Back from Korea. Tadaima!

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Hi everybody! Maybe you just noticed a slight change in my weblog… Yeah, that’s right, I’m already earing some of you crying… I’m writing in English! But I’ll explain: First, it’s because I give this address to more and more people that speaks English… and people I’ll meet from now on, well they’ll probably speak English as well… So because there’s more people that speaks French and can understand English that there’s Anglophone understanding French, well I decided that I would write one message out of two in English. And the second reason is because most of the time I’m not writing from my computer and the keyboard are not in French… I can’t write properly and it’s annoying me. For those who would like a translation (either in French or in English) type in Google: Babel Fish… it’s not very accurate, sometimes the sentences don’t make any sense but still, it’s better than une claque dans face (don’t know how to say this in English, hihi)

Wow, I’m just back from Seoul, and it was just great. I think I like Korea, I’d like to go back. I’ll try to make this message short because there’s a lot of pictures as you can see! Yesterday I went to pick up my visa and everything went just fine, no problem at all. After that I had a whole day in front of me, so I decided to just walk around. I went in the shops areas, trying to find what I would bring back for my uncle, the family I know in Konu and maybe something for me! I was walking… and then I saw a shop that I had seen the day before, when I was walking at night… I was walking since an hour and haven’t noticed that I was on the same street! Just to tell how different Seoul is at night and at day. I went in a Tofu house (great!) and ordered… hard to explain… a soup made of tofu and kimchi… and other stuff… And what I like here is that there’s always plenty of side dishes: pickles, kimchi, seaweed (you would like it Seb, haha) and salad. I’m surprised too to see that you can find more tofu here than in Tokyo’s restaurant. Seoul is much much more 'americanised' than Japan... it's logic if you think that South Korea is an alied of the United States (les zetats zunis en Francais). There's also plenty of Galleries d'art, what's pretty cool. Also, all the Cofee places, and a lot of restaurants put 'beer' in the description in the window... seems like it's a good place to drink! Have you ever seen in Montreal, a Cafe that adds: Cafe, brioches, muffins et bieres? Here they do. Awesome.

I went back to the hotel to relax a bit and empty my camera so I can load it again later! I met another backpacker, his name is Martin and he’s from Germany. We didn’t talk much on Thursday but I could feel he was pretty nice. After I went out again, I wanted to see a palace that’s supposedly one of the more famous one around… but it was only guided visits and they were finished for the day… So I went up a street, just to see where it could lead me. I discovered a more… living area of Seoul and I can say it looks pretty nice living here. I walked in some narrow streets that had only old style houses. My plan was to try to go to the mountain up above (I heard that you can see everything around from there) but I realized it was a bit too far… so I came back, bought a big box of cookies and stuff like that from a French style bakery for the family and came back to the hotel. I was studying my Japanese at around midnight when I heard a click click on my door… a new girl had come in the hotel. Her name is Lori, she’s from Singapore and she looked very nice too. She’s in Korea for a while and she wants more in the middle of Korea, where there’s national parks.

In the morning I teamed up with three persons to go walk around the city for my last day in Korea. It was Martin, Lori and Masahito, a Japanese nice guy that just arrived the day before also. I was happy to find some people to be with… it’s nice sometimes to be alone… but not for too long! Hihi. The problem is I think I don’t feel comfortable with a lot of people… I guess it’s because I’m kind of shy or something but I always feel ackward… Well I can say I felt good with them and it was a very nice day. I was glad to find nice people like them! We went to the palace I wanted to go the day before. We took the Japanese language guided visit… the English one was an hour after… anyway we weren’t interested in what she was saying really… it must have been something like: here a king… and a princess… lived… and here’s the bedroom… the same thing you’ll hear in all the palaces of the world. Still we asked Masahito to translate some things for us. And it was a premiere for me, I recognized Kanji symbols I studied! Youhou! It was just numbers, but still, there’s a beginning to everything! After that we decided that we wanted to go in that big tour I had seen two days before but it was too dark to take pictures. To go there we went down the same street I had two times already… it really felt like a new street again, it’s crazy. I wanted to show them the guys that are making tarae (it’s dragon’s beard in Montreal, the ones you can find in China Town) They’re just too cool: showing how, from a hard piece of honey and a bowl of corn starch, they can make something like 16 000 tiny strings…don’t know how to explain, it’s hard to understand for myself how it’s changing like this! But they put almonds and peanuts inside and it’s sugoi oishii (fucking good in French, hihi) I bought one to bring back in Hiroshima and Martin bought one for all of us. Mioum. Then we arrived at a kind of art exposition… you won’t find that kind of thing in Montreal I think… it was really cool. At the top there was a restaurant and we ate… bibimba (is it the correct name?). I took the Kimchi and Cheese one… was sooooo good! And again, there were good side dishes. In the end, I ate kimchi at least once a day! Only with this I can say I benefit completely my trip, hihi. Arrived at the Tour, I was just dizzy by just looking at the top of it. It’s 33 floors and the view is so amazing! The best place on the floor to watch outside were the bathroom…

So I said good bye to my friends because I was already a bit late for my plane… I would have liked to meet the three of you earlier, it ouwld have been nice to spend some more time together! Thanks for the good time J On my way I lost myself a little bit ( me and my sooo good orientation sense…hihi) it made me lose 20 minutes… I began to feel stressed… didn’t want to miss my plane. Finally I arrived at the airport at around 4H40… and they were boarding at 5H20… the women at the counter didn’t even seem to think that I was late… I was so relieved… normally you have to arrive at the airport 2 hours before departure! I bought little gifts with my 10,000 won left and hoped in the plane… it’s a 1H30 trip to Hiroshima… it was so short, I’m used to the 16 hours ones! My favorite family and my uncle were there to drive me back to Konu. It’s a 1H15 trip from Hiroshima to there… the girls were tired, as soon as I gave them their gifts and we ate a bit, they fell asleep…

Now, I got word from Yanick that we’re going in Tokyo from the 28 to the 3rd. So I still have a few days here. I feel like I’m slacking off a bit on my Japanese studying, I’ll do that for the next few days!

Jya ne!

Mélanie

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Photos

Piece du roi lors des ceremonies...
la piece etait fermee aux visiteurs... elle n'a pas ete retouchee depuis un bout... ca sentait le vieux bois... wow...

The art exposition
It's Lori with a wall of... plastic gloves... cool

The art exposition
Wow... looked so real... it was a bit creepy to stand in front of it... cool

The art exposition
a flower that you can zip and unzip

Comments

[saleil]

Hi mélanie,I try to understand your last message and i was pas pire pantoute!! So , that's it, stay happy and not worry!! on se redonne des nouvelle bientot! take care of you xxxx

[Slex]

...well
For your information it's "Slap in the Face" the expression you want to know. But, look who's writing in english, it's a bit difficult to read, need some more effort, but still cool and complet, at least you got more picture of you, and Yaniku instead, but i can make complain for that comprehension of yours about another langage, it's realy respect full, and I don't think it's a bad stuff, because french it's great but it close some door, I can't imagine my life whit-out it. I play warhammer, and a lot of player are english, the game itself is english from UK. So, i'm still read your fact, realy interresting. I have thought to make a certificat in japanese at "Uquam" but... don't know, will finish my college get my diploma, make some travelling after that... whant to go whit Bicolline at the "Grande traverser", go on their new web site (www.bicolline.org) and about the project. Well good to "see" you. --Slex... aka Adda

[clara]

j'ai commencé à te lire mais là désolée je décroche...trop dommage!! j'admire vraiment les québécois à manier aussi bien le français que l'anglais...moi c'est différent...mais merci pour tout j'ai passé un super moment!!