Out of the Dorm and into the Goshiwon

[Listening to Cake's Comfort Eagle album right now] ^_^

Sorry for my absence from the blog.

My semester at SKKU ended some weeks ago.

Since then I have moved out of the dorm and into a goshiwon near the Samsung campus at which I am an intern. The goshiwon (고시원) is basically exactly like my dorm room... except 80% smaller.

That's it. Bed. Desk. Shower. Storage. The picture above was taken with my 10mm Sigma from my door frame. These living conditions are in no way ideal, but the rent is relatively cheap, and I am only a 20-minute bus ride from work.

Desk

Shower/sink

Mirror on my door.

So, yeah, I live in a box. Goshiwons are primarily used short-term by students preparing for a major test or international contract workers, again short-term. I was originally expecting a Samsung dorm, but was informed at an uncomfortably short notice that the dorms were no longer available. So, here I am. Life isn't bad... just cramped. :P

More updates soon. ~promise

~잘가

COEX Aquarium / Bukhansan

I've been doing quite a bit of travelling lately:
shopping in Itaewon, art museums, more shopping.

One trip was to the aquarium in the COEX Mall.
The aquarium as a whole was impressive in terms of variety. One big distraction was poorly cleaned plexiglass. I did my best despite the less than perfect conditions.

Here are the results:

I also took a trip to Bukhansan, or Bukhan Mountain.

There were many long-established watering holes in the area.

We found a couple picture-worthy vantage points.

Nice view, but the sky was terribly hazy, a giant, never-ending blanket of cloud.

I set up the camera on a tripod and caught one of the legs with my foot. I reacted to the toppling $1000 of camera and lens, stopped it from falling, but ripped open my knee. Blood made its way down my leg on the way down the mountain. I bought some hydrogen peroxide and bandaging at a pharmacy near the subway station and patched it up. Here is my knee after getting back to my dorm room. [I figured not everyone would appreciate my bloodied knee shown outright on the blog.]

Finals are next week. After those, I will be free. I will most likely take some time to see more of what Korea has to offer in terms of "countryside."

Thanks for reading.

~잘가

Namsan Tower / Membership Training

It has been a long while since my last post, but here is a break down of what I've been up to.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I joined a music club. Among the roughly 30 members, there are 5 or 6 groups with mixed and matched members that perform a couple songs per group. I perform in 2 songs: Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive." There are a few studios near campus where we go to practice about once per week, and the songs are coming along nicely.

I took a trip to Myeong-Dong to buy  a new lens: Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6. I haggled the price on this second-hand lens to about $420. It wasn't the best deal in the world, but hey, I'm in Korea.

Check out that 10mm of awesome.

I can finally show you the ramyeon wall at my dorm's convenience store.

I took another trip to Namsan Tower for some night shots, but I wasn't very happy with the results. The  smog over Seoul makes the shots overwhelmingly hazy. None-the-less, here is Namsan Tower lit up at night.

Saw this sticker on the subway door.

This past weekend, I went to Membership Training(MT) with my music club. MTs happen with every club and organization. I went on one before with the semiconductor school. In short, an MT consists of going away from the city and "camping" as a group for a night. The Korean idea of "camping" is pretty  cushy compared to the camping I did as a child with my father and brother, but it is still fun in it's own rite. I will explain.

The first order of business is getting to a far-away place.

Upon arrival, we must decide who must cook, clean, etc.

A simple tournament decides this. We played a game that is basically a mixture of football(soccer) and volleyball/tennis with teams of 4 people.

The resident kitty was friendly.

Playing with my ND filter.

Time to cook the sam-gyeop-sal.

Sam-gyeop-sal (삼겹살) is basically grilled bacon. That's the best way I can describe it, and it is as delicious as it sounds.

An MT isn't an MT without soju and kimchi.

Oh and beer, alot of beer.

Cooking is a social endeavor.

And if you don't like the food, you can get the hell out.

Grilled garlic and ssamjang (쌈장): a perfect combination.

The food is eaten as it is prepared. Groups take turns cooking and eating, so there is never really a time where everyone sits down and eats together, and there is plenty of time to chat between waves of 삼겹살.

Below the bacon, potatoes cook at the bottom of the grill.

Good times had by everyone.

When the food is gone, we head inside for some games and drinking and drinking games.

Nails are painted.

Guitars are played.

We played some organized games before the alcohol came out. I had a good time with one game in particular, a mixture of charades and telephone. I was acting out names to Korean movies I had never seen, but my team's guesser knew what was going on, so I assume I did well.

Then the soju comes out, everyone gets drunk, and, ..... yeah....

Nothing like some hot ramyeon in the morning to soothe the drunken brain. 

tl;dr: Membership Training (MT) consists of great food, friendly people, lots of alcohol, and good times. Would do it again.

Thanks for reading.

~잘가

Flowers

The trees on campus bloomed.

Some trees bloomed a while ago.

The sunlight shines right through the cherry petals.

.... unless I use a flash. :P

Bees are busy too.

I used a "poor man's macro lens" trick that I learned from my friend, Tylor Wurz. Holding my 50mm manual lens with the front element facing the image sensor provides me with the most cumbersome macro lens ever. However, my effort bore fruit, so I can't complain too much.

When standing under the trees, you can hear the buzzing.

Not much else to say, really.

The weather is getting warmer very quickly. My jackets and sweaters may not see daylight for a while. I'll have to go clothes shopping eventually. I don't own any shorts at the moments.

As always, thanks for following.

~잘가

Korean Folk Village

The HI-Club took us on a tour of a Korean folk village. It is mostly a historical record of "back in the day" Korea with traditional houses/huts and a market. There were demonstrations of equestrian feats and traditional music performances. The day was full of merriment and laughter. I will leave it to the pictures to tell the rest of the story.

Hanging out before commencing the tour.

There only about 15 exchange students from Suwon, versus the 70+ from Seoul.

On the way to the pottery area.

Everyone received a kit to make their own clay pot, sculpture, whatever.

Group TWO! w00t!

Under the pottery tent. [HDR]

Most of the roofs were made of grass.

Flowers are coming.

One area was dedicated to torture devices. Everyone was having a great time there... ಠ_ಠ

Oh, you know, just some toddlers preparing to torture each other.

Jumping rope. Little kids aren't so good. ㅋㅋㅋ

Big kids can jump rope better. :P

Traditional Korean drums.

sign post.

Water wheel.

We all had dinner after the day at the village and went to a bar for an after-party at night. My friends from Suwon decided to go all-out, so we went to a club in 홍익 and danced until the sun came up. This of course, resulted in me sleeping throughout Sunday. Small price.

~잘가