Resuscitation coming soon

Few years later and on the other side of the world again, it seems to be the right time for some new posts... (mainly because I realized that this may work as pretty good time capsule). So stay tuned for snapshots of my life!

My Movie Class Midterm

You really don't want to see this...

Back in...

Back in... well... where? Let say I am back where I should be. That's it. There hasn't been much going on here for a while, has it? Eh... I'm thinking about some excuse that would be acceptable... eee.... nothing. Let just say I was little busy doing various stuff, like working for school, travelling there and after few weeks back, saying goodbye to one of my schools and trying to find a new ones (have to work harder on that) and... things like that.
So here it comes, hopefully major update (we'll see if I still remember all that stuff).

Meet the neighbours

There is nothing better than a morning smell of burning chicken...(not really)... but is my uni in a village?!? Ouch!

Living in Winter Wonderland

OMG, this thing is sooo funny... Maybe even too much.

K-Christmas

I know what is K-pop, K-food, K-phone and eventually even K-lifestyle (getting there, getting there...), I however had no idea what was K-Xmas. And I am not sure if todayI already know, but anyway, the way I have spent them this year was just awesome.
Yea, it is true that Xmas in Korea is more like St. Valentine's Day - well, as most of the western holidays - which means you can find red and golden in every department store, lights of similar colours in streets and in TV shows it snows every 5 minutes; in the households there are however no trees, no presents, no sweets...
So what can I say about my Xmas 2006? The story is pretty simple: My roommate that had to spend with me all last semester long ^.^ invited me into his house - first I thought it will be only for one or two days, but because none of us had any serious plans, I stayed for almost a week.
You may think that it must be pretty boring when there is nothing to celebrate; well, there are just different things what you can do on your Xmas Eve. To feel at least some Xmas spirit, we went to the City Hall to see The Tree and Cheonggyecheon. OMG! I have never ever seen so many people in one place. Imagine 50 meters wide and like one mile long street. Got it? Ok. And now imagine that there are so many people that you can't even take a step, in any direction. Huh, Seoul is just a big city...

On Monday we spent few hours at Incheon airport, because one of the family members was leaving for 6 months to NYC. Every time I went through Incheon I thought it's just one big terminal building, this time when we were ehm... looking for our car (ok, ok, how should I know that there is difference between "A3" and "3A"??) we did quite big tour around surrounding buildings - and it was really sweet. Good job Fentress Bradburn Architects!

Finally, on Tuesday night we had one more room-meeting, this time only our room (well, maybe one or two exceptions) and we didn't drink - we ate. Mhmm...

When I got back into dorm, there were great news waiting for me: I have to move again. 2 weeks ago it took me like 3 hours to move all my stuff from building B to building C, this time it will be all the way back, at least it's not into the same room... No, I am not angry, not even surprised... not anymore.

Winter Camp will start in 3 days... Happy New Year!

DecEmber

Merry... that... you know what... Xmas!

I am dreaming of White Christmas... NOT!

This must be some kind of a joke. At the moment when semester was over, weather gave up too. The picture was from Sunday morning, what a shock waking up into a blizzard. Thanks for new dorms though, it's nice and warm in here, everything from Pizza Ann, Chinese to chicken restaurant does home deliveries even over Xmas so curfew works both ways - do not enter the building between midnight and 6 AM, do not leave between 6AM and midnight (because you'll break a leg, which may under some circumstances be yours). I however have to take care of "white knight", which is currently parked under few layers of ice and snow and needs to be relocated under the roof. Does anybody have an experience with defreezing of a scooter?

Today was also the day, The Day of Operation Fireball (Czechs will know), the day when I had to move from one room to another. Since my room has status of some kind of a warehouse for people currently traveling abroad, it was neither an easy one nor nice one. I got a room where for the whole semester lived one international colleague together with K-boy, it however seems that none of them knows the term "cleaning my room and bathroom". There is nothing better than fighting mushrooms in the middle of December. I got also one experience for life: when using chlorine, wear gloves...

So that is about it for now, I've just somehow posted Fall 06 Yearbook online and've sent it to all directions... I hope one of them was yours too.

"Khiaaaab"

Expanding from Tiger style.
This was our Taekwon-do class Final exam - we were asked to warm up before actual "fighting", so we did. European ZOO style, baby!

In case you would be wondering what's the mainstream in this cool sport, go here.

