PaP in Korea

Day walk around Dongnimmun part 1.

Strolling at Seodaemun Independence park. This park is located near Dongnimmun station, line number 3 (orange line). If you take exit number 4 or 5 you will arrive straight to the park.

One day trip out of Seoul, to The Garden of Morning Calm (아침고요수목원) in Cheongpyeong-ri. This arboretum is open year round, for each season there is its own festival. I went there during winter period, which is time for the Light Festival. Part of the garden is decorated with a lot of colorful lights.  Because it was a weekday that I went there the admission fee from adults was 8,000 won (on weekend it’s 9,000 won). 

Now few words about how I got there. First I took subway to Cheongpyeong's station which is on line Gyeongchun. From the station to Cheongpyeong's bus terminal by walk. And then local bus directly to the garden. 

My experiences living in Konkuk 2014-2015.

With my first arrival day I had a lot of problems for the starters. For some reason they didn't have a dorm room for me. So they let me stay in International House which is according to the KU handbook for foreign scholars. In the international house I needed to stay about two week before they got things organized. The internationals house's room was really nice. It was like a apartment with tree bed rooms, bathroom and kitchen. I wasn't the only one who had problems, also other two exchange students stayed with me in that flat. Actually, I wouldn't had mined if I would have needed to stay there for whole semester with same price as dorm. Since there where no curfew or other rules that are existing in dorms. And moreover, there was a kitchen, what in dorm doesn't have.

After 2 weeks I finally got my dorm room. Most dorm rooms are for two people. My roommate was also exchange student from Finland. Fall semester I spend in Dream Hall which is girl's dorm. Other girl's dorm hall is called Frontier Hall and boy's dorms are Lake Hall and Vision Hall. Also during my winter vocation break I was staying in dorm. Only thing was that I needed to change a room. Bit extra work packing, moving and unpacking again but that was fine with me. During my vocation stay I didn't have a roommate so I got to spend time alone.

Konkuk University's dormitory and campus area shot. 

Trip to the DMZ zone with group of friends from the Konkuk university. For our trip day it just happened to be not so good weather. So when you were in the viewpoint you couldn't see far. You could barely see to the North which was too bad. *sigh* The weather wasn't supposed to be this bad...

Namsan tower shots.   ~(>o<)~ 

My Busan food shots. Before going to Busan I got a lot of good advice what to eat while I'm there. 

First what I got to eat in Busan was pork soup (돼지국밥). This soup was also a lot recommend to me. This dish wasn't exactly my favorite ones. Plain stock with bunch of green onions, rice and pork. Maybe because it was my first time having it, I hadn't the time to grow to like it. But having it, wasn't a bad experience. Next one is called ssiashotteok (씨앗호떡). It's a Korean style pancake filled with brown sugar, cinnamon, sliced peanuts and addition of pumpkin seed and sunflower seed. This street food snack is popular on winter time.

Okay, moving on to next food that is cold noodle soup (밀면). Milmyeon is Korean dish of chewy, thin and long cold noodles.There is usually two types of milmyeon, mul milmyeon (with soup) and bibim milmyeon (without liquid but with red pepper sauce). I ordered bibim milmyeon so it is served without broth. Instead it is served with vegetables, spicy sause and pork. This dish is usually enjoyed in hot summer time. When I was in Busan I hadn't yet got to used to Korean spicy food, so this spicy dish was a little too much for me to handle. But now days I can eat quite well spicy food. If I'll go back there I'm sure that I could enjoy these noodles with my whole heart. 

Busan trip part 2 (2014)

It was time to part from my professor and start to go my own path. First I was just walking around while thinking where I should go. Then I decided to visit the Busan's observatory tower. It was November, but I could still see some trees were entirely green and some had already changes their leaf color. I didn't even count how many times I went around in the observatory. The view was really enjoyable.

Busan trip part 1 (2014)

Yey, so excited!!! I'm going to go to Busan by KTX train. And moreover alone. But I'll be meeting my professor and two assistant teacher in there. By KTX train from Seoul to Busan it took a little less than 3 hours. I was lucky to get window seat, so I could see the changing landscapes. But about in a half way I got tired and took a nice nap leaning on the window xD Then from the Busan station to Gwangalli beach to see Gwangan bridge. It was already quite dark when I arrived there. In my opinion, I got to take quite a nice shot of the evening view with the Gwangan bridge.

Here is some pictures that I managed to take during fall time. South Korea used to have four seasons with a similar length. But now, things have changed. Because the change of climate, spring & fall seasons have become really short and instead summer & winter have become more longer. If you want to capture nice spring and fall season photos, it's good to stay alert around that time. Since you might otherwise miss the chance. 

Second day in Gangwon started with going for a breakfast. For breakfast we had tofu in many forms. The tofu was really good, but we weren't able to finish it all because the food quantity was too much for four people. Our stomachs full we headed to a place called Sun Cruise in Gangneung-si. Sun Cruise is hotel and resort. The hotel have been made a shape of a ship which stands on a land. It was interesting experience, I have never seen something like this before. I have always been a great fan of nice views. And from the resort area and from the ship you can see some really beautiful views. We happened to have a really nice and clear day to walk around the resort area and to take good scenery pictures.

Last year, in October I went on a two day trip to Gangwon province with my professor and two assistant teacher.

We went to East coast to a place called Gangneung by car. The weather was really nice for driving I think, even thought I wasn't the driver. On our way to Gangneung we stopped to eat Korean beef for lunch. Which was said to be extremely delicious. In my opinion, it was super good and tender. Then we continued to Ojukheon which is one of the main attractions in Gangneung. Then  we climbed up to a small hill where we could have a good look at Gyeongpoho lake. When day started to turn to evening, heading to a Gyeongpoho beach to see the view. I really liked the evening sky with the clouds. The cloud shapes and the color made it very pretty.

Walking around Dongdaemun and seeing around: Seoul fortress Gwanghuimun, Dongdaemun history & culture park, Dongdaemun market and seeing the hustle and the bustle of the streets in Dongdaemun.