What Saftira Did on Chuseok Holiday - Second Day

Pocket Ball

Nintendo Wii

Invited to taste Korean Food on Chuseok at Eo-Ryeong's Aunt's house

Rice Cake

Karaoke to end the second day

all pictures by: Siti Farhana

September 25 2010

앙가

-- Sorry, I am so tired today ㅠㅠ;

What Saftira Did on Chuseok Holiday - First Day

For those who don't know what Chuseok is, read this. At that day, Korean get together with their family and do the bow to the ancestors. And there are some special food like rice cake. I had no chance to experience how Korean celebrate Chuseok, but on these 3 days holiday, I tried to do something.

The first day of the holiday, I went out to have dinner with a friend of mine. He is Korean but I think he looks like Japanese. Anyway, we went to a restaurant in Gung-dong not far from my dormitory. He is a nice guy and funny ^^.

이창헌

That's him, his name is 이창헌 [Lee Chang-Heon]. He is very tall and he likes Electric Music genre songs. It was a good night, I did not speak really much though, since I am not really good in Korea. But the nice thing about him is he wants me to speak Korean with him always, which means he purely wants my Korean skill gets better. And the night ended with a cup of coffee at 2Pigs coffee cafe. 

He said he likes things because of its weirdness hahah.

September 24, 2010

앙가

A Letter From 1-Year-Ago-Saftira for Current-Saftira

Yup, after the brazilian guys announced that they already got the letter from 1-year-ago-their-selves, it's my turn to get my letter from 1-year-ago-myself. He (1-year-ago-Saftira) did not write a lot of stuff, though. But for me (Current-Saftira) it is a lot enough to remind me of the life in the US. He wrote about what I did, where I went, what classes did I take on each season. He really took me back to the life of 1 year ago. There is a line that he wrote that made me smile ... this one

I'm fine, how are you doing? Are you working right now? Or probably you are in another place outside of Indonesia to study (please smile --> which means "that's right!!")

And I smiled =] . Yes, 1-year-ago-Saftira ... I am in South Korea, now ^^.

Thank you 1-year-ago-Saftira for the letter and Thank you and hugs for SS for sending me this letter.

I miss you so much.

September 22, 2010
앙가

--추석 잘 보내세요 ^^

From a Supporter to Become a Friend

윤선욱

윤선욱 [Yoon SeonUk] -- That's his name. He was (or maybe has been) a supporter of mine. What is supporter? I had asked the same question to him. Supporters in Korea are Koreans who help foreigners to settle up and to help solving foreigners problems. Anyway, this post is not about general supporter, this is about my supporter who has become a friend of mine ... a good one.

Born and grew up in 구미 [GuMi], he is now a junior student of Chungnam National University majoring in Mechatronics Engineering. He has a great passion in learning language, though. Even though at the first time I met him we had some problems with communicating in English, he purely helped me as best he could. And now, because of that passion and his habit of studying hard, I think we have no problem in communication anymore.

He is also now learning Japanese, because he said Japanese language is very cute ... and the girls, too ... hahah. He has been to Japan for like 2 weeks (I think), and the crazy thing he did was that he went there carrying his bicycle and planning to ride it to Tokyo. But after discovering that it would take much more time than expected, they (he and his friends) decided to stop the biking thing in the middle of somewhere in Japan and continue the trip by public transportation. He seemed to have a good time.

It has been more than five months since my arrival to Daejeon, and it means more than five months I have been maintaining friendship with him. As time went by, the label "supporter" to him, I think is not a necessity anymore. Because what I understand about supporter is that they only help you, right? But friend is another thing. Friends are there even when you don't need any help. And that is exactly what we are.

Yesterday we went to a restaurant and ate unlimited beef meal set and it was delicious and was a good time. 

I call him 형 [Hyeong] and he is a part of my adventure life in Korea. Thank you 형. ^^

September 20, 2010

앙가

-- 오늘 수업이 재밌없었어요 ㅋ

2010 World Great Baekje Festival - 친구들 Friends

Besides getting closer to the history of Baekje Kingdom, during the trip, I was also getting closer to friends who I spent 3 days with. Coming from different countries, the differences made us got interested to know each other and to make friendship. Starting from a simple question, then grew bigger ... as big as the smile and the laughter.

