Gaegogi

So today a few of my friends and I decided to go eat some Gaegogi! For those of you who do not know what it is, it translates into dog meat. Gae = Dog and gogi = meat. We went to a local restaurant that serves gaegogi soup. The cost is 10,000won and it is enough to feed two people. So the 8 of us shared 4 bowls and it was pretty good. It came with rice and the side dishes such as kimchee of course. The meat itself was very soft. If I did not know it was dog meat, I would of thought it was lamb or some soft boiled meat. The soup base was a bit bitter. We added lots of pepper to the soup (that is how it is suppose to be eaten) so that might of affected the taste. Overall, it was something new and something that I really wanted to try. Now I can add to the list of wierd things I have tried. To name a few others, I have tried balut which is a baby duck fetus inside the egg and also horse sashimi which is thin slices of raw horse! Yummmy!

Pirates of The Caribbean 3

Today Wanjun and I decided to go to Cheonan to watch the much hyped Pirates of The Caribbean 3. The first two Pirates movies were good, the third one, not so much. I found it to be boring. There was too much talk and not enough action. The storyline wasn't that good either. I even almost fell asleep. For those fans of the series, I suggest you watch it and maybe you would enjoy it more than me. I think I might of put too much hope into the movie but in the end, I was disappointed. I hope Ocean's 13 and Transformers will be much better.

Anyways, my day wasn't all full of disappointments. We went to McDonalds for lunch on a mission, to get a glass Coca Cola cup. McDonalds is having a promotion that if you buy a Big Mac meal and supersize it, you can get a Coca Cola glass cup as well! All for 4900won which is a pretty good deal. If you go from 11am-2pm it is only 3000won! I really wanted one because all my friends were able to get it. One of my friends even has 7 cups within the 3 week span of the promotion!

Wednesday

So for Wednesday's festival activities, our English Village booth was a bust. We didn't have any more Jello Shots or any cocktails, only Soju bottles that did not sell. The Chinese Village booth, again, was doing well though. Anyways, Wednesday was the last day of the festival. Not only that, but Thursday is a national holiday (Buddah's Birthday) so everyone came out for the night. There were so many people and everyone was drinking and having fun. At 7:30 the tents were all empty and there were roughly 3000 people on the field preparing to watch the evening's concert. Some of the big names that were singing include: Chae Yeon, Baby Vox, and others that I cannot remember. The crowd was going crazy when Chae Yeon came on because I assume she was the most popular out of everyone. She was also last to perform. She was HOT! Anyways, after the concert there was a fireworks display that was pretty impressive. The whole festival was impressive. Having a free concert and fireworks and all the tents out, that is something that the schools back home would never do. Maybe the drinking part, but never getting famous singers to come to school to give a free show.

After the concert my friends and I decided to get our drink on. We were walking from tent to tent to drink Soju shots with our friends and playing games. I can't remember much of the night, but we ended up going back to the dorms at around 5:30am after many, many, many drinks. It was a fun night and pictures will be up shortly!
Chae Yeon:
Baby Vox:

Tuesday Festival

So after waking up for an early morning class on Tuesday (11am) my friends and I just decided to relax before heading out to the festival. It was a big night because a famous korean singer by the name of Psy (싸이) was comming tonight. Everyone was excited and the festival was live and kicking. We sold the same products again but this time, things did not sell well. Our tent was pretty shameful and the chinese village tent beside us was doing very well. It seemed like everyone wanted chinese food over alcoholic beverages. Anyways, there were a bunch of performances on the center stage so many of the students decided to watch that intead of drinking. At around 8pm Psy took the stage and everyone was going crazy. There were probably 2000 people crammed on an astroturf field watching the Psy concert. He sang a bunch of songs and everyone was singing along. Even some of my international friends were singing because they knew the lyrics. This lasted until around 10pm when we all went back to our booth to have a few drinks before retiring for the night. We decided to take it easy because we knew we were going to drink heavily on Wednesday.
Here is a picture of Psy:








More pics will come once I can upload them. I've been feeling really lazy lately so sorry for my half assed posts with no pictures >.<

Soonchunhyang 2007 Spring Festival

So as of Monday, May 21st SCH 2007 Spring Frestival has started. It is basically 3 days of partying and drinking and having fun. What happens is that every major sets up a tent booth and sells drinks and food to fundraise money for their major. It starts at 10am and ends until whenever people leave. There are tons of activities and games and things to buy. The school is united and it's very fun.

