Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

from Yu Jin and Mei Mei

Freezing Winter

This is the first week of our winter holiday, we finished final examination!!!

Yesterday and this morning, the temperature was -9 degree, and tomorrow morning will be -13!

Our water pipe actually was frozen 3 weeks before.... and it cost us 30,000 won to call the pipeman to fix it back. It  also made us live for 3 days without water - no cooking, no water flushing, no water to wash face and hands.... yucky! So... (not we don't save water) but... we have to let the water pipe flow out of water all the time... so that it will not freeze again.

Running nose... coz of the weather change too fast. I keep myself drinking water and eat lots  of fruits and vegetables to absorb vitamin c as much as possible. Just try not to consult doctor and keep out of public. No flu please...

How do you have prevention on winter?

Pencils

Do you notice that the color pencils of Korea are special?
We do not need to use a pencil sharpener to sharpen the pencil when we use it until flat. There is a string to open up the next layer of the lead of the pencil. Isn't it amazing?
Do you see the mini circles of the pencil (photo above)? That's the signals of the life of the pencil. I think it is also a way of decorating the pencil.

Anyway, I like this type of idea.

Bakery Aroo

We get to know about this bakery when it has a cafe on the first floor of the building same as our church. It is actually one of the bakery which sells delicious cakes and cookies at the Departmental Stores of Korea (I saw one at the Lotte Departmental Store, Jamsil branch).

Every morning the smell of baking is so strong and always makes us hungry when we walk in the building. The cafe here sells breads mainly and cakes too.

Order cake from the counter.
From 7pm - 8pm the bread has 20% discount price.
Both dining and take-out drinks are available too.

The cheapest bread is this - garlic bread stick 1000won for 4!

I also like to eat their pumpkin cheese bread. Recently I found out this bread (photo above) is also good! The bread is so soft!

Their well-being bread. They keep producing well-being bread, and one of them is made with the ingredient mainly for diabetes patients.

I saw this cookie but we never try it before as the price is unaffordable for us. But I think it is also yummy!

Their cakes are marvelous! Special and yummy, especially their cheese cake. (Japanese-style cake)

This Aroo Bakery is at Seoul Gwangjin-gu, Guui-dong, 254-86.

서울특별시 광진구 구의1동 254-86 아루빌딩 1층

(Beside Gwangji-gu police station)

Congratulations to Yuna Kim!!!

The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final 2009-2010 was held at Tokyo, Japan (Yoyogi National Gymnasium).

Photo searched from Naver.

Kim Yuna
4th Dec 2009    Short Program    65.64
5th Dec 2009    Free Skating     123.22
   Total 188.86

Though she lost some marks on the first show and got the 2nd after Ando Miki, she did it very well on the second night and she broke the myth of Japan and got the first - nearer to the gold medal of Winter Olympics 2010.

Ladies Senior Group
1. Kim Yuna (South Korea)    65.64 + 123.22 = 188.86
2. Miki Ando  (Japan)             66.20 + 119.74 = 185.94
3. Akiko Suzuki  (Japan)         57.54 + 116.46 = 174.00
4. Ashley Wagner (US)           54.26 + 107.81 = 162.07
5. Joannie Rochette (Canada)  60.94 + 95.77 = 156.71
6. Alena Leonova (Russia)       61.60 + 94.95 = 156.55

Men Senior Group
1. Evan Lysacek (US)  249.45
2. Nobunari Oda (Japan) 243.36
3. Johnny Weir (US) 237.35
4. Jeremy Abbott (US) 235.28
5. Daisuke Takahashi (Japan) 224.60
6. Tomas Verner (Czech Republic)  192.32

Cute Yuna!

My 2nd support banner for Yuna - I took the photo of a handcraft made by DaHye.

How well do you use your cell phone to take photos?

With my Samsung Anycall cell phone - Soul series, I got the chance to get good photos with this phone camera. The reason we got this phone is because the camera - 5 Megapixels.

At first, I thought it has the limited  functions like other cell phone camera, but after I read the manual clearly, I practised it again and again. Until recently I got more and more beaufitul photos. I just want to encourage you to play around with your cell phone camera, even though it is not as  good as a digital camear. However, it is very convenient and when we do not bring our camera along, the cell phone is our best tool.

3 recent photos I took with my cell phone:


I didn't notice it could be so clear.
A gloomy afternoon of autumn.


I hold the leaves with my hand while I sat in the car. My black jeans was the best background.
Edited to make it sharp and clear with the photo studio function of the cell phone camera. :)
It was my favourite wallpaper of my cell phone since then.


