Tasom's Blog

You Rock

2010-03-09T07:10:00.000-08:00

This is a post from Seth Godin's Blog

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This is deceptive.

You don't rock all the time. No one does. No one is a rock star, superstar, world-changing artist all the time. In fact, it's a self-defeating goal. You can't do it.

No, but you might rock five minutes a day.

Five minutes to write a blog post that changes everything, or five minutes to deliver an act of generosity that changes someone. Five minutes to invent a great new feature, or five minutes to teach a groundbreaking skill in a way that no one ever thought of before. Five minutes to tell the truth (or hear the truth).

Five minutes a day you might do exceptional work, remarkable work, work that matters. Five minutes a day you might defeat the lizard brain long enough to stand up and make a difference.

And five minutes of rocking would be enough, because it would be five minutes more than just about anyone else.

Dont go anywhere!

2009-09-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

Hello my fellow readers.

I have to deeply apologize for the absence of my blog posts.

I am back to school at the Richard Ivey School of Business for my last year at undergraduate studies. My ambition to be well prepared for classes and attending information sessions of potential employers have been occupying my time. Frankly, I thought it was appropriate to push the blog aside to focus on the immediate priorities of my life.

Sadly, I've been mistaken.

It is the times when you feel hectic and utterly helpless where you should spend time doing the things that harness your creativity and make you the person you are. We all have times in our lives when all the projects in the world have fallen onto your lap. You lose sleep over the fact that you wish there was more time to complete it all. What you should think is, how can I reorganize myself to complete these tasks well?

Deadlines exist and the clock is ticking. But doing work over a longer period of time doesn't add real value. It's about doing value-added work in the time you can do the work properly. Work will still be there even if you don't nurse it over night so why don't you do work when you are fully capable?

Again, I apologize for the time chasm of my blog posts. Stay tuned for my next post: "You can learn anywhere, from anyone," summarizing my travels to South Korea.

Playing Inside

2009-08-17T02:16:00.000-07:00

We took the day to go to an indoor playground with tunnels, balls, and trampolines. It's great for kids, not so much for the people taking care of the kids as it's easy to get lost in the maze setup in the area.

Master driver.

Drawing Doraemong, a very, very popular animation figure in Korea and Japan.

Lotte World

2009-08-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

Ran and I went to Lotte World, Korea's half-indoor amusement park. I remember going there with the family before I moved to Canada. It was a fun time of both nostalgia and excitement.

Rubik's Mine!

2009-08-03T23:02:00.000-07:00

It took a good part of yesterday and a little repetition this morning. I am now able to solve the 3x3 Rubik's Cube!

Seoul Tower During the Day

2009-08-03T23:00:00.000-07:00

Jason, Victor and I took a trip up Seoul Tower during the day. The sights were much different from the night. However it was a different look at the same tower I visited already.

Changdeokgung 창덕궁

2009-07-26T22:27:00.000-07:00

Jason, Victor, and I took a walking tour around Changdeokgung, the most well maintained palace around Seoul. It was the governing place for the 3rd King of the Chosun dynasty, Taejong. He was the father of Sejong, the king who developed the Korean letters.

The English tour was nothing to boast about. Even for me, it was very difficult to understand the sentence structure to what the tour guide was saying, on top of her poor pronunciation. So, I acted as a tour guide for the majority of the time there.

Despite it all, it was quite amazing to see the intricate details and the maintenance of such delicate pieces of buildings for 500+ years. However, after awhile it gets pretty boring as all the palace structures are same whichever palace around Seoul you choose to go.

The place where the King sat.

His throne.

Goof Around. It's Good For You

2009-07-23T20:47:00.000-07:00

Conforming is one way to rid our fears to belong. Our innate tendency makes us want to belong among the community in which we live. It explains much of our behaviour - wearing clothes that are in fashion, doing and thinking in the way that is viewed as "normal."

Every once in awhile, goof around. Let your creativity loose. Act like you don't care what others think of you. If you do so with so much confidence, there is no way others will not join you.

It's also important you do so with the right people around you. Find those who let you be yourself and give you the opportunity to goof around.

Shabu-Shabu. Delicious to the max.

