Living life the Korean way

Farewell...

2004-07-18T00:59:00.000+09:00

I really enjoyed my stay here in Korea. With all those freakish trips, visiting places, meeting people you couldn't really talk to. Walking 14 kms to see a sunrise, 30 kms on a bike (didnt post about that - cuz I suffered the "blogger burnout" towards the end), watching out for the uber cheap sales but not finding any, those Soju parties, lamyan overdoses. All of it.

Well, I guess, like all good things, even this has come to an end. I leave with a heavy heart.

I've packed my bags, cleared out my desk and my computer. Just gotta ride the bus to Seoul and then off to India.

I guess this would be the last post on this blog. Bye, Bye blog.

Bye, Bye Korea.

Pics from the Busan Trip

2004-07-05T20:24:00.000+09:00

Will write about it later. Feeling pretty lazy right now :-)

C E N S O R S H I P

2004-06-29T20:36:00.000+09:00

The South Korean government has restricted access to many blog sites (blogspot.com, blogs.com, blogcity.com, etc) in an effort to restrict the South Koreans from viewing the Kim Seon Il beheading video. So I'm not able to access by own blog from here. Though I can create and edit posts (blogger.com is not banned), I can not access my blog.

Until this changes I might not be able to follow up comments.... so please bear with me.

Sam·gyab·saal

2004-06-24T21:27:00.000+09:00

Sam·gyab·saal
noun

A large elaborately prepared Korean meal consisting of chiefly pork, accompanied with various side dishes like bu·chim·gae, lettuce leaves, native grass and herbs, onions soaked in vinegar, roasted cocoons, fried eggs, and a hundred other things that you wouldn't even want to know. And ofcourse, So·ju

Tranlated literally, Sam·gyab·saal means three fold flesh.

This meal is usually served at special occasions like welcome parties, farewell parties, homecoming parties, birthday parties, graduation parties, thesis defence parties, and any other goddamn reason that you can think of. Infact other than drinking beer, this is the only way that Koreans celebrate.

The table is very low and everyone sits on small cushions on the floor around it. The table, typically crowded with more than fifty bowls, has a charcoal stove in the center over which the aju·ma places a metallic plate. Everyone gets a bowl filled with native grass & weed seasoned with exotic spices.

The charcoal stove is used to barbecue raw slices of pork, which incidentally come in an almost never ending supply. The raw pork is cooked in its own fat. Some may say the fat is cooked in its own pork, but the claim has not been proven yet.

Natives will usually use tongs and scissors, to cut the pork into smaller, more manageable pieces. They will then place the pork pieces onto small leaves, garnish it with some weeds, some cocoons, onions and god knows what! It is wildly rumoured that this small snack is delicious with exotic Korean sauces. The author would not like to vouch for this fact.

After a complete meal consisting of pork and various side dishes, comes the main course which may consist of either rice with Korean curry or icy noodles. Non Koreans would normally die of overeating at this point, but Koreans are known to have the chromosome SamgyabsaalBachillus 3TZ which enables them to eat meat and drink beer endlessly.

See also, Seng·sam·gyab·saal, which translated literally means Fresh (non-frozen) three fold flesh.

The Birthday Party!

2004-06-24T17:47:00.000+09:00

That's a pic from the teeny-weeny birthday party our group celebrated this evening. EunYoung (yellow t-shirt) is the birthday girl, and No! I did not ask her how old she was?!

From L: Jungho Ryu, Hwajin Kim, Soonhyun Kim, Moi :-D, Eunyoung Bae, Yiseul Park

In case you missed, that's me with my foolish grin.... god I'm so happy to eat the cake! Btw, that was no ordinary cake, it was a sweet potato cake! Yes, sweet potato! And it was tasty :-p

Going out for dinner now... Soju, here I come - oh wait! I was under self-inflicted probation for two weeks. Hmmm...

PS: Photographs courtesy Eunyoung's Digicam.

2004-06-19T02:36:00.000+09:00

It's been raining since the past few days, but it's today that it's really hit me. Probably because I haven't got much to do, other than some routine work in the lab, you know like preparing titanium dioxide coated glass slides, loading them with dioxin, one of the most carcinogenic chemical known to man, and then blowing the shit out of it with UV radiation :-)

Yes, it's hit me today. I've been in this weird mood since morning. I dont know where my mind drifts off to.

It's really beautiful. The campus with the lush greenery, all the more beautiful with the drops of rain making every tree look greener. The soft sound of rain drops hitting every surface - music to my ears.

God - it's so romantic. Now, if only I had someone...

The night the sky was on fire...

2004-06-18T03:03:00.000+09:00

Last Saturday there was a Firework festival in Pohang. And I waited till today to write about it, cause I wanted to do it along with the pics.

It was the most exquisite firework show I've ever seen in my life. Actually calling it "Fireworks" would be derogatory... it was an experience. A lifetime experience, I'd say.

Imagine this (if you can)....

Jam!
The streets around leading to Bukbu beach were jammed. The first traffic jam I've seen in Korea till now, and from POSTECH to the Bukbu beach usually would have taken us 5 or 10 mins, that day it took us 2 full hours! Just in time for the show.

Spent another 30 mins to look for some place to park the car (Avishek's car). It was the first time I was seeing traffic rules being broken in Korea, people were breaking signals, changing lanes, making U-turns in the middle of the road. In short - it was chaos!!

Korean Mela
We were disappointed at the first glance. As they say, never judge a book by its cover, and they're right on their money! At first it looked like a Korean version of an Indian mela. The road running right next to the beach was swarming with people. There were stalls of games. The regulars were there, like shooting balloons and toppling pyramids of cans. But where else have you hooped a bottle of Chivas Regal or Johnny Walker :-D And plus, there was the stench of boiled cocoons (yes, I'm serious), live octopuses, squid and crab and freshly severed fishes :-p It's anything but food - I'm telling you.

It started...
Anyways, right at 9:30 PM (Koreans are very punctual) it started. The show I'll remember for all my life. I was standing on the beach, and right in front of me was the vast pitch dark sea, onto the left was the silhouette of a small hill, and onto the right was a huge building (some resort) behind which thousands of lights of the Posco steel factory glittered. This itself was a scene in itself... when suddenly the whole sky was lighted with a huge ball of fire accompanied with a loud sound.