Me...
Self-shooting. (edited the color for autumn feeling)


How about black and white?

Although I do not have smart phone (IPhone) and Haptic (touch phone), I still want to use well my cell phone to take good photos. I just want to say that - everything becomes so beautiful if you really wants  it to be. Just try and be content.

Actually I change my attitude of camera-choosy to a photo-any-camera person after I saw an article on  the National Geographic. There is a photographer who is asked to use a Nokia cell phone to take photos to make a special photo series. He said that it functions well and nothing is impossible. Thus, I change my mind and I started to shoot photos with my heart and passion.

What camera do you use? Share with me.

Pram / carriage for the eldest

I saw this at one of the branch of Emart, a big and convenience mart of Korea. I was so curious and took the photos using my cell phone.

If you live in  Korea and you walk more often than you sit in the car, I'm sure you have seen this before.

The answer is in this photo (source):

Yes,  the eldest - grandma mostly use the carriage or pram 노인유모차 to help  them to walk. It is not only support them, but also help them to put their stuff in the carriage. Most of the time, they reuse their grandchild's pram - it is the most recycle way! (*_*) smart hal-mo-ni!

Instead of using a stick, the pram is very useful to help them to move around. I like their idea!
(The new pram is not cheap instead, about 100,000 won!)

Ox Bone Soup 설렁탕

Korean beef  soup is yummy! It is  not oily, not too many meat inside the soup and the taste is just enough to feed our stomach for a full meal!

There are mainly 2 kinds of beef soup, one is with bone 갈비탕 galbi-tang and another is without bone 설렁탕 seol-leong-tang. Since Korean beef is expensive, most of the time Korean restaurants serves Australian beef. 

The bowl consists of soup with meat, lots of sliced onion spring is a stainless steel big bowl.
A bowl of rice is served too.

We went to the Guui branch of Sinseon Seolnongtang 신선설농탕 beef soup restaurant. Here serves very nice beef soup, high efficiency and very good service too. The servants will help you to cut the kimchi and serve on the table. The spoons and chopsticks are put in a special made box attached to the table. Kimchi are also served with 3 types: cabbage (old and new) and radish.

The above paper on  the table is prepared by the  restaurant. It is to put your spoon and chopsticks.

The way of having the beef soup is also written there:

1. The new made kimchi can be eaten with the soup or mix with the soup - both tastes have their own special taste.
2. You may ask for the water of the radish kimchi to put in your soup. The taste is different again.

Newly made kimchi has high fibroid material and lactic acid  bacteria which is good for our health.

Do you see the meat? They are thin slices and easy to chew.

If you think ginseng chicken is too full to eat, get this one. This one is also very full indeed but will not too much because you will sure eat a lot of kimchi with this  one.

The Guui branch is at Subway line 2 Guui station, Exit 1, walk about 500m. You will see it which is in  the middle of Gwangjin city hall and Police station. The car park is available.

Tel: 02-454-7944.

I love Yuna! 김연아

To show my support to the young and potential young sportswoman - Kim Yuna - famous figure skater of the world who will participate in the Winter Olympics Games 2010, I especially use the recycle chinese mangarine skin to make the support banner!

화이팅!

Actually I only know one figure skater - Michelle Wing Kwan 关颖珊 from US, who was so famous in 2001-2003. It is because she is almost the same generation as me, she was born in 1980.

I come from a 365-day hot country and thus winter games seems like no relation to my life. However, after I moved to Korea, I started to realize that there is a winter games. Especially after Kim Yuna won a lot of world competitions and she will participate in the Winter Olympic Games soon.

Kim Yuna
Sep 5, 1990.
She was born at Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do and she stays at Gunpo.
Her height is 164cm (we're the same) but she is only 47kg (I'm 50-51, she must be so thin).
She is still a student in Korea University Frontier Spirit and she likes Michelle Kwan the most.
Her coach is Brian Orser (a Canadian retired pro figure skater. Silver medalist in 1884, 1988 Olympic games, 1987 World champion and 1981-1988 Canadian national champion) 
Choreographer (dance notation) : David Wilson
Her main training site is at Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club.

She is well-known as the 'Queen' Yu-na.
She placed second at the JuniorGrand Prix Final and earned Korea's first international medal in the history of figure skating.

Erm... I'm not going to state down all her competitions and prizes as you can find from her official website: http://www.yunakim.com/

As a summary:
She is the 2009 World champion, the 2009 Four Continents champion, a two-time (2006-2007, 2007-2008) Grand Prix Final champion, the 2006 World Junior champion, the 2005-2006 Junior Grand Prix Final champion and a four-time (2002-2005) South Korean national champion.

