Ingrid's life in Korea ~ 잉그리드의 한국생활

New blog

2005-07-21T11:58:00.000+09:00

More pictures of Aram Caroline on her own blog:

Carolientje's blog

Introducing Aram Caroline

2005-07-09T23:23:00.000+09:00

Aram Caroline

Here she finally is, Aram/아람/雅藍 Caroline!
She was born July 7th, at 19:09, 3.660 kg big and 54 cm tall. We're all doing fine!

Waiting...

2005-06-28T11:14:00.000+09:00

After a hot week here in Ulsan with temperatures of 33-35 degrees, the rainy season (Jangma) started. Less hot, but a lot more humid...

Moonchan was away on a business trip last week, and some friends came to 'babysit' me during that time so I wouldn't be alone in case I went into labour. Thanks Florence, May & Choi!!! My in-laws were also calling me daily to make sure I was ok :-)

For the rest not much happening here except waiting for our baby (due July 6th) to be born... hoping it will be sooner rather than later, because this heat & humidity is getting to me!

Geoje island

2005-06-17T20:00:00.000+09:00

View

Fishing

Last Sunday we drove down to Geoje island, very nice area with lots of small islands. Of course Moonchan wanted to fish for a little while... he's one of the crazy Korean guys in the picture, fishing in the full sun when it's 30 degrees! Despite the sun cream he got sunburned of course. I stayed in the shade till my feet and hands got a bit swollen (ah, the joys of being pregnant...) and then we went back home. Definitely worth another visit, preferably when it's a bit less hot and without a huge belly!

Fishing

2005-05-25T16:48:00.000+09:00

Saturday we went fishing... well, Moonchan was doing all the fishing, I was lying on the beach. It was quite cloudy, so I didn't have to worry about getting a sun burn at least...
I started out studying some Korean, but fell asleep after a few minutes :-)

Moonchan insisted I bring the camera, so I could take a picture of the big fish he was going to catch... He didn't catch anything, so I took a picture of my biggest catch:

My biggest catch

Seoul visit

2005-05-18T11:49:00.000+09:00

"Patbingsoo"

Last week I went to Seoul to visit some friends. I took the KTX, the Korean high speed train. Not different to the French TGV... except that all seats were non-smoking and there was nobody smoking marihuana. And it was safe to take a nap or use the restroom, nobody trying to steal my stuff :-)

In Seoul I stayed with my friend May & her husband Choi in Ansan. May accompanied me on my search for the right 'doopsuiker' ('baptism candy') containers, we spent hours trying to find the right colours. The 'baptism candy' is a Belgian tradition, when people go to visit a newborn baby they get some baptism candy. The containers are on their way to Belgium now, the godparents will take care of the candy as it's obviously not available in Korea.

Last Friday was the graduation ceremony of the language course I was attending before we moved to Ulsan. I met many of my old classmates and Korean teachers. It was really nice to see them again... and all the girls couldn't keep their hands off my belly :-) You can find some more pictures here.
I got a result paper with big fat zero's for level 4 (I only attended 2 out of 10 weeks), nice souvenir :-|

After the visit to Seoul, I'm happy I don't need to take public transportation here. I took the subway several times, and only once a middle-aged Korean guy offered me his seat... usually people pretended to be asleep so they wouldn't have to give up their seat to a big pregnant woman. I did run into a very nice taxi driver though, he had made a mistake and made a detour and refunded me part of the fare :-)
Didn't take any buses, it's hard enough to stay standing when you are not pregnant on Korean buses.

Invasion!

2005-05-06T19:01:00.000+09:00

By my in-laws :-)

Thursday May 5th was a national holiday in Korea, Children's Day. Moonchan's family took advantage of the day off to come visit us for the first time in our new apartment. As they all live a 4-5 hrs drive away, they came here Wednesday evening after they finished work, stayed the night and after some sight-seeing near Gyeongju they all went back. They all had to work or go to school on Friday... Koreans still have to learn how to 'make bridges' like Belgians do (if a Thursday is a holiday, Friday will often be a holiday too, to make the bridge to the weekend... same when a holiday falls on a Tuesday).

First time to have that many people staying over at once... Two parents-in-law, three sisters-in-law plus two husbands, and two nieces. Luckily in Korea you don't need a bed for every person staying over, as they are used to sleep on the floor on thin matresses... so we could fit everyone in. And the smallest niece (10 weeks old) could try out the baby crib and it has been approved (her parents also want to buy the same one now).

The picture below is another niece, Min-Young, the rocks you can see in the background mark the underwater grave of King Munmu, who was buried there because he wanted to protect his kingdom against Japanese invaders.

Ulsan seaside

2005-04-23T17:53:00.000+09:00

After a check-up at the hospital (baby is fine), we went for a drive to one of Ulsan's twelve sceneries, Cape Ganjeol. And for once we brought the camera, and even used it... so here's a picture. In fact I thought we were going to visit a cave. Koreans don't use the 'v' sound and in English they often pronounce v/f as b/p. So when Moonchan said we were going to a cape I thought he meant cave...

간절곶 Cape Ganjeol

There were also remains of a Japanese fort near there, but it was on a hill and I didn't feel like climbing too much with all this extra weight I'm carrying now... we'll visit that sometime later ;-)

Life as a housewife...

2005-04-21T19:11:00.000+09:00

... is pretty nice!

It's been exactly 1 month already since we moved here! Time goes so fast...
Our life in Ulsan is quite comfortable, Moonchan seems to enjoy the work at the local branch here, and comes home before 7pm almost every evening. A LOT earlier than when we lived in Seoul! And we get to eat dinner together almost every evening. Yep, prepared by me... trying to prepare Korean food for him. But my lunch is usually more Belgian style ;-)
Hope he can keep coming home early after our baby is born!

During the weekends we usually go for a drive to a nearby city (Busan, Gyeongju) or drive up to the nearby seaside and take a stroll. Very relaxed way of life and we both don't regret the move here (if only our friends would be as smart as us and move here too, hihi). And of course Moonchan tries to go fishing once in a while...

Below a picture from our apartment on the 12th floor of a 20 story building. There are 8 buildings like this, with each about 80 apartments I think... Between the buildings there are some playgrounds and (half) a basket field for the kids, quite nice. And mothers can keep an eye on their kids on the local apartment tv channel, which shows the playgrounds.

Aderaum apartment town

Next to the apartment 'town' there is a river, at the moment they're still in the middle of devoloping the river bank into a park. The paths are finished, and they've planted some bushes and trees... will be nice when it's finished. Looking forward to taking strolls with our baby there!

We moved!

2005-03-24T09:35:00.000+09:00

My first post from Ulsan...

