This one goes out to all you KIMCHI Lovers out there

My first post on this blog was regarding the name I choose for it. I did apologies for deceiving those who entered this blog in hope of finding the Kimchi bible. But then again I did promise to post something Kimchi related here.... And here it comes :D

First of all I have been eating Kimchi probably everyday since I got here, so it is defiantly not my first encounter with this delicious side dish. But this time I got in close contact when me and my Maple group went to Kimchi making class :D It was of course not from scratch because the cabbage needs to ferment for some months, so we got already fermented cabbage that we mixed with the special saus. I was a little bit tired (hangover) during the class because me and my Buddie-group were out till 7 in the morning the same day. But it was still a lot of fun. 

Concentrated people making Kimchi

From this ....

To this ....

And the final product

Park my Korean buddie was
totally psyched for this 

He just needed to taste if it
was made to perfection

After that we were going to made Korean pancakes, guess what with... Kimchi of course ;) 8 months fermented and minced Kimchi. That is one dish that is quite easy to bring and make in Sweden, all I need to find is some Kimchi :D

Group H with their jars full of Kimchi

Got to try out some traditional clothes

 After the cooking was done we went to Insadong to walk around some before we ended the day with some dinner.

Looks like a Christmas Tree ... or something else?
Anyway it was filled with redbean paste and walnuts =)
They like to fill everything with redbean paste here ^_^

Bibimbap with Octopus :)

Yesterday I participated in the SKKU sports festival at the other campus. Sungkyunkwan has two campuses, one is located at Hyehwa which is very central in Seoul and one at Suwon which is another city located 30km south of Seoul. We spent the day mostly getting fried in the sun and eating food while watching people run around, and later a soccer game between SKKU vs Beijing. Eventually we could sneak away to play some basketball and later football against some Korean 20year old guys. They were very sneaky and fast. During this day the exchange student from the Seoul campus participated in a running competition, we got second place and WON 1.000.000 :D KRW of course.

Chung-il, our international
coordinator gave it a swing. 

Balloons 

Looks like the spider got himself some victims (Y) 

Halftime show/entertainment 

Halftime show/entertainment 

1.000.000KRW

That's about it. Kimchi class and Sport festival. Now I need to study because on Thursday I am going with a group to Busan (which is in the south of South Korea), and from there over to another city which is not decided yet :) 

Btw here comes a picture from the day before the Kimchi class 

Dried squid :D Not bad at all

Sundae, the real one. Pig's intestines filled with noodles and other stuff =) 

Haven't done much during the last week

So since the last update I haven't been able to do as much fun stuff as before. More time have been spent on reading and studying.... which is not fun at all. With that said I will just throw out some random pictures of what I have been doing the last week.

First picture from campus :D This picture is taken from the Business building
where I take all my courses. 

 One day me and Tomi planned on going to the Seoul Drum Festival, but with some wrong information and bad instructions from the webpage, we spent some hours on the metro and walking and at the end missed the whole thing ..... After that we meet up with Samrok, a Korean we meet at school and had Korean BBQ and some beers. That kinda saved the lost hours from earlier that day :)

Tomi trying to ask for directions among the locals ^_^

Another day we went to Dongdaemun, which is an area that they have been exploiting in the recent years and built an amazing Culture Park which is the center of this neighborhood. We just decided to explore this place and walked around the Dongdaemun Culture Park and the Market. Seoul have many districts, and they are quite different. I live two subway stops from Dongdaemun Culture Park and in my Area most buildings are 3-5 story high. But in Dongdaemun it is quite different. I like this a lot, sometimes I just go to a new area of Seoul to see another part of the City :)

Dongdaemun Culture Park :)

Dongdaemun Culture Park or an UFO????

Dongdaemun

Dongdaemun

 And here comes some random food pictures of what I have been trying out lately :) Btw as I might have said before, most grocery shops are either the same or more expensive then back in Sweden.... Can't add this up in my head. So I am always eating out because it's either the same price as cooking at home our slightly more expensive. I was expecting that some products were going to be more expensive but not to this extent. Well I do not mind eating out everyday :D

Sundae: So this Sundae is a soup with pig's intestine
stuffed with cellophane noodles. Not that bad at all :)

Gyeran Bbang: Korean streetfood Egg Bread

HoBbang: Korean steamed bun
with red-bean paste. Yummy :)

A Palace, A Mountain and A Museum

So the last days I haven't had any school because of the Chuseok holiday and therefore I have tried to make the most out of my free time. Btw just right before the holiday started our Air-condition stopped working and it couldn't be fixed till after the holiday..... that was not so nice because it is has been quite warm here in Seoul, probably around 25-28 almost each day. And in addition to that it is quite humid here. But it is getting cooler outside now so that's both good and bad. However during the holiday I managed to visit the Changgyeonggung Palace, the Bukchon area, the Bukhansan National Park, and the Korean War Monument. With that said ..... this post will contain aaaaa looooot of pictures :) and maybe a little less text.

Outside Changgyeonggung Palace

Outside Changgyeonggung Palace

Changgyeonggung Palace

Changgyeonggung Palace

Changgyeonggung Palace

Changgyeonggung Palace

Changgyeonggung Palace

Changgyeonggung Palace

Next to Changgyeonggung Palace we visited the Bukchon area which is an area with old typical Korean houses. 

Bukchon

Bukchon

Bukchon

Bukchon

Bukchon

Bukchon

Bukchon

Bukchon

 After that we meet up with Eva and Sam to have dinner. Don't remember the name of the dish so will need to update you on that :) But it was really tasty. Almost like the Patbingsu, you mix everything and then we added cheese and noodles and at the very end rise as well.

Patbingsu again :S

We experimented with the camera to get some cool pictures... think we
need some more practice but it turned out quite nice anyway 

And on the actual day of Chuseok we went to Hangang Park to have a nice picnic and just chill=)

The day after that we had planned to take a hike up the highest mountain in Seoul at Bukhansan National Park. Never really hiked before and was a little bit afraid that my injured feet would be a problem, but they managed quite good. Even with that problem out of the way it was really exhausting. I thought it was going to be a little bit easier terrain up the mountain but it just got more and more difficult. In addition I didn't really have appropriate shoes, so maybe that had something to do with it. But when on the top and when we had made it back down, I was really satisfied. Had a really big meal with the group and then went home to recover :) 

The mountain man!

A part of Seoul

Was told not to fall down...
I held that rope quite hard

I Make It Look Easy

The group =)

Yesterday we went to the Korean War Monument. They have a museum there as well but unfortunately it was closed that day. But then again lucky us that they have so much too see outside :). Outside you could see artillery, tanks and planes that were used South and North Korea during the Korean war.

Swedish made, operated by a swede 

Symbolizes the crack in Korea

After the Museum we went to Namdaemun market were we walked around for some hours. Was the first place I've visited were you could actually buy some really cheap and touristy stuff, need to come back here a couple of times :). Then we went to a place that we had been eyeballing for some time. Just decided to try it out because it is always packed with Koreans :)  

CHICKEN :D

Here in Korea they like to mix their beer with Soju, just
thought this glass represented that quite well ^_^

Sorry for the extreme long post but I hope you enjoyed it anyway =)