Her James-Bond program

Photo is from here.

Let's see one of her video:

Welcome December

It's time to say goodbye to autumn.

It's time to say welcome to winter.

It's time to say goodbye to colorful scenery.

It's time to say welcome to dried trees.

It's time to say welome to white snow!

Have you prepared well for the winter? I hope I can ski at least one more time! I like ski after I know how to play ski. What will you do in this winter? Take care of yourself and make sure that you wear warmly. :)

순대국 Soon-Dae-guk

순대 a sausage made of bean curd and green-bean sprouts stuffed in pig intestine (from naver dictionary)

This is the food that I was rejected to eat for the past 4 years I have been living at Korea - I felt uneasy with the smell when I tried for the first time. However, I started to like it after I ate it with 떡볶이 spicy fried rice cake once. So I asked my husband to bring me to the restaurant to eat the soup with soon-dae.

We passed by this restaurant which is near  to our house. However, I saw the same signboard at other areas too. I think they have a lot of branches throughout the country.

Inside the restaurant always have traditional Korean stuff exhibited.

Calligraphy writings

Korean traditional stuff

Ok... now let's see the side dishes prepared on the table before the soup was served.

2 types of kimchi: cabbage and radish kimchi are served. You  have to cut it to smaller pieces which a pair of scissors are given.  The fresh green pepper and spring onion are important ingredients to add in  the soup. (Smell the pepper before you put it in your soup - assometimes  it is very spicy that even you put little, it already makes your hot!)

Sauces  and onion.

The soup contains soon-dae (one is with noodle and another one is with meat), and meats. Put in the rice and mix it well. You also can choose not to put the rice into the soup if you like solid rice.

This restaurant serves very good soon-dae-guk. Thumbs up!

How do I know? Because we went to another restaurant the week after the trip above, and it was not so good. Howevr, I found this useful information in this restaurant which located at Guk-su-ri, YangPyeong area.

How to eat soon-dae-guk?
1. Put in the spring onion and sliced chilli pepp.
2. Put in the sesame poweder and sauce.
3. Put in the mini shrimp - amount with your own liked taste.
4. Lastly, add in little salt.

Koreans do not have soup like we Chinese who already add in all ingredients in the soup. They prepare the raw vegetables and the sauces so that you can make it your own taste of soup. Amazingly cool!

Found the website online:
http://www.yonginsoondae.co.kr/
Yong-in-soon-dae at Namyangju, Doekso branch
남양주시 와부읍 월문리
Tel: 031-576-5588

Please have a try if you really want to know what Korean likes. :)

Seoul Independent Film Festival 2009

SIFF2009
10th - 18th Dec 2009
Indiespace (Jung-ang cinema), Seoul
Presented by: The Association of Korean Independent Film & Video, Korean Film Council
Organized by: Seoul Independent Film Festival 2009 Executive Committee
Location:
Subway line 2, 3 Oeljiro-3 ga station, exit 12
                 (walk underground to the direction of oeljiro-ibgu about 7-8min)
             line 2 Oeljiro-ibgu station, exit 5
Subway line 4, Myeong Dong station exit 10 (7-8 minutes)

Tickets: Opening ceremony 7,000won, normal 5,000won.

website: http://www.siff.or.kr/intro.html

Chocolate!

Ok... this chocolate is not from Korea, for sure.
My Korean friend gave me this Toblerone Chocolate, made in Switzerland, last week - which I miss it so much! Erm... I can get it easily in Malaysia, but not here. Erm... I know, the Koreans will say to me, Chocolate is too sweet, don't eat too much, and it will only cause your teeth worse. Erm... I know that.

I think I will write about the chocolate in Korea in my blog later. There are quite a lot of choices!
Anyway, today is 11.11 - pepero day - a day of a chocolate stick. Koreans buy the chocolate or chocolate stick to give to one another. I got to eat it today as one of our classmates bought for the whole class.

from pepero website

This chocolate stick was started in 1983 - Lotte brand.
Almond flavor 1984, Strawberry and Fried - 1994, Cheese and Coffee - 1995, Peanut, Hazelnut, Bulgogi - 1996, Peanut cream - 1997,  Nude - 2000, Black - 2005, Cacao - 2006, Nut Lemon Cheese - 2007.

However, now available in the market now:
Choco Pepero - 700 won.
Almond Pepero - 1000 won.
Nude Pepero - 1000 won. 

Starting from 1994, from Busan, Middle and High School girls gave 1111 to one another as gift. The meaning is - to be tall, slim, and pretty 키 크고 날씨하게 예뻐지자'.
Anyway, this is a  special culture for the students - hope this will not be a must but just as a fun - because it will encourage them to buy chocolates more!

