep end...) we went back home, washed up and prepared for a barbeque! 4 people out of the 5 that I went to the sea with are Culinary School students so they know how to cook super well. I mean, even the instant ramen they make tastes better than the one we have at home! hahaa.

2) Tourism with the Parents

So my parents came and even if there were times when we wanted to kill each other, we had a lot of fun. ^^ My parents came with their friends from France (who are exactly like them personality wise if I may say) and so we went around Seoul together. Because of my exams, on some days I actually could only have dinner with them but they were able to get around on their own easily. We went to the Gyeongbok gung and the Korean Folk Village together. The weather was nice on most days and we were able to eat well (and at a low cost) most of the time. I also showed them around my university and they met my lovely teacher. She was a bit shy but I was surprised to realize how good her English is! I mean, I could imagine that spoke it well but it was still impressive. (She later told me how good an impression she had of my parents...)

Here's one of the buildings of my university. Most likely I will be taking classes there next semester.

3) Final Exams and Goodbyes

This semester came to an end. I studied harder than for the midterms yet I got lower grades... but I think I still got ranked first in the class. My teacher tried to give me advice as to how to read in a more efficient way, since it seems that my reading grades are lower than the rest. Anyways, I'm just glad I get to pass to the next level, even if that means not seeing my lovely teacher anymore... :( I had a final party with my classmates, and had several good bye events with friends... It's kinda sad to see everyone go away one after the others but it can't be helped. As for me, I am so grateful I get to stay longer. I'll try to make the best out of this.

4) Moving out of the Rez

I moved out from a very spacious rez with a curfew to a very small room with no curfew. I guess you just can't have it all. I have a lot of freedom now which is good since I'm on break till the end of September... lol Here is a pic of the previous rez ajussi, with me, Jenna and Mikyung unni.

Finally, I'm leaving you guys with a very funny dialog (translated). This is a situation that happened with my friend Noeul in Kangnam as we were sitting waiting for our boyfriends in front of the restaurant where they work.

Guy: Hello there, ladies. My friend and I saw you girls sitting and doing nothing and we were wondering if you'd be interested in getting to know each other.
Me: err........
Guy: Oh don't worry, it's nothing strange, we just wanna exchange numbers.
Me: We are waiting for our boyfriends now...
Guy: Oh no, don't misunderstand, we just wanna exchange number to become friends.
Noeul: Friends eh?
Me: (holds back from laughing) Hm, I think it's just not gonna do it.
Guy: Oh well even if you have a boyfriend, it doesn't matter. And even if it's not in this world but in another, it'd be nice to meet again.
Me: (bursts out laughing) another world?
Guy: Yeah, like another life, another destiny
Noeul: You're a funny guy, are you usually this funny?
Guy: Yeah, so you wanna exchange numbers?
Me (to Noeul in English): What's with this one?
Guy: Oh my God, you're a foreigner! Yeah I totally knew that!
Noeul: How did you know she was not Korean?
Guy: Because the way she puts on make up is just so beautiful and different from Korean girls...
Me: Err... I'm not wearing any make-up................... (LOL)
Guy: Oh.............................. Well omg, you're naturally beautiful then!!!!
Me: (Keeps laughing) Very funny...
(TK oppa comes out of the restaurant)
TK: what's up?
Guy: Oh so you really were waiting for your boyfriend... err... Well I wish you guys a long happy life together. (GEts out of there)
Did you enjoy that? Hopes that was entertaining... More to come in the next weeks...

Keumerz @ 8:36 AM< [[ 0 comments ]]

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