The music started (there were speakers on the beach) and one after the other the sky was lit up in various shapes and colours. It was the best light and sound coordination I have ever seen.

What made it a lifetime experience was not the fireworks alone, in a moment I saw that the building (the resort on the right) was being used as a massive screen! Various scenes and graphics depicting Korea were being projected onto it's walls!

A three dimensional hologram in the form of an old man ;-)
PS: Watch Rudraaksha to get the joke!
There was more to come. After about 20 mins of this amazing show, everything stopped. And then on the horizon appeared a greenish face of an old man! It was a hologram, a light effect, I dont know how they fucking did it! And it moved. The mouth movement was synchronized with whatever he was saying in Korean.

At 10:00 PM, after 30 lovely minutes, the show came to an end with the words "I Love Pohang) lighting up the sky!

I wasn't able to capture the building being used as a massive screen but I think the pictures above will be some indication to what an exquisite show it was!

Fortune (cookies) favour the brave!

2004-06-17T21:19:00.000+09:00

Last night I had this funny incident with the lady in the Community Store who runs the cash counter. Being the handsome hunk in Korea that I am, I always used to get a smile from this lady whenever I was there treating myself to an ice-cream, or some noodles, or whatever.

Well, it was the sixth role of film in my camera, and I had grown really bored of clicking mostly inanimate objects or sceneries. So, after fooling around in the office clicking candid shots of all my labmates, I mustered up enough courage to go out and do some street photography. The real thing (tm)!

Well, 1:00 AM in the night, the best "street" I found for photography was the Jigok Community Store, thanks to my growling stomach. So I go up to the store, after failing to get some "interesting" shots in there, I get this bright idea of clicking the cash counter lady in action (which here implies accepting cash, and giving goods!)

I go right upto her and stick the camera in her face. And she starts blushing and giggling and shaking her head, and all that stuff people do when they become conscious. She stops one of the Korean lads, and asks him to ask me why I was clicking her snap! Well, surely I was dying to say... "Lady, I was getting bored, and this is the last shot in my camera, and I really dont know what to do with it, so I thought, why not you?!" But I realised explaining so much of English to the Korean lad would take me another hour, and it really wasn't a nice thing to say anyway.

"For memories. I go back to my country!"

Well said, Saurabh Nanda.

The Korean lad translated it to her, and immediately she bowed, expressing her gratitude.

"Indo?", she asked. I don't know how they got this name, probably from watching too much of live coverage of the Indo-Pak war, but that's what the Koreans call India!

"Yes, Indo", I replied.

Finally, I took the snap, ignoring the sneers and comments from Dhamija, who was standing in the corner somewhere, lest he be identified as a friend of mine!

The photograph was far from candid!

But anyways, while I was cooking my noodles in the microwave oven (there are two of them in the store itself)... the lady comes by with a pack of cookies, smiling from ear to ear. And offers me some cookies, says something in Korean, which I obviously dont understand! So lady, if a billion years down the line you learn english and you happen to read this blog, you'll know why I didnt mail you the prints!

Well, what the heck! If you get cookies for clicking such horrible snaps, who cares, keep clicking!

PS: This was one of the few shots I tried with the flash on - I know, it sucks!

The Log Cabin

2004-06-12T14:57:00.000+09:00

This one is gonna make you guys commit suicide...

As you know I'm all crazy about Soju... and if you're interested in some more trivia - any decent soft drink in Korea would cost you 600-700 Won, and the lovely bottle of Korean Vodka would cost you trifle more, just 890 Wons... so eat your heart out!

Now comes the best part. There's this place in POSTECH called "The Log Cabin", and before you get any ideas - No! that's not what the Maths Laboratory is called! I dont know even if their exists one! Why the hell do Mathematicians need labs anyways, just lotsa pots for them to keep their thinking juices (yechh :-p) flowing!

It's the on-campus pub! Yes... it's a pub and it's ON CAMPUS!! It's beautiful. It's cheap and it's a great place to get drunk!

It's completely made out of (surprise! surprise!) wood. As you can see in this picture. Just remove the tables and chairs, and I'm sure you would've mistaken this for some old English house, up in the Garwhals or some hill station. It's got an awesome location... this mansion of a bar amidst lush greenery. It almost looks like you're in the middle of a forest or something.

And to boot, it's not got one, but two floors. This is a pic of the second floor. It's awesome man!

A shot of the first floor.

This is a shot of the first floor taken from the second floor.

It was freaking hard to take these pics. All in low light... with the camera up on some chair or some table, and down to a 1" or 2" shutter speed. It's a miracle that you can see something in these pics!

The chicken you get here is amazing! I can't really describe it... it looks almost raw, but it's got this lovely flavour to it... dip it in the accompanying sauce, some mayonnaise, and the shredded cabbage! Yum! And top it off with some Soju! Cambaa!!

:-)

Pics from Homigot.

2004-06-11T14:40:00.000+09:00

This is supporting information. Read Riding into the Sunset for the complete rant.

The breathtaking sunrise at Homigot.

Another shot of the sunrise.

These were the paddy fields I was talking about. All along the way.

The windmill. Wasn't very exciting but added to the package, nevertheless

The lighthouse. This was our first indication that we were nearing out destination. From far away we could see some lights. We thought it was some car or something, till I realised it was periodic, and started measruing the delay between two flashes of light! This was beautiful. Reached Homigot just minutes before the sunrise and the lighthouse was glowing in it's soft blue light. I tried capturing the four "rays" coming from the light house... I hope you can make them out in the snap.

Pics from Bug-yeong-sa picnic

2004-06-05T17:34:00.000+09:00

This is supporting information. Check out The Bug-yeong-sa Picnic for the complete rant!

A shot of the street leading up to the Sa. This is supposed to be one of the most rural areas of Korea!!

Another shot of the street and shops. Really clean and quite. Not like Indian temples.

A close up shot of the intricate paintings on the wooden structures there. Looks beautiful, but nothing to match the details in Indian architecture. It's well preserved though.

Ding-Dong bell. Pussy in the well. Who rung the bell? The monk before the prayers!

A nice shot of typical buddhist temple architecture.

The same building in full splendour.

That's Joshi. We're on our way to the waterfalls now. It was a beautiful 3 km trek.

Destination #1. Twin waterfalls. Love the ripples on the water. Could've taken a but more depth of field.