The last days in Seoul were pretty busy saying good-bye to friends. Will miss them and hope they have a chance to visit us in Ulsan some time!

The moving itself was pretty easy... Three guys and one woman came to our place on Sunday afternoon to pack everything, and Moonchan supervised while my sister and I kept out of the way and went for a green tea latte:-)

After everything was finished, we went to pick up Moonchan's parents, sister and her 3 week old (very cute!) daughter and then we all went to stay with his other sister in Suwon. We had a cake to celebrate my 30th birthday (aaargh... getting OLD!) with the whole family, and I 'practised' my mothering skills with my new niece :-) She's so quiet and only cries when she's hungry... keeping my fingers crossed that our girl will be as quiet as her (and doesn't take after me :-D)

The next morning my mother-in-law served us 'miyokguk', which is a Korean soup with seaweed. New mothers have to drink this every day for several weeks after giving birth as it's supposed to be good for the blood, and that's why it's also served on birthdays.
An hour later than planned, we left for Ulsan around 6h30, and arrived at exactly 11h, the time of appointment with the moving company (they were early though, and had been waiting for us for over half an hour).

The new apartment is very new (they were still putting in some windows that day) and quite big. So I will be able to make a nursery for our baby after all (there was no space in our previous apartment). Same scenario for the unpacking as for the packing: the people from the moving company did their job under the supervision of Moonchan, while my sister and I went to discover the shops nearby :-)

The past few days we've been cleaning and arranging the apartment (my sister doing most of the cleaning and heavy work - don't know what I would have done without her!). The area seems pretty nice, all new apartments and a big supermarket and 2 department stores in walking distance (even for a big pregnant woman!). I even spotted another pregnant foreigner in the supermarket, should have talked to her and asked where she is having her check-ups as I have to find a new hospital here... next time!

Ulsan seems to be an ok city to live in... especially as Moonchan has been home before 7pm every day up to now, keeping my fingers crossed it will stay this way!
The Ulsan dialect is pretty funny though, the tone goes up and down much more than the standard Seoul Korean... it sounds more like singing :-) Even Moonchan said he has some trouble understanding it... hope I will get used to it soon.

Moving to Ulsan!

2005-03-09T22:51:00.000+09:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything...

Let me think what happened during the last month or so.. I finished level 3 of the Korean classes in the middle of February, then there was a 2-week break and I just started level 4 this week. I won't be able to complete the 10-week course though, as we are moving to Ulsan!

Moonchan got transferred to the local branch office of his company there, today they finally officially announced the news, and he has to start working there next Monday already! Moonchan will go first and find us a nice apartment, I will follow a week later. My sister will be here for a two week holiday around that time, so she will be able to lend us a hand :-) Although moving in Korea is fairly easy, the people from the moving company pack up all your stuff, move it to the new place and unpack everything. Such a service would be soooo expensive in Belgium!

Ulsan is about 5 hours from Seoul by car, so it's a bit far to commute to Korean classes or the lab in Seoul... I quit my job and will be a full-time housewife for a couple of months, after that I will be a full-time mother for a while :-)

map

I'm sorry to leave my friends in Seoul behind, but they are always welcome to visit us in Ulsan, and I think I will come back to Seoul once in a while when I get too bored being a housewife ;-)

We'll make the best of it in Ulsan, maybe less foreigners there but that can only be good for my Korean language ability :-D

Funniest news story I've read in a while :-)

2005-02-13T21:07:00.000+09:00

From the Korea Times today:

President Roh Undergoes Eyelid Surgery

President Roh Moo-hyun underwent surgery in which small parts of both of his upper eyelids were removed to give him better vision, Chong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Jong-min said Sunday.
Roh had been suffering from sagging eyelids, which often obstructed his sight, the spokesman said.

The surgery was successfully conducted on Feb. 4 by a team from the Seoul National University Hospital, and Roh is now make a swift recovery.

However, the president will refrain from appearing in public for the time being as his eyes are still swollen.

After the surgery, Roh acquired double-edged eyelids, the spokesman added.

Snow

2005-01-29T11:04:00.000+09:00

As you can see it's been snowing today. From the speed of the cars coming down from the university, I guess the roads are pretty slippery... suppose the rain that fell just before it started snowing didn't help things...

And we've got to go all the way to the hospital in Bundang (about 45 min away if there isn't too much traffic) for my monthly check-up... we'd better start early!
If you're interested in seeing the ultrasound pics, I'll be posting them here.

Happy New Year!

2005-01-05T22:22:00.000+09:00

Wishing you all the best for 2005! And let's hope 2005 will bring less wars, tsunami's and other disasters...

Last year ended pretty well with a visit to the gynaecologist, who confirmed everything is going well and that we made it past the risky first trimester :-)

Today was a pretty good day! I was running a bit late for my Korean class this morning, but then in the elevator I met a couple of English teachers working at the language institute where I am taking the classes. They told me there is a special shuttle bus that picks them up in front of our apartment building every morning at 8h50 and brings them straight to the language institute.. and I can also take it! So I get to sleep 15 min more in the morning and don't have to walk uphill in the freezing cold anymore from now :-D

And tonight I could go to yoga class again, after getting permission from my gyn. Pretty tired as it had been a while, but it still felt great!

Merry Christmas!

2004-12-25T13:14:00.000+09:00

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

Yesterday we had a little Christmas celebration in Korean class. We exchanged some gifts (got 2 pairs of long, warm socks), had a nice lunch together and then went to a 'noraebang' (singing room or karaoke).

Korean class 3급 가반

Noraebang

In the evening Moonchan and I had a traditional Christmas dinner of Indian curry and mango lassies :-)
This will be the last Christmas with just the two of us, so we should enjoy our freedom to go out when we want for the next 6 months ;-)

I'm still here ;-)

2004-12-22T17:38:00.000+09:00

It's been a while since I blogged... everything is fine here, just pretty busy and no exciting news to share ;-)

I started my intensive Korean language course 2,5 weeks ago, and I really like it. I was pretty exhausted the first week though, with classes in the morning, work in the afternoon and then coming home and doing the homework. But I got used to the new rhythm now!

There's 14 of us in the class, 5 Japanese, 1 Vietnamese, 1 Chinese, 1 Taiwanese, 1 American, 1 Italian, 3 'gyopo' (ethnic Koreans who grew up outside of Korea, my classmates grew up in the US, Brazil & Germany) and 1 Belgian-Taiwanese ;-)
A lot of the stuff we do I've already studied in the evening classes, so it's not that hard to keep up... so far ;-)

Today was also the last day in Korea for my Kenyan friend Rose. She finished all the work for her Masters degree and will be flying home tomorrow. Her family is very excited to have her back and they already bought 2 sheep to slaughter & barbecue for the big party with all the relatives :-D

Chris back in town!

