Food for Thought

I think the entire country of South Korea is missing the point. Or they’re just embracing what we already know.

it’s monday, run…

forever

“Come One, Come All”

It is strange maybe to some that I find having a salad roll so normal and so rare here in Korea. One of the best meals I had, but was hard to come up with the ingredients. 

Being that we are living in a hotel at the moment, which is just a bed and bathroom, we have no way to cook for ourselves as yet. 
And we only just got a fridge at work to keep supplies in.

This is a glorious thing! As over the past week I have had McDonalds 5 times (mainly for breakfast-also due to Snr dragging me and JB there). I normally only have it once a month. If that.

I can tell my body hates me right now. After we had it this morning (for the last time!) JB felt sick and disappeared for awhile. 

Choosing dinner every night is also hard. Limited options. So fridge at work is a god send for at least 2 meals a day. I can have real milk in my coffee and cereal!

Also going to get a cheap toaster so we can have toast too.

In the end….I am really appreciating the small things in life.

PS We have found an amazing Indian place in town, which we will end up having once a week.

Photo

Seoul #15 prescan by Thomas Birke on Flickr.

ive came to realize that americans are more open about themselves than koreans; therefore it is more shocking to see an unexpected/different side of one thing or person for americans but for koreans an upfront and confident approach is seen to be more scandalize. In america, i feel that the mass majority acts the way they please- in fashion, smoking cigarettes, drugs, parties, personality- americans know how to speak their mind, and are not afraid nor is it looked down upon if one boasts their individuality (as much as koreans anyway). In korea everything is so “controlled” that people does a lot of “bad” deeds behind people’s backs; a lot of multiple faces.

for instance;

1. women smoking cigarettes is HIGHLY looked down upon 
2. students are supposed to be students - no makeup, nail polish, controlled amount of play time etc. students in korea have no time to breath from all the after school program they are forced to take; such as, a foreign language (mostly english) classes, math classes, a hobby sport,music or art classes, how to braid hair classes, how to put on shoes classes, how to brush your teeth classes.. etc. almost everyday even the weekends. 
3. drugs, gays and tattoos (to name a few) are something that is HIGHLY “shhhhh-ed” upon. “no such thing” they say. it is worth like a felony x 100000000000000000000

etc.
one may think this is a good idea but because of this image of “normal and abnormal,” a lot of behind the back action occurs. women hides in alleys and indoor smoking areas to smoke cigarettes. kids (as well as adults) look very VERY innocent, and kind, and like angels, but the inner demon that they carry is bigger and more explosive than americans - scary… that’s why a LOT of fraud and cheating occurs even among close friends to a much higher extent than america (i believe). 

anyway, koreans, what odd creatures.

Cynthia in Seoul

spider

Sookdae University District: 

spider

Addicted (Jungdok) is a 2002 South Korean film directed by Park...

I mean I’ll wait for them! But.. 

South Korea is an amazing country, with a population of around 48 million.

There are around 50 TEDx events in South Korea, which means that there is a TEDx event for at least every million people! (Japan and China have 13 and 37 each respectively.)

For TED 2011, TEDx Organizers in South Korea could host TEDxLive events — a simulcast event showing TED 2011, live from Long Beach, California.

I came to know about TEDxSeochoLive event through David Choo, one of the event’s organizers. Being a big TED fan, I felt enthusiastic to know about this event happening in Seoul. I decided to attend this event, even though it started at 1am in the morning.

Although the next day was a working day, many people showed up which depicts their love and zeal for TED.

I reached the venue around 10:15pm, three hours earlier than the actual start. I was warmly welcomed and greeted by all the TEDxSeocho organizers, which was moment of rejoice for me.

The architecture of the Club 500 — the event’s venue — resembles the old style houses in Pakistan. It was made of clay with big pillars in between. In contrast to Korean traditional houses, its roof was at reasonable height from ground.

The TED stream began at 1:00am Korea time from a NASA space shuttle. It was the best start of a show I have ever seen!

There are few great speakers lined up for that day — many people were interested the session where Bill Gates was the guest curator. The successive sessions were separated with an hour break — it was a good opportunity to take nap!

I

At 5am, everybody was still excited.

I enjoyed the talks from Deb Roy, Bill Ford, Indra Nooyi ,Amina az-Zubair and Salman Khan.

I would say “thumbs up” to the TEDxSeocho Organizers —

In between session breaks, we enjoyed a “cake” celebration, which ignited new passion to listen rest of the Talks. The event was schedule to last till 11:45am, but many people had to leave earlier for either for work or school.

Fortunately this was not the end; we look forward to show simulcast of TEDGlobal in July 2011. This time it is under a different TEDx name — TEDxItaewon.

Written by Hassan Abid, PR Manager, TEDxItaewon.

Lots of love at the N Seoul Tower.

oh hell ya

Oh joy.

Paju is a 2006 South Korean film directed by Park Chan-ok.