Out Around Town

2009-07-18T01:02:00.000-07:00

My cousin Ran and I went around pretty much all of Seoul in one day. It was a lot of walking but it was definitely worth it. In addition, we met up with Jason, a colleague of mine and had supper and drinks in Sinchon.

South Entrance Shopping Market in Seoul.

The Kyobo Book Store. The ceiling is reflective metal, making the shopping experience pretty interesting.

Waffle place in Samchon-dong. It was amazing.

He had a good point.

Korean national flower.

Insa-dong. When we got there, there was a popular actor being filmed, which didn't interest me but all of the million schoolgirls in the area.

We met up with Jason. He liked my hat I guess...

Sinchon is around an all-girls university. All the shops are girl-oriented of course.

Night at the Jazz Bar.

Like It's Somewhere Else

2009-07-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

I met up with my dad's friend's daughter, and she showed me around a place called Gangnam, the richest place in Seoul. I can understand why, the prices are super high everywhere and all the stores are "foreign." The stores replicate places in Europe and North America and with that luxury, they charge 2-3 times more than other similar places.

Frustratingly, to order a pitcher of beer, you had to order a side dish. All the side dishes were pretty expensive except for one, where it came with a glove because it was hot. Although we didn't touch the side dish (because we just had dinner somewhere else), the glove was a good inhibitor to the cold beer mug.

A Longer Journey is a Shorter Route

2009-07-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

It's common knowledge that the shortest route from point A to point B is a straight line. This isn't necessarily true. In the short term the straight line will get you to point B faster. But I intend to walk the road more than once.

The other alternative from A to B is by taking side roads and detours. By taking detours, you are offered experiences in life through surprises and challenges, if you let it. This is a very illogical way of thinking: how can taking detours through life a shorter route?

For me, life is about taking in experiences and learning from everything and everyone. I believe everyone has something to give and every life event has a moral lesson. Straight line allows you to reach the destination faster but when you have the walk the line again, the straight line may be longer than if you took the detour the first trip. If you took the detour the first time, the next trip you take, you may not have to walk any line at all because you've been challenged all the barriers that it takes you to get from A to B the last time. In other words, you may not have learned the lesson and experiences you require if you take the fastest route.

If you can, the next time you take a detour, bring someone with you. As the movie/book "Into the Wild" says happiness is only when shared. There's no point enjoying life if you can't share it someone else.

I took a long, detoured walk through the mountainside behind my aunt's apartment. It was refreshing to see the place from a pseudo-bird's-eye view, which makes everything that was repetitive, new again.

I arrived in Mapo to see my dad's best friend during the time when everyone was going home after work. You could imagine what that could be. Everyone has places to go, people to see. Me on the other hand, was the only human being that was wondering around looking at the marvels of skyscrapers.

The subway system is amazing in S.Korea. It's clean, wide, and efficient.

Completely traditional grandpa. In today's terms, this old man is weird. But I admire him to come out to the busy corporate world in 1920s wear.

The white lines on the bottom is all of the crosswalk. It's super wide.

Mapo's famous pork ribs. Best only when freshly grilled. And with Soju.

Why Doing Nothing is Doing a Lot

2009-07-12T21:46:00.000-07:00

I like being busy. I thrive on the times where I am doing thousands of things at once and when I mismanage my time even by a little, I don't have time to sleep. It makes me feel productive, and that I am contributing to the community around me. What we often lack is the time when we do nothing. For busy people like me and many others I know, when the time comes where there is nothing to do, we panic. We feel useless and that the whole world is running away and we are left stagnant.

However, being productive and "useful" is being able to add real value in the small amount of time. In order for us to be focused, we need to do nothing once in awhile.

Doing nothing is embracing the silence and really living in the moment. It's okay being bored, because when you are bored, you can use the freedom to be creative. Write, draw, play music, or sleep. Turn off the phone. Don't check your email. If you want to be social, go and meet somebody, don't rely on technology to connect you through. Ponder and wonder around town. Look at the patterns of people. Doing nothing allows you to see life as it moves around you. It's really fascinating.

I give you a challenge. Do nothing for at least one day. Look at the world moving around you. Be mesmerized at even the smallest of things. It will help. I promise.

