Bicycle Tour / Han River

Boat Race on Han River

KBS TV report

Before yesterday, a guy from KBS (Korean Broadcasting system), a national TV channel went in my family in order to interview us about Home Stay Korea...

Guys from KBS first contacted Home Stay Korea, which find the family in which I live for me and this organism told them to contact my family.

The mother of my family wanted to make sure that I personally wanted to do that TV report about home stay in Korea. I was really interested in that, because that was an opportunity for me to be on TV, to speak about my own experience in Korea, but mainly in a korean family.

But what I took for a great experience finally turned into an unexpected experience. When the guy from KBS first came home, on wednesday night, me and my family had to go on a supposed traditional market to buy some stuff.

First thing : I've never been to that market before, but I had to swear that I came here with my family every day and that I liked it.

Secondly, the KBS guy wants some funny things to film, right, but was I supposed to play with apples, smell them as if they smell something good ? I actually don't know

Then, children want to buy some clothes, I have to say that I found them completely, incredibly awful but apparently they liked it. These clothes were actually shiny sequined leopard sport suits (just let you imagine the result ...) Anyway, the KBS guy told me that I had to say I found that really cute and that children look good with that. Right. I did it.


Then everything was just fake, and completely untrue : I was really confused because I thought that this report should be a good idea : that makes discover to every korean people the daily life of a host family and the foreigner hosted. And now, I was little by little discovering that unlike I thought I was just allowed to repeat what the guy from KBS told me to say.

I had to say that I gave english lessons to the older child, then that I also gave piano lessons to the younger one (whereas he's actually a better pianist than me). I also had to say that home stay was cheap whereas that's untrue (when I told the KBS guy that this affirmation was untrue he just answered me "well, okay, I understand but my boss just wants to hear that it's cheap" - " ok and does your boss ever experienced home stay ?" - "No" ....

Also, KBS wanted to film me at work, but apparently my current job was not funny enough for them, so the KBS guy brought me to the 5th floor, filmed me with other people talking about a building model whereas that was not my job. When I asked why I had to do that he just told me "oh, you know, in KBS we just want funny things, entertainment !" weeeeeeeeeeeeell .... You get it !

I mean, everything was so untrue ! I just had to repeat ideas of a boss who had ideas about home stay but who never experienced that !

Anyway, I let you see that by yourself ... Enjoy that thrilling, amazing, OUTSTANDING, FLABBERGASTING TV time

#9 : Garak Market

Main gate of Garak Market

I'm living really near to the biggest fruits, vegetables and marine products market of the ENTIRE country, so I thought that night that I really need to go there, before I'll leave the songpa neighborhood to settle in the Hanyang boring dormitories (in exactly 13 days).

So I went there for lunch and I was really surprised : big streets, scooters everywhere, this is not a market that's a hanthill ! full of busy hants...

So I decided to begin by ... the first sector that I found : fruits and vegetables ... That was really pleasant because it was really colorful, aesthetically beautiful to see. Concerning what is bought here, you find commonly the same fruits & vegetables that in france, broccolis, zucchinis, tomatoes, pineapples, bananas, oranges .... but you also find some special things such as different kinds of roots and spinach

Then I went to the dried pepper market and that was my favorite one, that smelt so goooood ! I liked the atmosphere here, and the colors. Also, pepper displays remind me moroccan markets

Finally, I wanted to see the fish market, but I didn't find it ... So, I asked a man who seemed to be a businessman (I said to myself that he was probably able to speak english) and yeaaaah I was right (for the english spoken and also for the businessman). He was really nice and he asked his personal driver to bring me to that fish market ... Korean people are so nice !! And the fish market was up to my expectations, exquisite smell, beautiful fishes and some weird things to ...

#8 : Introduction to korean markets

For the anecdote, I talked about how important are markets in Korea with a french businessman settled in Korea for 15 years now . He told me that markets in korea are kind of ubiquitous. 
Here you can still haggle for clothes, food ect ...
Also, in addition to traditional markets you can also in Korea buy everything in markets, I mean REALLY everything, from watchbands to electronic stuff (mainly cameras), from DIY tools to brooms, from animals to ...


