(Lol, if only I could just type that =P)
(P.S. Because I love you guys I have tried to put as much info as I can in here. Actually this has taken me 2 days + 8 episodes of Modern family LOL, gosh that show is hilarious! =P)
So 7:30am Friday we hopped on the bus for a 4 hour journey to Andong...
We even got name tags =P
7:30am was too early though.
We stopped halfway for a little break to find pretty hills covered with snow =D
Once we got out of the bus we went to a fish joint to eat grilled fish, what a great way to remember Andong.
Seriously good Mackerel fish. Makes me miss my mum's bangus (filo fish)
Lingbo awaiting Lunch
We took up a lot of space haha, there was more than 20 of us for sure.
We then went and took a walk down to the longest wooden bridge in Korea called the Wolyeong-gyo...
It would be great to take a stroll down this bridge in Spring on a warm day.
Freezing cold is not too bad as well, but that's only for the lucky people like us lol
Freezing cold is not too bad as well, but that's only for the lucky people like us lol
Looking for fish ;)
Meet Vincent A.K.A Vinnie, A.K.A Silver finger, A.K.A sensei, A.K.A Vampcent
Yes he has many nicknames lol, let me explain a few...It would've been gold finger but it was already taken lol. He's my sensei cos he's helping me in my photography skills, see the way he's holding his camera? That's because he's pro...or because he wants to throw it at my face, who knows :P
Vampcent was the latest nickname, we were talking about donating blood and he was able to guess the blood type of my friend and I.
Vinnie is the classic one I gave him when I first met him, I think it's cool =P
My nickname he gave me is little beetle, beauty scarab in French apparently, it doesn't sound as cool in Korean hahhaha.
Yes he has many nicknames lol, let me explain a few...It would've been gold finger but it was already taken lol. He's my sensei cos he's helping me in my photography skills, see the way he's holding his camera? That's because he's pro...or because he wants to throw it at my face, who knows :P
Vampcent was the latest nickname, we were talking about donating blood and he was able to guess the blood type of my friend and I.
Vinnie is the classic one I gave him when I first met him, I think it's cool =P
My nickname he gave me is little beetle, beauty scarab in French apparently, it doesn't sound as cool in Korean hahhaha.
Pre-jump photo where we look like cartoon characters.
I really love Jumping photos!! :D
The Andong Trippers. I have no idea what the sign says btw, probably something to do with being on a bridge lol.
Maybe lonely island could make a song out of it.
Maybe lonely island could make a song out of it.
Me wanting to replicate Titanic, now all I need is my Jack LOL
Lingbo one of my French friends is so cute when it comes to photo's and she has a cute little French accent, pretty sure she know chinese as well... AND she is learning Korean here, wow I'm so jealous.
mmmm although we didn't walk to the end of the bridge, after seeing this photo I wish we did.
Ok so from the cool bridge we went to one of the Dosan Seowon, or Dosan Confucian Academy, built in the honor of one of Korea's foremost intellectuals.
On the walk there you could see what seemed like an island, which is know as Sisadan Stele, a place constructed by the King to mark a special occasion in celebration if Yi Hwang.
Eddy taking steps outside the Academy 
Yeonhee, She works at the International center and she also picked me up from the airport, soo sweet and nice.
Even when he's addressing the group he still has time to pose for my photo LOL
...The engineer David looking shifty as usual.
Wondering what they were staring at?
Well it was a well, not very special and not very deep, I think their expressions say it all.
She was our tour guide, I tried to listen to her but taking photo's were way more exciting than trying to interpret what she was saying through her body actions.
The flower is waiting for Spring to finally warm up so it can bloom.
Was taking a photo over a wall and ended up with this LOL, the face he is giving is because all he could see was my camera popping out from behind a wall ;P
Where they prepared for funerals, or where people hid books.
At the little museum they had here. This book is old.
Found it interesting that some of the characters are Chinese and some are Korean.
Found it interesting that some of the characters are Chinese and some are Korean.
This academy was one of the few remaining academy's left after Heungseon Daewongun (흥선대원군), the father of Korea’s emperor, Gojong.
OK so from there we headed to the Traditional Cultural Contents Museum which was created for younger kids. Hmmm it wasn't as good as the rest of the stuff we did in Andong, but there were some highlights.
Really nice views in Andong, I can imagine old retired couples sitting on a bench looking out to this view all happy and what not.
Ok so imagine a blue screen, same as a green screen and imagine Vinnie doing some weird puppet dance. What it shows on the projector is him dressed in traditional Korean clothes with the mask and in the appropriate scenery.
Then imagine after he walks off the platform him tripping and my friend capturing it on video. Ah good times. Vinnie says that French people are clumsy, which I now believe. =P
Then imagine after he walks off the platform him tripping and my friend capturing it on video. Ah good times. Vinnie says that French people are clumsy, which I now believe. =P
I don't really know what compelled me to take a picture under this thing but I'm glad I did, I should really start taking more photo's of myself cos I don't have many.