Winter changes everything

So I'm gonna try to update this page once again. How should I start? It's Saturday night and tonight I'm definitely not going out - since I still don't feel fine from Friday night. Thing that supposed to be just small chat over one beer turned into pretty heavy drinking. I must say, not my fault! It somehow happened that we were accompanied with a bottle of Hungarian alcoholic product - and you can imagine it was playing hard. First time I fell asleep in EZS tho...
Anyway, it was kind of refreshing, because all next week there are going to be Finals from the entire subjects you can imagine. So right now head is perfectly clean and ready for some major knowledge intake. This has been happening since like an hour ago. Have to write few papers, learn new vocabulary, and answer some exam questions and look forward to Thursday and final dinner with faculty.

Last weekend was probably my last trip of this semester to Seoul, I totally forgot about one museum (Seoul Museum of Art), and so I and few of my favourite schoolmates went there last Saturday. Pretty cool, I must say. I always thought that modern art is not my cup of tea, but this one, The 4th Seoul International Media Art Biennale called Dual Realities, was really interesting. Seriously. And interactive enough too.

Walking around Seoul made me however realize one thing, that Xmas is coming. Again. No, really, why it can't be only every 4 years? I guess people would die in that case... Even in Korea, where Xmas are probably the most unimportant holidays of the year, trees are covered with lights of all colours of rainbow, it becomes much easier to get allergy to red, and if you think this country is overcrowded you probably haven't been to Lotte Duty Free Department Store in December.

Speaking of Xmas, this year they are going to be very special (or different, if meaning is not the same), because I'll stay here until end of January. Uni offered me a job as TA in Winter Camp, and I am hoping that it will be lots of fun - and that it will also help me somehow stabilize my financial situation... There should be few of us staying in Sinchang because of similar reasons, some teachers should be around too, Mr. Lee will be open, and plans are still about to be made. I'd love to have old fashion Xmas with carols, TV tales, carp, Xmas tree, tons of sweets and chocolate, but I guess all this will have to be postponed to February. Cuz that will be the time when I'll return to Europe (don't know where exactly, hoping for some wine&cheese region;)

That's about it for now... peace.

Well... autumn

What can I say? When I was a little kid everybody was telling me that life is running well too fast - and right now I'm starting to realize that it actually may be true. Just turned 23 and half (I know, not really big reason to drink your ass under the table... so I didn't), realizing that another semester of my university studies is slowly about to end.

So what has been going on in past few weeks? Couple of things:

a) meeting North Korean defector
Boci, our Hungarian-turned-Hawaiian school mate, joined this NK human rights organization and organized for us special lecture, where we had a chance to question a boy, who ran from North to South (through China). For me it was kinda controversial, especially the leaving-all-family-behind part, but this topic is really not easy to understand...

b) going to capital on Saturday night
They are saying that Seoul is really nice at night - so I did after-sunset trip to Namsan Tower, it wasn't any hard Sat nite fever, but the view was really cooool... And then, when got back by cable car to Myeong-dong, one of the biggest coincidences of this year happened. Seoul has like more then 10 million people living here and in the middle of this you meet a friend, where you met another friend a year ago - same place, same table - it doesn't happen every day. HUH! Two notices relevant to this "accident": Thank you for the dinner, it was the best 칼국수 I've ever had!! & SoHee, see you in French baguetteria soon, dare you to stay in Cali forever! ㅋㅋ

c) meeting other people from the dorm
Since most of my K-roommies are big pimps, they organized a room-meeting for last Wednesday. First half an hour was really bad since nobody was too drunk, but after that it was only better and better... and I missed my Thursday morning class. Ouch. So now I walk down the campus and I'm meeting this random people that are saying Hello to me - but have no idea, if I know them from that night...

d) visiting local City Hall
What can I say about that? Superinteresting. Asan-si, our city is currently kinda middle of nowhere (well, not really - most of the Hyundai and Samsung cars are made in the area - just trying to make explanation easier). In 5 years, there will be another 300 000 people living here, subway extended from Seoul (100 miles away), sh*t loads of new buildings, roads, shops, people... so everywhere you look, there is some massive development project. K-style rocks!

e) studying
No comment on that - but I really do!


Does this life seem boring to you?

Busan, puso!

This time without any "funny" quote as an introduction, on the other hand a current picture is provided to show that me still alive, baby (yes, haven't changed at all...)