There are some sweetnesses of the trip.

Meet the Miss Baekje Festival, why so? because she's everywhere on my camera. This is Sekar from Indonesia

Yup, trying to be similar ... nice try though

Yup, Miss Pagoda

Nice pose Miss Museum ^^

Follow Miss Guide to get lost or the direction board to get to the right path ^^

Err ... Miss poop? of course not ... She's the Incheon Imo Yayah from Indonesia. She's funny eishhh *imitating Korean expression

Anthony and Giri from Indonesia, taking Korean Language Course at Daejeon University, were my roommate for 2 nights. They have this big passion of learning Korean Language which I should have ... sigh ... I am just not into Language ㅠㅠ;

Maya, Yuni, and errr Miss-Anywhere-On-My-Pictures ... They (excluding that Miss blablabla) are truly Ajumil -- Ajumma labil (Unstable Ajumma) hahah, they always talk rubbish ... the funny ones ㅋㅋㅋIt's a fortunate that they meet and have the same interest, I guess they will spend the best time here in Daejeon or should I say ... in Korea ^^.

Yanti and Yayah ... You can say that Yanti is the leader of this Indonesia group, she's active and funny, too. We like to play with English accent hahah.

일본사람 ... 이름이 뭐지? ㅋ 생각이 안나오다 ㅋㅋ

Travel mate, Alexi from Paraguay

Not Indonesian who speaks Indonesian like Indonesian, Jaimito from Timor Leste .. also my travel mate.

The group 11 leader ... 수고하셨습니다 ^^

Congo, Indonesia, Korea, and Cambodia ^^

Yeah!! Mission to take picture with a total strangers accomplished!!

Good day, everyone!!

September 19 2010

앙가

2010 World Great Baekje Festival - Third Day

This is it!!The first day of 2010 World Great Baekje. Located not far from our hotel, we headed to a palace which I was told that this is the first time they open and invite people to get inside and experience the Baekje time. There are King's and Queen's property, meeting room, a pagoda, praying place, etc. I was told that the pillar of the palace is kind of unique. Because it is wider at the center, which makes it stronger ... well that's what she said. The environment was very calm and I guess this palace was a very comfortable place. There were also some monks which I don't know if they live in this palace or not. I guess not.

 I personally like this palace. Anyway, there was a performance, which took us back to the Baekje era. I wonder, why the soldiers looked like old men, where were the young soldiers? And there was no knight riding horse as me and my friends were expecting. But it was interesting.

The palace trip was awesome, I like it, I love it, I would love to go again next time or maybe to other palaces.

Next to the palace, we visited Baekje Historical Museum. Just like any other museums, you know what is inside, right? But based on our group leader information, the properties inside the museum are the real ones.

There was (again) a place that was scheduled for us to visit. But, due to uncertain reason, it was also cancelled. That was actually a pity, because we might not have any chance to visit this festival again. But, anyway ... these 3 days experience were exhausting, yet we learnt, saw, experienced new things which made our exhaustion became not a problem at all. Visit 2010 World Great Baekje Festival, now!!

More pictures here.

September 19, 2010

앙가

-- Menu for today: Beef for lunch with a friend and Taekwondo in the evening.

Pre-2010 World Great Baekje Festival - Second Day

With the weather was less hotter than the first day, the second day was also better than the first day. Not only that I went to new places but also there were very interesting performances at the end of the day. The day was begun with the tombs ... again!!?? but it was a nice view from the top, though. Worth visiting.

It is called Tumuli in Neungsan-ri, Buyeo. There are 7 tombs of Baekje kings during the period of 538-660 A.D. Looks like the land of Teletubbies ... if you know what it is.

The next stop is Jeongnimsaji Museum, located in Buyeo. What is in there? there are a 5 stairs pagoda, Buddhas, and emm ... a museum (what?). You know what museum is like. And of course, there is a connection with Baekje Kingdom, because like you know, we were like in Baekje trip, so isn't that obvious?! hahah.

