Sunday, September 27

Yangyang Songyi Mushroom Festival

Mushrooms! Geraldine loves mushrooms.. So if there is a festival for mushrooms, you bet that she would go! Totally tired out by design mid-submission on Thursday and Cross-year on Friday but she still went to Yangyang-gun, Gangwon-do with Albert and Shuyi for the festival. They slept overnight in Seoul at a jjimjilbang (찜질방) on Saturday and set off in the morning on Sunday. Maybe Geraldine will dedicate a post just on 찜질방 soon...

Anyway, the event venue is really mushroom-here-mushroom-there-mushroom-everywhere.





Even the express bus bus-stop and information booth are mushrooms!





These are are famous Songyi mushrooms that cost around SGD250 for a small box.. And the wine made from mushrooms! They walked around the event venue and saw this..

[video coming soon]

It's only in Korea!

The trio didn't know that in order to join the trip to go to the mountains to pick the precious mushrooms, they had to register online prior to the event. After that, the trio bumped into the organizers and the organizers asked if they would like to go on a pear-picking trip instead. The trio thought that it was better than nothing, so they gladly took up the offer (and paid 10000W each for it).

At the pear farm, they joined this tour group from Singapore. It was really strange yet familiar to be hearing that so unique singlish again. And that so Singaporean-auntie voices. Ha. Anyway, the pears were huge and they each got to bring home (I mean dorm) 2.

The mega-cang (spring onion? leek?) that Zixu loathes. Mwahahaha~

Not wanting to waste time doing nothing since they had already bought return tickets back to Seoul a good 5 hours later, they asked the organizers who happen to be workers in the tourism board for the city of Yangyang to suggest some places they could go. Apparently, there is a famous temple in the region, and the organizers kindly drove them to the temple.

The temple sits on the hill and at the peak stands a tall statue of the goddess of mercy and it overlooks the ocean. It was Geraldine's 1st time looking at a horizon without boats, ships, cranes or another country. (Think Singapore.)

[picture coming soon..]

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Saturday, September 26

Uh-oh

Geraldine's camera fell onto the ground and the lens aren't working now.. ㅠㅠ

No more blog posts till she charges her LG camera phone or gets a new camera..

Geraldine is very sad now.

Friday, September 25

CrossYear Project

Cross-year project for the archi students at Hanyang Univ! That means everyone will be split into groups and each group will be made up of people from different years. On friday morning, the archi dept hired buses to ferry the students and some professors to Incheon 인천. (Yes, that's where the airport is if some of you guys think it looks familiar)

Their 1st stop was Songdo International Business District 송도신도시, an island totally reclaimed for the purpose of a free economic zone. It is currently at the finishing stages of construction and as archi students, Geraldine and her coursemates were given a tour at the construction site. Unfortunately, it was in Korean and Geraldine is not good enough to understand such chim (singlish for complicated) stuff in a foreign language. Nevertheless, it was still interesting. Geraldine's 1st time to wear a helmet (and step into a construction site in slippers, omg right?). No one knew they were going to visit a construction site.

In the afternoon, they arrived at their seafront accomodation. It was lecture-dinner-lecture and barbeque! BBQ with huge chunks of meat/golgi 고기, and beer and soju. Geraldine secretly thinks that the whole point of this cross year thingy is the soju. The programme was such that they have to wake up at 6am the next morning to dig mud. If the project was the focus, then there would be no soju. Yeah? Anyway, the groups were suppose to think of a design for their landscape art. Landscape art is a reaction against commercial art blah blah blah.. They would have to design and build something in the mud when the tide is low and each group will give a short presentation, followed by some critiques from the professors.

Geraldine's group and their design! Taadaa!

It has something to do with the sun rays reflected onto the sea when the tide was in. She concludes that the group leader-cum-designer, Seonho (or SUNho as he spells it) 선호선배 really loves the SUN. ;;;

[to be continued..]

Monday, September 21

Good Girl

Geraldine is a good girl, ain't she?

She has been updating her blog.. Heehee.

For those who are wondering why she is suddenly so free to do so many things in a short period of time, please look at the dates of the posts.. haha.

Sunday, September 20

Pain 아퍼 ㅠㅠ

Geraldine just wanna complain that she is still aching from head to toe. Don't make her laugh, she will bend over in pain. AARGH.

Saturday, September 19

2009 Asia Song Festival 제6희 아시아송페스티벌

Despite refusing to wake up because of extreme aches all over, Geraldine still managed to make her way to Seoul Olympic Stadium with the rest of the Singaporeans for the Asia Song Festival, featuring singers from around the region.

Taiwan - Show Luo Zhi Xiang
China - Li Yu Chun
Hong Kong - Zheng Yi Jian
Vietnam - Ho Ngoc Ha
Indonesia - Agnes Monica
Japan - V6, mihimaru GT, GACKT
Thailand - K-Otic
Ukraine - Rusiana (Geraldine didn't know Ukraine is part of Asia)

And of course..

