Monsieur de la Cour

Just a little everyday stuff

[mangokompott]

Hiking at Bukhansan and more randomness...

Ohhhh, the time is passing by so quickly and the last days of the semester at Sogang University were coming nearer and nearer!

I took this picture in one of the bigger buildings where I had a class on Korean Cultural History. It is somehow funny that people just leave their books and other unwanted things just on top of the lockers. But I never saw anyone picking something up from there. 

This was one of the last Korean class sessions :( Our teachers were really great AND quite funny. Unfortunately I could not attend the second part of the class starting in mid-December as I left Korea too early to finish the class.

This was one of our most beloved weekly lunch menus at a nearby Kimbapjonguk. It is a sort of small restaurant, mostly run by 2-4 ajummas, offering “simple” foods like kimbap (looks like Maki Sushi, but it is bigger and contains more ingredients like minced meat, tuna, fernbrake, radish, etc.). One of these rolls was sold for W3000 (~2,20€) if I remember correctly. Together with the free soup and the side dishes it made you really full. Awww, I miss these things in Germany.

Another interesting option was this one specific mensa on the Sogang campus which offered a menu-like Ramyeon thingy. You would choose the kind of instant noodles + broth powder and then you could add several toppings like tuna, chives, egg, cheese, onions, etc. for maybe W3500 (~2,60€). Plus they’d cook it in front of you. Really cool, but not really a high-quality meal, though.

I still regret that I did not buy these coffee bags in the supermarket. I’ve never seen something like it before. Drip coffee in a bag! Well, it is not really environmental-friendly, but probably quite handy! Normally Koreans either buy coffee in a café or they get kinda okayish tasting instant coffee (not really cheap though).

Thrift-shopping! I got this really warm super huge Sogang winterjacket for just W10.000 (~7,50€) at a university sale. Saved my life in wintertime!

Haha! This one Korean TV programme was on campus and they asked exchange students (somehow they were expicitely interested in Germans) about rules and laws about cyclings in their home countries. Apparently they somehow knew that you can lose your driver’s licence in Germany if you get stopped by the police riding your bike after having too many drinks. But after I returned to Germany, I found out that you can actually drink quite a lot. Your alcohol level must be more than 1,6‰ tenth of a percent that you’d have to face charges. But to be honest I know a lot of people who would still bike after having too many drinks...woops. As a thank-you gift each of the partipants received 3 vouchers of W10.000 for Lotte-related establishments (Lotte World, Lotte supermarkets, etc.).

After the lightbulb in my room stopped working I found this guy (already dead) on the ceiling. It seems like the light must have bleached it. Or maybe it is an albino ladybuy?!

Another cool thing is when you go to a bank and withdraw or deposit money you always get a receipt. Handily the receipt-slot is just underneath the card-slot, so you always get both of them together. And nearly every bank has this shredder so you can get rid of the receipt if you don’t need it. Noice!

This was during a little night time excursion to Itaewon, the “foreigner district”...

Nightly trash...

The other day a pop-up store of Kakao Friends opened in the nearby Hyundai Department Store in Shinchon. Kakao is to Koreans like what’s Facebook Messenger or Whatsapp is to Germans. It is a messaging app, but also features all these emoticons which you can sometimes get for free or buy. And this store sells Kakao-related merchandise...and as you can see it proves to be really popular..

Hiking! We started at the very base of Bukhansan, near a toilet which had this badge outside. Isn’t it a little weird to show an award for “the best toilet”, especially if this was 10 years ago? Well, who cares about it anyway.

Since it was already early afternoon we made a quick decision and chose a rather short and easy route that would lead us to one of the tops of Bukhansan.

Of course, there are temples on the way up..

Although it was supposed to be too late for the red leaves falling in the Seoul area, we still got a glimpse of the nice coloured trees.

In the beginning it was warm enough to just wear a tshirt or a thin jumper, but after some time it got colder. Hiking companions, wooo!

Uh, I don’t quite remember the name of this, but it was one of the more dificult routes we didn’t pick due to a problem of time.

As we came nearer and nearer to the top the sun was already about to set.

As it was getting colder, we hurried up a little bit, also because we wanted to get back to the entrance before it was too dark. Ain’t nobody got time to walk down these bumpy paths in the dark!

All the apartment buildings look like soviet realness, haha.

Uhhh, der Mond ist aufgegangen!

This family of cats followed us up to the top and greedily devoured the pieces of Bulgogi Kimbap we offered them.Cuties...but how can they survive on a mountain?!

Selfie!... we met this group of random Korean students at the top and OF COURSE they had to take a picture with us, because you just have to take a picture together with foreigners if you randomly meet them at the top of a mountain, right? No, I did not take a picture of that, it’s just weird! :D

We just made it back in time to the entrance when it got too dark to see the paths anymore..there aren’t any lights near it..

On the way back home: stereotypicial Korea subway image. Everybody is staring at their smartphones. Really...every f*ing person!

After we arrived at Ewha Uni Station, we had a little dinner. Tonkatsu with cold noodle soup and pickles. Yumyum!

I forgot to mention the SOFEX festival which took place in early November. A cooperation of Sogang University and Sophia University (Tokyo, Japan). There were some friendly matches of different sports teams and even concerts.

..But I really didn’t like the music though, haha.

Weird icecream with sweet potato taste..

Well, not necessarily the best job if you want this to be looking like a sweet potato, looks more like something else..lalalala..

[mangokompott]

Everyday life in October and November

South Korea lies on the same latitude as North Africa (like Tunis,Tunesia or Cairo, Egypt) therefore the sun won’t set as early as in Germany during wintertime. Although the sun was shining nearly every day it became a little sad seeing that the days got shorter and shorter. When I would arrive at my evening Korean class, the sun was already about to set and when we left the building it suddenly was super cold and quite windy!

