Happy Birthday Sharma

18 October 2007 @ NaengJeong

It's Sharma's birthday! After my Korean language class at 6pm, me and all my lab members walked to a shop in Naengjeong to eat SamGyeopSal [grilled pork]. We had lots of fun and drank lots of soju.

Birthday boy

Samgyeopsal~~

Amit [Sharma's best friend, from another lab] and the rest are my lab members

Du-Cheol and Sharma drinking cross-arm-soju

Sharma and my lab members

It was my second samgyeopsal meal of the week... But I still enjoy it anyway. Hehe.. Thanks Sharma for treating us the delicious meal!! Happy Birthday to you! Billy, out.

Farewell Dinner with my Classmates

17 October 2007 @ Gaegeum [개금]

It was our second last Korean language class in Dongseo University. Right after our class, at 6pm, we went to Gaegeum to eat Shabu Shabu! It was our first and last dinner with the korean language teacher, Ms. Jang and my fellow classmates from all over the world.

Together with us are 5 Chinese [Cherry, Sophia, Jessie, ZhaoLiang, YongTai], a Russian [Liliana], an Indonesian [Ifa], 2 Japanese [Saki, Shibata], a Korean [Shibata's friend] and our beloved teacher. Not present at the dinner that night are WeiLu [Chinese], ShinKeat and the Mongolian classmate [Miki].

Shabu Shabu.. yummy~~ ^^

4 trainees with the Korean teacher, Ms. Jang

Shibata [Japanese], Ji-Dong [Korean], Saki [Japanese], Me

Ifa [Indonesian and ZhaoLiang [Chinese]

Group photo with the Chinese

Me and Liliana [Russian]

Rice cake dessert.. bought by our teacher [Thanks Ms Jang!]

We had a wonderful night, with all my classmates. We seldom talk in class but I'm glad that now I know them better. I'm so happy to get to know friends from so many different countries. Hehe.. Hope I can keep in touch with all of them. =P Billy, out.

Pusan International Film Festival

10 October 2007 @ Busan Yachting Center

There were nine of us, ShinKeat, DeYan, ChauLun, YuShu, ChunWei, Bryan, SeongYee, CheeMin and I went to the open air theater at Busan Yacthing Center to watch a Japanese animation movie [The Piano Forest]. The special screening of this show was due to the recent Pusan International Film Festival [PIFF] from 4 Oct to 12 Oct. There were lots of premieres and movie screenings including a movie by Michelle Yeoh. She'd even attended the premiere as the invited guest.

So, The Piano Forest, talked about 2 friends from different background but brought them together through the touch of a magnificent piano in the forest. It was quite a nice story but the temperature was too cold at the outdoor theater.

The banner of PIFF

9 tickets for 9 people

So many people.. taken from the place we sat

That's us sitting in a row.. and huge loads of people still coming in...

ChunWei, ChauLun, Me, ShinKeat, DeYan posing in front of the entrance

Before the show starts, there were a bunch of people playing some musical instruments. And the show officially starts around 8pm and ended nearly 10pm. It was a cool experience to watch a movie outdoor. But I'd bring more clothes if I'd a chance to go again. Hehe... Billy, out.

Chuseok Trip 1 - 태종대

3 October 2007 @ Taejongdae [태종대]

This plan was supposed to be on the first day of the Chuseok holidays, but it was postponed due to heavy rain and strong winds. Once again, on this wonderful public holiday of National Foundation Day in Korea, a gigantic group of international students gathered to visit the beautiful Taejongdae.

Taejongdae is a huge natural park with magnificent cliffs facing the open sea on the island of Yeongdo. When the sky is clear, visitors can see a few islands from Taejongdae, one of them is the Daema Island of Japan.

This time, our group were made up of 22 people!! There are 4 Germans [Tabea, Ilka, Eva, Sebastian], 1 Indonesian [Liliana], 2 Mongolians [Miki, Bayalag], 3 Chinese [Cherry, Lulu, MeiXiang] and 12 Malaysians. Whoa!

Group shot at the entrance of Taejongdae Park

The "train" we took inside the park

First stop in Taejongdae, HELP Temple [franchise of HELP Institute? =P]

Just a small temple..