Destination #2. Another twin waterfall. This is where we had lunch.

(From back) Dhamija, Joshi, Ganeshan, Me, and Little Johnny :-)

Another shot of the waterfalls. Got this one correctly. The ripples near the camera and the waterfall at the farther end - both in focus.

A bridge we had to cross to reach the final big waterfall. The final waterfall wasn't that beautiful as the previous one though.

Tried to "freeze" the motion of water in this one - but failed :-(

I simply love this one. Just right. I bought one of these showpieces as a souvenir.

Riding into the sunset...

2004-06-05T16:04:00.000+09:00

Walking into a sunrise was more like it!

This must've been the weirdest trip that I've had in Korea till now. I guess it all started after the trek I recently went for (with Nikux, Pant, RD & Nishant Tripathi) to Kunwari Pass. Yeah! That's when it started. The penchant for adventure. The insane liking to stretch my limits, to subject my body to enduring pain - till I start feeling I cant take it any more and then I do it just a bit further.

So, I packed my camera, a towel, my Jockey underwear :-), shorts, t-shirt, a full sleeve shirt [Ed: Note the emphasis] and one & a half bottle of Soju - yeah the omnipresent Soju - my favourite alcoholic drink this part of the world. It's only 1000 Won. 40 rupees for a bottle of Vodka!! (I know you're jealous - Muahahaha)

So, where were we off to? Didn't get it, did you? We were off to Homigot. The eastern most point of Korea. The first point to receive electromagnetic waves in the 400nm-700nm range and a little in the infra and ultra region as well.

My past experiences with Korean sunrises, thanks to this stinky habit of blogging, was that they start off at 0400 hours. Two choices were staring right into our faces. Hire a cab to Homigot at about 0300 hours - and shell about 50,000 Wons!! Or, take the last bus at 11:00 PM in the night - and wait at Homigot till morning :-)

Being the adventurous buggers that we are, we chose the most obvious one. Bus #300 took us to the bus terminal. The soju was feeling rather lonely, so we took a pitcher of beer to keep it company and some chips, peanuts and biscuits to munch along.

Oh an btw, we refers to Dhamija, Murugeshan (his guide - Dr. Moo for short) and Moi.

All we knew was Bus #200 would take us to Gur-yeong-po which is very near to Homigot. There were buses to Homigot too but the last one was at 08:00 PM, which we obviously wouldn't get.

Little knowledge is a dangerous thing - they say. We had a hard time figuring out exactly which stop was Gur-yeong-po. An excerpt from the many similar conversations I had with the people in the bus...

Me: This bus, go Homigot?
Pasenger: Yay!
M: Homigot, where?
P: Chang po hwang do dhing dhang bush ko maar do kam sa meeda.
M: Homigot, homigot.
P: Yay!
M: Gur-yeong-po, last stop?
P: Yay!
M: Gur-yeong-po, first stop?
P: Yay!

So, you know the territory we were on :-D

With all the commotion in the back, the bus driver became aware of the fact that there were three buggers who wanted to go to Homigot - the Sunrize Plaza - in the middle of the night! He was kind enough to throw us out of the bus at the last stop, which incidentally happened to be Gur-yeong-po. Ah! Thank god for small mercies.

All he said was "Tuxi! Tuxi! Homigot!" - and we were swamped by a swarm of Tuxi drivers.

Me: Homigot, al ma ae yo? [Ed: Korean for "How much to Homigot?"]
Tuxi Driver: il-man-ee-cheon [12,000 Won]

Well. Thank you, but we'll walk!

And we started walking. Someone on the street told us (wrote down actuall) that Homigot is 7 kms away. We can do it - we thought!

It was beautiful. One loan road. Pitch dark. Flanked by the vast ocean on one side, shimmering with the silver light of the moon. Sometimes vast paddy fields on the other side. Sometimes shops, with huge aquariums full of crabs! Thousand of them! Crammed into one small space. Ready to be eaten fresh!

We spent about an hour on a beach enroute. It was amazing. The moon illuminating the ink blue sky. The vast ocean glimmering in its silver splendour. The waves soflty lapping at our feet. It was romantic.

I guess beaches look much better in the night. Much romantic. When you can really *listen* to the ocean talking to you. Without the noise of the day to disturb.

Dhamija and Dr. Moo preferred confining themselves to one spot enjoying the beer, as I took a stroll down the beach with my Soju. I guess it was probably because they were freezing in their t-shirts. Now you know why I emphasised the full sleeve shirt ;-) And yeah - I caught a crab!! Yes I did. I've even taken a proof-of-capture photograph after bringing it back to my dormitory :-)

So we took off after about an hour.

And we walked.

And walked.

Till we reached a sign board which read Dae-bo (that's the place where Homigot is) - 7 Kms! WHAT?! We were halfway throught and 7 *more* kilometers to walk! So we ended up walking 14 fucking kilometers in the middle of the night to reach Homigot. And we reached just in time. Five minutes before the sunrise started.

It was breathtaking. I'll let the photographs do the talking. Clicked a lot of them. Hope they come out well.

There was a lot of other stuff to see there as well. A lighthouse, a windmill, a museum. None of us was in the position to wait till the museum opened. So we took a cab back till Gur-yeong-pe and all way back on buses to POSTECH to our heavenly rooms!

Definitely the weirdest trip I've ever had!

More critique!

2004-06-04T03:53:00.000+09:00

This was some interesting shadows that the lamps were casting. I croppeed the image from the top to eliminate the ropes. Not great - but good for beginners though :-)

And oh - check out the cool copyright notice on the bottom left corner :-)

The pic was taken during the trip to Bug-yeong-sa. The second roll has not been developed so I'll post the pics together.

Later. Gotta sleep it's fucking 4 in the morning!

Bremen

2004-06-03T23:04:00.000+09:00

That's what the POSTECH music club is called. It's doesnt mean anything in Korean for sure. I'm not too certain about English either. I think it's a town somewhere in Europe. And there's a folk tale about it.

Anyawys, so tonight in the Students' Union Building (SUB) Cafeteria (it's called Snack Bar, I came to know rather late :-) ) was POSTECH's musical extravaganza. The annual performance by Bremen.... Yoooohoooo! Alright, so you're not excited but I was - fuck man when you've been sitting on your ass all day in front of the computer even looking at the squid swimming in aquariums downtown is exciting (they actually are exciting!)

