Second impressions

Yesterday was a good day :). It felt like summer with temperatures - at least if I can rely on Wunderground - rocking the 22°C... The sky was clear, the three blossoms were blooming... perfect.
Of course, I had my class in the morning till 1pm. And I must say, second impressions are better than first ones. Maybe I expected something else of my class of being more international in stead of only Chinese, Japanese and one Ukrainian, but eventually maybe it doesn't matter that much. I still don't know the people of my class very well yet, because they tend to cluster together, the Japanese and the Chinese. And I am a single case of not really Chinese and also not really Belgian, Dutch or American. I sometimes get confused when I have to explain, where I come from. I just say I am European Chinese or something.
I really enjoy taking the classes, if time flies, that's a good thing, isn't it? I especially like the teacher of the last 2 hours, who is so cheerful and enthusiastic. Maybe because we tend to be more active in stead of just learning grammar during the first 2 hours.The teacher is cute and pretty too.... I should take some pictures some day for my male readers ;p.

After class I went to the University bookshop and bought myself some notebooks - the paper versions of course - and did some local shopping for garbage bags. In Seoul we have to recycle. I got a folder at the tourist information office few days ago about recycling and read it through. I am glad they recycle here, just like in Belgium. Back in the States, we do have some garbage cans for recycling paper and plastics and cans, but not many people of our apartment complex are doing that, which I think is very sad. I am not a eco freak, but still, keeping the environment clean and try to recycle to spear our mother earth's resources is good attitude.

Cherry blossoms at Yeouido 여의도

In the afternoon I took the sub to Yeouido, known as the 'Manhattan' of Seoul with it's high rise buildings. It's a small island located in the middle of the Hangang that runs through Seoul. The river is decorated with many bridges that are lit up by night and gives the City it's famous and most beautiful night views.
For the Korean drama fans, here are also the main Korean broadcast stations located like KBS and MBC.

Speaking about drama, on my way to the Yeouido park, I say two people having a word fight in the middle of the road because of a car accident. A good looking young lady in a nice car bumped into the taxi driver and of course both blamed each other which gave great spectator's view :p. They were shouting to each other, I tried to listen but didn't really understand. Yeah, I always like to pick up conversations around me, trying to improve my listening skills. I don't walk around with my mp3 earplugs anymore, maybe because I want to absorb as much of the city's sounds as much as I can.

I asked the way to the 'Spring Flower Festival'. I knew that Japanese are crazy about 'sakura' cherry trees and there blossoms, but it seems Korean like that as well. I must admit, I have never seen so much blossoming cherry trees all together...

It was very crowded yesterday, because of the nice warm weather. There were a lot of couples walking through that tunnel of blossoming flowers, quite romantic. Too bad I missed one person next to me... But I enjoyed it very much. Along the road there were vendors selling small streets snacks or artists taking or drawing pictures.

On my way back to the subway station, I stopped along the Han River where I could watch the late afternoon sun and observing couples riding bicycles, picnicking, kissing - although it was hidden for public I caught a young couple hidden in the high grass along the river bank .... aaaah .... lovely spring vibes in Seoul with a beautiful city scene... Koreans are very romantic people :))


Silk worms
From romantic cherry blossoms to something else now....HORROR. That day I saw at least 20 stands where they sell some kind of cooked 'cocoons' of some kind of butterfly. Beondegi 번데기. I couldn't look at it for too long or my stomach would turn upside down and it didn't really smell nice.

But I heard, it does taste very good so I have decided I have to try this once in a lifetime and to overcome my fear of worms. And it's a good source of proteins, dixit Bear Grylls. And it's not really meat. I have been afraid of worms all my life or everything that crawls like a worm or maggot. I am not afraid of spiders though. So I am going to eat this one day, with my eyes closed of course. Hope I will be mentally prepared by then, within a few weeks or so... hehehe, but as for now, not yet ;p.

Dinner with three
I had dinner again with Heli and Yeong Hon 영헌 at one of Yeong Hon's favorite eateries near our campus. The boss of the eatery was very kind and we ordered three kind of 'soups' like 참치찌개 with bibimbap 비빔밥.

This bibimbap was slightly different than the ones I already had : we got a metal bowl of rice and it was mixed by the owner at the table with some lettuce, seaweed, dressing and hot sauce. It was delicious :).

Pubbing at Crimson's roof
Afterwards we ended up on the roof of Crimson House to have some drinks that we bought at the night shop. The evening view was splendid and we could see Seoul Tower from our place. We could see and hear university students hanging out in the grass fields of the campus, probably also enjoying the nice warm spring evening with some liquids as well. Jen - an Australian exchange student like Heli - and two other Korean ladies joined us. We had some very interesting talks and listened to some music. There was even a small introduction to Austrian Waltz. Aaaaah.... spring vibes in Seoul.... I really felt like going back in time living a student's life. Wish it could last forever :))