My group leader was simulating how Koreans bow to the Buddha

The last place to visit on that day, according to the what was written on the schedule, was supposed to be a castle. But, as we walked on the track, we did not see any castle. In fact, there was not really nothing to see. I guess there was another track that we could have gone to, which might lead to the castle. Anyway, it was called Busosanseong Fortress. I did not really take any pictures.

This is the interesting part. At night, we went to the same place as the night before (where there were performances and games) and ... ok let me put this way. On 16th, actually there was a one-day cultural trip offered by WSK, a program that I join, and they mentioned that there would be B-Boy performance, which I heard is a great performance. I had a kind of sad feeling because I missed the B-Boy performance due to my participation on this Baekje trip. But then that night, unexpectedly and luckily, there was B-Boy performance. And it was totally awesome.

But, it was not the only fun. That night, each of group (there were 12 group) had to perform their own performances. My team were doing this model-wannabe thing and singing my favorite Korean song (find my post about this, and you will know what song it is). The other team performances were really interesting. There were drama, guys dressed like girls, dance, Happy Birthday songs sang by many languages, dance again, and etc. My favorite was the guys dressed like girls, it was really funny and my travel mate was one of them hahah.

One of the performances, they were really cute ^^

Nice night to wrap up the exhausting day ^^. Pictures here.

September 19, 2010

앙가

-- Just had a coffee together with my friend and took picture of my 귀여운 친구 ^^

Pre-2010 World Great Baekje Festival - First Day

2010 World Great Baekje Festival is the first (that's what I was told) festival in order to introduce the to the world about one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea which is Baekje Kingdom. This event is being held from today (September 18) until October 17, 2010. Taking place in around Gongju and Buyeo, this festival is absolutely worth visiting. Anyway, I am not going to write in detail about this event, because you can find most of important information on the 2010 World Great Baekje Festival website. However, I am going to write about my experience of 2 days before the festival and 1 day at the time of the festival. Since I think it is going to be a long post, I have decided to separate it into 3 parts based on the day. As written on this post's title, this one is the first day of the journey.

공주 [GongJu]

Departing from Chungnam National University, we went to Gongju National University to attend the opening ceremony. Hundreds of people were there from a lot of countries, including South Korea. It was an extremely hot day, but since it is just the beginning, our spirit was still on the top. Besides, the dancer cooled the day.

Anyways, I actually have been to Gongju for a school trip and I was actually expecting to go to somewhere I have never been in Gongju in this trip. But yeah, the first place that we went after the ceremony was Gongsanseong Fortress which I have been to. It is a fortress and there are some tracks inside that you can walk through and enjoy the view. Luckily, this time i went to different track from the previous trip. But, before walking through the tracks, I found an interesting torturing equipment ... and even the blood.

Too bad there was not any deep explanation about the fortress when we walk through the tracks from the expert guide, so it was like more to sightseeing than history trip. But, the brief information written on the stone-like thing is enough, too. ^^

Let's go to the next stop which is The Songsan-ri Tombs and Tomb of King Muryeong. Unlike the fortress, this place I had never been to. Information here.

부여 [Buyeo]

On the schedule, actually there was one more place to visit, but due to the weather problem, it was canceled. We went to the Lotte Hotel where we stayed 2 nights over there. It is located in Buyeo and it was a very decent hotel. The room was good and one thing I was so amazed of was the toilet. Yes, it has these fancy buttons with variety of functions.

Even though the room was very decent, it was not really comfortable. It was because this room was occupied by 8 people, and there was only 2 mattress in a room and a big-size bed in another room. It became a problem, but actually we managed to spend 2 nights there.

The first day of the trip was closed by some performances. There were some music performance, of course Korean-ish performances, and also games. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera, but I captured some pictures by using my phone, but you know ...

One of the games, those guys played good

End of the first day ^^. Pictures here. 

September 18, 2010

앙가

--

A: 몇살이에요?

B: 저 스물두살이에요.

A: 아 진짜?? 믿을수 없어

ㅋㅋㅋ