Springing along

This weekend I was back in Yeouido for the cherry blossom festival and relaxing by the river.

There is a nice long street where the sidewalks are lined with trees so we walked along with the crowds and enjoyed the view. So so pretty.

After the blossoms we ended up by the busy part of the river where people were picnicking and flying kites and lounging. It was a really gorgeous day and it was nice to just throw a blanket down and take a nap in the sun. I didn't end up renting a bike like I really wanted because there weren't any close by and we got there later in the day than intended but I'm determined to do it soon! I miss riding a bike and it's flat enough by the river that I won't even have to trick my calves into agreeing to something they're not prepared to do. 

So Saturday was busy and pretty and began with Mexican for lunch and ended with Greek for dinner. Oh and a side trip to What the Book? which I was all too pleased to squeeze in. I'm on an Agatha Christie binge and What the Book? has a bunch of her books used, or at least they did until I found the stash...

Sunday I refused to even set an alarm and slept in late. I stayed in my pajamas and browsed online and bookmarked a handful of items from stores back home that my mom is awesomely going to bring for me when she comes to visit next week(!!!). Then I went to see Paul which was less funny than I was expecting but still funnier than most of the movies that claim to be comedies. My nerdiness doesn't extend so much into sci-fi so I think some of the references may have been lost on me but overall I enjoyed it. Sundays have sort of become movie nights around here so I'm hoping next week will either be Hanna or Jane Eyre.

This weekend's events also solidified my decision to spring for a new camera. My Canon PowerShot has been a trooper but five years on I think I'm ready for something that will help me take the kind of pictures I really really want to take. I'm not sure if I'm going to buy one here or order it from home but there are at least two Nikon DSLRs  that I'm considering so I need to sit down and decide about that. When my week of vacation comes up at the end of June I'm 99% sure that my boyfriend and I are going to China and I would love to have something new to shoot with for that trip. Any tips, camera techy people?

Trivia of the Day:  Seoul National University (SNU), colloquially known in Korean as Seoul-dae (서울대), is a national research university in Seoul, Korea. Founded in 1946, Seoul National University was the first national university in South Korea, and served as a model for the many national and public universities in the country. Seoul National University has been recognized for its leading role in Korean academia, and entry into the university is viewed as a ticket to success. Throughout its history, Seoul National University has been regarded as the most eminent of all post-secondary educational institutions in South Korea. It is regarded as the most renowned university by the general public and recruits top-notch high school students.

SNU graduates dominate South Korea's academics, government, politics and business. Between 2003 and 2009, more students who graduated from science high schools and received presidential scholarships matriculated at Seoul National University than at eight other leading universities combined. The concentration of SNU graduates in legal, official, and political circles is particularly high. Two-thirds of South Korean judges are SNU graduates, although the country's judicial appointment system is based solely on open competitive examinations. On the political side, four out of seven presidential candidates in 2002 were SNU graduates. The school is also often criticized by some South Koreans for being elitist and bureaucratic.

We got the van at a used car lot. We think it says Alleluia Church of Scranton in Korean

Wednesday morning I went with Brianna into Songdo which is the new central business district being built in Incheon. I've only been there once and just for dinner so it was interesting to check it out during the daytime and see how the construction is coming along.

Currently the area is pretty quiet- a handful of buildings sticking up here and there, traffic light enough that you can run across the street during the "Don't Walk" signal (something I wouldn't advise doing anywhere else in Korea), a good number of people out and about but not crowded by any means, etc. Here is what the vision for Songdo is, according to its website:

Songdo IBD (International Business District) boasts the wide boulevards of Paris, a 100-acre Central Park reminiscent of New York City, a system of pocket parks similar to those in Savannah, a modern canal system inspired by Venice and convention center architecture redolent of the famed Sydney Opera House. The cultural fabric of Songdo IBD will also be a rich one with a stunning opera house, concert hall, museum and aquarium. A Jack Nicklaus championship golf course - one of only 25 in the world - is under construction with plans already in the works for high-profile events, including a PGA Championship Tour event.

The plan is to have the area complete by 2015 though I expect that they'll want to have as much as possible done by 2014 when Incheon is hosting the next Asian Games. So Songdo is filling in slowly but surely. People are moving in, buildings are going up, and restaurants and stores are starting to open bit by bit.

(Songdo Convensia Convention Center)

The Central Park is nice. They did a good job planning lots of open spaces in Songdo and the park is located right across from the convention center. A canal runs through it and you can take little boat tours so we bought tickets and then wandered through the park while we waited. And along the way we came across this:

Yeah, so, back story time. Apparently at some point last year they set up this big thing in Central Park called The Bible Expo. But then along came a crazy typhoon at the end of the summer and did a number on it. They stood up some of the pieces that had fallen over and everything but now, a few seasons later, it's still standing and... well I'd say looking pretty worse for the wear but I'm not sure it was ever really in such great shape to begin with.

 (There's luckdragons in the bible?)

 Dedicated to those who did not make it through the typhoon parting of the Red Sea.

Random Santa Village

After a turn around the park we still had about an hour to kill before our boat ride so we grabbed some lunch at Res2Go, a teriyaki house with great food and great service. I definitely recommend it if you're in the area. Then we came back for our boat ride down the canal which lasted approximately 25 minutes. It's a wee canal.

Look at how huge that ark is that they built! I thought it was a building at first.

친차?! Really?!

I feel like this picture pretty much sums up Songdo as it stands right now...

 The Northeast Asia Trade Tower.

So yep, that's Songdo, or at least what's there so far. A few streets over from the convention center and central park there were more stores and coffee shops and the traffic was slightly heavier. It'll be interesting to watch as it gets busier though and hopefully while I'm here some more good shopping places will open up. Maybe I can use the Asian Games as an excuse to come back in 2014 and see how things have progressed!

Trivia of the Day: Dancheong (단청) refers to Korean traditional decorative coloring on wooden buildings and artifacts for the purpose of style. It literally means "cinnabar and blue-green" in Korean. It is based on five basic colors; blue (east), white (west), red (south), black (north), and yellow (center). Dancheong has various symbolic meanings. Dancheong also represented social status and rank by using various patterns and colors. It functions not only as decoration, but also for practical purposes such as to protect building surfaces against temperature and to make the crudeness of materials less conspicuous. Applying Dancheong on the surfaces of buildings require trained skills, and artisans called dancheongjang (단청장) designed the painted patterns.