So yesterday, Monday, the English village set up our booth. We were selling Jello shots, Nachos, soju cocktails, rice pudding, hotdogs and rum&cokes. Our Jello shots sold the best but the other things were not as good. Although we did not make much money, we all had a blast just drinking and being together at our booth. There was tons of music being played around and the food in the other booths were much better than ours. People were just hanging around and chilling. This event is something that all SCH students look foward too. I ended up drinking until 4am with my roommate, we would of stayed longer, but I had an early class which I went too this (Tuesday) morning.

My first mail!

Well, not 100% true keke. I have received mail from back home before, but that was from my bank sending me a new Visa credit card. But today, I went into the office and saw a postcard that was sent to me! I wondered who it was from and to my surprise, it was from Fei Wan, one of my avid blog readers! She sent me a postcard from her trip to Cambodia that she is on visiting Angtor Wat and the surrounding area. Thanks alot Fei Wan for the great post card!

More can be read about Fei Wan and her travels at her blog at: http://ai-wan.blogspot.com/

5kgs (11lbs) lost!

So before comming to Korea I weighed around 75kgs or 165lbs. 1 month prior to leaving I was 77kgs (170lbs). Now, as of may 18th 2007, I am at 70kgs or 154lbs. Thats 5kgs (11lbs) lost in 3 months from eating kimchee and rice all the time. I think my arms are a bit skinnier but my gut is still there and my chubby cheeks are still there. Oh well, hopefully I can lose more and then start working out again, which I havn't been doing since I arrived in Korea.

Costume Party in May

So last night the EV international students decided to hold a costume party in May. Why should we dress up only once a year on Halloween when we can do it anytime we want? So a lot of us gathered together with some costumes and just had a party. Beer, Soju and snacks were available of course and everyone was just having fun and dancing. I dressed up as a SWAT member and some other notable costumes were: Spiderman, an Arab, Korean soldier, and 50cent. We also had spring loaded BB guns that we bought from E-mart and had a mini gun fight. After the party, things esclated into the dorms where it was a mini 3vs4 battle in the hallways and rooms of the dorm. Because it was 1:30am, we decided to take the battle outside around the campus in the amphitheatre and continue from there. We got a bit tired and our battle ended at around 3:30am then we just continued to watch Discovery channel in the lounge until we all passed out. Pictures will be up shortly, although I do not have many.

梁彦希, Leung Yien Hei, Liang Yan Xi

So while in Korea and talking to the many chinese students who are studying abroad here, I have been told one thing; my chinese name is good! In chinese characters, my name is: 梁彦希. In Cantonese, it is Leung Yien Hei. And in Mandarin it is Liang Yan Xi. From what I know, my name means "still hope". People seem to like the 希/Hei/Xi part which means hope. My Yeiyei gave me that name and I am glad he picked a good name ^_^

English is tough!

While after being in Korea for almost 3 months, I have noticed one big thing; my English skills have decreased dramastically. Maybe it is because I have been speaking simplified and broken English everyday but I swear my vocab has shrunken. Also I have been speaking lots of Cantonese and some Korean so that can be a major factor on why I seem to be forgetting English words and speaking improperly. Oh well, one month in Canada can fix this, I hope!

Been a lazy week

So an avid blogger just messaged me if I was on holidays because I have not posted much on my blog lately. Well I just wanted to let everyone know that I am not on holidays or sick, it is just that lately I have been being lazy around campus and thus nothing to post. The past week I have spent time relaxing with Wanjun or just my friends watching movies. I havn't drank in over 2 weeks (well I might have taken a Soju shot here or there) and I haven't really done anything exciting. I've been feeling really exhausted lately and tired so I am not in the mood to go out. The weather has also been a bit wacky. As I post it is cloudy but 20 minutes ago it was bright sunshine. When it is cloudy or rainy, I usually feel even more tired and just want to stay in my room or the lounge resting. I think I really need to sleep more. Everyone says I always look tired which is true, but it is hard for me to go to sleep at night. I just want to stay up chatting or surfing the net for useless information. Hopefully I will start to feel a bit more cheerful. This Thursday the International Students are having a Costume Party in May event but I still do not know what to dress up as. Any suggestions for a poor student with no costume? Well, just wanted to say 'sorry' for the lack of posts. I will try to put more up. I think this weekend Wanjun and I will go to Seoul so we will take lots of pictures again so keep reading my blog because I promise to update it more!