Before the Korean class it was like night time already. But I kind of prefer the look of Seoul at night over the rather dull looking skyline dominated by apartment buildings at daytime.

In mid-October our German-Korean tandem exchange started! We had a meeting where Germans could meet Koreans studying German. Unfortunately some people couldn’t make it to the meeting so I did not meet my tandem partner. At least we had deep fried chicken, haha. 

I met my tandem some days later for a coffee! She was actually really cool! And since she has already lived in Berlin for a year. Her German was incredibly good, unlike my Korean… But it was pretty nice to have someone who can explain some things about grammar or vocabulary in German to you :)

This one day I was invited for a little birthday get-together of a fellow international student of mine. Woohoo, roof-top party. But it didn’t last long until the Ajossi who somehow seemed to be living on the rooftop complained to us about the noise :-S So we moved on to hit some bars in Hongdae.

First stop was this incredibly cool underground café between Hongdae and Sinchon! The owner played some rock music and jazzy stuff for us and then he even gave us “seobisu”, some free snacks. Ahh, Koreans just know how to party :>

The next stop was this underground hippie bar in central Hongdae, also in the basement of a rather inconspicuous building. The bar-club-whatever consists of several rooms, with a kind of indoor pond. It was very atmospheric in there, I don’t quite remember the music the DJ was playing, but it was really cool.

In the other rooms you could also sit down and relax, smoke hookah pipes and play drums or whatever. Apparently the place used to be a sauna in the style of a Turkish Hamam.

In the following days it was raining, kind of weird as it never seemed to rain when I got outside. Well, no wonder, as I arrived in Korea after the monsoon season was over. It is really funny though to observe Koreans during this weather though. Even if it is not raining anymore people still hold up their umbrellas and keep on carrying them around all day long. As soon as the first drop of rain falls down all people simultaneously open their umbrellas. Apparently it’s acid rain which will bleach or damage your hair, but maybe that’s just a myth, I don’t know. 

I decided to stay inside and just a get a quick meal from the convenience store. I loved this! I think it was called something like “Mum’s feast meal”. Rice, kimchi, bulgogi, pork, chicken, mushrooms, spinach, bean sprouts and a sort of omelette, plus a can of a drink (some kinds of juices) for W3.500 (around 2,70€). So nice! Plus, it was really fresh, mostly made on the day before :)

Autumn was now also more and more visible in Seoul. As it got colder, me and a friend from Ewha University decided to go to a Cat-Café. A mostly cat-themed café where you go to see and pet cats.

Yeah, shitty picture. But this tiny kitty just wouldn’t go away. So, in some places you have pay an entrance fee, but this place was free, you just had to order some overpriced coffee or whatever you wanted to drink. You could also buy cat food or get some toys to make the cats come to you. Most of the cats seemed a little bit tired but were quite snuggly. Some of the cats wore little shirts or had dyed fur, that was little bit weird. Poor kitties. But it was nice to see one of these places from the inside.

A little bit after that was the “International Exchange Fair” where students presented their home university to Koreans interested in going on exchange. But to be honest most people were actually not that interested, they had to fill out a paper where they needed a signature of three other possible universities so that they could hand it in to their supervisor. Most students that came to see me and Annette, my fellow student friend from Heidelberg, asked for business studies programmes…Unfortunately Heidelberg does not really offer that, but most people were interested in Munich or Berlin, anyway. As a reward all of the participant students got a food voucher and a selfie-stick with a remote control, haha.

I finally decided to revisit the DDP (Dongdaemun Design Plaza) as there was a kind of exhibition on one of the rooftops.

…a field of plastic flowers who start to light up as soon as it gets dark.

But first, let me take a selfie! =D

It’s somehow weird that you get out of the subway station and you don’t see the common angular shaped buildings but this huge, round, rectangular space ship thing in the middle of Seoul. Globalization of architecture? Who knows...

Well well, autumn is pretty nice in Korea but the temperatures just drop way too fast!

[mangokompott]

Hiking at Soraksan National Park

Our last day in Sokcho started with a nice breakfast provided by our hostel, mixed with some stuff we raided at the convenience store around the corner.

Blue sky, no clouds, warm – perfect weather for hiking! We chose to take one of the local buses to get to the entrance of the Soraksan National Park. In the end it took a little longer as expected. Quite a bunch of people also had the idea of going hiking that day except that they were slowly driving up the hill with their car, blocking the way for the bus…

At least it didn’t take us long to get to the entrance where we bought tickets to enter. We could have also gotten tickets for the mountain railway but that would mean that we had to wait around three hours. It seems people call and get ticket reservations in advance. Well, we came here to hike and not to sit comfortably inside a railway ;)

We decided to take a route that would lead us to a big Buddha statue then to a mountain monastery, to Heundeulbawi a big rock that a person can put in motion and then to the top of Ulsanbawi.

Yeah…Koreans love to be super prepared for any kind of activity. Shops selling hiking clothes were also pretty popular in Sokcho and the entrance area of the National Park.

It was pretty crowded that day and we seemed to be only some of the very few non-Korean visitors.

This is the big bronze Jwabul statue, around 10m tall. In front of it people kneel down and say a prayer or offer gifts to the Buddha statue.

Next to the statue you can buy a tile and write something on it. I guess, it brings luck or so.

Along the way there are a lot of temples, somehow hidden.

The higher we got the more we could see how the woods here have already turned red. This is so different from European autumn!

I did not enhance the colours of the pictures, the leaves were actually really really bright red coloured!

At some point there was a little resting place with ajummas cooking Korean style pancakes and selling cold drinks. But of course the food does not grow on the mountain so there has to be an ajossi getting the supplies up there. What a hassle!

Whenever there was a little more of the landscape visible: picture time!