2004-12-12T17:59:00.000+09:00

Chris, our French ex-classmate & friend (not -ex!) who moved to Malaysia a couple of months ago, came back to Seoul for a business trip. We got together for lunch today, and it was really nice to see him again! I think nobody changed much since we last met, except little Ritsu (the baby in the picture).
Hope to visit Chris in Kuala Lumpur some day :-)

Education in Flanders and Korea

2004-12-07T22:09:00.000+09:00

Frontpage news in Flanders (northern half of Belgium, where Flemish/Dutch is spoken):

"Flemish students are among world's best"

The OECD published the results of PISA 2003 (Program for International Student Assessment). 15-year olds from 41 different countries were tested in mathematics, science, problem solving and reading. Flemish students are on the 1st, 5th, 4th and 3rd places respectively!!! But if Belgium is taken as a whole, it only scores 9th, 15th, 11th and 12th place!
I always knew we Flemish are smarter than the French-speaking Belgians :-P

Frontpage news in Korea:

"Korean Students Rank First in Problem Solving"

Korean students score 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th places for problem solving, reading, mathematics & science. Very good results, but I'm sure they spend at least twice and probably even more time in school/cram school compared to the Flemish students. Good excuse to send my future kids to school in Flanders - maximum results for minimum effort! This was also my motto in school, much to the annoyance of my parents & teachers ;-)

Radio interview

2004-12-01T08:10:00.000+09:00

My radio interview is online here, there's a summary of what I said and a link at the bottom of the page to the interview itself. Only in Flemish though!

Immigration

2004-11-27T08:39:00.000+09:00

Yesterday Moonchan and I went to immigration to extend my visa and work permission, as they both expire on Sunday. The immigration officer was soooo nice to us, especially after he saw that I am a researcher at Seoul National University, THE number 1 university in Korea... Wonder if he would have been that nice if I was a Russian 'dancer' or a South-Asian factory worker...
Hoping to get a 2 year visa extension, then this would be the last time we had to go to the immigration office, as in 2 years we should be living in Belgium ;-)
And then we'll have to go through similar procedures for Moonchan's Belgian visa... we'll see how friendly Belgian officials are.

Bible study

2004-11-25T17:36:00.000+09:00

I got an offer to join a bible study class today, from a Korean girl who stopped me on campus. Apparently she's a missionary and belongs to some "Campus Evangelical Fellowship", she even had a business card.
I really don't care what religion someone belongs to, as long as they keep their beliefs within their church/mosque/temple or whatever. And not try to get me to join them in bible study classes (in Korean! as though I would understand the bible in Korean even if I wanted to) or church on Sundays...
In Belgium the only people going around trying to convert people are the Jehova Witnesses. They don't bother people on the street, but go around neighbourhoods and ring the door bell. But as they are so easy to recognise (they always come in pairs and for some reason always seem to have umbrellas with them), people usually pretend not to be home and let them ring the bell until they go away :-)
But when they bother you in the middle of the street, like in Korea, it's a bit harder to avoid them. So beware of Koreans whose first question to you is if you have a religion... they're usually after your soul ;-)

My picture in the Seoul Times

2004-11-20T01:17:00.000+09:00

Just found out that there is an article about the Belgian King's Day in the Seoul Times. Click here to read it.

See what a good girl I am, mingling with the nuns ;-)
The couple on my left are also from Eke, my small hometown in Belgium. They're going home for Christmas as usual and have offered to bring an extra suitcase for me with stuff from Belgium. They're so kind! Already started making my list with Belgian cheeses, chocolate,... :-)

College Entrance Exam

2004-11-17T19:45:00.000+09:00

Today 610,000 Korean high school students took the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test. This test decides their future: not only which university they will be able to enter, but in Korea social status is soooo important and it depends a lot on which university you attended. They worked so hard for this, going to evening cram schools till late every night for years... all for 1 test!

They can only take this test once a year, so measures were taken to ensure all students can get to the test sites in time. Many companies allowed their workers to start work at 10 am today, to prevent morning traffic jams. There were extra subway trains, and police and other drivers were on stand-by to drive late comers to the exam sites. Even the Korean and US army helped by ceasing all flight exercises, and commercial airlines didn't fly during the listening tests!

As you can see, it's not only a tough day for the students... many mothers spent all day praying for a good test score for their son or daughter!

The test started at 8h40 this morning, and finished at 18h15 tonight. Apparently this years test was on the easy side, and the education channel is already broadcasting the right answers to all the questions.

If possible I never want my future kids to go through this kind of ordeal, especially when it is so easy to enter university in Belgium... you just need a high school degree! They would have to work a bit harder at university in Belgium though, as roughly only about 50% of the students who enter university also graduate 4-5 years later. But at least they would have had time to play when they were at school, and they would have suffered a lack of sleep because they watched tv too late, or talked to their friends on the phone for hours... not because they were at a cram school all evening!

English-crazy Koreans...

2004-11-16T16:55:00.000+09:00

I thought I found a good way to escape from young Koreans looking for free English conversation opportunities on the subway etc. by always walking around listening to my MP3 player. That was until today though...

On my way home from the lab, I noticed one young guy in a small car passing me very slowly in the opposite direction. A couple of minutes later this guy tapped on my shoulder, so I couldn't really ignore him. He had to submit an abstract for a conference asap and wanted me to check the English... It wasn't a very long abstract so I just quickly checked it for him.. and it was really necessary, the English was pretty terrible. But he did go a bit far, driving around campus to find a foreigner to check his abstract!!! Hope he doesn't tell his friends how he got his abstract edited, would like to be able to walk home peacefully without Koreans looking for free English editing services!

King's Day

2004-11-15T23:22:00.000+09:00

Today was King's Day in Belgium, and all Belgians in Korea (all 120) were invited to a reception in the Hilton Hotel tonight. We were joined by a bunch of ambassadors of other countries, didn't mix with them though ;-)

The food was quite nice, there were Belgian andives which arrived straight from Belgium yesterday, lots of different Belgian dishes and desserts and some Belgian cheeses :-)

And I met some more Belgians living in Korea. One of them is even a student at SNU since a couple of months, so we definitely have to meet up for lunch some time! There were also a couple of catholic nuns who run a retirement home for the poor in Suwon. Didn't get to speak so much Flemish though, too many French-speaking Belgians around so we had to switch to French or English most of the time...

As the reception finished at 8 and lots of us Belgians were still standing around talking in the Hilton at 9, we decided to go for a drink with a small group. We ended up making up a business plan to open a 'frietkot' and sell Belgian fries in Seoul :-)

Finished again!