Ok so now, I just want to show you how markets are taking an important place in Korea, even (and especially) on the internet. Korean browsers are kind of huuuuge market places where you can take some information. Even if you're not looking for something special you can find something : ads, news ... 

Let's compare korean browsers ....

To the probably most efficient occidental browser (google) 

.... Hum, do you see any difference?  On Google, you just get nothing, no ads, no news, I know that you can personalize your homepage, adding some information ect... but Google seems so purified and so clear compare to korean browsers !

Both of them get their own advantages, I mean on Google you're not boring with useless ads which pollute your homepage, you just get what YOU want on it (meteo, news ...).

But with Naver or Daum, you can get like a continuous flow of information

#7 : Lotte World

Lotte world is actually the world's largest indoor theme park (registered in the  Guinness World Record) which is open all year around. There is also an outdoor amusement park called "Magic Island", an artificial island inside a lake linked by monorail.

This is exactly the same theme park that every Walt Disney park except the fact thant Mickey & Minnie are not here (oooh don't worry there are still characters like them : 2 foxes, Lotty & Lorry. So to sum up, this is a Walt Disney theme park (same attractions, same parades, same show, EXACTLY the same slogan (Lotte World : Where dreams come true) but in downtown Seoul. 

That was really really crowded and we had to wait for at least 90 minutes for each attraction. Concerning attractions themselves they were good, like a kind of tower of terror, some roller coasters so that was great.

There were also a lot of food stands so I have to say that the place reeked fried food. On these stands we could find fried pieces of octopus, burgers, sausages, hot dogs (everything except korean food).

And maybe you can find out how much the place was kitsch, everything pink, blue, gold blablabla ...

And I also actually forget to say the main similarity between a Walt Disney Park & Lotte World ... But may you can find by yourself ... The castle of Sleeping Beauty is absolutely, incredibly the same ....

Already 1 month in Seoul

I wanted to post some pics about Hanyang for a long time so here they're. Hanyang is so different from french universities ... Hanyang has its own subway station and owns tons of buildings, huuuuuge buildings.

And I didn't mentionned yet the 3 football fiels, the 'Olympic gymnasium' yeah yeah, the athletic stadium, the fitness room, the the numerous convenient stores and coffees ...
HAHA sounds goooood !

I took these pics by night but I will post some others with day light as soon as possible ...

Fabrics in Dongdaemun

Busan, here we are

BUSAN HERE WE ARE

I took like 10 minutes ago my train tickets to go to busan, from the 24/02 to the 27/02. Korea has TGV but the only thing that changes is actually the name, changed into KTX. It will take 2 hours and a half to go there. I also registered for an hostel really not expensive at all, located in the city, near to the beach !

I think I'll really enjoy that little trip ! 

People / Excellence / Creativity / Sustainability

I think I should probably talk about my internship and what are my missions / tasks. So let's begin by ... the beginning.

I would like to apologize before beginning this article because I know I got a lot of stuff to tell you so the article will not be as clear as I wanted it to be... I will speak about different subjects so you have to be really aware if you want to understand ... :)

The center of the city, where you can find bars, clubs, crowded streets in the night are far away from me (1 hour by metro). I actually live in the eastern part of Seoul, in a residential and pretty neighborhood where you can find houses (little 3 floors buildings). I think this map will be useful if you want to figure out how is seoul. I take a metro map because I think it's easier to explain on it than on a real satellite map 

So my internship company is located near to my house and it takes actually 20 minutes door to door to go there. I'm kind of lucky because the bulk of the employees are commuting like 2 hours every day to go to work and then come back home.

So I'm working from Monday to Friday, from 9 to 6. I get a break for lunch (from 12 to 1 PM), and usually I'm eating with some fellows in restaurants. Lunch time is very special because koreans are really shy and don't want to speak english in front of you even if they're actually speaking well english !!! so for lunch, fellows talk to me in English but 60% of the time is an only korean speaking time sooooo I try to understand what they say, I try to imagine their conversation but that's really hard ...