The Snack Bar at the SUB. This is one of my older photos. Was taken at about 12:00 midnight. Probably the only photos that I exposed correctly in normal room lighting. Had placed the camera on the table (to eliminate shake) and went in for about f/11 aperture with 1/30 speed. I think it's a nice one - atleast for me :-)

So that place above is where Bremen performed. The chairs and tables had been removed ofcourse and the lights were turned down really low, with a couple of red stage lights brought in to set the mood.

There were 3 bands. All the songs they played were in English, except two or three in Korean. There was What's Going On by Four Non Blondes, Breaking the Law by Judas Priest, Scar Tissue by RHCP, some songs by Green Day, and one song which had a nice guitar guitar riff to it... something like - Too-Too-Too-Too-Ti-Ti-Ti-Yeah!-Yeah!-Jhang-Jhang-Jhik-Jhang-Jhang... I hope you get it.

These Koreans are rather tame. Not bhasadis like us. Some of them started headbanging towards the end but the number was really less. No pseudo rockers like in IITK either :-) Y'know the kind who just go up to the stage and start headbanging without understand a freaking word of the lyrics or the music.

I tried a bit of flash photography as well. My T70's got one helluva flash - the one's you can detach. It's almost as big as the camera itself, and it's got more controls than the camera!! I coulnd't find the manual for the flash off the net so I just arbitrarily did something and clicked away. I dont know what the pics will be like, plus this was the first time I'm shooting with a ISO200 speed film.

Why does our music club has difficulty getting female performers? Bremen had one female lead singer (the sole lead singer for the band, mind you, not a side kick), one female keyboardist and one female drummer! And I think some groupies as well! And these girls kicked ass man!

There was this fundoo guitarist. Much better than what I've seen in any college band. Actually the rock scene here is pretty decent. Many people know how to play a lot of stuff. Back there in Delhi, I've noticed that the chinkis play a lot of rock. I think it runs in their blood group Chinki Rock +ve or something (you don't need to say that - I'm pathetic - I know!)

The only thing missing here was good company. I was with Dhamija and Jung Een Lee (my guide here in POSTECH, she's female). Dhamija isn't quite a rocker and well... Jung Eun was sitting - so you get the point :-)

And hey, for a minute I was stunned when they started shouting Ek aur, ek aur - later I realized it was Encore, encore!!

Tan-ten-nen-ten-ten-ten-ten-taooooon.
That's all folks.

More pics coming your way!

2004-06-02T16:19:00.000+09:00

Awright! Got two more reels developed, courtesy the FDI (Fuji Digital Imaging) Lab on campus. One was shot with the Olympus point-and-shoot cam and the other was my first role with the manual mode of my Canon T70.

These ones are with the Olympus, shot on the Bukbu Beach. Read Nanda's Day Out for a complete account.

That' me posing on the rip-raps like some hot model :-)

Dhamija and me getting romantic. How sweet!

Me on the water scooter. No - I did not drive it! That man did. And was he good at it?!

That's me on that darned banana. That was the ride of my life!

Joshi and myself. Drenched and doing a Full Monty!

This was a rather amusing video game that I noticed in one of the many arcades downtown. The controls are basically 5 squares on the board and the screen quickly flases a sequence of these squares, and you have to stomp in exactly the same sequence. And to add to the thumping and stomping there were huge speakers... the harder you stop the louder the music!!

And folks.... the photo you've been waiting for! Yo! Baby! Yo! Baby! YO! ;-)

Selected pics from Bul-guk-sa.

2004-05-30T18:58:00.000+09:00

Twilight at Bul-guk-sa.

A shot of a small tower right opposite the main tempe.

A cute kid during the prayers.

Rows of lamps. Would've done a field of depth experiment if I had a manual focus camera.

This was a great shot. Damn the Digicam!

All these pics were taken with some crappy Digicam I borrowed from the lab. It was a battery drain - 8 of them! I should've taken my film camera.

Korean Photoblogging :-)

2004-05-30T18:42:00.000+09:00

I finally figured out how to get Hello Bloggerbot to work with a non administrator login on Windows. So, it's photoblogging from now on. All photos on my Yahoo! photos account and Topcities account and some selected ones here on the blog.

I think I'll start with the Bul-guk-sa pics. I've already posted the b/w snaps here. I dont think that they qualify for this blog though... they're more of general photoraphs than photographs from Korea.

The Bug-yeong-sa Picnic.

2004-05-29T21:54:00.000+09:00

Another saturday. Another outing. And true to the Indian blood running in our veins - another picnic :-D

Packed food - rice, indian curry (that's what it was - an amalgamation of potatoes, onions lots of turmeric and chillies with tons of indian taste - ah heaven!), bread, jam and bananas.

Caught the 11:00 AM bus to Bug-yeong-sa (remember sa=temple in Korean) after much deliberation by Joshi, in his limited Korean, with the man at the ticket counter. Somehow managed to get the tickets!

It was a pleasent 1 hour bus-ride to Bog-yeong-sa through the suburbs of Pohang and some neighbouring villages. I was busy with the manual mode in my Canon T70 camera - trying to get some shots of the lovely landscape from the moving bus.

Modern Trash
Saw a car dump for the first time. It's sorta freaks you out. Hundreds of cars stacked together on top of each other. All trash. All bashed up. Just like junk toy cars. Why, is all I ask?

The Sa
Right at the beginning of the trek there was the Sa. All these Buddhist temples are very typical. Same architecture. Same kind of statues and idols. The paintings on the roofs and walls/gates are rather intricate and interesting. Have tried taking some close up shots of them - let's see how they turn out. Even this temple had celebrated "Booda's Birthday" - there were hordes of lamps all around.

The Trek
Started off the short trek to the waterfalls. Trekked up the rocky 2.9 km way up (and obviously back again - ha ha). There are about 12 waterfalls on that mountain/hill - but we saw only 5. Two of them were twin waterfalls (2*2=4)- one beside the other and one big huge one.

At about 2:00 PM we started off with the grub. It was really soothing having nice Indian food in the cool shade next to the gurgling waterfall. After about an hour we started off back.

Reached Pohang at 6:00 PM.

Just Googled a bit about Bug-yeong-sa... here are some "tourist" kind of links -
Bogyeongsa 12 waterfalls and Bogyeongsa Temple - ENJOY!

