A Canadian student studying abroad in South Korea
This will be my last post from The Republic of Korea. I will leave the dorms within two hours and head to Cheonan. From there, I will take a bus to Incheon and have Juno pick me up and I will stay at his house for the night and he will drop me off at the airport tomorrow. I will miss this place, it was a fun experience that I will never forget. Well, my next post will be made in China so good luck everyone ^_^
So I will leave Korea on Tuesday June 19th at 6:30pm from ICN and will fly to Beijing China. I will spend approximately one month in Beijing. I will also go to Tianjing to visit a few friends there and also maybe go to Shanghai. After a month or so, I will travel down to Guangzhou either from Beijing or Shanghai and spend a couple of weeks there and then travel south to Hong Kong. I will spend a week or two there and then finally leave from HKG to arrive at YVR. I have not booked any tickets besides my one way to Beijing from Korea. I will see how my financial status is to see what I can and cannot afford. But I do want to have lots of fun in China because I know it will be another great learning experience and also I will not have the same opportunity to do this again. I might as well enjoy it while I am young and free. Of course, I will be traveling with Wanjun ^_^. I will keep on posting about China if you guys want, or I might just stop this blog after I leave Korea. StudentInKorea is about Korea, but I can continue about China and just my life if you guys are interesting in reading. Let me know! Thanks ^_^
[edit] Oh if anyone is in China and wants to offer us a free place to stay, please contact me via msn or email at BryanL@hotmail.com Please and thanks ^_^
Well it is finally over. English Village program is at it's end. 16 weeks have now passed since we all met each other for the first time.
Today, my roommate Lee Hunjoon had to leave due to an emergency. He was suppose to leave tomorrow but went back to Seoul today. I helped him carry his stuff and see him off in the taxi. It was very hard to say goodbye. He had taught me a lot of things, not only about Korean culture but about myself. I have never had an older brother but he was like one to me. He watched over me and helped me mature a bit. He was very kind and such a good guy. He treated me out for so many meals, gave me a USB drive for my bday, threw me into a piss filled dirty pond, and basically took care of me. I will really miss him. Joon, never give up on your dreams. Your english communication skills are great, do not worry about TOEIC, you will do fine. I believe in you and I know you will do good things in life. ^_^
Right now, I sit in the GV lounge awaiting to see all the Chinese Village people leave. They will take the 8am bus to Incheon Airport and depart back to China. I have met so many of them and they have all been very nice to me. Their english skills are amazingly good and we have become great friends.
Later tonight, Oscar, Ray and Jon will leave as well. It is very sad to see everyone go. I think it is harder to say goodbye to the Koreans and Chinese because the International students I am sure I will see again. Vegas next year right Team Swordfight? kekeke.
Well I just wanted to list a few names of all my friends that I have met. Here is to you guys, goodbye :(
Hunjoon
Jaechun
James
Mijeong
Heejin
Haelim
Sungdoon
Tae Young
Min Kim
Shin Jae
Korean Ray
Han Songho
Soju King
Dongwoo
Jin Ho
Juno
Ray's Roommate (lol)
Addison's Roommate
Daisy
Summer
Joyce
Maggie
Vera
Angelina
Tracy
Phillip
Donny
Celina
Anime
Yufai
Winter
Leishan
Jiangjun
Oscar
Keith
Addison
Ray
Jon
Josh
Ryan
Will
Ashlee
Melissa
Chris M Kim
Radomir
Lesly
Anna
Wendy Wu
Whitney
Deon
Henry
Carlos
Sadeed
Dajong
If I forgot your name, im sorry (it is 7am and I have not slept and drank a bit last night) but you know I will miss you too!
Special goodbye to Joon, Juno, Team Sword Fight, Han Songho (니가 D.T.A), and Jiangjun. Thank you guys for showing me around Korea and making this experience unforgetable. You guys are the best ^_^
Here is a link to the English Village closing video for spring 2007 that Deon Ong from Singapore made:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2404133053924160921&hl=en
As I sit here at 4am studying for my Korean Conversation final, I realize this is my last week here at SCH. We have finals all this week and then it will be over. 16 weeks have come and gone and they have been so many memories. All my friends here, both International from Western countries, Asian countries and also my Korean friends will be far away. It is amazing to think that so many people, from all different parts of the world would gather in one location, become such good friends and then dispurse back. To think, I come from Canada alone not knowing anyone in Korea and now I have countless of friends. Friends that I have met within Global Village, friends from school, friends that you meet through another friend who ends up being a Chinese born Canadian that lived in Vancouver and is now teaching here. Friends that you meet at a random club in Hongdae, talked briefly, and find out that 1 month later they find out your blog and write a comment, exchange MSN and are from different sides of the world. I will never forget this experience and the great bonds I have made. What a truly great learning experience this has been. I came to Korea to have fun, and what I got from it was being able to speak a little korean, reading and writing korean, great friends, great memories and a great girl.
On Thursday we had our EV closing ceremony for the spring 07 semester. They presented awards and certificates and also showed a movie recapping the year, made by fellow student, Deon. After the 1 hour ceremony, we all went out for dinner. It was at a new restaurant and the food was decent. The normal meats and seafood was served but this time they had some french fries, crappy sushi and some other dishes. As always, free soju and beer was served. I tried not to drink that much, but because it was the last time we would all be together, I couldn't say no. We played the normal drinking games such as the watermelon game, baskin robins, 3,6,9 and rock paper scissors. I didn't lose that much so I didn't get too drunk. We did manage to make our korean friend, Han, drink a Do Re Mi shot. He won "The best Korean student in English Village" award so we wanted to give him OUR prize. A Do Re Mi shot is basicallly three drinks. You must drink one shot of Soju, one glass of beer, and one glass of half beer and half soju. All this within a minute. It doesn't seem that hard, but trust me, it is. I know because I had to do it a day earlier for my birthday. Anyways, we kept drinking until the EV officers told us to continue back at the dorms so we all left.