At some moments you really had to wait because there are some parts of the hiking route where you kind of have to climb up on a rope, so the mass of people had to queue. ugh.

The rock on the right side is the aforementioned “wiggling rock” Heundeulbawi. So far, no human could make the rock fall down, but we could indeed witness it wiggle around.

Nearly at the top! Btw. most of the Korean peninsula looks like this, mountains and hills everywhere the eye can see.

There we go! We actually just went to one of the 6 granite peaks. It’s quite windy, cold and people don’t seem to care if the handrail is really low and you could possibly fall off the top. Just take a picture to prove that you’ve been there √

The small town there is Sokcho and in the background you can see the Eastern coastline and the Eastern Sea/Sea of Japan/whatever you wanna call it.

Time to get down again!

This is one of the bigger temples we saw. At one of the entrance gates there were 4 Cheonwang statues, Kings somehow. 

On the left: Damun Cheonwang with a lute and on the right: Jiguk Cheonwang with a sword.

Those are the other two Cheongwang, Jeungjang with a dragon and Gwangmok Cheonwang with a staff. They did look pretty angry though…and kind of Indian-looking, no?

These places actually have a lot of statues around the whole area…just like this retarded tiger @_@

…on our way back to the entrance! We just make it back in time to Sokcho to get our stuff and catch the bus to Seoul.

But you can’t leave without a full stomach, right? Chinese-Korean food. Jjajang-myeon – noodles with black bean sauce, veggies and meat, a kind of seafood soup and Jjamppong – spicy seafood soup which was not yet cooked when I took this.

Here we go. Spicy red and tasty clams inside! 

After that we hurried to get some more of the delicious hoddeok from the street food stand.

Fun fact: Due to its geographical location ships from Russia (Vladivostok) come to Sokcho, so some of the signs are in Russian!

Bye bye, Sokcho!

[mangokompott]

The Korean East Coast: Sokcho

Autumn came much quicker than I expected. It started to get cold as soon as the sun set but during daytime it was still quite warm. Since autumn is a really nice time to see the trees turn red and to go hiking in Korea, me and some friends decided to spend a weekend in Sokcho (Northeastern part of South Korea). 

We started quite early in the morning. I think, we left between 5 and 6 to catch an early bus to Sokcho.

On our way there we saw this rather ambiguous looking poster of ginseng. Apparently it’s good for boosting the stamina...

We arrived at the terminal, managed to get tickets but on them it said «Gate 4,5»...kinda like in the Harry Potter movies there is another bus parking area between 2 gates. This is even more confusing as a lot of buses leave with just a time difference of 2-3 minutes. 

After around 3 hours of driving through rocky nowhere we arrived in Sokcho, a rather “small” city with around 100.000 inhabitants. It’s really weird to say that because in most Western countries this would not really be a small city. But as most of the Koreans live in bigger urban areas like around Seoul or Busan, this can be seen as a village somehow. Still, there is a lot going on. When we arrived there was a kind of carnival?! Well, most people just seemed to be tourists that came for hiking on the weekend.

After we arrived at our hostel which was really close to the bus terminal, we decided to skip hiking this day due to somehow not so nice weather. So we went on to discover Sokcho.

As I mentioned before, this is indeed like living on the countryside somehow. People tend to have a small garden with vegetables they grow themselves. Nice!

These are spring onion. But compared to what you can buy in a German supermarket, they’re super huge!

Somehow modern architecture did not make it to Sokcho, it seems…

First thing to do? FOOD, of course! Donggasu (Japanese Tonkatsu, cutlet with sauce, kinda like Schnitzel). Tasty and cheap!

This was the market street where you’d be able to get the latest ajumma-fashion, just like in the subway stations in Seoul.

Next stop: Sokcho harbour! Btw. you can see the Soraksan National Park in the background...plus all the clouds. Nope, this is not really nice weather for going hiking!

As the city is directly located at the seaside, you can get a lot of fresh fish and other sea food. You can’t miss it, the smell is…stunning.

Just dry your clothes next to the fish, nobody will notice the smell, haha.

Yup, drying fish on the street. Smells..uhm..fishy!

Yeah, Sokcho is kind of old fashioned.

Close to the waterside was this tsunami warning sign and the way to the next evacuation point. I wonder if there are a lot of tsunamis in Korea? I never really heard about it so far.

This pagoda seemed to be another popular tourist spot. Actually it was made out of rusty metal and concrete…traditional way, of course.

I don’t quite know if these public spaces really get used that often but it seems people like to put furniture outside.

Either you sit on a bench or an office chair OR you just put your leather couch outside.

After our exploration of the city and some more shopping it was getting dark and we got hungry. Notice the tacky decoration?

In Sokcho you would get double the portion size compared to Seoul. <3 Sokcho makes poor students happy!

Since so many people queue for this Hoddeok stand, we thought it must be worth waiting there. Apparently they got featured in a TV documentary or something like that. Plus, it was different from Seoul-style Hoddeok. The dough contained pine nuts and other kinds of nuts, cinnamon and sugar and it was deep fried for just W1000! Good that we were going hiking the weekend, if not we would have just gained weight.

The fancy-schmancy socks made it to Sokcho as well. Animal prints, K-Pop stars and whatever you can imagine. Wear it on your feet and show some pride! 

Good night, Sokcho.

[mangokompott]

The forgotten chapters…

I know, at one point I somehow stopped blogging despite the fact that I took so many pictures I actually wanted to share. So, now that I handed in my master’s thesis, waiting for the results, I finally found some time and motivation to update my blog. Well, better late than never, right?

[mangokompott]

Oh, those sunny days...

No, my Internet connection did not fail me and yup, I am still alive. I was just very very lazy, sorrrrrry.

Back in those sunny days in the beginning of October there was a trip organised by Sogang to the Namsangol Hanok Village near Namsan in Seoul. Ooops, how could I be THAT lazy?!

