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!

Week 2!

Yess!!! My shameless begging for more comments seems to have worked! hehe :-P

Thanks to all who have visited and/or commented.

Did you catch last week's Korean Pop Interactive? I hope you did! As I've mentioned a few times, Chris and I were able to sit down and chat with R&B singer Gummy. We've added a new segment to KPI called "Star Chat." The interview is also available on video on the KPI/KPOP Connection homepage. So far, we only have the Gummy interview up, but we're interviewing hip-hop duo Mighty Mouth this week, so look out for that, too :)

After a lot of rainfall last week, it seems the weather is clearing up a bit... Oh, I can't wait until I can picnic in the park! This island girl needs some sun!

Listener Love

Hi all!

I don't know exactly how many people are looking at this blog, but I hope there are many of you AND I hope you decide to leave a comment :) (Does it seem like I'm begging shamelessly? :-P)

Anyway, one of the best things about my job is being able to communicate with listeners from all over the world. I'm always amazed to hear from listeners from places like the US, Japan, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sweden, India, Australia, New Zealand and even Iran! I'm even amazed when we hear from listeners here in Korea! I guess I'm just extremely grateful and humbled that there are people who actually choose to listen to the shows and even enjoy them! haha
Thank you to all for the support. I love hearing feedback from you guys, so please don't hesitate to email or write a message on the board.

Here are some pictures from KBS.

Sometimes we get snail mail and I've collected all the cards and letters I've received. Sometimes we get goodies, like this:

Here we are in the shirts sent to us by Adilah and Shi Eun from Teranganu, Malaysia

Sometimes listeners visit us at KBS World:

Here's Marc from Japan (next to me) and two random people that just walked into the picture. Just kidding! You all know Chris :D Standing next to him is Joseph Pacillo (another KBS part-timer).

We promptly put Marc to work :-P
This is our old studio.

And sometimes we meet celebrities (this will be happening every week now that we've added Star Chat, our KPOP star interview segment, to Korean Pop Interactive):

Here's my buddy Yoon Do-Hyun, from the rock group YB and the KBS show "Yoon Do-Hyun's Loveletter." Ok, he's not really my buddy; this is actually the first and only time we've met. :-P

This is Paul T. (a listener who is originally from California but now resides in Korea) and Yoon Do-Hyun.

Marie from Australia also visited us and we chatted with her on the show. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures from that visit, but Marie, if you're reading this, please email them to us.

Ok, that's it for now!

안녕~!

p.s. Don't forget to listen to KPI on Sunday to listen to our interview with 거미/Gummy!

A New Beginning!

Hi everyone!

Since KBS World Radio's program reshuffle goes into effect today, I thought I'd start a blog, like Abby.

It's a new beginning and Spring is all about new beginnings. I know, I know, the spring season actually began a few weeks ago, but better late than never, right? hehe

For those of you who don't know me, I host 2 KPOP shows:KPOP Connection and Korean Pop Interactive. KPOP Connection is broadcast every Monday through Saturday. My co-host Chris Dykas and I bring all you KPOP lovers 30 minutes of entertainment news, the latest hits, interesting (well, we try, anyway) cultural information and your song requests.

Korean Pop Interactive is the hour-long Sunday version of KPOP Connection, which also features "Artist Spotlight" and song translations and also introduces you to popular Korean dramas.

As I mentioned in the beginning, the program reshuffle goes into effect today and there are some exciting changes!

Firstly, Korean Pop Interactive will now feature a hot star interview each week! This week will feature an interview with the beautiful and talented R&B singer 거미/Gummy! Be sure to check it out this Sunday!

Secondly, KBS World Radio now features a third channel that is exclusively dedicated to KPOP! Both KPOP Connection and KPI will be broadcast several times a day, so it'll be easy to tune in ^^

Thirdly, this blog was started to reach out to all of you out there. Whether you're an avid listener or you've just stumbled onto this blog, I hope you enjoy it. You can also directly contact me at sarahjun@kbs.co.kr or kpop@kbs.co.kr.

Alrighty, that's it for me today!
Annyung~!