Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Well this will be my final blog finishing my trip here in Seoul. Today was defiantly my favorite day here in Korea. Today was a free day for me so I woke up late, piddled around, and left the house alone around eleven ish. My friend who usually accompanies me woke up sick this morning and has been in bed all day. Today I had planned on going to the American embassy just to check it out, well I got directions online from the embassy website. Well they were wrong, took me to the wrong district of Seoul. I ended up walking into a police station saying American Embassy in Korean to about twelve men. The one in the back walked up and said hello in english. Reluctantly I said "hey you speak english," he said no. He told me to follow him and he led me to the bus station near the police station. He pointed to a bus stop and told me to take the 501 bus to this station. I said ok and he walked off. Well I cant read Korean writing so I got totally lost. I rode the bus for about twenty minutes until I saw a precession of Royal Traditional Guards walking down the street. I jumped off and followed them for about three blocks taking pictures as we walked. We ended up at a Bell and a traditional built ancient Tower. This tower stood at an intersection of downtown. I stood next to the official photographer of the event with his D3X and my D200 we snapped away. All of the sudden I am pushed into a line and marched up to the top of the tower. I had been "invited" ish to participate in the ceremony of ringing the bell. During this event I personally got to ring the bell. I also took dozens of pictures of the event. As I was leaving I was thanked by countless members of the precession. It was a really neat experience. Later today I was invited to Master Bang's Tae Kwon Do school. When I arrived the demonstration team was lined up practicing. I was informed that they would do the demonstration followed by basic techniques, board breaking, and forms. I was STOKED. I pulled out my D200 and the D300 and went to work. It was awesome to see someone else do a demo besides our demonstration at Master Kim's. The entire event lasted about thirty minutes including the demo team. When they had finished they lined up for a group picture of the entire team. I took a couple pictures then was placed in the middle at the guest of honor seat. When the group pictures were done they had me pose with some of the team members... the girls. I posed with about three different girls for pictures. It was such an awesome experience and it totally made my day. I was stoked. Well thank you to all who have followed my progress through this trip and project. Today I took 1246 pictures. The totally count of pictures take this trip is a HUGE 4977 pictures. I planned on taking close to three hundred so this is awesome. Coming back home I have alot to work with. Tommorrow I will wake up late, pack my bags, and back up my pictures onto secure locations. Thank you and I will see you all when I get back home safely.

Andrew

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Well today was the DMZ, Demilitarized Zone that separates North from South Korea at the 38th parallel. We scheduled to take a tour of the DMZ but it was changed. We ended up taking a tour of the 3rd tunnel, a tunnel secretly built by the North Koreans to South Korea under the DMZ. Well just my luck inside the tunnel is a no picture zone. Well I never follow those rules so I tucked my camera under my jacket and got on the train to go down. Well, we are in the tunnel and we walked about a quarter of a mile to the North Korean line between North and South. As ussually I started snappin away at the tunnel. I had never seen pictures because its not allowed so I was excited. When we got out we were taken to the top of a mountain ish as an overlook into North Korea. Here there was a line where you could take pictures from and guards watching to make sure you do so. Well as usuall I never do and secretly took pictures everywhere around the lookout. As I was leaving I was stopped by a Korean soldier who asked me to come inside. Inside he asked to see the pictures I had taken during the day... I got busted. He went through and deleted about one hundred or so pictures that I shouldnt have taken. I played the "I dont speak Korean" card. He wasnt an idiot but told me to just pay attention to the signs. I thought it was funny but I was very mad at the same time. SO todays pictures were a reacord low of 100. I was furious when I looked at my pictures for the day. It was still an awesome experience to be able to step foot inside North Korea. Afterwards we drove home and I took a nap. After dinner I was escorted to Master Bang's (my Tae Kwon Do master whose family I am staying with) Tae Kwon Do school. Afterwards we spent about an hour looking at pictures of Greenville and stuff. Tommorrow I am going to the American Embassy and am training in the Tae Kwon do school at five. It will be very interesting and intense. I come home on Thursday so almost there.