2004-11-12T08:29:00.000+09:00

Korean Survival Class 4

Yesterday we had our final exam, we finished level 4 of the Korean Survival class again! As usual we went out for a drink afterwards ;-)

I think our Japanese classmate's Chinese listening skills must have improved again last night, as all his classmates were Chinese (1), Taiwanese (2) or half-Taiwanese (me!).
It was also goodbye to my friend May, who will be going to Taiwan for the next 4 months :-(
Will be waiting for her to come back!

This is is not the end of my Korean language education though... I'll be starting the intensive course in December, 4 hrs every morning, five days a week! I'll be dreaming in Korean soon :-)

One year

2004-11-08T22:25:00.000+09:00

I've already been in Korea for more than 1 year! Time really flies.

Didn't have any major problems adjusting to Korea, but I guess living in Japan for 5 years first and having lots of Korean friends there helped. Pretty happy with my life here, if Moonchan could just spend a few more hours with me instead of at the office it would be even better ;-)

Yesterday we celebrated my father-in-law's 71st birthday. The celebration was not as big as last year when it was his 70th birthday - in Korea the 1st, 60th and 70th birthdays are the most important. But it was nice to get together with all of the in-laws again, especially as I can understand a lot more of their conversation than 1 year ago! Still far from understanding everything, but hopefully I will have improved again by his 72nd birthday party next year :-)

New map of North America

2004-11-05T15:29:00.000+09:00

new NA map

Seems a lot of people, both in and outside the US, are pretty disappointed with the re-election of Bush. One Belgian-American friend refused all comments, he just sent us this map...

Yikes!

2004-10-30T10:51:00.000+09:00

Today I edited a scientific paper for a Taiwanese friend in Sapporo... and remember why I went into PLANT science instead of ANIMAL science :-)
She has been studying a kind of intestinal worms, in mice, hamsters and she even got a couple of human test subjects to voluntarily get infected with these worms and give stool samples so she could check if they were growing well... Yikes!
At least she didn't 'sacrifice' the human volunteers to check their intestines for worms like she did with the mice and hamsters :-D

It's a small world! (2)

2004-10-26T22:42:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I was interviewed by Lea, journalist from the Flemish international radiostation RVI. She came together with the delegation leader of Export Vlaanderen, Isabel, which was a girl about my age. We had a nice afternoon together, chatting about Korea & Koreans and how it would be a good idea to start a Korean style dating service in Belgium :-)
Not sure yet when the radio-interview will be broadcasted and available on the web, I'll let you know... but it will be in Flemish ;-)

Tonight Moonchan and I went to the Belgian ambassador's residence for a reception with the Flemish delegation. Met Lea and Isabel again, and talked to most of the members of the Flemish delegation... was nice to speak Flemish again!
And then... I met the ambassador and his wife! The ambassador is Belgian of course, but he is of Chinese descent. And it turns out he attended the same Chinese Saturday school in Brussels as I used to attend, and where my mother used to teach and now is vice-director of... And his mother was the founder of this Chinese school, so our mothers know eachother :-) When my mother comes to Seoul we definitely have to meet up!

Half a year ago or so I attended another Belgian party at the residence of the director of Export Vlaanderen, and there I met a couple Belgians from my hometown (which is a village with only a few thousand people)... Their house in Belgium is just a few hundred meters from my parents home!

It really is a small small world...

Wedding season & hokudai reunion

2004-10-25T09:46:00.000+09:00

It seems to be the season for weddings in Korea. Yesterday we attended Park Sun's wedding, a Korean friend from our days at Hokkaido University (hokudai). The wedding was in Jeonju, a 3 hr drive from Seoul. Several old friends from hokudai showed up, so it was like a little reunion. Even the bride turned out to be a former hokudai student :-) Some of them I hadn't seen since I left Sapporo, others left earlier than me and I hadn't seen them for 3 years!

After the wedding we got together for some Jeonju bibimbap (local specialty, bowl of rice with lots of different vegetables, some meat and an egg, and you mix it all together with some hot pepper sauce) and the boys were talking about their fishing trips in Hokkaido of course. After dinner we all headed for the traffic jams on the highway... we had to go the furthest, and it took us 4,5 hours to get home (it would have been even longer if we hadn't illegally used the special bus lane ;-) ).

Sorry, no wedding picture this time, our camera is in Moonchan's company's office in Tokyo, where he forgot it :-( He has to go back there in a couple of weeks and hopefully he won't forget to bring it back to Korea then...

Pretty tired today as we came home past midnight yesterday... Not a good way to start a busy week! This afternoon a journalist from the Flemish radio will come to interview me, she wants to talk to Flemish people living in Korea. We'll see how that goes, I'll let you know :-) She came along with a delegation of some Belgian/Flemish companies that is visiting Korea for a few days. Tomorrow evening there is a party at the Belgian ambassador's residence, and Moonchan is invited through his company... and I can go along as Mrs. Kim :-D

Great news!!!

2004-10-20T15:38:00.000+09:00

Had a talk with my professor today. He is so great! I can work half time, and do editing work and improve the English lab homepage etc. instead of research. So I can attend the Korean classes, and we don't have to move out of the univ. apartment!!! My trying to quit is the best thing I ever did (hmm, maybe apart from marrying Moonchan ;-) ).

I did it!

2004-10-18T10:50:00.000+09:00

Did some hard thinking the last couple of days, and decided to quit my post-doc! I wasn't motivated anymore, and felt I was just wasting the lab's money and my time. Plus some other reasons which I don't want to put on a public blog, I'll tell you personally if you ask me ;-)
So I told my professor this morning... He isn't too happy about it of course, but I am!
I'll be keeping myself busy with an intensive Korean course, and I can slowly start looking for a job in Belgium. But first I want to improve my Korean, as I won't be able to study that in Belgium.
Feel very relieved and free now!!!
The big disadvantage is that we'll have to move out of our nice apartment soon, as it's a university apartment for foreign faculty... but we'll find another good place to live!

