Street Artist in Myeongdong

Curious little girl --- she patiently waits for her balloon being prepared by the tall, thin clown in long red pants with a knapsack. This was taken at Myeongdong where mascots from different brands and stores are out in the middle of the streets and some street artists like this guys would just surprise you. My friend and I were in Faceshop at that time and she was about to buy some goods when suddenly I told her that I'll just go out to chase the tall man for a photo. She then decided to leave her supposedly merchandise and followed me running out to this tall, lanky clown. =))

A street artist in Myeongdong keeps the little kid waiting for her balloon art

Olympic Park Photowalk

01 May 2011


Photowalked with FILIPOS and learned a lot from SLAG mentors!


Obviously, Tin and I were tired for what few hours of sleep we had. So we woke up late and arrived at the Olympic Village / Park at 11 o'clock. Just an hour late. LOL.


The members were divided into amateurs and professionals and each amateur was asked to tag along with one professional photographer for that day's photowalk. It's a good practice and Tin and I tagged with the SLAG. I learned a lot particularly from Kuya Jhan-jhan who even reset my camera's settings and fixed it up to match his D90's settings.


The sky was not so moody and the sun barely shone but the weather was good enough to go along with us by not raining. ^^

Official Site of Korea Tourism Org.: Culture & Tour Festivals 2011

Official Site of Korea Tourism Org.: Culture & Tour Festivals 2011

Korea is such a great country to visit! This year, they're opening to globalization even more as each city has been inviting more foreigners to participate in the promotion of their culture and tradition. Check out this website and see the wonderful festivals Korea has for its nationals and foreigners alike! I've marked my calendar for some of this month's festivals and I can't wait to indulge in the splendid and rich Korean culture and preserve memories through my upcoming photo walks in these amazing places!^^

Insa-dong and Hyehwa

23-24 April 2011


Sidetrippin' and Sleepin' Over at SNU


My class in Anam campus ended at 4:00 pm. I was excited despite my tired self because I'm about to go on a photowalk! My detox time! ^^


I reached Hyehwa station by 5:00 pm and there I met Tin!


Just when we were about to go back to her dormitory to leave my huge bag, we saw a performance across the street. So we decided to go see it! Several people were dressed in white with red, yellow and blue designs on the shoulder area and they were going around in circles while playing drums and many other instruments! It was the Traditional Korean Music and it was out of plan but making this sidetrip even more its worth! ^^


After the mini event was over, I had a mini tour of Seoul National University - Hyehwa and went to Tin's dormitory to leave my backpack.


1800 h


Antique Shops Lined the Street
We went around Insa-dong. It was full of antique shops and stores that sold small stuff like trinkets and just about any kind of souvenir for foreigners. The main street already had some lamps displayed as preparation for the Buddha festival. A lot of stores sold statues of Buddha as well and the deeper we went, the more antique shops we saw. Some of the store owners were kind enough to let us take photos of their displays. ^^


Traditional Korean Dessert
On our way back, we went to some booth that sold the traditional Korean dessert made of honey. At the first store, we watched four guys recite in Korean, describing their product and showing customers how the dessert is made. The second store was more entertaining cos the four guys recited in English and the "lead" even knew about the Philippines' SMB and kept repeating "San Miguel Beer, delicious!" LOL. We were waiting for free samples, too bad there were none! Hahah! It was fascinating to see how the "dough" separated into multiple strings - starting from one, two, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 ... and on it went until 16,384!


1930 h


Dinner at the best 토포키 place!


Menu: topokki with cheese, THE PIZZA, ramyeon and the free unlimited icecreeeeeam!
The pizza is to die for! I just gotta get back to that place and indeed, they had the best cheezy topokki! The chocolate icecream even had the hint of mint! ^^


The place has a very warm and inviting ambiance and it looked like a kindergarten classroom-turned-restaurant. ^^


We enjoyed the food so much that we realized how long we stayed ~ we wrapped up dinner for more than an hour! LOL.