Finished a role (~36 shots). Let's see how the pics turn out - will turn them in to the FDI (Fujifilm Digital Imaging) Lab on Monday. Tried out a lot of experiments.

Later.

Happy Birthday!

2004-05-26T16:44:00.000+09:00

Indian: Happy Birthday Buddha!
Korean: Happy Birthday Booda!

May 26th, was Gautum Buddha's birthday - for the uninformed (you lowly peasents), one major Korean festival, a national holiday (yeay!)

Like in true Korean tradition we (Avi and me) kicked off the birthday with 3 bottles of Soju (the traditional Korean vodka) and one helluva mega-super-duper-genetically-modified chicken! (Well, OK - not Korean tradition, but what the heck!) Totally drunk, we were trying to make sense out of "A Big Fat Greek Wedding" :-)

Conked off at about 5:00 in the morning. Got up at 1:00 in the afternoon, with a sick taste in my mouth - what a crappy way to start a national holiday... had bananas to calm my stomach and headed for the lab.

I was barely five minutes into my work (alright, I was checking my mail - so what?!) and Joshi popped in [Ed: I forgot to tell, he was drunk like a stone last night - before Avi and I had even started drinking. Apparently he ended up with a bet in a bar and you can guess the rest...] So we go down for a coffee - Joshi, Me, Ganeshan & Ganesh Kumar.

One thing led to another and before I know it, I had borrowed a digital camera from the lab (Thanks Jung Eun), and the four of us were on a cab to Bul-Guk-Sa. Struck a deal with the taxi driver at ee-man-o-cheon Wons :-D Muahahaha - you measly, lowly non-Koreans - dont know counting in Korean do you - that's 25,000 Wons.

Well, Bul-Guk-Sa is a temple in Kyeong-Ju (the capital of the ancient Shilla Dynasty) and that's all I know about it :-) Well one more thing actually - "Sa" in Korean means temple.

I know I'll fail at describing the sight at Bul-Guk-Sa, but I'll give it a shot. It was BEAUTIFUL. Thousands and thousands of round balloon shaped lamps. Rows and rows of lamps - all around. In the gardens, along the paths, on the trees. Every-fucking-where. And an equal number of people in that temple there. It was crowded.

We went inside the main temple, it was a big square thing, with the main temple in the middle flanked by corridors on all four sides. Rows of lamps hung from ropes supported by sticks all around the courtyard.

As soon as we stepped in - a monk started playing a huge drum rhythmically and after that they started their prayers. A monotonic chant while beating a small round "pot" making a high pitched percussion sound. It could've been soothing had it not been for the crowd there.

As it began to grow darker the temple became prettier. Everyone started lighting candles in the lamps. I chipped in and must've lighted aroung 50-60 lamps. It was fun.

As night fell, the view became breathtaking. Impossible to describe. You should take a look at the photographs probably.

The snaps are not really good cuz the digital camera really sucked! It took down with it 8 AA batteries. It was a real hog and had space for ~30 snaps only. And the focusing was not great either. Anyways I tried some stuff and the snaps are lookable - nothing great though. I'm carrying a regular film camera wherever I go next time.

Take a look at the snaps here.

Have fun.

Nanda's Day Out.

2004-05-23T23:54:00.000+09:00

I must say, today has been one of the most enjoyable days I have spent uptil now in Korea...

The Grand Lunch
It started off as a lazy sunday morning with me getting up at 12:00 in the noon (I was watching some crappy movie till 3 last night). I had been invited by Ganeshan over for lunch at his apartment. Ganeshan is a pass out from IIT Chennai doing his post doc research here in POSTECH. He's living in the Nakwan Apartments (the married students apartments - much like the SBRA Hostel we have in IITK).

So, at about 1:00 PM I go over to his place. Joshi and Ganeshan had put all their culinary skills together and churned out sambhar-chawal and raita, though Joshi was insisting that it wasnt sambhar but some Marathi dish made out of besan. Whatever - it was food - Indian food - and without beef or pork! In short - it was heaven!

After the sumptious meal, we walked back to our dorm and I went out searched for Ankur Dhamija (yes - he's here with me in POSTECH too). So, all three of us - Joshi, Dhamija and me the great - get our act together and plan an evening out - Bukbu beach, and then downtown for fried chicken.

The Beach
Off to Bukbu beach - on Bus #105 from the POSTECH gate. It was my first outing, first ride on the public buses here in Pohang - actually a lot of firsts today :-)

On the beach side we're greeted by rows and rows of boats/ferries/small ships - call it what you may. It was looking more like a harbour or dock - I was disappointed. But then we walked around and hit the right spot - the Bukbu beach! It was rather small - and right off the road. The beach must've been about 100 metres wide - between the road and the sea. I was not impressed - but I was in for a pleasent surprise ;-)

We walked around the beach - and to my dismay there were not girls in bikinis and no beach volleyball :-(. The beach was beautiful though - we could see HUGE ships on the horizon. Flanked by small hills on both the sides, with an overcast sky and the vast expanse of the ocean in front of us - it was a beautiful sight. All this scenic & poetic beauty was suddenly shattered by the loud sound of motors. There were some people on water scooters skidding on the water.

We went knee deep into the sea for a pic and came out yelping in icy cold pain. The water was frrrreezing. It must've been beloe 5 degrees celcius. Walked towards the gang with water scooterd with our bare, numb feet.

Yeeehaw!!
"We can do this?", I asked one of the fellows who looked incharge. (Don't ask me about the grammar - that'll be on some other post). With my past experience in Rishikesh, I thought that these were some tour agents/operators who organized such adventure sports. I was exepcting him to quote a hefty price for that water scooter. I was in for a surprise.

"Yes. You can do this. But water too cold. You get all wet", he said.

"How many Won?", I poked.

"No. No. No pay. Korean men very good." And yes - they indeed were.

So before we knew it, Joshi and I were wearing life jackets with our jeans folded till our knees we were ready to ride that water scooter! One of the Koreans took the wheel (or handle bars, if you wish) with me and Joshi in the rear. After the scooter started - all I know I was holding onto the Korean for my life and was shouting on the top of my voice. It was sheer excitement. More than any freaking Appu Ghar or Essel World ride. The way the scooter banked when he used to turn it - we used to be almost touching the water! I really cant describe it - it was one helluvan experience!

