Summerstorms

This night it was a bit windy. It rained a little and some thunder to cap it of. I had to close all windows and make sure that they locked. Debris from all the constructionwork going on flew around in the air. All in all it was pretty exciting. I spent the evning indoors, but I guess a few people were out. Yesterday it was Clubday in Hongdae, when you, for a cheap price can go to a variety of different clubs. I was feeling my age and the howling wind and stayed at home, feeling virtious. This morning I was a bit suprised to see that everything was still standing. My roommate says that summerstorms with thunder will be pretty frequent later on. Since I am a huge fan of thunder and lightning I'm pretty stoked. It is the grandest show that nature puts on, and since we have a terrace I will be able to have some of the best seats in the house!
Today I have some Brazilian Jujutsu, that will probably be crowded since midterms are over.
The Koreans are a people who take studing and tests very seriously, I just wished that learning was part of it. So much effort is put into passing tests, that most cafe's last week were full of students. If effort is what counts then the Koreans are the champs!

This is pictures from my campus this last two weeks, everywere there is flowers!
The blue building and the space age looking one is from Hongdae. And the guys are some of the people I train with, having an after training talk.

There is a lot of great wall art in Hongdae, like this one. I will take pictures of the best ones and publish it here. This blog will now become an dedication to my hood! So many good looking details, people and buildings.
The picture of the construction going on outside my window is to show how fast everything changes. And the other one is of my new favorite place, the art and design libery ontop of Coffee Bean.

Concert time!

The §7 th of May I have tickets for one of the greatest Japanese rockbands ever(in my humble opinion)! I am so psyched! The ticket was roughly 100$ but it feels worth it! Hopefully they are as good live as they are otherwise.

Sunshine!

Yesterday it was 27 degrees, today it felt warmer and tomorrow they say will be the same. Me and Cecilia and Monica have found the perfect "study" spot on a big open space, it has chairs, tables and sun "umbrellas" (what ever they are called in english). We sat there yesterday and today, enjoying the sun, chatting and every now and then studing. Today both Monica and Cecilia drew tattoo looking pictures on my leg (cherry blossoms of Monica) and a funky plant looking fantasy looking thing on my shoulder by Cecilia. They are both amazing artists and it looks beautifull.
The best thing about this spot is the lack of people. Koreans, girls especialy, do not want to tan. REALLY NOT. This leaves all the good sunny spots for those of us who wants to. Tan I mean. Exept today I burned. Not badly but enough to invest in some sunlotion.
The lenght Korean girls go to to not tan is amazing. Alot of them cover up, some have umbrallas, some try unsuccesfully to use their books, purses or other parnelia to protect their skin. The amount of effort is on par with what westerners put in to get a tan so I guess it evens out.
Tonight we are going to find a bar with an outdoor courtyard, The temperature should have droped somewhat...

knackerd

After training session yesterday we went for dinner together. In Korea this means BBQ and drinking. Wich we did, and it was great fun. The people are really great and friendly and I got to practise my korean, chinese and charade skills. Today though, sunday, my sore muscles are killing me. Putting weight on my arms feels like a bad idea, however when you sit on the floor koreanstyle it is unavoidable. But I love that feeling. It means that you've worked hard, and though in pain now, it will become better and you will become stronger.
I have midterms next week and economics homework. This weekend was supposed to be dedicated to studing...flunked that one. Spent 2 h with the homework today and still don't understand it... Koreans must study alot of math in highschool cause this is supposed to be an introduction course. But it is fun albait far removed from reality.

The view of Hongdae subwaystation! The area around Seoul National University

New area, new life

I love love love my new neigbourhood. It has back alleys with cute, quirky cafes and bars. Best of all, it is over 2o degrees some days which means you can sit outside or just stroll around. This is the IT area for alot of subgroups. That means the diversity in style is much greater here. It is a cafe lover and shopping lovers paradise!
In school midterms are approching. Juck. I have litterature exam next week coupled with the economics homework. It is going to be a studious weekend.
My brazilian jujutsu class is great fun, though it produces sore muscles in entirely new places. The people are nice and super helpfull which I need. It is already sweaty and april has just begun... Think I will stick to the gym in the summar, they at least has airconditionor...

Pansori!

We had a Pansori performance in our Korean Literature class. Pansori is often called a korean one man opera. But it is so much more, and so much better. We had two young women, one improvises on the drum, the other one dramatized a famous story, singing all the different characters. I had beforehand been afraid that it would be boring. It was not. It was fantastic. Faboulous. And gourgous. Youtube does not do it justice. In person it was overwelming. The vocal quality changed for each character. She also told us afterwards that she need to sing at least two hours a day to properly roughen up her vocal chords. She only did part of a famous story, since the full one takes 4 hours... Loved it! I have to find an other performence!
I am moving this sunday to Hongdae, the artsy student area. And I am also trying to solve AND understand my microeconomics homework. It has a lot of graphs in it which is ok. But you also have to draw your own. I always thought that economics was very hands on, but it turns out to be freakishly abstract at times. It is intresting because it is difficult and new, but it is sometimes a bit far away from reality. In a quote from West Wing ' Economists were put on this planat to make astrolegers look good'. This might be my frustretion speaking. Good thing we got a great teacher, because it is gonna take a saint with a degree to explain this to me.
Next week is general election here. This means that there is a lot of trucks with speakers driving around, playing snippets of music and blasting out that their candidate is a true son( seldom daughter) of someplace. They do not seem to belive in having a messege or a mission, or even an opinion. I hope it will not get worse than this, but I am afraid it will escalate until wednsday.
ps. I am really sorry that the spelling is so...bad. I can not get the spellcheck to work.