I took these pictures while I was on the plane on the way to Seoul from Jeju. I wanted to take pictures of the cities on the way down but was told to put away my camera. :(

Conquering Mountains

2009-07-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

On the North Eastern side of Jeju Island is another famous island with a big crater called Ilchulbong. Before climbing the mountain, we first went to U-do, which means Bull Island. Reason being, the island looks like a bull lying down.

I wish I could post more pictures of these two mountains. We took the ferry across the channel and rode on little mopeds around the whole island.

Ilchulbong.

Edge of U-do.

On our way around the island.

The famous Jeju rock fences.

Edge of U-do.

Going up the hill/mountain on U-do.

At the top.

This looks just like Mufasa. Had to be included. What a great lion.

These white sand/rocks actually *grow* on this island. More and more get created. I'm not exactly sure how. They are very different to sand and don't stick to skin.

Ilchulbong from the bottom.

Stairway to the top.

Looking down at the crater from the top.

Cliff off of Ilchulbong.

These Rocks

2009-07-05T21:36:00.000-07:00

Previously mentioned, Jeju is full of igneous rocks. Interestingly, my uncle's brother (not immediate family) is one of three that carves these Rock Grandpas (called Dolharbang) and created a museum to feature all the different Rocking Grandpas. You'll find these rocks often in front of buildings and it was said that these Grandpas only around in Jeju protects people from harm.

Then we went into ManJang Cave, which is about 7.5km long. It is sponsored by UNESCO and quite amazing (and HUGE) and cold. A great place to go in a hot summer day. Unfortunately, there is very minimal lighting and without a tripod, the photos were very difficult to take.

Grandpa laughing without teeth.

even taps are made of these grandpas in the museum.

The largest Grandpa carved to date. You can see his face and hands, rest is buried underground. In other words, not yet made.

The cave is big. Most of the walk there and back (only about 30 mins, the rest of the cave isn't walkable) is focused on the ground because it's rocky but every once in awhile if you look up, it's quite amazing how big this lava tube was.

A rock that looks like Jeju Island.

A big rock connected top and bottom is recreated up on the ground and made into a waterfall.

Dragon Rock

2009-07-05T08:34:00.001-07:00

Last couple of days have been busy. My time in Jeju is coming to a close and we are trying to visit as many things in Jeju as much as possible.

We went to a place called Dragon Rock (I'm translating Korean to English. It's actually called Yongduam Rock but it actually stands for Dragon Head Rock). It is said the Dragon wasn't able to make it to the Halla mountain and now stuck as a rock.

Walkway along the coast in front of the Ramada Inn.

Suspension walkway. It shakes when you walk. My walk *happen* to be very jumpy. People didn't like my walk.

History of Jeju

2009-07-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

I had a chance today to visit the Folklore Museum, explaining the birth of Jeju Island through volcanic activity 300,000 years ago. Unfortunately, there were no photographing inside the museum. Even worse, it was the best, most informative museum I've been to date.

Outside the museum reminded me a lot of Central Park in New York. With lots of forest inside the museum with some high-rise buildings dated me back to my visit to NYC.

Jeju Central Park?

Carrying lots of water on my back.

Art is Anything You Want It To Be

2009-06-30T22:11:00.001-07:00

Went to a place called Mok Sok Won today. It's a place where they gathered rocks from all around Jeju and made historic houses and sculptures out of them. Fortunately for me, I was able to see and remember this place before it closed down at the end of August. Unfortunately the museum had nobody seeing this amazing sight.

This place was a absolute amazing mixture of naturally formed and man-made forms of art. It reminded me to look at things at a fresh perspective and see the potentials in things I see that I usually would disregard...like rocks. This whole place was formed from naturally formed rocks, but with the right communication and arrangement, others could see what the artist intended.

Natural wood sculpture.

Clay sculpture.

This puppy followed us in and out. Our personal tour guide.

All things Green

2009-06-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

Another exciting day over here in Jeju. We went to the car museum and the teddy bear museum. Those were not as exciting as spending time with my other cousin who is stuck studying for her SAT equivalent test.

Green tea leaf farm.

At the car museum. You get to drive slow, battery powered mini cooper to teach kids about the rules of the roads.

Halla Mountain from 1100m up.

Nature wetlands at the 1100m mark.