Korean weddings: part 2

2004-10-18T07:34:00.000+09:00

May & Choi

Yesterday was the big day for May and Choi, after months and months of preparations! May looked beautiful in her princess dress, and Choi looked very good too (albeit slightly nervous).
The wedding ceremony was trilingual, the masters of ceremony announced everything in Korean and Chinese, the professor who was doing the ceremony spoke English. May and Choi exchanged vows and rings, but Choi didn't get to kiss his bride - this is just not done in Korea. I'm sure they did some catching up later though ;-) There were soooo many guests at the wedding, the Taiwanese delegation (60 people!) even arrived with their own bus AND tour guide, complete with little flag to gather her flock :-)
After the ceremony we waited around for the photo session, and joined in when the picture with the friends was taken. Usually the photographer takes one picture with all the friends of the couple, but as they both have so many friends, he took one with the friends of the bride & one with the friends of the groom.
Once all the pictures were taken, we joined the other guests in the buffet room and enjoyed some good Korean food. And afterwards we had some Belgian coffee, Belgian beers & wine (not Belgian) at our place with some friends. Still have lots of coffee, but all the beer & wine has gone ;-)

Too cheap

2004-10-08T14:04:00.000+09:00

Today I finally went to see a doctor. Have been coughing for a couple of weeks now, it was getting better but it seems I caught a new cold. The people in my lab kept telling me to go... but I was a bit reluctant after hearing the doctors here usually give you an injection for a cold (Koreans want everything 'balli balli = FAST - also getting over a cold). I didn't go to a real hospital, but to the health center of the university.
The doctor was very nice, although her Korean was way too fast for me... and when I didn't understand something she used English medical terms, which wasn't very helpful either. In the end she realised it was better to ask me questions in Korean but using simple words and speaking more slowly :-)
Well, I didn't get an injection as my only problem is coughing, so I was happy about that. And I was even happier when I went to pay for my consultation and the 3 days worth of pills... 470 won, which is about 33 eurocents :-) Cheapest doctor consultation I ever had!

Life is beautiful

2004-10-05T17:03:00.000+09:00

Today is a beautiful autumn day, the sky is blue, the sun is shining, the leaves are slowly starting to change colour. It was very nice to walk the 20 minutes to the lab this morning, with some nice music from my mp3 player :-)
I enjoyed some more fresh air during my lunch break, walked all the way up to engineering (15 min uphill walk - yes, this is a big campus!) to meet my friend Francine for lunch, followed by green tea latte and lots of chattering :-)
And tonight I can finally go to yoga again, didn't make it last week because of Chuseok and Korean classes. Really looking forward to it!

Famous colleague

2004-09-30T11:25:00.000+09:00

My colleague & his family

When I was checking the English language Korean newspapers (well, their websites) this morning I suddenly saw some familiar faces... One of my colleagues with his wife and 2 kids! I guess the photographer liked the girl in traditional 'hanbok'! You can read the article here. The caption under the picture reads:

A family waves as they leave Seoul Station Friday on the Korea Train Express (KTX) heading to their hometown to celebrate Chuseok. This year's Chuseok is the first national holiday after the introduction of the KTX.

So now everyone in the lab is wondering why he took the KTX as his hometown is Jinju (yep, where we were stuck in traffic last Tuesday) and the KTX doesn't go anywhere near there ;-) He didn't appear in the lab yet today, so we'll have to ask him later!

Chuseok trip - day two

2004-09-28T13:18:00.000+09:00

Day 2

This morning a table was prepared for the ancestors, bowls of rice, soup, lots of side dishes, fruit and also some alcohol. All the male family members bowed twice, starting with the elder generations (father-in-law and his brother, then Moonsung, his brother & cousins, and next the sons of his brother and eldest cousin). After that we could eat the food, and we were joined by another cousin, her daughter & husband. So there were more than 20 people there for breakfast! The wife of the eldest son of the uncle was responsible for preparing all the food... I can understand why Korean girls are reluctant to marry an eldest son now!
After breakfast, the male family members plus my mother-in-law and me, went off to Kangjin where the ancestral graves are. Again, the eldest son is responsible for the upkeep of the family graves... and there are lots of them! In Korea, people are usually buried on the side of a mountain, and the graves are mounds with grass planted on top. The eldest son of Moonsung's uncle is responsible to maintain the graves, and cut away the grass, trees and bamboo regularly. Later his eldest son will have to take over this job, and so on. So having a son is very important for a Korean family...

Kimhae Kim graves

Cousins clearing the grave site

They brought a basket with some food and a bottle of alcohol for the ceremony at the graves. The food and alcohol was placed in front of a grave, then all the male family members bowed twice before the stuff was removed and the procedure was repeated at another family grave. I'm not sure how old some of those graves were, but they go back several generations.

Male family members bowing to one of the ancestral graves

Once they finished the ceremony, we could eat the food and once we got down the mountain (not easy with slip-on shoes, and my mother-in-law was wearing heels - very brave of her!) we started the drive to Yeosu, the hometown of Moonsung's brother-in-law. On the way we passed Boseong, which is famous for its tea plantations.

Second wedding anniversary - Boseong tea plantation

And then the traffic jams started... There was a lot of traffic all the way to Yeosu, so it took us about 3 hours to get there. We had 'lunch' at 4 pm and then departed for Seoul. We got on the highway and there was a huge traffic jam... mostly people going east towards Busan, Korea's second largest city. Once we got on the highway headed north at Jinju, the trip went smoothly... Until we got to Daejeon... it took us about 5 hours to get to Suwon from there, which should normally take about 1,5-2 hours. Ah well, I got to experience real Korean holiday traffic jams... and understand why people don't always look forward to this holiday, as they have to waste most of their time in traffic jams on the highway...

We left Yeosu at 5 pm, and arrived in Suwon about 12 hrs later. We dropped off 2 of our passengers there, then drove to Seongnam to drop off 3 more, and were home in Seoul by 7 am. I thought I would be well rested and could get rid of my cold during this five day holiday... hmm. Good thing there will be only 2 working days before it's weekend again ;-)

Chuseok trip - day one

2004-09-27T13:16:00.000+09:00

Day 1

Today we went all the way down south to Goheung, where Moonsung's father's eldest brother lives, about 460 km from Seoul. We went together with Moonsung's parents, his older brother plus son, and his second sister's husband.
Of about 48 million South-Koreans, 10 million live in Seoul, and if you include the neighbouring cities, about 20 million live in the Seoul agglomeration. So if they all start travelling south to their hometowns on the same day, you can expect huge traffic jams. Korean news websites predicted the peak for travel out of Seoul for Monday, the peak for returning to Seoul on Wednesday.
But... the highways were practically empty! I was wondering if anyone else was going south, or were they all just staying in Seoul? Or did they leave for their hometowns over the weekend already? I'd know the next day...
Our trip south was pretty uneventful except for a punctured tire near Gwangju. Our car didn't have all the tools to replace the tire, but after a call a repair truck appeared within 15 min, and another 10 min later we were on our way again. We stopped for a while in Gwangju at Moonsung's eldest sister home, had a nice meal and then continued toward Suncheon where we dropped off Moonsung's second sister's husband who would take a bus to his hometown from there.
We arrived at the house of Moonsung's uncle around 9 pm, and met the uncle & wife, two sons and their families with resp. 5 and 2 kids. Five plus two is seven I thought, but somehow there were 8 kids running around the place, still don't know who the extra girl was ;-)
I forgot to put on my socks before going in (in Korea it's rude to go into the house of elder relatives bare-footed - this only applies to women...), but my mother in law noticed of course, so I quickly put on the socks I had prepared. The eldest daughter of the eldest son is in high school and speaks English very well, she said she practices speaking by herself a lot... and she seemed very happy to be able to practice with a real person for once so she stuck by my side all evening and 'used' me for conversation ;-)
The uncle in Goheung is the eldest son of my father-in-law's family, so he is responsible for the family documents etc. He showed us some family books explaining the history and ancestors of the Kimhae Kim family branch. The family history goes back hundreds, maybe even a thousand years! The 'family tree' book gets updated once every generation, every 30 years or so. The last version was printed in 1977, so Moonsung's generation is mentioned in it, but not yet the next generation. Only MALE family members are mentioned in the book though! So his 3 sisters are not mentioned at all... but their husbands will be added! The name of a husband of a female member is preceded by the Chinese character for 'female' to show that the family line continued through a female... but her name will never be mentioned! Wives of sons are added with their family name only, and the full name of their father. So I will be added as 'someone from the Lambein family, daughter of Fernand' (if I understood correctly).
Practically every family member I met there asked me why we didn't have kids yet... I think they are waiting for us to have a couple of sons so they can add them to the family tree ;-)
My parents in law went off with the uncle and his wife to another house for the night, and we slept on the second floor which is normally not used. If I counted right, there were 16 people sleeping in that house that night!