Hm, was wondering if it could look more stupid... it probably could.

Anyway my little readers, it's been a while since last message was posted (week ago?), but **** whoa, there are thingz keepin' mama busy...

Last weekend for example: as promised, I went do Busan. /You may call it Pusan too, doesn't really matter... Well it does, but if you haven't been to Korea yet, let just this time pretend that it doesn't/.

Some years ago it used to be small fishermen village, thanks/because of the globalization it's like 3rd world's biggest port these days. And the 2nd biggest Korean city too. Decent place to hang out. Maybe it's because of all these international trade companies, fact that Japan is just few hours away, PIFF, or there is some other reason, it's however true that Busan is - for a Korean city - cosmopolitan, veerimuchii. Examples: it's easy to buy European beer in bar (it's actually sometimes hard to get some Soju on the table), at least some non-K cars in streets, people aren't staring at you only because you don't look Korean, "things like that".

Since this was my second trip to Busan, I did my homework in advance to at least have some ideas where to go. Pay-offff! I've seen... well, seriously almost all the town, even had time to catch a cold. More in pictures again - no more scary ones, I promise ^.~

And this weekend? Different story tho... Plan was to wake up early on Saturday morning and go to Seoul for all two days - since it's always hard to follow unrealistic plans, I got to the capital on Sunday noon... Just walked around Insadong, Cheonggyecheon, Gyeongbokgung Palace and City Hall, it was more cold than in Russian movie, but got sunburnt anyway .)

Represent!

"Veni, vidi, vici" - or things may just somehow go wrong...

Last Saturday of November was supposed to be the D day; the day of representing Soonchunhyang Uni on a regional level. And it was - since even negative promotion is still a promotion...
Anyway, we had to wake up 6:30 (!!! - in some particular cases just sleepwalking from bed to bus) and group of like 40 people went to Daejon, our regional centre, where local university was organizing sport games for all the international students from neighbourhood. The disciplines were following: football (they call it soccer in some still-confused parts of the world;), basketball, volleyball, relay 8x100m and ee... some others.
Our group, as truly enthusiastic students, decided to participate in all of them. I guess it's some kind of a rule - if you are going to embarrass yourself, hit it as hard as you can. So we did. "Kihaaaaap!!"
Also in pictures. I must admit that it was a really nice warm sunny Saturday, full of surprises, exploring new parts of Korea.

So now is Friday early morning and another busy week is about to end. From Monday to Wednesday there were EV Olympics taking place on the dirt field, falls in drunken relay were again very extreme. My team scored 140 points in semifinals, 2 points in final. OUCH!

And Wednesday night was supposed to be the biggest night of all semester - Halloween party. My raspberry costume wasn't that successful but man... this wasn't a party, this was just heavy drinking. Faculty roof -> Khans -> Black Box (ex-Blue) -> EZS -> Korean Goverment Class. "Kihaaaap!!"

What's being left? That's the question... I'll better leave to Busan in couple of hours... peace out.

Islanders!

"Blimey, it's hot in here, Bruce."
"Hot enough to boil a monkey's bum."

Oficially it was a study week. So we - oficially - went to the Jeju-do, an island sometimes called Korean Hawaii. I've never been to Hawaii (yet;) but the description can be pretty accurate - a volcano in the middle of sea. B-E-autiful!
We stayed there for 5 days, flying JejuAir was fun; and those days were like full of major changes. No car, no idea where we were - this happened maybe too often, trying to guess which parts can be interesting and which not, public transport, Korean high school students, high volcano with like 5 million steps up and down, fast food, love motels, Sex museum, oranges, lava stones, falling into anonymous lakes, and "things like that"...
Anyway. Jeju is definitely on Korean must-see list.

Huh, dunno what to write about... (status: 11 A.M., hangovered like... a lot, need to read some book)... l8r then.

Oh yeah... pictures!

"When I was your age, Pluto was a planet"

OUCH!!!
This is dedicated to all, who are feeling too old tonite...

Photo-wall-paper rocks, I kinda miss Europe(ans) and some Jeju-do report will follow soon.
Wish me luck for my Korean midterms...

And one big middle finger to my teachers today:
a) I am NOT Russian!
b) My country is not even close to Russia!
c) If you don't know the location and history of some place, don't F.C.UKing give lectures about it!
And much more...