Going Bananas
We got out alive - and thanked them profusely. And then we were in for more!! There was this big banana shaped inflated boat - one big banana in the middle and two small ones on the side (photographs due). You had to ride it cowboy style - five people on one banana - pulled by that water scooter. There was absolutely NO WAY - I was gonna go on that thing. I dont know what made me agree to do it - and I really thank god that I went there. I had the time of my freaking life!

On that banana, Joshi, me and two other Korean. I was bang in the front. Riding the damn thing while the scooter whirred along at what seemed like insane speed at that time. The turns on this were even more life threatening. And to top it off - the one thing I was praying for not to happen - happened. The whole damn thing tipped before we knew it - and bam - we were in that chilled water in the middle of the ocean. For a second I lost all control - I was shocked! And then almost on an impulse I started swimming towards the shore and so did Joshi. And these Koreans were shouting "Stop! Stop!"

We finally did stop - the life jackets kept us afloat. But not without getting mouthfuls of that awfully salty water right down our throats. Anyways, another scooter came for the rescue. It pulled the banana back upright - and I tried to mount it - toppling it off again! These Koreans got on top first and pulled us up. And we hit the shore after that!

I've never ever had so much fun in my whole freaking Korean life. Anyways, we came out all drenched in that water - shivering like hell - but enjoying every moment of it. These folks then offered water melon - which neutralized the pathetic salty taste in our mouths. We caught a cab and came right back to our dorms and took a hot bath and off again... downtown :-)

Bad Boys Downtown
Back onto Bus #105 and off at downtown. We were just looking around. The markets here are pretty good. All American brands. Nice showrooms. Nice footpath shops just like in India.

There was this promotional thing going on at one of the crossings, stupid games a huge inflated cartoon characted. Nothing interesting until we got back after completing one round of window shopping. Man - it was great! 4 scantily dressed girls gyrating to some cheesy song - "Yo baby! Yo Baby! Yo!" - yeah right! Yo, baby! [Ed: I know you're dying for pics to this one - dont worry I've clicked one ;-)]

Had PFC (Pelican Fried Chicken - yeah, I know) - freaking HUGE chicken these Koreans have. That was one kind of meat I had eaten before and I was actually relishing and not forcing down my throat.

After the chicken and the chicks - we got our asses back home.

Well, as they say - That's all folks!!

The Cultural Fest!

2004-05-14T13:33:00.000+09:00

I was probably lucky enough to witness the Korean equivalent of what Antaragni is to Kanpur IIT-ians. It was in no way grander than our cul-fest but I'm sure it had a higher percentage of the fairer sex (actually - both the sexes are equally fair here in Korea :-)

While we were away eating beef, coccoons and black noodles (my welcome party!), I had missed quite a lot of the festivities. When I reached the Jigok Community Center it was time for the prof show - the only problem was that the pro had not yet arrived. So the amateurs were at it.

I was mildly drunk with a mug of beer and two shots of Sojo, and was in a jovial mood. Ran to my room and got hold of my point and shoot camera.

Well, there was this trio on the stage with two guitarists and a crooner and were singing some soft rock/pop number in Korean. It was good. And then there was another "band" consisting of a guitarist and a "lead singer". I guess they were all just students who had their own (sort of) bands.

Then came the big daddy of them all. The institute's official band. Man, they rocked! They rocked real good! One on the axe, one on the bass, a drummer, a female keyboardist and of course a frontman - a five member rock band.

After the mandatory sound check - those guys started with a bang - "Aint My Bitch" by Metallica. They were really good. More rock numbers. A couple in Korean. Oasis. Metallica. Iron Maiden. They did them all. And they kicked ass.

After about 8 songs - the stage was taken up by some famous Korean Pop Singer. That's when I split. The guy was singing without a live band - so that sucked quite big time for me.

Anyways - it was fun for my second day at POSTECH. And yeah - I clicked a lot of snaps - more than 20 I guess.... waiting for the reel to finish!

Laterz...

The Welcome Party.

2004-05-14T12:00:00.000+09:00

I guess, from this post onwards I'll change the way I write - from a day by day account to an incident-wise write-up. It's easier and makes more sense that way.

It's sort of customary to give a welcome party to each new member in a research group. So I was in for it, but the only glitch was I wasn't aware that it was meant for me - and no one considered telling me that small little bit of detail :-)

We were driven off in the POSTECH mini van (Prof Choi, and the research group - about 10 of us) to some swanky downtown restaurant.

Sitting around a small table on the floor, the first course consisted of some sort of salad in small bowls. Some Korean weed and cabbage and lettuce topped with bean sauce (I think). AND fried/baked coccoons. Yes - they were coccoons - silkworm coccoons. They're a delicacy here in Korea. Everyone was relishing them - and I was on the verge of puking (without even tasting them). I stopped looking and concentrated on my lettuce.

Along with this came the customary Sojo - that's a native drink of Korea. They're really crazy about it and I think it's drunk on special occassions. It's made of potatoes and tastes much like Vodka. Around 21% alcohol. That's one thing I enjoyed - and oh, before I forget - it's supposed to be taken neat ;-)

Next was the turn of beef. They had these coal barbecues built into center of each table. The waitress brought big "slabs" of beef which were put directly onto the barbecue with some (massively sized) onions. One of us was chopping the beef into smaller chunks using a pair of scissors. I was having a tough time with the beef. It was less of meat and more of chewy fat. The others were simply gobbling up the chewy mess - and I was busy ripping apart the fat from the meat.

Almost everything tasted the same to me. Every damn thing had some common spice/herb which was overpowering all other flavours.

The waitress kept the beef coming and I'm sure we must've had one full cow, when my Prof asked - What next? Rice or noodles? And I'm like - Huh? There's more to come?! Noodles - I say. And after about 5 minutes - there comes one big bowl of black noodles. And that's not all - the thing is called Icy Noodles - it is filled with ice. Great! Now I'm stuck with this big bowl of ice with noodles somewhere in between. These noodles are black cuz they're not made of wheat flour - they're made of bean flower. And probably that's what makes them like chewing gum. I just couldnt chew them - had to swallow them whole! My poor stomach - must've cried that day.