Ansan

2004-09-26T11:43:00.000+09:00

Ansan

Our friends May & Choi live in Ansan and had been inviting us over for months, and today we finally made it to their new apartment ;-) We loaded up our car with some more friends and drove to Ansan, a neighbouring city of Seoul. The drive to Ansan and Ansan itself were very green, seems like a nice place to live. May had prepared some delicious food (of course you can't go wrong if you serve a potato dish to this Belgian girl) and we spent a nice evening mixing up English, Korean and Japanese.

Exodus has started

2004-09-24T18:07:00.000+09:00

Next Tuesday (September 28th) is Chuseok, the Korean 'Thanksgiving'. This holiday is celebrated in Taiwan and China too, albeit a bit differently. But in all 3 countries people traditionally gather with their families and enjoy spending time together. It will also be our second wedding anniversary, but the first one we get to spend together! Last year I was travelling from Sapporo to Belgium that day...

Most people get 3 days off next week, with the weekend that makes 5 days :-)

In Korea many people go back to their ancestral hometown, although they currently live in the Seoul area. Moonsung's family is originally from Kangjin, a town that is normally about 6-7 hours driving from Seoul... but as we will not be alone leaving Seoul, it might take us a few more. The Korean Ministry of Transportation expects about 40 million Koreans to travel to their hometown for the holiday, so the roads will be a bit crowded. The exodus from Seoul has already started today, as most people will have a 5 day holiday starting tomorrow. All flights, trains, buses have been fully booked for quite some time already, and all flights out of Korea too (more and more people take advantage of this 'long' holiday to take a vacation abroad).

We will be heading south on Monday, and come back the next day already. I'll let you know how it went!

Famous friends

2004-09-22T10:04:00.000+09:00

Francine & Michael on Korean TV

Yesterday my friends were on national TV in Korea! Francine and Michael do 'Taekkyon', a Korean martial arts which is the also the origin of the more well-known Taekwondo. Apparently a foreign couple doing Taekkyon is very exceptional, so a TV crew followed them around for about a week, not only during Taekkyon training & competition but also at home (pretending to study Korean), at work and while shopping for kimchi :-)

I joined some other friends at Michael & Francine's home to watch the broadcast together. It was very funny to see them on tv, esp. Francine's facial expressions both on and off screen were very funny :-D

Francine after seeing herself on TV

Hen's night

2004-09-19T10:37:00.000+09:00

At the Italian place

Yesterday we had a hen's night for May. We started out at an Italian restaurant with pasta and Chilean wine. We all thought the pasta was pretty good, except for Rose who couldn't understand why they would ruin a perfectly good pasta by adding vegetables or seafood ;-) She finally ate when we ordered one with only meat and tomato sauce (apparently tomatoes are not vegetables?). May attracted some attention from the other customers with her veil, but if you go out with a group of mostly foreigners in Korea, you attract attention already anyway ;-)

We then went for a long walk while Janise tried to remember where the club was (it had been a while since she'd been there, almost 20 hrs ;-) ). The club was interesting, and after we got used to the 'special' environment, we danced the night away. We ended up at my place and chatted over a glass of red wine before dropping off to sleep (Rose next to her sweetheart - the Doritos).

More details of the night are only available to those without Y chromosome, excluding (future) mothers-in-law ;-)

At the club

Korean weddings: part 1

2004-09-13T10:45:00.001+09:00

Photo shoot

May & Choi

My friends May and Choi are getting married next month, and yesterday they went to a photo studio to get their pictures taken. In Belgium we have the pictures taken the day of the wedding, but in Korea (Taiwan & China too) pictures are taken weeks or even months ahead of the wedding. I tagged along to take some pictures of May getting her make up done etc.

May (who is Taiwanese) looked very Korean with the Korean make up and hairstyle! But at least we could still recognise her as May, sometimes they change the look of the bride so much that it's hard to recognise her. It only took about 2 hours to do the make up and hair of the bride... and a whole 2 minutes to get the groom ready ;-) She changed outfit about 5 times, every time with minor or major adjustments to her hair. Two white dresses, one colourful dress, a Chinese dress and of course Korean hanbok. She looked beautiful in all of them :-)

May

Too many goodbyes

2004-09-09T07:49:00.000+09:00

See you Chris!

Last night we had a goodbye party for our friend Chris, who is moving to Kuala Lumpur. We'll all miss him! Here are some more pictures of the party. The picture above was taken at 2 in the morning, and the photographer obviously wasn't completely sober anymore ;-)

Chris will be the third friend from the Korean classes to leave Korea for good... Living abroad both in Japan and Korea has given me the opportunity to make so many new friends from many many different countries... but they all go back to their (or another) country some day, and it's definitely not fun saying goodbye every time. Having friends all over the globe is great of course, and I hope we will have a chance to visit some of them in the future... but it's not the same as having friends close by. At least we can stay in touch by email and messenger, so they don't seem to be that far away :-)

He was winning until the crowd chanted his name...

2004-09-07T15:40:00.000+09:00

Kim Yoo Suk [kim you suck]

(thanks to Francine for this one!)

Mountain view

2004-09-04T13:52:00.000+09:00

SNU back entrance

I promised to post some pictures of where we live in my first post... and still hadn't gotten around to it. So here are a few pics of the view from our apartment. The top picture is what we can see from our living room, it's the back entrance of the university. The big white & orange building is a dormitory for graduate students, our apartment was built in the same style.
The bottom picture is more to the left, with some older dormitory buildings and Gwanak mountain in the background. There are hiking trails starting from campus, so it's very nice to go hiking from here!