There and Back Again

2009-06-28T21:06:00.000-07:00

Today packed a long day of activities. Since one of my aunt's kids had to miss school, one of her assignments was to visit all these different museums and take pictures for proof.

I went for a morning swim to get a taste of the big ocean that I dearly missed. Surprisingly, the water was warmer than Lake Huron at this time, and swimming was made easy by the increase in buoyancy by the salt in the water.

Other than public beaches, the shores are lined up with these igneous rocks I mentioned in previous posts. Due to the number of holes and landscape, it hosts a lot of different habitat. When you walk on it, you can see so many creatures moving past you to avoid the footsteps.

We went to the nature park where they display different kinds of plants and trees from all around the world including paths into caves and desert greenhouses.

It takes steady hand to take pictures in caves.

This is actually a very small model of the house. Taken at the Bonsai tree area.

A big reason for my stay at Jeju Island right now is because my grandpa's grave is being moved from this location to another with my great grandparents. Luckily I got to see the orginial spot before it was moved. Koreans have a way to put a great significance to remember and honor the dead. The view, direction, and landscape conditions are criteria that must be considered before choosing a location.

Strategizing our hunt. We saw a bunch of pheasants (꿩) in this potato farm, which we wanted to catch one with rocks. It was a great idea at the time.

Sitting by the Dock in the Ocean

2009-06-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

One of my aunts live right on the beach, which was a big motivator for me to stay there for the night and for the majority of the remainder of my trip. There are a lot of stores along the beach and with no laws preventing from drinking outside of stores, the beach was quite lively.

Life along the beach

The lights in the ocean are squid boats. At night, squids are attracted to light, in which they are drawn closer to the boats.

The oldest and youngest of the 3 kids.

I Could Live as a Golf Bum

2009-06-27T08:36:00.001-07:00

Second day in Jeju, I went golfing with my uncles. I didn't know what to expect, only to be surprised by the astonishing view and service of cart/caddy ladies who were so helpful. It was sad that I was consumed by my need to golf but trying to figure out how to capture the view just with a picture.

Gorgeous Par 3.

The club house.

You can faintly see the Halla Mountain in the background.

Start off right at Hole 1.

Tasom "Tiger Woods" Jeong

In Between Dreams

2009-06-26T08:48:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Jeju Island (off of the south coast of the peninsula) 3 days ago and have had trouble finding time to sleep with so many relatives to meet and so many things to do. Explains why I haven't been updating my blog as often as I used to. Don't get me wrong, I've been meaning to post photos but it's very difficult when you are looking through hundreds of photos and picking the right ones that exemplify my experiences here.

With so many pictures, the photos will be posted in 4 separate posts, each a day apart. Information dump is hardly anyone's preference.

Jeju Island is a inactive volcanic island with so you are always in between Halla Mountain (peak 1,950m) and the ocean. It's absolutely breathtaking and I had trouble taking pictures to experience being in between both. That day, luckily, the sky was clear enough to see the mountain fairly well. There are usually only about 50 days of the year where you can see the mountain from far away.

Halla Mountain.

The Ocean

This rock granddad watches over the welfare of the people in Korea.

The volcanic remains are easily noticeable here. All the fences are made of igneous rocks, with even some houses and restaurants built out of them.

Despite the tourism and urbanization, Jeju Island remains largely rural.

I woke up around 6 that day and didn't know what to do with myself so I went for a walk.

Leisurely Walk

2009-06-23T00:30:00.000-07:00

Travel cheques are quite useless unless cashed in. Luckily for my sake, the Korean currency has been falling. Which means my US Dollar traveler's cheques are worth more. Woo!

How do you differentiate your store from others?

$5 buffet. $2 for having left over food.

His own computer studio.

Keep looking from new perspectives

2009-06-21T23:55:00.000-07:00

I've been in HwaJong for couple of days and after doing most of the tourist-y stuff the novelty wears off after awhile. It's much like all the new experiences we gain. At first, you want to absorb everything and make the most of it. But after prolonged exposure, you take it for granted. The analogy can be applied almost everywhere - in relationships, school, friends, and etc. Taking pictures everyday could be irritable work, especially when you spend most of the day doing the same things. But by trying to learn new things everyday and even forcing ourselves to do so, we start being creative and looking at the world from a different perspective.