Korean people are also really strict concerning lunch time and time in general. I mean, they will never be late at work, they've to be there a 9, and they're ALL there at 9. Moreover, if employees are ahead, they will not take a coffee or spend some time with fellows. If they arrive at 8:46 they begin to work at 8:46 ...

Also, lunch time is at 12, so at 12:00 everybody take his coat and leave the office. This is like an automatism, maybe the asian automatism, it's hard to explain but they're so steady concerning hours !!!! They seem to have a developed intern alarm which tell them 'time to go, time to go'... One day, I  was on the phone at 12, and when I came back in the office, right it was 12:04, there was nobody in the office, so I needed to eat by myself because everybody has been leaving the building at 12.

Another example would be interesting : at home, every day we get EXACTLY the same scheme (with maybe 5 minutes difference) :

8 AM : Breakfast 

12 : Lunch

7 PM : Diner

so I don't want to generalize that because I don't get the hindsight to do that, but I really think that the majority of korean families are following the same scheme.

So, let's just come back to my internship. I began to work in January, and I will stop it at the end of february, just a day before my university welcoming day.

I'm doing my internship in a korean company so things are a little bit more complicated than in another international company. I mean, even if the company is one of the most powerful international architect company, they're are doing lots of things exclusively in Korean... So that means that some days, I really got nothing to do, because people are just working in Korean .... I don't speak/read/write korean so I'm completely useless.

However the other days are really interesting. I don't get one special mission to achieve during this internship, but I got lots of tasks. Usually, employees come to see me, at my desk, asking me if I can do some researches for them. Here are the main tasks that I've done since I'm working here :

• Creating a brochure where were referenced all international architects awards (Heerim wants to improve his international influence and thus wanted to apply for different awards)
• Creating a presentation about major competitors (SOM, Gensler, HOK, Nikken Sekkei ...)
• Analyzing the 2011 financial statement and creating following the 2010 model the data basis for the Heerim website financial section (assets, liabilities, stock holder's equity and incomes)
• Creating a presentation and a document about Green architecture (more than 70% of the urban pollution comes from building pollution so architect companies have to find out new ways to build greener buildings, using new technologies, new materials ...)

So Heerim is today the 20th best architect company in the world so that means that the company is generating growing incomes. First, the company was only a korean-based company (just doing business in Korea) but these last 10 years have been marked by an increasing  openness to international markets.

Today, Heerim is mainly working in Asia (with works in Japan, China, Hong-kong, Malaysia, Singapore ...) but also in the USA.

Ah, and for the anecdote, even if I'm working in an architect company, even if the building itself and the ground floor are clearly reflected the idea of architecture with style, beautiful materials, colors and forms, when you go upstairs to the higher floors, the magnificent architectural building is moving into a completely standard office building without any effort to make it beautiful ... I mean, some places are really cold without any heating, we can hear the wind everywhere passing through the windows or I don't what, I' working in a noisy open space and I can't get how the 20th best architecture company which creates amazing building can build his own building this way ...

Oh and another funny thing by the way : I think that korean people are really involved in their job, they're really loyal to the company that hire them. To motivate Heerim employees, leaders decided to put some messages on hum ... let's say specials spaces ... So when you go to the restrooms, in front of you, I mean 50 cm in front of you, you got like an A3 sheet where you can read about Heerim :

Asia's n°1 & Global n°5 by 2015

Best Design & CM Service Provider by integrated corporate system

Enhance Marketing capability

Strenghten Design & CM Competency

Implement Quality insurance Program

Sistemize Project Management

Followed by these 4 words (Uppercase, bold, XXL) 

PEOPLE EXCELLENCE CREATIVITY SUSTAINABILITY

This message is really interesting because it's completely reflecting the way that korean people want to be the best, everywhere, in every sector, in every business. I think it's quite funny that employees are motivated in the restrooms ... This is actually like a big propaganda, like a brain storming, because, you're seeing this message like at least 4 times a day, 20 times a week, 80 times a month.... So, one day I really think you get the message, you know it by heart and you want to be part of that process.