We went to the first floor of the temple

The big blue sea.. taken at the observatory tower

Me and the big blue sea [Can you see the island far far away? =P]

Group shot again at the observatory area

The Malaysian guys.. ^^

ChauLun, CheeMin, DeYan, Me, Liliana and SingHui at the cliffs

Me sitting at the side of cliffs... scary~

Standing at the side of the rocks...

CheeMin, DeYan, Hofun, ShinKeat and me and the light tower

3 guys trainees on the cliffs

Me and the Mongolian, Miki [my Korean classmate]

Mermaid + us

The view from the top

Sitting in one row ^^

Group shot @ the cliffs

The beautiful cliffs at Taejongdae

After visiting Taejongdae, I was feeling a little uneasy and decided to go back to my dorm with ChunWei and SuHan. The rest continue their journey to the Yongdusan Park after having their dinner at Nampodong. The main objective of going to the park is to go up to the Busan Tower to enjoy the sensational night view.

Yongdusan Park and the Busan Tower

Group shot with the tower

Night viewzzz...

It was another long and tiring journey. Too bad I didn't get a chance to go up to the tower. Nevertheless, I still can enjoy the sceneries from the photos taken by our professional photographer, Mr. Hofun. Hehe.. Billy, out.

Chuseok Trip 3 - 해운대

26 September 2007 @ Haeundae [해운대]

It's the third and final day of the Chuseok festival in Korea and we're still on holiday. Luckily the weather is marvelous that day, we followed our plan to visit a few places near Haeundae. We started early in the morning from our dormitory to head towards Haedong Yonggungsa [海东龙宫寺]. This time, the group of people that join our trip got larger, total of 19 people!! There are 5 Germans [Tabea, Ilka, Eva, Stephanie, Katherine], 1 Indonesian [Liliana], 2 Chinese [Lulu, Cherry] and 11 Malaysians. Seems like we're organizing some sort of International students trip or so.

Before we take a bus to Yonggung Temple, we had brunch at the McDonald's in Haeundae. And so, after taking a bumpy bus for 30 minutes, we reached Haedong Yonggungsa The temple is built by the seaside. It has mesmerizing sceneries, beautifully crafted architectures and statues all around it.

The entrance to the temple

All the cute little tigers of 1986 with the tiger zodiac statue

Malaysians, Germans and Indonesian

Touch it if you want to give birth to a baby boy~

The golden statue

Group photo!

Sitting on the rocks

Jumping boys - Hofun, ChauLun, MengHui, Keat, Me, ShinKeat, Bryan, DeYan [broke the jumping record with 8 visible people]

Guy trainees with Teresa jie jie

A view taken from the top

Another view taken from a higher place

After visiting the beautiful temple, we head back to Haeundae by the bumpy bus again. This time, we parted ways with the Germans and a few Malaysians. And so, the number of people left in the group is 11 only. We then headed towards the Busan Aquarium at Haeundae Beach. They were having promotional prices for foreign students [slightly more than 50% discount]. Therefore, we grabbed this opportunity to take a look inside the aquarium.

That's me and the Busan Aquarium ^^v

Me and 2 starfish

Me and colourful jellyfish

All sorts of weird looking fishes

This is the weirdest I see so far

Sharks!!

Group photo with Mr. Stingray [taken using a huge mirror]

The Fish Car - A car with water and fish swimming inside

The sky is almost dark when we got out of the Aquarium. We headed down to look for food to fill our tummy and then took the subway to the Gwangalli Beach to enjoy the night view of the Gwangan Grand Bridge. It was so relaxing when the cooling sea breeze blew to my face while I enjoy the beautiful night sceneries around with the grand bridge standing elegantly in front of me.

Final group shot with the Gwangan Grand Bridge

That's about it for my final day the Chuseok festival. I really enjoyed all the 3 days of holiday thoroughly with so many foreign students having fun together. Before I end this post, I'd like to express my highest gratitude to ShinKeat because he has been planning these trips for many days and they were all a success. Thanks! Billy, out.