My new perspective today was from the 19th floor. Although my day consisted of the usual "mom" things like taking kids to school and picking them up, I took some time taking pictures of simple, everyday things from a 19th story view. I have to say, I like today's mesmerizing perspective.

Typical apartment buildings in Korea.

I hung on my camera for dear life taking this picture over the balcony.

Best Dad Ever

2009-06-21T06:28:00.000-07:00

This post goes out to my dad, who through his titanic efforts lead our family through hardships and joy.

I love you so much dad!

Full Day of Growing

2009-06-21T00:42:00.000-07:00

Uncle and I woke up early to go golfing before the kids woke up. We played a 10 hole approach game, winner bought breakfast. Sadly to say, I bought breakfast.

Then it was a day full of sweat. The weather in Korea, even after a full day of rain, is always humid. With the blazing sun, the feeling of heat is amplified by the humidity. We all went to a local farm where people can purchase a small farming area (hard to call it a field, it's only about 20m squared) to plant seeds for vegetables. While the adults picked lettuce and tomatoes, kids were kids.

Then we went rollerblading for about 2 hours. The little one loves to rollerblade, and with a beginner dad, it makes it so much more fun. Rollerblading is a lot like parenting in many respects. You can give kids the opportunity to rollerblade and give them some sort of protection but if you don't let them fall and scrape their knees, they will never learn to fully skate. Moreover, they will not acquire the self-confidence to try something new, something more adventurous. It's a careful balance of both support, encouragement, accepting failures (in this case falling down) and letting them go that will allow kids to grow and learn.

Aunt picking lettuce.

Uncle tying branches to a pole.

6 ripe cherry tomatoes!

Watering anything but plants.

My sweet, awesome hat and sunglasses I bought the other day.

"Tell dad we won't push him but when he stands up, let's get him."

Mission accomplished.

Playing Grounds

2009-06-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

I love rain. I could go on forever describing all the details of what I love about it but for the sake of sanity and dignity, I will save them for myself.

I took some time in the playgrounds in front of apartments to take some pictures. I find beauty in the smallest of things. Ignore the negative, nasty things, and focus on the possibilities, opportunities. Simplest things can make life so much happier.

Shopping at the East Entrance

2009-06-19T18:15:00.001-07:00

I took the day to go shopping around the East Entrance of Seoul. There are 4 entrances, East, West, South, and North, and each distinctive by their historic building to mark the spot. Like MyongDong, this place was crowded by independent stores selling similar goods to one another at low, low prices. I found myself a cool fedora for 10 dollars and sunglasses for 7.

Then my positive experience changed when I went into the shopping mall. As soon as I took the escalator up to the male clothing floor, I was bombarded with store watchers (there's only one person watching the store - each store probably the size of your closet) asking me to look at their products, trying to coerce me to stay and talk to them so they can make one more sale. Before I went into the mall, I really wanted to buy clothes. But the sales tactic didn't want me to buy from any of them. So we left and went to the next mall. Same thing. But this time, I learned my lesson. I started joking with them in a very negative way - I started to either start saying complicated stuff in English to intimidate them or say my thoughts out loud by saying "damn, if i wasn't attacked by all these people, maybe I'd buy something." To no surprise, I wasn't bugged anymore.

A mall called Doota, was quite good however. There were a lot of better laid out stores with brand name clothing. My heart wasn't set on buying medium priced clothes when I could buy the same things in Canada. I loved my cheap sunglasses and fedora, those seem to be the ones I remember purchasing, not clothing I would normally buy.

Historic East Entrance. The most popular and famous entrance to Seoul.

The flea market type places before the mall. There are so many small stores selling cheap stuff. This is where I got my hat and sunglasses.

Giant crocs. I never liked the aesthetics of this shoe but now they made it 15 times bigger.

The cafeteria at the mall is centralized. You order from one location and take your ticket to pick up your food at different outlets.

Soul Tower (pun intended)

2009-06-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

My cousin lives in Seoul and my aunt and uncle took me to see her. What they didn't tell me is that we had to paint her house for awhile. I was sporting fashionable purple shorts with tan shirt.

On the way to my cousin's house. I'm actually not sure what this place is but it was a cool shot that I took in a hurry passing by.