Anyway, happy pepero day!
Happy 5th anniversary  to our marriage too!

Delivery service

Korea has a famous thing that everybody should know - delivery service - efficiency and effectiveness! Fast and good service! It applies to almost everything!

Internet service - shopping mall for clothes, daily necessities and even food. Even you no need to walk in to the mart to choose the things you want, but choose online and on the day you order (morning), you can get it in the afternoon/evening.

What I want to say here - is home food delivery service - almost apply to every food too! From pizza, chicken, Korean main dish like pork leg, noodle, even cold noodle and etc. 15-30 minutes they will reach your home. Cash is needed while some can offer card payment.
Tips: If you order from chinese restaurant, there is a plastic bag given to you too - after finishing your meal, put in the plates in the plastic bag, put it outside your house so that they can take it back later.

We order chicken once in a while.
Today we chose a shop which sells chicken cheap - 2 + 500ml cola + coupon = 19,000 won. However, it was not very delicious.

It's 촌닭치킨 shop. The special is that it has rice cake mixed with the chicken. Not bad. Anyway, I don't think I will order from them again. :P

Korean Movie: 킹콩을들다 Lifting King Kong 2009

Jul 1st, 2009

or known as
Director: Lee Jong-yong
Actor: Lee Beon-soo, Jo Ahn

This is also another sports movie, one of the best movie in 2009.
This is also based  on a real story.
This story touches heart so much as the ending is out of expected.
If you are a teacher who loves your students so much, watch this movie.
If you are a student in a team work, watch this movie.
If you  are a trainer or a leader, watch this movie.
It is worth to get the ideas from this movie how the team work moves the hearts  of the people rather than the success of a bronze.

Synopsis:

"Not everyone gets the gold medal.
If you don't give up and do your best, at the end that alone deserves a gold medal.
I believe in all of you."
The words were in the mind of a female national weightlifting athlete in the Olympics game.
Story was like this:

Lee-Ji-Bong, a bronze medalist of 1998 Olympic Weightlifting athelete, hurt his hand and quitted the sports after the game. He didn't want to involve in sports again but he was invited to teach in a girl high school, under the sports department.

To join this new sports, the interested parents were invited to have a preview. He informed them the danger of the sports and scared them away. Yet there were still a few girls regardless of that joined him and wanted to be trained. One of the girl comes from a poor family. Her grandmother just passed away and she lost her home. She joined the weightlifing group so that she can have a place to stay in. Then the teacher starts to accept them and teach them.

However, he didn't want them to involve in the game because he knows that - only one person- the gold medalist - will be recognized among the all. If not, all their hard work will be considered nothing. He gave them normal exercise and training while he did fishing.

They asked him, "Why don't you teach us?"

He answered, "If you don't get the first, you won't even be acknowledged."

He didn't take much interest to teach them any skill.

The teacher even wanted to burn out the bronze medal he won, but one of the girl got it back and set as her secret tool. She is the one who went to the Olympic Games later.

Without any proper training and skill, they went  for the first inter-school competition, and all the girls felt disappointed. They felt shamed and lost their confidence. The teacher of another girl high school even teased them.

Thus, Lee made up his mind and trained up the young ladies - gave them hard training - a serious training with records and good planning. He even asked them to study hard though most of the time they have to do exercise.

Finally, the day of competition has come and they won in  the inter-school competition.

They were recognized. They were encouraged by the school and even promised to build a temporary dormitory for the team.

However, good things not always happen in one row. The teacher was asked to send his students (5 of them in total) to another girl school and be trained. They had a hard time and wanted to go back to Lee. He was not allowed to and even his authority was taken away.

For their future, Lee sacrificed himself and sent them away. While he decided to send out the letters he wrote to the students, he had a heart attack on the road and he passed away. The students were so sad and they used their strength to send the teacher's body to the graveyard.

The girl, who continued the sports, went to the Oympics game and achived the success that her teacher and her companions could not do.

The movie actorsThe real people of the story

Review

May be because I'm a girl, I cried when I watched this movie. Truly girls are emotional. The storyline is well written and the spirit of the game is shown in the movie. The effort of the teacher and his students should be the model of the school today. There is always fruitful if a good teacher is willing to lead and teach his or her students, no matter what the result is. Students need proper teaching, most of all, need pure and true heart of model.

Any thumbs up for the girls - they're willing to make themselves be tough and strong - from their original slim bodies.

Enjoy the movie.

 from Arirang