Trip to Hwaseong Temporary Fortress in Suwon

I recently made a trip to Suwon, a city about an hour away from Seoul. I had originally planned on seeing the town and seeing the famous Hwaseong Fortress, but only got to see Hwaseong Haenggoong (the Hwaseong Fortress is behind this palace)

Here's an excerpt from the Korea Sparkling website.
Hwaseong Haenggung 화성행궁 The Hwaseong Haenggung was a temporary palace where the king sought refuge during war and found rest during times of peace. The Hwaseong Haengung is the largest of all temporary palaces in Korea, used by King Jeongjo and the kings who followed.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Entrance to the palace

Two pix of the hall where they filmed parts of the drama Dae Janggeum/Jewel in the Palace

A still-shot from the drama

Drawings of all the king's horses and all the king's men

I think it's a magnolia

Wee soldiers

Tracing traditional symbols onto hanji (Korean paper)

Ancient tradition meets modern technology

Suwon is also known for it's sogalbi (beef ribs) so after a tour of the palace, I went to a restaurant for some Korean BBQ.
Sorry, no pictures of that, but I'll leave you with pictures of dessert from another Korean restaurant.

Dessert - watermelon and ddeok (rice cake)


The cinnamon, persimmon, ginger drink sujeonggwa (there's a pine nut floating in the middle)

8eight + 2

Hello everyone!

So, I guess I could miss the closing ceremony of the Hi Seoul Fest! hehe
Oh well, I'll just have to wait a few months for the next Hi Seoul Fest (it's held every season).

I forgot to post a pic from the interview Chris and I had with R&B group 8eight.

8eight (Joo-Hee, Lee Hyun and Baek-Chan)

They were really outgoing and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were also down-to-earth. Their vocal skills impressed us, especially when they bust out with that impromptu acapella performance of "I'll Make Love To You." They are a very talented bunch, to say the least.

Here's a video of them. They mentioned that their videos are very popular on the net--you can find a bunch of them on YouTube.

Anyway, check out the video of the interview on Star Chat .
It hasn't been uploaded yet, but it should be up soon enough. The interview was also featured on Sunday's KPI.

Allrighty, I'll leave you with a random picture of socks you can buy almost anywhere on the streets of Seoul.

Hi Seoul Festival

Last Sunday, I went to the Hi Seoul Fest's opening parade a.k.a. the "Manmin-daerorak," which translates to "everybody having fun on the street."
It was supposed to start at 5, but ended up starting at around 6pm or so! They closed down a huge section of downtown Seoul, from Jongno 3-ga to City Hall, for the parade, which was full of performers, military bands, floats, foreigners and regular citizens.

This is a video clip I recorded with my digital camera. Sorry for the bad quality.

Some lovely traditional Korean drummer/dancers...in front of Pizza Hut :-P

A huge puppet that haunts me in my dreams and will haunt yours now, too! It's looking straight at me!!

Some unicyclists thrown in for good measure. The little kid in front was so cute

My other pictures were blurry and there were short bursts of rain, so I gave up on the pictures.
Anyway, the big closing ceremony is on Sunday night (the 11th) and it looks to be spectacular. All of the performers are set to take the stage that night, so I can't miss that, can I?
Here's the link for the festival, just in case you're interested. http://www.hiseoulfest.org


And here are two more pix to end this random post.

Cheonggye Stream by day

Cheonggye Stream by night (a nice "date course" as Koreans would say)

Saranghae, neol saranghae...

I was pretty slack with the postings last week, sorry! It was a busy week at work.

The highlight, however, was interviewing Mighty Mouth!
237 AKA Sangchoo speaks English well, but didn't feel completely comfortable answering in English. I feel self-conscious about my Korean language skills--which is why I ask the stars to speak in simple Korean! hehe
Anyway, both Sangchoo and Shorry J were really easy-going, polite and funny. Obviously all the attention they're getting has not gotten to their heads :) Check out the interview here.

Chris, Shorry J, Me and Sangchoo in the studio

Here are some pictures I took in Hongdae (the trendy area around Hongik University) .

There are always interesting posters in Hongdae. Yes, you ARE beautiful, Superman; No matter what they say...I like the spring make-up, btw :-P

Customers enjoying delicious Japanese ramen

The fine men who make this delicious dish :)

Pure goodness

I'll put up some pictures of Korean food next time :)

Happy Children's Day!