Andrew
22.01

Monday, January 5, 2009

Well today was an interesting day at least. We didn't use any public transportation today we had the car, we started the day with a one hour car ride across town. We arrived at the Yong In Korean Folk village. A traditional village with traditional characters. Here we walked around looking at the different houses waiting for the main event to happen. At 11.00 there was a traditional Korean folk dance followed by a see-saw and tightrope walk. This was what I wanted to see, I had seen pictures and knew this would be a great opportunity. During this event it was very interesting to watch how precise and exact each movement was. It was a very impressive show to watch. Afterwards, my friend took me to Everland Resort, the equivalent to Carowinds or Sixflags. There were many kids there running around getting their pictures taken with characters and such. He then asked me if I liked roller coasters... yes why, well we are going on some. Well the temperature here today was about twenty-five degrees. So at the top of that coaster with the wind blowing it was miserable, but the rides were awesome. Afterwards we walked around a little more and then went on an animal safari. We took a bus ride through the animal land and lion pit. This was a great opportunity for pictures as well. Afterwards we went to a coffee shop, took a brake and came home. Since being home I have been preparing my stuff for tomorrow, the DMZ. I am so excited and look forward to the hundreds of pictures I will take. Keep me in your prayers.

Andrew
20.16

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Well today was by far the best day, I had so much fun today and got to experience many different things. We started the day by going to the Blue House, equivilent to our White House. This was an interesting place with almost one hundred police and secret service people around the building. There were designated picture spots and you could only take pictures in these spots. I never obey they "no picture" signs and started clicking away and they came over to me. They watched as I deleted each and every picture I had taken. From then on I had to secretly snap away lol. Next we went to Insadong, the open air street market. Here my freind took me into a caligraphy shop where we sat down and talked to the lady. He then pointed me over to the shelf and told me to pick my favorite of what looked like paper weights. I chose one and he picked it up and took it to the lady at the desk. She then had me write my name in english and she wrote it in Korean. She told me that she was going to make a postage stamp with my name in Korean on it. I was stoked. It took her about thirty minuates to hand carve and shave my name into the bottom. When she was done it was a perfect, it came with ink and everything. Its an authentic hand made Korean mailing stamp. It is so special to me and I love it. After this we walked the streets taking pictures of people as they passed and did life. I made sure to include the entire body, not just the knees up (dad...). From there we went to the Changgyeongeog Palace. This is an authentic palace that dates back to the twelth century. Outside of the palace gates older men meet and play the equivilent to chess in America. This was a great opportunity for pictures. Although I got many rude looks and some unneccisary comments I obtained the pictures neccisary. After this we went to Jongmyo, the Royal Shrine, this was interesting at first but then kind of boring. After we went to Damdaemun market, the "Red Light District" of Seoul. There were many Americans and very crowded streets. Usually my day would end here and I would come back to my room and blog all this for you but not today, today was different. The parents werent going to be home so we had to eat for ourselves. We went to a Korean steak house which was different but good. After my freind asked me if I wouldnt mind meeting some of his freinds, I said of course why not. We met at a ping pong house, a room full of tables where you pay for time and play. He asked me if I was good and I said I was medium. I met his two freinds and we began playing. Well Asians are good at ping pong, but thanks to practice in the states I was better. I played all the people in the room and beat them all, it was very fun and welcoming. Afterwards his freinds and I went to a coffee shop and had coffee together. One of his freinds is the editor of the pictures for the Seoul newspaper, he is also a photographer. He had his Cannon Digital there and his lenses so we talked ish about cameras for quite awhile, comparing and talking. It was fun to connect with someone like me of the opposite culture. When we were leaving his freind asked if we were doing anything on Monday. Tommorrow was our free day so we had nothing planned. He wanted to go with me in Seoul and take pictures with me. He knows some good spots and wants my advice. He is an upcoming photographer and thinks I am so pro so he wants to pick my brain for a day. I was stoked with this notion and told him yes yes yes. We are meeting and going together to take pictures. This is very exciting and nice to have a change from the normal day. Today was a great day and I am fainlly starting to connect with the culture. I enjoyed today greatly and have been given an inspiration for the days to come. I took 994 pictures today and killed both the batteries. For those of you who have Facebook I have been posting pictures daily. Thank you for you support and I will talk to you tommorrow.