So the museum had a movie theater that was showing a 4D movie, so in we go put on these glasses only to find our eyes in pain, I realised halfway through that it was not a 4D movie but a 2D one. The 2D movie was ummm different...lol it was a weird cartoon movie about Nakdong river and I'm pretty sure the fountain of youth LOL, just kidding but it was really random. =P
Thankfully after that the 4D movie started playing...but honestly I kinda fell asleep hehe.
I was probably tired from talking the whole 4 hours of the bus trip while everyone else was sleeping =D, Eddy says he fell asleep to my voice and woke up 2 hours later to notice I was still talking =D I've still got it!! LOL
Thankfully after that the 4D movie started playing...but honestly I kinda fell asleep hehe.
I was probably tired from talking the whole 4 hours of the bus trip while everyone else was sleeping =D, Eddy says he fell asleep to my voice and woke up 2 hours later to notice I was still talking =D I've still got it!! LOL
3D Glasses!! =D
Matthieu clearly doesn't know how to wear glasses...
he was probably drunk.
He always seems to be drinking the night before, whenever I chat to him lol, he's probably worse than the Korean's.
He always seems to be drinking the night before, whenever I chat to him lol, he's probably worse than the Korean's.
I have no idea why there was a screen with a camera showing my picture but it was fun to take a photo of it. They had some pretty cool tech gadgets at the museum. One gadget that needs a mention was this screen that uses your whole hand and sensors to produce the mouse, although the click function was set on timer so once I figured it out the coolness kinda wore out for me.
So this was probably the highlight of the museum for me, it was a projector with different scenes from Andong like a palace, and a camera that produced the image onto the projectors scene.
We took a few that someone in their email. But this one is awesome, notice the choke hold I have Vinnie in, actually I made him pose like this, like some of my awesome photo's of people I use the excuse 'I may need this for my digital photography class'
But everyone here is very sweet and very willing to help me out.
We took a few that someone in their email. But this one is awesome, notice the choke hold I have Vinnie in, actually I made him pose like this, like some of my awesome photo's of people I use the excuse 'I may need this for my digital photography class'
But everyone here is very sweet and very willing to help me out.
This is the screen that projected the palace scene, while it was off it looked very cool as you can see the effect it made on my hand, and the shadows it made were cool too. Of course the robin hood 'duck-dog' scene was re-enacted =P
So the last place we went to for the night was the Andong-po Museum, we also got to do a few cool things like make hemp string, make lucky pockets and painting =D
So this is the stems from a hemp plant (yes it comes from a marijuana plant =P)
So the first thing we had to do was peel the outer skin off.
Of course everything is a competition for me so I was the fastest at that lol, Rena (my Americano amiga) has witnessed this competitive side of me all too often already, so she starting to get competitive too, woo proper competition ;)
Next thing we had to do was scrape the skin, I'm pretty sure I won this round Me-1, Rena-0
After this we seperated skin into thin string segments, I now have the string in my dorm as a souvenir :)
So now moving on to the painting part of the night.
We had 3 colours to work with, Red, yellow and green...why couldn't they give us blue LOL
So we could choose a lucky pocket which you keep potpourri in, or a handkerchief thing, I obviously chose a pocket :D
This is my name (Claire) in Korean
This is my name (Claire) in Korean
Did I mention Rena majors in Painting??
Me- 1, Rena- 1
LOL
Me- 1, Rena- 1
LOL
This water painting is Atara's
She looked at the wall saw one like this and just painted it, looks so similar!!
After this museum we had Bulgogi which was really yummm!!, and went to our old style guest house. I'm a little disappointed I didn't take many photo's of the architecture and interior, but it was really pretty and I really recommend to stay in a old Korean house once and sleep on the rock hard floor too =P My back felt pretty good after I got the hang of not moving in my sleep and to only sleep on my back.
Ju Yeong and Nurit welcoming each other with a giant hug.
After a few drinks Daniel thought he was Wolerine LOL, ok maybe I made that up and we were just playing with chopsticks =P
Drunk Matthieu dancing around the campfire.
It was really nice but cold around the fireplace.
It was really nice but cold around the fireplace.
It first started with me and Chanhee singing around the fireplace then slowly towards the end of the evening we had a good group of 7 listen to my music on my laptop and just chatting and chilling, it was a great ending to an awesome day.
For breakfast we had a Korean style one of course, home made and the soup was made knowing some would need a hangover cure lol
Nurit Sleeping at the table. Atara has a good collection of Nurit sleeping in really random places, she's good at that lol
Also Matthieu was still drunk from the night before hence his urge to rabbitise Nurit as she slept =P
After breakfast we headed onto the bus again and made our way to Booyongdae which was a cliff giving us a view to all of Andong. It was a little climb but TOTALLY worth it.
The whole of Andong...
On the way back down Rena gladly agreed to help me throw some leaves so I can take a picture. Turned out really nice =D She had the cutest face as she threw them, like a little child finger painting lol
To be continued....