2NE1
BIGBANG
Girls Generation a.k.a. snsd a.k.a. 소녀시대
Super Junior a.k.a. SuJu a.k.a. 슈퍼주니어

The concert was not bad, although Geraldine wished that there were more Korean singers. Yes yes, she does know that it's an ASIAN song festival. She wonders why Singapore or other Taiwan singers were not invited though. Stef Sun is too ex? FIR?

This makes Geraldine think back of the time when she attended the K-pop Night at Singapore Indoor Stadium with her Korean teacher and classmates. Difference is this time she actually understood parts of what the emcees were saying.. ^^

The Shining Stars of the night..

Sparkles sparkles.. 샤방샤방? 부셔부셔?

Poor Geraldine was s-t-a-r-v-i-ng for not having dinner and only having a pathetic kimbap for lunch, so she went for a nice meal with Zixu and Samuel while the rest went back to zZzZ. Look at what Geraldine ordered! Galbitang a.k.a. Ribs Soup a.k.a. 갈비탕.

Hugest ribs she has ever seen...

Yums. And good night!~~

Friday, September 18

Badz Badz Gal 배드민턴 동아리

Geraldine did joke about starting a bball girls club in Hanyang Univ when she was still in Singapore, ever since she realized that it's uncommon for girls in Korea to play sports. She had many people telling her that she would be the only member. But she never did thought that she would end up joining the Badminton club. She walked past the booths during CCA orientation week a few times and just suddenly thought that joining one would be fun. Geraldine figured that badminton is an indoor sport that can be played even if it's minus 20 degrees outside. And she does miss those times when she trained till 1am. Those were the times..

Anyway, she went for the welcome dinner on Wednesday, got to know a few more people and has a cute dongsaeng (동생) who calls her Yuljeong Nuna 율정누나. And today she went for the 1st ever training session. Surprise, or maybe not at all, there were only 2 other girls. The coach paired everyone up and had a mini tournament. Geraldine and her partner managed to go to the final round but lost 13-15. ㅠㅠ

For the last match that Geraldine played, it was against the coach and this other guy. Lost the 1st and won the 2nd, so they went on to the rubble set. Started off badly with 2-10, but slowly bounced back. Made a few mistakes at the end and before they knew it, it was 20-20. Deuce. Geraldine hates the new point system. Okay fine, not that new. But she lost by one point. If only there was still the "Service over. 2nd server." Soon, she will show the guys that girls can do it too.. regardless of the new or old point system.

So for 2.5 hours non-stop, she lobbed.smashed.pushed.net.dropped.chopped.lifted.dived.

Anyway, Geraldine mentioned something about Nuna 누나 just now. Here in Korea, everyone is like family. If someone is older than you, you will have to show respect to the person and address him/her accordingly. Everyone is a sister, a brother, or an auntie/uncle.

Girl to Older Girl - 언니 Oenni
Girl to Older Guy - 오빠 Oppa
Guy to Older Girl - 누나 Nuna
Guy to Older Guy - 형 Hyeong

People who are younger - 동생 Dongsaeng
Auntie - 아주먼니 / 아줌마 Ajumeoni / Ajumma (Bet everyone already knew this)
Uncle - 아저씨 Ajeossi

Geraldine once heard a conversation among her Korean friends and thought that it was really food for thought. If everyone is either an 오빠/어니 or 형/누나, and only people of the same age or younger than you could you call by name, doesn't that mean that only people of the same age can be friends? The rest are either higher up or lower down on the social ladder. Is that good or is that bad? It is very obvious that the older ones will take care of the younger ones here. But at the same time, the younger ones usually have to do whatever the older ones tell them to. Hmmm........................

Saturday, September 12

DMZ - 2 Koreas

Geraldine, Albert, Alan and Zihua signed on a trip to the DMZ and spent half a day understanding a little history of Korea and the sad story behind the 2 Koreas. Because of the cheaper package that they chose, costing 48,000W, they didn't get to go to the Joint Security Area (JSA). You know that THE picture of 38th parallel? But they did go to a few places like the Freedom Bridge, 3rd tunnel, Dora Observatory and Dorasan Station.

At the Freedom Bridge..

People writing their wishes for the unification of the 2 Koreas or how much they miss their family on the other side of the border on ribbons.. ='(

The altar that South Koreans use to pray to their ancestors who were in the north whenever there are major festivals like Seollal 설날 (New Year) or Chuseok 추석 (Korean Thanksgiving)..

3rd tunnel.. One of the tunnels that North dug to the South to attack the South but was found out. Too bad photos are not allowed inside the tunnel. But story goes that when the tunnel was discovered, the North painted coal on the walls of the tunnel to pretend that they were digging for coal.

Dora Observatory. This is where you can have a full view of the north and the south, both flags (and the UN flag) and the famous fake village in the north. Sad thing that photos are not allowed once again.

Dorasan Station. This station is built for the hope that one day the Koreas will be re-unified and the train line will run from the south to the north to china and to don't-know-where.

They also went to a supermarket selling stuff from the north.. Pyeongyang Soju!

Thursday, September 10

Mozzies the size of Zebras

'Nuff said.