I am not just lazy, but also a crazy Korean cleric from those old times.

We had the chance to dress up in traditional Korean clothes. As I had no idea what I am putting on, I ended up wearing the King's robe.

Wooo! Me and my first wife right next to me and several other wives, my son and I don't know. I seem to have forgotten about my family due to my promiscuous lifestyle as a King..

Woop, the village is actually really beautiful and besides dressing up as kings, queens, sons and other kinds of servants, etc. we got to do some calligraphy and make our own fancy paper lantern. 

There was even this kind of dirty pond with poor little fishies inside. And a relaxing hut...just don't forget to always take off your shoes to make sure all the other people get to smell how far you've been walking around all day long~

That was rather weird. I am not sure what kind of trees are growing there but it seemed to be an ajumma-magnet. There were so many ajummas suddenly jumping out of the bushes looking for stuff on the ground. I think it might have been chestnuts.

Our excursion ended with Korean pancakes, stew and chestnut Makkoli (막걸리). Since the people on my table didn't drink that much of the Makkoli (kind of milky rice wine, I had to drink it myself, hence the blurry picture..

The other day I went to eMart. A kind of really big supermarket in Korea which apparently has all kinds of stuff you want to buy. I actually went there to get a nice ambient light and a bottle of chestnut Makkoli deliciousness.

Turned out they also have a wide variety of German beer, but around 3 times the price you'd pay in Germany.

Ever tried to find this one particular soy sauce you were looking for? I guess you have good chances of finding it at eMart. 

I don't know why but a lot of stuff you can buy in Korea is somehow super-sized! 2kg of cornflakes? 2l of soy sauce. 1l of shampoo, etc. made for big families or over-consumers. If I'd stay longer in Korea (so sad that I can't!) I would get some of these huge portions just because it's cheaper and it looks f*cking crazy.

I have no idea why I took a picture of it. Sweet stuff. But all of it would not satisfy a European bakery gourmet :/ sorry!

It was a little silly of me to not just walk there. I doesn't take that long! Well, it was a nice walk back home :) Enjoying the view haha. Btw. I was not able to find the chestnut makkoli, but I had a new ambient light in my backpack!

Yeah, that is my beautiful ceiling light, it replaces the sun because it's bright as full beam on your car. Unfortunately the lightbulb died just recently so I had to call the ajossi and explain to him that my light (in Korean you use the word for "fire"!) does not work anymore. Thanks to my German-Korean tandem I was able to do so, wooooohooo and now it's replaced and shines even brighter...ewch.

Actually the light has got much more yellowish hue and it's much brighter but my camera changes the whole picture. Whatever. It makes my big cupboard quite cozy in these cold nights.

Oh sunny days, you are still here but you are cold as ICE! And this was just 4 weeks ago...bah!

Yeah, just to show you that I actually spend some time at the university as well. This is the Manresa-Zone at Sogang Loyola Library#3 It kind of reminds me of Starbucks...kind of weird, but not too bad :)

This is next to the library buildings. There are cats and rabbits living on the campus and Koreans are quite eager to get very close to them to take a picture. Interestingly the rabbit did not jump away, but he wouldn't let them pet him. 

Bye bye warm sunsets, hello winter! 

[mangokompott]

Nic the Explorer, Nic the Cook, Nic the Alien.

The WiFi connection at the goshiwon is sometimes not really stable, especially in the evening it gets really slow and sometimes the hotspot disappears. That's why I went to Yongsan Station to go to the super huge electronics shopping malls around it, to find a USB-Ethernet adapter to get rid of my little wireless problem...

Right next to the station are huge malls that sell all kind of electronics, books, instruments, trekking equipment, clothes and all kinds of other stuff. Haha

Do you need a new piano? Come here and get one....

Looking for a camera or camera related stuff? I bet it is nearly impossible to not find what you were looking for in this mall..

But unlike a German electronics store like Saturn or MediaMarkt there are many different stores here and you often have to ask for what you are looking for. Luckily most of the products just have the same name in English, in my case 유에스비 이더넷 어댑터 (Yuesûbi Idônet Ôdaebtô - USB Ethernet Adapter) haha. I think it might have been easier to order it on GMarket, but I wanted a quick solution to my internet problem and you also get so see new places, so that's okay :)

How about buying a tent?

On my way home I saw this 7-eleven convenience store. First time a CVS is not open 24/7! Strange...reminds me of Germany, where people actually do not always work.

I got some take-out fried chicken, taaaasty~

The next day I went to pick up my ARC (Alien Registration Card). Luckily my University did some of the paperwork for us and I only had to go there to give them my fingerprints (scary) and then get my Card.

I also didn't have to wait long, maybe 5 minutes, but it took me around 30min to get there because the Immigration Office is on the other side of the river -.-

But then, again, it was worth going there. Even though it's more a resident area with more or less just apartment buildings and restaurants, we saw this quaint restaurant that reminded me of a fish tank × strange old pseudo temple.

The next thing we saw was this office building (?) that looked like a modern version of a pagoda. Oh Korean architecture...

In the evening I went grocery shopping and I saw these mini apples. On the left side you can see normal sized apples...wtf?

Did I already mention that I miss good cheese? I know that dairy products are not that big here but come on this processed cheese you can get in most supermarkets for ~4€ is just really shitty, ewch.

That's why I made my own food. Nic-style soybean stew with leftover ingredients, yum yum!

The following day was a food festival-something-event at the university. We got vouchers in the Korean language class and a raffle ticket!

Unfortunately it started to rain but soon stopped. There was even German pancake and vin chaud (Glühwein). Strange though, haha.

I didn't taste all of the food that were being offered but what I tasted was actually not bad!