So now you can all see for yourselves that there are some green spots in and around Seoul too, it's not all high rise buildings and smog!

Gwanak mountain

Singles in Korea

2004-08-30T14:31:00.000+09:00

In Korea, men and women tend to live with their parents until they get married. It is very unusual for them to live alone, except maybe if they study or work far away from home.
A few days ago there was an article in one of the English language Korean newspapers about single living, and it included a checklist for people who want to live alone.

Here it is:

Ready to move out?
1. Am I financially capable of supporting myself without help from others?
2. Do I have more than five friends who are on my side for better or worse?
3. Do I have a goal in my life that I really want to achieve?
4. Do I take care of my own health ― getting a checkup every year or seeing a doctor whenever I feel sick?
5. Am I confident enough to talk to strangers in a totally new situation?
6. Am I able to go to a restaurant, a movie theater or a bar by myself?
7. Do I have a hobby that I can indulge in alone?
8. Do I manage time effectively?
9. Do I manage my emotions when I feel lonely, tense, insecure or afraid?
10. Do I have control over my sexual desires?

So, are YOU ready to live alone? :-)

A GOLD medal for Belgium!

2004-08-22T16:54:00.000+09:00

Justine Henin-Hardenne

Only one? Yes, Belgians don't need much to be happy :-) Last night Justine Henin-Hardenne got the gold medal for women's singles tennis. That makes the grand total 1 gold & 2 bronze medals (judo & cycling) up to now. Not bad compared to the last Olympics, where the Belgians didn't get any gold medals, only 2 silver and 3 bronze.
So, a big PROFICIAT (=congratulations) to Justine, who didn't play any competition for several months because of a virus infection, then goes to Athens and wins the gold!

Compared to South-Korea, it's pretty pathetic though... but Belgium is a lot smaller ;-) Korea already got 5 gold, 10 silver and 4 bronze medals. And if there hadn't been a mistake by the gymnastics judges, it would even have been 6 gold, 9 silver and 4 bronze.
I don't know why the Koreans are so good at archery, but they got 3 gold medals and 1 silver medal in that discipline alone. And the taekwondo competition hasn't started yet, I'm sure they'll get some medals for that too.

Well, let's hope the rest of the Olympics continue without any more judging errors ;-)

PS Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee is also a Belgian, he even studied at the same university as me - at different times though, he's a little bit older than me ;-) There aren't that many famous Belgians around (half of which aren't even real people, like Hercule Poirot or Tintin), so we should be proud of the few we have!

Petition

2004-08-18T13:31:00.000+09:00

In Korea, you can do anything through the internet... if you're Korean! Banking, shopping, reading newspapers, watching reruns of tv programs, etc. But for foreigners in Korea it's a bit more difficult, as many of the Korean sites require you to register, and to register you need a Korean Resident Registration Number... which foreigners don't have of course.
One foreigner in Korea started an online petition to ask the Korean government to make a law that all Korean sites which require registration, make registration possible for non-Korean nationals too.

Anyone can sign, it doesn't matter if you live in Korea or not or if you're Korean or not! Please click here and sign, it only takes a minute! Thanks!

update: There is also a letter in the Korea Herald about this petition: Letter to the Editor.

Sokcho, east coast of Korea

2004-08-16T20:08:00.000+09:00

Sunrise

Last weekend we went to the east coast, where a colleague of Moonchan was already on holiday with his family. We went on a short trip in a submarine to watch Korean sealife and for the rest just relaxed together, eating, drinking & playing pool (in that order). The girls were really sweet, guess Moonchan has them in mind when he says he only wants daughters ;-)
The next morning we started the drive for Seoul at 5 AM to avoid traffic jams... and we could admire a beautiful sunrise! Usually the mountain area is covered in clouds & fog, and they say there are only 5 days a year to see a clear sunrise. Lucky us!

Shellfish BBQ

We deserved a (few) drink(s)

2004-08-16T20:03:00.000+09:00

Francine, Ryoko & Jed

Moonsung, Chris, me & May

After our final exam of the Korean class, we went out for Korean BBQ and drinks. We had some sansuchun and finished with sex in a tree in another bar (hey - I didn't name that cocktail!) and discussed plans for a hen's party for May. Anyone have the phone number of a handsome male stripper in Seoul? ;-)

An apple a day...

2004-08-11T17:47:00.000+09:00

Green apple

Mmmm, green apples! I really like them, but they were nowhere to be found in Sapporo (Japan) where I lived five years... So I was very happy to discover that they have them in supermarkets in Korea this summer, yippee! Let's see if an apple a day really keeps the doctor away - not that it will make a big difference as I rarely need to go to the doctor anyway ;-)

Survival Korean Class

2004-08-10T14:40:00.000+09:00

Level 4 Survival Korean Evening Class

I've been studying Korean at the Language Education Institute of SNU, and yesterday was the last class. Later this week we'll have our final exam (should be studying instead of posting on my blog!). We finished Level 4, and there are no higher levels for us to study at SNU... although most of us would like to continue as we are nowhere near fluent yet (it's a SURVIVAL class!).
Pondering what I should do next to improve my Korean... there are courses at other universities and institutes, but they're a bit far away. I've got lots of books that I could study... but self-discipline is not one of my strongest points :-) Maybe I'll just end up repeating the same class, we'll see. Anyhow, will miss my classmates!

Korean (over)population

2004-08-02T17:13:00.000+09:00

Swimming pool (from The Korean Herald)

We spent our Sunday relaxing at home... seems lots of other Seoulites decide to cool down in a pool! The weather has been really hot, temperatures have been 30+ degrees for over a week now. Really happy with the airco in our living room now :-)

DMZ

2004-07-30T17:36:00.000+09:00

DMZ

I joined a trip to the DMZ (demilitarised zone) between North-Korea and South-Korea. For a "demilitarised" zone, there were a lot of soldiers! We could visit one of the blue barracks (background of the pictures) where North and South meet for discussions. Soldiers from both North & South-Korea kept an eye on us, and on each other. I felt really sorry for the North-Korean soldiers though... It was over 30 degrees, and while the South-Korean guards were wearing short sleeved shirts and sunglasses, the North-Korean guards had to wear their full uniform. They also seemed a lot skinnier and smaller than their South-Korean counterparts.

Small world!

2004-07-28T10:24:00.000+09:00

Near Hadong

Driving through the countryside in the south, Moonchan suddenly turns back the car... He recognised Huifang, one of my previous classmates of the Korean language evening classes! We hadn't seen each other for a while, and it was just unbelievable to meet along a road 400 km from Seoul. We ended up spending the whole day together visiting places, and we stayed in the same minbak (Korean guesthouse) after eating, drinking & even singing together. It was great and it's a pity Huifang returned to China for good now. Hope to meet her there someday!

