Tokyo Delight

Me and Ida shopping...

This is from Ueno park close to Idas and Tadas apartment




I just got back from 5 days in Tokyo. So wonderfull, fantastic and super to see Ida again. After an hour it was as if we never been apart.
And Tokyo, oh my! It was both as I expected and not. Definitly have to go there again, and again and again.
Mostly Ida and I have been Bad Tourists. As usual. Had a great time though, and ate some great food, saw many things and bought some
I managed to hit Sakura, cherryblossom, spot on! Pictures don't do it justice. Other than that my favorite was the saturday walk in the huge park surrounding the Meji shrine. Not crowded at all!!
As for being an expensive and crowded city...they can not have been to Stockholm and Seoul is just as, if not more crowded.
Their subway system, and I use the word system losely here, is huge. HUGE. And run by different companies. It makes mazes seem simple. On the plus side, they are on time and clean.
The food, as I had mentioned is more varied than in Korea, since they import much more. Western food is quite cheap and tasty.
All in all, landing again in Seoul was depressing. Not only no Ida, but also no green. As much as I love Seoul, it is an ugly city.

weird day!

On saturday I had volentered to be in a photo shoot promoting the school (with the promise of some cash) . I trudged away to the school around lunch, expecting a dull day. Instead I had a blast, meeting tons of new people and laughing the entire day. We were a group of about 10, 15 students, a man from the SNU foundation and the photographer, his assistent and on and of some other people. We did poses such as ' students gazing in to the future together', 'hand in han walking forward' etc. Me, I had a huge problem keeping my face straight. They said they will send some of the photos so I hope to be able to post them. I met an other JRock fan who informed me that L arc de Ciel will have a concert in may, which we will be attending. And one of the members of the schools coffee club (!!!) a guy who went to Qin Hua ( so we spoke chinese together) and so many other really nice, helpfull people. After a long day of poseing, we got some free meal, korean BBQ, were I had to strain my korean and charade skills. Much to the amusement of the people around me. I am glad I went! Musicvise I got reminded how much I love Fall Out Boys, Linkin Park and other american rock ( the photographers assistant had great taste in music, same as me^^) got introduce to some new J Rock band ( by Dil, the L arc de Ciel fan, also great taste, same as me!) and recomended Hongdae area as the place for live music. With my new music I felt supercharged sunday morning, despite the rain, and took a walk uphill (there is only uphill and downhill in this city). For an extremly late brunch I met a friend of Clara, Jessie, who turned out to be just as cool as I expected. And I got chocolat mousse! (not as good as Andreas, but good enough)
All in all, a great weekend for my social life and a sucky one for my school workload.
No regrets though!

Brilliant weather!

Yesterday I saw my first blooming Magnolia tree. Magnolia being, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful flowers ever, I was really happy. They have magnolia trees all over campus so soon it will stop looking so bleek. The temperature topped 20 C as well, and people have started taking their lunches and coffees outside. But if it is 20 C in march, what will the temperature be in July? The reason for the huge variety of iced drinks and desserts start to become obvious.
The Koreans for some obscure reason, have made most of their internet shopping impossiable for foreginers. You need a Korean social security number. This applies on shoes, clothes and airplane tickets. This is very frustrating. Thankfully I have korean friends, I shudder when I think about what my blood pressure would be ohterwise.
Today is an other glorious day, which by the end, hopefully, I will have a ticket to Japan.

Not much happening, but alot anyway

Spring is definitly here, tomorrow they promise 17 degrees celsius. The big thing that happened this weekend was that Ida and I found a weekend when we both are free, so now I am looking for a cheep ticket to Tokyo for the 26 of March!! Can not wait to see her!
Other than that it has been no big events, though packed with small ones. I am really starting to feel the strain of not training, can not put the palms of my hand on the floor with straight legs any more. My currant room is even to small for a sun salutation... Looking forward to moving and signing up with a gym and a kickboxing club!
I have been away from home for over a month now and I am really starting to miss my family. Other than that my life is filled with so many new experiances that it is hard to know where to start!

air raid...

Today, while out shopping with Marie, my future flatmate, air raid sirens sounded. Traffic stopped, and people started to go to the side of the pavement, we stopped inside a bank... There was also a very assertive older women with a vissle yelling and waving at anyone who stepped out on the pavement. Several people brought down her wrath. It took about 15 min until everything started to move again. Apperantly they have these drills reguarly. It was a bit strange...
I have not figured out yet how to connect my camera phone to the laptop, so my new pictures have to wait!

New place new phone!

I am definitly moving! At the end of the month I will move in with an ultra cool and sweet korean girl. We will live in Hongdae, a more artsy student artist kind of area, also the new party area! We will have a bedroom each, a livingroom and a kitchen. And a roof terrace! And no rent. I will help her improve her already impressive english... This all seems to good to be true. Has I mentioned that she is really nice??? Likes exercising and rock music... wow, my karma from my last life must have been all used up!
Also I finely got a cellphone. Thanks to my sweet neighbour. It took us three days and 7 stores b.ut I am now the proud owner of a SKY ime 130 i think it is called. It has a 2MP camera and a super dictionary. Besides that it has in only 24 h improved my social life alot...

Still no cellphone...

It is good that korean people in general is so helpfull and nice, because the goverment and companies does make it difficult to stay in Korea. They have decided that non koreans are not to be trusted and therefor should be punished. Like getting a cellphone. It is easy if you are a korean. But so far I have spent two afternoons draging a korean friend along trying to get a pre pay phone. After today we gave up. She will buy one in her name and I will give her the money.
The spring has arrived. The weather is almost so warm that you don't need a jacket. Also the amount of different flavour for ice coffee has increased. Alot of focus in korea is put on staying cool during the hot and humid summer. They have great shaved ice flavoured with red beans and fruits. A great alternative for those of us who can not eat milk products...