Done with that, we were served with some sort of dirty white cool liquid in a small bowl. I was just about to dip my fingers in it when I saw the others drinking it (!!). I followed suit - and was tasting a sweetish liquid. On inquiring I came to know it was a traditional drink made out of barley served after a meal. It had some rice (or barley) settled at the bottom and based on my experience in the immediate past it looked more like larva (yuck)!

Well, onto the mini van and back to POSTECH. We walked our way to the Log Cabin - that's the campus bar! You heard me right - it's a bar on the campus - and man - it's beautiful. A small little hut kind of thing made completely out of wood - sorrounded by lush greenery. It was almost 9:00 PM and after the heavy rounds of Sojo we were here for another round of beer. That's when I exclaimed - what! more drinks! I was told that today is special. We dont drink so often. And I (innocently, of course) asked about the "speciality" of the day. That's when I was enlightened.

"I dont know how to say this in Korean - but thank you - all of you" - those were my daily words of wisdom before the drinks began to flow!

A round of beer with some side dishes of fried fish (with scales still in them - it was yucky) and almonds (ah! familiar grounds at last).

(Finally) Done with all the drinking we started walking back to our dorimtories when on the way I saw the POSTECH festival in full splendour! More on it in the next post...

The Odyssey Continues...

2004-05-13T01:27:00.000+09:00

Off at Bangkok and onto (again) Thai Air to Seoul. The Bangkok airport was really superb. Huge - and sparkling clean. Had to wait there for about an hour - and got talking with these cute girls (taiwanese girls - I came to know later).

Sardars Galore
Boarded the flight - and guess what - this time too I got a sardar next to me. But he was different - he had short hair. But still - once a sardar always a sardar. Man - the kind of conversation they make! It was nice time pass.

Taking off from bangkok I saw almost a kilometer long line of cars on one of the crossings. And no - I'm not exaggerating - it was probably more than a kilometer. And we say Delhi suffers from traffic jams! You should've seen that. It must've been over 500 cars all back to back!!

Just before touching Taipei (for a one hour break) the view from the window was breathtaking! We were flying over the ocean - and it was amazingly beautiful. Especially when the plane was at quite a low altitude... the ripples on the sea. You could actually _see_ the coastline through the crystal clear water. And the cars & roads - all sparkling and neat. Taipei was beautiful - from up in the air atleast.

Off from Taipei to Seoul. Got off at Seoul. Here again - I was told immigration and all would take 2 hours. But it was all over in 20 minutes.

Rendevous with Technology
Right at the International Airport I was greeted with kind of technology that I would be dealing with throughout my stay in Korea. I got a 100 dollars exchanged for about 1,14,000 Won (yeah - that's right - that's what the Korean currency is called). Got over to the telephone booth to make a call and I'm greeted by this big huge touch screen with a conventional handset on one side and a keyboard placed at the bottom. WOW! I called up the international affairs office at POSTECH but the lady who picked up the phone couldn't speak English. So I access the Internet from the kiosk itself and mail the international affairs incharge about my arrival. Man - that piece of work really impressed me! It was freaking great!!

The rise of the Civil Engineer
On my way from the International (Incheon) Airport to the Domestic (Gimpo) Airport aboard a Limousine Bus - I witnessed all the Civil Engineering that I had ever studied in my text books down back home. There was everything - right from land reclamation from the sea to geotextiles & geomaterials, from smart cars to sexy transportation engineering, it was all there. The much touted latest civil engineering technology at work. I was ashamed of our level there in India. What the hell do we study all this for? I've never ever seen it being applied there. It's really a shame.

Well... from the Gimpo Airport I took the flight to Pohang and at the Pohang airport I was greeted by two of my labmates from POSTECH.

Welcome to Pohang
Or Phu-hung - funny pronunciation. That's what I realized right from Incheon International. Now that I'm learning Korean I know why!

Okay - two of my labmates picked me up from the Pohang airport - and (surprise, surprise) one of them owned a car. I'm greeted by an (almost) deserted airport - and the streets in the city are not crowded at all. And it's 9:00 PM in Korea... I guess all of them must be watching some crap doled out by Eakta Kapoor and her Balaji Productions! (why do I have to crack such jokes?)

So, they drive me to POSTECH (about 20 mins - nice drive) - chatting with me all the way. After the regulars - the first question they ask me is - what is your age?! Well, I tell them (look up my profile if you're curious)! And splat - the next question is - "Do you have a girlfriend in India?" (orkut profile for this one :-)

The main POSTECH entrance is awesome - with a steep 30-40 m ramp going off the road leading to a wonderful main gate. I cant describe it here cuz I ain't no great writer - but I'll let the pictures do the talking - when I get the reel developed.

The HOT Stud in town?
Into POSTECH - we're waiting in front of the SEE building (that School of Environmental Engineering for the uninitiated) - waiting for labmate #1 (I still dont remember his name!) to call an Indian by the name of Joshi from the the 4th floor. Labmate #2 (ditto :-) tells me - You're handsome. Huh?! I mean - I'm dumbstruck. All I can say is a polite and meek - Thank You! He continues - Yes! You're really handsome. Not like other Indians we have here. AWRIGHT - I suddenly feel elated - immediate Hot Stud status within the first hour in Pohang. Woooohoooo!

After a long wait - out comes Joshi. We go to our dormitory room. Here in POSTECH they dont call them hostels or halls of residence. It's called Dormitory. I'm in dormitory #18 and my room number is 101. I'm given a key to my room - a booklet (Student Housing Guide) - with all the rules and regulations concerning life in a POSTECH dormitory.

Well... it's pretty chilly out here in Pohang - with the outside temperature around 20-25 celcius - and when it rains it is lower. So the labmates (#1 and #2) have already "rented" out a set of blanket, bed sheet and pillow from the dormitory office. Coola - I think.

My shack for the next two months
The dormitories are really nice. Much better than the ones we have in IIT. The shower rooms/toilets are better. The corridors are better. I dont know - probably I like them because of their contemporary feel. Most IITK halls were built way back in 1960 - but POSTECH was set up aroung 1985 - so that's pretty recent.

I'm sharing my room with two other Indians - Joshi and Avishek. Joshi is from Maharashtra and Avishek is from Calcutta (though he's done his Bachelor's in Civil Engg from Nagpur).

Well - the room on it's own is pretty big - but just like typical Indians do - it's been stacked with stuff - toasters, electric ovens, a frigde, a television (YES - all in one dormitory room!) - and that leaves us with very little space left to walk around and jump around - and do all funny things that you are not supposed to do in a dormitory room.