Before we left, the restaurant owner asked where we came from and told us that he's a fan of Pacman! KEWL! ^^
love to go back again for the pizza, kindergarten ambience, cute pizza baker, really nice store owner :))


2100 h


Catholic Church at Hyehwa
We went to hear mass at the Catholic church and right after the mass, we each got a pair of Easter eggs! LOL.


2200 h


Photowalk at the University Street
If Manila has it's U-belt, Hyehwa has the counterpart. The place is also surrounded by numerous universities and is known as the "university street". After burning off some calories from walking, we went to a nearby hof for a round of Max beer and samgyeopsal! LOL. Yes, we foodtripped! That was one of the restaurants that served delicious kimchi so far, the second in my list. ^^ 


0130 h
Just before we headed back to Tin's dormitory, I did my trademark pose just outside the hof.LOL. c",)

Detoxicating Sidetrips to Myeongdong and Yeouido

19 April 2011


We were dismissed a bit earlier from class today! And I've set my afternoon to meet up with my "lost sister", Tin!!! We're going on a sidetrip! YeaaaaahhhH!


1300h
I met up with Tin at Myeongdong station. It took less than 30 minutes by subway to reach Myeongdong station from Anam. I was too excited that I didn't even feel hungry. I just had some crackers with me for a light snack. ^^


We took Exit 2 and reached the Myeongdong main street. I needed a smart casual / formal dress for the symposium I have to attend on Friday. And what a perfect place to shop indeed and a lot of stuff are sold at quite cheap prices! You just have to be really good in scouting for the good quality clothes! Dresses, blouses, tees for under 10,000 won! After going through several shops, I finally found two dresses that I couldn't decide which one to pick, so I bought both! ^^


Then we went around and about the alleys where there are lots of beauty stores. Salesladies were in costumes and greeted passersby happily and handed out free samples and requested people to go in even just for window shopping! Because of that, my jacket pocket immediately got filled up with the free samples as we passed by 4 to 5 different shops! ^^


In the middle of the streets, we'd often meet some mascots from the various stores and restaurants. We even saw Snoopy and the weird distorted-looking Garfield! Hahah! But the best one was the street artist. We were inside Faceshop when suddenly, as I looked out, I saw a very tall man walking and was in full "clown"-look and the long red trousers. Tin dropped what she was about to buy and decided to go out with me to run after the tall man to take photos! Oh yes, we were in the place to take photos primarily, canvassing and shopping only came second. LOL.


It was quite an interesting view of Myeondong having a street artist in the middle of the road showing off his balloon art skills and even made a lollipop-shaped balloon for a little girl who was all eyes on him as she waited for her balloon (like she was waiting forever in vain...LOL).


Before we headed to the subway, we passed by a stall and saw stockings being sold for 3 for 10,000 won (it sounded like 3 for P100 -- no.1 rule though, never convert currencies!).


1400h
We went back to the subway to go to Yeouido. After around 30 minutes, we were already in Yeouido. We took Exit 4 and walked straight to Yeouido Park hoping that the cherry blossoms, our main goal for the day's sidetrip, are still in full bloom. Just before we crossed the street, we passed by a cozy coffee booth that had a very warm and inviting ambiance.^^


The Cherry Blossom Festival at Yeouido ended last Sunday unfortunately. We were not able to see the festivities and the many people that filled the park. As we reached the par, we were a bit disappointed since there is not that much cherry blossoms anymore. As we stolled along, we took photos of the stikingly pink flowers that adorned the sides of the pathwalks. We walked on until we reached the center of the park where we saw two full blooming cherry blossoms! That's were we did our photoshoot! LOL.