Huifang & me

Stone Buddha

2004-07-28T09:37:00.000+09:00

Seokbulsang

This is a stone buddha statue from the Koryo dynasty (AD 918-1392) near Andong. If you've seen the Korean movie "Spring, summer, fall, winter... and spring" you should recognise it.
Next to the statue there is a small temple, blocking the small path to get to the statue. So we asked an old lady how we could get to the statue & she showed us where the little climbing part started. One Korean guy followed us up there and he is the white guy in the picture - maybe I can try to cut him out with Photoshop ;-)
When we came back down the old ladies preparing food at the temple invited us in for some Korean rice cake (tteok) and a bowl of cold tea! They were so friendly, I thought they would be a bit annoyed at us for barging in on them and climbing to their holy place.

Kathleen in Korea!

2004-07-27T09:05:00.000+09:00

My sister & me

My sister visited us for two short weeks this summer. This is one of many places we visited together, it's the Dosan Confucian school near Andong (southeast of Seoul, about 4 hrs drive). It was established in the 16th century, and is situated on the side of a mountain. It's very peaceful and quiet there. It's one of the National Treasures in Korea and is featured on the 1000 won note.

Korean 1000 won note

Minor disruption of our trip

2004-07-27T08:09:00.000+09:00

Our car

We had a minor disruption of our 4-day trip in the southeast when we had to cross another car on this small road and we got stuck in a ditch. Luckily Koreans are very fast, 20 min after Moonchan called our insurance company the guy arrived with his tow truck. Another 10 minutes later we were ready to go again! And Moonchan was happy that he didn't have to pay a cent (or won). Our guests (Kathleen and our 2 French friends, Pascale & Lionel) were very impressed with the Korean service.

Patbingsoo

2004-07-27T08:07:00.000+09:00

Patbingsoo

This is "pat-bing-soo" which means "red bean-ice-water". The basic ingredients are shaved ice and sweet red bean sauce, but usually condensed milk, fruit, jelly and other stuff are also added. It's delicious and Kathleen loved it! This is a cup for 1 person, but in the specialised shops like Iceberry you can get it in bigger bowls for up to 4 or more people. Those bowls are huge, the size of a big salad bowl! It's very refreshing, especially if you have temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius like we've been having here.

Korean pirates

2004-07-12T10:49:00.000+09:00

No, they don't have a black eye patch nor a ship... What they do have is a computer with a high speed connection and they can download the latest movies within minutes.
The Motion Picture Association of America just released the results of a recent survey covering South-Korea, US, Japan, Australia, Germany, Italy, UK and France. About 24% of internet users in these countries admit to downloading movies, but in South-Korea 58% of internet users do. Even before a movie is released, it's easy to find the files via Korean p2p (person to person) programs, and you can even download a separate file with the subtitles. Downloading music is also very easy, you can just download whole albums at once.

In Korea, internet has developed really fast. Practically every home has a PC with a fast internet connection, plus there are numerous 'PC bang' (PC rooms) where you can use a PC for about 70 eurocents per hour. The PC bang is mostly used by youngsters playing PC games in teams with their friends, and some foreigners who don't have an internet connection at home.

Internet banking is very common, so is online shopping. There are sites that will compare the price of a certain item for you, so you can locate the online shop that sells it the cheapest. And they will usually deliver it free of charge. The delivery man will even come to find you if you're not home (happened to me once - wasn't home when they delivered a book that I had ordered online, got a call from the delivery man and he came to bring me the book at a different location!).

The Third Gender

2004-06-28T10:40:00.000+09:00

In Korea, there are not only men and women, there are also 'ajumma'. Officially an ajumma is any married woman (yes, I'm one too...), but usually the term refers to middle-aged Korean women. Why are they called the third gender? Well, it seems that at a certain age pretty Korean girls turn into ajumma's... with short curly hair, very colourful clothes, wearing sun visors whenever they venture outside, but most importantly they seem to become very loud and rude! They always manage to get seats on over-crowded subways by either squeezing in or making a younger person give up their seat, after they pushed everyone out of the way so they could get on the subway first! They often travel in packs by bus, and like to sing and dance ON the bus!

My first encounter with a pack of ajumma was in a cave in New Zealand, where they tested the acoustics with a Korean song. So, if you meet Korean tourists abroad and they are a bunch of middle aged ladies with short curly hair, dark red lipstick and colourful clothes, you can be sure they are 'ajumma'. But please don't think all Koreans are like them, most of them are very friendly and won't try to push you while you are standing in line ;-)

note: although my mother in law fits the physical description of an ajumma, she definitely does not behave like one!

Bye Cookie

2004-06-24T15:26:00.000+09:00

We had to take Cookie back to my sister in law... It was impossible to keep her in our apartment while we both were out working all day. Sad that we had to bring her back, but I guess it's the best for her (and us) at this time. We decided to wait until we have a house with garden in Belgium to get another dog. Pretty quiet and empty at home though, but that will soon change as we'll be having guests from Belgium and France staying with us for 3 weeks in July!

Meet Cookie

2004-06-20T13:33:00.000+09:00

Cookie

This is Cookie, our newest family member! We got her yesterday from Moonchan's sister, she's a 3 month old Cocker Spaniel. Cute, isn't she? The only and main problem is... she's not yet housetrained. Any tips on how to housetrain a puppy that lives in an apartment are very welcome! We bought a dog toilet with replacable pads, but so far she hasn't used it yet. At least we are cleaning (parts of) our floor very often now.

We took her to the vet today as she hadn't gotten any shots yet. She also got some medicine to de-worm her, and it seems to be working well, yew!

First try

2004-06-17T15:00:00.000+09:00

Well, I decided to give this blogging a try. Not sure if I'll have that many interesting things to say... but I can at least try to give my family and friends a better idea of my life in Korea.

After a couple of weeks of warm, sunny weather, it has been raining all day. My Korean friends told me the monsoon season or 'changma' is supposed to start next Monday. We should be getting about 1 month of rain and hot & very humid weather! I guess we'll be needing that airco in our new apartment!

We moved to our new apartment almost a month ago already. In fact it's a dormitory 'room', but it's a brand-new apartment with 2 bedrooms and we have a nice mountain view. It's located on SNU (Seoul National University) campus, so I can walk to my lab (20 min) or take a free shuttle bus. I'll try to post some pictures of it soon!

This picture was taken a while ago (May 5th), after a 'pic-nic' at Chris place we decided to go for a short hike. They're all friends from the Korean evening class at SNU.

Ingrid