View from my cousin's rooftop. It's quite amazing to see a mixture of tall corporate buildings, older rural buildings and mountains all around the city.

After we went out for supper to the nearest (I mean right next door to my cousin's apartment/house) food place and we had right-off-the-grill meat. Paired with cold beer, I was in heaven.

Then we took the cable car up to the North Seoul Tower where the sight is breathtaking. From there, you can see most of Seoul.

On the fence all around the tower are key locks. Couples come up here and lock up the lock they brought with a message attached to it and throw the key down the mountain. Symbolic of the "love" they locked in for another. Cheesy, yes. Will I do it? Yes. Overall, I just think the picture is spectacular.

No matter how many times I saw, I couldn't stop taking pictures of the view and look out in awe at the magnificent view from up there.

A hut on the top of the mountain before the tower. Has older, traditional, colourful paintings all hand painted and intricate of details.

Cute.

Another city shot. Astonishing.

Flea Market

2009-06-16T17:40:00.000-07:00

Flea markets travel around different towns and cities and return to the same town every 5 days. It was really interesting to see all the different kinds of vegetables, fish, and meat so tighly packed with so many people going by. I got some odd looks. The shoppers are usually if not all moms who want to buy groceries to cook. Not everyday they see a good looking, young male with a giant camera taking pictures of...food.

Giant cyclically piled garlic.

Next two pictures depict the number of stores and the narrow corridor for hundreds of people to walk through.

Delicious lunch to end it all. Yum!

Real Sightseeing

2009-06-16T01:30:00.000-07:00

I enjoy going to very tourist-y place where "foreigners" go. More interesting is seeing a typical day for people who live here. Today, I took the chance to do just that. Woke up early (I can never sleep in, there's so much I want to do) and went out on the truck with my uncle. He is in charge of delivering Kimchi (a quintessential food in Korean diet) to all the schools in the area. Since the kitchen ladies have to prepare lunch for thousands of kids, deliveries must be made before at least 10. So I rode along at 6:30. I did not help with the actual work since I needed to be cleared for safety inspections to handle food and other logistical hurdles. Instead I just took pictures.

Loading up before the delivery.

On our way to the schools. The rice fields in rural areas are right beside the roads. It's amazing what they can/have to do in order to develop places for people to live and work while still maintaining agriculture.

Front of the school. Schools are divided as follows: Elementary - Grades 1 to 6; Middle School - Grades 7 to 9; and High School - Grades 10 to 12. Each school whether rural or urban hosts a lot of kids.

Very typical rural area. There are many remnants of houses that still exist for decades. The space utilization is so essential.

We took a walk on the fences around the practice fields of the Korean national soccer team. They have a game tomorrow against Iran so we tried to catch them practicing but were unsuccessful.

Unity tower. It's the most north you can go to the border. You can see into North Korea.

La Provence again in the day light. Took a walk around the whole place while my uncle was doing business.

2 + 4 I haven't met

2009-06-15T00:31:00.000-07:00

On to my mom's side of the family, my 2 youngest aunts had married while I was in Canada, plus 2 kids each. That made 6 people into my family that I haven't met until now. At first I was some foreigner but with a little expendable energy to match their enthusiasm, they wouldn't let go of me later that day. They were the cutest kids in the world!

My two youngest aunts of 4. Right after the picture was taken, my camera battery died so the next "tourist-y" place we went, my aunt took all the pictures. It worked out, though, since I got more pictures taken of me.

My 2 little cousins of my 2nd youngest aunt. Their dad left for business that night, luckily I was there to play with them.

The youngest cousin. 은정, or Sally, is a diva. She loves getting her picture taken.

On the way to MyongDong. Apartments are really the only place to live. With such a high density of people (approximately 100 times more than Canada - just imagine your room right now multiplied by 100 more people).

3 girls waiting for their moms and dad. Youngest boy went with his dad to go rollerblading at a park that day. He wanted to go for days.

It's amazing in this incredible area that most of the stores are independently owned. No real franchises here, other than some recognizable corporations like The Body Shop, NikeKorea, and Dunkin' Donuts. Since there are so many stores and so many signs, the most effective and often used method of advertizing are people standing out of the store informing (in a yelling tone) consumers of merchandise.