While filling up our cameras with photos of people, passersby, flowers, the view and the cherry blossoms especially, we saw a Chinese-Korean family with a very cute bouncing baby girl who was lying with her belly flat on the ground as her dad was enjoying the moment and took photos of his daughter. I couldn't resist the baby so I asked permission from the family if I can take photos of the baby as well. And where the baby was sitting, it was such a perfect pose and the background were the cherry blossoms as well! ^^ The baby kept smiling and laughing as Tin and I playfully took photos of her! ^^


1600h
Time's up and I had to go back to Jochiwon already. Sidetrip is over and Tin and I had to part ways as we reached the Seoul station. As I reached the ticket office, I made it just in time to ride the train which was about to leave in a few minutes! LOL. The train departed at 1643h and I reached Jochiwon by 1812h. And to save time, I rode the free campus bus that passed by the train station at 1827h.


Tune in for my next sidetrip! c",)

My First FILIPOS Day: Yeouinaro Photowalk

I was overly excited and woke up at 6:00 AM. I checked the internet last night and it said that there's a train to Seoul at 7:18 AM. I had everything prepared, my memory card, spare SD card, my battery - well charged, lens and body - cleaned --- all set! I brought some oranges for breakfast in the train. ^^


I walked to the train station and only to find out that the next train schedule is at 8:10 AM! T___T" I was supposed to be at Singil Station by 9:00 AM in order to meet Kuya Marco and Kuya Mon, the two FILIPOS guys whom I met in the train yesterday. Since I couldn't make it, I called them up and asked for the exact train station where the club will meet up. So yeah, I'm gonna be late. T__T"




10:20AM YEOUINARO STATION EXIT 2
As I got out of exit 2, I saw a group of people with dslr's. "This must be the place then and they must be Pinoys", I thought. And when I got nearer, some of them were staring at me cos I had my slr over my neck and seemed to them like I was looking for one of them. They were right! Then I met Kuya Marco and Kuya Mon and they introduced me to the rest of the members. ^^ I met Tin, whom Kuya Marco thought was me (because of the long hair probably) and from then on, she became my best buddy in the club, my so-called long-lost-sister in Korea. Hahah... Tin is a Nursing Management graduate student in SNU and is already in her final year and has also been into photography. We talked as if we knew each other already and it was a lot of fun knowing each other and meeting other people in the club! A few minutes later, Krish, who was already a member of the club also arrived and introduced me to his two friends int he club. He's my batchmate in UST and we haven't seen each other since I arrived in Korea. So this is like our mini reunion and a sort of grand gathering with fellow Pinoy photographers for me!


We started our day with a prayer led by one of the leaders of the club, Kuya Nads. Then off we went to take photos of whatever we can. The theme of that day's photowalk was Macro Photography. Ok, I like macro photography but it's something I badly need to develop. So whatever happens, I'll just try to shoot whatever I can macro on as creatively as I can. LOL.


Tin is also addicted to coffee and she hasn't had breakfast yet. It was already past 12:00 PM and everyone was still busy taking photos! ^^ Though the place was still not in full bloom, there weren't so much cherry blossoms yet, it still looked beautiful and peaceful and I enjoyed taking random photos of passers-by, portraits of children rather than the macro theme. LOL.


There's a Ministop nearby and that's where all of us had lunch at past 1:00 PM already. Everybody sure was hungry! The group was gathered once again to announce the winners of the last photowalk's theme - Pre-nup Photography. Ate Janice was the winner and also the people's choice! Girls are ruling! ^^,


Tin and I decided to go home by 4:30 PM and I took the train to Jochiwon. By the time I reached Jochiwon, it was past 6:00 PM and I had enough time to buy some stuff at the market.


For the first time, I heard mass with Sue! We've been planning to hear mass together but our schedules hardly jammed. Finally, tonight was the night! Hahah! She's an undergraduate student in our department as well and I knew her through my professor who gave my number to her in order to contact me whenever she'd hear mass in Jochiwon. Sue has been one of my good friends since then and has been helping me with some Korean phrases! ^^,


Before heading to the bus stop, we bought some bread at Jong Man. It looked similar to Breadtalk and they have a quite a good selection of various pastries too! ^^, Dinner that night - pizza bread! ^^,