I even won a Seogang baseball jacket! But it was, of course, too small. I gotta wait till beginning of November till they get the next charge of new jackets in other sizes and colours. Still a cool souvenir :)

The day ended with 닭갈비 (Dakgalbi - Stir-fry chicken with veggies) in Hongdae. The place was a little thrifty with the portion size, but it was tasty.

Noms noms, fried rice in the end!

[mangokompott]

Food, Sightseeing, nothing new...

Again, some time has passed, but to be honest, nothing super super exciting has happened... Sorry! I used my day off to go to Deogsu-palace (덕수궁) near City Hall to see the palace and the area nearby.

This is at the entrance gate to the palace area. When I arrived the change of guard ceremony just started so I had to wait in order to enter. It's a lot of drums, strange trumpets and weird shouting every now and then, haha. But quite interesting to watch.

After the ceremony was over the old guards disappeared through a side street. bye bye~

I took a short video of the ceremony but I got tired of filming it, so yeah, that's what you get :D

The actual palace area is quite small compared to the other palaces, but those are also located nearby. Wait, which palace is this now? Can you tell the difference?

There were some preparations going on for a kind of event that took place in the evening but I think it was a more private thing, I didn't see any advertisements.

There were also older parts that have yet been renovated which was nice too see. It appears that a lot of the buildings are painted in a colour that looks much more vibrant and piercing compared to what it probably looked 100 years ago.

Here's a view from the Modern Art Museum dept. inside the palace area, with a view over the heart of Seoul, next to City Hall Station.

There is rather european looking building complex next to the more traditional Korean buildings here. And next to the building on the left is the Modern Art Museum (one of the many..)

This is the actual palace building. Not many tourists around, nice~

I heard some music and chanting from a little further away so I went to see what was going on. There were some women inside the building rehearsing for the event in the evening. Yeeeeeheeeeeeeee aaaaahooooooyeeeeeeeeeeheee ahaaaa yeeeee!~

I have no idea what the big bell was used for but everybody was taking pictures of it, so I thought I should do that as well...

Back outside you can see the City Hall building to the left that looks like a big wave engulfing the building in front of it which was built during the Japanese occupation of Korea. Maybe it's just a coincidence that it looks like it...maybe not, hrhr.

There was a kind of plants-flower-something festival going on with a lot of stands that sold flowers.

Really nearby is the Cheonggyecheon Stream (청계천). During the Joseon Dynasty it served as a drainage but after the end of the Korean war it was covered by concrete and a highway which was later removed and the stream was restored. And now it's a really cool place to hang out. It makes you feel like you're not in the city anymore but somewhere more rural.

Could be a stream somewhere outside, right?

The next stop was Dongdaemun History & Culture Park. I did not go inside the different museums I just wandered around the area a little bit, but I will probably come back to take a look inside :)

It's a very modern futuristic looking area with a green park area surrounding it.

I am not quite sure if the brown earth place thing used to a traditional building, a construction site or if it's just something they made to look like if there had been something..

Best Bingsu so far! Blueberry cheesecake, oh my, deliciousness!!! I wish I had a machine to make Bingsu at home <3 

And some trashy English! Dependably Delightful ice cream. yo~

[mangokompott]

More Food!

Since this city is so humongous it really takes some time to see the city from all kinds of angles. This week I went to 여의도 (Yeoui-Island), which is, like Seonyudo, also located in Han-River. Actually it does not really feel like an island because it's just separated from the "mainland" by a rather small water channel. 

On the island there is a quite big park area and if you go a little further there are some grass areas near the waterside.

This is inside the park, it must look really nice when the flowers are blooming :)

There are walking and bike paths all around the park and near the waterside. It's like a small version of the Central Park in NYC, around the park are some high business buildings but also apartment complexes and some stores, cafés and restaurants.

In the park itself is a statue of King Sejong the Great (he lived around 600 years ago..) I actually haven't seen that many statues so far, maybe it's because I am in South Korea and not in North Korea where you would find statues of several Kim family members, haha.

This are is called Cascade on the map. There is something like a small artificial stream running along the paths next to the green areas. Kids playing in the water, friends hanging out...pretty nice here~

Lots of families come here to have picnics. In fact I saw a lot of people ordering food there and then eating it inside their little tents (which keeps off insects). 

The tents are not really for privacy because the people inside will turn on the light once it gets darker outside...so that everybody can see what they are doing in the tent. I saw some families watching TV, while eating food...ehhh.

I got some tempura streetfood on my way home. Deep fried goodies <3 Why doesn't something like this exist everywhere in Germany?! Everybody would probably look like Jabba the Hut pretty soon if we'd had that everywhere, always available.

So, talking about food. The next day I met my dear friend Jimin, who studies with me at Heidelberg University. We met in Gangnam where we had Shabu Shabu and afterwards we had Bingsu (shaved ice) and Honey Bread Toast.

After all that food deliciousness we walked around in the area. In a drugstore I found this "Fat down" beverage that you are supposed to drink before exercising, apparently it helps to burn more fat or something. I didn't buy it. I am not doing any sports here, haha, so no need to buy that.. 

Fat down!!

At Gangnam Station there is an underground market with a lot of ugly stuff. In this particular store they had super creepy display dummies...~Hey Barbie, wanna go for a ride?~

By now my dearest German friends returned from their little round trip of Korea. What does that mean? - FOOD TIME!

It was a pretty stupid idea to have all you can eat sushi, haha. It was more Korean style sushi...meaning that you get like cheese and strange sauces on your little sushis. It was still pretty tasty but after some time you just can't eat any of it anymore. It's also interesting that whenever you get something like all you can eat, there comes a buffet with it...pizza, salad, sweets, drinks, all for free with your food. Another moment to realise what an important role food plays here. We were so incredibly full that we had to slow down while walking – Ajumma-pace. 