Say hello, the Korean way
At the very onset I was told by Joshi about the strict "seniority" system that Koreans follow. Even if a person is a year older - you are suppoed to respect him/her in the Korean way. Like - you have to address him as Big Brother (hyung) or Big Sister (nu-na) - and the way you greet the person changes. For example if you're greeting a person your age, you say an-nyong-ha but if you're greeting a person senior to you, it's an-nyong-ha-sei-yo [Ed: Well Joshi didnt give me such details - but my lab mate Park gave me a Kor101 lecture today :-)]

Do you eat....?
That's the second question [Ed: Do you remember the first?] any Korean would ask a foreigner (especially Indian) - Do you eat beef or pork? Cuz they do. And they love it. And so do the supermarts, the cooks, the industries - EVERYBODY in Korea. The third question is - Do you drink? Well say "Yes" to #2 and #3 - and you're a national hero. They'll love you. That's what I've been doing for instant popularity (the sneaky me - muahahaha ;-)

The 13th and the 14th (of May) was the student festival in POSTECH aka Antaragni in IITK. Joshi and Avi (my roomies - remember) didnt seem too keen to go down and enjoy the festival - and I was dying to. I bottled up my emotions - cuz I didnt want to sound too persuasive right at the beginning.

After talking the let's-get-to-know-each-other-as-fellow-Indians-in-a-foreign-country kind of talk we went down to the Jigok Community Center to grab a bite.

The Cheesy Burger
Oh yeah - almost forgot this one. At the Gimpo Airport, Seoul I went to grab a bite just before the flight. I was sick of having meat/pork all throughout the flights - so I ordered a Cheese Burger (and it was the cheapest too - Won 1400 - yeay!). I'm sure you must've guessed it by now - some cheese burget it was. It had a slice of cheese (thank god for that) - plus they threw in a pork cutlet for free! Ah - so delightful. Well, to a starving stomach that was heaven. And I gobbled it up.

So, I was saying that we went down to the Jigok Community Center to have a bite. The students are all making merry there - in the hall (Students' Festival - you forgetful earthling) - but my roomies prefer to sit in the Cafeteria. The menu is limited - though I wouldn't have known a burger from a pizza (if they had it) - it was all in Korean. The experienced roomies helped me out on this one - and ordered rice and pork cutlet for me with Kimchi.

To put it mildly I had a tough time - a really tough time with the food. But then - at 1:30 in the night I should be grateful for food. I pushed (more like shoved/hammered/hydraulically pumped) it down my throat to fill my poor stomach up. I was aching for some sweet - ah - the saunf and mishri we get in our mess seemed like a delicacy now. Anyways went down to the Community Store and bought a strawberry flavoured yoghurt there (no pork/beef in this one - VICTORY!)

Then we went down to the pond. POSTECH has a beautiful pond. And sat down beside it discussing cross-cultural differences between Indians and Koreans much like professional cross-cultarists.

Then we went to our dormitory room (home-sweet-home) and slept! And yes - I sleep on on top bed of the bunk bed.

More - tomorrow.

The Odyssey Begins...

2004-05-12T00:12:00.000+09:00

Welcome to this blog about all my trials and tribulations during my trip to Korea. I'm here for my summer internship at the POSTECH University in Pohang in the School of Environmental Sciences and Engineering. I'll try my best to jot down all the interesting (and not so interesting) indcidents that I have in Korea - though my memory might fail on me time-to-time.

It all begins in Delhi. After I messed up with my brand new Delsey suitcase. I was trying to change the number lock code... and the damn thing broke. Now I couldn't lock the suitcase neither could I shut it. Deep shit - right at the beginning. So, I go to the market and buy a big (plastic) rope to tie the damn thing up - and it started looking really really stupid. One smart suitcase with a dumbass rope on it. But hey, what the hell - at lease it got me here.

So next - I get dropped on the the airport by my folks. Righto - I'm on my own from here. First thing - I get the baggage "security wrapped"... now that's one thing you'll kick your ass for getting done. It's one big cellophene they'll put on your luggage and charge you a 100 bucks for it... you'll feel foolish!

Everyone was out there telling me that the baggage checkin, immigration and all will take quite a lot of time - so you must go to the airport early. Alright - I went at 9:00. Flight was 5 minutes past 12:00. I got through the whole damn affair in 30 minutes. I had to wait in there for 2 freaking hours. Man - was I bored.

The "Native" African
I saw this African family out there... I dont know where they were heading to - cuz there was no flight to Africa at that time. And I was staring at this small kid - all black with typical curly hair. She was about to say something to her brother (I guess) who had been making these awful noises for the past minute or so. I was expecting some weird sounding language to hit my ears and I hear.... Badtameez - Aisee awaaz nikaaloge to bahut maaroongi.... In the purest of Hindi accents that you would ever have heard!! Man - that was so funny!

Bangkok in a nutshell
Well... more to come for me... I boarded the plane - window seat. 5 mins getting comfy and - plonk! onto the seat next to me what do I have - A SARDAR - from Haryana. A typical Jat he didnt know a word of english. He was going to Bangkok (and so was the flight - Ha Ha - bad joke). He kept talking about Bangkok being a badhiya jagah - and then when he saw a smooch scene on the inflight movie - he goes nudge-nudge wink-wink - "yahi sab hota hai wahaan... koi rok-tok nahin hai. Pehli baar koi nahin karta - lekin doosri baar sabki tamanna hoti hai...". Well in a nutshell - that was Bangkok for me!

It was the first flight experience for me for as far as I can remember - I had flown once or twice earlier too - but that was waaaay long back. It's nice to feel a plane take off the sudden rush when the place accelerates down the runway and when you can feel it lifting off the ground. And when it turns in the air. It feels like a mild roller coster ride. And it was really nice looking at Delhi - from thousands of feet up in the air.

The flight was nice and comfortable - though I had trouble all along cuz my nose started bleeding. Well - the air hostesses suck! Thai Air - a big NO for air hostesses. I saw sassy Malaysian Airlines hostesses at the Delhi airport. They were wearing a nice traditional and colorful dress and were all semi-models. In Thai air from Delhi->Bangkok they showed us "Along Came Polly" - stupid movie.