05.04.2014 - The Prison & the Cherry Blossoms

The ISSC association prepared a one-day trip for all the foreigners student. We were in the Japanese prison and we also were seeing the first cherry blossoms of the spring season.

Our first stop in Seoul was the restaurant to take the lunch. I don't even know the name of what we were eating that day, but it was good.

Afterwards, we went to the prison.

This prison was built by the japanese people during the occupation of South Korea. This is, of course, a dark chapter in the history, because the japanese soldiers committed horrible tortures and abuses to the koreans, and this is not the only prison that was built. It is understandable that, nowadays, it still exists a resentment about the japanese people. But everything is over now.

Anway, the prison was closed decades ago, and it was reconverted into a museum. The entrance fee is 2500 won for students.

The prison itself is not very interesting, however, in one of the rooms you can see a video about the occupation which is actually very interesting. To finish the visit, you'll get into a big courtyard where you can see some big (quite big) south korean flags. Of course, we had a "group picture time".

After the visit, we went to see the cherry blossoms. This was actually a long route around the hills, where we could see some cherry blossoms, but less than we expected. It seems the spring hadn't come yet...

That's all folks!

02.04.2014 - Everland Park

More than one month late, I know hehe, but we all were very busy the last weeks due to the university, exams, holiday trips....

The international relations Office prepared a bargain trip for all the international students. The trip was to the Everland Amusement Park, and the fee was just 10000 won for the whole trip. A huge bargain.

The bus was waiting for us at 8:30 on wednesday 2nd of April. Our first stop was the Korean art museum. The museum itself wasn't very interesting, but its surroundings were pretty better.

Afterwards, we went to Everland Park. This park is like Disneyland or Warner Bros Park, but smaller. I think that the pictures will talk for themselves.

That's all folks!

Embedded Systems

Those days everybody is really busy because of the midterm exams. I am also busy so here is a brief post.

Some people asked me: what are you doing in South Korea? Because I only post about trips, events and so on. But I am working hard in the University of Incheon hehe, so here is an example of what I am doing:

This is the embedded device 320 (based on 8255 technology). In the University of Malaga I have studied this kind of devices, but this is the first time I see a real one in person.

Basically, we can program the device by using Ubuntu and a shell terminal. Maybe it sounds boring, but it is actually more interesting than it seems hehehe.

Well, I said it would be a brief post, isn't it? That's all folks!

26.03.2014 - Namsan and Haneul Park

On wednesday 26th was the Day of the Culture in South Korea, so some shows were cheaper or even for free!

That's why we headed to the Namsan Theatre, and we were watching a performance about traditional korean dance. We didn't understand the whole meaning of the show but anyway it was amazing!

It seems we were the only foreigners of the show, so at the exit of the theatre a guy came to us asking for a short interview. We just were asking about how we feel about the show and what we think about the Day of the Culture of Korea. Something curious at least hehe.

Afterwards, we went to the Tower of Namsan, which is located in the summit of a hill. Definetely it is not a place to go entirely by foot, unless you want to do hiking.

The place is full of lockers, it seems it is kind of trendy. We also saw there who it is supposed is the mascot of Namsan ¿?. No I think it is just a famous cartoon or someting like that: Hachi!

An important discovery was done in the Tower of Namsan: the melon ice creams! Seriously guys, once you taste it, you will want to eat it every single day.

Aftwewards, we were near Haneul park to take the lunch. Thanks to Jiwon and her mother for such a good lunch!! even with a pokemon tablecloth!

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the area and the park, and we also saw the Seoul FC stadium!

And that's all folks!

23.03.2014 - Insadong

As we are doing every single weekend, on sunday 23th we went also to Seoul. This time we wanted to see Insadong and its surroundings.

Insadong is a very famous street of the northern Seoul, which is full of shops with hand-made stuff and souvenirs. It is also popular because of the temples, palaces and parks that are located nearby.

In the following picture, you can see how crowdy is Insadong on sundays

Insadong has a lot of shops and market stalls. In some of them you can see things like Dragon Ball or Iron Man figures, Buda sculptures, and....some weird stuff like the ones you can see in the following pictures...

We also visited the Park of Tapgol. It was smaller than we expected, but anyway was nice.

Finally, we also took a look at the temple of Jogyesa

We came back to the temple with the sunset, and some parts of the templed were lightened, but we were a bit dissapointed about that, I think we expected something more...amazing.

And that was our sunday.

15.03.2014 - Namsan Village

On saurday 15th, we went to Seoul again (and sure not the last...). This time we went to Namsan Village. This place is a traditional korean village, but turned into a turistic place.

First of all, as you know (if you are reading this blog hehe), Seoul is around 2 hours far from Incheon, so, when we arrived to Seoul, it was actually the lunch time. Our first stop was a traditional korean restaurant.

I think the restaurant was built before the war, because it was almost in ruins. Anyway, we took a good lunch there: kimchi (impossible to skip in a typical korean lunch) and a big bowl of noodles. If you compare it with Spain, it was cheap: 5500 won (3'5 euros aproximately).

Afterwards, we went to Namsan by foot, walking around the ancient streets.

Finally, we arrived to Namsan Village. When we arrived, the first thing we could see was the big amount of buses pulled over the entrance. Very turistic place thought.

In the following picture, you will see a kind of korean game. You had some kind of arrows or small spears that you had to launch and put into the holes. Itt was very difficult. I scored 6! hehe

Now, few pictures about the village.

In this village, there is also one activity which is actually very interesting. If you pay 3500 won (2.5 euros), you can be dressed with korean clothes. And, of course, we couldn't resist to try the typical korean costumes hehe. So here is the result.

Finally, to finish this post, a group picture in Namsan!

That's all folks!