This is the view from my Uni, shortly before my evening Korean class started..zZz

Again Bulkong, spicy sprouts with beef and other stuff. In the end we had fried rice, that was made with the leftover sauce. I still can't believe that you can have such a nice meal for a reasonable amount of money <3

Our evening got a little crummy haha. Drinking beer, mixed with soju in front of a convenience store. At least we didn't scream as loud as the drunk Korean girls that passed by..

I love Paris Baguette! <3 This is like the Chernobyl version of a cupcake. It's more like a small cake, with a croissant-like dough, nuts sprinkled all over it, filled with apple pieces and cranberries and a custard creme. And it costs "only" 2600 won (~2€), compared to other bakery stuff that's pretty cheap. But I would prefer to share it, as too many of these will result in me rolling, not walking, to Uni x___X

over and out.

[mangokompott]

I'm slowly starting to feel like a resident..

Actually I can't say that much happened these days. I am just living my life as an exchange student here. You have dinner, either alone or with other people. Every now and then you go see some new places, I guess that's what you're supposed to do in a foreign country, haha.

What can one do in between classes? Right, hang out at a café and write blog posts or do homework....

Last weekend we went to Nangdaemun Market. A place where you can get every kind of cheap fake stuff like clothes, shoes, hats, but also food and other strange things. On our way there it was the first time I really saw a crowded subway train. This is probably still quite empty compared to a Tokyo train...

I don't know if it was a kind of special event (too lazy to read and translate what the banner says), but I guess it's always that crowded on a Saturday.

As I said, you can get every kind of shit there. Uh, What I found a l little strange was that once you enter a shop and just look around the owner/shop clerks often clap their hands. I think it's to motivate people but it rather had the opposite effect on me. Korean people, if you don't want to scare your customers or make them feel uncomfortable don't clap like you're going to kick them in the butt the very next moment... I wouldn't be able to buy shoes anyway. The biggest sizes you get there are around 270mm, which is a European 42 maybe. But I would have to get a 290-300, not possible. Maybe at Nike or Adidas stores...I mean there are also tall Koreans who don't walk around barefoot.

There are also some basement shopping centres which sell ajumma clothes and a lot of sweets imported from Japan. Still not really cheap though...

The market itself was quite crowded and there was just too much going on so that my eyes weren't able to catch anything in particular. It's like watching one of these epilepsy-inducing TV shows from Japan.

There are also a lot of underground areas with hidden restaurants, fish vendors and different goods they sell.

You can also get a wide range of dried fruits, nuts and other snack stuff, but again, it's not thaaaat cheap. Some of it is, some is not. Maybe you should compare prices. But I'm not really intending on buying 2kg of peanuts.

You could also buy these kinds of turtles (sry, I know that they're not turtles but something else...forget the name though). I think they're used for making soup?

And, of course, a picture of the Namdaemun-Gate. As it nearly burnt down a few years ago, smoking is strongly prohibited. Actually you can just go through the gate and then you have to return. It's cool to see traditional architecture, but all of it is just the same, right?

Josh doing the squat. With an ajumma visor. Local-style!~

[mangokompott]

More Chuseok!

Since there were no classes during Chuseok holiday, I took the chance to go a little further for exploring. My first trip brought me to Suwon, a city as big as Cologne, but with much less to see (at least in my opinion). It takes you around 40mins with the subway to get to Suwon train station. The first thing you see when you get out is all the guest workers from India and South Asia. It feels more what I would expect it to be in Bangkok or so...

There also seems to be more smog compared to Seoul. But to what I saw on some pictures from people staying in China, this doesn't seem to be a huuuuge problem so far. This picture was taken outside the train station, not really impressive, but still okay, I guess?!

This was somewhere in the middle of the city, nothing special here. haha

This area looks pretty cool, reminds me of 청계천 Cheongyecheon-Stream in Seoul. Just a little more rural. I saw people chilling on the sides while the kids were playing at the water. It's nice to have some green inside a big grey city. But after all, it's not a really interesting place to visit, haha.

A much nice place to visit is 선유도 Seonyudo Island! It's located on the other side of river (from my point of view) and it takes about 20min to get there with the subway.

I read that it used to be a sewage plant but was transformed into a recreational area.

That day the weather wasn't really the best, but it was still pretty warm and a lot of Koreans were there. I think I didn't see any other foreigner on the island :-S

It's a really beautiful area with a lot of trees and flowers.

Most of the Koreans came there to have a picnic with their family or friends.

It also offers a great view of the other side of the river. Actually there is another park/picnic area very close to it. Seems to be a really nice place to hang out if you are planning on escaping the concrete jungle and what to chill out with friends.

My Chuseok ended with meeting my other dear German friend from Heidelberg. I really like that a lot of the cafés have several floors and you can enjoy a coffee while watching the people on the street pass by. This seems to be part of the lifestyle of the younger Korean generation. Hanging out at cafés and having overpriced, watery coffee, haha. And now I'm doing the exact same thing. Ta ta~

[mangokompott]

SPAM SPAM SPAM & Fish!

So this week was Chuseok, a public holiday, something like Thanksgiving, but also the middle of the autumn (or something according to the moon calendar). Well, this actually meant that there was no uni until Wednesday (1o-Sept). Most of the Koreans go visit their families, especially the grandparents will be sieged during that time. 

A lot of people buy gift packages. Spam is very popular here, but also other stuff like shower gels, juices, alcohol, etc. seems to be a nice thing that you can get for the elderly in your family.

Speaking of gifts. I went to a supermarket and I saw some wines that you can get at discounters like Lidl in Germany for like 3€ and here they cost like 13-14€. Korea just doesn't seem to be a land of wine lovers (or maybe not grape wine...kkkk).