Entrance to MyongDong. I think there are more people in this picture than Clinton alone.

In Life and Death...

2009-06-15T00:16:00.001-07:00

First thing I did was to pay tribute to my grandparents who passed away not too long ago. The cemetary was, for a lack of a better word, breathtaking. It was a big relief to be able to be where my grandparents are buried. Heavy load off my chest.

When paying tribute to the dead, you setup certain foods in front of them to keep them healthy while they are in spirit.

After paying tribute, the alcoholic beverage is given to the grave.

Tombstone.

View from grandparents' tombstone.

Looking down from the top of the hill. It's only the one side, the other side is just as big.

Across from the cemetary, there was a big art gallery/ family picnic area where kids ran around a dozen towers that sprayed mist every 5 minutes. There was so much life with parents watching kids play in the water.

Smurf house by the cartoon museum.

My cousin's 2 little babies, 5 and 3, were so adorable. It's weird being an uncle already (not a direct one but uncle nonetheless).

Trying to keep up

2009-06-14T03:56:00.001-07:00

Past two days have been pretty absent but my writing can't do justice to describe what I have seen. I just bought a power converter today so when I get back to my laptop, I will be properly uploading photos.

Side note: oddly enough, wireless routers are quite rare in households here. You'd think with such a connected cell phone world (watching tv shows on cell phones)wireless internet would be everywhere.

Today was a long walk around MyongDong (I'm really bad at spelling Korean cities 명동 for those who can read Korean). The area is one giant shopping area. So many people and so much to see and buy. The consumer world in Korea is amazing. A lot of people advertising stores and sales, it's hard to keep up.

Hang on until tomorrow where I will post photos to accompany how I spend my time.

My cousins are the cutest things in the world. So many photos of them. The smallest one, Sally is her english name, is so photogenic and loves getting pictures taken of her.

Good morning!

2009-06-12T17:26:00.000-07:00

Luckily, since I didn't/couldn't sleep on the plane, by nightfall in Korea time, (right now it's 9:30 am while Ontario is 8:30 pm - day before)I fell asleep like a log. Staying up long enough to sleep at nighttime is the best way to get rid of jet lag.

I woke up to a brand new place. The landscapes were unknown to me last night but when I woke up this morning and looked out the window, it was magnificent.

Pictures from "La Provence"

2009-06-12T17:19:00.001-07:00

The photo above is the place I ate last night You have to take off your shoes before you step into the restaurant and the tables are fairly low so you need to be able to sit cross-legged fairly well. Fortunately, all my stretching in the past month allowed me to sustain the tough position enough to eat such good looking and good tasting food.

(I literally ran out of my laptop battery importing these photos so until I buy a power converter, no more photos...)

Now in Korea

2009-06-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

I've arrived in Korea safely after a long flight with only about 30 minutes of sleep.

Since the voltage for outlets are different (Korea is 220v while Canada is 110v), I will be posting very brief articles until I can get my computer charged and photos imported.

My uncle took me to a really nice area called "La Provence" to eat. There's so much life here. I took interesting pictures so keep updated on the blog to see them soon.

One more night

2009-06-10T21:27:00.001-07:00

Everything is packed and ready to go. Just one more night to spend until my adventure begins...

2 Days Left to Go

2009-06-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

With only 2 days left until my adventure, I took some pictures of home.

Homeward Bound!

2009-06-08T20:02:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

This blog is intended to photo-journal my travel experience to South Korea after 11 years. Additionally, I will post random thoughts and insights I feel necessary to share to continue blogging after I return from my trip to S. Korea. Most importantly, the length of each post will be kept to a length appropriate for the type of message I'd like to communicate.

On June 11, I will be leaving from Toronto Pearson Airport at 1:15 pm to Inchon International Airport stopping at Toyko. Purpose for the travel is to visit my relatives who I have not seen in 11 years, rediscover my roots, and work with a family friend who - in turn for their generous accommodations - I will be aiding their English studies (I can't just go as a leisure trip!).

With 3 days left to go, I am both anxious and scared. The cultural differences I was used to in Korea 11 years ago and what I've been used to growing up in Canada will be interesting to compare and how it has changed since I moved.

Well, here I come Korea.

Stay tuned and subscribe to the blog!