#6 : Ski Session Korea

This week-end I went with my family to 2 of the most famous ski resorts of Korea.
The experience was great, well obviously, now I can say 'yeah I went skiing in Korea' haha !

Concerning the sport, the real one, ski, that's so different from all that I knew before !

Like slopes are huge streets and most of them have a low gradient. When it becomes harder there is immediately fewer people. I think I can really say that Korean people just come in ski resorts to have fun but they almost don't come there to make sport and to do hard slopes. However I don't want to generalize this phenomenon : even if 90% of korean skiers are really beginners, the last 10% are really good skiers and get an incredible style when they're skiing.

Friday : Yongpyong Ski resort

YongPyong is one of the biggest ski Resort in Korea with 18 slopes. Maybe 15 slopes are for absolute beginners, but these slopes are really appreciated here. 2 four-seats-chairlifts are bringing skiers to the "top" of these slopes and they're really crowded. I skied on harder slopes (similar to easy red slopes in france) but that not so crazy. I mean the experience was good but practicing ski was not incredible at all.

Sunday : Daemyung Ski resort

Vivaldi Ski resort was better than Yongpyong because there were more harder slopes. There were also lots of easy slopes but the resort was great. Moreover, winter in Korea (and especially in ski resorts) is really pleasant (almost always sunny and deep blue sky without any cloud).

#5 : Korean Food in Myondong

So, I really think that korean people like sausages because I saw yesterday in Myond Dong district numerous sausages stands. There's a great choice like sausage stuffed with rice cakes or cheese, regular sausage, bacon wrapped sausage ...

Sausages are just barbecued so they look really nice, like little bit crispy and golden.

On the right of that picture are set Tteokbokki. Tteokbokki are rice cakes wich are cooked and seasonned with soy sauce (the red thing that looks like tomato sauce). That's probably the most popular street food in Korea but I have to say that's not quite easy to eat standing in the street. You'll  feel more comfortable if you seat somewhere to taste it.

Mandu are korean famous filled dumplings. They can be cooked in lots of different ways : they can be boiled, grilled, fried or steamed. They're usually served with a sauce made with soy sauce and vinegar. Most of them are just boiled and filled with a mixture of ingredients, including ground pork, kimchi, vegetables and cellophane noodles. 

Mandu can also be used in a korean soup : Mandukuk

These cute fishes are Bungeoppang, that's litteraly the translation of 'crucian carp cake/bread'. I didn't taste it yet but that looks really nice. At first I didn't know how cooks did to give cakes that incredible form, and now I know : they are using an appliance similar to a waffle iron and they pour the batter into a fish-shaped mold. So, contrary to what we might think, these cakes are not sweet : they're made with red bean paste and fish paste. Some sweets bungeoppang also exist (they're filled with ice cream for instance) but they're not sold by open-air food vendors (only produced and sold by retailers)

Kimbap are also very famous here, they're cost between 1500 krw & 2 000 krw so that means that you can eat for 1€ ! On the picture on the left you can see small Kimbap, usually they're bigger that that (one standard kimbap is 3 of these little kimbaps). So concerning what's in that 'sushi' : this is steamed white rice and other various ingredients (fish cakes, eggs, cucumbers, spinach, carrots, radish and so on) rolled in a kim sheet (dried sheet of seaweed). It's served for lunch or pic-nic in bite-size slices.

These kinds of pancakes are Hotteok and I really have to say that's probably the best street food I've ever eaten. That's actually like a pancake but cooks put inside a brown powdered sugar amazingly tasty. I made some researches and I finally find out what's in : the sweet mixture usually contains brown sugar, honey, chopped peanuts and/or cinnamon. As you can see on the pictures (unfortunately) hotteok are cooked in a pan full of oil so that's not the most healthy korean food.