As you can see, you can actually get a lot of vegetables in the supermarket, but most of it is quite expensive compared to Germany. Well, it is quite hard to grow a lot of veggies here and not everything will grow so Korea has to import a lot of that stuff. 2 small bell peppers/paprika will cost you around 2,30€, ugh...

Since my goshiwon has a kitchen area, I bought some stuff to cook something every now and then. Grocery haul, haha! Ananas (really really plain tasting, no need to buy it here..), biscuits, soju, tofu, pickled yellow radish, bananas, mushrooms, eggs, littles fishies, Kimbap, sesame leaves, rice cakes and different coffees...all for around 19€. That's okayish. I think if you buy veggies at the local ajummas and halmonis that sit around the street, you could save some money, but I didn't want to buy that much stuff.

Sooo, the other night we went to the fish market which looks really impressive. It's an endless hall with lots of merchants who sell more or less the same stuff.

We ended up buying a kinda big bag of prawns for 5.000 Won (~3,70€), some of the small octopuses (산낙지), some kind of clam and the French group bought salmon (Idk..this is not really a local fish, why would you but it here when you can get something else? haha) I wanted to get oysters but they didn't have any as it's not oyster season right now. What a shame!

Well, the food was nice. We got a fish head soup as well, which was okay, but I don't really get if you are just supposed to take the broth or if you should eat some of the fish parts as well. What's interesting is that you buy the stuff downstairs and then they take it upstairs to a restaurant where they will cook all the stuff for you. In the end this was not really cheap, but well, it was an experience :D

It was okay to eat it. A little strange as the arms would suck onto your tongue, teeth, or whatever. That's why you put them in sesame oil. But to be honest the taste of raw octopus is not really special, it tastes better if it's cooked. 

You also have to sit on the floor which isn't that uncomfortable. But I could guess that if you sit like this for hours your bones will hurt like f*ck! Haha

[mangokompott]

Ah, hello!

This week it finally got a little cooler. It started with a rainy monday. I mean, I cannot really complain. Back in Germany it's more like autumn right now and here it still feels like summer, just a little cloudy and more humid.

As soon as the weather forecast shows any probability of rain Koreans will carry an umbrella with them all the time. And they will still walk around with it even if it's not raining anymore. But you get used to it and soon you will do that as well.

We continued our sightseeing tour to two other palaces and the area surrounding them. To be honest, most of them look kind of the same to me. This one actually burned down (or was burned down) in the early 20th century and then it was rebuilt with material from another palace.

It is still nice to visit these places.

And it's always really strange, but kind of cool, that these places are just in mid downtown Seoul! 

Yo, selfie! (Hashtag Selka)

You don't actually see a lot of bikes around here, but at the universities you can see some colourful fixies that seem to be the newest trend here. Well..it's nice that they thought of a bike path, but is this supposed to be a slalom or what?

Time for food! 닭갈비~ Fried chicken with vegetables, noodles, rice cakes and extra cheese. DELISH!

Btw. in some stores (I think this was Art Box) they also sell international candies (Haribo~ AND TIMTAMS!! OMG! <3). But not really cheap, though -.-

The other day our evening led us to Hongdae to have fatty sizzling hot Samgyeopsal. In a very loud bar with juvenile waiters that greet you full-throatedly. Whatever, nice food, nice price. 

Btw. strange insects live here...what is this?! Butter-moth-fly?

[mangokompott]

Time for sightseeing!

It's super hot and the sun is glaring even if you just look at the ground. Our first sightseeing trip led us to 경복궁 (Gyeongbok Palace). As you can see a lot of Chinese tourists also like to go there. It seems they only go to the main palace, but not to the other parts of the palace area.

This is an old picture of what it looks when this Emperor Event takes place (sry, forgot the name..oops).

We could also watch a changing of the guard, I feel for these poor guys with a glued-on beard, wearing these costumes when it's like 33°C outside..

It's nice to see some mountains around. These palaces have a quite good balance of buildings and garden/nature-area.

Here you can see the guards in front of the gate. We did not watch the whole ceremony, as it took quite long and a lot of people were standing there. It involved some drums and walking around, screaming something in Korean and standing in the sizzling sun.

The architecture is really fascinating but amateurs would have probably said that this could be anywhere in Asia. I myself could probably not really tell either...

There was also a museum on the palace grounds (entrance was for free!). Most of the exhibitions showed traditional Korean culture like clothes, tools, food, etc. 

After our trip to the palace we had some street food at a tiny restaurant. Fry it deep, fry it good~ Again, this is quite inexpensive and actually really tasty. Odeng (fish cake) soup, hot rice cakes and deep fried goodies (squid, sweet potato, mandu, veggies, etc.)

Since Insadong is quite near, we went there to have super delicious shaved ice (bingsu).

This was milk-bingsu with cheesecake topping, incredibly tasty!

In the evening we went to Hongdae where we met a Korean friend and had Samgyeopsal <3

I actually never had the thick pork belly samgyeopsal, but it was very good. Much better than the thin frozen slices that you often get in Germany.

The other day we went to Ewha Women's University. This campus is so beautiful! I must say, my University could also get a little more nature onto the campus :D

They have this really cool kind of underground rooms which are located in the left and right part of the cutting. We also had pretty good Kimbap in the caféteria and it was only 2.000 Won for quite a large portion! Niceeee~

At some point in the night the rubbish collection will come and pick up all the trash on the street. Looks like the hungry face of hell (at least it stinks like hell...)

Despite the stinky truck outside we had nice food inside, haha. I had Haemuljjigae (Sea food stew) with mussles, crab, etc. PLUS you get fresh eggs on the table that you can pour into your still bubbling hot stew. So good!

Praise the Lord! Haha. As my university is a jesuit university it seems that a crucifix is mandatory in each and every room there..

Look at these huge spring onions! In Germany not even normal leek isn't as big as this!