Andrew
22.51

Saturday, January 3, 2008

Well today was kind of a let down pictures wise but we went to a couple spots that were top on my list. We started at the Olympic training center and then moved into the park. Alot of the places we went today were not ideal for photography due to lighting, location, and some places had signs that said no pictures. Well fighting against all the odds I am here to take pictures, so I did. I took a little over four hundred pictures today. One of the most interesting spots today were the Buddhist temple grounds we went to today. We walked into one of the temples during a "session" when the monk was reading/singing and the people were bowing and stuff. During this session as a lady began walking down the aisle with a pot of rice towards me. I stood there until she got to me and she pushed me out of the way and kept walking. She went to table behind me and put it down next to a statue Buddha. Everyone in the temple then turned and started bowing directly at me. I didn't know what to so i stood there and took pictures haha. It was very awkward to be the only one not bowing and everyone looking at me but I got some good pictures. During this I did get some ugly looks, I had an American couple who were tourist standing near me and we just kinda laughed at the whole situation. Although the pictures were not the greatest, I was able to go to some key points in my book, regardless of the pictures. Tommorrow is busy and Monday we are headed to the DMZ so keep me in your prayers, I have not forgotten about you Gvegas!!!

Andrew
8.02

Friday, January 2, 2009

Today was a busy day filled with alot of walking. I took 732 pictures during the seven places we went today. When I take seven hundred pictures that is before I go through and delete the bad ones. On a good day I will have one hundred or so left over that I like, twenty maybe good enough to put in the book. It is frustrating but that's how it is. Today we went to the Seoul World Cup Stadium, Full Gospel Church, Yeoido Park, the 63 Building, and the Han river boat. This was a fun day filled with many things I enjoy. The stadium was awesome, we got to walk onto the field and go into the players locker rooms and warm up rooms. The gospel church was uneventful and rather boring. To me it looked like just another church. The park was a nice break from the city, there were many people doing recreational activities such as basketball and roller skating. After the park we went to the tallest building in Korea, there we walked around the entire top of the building getting an aerial view of the city. It was cool to see miles and miles away from so far up. After the 63 building we went and took a ferry to our apartments area. This took about an hour but was a great view from the Han river. I am enjoying Seoul and all the places we have been but am having trouble getting the pictures I want. It is just hard but I'm trying. I am enjoying the food and the people, but I am defiantly having coffee withdrawals. Im exhausted so this is a short blog. I love you all and will see you soon.

Andrew
20.43

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Well happy new year to all, hope your holiday went well, here in Korea nothing happened. It sounds bad but for the new year I went to be around Nine ish and slept. It was great. Today was a national holiday in Korea which means nothing is open. So, in light of that I designated today as a "chill" day. The day started around ten o'clock when everyone woke up and had breakfast. For breakfast we had a traditional Korean New year breakfast, it was NASTY!!! I puked it was so bad, I still ate it though. It was an animal skin stuffed with chopped up vegtables and pork boiled in a thin broth. Around eleven I walked out onto the streets alone and by myself. Since nothing was open I decided to just walk around to see what I could see. There was noone on the streets, even the popular areas. I tried to take pictures but there were limited subjects so todays pictures were about 100 shots. This is very little but again today was meant to do nothing. When I got home we spent about two hours watching Volleyball on tv. I then went into my room and took a nap before dinner. Dinner was something boiled in a broth with some kind of beef. The meat was great with a spicy korean sauce on it. Every meal contains sticky rice and kimchi, so if the meal is bad I always drown out the taste with the spices of the Kimchi. Now I am sitting in my room writing my blog like I do everyday after dinner. During my writting I am brought fresh cut Korean Pears and sometimes Kiwi also, ITS SO GOOD. Fruit is huge in the culture and served with every meal. The pear is sweet and serves as the desert, it is so good and will be greatly missed in the states. Some people would say this was an uneventful day, but I enjoyed today. I got to experince what a day of nothing looks like in Korea, something very interting to see. During the day I got in troulbe with my host. After lunch I grabbed the water bottle and put it back in the fridge. I was repremended in Korean for about a minuate then translated to me that I should never put anything up because I am the guest. It is hard to sit and watch and the mother of the house cleans up and sit there not allowed to do anything, but I can get used to it. Today was a good break, tommorrow will be packed with events and picturs. Thank you to all and I miss you!!!

Andrew
19.44