When I got back to the dorms, I went to go see Wanjun (she is part of Chinese Village and not English Village). I met up with her until my hyong called me and ask me to meet him at the back gate of the school. I was a bit scared because I knew I would be forced to drink more since it was probably our last night of drinking until after finals. Well Wanjun and I both went and met up with Hunjoon and all three of us walked to a local restaurant. When we got there, I was very happy because it was a fresh sashimi restaurant. I told my roommate that I have been dying for Sushi this whole semester and he took us to a sushi place.
We sat down, ordered the set menu and got a glass of soju for us to share. We started to drink slow until the food arrived. The first dish that came was...raw octupus legs that were still moving around. They were chopped up unto sizes of probably 2cm and they all kept moving around. I have always wanted to try this, but never got a chance. Wanjun was a bit scared but my hyong and I dipped right in. The taste was a bit chewy and the suctions kept sticking to my tongue, but with a bit of soya sauce and lots of chewing, it finally went down. It was pretty good and Wanjun finally tried one. We also ate fresh raw clams, seasnails, some red thingy, and some fish that looked like hamachi. All the food was great. Halfway through the meal, Deon decided to join us and we all had fun. We finished off 5 Soju bottles for the 3.5 (.5 for Wanjun) of us. I got very drunk!
We then all went to the local Noreabang (KTV) to sing some songs. I was very tired from all the alcohol consumption and when we finished, we took a taxi back and I quickly passed out.
Sadly, none of us brought a camera to the sashimi restaurant. The photos posted are those at the EV ceremony and first restaurant.
안녕하세요. 만나서반갑습니다. 저는 브라이언입니다. 캐나다 사람입니다. 대학생입니다. 저는 사이먼 프레이져대학교를 다닙니다. 그리고 전공은 경제학입니다. 나이가 23입니다. 안녕히 계세요. 감사합니다.
브라이언 렁
Thanks to good old www.youtube.com I was able to take these videos from the 2007 Soonchunhyang spring festival. Just a few of the concerts and firework display:
Psy Concert:
Fireworks:
[edit] Thanks Will Sanchez for posting these videos on youtube. I have now jacked them from you! keke ^_^
So this past Saturday I had met up with some old friends that I have not seen in over 5 months! They are my Korean friends who I had met from Vancouver. In one of my previous posts in December, I talked about 3 Korean students studying abroad in Vancouver and how we all went to have dinner together at Shabusen. Well, on Saturday, we all met up again for the first time. It was also their first time seeing each other since they arrived back in Korea. Andre, Hailly (although she has now changed her english name to Helen), and Sally along with some other friends went to eat lunch at a local restaurant. It was a fun time chatting with them again, now in their home country. The stories we all had to share was amazing. The first thing they all said to me was that I look much skinnier now, which is a good thing, I think. Sally had also mentioned that she really misses Vancouver and that she wants to go back. The food was also good. We had korean bbq (the usual) which was much cheaper than when we ate in Vancouver. Andre, being the oldest, was nice enough to pay for all 8 of us. Here are some pictures of the lunch:
Well I decided to take some pictures of my room just to show how it is like after all my stuff is here. Earlier, I took some pictures of my room with nothing and now it is filled with junk.
I am dreaming, but not of energy...
Well yesterday my friend Addison and I decided to do something new, so we went to Onyang to go to the famous hot springs. The Onyang Hotel and Hot Springs is a famous destination for many Koreans and internationals to go to relax in the natural mineral water. The hot springs offers 57 degree celcius weak alkali water directly from the hot spring hole on the natural rock layer. It helps with stress relief and skin treatment as well as diseases such as neuralgia and rheumatism. Addison and I were a bit nervous at first because everyone MUST be naked when in the hot springs and the walk fro the locker room to the water is a nervous walk. At first it was wierd, but after a while we just got adjusted to it. There were 4 pools inside and 1 outdoor with two powerful jets that would help massage your back. There was also a steam room inside and a sauna outside. Showers were also there of course to clean before entering and exiting the springs. It was a very relaxing experience. Something that I would do again. It was only 5000won which is very cheap.
A bit of history...
There are two improtant cultural properties in Onyang Hot spring hotel. The first one is Shinjeongbi(No. 229 Provincial Cultural property, December 31, 1990). In 1468, while Sejo, the 7th king of Chosun Dynasty took a bath with hot spring water, he discovered warm water came from one side near cold water. Then he named the spring Shinjeong and set up a Shinjeong Monumnet to commemorate it. It was repaired in 1483, 14th year of Seongjong.
The second one is Yeonggoedae. In 1760, 36th year of Yeongjo, the Prince Sado came to Onyang Rural Palace. It is the place where he practiced Court martial arts. Onyang Governor Yoon Yeom planted three pagoda trees at the time. Later on, in 1795(19th year of Jeongjo) King Jeongjo set up a Monument of Yeonggoedae to commemorate it. The characters "Yeonggoedae" on the front side is writings of King Jeongjo's own and inscriptions were written by Joon Haeing Im, son of Yeon Yeom.
Onyang palace was built provisionally in 5th years of Taejo, Josun Dynasty, was extended to a hot spring palace on September in 14th year of Sejong, was used exclusively by the royal family were Kings, Taejo, Sejong, Sejo, Hyunjong, Sukjong, and Youngjo, rest and performed their offical duties and a civil service examination called 'Onyang Byulsi' was carried out, and now is the Onyang hot spring Hotel where 6 former presidents including president Park Junghee stayed.
***Note: These pictures were taken off the website and not from our camera.***