The day ended rainy and so continued the next day. Finally a cooling-down!

Ha! A cat café opened up very close to my place! I really wanna go there some time. Unfortunately you have to pay an entrance fee. I hope I get to see some cute kitties =(^-^)=

Interesting device. You might have seen these things that you get that will notice you when your food is ready to be picked up. The ones in Korea have screens, show movie trailers, music videos and they even play some music. Strange, but funny.

I did not really get this. Mostly old people are waiting at the exit of the subway station. But I did not really understand what they were waiting for. Maybe for a bus or so...strange!

More to come soon!

[mangokompott]

Nici dein Blog ist wunderbar! Ich wünsch dir eine wunderbare aufregende Zeit in Korea mien Jung! Wir sind ja fast zeitgleich abgereist; ich bin seit Freitagabend in Florenz und hatte natürlich einen kürzeren Weg. Und ich dachte MEIN Zimmer ist klein!!! Ich hoffe, du passt längst in dein Bett rein... und stößt oben nicht an die Decke oder so! Darf ich dein Blog meiner koreanischen kleinen Freundin Eun Jin zeigen? Sicher spannend, ihr Land aus der Perspektive eines blonden Hünen zu sehen!

Ja, clarísimo, share it, gurl! :)

[mangokompott]

Hongdae!

As I said, I met my very good German friend with her sister at Hongdae Station. Actually we wanted to go our for lunch at a specific place but it was closed, so we just kept on walking a little bit more and then went to a 콩불 (Kongbul "Fire Sprouts") place, which was pretty awesome. I just love that Korean food is super tasty and quite inexpensive (compared to Europe). 

In the end each one of paid around W7500 (~5,50€) for the food (including free refill side dishes, free water) and this milky peach stuff drink. Pretty nice!

I don't quite know what kind of establishment this will be, but I am quite curious, haha.

On the way from Hongdae back to Sinchon there was this bridge and under the bridge was this kind of strange green area with an Ajumma who was plucking pumpkins. Strange but cool!

This is a very typical view of a living area. You have small, old and fucked up houses and big apartment buildings where most of the people want to live these days.

This was somewhere near Ewha Women's University, it seems there used to be a shop or something in here but now it's a ruin with a mannequin and a sad old used-to-be christmas tree (and a lot of trash, haha).

Today was also our Sogang Orientation Event with a dinner afterwards. 비빔밥! Bibimbap again, but pretty nice of Sogang to treat us with a dinner!

Heading back to my place there was a Ska concert on the street, like 15 meters away from my place. This place is just crazy!

I still have to get used to the fact that you just throw your garbage on the street. Some places have trash bins but most don't. I heard it's because people fear trash bins, because they are a place where terrorists would plant bombs?! (WTF...) The other explanation was that people would put their private trash into the public trash bins. Well, imagine nearly 30°C and 80% humidity + trash on the street = nice smell~

But I start to like it here. I think I just have to get used a little bit more, but every time I leave my place I get more confident about the area. 서울 너무 좋아해!

Btw. here's a picture of the Kitchen in the Goshiwon. The thing that looks like an open cupboard is a dish-washer (I think so at least..) It is a little bit scary that you have to open and close the gas pipe before and after you finish cooking...brrrrr. But free Ramyeon noodles, rice and Kimchi! Decent!

[mangokompott]

Wandering and wandering around...

So it's again of these nights when you can really feel that you have jet lag. It's around 4am in the morning, the "AC" running (actually it's more a fan in the ceiling) but it's still really hot and you just can't get no sleep.

Today I met my best friend from Berlin who is traveling around Korea for about a month with her sister; which is pretty awesome! She already lived here for a year so I get to know all the secret shortcuts and some a advice where (not) to go. Don't you think it's nice if you go to foreign place and you already have someone who can tell you something about it?

Alright, so here are more pictures:

So I wandered around a little bit more. I actually wanted to go to MUJI, a Japanese store for a lot of household items and really nice pens, notebooks and stuff. I went to 합정 Hapjeong Station, where Mecenatpolis Mall is located. They have really nice stuff there but I really didn't figure out if I could wear any of the clothes (Size S, D, Q ?! ,Single, Double, Quadruple?).  

After that I wanted to go to 한강 (Han-River) and I tried to find my way. But I ended up going through tiny streets and seeing really strange buildings. I wonder if these nets are there so that people won't jump out of their window?

Well, again I walked around a little bit aimlessly through one of these tiny streets which make me feel like I am in a old part of East Germany during the early 1980s.

After some time I could finally manage to get to the river with a really nice view of the other side of Seoul across the river (I guess it's Gangnam?)

Unfortunately it was not the place I imagined I would end up at, but it was still okay. Lots of people going there with their bikes, ajossis running, clearing their throat and spitting on the ground. 

Attention! Tetris blocks falling out of the sky!

I just happened to pass by this fashion shoot somewhere at a sewer channel. Nice environment!

This is at Sogang Campus where I met my other fellow student from my hometown university. It was actually quite nice weather, so we walked around the area a little and had ice cream at a tiny coffee shop. It was a little bit strange because there were lots of ajummas and when we wanted to sit down at a table in the corner they started to scream but then it was ok for us to sit down (at least they stopped screaming and seemed to be okay with it.) Unfortunately it started to rain and OF COURSE we did not bring an umbrella with us, so when we returned to the campus we were already quite soaked from the rain.

I got introduced to some other Germans which was a welcome change to just wandering around the city on my own. We went to a restaurant (I think so at least) very close to my place and interestingly they had a German flag and a "Garten Bier" (Garden Beer) sign, but nothing inside that restaurant was German at all. I ended up ordering for everyone, which isn't too bad, at least I can practice some Korean. We even got sobisu (service = sth for free), something like french fries! That was the end of the day and I feel asleep quite "early".