Cheap flights from Vancouver <-> Hong Kong

So I was just browsing around on the net and I found this website for an airline company that had just opened up. They will be offering flights from YVR (Vancouver) to HKG (Hong Kong) and back for as cheap as $568usd round trip or $3,980HKD. That is pretty cheap for a round trip fare. So I am making this post to show all my family and my friends who frequently go to HK that they can start booking their tickets through Oasis Hong Kong. Their website is http://www.oasishongkong.com/hk/en/home.aspx and I suggest if you are interested, to go check them out.

Update on classes

Because I am here for a STUDY abroad program, I thought I would update you guys on my marks so far. I got my midterms back a couple weeks ago but forgot to make a post about it. In my Korean writing class, I got a 64% on my midterm and my conversation class I got a 72%. They are both kind of low, but I am not a Korean major so I didn't really care nor did I study much for those tests. My Korean language is actually pretty good, but I find the things we learn in class to be a bit boring and not practical. I have picked up more things from the Koreans that I have talked too and I have applied that to real life situations. For my Korean Business and Finance class I got a 91% on my midterm. Because business is my major, I tried to study for the test. Although I did not get much studying done, I still did good so I am happy.

Seoul Weekend Part I - Friday

Hmm..where to start? I had such a packed weekend this past 3 days that I am scared to start typing because I don't know where it will end. Ill try to keep it short, but there will be lots of pictures to help. So Wanjun and I decided to go to Seoul for the weekend and it was lots of fun. We left on Friday at around 1pm to take the 2pm KOrail from Onyang - Yeongdengpo. I brought 260,000 won thinking this should get me through the 3 days 2 nights. We arrived in Yeongdengpo station and took a transfer to Sigil the another to go to the 63 building in Yeouido. It is the 3rd tallest buildling in S.Korea with a skydeck to view the city from the top. We shopped around the building which didn't have many things inside. It was more of an office building with a few shops at the bottom, an Imax and Aqaurium. We decided to go only to the skydeck because we were running out of time. The top view was pretty nice, but we went when the sun was out so we couldn't see the pretty lights of Korea. Another problem was that the sky was very smoggy. I am not used to this because usually in Vancouver, when the sun is out, the sky is beautiful blue and there is no grey haze like here in Asia. It was very odd to see. We took tons of pictures and we had a light snack at the top. It is definiately worth the 5,000won ticket but I would suggest going when it is dark out. We had to leave early because we wanted to take the Yeouido - Jamsil ferry ride that takes us through the Han River under all the bridges at night. The ferry started at 7:20 and ended at around 8:30. By then it got dark and we could see all the decorated bridges from underneath. Something worth doing only once though. We got to Jamsil area and just walked along the water to find the subway station. We ended up at Olympic stadium and took a look around. We wanted to eat a nice meal but because it was already 9:30 before we got to the subway station, we decided to just eat something cheap later in our destination, Myeongdong. We took the subway to Myeongdong and was shopping around while looking for a motel to stay at. Even at 11am the streets were so lively and there were tons of people. Market vendors were still out and I ended up buying some "real" Gucci socks for 1000won each. I needed new ankle socks because I left all of mine in Vancouver. We walked around for around an hour and half and were searching for a motel to stay at. It is wierd, when I don't need to find a motel, there are tons around, but when I need to find one, there is never any around. Damn Murphy's Law. We finally found a motel near a Buy The Way convience store that costed 40,000 for the night. We didn't want to walk around anymore so we ended up taking it and rested for the night. Bellow are all the pictures we took for Friday:
63 Building:


















A cool picture. The floor is also a see through plexi-glass that you can see to the bottom:













The nice blue sky...




The ferry to Jamsil:














Now back in Myeongdong:




The motel we stayed at had Starcraft TV!!!




That is it for Friday. I have alot more pictures but I could not add them all. Same applies to the following posts.